Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Iran further increases its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, watchdog says
Summary: The United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency released a report on Monday indicating that Iran’s nuclear program has upped its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 60%, which is just a small, relatively simple step from 90%, which is weapons-grade, by around 45.4 pounds (which is about 20.6 kilograms) since February.
Context: The generally accepted volume of 60%-enriched uranium necessary to produce a nuclear weapon is around 92.5 pounds, or 42 kilograms, if that uranium is then further enriched to 90%, and Iran’s total stockpile of enriched uranium is thought to weigh in at around 1,360 pounds (more than 6,000 kilograms), which means they’ve grown their overall stockpile by nearly 1,500 pounds (675 kilograms) since February; Iran has consistently said that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but much of the international community doesn’t believe that to be true, and the country has been operating under severe sanctions of all kinds, including nuclear-related sanctions, for a long time as a consequence—and a 2015 deal that allowed them to enrich uranium to up to 3.67% purity and to maintain a small stockpile has long since lapsed, and Iran’s government hasn’t allowed the UN’s nuclear watchdog to reinstall monitoring equipment that Iran removed in 2022.
—The Associated Press
China is pouring almost $50 billion into its chipmaking efforts despite US sanctions
Summary: Despite efforts by the US government to hobble China’s semiconductor and artificial intelligence development, the Chinese government has set up a fund worth around $47.5 billion that will be invested in its local semiconductor industry.
Context: This is the third investment the Chinese government has made in its local chip-making capacity, responding in large part to the US’s attempts to keep it from accessing the most advanced chips on the market, which has a lot of loopholes, but has made it tricky enough for them to get such chips that China has seemingly decided to ensure they’re capable of making them in the future, not being able to rely on the global market for such things; now, their stated goal is to up their internal semiconductor capacity so that it matches the standards of the international community by the end of the decade.
—Quartz
ConocoPhillips to acquire Marathon Oil in $17.1 billion all-stock deal
Summary: Fossil fuel giant ConocoPhillips has made a deal to acquire fossil fuel giant Marathon Oil for just over $17 billion in stock, which—if the deal passes regulatory scrutiny—would merge two of the US’s largest oil companies.
Context: The global oil industry is in the midst of a huge shake-up, many of the largest entities gobbling each other and their smaller rivals up in order to consolidate, grow, and claim a portion of a sector that’s currently booming, but which is also expected to peak soon, as renewables claim more and more of the global energy market.
—The Wall Street Journal
Chipmaker Nvidia’s market cap is booming, approaching $3 trillion, which is within spitting distance of Apple’s, and which puts it far ahead of even the biggest companies in other growth industries, like China’s solar panel market.
—Bloomberg
27,000
Approximate number of government-made apps currently operating in Indonesia—a figure that’s prompted the country’s president to demand his government’s various agencies stop making new ones.
The government is now saying this overabundance of custom apps for various, specific purposes needs to be whittled down to reduce bloat and bureaucracy, and to make life easier for citizens.
—Cybernews
One Sentence News / May 31, 2024