Some headlines I'm looking at, haven't posted these in a while. Also happy to discuss items from here. Something that's been on my mind is that narratives on Iran oil prices are kinda removed from the best indicator, which is number of ships passing through Hormuz.
Geopolitics
US strikes Iran in response to drone strike on commercial ship
US and Iran enter technical talks to secure peace deal, shipping restart
Terrorism: 79,323 killed, 34,773 abducted in 6 years, averaging seven attacks per day and roughly 36 victims daily, in Nigeria.
Africa CDC confirms Marburg case in Uganda as Ebola outbreak rages
Ebola Outbreak Could Cost Africa $3.6 Billion, UN Warns
Africa: WHO Adds First Diagnostic Test for Ebola Bundibugyo Virus to Its Emergency Use Listing
Burkina Faso’s military government severed diplomatic ties with France effective immediately, accusing Paris of “blatant neo-colonial ambitions” and of actively supporting subversive networks and terrorists.
Tanzania bans political rallies ahead of planned anti-government protests
Biorisks
Senate Armed Services Committee Flags mRNA Cuts, Biodefense Gaps in FY2027 Defense Bill
The Senate Armed Services Committee's FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act reflects concerns about U.S. biological preparedness and defense capabilities in light of federal public health funding cuts. Key provisions address military implications of mRNA vaccine funding deficits, vulnerability of anthrax countermeasures, and the security of pharmaceutical supply chains, driving the need for briefings from the Department of Defense to evaluate and mitigate these risks significantly affecting military readiness and servicemember health.
The report emphasizes several critical areas, including the prioritization of biological threat intelligence, the necessity of rapid detection capabilities for chemical and biological agents, and the integration of AI tools in medical countermeasure development. Additionally, accountability mechanisms are put in place due to concerns arising from the proposed reductions in funding for civilian health initiatives by the White House, highlighting the dual dependency of defense and public health systems.
Second batch of China medical expert teams to head to DRC for Ebola outbreak assistance: NHC
African Swine Fever Tightens Its Grip Across Asia-Pacific as Outbreaks Persist Into 2026
Patient tested for suspected Ebola virus at Glasgow hospital
Ebola outbreak spreads to 4th province in DR Congo
Meta's brain-scanning system reads sentences non-invasively, code open source. Brain2Qwerty v2, the highest-performing end-to-end pipeline capable of real-time sentence decoding from non-invasive brain recordings, approaching levels of accuracy previously exclusive to techniques that require brain surgery.
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Some headlines I'm looking at, haven't posted these in a while. Also happy to discuss items from here. Something that's been on my mind is that narratives on Iran oil prices are kinda removed from the best indicator, which is number of ships passing through Hormuz.
Geopolitics
US strikes Iran in response to drone strike on commercial ship
US and Iran enter technical talks to secure peace deal, shipping restart
Sudan says China has waived $50m loan
The Balochistan Liberation Army is a global terrorist threat, says Pakistan.
UN must blacklist global terror threat BLA, says Pak
Lithuania moves to lift nuclear weapons ban, following Finland's lead
Ukraine war briefing: More than 2 million military casualties caused by Russia's invasion, study finds
Russia putting weapons on civilian ship in order to avoid it getting impounded by NATO
German Prosecutors Charge Suspect In Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage
United States
U.S. Rushes Elite Rescuers, Starlink Terminals, and Warships Into Venezuela's Disaster Zone
OpenAI reportedly discusses giving US government a 5% stake
Rest of the Americas
670,500 Haitians expelled from the Dominican Republic in 20 months
Middle East
Bahrain Targeted, Ship Struck as Iran War Ceasefire Tested
Israel defense minister says troops to stay ‘indefinitely’ in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza | Arab News
Israeli attacks have killed over 4,247 people in Lebanon since 2 March
What is the framework agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon? Israel attacks Lebanon News Al Jazeera
######## Iran
Iran nuclear and military damage revealed in restricted satellite images
Trump administration silent on Iranian school strike four months later | AP News
Iran opens Khamenei funeral ceremonies in Tehran
Asia
Bangladesh healthcare under strain as dengue cases hike amid measles burden
More than 100,000 killed in Myanmar since 2021 coup, monitor says
Pakistan airstrikes in Afghanistan
Africa
Terrorism: 79,323 killed, 34,773 abducted in 6 years, averaging seven attacks per day and roughly 36 victims daily, in Nigeria.
