King Charles: The Art of the Seal, Moscow Calling, Musk V Altman & Open AI

It’s been a week that King Charles has been earning his crust as head of state on a high-profile visit to the United States, with soft power on full display and some diplomatic heavy lifting needed to improve strained ties at the top of the shop. The King’s carefully crafted speeches at the State Dinner and in Congress brought up reminders of the shared history and wartime alliances, half sermon, half stand-up - The Art of the Seal! -. We’ll assess whether it landed, and if it made any difference to a relationship that’s not been so special of late.

It’s been a week that’s seen fierce fighting break out in Mali after co-ordinated assaults across the country were carried out by an alliance of Islamists and Tuareg separatists, who killed the Defence Minister in a car bomb attack, and seized the regional city of Kidal. It’s caused the military regime to withdraw from several northern positions alongside the Russian mercenaries who’d been chosen to fill the void after French soldiers were ordered to leave in 2023.

And it’s been a week that’s seen a battle between two tech billionaires commence in a Californian court. Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman, seeking his dismissal as CEO of Open AI and 130 billion dollars in damages too. Taking the stand Elon Musk set out how he co-founded OpenAI with Altman, injecting 38 million into early funding and calling himself, quote, “fool”, to believe it’s stated mission as a non-profit charity for the good of humanity. He claims Open AI betrayed their principles in the hunt for profit to enrich the executives. OpenAI portrays Musk’s lawsuit as being driven by regret and jealousy over OpenAI’s success without him, and this is playing out during a wider battle between the few tech bros for control of Advance AI.

Produced by Gavin Lee, Rhea Smircic, Juliette Laffont, Marguerite Lacroix, Andrew Hilliar.