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Military experts have suggested to Fox News Digital that it remains a distinct possibility Iran could declare itself a nuclear power this year with the United States' political future uncertain amid a tightly contested presidential election. 

"I think that's a real option," said James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies for The Heritage Foundation. "I mean, if I were the Iranians and I were going to do it, I would do it now because Biden will do nothing.

"The Israelis are bogged down, and you've got months before — if Trump wins — before he comes to power, and by then you have established nuclear power and what's going to happen.

"He's not going to start World War III, right?" Carafano added. "He's not going to come in on day one and bomb Iran. He’s not going to do that, and they know that."  

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The Biden administration has repeatedly warned throughout the past year that Iran is on the brink of achieving a nuclear weapon. U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken in July told the Aspen Security Forum Iran "is now probably one or two weeks away" from achieving "breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon." 

Blinken blamed the collapse of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, for Iran’s accelerated development. He stressed  the U.S. had not at that time seen any evidence to suggest Iran already has a nuclear weapon, Barron's reported. 

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We are committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome."

Carafano argued the uncertainty of the U.S. presidential election, particularly President Biden’s lame-duck status after deciding not to seek a second term, has given Iran a key opportunity. 

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"It doesn't matter if you could deploy a nuclear weapon or not," Carafano explained. "They’ll just say that, and everybody would just freak out. They can say, 'Well, I declare myself a nuclear power now, and I'll defend myself with nuclear weapons.' And, of course, it's even worse if you say that and people know that you can actually defend yourself if you carry weapons.

"Once you're a nuclear state, there's this kind of perceived, ‘I have a forcefield around me,’ like the Starship Enterprise," Carafano added. "If you look at the timing of that … are the Israelis going to attack you? I mean, they're a bit busy at the moment. What's Biden going to do? Biden's not going to do anything between now and the election and January, and if Trump wins, it'll be several months before he comes in office."  

Retired Lt. Gen. Charles Moore of the U.S. Air Force agreed with Carafano’s assessment, calling it a "distinct possibility," but he noted the limited power of declaring nuclear capabilities, mainly that "declaring yourself a nuclear power and being able to actually effectively deploy and employ a nuclear weapon are two entirely different things."

"I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume that following any ‘declaration’ by Iran or during the final steps required to effectively test a weapon and make it to a delivery vehicle, we would see Israel and/or the United States take action to prevent that from happening," Moore said. 

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Carafano admitted that, in the long run, having nuclear weapons acts as only a deterrent against other nuclear weapons. He pointed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and Russia’s recent invasion, with Ukraine rebuffing Moscow and this month even pushing into Russian territory. 

"Nuclear weapons have a very limited utility, which is to really deter nuclear conflict with another nuclear power, but other than that … if you can't win a conventional war, you don't start a nuclear war, right?" He said. "It's not the get out of jail free card free for the Iranians, and … five seconds after they become a declared nuclear power, the Saudis and the Turks and the Egyptians and others want to be a nuclear power." 

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said nuclear incrementalism "has given way to significant nuclear advances by Khamenei while Biden has been in office" and speculated that "it’s entirely plausible that these are gains Tehran might want to lock in or immunize should Trump return." 

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"Lest we forget, Iran originally aimed to have a nuclear fait accompli for the world before it was detected in 2002," Taleblu said. "Tehran pursued a crash program designed to produce a handful of nuclear weapons that it hoped would buy it both status and security.

"Fundamentally, weaponization is a political decision but composed of a whole series of technical processes," he added. "The decision to undertake either can be shaped by Western policy, for good or for ill."

The massive intelligence failure in the lead up to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan not only led to a chaotic evacuation, the death of 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, as well as the complete Taliban takeover – it created a security vacuum that U.S. adversaries are taking advantage of.

The U.S. and its allies have seen a rise in anti-Western sentiment that has been largely spearheaded by China and Russia, who have bolstered ties in the wake of Washington’s opposition to Moscow’s war in Ukraine and Beijing’s aggressive posture in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. 

However, as the U.S. looks to distance itself from its decadeslong War on Terror, adversaries like China and Russia have increasingly expanded their influence in South Asia and the Middle East.

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"We don't understand that when we turn our back to Afghanistan, and we just want to close the door and move on…we are leaving a vacuum there," Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and expert on security issues in the Middle East and South Asia, told Fox News Digital. "Someone else is going to fill it."

While no nation has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, some nations, including the U.S.’s top adversaries, have moved forward with establishing diplomatic relations with the extremist group. 

Last year, Beijing said the Taliban should not be "excluded from the international community," and reports earlier this year suggested Moscow was considering removing the Taliban from its terrorist list – a further indication that both China and Russia are looking to use the region for their strategic aims. 

Not only does the Taliban’s opposition to Western ideology play into Russian hands in spreading anti-American sentiment, Moscow is looking to expand trade with Afghanistan and other nations in the region to further alleviate economic pressure caused by Western sanctions. 

Though sanctions are not the only motivating factor in expanding trade across South Asia.

The Taliban last year announced its intent to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and reports have suggested that Beijing is supplying the Taliban with drones, which could hamper the U.S.'s "over-the-horizon" strategy when it comes to Afghanistan.   

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The U.S.’s inability to foresee the Taliban takeover was not just an intelligence failure, it was indicative of a greater lapse in understanding of adversarial threats, explained Rubin. "The other issue, which I wouldn’t call an intelligence failure, I would call it a diplomatic failure – was the refusal to address Pakistan realistically," Rubin said.

Rubin pointed to findings one decade into the war in Afghanistan that showed 90% of the ammonium nitrate being used in Taliban roadside bombs were coming from two fertilizer factories in neighboring Pakistan. 

Pakistani authorities claimed to be working with Washington in 2011 to stop smuggling efforts at a time when the U.S. was scrambling to stop al Qaeda and Taliban attacks, just months after the U.S. saw its deadliest year in Afghanistan, with the death of nearly 500 American soldiers and more than 700 coalition forces. 

Though the additional discovery and subsequent assassination of al Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Usama Bin Laden in May 2011, left many questioning the reliability of the Washington-Islamabad relationship – a question that remains to this day. 

Pakistan has engaged in a shadow war with insurgent groups on its border with Afghanistan, but Islamabad is also suspected of having aided the Taliban through covert operations.

Despite its ambiguous security position, the U.S. continues to keep close ties with Pakistan, remaining its largest export market and a leading investor in the nation – a relationship that has not gone unnoticed by China and Russia.

Beijing has also looked to Islamabad to expand bilateral economic partnerships through its Belt and Road Initiative, particularly the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, in which Beijing has invested some $62 billion.

Additionally, despite international pressure to walk a fine line when it comes to Russia, Pakistan has signaled it may be willing to aid Moscow in sidestepping the Western sanctions aimed at crippling its war effort through a "barter" trading system – potentially expanding an alliance that could further burden the U.S. in a region where it needs to maintain positive relations. 

"It's wrong, simply, to look at Afghanistan in isolation," Rubin said, nodding to the root of the U.S.’s failure to assess the region’s overall state of security. "We have a tendency not to see the forest through the trees."

A yearslong probe released in 2023 showed that the collapse in U.S. intelligence spanning across the Trump and Biden administrations was rooted in Washington’s failure to correctly interpret the Afghan government’s ability to function without U.S. support.

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"The Taliban were running roughshod over us, and our intelligence wasn't picking up a thing," Rubin said. "We were looking at Afghanistan through the lens of idealism and ideology. Here we were building a democracy. From an Afghan point of view, they were looking at it through the lens of survival."

The expert explained that Kabul fell as quickly as it did because the Taliban had been making inroads across the nation with local governors and district chiefs for one to two years ahead of the withdrawal – meaning the fall of Afghanistan came down to momentum and defections. 

