Musk's father seeking Russian refuge for S.African farmers

Artificial intelligence company OpenAI said Tuesday that it would release its latest cybersecurity model to a limited number of partners, after rival Anthropic also restricted release of a new system that uncovered thousands of vulnerabilities.

The restricted releases by two of the biggest names in the field reflect fears of an AI-enabled arms race between defenders and hackers, who could use the latest tools to cause havoc.

"Our goal is to make these tools as widely available as possible while preventing misuse," OpenAI wrote in a blog post.

Anthropic offered its latest Claude Mythos model to just 40 major tech players last week in an initiative dubbed Project Glasswing.

OpenAI's GPT-5.4-Cyber will be available to "the highest tiers" of people and organisations in its Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) scheme.

That programme encompasses "thousands of verified individual defenders and hundreds of teams responsible for defending critical software," the company said, without naming any of the partners.

Although not specifically trained for the field, Anthropic's Mythos wowed many cybersecurity experts by uncovering vulnerabilities in widely-used software.

Some of them had gone unnoticed for years or even decades.

Media reported Friday that major American bank chiefs met US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to discuss the system's dangers to the financial sector.

The Mythos release followed several months of excitement in Silicon Valley about generative AI's growing capability in producing and evaluating computer code.

Those same capabilities enable the models to find bugs and security flaws that could be exploited -- although developers attempt to build in safeguards so their publicly available models will refuse malicious requests.

GPT-5.4-Cyber is "trained to be cyber-permissive" so that defenders can use it to test their own systems for vulnerabilities without encountering as many refusals, OpenAI said.

Anthropic said as it unveiled Mythos that its strict access limits were designed to give defenders a head start in fixing vulnerabilities before they could be exploited by attackers.

"We don’t think it’s practical or appropriate to centrally decide who gets to defend themselves," OpenAI said Tuesday.

"Instead, we aim to enable as many legitimate defenders as possible" using "systems that can validate trustworthy users and use cases in more automated and more objective ways," it added.

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President Donald Trump has indicated peace talks with Tehran could resume this week, as the United States turned the screws Wednesday with a naval blockade it said had cut off maritime trade with Iran.

Trump's hint came as Israel and Lebanon agreed to open direct negotiations after a rare face-to-face meeting in Washington, with Israel's war with Hezbollah ongoing despite the ceasefire with Tehran.

Stocks rose and crude dropped on hopes for a deal to get oil flowing again through the Strait of Hormuz -- choked by Iranian forces since the US-Israeli offensive began in late February, and now the focus of a US blockade.

But the twin diplomatic push remained fragile, with Lebanese state media reporting fresh Israeli strikes south of Beirut, while Iran-backed Hezbollah -- hostile to any negotiations -- fired dozens of rockets at Israel.

Trump told the New York Post on Tuesday that a new round of talks with Iran could take place in Pakistan "over the next two days," after a marathon first negotiating session ended without a breakthrough.

In a FOX Business interview due to be aired on Wednesday, the US leader declared the war "very close to being over".

Senior Pakistani sources told AFP that Islamabad was working to bring the sides together for a second round of talks, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif kicked off a four-day diplomatic blitz to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

In the meantime Washington has been pressing hard for an end to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, fearing it could jeopardise its two-week ceasefire with Iran and a broader settlement of the conflict.

Lebanon was drawn into the war when Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Iran, triggering an Israeli ground invasion and deadly campaign of strikes.

The countries' ambassadors met in Washington on Tuesday in their first direct, high-level talks since 1993, mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Israel's envoy Yechiel Leiter hailed "a wonderful exchange" between parties "united in liberating Lebanon" from Hezbollah -- although his Lebanese counterpart Nada Hamadeh Moawad was less effusive, calling the talks "constructive" but saying she had pressed for a ceasefire.

The State Department said "all sides agreed to launch direct negotiations at a mutually agreed time and venue."

Israel is occupying parts of southern Lebanon and has resisted any pause in fighting that leaves Hezbollah intact, arguing that the group remains the central obstacle to peace.

