Leaked documents provide a wealth of new details on Russian destabilization and influence campaigns against European countries — including last year’s Islamophobic “pig head” attack against French mosques, paint thrown on synagogues, efforts to influence the upcoming Armenian election — and much more. They point to the Social Design Agency, a sanctioned PR firm whose work in these areas is overseen by the Russian Presidential Administration.
David Ignatius is the internationally admired foreign affairs columnist and associate editor at The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 1986, later served as foreign editor, and has written his twice-weekly column since 1998. From 2000 to 2003, he was executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Earlier in his career, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering the State Department, the Justice Department, the CIA, and the Middle East. He is the author of twelve spy novels, including Body of Lies, which was adapted into a feature film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. Born into a family shaped by public service, educated at Harvard and King’s College, Cambridge, and based in Washington for much of his professional life, he has had a front-row seat to America’s actions around the world. He is frequently on a plane, traveling to observe events firsthand, meet personally with newsmakers, and gather insights from his extraordinary sources in the national security arena. He talks to the people who don’t talk to the press.
The Rundown: Chinese EV powerhouse BYD said it will pay for crash damage when drivers in China are using its God’s Eye 5.0 driver-assistance system, positioning itself as the first automaker to take financial responsibility for an autonomous-driving feature.
The details:
BYD will cover repairs, third-party property damage, and injuries if Urban Navigate on Autopilot is used legally and still triggers an at-fault crash.The company backs the pledge with a fleet of more than 3.15M ADAS-equipped vehicles, over 124M miles of God’s Eye driving data logged daily.When BYD rolled out a similar guarantee for its smart parking feature last year, usage jumped from 21% to 93%.Tesla, meanwhile, has repeatedly contested liability for Autopilot crashes, as Chinese EV makers gain ground on range, charging speed, and features.
Why it matters: BYD taking on crash liability marks a pivotal shift from marketing autonomy to seriously underwriting it, that too at an impressive scale of 3.15M vehicles. If the move pays off, it could reset consumer expectations and pressure rivals like Tesla, which still puts the onus of crash liability on the driver.
IMF, World Bank, others warn of risks for fuel security if Hormuz remains closed
02/06/2026
by Shipping Telegraph
The heads of the International Energy Agency (IEA), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group and World Trade Organization (WTO) warned on Friday of the risks to fuel security during peak summer demand in the Northern Hemisphere if shipping oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz does not return to normal.
“Global oil inventories are being drawn down at a record pace in response to the major loss of supply through the Strait of Hormuz,” the heads of the four of the world’s top economic and energy bodies said in a joint statement.
“If shipping flows do not return to normal, continued rapid depletion of global oil inventories ahead of peak summer oil demand in the Northern Hemisphere would present increasing risks for fuel security, market conditions, and broader economic resilience.”
In Friday’s joint statement, they highlighted that the surge in energy and fertilizer prices due to the war was having a disproportionate effect on lower income countries.
Particular concern was expressed over the “substantial and highly asymmetric impacts” of the war in the Middle East on energy supplies, food security, and economic activity across countries and regions.
While they said the global economy has remained resilient so far, they warned that the effects of the conflict are disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable countries through higher fuel and fertilizer prices, increased uncertainty, and risks to jobs and livelihoods.
“Higher fertilizer prices are of particular concern as many countries enter the planting season,” they say.
They also highlighted the importance of closely monitoring fertilizer supply chains, energy and economic developments as well as policy responses.
Officials said they are tracking and analysing measures taken by governments to address the economic impact of the conflict, with a view to promoting transparency, sharing lessons, and identifying emerging risks.
The heads of the four bodies met on May 28 as part of the high-level coordination group established in April to maximize their institutions’ response to the energy, trade, and economic impacts of the war in the Middle East.
“We will remain in close contact as the situation evolves and continue coordinating our efforts to support the countries most affected and global economic stability,” the statement concludes.
