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The United States has given an initial approval for the energy-rich Mideast nation of Qatar to buy eight armed MQ-9B Predator drones for its military, an estimated purchase worth nearly $2 billion.The State Department approval announced early Thursday for Qatar comes after Doha had been trying to purchase the drones during the Biden administration, but hadn’t gotten the OK despite serving as an interlocutor for Washington to the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran’s theocracy and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The immediate approval under President Donald Trump serves as a far-different starting point for his government’s relations with Qatarparticularly after he initially backed a four-nation boycott of Doha during his first term.“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East,” the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.Qatar’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Qatar is the second-largest purchaser of U.S. military equipment after Saudi Arabia, spending over $26 billion for F-15 fighter jets, Apache attack helicopters, missile defense systems, and other gear.The proposed sale now goes to the U.S. Congress. Lawmakers typically weigh in on such sales and, in some cases, can block them.Under terms of the sale, Qatar would purchase eight of the drones, as well as hundreds of bombs and missiles to arm the pilotless aircraft with and the equipment necessary to fly them by satellite.General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and have an endurance of more than 30 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over the Middle East for years, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now over Yemen during the American bombing campaign there. The drone has a land and sea version.The initial approval for Qatar, however, comes after the nearby United Arab Emirates has been waiting since 2020 to purchase up to 18 MQ-9 drones as part of a $23 billion deal also including advanced F-35 fighter jets. Trump has a particularly close relationship with the UAE, which reached a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel under his administration in 2020. Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
In a significant design appointment, Mauro Porcini has been announced as the Chief Design Officer at Samsung. The position, newly created for Porcini, is his third time establishing a Chief Design Officer role at a major companyfollowing 3M and PepsiCo. Its also the first time that Samsung has hired a foreign design lead. Its an aggressive move at a time when Samsungs business is facing crisis-level headwinds. The company just lost its co-CEO Jong-Hee to cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, its shed marketshare in semiconductors to competitors, all while China is becoming better and better at building almost everything. And Samsungs Mexico-based production (which represents a significant part of the business) faces 25% tariffs under the Trump administration. On the other hand, when I visited Samsungs headquarters outside Seoul in late 2023 and met with the design team, I encountered a grounding confidence Ive never sensed during any U.S. corporate tour, when the team stated simply, Samsung is a thousand-year company. During a time when some companiesincluding Appleare investing less in design leadership, Samsung is doubling down on the approach. Porcini has been tasked with an incredible opportunity, and he will have his work cut out for him.
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E-Commerce
A federal judge has ruled that The New York Times and other newspapers can proceed with a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using their stories to train artificial intelligence chatbots.U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein of New York on Wednesday dismissed some of the claims made by media organizations but allowed the bulk of the case to continue, possibly to a jury trial.“We appreciate Judge Stein’s careful consideration of these issues,” New York Times attorney Ian Crosby said in a statement. “As the order indicates, all of our copyright claims will continue against Microsoft and Open AI for their widespread theft of millions of The Times‘s works, and we look forward to continuing to pursue them.”The judge’s ruling also pleased Frank Pine, executive editor of MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, owners of some of the newspapers that are part of a consolidated lawsuit in a Manhattan court.“The claims the court has dismissed do not undermine the main thrust of our case, which is that these companies have stolen our work and violated our copyright in a way that fundamentally damages our business,” Pine said a statement.Stein didn’t explain the reasons for his ruling, saying that would come “expeditiously.”OpenAI said in a statement it welcomed “the court’s dismissal of many of these claims and look forward to making it clear that we build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner grounded in fair use, and supportive of innovation.”Microsoft declined to comment.The Times has said OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft have threatened its livelihood by effectively stealing billions of dollars worth of work by its journalists, in some cases spitting out Times‘s material verbatim to people who seek answers from generative artificial intelligence like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP’s text archives.
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E-Commerce
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