The Straits Times
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🔮 CSIS said two new communications compounds that had appeared at the base since mid-2024 likely form part of a broader intelligence and military command architecture, and would strengthen communications between Chinese forces operating in the Middle East and Africa and military headquarters in China.
“The type and orientation of the base’s new equipment is varied, enabling transmission and detection across a wide range of signals and frequencies,” the report said.
🔮 The outlets quoted OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, as saying that publishers face an “existential threat” from their products, which are “largely substitutive” and “will get more and more substitutive as they get better.”
🔮 The Ukrainian capital underwent a series of air alerts through the day and its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said one strike hit a non-residential building, injuring one person.
🔮 While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 18, 2026
US clears way for $30.9 billion fighter jet sale to Saudi Arabia
The US Department of State said on Sept 17 it has approved the potential sale of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom is drawn deeper into war in the Middle East.
🔮 Trump said his administration planned to carry out needed multi-million dollar renovations, then would have to “subsidise it for years to come.”
🔮 "Throughout our engagements with authorities in Naypyitaw, the United States has and will continue to raise the need to cease violence, allow humanitarian access, and release political prisoners as part of efforts to bring about conditions for durable peace," the spokesman said in a statement, issued anonymously.
🔮 The Trump administration will allow top Iranian officials to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, the State Department said on Sept 17, even as Washington and Tehran remain at war and continue intermittent talks aimed at ending the conflict.
🔮 A sale would mark a significant policy shift from the US, potentially altering the balance of military power in the Middle East and testing Washington's definition of maintaining its ally Israel's "qualitative military edge."
Saudi Arabia made a direct appeal for the jets in early 2025 to US President Donald Trump and has long been interested in Lockheed Martin's fighter.
The estimated $24.3 billion sale would include 48 of the military aircraft and 49 Pratt & Whitney engines along with communications equipment, spare parts and other support items, the State Department said.
🔮 The Ukrainian government will seek an additional US$53 billion (S$67 billion) in foreign aid in 2027, including from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, it said.
🔮 "If this happens, the location will be announced very soon.
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