Tom Chivers

18 hours ago | semafor.com | Tom Chivers

Norway’s giant sovereign wealth fund said it would scale back hiring thanks to improvements in artificial intelligence. The $1.8 trillion fund employs 676 people, a number which has risen in recent years, but CEO Nicolai Tangen told the Norwegian Parliament that its work could be done more efficiently “through more use of technology,” including AI.

18 hours ago | semafor.com | Tom Chivers

Russia is under increasing international pressure to take concrete steps to end its war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron promised new sanctions targeting buyers of Russian oil and financial services, a sentiment echoed by the new German chancellor, while US President Donald Trump, who until recently appeared sympathetic to the Kremlin, has grown impatient with Moscow’s intransigence, the Financial Times reported.

18 hours ago | flipboard.com | Tom Chivers

Now‘Hey, Comrade Putin, Just Go’: Brazil’s Lula Urges Kremlin Leader to Join Istanbul Talks“It costs me nothing to say, ‘Hey, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate, come on,’” the Brazilian president said during a visit to China.

1 day ago | semafor.com | Tom Chivers

Chinese researchers developed an efficient, low-cost way of extracting uranium from seawater, which they hope will boost their country’s nuclear expansion. The oceans are estimated to hold 5 billion tons of uranium, 1,000 times more than can be mined, but the dissolved minerals are dilute and difficult to gather. The new system involves trapping uranium atoms with electric fields: It was 10 times as efficient as physical methods, and 1,000 times cheaper than previous electrical techniques.

1 day ago | semafor.com | Tom Chivers

Honda and Nissan both reported staggering losses, the latest sign of the Japanese car industry’s woes. Honda’s operating profits dropped 76% in the three months to April, while Nissan — which yesterday announced 20,000 global job cuts — announced record-breaking losses. Rival Toyota already forecast a 21% drop in profits this year, which it blamed on US tariffs.