Category: East Asia

President Donald Trump says Iran will “be blown off the face of the earth” if U.S. vessels guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz are attacked, escalating his threats to eliminate Iranian civilization as the countries test a tenuous ceasefire during the weeks-long war.
U.S. military officials said Iran launched missiles, drones and small boats at ships sailing through the passage with U.S. support on Monday. Six small Iranian boats were targeting civilian vessels, according to officials.
If Iranians continue to target commercial ships during the so-called Project Freedom escort operation, the country will “be blown off the face of the earth,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst on Monday.
Trump’s latest rhetoric follows last month’s threats that a “whole civilization will die” in Iran “never to be brought back again” if the nation did not agree to a ceasefire deal and reopen the Strait, whose effective closure has choked off global oil supplies and surged barrel prices.
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Mali 's junta leader and the country’s president has assumed the duties of defense minister, authorities said Monday, after the incumbent was killed in sweeping, coordinated attacks by separatist and jihadi forces that stunned the West African nation.
According to a presidential decree announced on state television, Assimi Goita will remain president while also taking on the new role. Former armed forces chief of staff Gen. Oumar Diarra will assist him as deputy defense minister.
The announcement comes after Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Camara was killed on April 25, in a suicide bombing that targeted his home in Kati, a garrison town near the capital, Bamako.
Along with Bamako, Kati was one of several cities and towns attacked by militants from the al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, and rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front, a Tuareg-led separatist group, in one of the biggest coordinated attacks in the country in over a decade.
The Islamic mi..

Ukrainian general’s rise from far-right wing agitator to war heroRussian strikes have killed 10 and injured at least 76 people across Ukraine in the past day, Ukrainian officials have said.
Officials said three people were killed in separate incidents in Kherson region, while two died in each of Odesa, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions and one in Sumy region.
It comes as Ukraine's military successfully hit Russia's Primorsk ⁠port, causing significant damage to the infrastructure of ⁠the ​oil ⁠terminal port, president ⁠Volodymyr Zelensky said ​on ⁠Sunday.
In a ‌post on the Telegram app, ‌Zelensky said ‌that Ukrainian troops also struck ⁠the Karakurt-class missile ship, a patrol boat, and one more shadow fleet ‌oil tanker, ​adding that “each such ‌result ⁠further limits ⁠Russia’s war potential”.
On Saturday, Ukraine's military commander has confirmed that Russian troops are inching towards the city ​of Kostiantynivka in the eastern region of Donetsk and trying to establish ..

Trump threatens to 'blast the hell' out of IranIran has issued Donald Trump a one-month deadline for negotiations on its proposed deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring an end to the war, according to a report.
The deal would also see the end of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and the ongoing conflict in Lebanon, two sources brief on the proposal told Axios.
But negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme – the destruction of which has been one of Trump’s key goals of the war – would only take place after the initial deal is reached.
Trump said on Saturday he was reviewing a new peace proposal from Tehran, before once again escalated his threats when he said the regime “not yet paid a big enough price”.
“I will soon be reviewing the plan Iran has just sent to us but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to humanity, and the world, over the last 47 years,” he wrote on Truth Social.
The ..

President Donald Trump launched a bizarre late-night burst of AI-generated photos Friday on Truth Social, including one depiction of him and members of his Cabinet shirtless and lounging in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In one captionless post shared at 11:03 p.m. local time, Trump, 79, is shown smiling and giving a thumbs-up while reclining on a golden inflatable lounger in the historic pool on the National Mall.
Vice President JD Vance, 41, appears beside him, also giving a thumbs-up, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 54, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, 69. An unidentified woman, possibly AI-generated, also appears in the scene, floating nearby in sunglasses and a blue-and-white gingham bikini.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is currently undergoing an accelerated beautification project ordered by Trump and overseen by Burgum. The $1.5 million project aims to fix leaks in the pool’s aging granite foundation by applying a new “American flag blue” industrial-g..

Trump threatens to 'blast the hell' out of IranA senior Iranian official has warned that renewed conflict between Iran and the US is “likely”, amid growing fears a temporary ceasefire could soon collapse.
“Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements,” Mohammad Jafar Asadi, a senior figure in the Iranian military's central command, told Iran’s Fars news agency.
It comes after US president Donald Trump has declared he is “not satisfied” by the peace deals offered by Iran.
The Iranians are “trying to make a good deal [for them] and we’re not going to let that happen,” he added. “They've got to make a bad deal. Maybe we're better off not making a deal at all”.
Meanwhile, Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius has said it was “foreseeable” that the US would withdraw troops from Europe, as the transatlantic rift over the Iran war deepens.
The US president announced he was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Nato ally German..

Dr. Nicole Saphier is President Donald Trump's latest pick for the vacant role of U.S. surgeon general, a nomination that ended the embattled campaign of his previous candidate, Dr. Casey Means, after it became clear she didn't have the votes to advance out of a Senate committee.
Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor, has promoted several aspects of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda, including removing food additives, cutting ultraprocessed foods from diets and encouraging exercise.
But she has been a more vocal advocate for vaccination than Kennedy, and at times she has criticized the Trump administration's handling of health issues as “embarrassing.”
If confirmed as the nation's doctor, Saphier would be empowered to issue advisories that warn of public health threats. Surgeons general also have used the office to advocate on vaccination issues — though the office doesn't create vaccine po..

The US president and the German chancellor have locked horns. Spain has shunned Washington. The Nato alliance is more fragile than it has ever been.
Western powers are determined to see off Russian military “hard” power; they are familiar with “soft power” operations to undermine democracies. But how to deal with the Kremlin’s relationship with Donald Trump is now an emergency.
Working out a response to internal frictions within Nato has become a conundrum, not only for leaders in the alliance but for the military officials who have to figure out how to keep the military machine operational.
A weakened Nato serves only the interests of the enemies and rivals of the West.
Top of the list of beneficiaries is Vladimir Putin, but China will enjoy the latest spats between Trump and Germany’s Friedrich Merz almost as much.
open image in galleryPresident Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet in the Oval Office in March (Reuters)Merz, opting for a “truth to power” approach, ..

The wreckage of the biggest U.S. Naval loss of World War I has been discovered by a team of British divers after 107 years.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tampa was discovered around 50 miles off the coast of Newquay, a seaside town in south west England, after being lost in 1918. ​
All 131 people aboard the vessel were killed as it sank, with the tragedy representing the largest single American naval combat loss of life in WW1.
​“When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service,” Admiral Kevin Lunday, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a press release. “Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures.”​
open image in galleryA team of British divers have located the wreckage of the biggest US naval loss from World War One (US Coast Guard/Gasperados)The discovery of the Tampa is the culmination of three years of collaboration between the Coast Guard Historian’s Office and a group of British di..

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faces a second day of grilling from Democrats on Capitol Hill, with senators getting their first opportunity Thursday to confront or praise the Pentagon chief over his handling of the Iran war.
Hegseth battled with Democrats — and some Republicans — a day earlier during a nearly six-hour House Armed Services Committee hearing, where he faced sharp questioning over the war’s costs in dollars, lives and the diminishing stockpiles of critical weapons.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear a similar presentation on the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, will again stress the need for more drones, missile defense systems and warships.
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Defense secretary claims that 60-day legal limit for war is on pause during ceasefire
The Trump administration is running up against a 60-day l..