Category: Semafor

Andy’s view In the run-up to next month’s US-China presidential summit, another tit-for-tat trade spat is brewing. This time, the US has added advanced robotics — humanoid robots, quadruped robots (spindly-legged “robot dogs”) and robot lawn mowers — to an already long list of banned tech products dominated by China, ...

US President Donald Trump rejected Iranian demands for war reparations and instead called for Tehran to pay compensation for the deaths of American soldiers, the latest sticking point in delicate peace negotiations. Trump said the US has “control of the Strait of Hormuz,” while Tehran says the waterway will remain ...

Syria sentenced former dictator Bashar Al-Assad to death in absentia for war crimes. His 24 years in office were marked by a brutal crackdown in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring protests and the subsequent Syrian civil war, in which an estimated 600,000 people died. Assad’s regime was accused ...

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell below 300 million barrels for the first time since 1983 on Monday, as Brent crude prices spiked after Middle East negotiations stalled. Washington has leaned heavily on reserves since the US-Iran war began, raising concerns about depletion. Meanwhile, China has been able to turn ...

US tech leaders intensified their charm offensive in response to mounting bipartisan backlash against data center construction. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word essay Monday announcing plans for a $1 billion fund to invest in communities that host data centers, and OpenAI published an open letter to Texas’ governor ...

Nvidia on Monday said it would partner with lenders to help it finance the buildout of AI infrastructure through a series of vehicles totalling more than $500 billion. The consortium, which includes Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR, will serve companies from frontier labs to hyperscalers, Nvidia said. ...

A Chinese Long March rocket carrying a communications satellite exploded shortly after liftoff Monday, the “workhorse” rocket family’s second failure this year, as Beijing races to achieve launch parity with the US. The mission would have marked an acceleration, with a record 12 days between launches. Beijing and Washington are ...

The Japanese yen has already erased half the gains that came from the historic US-Japan currency intervention, raising questions over the efficacy of the maneuver and whether more currency moves may be needed to stop the yen’s slide. It’s “going to take more” to create a sustained upswing, a Russell ...

The risk of the Yemen war fully reigniting is growing, following a series of strikes by the Iran-backed Houthis on targets inside the country and across the border in Saudi Arabia. The Houthis fired on the southern Saudi region of Najran last week and on Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery on ...

ADNOC Gas hasn’t been able to export much liquefied natural gas or other products since late February, but the company has remained profitable and kept its investment plans intact thanks to domestic demand. The listed unit of Abu Dhabi’s state-owned energy company reported a 52% decline in second-quarter profit to ...