03-29 11:25 · AI,技术,HackerNews,大模型,AI
The Last Contract: William T. Vollmann's Battle to Publish an Epic (2025)
A few years ago, the novelist William T. Vollmann was diagnosed with colon cancer. The prognosis wasn’t great but he went ahead with the treatment. A length of intestine drawn out and snipped. It was awful but it worked. The cancer went into remission.
Then his daughter died.
Then he got dropped by his publisher.
Then he got hit by a car.
Then he got a pulmonary embolism.
But things are looking up.
William T. Vollmann spent “twelve or fifteen years” researching and writing a novel about the CIA called A Table for Fortune; as of this writing it has a few back-channel blurbs from editors and assistants who’ve caught glimpses and say it might be his masterpiece, or at the very least a new sort of achievement for him. But when he finished it, in 2022, he turned it over to his publisher, the final installment of a multi-book contract (although even that part gets complicated), and that’s when, to use Vollmann’s words, “Viking fired me.”
His publisher of thirty years.
It’s more complicated than that.
For starters, when he first turned it in, A Table for Fortune was 3,000 pages.
But word count wasn’t the only issue.
Vollmann’s daughter Lisa had a drinking problem. It was worsening for years. Homelessness, hospitalization, dangerous encounters. Vollmann, who’s never owned a cellphone or used the Internet, bought a burner phone so he could call her every day at noon. If she answered he would offer his studio, tell her she should sleep there instead of outside, on the street, or at the shelter where some woman had tried to kill her.
She’d tell him no.
Mostly, she didn’t answer.
Lisa died in 2022. A year later he wrote about the whole situation for Harper’s: about Lisa, Viking, the novel.
He concedes in the essay, regarding A Table for Fortune, that maybe the untamed sprawl and uncharacteristic number of typos were a sign that he wasn’t paying as much attention in the final stages as he normally might. Fine.
He’ll grant them that.
But there was other stuff too — and this’ll sound craven, to be so business-minded about books when really, as Vollmann will be the first to tell you, his work has never sold many copies anyway. His editors and copy editors and publicists are true believers. They love the work and believe in him. The word “genius” comes up a lot in conversation and not with qualifiers; just short declarative sentences, wincing into the first syllable. “Jean-yus.”
Plus they’d been together thirty years, him and Viking, and of course they were there through everything he’d just been through: with the cancer, with Lisa, his whole trek through this novel . . .
But Viking, in their defense, might lean on the case that, if writing novels is an art, making books is a business, and if Vollmann’s job is the latter then theirs is the former.
So for instance: A Table for Fortune employs a number of different fonts to signify different speakers, memoranda, newsprint.
Well, Viking doesn’t own those fonts. And they’re not free.
Vollmann is serious about turning his novels into beautiful books, almost tangible works of art, and if you fan through any of his recent tomes you’ll see it’s never static. Paragraphs go for pages but if you look at the sentences they’re these long serpentine things and then they’re not. They’re short. Clipped. The prose generally chatty and peppered with exclamation points and the typeface often changes and there’s some ALL CAPS writing and then a photo. A drawing. A chart.
Using the specific fonts that he wants in A Table for Fortune, as opposed to some of Viking’s in-house alternatives, would raise the price of each printed copy by “two cents,” as Vollmann claims in a recent appearance on the TrueAnon podcast.
Likely exaggerating.
He’s still prickly about the whole thing, quick though he is to say, in all seriousness, that he isn’t upset, it's fine, and to chant his new mantra, the one he mentions on TrueAnon and a couple other podcasts while promoting a book in 2023 that turned into a scandal.
It’s the mantra that, six weeks after that TrueAnon podcast, I’m disoriented to hear through my phone in a friendly, congested, one-minute voicemail:
“Nobody owes me a living.”
I spoke with Vollmann about A Table for Fortune last year, and when I told him I’d be editing the hour-plus recording down to a fifty-ish minute podcast, I asked if there were any parts he considered central, or anything he’d like me to omit.