- Pressure on Tehran -

While diplomatic efforts between the United States and Iran have been stop-start, Washington has sought to turn up the pressure on Tehran by blockading its ports.

US Central Command said on social media overnight that its blockade had been "fully implemented" and that American forces "have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea."

The picture based on maritime tracking data Tuesday was less clear-cut -- indicating that several ships sailing from Iranian ports had crossed the Hormuz Strait despite the blockade.

Analysts say Trump is aiming not only to choke off Iranian revenue but also to pressure China, the biggest buyer of Iran's oil, to push Tehran to reopen the strait.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was hosting Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, with both countries pledging to work together towards de-escalation in the Middle East.

- 'Grand bargain' -

The decades-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program lies at the heart of the US-Iran talks process -- with Vice President JD Vance saying Tuesday the Islamic republic was being offered a "grand bargain".

Trump has insisted any deal must permanently bar Iran from becoming nuclear-armed. He launched the war arguing that Tehran was rushing towards the completion of an atomic bomb, an assertion not backed by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Tehran has always insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

Reports said the United States sought a 20-year suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment programme during the Islamabad talks, and that Iran, in turn, proposed suspending its nuclear activity for five years -- an offer US officials rejected.

At an event in the US state of Georgia on Tuesday, Vance said Trump had pledged to "make Iran thrive" if it committed to "not having a nuclear weapon".

"That's the kind of Trumpian grand bargain that the president has put on the table," Vance said, adding: "Man, we're going to keep on negotiating and try to make it happen." 

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Peru's Keiko Fujimori has run for the presidency three times and lost three times -- in a country that has had eight presidents in the last decade alone.

But on this, her fourth attempt, the daughter of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori may have a last best chance at power, riding a right‑wing wave sweeping Latin America.

Ballots are still being counted from Sunday's poll, which was marred by a series of logistical foul-ups, but the 50‑year‑old is ahead and the only candidate virtually assured of reaching the runoff.

Poised and polished, with a sharp pantsuit and a perfect smile, Fujimori looks like someone raised for politics.

The divorced mother of two has been a congresswoman and party leader. She became first lady at 19, after her mother denounced her father for corruption.

While her rivals stumble through speeches, Fujimori speaks with ease. She looks every inch the political operative.

Educated in the United States, she has dealt with emperors, queens and presidents, most notably her father.

- Dynasty -

Alberto Fujimori ruled Peru through the turbulent 1990s and became one of its most consequential and polarizing leaders.

The son of Japanese migrants, he won praise for crushing hyperinflation and defeating the Maoist Shining Path insurgency.

He was later disgraced, exiled and jailed for running death squads and embezzling millions of dollars from state funds.

For decades, the Fujimori name has helped and haunted Keiko, a political inheritance comparable to the Bushes, Bhuttos or Sukarnos.

It gave her an identity, a loyal support base, vast resources and instant recognition. She may be the only one of 35 candidates known by every Peruvian.

"She does not have to fight to be known. She is already a brand," said political scientist Jorge Aragon.

This fourth bid "may well be the one that works," he said.

Alberto died in September 2024, making this Keiko's first campaign without her father. But that does not mean he is absent.

Keiko frequently refers to him. Her offices are filled with paintings and busts in his likeness.

She visited his grave on election morning.

"I miss him," Keiko told AFP. "But everywhere I go, people remind me of him and tell me anecdotes, which is the loveliest thing."

"What I love most is when they say, 'Her father came and the dog bit him' or 'her father came and I stepped on him.'"

- The 'enemy' -

Millions of Peruvians hold darker memories of Alberto and refuse to vote for a Fujimori.

Keiko has also been jailed multiple times in relation to corruption allegations.

Keiko believes that opposition to her family has been an organizing principle of a series of presidents who beat her at the ballot box.

"In the last 25 years, we have been governed by anti‑Fujimori governments," she said, sparing only Alan Garcia.

"All the others focused on insults and generating hatred and division."

