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Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel launched a series of controversial criticisms and predictions about AI and Western democracy during remarks at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Tuesday. In his most provocative statement, Thiel accused Pope Leo XIV of serving the interests of China with his stance on AI.CNN reports that Thiel, co-founder of Palantir and PayPal and an early Silicon Valley supporter of President Donald Trump, accused Pope Leo of inadvertently functioning as a Chinese communist agent by advocating for AI regulation. He also warned of what he described as an impending democratic-socialist takeover of the United States...

The wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did something "bizarre" three days after he was hospitalized for a possible heart attack, according to a new report. Elaine Chao, Transportation secretary during Trump's first administration and McConnell's wife since 1993, left the country, the Daily Beast reported Saturday. Chao flew to Beijing to discuss China-U.S. relations with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on June 17, according to the Daily Beast and Chinese media. This was three days after McConnell, 84, was reportedly found "unconscious" and rushed from his home in Washington to the hospital, reports show. Want more breaking political news?...

Collector Xiao Neng says he has spent at least US$1 million (S$1.3 million) on Ralph Lauren clothing over the past four to five years, building a wardrobe so large that he now sells pieces of it in two vintage stores that he opened in downtown Shanghai. The 23-year-old is part of a growing group of Chinese superfans helping fuel a resurgence for the American brand, which reported a 50 per cent sales jump in the country last quarter, even as the broader luxury market remains subdued by weak consumer confidence, a prolonged property downturn and concerns about jobs and income...

The walls of Jerusalem's Old City and the Chords Bridge were illuminated in red, white and blue Saturday night as the city celebrated the 250th anniversary of American independence and honored the enduring US-Israel partnership. Video of display. Jerusalem marked the 250th anniversary of American independence on Saturday night by illuminating the walls of the Old City and the city's iconic Chords Bridge in the red, white and blue colors of the U.S. flag. The tribute, organized by the Jerusalem Municipality, was intended as a symbol of friendship and appreciation for the longstanding relationship between Israel and the United States,...

Iranian security officials have rejected Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s request to attend the burial of his slain father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, because they fear Israel will kill the son or track him back to his hiding spot, The New York Times reported Saturday. Mojtaba Khamenei seeks to attend his father’s July 9 burial in Mashhad and perform funeral rites, but has so far been refused, the Times said, citing two unnamed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members and a person involved with planning the multi-day funeral that began on Saturday. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was...

Highly ill-advised' card comes amid tension over military procurementAmid the ongoing review of Canada's fighter jet procurement, a federal public servant has been rebuked for distributing a custom-made business card featuring two Lockheed Martin F-35s at a recent military trade show. According to federal guidelines, all government business cards must follow a standardized template, with a Canadian flag as the sole illustration. The card used by Crista-lynn Ferguson at the Ottawa conference included more than her email, phone numbers and title as director general of fighter capability at the Department of National Defence (DND). Its front featured a metallic logo...

Russia has begun using a new autonomous version of its Molniya strike drone in Ukraine, adapting the cheap fixed-wing attack UAV to hit targets without the control antenna that made earlier models vulnerable to electronic warfare, Defence Blog reported, citing an advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov on July 3. The new variant was identified after a Russian Molniya struck a Ukrainian facility and was later found without the usual antenna used for operator control. Ukrainian radio technology specialist Beskrestnov said the drone carried only a camera and an onboard computer, suggesting a different strike profile. Instead...

The Iranian regime’s oligarchic clans are at war with each other – and this conflict may soon spiral beyond control. This fight is not over ideology or the future direction of the Islamic Republic: all the oligarchic clans are Islamist; some wear turbans, others wear military uniforms, and some wear suits. In other words, they all subscribe to the core tenets of Shia Islamism in Iran: the forceful imposition of Sharia law domestically, support for the so-called Axis of Resistance militia network, anti-Americanism, and the goal of eradicating the Israel (driven by innate anti-Semitism). But they are competing to protect...

Mourners thronged a vast prayer complex in Tehran on Saturday as the week-long funeral ceremonies of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began with the national anthem, religious eulogies and readings from the Koran. Iran is staging mass funeral processions for Khamenei – whose 37-year reign was brought to an end in February by the first airstrike of the war launched by the US and Israel – in a show of public devotion to the Islamic Republic's theocratic state and revolutionary zeal. Television footage showed his coffin draped with the Iranian flag and topped with his black turban. It was...

Elon Musk on Friday slammed New York City’s Communist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, following his disgusting Independence Day address on Friday morning. As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, Mamdani gave an address on Friday morning, preceding President Trump’s address to the nation from Mount Rushmore, during which the immigrant mayor surrounded himself with foreigners and lectured Americans on how bad our country is. America, he said, “is an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal.” “How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal,” he said of American citizens who value our...