"You actually had lots of families that would send one son to the Afghan National Security Forces – the army we were training – and the other son to the Taliban," Rubin explained. "The idea wasn't that they were favoring one power over the other, but this way if one of their family members were kidnapped at a checkpoint, they would always have someone they could call to try to get them sprung free."

Ultimately, the U.S.’s inability to understand Afghans, who lived under the constant threat of war for half a century following a coup in 1973, the Soviet-Afghan war throughout the 1980s, Taliban rule in the1990s and then the 20-year-long U.S. War on Terror, meant they did not recognize that the everyday Afghan would not fully trust that they could rely on the Afghan government without U.S. backing. 

"It's what Usama Bin Laden said," Rubin continued, "when you have a choice between a strong horse and a weak pony…it's natural to tie yourself to the strong horse. That's what Afghans do."

Open source intelligence also showed that the Taliban had been making gains across Afghanistan in the year leading up to the withdrawal and questions have since mounted over why neither the Trump nor the Biden administration adjusted withdrawal plans accordingly.

"Unfortunately, ego always trumps good judgment when it comes to Washington policymaking," Rubin said. "The second issue was just exhaustion, and this notion that it was a two-decade war, the longest war in American history, and that by supporting the resistance, we would be restarting."

"It was a persuasive argument," he added.

A Ferris wheel at a festival near Leipzig, Germany, caught fire Saturday evening, leading to multiple injuries, according to reports.  

More than two dozen people were injured in the fire, two seriously, the European country's taxpayer-funded broadcaster, DW, reported, citing police and the German Red Cross. 

Most of the injuries involved mild smoke inhalation, according to DW, and four police officers were among the injured. 

Four people also had burns, and one person was hurt in a fall, France's AFP news agency said. 

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"Those affected are receiving treatment and are doing well considering the circumstances," the Highfield music festival said in a statement, according to Britain's Sky News. "We are in close coordination with the fire brigade, the police and the rescue and medical services."

Photos and videos showed flames rising and smoke billowing from two of the Ferris wheel's cars. 

The cause of the fire is not yet known. 

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German rapper Ski Aggu, who was performing when the fire broke out, took to his Instagram story to say he was shocked and dismayed about the fire, adding he hoped everyone affected would be better soon. 

"For me, the priority was that the situation did not escalate further, which fortunately also worked," he wrote in German. "Thank you for staying so calm and possibly preventing worse."

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Around 18 of the victims were taken to a hospital, Sky News reported, adding that performances continued about an hour after the fire started with the Ferris wheel remaining closed. 

The oldest ever first-time giant panda mom just welcomed twins into the world at Ocean Park in Hong Kong.

Ying Ying, 19, gave birth to a male and female "following over five hours of labor," according to Ocean Park.

In a social media post, Ocean Park shared that it is "thrilled to welcome the birth of the first-ever giant panda twins in Hong Kong!"

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The park has tried over the years to successfully breed pandas. Giant panda females only ovulate once per year, making the birth of these twins even more special.

The cubs were born Aug. 15 at Ocean Park, just one day before Ying Ying's 19th birthday. She is the world's oldest first-time panda mom.

"This birth is a true rarity, especially considering Ying Ying is the oldest giant panda on record to have successfully given birth for the first time," the park said in a social media post. 

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"As a first-time mother, Ying Ying was understandably nervous throughout the process. She spent much of her time lying on the ground and twisting."

The twins were born over an hour apart, with Ocean Park adding, "the Park’s team and CCRCGP experts provided comfort, allowing Ying Ying to safely deliver the twin cubs at 2:05am and 3:27am respectively."

The cubs are "very fragile" as newborns, especially the female. The twins are under 24-hour care and supervision by Ocean Park's animal specialists and veterinary team.

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The unnamed female panda cub "has a lower body temperature, weaker cries, and lower food intake" than her brother.

The post concluded, "We are all looking forward to meeting the giant panda cubs. Please wait a few months patiently to make their debut and officially meet everyone!"

Indonesia marked 79 years of independence on Saturday with a ceremony in the unfinished future capital of Nusantara, which was planned to relieve pressure on Jakarta but whose construction has lagged behind schedule.

Hundreds of officials and invited guests wearing the traditional clothes of Indonesian tribes gathered on a stretch of grass amid the ongoing construction of government buildings and view of construction cranes in the center of the Nusantara city.

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President Joko Widodo and his Cabinet ministers attended the Independence Day ceremony at the new Presidential Palace, built in the shape of the mythical eagle-winged protector figure called Garuda.

The celebration was initially planned to inaugurate Nusantara as the country's new capital, but with construction behind schedule it's not clear when the transfer will take place.

Widodo said earlier in the week that 8,000 guests would be invited, but the number was later reduced to 1,300 because adequate infrastructure was not yet in place.

The celebration at the new State Palace on the island of Borneo was held simultaneously with a celebration at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta that was attended by Vice President Ma'ruf Amin.

Widodo began working at the new presidential palace in Nusantara in late July and held his first Cabinet meeting there on Tuesday.

More than 5,000 officers from Indonesia’s police and military were deployed for the ceremony and 76 honorary flag-bearers marched behind the national red-and-white banner.

Jakarta, with about 10 million people in the city limits and three times that number in the greater metropolitan area, floods regularly and its streets are so clogged that congestion costs the economy an estimated $4.5 billion a year.

The air and groundwater in the old capital, on the northwestern coast of the Java island, are heavily polluted, and it has been described as the world’s most rapidly sinking city. It is estimated that one-third of the city could be submerged by 2050, because of uncontrolled groundwater extraction, as well as the rise of the Java Sea due to climate change.

The construction of the new capital began in mid-2022, spread over an area of about 2,600 square kilometers (1,000 square miles) carved out of Borneo's jungle. Officials say it will be a futuristic green city with abundant forests and parks, powered by renewable energy sources and using smart waste management.

But the project has been dogged by criticism from environmentalists and Indigenous communities, who say it degrades the environment, further shrinks the habitat of endangered animals such as orangutans, and displaces Indigenous people who rely on the land for their livelihoods.

Since the start of construction, seven groundbreaking ceremonies have taken place for the construction of government and public buildings, as well as hotels, banks and schools.

With a population of about 275 million, Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Most of the new capital's investors are Indonesian companies. The government is contributing 20% of the $33 billion budget and relying significantly on private sector investment for the rest.

To attract investors, Widodo recently offered incentives for the new capital, including land rights lasting up to 190 years and generous tax incentives. Widodo, who has led the country for 10 years, will leave office in October.

Thailand's parliament elected political neophyte Paetongtarn Shinawatra as its youngest prime minister on Friday, only a day after she was thrust into the spotlight amid an unrelenting power struggle between the country's warring elites.

The 37-year-old daughter of divisive political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra sailed through a house vote and now faces a baptism of fire, just two days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by a judiciary central to Thailand's two decades of intermittent turmoil.

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At stake for Paetongtarn could be the legacy and political future of the billionaire Shinawatra family, whose once unstoppable populist juggernaut suffered its first election defeat in over two decades last year, and had to do a deal with its bitter enemies in the military to form a government.

She will become Thailand's second female prime minister and the third Shinawatra to take the top job after aunt Yingluck Shinawatra, and father Thaksin, the country's most influential and polarizing politician.

In her first media comments as prime minister-elect, Paetongtarn said she had been saddened and confused by Srettha's dismissal and decided it was time to step up.

"I talked to Srettha, my family and people in my party and decided it was about time to do something for the country and the party," she told reporters.

"I hope I can do my best to make the country go forward. That's what I'm trying to do. Today I'm honored and I feel very happy."

Paetongtarn won easily with 319 votes, or nearly two-thirds of the house. Her response after winning was posting on Instagram a picture of her lunch - chicken rice - with the caption: "The first meal after listening to the vote."

Paetongtarn has never served in government and the decision to put her in play is a roll of the dice for Pheu Thai and its 75-year-old figurehead Thaksin.

