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Israeli fire in Gaza killed Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri.

As he lived in a tent and battled to provide for his family, Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire on Monday while running a live video feed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, covered the suffering of civilians during the conflict. According to journalist colleagues, Masri, 49, was a seasoned cameraman who was well-liked by Gaza's close-knit community of reporters because of his upbeat demeanor in the most perilous circumstances. In the months before his death, he would say, "Tomorrow will be better," despite the fact that the Palestinian enclave was becoming increasingly desolate and hungry. That was the conclusion of his final discussion with Mohamed Salem, a senior Reuters visuals journalist who had collaborated with Masri in Rafah, in southern Gaza, last year and had known him since 2003. Salem, who left Gaza later in 2024 but stayed in daily contact with Masri until Monday morning, said he was a pleasure to work with because of his smiles and o...

Meta will sell $2 billion worth of assets to split the cost of AI infrastructure.

In a filing on Thursday, Meta Platforms (META.O) revealed plans to sell $2 billion worth of data center assets as part of its ongoing efforts to find outside partners to help finance the enormous infrastructure required to power artificial intelligence. 
As they struggle with the skyrocketing cost of constructing and powering data centers to support generative AI, tech giants, who have historically been known for self-funding growth, are adopting a different approach.
In order to help fund its significant capital expenditure for the upcoming year, the social media behemoth announced earlier this week that it was looking into ways to collaborate with financial partners to co-develop data centers.
On a conference call following Wednesday's earnings, Meta Chief Finance Officer Susan Li stated, "We're looking into ways to collaborate with financial partners to co-develop data centers."
According to Li, the company still anticipates funding a large portion of its capital expenditures internally, but some projects may draw "significant external financing" and provide greater flexibility if infrastructure requirements change over time. She stated that the business had no completed transactions to report.
However, the disclosure in Meta's quarterly filing suggests that plans are becoming more solid.
Meta reclassified $2.04 billion worth of land and construction-in-progress as "held-for-sale" and approved a plan in June to sell some data center assets, according to its quarterly filing on Thursday. Within the following 12 months, it was anticipated that these assets would be transferred to a third party for the purpose of co-developing data centers.
The reclassification, which values the assets at the lower of their carrying amounts or fair value less selling expenses, did not result in a loss for Meta. According to the filing, the total held-for-sale assets as of June 30 were $3.26 billion.
For this story, Meta chose not to comment.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, has outlined plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building "superclusters" of AI data centers for superintelligence.
"A large portion of Manhattan's footprint is covered by just one of these," he stated.
On Wednesday, the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp increased the lower end of its yearly capital expenditure projection by $2 billion, from $66 billion to $72 billion.
AI-driven enhancements to targeting and content delivery helped it report higher-than-expected ad sales. According to executives, those profits were assisting in offsetting growing infrastructure expenses associated with its long-term AI push.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

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