India-US Relations: Washington Is Not Going To Be Benign Anymore – Analysis

P. K. Balachandran

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In the light of apprehensions about the Donald Trump Presidency in the United States, his first interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone earlier this week, was pleasant enough to mollify Modi’s constituency in India.

However, Trump’s tough policies may force India to change its Third World ways and be more efficient and competitive. The US is not going to be benign anymore.

Trump was characteristically business-like, spelling out his concerns without mincing words. A terse statement released by the White House said that the President emphasised the importance of India “increasing its procurement of American-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship.”

But to his credit, Trump personally ventured to soften the impact when he told the media that Modi will visit Washington in February. That laid to rest speculation that Indo-US ties have weakened because Trump did not invite Modi for his inauguration when he had invited the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

BRICS+ And G20: Competing Or Collaborating For Global South – Analysis

Kester Kenn Klomegah

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South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa heads G20, an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union, and the African Union, while Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva chairs BRICS+, an association made of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa with four new members and 13 partner states in a category mostly from developing countries. At a quick glance, the G20 and BRICS+ are respectively chaired this year 2025 by South Africa and Brazil, both BRICS+ members, which makes it distinctively important development for the changing geopolitical world. In 2025, G20 and BRICS+ agenda features a pivotal role and pledge to continue making concerted strides, either in keen competition for economic revitalization or in close collaboration as development players, in the Global South.

Historically, G20 was created back in 1999 as a group of twenty of the world’s largest economies to deal primarily with multifaceted aspects of existing global economic, trade, health, climate change and political issues. Dissatisfied with the global dominance of the United States and the stack failure of leaders of developing countries, especially in Africa, to raise their economic status to an appreciable levels and improve standards of living for the largely impoverished population, BRIC appeared in 2009, in city of Yekaterinburg, Russia. South Africa ascended in 2010, transforming it into BRICS. As popularly now referred to as BRICS+, its key objective aspiration is to support building a better economic architecture for the Global South. In addition, BRICS+, as a non-western association, operates against western hegemony and uni-polar, rules-based system. Its key priority aims at shaping a more equitable and a more balanced global order while collaborating with developing countries in raising their economic status in the Global South.

Supporting Burma’s Democratic Transition: A Strategic Imperative For America’s Security, Strength, And Prosperity – OpEd

James Shwe

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In a Press Statement issued on January 26, 2025, regarding the implementation of the President’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid, Secretary of State Marco Rubio articulated a clear directive for U.S. foreign policy. He emphasized, “Every dollar expended, every program funded, and every policy pursued must be justified by answering three fundamental questions: Does it enhance America’s security? Does it bolster America’s strength? Does it augment America’s prosperity?”

From the perspective of a Burmese American advocate for freedom and democracy in Burma, supporting the country’s democratic transition unequivocally satisfies all three criteria. This policy not only aligns seamlessly with America’s core values but also addresses a critical strategic oversight in Southeast Asia—one that carries profound implications for regional stability, economic growth, and the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific theater. By championing Burma’s democratic aspirations, the United States stands to fortify its position in a region of escalating geopolitical significance.

Why Burma Matters: The Strategic Blind Spot

Burma (Myanmar) occupies a pivotal position in Southeast Asia, bridging South and Southeast Asia while providing China direct access to the Indian Ocean. Its strategic importance has grown exponentially as China has expanded its influence through projects like the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and critical oil and gas pipelines. Yet, Burma has often been overlooked in U.S. foreign policy, creating what analysts call a “strategic blind spot.”

A shocking Chinese AI advancement called DeepSeek is sending US stocks plunging

David Goldman and Matt Egan

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US stocks dropped sharply Monday — and chipmaker Nvidia lost nearly $600 billion in market value — after a surprise advancement from a Chinese artificial intelligence company, DeepSeek, threatened the aura of invincibility surrounding America’s technology industry.

