Flagship

Kyiv open to DMZ with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signaled he was open to withdrawing troops and establishing demilitarized zones in the country’s east, the closest he has come to addressing Russia’s hardline territorial demands. The acknowledgement was part of a 20-part plan worked out between Kyiv and Washington; Moscow is expected to demand changes, with no indication it will soften its maximalist stance of having full control over the Donetsk region. Zelenskyy has already made some concessions in peace talks, but his latest offer — which envisions demilitarized areas as a “free economic zone” along with a new fund to finance reconstruction — could appeal to American economic interests and US President Donald Trump’s business-oriented nature, experts said.

Judge upholds US H-1B fee

A US judge upheld President Donald Trump’s $100,000 fee on new applications for H-1B visas, dealing a setback to tech companies that have long benefitted from recruiting highly skilled foreign nationals. The White House’s announcement in September surprised employers; opponents argue the fee will hurt the country’s high-tech sector: “There will be a generation of talent out there in the world that will go to other countries,” an immigration lawyer said. The decision hits India particularly hard, capping a year defined by “the American dream-turned-nightmare,” an India-based Bloomberg journalist wrote. The Trump administration’s broad immigration crackdown has made students, workers, and tourists more reluctant to go to the US, while some big American firms are reportedly moving more positions to India.

New Epstein files further muddy waters

The release of a new tranche of files related to Jeffrey Epstein will only add to Americans’ confusion and division over the late sex offender and his ties to Donald Trump and other elite figures, analysts said. The thousands of documents US authorities released on Tuesday contain many mentions of Trump, but also include random, unverified tips that investigators had received, as well as files that the Department of Justice said were fabricated. Some of the pages, meanwhile, are heavily redacted for undisclosed reasons. The release has “fanned the flames of the conspiracy,” while also “muddying the waters” with unverified claims, The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel wrote. The country is stuck in an “Epstein holiday purgatory.” Officials said Wednesday they discovered a million more documents.

Western carmakers’ need for speed

Legacy automakers are trying to release new models more quickly, as their Chinese competitors churn out vehicles and accelerate overseas expansion plans. Ford, Volkswagen, and Nissan are among the car companies that have shortened their development time for new EVs to as little as just two years. It’s a response to Chinese carmakers chipping away at established brands’ market shares at home and abroad, but this new “move fast and break things” ethos is running up against the traditional safety-first culture of the Western and Japanese giants, the Financial Times reported. Chinese brands including Chery and Xpeng Motors recently announced plans to set up new Southeast Asian production facilities, amping up the pressure.

China debates extent of AI rules

China is trying to walk a fine line between regulating what AI chatbots can say and allowing innovation. Beijing’s online censorship extends to large language models: In a recent three-month span, authorities took down nearly 1 million pieces of what they deemed to be illegal or harmful AI-generated content. Western chatbots are blocked, and local AI companies are barred from generating responses that could spur people to question Chinese Communist Party rule. But some officials are hesitant to regulate too much, The Wall Street Journal reported, lest China be condemned to “second-tier status” behind the US in the AI race.

Pope Leo set to outline AI stance

AI safety proponents are looking to the leader of the Catholic Church for help establishing guardrails on the fast-moving technology. A public letter from Pope Leo XIV is expected in the coming weeks, Transformer reported, establishing “a clear moral stance on both the dangers and opportunities posed by the technology.” Leo — who picked his papal name from a pope who led the Church through another period of technological transformation — has signaled he is prioritizing AI and has overseen several meetings dedicated to the topic. Such Vatican guidance might not normally make waves, but Catholicism has seen a resurgence in the US in recent years, particularly in Silicon Valley, while AI is becoming salient politically.

AI hackers rival humans

The best AI hackers rival humans in their ability to find security flaws, research suggested. An AI called Artemis, developed at Stanford University, scans networks for vulnerabilities in the school’s system and finds ways to exploit them. Researchers had Artemis compete with professional penetration testers whose job it is to test organizations’ cybersecurity by breaking it, and found it outperformed nine out of 10 hackers at a fraction of the cost ($60 per hour, compared to humans that charge roughly $2,000 per day). Artemis had many false positives and missed one obvious bug. But if it can work cheaply and at scale, it would be a boon to organizations trying to secure their networks — and to hackers trying to find and exploit vulnerabilities.

From geopolitical shocks to climate volatility and disruptive technologies, today’s business environment is increasingly resistant to prediction. As public trust frays, CEOs are being pushed to lead with clarity under pressure. Semafor CEO Signal Editor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson will sit down with global leaders, including GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, in Davos to examine how executives are resetting priorities, reassessing risk, and redefining resilience.

Jan. 21 | Davos | Request Invitation

US murders set to fall at historic rate

US murders are on track to fall at a historic rate in 2025, according to an analysis of preliminary data. The Real-Time Crime Index tracks 570 law enforcement agencies and is typically in line with official rates. The projected 20% drop in murders from 2024 to 2025, which would be the largest decline ever recorded, furthers a trend that began in 2023; at least 10 cities are set to record the fewest murders since 1970, crime analyst Jeff Asher wrote on his Substack. Polls indicate more Americans also feel safer, though partisanship often plays a role in that assessment. That’s especially true this year, as President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to several cities with the intention of fighting crime.

Climate lawsuits surge

The rise of “climate litigation” is seeing members of the public suing their governments over perceived inadequacies in attempts to combat global warming. In Japan, about 450 citizens are suing for compensation after the country’s hottest summer on record. Plaintiffs said the heatwaves caused health and economic damage, and that the government had done too little to prevent it. Activists in Montana are suing over laws intended to boost fossil fuel use, saying they violate young people’s rights. Around the world, the number of climate-related court cases at top-level national courts has exploded since two landmark rulings in 2015, a report for the London School of Economics noted, with more than 3,000 cases since then targeting both governments and corporations.

Fish return to rivers

Juvenile coho salmon were spotted in California’s Russian River for the first time in 30 years, part of a wider revival of salmon species in the state. Salmon swim upstream from oceans to breed in the river they hatched in. In the 20th century, dams, pollution, and overfishin