US envoy Steve Witkoff hailed Vladimir Putin as a “true humanitarian” Wednesday, after the Russian leader released an American prisoner and assented to trilateral talks to end the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin released a 74-year-old retired teacher accused of fighting for Kyiv — a move experts said would foster ...
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Meta tops Big Tech lobbying as AI labs talk antitrustMeta tops Big Tech lobbying as AI labs talk antitrust
The Scoop Both OpenAI and Anthropic lobbied lawmakers on the ability of AI companies to share information with one another without running afoul of antitrust rules in the third quarter of this year, according to federal lobbying disclosures reviewed by Semafor. Anthropic’s lobbying form lists the Collaboration on Adversarial Threats ...
Microsoft’s Nadella is back in businessMicrosoft’s Nadella is back in business
The Satya Nadella I interviewed last week for Future Proofat Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., was a very different version of the CEO I saw there in 2023, who wanted to make Google “dance.” Back then, generative AI was the exciting (and scary) new thing, and without Microsoft’s investment in ...
What the GOP activist who confronted El-Sayed really got wrongWhat the GOP activist who confronted El-Sayed really got wrong
David’s view If Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Senate race next month, the Saturday clip of him admonishing a GOP activist about freedom of religion will achieve legendary status in his party. “It’s you who need to understand the Constitution, not me,” El-Sayed told Thomas Teepell during an appearance in the ...
Tech firms monitor city council meetings to track data center sentimentTech firms monitor city council meetings to track data center sentiment
Data-center companies are ponying up to find out which communities will resist them the least. Startup Hamlet has parsed tens of thousands of city council meetings by scraping local governments’ video recordings, tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential project. CEO Sunil Rajaraman told Semafor that a large ...
Surrogacy in Silicon ValleySurrogacy in Silicon Valley
, by Sarah Anderson. This “very funny debut novel” imagines the life of the world’s first in-house surrogate at a Big Tech firm. “In prose that is sharp and entertaining,” The Atlantic wrote, “Anderson refreshingly takes on several familiar themes” such as gender, class, exploitation, and the oddities of the ...
Breach of Paris Agreement global warming level ‘inevitable,’ UN saysBreach of Paris Agreement global warming level ‘inevitable,’ UN says
Efforts to cap global temperature rises have largely failed and a breach of the Paris Agreement’s limit of 1.5℃ is now “inevitable,” the UN said. Overall global warming is now likely to be between 2.6℃ and 2.8℃ by the end of the century, the UN Environment Programme predicted. It warned ...
Washington won’t say what it wants on AGOA, says South Africa ambassadorWashington won’t say what it wants on AGOA, says South Africa ambassador
South Africa’s ambassador to the US says Washington has repeatedly rejected Pretoria’s trade offers without explaining what it wants instead. His complaint comes a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa told South Africans to brace for losing duty-free access under the African Growth and Opportunity Act. “It’s not helpful when we ...
Survey: Energy executives upbeat about Gulf opportunities despite warSurvey: Energy executives upbeat about Gulf opportunities despite war
The News Middle East energy executives are more optimistic about their industry’s future than their peers elsewhere, a testament to their ability to keep oil flowing despite the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, according to research commissioned by the organizers of ADIPEC, the Abu Dhabi energy conference. Global demand ...
Aid groups told to account for $700M of Ebola fundingAid groups told to account for $700M of Ebola funding
The News Global aid groups, including the UN, are facing demands to inform the Congolese government of the whereabouts of more than $700 million that was donated to deal with the Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 4,600 people in the country. Last week, Jean Kaseya, who heads Africa ...