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South Korea's population decline and shrinking pool of military-age men are forcing Seoul to rethink its military force structure, with officials now exploring robots and AI-powered drones to offset future manpower shortages.

South Korea's military is taking a direct page from Ukraine's battlefield playbook by preparing to procure low-cost unmanned aerial systems and robotics for future wars, primarily through a potential partnership with Hyundai Motor - for now.

"Potential deployments include Boston Dynamics' four-legged Spot, the four-wheeled MobED mobility droid, and wearable platforms like the X-ble Shoulder exoskeleton," Bloomberg reported.

South Korea's standing force has slumped 20% over the past six years to about 450,000 troops and is projected to fall to 350,000 by 2040. The demographic winter is already hitting national defense: the population of 20-year-old men has declined by 30% between 2019 and 2025, shrinking the enlistment pool.

Samsung Securities analyst Esther Yim wrote in a note that "robotics is a field without legacy constraints," adding that "these systems can leverage electrical and electronic technologies developed for autonomous vehicles, allowing for rapid proliferation."

For many months, we have outlined how modern warfare is being reshaped by Ukrainian innovation and, more recently, the U.S.-Iran conflict. Ukraine has served as an AI warfare laboratory, accelerating the rise of low-cost drones, ground robots, and, eventually, humanoid warbots.

What's clear: future wars of attrition will mostly be fought with intelligent machines, as manpower-constrained militaries substitute AI drones and ground bots for soldiers on the battlefield.

Beyond Ukraine and South Korea, many other countries are experiencing a demographic winter, characterized by ultra-low fertility, rapid aging, and current or projected population decline.

Here are those countries by region: 

East Asia and Southeast Asia

• South Korea

• Japan

• China

• Taiwan

• Singapore

• Thailand

Southern and Western Europe

• Italy

• Spain

• Greece

• Portugal

• Germany

• Austria

Central and Eastern Europe / Balkans

• Poland

• Hungary

• Romania

• Bulgaria

• Croatia

• Latvia

• Lithuania

• Moldova

• Albania

• Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Serbia

This suggests that militaries in the countries listed above will be some of the first to prioritize ground bots, drones, and other battlefield robotics as their pools of military-age men continue to shrink. The next weapons stockpiling cycle has already begun as the world fractures into a more volatile and increasingly dangerous environment.

Authored by Peter Koenig via Global Research,

In a recent Buddhist retreat in Lima, Peru, about 200 participants were urged to abstain for the three-day retreat from our enslavement screens, “smart” phones, computers and television.

Difficult to say how many really followed the advice, but many did.

What was amazing is that during the first day, ignoring constant phone notifications was not easy for the many. But consciously resisting it made it easier. And the following days, we were hardly thinking of them anymore. The days were filled with meditation and different types of spiritual exercises… the digital age was peacefully removed into a corner.

Unfortunately, after the retreat, the hide-out corner became lively again and took up again most of our attention, in “angst” of what we may have missed during the highly divine retreat. Spirituality must have gradually evaporated again… and what we call “reality” kicked in.

Interestingly, what we call “reality” is a fake, indoctrinated reality. Over years we were told that technical advances, or as the World Economic Forum (WEF’s) Great Reset calls it, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a concept describing how emerging technologies are blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It fundamentally alters how we live, work, and relate to one another.

Sending messages, videos, and silly jokes, rather than talking to each other, interchanging with physically presence. Along with this brainwashing propaganda, we were drugged with the belief that working from home is full of advantages. It is an outright lie.

These “work-from-home” benefits are geared to separate us from one another so that physical interaction is avoided, making us more manipulable, controllable and dispensable, capable of being replaced by robots, and eventually by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

And mind you, the 4IR was illegally approved by the United Nations (UN). There was a not-well-known Cooperation Agreement signed between the WEF and the UN in Geneva in June 2019 that established an unequivocal link between the UN (created by 51 nations (today 193 member nations) in October 1945 in San Francisco) and the world’s by far richest NGO, the WEF, established in Geneva Switzerland.

