Category: Semafor

US President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Reserve must today win over lawmakers and analysts skeptical of his independence amid intense White House pressure on the central bank. Kevin Warsh’s appearance before the Senate Banking Committee as part of his confirmation comes with huge questions in the balance: ...

Apple’s new CEO must navigate twin challenges in China — of competing in an increasingly fractured market, while maintaining efforts to reduce reliance on the country as a supplier. Outgoing boss Tim Cook won plaudits from analysts and investors for adroitly managing Apple’s relations with Beijing, even as tensions intensified ...

Further peace talks between the US and Iran were in doubt, with just hours to go before the expiry of a ceasefire. Iran has not sent a delegation to attend renewed negotiations in Pakistan, though US Vice President JD Vance is already en route. Iranian hardliners within the divided regime ...

The News Bahrain’s state energy company Bapco is partnering with US oilfield services giant SLB and US AI startup Geminus to squeeze more oil out of its existing wells and pipelines without having to build new infrastructure. The deal will see machine learning used in conjunction with SLB’s Pipesim flow ...

Russia may sacrifice a crucial spending rule as the Ukraine war puts the economy under pressure, The Bell reported. The budget rule dictates that when oil goes above a certain price, excess revenues are saved in a rainy-day fund for use in leaner times, to smooth out volatility. The Iran ...

The Iran war is fundamentally reshaping the oil industry, as geopolitical volatility rattles traders and derails expectations of a Middle East drilling boom. US President Donald Trump’s policy swings on the conflict, delivered via social media, have transformed the way oil markets behave, Citadel’s head of commodities told the Financial ...

Germany is taking steps to privatize the division of Russian gas supplier Gazprom that was seized by Berlin in 2022. The company, now called Sefe, was nationalized in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has played a central role in Germany’s energy transition away from Russian gas. Its CEO ...

Chinese tech giant ByteDance’s profit fell more than 70% as the company leaned aggressively into AI, underscoring the financial challenges facing the country’s tech scene amid intensifying domestic competition. ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, spent much more on computing power, AI infrastructure, and research, according to ...

Supply disruptions from the Middle East are forcing Asia to put a greater focus on energy self-sufficiency. Mitsubishi recently began operating a power plant in Vietnam that only sources coal from nearby countries, helping Hanoi — which gets 80% of its crude oil imports from Kuwait — reduce dependence on ...

China exported 18.8 gigawatts of solar panels to Africa last year, 48% more than in 2024, according to new analysis from the energy think tank Ember. That is equivalent to more than three times the capacity of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the continent’s largest hydropower project, The Wire China ...