She will immediately face challenges on multiple fronts, with the economy floundering, competition from a rival party growing, and Pheu Thai's popularity dwindling, having yet to deliver on its flagship cash handout program worth 500 billion baht ($14.25 billion).

Thailand's benchmark index.SETI was up about 1.1% by 0900 GMT on Friday, having after lost nearly 9% this year.

"The Shinawatras' gambit here is risky," said Nattabhorn Buamahakul, Managing Partner at government affairs consultancy, Vero Advocacy.

"It puts Thaksin's daughter in the crosshairs and a vulnerable position."

The fall of Srettha after less than a year in office will be a stark reminder of the kind of hostility Paetongtarn could face, with Thailand trapped in a tumultuous cycle of coups and court rulings that have disbanded political parties and toppled multiple governments and prime ministers.

The Shinawatras and their business allies have borne the brunt of the crisis, which pits parties with mass appeal against a powerful nexus of conservatives, old money families and royalist generals with deep connections in key institutions.

Nine days ago, the same court that dismissed Srettha over a cabinet appointment also dissolvedthe anti-establishment Move Forward Party - the 2023 election winner - over a campaign to amend a law against insulting the crown, which it said risked undermining the constitutional monarchy.

The hugely popular opposition, Pheu Thai's biggest challenger, has since regrouped under a new vehicle, People's Party.

The upheaval in the past few days also indicates a breakdown in a fragile truce struck between Thaksin and his rivals in the establishment and military old guard, which had enabled the tycoon's dramatic return from 15 years of self-exile in 2023 and ally Srettha to become premier the same day.

Thaksin's gamble on Paetongtarn at such a critical juncture surprised many analysts, who expected him to delay his dynasty and avoid exposing his daughter to the type of battles that led to the downfall of himself and sister Yingluck, who both fled overseas to avoid jail after their governments were ousted by the military.

"This is a big bet for Thaksin. There is a possibility for her to fail and that is a big risk for the entire Shinawatra dynasty," said Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at Ubon Ratchathani University.

"If she can't bring the economy back and bring the party back then it could be the end because the People's Party is gaining more momentum after their dissolution."

In the hours before Ukrainian soldiers stormed across Russia's western border, there was no sign from Moscow that anything was amiss.

At midnight at the start of Aug. 6, the Russian defense ministry posted good news: more than 2,500 members of the regiment responsible for the capture of a town in eastern Ukraine would receive state awards for heroism.

Later that morning, as Ukraine began the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two, the ministry published video showing General Valery Gerasimov, commander of the Russian war effort, visiting a different combat zone, also in Ukraine. He heard reports from commanders and set "tasks for further actions," it said.

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The footage did not specify the exact time of the visit, but revealed no concerns, or knowledge, of the events unfolding in Russia's western Kursk region that threatened to upset Gerasimov's plans and shift the course of the two-and-a-half-year war.

Panic spread quickly among local Russian residents in the early hours of the assault, despite repeated attempts by authorities to assure them that everything was under control, according to a timeline by Reuters of the first two days of the incursion, based on public statements, social media posts and analysis of video footage.

The idea that Ukraine could turn the tables on Russia and burst onto the territory of its much bigger neighbor seemed unthinkable to most observers before last week. The shock operation has raised questions about the effectiveness of Russia's surveillance, as well as the caliber of its border fortifications and the forces guarding them.

"The Russians had a complete intelligence failure here," French military expert Yohann Michel, research fellow at the IESD institute in Lyon, said in an interview.

With Ukraine's forces retreating in eastern Ukraine, one of the most strategic sectors of the front line, Moscow may well have assumed that Kyiv would not make a high-stakes gamble that even now it is far from clear will pay off, Michel said.

"I would understand if it was difficult for the Russians to think something that big could happen," he said.

Ukrainian goals in Kursk include distracting Russian forces from the front line in the eastern region of Donetsk. Instead, fighting has intensified in that region in recent days, and the risks for Ukraine are rising as it tries to hold ground in Kursk.

A Russian member of parliament and former military officer, Andrei Gurulyov, said in a television interview two days after the incursion that Russian military leaders had been warned in a report about a month beforehand that there were signs of preparations for a Ukrainian attack, but it was not heeded.

The Russian defense ministry did not reply to requests for comment. Ukraine's armed forces declined to comment about the ongoing operations, and the U.S. State Department, Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to questions.

It was not until the afternoon of the following day, Aug. 7, that President Vladimir Putin and Gerasimov, his armed forces chief of staff, made their first public remarks on the Kursk events, which the Kremlin leader called "another major provocation" by Ukraine.

Gerasimov, fresh from his ill-timed trip, told Putin in the televised comments that Russian forces had "stopped" a force of up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers from thrusting deep inside the Kursk region.

Michel, the military analyst, said it was unclear whether Gerasimov was misinformed by his own subordinates, or whether he felt compelled to deliver good news to Putin in front of the TV cameras.

Russian officials in such staged settings "say what they think the boss wants to hear or to see in public at that specific moment", Michel said.

It took nearly 12 hours from the time of the incursion, which Gerasimov stated as 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 6, for the defense ministry to publicly acknowledge that Ukraine had attacked the border, let alone broken through it.

It was left to Kursk's acting regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, only months into the job, to fill the communications vacuum and try to coordinate with the multiple defense and security agencies responsible for protecting the border.

In the first of many Telegram posts on Aug. 6, Smirnov issued missile warnings at 1:51 and 3:11 a.m. local time, urging residents to take cover. At 3:15, he said that air defenses had knocked out three incoming Ukrainian drones. At 6:16, 11 more.

Regions either side of the border have long grown used to tit-for-tat missile and drone attacks. But strikes against the Kursk region, recorded by Smirnov in Telegram posts, had been more than usually persistent for the previous 10 days. Among the targets hit were oil depots, power substations and, according to the Ukrainian military, a storage facility for weapons and military equipment.

From about 5 a.m., alarm began to spread on social media. Locals posted that shelling in Sudzha, a Russian town on the border, had been going on for three hours.

"What's going on with the lights? I've got no light or water," said a woman posting as "Ekaterina Picasa." A user called Denis reported nine explosions in Korenevo, about 16 miles from the border.

Reuters made multiple attempts to contact residents via social media, but these were ignored or blocked.

A stream of posts appeared in "Native Sudzha," a community channel on the social network VKontakte, but it was not clear whether the information was from official sources. "We advise people to leave the town," said one such message at 7:34 a.m. People were warned to beware of drones and watch out for unexploded shells.

By 8:15 a.m. Native Sudzha was reporting "active fighting on the border itself." But a widely read Russian war blog was dismissive.

The "Two Majors" Telegram channel, followed by more than a million people, said a small group of "the enemy" had managed to get only as far as 300 meters inside Russia and was "being destroyed." It suggested the operation was being staged by Ukrainian "TikTok units" as a media exercise.

Ukraine's government has said little about the planning of the incursion.

In May, shortly after Russian troops crossed the border and seized territory in the nearby Kharkiv region, Ukraine's military intelligence chief publicly warned of small groups of Russian forces gathering around the Sudzha area and said Moscow had planned an operation into Ukraine's Sumy region from there.

Reuters could not independently verify whether Russia had been preparing an offensive into Sumy.

On Friday, Ukraine's paratrooper corps said its fighters spent the first hours of the operation demining, breaching the border and destroying defensive lines, using aviation and artillery.

"Careful preparation, planning, surprise, fighting spirit and informational silence became decisive in the initial stage of the operation," the Airborne Assault Troops said in an online post.

A Ukrainian soldier called Dmytro, 36, said he initially thought the Ukrainian army's build-up was to prevent a Russian cross-border raid.

Instead, he found himself supporting the advance toward the border crossing near Sudzha after the assault units moved in, he said in an interview, giving his only first name in line with military protocol.

"We worked to preempt them, and they did not see this coming at all," he said.