As the AI industry looks beyond language models, Nvidia is betting big on the buzzy new technology powering physical AI: world models.
At Nvidia GTC Taipei at Computex, the company unveiled Cosmos 3, a new generalist world foundation model that it calls a “fully open omnimodel,” capable of reasoning and generation across text, video, images, ambient sound and action. This iteration of the Cosmos world model family builds on a previous generations by providing improved generalization capabilities, which is a major barrier to physical AI development and deployment.
“We wanted to build this Cosmo 3 model to help physical AI developers to build more generalizable physical AI models,” Ming-Yu Liu, Nvidia’s VP of Cosmos Labs,told The Deep View.
Cosmos 3 debuts a number of world model innovations, Liu said:
The model utilizes a new architecture called “mixture-of-transformers,” which combines the best aspects of two types of transformers: one for reasoning and one for generation. This enables it to understand object interactions, motion, and spatiotemporal relationships before generating video or action paths. Cosmos 3 also doesn’t treat just one kind of data as a first-class citizen, said Liu. Instead, being omnimodal, it reasons with and generates “image, video, sound, and action, together with text,” he said. Additionally, Cosmos 3 is trained on one of the largest multimodal datasets for physical AI, spanning 20 trillion tokens, 1 billion images and 400 million authentic and synthetic videos.
The model comes in several sizes: Super, the larger model for high-quality physics and accuracy, and Nano, for more efficient, quick generation needs, both of which are available now. Edge, which offers real-time inference for edge computing, will be available soon.
The models are also open-source, which Liu said offers developers more control and usability in physical AI development, a process that can be “challenging to do with API assets only.” That allows enterprises to run them locally, customize them for their needs, and better control data security.
Because the foundation models themselves are “just a starting point for physical AI developers,” the goal is to integrate these models into ecosystems to provide a foundation for solving critical problems, he said.
Cosmos 3 is just one step in the right direction in solving one of physical AI’s most pressing challenges. “We believe that the key problem to solve in physical AI is the generalization capability of the agent,” Liu said. “To be clear, [Cosmos] is not yet solving the problem, but I think this architecture provides a great foundation to solve what I think is the holy grail in robotics.”
With Cosmos, Nvidia is feeding the open model ecosystem, both for the benefit of the ecosystem and for its own benefit. Along with providing the foundation for developers to create what Liu calls robotics’ “holy grail”, any opportunity to feed a market that will inevitably demand more compute is an opportunity for Nvidia to make money in the end, as well as potentially make its own chips better through extreme hardware co-design. And while the benefits would extend back to Nvidia, a rising tide lifts all boats. As the industry broadly embraces the promise of physical AI, Nvidia’s sharing of its resources and innovation will help stimulate further innovation.
Iran inaugurates West Asia’s biggest cancer treatment hospital – Iran Cancer Institute at Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex in Tehran The state-of-the-art hospital features 37 specialized departments, advanced imaging, radiotherapy units, and 96 chemotherapy beds. #IranFirst
AND:
BREAST CANCER
It is time to leave war aside
University of Tehran scientists develop nanotheranostic system using iron oxide nanoparticles and a novel peptide to treat breast cancer
It improves MRI and SPECT imaging, inhibits tumor growth, and could support advanced radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments.
A 12th-century castle built during the Crusades in Lebanon has been seized by Israeli forces in what’s been described as the deepest incursion into Lebanon for more than 25 years.
The historic site, known as Beaufort Castle or Qalʿat al-Shaqīf, sits atop a striking rocky outcrop in a commanding position on the edge of the Litani gorge, boasting spectacular views across southern Lebanon. It has historically been a very strategic site, especially during the Crusades.
A view of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel this week. AP Photo/Ariel Schalit/AAP
What were the Crusades?
The Crusades is the name given to a series of military expeditions, beginning in the late 11th century, of Latin Christians from across Europe to a range of destinations, most famously the Holy Land.