DeepSeek, a one-year-old startup, revealed a stunning capability last week: It presented a ChatGPT-like AI model called R1, which has all the familiar abilities, operating at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s, Google’s or Meta’s popular AI models. The company said it had spent just $5.6 million on computing power for its base model, compared with the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars US companies spend on their AI technologies.

That sent shockwaves through markets, in particular the tech sector, on Monday.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged by 3.1% and the broader S&P 500 fell 1.5%. The Dow, boosted by health care and consumer companies that could be hurt by AI, was up 289 points, or about 0.7% higher. Stock market losses were far deeper at the beginning of the day.

Meta last week said it would spend upward of $65 billion this year on AI development. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, last year said the AI industry would need trillions of dollars in investment to support the development of in-demand chips needed to power the electricity-hungry data centers that run the sector’s complex models.

Big Tech has a big DeepSeek problem

Britney Nguyen

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Big Tech’s multi-billion dollar spending on artificial intelligence will be under investor scrutiny this week — even more so after China’s DeepSeek sent shockwaves through Wall Street and Silicon Valley with a cheap yet competitive AI model.

Ahead of earnings results from Microsoft, Meta, and Apple, the AI-driven stock rally lost $1 trillion in value after the Hangzhou-based AI startup demonstrated AI reasoning models on par with OpenAI and Anthropic. Last week’s release of DeepSeek-R1 sparked a global sell-off of tech stocks, with Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and S&P500 futures all falling Monday morning. Nvidia (NVDA) stock plunged 17%, wiping out nearly $600 billion in value — a record loss for a U.S. company.

Investors were spooked by DeepSeek, which in December released DeepSeek-V3, a model it said cost just $5.6 million to train and develop on Nvidia’s reduced-capability H800 chips.

According to the technical paper, DeepSeek said it used a cluster of just under 2,050 graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia for training — much less than the tens of thousands of chips U.S. firms are using to train similarly-sized models. Meta (META), for example, used 16,000 of Nvidia’s more powerful H100s to train its Llama 3 405B model.

The Rise Of The Immortal Dictator: What Will AI Mean For Freedom And Government? – OpEd

John and Nisha Whitehead

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The Deep State is about to go turbocharged.

While the news media fixates on the extent to which Project 2025 may be the Trump Administration’s playbook for locking down the nation, there is a more subversive power play taking place under cover of Trump’s unique brand of circus politics.

Take a closer look at what’s unfolding, and you will find that all appearances to the contrary, Trump isn’t planning to do away with the Deep State. Rather, he was hired by the Deep State to usher in the golden age of AI.

Get ready for Surveillance State 2.0.

To achieve this turbocharged surveillance state, the government is turning to its most powerful weapon yet: artificial intelligence. AI, with its ability to learn, adapt, and operate at speeds unimaginable to humans, is poised to become the engine of this new world order.

Over the course of 70 years, the technology has developed so rapidly that it has gone from early computers exhibiting a primitive form of artificial intelligence to machine learning (AI systems that learn from historic data) to deep learning (machine learning that mimics the human brain) to generative AI, which can create original content, i.e., it appears able to think for itself.

China’s DeepSeek Has Close Ties To Beijing

Alice Yam and Ha Syut

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Rising AI star DeepSeek has close ties to the Chinese government that could explain its rapid progress from a 1 million yuan (US$138,000) startup in 2023 to a major global challenger in the industry, according to a recent investigation by RFA Cantonese.

The open-source artificial intelligence model founded by 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng knocked a US$1 trillion-sized hole in an AI-fueled rally on global stock markets on Monday when it topped app charts ahead of ChatGPT, in what many saw as a challenge to American dominance in the sector.

DeepSeek’s popularity roiled tech shares around the world, knocking US$1 trillion off their value, while near-monopoly holder Nvidia lost nearly US$600bn in market capitalization after its shares plummeted 17% on Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said DeepSeek should serve as a “wake-up call” to the U.S. industry, which needed to be “laser-focused on competing to win.”