The UN was created to guarantee peace in the world, to make sure that no more wars, especially World Wars (WW), that would ravage planet earth. That principle is anchored in the UN Charter. The WEF is owned and run by BlackRock, the world’s largest financial asset manager, controlling together with Vanguard, an interchangeable partner, and StateStreet, a close associate, some 25 to 30 trillion US dollars equivalent in assets, controlling literally every sector of vital industries and services, like energy, food, transport, health but also of the world’s weapon industrial complex. It is a blatant contradiction to the UN Charter. The UN is controlled by financial behemoths, with powers way beyond BlackRock.

The 4IR is, therefore, not a human-friendly program. It is a global control mechanism, that could be right out of Orwell’s “1984” – but way more complex, dangerous and deadly.

Unlike previous revolutions, 4IR is not just about smart machines and systems; it is characterized by a lightning-fast convergence of diverse technologies. The WEF highlights several core pillars:

• Digital: Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and blockchain.

• Physical: Autonomous vehicles, 3D printing (additive manufacturing), and advanced materials.

• Biological: Gene editing (CRISPR), synthetic biology, and neurotechnology.

CRISPR stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.” It is a technology that research scientists use to selectively modify the DNA of living organisms including humans.

The WEF, an executing agency for the financial giants attempting to control the globe, and especially for those pulling the strings behind the WEF, are viewing these advancements as an unprecedented opportunity to address global challenges—such as fast-tracking the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – in fact the population reduction agenda – and improving sustainable energy management – the fake Global Climate Change Agenda (GCCA).

The GCCA can be made responsible for every calamity affecting the world, the human race, including any new diseases and plandemics that another key executing agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been put in charge of.

As this article may go to print, the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA) takes place in Geneva from 18 to 23 May 2026. One of its primary objectives is to make the Pandemic Treaty operational. For that, unanimous agreement is needed on the details of the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) System. This framework regulates how countries share virus samples and genetic data in exchange for guaranteed, equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments.

PABS Agreement has not been reached during last year’s WHA. The PABS is unlikely to be approved this year either. The PABS would give WHO full control over every member country’s health system. National health sovereignty would be gone.

What is little known to most people, instead or in parallel with PABS debates, some 300 so-called “side events” are taking place in the WHA week. Topics range from Climate Change, Environment and One Health, to Global Public Health, to Health Systems and Universal Health Coverage, to Population and Care [Control]. See this for the full list.

Through its global Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), the WEF brings together governments, businesses, and civil society to establish governance protocols. This ensures that these exponential technologies are harnessed responsibly for human control.

While the C4IR’s foundational headquarters and its first location was launched in San Francisco, USA in 2017, it has evolved into a highly decentralized global network. The network spans dozens of independent national and thematic centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas.

Digitization of humanity is thought-out to the last detail and the WHO is in-charge for much of these details. WHO has been created in April 1948, some three years after the UN and most of its sub-agencies. WHO is in charge of controlling health and death, a Rockefeller project; the Rockefeller clan being among the world’s prime eugenists.

Back to the Buddhist retreat: what people experienced by abstaining for three days from their electronic devices is rather phenomenal. Many said, they could imagine a life without these digital handcuffs. Indeed, it’s only a bit more than a generation that humanity has been gradually indoctrinated and subjugated to ever growing digitization, to its gradual use for everything.

We have literally developed a Stockholm syndrome – loving our hangman, our judge and prison ward. Sad but the majority of people today still have a hard time realizing it.

Imagine, only 30 years ago, the internet was hardly known to the public. The Network Infrastructure was developed by the US Department of Defense (DoD) (1969–1983), a Pentagon project, evolving into the modern internet on January 1, 1983.

The World Wide Web (1989) emerged from the CERN (Centre européen pour la recherche nucléaire, French acronym for European Center for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The Web is used to navigate the Internet.

