Category: Semafor

The dismantling of USAID has sparked an increasingly polarized debate, particularly among Africa watchers. In Washington, supporters argue that decades of foreign assistance fostered dependency and failed to advance American interests. Critics counter that the abrupt withdrawal of aid is already having devastating humanitarian consequences. Reports linking the dismantling of ...

, by Graeme Armstrong. When an ultranationalist British party sweeps to power in this dystopian Scottish political satire, the ensuing crackdown targets drug use, youth culture, and electronic music — the last of which prompts veteran raver William Patterson (or “DJ Turbo”) to plunge into a drug-fueled paramilitary underground. With ...

The US death rate hit its lowest level on record last year, having fallen by a fifth in a quarter-century. A collapse of drug overdose deaths was the main driver: Such fatalities were 14% down from 2024 to 69,973, a third consecutive annual fall, suggesting the country’s decade-long opioid crisis ...

Russia is facing growing fuel shortages, with the country forced to import gasoline from India and discontent appearing to be on the rise. The crisis is being driven by Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries, which have knocked out roughly a third of the country’s refining capacity. President Vladimir Putin ...

The Scoop Principal Asset Management, the Iowa-based firm that manages more than $590 billion, is planning to launch a Sharia-compliant US private credit fund aimed at Gulf family and institutional investors. The firm is working on the fund — which it says will be one of the first of its ...

The AI data center buildout is forcing companies and legislators to rethink their climate pledges. Amazon’s carbon emissions have risen for two consecutive years, and its chief sustainability officer told Semafor they would continue to do so for years to come — the latest signal that Big Tech’s AI ambitions ...

OpenAI is considering giving the US government a 5% stake, a move that could improve relations with the Trump administration and head off public blowback against the sector. How to redistribute AI windfalls is being debated on either side of the political aisle: Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders recently called for ...

The Trump administration is expected to launch Trump Accounts next week without a way for firms to host the children’s savings accounts on their own platforms, people familiar with the talks told Semafor. Firms like Chime, Empower, Fidelity, and SoFi had initially hoped they would have the green light to ...

The News Congressional Republicans could bank on an unorthodox investigative strategy if they lose the House this fall: relying on the threat of parallel probes by Trump’s administration to power the House minority’s congressional investigations next Congress. It could amount to an unusual assertion of power from the House minority, ...

US regulators allowed Philip Morris to advertise its Zyn oral nicotine pouches as less harmful than cigarettes. The decision is a marketing win for the tobacco giant, which like other manufacturers is investing in smoke-free products. Tobacco replacements, such as nicotine pouches or vapes, are vastly less deadly than smoking ...