Trump last week announced the launch of a US$500 billion AI initiative led by OpenAI, which is behind the generative AI service ChatGPT, Texas-based Oracle and Japan’s SoftBank.

US tech stocks steady after DeepSeek AI app shock

Peter Hoskins & Charlotte Edwards

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US tech stocks were steady on Tuesday after they slumped on Monday following the sudden rise of Chinese-made artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek.

Shares in chip giant Nvidia rose by 8.8%, having slumped on Monday, as experts said the AI selloff may have been an over-reaction.

The market hit came as investors rapidly adjusted bets on AI, after DeepSeek's claim that its model was made at a fraction of the cost of those of its rivals.

Analysts said the development raised questions about the future of America's AI dominance and the scale of investments US firms are planning.

US President Donald Trump described the moment as "a wake-up call" for the US tech industry, while also suggesting that it could ultimately prove " a positive" for the US.

"If you could do it cheaper, if you could do it [for] less [and] get to the same end result. I think that's a good thing for us," he told reporters on board Air Force One.

What to Know About DeepSeek, the Chinese AI Company Causing Stock Market Chaos

Billy Perrigo and Tharin Pillay

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A new Chinese AI model, created by the Hangzhou-based startup DeepSeek, has stunned the American AI industry by outperforming some of OpenAI’s leading models, displacing ChatGPT at the top of the iOS app store, and usurping Meta as the leading purveyor of so-called open source AI tools. All of which has raised a critical question: despite American sanctions on Beijing’s ability to access advanced semiconductors, is China catching up with the U.S. in the global AI race?

At a supposed cost of just $6 million to train, DeepSeek’s new R1 model, released last week, was able to match the performance on several math and reasoning metrics by OpenAI’s o1 model – the outcome of tens of billions of dollars in investment by OpenAI and its patron Microsoft.

The Chinese model is also cheaper for users. Access to its most powerful versions costs some 95% less than OpenAI and its competitors. The upshot: the U.S. tech industry is suddenly faced with a potentially cheaper and more powerful challenger, unnerving investors, who sold off American tech stocks on Monday morning.

DeepSeek hit with ‘large-scale’ cyber-attack after AI chatbot tops app stores

Dara Kerr

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DeepSeek said its newly popular app was hit with a cyber-attack on Monday, which forced the Chinese company to temporarily limit registrations. The attack came after the DeepSeek AI assistant app soared to the top of Apple’s App Store, becoming the highest rated free app in the US, and climbed high in Google’s Play Store.

On its status page, DeepSeek said it started to investigate the issue late Monday night Beijing time. After about two hours of monitoring, the company said it was the victim of a “large-scale malicious attack”. While DeepSeek limited registrations, existing users were still able to log on as usual. The app is now allowing registrations again.

DeepSeek’s app is an AI assistant similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. The news of the app’s ascendency in the US – and ability to edge out American rivals for a fraction of the cost – sent technology stocks tumbling on Monday. Nvidia, the AI chip maker and most valuable US company, saw its stocks plummet by 13.6% in early trading, wiping out some $500bn in market capitalization.

Some tech investors were impressed at how quickly DeepSeek was able to create an AI assistant that nearly equals Google’s and OpenAI’s for roughly $5m while other AI companies spend billions for the same results, particularly with China under strict chip export controls that limit DeepSeek’s access to computational power. The model’s low-budget success could threaten the US’s lead in the AI market.

Elon Musk Is Running the Twitter Playbook on the Federal Government

Zoe Schiffer

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Elon Musk is only one week into his role in President Donald Trump’s new administration, but the US federal government is already rolling out the Twitter playbook to manage its spending and personnel. Just like Musk did when he took over the social media platform, Trump’s team is attempting to drastically reduce the number of government staffers and ensure those who remain are loyal to the president’s agenda.