“Just please don’t make me sound angry,” he said. About Viking, the fonts, the novel. “I’m not angry.”
He explained his remorse for the whole thing and a hope that they might work again some day if he’s still around. He said he can feel things “winding down.” With corporate US publishing, for sure, and maybe his career overall.
But anyway.
“Nobody owes me a living.”
So what’s this book about?
A Table for Fortune is a history of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Half of it focuses on an intelligence analyst, Dave, and the other half on Matthew, his son.
“When Bill mentioned that h
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:01 · GitHub,开源,技术,AI,Go,技术
Kakobuy Spreadsheet features 3,000+ trending products from Weidian, Taobao, and 1688, with affordable new arrivals added daily. Explore the latest finds from the past 7 days, plus shoes and clothing o
All-in-One Spreadsheet for Kakobuy, ACbuy, Litbuy, OOPbuy, Sugargoo & Superbuy. Features 3000+ trending Chinese products from Weidian, Taobao & 1688 with daily updates. Browse premium finds on MaisonLooks with QC photos and AI try-on. Order easily via your preferred agent for the best shopping experience.
Discover over 3,000 trending Chinese products on our Master Spreadsheet, fully compatible with Kakobuy, ACbuy, Litbuy, OOPbuy, Sugargoo, and Superbuy. We feature daily affordable arrivals from Weidian, Taobao, and 1688, maintained with updates every 24 hours.
- Premium Selection: Browse the best finds and belts curated for all agents.
- Smart Shopping: Access high-quality QC photos and AI try-on technology.
- Daily Updates: See the latest additions from the past 7 days.
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:01 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
CERN uses ultra-compact AI models on FPGAs for real-time LHC data filtering
[ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — March 28, 2026 ] — CERN is using extremely small, custom artificial intelligence models physically burned into silicon chips to perform real-time filtering of the enormous data generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
OVERVIEW
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates an extraordinary volume of raw data — approximately 40,000 exabytes per year, equivalent to roughly one quarter of the entire current internet. During peak operation, the data stream can reach hundreds of terabytes per second, far exceeding the capacity of any feasible storage or conventional computing system.
Because it is physically impossible to store or process the full dataset, CERN must make split-second decisions at the detector level: which collision events contain potentially groundbreaking scientific value, and which should be discarded forever. This real-time selection process is one of the most demanding computational challenges in modern science.
To meet these extreme requirements, CERN has deliberately moved away from conventional GPU or TPU-based artificial intelligence architectures. Instead, the laboratory develops highly optimized, ultra-compact AI models that are compiled and physically implemented directly into custom silicon — primarily field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). These hardware-embedded models enable ultra-low-latency inference at the very edge of the detector system, where decisions must be made in microseconds or even nanoseconds.
THE DATA CHALLENGE
Inside the 27-kilometre ring of the Large Hadron Collider, proton bunches travel at velocities approaching the speed of light and cross paths roughly every 25 nanoseconds. Although billions of protons pass through one another during each crossing, actual hard collisions between protons remain relatively rare events.
When a collision does occur, the detectors surrounding the interaction point capture several megabytes of raw data from the resulting particle shower. This creates an overwhelming data stream: the LHC can generate up to hundreds of terabytes per second at peak luminosity. Storing or processing the full volume is physically impossible with current technology.
As a result, only about 0.02 % of all collision events are ultimately retained for further analysis. The first and most critical filtering stage, known as the Level-1 Trigger, is responsible for making these split-second decisions. It consists of approximately 1,000 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that evaluate incoming data in less than 50 nanoseconds. A highly specialized algorithm called AXOL1TL runs directly on these chips, analysing detector signals in real time and determining which events are scientifically promising enough to be preserved. All other data is discarded immediately and permanently.
