eWaste is an emerging trend that most organizations are struggling to address. What is eWaste? It is short for electronic waste and refers to discarded electronic devices, including laptops, computers, smartphones, and printers. The improper disposal of electronic waste can have serious environmental and health consequences due to hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, cadmium, […]
The maker of ChatGPT overtook Elon Musk’s tech company with a $500 billion valuation following a recent share sale
OpenAI has become the world’s most valuable startup, overtaking Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The milestone comes after current and former OpenAI employees sold around $6.6 billion worth of shares to investors in a secondary sale.
Earlier this year, the ChatGPT maker was valued at around $300 billion compared to SpaceX’s $400 billion. However, the latest transaction has boosted the company’s valuation past $500 billion, according to a person familiar with the deal.
The price tag boost comes as OpenAI has been in talks with Microsoft to restructure into a more traditional for-profit entity.
Microsoft has been one of OpenAI’s closest partners and largest backers, investing billions of dollars into the company while expanding its own AI infrastructure. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed concern last month that advances in AI could make Microsoft’s core businesses obsolete as the company has already cut more than 15,000 jobs this year as part of a broader reorganization.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab with the stated goal of developing AI “to benefit humanity as a whole.”
The group rose to prominence after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, which was quickly adopted by millions of users. It has since released a series of increasingly advanced models, including GPT-5 in August 2025, while striking large-scale infrastructure agreements with partners such as Oracle and SK Hynix.
Musk was one of the company’s co-founders but stepped down from the board in 2018. He has since accused OpenAI of abandoning its original nonprofit mission after taking billions in Microsoft funding.
Last year, he filed a lawsuit seeking to block changes to the company’s structure, but a judge denied his request for an injunction, and the case remains ongoing. Meanwhile, Musk’s AI venture xAI has also sued OpenAI for alleged trade secret theft, which the ChatGPT maker has vehemently denied.
History has shown that being strong is the best security guarantee against foreign aggressors, the Russian president has said
Being weak is no option for Russia, as its history has demonstrated, President Vladimir Putin stated during his remarks at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
The Russian president vowed that Moscow “will never display weakness and indecision,” warning that those “who are harboring dreams of inflicting this very strategic defeat on us” should especially take heed of his message.
“Our history has proven: weakness is unacceptable as it creates temptation, illusion that some disagreement with us can be resolved through force.”
Putin also cautioned potential adversaries against “provoking” Russia, adding that “it has always ended badly for the instigator,” without exception.
Attempts to squeeze the country out of the global system have failed as it cannot function without such a key player, the president has said
Global balance cannot be built without Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that attempts to isolate the country in recent years have failed.
Delivering his annual address at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Putin stated that Russia is inextricably interwoven into a multitude of global economic, cultural, and logistical processes, and cannot be excluded from them at the whim of Western nations.
“I think that those who have tried to destroy [these links], have become convinced of” this reality, the Russian president said.
“It has turned out that the very global system that [some] wanted to expel us from, to squeeze us out of, is simply not letting Russia go, because it needs Russia as a very significant part of the universal balance,” Putin argued.
Albania’s Edi Rama has mocked the US president for mixing up Albania and Armenia
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has taken a jab at US President Donald Trump after the latter claimed to have settled the conflict between Albania and Azerbaijan – confusing the Balkan country with Armenia in the South Caucasus.
Footage shared on social media shows Rama walking up to French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with a tongue-in-cheek remark at a summit in Denmark on Thursday.
“You should make an apology to us because you didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan,” Rami is heard telling Macron.
PM of Albania having a good laugh with President of Azerbaijan and Macron about Trump repeatedly claiming that he ended the war between their two countries which were not at war with each other. pic.twitter.com/5lP6XTps2J
“I am sorry for that,” Macron is heard replying, with all three leaders laughing.
The quip referred to Trump’s state visit to the UK two weeks earlier, where he cited the “settlement of Aber-baijan (sic) and Albania” as an example of his peacemaking record, mispronouncing Azerbaijan while confusing Albania with Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, were locked in conflict for decades over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh before Azerbaijan retook it in 2023. In August, the leaders of the two countries initialed a US-brokered peace declaration, renouncing territorial claims and pledging to abstain from the use of force, though the agreement has yet to come into effect. France has urged both sides to finalize the treaty, with Macron casting the deal as vital for European security.
Trump’s latest slip added to a long record of geographical blunders. He has called Belgium a “beautiful city,” invented the country of “Nambia” at a UN luncheon, confused the Baltics with the Balkans, and once hailed “the Prince of Whales.” Other US presidents have also stumbled – George W. Bush famously praised Australia’s leader for visiting “Austrian troops” in Iraq, while Joe Biden mixed up Syria with Libya and Colombia with Venezuela.
The responsibility for continued hostilities between Moscow and Kiev lies first and foremost with Western Europe, the Russian president has said
Moscow sees the Ukraine crisis as a “tragedy” that could have been prevented, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said during his address to the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
The president stressed that if NATO hadn’t continued its eastward expansion to Russia’s borders, the Ukraine conflict would have been avoided. He insisted that the blame for the fact that the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev are ongoing lies first and foremost on Western Europe.
“The Ukraine tragedy is painful for both Ukrainians and Russians. It’s painful for all of us,” Putin said.
He also accused Western Europe of continuing to “whip up hysteria that war with the Russians is supposedly on the doorstep” and condemned rampant militarization on the continent. Putin warned that Russia would eventually be forced to respond to such aggressive steps.