On Tuesday, federal employees received an email that mirrors the “Fork in the Road” missive sent to Twitter (now X) staff shortly after Musk bought the company in 2022. The email asks federal workers to resign by February 6 if they do not wish to return to the office five days a week and commit to a culture of excellence. Those who choose to resign will continue to get pay and benefits until September, according to the memo.

“The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work,” reads the email, which was later published on the US Office of Personnel Management website. “Employees will be subject to enhanced standards of suitability and conduct as we move forward.”

The news comes as Musk’s minions take over the US Office of Personnel Management, which acts as a human resources department for the federal workforce. Elon Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED. The Office of Personnel Management also did not respond to a request for comment.

Israel Isn’t Serious About the Gaza Cease-Fire. Nor Is Trump.

H.A. Hellyer

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On Jan. 19, the first phase of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire agreement began. After 15 months, Israel’s war in Gaza is, presumably, on pause. It’s all thanks to a deal that was reportedly on the table since December 2023, but was finally signed last week after Donald Trump intervened, just before his inauguration. The question is: Is this really a cease-fire, or is it simply a truce that will fall apart in the next few weeks?

A cease-fire is usually envisaged to be permanent, with the clear and stated intention of not returning to hostilities. A truce is quite the opposite.

Future of DeepSeek, Like TikTok, May Come Down to Trump’s Whims

Philip Elliott

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This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a tech tool owned by a foreign adversary is thrusting its tentacles into the devices in tens of millions of Americans’ pockets, giving its owners the chance to harvest vast amounts of data about them while shaping how they interpret the world around them, either real or imagined. Pretty bold, huh?

That was, in essence, why the U.S. Supreme Court just this month unanimously upheld a law effectively banning TikTok—because Congress saw it as a national security risk that stood to benefit China. Given the challenges coming from Beijing, justices said Washington was within its power to deny it one of its strongest toeholds out of concern that it could be used to surveil Americans, steal their secrets, and feed them a stream of propaganda useful to China’s big-picture goals. (For its part, the China-based parent company ByteDance has rejected U.S. fears about nefarious uses for its TikTok.) So Congress told tech companies like Apple and Google they would run afoul of U.S. law if they kept providing Americans’ access to the app and its updates if TikTok remained under Chinese ownership.

The Biden Administration Left Space Vulnerable to Cyberattack - OPINION

Annie Fixler & Mariam Davlashelidze

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Space systems are as vital as electricity to our everyday lives, but their cybersecurity is not similarly prioritized by the federal government. President Joe Biden’s final cybersecurity executive order, issued January 16 — a directive President Donald Trump appears likely to maintain — noted that space systems play a “pivotal role… in global critical infrastructure and communications resilience,” but stopped short of designating space as a critical infrastructure in itself. In so doing, the White House missed yet another opportunity to adequately prioritize the security and resilience of these essential systems.

Space Systems Are Vital to Everyday Life

In addition to satellite communications, other critical infrastructure, including energy, water, and finance, rely on space-based systems. The global positioning system (GPS), for example, provides precise timing of industrial control systems and financial trades. When Moscow disabled the operations of the American satellite company Viasat in February 2022 as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s military communications were degraded. Thousands of customers across Europe lost internet access, and the operations of thousands of wind turbines in Central Europe were hampered.

A World Economic Forum report from April 2024 projected that the global space economy will triple to $1.8 trillion by 2035. The report contends that this growth will be the result not just of increased reliance on space-based assets for communication and national defense, but also of consumer activities like ride-sharing apps and food delivery. “Space will play an increasingly crucial role in mitigating world challenges, ranging from disaster warning and climate monitoring, to improved humanitarian response and more widespread prosperity,” the report projects.

Stressed Security Environment In North-East Asia And Focus On Defence Spending – Analysis

Dr. Rajaram Panda

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With Donald Trump’s return to a second term as American President, the issue of transactional relationship with the US alliance partners is likely to figure prominently at the Oval Office. This could mean demand for greater defence burden-sharing by its allies and security partners in East Asia – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Trump could also demand Tokyo cough up more cash for hosting US troops, besides a renewed push for it to further jack up defense spending.

