Category: Semafor

The US on Monday ramped up pressure on China over the Iran war, setting up a showdown between the superpowers days before President Donald Trump’s planned visit to Beijing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Beijing’s purchases of Iranian crude amount to funding terrorism, after China told its companies to ignore ...

AI is not — yet — reducing artists’ employment, but it is changing how they work, research found. Analysis of Gallup polling data established which artistic occupations are most exposed to AI: Outputs from many composers or art directors, for instance, could plausibly be done by AI, while dancers would ...

School phone bans get devices out of students’ hands, but led to no improvement in discipline or test scores, a large-scale study found. Thousands of US schools require students to put phones in locked pouches; the researchers observed the impact over three years, compared to schools that did not introduce ...

Children living in specially designed two-story homes in Tanzania had lower rates of malaria, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infections compared with those in traditional mud-and-thatch houses, a three-year trial found. The children in the homes were also taller for their age than those in traditional houses, the study published in ...

Venezuela’s oil exports reached their highest level since 2018, a surge that could have major downstream geopolitical consequences. Crude production in Venezuela — which holds the world’s largest oil reserves — has surged since the US captured former President Nicolás Maduro and replaced him with a leader who agreed to ...

Chinese humanoid robot maker Linkerbot is seeking investment at a $6 billion valuation, double the level it raised money at only last week, highlighting investor appetite to enter the fast-growing industry. Beijing has made dominating the humanoid robot sector a national priority, committing almost $140 billion in state venture capital ...

A small group of Senate Republicans are still working behind the scenes on an authorization of military force for Iran that they can move on if President Donald Trump reprises strikes, according to several people briefed on the matter. Republicans expect to receive a fresh notification if hostilities resume, after ...

The News DR Congo’s cobalt export quotas have forced the metal’s largest producers to adopt new strategies as the central African country seeks to capture more value from its natural resources and curb illegal flows. DR Congo, which accounts for over 70% of global cobalt mine supply, introduced export caps ...

The News George W. Bush had the hawkish Charles Krauthammer to explain his hawkish presidency to the public and advise him in private. Barack Obama liked talking to The New Yorker’s David Remnick. And Donald Trump has increasingly, improbably turned to a former Bush speechwriter best known for defending the ...

Taiwan’s president made it to Eswatini, much to Beijing’s chagrin. The island’s leader, Lai Ching-te, had planned to visit his lone African ally last month but said he canceled his trip because China had pressured neighboring countries to close their airspace. Berlin and Prague also reportedly denied Taiwan’s requests to ...