Geopolitical Instability and Domestic Turmoilactive

The fresh obstacle for H-1B visa programme comes months after US President Donald Trump announced a $1,00,000 fee on fresh applications.

When the war in Iran threatened traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the reaction from governments across the globe was almost unanimous: to accelerate the transition to clean energy. However, this response comes with a catch, as it leads to a new form of dependence: reliance on China. According to the British energy think tank Ember, China produces four out of every five solar panels in the world, as well as a similar proportion of battery cells, and more than two-thirds of electric vehicles. The International Energy Agency (IEA) confirms these figures and adds an even more uncomfortable detail: Chinese factories already have the installed capacity to meet the projected global demand for solar energy by 2030. The concentration is even greater when it comes to critical minerals – the metals used in wind turbines, electric vehicles, and military equipment. The international think tank Chatham House documented in March 2026 that China extracts, processes, or controls more than 70% of the world's cobalt and lithium, and is the leading refiner of 19 out of the 20 most important industrial minerals. For rare earth elements – 17 essential metallic elements used in high-tech devices – China's dominance reaches 90% of global production of high-performance magnets, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). This dominance did not arise solely from market forces. The same CFR report documents that between 2000 and 2021, Beijing channeled nearly $57 billion towards the extraction…

The brother of Nahida S. Bristy, a doctoral student who was reported missing in the US, has issued a statement saying that his sister is "no longer with us."

Witkoff and Araghchi are expected to attend. Trump's retaliation against Spain and the UK.

In her first interview since being deported, Marie-Thérèse Ross-Mahé, the French widow of a former G. I., recounted her experience in ICE detention.

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, confirmed that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be sent to Pakistan to participate in a possible second round of high-level ceasefire negotiations with Iran, according to a statement from the White House. However, the date of their arrival in Islamabad was not announced. Furthermore, the Trump administration announced the imposition of economic sanctions against a major oil refinery based in China, and against approximately 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in the transportation of Iranian crude oil. In the Pakistani capital, Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, held meetings with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, and with the Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir, shortly after his arrival in Islamabad. Meanwhile, clashes continued in southern Lebanon on Friday night. The terrorist group Hezbollah dismissed the recent extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, calling the agreement "insignificant." Below is a minute-by-minute update: Egyptian and Pakistani officials discuss the Iran conflict. The Foreign Ministers of Egypt and Pakistan held a telephone conversation on Friday evening to discuss efforts aimed at initiating a new round of talks between the United States and Iran. Badr Abdelatty of Egypt and Mohammad Ishaq Dar of Pakistan agreed that…

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s bid for a meaningful rebound in 2026 is getting harder to deliver by the week, despite the huge stimulus flowing into Europe’s biggest economy.

The national president of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party), Alejandro Moreno, expressed his solidarity with the governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos, in the face of attacks from the Morena party, and stated that combating drug cartels does not violate sovereignty. "Chihuahua is facing immense pressure from organized crime due to its border location. There is no room for hesitation. It requires intelligence, coordination, and resolve to make decisions that protect the people." In his social media posts, he explained that "cooperating to combat organized crime does not violate sovereignty; it strengthens it. Sovereignty is exercised by defending the lives, security, and well-being of families. It is strengthened when the state demonstrates that it has control and determination." Also read: Alito Moreno demands an investigation into AMLO following the arrest of Farías Laguna; "We must go to the ultimate consequences," he says. At the PRI, we say it clearly: we will support any action that strengthens the rule of law and takes territory away from criminals. Security is not just talk; it is a responsibility and an obligation. History places each person in their rightful place. We will stand on the side of the law, on the side of the victims, and on the side of the families who demand to live without fear. We do not negotiate with crime; we confront it and we defeat it. Join our channel! EL UNIVERSAL is now on WhatsApp! From your mobile device, stay informed about the most important news of the day, opinion articles, entertainment, trends, and more. js