What many say and feel is that, if EVERYONE would step back and return to the good old non-digital age, say 30 years back, it would be easy, because we would start afresh, and feel free again – in unison, having learned a lesson, never to forget.

That doesn’t mean we couldn’t use the societal useful electronic inventions for improving our lives – but never again fall for the targeted enslavement from full-control digitization – which is so far advanced that we are shortly before all electronic, digital money — to the point where you walk through a shopping mall’s cashier gate and pay by facial recognition which is linked to your all digital bank account. This exists already in large cities, like Moscow and other parts of the world.

Beware of misbehaving, or else your digital bank account is blocked.

Spiritual teachings and guidance may bond us together to form a strong body of think-alike humans called RESISTANCE.

And we shall overcome.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and federal law enforcement officials held a press conference around midday Friday to announce a "Summer Surge" under the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force ahead of America 250 events across the Capital Beltway.

The urgency reflects a decades-long, disturbing pattern of elevated summer violent crime by youths, worsened by failed progressive policies from left-wing officials in the D.C. area and extending into the Baltimore metro area, which have allowed juveniles to terrorize law-abiding citizens with limited consequences.

NBC Washington reporter Mark Segraves, who attended the press conference earlier, said that D.C. law enforcement will "prosecute parents of juveniles breaking curfew"...

DOJ announces “Summer Surge” in DC USAO announces they will now prosecute parents of juveniles breaking curfew. @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/3MYw9U24w0

— Mark Segraves (@SegravesNBC4) May 15, 2026

Local outlet NBC Washington reports that the summer surge is coming "about two weeks after the D.C. Council chose not to vote on extending Mayor Muriel Bowser's emergency youth curfew zones over the summer."

President Trump issued an executive order in early 2025 that established the task force. He declared a violent crime emergency and temporarily federalized the Metropolitan Police Department by late summer 2025. 

DC-Baltimore metro area has a youth violent crime crisis: 

• D.C. Mayor Imposes Juvenile Curfew After Mobs Of Kids Wreak Halloween Night Havoc

• DC Enforces Youth Curfew "To Keep Young People Out Of Trouble"

• Citywide Youth Curfew Begins In Baltimore As Mayor Strives To Restore Law And Order

The broader read is that the Trump administration wants safe streets in the D.C. metro area ahead of America 250 events.

Amid stalled peace talks and ongoing tit-for-tat threats, Iranians are reportedly arming themselves in preparation a potential US ground invasion, or renewal of major military action in its skies.

CNN cameras captured individual citizens being given gun component lessons in the middle of streets and in busy bazaars. Also state TV has been featuring detailed tutorials and presentations on how to effectively use the AK-47.

"I am so ready to sacrifice my life for my country and for my people," one young woman named Tiana told a CNN correspondent this week during a pro-government rally.

"All the people, the whole army, all commanders that we have, they're ready to sacrifice their lives too, and ready to fight with their whole heart and soul," she added.

Another, identified as Fatima - who actually grew up in London and Dubai - stated that "We know this war isn’t over. We know Trump is not really going to negotiate." She added of the US leader, "He’s just going to be, like, 'You do what I tell you or I’m going to kill you.' And then he’s going to attack us even if we do as he says."

An elderly man further chimed in, "Trump knows we don’t have a bomb, but he is attacking us anyway," he said to the CNN crew.

While not often covered by Western mainstream press, there have been pro-government demonstrations stretching all the way back to January, even when massive anti-government and largely economically-driven protests and clashes with police were at their peak:

The rallies, or "night-gatherings" have been taking place across the country every evening for nearly three months, essentially since the start of the war.

CNN filmed the following:

CNN aired footage from Iran showing the Islamic regime instructing children on how to use AK-47 rifles. pic.twitter.com/KWXeGoFHlD

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 19, 2026

Meanwhile, Iranian state media is no doubt trying to signal the US and Israel that if a ground invasion ensues, a lasting insurgency would be unleashed - just as it did for years during the American-led occupation of neighboring Iraq.