Just after 10 a.m., Governor Smirnov confirmed for the first time that Ukraine had attempted an incursion but said Russian soldiers and border guards of the FSB security service had "prevented" the border from being breached.

It was the first of numerous statements that were to be quickly disproved by events.

Just before noon, the defense ministry published its video of Gerasimov visiting Russian forward positions in Ukraine. On events in Kursk, it was silent.

So too was the Kremlin, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov on a summer break and reporters left without his usual daily briefing. As of Aug. 16, 10 days later, he had not returned to work.

"Tell me please, is it true that Ukrainian tanks have broken through to Sudzha and Darino?" a user, "Nestik," posted on Telegram.

Smirnov posted that help was being provided to residents of areas that had been struck overnight by missiles and drones. "The situation is under control," he wrote at 12:46 p.m.

About an hour later, Russian news agencies published the first word from the central authorities about the situation. It was from the FSB, saying Russia had "repelled an armed provocation."

By now, however, an exodus was under way. Sudzha residents were "leaving en masse", a woman called Anna said on Telegram.

"Of course. Everyone wants to live," someone replied.

In the chaos, some were left behind. A search network, Liza Alert, said it has posted over 100 "missing" notices for people who have disappeared since Aug. 6, including many pensioners in their 70s and 80s.

Smirnov's predecessor as governor, Roman Starovoit, had repeatedly told the public that Russia had boosted its border fortifications in Kursk region.

In December 2022, he posed in a snowy field beside pyramid-shaped "dragon's teeth" anti-tank defenses. The following month, he wrote: "Right now the risk of an armed invasion of the territory of Kursk region from Ukraine is not high. However, we are constantly working to strengthen the region’s defense capabilities."

Yet last fall Ukraine's National Resistance Center, created by the special operations forces, said in an online post that reconnaissance showed "almost all the strongholds are deserted of personnel and equipment" along the border with Kursk, and said corruption was a factor.

The video published by Ukraine's paratroopers showed columns of armored vehicles pouring in through rows of dragon’s teeth, part of fortifications in Kursk that Russia media outlets have said cost $168 million.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with Finland's Black Bird Group, said the video appeared to show mine-clearing line charges blowing paths through minefields, dozer blades on armored vehicles used to clear paths through the dragon's teeth and bridging vehicles to cross ditches and small rivers.

"It's clear that substantial amounts of different engineer equipment were prepared and used," said Paroinen, who studies publicly available footage from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Brady Africk, a U.S. analyst mapping Russia’s defenses, said those in Kursk region had fewer anti-vehicle ditches, obstacles and fighting positions when compared to Russian positions in occupied southern Ukraine, where a Ukrainian counteroffensive stalled last summer.

"It was likely easier for Ukrainian forces to progress around and through Russia's fortifications in the region, especially if they were manned by fewer or poorly trained personnel," he said.

Responsibility for defending the Russian border is shared between regular troops, FSB border forces and the national guard. Governor Smirnov was apparently referring to these various agencies when he said on mid-afternoon of the first day that he had met with "representatives of the security structures."

Already, he was backtracking from his initial line that they had prevented the border from being pierced. "The situation in the border area remains difficult, but our defenders are successfully working to destroy the enemy," Smirnov said.

At 5:05 p.m., the defense ministry mentioned the incursion for the first time and said Russia had transferred reserves to the area.

"Troops covering the state border, together with units of the border troops of the FSB of Russia, are repelling the attacks and inflicting fire on the enemy in the area of ​​the state border and on its reserves in the Sumy region (of Ukraine)," it said.

At the briefing on Aug. 7, Gerasimov told Putin: "The operation will end with the smashing of the enemy, and (Russian forces) reaching the state border."

Ten days later, with more than 100,000 Russians displaced and Ukraine claiming control of more than 390 square miles of Kursk region, Moscow's forces are still far from achieving that goal.

Members of minority groups in Bangladesh spoke to Fox News Digital about the violence and mistreatment they have faced following the government's collapse earlier this month, all using false names for fear of reprisal.

Violence, even murder and the burning down of minority-owned businesses, places of worship and residences have been a major problem since the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown following violent protests. Bangladesh is 90% Muslim, with some Christians but mostly Hindus and Buddhists making up the rest of the population.

Sathya, a Hindu from Chittagong, told Fox News Digital that the Hasina government "wasn't the best" towards the Hindu minority, pointing out cases of land-grabbing of Hindu homes and temples under her governance, but suggested that they faced better treatment than under other governments - "the lesser evil," but only when "we are out of options."  

"Hindus have always been the ‘scapegoats’ and were blamed whenever there was an economic crisis or other political issue that we had no control over," Sathya said. Indian outlet the Deccan Herald reported that 278 Hindu-owned locations have been ransacked since Hasina fled the country. 

BANGLADESH PROTESTS THREATEN SAFETY OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AS TEMPLES BURNED, HOMES RANSACKED

He claimed that if a Hindu home sat empty, squatters would intrude and start building, and the government and legal system would do little to help protect Hindu land rights. Mobs would walk in and take whatever they wanted, such as furniture, cash and food.

Even within the Muslim community, the Ahmadiya sect has faced persecution from the Sunni majority who call them "heretics," Ali, told Fox News Digital. "Our group has also been increasingly targeted just like the Hindus and other religious minorities."

A Bangladeshi citizen who now lives in the U.S., says that when he looks at his homeland, he sees "no law and order" and that "Hindus have to stay vigilant, especially at night, worried that our homes will be raided and looted." 

"The government seems to not care about minorities," he said while withholding his name. "A hotline was provided for Hindus to call if they are targeted, but nobody answers the phone number provided." 

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"Even though the region in general is a Buddhist minority today, Buddhism originated not far from here in nearby Nepal and has had a very long history here and is one of the major world religions. We wonder why the rest of the world stays silent when we are in such a crisis,' Rajarshi, told Fox News Digital. 

He felt that the latest violence portrays that any group that is not Sunni is not safe. "What’s the use of all of us having fought for independence from Pakistan if we are told we have no place in this country now?" 

While Christians make up a tiny minority of the country's population, Fox News Digital recently reported that the organization Open Doors, which tracks discrimination of Christians worldwide, ranked Bangladesh as having "very high" persecution levels, claiming that "converts to Christianity face the most severe restrictions, discrimination and attacks."

"Religious beliefs are tied to the identity of the community, so turning from the locally dominant faith to following Jesus can result in accusations of betrayal," the group wrote on its website. "Bangladeshi converts often gather in small house churches due to the risk of attack."

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Earlier this week Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on social media platform X that he had spoken with the country's interim leader Professor Muhammad Yunus, and the duo had "exchanged views on the prevailing situation."

"Reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful and progressive Bangladesh," Modi wrote. "He assured protection, safety and security of Hindus and all minorities in Bangladesh." 

The Washington Post reported that Modi’s government had pressured the United States to ease up on criticism of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the Biden administration complied – even putting plans for further sanctions against the Bangladeshi government on hold. 

The U.S. State Department told Fox News Digital that "Our sustained engagement on democracy and human rights in Bangladesh and around the world speaks for itself," and added that "We do not comment on our private diplomatic communications."

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Bangladesh re-elected Hasina’s Awami League party in January, extending its rule, which had started in 2008, prompting student protests at universities that ultimately spilled out into nationwide demonstrations against the party’s rule. 

Both the party and its leader have faced accusations of "iron-fisted" and authoritarian rule, with many claiming the 2014 and 2018 elections as "shams" since the opposition either boycotted or were reduced to a "hopeless minority," according to the New Yorker. 

Shrinking employment and high inflation marred the Awami League’s last term, and the economic stress proved too much for many, especially a new policy that implemented a quota for civil service work – thereby withholding coveted jobs in what the protesters claimed was a kleptocratic move. 