Now, with crime surging and nostalgia for iron‑fist rule growing, she clearly believes the Fujimori name is an asset.

"I believe that time and history are giving my father the place he deserves," she said.

"When Peru is bleeding from criminals and extortionists, what they are asking for is a Fujimori. Well, here I am."

She has promised to restore order in her first 100 days.

Fujimori has also changed her tone. Once openly confrontational, she says she now favours consensus and debate.

"I have made mistakes," she said, "in being very confrontational."

Sometimes, these old instincts still surface. On election night, with conservatives polling strongly, she declared the leftist "enemy" defeated.

If she wins, consensus and coalition-building will matter. Several Peruvian presidents have been impeached, ousted or jailed after clashing with Congress.

"In future when people think of Fujimori" she hopes they think of both her and her father.

"The bar is set high, and I hope to clear it," she said.

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The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Hezbollah fires on Israel -

Two Israeli strikes on Wednesday hit vehicles south of Beirut, state media reported, while Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel, hours after Lebanon and Israel agreed in Washington to hold direct negotiations. Israel also issued a new evacuation warning to residents in south Lebanon.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported separate Israeli strikes on two vehicles, one in the seafront town of Saadiyat and another on a coastal highway in neighbouring Jiyeh, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Beirut and outside Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

The Israeli military meanwhile detected "approximately 30 launches" by Hezbollah militants towards Israel since the early hours, a spokesman told AFP.

- Stocks boost -

Stocks mainly rose and crude oil prices dropped again Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said a second round of US-Iran talks could take place "over the next two days", fuelling hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

South Korea's Kospi index jumped more than two percent and was just a few hundred points short of its all-time peak. London and Frankfurt were stable. West Texas Intermediate traded at about $90.39 a barrel and Brent North Sea Crude at $94.62 a barrel.

- Pakistan shuttle diplomacy -

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif embarked on a four-day diplomatic blitz to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey on Wednesday, his office said, as the country engages in feverish diplomacy ahead of potential new US-Iranian peace talks.

- Iranian sailors repatriated -

Sri Lanka has repatriated 238 Iranian sailors stranded in the South Asian country after their warship was torpedoed by a US submarine in the Indian Ocean on March 4, a minister told AFP.

- War 'close to over': Trump -

Trump said the war with Iran is "very close to being over" in an interview with FOX Business's "Mornings with Maria" to air on Wednesday.

- 'Completely halted' -

US Central Command said American forces "have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea".

Maritime tracking data on Tuesday indicated that several ships that had visited Iran's ports passed through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the United States imposing a blockade on Iranian shipping.

Analysts say Trump is aiming not only to choke off Iranian revenue but also to pressure China, the biggest buyer of Iran's oil, to push Tehran to reopen the crucial strait.

- China-Russia meeting -

China's President Xi Jinping met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Chinese state media reported, as a string of leaders affected by the war flock to Beijing.

Lavrov told a news conference Russia could "compensate" for China's energy shortages as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is choked by the war, Russian state media reported.

- US presses Iran on nukes -

US Vice President JD Vance said Trump told Iran that the United States would "make Iran thrive" if it committed to "not having a nuclear weapon".

At the heart of any renewed US-Iran diplomacy is the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, after Trump launched the war saying the Islamic republic was developing an atomic bomb -- which it denies.

"That's the kind of Trumpian grand bargain that the president has put on the table. Man, we're going to keep on negotiating and try to make it happen," Vance told an event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA.

- 'Maintaining maximum pressure' -

The US Treasury Department said Tuesday it does not plan to renew a temporary easing of sanctions on Iranian oil that aimed to cushion war-related supply shocks.

"The short-term authorization permitting the sale of Iranian oil already stranded at sea is set to expire in a few days and will not be renewed," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

It added that it is "maintaining maximum pressure" on Tehran.

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Shares in the French fashion groups Kering and Hermes plunged Wednesday after both reported sales that missed analyst expectations, in part due to the Middle East war, which has hit business in a key region.

