Today's top stories, with context, in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
1) The fall of Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang has removed the industry’s most prominent opponent of US chip controls, setting up a showdown over potential new curbs that could accelerate China’s drive for semiconductor self-sufficiency. Huang’s exit on Thursday smooths the way for lawmakers and the US Commerce Department to choke off China’s access to computing power through smuggling and other workarounds. Those measures, if enacted, risk provoking Beijing to retaliate and shattering a fragile truce reached by Donald Trump and Xi Jinping over their cordial summits.
2) Microsoft Corp. is struggling to restore access to its flagship software and end an outage that has paralyzed government offices, traders and businesses globally. Disruptions for Outlook, Teams and the Copilot artificial intelligence tool continued into a second day on Friday as Microsoft struggled to restore services. Previous disruptions have rarely lasted more than several hours. The difficulties in communicating efficiently have hindered workflows on trading desks, delayed corporate disclosure and even affected email access for Japan’s Ministry of Finance.
3) Senator Chris Van Hollen, a progressive from Maryland, is challenging Chuck Schumer to become Senate majority leader in the new Congress, after rising demands in the party for a bolder, more populist agenda in the wake of historic Democratic victories. It’s the first big test of Schumer’s leadership since he took the party’s top post, and comes with his standing in polls at a low ebb. Van Hollen, who has served in both House and Senate leadership, had been weighing a run for president instead. Yet he received a groundswell of support to run after he told Bloomberg News the day after the election that no one should commit to voting for Schumer or anyone else for leadership unless they committed to a bold agenda focused on working people