Iranians were indignant after the DHS head said he “danced a happy dance” while targeting their team US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose agency was responsible for enforcing controversial security measures targeting the Iranian soccer team at the World Cup, has said the job made him dance with joy and he was happy Iran was eliminated. Iran exited the tournament, which the US is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, after three draws against New Zealand, Belgium, and Egypt during the group stage. Iranian officials complained that, unlike other teams, Iranian players were not allowed to stay in the US and instead had to travel for training and games in Los Angeles and Seattle from Tijuana, Mexico. “I’m just glad they’re done, and they’re not coming back,” Mullin told an interagency meeting on Monday, as first reported by Sports Business Journal. He added that ...
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Autonomous tech could execute trades without human oversight, increasing the risk of market meltdowns, UK officials warn AI agents that can make decisions and carry out transactions independently could soon operate across the financial system, the Bank of England has warned, adding that relying on human oversight might no longer be realistic. Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden made the warning at the European Central Bank’s annual forum in Sintra on Tuesday, as leading developers shift from generative AI chatbots to agentic systems. Unlike generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, which generate text, images, and code in response to prompts, agentic AI is designed to complete multi-step tasks with limited human intervention. Rather than merely recommending an investment or suggesting a purchase, an AI agent could execute trades, make payments, buy goods, and book services w...
The bloc has signed off on a €70 billion military package for 2026 but Rome is against locking in similar aid for next year, according to reports in Germany Italy is stalling a NATO aid commitment to Ukraine for 2027 after the bloc signed off on a €70 billion ($80 billion) military package to Kiev this year, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported on Tuesday. While NATO envoys agreed on the terms of this year’s assistance on Tuesday in Brussels, Italy is refusing to accept a follow-on clause committing the bloc to “maintain at least a comparable level” of support down the road, diplomatic sources told FAZ. They added that this part of the declaration remains in parentheses and could change at the last minute. A new round of ambassadors’ talks is set for Thursday to settle the wording before the annual NATO summit opens on July 7 in Ankara. While Italy has...
The mayor of Froun says his village lies entirely outside the so-called Yellow Line, Israel’s self-declared buffer zone in southern Lebanon The mayor of a southern Lebanese village has questioned Israel’s reported withdrawal plan that came as part of an initial agreement reached in Washington. In an interview with RT, Hassan Adel Bazzi said that the community of Froun was designated as a pilot withdrawal zone despite never being occupied by Israeli forces. Last week, West Jerusalem and the Lebanese government signed a US-brokered deal for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, pending Hezbollah’s disarmament. As part of a broader arrangement, Israel is reportedly planning to establish so-called ‘experimental zones’ in certain parts of southern Lebanon, from which the Israeli army would pull back first in order to allow Lebanese forces to dislodge Hezbollah fighters. The militant...
Kiev won’t join the bloc as long as it honors nationalists who massacred up to 100,000 ethnic Poles during World War II, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said Ukraine will face significant problems joining the EU as long as it continues to honor Stepan Bandera, a World War II-era Nazi collaborator whose followers carried out the ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of Poles, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said. In an interview with Polsat News on Monday, Kosiniak-Kamysz blasted Ukraine over its glorification of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the group that Bandera led, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Both groups collaborated with Nazi Germany and massacred up to 100,000 ethnic Poles, mostly women, children, and the elderly, in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943-1944. Read more ...
Audrey Pulvar has hit back at Americans mocking France’s limited use of air conditioning A Paris deputy mayor has blamed the US for helping fuel the record-breaking heatwave that has swept France and much of Europe, saying Americans bear significant responsibility for the climate change driving the deadly temperatures. The remarks come as Europe endured a record-breaking heatwave. France’s public health agency said on Sunday that at least 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded since June 21, warning that the final toll could be higher. French media have reported that the surge in deaths has left some morgues struggling to cope. In a social media post published on Monday, Audrey Pulvar, Paris’ deputy mayor for international relations, hit back after American journalists, tourists and social media influencers mocked Paris for lacking air conditioning during temperatures exceeding 40...