AI APPROACH AND TECHNICAL STACK
CERN’s artificial intelligence models are deliberately designed to be extremely small and highly optimised for the unique constraints of the LHC environment. Unlike the large-scale language models and general-purpose AI systems commonly used in industry, these models are tailored specifically for ultra-low-latency, real-time inference at the detector level, where decisions must be made in nanoseconds.
The models are compiled using the open-source tool **HLS4ML**, which translates machine-learning models written in frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow into synthesizable C++ code. This code can then be deployed directly onto field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), systems-on-chip (SoCs), or custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The resulting hardware implementations achieve the extreme speed required while consuming significantly less power and silicon area than conventional GPU- or TPU-based solutions.
A distinctive feature of CERN’s approach is that a substantial portion of the available chip resources is not allocated to the neural network layers themselves. Instead, these resources are used to implement extensive precomputed lookup tables. These tables store the results of common input patterns in advance, allowing the hardware to deliver near-instantaneous outputs for the vast majority of typical detector signals without performing full floating-point calculations. This hardware-first design philosophy is what enables the system to operate at the required nanosecond-scale latency.
The second filtering stage, known as the High-Level Trigger, runs on a large surface-level computing farm consisting of 25,600 CPUs and 400 GPUs. Even after the aggressive Level-1 Trigger has reduced the data volume, this farm must still process terabytes of data per second before further reducing it to approximately one petabyte of scientifically valuable data per day.
FUTURE PLANS
The current Large Hadron Collider is scheduled for a major upgrade known as the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), which is expected to begin operations in 2031. This upgrade will dramatically increase t
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:01 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
InpharmD (YC W21) Is Hiring – Senior Ruby on Rails Developer
| InpharmD Jobs
Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer
Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer — InpharmD
At InpharmD, we help healthcare providers make better clinical decisions by giving them evidence-backed answers to their questions.
Founded: 2018
Funding: Seed ($8.05M)
We’ve grown revenue 750% while staying capital efficient. Small team. High ownership. No politics. Just people who want to build meaningful healthcare products fast.
Why InpharmD
- Capital efficient growth — we don’t burn, we build
- Small, high-performing team — no bloated org layers
- Ownership mindset — builders, not passengers
- Fast iteration — we ship quickly and improve constantly
- No drama culture — we meet once a week, not every day
Market timing is in our favor — and we’re moving faster than incumbents.
Role: Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer (10+ years)
We’re looking for a strong backend engineer to help us scale our core platform and APIs that power clinical decision-making.
This is a hands-on role. You’ll design systems, write production-grade code, and own key parts of our backend.
What You’ll Do
- Build and scale Ruby on Rails (Rails 8+) APIs
- Develop systems using Ruby 3+ with modern patterns
- Design clean, scalable database architectures (Postgres, large datasets)
- Build and manage background processing using Sidekiq or Solid Queue
- Work on high-performance systems handling clinical data and workflows
- Integrate healthcare pricing systems (340B, WAC)
- Improve system reliability, performance, and maintainability
- Collaborate closely with AI/ML teams powering our core product
What We’re Looking For
- 10+ years of experience with Ruby on Rails (production systems)
- Strong experience with Rails 8+ and Ruby 3+
- Hands-on experience with Sidekiq or Solid Queue (job orchestration, scaling workers)
- Strong experience designing APIs and backend architectures
- Deep understanding of databases, data modeling, and performance optimization
- Experience working with large datasets and distributed systems
- Familiarity with healthcare systems (340B / WAC pricing) is a strong plus
- You care about clean code, speed, and real-world impact
- You take ownership and consistently deliver high-quality work
Tech Stack (Relevant)
- Ruby on Rails (Rails 8+)
- Ruby 3+
- PostgreSQL
- Sidekiq / Solid Queue
- AWS (S3, EC2, etc.)
