Category: Semafor

The downstream impacts of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz expanded across the global economy. European jet fuel prices have roughly doubled, and airfares are up 24% year-on-year; Lufthansa canceled 20,000 short-haul flights, other European carriers have announced similar measures, and Air France-KLM introduced a €100 surcharge on long-haul ...

Senate Republicans released their budget and began voting on it Tuesday afternoon. They will use it to set up an immigration enforcement budget reconciliation bill of roughly $75 billion. Senators hope that movement will prompt the House to pass the Senate bill funding the rest of the Department of Homeland ...

US President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve chair insisted to lawmakers Tuesday that he would uphold the central bank’s independence. During his congressional confirmation hearing, Kevin Warsh responded “absolutely not” when asked if he would be the president’s “sock puppet,” adding that Trump had not asked him to ...

Beijing enacted new rules that threaten stiff punishments for foreign and domestic companies that shift supply chains out of China, with penalties including “exit bans” on staff and asset seizures. The move reflects anxiety among policymakers as growing numbers of manufacturers shift production to places like India and Vietnam amid ...

Global clean power production outpaced electricity demand last year, leading to a decline in fossil fuel generation for the first time since the pandemic. India and China largely drove the fall in fossil fuel generation thanks to solar power, which saw a roughly 30% increase in global capacity last year. ...

More than 100 former US astronauts launched a nonprofit to address an issue closer to home — the future of US democracy. Astronauts for America, which includes Democrats, Republicans and independents, plans to issue scores for political candidates and to hold officials accountable if they ignore the rule of law, ...

Oil prices whipsawed on fast-moving expectations surrounding a fresh round of peace talks between the US and Iran, with questions over who will attend, and whether they will deliver a lasting truce. The two-week ceasefire is entering its final hours, and US President Donald Trump again threatened to “knock out ...

The UAE State Security Department arrested 27 men it accused of terrorist activities and links to Iran. There have been similar arrests across the Gulf since the US-Israel war with Iran began — including five men detained in the UAE last month, said to have been working with Iran and ...

The US official overseeing research on nuclear fusion and quantum computing defended proposed funding cuts to federal science programs, even as the country’s top fusion CEO warned the US was losing the race with China. A White House budget proposal released this month called for deep cuts to the National ...

Climate fund dry powder stood at $90 billion in this year’s first quarter, down from a $112 billion peak in the same period last year, according to a new Sightline Climate report. The recent figures don’t represent a retreat for the sector; on the contrary, 2025 was a record year ...