Category: Semafor

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 ...

David’s view The murals went up in Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Fort Lauderdale before Democrats finally took notice. In September, weeks after the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train, Elon Musk joined a crowdfunded campaign to paint murals of her ...

The News GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — Rahm Emanuel took the stage at his first New Hampshire town hall, and the land acknowledgement began. “We also want to acknowledge that this land is part of the ancestral homeland of the Abenaki people and the Wabanaki Confederacy, whose connection to this place continues ...

Brent crude fell below $100 a barrel while Asian and European stock markets rose after US President Donald Trump said the war in Iran could end in “two or three weeks.” Trump — who is due to deliver a national address later today — said that “we have had regime ...

Germany’s economy minister said her country should rethink its opposition to nuclear energy, saying it leaves Europe’s biggest economy vulnerable to fossil fuel price swings. Her remarks to the Financial Times are one of a number by senior officials scrambling to address the energy upheaval caused by the Iran war, ...

Argentina’s poverty rate fell last year to its lowest level since 2018, a major victory for President Javier Milei even as progress against inflation stalls. Since becoming president in 2023, Milei has overseen a remarkable turnaround of South America’s second-biggest economy: His cuts to subsidies and pensions have led to ...

There is a question doing the rounds in South Africa’s political circles, often in lowered voices and with careful disclaimers: could the billionaire Patrice Motsepe be the man who stabilizes — perhaps even saves — the African National Congress? Motsepe’s name as a future ANC leader often appears in fragments ...

The Scene For nearly five decades, Gulf Arab countries and Iran have had frosty, but pragmatic, relations. Historic ties between people, a shared geography, and the necessity of trade forced both sides to avoid outright enmity. Tehran’s response to the US and Israeli war has shattered any remaining belief in ...

Japan deployed its first long-range cruise missiles at a military camp, pushing the limits of the country’s pacifist stance. The move marks a “major turning point” in Tokyo’s military policy, a Japanese newspaper wrote: The country has long maintained a strictly defensive posture, but has steadily built up military capabilities, ...