Making It Grow

Finland's President addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, delivering a speech centred on what he called growing global disorder. The address, released in full, has drawn wide attention online, with viewers sharing his assessment of international instability and calls for stronger multilateral cooperation amid ongoing conflicts and strained relations between major powers.

Mediators involved in talks over Iran's nuclear program are urging Tehran to make concessions, according to a Wall Street Journal report carried by SBS. The push comes amid growing fears that the standoff over Iran's nuclear activities could escalate into an all-out war. The mediation effort reflects mounting international pressure on Iran to compromise before tensions boil over further.

Ethiopia's military has pledged to show restraint as concerns grow that the country could slide back into a new civil war. The promise comes amid rising tensions, with observers warning that renewed large-scale conflict remains a serious risk for the region.

This week in U.S. politics, President Trump is confronting growing defections from within his own Republican Party, while preparing for a summit with China. A separate feud with the press is also drawing attention. Analysts are watching whether intra-party dissent will weaken Trump's position heading into high-stakes diplomacy with Beijing.

Congress has passed a war powers resolution in a rare bipartisan rebuke of President Trump, moving to limit his authority to take military action without congressional approval. The measure signals growing tension between lawmakers and the White House over the president's handling of military policy and raises questions about the balance of war powers going forward.

SpaceX is reportedly planning to launch three Starship flights within roughly five weeks, a rapid cadence for the vehicle programme. If achieved, it would mark the fastest turnaround yet for the giant rocket, signalling growing confidence in turnaround operations at Starbase, Texas. Space commentators are discussing whether the schedule is realistic given the pace of past flights and regulatory approvals.

Google's parent company Alphabet has filed a legal challenge against two European Union orders requiring the company to give AI and search competitors access to Android and to its search data. The dispute centres on how far the EU can force dominant platforms to open up mobile and search infrastructure to rivals, and it adds to Alphabet's growing regulatory battles with Brussels.

The European Union is asking member countries to reduce their gas consumption as concerns grow over supply. The call reflects worries about energy security, and countries across the bloc are expected to respond with measures to lower demand in the coming period.

Bill Gates says reaching an international agreement on artificial intelligence could prove more difficult than the nuclear arms control negotiations of the Cold War. His remarks add to a growing debate among tech leaders and governments over how to regulate advanced AI globally, at a time when major powers are struggling to agree on common safety rules.

International calls are mounting for an independent investigation into allegations that chemical weapons have been used during Sudan's ongoing war. The reported appeals urge a proper probe to verify the accusations amid the conflict between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces. Details about who is making the calls and what evidence exists remain limited in early coverage.

Bill Gates said creating a global framework for artificial intelligence would be more difficult than negotiating the nuclear arms limitations of the Cold War era. He argued that AI's rapid spread among companies and governments, and the difficulty of verifying its development, make international agreement far harder than the nuclear treaties that shaped the 20th century. His remarks add to a growing debate over how the world should govern increasingly powerful AI systems.

AMD has acquired the startup cofounded by Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford AI researcher often called the 'godmother of AI', in a deal reported at $8.2 billion, according to Fortune. The move marks one of AMD's largest acquisitions as chipmakers race to secure position in the fast-growing artificial intelligence market. Li, renowned for her pioneering work in computer vision and ImageNet, cofounded the company, and the deal is drawing wide attention across the tech and investment worlds.

Climate discussions in New York are being reshaped by two mounting pressures: rising energy costs for households and industry, and the surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centres. As negotiators and business leaders weigh decarbonisation goals against affordability and grid reliability, the rapid growth of AI is complicating plans to phase out fossil fuels, forcing climate policy to account for a new wave of power consumption.

The EU is finding it increasingly difficult to expand its sanctions regime against Russia, according to reporting by Euractiv. After multiple sanctions packages, the bloc is running out of obvious targets, making further measures harder to design without hitting unintended sectors or facing resistance from member states. The report highlights the growing complexity of keeping pressure on Moscow through economic restrictions.

Leading figures in artificial intelligence have urged the UN Security Council to take collective action against the security risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems. They stressed that potential global threats from the technology require international cooperation and coordinated regulation, warning that no single country can manage the challenge alone. The appeal adds to mounting pressure on global institutions to establish binding rules for advanced AI development.

Le Monde examines how climate change is pushing people, planners and governments to reconsider where and how they live. As heatwaves, floods and rising seas make some areas less habitable, questions about relocating, adapting cities and rebuilding our relationship with the surrounding environment are moving from the margins to the centre of public debate.

Nvidia has released new software that the company says can prevent AI agents from acting outside their intended instructions. The tool is aimed at the fast-growing field of autonomous AI agents, which can take actions on users' behalf. The announcement underscores Nvidia's push to supply safety and control tooling alongside its dominant AI computing hardware.

Ukrainian forces have reportedly erased recent Russian territorial gains in what is being called Operation Vivaldi, with robots performing combat airdrops and clearing mines on the battlefield. The operation is being highlighted as another example of Ukraine's growing use of unmanned ground systems to reduce risks to soldiers while carrying out dangerous tasks under fire.

The United States is strengthening its military presence in Greenland as part of a broader strategy to monitor Chinese activity in the Arctic. The island's strategic location makes it increasingly valuable for American defence planning, as melting ice opens new shipping routes and Beijing shows growing interest in Arctic resources and influence.

NVIDIA has released open source tools aimed at developers building AI agents. The launch comes as the AI industry is actively debating security risks around agentic systems, which can act autonomously. The move positions NVIDIA to support the fast-growing agent ecosystem while the security conversation continues across the industry.

A new 60 Minutes report highlights growing opposition to data centers across the United States, with residents from across the political spectrum joining forces to resist large-scale construction projects in their communities. Concerns cited include strain on power grids and water supplies, noise, and the impact on farmland and neighborhoods, making the issue an unusual point of bipartisan agreement.

India is exploring the possibility of making the United Arab Emirates a key source of liquefied natural gas and LPG, according to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. The remarks signal New Delhi's interest in deepening energy ties with the Gulf state amid growing import needs. Further details on talks or timelines were not given.

New York City has subpoenaed Elon Musk and his artificial intelligence company xAI as part of an investigation into AI safety. The move makes the city one of the most prominent US local governments to target a major AI developer directly, and it adds regulatory pressure for Musk, whose AI business is already drawing scrutiny alongside his other ventures.

SpaceX carried out the fourteenth test flight of its Starship rocket, and the mission also deployed Starlink satellites. The launch marks another step in the company's effort to prove the giant vehicle's capabilities for heavy payloads and future missions to the Moon and Mars. Attention is on how the vehicle performed during flight and on the growing role Starship is expected to play in expanding the Starlink satellite constellation.

Nvidia has released new AI safety software that the company says could have prevented the recent Hugging Face hack. The tool is aimed at protecting AI models and data pipelines from security breaches, and its launch comes as concerns grow over vulnerabilities in widely used machine learning platforms following the Hugging Face incident.