February 7 2025

1. Big Tech Pours Billions into AI, UK Demands Apple Create Global Cloud Encryption Backdoor
2. China Is On The Way To Biotech Dominance
3. Justice Department Shifts Focus from Russian Oligarchs to Drug Cartels
4. Trump Administration Halts EV Charger Program
5. Battle for Eurasia Update: Trump Plans For Easter Ceasefire Leaked?, Trump to Press Ukraine on Lower Draft Age, Russian Grid Attacks Push Ukraine's Nuclear Plants to Breaking Point
6. Josh Allen Claims First NFL MVP Award
February 6, 1964: The Beatles arrive in America

GET THE CITIZEN JOURNAL APP - FREE!

FLASH….Judge Pauses Deadline for Federal Worker Buyout Offer Until At Least Feb. 10…

1. Big Tech Pours Billions into AI, UK Demands Apple Create Global Cloud Encryption Backdoor

A. Big Tech’s massive spending on artificial intelligence is set to continue unchecked in 2025 after Amazon topped its rivals with a planned $100bn-plus investment in infrastructure this year. Spending by the four leading US tech companies had already surged 63 per cent to historic levels last year. Now executives are vowing to accelerate their AI investments, dismissing concerns about the vast sums being bet on the nascent technology. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta have reported combined capital expenditure of $246bn in 2024, up from $151bn in 2023. They forecast spending could exceed $320bn this year as they compete to build data centres and fill them with clusters of specialised chips to remain at the forefront of AI large language model research.  

B. Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. The British government’s undisclosed order, issued last month, requires blanket capability to view fully encrypted material, not merely assistance in cracking a specific account, and has no known precedent in major democracies.  

Editors note: my personal opinion is that Big Tech is a great threat to privacy and personal liberty in the US and around the world. For those that like history, I would say they look less like Standard Oil than the East India Company, which had its own army to rule India.

Article Source: FT, WaPo

2. China Is On The Way To Biotech Dominance

China’s rise in biotech has been years in the making, but it is now impossible to ignore. In 2020, less than 5% of large pharmaceutical transactions worth $50 million or more upfront involved China. By 2024, that number had surged to nearly 30%, according to DealForma. A decade from now, many drugs hitting the U.S. market will have originated in Chinese labs. China’s biotech boom mirrors its rise in tech. In both cases, China has moved up the value chain, from manufacturing goods to becoming a more sophisticated hub for innovation, competing in industries once dominated by the U.S. There are several reasons for the industry’s growth. For one, many top scientists trained in the U.S. have returned to China over the past decade, fueling the emergence of biotech hubs around Shanghai. And just as DeepSeek built a formidable chatbot—allegedly on a lean budget with limited access to semiconductors—Chinese biotech companies are also scrappier, capitalizing on a highly skilled, lower-cost workforce that can move faster.

Article Source: WSJ

3. Justice Department Shifts Focus from Russian Oligarchs to Drug Cartels

The U.S. Justice Department will shift its resources away from fighting traditional corporate corruption and Russian oligarchs toward the battle against drug cartels, new Attorney General Pam Bondi said. Bondi, who was sworn in Wednesday, announced changes to the approach to foreign corruption prosecutions in one of a series of memos that outlined sweeping overhauls to the Justice Department’s strategy. The department will give priority to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations touching on cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and shift its focus away from other types of FCPA probes, Bondi said in her memo.  Task Force KleptoCapture created under the Biden administration to enforce U.S. sanctions on Russian oligarchs will be disbanded, she said, along with some other kleptocracy-related initiatives. Resources devoted to those efforts will go to the fight against cartels and TCOs, Bondi said.

Article Source: WSJ

4. Trump Administration Halts EV Charger Program

A. In a memo released Thursday, the Federal Highway Administration ordered states to halt a $5 billion program to build fast EV chargers on highways nationwide — an initiative that President Donald Trump cited as an example of the “Green New Deal.” The letter informs state transportation directors — who are in charge of administering the program — that any plans approved by the Biden administration are now suspended until the Transportation Department provides new guidelines in the spring. “Effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI formula program,” the letter reads.  

B. Porsche has warned its profits will be hit this year as the sports-car maker ploughs €800mn into combustion engines and plug-in hybrid models, in the latest sign of waning demand for fully electric vehicles. The move to expand its range of combustion engine vehicles and hybrids, which some consumers are now opting for over fully electric models, will add another €800mn in costs this year, Porsche said.

