Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

02:39 26.6.2026 ⁠President ‌Donald Trump continued to insist that the US would ‌”soon” buy wheat, soybeans, and corn from ‌American farmers using Iranian assets that ‌have ⁠been frozen for years under ‌US sanctions. Trump said Iran is facing food shortages and that the US would use “some of Iran’s money” to buy the farm goods for the country from American farmers. “We have a new market coming up, and that’s called the lovely country of Iran,” he said in comments at the White House on June 25. “It’s a beautiful place — would anybody like to go there? The Islamic…

Nuclear policy debates are at their best when they force hard questions about risk, deterrence, and military necessity. They are at their worst when disagreement is recast as bad faith. In 2018, as an outgrowth of a rigorous policy review process, the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review identified a need for supplemental low-yield nuclear capabilities to augment the U.S. nuclear arsenal. This was presented as an effort to raise the nuclear threshold of adversaries who may believe they could employ nuclear weapons in limited ways to escalate their way out of failed or failing conventional conflict.To address this concern, the…

Republic of the Philippines – Department of Foreign Affairs NEW YORK 26 June 2026 — The Philippines actively participated in the 36th Meeting of States Parties to the Law of the Sea (SPLOS 36) held on 15 to 19 June 2026 at the UN Headquarters in New York, and urged the international community to reaffirm the central role of UNCLOS as the legal framework for all activities in the oceans and seas. The Philippine delegation was led by H.E. Enrique A. Manalo, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and co-led by Assistant Secretary Emmanuel Donato…

This is the third part (I, IIa, IIb, III) of our honestly-who-knows-how-many part series laying out some general guidelines for how pre-modern armies are recruited, raised, equipped and paid. In the last part, we looked at the various ways pre-modern armies might mobilize their armies, a process that mainly consisted of recruiting and equipping soldiers. If you were wondering what about larger capital items (ships, artillery, fortresses, and so on), we’re going to treat those as part of this section because pre-modern states experience those problems primarily as financial costs, rather than as the products of a military-industrial complex (a…

Inflection Points June 26, 2026 • 6:21 pm ET Print this page By Frederick Kempe In the premiere episode of Inflection Points with Frederick Kempe, Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe sits down with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington. Their conversation follows Rutte’s meetings with President Donald Trump at the White House and leaders on Capitol Hill, with less than two weeks to go until the NATO summit in Ankara. Rutte, who became NATO secretary general in October 2024 after serving fourteen years as prime minister of the Netherlands, is leading the Alliance at one of the…

Matheus Camilo landed in Azerbaijan for a UFC clash with Nazim Sadykhov at Saturday’s Fight Night show in Baku, but he believes the pressure is on the shoulders of the local talent.Sadykhov enters the cage coming off the first loss of his UFC career, a second-round knockout to Fares Ziam in 2025, after an unbeaten five-fight start in the promotion with three Fight of the Night bonuses cashed. For Camilo, being in front of more than 10,000 fans at the National Gymnastics Arena could come with mixed effects.“I think any fighter coming off a loss already feels more pressure, especially…

The TWZ Newsletter Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy. U.S. Central Command said it struck Iranian targets today in response to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attack on a cargo vessel exiting the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. This marks the first U.S. kinetic response against Iran since Washington and Tehran signed a Memorandum of Understanding about a peace deal last Friday. CENTCOM said the strikes were “a powerful response to yesterday’s attack on a commercial ship that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.” The command added that “U.S. aircraft…

Bittium Corporation press release on 25 June 2026, at 7.15 p.m. (CEST +1) Finnish defence technology company Bittium and Ukrainian secure communications manufacturer HIMERA have agreed to cooperate on strengthening the defence capabilities of Finland and Ukraine by combining their respective communications technologies and expertise. The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2026) in Gdańsk, Poland, on 25-26 June 2026, formalizing their cooperation. Bittium Wireless Ltd and HIMERA Ukraine LLC have agreed today to explore interoperability and integration across Bittium’s Defence & Security portfolio and HIMERA’s field-proven tactical communications solutions. The cooperation aims…

DARPA, the Pentagon’s advanced research agency responsible for some of the most consequential technological breakthroughs in American military history, has issued a request for information targeting metals producers, ceramics manufacturers, and composites makers with an unusual proposition: share your production data, and we will give you AI tools that make your factory perform better than […]

UFC legend Joe Lauzon will return to fighting for the first time in seven years, this time in the bare-knuckle ring. Joe Lauzon’s arrival to the UFC, fresh off his performance on The Ultimate Fighter 5, came at a pivotal point in Mixed Martial Arts history. By the time Lauzon made his final UFC Octagon appearance in October 2019, the UFC had transformed into a global powerhouse in combat sports. Lauzon had three separate scheduled bouts against UFC Hall of Famer Donald Cerrone canceled in 2022, unceremoniously ending his promotional tenure. His last MMA win came against Jonathan Pierce by…