Obama on AI:

I’ve been tracking AI for a long time. I actually, in 2015, ’16, in the last couple of years of my presidency, I actually was focused on this.

Pulled together a commission of the best minds in this area to talk about not just the technology, but also the political, social, economic, ethical concerns around this. Produced a terrific report.

Apparently, it got put in the same bin as my pandemic proposal. It wasn’t picked up by the administration that followed me.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto:

There must be a reason why TikTok is banned in China even though it is Chinese.

And there must be a reason why the messages shown on Chinese TikTok are completely different from those shown on Western TikTok.

Because if you look at Chinese TikTok, there is no stupid dancing, no idiotic picture, nothing that could attract my 13-year-old daughter — who is banned from using it for as long as I can manage — and make her think that the way to approach life is a stupid one.

Instead, it presents a completely different life, where children go to school, tidy things up, come home, study, play sports and help out. The messages are completely different.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto:

There is a less visible war, which is hybrid war, and it develops through cyberattacks every day. We have seen it in recent days.

A cyberattack does not leave a crater in the ground and does not physically kill people, but it can leave extremely deep holes in a society.

Imagine a cyberattack that destroyed the archives of a bank or the INPS. You would not need a military attack.

It would be enough for someone not to receive their pension for a month. You would not need foreign armies — you would have revolutions inside the country.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto:

On these new technologies, China is ahead of everyone, especially in medical technologies and those involving the study of human beings. And here, too, it is helped by the fact that it is not a democracy and does not have privacy.

If you are an autocratic state and there is no privacy, you can simply go in and obtain the health data of one billion people.

In the U.S. and Italy, the state rightly cannot simply obtain the health data of any of us. But if you have the health data of one billion people and put them into quantum computers, with artificial intelligence you can process them and extract things faster and obtain more results than a West that instead has its own rules.

Italy's Defense Minister Guido Crosetto:

Since our Navy is capable of guaranteeing passage through Bab el-Mandeb, and our intelligence services are capable of providing information and sharing it with the armed forces, we will probably take action so that Italian ships can pass and begin passing without waiting for European bureaucracy to add to our own and delay everything.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

Trump greatly underestimated Iran.

Today, nobody considers America’s war with Iran to be a rational or logical war. Everyone describes it as a stupid war, and I want to add another word to that: ignorant.

America’s military, economic and political actions were not based on any precise assessment or accurate calculations. They were carried out entirely at the instigation of Israel and Netanyahu personally.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

Netanyahu dragged Trump into a swamp, while he himself is now sitting in a corner. Because of this, disagreements have emerged between the two.

And just as Trump started a stupid war, he will now fail to get out of it because of stupidity.

It was in America’s interest — and it remains in America’s interest — to accept Iran’s conditions and get out of the war, because the longer America remains and flounders, the worse its situation will become.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

If war begins again, U.S. ships — unless they leave the Indian Ocean — will be attacked wherever they are inside the Indian Ocean. We have developed these capabilities.

We increased the speed of our hypersonic missiles from Mach 6 to Mach 10.

We have also developed our electronic warfare systems, improved our air defenses, and we have other measures that we will use at the appropriate time.

Therefore, we are fully prepared. If America starts the war, we will confront America with greater force and with more numerous and more painful strikes.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

If the Americans are serious, let their soldiers come and enter Iran. Why do they not come in?

Ground forces are always the ones that have the final word in wars.

Why do the airborne divisions not come? Why do the U.S. ground forces not enter Iran? Why do they only bomb from the sky and then leave?

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

I say to all Arab countries and all neighboring countries: if the Americans try to obstruct our commercial and financial relations, we will do two things.

First, we will definitely attack American companies — such as the American drilling companies that operate extensively around us, American commercial companies and American businesses.

We will target them and say: an attack on the American economy in response to America’s attack on the Iranian economy — attack for attack.

On the other hand, we also tell the neighboring countries: do not cooperate with America, because we will respond in kind. If a neighboring country cooperates with the Americans in imposing an economic blockade on Iran — for example, in financial matters and activities related to us — we will punish its ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

We will impose restrictions on their movement and passage and on some of their activities, or we will respond in kind regarding economic cooperation.