On the eastern side of the border, in Afghanistan, it was a similar story, where the Taliban is actually now back in control after a two-decade long nation-building effort.

Below: Iran's State TV Is Teaching Civilians How to Shoot Iran's national television aired a segment showing an anchor being taught how to handle a firearm, with live instruction for a general audience. The lesson ended with the anchor raising the weapon and FIRING DIRECTLY at a UAE flag on set.

???? Iran's State TV Is Teaching Civilians How to Shoot

Iran's national television aired a segment showing an anchor being taught how to handle a firearm, with live instruction for a general audience.

The lesson ended with the anchor raising the weapon and FIRING DIRECTLY at a… https://t.co/y2OYkLOMfl pic.twitter.com/lowCZIEJhX

— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) May 16, 2026

The card which Iran has to play is asymmetric and guerrilla warfare. It may have at this point lost most or all of its navy and air force, and much of its anti-air arsenal, but it remains formidable in terms of an ability to still inflict damage on US forces - enough to be politically or economically very costly for Washington.

This would remain true even if the US were to renew major operations. As one pundit has pointed out: "Endurance regimes do not need clean victory to change the game. They only need to survive the shock while making the old equilibrium too costly for their adversaries to restore." So 'winning' for Iran looks much different, compared to US objectives.

Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com,

I saw a fascinating clip on Twitter/X recently.

At the graduation ceremony for the University of Central Florida, the commencement speaker brought up AI.

“The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution.”

BOOOOOO! HISS! The new college grads are not fans.

To understand how the public attitude toward AI has changed, watch the 1-minute video below of a commencement speech in Florida:

Gloria Caulfield, a real estate executive, was booed by the students when she mentioned AI during her commencement speech at the University of Central… pic.twitter.com/pFdeIbH2dg

— Luiza Jarovsky, PhD (@LuizaJarovsky) May 13, 2026

Source: X

Gloria Caulfield, the speaker, was shocked by the negative response.

“What happened?”, she asked in a Long Island-tinted accent.

Eventually the speaker continued:

“Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives.”

And the crowd goes wild cheering at that nostalgic thought. But then…

“And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands…”

The crowd absolutely hated this line. More, louder booing and hissing. The speaker said it hesitantly. She knew it wasn’t going to go over well, based on prior reactions. If this young crowd would have had rotten vegetables handy, a volley of tomatoes and eggplant would have been launched in Gloria’s direction.

Young People (Understandably) Hate AI

Put yourselves in the shoes of a young American for a moment.

Houses are unaffordable. Rent and food are almost as bad. To have children comfortably, you’ll need to be in the upper 10% of earners (depending on the area).

You’re watching the stock market zoom ahead, but have little or none invested.

Your country is importing hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, mostly from India, to fill tech jobs. They’re willing to work 60-80 hours a week for far less pay.

And now, along come AI agents. Autonomous artificial workers who plan, complete, test, and complete complex tasks. Coding is currently the primary target, but agents will rapidly expand to every corner of the white collar world.

Ken Griffin’s Revelation

Billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of giant hedge fund Citadel, has been an AI skeptic. Up until now.

With the latest agents, his team is making a disturbing amount of progress. Ken says he went home on a recent Friday afternoon “depressed” about the societal changes these agents would bring.

An excerpt from Fortune’s reporting:

For Griffin, the most striking proof isn’t in coding or content—it’s in high-end financial research. Work that Citadel would previously have assigned to teams with master’s degrees and PhDs in finance, work that took weeks or months, is now being completed by AI agents in hours or days.

“To be blunt, work that we would usually do with people with master’s and PhDs in finance over the course of weeks or months is being done by AI agents over the course of hours or days,” Griffin said at Stanford.

We’ve entered the disruption stage now. And young people are on the front-lines. The first jobs cut were entry-level, but now AI is eating its way up the food chain.

