Author: AFP

US chip-maker Nvidia led a rout in tech stocks Monday after the emergence of a low-cost Chinese generative AI model that could threaten American dominance in the fast-growing industry. The chatbot developed by DeepSeek, a startup based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, has apparently shown the ability to match the capacity of US AI pace-setters for a fraction of the investments made by American companies. Shares in Nvidia, whose semiconductors power the AI industry, fell nearly 17 percent on Wall Street, erasing nearly $600 billion of its market value. The tech-rich Nasdaq index finished down more than three…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the nearly three-year conflict in Ukraine would end in “two months” or less if the West stopped supporting Kyiv. “They will not exist for a month if the money and, in a broad sense, the bullets run out. Everything would be over in a month and a half or two,” Putin told a reporter from Russian state TV.

Former Belgium midfielder Radja Nainggolan was charged on Monday as part of an investigation into cocaine trafficking on an international scale, a day after he was arrested, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said. The 36-year-old footballer was charged with “participating in a criminal organisation” and then conditionally released, his lawyer Mounir Souidi told media after a hearing in Brussels. Nainggolan was among 18 suspects arrested following a series of 30 searches carried out on Monday morning in the northern province of Antwerp, as well as in the Brussels area. Ten of them were imprisoned after being brought before a judge. The…

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday that the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would be “unacceptable”, after US President Donald Trump floated a plan to move them to Egypt and Jordan. “In light of recent public statements, I say very clearly that any relocation plans — the idea that the citizens of Gaza will be expelled to Egypt or Jordan — is unacceptable,” Scholz said at a town hall event in Berlin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said that multiple humanitarian projects had suspended operations due to the US freeze on foreign aid, and that Kyiv would replace funding where possible. “There are many projects. We will determine which of them are critical and need solutions now,” Zelensky said in his evening address. “We can provide part of this funding through our public finances,” he added.

The European bottling unit of Coca-Cola said Monday that it had ordered a major recall of Coke, Sprite and other beverages after detecting high levels of chlorate, which poses potential health risks. Coca-Cola said cans and glass bottles containing elevated levels of the substance were distributed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, France and Luxembourg since November, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Belgium told AFP. “We do not have a precise figure, but it is clear that it is a considerable quantity,” the firm said of the amount of drinks involved. Chlorate can be found in foods as it derives from chlorine…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday praised Soviet soldiers for ending the “total evil” of Auschwitz on the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of the Nazi death camp. Auschwitz was the largest of the extermination camps and has become a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million European Jewish people, one million of whom died at the site between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jewish people. Soviet troops found 7,000 survivors when they arrived on January 27, 1945, the first Allied troops to enter the camp. “We will always remember that it was the…

Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko said Sunday he had “no regrets” about allowing Russia in 2022 to use his territory to invade Ukraine. Asked by AFP if he regretted letting Russian troops station on his territory before entering Ukraine from the north in 2022, given the death toll of the three-year war, he said: “I do not regret anything.”

Russian troops have taken control of the settlement of Zelene in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Defence Ministry. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report.

US President Donald Trump played a key role in securing the release of four additional Israeli hostages held by Hamas, the White House said Saturday. “Today the world celebrates as President Trump secured the release of four more Israeli hostages who were, for far too long, held against their will by Hamas in horrific conditions,” a statement said. Palestinian resistance group Hamas earlier Saturday handed over four female Israeli soldiers under a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement with Israel. Some 200 Palestinian prisoners were also released on Saturday in exchange for the four freed Israeli soldiers. The freed soldiers…