Powerful, world-transforming AI could be two years away, and humanity must get through the technology’s “adolescence” unscathed, Anthropic’s CEO argued.

Dario Amodei’s 19,000-word essay warned against both “doomerism” about AI and dismissiveness of its risks, saying that judging by current improvements, soon AI will be “better than humans at essentially everything.”

It is not inevitable that that will lead to disaster, but it is plausible, because AI is unpredictable, he said. That could mean the AI itself seizing power, autocratic states using it for repression, or individuals creating bioweapons.

Democracies, Amodei wrote, must move fast to outpace autocracies yet carefully to avoid catastrophe; China chip export controls, research into safe AI, and regulations on AI transparency will be vital.

The EU and India signed a landmark trade agreement as both look to bolster commercial alliances amid threats from Washington.

The EU expects to double exports to India by 2032 as part of the deal, which was negotiated for two decades, while Delhi, subject of 50% tariffs from Washington, anticipates EU-bound exports to soar. “We have concluded the mother of all deals,” the European Commission president said.

US President Donald Trump’s threats have instilled a sense of urgency in the EU, which has accelerated talks with several trading partners.

Washington, meanwhile, remains steadfast in using its economic weight to extract concessions from allies: On Monday Trump announced 25% duties on South Korea for “not living up” to an agreement.

Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva agreed to visit Washington following a call with US President Donald Trump, a sign that bilateral tensions are easing.

Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Latin America’s biggest economy last year over what he said was the unfair treatment of former Brazilian president and ideological ally Jair Bolsonaro.

Though the row has calmed in recent months, Lula has criticized Washington’s capture of Venezuela’s leader and called on Trump to limit the focus of his Board of Peace to Gaza, citing concern it could rival the United Nations.

Meanwhile, in a call with China’s leader last week, Lula vowed to work with Beijing as Trump vies to reshape the global geopolitical order.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer headed to China for a visit that will see him walking a tricky tightrope.

Starmer wants to rekindle Britain’s flagging economy, especially as Washington becomes more unpredictable. But he is loath to antagonize the White House, Politico reported. A further complication is that his government plans to heighten scrutiny of Chinese espionage, the Financial Times noted.

The West is courting China — the leaders of Canada, Finland, France, and Germany have also either visited recently or will soon — but a former Canadian diplomat jailed by China warned that drawing close to an authoritarian, expansionist Beijing also has risks. “[If] your long-term partner [becomes] abusive,” he told Semafor, you shouldn’t “hop into bed with another serial abuser.”

A brutal cold snap in the US drove natural gas prices higher globally, highlighting the world’s growing dependence on American fossil fuels.

The Trump administration has, largely successfully, prioritized the export of liquefied natural gas, with Europe particularly dependent on US supplies after slashing its reliance on Russia.

But the storm — which has left 10 people dead and a million without power — has led to surging gas prices in the US, up around 120% in the past week, as suppliers have had to shut drilling sites because of the cold and prioritize domestic demand. “Prices have likely peaked,” ING commodities analysts forecast. As one Reuters columnist put it: “When the US freezes, the global LNG market catches a cold.”

A growing number of experts warned of the risks of inflation accelerating in the US, even as markets bet that policymakers will lower borrowing costs.

Traders are pricing in at least two cuts this year, believing the Federal Reserve will prioritize a soft labor market. But inflation could yet worsen, two leading economists warned in a LinkedIn post, projecting it could top 4% in 2026, while Germany’s Kiel Institute projected that the Trump administration’s tariffs meant “US companies will be confronted with shrinking margins and consumers with higher prices in the long run.”

In a note to clients, the investment firm Bridgewater warned that rising protectionism and the race to build out AI infrastructure were both likely to drive inflation.

Israel said it recovered the body of the final hostage held in Gaza, a milestone in efforts to advance a US-brokered ceasefire in the enclave.

Police officer Ran Gvili was killed fighting Hamas attackers on Oct. 7, 2023 — Israel had resisted moving ahead with the truce until his remains were retrieved.

For the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli hostages, dead or alive, in Gaza — “a reminder of the deep roots of this conflict and how difficult it could still be to shape a lasting peace,” the BBC wrote.

Israel also said Monday it will reopen a key border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, but the next steps of the peace plan center on more challenging tasks, including Hamas’ disarmament.

US President Donald Trump on Monday sent his border czar to oversee immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and softened his tone on the ongoing crackdown, after federal agents killed a second US citizen there.

In a sign of Trump’s efforts to quell bipartisan backlash to Saturday’s shooting of Alex Pretti, the president spoke with Minnesota’s Democratic governor and said they are “on a similar wavelength.”

State officials, meanwhile, urged a US judge to block the deployment of thousands of federal agents.