Ultimately, Hasina resigned and fled to India, taking many by surprise but allowing the protesters to have the change they wanted, which included putting humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in place as the chief adviser to the interim government ahead of fresh elections in November.

Student protesters plan to create a new party to contest the elections and end the two-party monopoly that has burdened the country for almost two decades, Reuters reported. The student groups at the center of the protest want to talk with citizens across the country before deciding on their platform and will finalize their decision in a month. 

"We don't have any other plan that could break the binary without forming a party," Tamid Chowdhury, one of the student coordinators at the center of the push to oust Hasina, told reporters. 

Another student said that the "spirit of the movement was to create a new Bangladesh, one where no fascist or autocrat can return." 

"To ensure that, we need structural reforms, which will definitely take some time," Nahid Islam, a protester who took up a role in Yunus’s temporary cabinet, explained. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

The New York Times has taken disciplinary action against an employee who leaked the personal information of a group of Jewish business owners earlier this year.

Personal information belonging to hundreds of Australians in a private WhatsApp group chat for Jewish business professionals began appearing online early this year, with affected individuals reportedly receiving death threats and vandalism against their businesses.

The group of over 600 individuals was created following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack launched by Hamas last year. 

ANTI-ISRAEL COLLEGE PROTESTS SPREAD TO AUSTRALIA AS ENCAMPMENTS POP UP

Natasha Frost, a NYT reporter based in Melbourne, Australia, is accused of leaking hundreds of pages of data from a private WhatsApp group for Jewish businesses in the area. 

Frost told The Wall Street Journal that she only shared the data with one other person before it was then released widely to anti-Israeli protesters. 

"It has been brought to our attention that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with the subject of a story to assist the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics," a spokeswoman for the New York Times said, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

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"This was done without the knowledge or approval of The Times," the spokeswoman clarified.

Frost remains on staff at The New York Times. She offered a statement to The Wall Street Journal via a company spokesperson.

"I shared this document with one individual. Its subsequent dissemination and misuse happened entirely without my knowledge or consent," Frost said, according to the Journal.

She added, "I was shocked by these events, which put me and many others at terrible risk. I deeply regret my decision." 

Mark Dreyfus, the Jewish attorney general of Australia, was inspired by the data leak and subsequent harassment to propose a law explicitly outlawing doxxing.

"The increasing use of online platforms to harm people through practices like doxxing, the malicious release of their personal information without their permission, is a deeply disturbing development," said Dreyfus.

The three years following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan have been a deadly game of cat and mouse for employees and allies of U.S. and NATO forces left behind under Taliban rule. Among the de facto government’s targets are thousands of Afghan prosecutors trained by U.S. personnel to enforce the rule of law and prosecute terrorists.

As the Taliban rapidly gained Afghan territory in the summer of 2021, they released convicted terrorists from government jails across the country. The Taliban had been conducting deadly attacks to target Afghan prosecutors for years before taking over Kabul on Aug. 15. The newly-released prisoners were out for revenge against the prosecutors who put them behind bars.

Joe Maida IV was a former Texas prosecutor who supported the Afghan legal system’s growth inside the country between 2006 and 2013 and worked on Afghan policy at U.S. Special Operations Command and with Special Operations and Combating Terrorism at the Pentagon through 2019. He told Fox News Digital that "The Taliban continues to hunt down individuals who supported the Afghan government." In addition to military personnel, Maida says the Taliban "are seeking out terrorism prosecutors for retribution. They're doing that by sending special teams to the provinces, but then also writing letters to the mosques to identify these individuals, who then disappear."

AFGHAN DIPLOMAT SHUNS TALIBAN RULE BY REFUSING TO LEAVE POST, CALLS ON WEST TO ‘MOBILIZE’ AGAINST ABUSES

Saeed, who spoke to Fox News Digital on condition that he is identified by a pseudonym, is the executive director of the Afghan Prosecutors Association and was a prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office of Afghanistan. Saeed provided an Excel file the Afghan Prosecutors Association has compiled containing details about 32 prosecutors and their family members who have been killed since July 5, 2021. 

Victims’ manners of death are gruesome. Most were shot, either in a public location or at their homes. Some were killed by anonymous gunmen, while others were specifically murdered by the Taliban. Two prosecutors were killed by improvised explosive devices. Others were arrested and tortured. Three victims were women. More than a third of the entries included photos of the victim after their death. 

Saeed said that an additional 100 prosecutors have been injured since the U.S. withdrawal, and another 50 are believed to be "locked up in Taliban prisons and their fate is unknown." 

About 1,000 of the 3,800 prosecutors believed to be in practice prior to August 2021 have fled to European countries, Saeed estimates. He said that 1,500 who remain stuck in Afghanistan are "in need of urgent assistance." Saeed believes that about 500 prosecutors fled to Pakistan, Tajikistan and Iran, where they live in "a state of despair" amid harassment and forced deportations. 

Legal professionals who protected women’s rights have also seen their efforts made null and void under the Taliban. One of thousands of hidden Afghan legal professionals, Amina spoke to Fox News Digital on condition that she was referred to by a pseudonym. Amina said she was "on the verge of qualifying to be a lawyer" when the government collapsed. In 2021, Amina was working as an assistant lawyer in the Kabul courts, focusing on domestic violence cases.

According to a report by the United States Institute for Peace, divorce is no longer a legal option for women in Afghanistan, with the Taliban issuing a blanket revocation of all divorce decrees granted by the prior Afghan government in March 2023. With domestic abuse shelters closed since August 2021, women experiencing violence at the hands of their husbands are now taken to Taliban jails, where some Afghan women have reportedly been raped and even murdered by the Taliban.

Amina says she has felt personally responsible for not "doing enough to educate women about human rights." She now devotes herself to educating Afghan women online and providing mental health consultations for Afghans in crisis. "This is the time that my people need me," she explained. 

NO AFGHAN WOMEN ALLOWED TO ATTEND UN-LED MEETINGS WITH TALIBAN; ‘CAVING TO TERRORIST DEMANDS’

Many U.S.-based attorneys have joined the fight to support Afghan prosecutors, including East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore. As a member of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), Moore has been supporting prosecutors in their fight to remain alive in Afghanistan. Moore told Fox News Digital that the APA is in touch with "hundreds of prosecutors who are now begging for help." He estimates that about 20% of Afghan prosecutors and judges were women and are at special risk inside their country. 

Unlike military translators and employees of American institutions, prosecutors did not serve the U.S. directly and are not eligible for special immigrant visas. Legislative efforts to extend access to the SIV program, including the Afghan Adjustment Act and Afghan Allies Protection Act, have not gained passage in Congress. 

BLINKEN PRESSURED TO FREEZE AFGHANISTAN AID AFTER REVELATION NEARLY $300M COULD HAVE GONE TO TALIBAN

Some legislators have expressed concern about the vetting process for Afghan refugees. Moore explained that prosecutors "have been vetted repeatedly" and have "passed background checks that most American citizens could never pass," which informs his opinion that "there’s little to fear and much to be gained by helping these people resettle in the United States." 

To help prosecutors reach safety three years after the U.S. withdrawal, Moore said the APA is raising funds to move the 1,500 prosecutors living in hiding in Afghanistan to safe third countries. The estimated cost will be around $15 million, about $10,000 per family.

There is some hope that government support for prosecutors is forthcoming. Moore said that the State Department "has been more receptive to including former prosecutors, especially women," in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Moore reported that the APA has been working on getting prosecutors’ applications ready for review. 

A State Department spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether it is working to include prosecutors in the USRAP. The spokesperson said that the State Department "remain[s] focused on honoring our promises to these allies and are grateful to the Americans from all walks of life who have helped us welcome more than 160,000 Afghans to communities across the United States during the past three years." 

Saeed was referred to the Priority-1 program within the USRAP three months ago and recently received his notification of acceptance. He now awaits his interview and at least 12–18 months of processing. 

