Category: Semafor

China’s planned restrictions on rare earth exports could put $6.5 trillion in downstream production at risk, the International ​Energy Agency said, underscoring Beijing’s chokehold over an industry critical to the global economy. Last October, China decided to expand export controls in response to tariffs imposed by Washington, though Beijing later ...

Argentina will face Spain in the FIFA men’s World Cup final on Sunday, after the defending champions beat England 2-1 in a testy showdown on Wednesday. The match spotlighted a bitter, decades-long rivalry between two teams that hadn’t played each other in 21 years. The feud centers on the 1986 ...

Europe remains reliant on China and the US for critical military components even as it projects confidence in shouldering its own defense. Brussels is allowing Ukraine to spend EU funds on Chinese drone parts, the Financial Times reported, underscoring “the gaps that remain in the EU’s domestic defense production.” And ...

The ascendance of Chinese open-source AI poses an economic threat to the US, Palantir’s chief technology officer said, joining a chorus of American executives sounding the alarm on Beijing’s growing AI clout. Chinese AI companies have been accused of ripping off the top American models through a process known as ...

A Chinese chip giant is poised to go public in Asia’s largest market debut of the year, as it benefits from intense demand for memory. CXMT, which nearly doubled the fundraising target for its Shanghai offering, is increasingly central to Beijing’s efforts to achieve technological self-sufficiency. The chip industry also ...

Hyundai workers in South Korea began a partial strike this week after the company unveiled plans to introduce humanoid robots on the factory floor. The work stoppage is the first in the global car industry’s history addressing humanoids, The Wall Street Journal wrote; the company and union are also at ...

DeepSeek could reportedly file for an IPO as soon as this year, joining its rivals in capitalizing on investor enthusiasm for low-cost Chinese AI. The startup is also considering raising new funds from private investors weeks after completing its first financing round that valued the company at $52 billion. DeepSeek ...

Reed’s view For weeks, there have been murmurs in DC about a coming White House move to address the inevitability of powerful, open-source Chinese AI models being used by people and businesses across the globe. Such government intervention could take a number of forms, but none address the true problem ...

The News The Democratic Party, less than four months from a pivotal midterm election, is navigating a new kind of culture war over exactly what kind of behavior — from candidates and staff — the party should tolerate. The meltdown of Graham Platner’s Maine Senate bid over sexual assault allegations reopened ...

David’s view Last month, after Abdul El-Sayed and I wrapped up our interview in the Detroit suburbs, I mentioned the ongoing effort by centrist Democrats to link him to Graham Platner. The candidate laughed. El-Sayed rose on his strength during short TV hits, where he would talk about his issues ...