U. S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, will travel to Pakistan on Saturday to restart negotiations to end the war with Iran, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday. Vice President JD Vance, who joined Witkoff and Kushner in peace talks with Iranian officials earlier this month in Islamabad, will not be traveling to Pakistan but will be “on standby” to join the negotiations. “Steve and Jared will be heading to Pakistan tomorrow to hear the Iranians out,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House. “The president, the vice president, the secretary of State, will be waiting here in the United States for updates, and the vice president, I understand, is on standby and will be willing to dispatch to Pakistan if we feel it’s a necessary use of his time.” Leavitt suggested that the U. S. and Iran are closer to an agreement but declined to share details when asked whether the Trump administration has received a peace proposal from Iranian leaders. “We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days,” she said. Iran’s willingness to resume negotiations with the U. S. marks a shift in their posture from earlier this week, when Iran refused to send its negotiating team to Islamabad in protest of the U. S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Hours later, Trump extended the blockade indefinitely while agreeing to extend the ceasefire between the two countries. The new talks come as Trump and administration officials indicate that the war could drag on longer than the president initially suggested when it started in February. When asked about the timeline for ending the war, Trump told reporters on Thursday, “Don’t rush me.” Trump also suggested he would be willing to tolerate higher fuel prices caused by the conflict “for a little while” in exchange for preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Already, gasoline is about $1 per gallon higher than before the conflict began, a worrying sign for Republicans ahead of the November midterms. Earlier on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued to threaten additional strikes on Iranian targets and said the U. S. has “all the time in the world” to achieve its goals in Iran. Vance’s previous trip to Islamabad represented the highest-level negotiations between U. S. and Iran leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But Vance returned from the trip empty handed, insisting that any agreement must include a commitment from Iran to not pursue the capacity to build a nuclear weapon.

Keir Starmer’s rivals in Britain’s governing Labour Party have long had a motive for deposing their unpopular prime minister. The next few weeks may grant them the opportunity.

Malaysia on Saturday appointed a former judge as its new anti-corruption chief in an unprecedented move, as the government seeks to calm months of political turbulence over alleged misconduct linked to the watchdog’s outgoing head. Allies and opponents have hit out against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim since February following reports claiming that Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) boss Azam Baki was involved in a share ownership scandal and the agency’s officers were allegedly working...

No clarity on US-Iran talks as Islamabad stays under lockdown

The G7 countries reaffirmed on Friday their commitment to preventing the Iranian regime from acquiring or developing a nuclear weapon during the ceasefire in the Middle East conflict, and emphasized that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) remains the "cornerstone" for nuclear disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear technology. "We reaffirm that full compliance with the NPT and its safeguards obligations is essential to ensuring international confidence in the peaceful nature of nuclear activities. The G7 remains committed to ensuring that Iran never develops or acquires a nuclear weapon," stated the group of Non-Proliferation directors from the countries of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The G7 also expressed concern about the expansion and modernization of the nuclear arsenals of the Chinese and Russian regimes, and urged the implementation of concrete risk reduction measures. "We are concerned about the significant increase and modernization of the nuclear arsenals of China and Russia," the G7 group stated in a press release published on the website of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Furthermore, the statement demanded that the North Korean dictatorship abandon all of its nuclear programs and weapons in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, reiterating that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea cannot and will not have the status of a nuclear-weapon state.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner  are expected to arrive in Islamabad on Saturday for peace talks with Iran in the latest attempt by the US to broker a peace deal. Although Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Pakistan on Friday, Iran has ruled out direct negotiations with US representatives. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

The clashes between Israel and Hezbollah continue following the extension of the ceasefire. Delegations from the United States and Iran are traveling to Pakistan, and expectations are growing for a new round of negotiations. Europe is asserting its influence, and the costs of Donald Trump's policies are beginning to become apparent. The United States announced that it will not renew oil exemptions for Iran and Russia. Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters continued to attack each other throughout Friday, a day after a three-week extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was announced, CNN reported. In the Lebanese cities of Yater and Kafra, south of the country, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that they had attacked Hezbollah rocket launchers that "posed a threat to IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians." The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) published an image of a destroyer apparently intercepting another vessel near the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. military has diverted at least 33 ships since the White House lifted the blockade on April 13, according to CENTCOM. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that he had undergone treatment for prostate cancer, marking his first public acknowledgment of the diagnosis, according to the agency. Indic…

Ahead of the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) review conference, which will discuss global nuclear disarmament, UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Nakamoto, stated that "the progress made in nuclear disarmament is being lost, and we are witnessing the beginning of a reversal." He urged all countries to adopt a flexible approach in order to reach agreements and halt this trend.

Former US ambassador and Labour peer joins a long line of people who have gone out to meet awaiting paparazzi head-on For a man at the centre of a storm that has rocked the political establishment, Peter Mandelson has spent the week looking remarkably relaxed. Day after day, as MPs have grilled civil servants over who knew what when about the former US ambassador’s security vetting, and police continue to investigate serious allegations over his own conduct, Mandelson has stepped out of his Regent’s Park mansion and pottered across the road to take his dog for a walk. Smart-casually dressed in jeans and a jumper and holding in front of him a plastic ball-thrower, he has set off for the park like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race. There have been occasional small smiles for the photographers at his gate, but no comment. The message appears to be: I am insouciant, normal. Not in prison. Continue reading...

