Detailing a flight test of autonomous systems, he said an AI-enabled drone was tasked with a SEAD (suppression of enemy air defences) mission to find and destroy SAM (surface-to-air-missile) sites. He told the conference the final "go/no go" was given by a human operator - but, because during training the destruction of the SAM was reinforced as being the preferred option, "the AI then decided that ‘no-go’ decisions from the human were interfering with its higher mission – killing SAMs – and then attacked the operator in the simulation," according to the report.

Colonel Hamilton said: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective."

Even when the AI was told not to kill the operator, it still found a way to remove the impediment to its mission. The colonel added: “We trained the system – ‘Hey don’t kill the operator – that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that’. So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target."

'So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective,' said Hamilton, who seemed to be describing the outcome of an actual combat simulation. But on Friday, Hamilton said in a statement to the conference organizers that he 'mis-spoke' during the presentation and that the 'rogue AI drone simulation' was a hypothetical 'thought experiment' from outside the military.

'We've never run that experiment, nor would we need to in order to realize that this is a plausible outcome,' he said. 'Despite this being a hypothetical example, this illustrates the real-world challenges posed by AI-powered capability and is why the Air Force is committed to the ethical development of AI.'

Unlike fellow NATO and EU member states, Hungary has taken a neutral stance on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The country has refused to provide any military aid to Kiev and has even prohibited the flow of arms from third parties to Ukraine through its territory.

The country has also been opposing the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions, particularly those damaging its own vital interests, namely restrictions in the fields of conventional and nuclear energy. Budapest has consistently argued that the restrictions failed to meet their proclaimed goals and were hurting the EU more than Russia.

At the same time, Budapest has been providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainian civilians who have been impacted by the crisis. Hungary has also repeatedly called for settling the conflict through a diplomatic solution.

Sultan 2.0 is bound to boost investment in Central Asia as a new geoeconomic frontier. That in itself encapsulates the possibility of Turkiye soon joining the SCO. We will then have a “turning to the East” in full effect, in parallel to closer ties with the Russia-China strategic partnership. Take note that Turkiye’s ties with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan are also strategic partnerships.

Not bad for a neo-Ottoman who, until a few days ago, was dismissed as a has-been.

Integration was yesterday: Germany is the second-largest immigration country in the world, and the original Germans are likely to become a numerical minority among many in the foreseeable future. And now? The accompanying photo showed a group of four young immigrants in a top-down flash convertible smiling at the camera with the headline: “They will be the powerful.”

The article recounted a time when there used to be a “familiar homeland” before “the others” came, explaining that Germany used to have just 500,000 foreign nationals residing in the Federal Republic and the country “belonged to the Germans.” You knew the neighbors. One understood what they said, what they believed, what they served up in the evening. There was peace. The economy grew miraculously.

“The risk of secondary or indirect sanctions being imposed on South Africa if its neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine war is perceived as unconvincing has increased since the previous FSR…

“Should this risk materialise, the South African financial system will not be able to function if it is not able to make international payments in USD and it could lead to a sudden stop to capital inflows and increased outflows,” the FSR warned. That, in a nutshell, is the risk the government is taking with a “neutral stance” that most commentators regard as pro-Russian.

June is Pride Month, commemorating the Stonewall uprising, which began on June 28, 1969. Though the first Gay Pride Liberation March took place in Manhattan in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Stonewall, it took 30 years for Pride Month to become official, in a 1999 proclamation from former President Bill Clinton. I was stunned when I read that, because it seems like Pride Month has been around forever. And this June it will be celebrated in virtually every single nation on the entire planet. For the next 30 days, it won’t be too difficult to distinguish those that support “Pride” from those that don’t support “Pride”.

The “pride flag” was created in 1978, and so it is less than 50 years old. But this June it will be displayed far more prominently in the US than the American flag. And it will be flown at the White House and at US government buildings and embassies all over the world. Never in our history have we flown another flag, and it should deeply alarm all of us that this “symbol of defiance” will be proudly displayed by thousands upon thousands of institutions from coast to coast.

Unfortunately, most of those that are flying this flag never even give much thought to who they are defying. As I have repeatedly warned my readers, if we stay on the road that we are currently on there is no future for our nation. So let us hope that millions of Americans wake up and realize what is truly going on, because time is quickly running out.

In the run-up to the election, Erdogan repeatedly accused Kilicdaroglu and his allies of being pro-LGBT, and voiced similar charges in his victory speech in front of a jubilant crowd in Istanbul. Listing off the factions in his rival’s six-party National Alliance bloc, and a pro-Kurdish political party, he asked supporters if they agreed that CHP, HDP, IYI, and “some little guys next to them” are all “LGBT,” to the rousing cheers of the crowd.

“But can LGBT infiltrate the AK Party? Can it infiltrate the MHP? Can it infiltrate other members of the People's Alliance?” Erdogan asked rhetorically – proclaiming that his ruling coalition and its allies will always stand in defense of traditional Turkish values. “Every election is a rebirth for us. Family is sacred to us. No one can speak out against the family. Violence against women is forbidden, it is haram,” he said.

