※[Global Morning Briefing] summarizes global news delivered by Seoul Economic Daily.
US-Iran Ceasefire MOU "Only Trump's Signature Remains"
The Iran war, now in its 91st day, has reached its biggest turning point. US and Iranian negotiators have tentatively agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) centered on a 60-day ceasefire extension, with only President Trump's final approval remaining. However, Trump has shown a cautious stance, saying he "needs a few more days to think."
The agreement includes guaranteed unrestricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a ban on transit fees and ship detentions, partial sanctions exemptions for Iranian crude oil exports, discussions on a $300 billion Iran reconstruction fund, and Iran's principled commitment not to pursue nuclear weapons. The issue of highly enriched uranium processing will be discussed separately during the 60-day negotiation period.
Behind Trump's delay in approval are a complex mix of factors, including pushback from allies such as Israel, pressure from hardliners within the US, and concerns that Iran could reverse its position at the last minute. The New York Times pointed out that because the negotiations are being conducted indirectly through Pakistan and Qatar, it is unclear whether both sides are even discussing the same agreement document.
Iran is also distancing itself from claims that an agreement is imminent. The state-run Tasnim News Agency stated that "claims that the MOU text has been finalized are not true," and the Iranian military fired warning shots at US ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, markets leaned toward expectations of a deal. All three major New York stock indices hit record highs, with the Nasdaq rising 0.91%, showing a notable upward trend.
US Tightens Economic Pressure on Iran in Final Stretch of Ceasefire Talks; Israel Intensifies Strikes on Gaza and Lebanon
With ceasefire negotiations with Iran approaching, the US has imposed new sanctions targeting Iran's oil trade and indicted an Iranian-Iraqi dual national on terrorism charges. The moves are seen as an attempt to gain negotiating leverage by ramping up economic pressure on Iran's vulnerabilities until the final stages of talks.
The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on eight ships and more than 15 companies and entities involved in transporting Iranian crude oil. The action came just one day after sanctions were imposed on Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, marking another measure targeting Iranian oil. The State Department on the same day additionally sanctioned eight ships, three companies, and one individual related to the transport of Iranian petrochemical products. Treasury Secretary Bessent said the US would block Iranian airlines from landing, refueling, and selling tickets.
The Justice Department indicted al-Saadi, a key operative of Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard, on eight terrorism-related charges. He is accused of plotting an attack on a New York synagogue and planning and directing about 18 terrorist attacks in Europe, with a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Meanwhile, Israel strongly opposed the inclusion of a Lebanon ceasefire clause in the draft MOU and is instead pressuring the US to insert language allowing freedom of military operations in Lebanon. Israel resumed airstrikes on Beirut for the first time in three weeks, and ground forces are also expanding operations beyond the buffer zone. Mossad Director Barnea is reportedly of the view that if the blockade is maintained, Iran could collapse by the end of 2026.
"They Just Burned Tokens" — Big Tech Scraps Usage Rankings
The "token-maxing" craze, in which AI developers competitively increased their token usage, has led to side effects, prompting Big Tech companies to abolish related systems one after another.
Tokens are the smallest data unit processed by AI models, and token-maxing refers to the phenomenon of maximizing token usage for performance. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang strongly encouraged token usage, saying, "If you're a $500,000-a-year engineer, you should be spending more than $250,000 on tokens by year-end."
However, contrary to intentions, side effects emerged in succession. Amazon operated the "Kiro Rank" system, which evaluated employees based on their usage of its in-house AI coding tool "Kiro," but a widespread practice emerged in which employees forced token consumption by giving the AI unnecessary tasks to boost their rankings. As computing cost burdens grew, the company eventually abolished the system and shifted to a method of measuring how much AI is utilized in developing useful code.
Meta also discontinued "Claudenomics," a leaderboard that tracked the token usage of 85,000 employees. Waste had become severe, with monthly usage exceeding 60 trillion tokens. Uber poured tokens into AI coding tools but exhausted its annual AI budget within four months, with no clear gains in productivity. Salesforce introduced a new metric that evaluates the actual workload handled by agents instead of token counts.
MS VP: Anthropic's Mythos Is "Both Threat and Opportunity… Useful for Blocking Shadow AI"
Marco Casalaina, Microsoft's vice president for products and core AI, said of Anthropic's latest AI model "Mythos" that "it could be a threat, but at the same time, it can serve as a means to block threats, making it more of an opportunity."
Mythos is a model that surpasses Anthropic's top-tier model Claude Opus 4.7, and is regarded as having the strongest-ever ability to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities buried for decades. However, due to concerns that hackers could exploit it to paralyze computer networks, Anthropic has distributed the test model only on a limited basis to major Big Tech and financial firms.
Casalaina said Microsoft is collaborating with Anthropic on utilizing Mythos and introduced Microsoft's security tool "Defender" as capable of detecting and blocking shadow AI. Shadow AI refers to employees using external AI models privately without official company approval, and is considered a security threat because confidential information could be leaked to uncontrollable external models.
"We need to define what AI agents should not do and create an environment where humans can intervene," he stressed.
"Tapping Tariff Refunds to Cut Prices" — US Retail Sector's "Value Wars" Heat Up
As high inflation dampens consumer sentiment, US companies are turning to value-oriented strategies, lowering prices or launching small-portion, low-cost products.
Coca-Cola unveiled products with reduced bottle sizes at lower prices, Target rolled out new $5 toy products, and Stellantis launched two new models priced under $30,000. Walmart cut prices on 7,200 items and is running a promotion offering barbecue ingredients for a family of eight at less than $5 per person. PepsiCo lowered snack prices by up to 15%, McDonald's introduced menu items under $3, and KFC expanded its $10 chicken bucket promotion to all weekdays.
Behind this is a serious contraction in consumption. April consumer prices rose 3.8% year-on-year, and the PCE price index hit its highest level in 2 years and 11 months. The first-quarter GDP revised estimate fell 0.4 percentage point from the advance estimate, with the decline expected to widen in the second quarter.
Companies are deliberately trimming margins. Kraft Heinz announced it would absorb about 80% of this year's price increases on its own. Walmart's CFO said, "The best investment right now is investing in customers and prices."