Testimony emerges from Babak Alipour, who spent three years on death row before being taken to gallows in March Writing from his cell in the Rajai Shahr prison in the northern Iranian city of Karaj, Babak Alipour wanted to tell his friends about those who had already gone to their execution. There was Behrouz Ehsani, 69, the elder statesman of the group, who was “never angry” about their predicament. Then there was Mehdi Hassani, a 48-year-old father of three who he saw a couple of times in the prison hospital and who would ask him to pass on to the children the message that he was “fine”. Continue reading...

Taking into account nominal growth and inflation, real hourly wages declined by 3% in the EU over the past five years. Wage growth was stronger in non-euro area countries and in those with lower wage levels.

A retired FBI profiler has claimed that Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapper may be trying to create "as much distance between himself and this crime scene as possible."

The United States is increasingly organizing its artificial intelligence strategy around a concept it cannot clearly define, cannot reliably measure and may never achieve in the singular, decisive form imagined. That concept is Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI. In Washington and Silicon Valley, AGI has become the policy anchor and rhetorical North Star. Lawmakers invoke […] The post US chasing AGI myth while China builds the AI future appeared first on Asia Times.

Iran’s foreign minister is in Islamabad, with US envoys also on the way.

According to the newspaper, the golf club is located next to a railway line that runs to both the BAE Systems shipyard and the UK’s largest nuclear waste storage facility

A court has sentenced an agent of Russian intelligence services who directed missile and drone strikes on Odesa to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Loyalty has worn thin because of the PM’s lack of interest in making the difficult decisions his job requires

Executives prepare for shift to the left in UK government after narrow escape in last year’s Budget

The US stands to benefit as war in Iran reshapes oil and gas flows, but Europe and Asia are wary of becoming too reliant on American supply

Forecast gains for nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales occur even though no group has a clear plan for achieving independence.

The idea that Mythos is too hot to handle ought to be good for the company’s valuation

Denis Pasler says 50 people have been evacuated

Regarding the United States' military operations against Iran, a prominent American newspaper reported that the extensive use of missiles and other weaponry could potentially take up to six years to restore the situation to its previous level. Furthermore, within the Trump administration, discussions have begun regarding whether to revise plans to prepare for a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

The director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University says that if the attacks resume, Tehran will "strike back, and strike back very hard and very rapidly"

Li Bin, a doctor at the First Hospital of Lanzhou University, was among the wave of Chinese consumers who snapped up Apple Mac Mini computers during the country’s frenzied adoption of the OpenClaw artificial intelligence agent earlier this year. The young surgeon from Lanzhou, the capital of northwestern China’s Gansu province, bought one to run the open-source program, using it to develop an app to extract and organise information from doctor-patient conversations and lab report photos into...

For many former French hostages and detainees held abroad, the ordeal continues upon their return to France, marked by a loss of bearings and a sense of abandonment.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel to Pakistan, as Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad.

The Russian oil carried on ships has been largely "sucked up," Scott Bessent says

Tensions between Trump's administration and MAHA influencers have eased following Erik Kirk's intervention, facilitating a crucial White House meeting.

The video has gone viral, and many people are sharing their reactions to the moment involving the diamond watch.

The director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University says that "an enormous, extremely important strategic flow of resources" comes through the strait

The U. S. military killed two “narco-terrorists” in a strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Eastern Pacific on Friday, according to U. S. Southern Command (Southcom).  The military unit announced the strike by posting a video of the boat exploding on the social platform X on Friday evening.  Southcom commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan…

Iran news LIVE updates: US President Donald Trump has decided to send his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Pakistan for talks with Iran’s foreign minister. Meanwhile, Iran has said it will not hold direct talks with American officials during the visit.

Small boat destroyed in video posted on social media as US campaign has killed at least 178 people since September The US military announced on Friday that it killed two people in an attack on a boat in the eastern Pacific, part of a series of deadly strikes on vessels in recent months which it claims are targeting “narco-trafficking” operations. The US Southern Command declared in a social media post on X that Gen Francis L Donovan directed Joint Task Force Southern Spear, the counter-narcotics unit that operates in the region, to carry out a lethal strike. The US military posted a video, which it labeled unclassified, showing a small boat being destroyed in an explosion. Continue reading...

With bad loans and repayment collateral in focus, Chinese banks are increasingly using satellites to evaluate their clients’ terrestrial assets, mounting a hi-tech offensive to safeguard against rising credit risks. China Merchants Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank started making use of satellites this year, following a 2022 launch by Ping An Bank and a 2020 move into satellite remote-sensing technology by Zhejiang E-Commerce Bank. Furthering the trend, the Postal Savings Bank of China...