Saeed desperately longs for peace. In 2020, he was targeted for death by Talibs released from prison. After the Taliban searched his home in December 2022, he fled to Pakistan to protect himself and his family. Saeed says he still experiences "a hopeless and problematic situation" inside Pakistan, where the cost of living is high and refugees cannot work or seek education for their children. 

Threats of deportation continue to loom, with Pakistan deporting thousands of Afghan refugees illegally into the country in November 2023. Though Afghans with letters verifying they have a pending application for a pathway to safety in the U.S. were meant to be protected from deportation, a source who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital that in July, Pakistan deported some Afghans with USRAP referrals. A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that they "have no comment on this specific incident." 

The issue of aiding prosecutors is personal for Kevin Rardin, a career prosecutor with the Memphis District Attorney’s office, who was also a Judge Advocate in the Army Reserves. As the legal advisor to the commander of the U.S. and NATO training mission, Rardin was a mentor for his Afghan counterparts. He told Fox News Digital that "the worst days of my deployment came 13 years after I left the country, in August 2021." 

"You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand that this is wrong. You just have to be a decent person with moral principles," Rardin continued. "When I was in Afghanistan, Afghans protected me. They kept me out of trouble, they introduced me to their culture. They accepted me, I ate with them. They included me. And now we just up and left. You can’t call yourself a human being and do that." 

The U.S. topped another study that looked at the fastest-developing artificial intelligence (AI) industries in the world, according to a new report. 

"AI technology is advancing rapidly worldwide," ZeroBounce founder and CEO Liviu Tanase said about the report. "This is driven by significant private investments and a growing number of AI start-ups."

"Over the past decade, billions have been invested, and we see a substantial increase in AI-related job opportunities and innovation," Tanase said in a statement. "Companies are developing skilled AI workforces to stay competitive."

"As various industries will continue to integrate AI, these investments and developments will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of global technology," he added. 

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The report from ZeroBounce looked at 10 countries that have showcased strong AI development and capabilities: the United States, China, United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, South Korea, Israel, Germany, Japan and Australia, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

The company noted that it relied heavily on data from websites Statista and GlobalData as well as a general AI index calculated by Tortoise Media, a British news website founded by former BBC News director and The Times editor James Harding in 2018.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

By composite score and global index rating, the U.K. ranks lower than other countries due to lower available AI job postings and talent, but the country has invested third-most in AI over the past decade and in the past year alone.

The study focused on private investment made over the past decade along with the number of AI start-ups and available AI-specific jobs in the market.

AI ADVANCEMENTS CAN BE BOTH A TOOL AND A THREAT, CYBERSECURITY OFFICIALS SAY

The U.S. has plowed $335 billion in private investment into AI technology over the past decade and $67.22 billion in the last year alone with around 5,500 start-ups. The U.S. also had 71,000 job openings for AI in 2024 alone, according to Enterprise Times, accounting for 1.62% of job postings. 

Those numbers eclipse China, which has about a third as much investment made in the same period and far fewer start-ups and job openings. But what China lacks in those areas it makes up for with a greater number of specialists. 

Israel ranked high, and many reports have detailed the heavy drive into AI investment and development that the country has pushed to stay ahead of regional allies. Before Oct. 7, Israel detailed its incredible capabilities and potential, particularly in law enforcement and military capabilities. 

In a video that featured animated segments to demonstrate the Barak tank’s potential, an Israel Defense Forces operator was able to identify targets both in front and behind his tank, thanks to a specially designed helmet that helped him filter battlefield data. The tank also seamlessly communicated the information to a nearby tank, which immediately responded to the data and identified the target instead.

The Church of England is apparently dropping the word "church" in the hopes of drawing in more crowds, according to a recent study.

The study, called "New Things: A theological investigation into the work of starting new churches across 11 dioceses in the Church of England," was conducted by the Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research in Durham.

The qualitative study inspected language used by 11 Church of England dioceses to describe their new churches.

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Traditionally, new churches are referred to as "church plants." In this study, the Centre for Church Planting Theology discovered that even though more than 900 new churches were established by 11 dioceses in the past 10 years, none of them used the word "church plant" or "church."

"Not one diocese used the term ‘church’ in their main descriptor. ‘Church plant’ is not used by any of the 11 dioceses. Only one diocese used ‘fresh expressions’ of ‘pioneering’ in its descriptor," reads the study's conclusion.

The study refers to these not-quite-church-plants as "new things," as there was no specificity offered as to what these "things" are.

"That the term ‘church’ is not used, in favour of other terms (community, congregation etc.) is worthy of theological reflection. We explore whether the question, ‘what is church?’ is worth asking."

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Six of the 11 dioceses preferred the language of "worship" as their main descriptor for new church projects. Seven used "community," and only two used "congregation," according to the Reverend Dr. Will Foulger. 

Foulger is the main author of the report as well as the vicar of St. Nicholas' Church in Durham, England.

The vicar of St. Anne's in Kew, Dr. Giles Fraser, expressed to the Telegraph that the sudden drop of the word "church" shows "a misplaced desire to be relevant and modern-sounding".

Dr. Foulger admitted in his study that these new language changes are "forcing us to redefine what we think a church is in the Church of England".

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The Church of England did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Turkey’s parliament descended into chaos Friday after a member of an opposition party called President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party a "terrorist organization." 

A member of Erdoğan’s party approached Ahmet Sik, who is in the same Workers’ Party of Turkey as a delegate believed to have been jailed for political reasons, and attacked him after Sik made the "terrorist" claim. 

"We're not surprised that you call Can Atalay a terrorist, just as you do everyone who does not side with you," Sik said in his speech. "But the biggest terrorists are the ones sitting in these seats." 

Soon, dozens of lawmakers had joined the skirmish, with some throwing punches and papers and others trying to stop the fighting. 

LAWMAKERS BRAWL AS TAIWAN'S PARLIAMENT DESCENDS INTO CHAOS

A female lawmaker was hit, splattering blood across the parliamentary podium. 

"It is a shameful situation," Ozgur Ozel, who heads the Republican People's Party, the largest opposition party, told The Associated Press. "Instead of words flying in the air, fists are flying. There is blood on the ground. They are hitting women."

The Turkish Grand National Assembly had been debating Can Atalay, who was elected as a parliamentary deputy in May 2023 while imprisoned for his role in 2013 anti-government protests. 

Atalay, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2022 over the protests that challenged Erdoğan’s rule, wants to serve his term in parliament, saying he would return to prison afterward. 

ITALIAN LAWMAKERS BRAWL IN PARLIAMENT: VIDEO

Being in parliament would give him immunity from prosecution.

In an Aug. 1 ruling, the Constitutional Court said the decision to not allow Atalay to take his seat in parliament was "null and void" after parliament stripped him of his seat. 

It was the Constitutional Court's third ruling in Atalay’s favor, but the lower courts have been ignoring its rulings. 

International human rights groups have called Atalay’s and others' jailing and sentencing, including philanthropist Osman Kavala, arbitrary and politically motivated. 

"Atalay’s personal freedom and security, as well as his right to be elected, which the Constitutional Court ruled to have been violated, should be restored," Amnesty International’s Turkey office said Friday in a social media post.

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Parliament reopened three hours later with Sik and the lawmaker who attacked him being reprimanded by the parliament's speaker. 

Claims made this week by the head of Russia’s technology development for its Defense Ministry suggesting that Moscow is "ahead" when it comes to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race that erupted amid the war in Ukraine are being shot down by one top expert.

Speaking from a Military-Technical Forum held in Moscow this week, Gen. Vasily Elistratov, head of the Kremlin’s AI development, claimed on Wednesday that Russia is "ahead of our foreign partners" despite "attempts to isolate us at the technical level."

Russia’s more than two-year-long invasion of Ukraine has driven an AI race as Kyiv, Moscow and NATO nations rush to advance their AI capabilities for wartime applications. 

