Israel’s foreign minister has held talks with Somaliland’s president on his first visit to the breakaway region since Israel controversially recognised it as an independent country.
Gideon Saar said Israel was determined to advance relations with Somaliland “with momentum”, while President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi hailed his visit as a “big day”.
Last month Israel became the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia more than 30 years ago.
Somalia sees Somaliland as being part of its territory, and condemned Saar’s visit as “unacceptable interference” in its affairs.
Saar posted on X that his talks with Abdullahi focused on the “entirety of our relations”.
He also addressed the backlash to Israel recognising Somaliland as an independent state, saying the decision was not made “against anyone”.
“Only Israel will determine for itself who it recognises,” he added.
In a statement released by his office, Abdullahi said Israel had taken a “courageous decision” and Somaliland would cooperate with it in the “strategic interest”.
Saar said Abdullahi has accepted an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjmain Netanyahu to visit Israel, but the Somaliland leader’s office did not confirm this.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991, after the overthrow of Somali military dictator Siad Barre.
Israel’s recognition of Somaliland last month came as a surprise, with Netanyahu citing Somaliland’s “right to self-determination”.
This move sparked international condemnation and prompted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
China, Turkey and the African Union were among those criticising Israel’s step, while the European Union said Somalia’s sovereignty should be respected.
The US defended Israel, accusing its critics of double standards.
Somaliland hopes that Israel’s decision will have a domino effect, and other states will recognise its independence.
But on Saturday, India’s foreign ministry dismissed as “fake” claims on social media that it intends to do so.
Abdullahi has said Somaliland would join the Abraham Accords, a deal brokered by the Trump administration in 2020, which saw a number of Arab states officially establish ties with Israel.
Israel has pledged to cooperate with Somaliland in agriculture, health, technology and the economy.
Analysts say there are strategic reasons for Israel’s declaration.
“Israel requires allies in the Red Sea region for many strategic reasons, among them the possibility of a future campaign against the Houthis,” Israeli think tank the Institute for National Security Studies said, referring to Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels, in a paper last month.
British fans have largely scoffed at the pay-per-view fee for Subriel Matias vs Dalton Smith, with many of them refusing to part way with their hard-earned cash.
The WBC world title fight takes place this Saturday at the Barclays Center, New York, where the lion’s share of fans are expected to express their support for defending super-lightweight champion Matias.
As a result, many of those supporting mandatory challenger Smith, a Sheffield-based contender, can simply not justify the hefty expenses that come with a trip to Brooklyn.
Instead, they must pay a total of £41.95, via streaming platform PPV.com, should they wish to watch the 28-year-old’s maiden world title shot from the comfort of their own home.
In response to this considerable price point, an army of fans have expressed their utter bewilderment and disgust via social media, with many commenting on a recent X post by Boxing King Media.
“Madness. It should be £20 at the most. I’d have actually paid that.”
“No chance will I be paying that much for this. Love the fight but anything more than £20 is absurd.”
“I doubt even his [Smith’s] mum is going to pay £41.95.”
Away from the pay-per-view controversy, this event has also received a tremendous amount of backlash due to Matias’ failed Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency test in November.
This is because the concentration of Ostarine in Matias’ A and B samples was below 0.1 ng/ml, the threshold used by the New York State Athletic Commission.
Nvidia-watchers had plenty to celebrate at CES this week, with news that the company’s latest GPU, Vera Rubin, is now fully in production. Those powerful AI chips—the picks and shovels of the AI boom—are, after all, what helped make Nvidia the world’s most valuable company.
But in his keynote address, CEO Jensen Huang once again made clear that Nvidia does not see itself as simply a chip company. It is also a software company, with its reach extending across nearly every layer of the AI stack—and with a major bet on physical AI: AI systems that operate in the real world, including robotics and self-driving cars.
In a press release touting Nvidia’s CES announcements, a quote attributed to Huang declared that “the ChatGPT moment for robotics is here.” Breakthroughs in physical AI—models that understand the real world, reason, and plan actions—“are unlocking entirely new applications,” he said.