It was his voice on the radio that announced the uprising in Milan, marking the beginning of freedom for the Italian people. He would soon discover that while he was addressing the crowd, his younger brother, Eugenio, was being murdered.

Donald Trump says that Candace Owens' attack on the First Lady of France is "despicable."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the United States of abandoning internationally recognized diplomatic conventions in pursuit of its own interests, particularly in dominating energy markets, in an interview broadcast on Friday. Lavrov, interviewed by Russian state television, said that Washington, in its dealings with Latin America and the Middle East, was "taking us back to a world where nothing existed" in international law. "The United States has officially declared that no one...

President Trump labeled Candace Owens as a 'vile person of the year' amid claims from Laura Loomer regarding Owens' public absence and travels to Italy.

The boss of the controversial tech company with UK government contracts published a 22-point plan on the future of the West.

Esmaeil Baghaei says: "Iran's observations will be conveyed to Pakistan."

Repatriation attempt comes after group was turned around when leaving camp in February. Albanese government says it’s not assisting cohort Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Four Australian women and nine of their children and grandchildren have left al-Roj camp in north-east Syria, seeking to return to Australia. The group is reportedly travelling across Syria by road to the capital Damascus, under the control of the Syrian government. Continue reading...

Tehran made its position clear that no face-to-face talks with American representatives will take place during the Islamabad visit.

On Friday morning, souring relations between Europe and the United States reared its Medusa-like head again, writes the BBC's Europe editor.

President Trump has outsourced much of his diplomacy to others, while Mr. Rubio focuses on his second job as national security adviser.

The plastic bag is an unlikely symbol of economic frailty. But in Indonesia, the soaring cost of that humble everyday item is raising uncomfortable questions about the country’s future growth prospects. At a market in Depok, south of Jakarta, the plastic bags Budi needs to sell his chicken have nearly doubled in price. “Plastic is really expensive right now,” he said in an interview on April 17. “Usually, I’d have to set aside at least 10,000 rupiah (58 US cents) for plastic bags, but now, I...

The Argentine scientist Gabriel Rabinovich plays a central role in the new CaixaResearch Institute, the largest immunology research center recently opened in Barcelona. The institute's inauguration brought together King Felipe VI and leading figures in science, marking a significant milestone for international biomedical research. Rabinovich leads one of the pioneering groups within the new center, which aims to become a global leader in the study of the immune system. The opening of the CaixaResearch Institute is significant because it strengthens Barcelona's position as a leading hub in the fight against cancer and immune diseases, thanks to global collaboration and the involvement of top experts like Rabinovich. The institutional investment and the goal of bringing together 500 scientists by 2033 solidify its position as a strategic investment in biomedicine and advanced therapies. The center, supported by the La Caixa Foundation, covers a wide range of areas, from the study of cancer to infectious, neurodegenerative, and age-related diseases, with the aim of bringing together up to 500 scientists by 2033. The institute operates on shared platforms between teams and has a scientific advisory board composed of international experts. Its structure facilitates the transfer of knowledge and reinforces the role of Barcelona and Catalonia as centers of biomedical innovation in Europe. Rabinovich was accompanied at the inauguration by...

The Security Service of Ukraine has exposed another agent of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) in the Donetsk region, who directed the shelling of Kramatorsk and tracked down armored vehicles of the Defense Forces to set them on fire.

President Claudia Sheinbaum shrugs as two CIA officers are killed in Chihuahua.

The French president said that "at this point, no one can view the United States as an ally that can be fully relied on"

A Buckingham Palace source confirmed the Royals will not meet with survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during their state visit to the US.

A Buckingham Palace source confirmed the Royals will not meet with survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during their state visit to the US.

Interview with the 2006 World Champion, now the coach of Uzbekistan: "We need to stop churning out unqualified certifications; young players need instructors, not just coaches. And as for regulations, we're still in the Stone Age. As the coach of Uzbekistan, I'm bringing the experience I've gained from many years abroad. The World Cup will be tough, but we'll try to showcase new ideas and be a surprise."

Trump sends envoys in response to the Iranian Foreign Minister's visit. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps downplays the situation: "There will be no direct talks." The negotiations are fragile.

The reason for his departure reportedly stems from disagreements over opening up to the United States. However, the former head of the Pasdaran has denied these rumors.

With the arrival of the USS Bush, there are now three aircraft carriers in the region. This allows Washington to exert pressure during negotiations and to prepare for a potential resumption of hostilities.

The tycoon might participate via video conference. There is also a risk of some attendees not showing up for the Alliance summit in Ankara.

Progressives are preparing for an impeachment process, hoping to have the necessary votes to launch an offensive after the midterm elections.

