Category: Semafor

Pope Leo XIV warned humanity against creating “new digital slaveries” in a 42,300-word encyclical about AI, the first major teaching document of his papacy. In , Leo “seeks to counterbalance alarm with hope but lands firmly on one side,” The Atlantic wrote: He condemned the use of AI in warfare, ...

Indian and Chinese companies are ramping up overseas acquisitions amid mounting domestic economic and business headwinds. Chinese firms have been snapping up Western consumer goods brands; fast fashion giant Shein announced it was buying US clothing label Everlane, and Luckin Coffee purchased upscale American cafe chain Blue Bottle, the Financial ...

The Kremlin blocked online access to 20 years of criminal records statistics, undermining efforts to track Moscow’s repression. The 15 million records showed an explosion in convictions for treason, espionage, and “cooperation with foreigners,” Meduza reported. It is part of a wider data blackout — in 2023 the prosecutor general ...

Waymo suspended service in six US cities after its driverless cars drove on flooded roads during storms last week. Footage showed one of the vehicles stopped in water almost up to its headlights in Atlanta, which received several inches of rain. Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company, also said it ...

China’s overhaul of its social insurance program for migrant workers could narrow urban-rural divides in the country and unlock new streams of economic growth, analysts said. Beijing on Friday moved to ease residency restrictions on coverage, removing a hurdle that required people working in Chinese cities to claim benefits in ...

Alexis’s view Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye set off a political avalanche by firing his popular prime minister, Ousmane Sonko. Faye probably calculated that the move, announced late on Friday, could bury his own political career but was worth the risk to break an impasse that has prevented the country ...

When US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that a deal with Iran had been “largely negotiated,” he cited a phone call with a crowded list of Middle East rulers. One ostensibly lesser name stood out: Qatar’s Ali Al Thawadi is a minister without his own department, but he too ...

The Iran war is reshaping who performs Hajj this year, and how they get there: Iran’s allocation was cut to 30,000 pilgrims, nearly two-thirds fewer than usual. Their travel plans had shifted to using overland convoys through Iraq, before the ceasefire restored air access and enabled Iranian pilgrims to fly ...

On Monday, millions of pilgrims begin arriving in Mina, a small valley five kilometers east of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where they will spend several nights in what becomes, briefly, the largest temporary city on earth. The tents they sleep in bear little resemblance to what earlier generations encountered: ...

Benin’s new president promised to ensure citizens benefitted from the growing strength of the economy. Romauld Wadagni, 49, was sworn in on Sunday, having previously served as finance minister under his predecessor. That administration produced economic growth of 7.5% last year, the highest level since 1990. The economy under Wadagni ...