Category: Semafor

India began a yearlong effort to count the world’s (presumably) largest population. A 2011 headcount recorded 1.21 billion. COVID-19 delayed the 2021 edition, but estimates now place the figure at 1.47 billion. That probably isn’t too far off the mark, but any errors could starkly affect parliamentary seat allocations if ...

The News During his first primetime address to the nation to discuss the war with Iran, President Donald Trump on Wednesday sought to reassure — and convince — Americans that the operation is necessary and will soon wrap up, as gas prices rise and foreign leaders grapple with the war’s ...

Europe’s hard-right parties are breaking ranks with US President Donald Trump over the Iran war. Populist groups across the continent have broadly aligned themselves with Trump’s MAGA movement. But the partnership has been weakened by the US campaign against Iran, which undermines Trump’s isolationist “America First” vision and has pushed ...

US Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump’s efforts to end automatic birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants or temporary residents. Trump signed the sweeping executive order on his first day back in the White House, aiming to unwind a cornerstone of US immigration law with implications ...

A crew of astronauts — three Americans and one Canadian — prepared to journey around the Moon for the first time in 50 years on Wednesday, traveling the furthest ever from Earth and heralding a new era of space competition. The much-delayed Artemis II mission comes 53 years after NASA’s ...

SpaceX on Wednesday filed confidentially to go public, according to reports, setting up what could be the largest IPO ever. The Elon Musk-founded rocket and satellite maker is aiming to hit the stock market in June, with the goal of raising $50-75 billion from going public, per The New York ...

US regulators on Wednesday approved Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 pill for sale in the country, opening up a new phase in weight-loss medication. The drug, which will be sold under the brand name Foundayo, will compete with the pill version of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, approved in December. But Lilly’s pill is ...

A new AI-powered tool is helping track restitution work underway across Africa. Launched this week by pan-African research organization Open Restitution Africa, the platform helps to collate and narrativize the often-fragmented research and bureaucracy involved in the return of artifacts to Africa, many of which were stolen by Europeans during ...

War in the Middle East could cost Africa as much as 1.5 percentage points of growth this year, the African Development Bank said. A scenario in which the conflict stretched for six months would hurt the continent’s already fragile prospects and expose fiscal constraints on economies struggling to fund basic ...

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a nearly $200 billion investment drive aimed at accelerating economic recovery and industrialization in the face of growing worry over the impact of the Iran war on the continent’s biggest economy. For more than a decade, South Africa’s economy has barely grown, leaving it ...