Chief-Exec.com

Trump's 'Golden Dome' will cost $1.2tn and might not stop all-out missile attack
US President Donald Trump's futuristic "Golden Dome" missile defence system will cost about $1.2tn (£882bn) to develop, deploy and operate over two decades, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates. That figure is significantly higher than the initial sum of $175bn (£129bn) that had been earmarked. And the system designed to shield the US against ballistic and cruise missiles might not even work. The new CBO report warned the Golden Dome could be vulnerable to a full-scale attack by Russia or China. Acquisition costs alone would be ⁠over $1tn, including for the interceptor layers and a space-based missile warning and tracking system, the fiscal scorekeeper said in a new report. BBC news, May 13

US intelligence shows Iran retains substantial missile capabilities
The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what US intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities. Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway. People with knowledge of the assessments said they show - to varying degrees, depending on the level of damage incurred at the different sites - that the Iranians can use mobile launchers that are inside the sites to move missiles to other locations. In some cases, they can launch missiles directly from launchpads that are part of the facilities. Only three of the missile sites along the strait remain totally inaccessible, according to the assessments. New York Times, May 12

Pentagon’s Iran war bill nears $30bn as Donald Trump renews threats
The Pentagon on Tuesday said its cost estimate for the US’s Iran war had risen to $29bn, up $4bn in two weeks, as Donald Trump signalled his readiness to restart his bombing campaign unless Tehran agreed a deal. A senior Pentagon official told US legislators that the war’s new price tag accounted for “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs” and operational costs to keep forces in the conflict zone. “We think it’s closer to $29bn,” Jay Hurst, the defence department’s acting comptroller, testified at a congressional hearing where lawmakers pressed the administration for answers on the increasingly unpopular war. The latest disclosure came as the US president prepared to leave Washington for Beijing, where he said he would discuss his war with China’s leader Xi Jinping. Trump on Tuesday indicated he would be willing to restart the conflict after weeks of fragile ceasefire. Financial Times, May 12

US inflation jumps to 3.8% as Donald Trump’s Iran war sends petrol prices soaring
US inflation jumped to 3.8 per cent in April, its highest level in three years, as President Donald Trump’s war in Iran triggered a surge in petrol prices that has inflamed America’s cost of living crisis. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index has risen sharply since the conflict began. It had already increased from 2.4 per cent in February to 3.3 per cent in March versus a year earlier. Tuesday’s figure was above Wall Street expectations and marks the first time in three years inflation has outstripped wage growth. The last time prices rose this quickly was in 2023 as the country reeled from the energy shock triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The report is the latest indicator of how the Iran conflict is reverberating across the world’s biggest economy, with higher fuel costs increasingly spilling into other sectors. It will pile pressure on Trump, whose popularity is near record lows as the war exerts a heavy toll on American households. Financial Times, May 12

Protections for emperor penguins in focus as Antarctica talks start in Japan
Greater protections for endangered emperor penguins and how to manage growing tourism will top the agenda at talks on Antarctica opening in Japan on Tuesday. The annual meeting comprises the original 12 nations that signed the Antarctic Treaty - which now has 58 parties - as well as 17 others that conduct substantial research activity there. The continent and its abundant wildlife are protected under the 1959 treaty, which designates it as a land of science and peace, while freezing territorial claims. "The discussions taking place here in Hiroshima are especially important at a time when Antarctica is increasingly affected by global challenges such as climate change," Francisco Berguno, executive secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, told a news conference in Hiroshima on Tuesday. Berguno warned that the continent "plays a critical role in regulating the Earth's climate and oceans," and urged "long-term thinking, careful management, and international trust". France 24, May 12

US tech giants’ profits buoyed by stakes in private AI companies
Profits at the largest US tech companies are being significantly boosted by an “unusually large contribution” from the values of their stakes in private artificial intelligence companies. According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, Alphabet and Amazon, for example, reported “other income”, or money made from their investments in the AI companies, of $53 billion in the first three months of the year, which accounted for nearly 60 per cent of their total income. The Wall Street bank said that 34 per cent of the profit earned by the five largest cloud computing and platform service providers, also including Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Oracle, was attributable to other income, the highest such split in at least a decade. Analysts at the bank noted that $49 billion of this “other income” was explicitly connected to equity stakes in private companies, such as Anthropic, which have significantly increased in value over the past year. The Times, May 12