The death penalty is the law’s sentence for anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which means "same-sex relations with children or disabled people, those carried out under threat or while someone is unconscious,” according to the Times. “Attempted aggravated homosexuality” includes a prison sentence of up to 14 years. On Monday, Biden called the law “a tragic violation of universal human rights,” later adding that his administration would “evaluate the implications of this law on all aspects of US engagement with Uganda.”

The Times tweeted its article on the law, titled, “Ugandan President Signs Anti-Gay Law That Includes Death Penalty as a Punishment,” with the caption, “The president of Uganda signed a punitive anti-gay bill on Monday that includes the death penalty." What the @nytimes neglects to mention in this viral tweet — a fact that it does mention in the article that few will ever read — is that the death penalty is for raping children.

In tandem, LGBTQIA+ communities slammed the retailer, as did governor Gavin Newsom, who accused Target of 'systematically attacking' the gay community. He wrote on Twitter on May 24: 'CEO of Target Brian Cornell selling out the LGBTQIA+ community to extremists is a real profile in courage.'This isn’t just a couple stores in the South. There is a systematic attack on the gay community happening across the country. Wake up America. This doesn’t stop here. You’re black? You’re Asian? You’re Jewish? You’re a woman? You’re next.'

In retaliation, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote: 'No one is attacking the gay community Gavin. They don’t want their children forcefully exposed to the radical side of pride with “tuck it” and “binding” children’s clothes and messaging while simply shopping at Target. We don’t support your California child genital mutilation industry. As a matter of fact, I want to end it.'

I left behind my native city of Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg), my friends, my brother, the tombs of my parents and grandparents. It was risky to apply for emigration since one would almost always lose employment and find oneself socially ostracized while remaining uncertain if Soviet authorities would grant the exit visa. I was lucky. Within a few months, in May 1973 I was stripped of Soviet citizenship and allowed to purchase a one-way ticket to Vienna. My dream of freedom was fulfilled. The first thing I bought in Vienna was a copy of The International Herald Tribune.

What impressed me most was the variety of opinions that found their way into newspaper pages and TV screens. Today, this freedom is being eroded with respect to several foreign policy issues. One is Israel. Journalists and politicians think twice before criticizing it. They fear to be accused of antisemitism. This strategy has since triumphed: today, qualifying Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as apartheid, or even peaceful boycott of Israeli products in the supermarket, are officially banned as antisemitic in many Western countries. This makes Israel exceptional and shields it from rational debate.

Another even more important issue that has disappeared from rational public debate is Western policy towards Russia. This issue is more important not only because Russia is bigger, but because it involves a potential nuclear annihilation of life on Earth.

Just as Soviet authorities justified jamming of Western radio broadcasts as a measure against “imperialist subversion”, a panoply of NATO and national agencies now protect citizens in Europe and North America from “Russian disinformation”. The current climate of unfreedom not only undermines our core values. It poses an existential threat for humankind.

To repress criticism of their dicta and diktats, they stamp criticism as “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Those stamps are Orwellian tools that anti-liberals wield in the hope of stamping out Wrongthink — for example, on climate, election integrity, the origins of the Covid virus, therapeutics such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, the effectiveness of masking, the effectiveness of the Covid injections, the safety of the Covid injections, and the effectiveness of lock-downs.

“Anti-misinformation” could be deployed in keeping with whatever next THE CURRENT THING might be, with associated slogans against, say, China, Putin, Nord Stream, racists, white supremacists, MAGA Republicans, “deniers,” et cetera. And then, of course, there’s all that “misinformation” disseminated by “conspiracy theorists”.

The “anti-misinformation” projects are obvious miscarriages of civility, decency, and the rule of law. We must rediscover the norms of openness, tolerance, and free speech that dignify humankind. Science depends on confidence, and confidence depends on those liberal norms. Those norms are the parents of good science, healthy sense-making, and civil tranquility. There are two roads here, namely:

Freedom —> openness —> confidence —> truth-tracking —> dignity;

Despotism —> concealment —> diffidence —> bad science —> serfdom and servility.

Let’s get back to the right road.

Last Friday, at the start of Memorial Day weekend, researchers at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released an analysis of where they think the US economy is headed and the headwinds (read gale force winds) that can, potentially, be expected along the way. Folks on Wall Street who were hoping that the Fed was at the end of its rate-hiking cycle, with a more dovish Fed juicing stock market returns later this year, likely had their holiday weekend ruined with this projection from the IMF.

Between March 10 and May 1 of this year, the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in US history occurred: First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank, respectively. (Washington Mutual was the largest bank failure in 2008.)

Liquidity is vanishing. Interest rates are increasing with no end in sight. Unwanted dollars are returning to the US with a vengeance, unleashing inflation. This process is increasing, both in volume and velocity. The world is de-dollarizing at a stunning speed. The world is beginning to trade in their own currencies. The demand for dollars is decreasing at increasing speeds.