- API-first architecture
Logistics
- Location: Atlanta Tech Village (preferred) or Remote
- Compensation: $130K base + InpharmD stock options
- Hours: Full-time
- Contact: Tulasee Rao Chintha
Equal Opportunity
We value diverse perspectives and strong builders. If you’re great at what you do, we want to talk.
Interested?
Learn more about us on our InpharmD blog.
If you’re excited about building the future of AI in healthcare, send an email to founders@inpharmd.com — your message goes directly to the founders. Feel free to include why you’re interested and what kind of opportunity you’re looking for.
Share
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:01 · AI,技术,HackerNews,AI
The first 40 months of the AI era
The first 40 months of the AI era
Here are my accumulated thoughts and ideas about AI since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
40 months of ChatGPT
OpenAI first launched ChatGPT at the end of November 2022, nearly 40 months ago. I remember trying it at the time and being really impressed, just like everyone else. At first I just talked to it, and I remember being absolutely amazed. I remember what it was like to talk to older chat bots, more primitive programs like Cleverbot. ChatGPT was better, much better. So much so that it was immediately obvious that this was not going to be just another toy for internet nerds, the rest of the world was going to notice.
I experimented with asking it to write, to create content. I first asked it to create poems, then Dungeons and Dragons backgrounds and even a whole fantasy world including important characters, kingdoms, and lore. It was very impressive, just for the fact that the output was coherent but its ‘style’ was very boring and overtly inoffensive, which was (and still is) a clear limitation of the technology.
I was listening to the Linus Tech Tips WAN Show immediately following the launch and hearing Luke mention that ChatGPT was being prompted to produce fully functional programs. This made me very curious and I wanted to try prompting ChatGPT to test its capabilities. I first asked for simple hello world programs, which it produced perfectly. I was very impressed and continued to play with it, and it didn’t take long for me to realise that this bot could produce genuinely useful code snippets for common and well understood use cases. For simple things it was able to replace my typical research loop, I no longer needed to search on StackOveflow or other discussion forums for these kinds of solutions.
I remember the first time I vibe-coded a small project. It was an app that generated placeholder cards for my MTG collection. I prompted the bot (now Claude, not ChatGPT) to create an app that would fetch for the card metadata from an API, generate a qrcode, and correctly layout this information into a printable page of cards. The first output was very impressive, and mostly worked. I attempted to make adjustments with additional prompting but was unable to make meaningful progress. I gave up on using the bot, and finished the project on my own. Through each iteration of the project I replaced more of what the bot wrote with my own code. The final result hardly used any AI generated code at all. I debated with myself whether I had actually saved any time or effort, compared with having just done everything myself from the very beginning. Coding AI has come a long way since then, but even now I’m constantly asking myself just how much is this actually useful for coding?
Claude Code, my Review
Two months ago I purchased a Claude Pro subscription for the first time. Claude had been my free chat bot of choice for over a year and I had become increasingly curious about Claude Code. My initial impression was intensely positive. I immediately installed Claude Code on my workstation and began experimenting. I remember the initial excitement from being able to speak naturally to my computer. So long as I was careful to clarify my intent, I was now able to tell my computer what I wanted it to do and it would consistently do what I asked. It felt then (and now) like a brand new form of input and control of my computer along side my keyboard, mouse, and even command line terminal. I have a lot of doubts about using AI, but not for this use case. This is unambiguously good, useful, and just amazing. I would be very pleased to see this technology become fully commoditized. I would love to have a local LLM loaded on my GPU, or on a separate desktop appliance, that can do just this, and do so this well.
And of course I also tried vibe coding using Claude Code. The results were again very impressive. For the small projects that I attempted, I was able to get a good one-shot result (just like I did previously). This time the iterative prompting felt much more productive. The Claude Code interface eliminates the friction of copy/pasting from a chat interface, the bot can just make the edit itself. I was impressed with model’s ability to maintain coherency and context. I was amazed when it created solutions or found bugs that I failed to see. But even on seemingly simple projects it felt like I was struggling to keep it from eventually losing the plot.