During most of the post-War years, Japan and South Korea remained stable US allies. That looks threatened during Trump’s second term. With a maverick and mercurial Trump at the Oval Office, Shigeru Ishiba heading a minority government in Japan and on the edge and political instability in South Korea following the short but misguided martial law promulgation by Yoon Suk-Yeol in South Korea, there seems to be a political paralysis leaving a leadership vacuum in the Indo-Pacific.

The previous leaders of the US and Japan, along with Yoon Suk-Yeol of South Korea (now in trouble) focused on strengthening alliances and regional stability through cooperation whereas Trump’s approach to foreign policy looks prioritising transactional relationship.

Project Solarium 2.0: Can Eisenhower’s Cold War Strategy Work Today?

David Maxwell

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The term “Solarium Project” has been used so frequently in recent years that its original purpose and power have been diluted. Today, it’s often invoked as a generic term for strategic brainstorming.

However, the roots of the original Project Solarium – initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 – represent something far more profound and disciplined. It was a process that provided the foundation for a coherent, enduring strategy that ultimately helped the United States win the Cold War. To address the complexities of today’s global challenges, we should return to the original intent and rigor of Project Solarium and institutionalize it as a standard process to support the President in developing a National Security Strategy.

This new Solarium Project would synchronize all elements of national power and provide continuity of strategy, ensuring the safeguarding of US interests over the long term. It should be the foundation for an America First National Security Strategy.

Eisenhower’s Vision

President Eisenhower’s original Solarium Project was more than just an exercise in strategic thinking. It was a disciplined process aimed at addressing a critical problem: how to contain the Soviet Union’s global ambitions. Eisenhower convened a select group of experts at the National War College in Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. Three teams comprised the project: academics, policymakers, and practitioners, each tasked with developing a distinct approach to countering the Soviet threat. This rigorous and collaborative effort culminated in the adoption of a coherent strategy that guided US policy throughout the Cold War.

America Must Prepare for War

Meaghan Mobbs

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The recent viral video of a knife fight between a Russian and Ukrainian soldier provides a stark and brutal reminder of the realities of modern warfare. Captured from the helmet camera of the Ukrainian fighter, the footage is a raw depiction of close combat. The Ukrainian soldier, fatally wounded, calls for a friend who never comes, says goodbye to his mother, and exchanges words of respect with his adversary—acknowledging courage in the midst of mortal struggle. This is war at its most unvarnished, a reminder that despite our technological advances, the essence of combat remains unchanged. It is visceral, personal, and shattering. And it underscores a sobering truth: America is woefully unprepared for the kind of warfare this century demands.

For decades, the United States has oriented its military doctrine around the notion that technology can buffer us from the human costs of war. Unmanned drones, precision-guided munitions, and artificial intelligence promise to reduce the burden on soldiers, removing them from the fog and friction of close combat. But even as technology evolves, war remains an inherently human endeavor. The advent of First Person View (FPV) drones, for example, has paradoxically brought death closer than ever. With these drones, the act of killing is seen through the operator’s eyes, merging technological innovation with the intimate experience of taking a life.

The video from Ukraine reveals that, despite these technological advancements, the fundamentals of war have not changed. The knife fight is an ancient form of combat, a visceral struggle for survival that strips away the abstraction of modern warfare. It is a confrontation of body, mind, and will—and America’s forces are not adequately prepared for such encounters. This failure is not due to a lack of courage or resolve among our troops but rather a systemic neglect of the training and mental fortitude required to face war’s most intimate realities.

The Deep and Dangerous Roots of Trump’s Foreign Policy

Matt Johnson

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In Donald Trump’s second inaugural address, his familiar zero-sum worldview was on full display: “We will be the envy of every nation,” he declared, “and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”

But amid all his talk of “America’s decline,” Trump advanced an ambitious and startling vision of American power. This vision is a strange mix of 19th century expansionism and 21st century futurism. Trump announced that “we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” But he also falsely claimed that “China is operating the Panama Canal” and vowed: “We’re taking it back.” Trump has meanwhile spent the past few months insisting that “control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” and suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state.

