• American released: Marc Fogel, an American teacher deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, has been released and returned to the U.S. in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
• Musk offers to buy OpenAI: Investors led by Elon Musk said Feb. 10 that they are offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit behind OpenAI, escalating a dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Mr. Musk helped found.
• EU vows tariffs: The European Union’s chief said U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum will trigger tough countermeasures.
  • Related Monitor content: Risk of a trade war rises as Trump boosts tariffs globally
• Religious groups sue: More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups filed a federal court lawsuit Feb. 11 challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests at houses of worship.
  • Related Monitor content: ‘People will be afraid to go to church.’ Congregations sue for sanctuary.
• Deportations in Dominican Republic: Officials have been deporting at least 10,000 Haitian immigrants a week under a harsh new policy. More than a quarter million people were deported last year, and more than 31,200 last month.

Israel is pressing ahead with a massive military operation in the West Bank, which it says targets militants backed by Iran and Hamas. It has affected every town and village north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. But Israel is relying on tactics used in the war in Gaza. Main roads have been torn up in the towns, and water, sewage, and electricity cut, bringing economic activity and daily life to a halt and resulting in a rising level of destruction and displacement.

The meeting of King Abdullah II of Jordan with President Donald Trump Tuesday was one of the most consequential of the king’s 25-year reign. His mission: to get the U.S. president to walk back plans to forcibly relocate Gaza’s population to Jordan and Egypt. The cash-strapped kingdom is reliant on U.S. assistance, but Mr. Trump’s leverage has its limits. As one former Jordanian official told the Monitor, “Money isn’t everything and is nothing compared to an existential threat.”

An efficiency team assembled by Elon Musk is moving at high speed to modernize the U.S. government and slash spending. But its operations are shrouded in secrecy that seems in some cases designed to elude meaningful oversight. Ongoing lawsuits involving Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are likely to prove a vital test of American rule of law and, analysts add, of safeguards designed to protect U.S. national security.

North Carolina’s flood recovery shows that the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency matters but must include improved outcomes and reforms. For FEMA, part of the problem is also public misconceptions. Some increasingly extreme weather events are placing new demands on the agency. Often, it’s supporting relief efforts by other government personnel who don’t wear FEMA caps. And while the agency assists with recovery, it was never designed to provide full funding toward that goal.

Our columnist talks with one of Black History Month’s modern-day keepers about the work it takes to remember the past – and to carve out space for the future. Darryl Scott’s life is a reminder of the timelessness of Black history, Ken Makin says. Wherever one chooses to pick it up is the start of something important, and at the same time, part of a larger and more beautiful narrative.

Sri Lanka is the world’s third-largest exporter of tea. Over the years, plantation ownership transferred from the British to wealthy Sri Lankans. But young tea estate workers don’t share in the wealth. The Tea Leaf Trust, which runs five schools in the country, aims to make these workers more employable and to help them find work off the estates if they desire, while also making them leaders of change in their communities.

In Paris this week, a global summit on artificial intelligence was as freewheeling and inquisitive as the researchers making AI breakthroughs. India’s leader, for example, spoke of “re-skilling our people” for an AI-driven future. France warned against too much red tape on AI.

“If we regulate before we innovate, we won’t have any innovation of our own,” President Emmanuel Macron told France 2 television.

Many leaders promised big investments in AI research or guarantees of electricity for the computer chips driving AI’s demanding software. The United Kingdom’s technology secretary, Peter Kyle, told Politico that trends in AI “are being set by the power of the technology itself.”

So far, the power behind AI is mainly the intelligence, creativity, and curiosity expressed by those lifting the technology to new levels. That fact hung over the summit – and was made clear to the world – after the Chinese company DeepSeek revealed its latest AI model in January.  

DeepSeek’s advances in cost efficiency stunned competitors. Yet the biggest surprise was how the founder, engineer Liang Wenfeng, broke through mental barriers in a China that has long prized profits and simple refinement of technology invented elsewhere.

Mr. Liang chose an open-source approach that allows outsiders to contribute, rather than rushing to commercialization. He sees accessibility and affordability as gifts to users. “Giving is actually an extra honor,” he told the Chinese news outlet 36Kr.

He says attracting users is not the purpose. Rather, achieving the highest possible breakthroughs in AI is the goal. 

In 2023, Mr. Liang started a research lab that hired more than 100 young engineers – as well as graduates in literature – who have the “confidence” to be original rather than imitative. China, he said, must “become a contributor, rather than just a free rider” in technology.

His style is more followership than leadership. “Everyone has his or her own unique growth experience and ideas, and there is no need to push him or her,” said Mr. Liang. He gives workers a “luxury” that few in China enjoy – the freedom to experiment and a collaborative culture, a former DeepSeek researcher told MIT Technology Review.

Innovation, said Mr. Liang, “requires curiosity and creativity” and that the quest for new ideas by “high-density” talent is the company’s “moat” against competitors.

“The most important thing now is to participate in the wave of global innovation,” he said. During this week’s summit on AI, that spirit of exploration was exactly what world leaders were trying to find.