Flagship

OpenAI raises $6.6 billion

OpenAI raised $6.6 billion from investors, making the ChatGPT maker one of the world’s most valuable private companies. Its whopping $157 billion valuation points to the belief from major firms — Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX were among those who piled cash in — that artificial intelligence will transform the economy and OpenAI will sit at the forefront of that shift. Still, in a sign of the fevered competition to build AI models, OpenAI reportedly asked its investors not to put money into rivals including Anthropic and xAI. Despite enthusiasm for the company, The Information reported that some investors worried the latest funding round was too rushed, and questioned whether OpenAI could be sufficiently profitable.

HIV drug to be sold cheap

Gilead, the US pharma company, said it would allow drug manufacturers in Asia and Africa to make cheap generic versions of its lifesaving HIV drug. Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection, provides near-total protection from the sexually transmitted virus, but in the US costs $42,250 per patient per year, an unattainable sum for many developing-world health care systems. The new deal would permit six companies to sell it for much less — perhaps as little as $40 — in 120 poorer nations, though the deal will not apply in many middle-income countries that account for around 20% of new infections. In 2023, there were 1.3 million new HIV infections around the world, The New York Times reported.

Rice price plummets

Global rice prices fell the most in 16 years after India — the world’s biggest producer — lifted some export restrictions, alleviating fears of worsening global food insecurity. The decision was driven by better-than-expected harvests, and spurred exporters in Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam to slash prices to compete with the huge additional supply. Food prices have begun to fall from their peaks following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index is about 25% lower than in March of that year. But climate change is driving long-term fluctuations, the World Health Organization recently noted, and Bloomberg reported this week that other crops are getting more expensive.

Solar boom in China, US

Electricity prices have gone negative in parts of China as renewable energy overwhelms the grid. The country is building twice as much wind and solar as the rest of the world combined, and grid officials have had to resort to reducing output, while the industry’s focus is increasingly turning to building battery storage to smooth the flow of energy, OilPrice reported. The US, although lagging behind China in absolute terms, is also seeing a huge increase in solar capacity: Average solar output in the 48 contiguous states was 36% higher year-on-year in August, and solar is expected to make up almost two-thirds of new electricity generation capacity in the last months of 2024.

Israel’s widening war

An Israeli strike killed at least six people in central Beirut amid growing fears of it launching an all-out war with Iran. The country’s forces have already undertaken a ground invasion of Lebanon, street battles have persisted in Gaza, and as The New York Times noted, Israel “seems ready to strike Iran directly, in a much more forceful and public way than it ever has.” Beyond the conflict’s enormous human toll, the diplomatic fallout is also significant: Saudi Arabia — which had appeared to be close to normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel — yesterday made explicit that it would not do so until an independent Palestinian state is established, its foreign minister wrote in the Financial Times.

Starmer repays hospitality

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer repaid £6,000 ($7,800) in gifts he received since taking office. Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide in July’s election, but he has been criticized for accepting $130,000 in hospitality, such as tickets to sporting events and Taylor Swift concerts, and his popularity has dropped. The fallout is a concern for Labour, which won many seats narrowly, and is more vulnerable than its parliamentary majority suggests. US readers may, however, be surprised at the small numbers involved, a product of British politics’ strict financial rules: A single vacation to Bali for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, gifted by Republican donors, was worth four times as much as all Starmer’s gifts put together.

Singapore ex-minister jailed

A Singapore court sentenced a former cabinet minister to 12 months in jail for corruption. Subramaniam Iswaran’s conviction for accepting more than $300,000 of gifts and obstructing the course of justice marks the first time a Singapore minister has been convicted of graft in nearly 50 years, underlining its reputation for being largely free of corruption. In part, that is down to a zero-tolerance attitude: Prosecutors had recommended six months in jail for Iswaran, but the court doubled that. It is also down to handsome salaries for senior leaders — some ministers make more than $750,000 a year — which proponents argue dissuades them from accepting gifts or bribes.

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Oct. 21 | Washington DC | Request Invitation

Nigeria boat accident kills dozens

At least 60 people died and dozens were missing after a boat capsized on the Niger River delta in Nigeria. Such accidents are a recurring issue in Africa’s most populous country. In response, authorities have imposed restrictions, including a nighttime sailing ban, but regulations are poorly enforced. Meanwhile extreme weather has made traveling on the country’s fast-flowing rivers even more dangerous as the risk of flooding increases. Transportation more broadly remains exceedingly perilous across the continent: According to the World Health Organization, Africa’s road deaths per 100,000 people are almost double the global average, and roughly four times that of richer regions such as Europe.

Christmas comes early to Venezuela

Christmas officially started in Venezuela after the government surprisingly moved forwards the celebrations, a move critics say is an attempt to divert attention from disputed presidential election results. Since the July vote — which experts believe the opposition won by a more than two-to-one margin — Caracas has cracked down on dissidents, imprisoning more than 2,000 and forcing the opposition presidential candidate to flee to Spain. Now President Nicolás Maduro, seeking to unleash holiday spending to boost a flagging economy, has decided that festivities will start earlier. “Halloween hasn’t even passed, and it’s already Christmas? Are we celebrating them together?” one Caracas resident told The Associated Press.

Voyager shutters tool to extend life

NASA shut down one of Voyager 2’s remaining instruments to keep the aging space probe working. The Voyagers launched in 1977 and are now 12.8 billion miles away, outside the solar system, the first and only human-made objects to reach interstellar space. But their plutonium batteries are slowly degrading. After the probes passed the outer planets — Voyager 2 left Neptune behind in 1989 — some instruments were switched off, to extend their working lives. NASA hopes shutting down its plasma instrument, which measures the flow of solar wind and other trace matter, will allow the machine to keep working past its 50th birthday, before losing power completely and tumbling through the cold and dark forever.

• The EU Parliament publishes the Eurobarometer, its first pan-European opinion survey since June’s elections.
• FIFA is expected to announce its ruling on the Palestinian Football Association’s call to ban Israel from international soccer over the war in Gaza.
• The third season of Heartstopper, based on a best-selling graphic novel series, is released on Netflix.

The price Sony paid for the music catalog of British rock band Pink Floyd. The band that recorded The Wall and The Dark Side of The Moon could have sold their inventory for an even higher price were it not for lead singer Roger Waters, whose recent support of Russia and divisive comments on Israel caused other deals to fall through. The sale follows that of other high-profile artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with the number of catalog sales continuing to rise.

The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames. This novel about an apparent murder in remote southern Italy in 1960 is “a gripping mystery amid an alluring atmosphere,” says the Los Angeles Review of Books, written in “masterful prose,” with an “atmosphere of menace that… builds, slowly but steadily, page by page.” Buy The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia.

• Gulf sovereign wealth fund in talks to invest in big US lender.
• ADNOC’s still on the hunt after $13 billion acquisition.
• A London lawsuit could amp up environmental pressure on big businesses.