AMSTERDAM: A fearsome stuffed crocodile hangs menacingly from the roof, mouth wide open, sharp teeth ready to strike: welcome to the Art Zoo, the new offbeat museum opening in Amsterdam. Aiming to elevate taxidermy to high art, Art Zoo opens Thursday in the heart of the Dutch capital, in a famous building from the 17th…
Itβs only a matter of time until every cryptocurrency exchange and fintech firm is running its own blockchain, according to OP Labs, builder of Ethereum overlay protocol Optimism. The logic is straightforward and simple, says OP Labs head of product, Sam McIngvale, pointing to the runaway success of Coinbaseβs layer-2 (L2) network Base since its…
Spanish lender BBVA is advising its wealth clients to invest 3%-7% of their portfolios in cryptocurrencies, an executive of the Spanish bank said on Tuesday. The bank’s head of digital and blockchain solutions Philippe Meyer told the DigiAssets conference in London that it started advising clients on bitcoin BTC in September last year, according to…
ATHENS: Greece has repatriated 105 of its citizens and foreign nationals from Israel, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, as the Iran-Israel conflict raged. βThe people repatriated were transported to Athens from Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt, onboard C-130 and C-27 Greek air force planes,β it said in a statement. Along with Greek citizens and their families,…
NEW YORK: Meta offered $100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT makerβs talent and strengthen its own generative AI teams, the startupβs CEO, Sam Altman, has said. Facebookβs parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered βgiantβ annual salaries exceeding $100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman…
STRASBOURG: The EUβs top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Wednesday that Russia does not βstand a chanceβ against NATO, but the alliance needs to βstick togetherβ in the face of a belligerent Moscow. Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in the Netherlands with alliance members under US pressure to massively ramp up military budgets, Kallas warned…
BOGOTΓ: Colombiaβs Senate has approved contested labor reforms, after leftist President Gustavo Petro decreed a referendum to get public approval for the bill. Senators voted 57-31 to approve the reform bill on Tuesday, which will end the working day at 6:00 pm instead of 9:00 pm, extend social security to some informal workers and create…
MOSCOW: The families of Russian diplomats have left Israel, Russiaβs ambassador to Tel Aviv Anatoly Viktorov said on Wednesday, as Israel and Iran traded fire for a sixth day. βAlmost all the wives and children of embassy employeesβ left on Tuesday via Egypt βto return to their homeland,β Viktorov said, interviewed by pro-Kremlin presenter Vladimir…
BEIJING: Almost 800 Chinese citizens have been evacuated from Iran since Israel launched military strikes against the country last week, Beijing said Wednesday. βCurrently… 791 Chinese nationals have been relocated from Iran to safe areas,β foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular news conference. βMore than 1,000 other people are in the process…
TEHRAN: Iran said Wednesday it had detained five suspected agents of Israelβs Mossad intelligence agency on charges of tarnishing the countryβs image online, Iranian news agencies reported. βThese mercenaries sought to sow fear among the public and tarnish the image of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran through their calculated activities online,β…
