US News, Summarized

• Meta released Llama 4 on April 20, 2026, a 2 trillion parameter multimodal AI model trained on 15 petabytes of US-centric data. • The model outperforms GPT-4o on benchmarks like MMLU (92% score) and supports vision-language tasks for enterprise apps. • Open-sourcing aims to spur US AI innovation, with downloads exceeding 500,000 in first hours via Hugging Face.

• Scale AI raised $2.5 billion in fresh funding on April 19, 2026, at a $15 billion valuation, backed by Meta and Tiger Global. • Capital expands US data annotation workforce to 50,000, focusing on synthetic data for autonomous vehicles and LLMs. • Funding counters labor-intensive bottlenecks in AI training, vital for US competitiveness.

• Elon Musk's xAI announced a $6 billion Series C funding round on April 19, 2026, led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the startup at $24 billion post-money. • Funds will expand the Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, to 300,000 Nvidia GPUs for Grok AI training. • Investment accelerates US AI infrastructure race, countering China's advances and supporting domestic chip production.

• Nvidia launched the Blackwell Ultra B300 GPU series on April 19, 2026, claiming 50% faster AI training speeds compared to the prior B200 model. • The new chips feature 208 billion transistors and support FP4 precision, targeting data centers for large language model workloads. • This positions Nvidia to maintain dominance amid intensifying competition from AMD and custom silicon by hyperscalers like Amazon and Google.

• The US Navy fired upon and seized an Iranian-flagged vessel amid escalating tensions in the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, which began with airstrikes on February 28, 2026, targeting Iranian leadership and nuclear sites. • President Trump confirmed the action, occurring as Iran's retaliatory strikes hit Israel and US bases, compounded by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz disrupting global oil supplies. • Oil prices have exceeded $100 per barrel, prompting IEA nations to release strategic reserves; the incident dims prospects for peace talks and amplifies economic fallout worldwide.

PM to tell Commons he was himself misled and would ‘never knowingly mislead parliament or the public’UK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer is expected to admit he inadvertently gave MPs misleading information about Peter Mandelson’s vetting when he addresses the Commons.But his spokesperson said the prime minister would “never knowingly mislead parliament or the public” and that he was himself misled. Continue reading...

The former ballet dancer said Chalamet’s comments were ‘reckless’ in an interview with the New York Times in which she also discussed her violent childhoodActor and former ballet dancer Charlize Theron has joined the chorus of disapproval aimed at Timothée Chalamet over his remarks that appeared to disrespect performers of ballet and opera.In an interview with the New York Times, Theron said: “Oh, boy, I hope I run into him one day,” adding: “That was a very reckless comment on two art forms that we need to lift up constantly because, yes, they do have a hard time. But in 10 years, AI is going to be able to do Timothée’s job, but it will not be able to replace a person on a stage dancing live.” Continue reading...

Director of state investigation agency among those killed in Chihuahua in operation to destroy clandestine drug labsTwo United States officials and another two Mexican officials assigned to combat drug cartel operations died in a car accident in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua on Sunday, a US embassy spokesperson said.The Mexican officials were the director of the state’s investigation agency and an officer, state authorities said, adding that they were on an operation to destroy clandestine laboratories in the municipality of Morelos.Guardian staff contributed Continue reading...

Trump administration to launch online portal on Monday after supreme court struck down tariff policy earlier this yearDonald Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday, and he again threatened to destroy its power plants and bridges if no deal is reached.Trump did not say who would lead the delegation, but a White House official said it was vice-president JD Vance. Continue reading...