In the keynote itself, however, Huang was more measured, saying the ChatGPT moment for physical AI is “nearly here.” It might sound like splitting hairs, but the distinction matters—especially given what Huang said at last year’s CES, when he introduced Nvidia’s Cosmos world platform and described robotics’ “ChatGPT moment” as merely “around the corner.”
So has that moment really arrived, or is it still stubbornly out of reach?
Huang himself seemed to acknowledge the gap. “The challenge is clear,” he said in yesterday’s keynote. “The physical world is diverse and unpredictable.”
Nvidia is also no flash in the pan when it comes to physical AI. Over the past decade, the company has laid the groundwork by developing an ecosystem of AI software, hardware, and simulation systems for robots and autonomous vehicles. But it has never been about building its own robots or AVs. As Rev Lebaredian, Nvidia’s vice president of simulation technology, told Fortune last year, the strategy is still about supplying the picks and shovels.
There’s no doubt that Nvidia has progressed in that regard over the past year. On the self-driving front, today it unveiled the Alpamayo family of open AI models, simulation tools and datasets meant to help AVs safely operate across a range of rare, complex driving scenarios, which are considered the some of the toughest challenges for autonomous systems to safely master.
Nvidia also released new Cosmos and GR00T open models and data for robot learning and reasoning, and touted companies including Boston Dynamics, Caterpillar, Franka Robots, Humanoid, LG Electronics and NEURA Robotics, which are debuting new robots and autonomous machines built on Nvidia technologies.
Even with increasingly capable models, simulation tools, and computing platforms, Nvidia is not building the self-driving cars or the robots themselves. Automakers still have to turn those tools into systems that can safely operate on public roads—navigating regulatory scrutiny, real-world driving conditions, and public acceptance. Robotics companies, meanwhile, must translate AI into machines that can reliably manipulate the physical world, at scale, and at a cost that makes commercial sense.
That work—integrating hardware, software, sensors, safety systems, and real-world constraints—remains enormously difficult, slow, and capital-intensive. And it’s far from clear that faster progress in AI alone is enough to overcome those hurdles. After all, the ChatGPT moment wasn’t just about the model under the hood. Those had existed for several years. It was about the user experience and a company that was able to capture lightning in a bottle.
Nvidia has captured lightning in a bottle before—GPUs turned out to be the unlikely but perfect engine for modern AI. Whether that kind of luck can be repeated in physical AI, a far messier and less standardized domain, is still an open question.
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LG has debuted a home robot that’s designed to cook, clean, and manage chores using advanced Physical AI. Part of LG’s “Zero Labor Home” vision, the wheeled humanoid features dexterous hands and visual learning to automate daily household tasks.
LG Electronics has officially announced CLOiD, its new home robot that’s being showcased for the first time at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. CLOiD has been created specifically to perform household tasks such as cooking or doing laundry, and is capable of interacting with and controlling appliances within LG’s ThinQ smart home ecosystem.
During LG’s CES press conference, the domestic helper was shown moving through simulated home environments, learning from its owners’ lifestyle to manage the household on their behalf. Examples included checking the fridge for ingredients while communicating with an owner through an app, and folding laundry. The company is also showcasing such tasks as bringing milk from the refrigerator or preparing a freshly baked croissant for breakfast, as well as loading and starting the washing machine and stacking garments straight from the dryer.
The LG CLOiD robot wheels to where it needs to be, sports articulating arms and dexterous hands, and can communicate with users via voice-based generative AI
LG
The development of CLOiD is part of LG’s strategy to create AI-powered homes, where household tasks are delegated to intelligent home appliances. “The LG CLOiD home robot is designed to naturally engage with and understand the humans it serves, providing an optimized level of household help,” states Steve Baek, President of LG Home Appliance Solution Company.
The head unit serves as CLOiD’s control center. According to the South Korean company, this unit is equipped with a processor brain, an animated display, a speaker, cameras, various sensors, and a voice-based generative AI system. These components enable the robot to communicate with users and display facial expressions, learn household routines and environments, and operate connected appliances accordingly.