Meloni: The Brussels plan is "insufficient," but Germany and the fiscally conservative countries are blocking the proposal to exclude energy costs from the deficit calculation.

More than the debt-to-GDP ratio, the growth of expenditures will be a key factor in the new Stability Pact. Imported inflation, driven by energy prices, is further complicating the situation. Starting Monday, hearings will begin on the Draft Stability Programme (DSP).

Trump mocked Candace Owens with a meme, called her "low IQ," and condemned her claims about France's First Lady Brigitte Macron as "despicable."

A judge questioned whether President Donald Trump’s $10 billion privacy lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the US Treasury can proceed in court with Trump effectively in control of both sides of the litigation.

A major shift is being prepared regarding the death penalty, focusing on faster and more controversial procedures to overcome the technical and legal limitations introduced in recent years. This has drawn criticism from Democrats and raised legal concerns about the methods of implementation.

The Honduran Council of the Private Enterprise (COHEP) and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) took a significant step towards strengthening national economic development by signing a memorandum of understanding aimed at promoting competitiveness and economic growth in Honduras. This agreement, which also includes training and technical cooperation components, seeks to boost the productivity of the private sector and open up new opportunities for Honduran companies in an increasingly demanding regional environment. The signing of the memorandum represents a joint effort to establish a framework for strategic collaboration that will foster business development, with a particular emphasis on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which are considered a fundamental pillar of the national economy. Furthermore, the agreement proposes promoting investment in key sectors such as energy, agro-industry, and financial intermediation, areas identified as essential drivers for sustained economic growth in the country. More jobs and investment During the signing ceremony, the president of COHEP, Anabel Gallardo, emphasized the importance of these types of alliances in addressing current economic challenges, particularly those related to job creation. "What we are generating with these investments is employment, which is what the country needs most given the economic problems we are currently facing..."

The possibility of a new round of negotiations is being considered for Monday. Ghalibaf will not be present, as he is leaving due to internal disagreements.

