Flagship

Tech firms team up for AI group

Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic launched a group to research and control new artificial intelligence systems. The “Frontier Model Forum” includes only those companies making AIs which “exceed the capabilities currently present in the most advanced existing models,” suggesting, Ars Technica reported, that it will focus on potential risks from future AIs, rather than present-day concerns like copyright and privacy. Skeptics suggested it was an attempt to avoid regulation, although Sam Altman of OpenAI has previously called for regulation of future powerful AIs. Meanwhile, Meta’s chief lobbyist wrote in The Indian Express that AI should not be controlled by “a few corporations,” saying that Meta will keep its own AIs open source.

Fed hikes rates, again

The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25% to their highest level since 2001, with officials voicing openness to further hikes and reversing a prediction of a looming recession. Inflation in the world’s biggest economy has slowed considerably — thanks in part to rate increases at 11 of the past 12 Fed meetings — but remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target, while economic growth has been higher than its projections, suggesting further monetary tightening may be needed. Markets were little changed, though, having already priced in the decision. The European Central Bank is expected to follow suit with its own 0.25% hike today.

US courts South Pacific

Top U.S. officials fanned out across the South Pacific, part of efforts to court island nations which Washington fears may fall under China’s sway. The U.S. secretaries of state, defense, and the interior are variously visiting Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Palau, and Micronesia this week, and the Biden administration has announced the expansion of embassies in Vanuatu and Kiribati. Yet the push faces challenges. Regional leaders are offended by intermittent American attention — Biden himself canceled a visit this year — and are receiving offers of improved ties and assistance from Beijing. “It’s not just about opening up embassies,” one regional expert told The Washington Post, “it’s about the way in which that diplomacy is practiced.”

Kevin Spacey acquitted

Kevin Spacey was cleared of all charges six years after being accused of sexual assault. The actor, who won Oscars for his performances in American Beauty and The Usual Suspects, saw his career dry up after he was alleged to have assaulted four men. Spacey told the court that the charges were “madness” and “a stab in the back,” saying any contact had been consensual and “in my mind romantic.” Among the witnesses was Elton John, who confirmed Spacey’s claim that he had not been at the party at which one assault was alleged to have occurred. But the actor may yet struggle to find big roles, a PR expert told The Guardian, with “this level of negative publicity” around.

Ukraine launches new push

Ukraine launched a major new push in its counteroffensive against Russia. The assault included troops held in reserve, reinforced with tanks, and could last one to three weeks, U.S. officials told The New York Times. Russian officials similarly described a “massive” push by Ukrainian forces. The latest campaign comes with concerns that Kyiv’s counteroffensive — which was heavily touted in advance — is struggling to make sufficient ground, hampered by Russian-installed obstacles as well as Ukraine’s own limits of manpower and materiel. “This is the big test,” an American official told The Times. Moscow, meanwhile, continued an aerial campaign against Ukraine’s port infrastructure with overnight attacks.

Military coup in Niger

Niger’s president was seized in a coup. Soldiers went on TV late last night to announce that the constitution had been dissolved and all public institutions suspended. Niger is a key U.S. ally in West Africa, home to drone bases used in counter-terrorism operations. It’s also struggling with Islamist insurgencies on its borders with Mali and Nigeria. Recent coups in Mali and Burkina Faso led to the countries falling out with Western allies. In Niger, crowds took to the streets in support of the deposed president, who is reported to be unharmed. France, the European Union, and the West African economic bloc Ecowas condemned the coup.

El Salvador approves mass trials

El Salvador’s congress approved laws allowing courts to try accused gang members in mass trials. In an effort to expedite cases, defendants will be tried based on what area they lived in and what gang faction controlled that territory. Since President Nayib Bukele launched a crackdown on gangs last year, more than 77,000 have been imprisoned in what have been described as “dragnet” arrests. As few as 30% of those detained may have ties to organized crime, a local NGO said. Despite mass alleged human rights violations — hundreds of prisoners have died while in detention — Bukele remains one of the most popular leaders in the world, as even critics credit him with having brought down El Salvador’s once-shocking murder rate.

Judge throws out Hunter plea deal

Hunter Biden’s proposed plea deal collapsed after the judge in his trial said the agreement was possibly “unconstitutional” and “not worth the paper it is printed on.” Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, faces tax and firearms charges. He agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanors and avoid felony prosecutions. But the judge took issue with a paragraph of the deal offering him lifelong immunity from related prosecutions. Hunter’s legal troubles come with his father gearing up for reelection: Though it is unclear what impact the latest episode will have on the campaign, Hunter is “nevertheless likely to remain central to Republicans’ political messaging,” the Financial Times said.

Sinead O’Connor dies

Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer best known for her cover of Nothing Compares 2 U, died aged 56. She was “vulnerable, wild, beautiful, strange, combative, empathetic, utterly extraordinary,” said The Daily Telegraph’s Neil McCormick, who knew her as a youth. Her career stumbled after she tore up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live in protest against child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. She had earlier refused to allow the U.S. national anthem to be played at her concerts and boycotted the Grammys over racism, leading to her CDs being destroyed by a steamroller in Times Square. She said “Everyone wants a pop star … but I am a protest singer.”

The return of the clamshell phone

Samsung launched its new-generation flip phones. The Z Flip 5 is “flippin’ great,” said one review, somewhat inevitably. Readers of a certain age may have used Motorolas and similar devices which folded in half in the early 2000s, but modern flip phones are “a far cry” from those, according to The Verge: They are “smartphones that happen to fold in half — plus a screen on the front cover.” They’re not a new idea, but have been gathering pace, and the latest ones are a “radical transformation” from earlier models. They only account for 2% of the market, but WIRED said that in the last half-decade, they have “gone from weirdo hobbyist gizmos to stable, predictable devices.”

• Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts a summit for African leaders in St. Petersburg. The Kremlin earlier complained that the reduced attendance was because of “blatant, brazen interference” from the West.
• U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House. She becomes a rare hard-right leader to meet with Biden in Washington.
• The Expanse: A Telltale Series is released on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

The percentage by which the price of coca has fallen, contributing to food insecurity and internal displacements throughout Colombia. Coca cultivation has historically supported hundreds of thousands of families across the country, but oversupply — new plant variants are far more productive — and inflation have eaten away at profits, the World Food Programme said. Territorial disputes and a changing drug market in the U.S. have also contributed to the price crunch. “This has created not only an economic crisis but frankly a humanitarian crisis,” a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group said.

A growing number of companies are experimenting with aging chocolate in whiskey and wine barrels to change their taste and texture. Because cacao beans are about 50% fat, they are able to absorb a cask’s flavors, taking on hints of whatever ingredients inhabited it. One Ecuadorian producer has experimented with dozens of different barrel types, including ones that held sherry, rum, and tequila. “Just as barrel-aging imparts a wide array of flavors into coffee, cocktails, hot sauce, and, of course, wine and spirits, it can do the same for chocolate,” an Eater reviewer said. “I can tell you chocolate and barrel-aging may be the best match yet.”

• OpenAI’s rivals can give customers one thing it can’t: flexibility.
• What’s a security? For once, the SEC won’t say.
• House Freedom caucus members are spoiling for a shutdown fight, Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported.