Category: Semafor

The US Treasury’s “debanking” probe found that the largest American banks had denied services to customers based on political considerations, in a boost to conservatives’ campaign against institutions’ perceived biases. US President Donald Trump ordered the inquiry last year after he accused banks of discriminating against him, and sued JPMorgan ...

Iran’s increasing attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz have made October one of the most violent months in the waterway since the war began, as Tehran looks to exploit US President Donald Trump’s political vulnerability ahead of midterm elections. Two Emirati cargo vessels sank in the past 24 ...

Apple’s first foldable smartphone will feature Alibaba’s AI when it launches in China next week, as Apple Intelligence — the company’s generative suite — gears up for its mainland appearance after years of regulatory delays. Apple sees AI features as critical to competing with Huawei, the only firm it lags ...

Formula 1 will return to Africa for the first time in more than three decades with a Grand Prix in Rwanda in the early 2030s, the sport’s governing body confirmed. The FIA, which has committed to a 10-year race deal, linked the move to expanding the global reach of F1, ...

The News Aaron Day’s third-party campaign cost Republican Kelly Ayotte her Senate reelection bid in 2016. Now he’s trying to take his spoiler project national. With several Senate races tight enough for an alternate candidate to make a real difference, whether they’re Libertarian or another third party, Day is looking ...

David’s view YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Toward the end of Monday night’s MAGA rally, after Jon Husted heard Donald Trump compliment his jawline and his “ass,” he thanked the president for making Ohio so much easier for Republicans to win. “The Youngstown area, for decades, used to vote Democrat,” the Republican ...

In the span of weeks, AI altered the video game industry with mashups, which allow people to combine multiple popular games into one — and Xbox is leaning in. AI-coding models have crossed new capability thresholds that allow users to reverse-engineer and recreate complex game code that would have taken ...

Reed’s view One of the most profound takeaways from my interview with Reflection AI co-founder and CTO Ioannis Antonoglou this week on Semafor’s Future Proof is his declaration that the AI era will force us to redefine what each business actually does and rebuild it from the ground up, using ...

The Scoop Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is preparing to inform organizers of the 2034 men’s soccer World Cup that it plans to drop five new stadiums it proposed to build to host the tournament, according to people familiar with the matter. Public Investment Fund will likely narrow its focus ...

India cracked down further on anti-government protests that have grown substantially in recent months, escalating from attacking the authorities over education to frustration with what critics see as broader threats to the country’s democracy. Three leaders of an upstart political party were jailed and an historic protest site in central ...