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-led digital currency platform designed to enable direct cross-border payments between central banks and reduce reliance on the dollar.

Riyadh joined the project in 2024 but said its participation was always temporary and ended after completing a proof-of-concept in May 2025.

Saudi officials denied that the withdrawal should be interpreted as a response to U.S. pressure.

Source: FT

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

America and Trump will leave. Everyone knows that the American economy is, in reality, on a path toward collapse. Within the next 10 years, America will not be as it is today.

But we and the Arab countries will remain. We are the ones who must fix the region. We must establish security in the Persian Gulf. We must create a pact for economic cooperation and be friends together in the region.

We are one family — the Persian Gulf family. We are eight countries, and we must focus on reconstruction and economic development, cooperate with one another, participate in each other’s investments, and even have a single currency and a single common market.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

My question to Arab officials is this: if Iran had not resisted and Iran had been forced to surrender, would Israel not have attacked Saudi Arabia today? Would Israel not have advanced all the way to Damascus? Would Israel not have attacked Iraq?

We have given martyrs here, and we are defending the Arab countries. If we had not rubbed America’s and Israel’s noses in the dirt here in Iran, and if they had felt victorious in Iran, there would have been no one in the region capable of standing against them.

Israel would have attacked all the Arab countries, and America would have supported it. We resisted — yes, we defended our own country — but our defense also benefited the Arab countries.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

Is Saudi Arabia itself not connected to some groups in Yemen? Does it not supply them with weapons? Is that not intervention?

Our cooperation with Ansar Allah becomes intervention, but what Saudi Arabia does is not intervention?

What we do is considered intervention, even though we want to bring this issue to an end, while Saudi Arabia is the one that does not want the issue to end.

A revolutionary government has been formed in Yemen. Saudi Arabia should move toward it, and the two countries should become friends and brothers and work together. Whatever we can do, we are at their service.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

Now Yemeni forces have gone to Bab el-Mandeb, taken control of it and deployed there, and they say this happened at Iran’s instigation.

Tomorrow, if the same thing happens in Gibraltar, they will again say that it happened at Iran’s instigation. What incitement have we carried out?

They themselves are pushing peoples toward rebellion and revolution against them. In my view, Trump and this Israeli entity are behind all of these developments.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

The Israelis blew up the empty tunnels in Lebanon for propaganda and for an election spectacle. They took photographs and videos and said, "Look how strong Netanyahu is."

All of this is propaganda. All of it is connected to the elections.

Our work, however, is based on principles.

Iran's Security Council Secretary Rezaei:

The Arab countries must completely prevent America and tell it, "You have no right to launch from our countries to bomb Iran."

We are serious about defending ourselves. This time, if war begins, we will strike more severely all the U.S. air bases from which those aircraft take off.

We will strike them with greater force.

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot:

Obviously, Europe can be a superpower in the 21st century if it has the courage and the will.

Why? Because together with our European partners, we form the most advanced coalition of nations, the most democratic society and the largest economic market.

And because we live better in Europe than people live in the U.S. We live more freely, we live longer and we live in better health.

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot:

There is one nation in Europe that is the driving force behind this strength and independence: ours. France.

Either our country remains the driving force pushing Europe toward greater independence and thereby allows it to open up this third path, or France turns its back on this unprecedented political construction in our history, and the entire edifice will falter.

Hegseth:

If you know your Book of Isaiah, Chapter 6, Verse 8, the Lord said, “Who will I send?” And Isaiah says, “Lord, I’m here. Send me. Send me.”

Across the 250 years of our country, there have been men and women who raised their right hand and said, “Send me. Send me to go fight the Redcoats. Send me to go fight the communists. Send me to go fight the Islamists.”

And you are saying, “Send me to go fight whatever threats threaten our nation for the next 250 years.”

EXCLUSIVE: Sudan Army’s AKINCI drone scored another air-to-air kill, downing a Chinese-made CH-95 drone operated by UAE-backed RSF terror group.

The engagement took place in Al Kweki area.