Fortunately AI is still horrible at picking stocks and writing, which is our speciality. And honestly, I don’t see them getting significantly better anytime soon. AI models are trained on the entire internet, good, bad, and horrible. But anything is possible, and nobody is 100% safe from the coming wave.

Three Paths – Blue Collar, AI Master, or Entrepreneur

As I see it, young people today have three primary paths to choose from.

Path #1: Blue-Collar

First, they can take the blue collar route. As I’ve mentioned before, my 16-year old son will be starting an apprenticeship to become an electrician this summer. I’m proud he chose this path, and think it’s a great decision.

Opportunities for plumbers, electricians, welders, mechanics, and other blue collar workers are wide open. It will be many decades before robots replace these jobs.

And of all people, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently acknowledged this trend.

“AI gives America the opportunity to build again. Electricians, plumbers, iron workers, technicians, builders—this is your time. AI is not just creating a new computing industry, it is creating a new industrial era.”

Isn’t it fascinating that the primary beneficiary of the AI boom is touting blue collar work? There’s a good reason for it…

Path #2: AI Masters

The second path young people can choose is a bit riskier, but has a higher upside. They can attempt to become an “AI master”. After all, there will still need to be people in the loop.

We will still need people checking the code AI writes, assigning projects, and overseeing progress.

Over the past few years a saying has taken hold, and it’s worth repeating. There are a few different versions, but here’s mine: “Your job won’t necessarily be taken by AI, but it will be taken by someone using AI better than you.”

Path #3: An Entrepreneurial Boom

The third path, of course, is becoming an entrepreneur. And AI makes this easier than ever. Even non-technical people can write solid code now, so the tech part of building a business has certainly become easier.

I expect many young people will take the entrepreneurial path. They may not have much of a choice in the matter, assuming they’re determined to enter the white collar world.

I fully expect a small-mid sized business boom over coming years. And though these businesses won’t hire as many people as they used to, there will still be significant opportunities to hire smart people.

A Breaking System

For many decades, the goal of most parents was to send their kids to college so they can find a good white collar job.

This era is ending. The transition may take another few decades to complete, but we are now headed in a different direction.

The future of white collar work will look like a smaller number of “AI masters” managing fleets of AI agents.

Blue collar work is on the rise. It will become an increasingly popular option. But many people are still stuck playing the status games, where the “rules” say we must send our kids off to university. They don’t want to tell the neighbors that little Billy’s going to be a plumber. This will change rapidly if AI plays out like I expect it to.

Young people today have many things to be upset about. And they’ve thought about these issues far more deeply than we have. So consider reaching out to the young people in your life, and asking them about their plans.

If they seem confused about what to do, ask if they’ve considered a blue collar career. I’m convinced that it’s the best path for millions of young Americans.

The political left often betrays their true agenda in the legislation they choose to oppose.  The SAVE Act, for example, would require proof of citizenship to vote in US elections; a law which the majority of countries around the world enforce.  It's widely supported by around 80% of the public, yet, Democrats stubbornly refuse to pass it.  

Why?  Because they know there are illegal immigrants voting in their favor, and they know that mail-in ballot fraud exists and often benefits them. 

By extension, Democrats aggressively attempted to block Trump Administration efforts to ensure that illegal immigrants could not receive healthcare subsidies.  Their argument was that "no illegals actually access those subsidies".  Of course, if this was true, then it should not matter if Trump adds such restrictions - According to Dems, nothing would change.

In reality, progressive politicians know that around 1.4 million "asylum seekers" (illegal immigrants who entered the country under Biden's open border policies and then took advantage of the system) were on the healthcare rolls at the end of 2024.  They also know that by offering welfare programs to illegals, they are buying the future loyalty of those migrants (as well as keeping them in the country to rig the census in favor of blue states).   

Today, this loophole is being rectified by a number of states that are now requiring proof of citizenship in order to qualify for public healthcare programs.  You would think this is common sense, but Democrats and some medical institutions are not happy with the changes. 