SummaryKhamenei will be buried on Thursday in Mashhad, near Imam Reza's tomb Ceremonies are scheduled in Qom on Tuesday and Iraq's Najaf and Kerbala on Wednesday Iraqi, Armenian and Pakistani officials arrived in Tehran for the funeral DUBAI, July 3 (Reuters) - The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign ​dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, slain by U.S. and Israeli bombs.Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions for Khamenei, whose 37-year reign was brought to ‌an end in...

The one thing we can always trust about Iran is that we can't trust Iran. Any agreement they make, they won't keep. Any promise they make, they will break. Any time they claim they are telling the truth, they are lying. These are constants.So, when satellite photos reveal some new and suspicious construction deep in the rugged Zagros Mountains, it raises some questions.One of the leading American institutes devoted to research on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program sounded the alarm this week over the regime's uninspected underground site in the Zagros Mountains. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...

These are tricky times for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The “special military operation” he launched against Ukraine in 2022, intended to last a few days until a puppet regime in Kyiv could be installed, has now gone on longer than both the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany and all of World War I. His forces have long ceased making significant gains on the battlefield; some data even suggest that Russian forces lost territory in April and May. What gains the Russians have made have come at enormous cost: Last month, Anna Keast-Butler, the director of British intelligence agency GCHQ, cited...

Chinese planners are once again taking aim at the dollar. On June 17, the governor of the People’s Bank of China unveiled a fresh blueprint to pull the world’s financial streams into the Chinese yuan, including pilot schemes for offshore yuan trading and new swap lines for central banks. Expect the usual chatter about de-dollarization to hit fever pitch ahead of the annual BRICS summit in September in New Delhi, where China and Russia are likely to push for their de-dollarization cause. Over the past decade, Beijing has made genuine progress in building alternative financial channels across three fronts: trade...

Judges overseeing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trial urge prosecution to drop bribery charge in Case 4000, demand to expand trial schedule to five days a week. The panel of judges presiding over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial - Judges Rivka Friedman-Feldman, Moshe Bar-Am, and Oded Shaham - announced Monday that their view regarding the difficulties in proving the bribery charge in Case 4000 remains unchanged even after Netanyahu's cross-examination. The judges said they have returned to the position they first expressed in June 2023, when they recommended that the State Attorney's Office consider withdrawing the bribery charge in Case...

U.S. officials believed that Israel might have been plotting to kill Iran’s top negotiators while Washington was engaged with Tehran in delicate talks this spring to reach an interim peace deal, according to current and former American officials. Killing senior Iranian leaders had been part of Israel’s strategy from the start of the war. But American concerns about the targeting of two particular Iranian officials — Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Parliament — spiked during delicate cease-fire negotiations that began in April. Fearful that an Israeli assassination effort would doom the negotiations,...

A Ukrainian woman has been identified as the main suspect for a parcel bombing in Monaco that seriously wounded a sanctioned Ukrainian multi-millionaire and two others. An Interpol Red Notice has been issued for Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, who speaks German and is wanted for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy. Police are looking into identifying any possible accomplices as they continue to search for the named suspect. The suspect, pictured on CCTV cameras wearing a dark bucket hat, was then seen fleeing towards the French commune of Beausoleil.

The Kremlin is planning an armed incursion on Polish land to test Nato's response, according to Washington. The provocation could see Putin's troops cross over into Poland, and vital infrastructure could be targeted by missiles and drones. Sources close to Polish President Karol Nawrocki told news outlet Onet that the US had been warning Warsaw about the plan for a while. Russia's plan aims to start a crisis to scare Western nations into stopping their support for Ukraine. Polish security experts also warned that Russia and Belarus might send a small number of troops across the Nato border. Power stations...

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Philadelphia ​from enforcing a new city law that would have prohibited federal law enforcement agents ‌from wearing masks, ruling the city cannot dictate how they conduct operations amid a national debate over masked immigration agents carrying out arrests. U.S. District Judge Chad Kenney, at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, issued a ​preliminary injunction, opens new tab barring Philadelphia from enforcing key provisions of the law against federal officers ​before they are scheduled to take effect on Tuesday. Philadelphia’s mask ban was enacted ⁠earlier this year as part of a larger “ICE...

Several leading European nations now accept that ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz will need to pay fees to Iran and Oman, according to a Bloomberg report Thursday.The possibility of service fees following the US and Israeli war with Iran is now reportedly viewed by some EU countries as unavoidable. Some Gulf Arab officials are said to also privately share this view, though it may not reflect their governments' official positions. The type and amount of fees that nations would accept remains unclear. The US and Gulf Arab countries maintain that Iran and Oman cannot impose any charges for...