Frances Martel

The Chinese Communist Party published a national AI gameplan that specifies blurring the lines between the civil and military to achieve Beijing’s global technological supremacy, author Wynton Hall details in his upcoming book, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI (HarperCollins).

President of Costa Rica Rodrigo Chaves Robles announced on Wednesday that his country would cut all diplomatic ties to Cuba, shutting down its embassy in Havana and ordering all Cuban diplomats out of the country.

Qatar announced on Wednesday that it had given all Iranian diplomats in the country 24 hours to leave, declaring them personas non grata.

The government of Saudi Arabia held a large ministerial-level meeting in Riyadh with representatives of other victims of Iranian bombings in the past month, issuing a joint statement condemning Tehran for widespread drone and missile attacks on civilian sites in over a dozen countries.

The United States has suggested that the government of former al-Qaeda jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa in Syria is considering operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Damascus and weighing the prospects of entering the greater war on Iran, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized in recent interviews his country’s willingness to help fight the Iranian terrorist regime.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of eliminated longtime dictator Ali Khamenei and the country’s new “supreme leader,” was “in perfect health” on Sunday, apparently responding to a flurry of wild rumors claiming that the younger Khamenei is severely injured.

Nightly protests against communism throughout Cuba reached a fever pitch this weekend as protesters, armed with little more than local piles of garbage and combustible material, set fire to the Communist Party headquarters in Morón, Ciego de Ávila, in the early morning hours of Saturday.

The government of Saudi Arabia confirmed that it successfully shot down dozens of Iranian drones, and at least two ballistic missiles, on Thursday and Friday, condemning Tehran for its continued attacks on nearly all of its Middle Eastern neighbors.

Various Iranian officials reinforced their disposition towards continuing the war against the United States and Israel without dialogue on Friday, led by the Foreign Ministry’s declaration that America would soon learn an “unforgettable lesson.”

Iran’s top diplomat at the United Nations declared Thursday, “We are not going to close the Strait of Hormuz.”

Chilean President José Antonio Kast, a hardline conservative who won the leadership of the country in a landslide last year, took his oath of office on Wednesday and immediately began working on fortifying the country’s northern border.

Pope Leo XIV welcomed the highest-ranked Catholic authority in Iran, Archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan Cardinal Dominique Mathieu, for an in-person meeting at the Vatican on Thursday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a subordinate of the “supreme leader” who has largely abstained from commentary during the ongoing war with the United States, announced on Thursday that Iran would agree to end the conflict if America and Israel paid “reparations,” among other demands.

A nationwide presidential election poll released in Brazil this week found that conservative candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party – Rio de Janeiro) has narrowed the lead of his primary opponent, socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to bring it nearly to the margin of error.

China’s draft “five-year plan” for the upcoming period includes the objective of expanding road infrastructure in occupied East Turkistan and Tibet, the South China Morning Post observed on Tuesday, to “better project power” there.

One of Iran’s top remaining officials warned President Donald Trump to “be careful not to be eliminated” during Operation Epic Fury, the American military engagement to neutralize the world’s most prolific terrorist state.

Social media users with access to electricity shared dramatic images throughout the weekend of protests across Cuba, many of them featuring large bonfires of garbage, banging of pots and bans, and the emergence the next day of anti-communist graffiti.

President Donald Trump told ABC News on Sunday that he did not expect Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to “last long” as “supreme leader” if he does not cooperate with the United States.

Afghan Christian refugees in Central Asia who escaped the Taliban, especially women, are facing tremendous threats of physical harm, deportation, and social vulnerability in their new countries, most of them Muslim-majority states, the Christian humanitarian organization Open Doors US explained to Breitbart News on Sunday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced it would send its special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, on a tour to the region.

President Donald Trump dismissed any possibility of negotiations with what is left of the Iranian terror state, calling for officials in the country to accept “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a post on Truth Social on Friday.

President Donald Trump told multiple news outlets on Thursday that the United States must participate in the process to choose the next leader of Iran to prevent a repeat of the current war.

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan declared on Thursday that his country would use “the full might of our ‘Iron Fist'” against the terrorist regime in Iran after drones flying in from Iran struck an airport and near a school building in the Caucasus nation.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq categorically denied that its Peshmerga were preparing an invasion of Iran alongside the United States on Thursday, following rumors that some Iranian Kurdish groups are planning ground operations on what remains of the Iranian terror state.

China’s state-run propaganda newspaper Global Times declared on Tuesday that First Lady Melania Trump’s leadership at a U.N. Security Council meeting the day before — an unprecedented act for a presidential spouse — drew “backlash from international society” for alleged hypocrisy amid the ongoing war with Iran.

A coalition of anti-communist organizations in Cuba and the diaspora signed a document called the Agreement for the Liberation of Cuba on Monday, detailing the construction of a government to transition the island out of 67 years of repressive and impoverishing socialist rule.

Venezuela’s socialist “interim” leader Delcy Rodríguez held a phone call on Monday with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry deftly avoided committing to any concrete support for Iran during its press briefings on Monday and Tuesday.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an arm of the United Nations, stated on Monday that there is no evidence of elevated radiation levels in Iran or that its illicit nuclear enrichment sites were attacks during America’s “Operation Epic Fury.”

Multiple outlets reported on Monday that the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia had temporarily shut down after dramatic images surfaced of smoke billowing from the facility following an Iranian attack.

President Donald Trump reportedly told ABC News on Sunday that “Operation Epic Fury,” the military engagement that eliminated Iranian “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also killed every individual American experts considered a potential successor to Khamenei.

 The Iranian terror regime struck seven different neighboring countries with missiles and drones following the launch of America’s “Operation Epic Fury,” reports as of Saturday night Washington, DC, time indicated.