Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow for the second night in a row, forcing the temporary closure of the capital’s airports, Russia’s military reported.
The consecutive attacks came ahead of Moscow this week marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies over Germany in the second world war. Vladimir Putin has tried to call a three-day ceasefire for the 8-10 May anniversary; however, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has characterised the idea as self-serving and pointless unless it lasts 30 days in line with a US proposal that the Russian president has ignored.
CEO, Sam Altman, says decision to backtrack was made ‘after hearing from civic leaders’ and state attorneys general
OpenAI has reversed course in the process of transforming into a for-profit entity, announcing on Monday that its non-profit arm would continue to control the business that makes ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) products. Previously, the company had sought more independence for its for-profit division.
“We made the decision for the nonprofit to stay in control after hearing from civic leaders and having discussions with the offices of the Attorneys General of California and Delaware,” said CEO Sam Altman in a letter to employees. Altman and the chair of OpenAI’s non-profit board, Bret Taylor, said the board made the choice for the non-profit to retain control of OpenAI.
Two children believed to be among missing as search continues for people believed to be migrants
Three people were killed and seven others, including two children, were missing after a small boat capsized in choppy waters off the coast of San Diego, California, on Monday.
The fatal disaster appeared to be an apparent migrant smuggling attempt, officials said. Four other people were rescued after the “panga”-style open fishing vessel washed ashore near Torrey Pines state beach were transported to hospital, according to US Coast Guard officials.
President calls films ‘national security threat’ and claims he called on commerce department to immediately enact tariff
Donald Trump on Sunday announced on his Truth Social platform a 100% tariff on all movies “produced in Foreign Lands”, saying the US film industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering to draw American film-makers.
In his post, he claimed to have authorised the commerce department and the US trade representative to immediately begin instituting such a tariff.
Ukrainian military intelligence claims Su-30 destroyed over waters near Russian port city of Novorossiisk, drawing no comment from Moscow. What we know on day 1,166
Ukraine has destroyed a Russian Su-30 fighter jet using a missile fired from a seaborne drone, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, in what it said was the world’s first downing of a combat plane by a maritime drone. The GUR’s statement on social media on Saturday said the fighter had been shot down by a military intelligence unit called Group 13 on Friday over waters near Novorossiisk, a major Russian port city on the Black Sea. The Russian defence ministry did not comment on the Ukrainian claim, but an authoritative Russian blogger believed to be close to the ministry said the jet had been shot down. “The pilots ejected and were picked up by civilian sailors,” the blogger, who goes by the name Rybar, said on Telegram. Meanwhile, the mayor of Novorossiisk declared a state of emergency on Saturday after local authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack had damaged a grain terminal and several residential buildings, injuring five people.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed a three-day truce ordered by Vladimir Putin as theatrics but said Kyiv was ready for a full ceasefire. “This is more of a theatrical performance on his part, because in two or three days it is impossible to develop a plan for the next steps to end the war,” the Ukrainian president said on Friday in remarks embargoed until Saturday. Moscow claimed the truce, set to coincide with its second world war commemorations on 9 May, was aimed at testing Kyiv’s “readiness” for long-term peace. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said on Saturday that nobody could guarantee Kyiv would survive to see 10 May if Ukraine attacked Moscow during the 9 May celebrations. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on 9 May”. The Kremlin has rejected calls by Kyiv and Washington for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
A Russian overnight drone attack on Kyiv injured at least 11 people, including two children, and set several residential buildings throughout the city on fire, the military and officials of the Ukrainian capital said on Sunday. Falling debris from destroyed drones sparked fires at buildings in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts, the head of Kyiv’s military administration said on social media. Timur Tkachenko added that several cars throughout the city also caught alight. Ukraine’s emergency service said 76 firefighters were involved in putting out the fires.
Russian shelling killed two people in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Saturday, while a drone strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson left one other person dead, regional officials said. In the central region of Cherkasy, a Russian drone attack late on Saturday sparked several fires, said the governor, Ihor Taburets. Ukraine’s emergency service said one person was injured.
Arrests carried out in London, Swindon and Greater Manchester after discovery of alleged plot targeting ‘specific premises’
UK police have arrested five men, including four Iranian nationals, on suspicion of “terrorism offences”, police have said.
The arrests were carried out in London, Swindon and the Greater Manchester area and were related to “a suspected plot to target a specific premises”, London’s Metropolitan police said in a statement.
CIA to lose 1,200 while NSA among other agencies reported to face downsizing amid president’s drive to shrink federal workforce
The White House plans to cut staffing at the Central Intelligence Agency by 1,200 positions while other intelligence agencies including the National Security Agency will also shed thousands of jobs, the Washington Post has reported.
A person familiar with the plan confirmed the changes to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Rubio calls Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif ‘threat to US national security’ and says support for groups could lead to charges
The United States has designated a powerful Haitian gang alliance, whose members have taken control of almost all the capital city as a “transnational terrorist group”.
The criminal coalition known as Viv Ansanm (Live Together), and another faction, the Gran Grif gang, which in October took responsibility for a shocking massacre of at least 115 people in the agricultural town of Pont-Sondé, were both covered by the move on Friday.
Neighboring Guyana has also laid claim to the mineral rich Essequibo, and Venezuela plans to elect officials to govern it
Venezuela’s government has said it “categorically” rejected a ruling from the U N’s top court ordering the South American country to refrain from holding elections for officials who supposedly would oversee a resource-rich region in neighboring Guyana that both countries claim as their own.
The government of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, in a statement underscored its historical position to not recognize the jurisdiction of the international court of justice and asserted that international law does not allow the body to “interfere” or “attempt to prohibit” an election.
Harvard’s president noted ‘searing personal accounts’ from listening sessions with about 500 students and employees
Muslim and Jewish students at Harvard University experienced bigotry and abuse as the Massachusetts campus was roiled by protests last year, according to two reports released on Tuesday that found many felt shunned by peers and professors for expressing political beliefs.
Harvard and other universities face extraordinary pressure from Donald Trump’s administration over allegations of antisemitism and leftist bias. The reports, jointly amounting to more than 500 pages, were the result of two taskforces Harvard set up a year before Trump took office, one on combating antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, the other on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.
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