Flagship

China rapidly expands nuclear arsenal

China is rapidly building up its defense arsenal, especially nuclear warheads, US officials warned. Beijing is on course to have 1,000 nuclear weapons by 2030, according to a federal report on China’s military. “Wow China is building a lot of stuff,” The Economist’s defense editor concluded, calling some figures in the report “dizzying,” even by US standards. The stockpiling comes amid a crackdown by Beijing on corruption among top-ranking members of the People’s Liberation Army; the concerns over graft and recent purge of some generals “could slow them down,” a Pentagon official said. The report also noted that China does not yet have the “sophisticated urban warfare or long-distance logistics capabilities” necessary for a potential invasion of Taiwan.

TikTok takes fight to SCOTUS

TikTok’s battle to remain in the US will be fought in the nation’s highest court. The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on Jan. 10 over a law that compels Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban. Incoming US President Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated two days after the ban is meant to take effect, may be an unlikely ally for the app, which critics argue is a national security threat. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said this week, before meeting with the app’s CEO. The case could ultimately come down to the question of “just how much control China can and does exercise over TikTok,” Vox’s Supreme Court reporter wrote.

Chinese routers could face US ban

The US is mulling a ban on a popular brand of Chinese-made internet routers after they were linked to cyberattacks, The Wall Street Journal reported. TP-Link controls about 65% of the US home router market, and its technology is used by several US government sectors, including the Department of Defense. Several agencies launched investigations into the firm following a report that Chinese hackers used devices made by TP-Link in cyberattacks. Taiwan and India have also voiced concerns about TP-Link routers. The scrutiny marks the latest in a series of revelations about Chinese cyberespionage: Earlier this month, officials said hackers with ties to Beijing had penetrated at least eight US telecoms providers.

US Fed signals fewer rate cuts for 2025

The US Federal Reserve trimmed its key interest rate for the third time this year, while signaling 2025 won’t follow a similar path. Economists currently predict the central bank will make two rate cuts in 2025 — a few months ago, the bet was four — but much depends on President-elect Donald Trump’s economic agenda, which includes potentially inflationary tariff proposals. The Fed’s cautious approach to 2025 diverges from that of its counterpart in Frankfurt: The European Central Bank cut interest rates four times this year, and its President Christine Lagarde indicated it has no plans to slow down, saying “the direction of travel is clear.” That’s largely because the eurozone is facing a sluggish economic recovery, while the US has seen stronger growth.

Russia’s Middle East presence diminishes

Russia’s clout in the Middle East is diminishing after the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Russia operated naval and air bases in the country in exchange for backing Assad, but has begun pulling out troops and aircraft, as well as moving air defense equipment to Libya, which may enable Russia to maintain some regional presence, The Wall Street Journal reported. The movement indicates the “early stages of a Russian withdrawal from Syria,” a defense analyst told the BBC. Moscow’s setbacks are a boon to the US navy’s presence in strategic areas like the Red Sea, military newspaper Stars and Stripes wrote, giving Washington more influence in Africa, experts said.

ChatGPT available via landline

You can now call and text with ChatGPT. Chatbot creator OpenAI unveiled a free telephone line (1-800-CHATGPT) that allows users to have 15-minute conversations with the AI’s voice assistant bot in several different languages. Those with a WhatsApp account can also choose to text the chatbot. The new avenues to use ChatGPT demonstrate the expanding accessibility of advanced AI tools. Yet the new call feature is also something of a throwback, Axios noted: In the days of the early internet, some companies operated hotlines that people could call to run web searches. Google ran such a service until 2010, while Microsoft offered search-by-phone until 2012.

Firms push return-to-office mandates

Companies are asking employees to come into the office more often in 2025, or else. AT&T and Sweetgreen both strengthened their return-to-office mandates, while Amazon will require workers to be at their posts five days a week starting next year. Sweetgreen’s CEO said Amazon’s directive was “the big turning point where everyone’s like: ‘Oh, they’re doing it, now we can do it.’” While many workers appreciate the flexibility of working remotely, some experts say it creates a divide between corporate employees who can work from home, and retail workers who never had the option. The issue is playing out in Europe, too: UK supermarket chain Asda is mandating more in-office working after the holiday season.

Join us for our largest convening at Davos yet, featuring a world-class lineup of live journalism at the World Economic Forum 2025. Semafor editors will engage with industry leaders to discuss key themes, including global finance, blockchain, AI in the Gulf, Africa’s growth trajectory, and much more.

Explore the schedule and request invitations to attend Semafor sessions at Davos.

Amazon pushes ‘Prime Air’ for Europe

Amazon plans to expand its drone delivery service to Europe in 2025. Drones already carry some Amazon packages in two US cities, after regulators gave the green light to the company to test the service in 2022. Italian authorities have recently followed suit, with the first tests taking place in the east coast town of San Salvo. Amazon first announced its intention to start testing drones overseas in 2023, and plans to fully launch “Prime Air” services in Italy in 2025. The tech giant hopes to do the same in the UK: Reuters reported that Westminster has selected six drone delivery projects, including Amazon’s, for testing, although there is no word yet on when any of these will begin operations.

Tintin, Popeye enter public domain

The likenesses of Popeye and Tintin will enter the public domain in the US on Jan. 1. Both characters first appeared in 1929, and US copyright law means they can be used without permission after 95 years. The time limit on copyright protection was extended in 1998 after lobbying by Disney (the bill was nicknamed “the Mickey Mouse Protection Act”), but after the period ends it can give rise to some unusual interpretations, like 2023’s slasher film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Singin’ in the Rain — the 1929 song, not the 1952 musical — is also now public, as is Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, opening up the exciting potential for a musical version where Popeye plays the lieutenant and Tintin the nurse.

Fossil ID’d as mammalian ancestor

The oldest known ancestor of modern mammals has been discovered on a Mediterranean island. Mammals came to dominate Earth only after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs 65 million years ago, but by that point, mammals had existed for some 140 million years. The new fossil find is of a “gorgonopsian,” a bizarre-looking saber-toothed predator that lived some 270 million years ago, predating true mammals. “There is a big time gap” between when the ancestors to mammals are presumed to have evolved and when they show up in the fossil record, a paleontologist told Gizmodo: “The new specimen helps to fill in part of that gap.”

Dec. 19:

• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visits Bulgaria’s defense minister.
• Hong Kong marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
• New musical The Creakers, adapted from the hit book, opens in London.

A silk bag dating back to the reign of King Henry III of England appears to have a link to Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor. Now on display at Westminster Abbey, the silk’s pattern of white hares and delicate flowers is a match for the burial shroud encasing Charlemagne’s remains at Aachen Cathedral in Germany, Artnet reported, almost certainly meaning the two pieces were made by the same weaver. Researchers are still puzzling over how the silk, which dates back to 1267 and was likely woven in Islamic Spain or the Eastern Mediterranean, arrived in England. One academic said studying the bags in the Abbey’s collection would “open a new window to historians on the trade and cultural connections of the Middle Ages.”

Filmmaker Nenad Cicin-Sain set out to write his next screenplay using AI, but the project has been delayed because the program keeps making up excuses to miss deadlines, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti reported. “I don’t see a solution to their accountability issue,” Cicin-Sain told Albergotti.