I also tried to use Claude Code to help me start a business. Since I lost my job as an IT Technician last year I had considered building my own small IT services company. I tried to use Claude as a combination of executive assistant and mentor. I asked it to create a detailed pre-launch plan that I could follow, and then to track my progress. In hindsight it all seems painfully obvious and simple, but I must admit that the mere process of creating the plan was very inspiring and created a lot of confidence in me. I did manage to l
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Organisers say ‘Together Alliance’ event was the largest anti-far-right march in British history.
London, United Kingdom – Tens of thousands of people have marched through central London in what organisers are calling the largest ever demonstration against the far right in British history.
The Together Alliance march, backed by about 500 groups including trade unions, antiracism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, brought together a diverse crowd of all ages from across the country on Saturday, converging on Whitehall near the Houses of Parliament.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3After State of the Union, Trump’s agenda faces new political reality
- list 2 of 3Trump sends US immigration agents to airports as shutdown chaos deepens
- list 3 of 3Israel’s unending attacks in Lebanon push country’s population to the brink
Organisers said that half a million people took part.
Kevin Courtney, chairman of the Together Alliance, told crowds the march “gives us all confidence to carry on.”
London’s Metropolitan Police put the figure considerably lower, at approximately 50,000, though it acknowledged it was difficult to reach an accurate figure given how spread out the crowds were.
The protest was met with a far smaller group of counterprotesters waving Israeli flags and Iran’s pre-1979 monarchical flag.
Aadam Muuse, a trade union activist, told Al Jazeera that racism and Islamophobia had moved from the fringes into mainstream politics, and was “being pushed by parliamentarians”.
He said the march was “much needed to push back against [Reform leader Nigel] Farage and his ilk,” adding that the populist party “must be defeated at the ballot box and [far-right agitator] Tommy Robinson [must be] challenged on the streets”.
Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from the march, said demonstrators were resisting what they saw as “the politics of hate and division” in the United Kingdom.
One demonstrator, activist and writer Hamja Ahsan, told Al Jazeera he was motivated to attend after a rally last year that was organised by Robinson and drew 150,000 people. That rally was marred by violence that injured several police officers. Robinson is reportedly planning another march in May.
“We need to show them that we’re the majority,” Ahsan said. “At a street level, the far right won’t take over our streets.”
He said the atmosphere on Saturday was akin to the Notting Hill Carnival, as the march united people from all backgrounds, “from pensioners to children”.
Museum worker Charlotte Elliston told Al Jazeera that she also feels unsettled by the far right’s creeping rise.
“You think this would never happen here, and then all of a sudden this might happen,” she said. “You see that it is getting scary.”
Several left-wing politicians joined the demonstration.
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn posted on X that the “problems we face are not caused by migrants or refugees”, arguing they were rooted instead in “an economic system rigged in favour of corporations and billionaires”.
MP Zarah Sultana said on X, “There’s one minority we should be angry at: the billionaires funding division while working class people can’t make ends meet.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, Dianne Abbott and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham were also among the crowds.
‘Historic demonstration’
The rights group Amnesty UK hailed the “historic demonstration”, saying marchers were “calling for a different vision of society – one which places dignity, compassion and human rights at its heart”.
A separate march organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which assembled at Exhibition Road near Hyde Park, converged with the main demonstration during the afternoon.
Eighteen people were arrested outside New Scotland Yard on Saturday after staging a protest in support of Palestine Action, the protest group which remains proscribed under the Terrorism Act despite a High Court ruling in February that the government’s decision to ban it was unlawful.
The march comes amid rising racism as Farage’s Reform party surges in the polls.
Hope Not Hate, an antiracism campaign group, warned earlier in March that the British far right is now “bigger, bolder and more extreme than ever before”.
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iraq turning into ‘expanding battleground’ in war, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Air strikes targeting Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) have killed three fighters and two Iraqi police, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continued to spill over Iraq’s eastern border.