The reckoning has spurred some Republicans to worry the Trump administration is losing control of the narrative around immigration, squandering one of its strongest issues.

Some Border Patrol agents are reportedly set to leave Minnesota this week.

Heightened transatlantic tensions are spurring Europe’s push for energy and tech independence.

Ten European countries on Monday agreed to collaborate on a massive offshore wind farm project in the North Sea, linking to all participants via submarine cables.

“Energy is now central to this volatile age,” the UK and EU’s energy czars wrote in Politico, emphasizing the need for “homegrown clean power” to achieve security.

The EU is also accelerating efforts to promote tech sovereignty, The Wall Street Journal reported, after the US’ Greenland quest sparked concerns of a once unthinkable scenario in which Washington could cut off the region’s access to American tech. Still, a decoupling is unlikely; Europe is hugely reliant on US cloud computing services.

The EU signaled it is stepping up oversight of large US tech platforms, risking further ire from Washington.

The European Commission on Monday opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s social media network, X, over a proliferation of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes created by its AI tool. The EU also plans to heighten scrutiny of WhatsApp after subjecting Meta’s messaging platform to the bloc’s toughest standards over its high numbers of users.

Brussels began rethinking its Big Tech crackdown last year, but has since faced calls to hold firm and increase enforcement, despite threats of US retaliation over the continent’s regulatory impulses.

Efforts to create an independent bloc-wide tech regulator — “Washington’s worst nightmare” — are now picking up steam, Politico EU reported.

Nvidia is investing $2 billion in cloud computing provider CoreWeave to boost the buildout of data centers, which are set to become a central political focus in the US this year.

Some of the country’s largest data center operators plan to boost spending in an attempt to lobby lawmakers and affected communities to back the projects, which have faced heavy resistance over accusations that they drive up energy prices and use too much water.

At least 25 projects were canceled last year following local opposition, Heatmap News reported. Another two dozen were blocked or delayed just this month, according to research firm MacroEdge.

A populist backlash to data centers could play out in this year’s midterm elections across partisan lines, analysts say.

Chinese AI apps are turning to cash handouts to attract new users, the latest sign of the country’s hyper-competitive tech landscape.

Tech giants Baidu and Tencent are both offering virtual “red envelopes” as signup incentives — a nod to the cash gifts given to loved ones during Lunar New Year.

AI apps have emerged as the next frontier in the country’s tech arms race, as firms rush to inject their chatbots with shopping and payment tools.

It reflects China’s focus on widespread AI adoption: Companies are prioritizing proliferation over profitability. AI business models in China “still haven’t been figured out,” a Trivium China analyst argued on a recent podcast. Consumer-facing apps “do have subscriptions, but nobody’s paying for them.”

Taiwanese authorities said they were monitoring “abnormal” changes at the top of China’s military after the stunning dismissal of the country’s leading general.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping placed Zhang Youxia and another senior officer under investigation for corruption, an astonishing shakeup of military leadership: Zhang reportedly leaked nuclear secrets to the US.

Taipei said it was on alert because the threat from the mainland, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, remained high. The move further consolidates power in Xi’s hands but raises “doubts about the country’s war readiness,” The Economist noted.

“The PLA is in a major crisis,” one expert warned, “with a level of leadership instability unseen since the heyday of the Cultural Revolution.”

India looks set to sign deals strengthening relations with the EU, the latest indication of the rapid realignment of global ties in the year since US President Donald Trump took office.

Top EU officials will be the guests of honor at India’s Republic Day celebrations, and are expected to sign a trade agreement as well as a security and maritime pact.

Both Brussels and Delhi have faced Trump’s wrath over the past 12 months, and the deals, which were agreed unusually quickly, point to the priority they have placed on shifting away from a reliance on Washington.

“In an increasingly volatile world,” the European Commission chief told the Times of India, “this cooperation is not only valuable, it is vital.”

Volkswagen may pull its plans for a major Audi factory in the US, citing President Donald Trump’s automotive tariffs.

The car giant’s CEO told Handelsblatt that US levies cost VW $2.5 billion in the first nine months of 2025, and that reductions were necessary.

German investments in the US as a whole fell 45% year-on-year in 2025 as Trump’s duties took hold, Reuters reported, while German exports to the US also fell, although the dollar’s depreciation was likely a factor.

After Trump warned at the World Economic Forum last week of possible further duties on Europe, growing global uncertainty over the stability of trade relationships pushed gold above $5,000 per ounce for the first time.

Mexico is reportedly considering halting oil shipments to Cuba in a bid to avoid retaliation from Washington, which is looking to overthrow the regime in Havana.

