IndustryStandard

Apple AAPL 1.46%increase; green up pointing triangle and Nvidia NVDA -6.38%decrease; red down pointing triangle are in talks to invest in OpenAI, a move that would strengthen their ties to a partner integral to their efforts in the artificial-intelligence race.

As Israel’s war on Gaza has spurred broader regional violence, fears of a severe escalation in Lebanon are growing. Tucked away in the Democratic National Committee’s new 2024 platform is language that seems to indicate the party’s openness to it.

"The Lebanese people deserve to live in an independent and sovereign Lebanon that is free from the grip of Iran-backed Hezbollah, and a corruption-free, competent, reform-minded government focused on addressing the needs of its people,” the DNC 2024 platform reads. “In this regard, the Administration is also committed to facilitating a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing hostilities along the Israel-Lebanon border that would ensure the return of both Israeli and Lebanese families to their homes.”

No Democratic platform since at least 1984 has included this precise language. In 1988, the platform simply read: “We support the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Lebanon with a central government strong enough to unite its people, maintain order and live in peace in the region.” The 1996 platform supported the Clinton-Gore administration's efforts “to achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace among Israel and all its neighbors, including Lebanon and Syria.” The 2008 platform warned of “the reinvigoration of Hamas and Hezbollah.” The closest, perhaps, was the 2016 platform, which read that “Democrats will push back against Iran's destabilizing activities including its support for terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah….”

The 2024 platform calling for Lebanon to be “free from the grip of Iran-backed Hezbollah” is a far cry from the 2020 version, which read: “Democrats believe the United States should not impose regime change on other countries and reject that as the goal of U.S. policy toward Iran.” That earlier language seemed to acknowledge a basic reality: In Lebanon, Hezbollah is not seen by all as a terror group, but rather as a popular political and social movement. It is “a driving force in Lebanese politics,” enjoys “high levels of support among the country’s Shiite population,” and “many Lebanese favor some of Hezbollah’s basic positions,” as two writers with the Arab Barometer noted in Foreign Affairs in July.

SEOUL/WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - South Korea's Samsung SDI (006400.KS), opens new tab said on Wednesday it has completed an agreement with General Motors (GM.N) to build a joint electric vehicle (EV) battery factory in the U.S. state of Indiana.

The two companies will invest about $3.5 billion to build a battery cell manufacturing plant with an annual production capacity of 27 gigawatt hours (GWh) initially, Samsung SDI said in a statement. Shares of Samsung SDI rose as much as 3.2% in morning trade, versus benchmark KOSPI's 0.3% fall.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has announced a pause in the movement of its employees in the Gaza Strip “until further notice” after one of its vehicles was hit by gunfire just metres from an Israeli-controlled checkpoint.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric blamed Israel for the attack, telling reporters in New York that the “clearly marked” humanitarian vehicle was “struck 10 times” by Israeli gunfire, including with bullets targeting front windows.

Five of the bullets were on the driver’s side and some on the windscreen.

Dujarric said the convoy’s movements had been coordinated with the Israeli military and it had clearance to approach.

Google is on a determined mission to make Gemini an indispensable part of our daily routines. With deeper integrations into popular apps like Spotify and the Pixel 9 series shipping with Gemini as the default assistant, it’s clear that Google has ambitious plans for its AI model.

The tech giant has been strategically enhancing Gemini’s functionality with new extensions. After adding extensions for Google apps like Keep, Tasks, and Calendar, along with YouTube and YouTube Music, recent findings suggest even more exciting additions are on the horizon.

An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.

In the Google app version 15.34.32.29.arm64 beta, we could enable the toggles for new Gemini extensions for WhatsApp, Google Messages, and Android system notifications. While they aren’t working just yet, their official descriptions provide a glimpse into what they might offer.

The founder and CEO of Rumble — a YouTube alternative billing itself as “immune to cancel culture” — said he has “departed” from Europe after Pavel Durov, the CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram, was arrested.