At around 10:00 am, Kering stock was off 10.1 percent at 251.80 euros on the Paris stock exchange, while Hermes fell 10.5 percent to 1,601.00 euros.

Kering's first-quarter revenues were down three percent at comparable currency rates, dragged down again by its flagship Gucci brand, where sales dropped eight percent.

While that was an improvement from the 10 percent slide seen in the last quarter of 2025, analysts had pencilled in a decline of just six to seven percent.

The performance puts more pressure on Kering's new chief Luca de Meo, installed last year with the mandate of reviving Gucci under its Georgian creative director Demna.

De Meo is hosting a widely anticipated strategic presentation in Florence, Italy, on Thursday dubbed the "ReconKering".

"While the group's trajectory is clearly moving in the right direction under the new CEO, the recovery at Gucci is not yet showing up in the figures, and the timing remains uncertain," Jean Danjou, an analyst at Oddo BHF, said in a research note.

Kering also warned that Middle East revenues had been hit by the war unleashed in late February by US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with retail revenue falling 11 percent in the first quarter despite growth in the first two months of the year.

- 'Everything stopped' -

Weaker Mideast sales -- and the loss of high-spending tourists from the region to Europe due to travel disruptions -- hit Hermes as well.

Its sales were down 1.4 percent at 4.1 billion euros ($4.8 billion), reflecting what it called a "significant" currency hit of 290 million euros as the strong euro made its coveted handbags and other items more expensive.

Excluding the currency impact, revenues were up 5.6 percent in the quarter, below market expectations.

Growth for leather goods -- Hermes's biggest profit generator by far -- was 9.4 percent at constant rates, whereas analysts at Bernstein had expected more than 10 percent, while ready-to-wear sales edged up just 0.4 percent, well below Bernstein's estimate of closer to five percent.

The Mideast war cost Hermes "nearly 1.5 percentage points of growth", chief financial officer Eric du Halgouet told journalists on a conference call.

"We have very good growth in the double digits in January and February, but everything stopped in March because our business was down 40 percent," he said, adding that sales in Britain, Italy and Switzerland had also suffered from lost Middle Eastern clients.

Thomas Chauvet, an analyst at Citi, noted that "Most business segments posted results below expectations."

"However, Hermes continues to outperform its rivals in the luxury sector," he said.

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When Oleksiy Kravchuk joined the Ukrainian military at the start of Russia's invasion in 2022, he fought as a sniper and was known by his military nickname Saint Nicholas.

Wounded in combat in May 2022 in eastern Ukraine, he then started evacuating the dead bodies of colleagues who had been less lucky before being discharged when he reached 60 years old.

Since then he has been retelling his life as a civilian and soldier through theatrical stories told with wiry white figurines made from paper.

"This performance is dedicated to the memory of my comrades who fought in my unit and fell in my unit," he said during a recent performance in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, attended by AFP journalists.

"My comrades saved my life. So this is for them," he told the small audience.

Kravchuk had already been putting on figuring displays while serving on the front.

And when he returned to Lviv after being wounded, his friend who first created the dolls gifted him the white figurines. Kravchuk then created a theatrical performance called Wings, dedicated to his killed colleagues.

On stage, he slowly removes the dolls one-by-one from his weathered leather suitcase. Each represents a character from his life, including soldiers he fought alongside and those who had taught him valuable life lessons.

"The tenderness and the messages conveyed through the puppets are very important," Kravchuk told AFP, saying these messages might help give audiences extra "reason to live."

Soft-spoken Kravchuk, who comes from a family of actors and artists, puts on the show in his own puppet theatre.

"We are fighting not so much, as wise people say, for territory, but first and foremost for our culture and culture is made up of living people, that is what we are fighting for above all else," he said.

"This war will be long, that is the truth we must face. Each of us must do our part where we are," he added.

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In the jagged Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, hundreds of men dug into the rocky bed of the Kunar River searching for a few grams of gold dust as an alternative source of income.

