Pope Compares AI Threat to Tower of Babel

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Luke Vargas (0:23)

The US and Iran trade attacks as peace talks bog down, plus Decision Day in Texas as a Republican Senate runoff tests the power of President Trump's endorsement and Pope Leo adds his voice to a growing backlash against AI.

Pope Leo XIV (0:37)

Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences and indicating paths forward for humanity.

Luke Vargas (0:57)

It's Tuesday, May 26th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

The US has conducted what are being described as defensive strikes against targets in Iran. After tit-for-tat attacks yesterday saw the US sink a pair of mine laying boats and Iran fire surface-to-air missiles at American warplanes. Despite the flare-up, American officials say the US continues to observe a ceasefire in place since early April and that talks to end the war are ongoing. Diplomatic progress appears to be slowing, however, as the two sides dug in yesterday over references to Iran's nuclear program and financial relief for Tehran. US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio updated reporters today on where talks stand.

Marco Rubio (1:46)

With something like this, it's going to take a couple days to settle on even down to the disagreements over a word, a sentence.

So we'll have to work through that. If there's going to be a deal, we're going to have to work through that. But this is, you know, it's either going to be a good deal or there isn't going to be one.

Luke Vargas (2:03)

The slowdown in talks follows a weekend that began with President Trump and other top officials saying a deal was close. Brent and WTI oil futures are up around 2 percent today following yesterday's attacks and uncertainty around peace talks, reversing a prior fall when it looked like the two sides were moving closer to an agreement.

What one curveball in gauging Iran's willingness to make a deal is how close the country is to running out of room to store oil it can no longer export. In late April, Trump claimed that Iran's clogged oil pipelines could be just three days away from exploding, a prospect key to Washington's pressure campaign. But a month on, Journal Energy Markets reporter Rebecca Fung says that the true situation in Iran remains difficult to pin down.

Rebecca Fung (2:47)

We talked to analysts in our reporting and estimates on Iran's onshore oil capacity storage range widely from 57% full to 90% full. And it's actually not very usual that analysts disagree with each other so much. And then for the complicating matters, some of the ship tracking websites are seeing that empty ships are moving into the Gulf, which kind of provides extra storage space for Iran.

So, I think it's genuinely a mystery right now how much storage space Iran still has. That question itself is quite crucial to the negotiation process and when the war can be over, really.

Luke Vargas (3:27)

While Iran has been dialing back oil production amid the storage crunch, it's been gradually increasing production at its refineries. And by one estimate, it's now able to export some 200,000 barrels a day over land, evading a US naval blockade.

In Markets News, we are exclusively reporting that Eli Lilly is expanding a push into infectious disease prevention by acquiring three vaccine developers in deals set to be announced later today. The deals to acquire Curivo, Limitech Biologics and VaccineCo add up to nearly $4 billion and could turn vaccines into a core focus for Lilly alongside obesity and cancer treatments.

China's Huawei says it's developed a work around to allow it to produce advanced chips on par with those made by leading manufacturers by 2031 That's despite the company being barred from accessing specialized machines made by Dutch company ASML used by rivals Intel, TSMC and Samsung. Huawei, a central company in Beijing's national push for tech self-sufficiency, says its process for making high-end chips focuses on improving computing efficiency by stacking multiple layers of circuits within a single chip and reducing the time that it takes to move data among them. And Uber has offered to buy Germany's delivery hero for almost $12 billion. The potential takeover follows a string of recent stock purchases by Uber, making it the company's largest shareholder in recent weeks, and would continue a pattern of food delivery consolidations after DoorDash agreed to buy Britain's Deliveroo in a roughly $4 billion cash deal last year. Uber didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, while Delivery Hero has previously said it welcomes Uber's investments. Coming up, we'll preview today's closely watched Texas GOP Senate runoff and look at the latest evolutions in Russia and Ukraine's battlefield strategies. That and more after the break.