Cuba had long relied on Venezuelan oil to run its economy, but crude shipments have plummeted since the US ouster of Nicolás Maduro and its blockade on oil tankers leaving Venezuela; Mexico is now the top oil exporter to Cuba.

Mexico is seeking to placate US President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly threatened steep tariffs as well as military strikes against cartels in the country — ahead of an upcoming review of a North American free trade agreement that is a lifeline for Mexico’s economy.

Japan’s only pandas will return to China tomorrow, with relations between Tokyo and Beijing frosty.

Crowds gathered at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo for emotional goodbyes to Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei during their last public appearance Sunday; their departure leaves the country without pandas for the first time since 1972. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent comments that Japan could support Taiwan if China attacked the island sparked tensions, and prospects of replacement pandas are uncertain.

Beijing has used loans of the bamboo-eating, sex-shy bears to gesture goodwill to other nations since World War II, and the growing hostility between the East Asian powers suggests that goodwill is in short supply.

London Heathrow, the world’s sixth-busiest airport, will allow passengers to carry fluids in containers larger than 100 ml (3.4 fl oz).

The rules have been in place since 2006, following a foiled plot involving bombs disguised as soft drinks. Several other UK and international airports have done likewise, notably London Gatwick and Dubai International.

Airline security measures tend to ratchet up, so possible declines are noteworthy, though the end of what The Guardian called “the tyranny of tiny toiletries” is driven not by reduced concern but by the rollout of new scanning technologies which can reliably tell explosive liquids from harmless ones. US concern over air terrorism has declined since its post-9/11 peak, although UK citizens remain worried.

Global credit ratings agency S&P raised the Democratic Republic of Congo’s outlook to positive from stable, citing its fiscal performance and rising exports.

The revision represents a reprieve for the war-wracked nation, which has been the subject of renewed interest from Chinese and US mining firms seeking control of the country’s vast resources. The DRC holds some of the world’s biggest metal deposits, including of cobalt, a key component in the lithium-ion batteries that power EVs.

S&P’s decision comes shortly after the International Monetary Fund approved a new $440 million financing facility for the country, though IMF officials warned of commodity price fluctuations, as well as of the risk of a renewed conflict with Rwanda-backed rebels.

Furor erupted across the US after immigration agents on Saturday shot and killed a second person in Minnesota, escalating tensions over the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown.

Video footage appeared to show authorities firing on the man, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and American citizen, at least 10 times after they removed a gun from his waistband, contradicting the White House’s account of the incident.

More than 60 CEOs called for “immediate de-escalation,” and Democrats could partially shut down the federal government this week by blocking homeland security funding.

For weeks, federal agents have been “visibly unprepared to handle the policing situations their presence created,” The New York Times wrote.

The latest shooting, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune, “upended any sense” that tensions would ease.

Saturday’s killing of a Minneapolis protester by federal agents is set to compound the political pressure on US President Donald Trump at a time when his domestic and foreign agendas are facing sharper opposition, analysts said.

The shooting “is a crescendo rather than a singular event,” CNN wrote, and accompanies a broader “change in atmosphere,” The Washington Post wrote, as those in Trump’s crosshairs — from Washington to Brussels — take a firmer approach to his aggressive tactics.

“There is this new energy when our allies are rattling the saber back, and that is in turn emboldening folks at home,” a Republican strategist said.

The global press cast the shooting as a crisis for Trump and the country.

“American politics is likely to descend into chaos this year,” a Chinese state outlet wrote.

China’s top general was ousted after being accused of leaking nuclear secrets to the US, a stunning purge that raises questions about Beijing’s military readiness.

Zhang Youxia — who was second in military command only to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and considered one of his closest confidants — allegedly undermined Xi’s authority, official statements suggest, but The Wall Street Journal reported that he was also accused of providing data on China’s nuclear weapons to Washington.

Xi has overseen a corruption crackdown, cementing his grip on power, though Zhang’s ouster deals a blow to Beijing’s chain of command that could take years to rebuild, analysts said.

“The chances of an attack on Taiwan in the short term have been lowered,” a Taipei-based expert said.

A new US national security strategy deprioritized China as the military’s top threat, shifting focus to the homeland and Western Hemisphere.

The Pentagon plan calls for the abandonment of “grandiose strategies” and prioritizes diplomacy with Beijing in an effort to deter the superpower “through strength, not confrontation.”

It signals a longer-term goal of reducing Washington’s military role in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East.

But even as the Pentagon strikes a more conciliatory tone toward Beijing, many in President Donald Trump’s inner circle view the “Donroe Doctrine” — Trump’s focus on the Western Hemisphere — as a show of might that weakens China’s geostrategic influence, Nikkei wrote.