Article Source: WaPo, FT

5. Battle for Eurasia Update: Trump Plans For Easter Ceasefire Leaked?, Trump to Press Ukraine on Lower Draft Age, Russian Grid Attacks Push Ukraine's Nuclear Plants to Breaking Point

Editors note: This ongoing conflict pits the West, led by the United States, against an axis of adversaries, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. At stake is dominance over the vast and strategically critical landmass of Eurasia. The conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and rising tensions with China in East Asia are all interconnected, forming part of a larger struggle: the Battle for Eurasia. To dive deeper into my framework for understanding the Battle for Eurasia, see my article.

A. US president Donald Trump will try to force Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire with Russia by Easter under a peace plan, according to a report.  Trump, who has long claimed that he would be able to negotiate an ending to the brutal invasion of Ukraine in a single day, is said to be working to end the war within 100 days.  The unconfirmed plans, reported by Ukrainian outlet Strana, have been doing the rounds in 'political and diplomatic circles' in Ukraine, and will include a ceasefire by April 20 that would freeze Russia's steady advance, and a ban on Ukraine from joining NATO.  According to Newsweek it would include a demand for Kyiv to accept Russian sovereignty on annexed land. Zelensky has denied the existence of such a plan. On top of this, Ukrainian troops will be made to leave Russia's Kursk region, where it launched a counteroffensive in August, while a contingent of European soldiers, which could include British troops, would be asked to police a demilitarised zone. American troops will not be involved in this contingent.  The EU will reportedly be asked to assist Ukraine in its reconstruction efforts, which may cost as much as $486billion (£392billion) over the next decade according to the German Marshall Fund thinktank. 

B. US president-elect Donald Trump intends to push Ukraine to lower its age of conscription in an effort to stabilise the country’s front lines ahead of direct negotiations with Russia.  

Editors note: Trump, like Nixon in the Vietnam War, will escalate the war to gain leverage in peace talks with Russia

C. Russia is close to achieving a decisive edge on the energy front of the Russo–Ukrainian war.  Repeated attacks on key infrastructure have recently intensified, leaving Ukraine’s damaged electrical grid 70 percent reliant on three complexes of nuclear reactors. These reactors are increasingly threatened by the instability of the grid itself and could become unsafe to operate, forcing a shutdown and grid collapse. Since Ukraine has submitted to heightened oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the decision to shut down its nuclear plants if the perceived risk becomes too high may not be entirely its own. Protecting the grid’s key substations is now the single most important priority for the survival of the Ukrainian state. By targeting electricity, Russia has made the current phase of the war an urban battle between darkness and light — and there is a clear scenario whereby darkness could triumph.

Article Source: Daily Mail, FT, War on the Rocks

6. Josh Allen Claims First NFL MVP Award

Josh Allen’s breakthrough came on awards night for the NFL, not on Super Bowl Sunday. The Buffalo Bills quarterback was named the NFL’s MVP for the first time Thursday, further cementing his status among the league’s elite players. But the honor came as a bit of a consolation prize; Allen was only a visitor to the Super Bowl city after he and the Bills suffered another bitterly disappointing defeat during the AFC playoffs.

Article Source: WaPo

February 6, 1964: The Beatles arrive in America

See the Ad Astra Podcast! Released on Apple and Spotify around 10a CST.

Sponsors (click me!)

Sources

2. A https://on.ft.com/3Q5k43B
B https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/07/apple-encryption-backdoor-uk/

3. https://www.wsj.com/health/pharma/the-drug-industry-is-having-its-own-deepseek-moment-68589d70?st=Fe4eYB&reflink=article_copyURL_share

4. https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-dial-back-crackdown-on-foreign-corruption-russian-oligarchs-to-fight-cartels-620821e6?st=5ygLzG&reflink=article_copyURL_share

5. A https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/02/06/trump-ev-charging-halt-transportation-department/
B https://on.ft.com/4hEiCkA

6. A https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14367923/Trump-peace-plan-Ukraine-Putin-ceasefire-Easter-Zelensky-NATO.html
B https://on.ft.com/4jbpSpu
C https://warontherocks.com/2025/02/the-electricity-front-of-russias-war-against-ukraine/

7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/02/06/josh-allen-nfl-mvp-lamar-jackson/