US, UK AND AUSTRALIA TAKE NEXT STEP IN INTEGRATING AI DEFENSE SYSTEMS

But while the war has brought renewed focus to AI-integrated defense systems, particularly when it comes to the development of autonomous weapons systems, Russian President Vladimir Putin has long made developing AI a top priority.

In 2017, five years prior to the largest war Europe has seen since World War II, Putin declared, "Whoever leads in AI will rule the world," and by 2022, Russia had grown its AI market by 18 percent in that year alone, according to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

Moscow doubled down on its AI efforts last year and allocated some $54 million of its federal 2024 budget for AI investment – though that is just a fraction of the $1.8 billion that the U.S. has allocated for AI in its 2024 and 2025 defense budgets.

Despite Moscow's efforts, former DIA intelligence officer and author of "Putin’s Playbook," Rebekah Koffler, told Fox News Digital, "It is highly unlikely that Russia is ahead of the U.S. in AI development."

Koffler explained that from the beginning, the U.S. and Russia have taken different approaches when it comes to AI, and while Washington focused its efforts of technological advancement, Moscow also focused on how it could use AI for psychological warfare. 

'HISTORIC BREAKTHROUGH': US DITCHES DEFENSE TRADE RESTRICTIONS WITH TOP ALLIES TO COUNTER CHINA

"When you have a cyberattack, not only can it disrupt your computer, it can also have a psychological impact on the user," she explained. "In wartime, you can disorganize forces by attacking computer [systems]."

Koffler pointed to the clear psychological impact that Russia has made on entire populations following its use of disinformation campaigns, propaganda, digital fakes and election interference – a strategy the U.S. and the West typically do not pursue. 

"The U.S. just doesn’t do that sort of thing," she said. "That’s just not how we operate.

 "In regard to Russia, it’s always been a thing – not just for foreign audiences but for domestic," Koffler continued. "With the power of AI, you can spread disinformation a lot faster."

This could mean that Moscow may be ahead when it comes to decision-making technologies, Koffler said, though she reiterated her doubt that Russia was beating the U.S. in any aspect of AI development. 

The U.S. began employing AI technologies in warfare at the tail end of its War on Terror in Afghanistan in a move to alleviate the burden that U.S. and coalition forces were under as they attempted to maintain human intelligence networks on the Taliban amid the drawdown. 

From the beginning, human oversight has played a major role in how the U.S. and its Western allies approach "responsible" AI employment in wartime, and it remains unclear how this specific factor could play a role in adversarial strategizing when it comes to AI on the battlefield. 

But it wasn’t just the U.S. that Elistratov was likely referring to when he propped up Moscow’s AI developments compared to its "partners."

China, a top ally of Russia, has been making great strides when it comes to AI development and is frequently considered the U.S.'s chief competitor in the race to develop all aspects of the burgeoning technology. 

Koffler said that while Moscow is almost certainly beating allies like Iran and North Korea in the AI race, it is more likely that Russia is "close" to China when it comes to AI development.  

The U.S. and its top allies have taken a significant step in removing defense trade restrictions to ensure that technology and equipment can be shared at rapid speed as the AUKUS partnership looks to counter growing Chinese threats in the Indo Pacific.

The "historic breakthrough" means the U.K. and Australia will no longer be subject to strict export license controls under the U.S.’s International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) for the "majority" of Washington’s defense technology.

"We want the U.K. to be the U.S.’s number-one ally, and Australia's desire is to be the U.S.’s number-one ally in the Pacific," a U.K. official familiar with the agreement told Fox News Digital. "AUKUS is about us recognizing the threat that China poses and the need for us, as America's allies, to do everything we can to be part of competing with China in that space."

US, UK AND AUSTRALIA TAKE NEXT STEP IN INTEGRATING AI DEFENSE SYSTEMS

A limited number of sensitive items will remain under tight U.S. control, and the U.K. official said this is another area in which the alliance can look to deepen its trust and partnership in the face of growing adversarial aggression. 

"We're looking for deep collaboration with the U.S. over the coming period," the official said.  "Some of the restrictions that remain on the excluded lists will be in those very advanced technologies where the U.S. is still rightly cautious about controlling access to them and really safeguarding the technology. 

"What we want to do with this new status quo is use it to show that our industry is equally competent of controlling those secrets, equally competent of safeguarding the technology, so we can build even more trust with the U.S., so we can expand this sharing of technology even further," the U.K. official added.  

The official could not pinpoint the percentage of U.S. defense weapons and technology that will remain exempt from the latest trade-sharing deal but noted that those exemptions remain only in the "far reaches of technology" on systems involving artificial intelligence, autonomous weaponry and hypersonic weaponry. 

The reform is estimated to cover up to £500 million in U.K. defense exports annually along with billions of dollars of trade across all three nations, which will in turn "boost our shared economic growth," Fox News Digital was told.

The AUKUS deal comes as the U.S. and the U.K. look to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines as the alliance looks to bolster its defense posture to counter Chinese aggression in the region and beyond. 

US NAVY UNDER SECRETARY ERIK RAVEN ON THE AUKUS AGREEMENT

"I think it's very difficult to overstate how important the submarines are, in terms of the Indo-Pacific and containing China," the official told Fox News Digital. "Just because they look quite old school, they are still very, very critical to that theater."

The alliance, which was formed in 2021 specifically to counter Beijing, was received with some frustration and concern among European allies who feared that the U.S. and the U.K. were distancing themselves from Europe at a time when security threats on the continent had reached a level not seen since World War II. 

But Washington and London have pushed back on these arguments, and in speaking with Fox News Digital, the British official highlighted that increasing ties with the U.S. can only help deepen security in theatres across the globe. 

"The U.K. being a very close ally of the U.S. helps lock the U.K. and the U.S. together in NATO," the official argued. "I don't think this does anything to distance us from that. 

"If anything, it gives us both even better capability and even better interoperability to work together in the Euro-Atlantic area if we needed to do that militarily," the official added. 

North Korea will be partially resuming international tourism this year after nearly half a decade, according to tourist operators. 

The Beijing-based tourism agency, Koryo Tours, which specializes in tourism to North Korea, announced Thursday that tourism to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will resume in December of this year. 

Tours will only be organized for the North Korean city of Samjiyon but the reopening may be extended to other locations, Koryo Tours said. 

"Having waited for over 4 years to make this announcement, Koryo Tours is very excited for the opening of North Korean tourism once again," the agency said in a press release. 

The agency said Samjiyon was chosen because it had recently been developed as a tourist destination. It previously visited in 2018 when filming the British documentary series "Michael Palin in North Korea."  

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Koryo Tours said its North Korean partners had informed the agency that itinerary and dates will be announced in the coming weeks. 

"Once we have finalized dates and itineraries, they will be available for booking our website," the company said. 

The Hermit Kingdom closed its borders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, banning almost all outsiders from entering the country for business, travel, or non-vital diplomatic relations. The country only partially started to re-open its borders last year. 

The country has struggled to open itself fully since the pandemic, when the regime could not field the necessary resources and infrastructure to effectively combat the outbreak within its borders.

Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report. 

Researchers made an exciting discovery during a dive in Bulgaria's Chengene Skele Bay in the Black Sea when they found over 100 ancient glass objects.

The June 2024 discovery was made by a team from the National History Museum, led by professor Ivan Histrov, according to a translated Facebook post by the Burgas Regional History Museum. 

The 112 glass objects most recently found joined a larger collection of 310 glass vessels that have been uncovered in the same bay in 2020 and 2021. 

SKELETAL REMAINS OF MAN, WOMAN DISCOVERED IN POMPEII OFFER CHILLING DETAILS OF FINAL MOMENTS

The glass objects were found at a depth of 2 to 2.5 meters, according to the statement. These ancient items are believed to be from the late 16th or early 17th century. 

The glass objects have been credited to the Venetian island of Murano, which is still known today for its production of high-quality glassware. 