Africa CDC confirms Marburg case in Uganda as Ebola outbreak rages
Ebola Outbreak Could Cost Africa $3.6 Billion, UN Warns
Africa: WHO Adds First Diagnostic Test for Ebola Bundibugyo Virus to Its Emergency Use Listing
Burkina Faso’s military government severed diplomatic ties with France effective immediately, accusing Paris of “blatant neo-colonial ambitions” and of actively supporting subversive networks and terrorists.
Tanzania bans political rallies ahead of planned anti-government protests
Biorisks
Senate Armed Services Committee Flags mRNA Cuts, Biodefense Gaps in FY2027 Defense Bill
The Senate Armed Services Committee's FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act reflects concerns about U.S. biological preparedness and defense capabilities in light of federal public health funding cuts. Key provisions address military implications of mRNA vaccine funding deficits, vulnerability of anthrax countermeasures, and the security of pharmaceutical supply chains, driving the need for briefings from the Department of Defense to evaluate and mitigate these risks significantly affecting military readiness and servicemember health.
The report emphasizes several critical areas, including the prioritization of biological threat intelligence, the necessity of rapid detection capabilities for chemical and biological agents, and the integration of AI tools in medical countermeasure development. Additionally, accountability mechanisms are put in place due to concerns arising from the proposed reductions in funding for civilian health initiatives by the White House, highlighting the dual dependency of defense and public health systems.
Second batch of China medical expert teams to head to DRC for Ebola outbreak assistance: NHC
African Swine Fever Tightens Its Grip Across Asia-Pacific as Outbreaks Persist Into 2026
Patient tested for suspected Ebola virus at Glasgow hospital
Ebola outbreak spreads to 4th province in DR Congo
Scientists have built a cell from the ground up
Ebola in DR Congo: Mass gatherings banned in Kinshasa to contain spread
Ebola outbreak in Congo leads to banned public gatherings in four provinces
U.S. Measles Cases in 2026 Nearly Match Full-Year 2025 Toll With Six Months Still Remaining
Artificial Intelligence
Automated cyberattacks.
Claude Fable 5 available globally
Claude Science
OpenAI offers feds a stake, Anthropic gets out of AI model jail and Meta wants to be a neocloud
Google caps Meta's Gemini use as AI demand strains capacity
Huawei OpenPangu 2 Flash, 512K ctx 92A6B: Weights, inference code, training ops
Meta's brain-scanning system reads sentences non-invasively, code open source. Brain2Qwerty v2, the highest-performing end-to-end pipeline capable of real-time sentence decoding from non-invasive brain recordings, approaching levels of accuracy previously exclusive to techniques that require brain surgery.
GPT-5.6 Preview System Card
Claude Sonnet 5
GPT 5.6 Sol cheated during METR evaluations
Ukraine doing more AI integration. Drones already directed by AI in final seconds.
Austria urges Europe to host Anthropic following US curbs on AI access
Alibaba reportedly bans Anthropic’s Claude Code internally over ‘backdoor’ risk concerns. heh.
Why Washington’s AI Export Control Couldn’t Hold
Claude Desktop red team
Review of AI regulations in the US
Meta launches Pocket, an AI mini-game generator app
Goldman Sachs: AN AI JOB APOCALYPSE?
More tech
We built the fastest API for GLM-5.2 (280 TPS)
Leanstral 1.5 (Lean 4 formal verification MoE)
Climate and Nature
Spain heat wave kills over 1,000 in second-hottest June ever. But these are mostly old & sick people dying a bit earlier.
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