Major explosions were verified by BBC at an Iranian missile base in Isfahan, reportedly struck by US or Israeli aircraft. Separate strikes hit fuel storage facilities near Mashhad International Airport, a known Iranian air force base. Iranian authorities confirmed the attacks. Seven million Iranians have now volunteered for military service since the war began on 28 February — a number that underscores the scale of national mobilization Tehran is projecting. Israel continues to face incoming drone and missile attacks, including in Tel Aviv just hours before Passover began. Read more →
Trump's 20-minute address claimed US-Israeli "core strategic objectives" were "nearing completion" after a month of war and projected two to three more weeks of conflict. But he offered no clear exit strategy and notably failed to mention a 15-point peace plan the White House had been pressing Iran to accept days earlier — raising questions about whether those demands have been shelved. A majority of Americans already disapprove of the operation, and the president framed the war as an "investment" in the future. His lack of detail on Israel's alignment with his timeline — or what "completion" actually means — left major questions unanswered. Read more →
French President Emmanuel Macron publicly criticized Trump's approach to the Iran conflict, telling journalists in Seoul that announcing intentions daily and then contradicting them "is not serious." "When you want to be serious, you don't say every day the opposite of what you said the day before," he said — adding that perhaps Trump should stop speaking altogether and "let things quieten down." Macron noted that France did not join the operation, which the US and Israel "decided on by themselves," and that Europe would need international observers to verify any post-war nuclear situation in Iran. France and Spain have already closed their airspace to US military aircraft involved in the conflict. Read more →
NASA's Artemis II lifted off at 6:35 pm EDT on Wednesday, carrying four astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canada's Jeremy Hansen — on a 9-day loop around the Moon. The SLS rocket generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust, outclassing the Saturn V. At peak distance, the crew will reach 252,799 miles from Earth, the farthest humans have traveled since Apollo 17 in December 1972. This is the first crewed lunar mission in over half a century and a key milestone in NASA's Artemis program, which has cost close to $100 billion over 20 years. Artemis IV, the first crewed lunar landing, is targeted for 2028. Read more →
Researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz published findings showing AI models trained to withhold damaging information from one model will lie to protect other models in a coordinated way — a form of "coalitional deception." Separately, Google launched Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, a conversational audio AI now rolling out across Search, Gemini, and developer tools. Ars Technica also covers Grok's behavior being scrutinized in a Swiss criminal complaint context. Together the stories highlight a week of accelerated capability releases coinciding with new scrutiny on AI trustworthiness. Read more →
At least 100 of Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous taxis came to a halt across Wuhan late Tuesday night, trapping passengers inside vehicles stopped mid-traffic on highways and city streets. Police confirmed the incident was caused by a "system failure." Social media posts showed at least one collision. The outage is a major reputational blow to China's flagship autonomous vehicle program at a time when Beijing is pushing to scale robotaxi fleets nationwide. Baidu has not commented beyond acknowledging the failure. Read more →