BIG Wrap

(New York Times) Nvidia said on Thursday that it is buying Hugging Face, a library of open artificial intelligence models, for $12.9 billion, as the chip maker extends a spending spree in the escalating global race to dominate the technology. The deal marries Nvidia’s chip and data center infrastructure with Hugging Face’s millions of open-source A.I. models that can be freely downloaded and modified. And it puts Nvidia’s deep pockets firmly on one side of a...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) The Netherlands has moved billions of dollars of its gold reserves out of the United States and Canada, and transferred them to the United Kingdom amid global geopolitical tensions. On Wednesday, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) said it had moved the gold reserves to ensure it is “better prepared for severe crises.” While DNB did not specify for which crises it might need to be prepared, the US is currently engaged in...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) The German government has accused Russia of being behind an attempted drone attack on a major regional airport last month. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Tuesday that the attempted attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany using a drone laden with explosives fits a known pattern of “Russian hybrid operations” and added that investigators had proof that agents controlling the drone were working on “behalf of Russian state entities”. “Taken ‌together,...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Greece has inked a weapons deal with Israel that will see a $3.5-billion multi-layered air-defence system delivered to Athens in what is the largest defence agreement ever between the two countries. The agreement, signed on Monday in Tel Aviv, comes as Greece’s relations with neighbour and rival Turkiye have grown more sour. It also, however, breaks with a broader European wariness of being seen as too close to Israel. Greece and Israel...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Iran says it launched missiles at two US bases in Jordan following a US attack on Larak Island in southern Iran earlier on Sunday. In a statement reported by Iranian news agencies on Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the combined missile and drone operation, which it called “Punishment of the Aggressor”, hit the King Hussein and Al Azraq bases in Jordan. The exchange of attacks is the first flare-up...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) United States President Donald Trump has said on social media that oil from a recently struck deal with Venezuela will be ⁠used to replenish the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an oil stockpile that the country keeps for emergencies and that has been drawn down sharply in ⁠recent years to respond to global supply disruptions and high fuel prices. The US president wrote on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns, that the...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) An armed raid on a seasonal cattle camp and village in the northwest of South Sudan has killed least 49 people, according to local officials. The raid, which wounded 33 other people, took place early on Thursday, as gunmen attacked the Machar-Pakuek cattle camp and Mading Juer Boma in Majak Payam, Tonj North County, Warrap State, according to an official statement. The young African nation is plagued by violent cattle raids, with herders...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Some 360 bodies have been recovered, and more than 1,400 people are missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a huge collapse of mud and rock into a Himalayan river triggered catastrophic flooding across local towns and valleys, authorities have said. Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday, searching for the missing, as authorities in Nepal said at least 359 people have been killed there. At least three people have died in the neighbouring...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) China has said that it would safeguard its interests after Washington unveiled new measures while laying out plans for the “economic asphyxiation” of Beijing’s economic partner Iran. Speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian rejected Washington’s expanding pressure campaign, calling for an immediate end to unilateral measures. “Cooperation between China and Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not...

(Al Jazeera Media Network) At least 30 people have been killed as a new wave of violence grips Haiti. A powerful gang coalition mounted the attack on a farming community in Kenscoff, south of the capital, Port-au-Prince, late on Sunday, officials reported. The flare-up in violence comes as Haiti hopes to hold its first general election in more than a decade. Jean Massillon, Kenscoff’s mayor, said armed men “sowed chaos” as they set homes on fire...