OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has reached a valuation of $500 billion, following a deal in which current and former employees sold roughly $6.6 billion worth of shares, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with his budget director Russell Vought on Thursday to determine which “Democrat Agencies” to cut, as he looks to inflict pain on his political opposition in the second day of a government shutdown.

Flash floods in Ukraine’s Odesa killed nine people including a family of five trapped in their home as it was engulfed by water, emergency services said, as torrential rain left hundreds in need of rescue and thousands without power.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani discussed with U.S. President Donald Trump his plan to end the war in Gaza in a phone call, the Emiri Diwan said in a statement.

Russia does not recognize the return of United Nations sanctions on Iran, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters on Wednesday when asked if Moscow would enforce the measures.

The Taliban have ordered internet and mobile phone data services to be cut across Afghanistan, diplomatic and industry sources said.

The Oktoberfest will reopen after police found nothing suspicious in a major operation prompted by a bomb threat and the discovery of explosives in a Munich residential building after an incident that left at least one person dead.

Some 20 unidentified vessels were seen approaching the international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza on Wednesday night, multiple people on board said, as passengers put on life vests and braced for a takeover.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s support for Donald Trump’s Gaza plan is a gamble that may win back estranged allies abroad and repair his political base at home but risks a battle with coalition partners opposed to any hint of a Palestinian state.

The United States government has officially shut down after lawmakers failed to pass a funding bill before the deadline, triggering the suspension of several federal services.

Russia launched on Tuesday a rare daytime drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing one man, injuring 20 other people, and damaging medical facilities and residential and office buildings, officials said.

The U.S. lurched toward a government shutdown on Tuesday as a vote to extend funding past a midnight deadline failed in the U.S. Senate and President Donald Trump threatened to extend his purge of the federal workforce.