Resolve

• The White House is ramping up pressure on Cuba for political change following Operation Absolute Resolve, which successfully extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. • US military presence is expanding across Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on combating drug-trafficking by transnational criminal organizations like Mexican Cartels, MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and Haitian gangs, topping the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment. • Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa seeks stronger US military ties after a failed 2025 referendum on foreign bases, while Paraguay ratified a State of Forces Agreement allowing temporary US troop deployments for training.

• Silicon Valley-based Resolve AI secured $40M in Series A extension funding, boosting its valuation to $1.5B to establish Resolve AI Labs focused on AI models optimized for production environments. • The funding supports development of reliable AI systems tailored for enterprise-scale deployment in US tech sectors. • This round highlights investor confidence in Resolve AI's infrastructure for bridging research-to-production AI gaps amid booming demand.

Iran’s top negotiator says both sides remain far apart after Tehran again closed strait of Hormuz after US said it would not end its blockadeFull report: Iran closes strait of Hormuz again ‘until US lifts blockade’Welcome to our live coverage of events in the Middle East.Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Saturday that the recent talks with the US had made progress but gaps remained over nuclear issues and the strait of Hormuz. “We have had progress but there is still a big distance between us,” he told state media, referring to talks last weekend. “We made progress in the negotiations, but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain.”After the initial talks between the US and Iran last weekend in Pakistan, the Iranian deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said a second date cannot be set until both sides “have agreed on the framework”.Iran’s supreme national security council, the country’s highest decision-making body under the supreme leader, said it is reviewing “new proposals” put forward by the US, according to Iranian media.Hezbollah has denied it was involved in the deadly attack against UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, which killed a French soldier. A UN peacekeeper was killed and three others were injured after a patrol came under attack from “non-state actors”, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon said.Israeli forces on Saturday began demolishing homes in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil and other border towns where Israeli troops are present, Lebanese state media reported.The Israeli military killed two Unicef-contracted truck drivers at a water point in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing the UN agency to suspend its operations in the area, Unicef said.Pope Leo XIV said that it is “not in my interest at all” to debate Trump about the Iran war, but that he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace.Trump left the White House Saturday afternoon to play golf, despite Iran’s re-closure of the strait of Hormuz in response to the US blockade of Iranian ports. Continue reading...

Speaking after signing trade agreement in Canberra, the European Commission president warns ‘situation is critical’ for global energy supplyGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe US and Iran must come to the negotiating table to immediately end the de facto closure of the strait of Hormuz and stop hostilities in the Middle East, the head of the European Commission says.Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said Iran’s efforts to block the strategic waterway via attacks on unarmed commercial vessels and critical infrastructure “must be condemned”. Continue reading...

Signal President Meredith Whittaker stated at the India Today Conclave 2026 that the conflict between the US Government and AI companies like Anthropic is far from over, asserting 'I don't actually think that showdown is decided yet.' Whittaker explained that deployment of AI models on government systems creates dependency, and crucially, US law prevents the federal government from collecting the vast amounts of user data that private companies leverage to train AI systems. She noted that the US government lacks legal authority to accumulate such datasets, stating: 'These are not technologies that the state could create. It doesn't matter how much money they have. It is not legal for the US government to collect the kind of data that the private industry can collect.' The remarks reflect ongoing regulatory and operational tensions between government agencies and commercial AI developers.