It’s unclear whether Trump’s sudden interest in territorial aggrandizement is just bluster or a genuine declaration of intent. But one line from his inaugural address suggested that he’s serious: “The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.” Some of these horizons are closer than others—we shouldn’t expect to see Americans on Mars or an attempt to annex Canada anytime soon. But Trump’s fixation on Greenland and Panama should be taken seriously.

‘That Would Give Trump Pause’: How to Game Out the Next Trade War

Bob Davis

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Donald Trump launched a two-year trade war against China during his first term in the White House, and he’s poised to do it again.

Even before being sworn in, Trump threatened China with 60 percent tariffs to cut its trade surplus, 10 percent tariffs if it didn’t halt fentanyl shipments and 100 percent tariffs if it tried to create a rival currency to the dollar. On his second day in office, he announced the first wave of tariffs would hit China on Feb. 1.

Of course, this may be bluster or a negotiating tactic. But with Trump you never know, which makes his tariff threats that much more effective. During the first trade war, he deployed tariffs on a scale not seen since the 1930s to try to get China to bend to his will and China replied in kind. U.S. tariff rates on Chinese goods rose six-fold to 19.3 percent, while Chinese tariff rates on U.S. goods nearly tripled to 21.1 percent, all of which shook markets, hurt U.S. companies that depended on those imports and lifted inflation somewhat.

The clash ended in an inconclusive Phase One trade deal, where China made some regulatory changes in agriculture and finance but didn’t come close to buying the vast amounts of U.S. goods it pledged to purchase. Trump wanted a Phase Two deal where China would agree to more dramatic changes. But whatever hope there was for that — and it was slight — died when the two nations locked down during the pandemic and accused each other of releasing the coronavirus.

A defiant Hamas displays its authority in Gaza, posing a challenge to Netanyahu

Mithil Aggarwal

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The Hamas fighters stood on the Gaza boundary once considered crucial for keeping them at bay.

Eight heavily armed men, wearing seemingly spotless military uniforms and Hamas' distinctive green headbands, stood atop concrete blocks at the Netzarim corridor on Monday, welcoming the tens of thousands of Gazans returning to what remained of their homes in the north. With their AK-47s strapped to their vests and their faces covered, the fighters took selfies, shook hands and handed water to passers-by.

Witnessed and recorded by an NBC News crew in Gaza, the fighters' presence at a crossing deemed vital for keeping Hamas from going into the north of Gaza raises big questions about one of Israel’s stated objectives in launching the war: eliminate the militant group behind the worst terrorist attack in Israeli history.

Later the crew captured footage of Hussein Fayyad Abu Hamza, a senior Hamas commander previously declared dead by Israel, inspecting citizens in the northern city of Beit Hanoun.

The war in Gaza isn’t over Israel has reasons to smash the ceasefire

Rajan Menon

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Any evaluation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas should, in fairness, start on a charitable note. It’s devilishly difficult to cajole parties that have been butchering one another, and loathe each other deeply, to stop fighting. Besides, there’s no such thing as a perfect ceasefire deal, even in the minds of those who sign it. They haggle as best they can, on the issues that matter to them, deciding how much ground they’ll give on key concerns even as they coerce their rivals to make the bigger concessions. But, in the end, neither side ever gets everything it wants.

More importantly, the agreement has made a huge difference to people’s lives, above all to Gazans. Those still living — at least 48,000 have been killed, even as The Lancet suggests that figure could be much higher — have been stalked daily by death, seen their homeland reduced to 42 million tons of rubble, and been deprived of life’s most basic necessities. That fear has been lifted, and hundreds of trucks laden with humanitarian aid have begun to enter the Strip. As for the family and friends of the hostages snatched by Hamas on October 7, they have waited in agony for the return of their loved ones, even as some know that all they can expect is their loved one’s corpse. Of the 33 hostages who are to be freed by the end of Phase 1 of the agreement, only seven have come home so far. The joy of the families, and of Israelis more generally, has been palpable. If everything goes according to plan, the remaining 61 hostages will be freed in Phase 2 of the agreement.

