US-Iran Move Toward Deal, Anthropic’s Next AI Leap, Ethiopia’s EV Revolution

Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day

On today's podcast:

(1) The US and Iran made progress in nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with Tehran’s negotiators scheduled to return with a new proposal in two weeks, a US official said on Tuesday, a cautiously upbeat assessment that suggests the chances of an imminent military clash are low.

(2) Japan plans to invest up to $36 billion in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects, the first tranche of its $550 billion commitment under the trade agreement it struck with President Donald Trump.

(3) The ECB says Christine Lagarde hasn't made any decision about leaving her job as President early. That follows a report from the Financial Times - citing one person familiar with Lagarde's thinking - saying she wants to step down before France's Presidential election in April 2027.

(4) Anthropic is releasing a new artificial intelligence model that’s intended to be better at using people’s computers in increasingly complicated ways, building on the startup’s efforts to make AI tools more effective at streamlining tasks.

(5) Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway slashed its stake in Amazon. by more than 75% in the fourth quarter, while also building a stake in the New York Times Co., his last new bet as chief executive officer of the conglomerate.

(6) In the two years since the ban on internal combustion engine vehicles in Ethiopia, EV adoption has grown from less than 1% to nearly 6% of all of the vehicles on the road in the country — according to the government’s own figures — some way above the global average of 4%.

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