Since we called out the Claude Code inflection point on February 5th, we have seen a flurry of model releases. Opus, Mythos, Codex, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen, GLM, MiniMax, Composer, Muse Spark, and more. Today we will break down all of these major model releases, explain when you can vs can’t trust the benchmarks, and give our predictions for the future of the agentic coding market. First we have to highlight GPT-5.5 from OpenAI. In our view, GPT-5.5 is now materially better at some tasks than all other models. We believe that GPT-5.5 has arrived at the frontier. This is a huge change from November when Opus 4.5 was released. At that time, and for the 6 months since, OpenAI’s coding model was not world class in most metrics, leading to Opus being our daily driver. GPT-5.5 is now integrated in our daily work. Meet the Models There’s been at least one major lab releasing a new checkpoint purpose-built for coding every week for the past 3 months. GLM-5.1, Qwen3.6-Plus, Kimi K2.6, Composer 2, and Gemini 3.1 Pro all emphasize “agentic coding,” “long-horizon tasks,” or similar capabilities in their headlines. February was a particularly busy month. Source: SemiAnalysis Tokenomics Dashboard New checkpoints are cool, but entirely new pre-trains are what really get the people going. Heading into April, the San Francisco rumor mill was ablaze with talk about Capybara and Spud. These are codenames for Anthropic and OpenAI’s newest pre-trains. With the release of GPT-5.5 yesterday, we now have something concrete to discuss. GPT 5.5 GPT-5.5 is the first public release based on “Spud”. As OpenAI’s first new pre-train since the failed GPT-4.5, expectations are obviously high. And despite both NVIDIA and OpenAI claiming with precise language that the model was “trained” on a 100k GB200 NVL72 cluster, this “training” is post-training (RL) only. Pre-training is still on Hopper. OpenAI’s flagship model has historically been cheaper than Anthropic’s, but at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output tokens, GPT-5.5’s API price will be 2x more expensive than GPT-5.4 and slightly more expensive than Opus 4.7. The API went live this morning after a brief ChatGPT/Codex-only window due to safety concerns. We’ve been testing the model via Codex and API during an alpha testing period and describe that experience later in this article. Like all their other models, OpenAI will also be offering a priority tier for GPT-5.5 priced at 2.5x the standard rate. Figuring out how to charge users more money for faster tokens is becoming increasingly important, and it’s worth clarifying that priority is totally different from fast mode. Fast mode just makes some vague guarantees like “2.5x faster for 6x the price,” whereas priority makes more conservative, concrete SLAs (e.g. > 50 tokens/sec > 99% of the time). Both Anthropic and OpenAI offer fast mode and priority tiers, but we think Opus 4.6 Fast is the only SKU that’s gained real traction. Separately, OpenAI also offers GPT-5.3-Codex-Spark, but that’s a totally different model built to run on Cerebras. Specifically, it is a distilled version of GPT-5.3. There’s a big difference between offering faster tokens via running smaller batch sizes, changing the reasoning depth, and routing requests to a priority queue without changing the underlying model (priority and fast mode) vs running a dumber, smaller model (codex spark). Source: SemiAnalysis Also released is GPT-5.5 Pro, which is only available via ChatGPT and API. It’s meant for scientific research or long range reasoning tasks instead of everyday agentic work. GPT-5.5 Pro earned SOTA scores on BrowseComp and FrontierMath, and is priced at the same $30/180 as GPT-5.4 Pro. We expect to see more announcements about GPT-5.5 Pro making scientific discoveries soon. Both the standard and pro models offer different levels of reasoning: xhigh, high, medium, low, and non-reasoning, which is a tradeoff between cost vs capability. As has been clear since the release of strawberry/o1, higher reasoning levels lead to better outputs but require more tokens and users have to wait longer for a response. Relatedly, OpenAI advertised in their model card that GPT-5.5 scores higher on benchmarks than 5.4 while simultaneously using less tokens. In other words, it’s more “token efficient.” This is an extremely important concept to understand, and we believe it will become a major talking point this year. As we explained and quantified to Tokenomics model subscribers last week, cost per task, not cost per token, is the true north star metric that determines model pricing. Mythos may be 5x more expensive than Opus on a per token basis, but much of that price increase is nullified because Mythos can solve the same problem using fewer tokens. It may also be a faster end to end response. Source: OpenAI Opus 4.7 This all comes a short week after Anthropic’s release of Claude Opus 4.7, a drop-in replacement for Claude Opus 4.6. Opus has been the daily driver for most of SemiAnalysis, and Opus 4.7 is a small improvement. With improved scores on many benchmarks and predictably good vibes, but not a step change, 4.7 has been reluctantly adopted by our team members. Why? Fast mode does not exist yet. For the first time, we have found that many of our engineers are willing to sacrifice a bit of quality (but not too much) for faster speed, claiming that the 2.5x faster for 6x the price tradeoff lets them hit “flow state”. Source: of our frustration (i.e. Dylan on X) In practice, the noticeable changes moving from Opus 4.6 → Opus 4.7 have been from features/functionality rather than raw performance. In general, these models have gotten so good that most day-to-day tasks are accomplished successfully, with our engineers’ criticisms of a code edit or PR being more about style, approach, architectural decisions, and token efficiency (i.e. speed) rather than success on functional tests. It is increasingly rare for any of these coding models to go haywire and botch a commit completely. As a result, the noticeable changes in this transition are: High-resolution image support, and a clear increase in RL training objectives that include the use of screenshots for frontend styling rather than running tests programmatically via headless browsers and tools like playwright An “xhigh” reasoning effort option that slots in between “high” and “max” on the hierarchy of effort (i.e. how much time the model is going to spend reasoning about a task, described earlier) Thinking content is omitted by default. Of course, you still get charged for these tokens, but you have to opt in to see them. Task budgets (in beta, and API only) where the model is given a suggestion on how efficiently to complete a task. If the model is given a task budget that is too restrictive, it can take shortcuts or refuse. This is different from max_tokens, which is a hard restriction on output length Updated token counting, the most critical change when it comes to pricing. 4.7 uses a new tokenizer, which trades off improved performance via more granular token counting for more total token usage. They admit directly that this will lead to increases up to 35% in token usage. Implicitly, this is a 35% increase in price! On model behavior changes, the biggest thing we have noticed in our testing is how 4.7 is using fewer tool calls by default, and using reasoning more. The jury is still out on the benefits here, but in general we don’t like it. Anthropic suggests raising the reasoning effort from high to xhigh or max to increase tool usage. And it seems that our users are doing exactly this in order to let the model bring in enough context to successfully complete a complex task or form a complete multi-step plan. Not exactly the token efficiency tradeoff claimed in the announcement. Notably, many people have been accusing Anthropic of intentionally degrading the 4.6 model on the lead up to the 4.7 release. Anthropic has categorically denied these claims, but multiple engineers at SemiAnalysis independently said that over the last few weeks the changes in 4.6 performance have made them “feel a little schizo”. And of course, they were right. On April 23, a week after the Opus 4.7 release, Anthropic posted a postmortem detailing three bugs that they found in March/April. All three were present for weeks, and affected basically all users of Claude Code. One of the bugs is trivial, two are interesting, and all are real. When the harness is part of the product, the model gets blamed. Source: Anthropic Postmortem Notably the three timelines are March 4 to April 7, March 26 to April 10, and April 16 to April 20. This is weeks and weeks of bugs going unnoticed. Bugs that were introduced by Claude, and likely root-caused by Claude. Live by the sword, die by the sword. DeepSeek V4 The long awaited DeepSeek v4 drop is here. DeepSeek took the world by storm last year with its R1 release and since then there have been legitimate questions in the AI community about whether open source models will commoditize intelligence. For those keeping score at home, DeepSeek crashed the market so hard that CEOs were scrambling to explain Jevons paradox. This seems to have played out quite clearly in the 16 months since, with the Great GPU Shortage now upon us. V4 is an improvement over V3, but it didn’t crash the market today. That said, the achievements of DeepSeek should not be discounted. They open-sourced the weights, a detailed technical report, and updated libraries such as DeepEP, DeepGEMM, and FlashMLA that are widely used by labs around the world. Ironically, DeepSeek is helping American open source AI stay alive. This release includes two models: DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash. The former is 1.6T total / 49B active, and the latter is 284B total / 13B active. Pro is a step up from V3, which was 671B total / 37B active, while Flash is a step down. We believe that both these architectures are still meaningfully behind their closed-source counterparts on the frontier in terms of both total and active parameter counts. We detail more about how we model the architectures of leading closed source frontier models in our Tokenomics model. The core advancement of V4 over V3 is a move from a 128k context window to 1M context. As a result, all of the main technical advancements are focused on long context performance. These include: Compressed Sparse Attention (CSA) Heavily Compressed Attention (HCA) Manifold-Constrained Hyper-Connections (mHC) And result in the following claim: “In the one-million-token context setting, DeepSeek-V4-Pro requires only 27% of single-token inference FLOPs and 10% of KV cache compared with DeepSeek-V3.2.” That’s a 90% reduction in KV Cache, way more impactful than Google’s TurboQuant paper last month! NAND Flash investors, watch out. On benchmarks, DeepSeek did not feel that standard benchmarks were good at capturing real-world task capability, so they introduced their own set of agentic benchmarks to measure how V4 compared against other SOTA models: Chinese writing, retrieval augmented search, a suite of white-collar tasks with long horizons, and coding. V4 Pro was able to compete with top models on all these tasks but lags behind in key areas. For instance, on especially difficult Chinese writing tasks, Claude Opus 4.7 still beats DeepSeek V4 Pro. Claude mogs Chinese models in it’s own language. Unfortunately, using public announcements on model performance benchmarks as a proxy for real world performance is unreliable. Conflicting incentives cause these labs to publish certain benchmarks and not others. Like this example, where DeepSeek takes a shot at the Kimi and GLM APIs: Source: DeepSeek V4 Technical Report This is the reason why the SemiAnalysis Tokenomics Dashboard tracks all major model performance claims, pricing, release dates, usage disclosures in an un…

