Category: Semafor

Cuba moved to privatize swaths of its state-run economy as it looked to boost moribund growth and assuage the US, which has repeatedly threatened to replace the island’s communist leadership. The measures mark the single biggest change to the country’s economic system since Fidel Castro took over after the 1950s ...

Trade between Africa and China surged in 2025, new data showed, helping drive increased use of the yuan in international commerce, a key priority for Beijing. China’s recent decision to scrap tariffs on African imports led to an 18% jump in bilateral trade, a surge that comes as both China ...

The US-Iran peace deal was cast into doubt mere hours after it was signed, with talks between Washington and Tehran called off and Israel maintaining its offensive in Lebanon. The interim truce required Israel to cease military operations, but overnight strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 18 people while ...

Oil prices headed for a sharp weekly decline, while the International Energy Agency warned of a potential supply glut. Benchmark crude prices were largely flat on Friday at around $80 a barrel, down more than 25% from a month ago. The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz after months of ...

The EU moved to reduce tensions with both Moscow and Beijing, though the bloc was far from unified in its efforts to tone down rhetoric against its geopolitical rivals. The president of the European Council, comprised of member states’ governments, defended his decision to open diplomatic communications with the Kremlin ...

JPMorgan Chase reportedly cut off its Hong Kong employees’ access to Anthropic’s AI models, faced with pressure from both the US government and Anthropic itself. The White House, citing national security concerns, blocked all foreign nationals from using Anthropic’s most advanced models — leading the company to shut public access ...

Ukraine launched its largest drone attack of the war on Moscow Thursday, damaging the Russian capital’s main oil refinery and showering its neighborhoods in “black rain.” The attack’s value is both symbolic and economic, bringing the reality of war home to ordinary Russians through widespread disruption and heaping pressure on ...

EU overregulation is constraining business, a steel magnate and a Gulf sovereign wealth chief warned. ArcelorMittal’s executive chairman wrote in the Financial Times that emissions trading rules hurt energy-intensive industries, while the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said the regulatory environment prevented international investors from pouring more capital ...

The Iran conflict produced an unexpected winner: Pakistan. The country, once cast as a diplomatic pariah by the West, took on a lead role mediating between the US and Iran to produce a deal. “Pakistan’s star turn is the diplomatic equivalent of Cabo Verde winning the World Cup,” a Wall ...

Vice President JD Vance warned Israel against disrupting the US-Iran peace deal Thursday, rebuking the US ally’s “freakout,” as it telegraphed further military action in Lebanon. President Donald Trump is the “only head of state in the entire ​world who is sympathetic” to Israel, Vance said, calling for the Israelis ...