Category: Semafor

Global trade tensions grew among several major powers, with little sign of respite on the horizon. The US is weighing imposing yet more penalties on goods and services from Canada, Bloomberg reported, after Ottawa responded to Washington’s original tariffs with matching levies of its own. China, meanwhile, said it would ...

Chinese authorities indicated they would not increase government spending to revive flagging economic growth, and would instead intensify focus on the broader adoption of cutting-edge technology. Several metrics have shown that China’s domestic economy is slowing, potentially to below Beijing’s official growth target, with Goldman Sachs warning in a note ...

Experts warned that Ebola is spreading “exponentially” in the Democratic Republic of Congo as unpaid health workers struggle to contain the virus. A lack of funding, widespread misinformation, and poor infrastructure have left authorities in the war-torn country scrambling to contain the outbreak, already the fastest-growing on record and which ...

Two people died from measles in Pennsylvania, the state’s first deaths from the disease in 35 years, with experts warning that figure could rise because of falling vaccination rates in the US. While numerous academic studies have shown no connection between the measles vaccine and autism, anti-jab sentiment has festered ...

The News DR Congo has failed to use $8.3 billion committed by global development partners for public projects due to administrative delays and poor management, a failure its president said is “undermining the state’s credibility” as it seeks to attract more foreign capital. Only 24% of an active portfolio worth ...

The Scoop Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange has revamped derivatives trading rules in a bid to attract more foreign investors and increase liquidity, as the bourse looks to kick-start trading activity in the wake of the Iran war. The Saudi Exchange has slashed trading fees and secured a group of firms ...

The News South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham won Tuesday’s primary for a full term, riding President Donald Trump’s endorsement to a narrow victory after a quick special election. “Our victory would not have been possible without you, and we are truly grateful,” Graham said of Trump at her victory party ...

Chinese AI lab Z.ai is releasing an open-weight model on Friday that it says rivals frontier Western AI in cybersecurity capabilities, reigniting debates over whether advanced technologies should be publicly accessible. After several hacking incidents, AI firms are rethinking how they test powerful models: Some are considering disconnecting tests from ...

US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran’s economy is doomed to fail, a former member of his Iran negotiating team argued. Washington’s effort to sanction countries doing business with Tehran “poses a greater threat to US credibility” than to the regime’s economy, Nate Swanson wrote in Foreign Affairs. ...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Moscow Tuesday for unannounced talks with the Kremlin, in the first such visit by a US spy chief since 2021. Washington asked Kyiv to pause strikes during Ratcliffe’s four-hour trip. While details of his meetings weren’t released, the talks could have touched on a ...