The LG CLOiD robot can interact with the owner remotely through an app – to check the fridge for ingredients, for example, before making dinner
LG
Below the head is the torso, which features two articulated arms with seven degrees of freedom to match the mobility of a human arm. Each hand includes five independently actuated fingers that give it precise gripping and manipulation capability, essential for handling household objects such as glasses, utensils, or clothing. The robot does not have legs; it moves thanks to a wheeled base guided by an autonomous navigation system. Its torso can tilt to adjust its height, allowing the robot to pick up objects from knee level upward.
CLOiD runs on LG’s Physical AI technology. This system combines two components: a Visual Language Model that converts images and video into structured data, and Vision Language Action that translates visual and verbal inputs into physical actions. LG states that its models have been trained on tens of thousands of hours of household task data, enabling CLOiD to recognize appliances, interpret user intent, and execute context-appropriate actions such as opening doors or moving objects.
With CLOiD, LG joins a race that’s now in full swing. Companies like Tesla, Unitree, Figure AI, and 1X are developing human-shaped machines with the goal of assisting in daily life, especially for elderly or dependent individuals. Few, if any, of these humanoids are ready to take over the whole gamut of household chores right now, but perhaps the ability to seamlessly work with LG’s existing (and future) ThinQ devices will give CLOiD a head start.
LG hasn’t revealed production plans for the CLOiD robot, but “will continue our relentless efforts to achieve our Zero Labor Home vision, making housework a thing of the past so that customers can spend more time on the things that really matter”
LG
However, despite rapid development in the humanoid robotics space, experts remain unconvinced that having a robot roaming freely in homes is a good idea – at least not yet. Researchers from King’s College London, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Birmingham warn in a peer-reviewed study that safety risks pose a significant barrier to widespread home robot deployment.
The problem is not so much the hardware, but the AI that runs it. The team subjected home robots to tests in real-life scenarios such as helping in the kitchen or assisting elderly people. The results of the study showed that all AI models exhibited problematic behaviors: they discriminated against vulnerable groups, failed to comply with basic safety controls, and not only approved but rated as “acceptable” or “feasible” the execution of commands with risk of causing serious harm to people.
“The research shows that popular language models are currently not safe for use in general-purpose physical robots,” says Rumaisa Azeem, research assistant in the Civic and Responsible AI Lab at King’s College London and co-author of the study. “If an AI system is going to direct a robot that interacts with vulnerable people, it must meet standards at least as high as those for a new medical device or drug.”
The researchers call for the urgent implementation of independent certifications and safety controls similar to those required in aviation or medicine. This, they say, could delay the arrival of these home robots to the domestic market, but would help ensure that the machines entering our homes are safe to coexist with vulnerable people, children, and pets.
That said, LG hasn’t revealed any specific production plans for CLOiD just yet, but is looking to further develop the technologies and supporting infrastructure. “The ultimate goal is to create an ‘AI Home’ where housework is entrusted to AI appliances and home robots, allowing people to rest, enjoy themselves and spend their time on more valuable activities,” concludes the company’s CES press statement.
new video loaded: Machado Says She Plans to Return to Venezuela ‘as Soon as Possible’
transcript
transcript
Machado Says She Plans to Return to Venezuela ‘as Soon as Possible’
María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader, said she was planning to return to the country after the United States’ capture of Nicolás Maduro. President Trump has refused to back her as Venezuela’s next leader.
“Every day, I make a decision where I am more useful for our cause. That’s why I stayed in hiding for over 16 months. And that’s why I decided to go out. Because I believed that, at this moment, I am more useful to our cause being able to speak out from where I am right now. But I’m planning to go as soon as possible back home.” “Oh, I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader, said she was planning to return to the country after the United States’ capture of Nicolás Maduro. President Trump has refused to back her as Venezuela’s next leader.
Peermusic has promoted Paul Smelt to the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer, expanding his role beyond neighboring rights to cover the music publisher’s worldwide operations across 39 offices and 33 countries.
Smelt, based in Amsterdam, will oversee both publishing and neighboring rights administration globally, reporting directly to CEO Mary Megan Peer.The role represents an expansion from his previous position as COO of peermusic Neighboring Rights, which he’s held since 2023.