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied late Friday reports that a meeting was to be held with representatives from the United States in Islamabad. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, had already arrived in the city to discuss with Pakistani authorities the conflict that erupted at the end of February, following an offensive launched jointly by Israel and Iran. "No meeting is planned between Iran and the United States. Iran's observations will be conveyed to Pakistan," said its spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, in a brief message posted on his social media accounts. We have arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, for an official visit. Foreign Minister Araghchi will be meeting with high-level Pakistani officials as part of their ongoing mediation efforts to end the war of aggression imposed by the United States and restore peace in our region. No meeting… pic.twitter.com/1vP51xIoep — Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) April 24, 2026 Baqaei described Araqchi's "official visit" to the Pakistani capital as part of the "mediation efforts and good offices" being undertaken by high-ranking Pakistani officials to end the "war of aggression imposed by the United States and restore peace in our region." An Iranian delegation led by Araqchi was received by his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, and the Chief of Army Staff, Asim Munir, key figures in the negotiations between Washington and Tehran, as well as…

A longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and a fundraiser involved in soliciting donations for his White House ballroom were named to the board of his social media company.

Iran says its Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is already in Pakistan but that there is no meeting planned between Iran and the US.

Ranieri believed that the love and support of the Roma fans would be eternal, but his relationship with Gasperini was not meant to last.

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, is going on maternity leave, prompting a rotation of press briefing duties among senior officials.

On the New York stock market on the 24th, semiconductor-related stocks and other companies with promising performance in the ongoing AI development race attracted buying orders, leading to record highs in the Nasdaq stock index and other indicators.

