Deadly earthquakes hit Venezuela
At least 164 people were killed and nearly 1,000 were left injured after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening. The 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were the strongest to hit the country in nearly six decades. A number of buildings collapsed, Caracas’ international airport was damaged, and many are believed to still be trapped under rubble. , The disaster’s effects will be exacerbated by Venezuela’s moribund economy, with a GDP that has shrunk by 80% since 2013. Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who came into office after the US ousted strongman Nicolás Maduro from power in January, will likely look for help from Washington, which has eased sanctions in recent months. As a result, the earthquakes could create an opening for more direct US investment in Venezuela when it comes to immediate needs like drinking water infrastructure, as well as long-term reconstruction projects down the road.
Iraq threatens to follow the UAE out of OPEC, per report
Two months after the UAE exited the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Iraq is reportedly threatening to follow suit if the oil cartel doesn’t allow it to significantly increase production. The second-biggest oil producer in OPEC, Baghdad has been hit especially hard by the Iran war, with its government heavily reliant on crude exports for the bulk of its income. As such, it wants some extra cash by selling more oil. Before the war, its OPEC quota was about 4.4 million barrels of oil per day, but its production dropped below 1.5 million in May as ships couldn’t pass the Strait of Hormuz. Its new target: 7 million barrels per day. If Iraq does exit OPEC and increase production, the resulting extra supply would likely bring a short-term decrease in oil prices.
Is China’s Alibaba stealing Claude’s magic?
Anthropic, which makes the Claude AI model, says Chinese tech and commerce giant Alibaba has been bombarding Claude with queries as part of a campaign to illicitly train its own models on Claude’s outputs. Alibaba’s aim, it seems, was to achieve the capabilities of Claude’s Mythos model on the cheap. Mythos, you might remember, is so powerful that the US government earlier this month restricted access to it, fearing it could be accessed and used by the military intelligence services of adversary countries. The revelations come amid rising concerns in the intelligence community that the US’s lead over China and others in AI could be narrowing, and that China is seeking to steal American AI knowhow at an industrial scale.
