Category: Semafor

by Robert Harris. Harris dials back the clock a few thousand years from his novel-turned-Academy Award-winning film , delving into a topic to satisfy the curiosity of those with the Roman Empire frequently on their minds. Agrippa is a lesser-known plebeian “meathead” who rises through the ranks of the legionnaires ...

US single-family homebuilding nosedived in July, falling 16% year-over-year as higher mortgage rates kept the market frozen. High mortgage rates and a dire supply shortage have sidelined potential buyers. While those would-be buyers stay put, many are now relying on buy now, pay later services to help them stay afloat: ...

The White House hit back hard — for a reason — after Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., targeted close Trump aide Natalie Harp over the weekend. President Donald Trump called Ossoff a “Pee-Wee Herman look-alike,” while communications director Steven Cheung dubbed the senator “the biggest cuck loser in politics” on X. ...

The News The star of Tuesday’s primaries is President Donald Trump’s adopted home state, where outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis moved to redraw congressional maps. With that, DeSantis fired the starting gun for ambitious Republicans to seek new safe-looking seats, simultaneously retiring Tampa- and Orlando-area Democrats who are now competing ...

Andy’s view The hallmark of Zhu Rongji, the former Chinese premier who died last week, was his fearless energy. “I have prepared 100 coffins,” he declared at the outset of his tenure, “99 for corrupt officials and one for myself.” For the nation’s workers, Zhu’s no-holds-barred assault on recalcitrant bureaucrats ...

Amena’s view More than 170 days into the war between the US and Iran, one thing has become clear: Tehran is not prepared to let go of its leverage in the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump may claim that the US controls the waterway, but oil flows remain far ...

OpenAI’s announcement yesterday that it will help build what could be the largest fossil-fired power plant in the US shows the scale that Big Tech and its financiers are chasing in the AI energy race. But the risk that such projects could turn into multibillion-dollar boondoggles has some Wall Street ...

The Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo became the deadliest in its history, with the virus “killing someone every 30 minutes,” a UN official said. The current outbreak is spreading five times faster than previous ones: It took only three months for fatalities to hit 2,000, compared to the five ...

US consumption has remained remarkably strong despite higher fuel prices sparked by the war in the Middle East, though signs of strain have started to emerge. Beef sales fell in the 13 weeks leading up to mid-July, with consumers cutting back on eating out or opting for cheaper proteins, Bloomberg ...

China faced deepening economic headwinds in July, state data showed, as consumer spending and investment slumped further. China’s consistently weak domestic demand has long been outmatched by the country’s vast manufacturing capacity, leading firms to expand aggressively in — and grow increasingly dependent on — overseas markets to drive growth. ...