The US government is reportedly pursuing a $1.6 billion investment in an American rare earth company, its largest such foray into the sector, as Washington looks to build up its domestic mineral supply chain.

The planned 10% stake in USA Rare Earth, the Financial Times reported, marks the latest intervention by the Trump administration into private industries it deems central to national security: The government has stakes in at least six other minerals companies.

USA Rare Earth’s CEO told Semafor last year that she welcomed the administration’s involvement.

“We have a very fragile supply chain that relies on the whole country of China,” she said. “Our job now… is to take this off of the geopolitical leverage game board.”

A massive winter storm pounded much of the US with snow, ice, and dangerously cold temperatures.

Airlines canceled more than 17,000 flights on Sunday — a level last seen during the early days of the pandemic, according to an aviation analytics firm — while ice across the mid-Atlantic and South knocked out power for more than 1 million customers; outages could last for days in hard-hit areas like Nashville.

The storm shattered records and was unique in its spread, stretching from New Mexico to New England: Copenhagen, New York, saw a temperature reading of minus 49°F (minus 45°C).

“An Arctic siege has taken over our state,” the governor said.

US natural gas prices rose 75% in three days as the country braced for a huge Arctic storm.

Much of the East Coast and Midwest expect snow and sleet, with travel likely to be disrupted. Heavy snow and subzero temperatures in big cities will drive heating demand, and the cold will also hit Texas’ oil-and-gas fields, which could “wreak havoc on the power grid,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Washington ordered grid operators to use backup electricity generation from alternative sources, such as data centers and factories — an unusual move, the WSJ noted, since they do not usually distribute energy to the grid, and it is unclear whether the plan could work at short notice.

Anthropic updated Claude’s “Constitution,” spelling out the chatbot’s “ethical character” and, crucially, requiring it not to “kill or disempower” humanity.

The Constitution is baked into Claude’s thinking; previous versions were softer guidelines, but as Claude becomes more powerful, its maker has added constraints on dangerous behavior.

Sci-fi fans might be reminded of Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics, banning robots from harming humans, a near-impossible task with traditional programming because “harm” is ill-defined; natural-language AIs, though, can understand the instruction despite its fuzziness, making something like the Laws possible.

Of course, as in Asimov’s stories, there will still be tensions. Claude itself noted to Flagship that its instruction to be “honest” will sometimes conflict with its instruction to do no harm.

Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez moved to strengthen her grip on power as she faces domestic and foreign threats.

She has shaken up the country’s military, long the basis of power for the ruling Socialist party, replacing at least half a dozen top officials.

Rodríguez has also responded to US pressure by fast-tracking a law to open the state-controlled oil sector to private and foreign investment. The move appears to have worked on at least one person: US President Donald Trump, who has pressed global oil companies to invest tens of billions of dollars in Venezuela in order to tap the nation’s huge crude reserves, said Rodríguez was showing “very strong leadership.”

Russia, Ukraine, and the US will hold talks in Abu Dhabi today.

The meeting, which officials said would be the first trilateral talks since Moscow’s 2022 invasion, comes after a US envoy met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and Washington and Kyiv agreed to postwar security guarantees. All sides will send senior negotiators, in what the BBC called “a measure of the seriousness of the talks,” but there are sticking points, notably the Kremlin’s demand that Ukraine give up 25% of the Donetsk region, still partly controlled by Kyiv.

The EU is also looking to the postwar period: The European Commission said a multi-billion-dollar plan to rebuild Ukraine and integrate it into the EU single market was “close to an agreement.”

Analysts and economists downplayed the possibility of foreign investors exiting US assets en masse, in large part because they have few other options.

A Danish pension fund and a major global bond investor said this month they were diversifying away from US bonds, spurring President Donald Trump to threaten “big retaliation” were Europeans — cumulatively the largest holders of US Treasurys — to dump them.

But if European nations did try, the sheer size of the American market means they would struggle to reallocate those resources elsewhere, a former Federal Reserve vice-chair noted on the Foreign Affairs podcast. And a fire sale could end up harming European investors even more than Washington itself, the Financial Times warned.

Latin American exports boomed last year despite US tariffs, with many nations increasing their reliance on China as their biggest goods market.

Since the start of his second term, US President Donald Trump has vowed to outmuscle China in the Western Hemisphere, part of his “Donroe Doctrine” of regional dominance. But Washington’s levies, paired with Beijing’s insatiable appetite for commodities such as metals, beef, and soy, have only strengthened Latin America’s ties with the Chinese economy while helping reduce its exposure to US policy changes.

The shift is reshaping geopolitics, Bloomberg reported: Trump’s moves have deepened China’s footprint, and even some of the White House’s closest regional allies recently boosted trade ties to Beijing.