Destination Mars

David Ariosto

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In 1606, a group of English merchants, nobles and adventurers decided they needed three transatlantic ships to pursue riches in the “New World.” Rivals Spain, France and Portugal had already amassed immense wealth across Latin America, and England’s King James I was looking to catch up. The crown, however, was also wary of risking public money. So, in order to finance the effort, the men formed what became known as the Virginia Company, a joint-stock group that allowed investors to pool their money and fund voyages to a narrow peninsula with a freshwater source near the Chesapeake Bay.

King James granted the company a royal charter, giving it the power to devise its own leadership and establish England’s first permanent colony in the New World. Governance would come in the form of a corporate entity, with early colonists effectively employees whose rights and responsibilities were often dictated by company policies. Ultimate authority resided with the king, embodied in a governing council that wielded authority over local matters. But overarching control would more practically tree back to the company in London, whose influence touched virtually every aspect of colonial life.

If history is any guide, this may also be how the first Martian settlements are established.

With President Donald Trump beginning his second term, buttressed by the CEO of the world’s most powerful private space company, humanity’s corporate-driven future on the Red Planet may be closer than ever before. During his second inaugural address, President Trump promised to “pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars,” and send astronauts to plant the American flag on Mars.

Musk says humans can be on Mars in four years. Many laugh, but some see purpose

Richard Luscombe

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Almost buried beneath a recent avalanche of rightwing invective posted by Elon Musk on the platform he owns, X, was one eye-popping statement that made space watchers sit up and take notice: an assertion that humans could land on Mars within four years and be living there in a self-sustaining city in 20.

It seemed a fanciful boast, even by the standards of the SpaceX founder and world’s richest man, who transformed the logistics and cost of shorter-duration, near-to-Earth orbit space travel with his fleet of reusable Falcon rockets. The US government space agency, Nasa, which is collaborating with SpaceX over knowledge and technology to get astronauts to the red planet, believes a first crewed landing by 2040 would be “audacious”.

Neither was it the first time the enigmatic billionaire has floated such a plan. In 2016 he said he believed those first crewed launches to Mars could take place within six years, even though a heavy rocket to fly them was still at the concept stage.

Yet while many might see Musk’s latest proclamation as another example of his braggadocio, following stories he wanted to help populate an extraterrestrial civilization with his own sperm, and have it driving around the Martian surface in Tesla’s troubled Cybertrucks, some analysts see a sense of purpose.

DeepSeek Doesn’t Signal an AI Space Race

James Palmer

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The highlights this week: Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek disrupts U.S. markets with a new large language model, U.S. President Donald Trump threatens major tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors, and senior doctors in China raise the alarm about the efficacy of Chinese generic drugs.

Don’t Let Autocrats Erase the Internet

Suzanne Nossel

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The eraser is a key tool of autocrats. Authoritarians wield their power to silence dissent, suppress disfavored narratives, cover up misdeeds, and protect themselves from accountability. In past generations, regimes engaged in painstaking efforts to bury or even burn books, documents, and periodicals perceived to pose a threat to their continued rule, including documentation of their own abuses.

In the digital age, deletion has gone high tech. Repressive governments can make entire websites disappear and erase archives and social media accounts at the push of a button, eliminating historical records and expunging vital information. The ease of erasure at a mass scale raises the pressing need to ensure that vulnerable digital materials—journalism, history, photography, video, government records—are safeguarded. Preserving such records is vital to resurrect shattered cultures, recount stories of oppression, and hold perpetrators accountable. And archiving authoritarianism may prove an essential tool in defeating it.