Hospitals across the state of Tennessee say they are receiving notice from the Department of Health requiring them to verify the citizenship status of everyone enrolled in public benefit programs. 

Opponents to the reforms say this includes Children’s Special Services, which provides access to care for children from birth to 21 years of age.  The process for disenrolling kids 18 to 21 has already begun, and there is a process underway to disenroll kids zero to 17. 

It is a typical Democrat tactic to target and isolate a single "vulnerable" group and use them to justify the existence of welfare benefits for all foreigners.  You don't want to steal that wheelchair away from little Pedro or snatch life saving medicine away from poor innocent Gabriela, right?  It is also the case than many of these healthcare providers stand to lose millions in government subsidized payments if migrants are kicked off the rolls. 

The propaganda is highly manipulative.  However, just a few months ago, the political left was arguing that "no undocumented immigrants" are receiving government healthcare benefits (Democrats say "undocumented" because they consider asylum seekers "documented").  Today, they are frantic over patients being checked for citizenship before receiving medical welfare.    

For now, adult applicants who can’t verify their status will be disenrolled by May 29. This comes after the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law requiring all applicants for public benefits ages 18 and older to verify they are in the U.S. legally.

At bottom, anyone regardless of citizenship is typically able to access emergency services in the US.  However, taxpayer funded care should be reserved for citizens only.  Foreigners are not entitled to taxpayer dollars; it's really that simple.  Keep in mind, this is how it works in almost every country in the world, including communist countries like China with "universal healthcare".  

A number of states are implementing or are on the path to implementing similar laws, including North Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Wyoming and Oklahoma.  

Ultimately, anyone who cannot afford their own healthcare should not be looking for citizenship in the US in the first place.  Becoming an American citizen is a privilege, not a handout.  

Via The Cradle

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Monday that it foiled an attempt to smuggle a large shipment of US-made weapons and ammunition into the country.

"Counter-revolutionary terror groups based in north Iraq, acting on behalf of the US and Zionist regime, intended to transfer a large shipment of brand-new US weapons and ammunition into the country. They were targeted and struck in Baneh, Kurdistan Province. Large quantities of weapons and ammunition were discovered and confiscated," the statement said.

The statement added that intelligence efforts are ongoing to identify and arrest all internal collaborators allegedly linked to the armed groups.

The IRGC Hamzeh Sayyed al-Shuhada Headquarters warned "all mercenary elements, their agents, and their leaders that any security-related action will be met with severe force, and … a regret inducing response."

The announcement comes as Washington has been seeking to arm separatist Iranian Kurdish groups in order to destabilize the Islamic Republic. At the start of the war, reports said that US President Donald Trump was seeking to turn Kurdish militias into a "ground force" within Iran. 

Kurdish groups opposed to the Islamic Republic denied last month US claims that Washington armed their fighters during the January 2026 unrest in Iran. 

Last week, Trump slammed Iranian Kurds for "stealing" US weapons and failing to deliver them to "protesters" and dissidents who, according to Washington, were willing to fight against Iranian forces. 

"The Kurds take, take, take," the president told reporters, adding that they "kept" the weapons and "only fight hard when they get paid."

Iranian Kurds were heavily involved in the 2022 armed riots, which broke out in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. Former US national security advisor John Bolton openly admitted that year that weapons from the Iraqi Kurdistan region were being smuggled into Iran for separatists to use against government troops.

President Trump on being 'disappointed' in the Kurds...

#Trump on #Kurds and his order to attack #Iran:

I'm very disappointed in the Kurds, we gave them weapons to deliver inside Iran, but they kept them instead. pic.twitter.com/lknQd6AOrr

— Mina (@Mina696645851) May 12, 2026

Kurdish groups also participated in this year's unrest in January, during which thousands of people were killed, including security forces, armed anti-government rioters, and civilians. 

After the US-Israeli war erupted in February, Iraqi-based, Iranian Kurdish militias came under heavy missile and drone attacks – from both Tehran and its allies in the Iraqi resistance.