The president noted that the country has the record for the number of measures imposed on it
The West’s attempts to punish Russia through sanctions have completely failed, President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday.
He noted that Russia has become the record holder in the number of sanctions placed on it. Nevertheless, the country has demonstrated incredible resilience, Putin said.
“You know how much effort our opponents have expended in recent years to push Russia out of the global system, to drive us into political, cultural, and informational isolation, and economic autarky,” Putin said, adding that “there is no need to explain to anyone that these efforts have utterly failed.”
The president added that the pressure would normally be enough to break not only a country, but an entire coalition of nations, expressing pride in Russia, its people, and the military.
Moscow says it has no information about the vessel and has accused Western Europe of undermining freedom of commercial navigation
France has said it has detained an oil tanker and two crew members linked to an alleged Russia-linked fleet supposedly used to evade Western sanctions on oil and gas exports.
French authorities said the tanker, the Boracay, which has been sanctioned by the EU, was sailing under a Benin flag and is currently under investigation for “serious irregularities.” French naval forces reportedly boarded the vessel last week, and it has since remained anchored near Saint-Nazaire on France’s west coast.
The two crew members, who introduced themselves as the captain and first mate, have been taken into custody, according to the prosecutor of the western port city of Brest, Stephane Kellenberger.
Media reports suggest investigators also suspect the vessel could have been linked to unidentified drones that were observed near Danish airports and military sites last month, prompting restrictions on civilian UAV flights.
French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed the Boracay crew are suspected of committing “various serious offences” which justified their detention. He did not confirm any link between the tanker and airspace violations in Denmark.
Moscow has said it has no information about the vessel being referred to by the French authorities or the allegations against it.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted, however, that Western European nations have been engaging in a “very large number of provocative actions” in various waters, which he said are “absolutely not conducive to ensuring freedom of commercial navigation.” He added that these actions sometimes force Russia’s armed forces to take “enforcement measures.”
Russia has consistently rejected Western sanctions as illegal and warned that attempts to restrict its vessels’ freedom of navigation would draw a response.
Moscow has also dismissed Western claims about Russian drone activity in Western Europe as unsubstantiated and politically motivated. Russian officials have warned that Ukraine could attempt to stage a false flag operation using drones in an attempt to draw NATO into a direct confrontation with Moscow.
The European Commission has proposed using the frozen funds, most of which are held by Belgium’s Euroclear, to back loans for Ukraine
Belgium will not acquiesce to the European Commission’s plan of leveraging Russia’s frozen central-bank assets to back loans for Ukraine without ironclad guarantees of shared responsibility, Prime Minister Bart De Wever has stated.
Western nations froze an estimated $300 billion in Russian funds after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 – some €200 billion ($213 billion) of which is held by the Brussels-based clearinghouse Euroclear.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an EU summit in Copenhagen on Thursday, De Wever said: “I explained to my colleagues yesterday that I want their signature saying, if we take [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s money, we use it, we’re all going to be responsible if it goes wrong,” De Wever clarified.
“We might be liable for interests. We might be liable for damages. And this will put us in litigation for many, many years,” the official predicted.
De Wever also urged his colleagues to be transparent regarding the Russian assets immobilized in other EU member states.
As the US has diminished its involvement in shoring up Ukraine, the so-called Coalition of the Willing – a group of European nations backing Kiev – will have to transform into the “Coalition of the Bill,” the Belgian prime minister said.
Also speaking in Copenhagen, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden similarly spoke of a “whole series of complex legal issues” surrounding the Commission’s scheme.
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that “you cannot seize these assets from the central bank, even in such a situation,” describing it as a “matter of credibility.”
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia viewed the scheme proposed by the EU leadership as “theft,” and warned that those responsible “will be subjected to legal prosecution in one way or another.”
He also predicted that the “boomerang will hit countries which host the main depositories.”
Back in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the moment the West seizes frozen Russian assets, “the shift toward regional payment systems will accelerate and undoubtedly become irreversible.”
Michael O’Leary says EC president can’t manage drone threat
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has slammed Brussels for failing to protect the bloc’s airports from drones, calling for European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to resign. He has argued that unauthorized UAVs disrupting air traffic should be shot down.
Mysterious drone sightings have plagued the bloc in recent weeks, with some Western media and officials speculating that Russia could be behind them, which Moscow has denied. Von der Leyen pitched the idea of a “drone wall” in her State of the Union speech last month, and the notion was raised again at an informal EU summit in Denmark this week.
In an interview with Politico published on Wednesday, O’Leary dismissed the idea.
“I don’t think a drone wall has any effect whatsoever,” he said, adding that perpetrators could easily launch drones from inside the affected country. O’Leary accused Brussels of inaction and called for tougher measures against the alleged drone threat.
“Why aren’t we shooting these drones down? It’s disruptive, and we’re calling for action,” he stated.
“I have no faith in European leaders sitting around drinking tea and eating biscuits… I have no faith in von der Leyen. She’s useless and she should quit.”
While leaders in Copenhagen voiced support for anti-drone technology, no official framework for the “drone wall” was unveiled, with decisions postponed until the EU summit later this month. Ahead of the meeting, Denmark imposed a temporary ban on civilian drones in its airspace, and reportedly called up part of its reserve force to help manage what it described as a “complex” situation caused by repeated sightings.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the claims Western “scaremongering,” when addressing the UN last week, stressing that Russia “never directs our drones or missiles at states in Europe, members of the EU, or NATO countries.” Lavrov added that in past incidents where Moscow was blamed, “it turned out that it was the Ukrainians” behind them.