An Iraqi security source told Al Jazeera that Saturday’s double-bombing of the PMF’s headquarters near northern Iraq’s Kirkuk Airport also wounded two other fighters and six Iraqi soldiers.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3The Take: Why Iraq is the most fragile front in the US-Israel war on Iran
- list 2 of 3Why Iraq is the most fragile front in the US-Israel war on Iran
- list 3 of 3Iraq to summon US envoy after air strikes kill seven fighters in Anbar
A statement from the ex-paramilitary coalition, which is now integrated into the regular Iraqi army, blamed the United States and Israel, saying that those killed had been “subjected to a treacherous Zionist-American” attack.
Separately, the Reuters news agency quoted security sources as saying that two members of the Iraqi police were killed in an air strike targeting the PMF in Mosul, about 105 miles (170km) northwest of Kirkuk.
Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque said that Iraq was turning into an “expanding battleground” in the crisis, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran and now threatens to engulf the region in a protracted conflict.
Since the war broke out, pro-Iran armed groups within the PMF, which was formed on the orders of Najaf-based Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in 2014 to fight ISIL (ISIS), have claimed responsibility for attacks on US interests in Iraq and beyond and have themselves been targeted.
Haque said the PMF takes its orders from Baghdad, but some factions are loyal to Tehran.
“That makes it very difficult for Baghdad to hold all of this together. Up until the war, the government successfully brought everybody around the table [and] was able to manage the different factions,” he said.
But as the war expands into Iraq, Baghdad has found itself “on a tightrope” between the US and Iran, said Haque.
“They can’t afford to turn their back on their biggest neighbour, Iran. Nor can they afford to turn their back on the United States,” he said, noting the economic and security ties between Baghdad and both countries.
Saturday also saw two drones targeting an airbase serving as a hub for US and coalition forces near Erbil airport in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Haque said the US C-RAM air defence system was activated and intercepted the drones.
Iraq attacks ‘a worrying development’: Macron
In parallel, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported a drone attack on the house of Nechirvan Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, in the western town of Duhok.
Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, condemned “in the strongest terms” the assault.
“Once again, we call on the federal government to act on its responsibility, bring these outlaw criminals to justice, and curb the continued terrorist attacks carried out by these groups,” he said in a statement.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on X that he had spoken to Barzani, calling increased attacks in Iraq a “worrying development”.
In other developments, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that a drone had crashed into the southern Majnoon oilfield “without detonating, causing no damage or injuries”.
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help Gulf nations.
Qatar and Ukraine have signed a defence agreement seeking joint expertise on countering threats from missiles and drones, according to Qatar’s Ministry of Defence, as Iran continues attacking its Gulf neighbours.
The agreement was made on Saturday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Doha, following his stop in the UAE earlier in the day.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Ukraine eyes money and tech in return for Middle East drone support
- list 2 of 4Ukraine sends 201 military experts to counter Iranian drones in the Gulf
- list 3 of 4Ukraine sends advisers to Gulf as it counterattacks Russian forces in south
- list 4 of 4Ukraine announces ‘mutually beneficial’ defence deal with Saudi Arabia
Earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates had also agreed to cooperate on defence, a day after signing a deal with Saudi Arabia during his visit to the kingdom on Thursday.
Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help Gulf nations and has deployed anti-drone experts to the three countries Zelenskyy visited during his diplomatic tour.
Tehran insists it is targeting only US assets in the Gulf in retaliation for the US-Israeli war on Iran, but the assaults have upset relations as Gulf nations say civilians are being put at risk.
During the Ukrainian leader’s visit to Doha on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan Al Thani met Ukraine’s Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov, and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrii Hnatov.
“The agreement includes collaboration in technological fields, development of joint investments and the exchange of expertise in countering missiles and unmanned aerial systems,” Qatar’s Defence Ministry said in a statement during Zelenskyy’s visit.
