🇦🇺🌍⚡️- Reuters reports that the Australian Secret Intelligence Service as well as the Australian Federal Police have been "hit" by the outage, affecting basic systems and day-to-day operations.

🌍⚡️- "The servers we returned to service can become unresponsive again once they receive traffic. We're analyzing diagnostic data to determine what's triggering the behavior." - Microsoft.

🇹🇷🇱🇧⚡- Following a meeting between Turkish President Erdogan's son and Lebanon's President Aoun, Ankara has expressed interest in maintaining a military presence in southern Lebanon after UN's UNIFIL depart at the end of 2027.

🌍⚡️- Microsoft says that it has begun recovery actions to correct the outage over the past hour, with "actions now completed across portions of affected infrastructure" being gradually restored.

The outage has still yet to be fully resolved, despite going on for almost a full day.

🌍 - For those curious as to why Microsoft experiencing an outage is such a big deal, much of the world's critical online infrastructure runs using Microsoft technology. Most notably, the US military relies heavily on Microsoft for its IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and cloud operations.

There is still wide speculation that the cause of the outage is a cyberattack, but Microsoft has rejected this theory.

🇯🇵🌍⚡️- The Japanese stock market has temporarily switched to fax machines due to the Microsoft outage.

🇾🇪⚡️- Loud blasts were heard in Aden, the capital of PLC-controlled Yemen, a short time ago. A ballistic missile launched by the Ansarullah reportedly hit an installation belonging to remnants of the Southern Transitional Council.

🇾🇪🇸🇦⚡️- Additional explosions due to the arrival of suicide drones were heard as Saudi mercenaries were hit in Aden by the Ansarullah.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️- "CLAIM: Today, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked a “U.S. early-warning radar” in Bahrain. FACT: The IRGC launched two one-way attack drones toward Bahrain and both were shot down by U.S. forces. There were no injuries or damage." - U.S. CENTCOM on X.

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️- A new forensic investigation has uncovered strong evidence that four major Chinese AI developers, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, MiniMax, and Ant Group, have gained access to NVIDIA's export-controlled Blackwell GPUs, some of the most advanced AI chips in the world.

Researchers identified distinctive hardware fingerprints in six Chinese AI models, with estimates suggesting that thousands of Blackwell GPUs may have been used in their development. The findings come just one day after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang resigned following allegations that his relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative helped facilitate billions of dollars in chip shipments to China. Together, the developments raise serious questions about the enforcement of US export controls and the protection of America's technological advantage over China.

🇺🇸🇨🇳⚡️- House Speaker Mike Johnson says a bipartisan consensus is emerging in Congress to further restrict China's access to advanced American AI chips following Jensen Huang's resignation as NVIDIA CEO. Republican lawmakers are pushing to include new export restrictions in the annual defense authorization bill, with several proposals gaining momentum.

The measures would strengthen oversight of chip exports, require tracking of advanced processors, restrict Chinese access to overseas computing facilities, and push American allies to tighten their own restrictions. The effort could significantly strengthen Washington's ability to protect its technological advantage over Beijing.

🇳🇴🇸🇪🇫🇮⚡️- Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland have announced plans for a common defense agreement to strengthen NATO's military capabilities across Northern Europe and the Arctic. The initiative will improve joint operations, troop mobility, and the movement of military equipment across borders, which will further integrate Nordic defenses against Russian threats and China's growing strategic ambitions in the Arctic.

🇪🇺🇺🇦🇷🇺⚡️- Russia's ridiculous demands to end the war with Ukraine, as per BILD:

- Ukraine will not host European troops.
- Russia to be handed Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
- Ukraine to 'demilitarize' Odesa and Mykolaiv.
- Ukraine to no longer attack Russian tankers and vessels, expecting freedom of navigation in the Black Sea as well as the Baltic Sea.
- NATO to withdraw all military bases from the Baltic region.
- Finland to withdraw from NATO.
- Ukraine blocked from joining NATO, but free to join the EU.
- Demanding the federalization of Moldova, with the right to hold referendums for Gagauzia and Transnistria.

In return, Russia would:
- Withdraw troops from Transnistria.
- Remove nuclear weapons from Belarus.

🇫🇮🇷🇺⚡- Finland's Ministry of Defense has rejected Russia's demand to leave NATO, stating its position in the alliance in non-negotiable.

🇶🇦🇹🇷⚡- BREAKING: Qatar and Turkey sign a mutual defense agreement.

🇮🇷⚡- Explosions heard in Jask and Bandar Abbas, southern Iran. Causes unknown.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡- Iranian 'air defenses' are active against US one-way drones operating over the country's southern airspace.

🇫🇷⚡️- "I'm worried about the powerlessness of the French state. We are dancing on a volcano. A tsunami threatens us, perhaps even before the presidential election!" - Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to Le Figaro when discussing political unrest in France.