LyrArc Article Gist
Intel's AI chief leaves to join Finland's Nokia as new CEO after Pekka Lundmark starting April 1, 2025. This follows the departure of Pat Gelsinger at Intel and changes in management at the company.

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The American withdrawal from Iraq, and the future for Iraq under prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

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Rohit Prasad and Amazon AI that built Alexa to later fall behind, are back at work on the catchup effort.

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Watching Joanna Stern of WSJ interview Sam Altman and Murali Murthi gives the impression that Altman was  moving too quickly and Murthi was saying the right things but lacked the experience and capacity to tackle AI's vast responsibilities. This also stems from the fact that what young Stanford and other tech graduates in their early thirties have done in the last 2 decades ends a chapter in America's tech history. AI is an entirely different technology which requires the involvement of major parts of America's whole technological and scientific community and its society, not just a few individuals. This is also the lesson from the pandemic for virus research where not just the Cambridge, Massachusetts community needed to be involved, but vast parts of America'a health and medicine scientific community and the American public. A million lives were lost in the pandemic in the US alone, and millions all over the world. It is a lesson that should never be forgotten- that technology can get out of control. ...

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A hisory of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Early struggles, success under Barron, the the depression and then post war success under Kilgore. Then again faltering as print gave way to television and the internet, and competitors such as CNBC of GE and Bloomberg News. Early success with the particular kind of journalism, information and statistics including the DJ average, branding, credibility and accuracy, situation stories under Kilgore, and the appeal to a wider audience that is interested in the business news. The inability to leverage the WSJ brand and inability to build WSJ's international papers, a general lack of funding and of direction, and failures in television branding are part of recent history.

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Over the short run Europe presents some opportunities after Germany's Merz gets the constitutional brake on spending removed and plans $1 trillion in spending on infrastructure and defense. The US is busy with immigration and other challenges, and tariffs are part of the effort to stop fentanyl on Canada, Mexico and China. This poses uncertainty for business in 2025 which should gain clarity as most tariffs are meant to ensure a level playing field and India, China, EU, Mexico, Canada cannot argue with the idea of we charge them what they charge us, as reciprocal tariffs, as fairness in trade. These countries have reason to cooperate as it is basically fair trade DJT administration is after. Japan cooperated so history shows it can be done and Lighthizer was Deputy Trade Representative under Reagan when he got the Japanese to cooperate and be fair. His deputy is Jameson, now US Trade Representative in 2025. They are no ideologues, just fed up with the way things are and US carrying the trade imbalances and shipping manufacturing overseas that hurts ordinary Americans. US exceptionalism is seen as prevailing after a period in which American companies gain a footing in a level playing field and unfair advantages China, EU other nations had are corrected for investors in the UK, Australia, India and many European countries. It also gives American companies a chance to retool for a new business environment that can offer more opportunities and markets including in India and Europe. ...

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Gulf States and Israel- Iran war June 2025,  Iranian 840 drones and 340 ballistic missiles in first 24 hours on all Gulf States March 1, 2026. All this changes the political landscape in the region as for the first time small oil states in the Gulf region face drone and ballistic missile attacks. It also shows how complicated it could get with nuclear weapons states in the region.

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The Iraqi army takes over the Al Nuri Grand Mosque in Mosul, but what the mosque and the city itself lie in ruins. The minaret is gone in the debris, a shattered city is what is left from the Islamic State takeover of the city in 2014 and the eight month effort in 2017 by the Iraqi army to retake the city.   For more depth see links and groups or search- The problems of Mosul started with the openly sectarian administration of prime minister Nouri Maliki leading to alienation of Sunnis in Mosul. Corruption in the administration and weakness in the Iraqi army combined with alienation of Sunnis to create an opening for a militant group Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. As Iraqi units disintegrated Mosul fell, leading to a worsening of the refugee crisis in Syria and Iraq, increasing the flood of refugees to Europe, and the series of terrorist incidents in Paris, Berlin, London, rise of right wing groups in the European Union, in a chain reaction. The failure of the Obama administration to setup a "no fly zone" in Syria simply compounded the crisis into what it is today. At the root of the crisis - the failed efforts to reconcile Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq, and the sectarian conflicts in the region as a whole stretching from Saudi Arabia and Egypt to Iran.     ...

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Kristof puts it in Arabic as he gives an account of an amputee and the injured on the front lines in Tahrir Square: Innaharda, ehna kullina Misryeen. This translates to: today we are all Egyptians.