WASHINGTON: The United States could &quot;take out&quot; Iran&#39;s Kharg island whenever it wanted, the White House said Friday, after a report that President Donald Trump&#39;s administration was considering plans to occupy or blockade the oil hub. Axios reported that Trump was mulling an operation against Kharg to pressure the Islamic Republic to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping lane that Tehran has largely blocked. The United States is at the same time deploying additional Marines to the Middle East, US media reported, possibly signaling a coming ground operation three weeks into the US-Israeli campaign. &quot;The United States Military can take out Kharg Island at any time if the President gives the order,&quot; White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly wrote in a statement to AFP when asked about the Axios report. &quot;Thanks to a detailed planning process, the entire administration is and was prepared for any potential action taken by the terrorist Iranian regime,&quot; added Kelly. &quot;President Trump knew full well that Iran would try to stop the freedom of navigation and free flow of energy, and he has already taken action to destroy over 40 minelaying vessels.&quot; An effective Iranian blockade has paralyzed commercial shipping through the crucial maritime chokepoint, contributing to the spike in global oil prices since the start of the war on February 28. Trump said the United States had &quot;totally obliterated&quot; all military targets on Kharg in strikes on Friday, threatening to hit the island&#39;s infrastructure if Iran keeps blocking the Strait of Hormuz. On Thursday, the US leader called Kharg, which handles almost all of Iran&#39;s crude exports, the &quot;little oil island that sits there, so totally unprotected&quot; and said US strikes had &quot;taken out everything but the pipes.&quot;

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US could 'take out' Iran's Kharg Island any time: White House

NEW DELHI: White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios said Friday that the United States &quot;totally&quot; rejects global governance of artificial intelligence. Kratsios, head of the country&#39;s delegation to an AI summit in New Delhi, made the comments ahead of an expected leaders&#39; statement setting out a shared vision on how to handle the divisive technology. &quot;As the Trump Administration has now said many times: We totally reject global governance of AI,&quot; he said at the summit, which draws to a close on Friday. &quot;AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control.&quot; On Friday morning, UN chief Antonio Guterres had said that a new expert panel convened by the global body aimed to &quot;make human control a technical reality&quot;. The advisory group -- aiming to be to AI what the UN&#39;s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to global warming -- was created in August, and its 40 members have now been confirmed, Guterres said. At last year&#39;s edition in Paris, US Vice President JD Vance warned against &quot;excessive regulation&quot; that &quot;could kill a transformative sector&quot;. In New Delhi, Kratsios said that &quot;international discussion of AI has evolved, as this summit itself attests,&quot; noting the change of the meeting&#39;s name from &quot;AI Safety&quot; to &quot;AI Impact&quot;. &quot;This is clearly a positive development,&quot; but &quot;too many international forums, such as the UN&#39;s Global Dialogue on AI Governance, maintain a general atmosphere of fear,&quot; he said. &quot;We must replace that fear with hope,&quot; Kratsios added, saying that AI has the potential to &quot;advance human flourishing and drive unprecedented prosperity&quot;. He argued that &quot;ideological, risk-focused obsessions, such as climate or equity, become excuses for bureaucratic management and centralisation&quot;. &quot;In the name of safety, they increase the danger that these tools will be used for tyrannical control.&quot; &quot;Focusing AI policy on safety and speculative risks... inhibits a competitive ecosystem, entrenches incumbents, and isolates developing countries from full participation in the AI economy,&quot; Kratsios said.

White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios (File/World Economic Forum)

White House tech adviser Michael Kratsios opposed centralized oversight, urging innovation over regulation, while UN chief Antonio Guterres promoted an expert panel to ensure human control of the technology.

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US could 'take out' Iran's Kharg Island any time: White House

US 'totally' rejects global AI governance: White House adviser