The officials discussed the latest security developments. The defence agreement was signed by Qatari Armed Forces Lieutenant General Jassim bin Mohammed Al Mannai, and on the Ukrainian side by Hnatov, in the presence of the other officials.
“Ukraine is offering a cheap way of countering Iranian drones. Ukraine has been doing that for the past three and a half years because Russia has been firing Shahed drones since September 2023 at least, and it’s been downing them nearly every day,” said Al Jazeera’s Dmitry Medvedenko, reporting from Doha.
“The Gulf has been using Patriot and THAAD missiles primarily so far to down Iranian missiles and drones. Each Patriot missile costs almost $4m, while Ukraine is offering its expertise in downing drones for about $2,000 each.”
Decade-long cooperation
Ukraine has become one of the world’s leading producers of sophisticated, battlefield-proven drone interceptors as Russia has been attacking Kyiv with hundreds of thousands of Iranian drones since the start of its full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country in 2022.
On March 18, Zelenskyy said 201 anti-drone experts had been deployed to the Middle East.
Kyiv has proposed swapping its interceptors for the vastly more expensive air-defence missiles that Gulf countries are using to down Iranian drones. Kyiv says it needs more of them to fend off near-daily Russian missile attacks.
“What we can assume is that Ukraine is primarily interested in funding,” said Medvedenko.
He said that the US-Israeli war on Iran is “costing so many Patriot missiles”, which concerns Ukraine as its stocks will decline.
The Patriots are “a much better solution” for countering Russia’s ballistic missiles, he said.
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
President Pezeshkian’s warning is the latest by Tehran to neighbours not to allow their territory to be used in the war.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian pressed neighbouring nations not to let Tehran’s “enemies run the war” from their territory in a repeated warning to the countries hosting United States military bases.
“We have said many times that Iran doesn’t carry out preemptive attacks, but we will retaliate strongly if our infrastructure or economic centers are targeted,” he said on X on Saturday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Saudi, UAE, Iraq: Can three pipelines help oil escape Strait of Hormuz?
- list 2 of 4How important are the Gulf economies to the world?
- list 3 of 4US-Israel war on Iran: What’s happening on day 29 of attacks?
- list 4 of 4Yemen’s Houthis launch missile attack on Israel as war with Iran intensifies
“To the countries of the region: If you want development and security, don’t let our enemies run the war from your lands.”
Pezeshkian’s post was the latest call by Iran on neighbouring states not to allow their territory to be used for operations against Iran in the ongoing war.
On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also urged the countries around Iran to distance themselves from the United States.
The war began when the US and Israel launched air strikes across Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sending shockwaves across the globe.
A month later, the conflict shows no sign of ending, with Israel announcing more intense strikes on Iran on an almost daily basis as Tehran continues to target its archrival, as well as the countries with US military assets in the Middle East.
New attacks on Gulf states
In Kuwait, the country’s international airport was targeted by multiple drone attacks early on Saturday that caused significant damage to its radar system but resulted in no casualties, according to state news agency Kuna, citing its Civil Aviation Authority.
The authority’s spokesperson said later that the attack was carried out by Iran, its proxies, and the armed factions it supports.
In Abu Dhabi, strikes caused debris to fall near the Khalifa Economic Zone, close to Khalifa Port, injuring six people and damaging facilities, according to the Emirate’s media office.
Three fires that started because of falling debris are under control, it said on X.
Meanwhile, Iran’s military claimed it struck a Ukrainian anti-drone system depot in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, alleging it supported the US forces, who were also allegedly targeted.
“As the hideouts of American commanders and soldiers in Dubai were targeted … a Ukrainian anti-drone system depot that was located in Dubai to assist the US military … was targeted and destroyed,” said Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran’s military.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry denied the claim.
Two drones targeted Oman’s port of Salalah, capital city of southern Dhofar province, injuring one person and causing minor damage to a crane, state news agency ONA reported.
