Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. We have a live page going on the U.S.-Israel strikes against Iran and will bring you the latest developments throughout the day. Also: The murder of Sweden’s prime minister Olof Palme remains unsolved 40 years later. Amateur sleuths are asking AI for help. And El Mencho might be gone, but his cartel's power endures in the United States.
Operation Epic Fury: President Donald Trump said the new conflict would end a security threat to the United States and allow Iranians to topple their rulers. He urged Iranians to take shelter and warned that some Americans may die. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to “remove the yoke of tyranny.” Iran launched strikes at Gulf states and said it would attack U.S. military bases in the Middle East. Airlines suspended flights across the region.
‘We don’t need it, we don’t want it’: Trump’s directive comes during a feud between the Pentagon and the artificial-intelligence lab over how the military could use AI in war. Anthropic earlier said it would not honor the Pentagon’s request to eliminate safeguardsthat would allow its AI systems to be used to target weapons autonomously and conduct surveillance in the U.S.
What Jack Dorsey said: The Block CEO and co-founder is laying off employees because it determined that a significantly smaller team working with AI can do their work better. Dorsey also said most companies will reach the same conclusion within a year.
Caribbean M&A: Havana has said it is not holding high-level talks with Washington, but it has not denied press reports that U.S. officials might be speaking informally with Raul Castro’s grandson. Cuba accused the U.S. of allowing forces hostile to its government to operate with impunity after a dramatic speedboat attack in Cuban waters.
Seizure: The U.S. is trying to take ownership of an oil tanker it seized in December and 1.8 million barrels of crude-oil cargo supplied by Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA. It said the Motor Tanker Skipper was involved in a scheme to benefit Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. U.S. forces have seized 10 tankers since December.
Testimony: The former president told a congressional committee he would not have flown on the late sex offender’s plane if he had known about Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls. Hillary Clinton earlier in the week told the panel during her deposition that she did not remember ever meeting Epstein.
Files: Britain’s defense ministry is reviewing flight records after files appeared to show that Epstein landed his private jet at UK military bases. British police are assessing whether he trafficked women through two London airports and one in central England. The Justice Dept. said it is investigating after National Public Radio reported that the agency withheld FBI interviews with a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor.
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