Xi poised to press Trump on arms sales to Taiwan
The United States’ stance on Taiwan has rested for decades on a complex latticework of policies designed to support the island democracy while avoiding treating it officially as an independent country, a step that would enrage Beijing. Many in Taiwan are holding their breath for what may happen to that delicate structure when President Trump, with his off-the-cuff, transactional ways, meets China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing for a two-day summit starting on Thursday. Mr Xi appears poised to lecture Mr Trump on US support for Taiwan, especially weapons sales. Mr Trump and his officials have said that his trip to Beijing will be focused on trade and investment. But China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and other officials have indicated that they also expect the two presidents to discuss Taiwan, the issue that could most likely ignite a war between their countries. China claims Taiwan is its territory, and could use armed force to take it, while the United States says it could intervene to defend Taiwan, a longtime partner … Mr Xi’s main focus in raising Taiwan will probably be to persuade Mr. Trump to slow, or ultimately reduce, US arms sales to the island, experts from China and Washington have said. In a phone call in February, Mr Xi urged Mr Trump to handle the issue of arms sales with “extreme caution”. New York Times, May12

EU agrees sanctions on Israeli settlers over West Bank violence
The 27 foreign ministers of the European Union approved new sanctions on Monday on Israeli settlers over rising violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. There has been a surge in attacks by settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, the UN has recorded. Settlements - illegal under international law - are built on Israeli-occupied land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas Palestinians claim for a future state. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said it was "high time we move from deadlock to delivery … extremisms and violence carry consequences." A change in government in Hungary ended months of delays to the EU's plans for further sanctions, which had been blocked by the former right-wing Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Israel. The French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on social media that the EU was "sanctioning today the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank". Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar said the decision was "arbitrary and political" and that Israel would continue to "stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland". BBC news, May 11

Macron announces €23 billion investment in Africa at Kenya summit
French President Emmanuel Macron announced €23 billion ($27 billion) of investment for Africa during a major summit on the future of the continent hosted by Kenya on Monday. France has brought together dozens of heads of state and business leaders for the two-day Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, aimed at renewing France's engagement with the continent after years of strained ties with its former colonies. The investments Macron announced include €14 billion in private and public funds from French entities, and €9 billion from African investors, focused on energy transition, digital and AI, the maritime economy and agriculture. They would create 250,000 direct jobs in France and Africa, Macron said. "We are not simply here to come and invest on the African continent alongside you - we need the great African business leaders to come and invest in France," he told the audience at Nairobi's convention centre. "And that too is what underpins this relationship, now entirely free of hang-ups," he added. France 24, May 11

Amazon staff use AI tool for unnecessary tasks to inflate usage scores
Amazon employees are using an internal AI tool to automate non-essential tasks in a bid to show managers they are using the technology more frequently. The Seattle-based group has started to widely deploy its in-house “MeshClaw” product in recent weeks, allowing employees to create AI agents that can connect to workplace software and carry out tasks on a user’s behalf, according to three people familiar with the matter. Some employees said colleagues were using the software to automate additional, unnecessary AI activity to increase their consumption of tokens - units of data processed by models. They said the move reflected pressure to adopt the technology after Amazon introduced targets for more than 80 per cent of developers to use AI each week, and earlier this year began tracking AI token consumption on internal leader boards. “There is just so much pressure to use these tools,” one Amazon employee told the FT. “Some people are just using MeshClaw to maximise their token usage.” Amazon has told employees that the AI token statistics would not be used in performance evaluations. But several staff members said they believed managers were monitoring the data. Financial Times, May 12

Netflix and Amazon Prime subscribers to ‘pay TV licence fee’
Netflix and Amazon Prime subscribers could be forced to pay the TV licence fee under plans to safeguard the future of the BBC. Industry sources involved in the discussions told The Times that the government was wary of moving towards a model funded by advertising or subscriptions. It is instead thought to favour an expansive approach, retaining the licence fee while extending it to cover streaming platforms. The BBC warned that it was facing “managed decline” in its response to a green paper about its future in March, which highlighted that only 80 per cent of the population now paid the licence fee, despite 94 per cent accessing its services every month. The Times, May 11

Lotus offers lifeline to troubled UK car plant
Lotus has thrown a lifeline to its UK manufacturing plant a year after threatening to cease production at the facility, saying it was the “best option” for building its first-ever hybrid supercar. Feng Qingfeng, chief executive of Lotus Group, also slashed its ambitious sales target to just a fifth of the original figure, telling the FT that a new strategy was needed to revive the struggling brand controlled by China’s Geely. “In the past, we moved too fast,” Feng said in an interview ahead of his appearance at the FT’s Future of the Car summit, adding that its focus was “the pursuit of profitability and sustainability of the company”. The revised target to sell 30,000 cars a year by the end of the decade is a sharp downgrade from a previous aim to sell 150,000 vehicles annually by 2028, which was set in 2018. Lotus last year sold only 6,520 vehicles as it was hit by US tariffs. Despite a vision to compete against the likes of Porsche, Lotus struggled with product delays and cost overruns as its bullish plan to turn fully electric backfired amid sluggish demand. Financial Times, May 12