Reports emerge of similar withdrawals in UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain amid concerns about a return to conflict with Iran after US midterm elections The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia, as the gulf kingdom faces a barrage ...
Witkoff calls Putin a ‘humanitarian’ after Russia releases US prisonerWitkoff calls Putin a ‘humanitarian’ after Russia releases US prisoner
US envoy Steve Witkoff hailed Vladimir Putin as a “true humanitarian” Wednesday, after the Russian leader released an American prisoner and assented to trilateral talks to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin released a 74-year-old retired teacher accused of fighting for Kyiv — a move experts said would foster ...
FT: Netanyahu pushing the US to bomb Iran before electionsFT: Netanyahu pushing the US to bomb Iran before elections
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing US President Donald Trump to resume strikes against Iran, as both leaders contend with worrying polls ahead of critical elections. Netanyahu, who is trailing in polls, was preparing to bomb Iranian civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities earlier this month, the Financial Times reported. ...
AI helps find vulnerability affecting up to 70% of websitesAI helps find vulnerability affecting up to 70% of websites
France, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands took government websites offline Wednesday after web developers used AI to identify a bug affecting up to 70% of the world’s websites. The exploit is “the most severe AI vulnerability… ever found,” the co-founder of Google’s Wiz cybersecurity team told The Wall Street Journal, ...
Batterymaker CATL tumbles on earnings miss, competition fearsBatterymaker CATL tumbles on earnings miss, competition fears
CATL shares plunged after the company reported slower-than-expected profit growth, as China’s battery champion reckoned with intensifying domestic competition and EV price wars. Its stock has nearly halved since May, as investors fret over expiring tax carve-outs and a trend dubbed “de-CATLization,” whereby former customers like Xiaomi and Li Auto ...
Poll shows big lead for South Dakota Republican RoundsPoll shows big lead for South Dakota Republican Rounds
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota leads in his Senate race by more than 20 points, according to a new poll shared first with Semafor, a sign that any blue wave in November will have its limits. Rounds is trouncing independent candidate Brian Bengs 57% to 36% in the ...
Surrogacy in Silicon ValleySurrogacy in Silicon Valley
, by Sarah Anderson. This “very funny debut novel” imagines the life of the world’s first in-house surrogate at a Big Tech firm. “In prose that is sharp and entertaining,” The Atlantic wrote, “Anderson refreshingly takes on several familiar themes” such as gender, class, exploitation, and the oddities of the ...
Tech firms monitor city council meetings to track data center sentimentTech firms monitor city council meetings to track data center sentiment
Data-center companies are ponying up to find out which communities will resist them the least. Startup Hamlet has parsed tens of thousands of city council meetings by scraping local governments’ video recordings, tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential project. CEO Sunil Rajaraman told Semafor that a large ...
What the GOP activist who confronted El-Sayed really got wrongWhat the GOP activist who confronted El-Sayed really got wrong
David’s view If Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Senate race next month, the Saturday clip of him admonishing a GOP activist about freedom of religion will achieve legendary status in his party. “It’s you who need to understand the Constitution, not me,” El-Sayed told Thomas Teepell during an appearance in the ...
Microsoft’s Nadella is back in businessMicrosoft’s Nadella is back in business
The Satya Nadella I interviewed last week for Future Proofat Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., was a very different version of the CEO I saw there in 2023, who wanted to make Google “dance.” Back then, generative AI was the exciting (and scary) new thing, and without Microsoft’s investment in ...