The Crusades were armed pilgrimages, representing a fusion of ideas about warfare and spirituality.
Crusades would be called for by a pope, who would promise participants spiritual rewards if they took the Crusade vow and undertook these campaigns.
The aims and goals of Crusades changed over time as the geopolitical landscape changed. The First Crusade – called in 1095 CE – had a broad goal of “liberating” the holy sites of Jerusalem from the Seljuk Turks, a Sunni Muslim group in power in Asia Minor at the time.
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The Crusaders also wanted to render military aid to Eastern Christians in the region.
But what distinguishes the Crusades from other military campaigns was that this was seen as a spiritually meritorious form of warfare.
The First Crusade established the Crusader States, with what came to be known as the Kingdom of Jerusalem at its heart.
Who built Beaufort Castle and why?
This site’s time as a Crusader castle began in 1139 CE with the Franks – the label used at the time to denote western European settlers in the east.
When the Franks arrived at the site, it was probably already being used in some significant way because of its strategic position.
The king of Jerusalem at this time was Fulk, who was a Frank (the Kingdom of Jerusalem had already existed for 40 years before he captured the Beaufort Castle site).
He began construction of Beaufort Castle (Old French for “beautiful fortress”) in about 1139 CE. Ultimately, it became a large castle over two levels, roughly triangular in shape. As is often the case for buildings from this era, it has had parts added on and destroyed over time.
Latin Christians saw it as part of a network of fortified castles they hoped would help shore up Frankish settlement in the area.
Enter Saladin
The next key character in the history of Beaufort Castle is Saladin. He is among the most famous figures in Crusades history, in the region and in Islamic history more broadly.
He was of Kurdish origin, and by the time Beaufort Castle was controlled by Latin Christians, he was sultan of Egypt and Syria.
By all accounts, Saladin appears to have been a charismatic, canny leader and military practitioner. He was a key figure in Muslim military efforts against the Latin Christians.
Saladin captured Beaufort Castle in 1190 CE. This was part of a longer story of success for Saladin in what has been called the “counter-Crusade”. A few years earlier, he had won some significant victories, including at the famous Battle of Hattin (depicted in Ridley Scott’s 2005 film, Kingdom of Heaven).
Saladin also captured the city of Jerusalem in 1187, which was an enormous loss for the Crusaders.
So the Beaufort capture was part of the bigger picture of Saladin’s spectacular journey of conquest in this region around this time. He died not long after in 1193 CE, and the castle remained in Muslim hands until 1240 CE.
After that, the castle went back to Latin Christian ownership as part of a treaty with Theobald I of Navarre in the Barons’ Crusade. Ultimately, the castle passed to the Knights Templar in 1260 CE.
Who were the Knights Templar?
The Knights Templar was a military religious order made up of hybrid warrior-monks, founded in 1118 in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Their initial remit was to defend Christian pilgrims visiting holy sites, but their role changed over time.
They lived according to a religious rule, known as the Templar Rule, and they took vows of chastity, poverty and obedience to live in communities according to their vows.
What was unusual about these monks was they were also highly trained warriors, especially skilled as mounted knights, as both heavy and light cavalry.
The kings of Jerusalem soon came to rely on them for military advice and as a highly trained standing army.
They were viewed as having the power to fight on both a spiritual and earthly battlefield, a kind of holy super soldiers. According to their patron, Bernard of Clairvaux, the Templar’s
soul is protected by the armour of faith just as his body is protected by armour of steel.
Kings and nobles increasingly began to donate land and riches to the Templars. They eventually became an international organisation with significant wealth across Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean (although they would eventually be tried for heresy).
The Knights Templar held Beaufort Castle for only eight years, before the site was returned to Muslim rule for centuries. In modern history, it has been controlled by Lebanon – until its capture by Israeli forces this week.
This is a region with an incredibly nuanced and complex history, and it remains that way today.
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Image source: BYD
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