🇺🇸🇯🇵🇨🇳⚡- "President Xi Jinping castigated Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for her country’s 'remilitarisation' in an intense diatribe during his summit with Donald Trump.

Xi became vocal and agitated when discussing Japan, surprising US officials because the subject had not featured in talks with their Chinese counterparts before the summit. Xi’s verbal attack was the most heated part of the two-day summit between the leaders.

After Xi lambasted Takaichi and Japan’s rising defence spending, Trump responded that Tokyo had to take a more assertive security stance because of the rising threat from North Korea. It was unclear if Trump mentioned China — the biggest Japanese security concern — in the same context," - Financial Times.

🇱🇾🇵🇸⚡- The 'Resilience Convoy', which is part of the Global Sumud Flotilla initiative but on land, departed from western Libya a few days ago, but was stopped by eastern Libya's Khalifa Haftar's forces in the city of Sirte.

Haftar has in the past also blocked humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza via land.

🇺🇸🐊⚡️- Florida officials have reached a settlement with former state employee Britt Brown for $485,000 in compensation after she was fired from her state job for mocking Charlie Kirk's assassination.

She is the latest liberal to win big from suing a former employer for being fired in the aftermath of Kirk's killing. Last week Tennessee paid a former police officer nearly a million dollars after he was in jail for a month over social media threats against Kirk and TPUSA supporters.

🇨🇳🇮🇷🇦🇪⚡- "The Iran-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce, a private bilateral trade body representing Iranian and Pakistani business interests, has accused the United Arab Emirates of actively obstructing Iran’s integration into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), in a bid to prevent [Pakistan's] Gwadar Port from becoming a rival to Dubai," - Fars News.

🇺🇸 - Happy Memorial Day – Honor those who served in the greatest military ever, and her glorious Empire.

🇻🇦⚡️- Today, Pope Leo XIV has released his first encyclical letter, Magnifica humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence.

The full letter can be found here for your own reading if you wish, but I have attached some abstracts that I believe provide a very broad summary of some points and are short enough to fit into a telegram message, as there is simply too much to put in so few words.

"Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible. Yet every era also runs the risk of creating an inhumane and more unjust world. Whenever humanity is in danger of marring its true identity, we Christians lift our eyes to the Incarnate God, knowing that it is 'only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of humanity truly becomes clear.'  In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness.

The Holy Spirit challenges us today regarding our relationship with technology and the ongoing digital revolution. Technology has the power to heal, connect, educate and protect our common home; but it can also divide, exclude and generate new forms of injustice. In the abstract, technology in and of itself is not a solution to humanity’s problems, just as it is not inherently evil. In practice, however, technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it. Therefore, the primary choice is not between a 'yes' or 'no' to technology, but rather between constructing Babel or rebuilding Jerusalem; between a power that claims to dominate the heavens and a people who work together in the presence of God to rebuild the walls of fraternal coexistence.

The danger of humanity becoming a victim of its own achievements was already clearly recognized by Saint Paul VI, who warned that 'the most extraordinary scientific progress, the most astounding technical feats and the most amazing economic growth, unless accompanied by authentic moral and social progress, will in the long run go against man.' For this reason, technological progress — valuable in itself — requires careful discernment of the anthropological vision that guides it and the ends it pursues.

With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty, and the world once again will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell.

It now falls to us to face the challenges of our time with clarity of thought and responsibility. It is necessary to establish adequate regulatory tools capable of upholding justice and curbing the distorting effects of technological power.

In the era of artificial intelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human. We must lovingly safeguard the grandeur of humanity bestowed upon us and revealed in its fullness in Christ, the splendor of which no machine can ever replace. True progress always stems from a heart open to others, an intelligence willing to listen and a will that seeks what unites rather than what separates"

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- "Israel must not normalize the reality of explosive drones. The time has come for the Prime Minister to bang on Trump’s table and tell him Israel is returning to war in Lebanon.

We need to cut off Lebanon’s electricity, seize the Zahrani area, and return to full-scale fighting" - Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israeli National Security Minister.

🇱🇧🇮🇱 - Since the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire began on April 16, eleven Israeli Defence Force soldiers have been killed.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- President Trump is now inviting Iran to join the Abraham Accords.

"Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!

During my discussions on Saturday with [Middle East world leaders (Removed for the sake of readability, see the screenshot for full list)], I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords. Those Countries discussed are Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (already a Member!), Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain (already a Member!). It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be.

In speaking to numerous of the Great Leaders mentioned above, they would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, now that would be something special!

Therefore, I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition" - President Trump via Truth Social.

🇮🇷⚡- Mehr News reports the activation of air defenses on Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf. Cause unknown.

🇮🇷⚡- Iran has shot down a hostile drone over the Gulf, using what Tehran claims is a "new air defense system."

🇮🇷🇶🇦⚡- Iran's Majlis Speaker Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Araghchi, and the Iranian Central Bank Governor Hemmati have travelled to Doha, Qatar, for US-Iran talks.

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇵🇰⚡- "The agreement between Iran and the US has reached its final stages and achieving it is very close," - Asim Munir, Pakistan's Army Chief, in a meeting with China's Xi Jinping in Beijing.

🇫🇷 - The French aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle (R91) , has now been spotted in the Arabian Sea.

🇺🇸⚡️- President Trump's disapproval rating is now higher than it was after January 6th 2021.

🇺🇸 - Six years ago today, George Perry Floyd Jr. died, the resulting riots caused an estimated $1–2 billion in insured property losses, making it the costliest civil unrest event in U.S. history.

🇱🇧🇮🇱⚡️- Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance and Minister in the Defense Ministry approved a 2 billion Shekel ($700 Million USD) budget for anti drone solutions, but said that defensive measures alone are not enough.

"The truth is that we will not defeat the drones through defense, but through attack. For every explosive drone, ten buildings in Beirut should fall. A strategic threat is not answered only with protection, but by changing the rules and the equation. We cannot spread nets over the entire State of Israel, nor cover it with automatic machine guns. We cannot protect ourselves to death. Exacting a deterrent and disproportionate price from the enemy must be part of the effort to defend our fighters." - Bezalel Smotrich