Category: Semafor

Iran on Wednesday rejected a US peace plan and laid out its own conditions for entering negotiations, setting a high bar. Tehran’s hardball asks include the payment of war reparations and the recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. Even as the countries pass messages through Pakistan, Iranian ...

Tensions between China and Japan flared further this week after a Japanese army officer was accused of breaking into the Chinese embassy in Tokyo. Beijing lambasted Japan over the incident, which Tokyo said was “truly regrettable.” The episode inflames the diplomatic spat between the two countries that began over Japanese ...

The supply shocks stemming from the Iran war will expand beyond just fuel markets — to the benefit of China and Russia, analysts said. The conflict is imperiling the supply chain for petrochemicals, which are derived from fossil fuels and serve as the building blocks for plastics, an expert told ...

At least 26 African countries will experience increases in temperature-related deaths due to climate change in 2050 compared to the 2001-2010 average, according to a new report. Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger are among those that will see such deaths exceeding those from stroke, one of the top causes of ...

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama accused the Trump administration of “normalizing the erasure” of Black history, warning that US policies could have ripple effects in other parts of the world. Speaking in New York City on Tuesday, Mahama was referring to moves such as the dismantling of slavery exhibits, the ...

The Scoop JetBlue has tapped advisers to assess the viability of selling itself to a rival airline, and has specifically scenario-planned how a deal with United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, or Southwest Airlines might fare in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter. JetBlue has been on a turnaround mission ...

David’s view The Sunrise Movement, a nine-year old climate nonprofit, is politically inseparable from the Green New Deal that it organized hundreds of town hall meetings and rallies to promote. Except that it barely talks about the idea anymore. Instead, from Colorado to Illinois, Sunrise members are focusing their direct ...

The News The first ad for Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s Senate campaign couldn’t be played in full on TV. “They Said It” began with one Chicagoan saying “F— Trump,” then another, then four more — including Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth. Stratton didn’t say the four-letter word herself, appearing instead ...

The Philippines declared a national emergency as fuel shortages caused by the war in Iran threatened its economic stability, one of a number of Asian nations scrambling to address a looming lack of energy. Several of Asia’s biggest economies import more than 50% of their energy from the Gulf. The ...

OpenAI is shutting down its Sora video generation app, incidentally ending a $1 billion deal with Disney in the process. Sora unnerved the entertainment industry when it was launched in 2024, with its rapid creation of photo-quality video from text prompts. But it is expensive: Forbes estimated that the company ...