"Until now, the hypothesis has been proposed that the vessels were most likely produced in a workshop on the island of Murano, Venice, in the second half of the 16th century or the beginning of the 17th century. Here the question of the exact dating of the glass objects and the possible shipwreck remains to be determined," the statement said. 

ART HISTORIAN SPOTS ANCIENT PORTRAIT THOUGHT TO BE LOST IN THE BACKGROUND OF PHOTO SHARED ON SOCIAL MEDIA

It has been theorized that the glass found could have been on a boat or ship that faced destruction by a storm, sending the ancient artifacts into the water. 

It's likely the ship wreckage will be discovered near the area where the glass fragments were found, according to the museum. 

While much of the glassware was found in fragments, there are pieces that are very much intact, displaying the intricate craftsmanship in their creation many years ago. 

The discovery of these underwater artifacts is "an important source of information on the poorly researched topic of consumption, trade, and production of glass in the Balkans during the Late Ottoman Period," the museum wrote in the Facebook post. 

The new underwater finds will be exhibited at the Burgas Regional Historical Museum.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would support a new election in Venezuela, after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also floated the idea, despite rebuffs from Venezuela's ruling party and its opposition which both claim victory in the July 28 contest.

Biden spoke to reporters in the wake of Lula's suggestion that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro could call a new contest involving international observers as a potential solution for the political crisis in the country. The U.S. has rejected Madura's victory claim.

STATE DEPARTMENT CRIES FALSE OVER WSJ REPORT CLAIMING US OFFERED VENEZUELA’S MADURO AMNESTY

Asked if he supports a new election in Venezuela, Biden said "I do".

The suggestion is among several from the international community which have no support so far from either Maduro or his opposition coalition opponents.

The U.S., which hardened oil sanctions in April on the OPEC member for what it said was Maduro's failure to comply with a deal on electoral conditions, and other Western countries are showing little sign of swift, tough action over what many of them have condemned as voting fraud.

Lula said a "coalition government" could be another possible solution for Venezuela.

"If (Maduro) has common sense, he could put it to the people, perhaps calling new elections with a nonpartisan electoral committee," Lula said in a radio interview.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado ruled out Biden and Lula's suggestion.

"The election already happened," Machado told journalists from Argentina and Chile in a video call later on Thursday. "Maduro must be made to know that the cost of his staying grows with each day that passes."

Ruling party officials in Venezuela have also previously ruled out new elections.

The Brazilian president said he still does not recognize Maduro as the winner of the vote and that his government must publish voting tallies that have not been released, echoing calls from countries around the world over the last two weeks.

"Maduro knows he owes Brazil and the world an explanation," Lula said.

Lula and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro spoke by phone on Wednesday as part of efforts to find a solution to Venezuela's crisis, but no details were released of the conversation.

Petro suggested in a post on X on Thursday that the Venezuelan ruling party and the opposition could temporarily trade off power, echoing an arrangement used in Colombia for 16 years in the twentieth century.

"The political solution for Venezuela depends on Nicolas Maduro, who carries the peace and prosperity of his country," Petro said, adding in another post that a political deal is the best option and depends on Venezuelans.

Petro, who reopened trade and diplomatic relations with Venezuela after he took office in 2022, also called for the lifting of all sanctions on Venezuela.

Latin American leaders will discuss the crisis this weekend when many are in the Dominican Republic to attend the inauguration of that country's new president, Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said on Thursday during his weekly press conference.

Lula's top foreign policy advisor Celso Amorim, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Brazil had not formally proposed a new election in Venezuela.

Conservative senators at the hearing criticized the Lula administration for favoring Maduro with its soft stance, and asked what Brazil was doing for jailed opposition leaders.

Amorim said Brazil offered to send a plane to pick up six opposition members seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy, now under a Brazilian flag since Venezuela broke ties with Argentina.

Venezuela's electoral authority proclaimed Maduro won 51% of the vote but has not divulged full vote tallies.

Tallies in possession of the opposition, which it has posted to a public website, show Gonzalez received 67% of the vote.

A partnership between Russia and Iran is allegedly deepening, according to the Pentagon.

In a press conference on Thursday, Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh responded to a journalist's question regarding a recent meeting between leaders of the two nations.

PENTAGON SAYS AN ATTACK BY IRAN IS 'CERTAINLY POSSIBLE' THIS WEEK: ‘WE NEED TO TAKE IT SERIOUSLY'

"So I can't speculate on, you know, on that visit, I would say that I think, separately, we've seen a deepening cooperation and relationship between Russia and Iran as Russia continues to, engage in its unlawful war in Ukraine," said Singh. 

"So, you know, we've we've seen that deepening partnership."

"We've seen Russia continue to seek weapons out from Iran. While I can speculate on what this visit entails, you know, we've seen these visits of leaders, happen over the course of the last two years," Singh added.

U.S. MILITARY EXPANDS PRESENCE IN MIDDLE EAST, REPOSITIONS FORCES AS REGIONAL TENSIONS SIMMER

Russia has recently promised missile support to Iran after a visit by a defense minister to the Middle Eastern nation.

Singh clarified, "in terms of how this plays, you know, into the Middle East. Look, Iran has a choice. I think we've been very clear in our messaging when it comes to the defense of Israel. We are going to stand in the defense of Israel just as we did, you know, on April 13th."

The United States has recently expanded its presence in the Middle East, sending the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group to the region.

According to the Pentagon, it is unclear exactly where these additional American defense resources will be located.

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The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Holding candles, hundreds of thousands of women marched through the night in cities across India, to protest the brutal rape and murder of a young female doctor in a hospital that has fueled anger over a lack of safety for women despite tough new laws.

A 31-year old trainee doctor was raped and murdered inside the medical college in Kolkata where she worked on Friday, triggering nationwide protests among doctors and drawing parallels to the notorious gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012.

INDIA PROTESTS AGAINST SEPARATIST SLOGANS AT CANADIAN EVENT FOLLOWING KILLING OF SIKH LEADER A YEAR AGO

"We have come here to demand justice because even I have a daughter. I am scared to send her anywhere...I am scared to send my daughter to study," said Rinky Ghosh, who took part in a protest in Kolkata. "So I am here today because something ... must be done, this injustice must stop."

The doctor had retired to sleep on a piece of carpet in a seminar room in the R G Kar Medical College after a marathon 36-hour shift, given the lack of any dorms or resting rooms for doctors in the premises, her colleagues told Reuters.

She was found dead on Friday. Police said she had been raped and murdered and a police volunteer was subsequently arrested in connection with the crime.

Many government hospitals in cities across India suspended all services except emergency departments earlier this week, as junior doctors sat outside in protest, demanding justice.

The victim was found bleeding from her eyes and mouth, with injuries to her legs, stomach, ankles, her right hand and finger, a doctor's inquest report Aug. 9 and accessed by Reuters said.

In protests called "Reclaim the Night", women marched across several Indian cities from midnight on Wednesday, on the eve of the country's 78th Independence Day, to protest against the lack of safety for women in India, especially at night.

"As a society, we have to think about the atrocities being committed against our mothers, daughters and sisters. There is outrage against this in the country. I can feel this outrage," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in an Independence Day address to the nation on Thursday.

The 2012 Delhi rape case was seen as a turning point in attitudes towards women's safety in Indian society. It triggered huge protests and was the catalyst for rapid change in laws tackling crimes against women.

These included fast-track courts for swifter convictions in such cases, but protesters say a decade on, the situation for women has not improved.

"This horrific incident has once again reminded us that women disproportionately bear the weight of ensuring their own safety," Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt said in a post on her Instagram page, which has more than 85 million followers.

Doctors in India's crowded and often squalid government hospitals have long complained of being overworked and underpaid, and say not enough is done to curb violence levelled at them by people angered over the medical care on offer.

Crimes against women in India rose 4% in 2022 from the previous year, data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), released late last year, showed.