At the foot of imposing peaks, some still covered in snow in April, they toiled near the border with Pakistan to find the valuable glinting specks in a country where wages are low.

Below a village of mud-brick houses and small terraced wheat plots in Kharwalu, Kunar province, they dug into a dry section of the riverbed before sifting through their piles of rocks using river water.

Fifty-year-old Shahzahdah Gollalah was among the gold prospectors, having abandoned construction work a seven-hour drive from his home in Kabul. 

"There are not many job opportunities in the country, and in this way, we have created work for ourselves," said the father of eight. 

But "the gold nuggets we find are usually smaller than a grain of wheat," he added.

Downstream, in Ghaziabad, hundreds of men hacked into the mountain with picks, then carried a sack down on their backs along a steep slope and emptied it onto a sieve to filter gold from the sand. 

Others scooped river water into yellow jerrycans attached to long wooden handles, pouring it over the sieve so that the smaller stones, which may contain gold flakes, slid down onto a mat. A nugget would sometimes appear in a metal pan after two further rounds of sifting.

Gul Ahmad Jan, 35, said he can earn a substantial amount in just a week. 

"We can get up to about one gram of gold," which can fetch up to 8,000 Afghanis ($125), he told AFP.

Afghanistan's resources were rarely exploited during years of conflict, although a Kunar official said gold panning has happened there for more than a decade.

Najibullah Hanif, the province's information chief, said residents learnt the techniques from miners who arrived from gold-rich provinces. 

"Some started to dig with machines, an excavator; some locals came and asked the Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan) to stop them because it destroys the river and the mountains," said Hanafi.

He estimated thousands of people in Kunar were gold panning, using the traditional method allowed by the authorities. 

Afghanistan's resources have attracted domestic and international investors in recent years, with the Taliban authorities promoting mining in various parts of the country. 

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Spanish singer Rosalia spent her early years training in classrooms, rehearsal spaces and small venues across Barcelona as she developed the voice and style that would define her career. 

She has now returned to the city where she honed her craft as a global star with her "Lux" tour.

"Barcelona, I love you madly," she said in Catalan on Monday night, opening the first of four sold-out shows at Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi arena.

The concerts are part of the rollout of her fourth album, “Lux,” a sweeping, spiritual work that does not overlook the flamenco rhythms of her earlier records.

"Thanks for carrying me," the 33-year-old added before breaking into tears as the audience erupted into applause.

The tour which began last month in France will also take her to the United States and Latin America.

Fans packed the arena to see Rosalia, who grew up in the nearby commuter town of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, perform in the city where he first began attracting attention as a student.

"There was already an intention there, a very flamenco way of moving through life -- which is to move with confidence,"  Luis Cabrera, founder of Taller de Musics, the music school where Rosalia enrolled in 2010, just before she turned 18, told AFP.

- 'Always restless' -

Rosalia, hailed for her genre-defying versatility, studied several subjects at the school, including flamenco singing with her mentor, Chiqui de la Linea.

Cabrera recalled Chiqui saying early on that Rosalia’s voice blended ancient flamenco styles with a strikingly modern sound.

Hard-working and deeply engaged in her studies, she already had a clear sense of direction.

"She used to ask a lot of questions, always restless. And when she said 'I want my music to reach millions of people' I was shocked," Cabrera said with a smile at the school, where photos of Rosalia now decorate the walls.

The "Rosalia effect" has since boosted enrolment in the school’s vocal programme, he added.

That same determination is remembered by music journalist and composer Luis Troquel, who closely followed her early years in Barcelona’s music scene.

"She told me she wanted to be a diva, but not in the distant sense. In the sense of an artist who sings on stage, dances, and pays close attention to image." he said.

"And she achieved that, even better than expected," added Troquel, who worked on the lyrics of one of the songs of Rosalia's 2018 breakthrough album "El mal querer" ("Bad love").

- 'Boldness and self-confidence' -

That album, her second, began taking shape during her time at Catalonia’s main public conservatory for higher music education, Barcelona's ESMUC, where Rosalia completed a degree in flamenco singing.