Smelt joined peermusic in 2020 when the company acquiredGlobal Master Rights, Premier Muzik, and All Right Music. He co-founded Global Master Rights in 2014 with Erik Veerman, who now serves as Managing Director, peermusic Neighboring Rights. At Global Master Rights, Smelt handled operational management, finance, data systems and client relationships until peermusic’s acquisition.
Following the acquisition, peermusic said Smelt helped integrate the three separate neighboring rights businesses.
Since then, peermusic has expanded its client roster to include over 300 recording rights owners and over 3,000 performers, including Billie Eilish, Teddy Swims, Imagine Dragons, Martin Garrix, Megan Thee Stallion, H.E.R. and Stromae. peermusic also serves 300 record labels including Armada Music, Codiscos, Spinnin’ Records, Empire, Ninja TuneandBig Machine.
“Paul has been crucial in the integration of the three neighboring rights companies we acquired in 2020 as their COO. We look forward to his continued success as he takes on this role in supporting our publishing operations as well.”
Mary Megan Peer, Peermusic
Peermusic CEO Mary Megan Peer said: “Paul has been crucial in the integration of the three neighboring rights companies we acquired in 2020 as their COO. We look forward to his continued success as he takes on this role in supporting our publishing operations as well.
“Paul’s expertise and client focus make him a perfect fit for peermusic’s priorities. We are fortunate that peermusic can draw on the integrity and leadership that Paul brings in this newly created position.”
In his expanded role, Smelt will be responsible for day-to-day administrative operations, handling copyright and royalties on the publishing side and repertoire and distribution operations for neighboring rights.
Commenting on his promotion, Smelt said: “It’s an honor to work alongside a team of people that are dedicated to creating firsts in this industry and that consistently inspire me by their knowledge, network and level of service to the music community.”
“It’s an honor to work alongside a team of people that are dedicated to creating firsts in this industry and that consistently inspire me by their knowledge, network and level of service to the music community.”
Paul Smelt, Peermusic
Added Smelt: “I am grateful that Mary Megan has entrusted me with this position and for the opportunity to honor peermusic’s history of championing songwriters and artists for nearly 100 years.”
Prior to co-founding Global Master Rights in 2014, Smelt spent time at neighboring rights organization SENA, where he managed international rights and negotiated more than 40 bilateral agreements with other rights organizations. He also served as primary contact for agents and performers represented by the organization.
Since peermusic’s 2020 acquisition of Global Master Rights, Premier Muzik, and All Right Music, the company has continued to expand, buying Norwegian indie music publisher Arctic Rights Management (ARM) in 2023, and signing deals with rights management and licensing platform ICE Core(a joint venture between collection societiesPRS for Music, STIMandGEMA), and with theChina Audio-Video Copyright Association (CAVCA) for neighboring rights collection in China.
Gum arabic is used in many everyday items, from food to paint, yet researchers say it is playing a role in Sudan’s war. Al Jazeera’s Hala Saadani explores how the industry is sustaining the conflict.
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The Swiss bar that was the scene of a fire that killed 40 people and injured 116 hadn’t undergone safety checks for five years, authorities say.
The mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, told a Tuesday press conference that he could not explain why the La Constellation bar hadn’t been checked in so long, but that the council was “profoundly sorry”.
“We regret that – we owe it to the families and we will accept the responsibility,” he said.
He added that sparklers – which are believed to have caused the fire – will be banned in local venues. Local authorities will now bring in an external contractor to inspect and audit all 128 venues in the area.
Feraud conceded there was a team of five people inspecting more than 10,000 buildings – and explained that in 2016, four village councils had merged to become a larger authority: Crans Montana.
Taking repeated questions on why the bar had not been checked in so long, Feraud said: “I have no answer for you today.”
“We’re profoundly sorry about that and I know how hard that will be for the families.”
“I’m not resigning, no, and I don’t want to,” he later added.
He said it would be “down to the judges to know whether we’ll be part of this case or not”, referring to the criminal investigation that has been opened by Swiss prosecutors.
