Category: Semafor

The News Many senators see no more fitting tribute to their late colleague Lindsey Graham than passing his bipartisan Russia sanctions bill as soon as possible. That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to do it. “Slam dunks are getting tougher in the United States Senate,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., a ...

De Beers is halting production at South Africa’s biggest diamond mine, with gemstone prices falling thanks to slowing demand and increased competition from lab-grown stones. The Venetia mine produces 40% of South Africa’s diamonds. De Beers managed to prevent prices sliding in the 1960s after the discovery of major reserves ...

, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. New Zealand actor Sam Neill, the star of and many other films, died last week aged 78. Obviously you’ve all seen , so perhaps this underrated sci-fi horror might be worth checking out. “Critics have never been kind” to it, The Guardian said in ...

His rapid rise to Instagram fame may be familiar but his designs are anything but. Ethiopian content creator Kalu Putik has grabbed the attention of the fashion world with his outfits made from old clothes, shoes, and garbage scraps. Expressionless, he shows us a pair of shoes that suddenly become ...

The US has softened export controls on UAE purchases of America’s most advanced technologies. The UAE government and approved companies no longer need licenses to buy semiconductor processors, some commercial satellites and military equipment, or dual-use items for civil nuclear power — a status no other Middle Eastern state, including ...

One of Saudi Arabia’s newest luxury journeys will take you right back to where you started. Dream of the Desert, the kingdom’s first ultra-luxury train, is due to start running at the end of the year, with cabins from $8,000 a night. One of its trips will leave Riyadh in ...

Frank Garcia, the recently confirmed US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, began his first official trip to the continent this weekend, arriving in Nigeria before planned stops in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. Garcia, a former Republican Capitol Hill staffer and Navy officer with limited Africa diplomatic experience, will ...

Nigeria’s daily crude oil production reached its highest level in six years last month following a government push to improve security along pipelines, the chief regulator of oil producing companies said. Oil receipts account for more than 90% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. Its $50 billion budget for this year ...

Across Africa, governments have spent decades announcing ports without thinking about connecting railways, highways without paved feeder roads, and pipelines without ancillary terminals. Each project may make sense on its own, yet too many struggle because the surrounding infrastructure is so patchy. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote’s decision to build a ...

Matthew’s view Saudi Arabia reshuffled the leadership of its mining and defense sectors, in a sign of renewed pressure on lagging areas of the economy sectors that are key to the kingdom’s diversification plans. Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman will now oversee the Industry and mineral resources ministry, replacing ...