Like all students, she had to complete a final research project and graduation concert.

Rosalia based her project on "Flamenca", a medieval anonymous novel that inspired "El mal querer", which she later performed as her final graduation recital. 

"Everyone still remembers that concert," said ESMUC director general Nuria Sempere, describing Rosalia as a student who was "always focused and had strong family support".

"She had the boldness and self-confidence to take all her influences and present them to the public without any hesitation. That requires a lot of work," Sempere added.

ESMUC offers one place each year to study flamenco singing. Rosalia was awarded the place and now funds a scholarship for future students.

A few years ago, Rosalia returned to the school to give a masterclass on creativity.

"The first piece of advice was this: ‘screw it -- it doesn’t matter, just go for it. You’ll fix it later, but you have to jump in,'" Sempere recalled.

Rosalia did -- and it worked. With two Grammy awards, 11 Latin Grammys and 28 million Instagram followers, she is now impossible to ignore.

"In Spanish music, it’s hard for me to find a phenomenon with the same scale of impact as Rosalia," Troquel said.

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Dutch tech giant ASML, which makes cutting-edge machines to manufacture semiconductor chips, said Wednesday that rapidly expanding AI-related investments had pushed up net profits as it also hiked its sales forecast for 2026.

ASML, Europe's biggest tech firm by market value, is a critical cog in the global economy, as the semiconductors crafted with its tools power everything from smartphones to missiles.

In its latest quarterly earnings statement, the Dutch-based firm reported net profits of 2.76 billion euros ($3.25 billion), compared to 2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025.

"The semiconductor industry's growth outlook continues to solidify, driven by ongoing AI-related infrastructure investments," said the firm's CEO Christophe Fouquet.

The company raised its prediction for full-year sales to between 36-40 billion euros from a previous estimate of 34-39 billion euros.

That forecast range "accommodates potential outcomes of ongoing discussions around export controls", said Fouquet.

ASML has been caught in the crossfire of a tech spat between the United States and China and has previously warned its Chinese sales would "decline significantly" this year.

Washington is leading efforts to curb high-tech exports to China over fears they could be used to bolster the country's military.

Beijing has reacted furiously to the measures, describing them as "technological terrorism".

A breakdown of ASML figures shows that 33 percent of sales went to China in 2025, compared to 41 percent in the previous year.

China was the firm's top customer in both years.

- 'Another growth year' -

The firm said total revenue in the first quarter was 8.77 billion euros, at the "high end" of what the company had earlier predicted.

This compared to 7.8 billion in the first quarter of last year and 9.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The company issued a new forecast for the second quarter, of between 8.4 billion and 9.0 billion euros.

Fouquet said ASML customers were "accelerating their capacity expansion plans for 2026 and beyond", resulting in a "very strong" order intake for the firm.

"These business dynamics underpin our expectation that 2026 will be another growth year for all our businesses," he said.

In January, ASML announced a shake-up in its organisation that was expected to result in the loss of around 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands and United States, mainly from leadership roles.

The firm employs roughly 44,000 staff worldwide.

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Tottenham forward Maika Hamano scored the only goal as Japan ended the United States' 10-game unbeaten streak with a 1-0 victory in a friendly in Seattle on Tuesday.

Hamano's 27th minute curling strike into the top corner proved decisive in the second of three games between the two women's football powerhouses.

The United States dominated possession and had more shots but were let down by a lack of precision in front of goal before 36,128 fans at a rainswept Lumen Field in Seattle.

United States coach Emma Hayes rang the changes from the starting line-up which defeated the Japanese 2-1 in San Jose on Saturday, naming an entirely new starting eleven.

Asian champions Japan also made nine changes from the team beaten in San Jose, and started brightly, carving out a string of early openings before Hamano's goal.

The 21-year-old forward, who is on loan at Spurs from Chelsea, cut inside left back Lilly Reale before shooting into the roof of the net past goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce.

The third and final game in the series takes place in Colorado on Friday.

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