“I’ve just safely departed from Europe,” Chris Pavlovski, a Canadian national, posted on X on Sunday, Aug. 25.

He claimed France had “threatened Rumble” and had “crossed a red line” by arresting Telegram’s Durov. In November 2022, Rumble blocked access to French users, claiming the country’s government asked it to remove “certain Russian news sources,” which it said it would legally challenge.

In May, Pavlovski also claimed Russia blocked Rumble because it “refused to comply with their censorship demands.”

Climbing into his backyard jacuzzi that overlooked the Santa Monica Mountains, Matthew Perry uttered the seven words that would ultimately lead to his death: “Shoot me up with a big one.”

The big one, court documents would later reveal, was a dose of ketamine, a prescription anaesthetic and a hallucinogen that has become popular for its off-label uses to treat depression and anxiety. It was the actor’s third injection of the day.

Hours after that fatal dose, the “Friends” actor was found face down in the jacuzzi. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene with a coroner finding ketamine was his primary cause of death.

The details about Perry’s last day alive on 28 October 2023 were revealed in court documents following a police probe that ultimately led to five people being charged in relation to his death.

The documents offer an in-depth look by the law enforcement agencies into his drug addiction, which he struggled with for decades, and a glimpse into Hollywood’s ketamine drug network. Doctors and experts told the BBC the growth in ketamine’s popularity in recent years has caused the market to explode, with the expansion of ketamine clinics and online services offering easy prescription access to the drug, as well as a burgeoning illicit drug market.

“It’s super easy [to get], - be it underground or prescription,” Dr David Mahjoubi, who serves as president of the American Board of Ketamine Physicians, told the BBC. “I have celebrities that are getting a prescription from me. It’s super easy, not hard at all.”

Over the years, the case had become bogged down in lengthy pre-trial proceedings. Defence lawyers had argued that the men’s torture in secret CIA prisons had rendered the evidence against them unusable in legal proceedings.

The deal avoids both the prospect of a hugely lengthy and complex trial, or the possibility that confessions seen as crucial to the case would be thrown out. The New York Times reported that news of the deal emerged in a letter from prosecutors to family members of victims of the devastating attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.

Mohammed and Hawsawi were captured together in Pakistan in March 2003. The pair were tortured by their US interrogators, including subjecting Mohammed to a record 183 rounds of waterboarding. - Guardian

Wind turbines and solar panels have overtaken fossil fuels to generate 30% of the European Union’s electricity in the first half of the year, a report has found.

Power generation from burning coal, oil and gas fell 17% in the first six months of 2024 compared with the same period the year before, according to climate thinktank Ember. It found the continued shift away from polluting fuels has led to a one-third drop in the sector’s emissions since the first half of 2022.

Chris Rosslowe, an analyst at Ember, said the rise of wind and solar was narrowing the role of fossil fuels. “We are witnessing a historic shift in the power sector, and it is happening rapidly.”

The Israeli army is investigating suspicions of a violation of international law by its troops who blew up a main water reservoir serving the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

The reservoir, in Rafah's Tel Sultan neighborhood, was destroyed last week with the approval of the commander of the soldiers, who belong to the 401st Brigade of the Armored Corps, but without the approval of senior officers from the IDF Southern Command.

One soldier posted video footage of the explosion on social media with the caption: "The destruction of Tel Sultan's water reservoir in honor of Shabbat." After an initial probe into the incident, the army will decide whether to refer the case for investigation by the military police.

https://x.com/ytirawi/status/1816965332952555683

These announcements were made at TSMC’s US Technology Symposium earlier this year. The symposium is a roadshow, covering continents and key markets for the company. Just before the EU Symposium, I had a chance to catch up with Dr. Kevin Zhang, SVP and Deputy Co-COO of TSMC for an interview. We covered a wide range of topics, from Kevin’s thoughts on Moore’s Law, to how the market has changed under the weight of AI (also, the activations of AI).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isjeYKLBffs

Here is a video of this interview, or a transcript is available below