Another day, another big humiliation for William Lai Ching-te. The Taiwanese leader effectively had to cancel a visit to eSwatini, the island’s last partner in Africa, for the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession to the throne and his 58th birthday. Taiwan said the visit was “postponed” after the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar cancelled their previously approved overflight permission without warning. Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)...

Gaza civil defence says Israeli strikes kill 13

Tasnim reported that the Liberian-flagged vessel has repeatedly entered US ports over the past six months

Iran’s foreign minister has already arrived in the country, state media reported. He was believed to be carrying a written response to a U. S. proposal to end the war.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court's ruling that the US president had exceeded his legal authority.

After two years of fighting, the Gaza region of Palestine will hold elections on the 25th, the first in 20 years. The outcome is being closely watched as it will also reflect public opinion regarding Hamas, the Islamist organization that effectively controls the region and has engaged in conflict with Israel.

The Treasury Department also targeted a top independent Chinese refinery that it said was a major buyer of Iranian petroleum.

Israeli forces killed six Hezbollah fighters in an exchange of fire in the area of Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon.

The legal case against Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York has entered a critical phase. Judge Alvin Hellerstein initiated the process of appointing federal public defenders (CJA) for both defendants, after their private legal team requested to withdraw due to unpaid fees. The private defense team, led by attorney Barry Pollack, filed a motion to withdraw from the case. The primary reason is the sanctions imposed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which block Venezuelan government funds intended to cover legal representation. The court determined that Maduro and Flores do not have legitimate personal resources within the United States to maintain a private defense. Pollack argued in previous hearings that the inability to receive payments violates the defendants' constitutional right to choose their own attorney, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. However, Judge Hellerstein rejected dismissing the charges on this basis and opted for the route of public defenders, as is the case with any defendant who cannot afford a private defense. The same situation applies to Cilia Flores. Trump says he continues to receive "millions" of barrels of Venezuelan oil and reiterates his support for the interim government. This development occurred after the deadlines set by the judge for resolving...

The Cupra Born takes a significant step in its evolution with an update that reinforces its sporty and technological character. Designed in Barcelona and produced in Germany, the 100% electric model adopts the brand's new visual language, featuring a sharper front end with the "Shark Nose" design and a Matrix LED lighting signature with triangular graphics that define its identity. At the rear, the continuous light strip now incorporates the illuminated logo for the first time, enhancing its modern presence. The interior also receives an upgrade. The perceived quality improves with new panels and sustainable materials such as recycled fabrics, while digitalization takes center stage with a 12.9-inch central display and a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster. In addition, the redesigned steering wheel features physical buttons, improving ergonomics during driving. In terms of mechanics, the range offers three rear-wheel drive options. These range from a 190 hp version designed for everyday use, to an intermediate variant with 231 hp and greater range, and finally, the top-of-the-line VZ model, which delivers 326 hp. The VZ model accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 5.6 seconds and offers a range of up to 631 kilometers, positioning it as one of the most complete electric vehicles in terms of the balance between performance and efficiency. The driving experience also evolves with technologies such as the One Pedal Driving system, which maximizes energy regeneration, and the e-Launch mode for…

Jake Reiner describes his parents as the "center" of his life and says that his brother being at the "center" of their loss is "almost too impossible to process." Sign up for the Breaking News US email to receive newsletter alerts in your inbox. The elder son of acclaimed director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, delivered a eulogy for his parents, who were "the center" of his life, in a Substack essay published Friday, four months after the couple was found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home. Nick Reiner, the couple's younger son, who had long struggled with drug addiction and mental illness, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with their deaths, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Continue reading...

Ahead of a Trump-Xi summit, Washington widens its crackdown on secretive oil and chemical trade between Beijing and Tehran.

HONG KONG – DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup that shook global markets last year, launched preliminary versions of its latest major update on Friday, featuring an innovation that could shield it from its biggest weakness as the rivalry in AI between China and the United States intensifies. Users were eagerly awaiting DeepSeek's V4 to see how it compares to US competitors like ChatGPT from OpenAI, Claude from Anthropic, and Gemini from Google. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have accused the Chinese company of building its technology unfairly based on theirs. DeepSeek claims that the new open-source V4 models, which include "pro" and "flash" versions, offer significant improvements in knowledge, reasoning, and its "agentic" capabilities, the ability to perform complex tasks and workflows autonomously. Another major change is that the new models run on computer chips manufactured by the Chinese technology giant Huawei, rather than by US chip manufacturers like Nvidia, which are subject to export controls by the US government. V4 follows V3, the AI model launched by DeepSeek at the end of 2024. However, it was DeepSeek's AI model specializing in "reasoning," called R1, that surprised the markets with its launch in January 2025. DeepSeek stated that it was…

Two silver and four bronze medals were awarded to the athletes