Zolfaghari said Iranian forces targeted a US military support vessel “at a considerable distance from the port of Salalah in Oman”.
Danish shipping giant Maersk said operations at Salalah were suspended for 48 hours after the drone attack.
Alarm sirens were activated several times in Bahrain to warn of incoming strikes, while the Interior Ministry urged the public to “head to the nearest safe place”. No casualties were reported.
Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry reported a ballistic missile and multiple drone attacks on Saturday, adding its air defences shot them all down, without giving further details.
On Friday, at least 15 American soldiers were wounded after Iran launched an attack on an airbase in Saudi Arabia, according to news reports, as the conflict started by Israel and the United States enters its second month.
The attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base included at least six ballistic missiles and 29 drones. At least five US troops were reportedly in serious condition.
▸ 展开全文
03-29 00:00 · 中东,局势,AlJazeera,中东
Iranian opposition leader calls on Trump administration to ‘stay the course’ as the US and Israel wage war on Iran.
Amid questions about the future of Iran’s government, the son of the former shah has pitched himself to a right-wing summit in the United States and received a raucous welcome.
Reza Pahlavi spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas on Saturday, urging US President Donald Trump not to cut a deal with Iran and instead seek regime change.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3Inside Qeshm, Iran’s underground missile fortress and geological marvel
- list 2 of 3How Iran used asymmetric warfare to offset US-Israeli military power
- list 3 of 3Who was Gholamreza Soleimani, killed commander of Iran’s Basij forces?
“Can you imagine Iran going from ‘Death to America’ to ‘God Bless America’?” the self-styled crown prince asked his audience in Grapevine, Texas.
“President Trump is making America great again. I intend to make Iran great again,” he added, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
His remarks came on the one-month anniversary of the US and Israel’s decision to launch a war against Iran. As the conflict enters its second month, at least 1,937 people in Iran have been killed, and tens of thousands more injured, with no end to the fighting in sight.
Pahlavi has become a central opposition figure in the Iranian diaspora, with a loyal base of supporters who often carry his image, along with Iran’s pre-revolutionary flag, at protests around the world.
During his speech, some in the audience chanted, “Long live the king!”
While some in the Iranian diaspora have expressed reservations about the US-Israeli attacks and their effect on the future of Iran, Pahlavi has emerged as an outspoken supporter of Trump, aligned with the administration’s most hawkish figures.
“This regime in its entirety must go,” he said on Saturday.
Analysts have warned that the Iranian government is not likely to collapse and could emerge from the conflict more hardened than before. Some exiles, meanwhile, have been criticised for lending their voices to support the US-Israeli war despite the heavy toll on Iranian civilians.
Trump has himself previously downplayed the possibility that the son of the former shah, who was expelled from Iran during the country’s 1979 revolution, could play a central role in Iran if the current government were to collapse.
Earlier this month, Trump said that Pahlavi “looks like a very nice person“, but indicated that the shah’s son lacks popularity in Iran.
“It would seem to me that somebody from within, maybe, would be more appropriate,” Trump had said.
Divides within the US right over the war in Iran were also in evidence at CPAC. Polls suggest that, while the war is widely unpopular among US voters, Republicans support it by large margins.
In a Pew Research Center poll, for instance, 71 percent of Republican voters felt the US had made the right decision to attack Iran. Overall, among voters regardless of party, 59 percent opposed the initial strikes.
Still, a handful of influential voices on the US right, such as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, have emerged as vocal critics of the war. Younger activists have also expressed frustration with what they see as a betrayal of Trump’s promise to avoid military adventures overseas.
“We did not want to see more wars. We wanted actual America First policies, and Trump was very explicit about that,” Benjamin Williams, a 25-year-old marketing specialist for Young Americans for Liberty, told The Associated Press. “It does feel like a betrayal, for sure.”
▸ 展开全文