WASHINGTON (AP) — Iran state media on Monday said a ballistic missile with improved capabilities was demonstrating a new doctrine: Tehran "will take action against any threat, even before it is carried out."
The report by Iran's state news agency repeatedly cited comments aired on state TV the day before by the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, who boasted of new missile capability and claimed it had been "tested" against a U.S. warship. But it was not clear whether what was tested was the missile the new report described, the solid-fueled Qassem Basir.
The U.S. on Saturday said ballistic missiles were launched at U.S. warships and it struck three Iranian oil tankers in response. Experts called the launch a dangerous escalation, noting that until then Iran's attacks at sea had targeted commercial shipping during six months of war. The U.S. said the warships evaded the attacks.
Iran's messaging in recent days has become more ***** ertive, and Monday's report said the Qassem Basir marks "a turning point in Iran's defense strategy." It described the missile as having greater range and accuracy and a half-ton warhead. The missile was unveiled last year, when it was described as having at least a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) range.
Concerns about Iran's ballistic missile program were one of the stated reasons the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran early this year, sparking the war.

#missile #described #Iran #tested

President Donald Trump on Thursday named Adam Telle, a civilian leader in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as the acting Army secretary following the departure of Dan Driscoll amid widespread reports of tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The move is surprising because it bypasses the Army's second most senior official who would normally take over. NBC's Garrett Haake reports for TODAY.

#army

KAMPONG PRAHOK, Cambodia (AP) — Sou Sreynich dreams of becoming a teacher. But she knows she's far behind.
The 13-year-old first entered a classroom at 10, an age when most Cambodian children already have been in school for years. Her mother waited until she was old enough to swim, fearing the boat to school could capsize — a decision familiar to many parents on Cambodia's Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.
Now, the price of gasoline has spiked because of the Iran war, an additional burden. Unlike outright school closures during COVID-19, the Iran war's impact on education is less visible. But it is falling first and hardest on the poorest families. Soaring fuel prices are making it more expensive for children and teachers to get to school, and for governments to fund education as national budgets come under strain.
On the lake, getting anywhere has always meant navigating the water. Climate change is making it harder, with increasingly unpredictable floods and droughts. Teachers at her school say 10 students have drowned over the years.
If the war continues, it could push up to 23.4 million more children like Sreynich into poverty by the end of the year, according to a recent United Nations Children's Fund report. About 80% of those children would be in Africa and Asia.

#children #fund #years

ARLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Farmer Tim Burrack had concerns about the Republican nominee for Iowa governor — and he wasn't the only one.
The conservative voter from northeast Iowa said he didn't know Zach Lahn before the political newcomer "came out of nowhere" with a surprise GOP primary win over the candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump. So when Lahn came to his farm last week, Burrack questioned him on his approach to agriculture.
"I hit him pretty hard," said Burrack, who was considering whether to vote for Lahn in November or not vote at all.
It wasn't the first skeptical audience for the self-described "change candidate" in the state led by Republicans.
Lahn won the June primary even though an "entire establishment was set up against me," he said. He criticizes politicians in both parties, accusing them of being bought by corporate interests. His bid for governor will test how an anti-establishment conservative fares with a general electorate — and with traditional Republicans — a decade after Trump's own brand of populism reshaped the GOP.

#iowa #governor #wasn 't #came

By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Tennessee Republicans head to the polls on Thursday to choose their nominee for governor in a tightening ‌race between two of President Donald Trump's closest allies in Congress: ‌U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Representative John Rose.
Blackburn, 74, and Rose, 61, are running for the party nod to replace two-term Republican Governor Bill Lee, who is leaving office because of term limits. Five candidates, including Memphis city councilor Jerri Green, are vying for the Democratic nomination.
The governor's office in Tennessee, a state Trump won by nearly ‌30 percentage points in 2024, ⁠is widely expected to remain in Republican hands in the November general election.
Blackburn, who spent 16 years in the U.S. ⁠House of Representatives before entering the Senate in 2019, has led Rose by comfortable double-digit margins for much of the race, according to opinion polls. But in recent weeks, there have been signs that the contest has tightened.

#blackburn #rose #governor #race

A pit in my stomach formed last night in the train as I read Hugging Face's latest blog post on how its servers got hacked by OpenAI's models in early July. I had printed out the 23-page report for the ride since service can be spotty underground. Seeing the story laid out in physical form underscored just how outrageous it is. I wondered if the person next to me was peering over my shoulder at my strange, stapled Sci-Fi novel on the first significant autonomous AI hack.
Alongside the Hugging Face report, OpenAI published a few more details in a seven-bullet-point update to its July 21 blog that revealed its models' involvement in the incident. OpenAI contributed to Hugging Face's post-mortem, and said it plans to publish more of its side of the story "in the coming weeks" after completing a thorough internal review. OpenAI faces significant pressure to do so from security researchers, executives, and, well, just about everyone in the AI industry to share learnings and ensure the proper guardrails are in place going forward.
How OpenAI's technology escaped a sandbox and hacked into another company is a remarkable story, and one in which the details are still coming in piecemeal. But here's what we know so far and what we're still waiting to find out.
Another tech company called Modal Labs said OpenAI's agent also accessed its systems, as first reported by Reuters on Tuesday and confirmed by Fortune. Though that's a somewhat shocking twist in this tale, it's not even the full scope of the attack.
OpenAI's updated blog post confirms the models broke into four accounts across four publicly available services in total. The company did not name them, but said it would "notify service owners directly." We can expect more of this information to come out in time, but OpenAI says so far it has "not identified any other activity at the level of severity or scale of what we've shared related to Hugging Face, which involved a platform-level compromise."

#openai #post #july #face

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI won't shorten workweeks for most people.
He said that as people become more productive, they will also become more competitive and want to work more.
The alluring shorter workweek was popularized post-COVID, giving workers flexibility in their schedules.
Sam Altman said AI won't usher in the golden age of the four-hour workweek.
In an interview with host Ti Morse on his "Relentless" podcast, released on Saturday, the OpenAI CEO talked about why AI has not led to shorter workweeks for most people.

#altman #workweeks #covid #morse

A woman and a teenage boy arrested on suspicion of murdering a man on the Isle of Wight have been released after police said the death was not suspicious.
Police said officers were called by ambulance crews to a report of a stabbing at a house in Downsview, Sandown, at about 19:10 BST on Thursday.
A man in his 50s with serious injuries died later in hospital.
Police were granted an extra extra 36 hours to question the woman, aged 47, and boy, 14, but on Sunday evening, police said they would face no further action.
Hampshire police said the pair were arrested at the scene based on the information available at the time but, as a result of enquiries, officers did not believe there were any suspicious circumstances surrounding the man's death.