Category: Semafor

Washington signaled it will ramp up economic and military pressure on Tehran, dashing hopes of any imminent respite to the conflict. The US Treasury secretary said he would soon unveil restrictions “that have never been seen,” while the country’s defense chief insisted a naval blockade could be maintained “indefinitely.” Yet ...

Iran’s recent reshuffle, as well as its shifting battlefield tactics, suggest it is adapting for a lengthening conflict with the US. Tehran has reordered its leadership in part because of repeated assassinations of its top brass by American and Israeli strikes. But recent moves point to how Iran is “preparing ...

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed new attacks on a Saudi Arabian oil refinery Thursday, as the US-Iran war threatened to expand further. The strikes could impact the kingdom’s efforts to maintain shipping volumes amid ongoing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported. Riyadh is weighing support for a new ground ...

The US has lost upwards of 25% of its Reaper drones during the Iran war, The Washington Post reported Thursday, as the conflict taxes diminishing American stockpiles. Costing up to $50 million each, the slow, low-flying drones present easy pickings, and represent something of a bygone era. The Pentagon is ...

Chinese chipmaker CXMT overtook Tencent on Thursday to become the country’s most valuable company, as memory makers surf a tidal wave of AI-fueled demand. The changeover occurred after Tencent, itself a CXMT customer, reported it had doubled its quarterly AI spending, worrying investors; Tencent has invested heavily in AI but ...

China’s AI ecosystem is trying to intensify its push to meet and surpass leading US models. ByteDance is reportedly developing an AI model rivaling Anthropic’s most advanced Mythos system, and DeepSeek is touting its efforts to build a challenger to Claude Code. Meanwhile, as Beijing attempts to erect a firewall ...

A small British seaside town voted Thursday in a special election between a hard-right populist and a man who wears a trash can on his head. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage resigned to call the by-election after being accused of accepting an unlawful gift, but no major parties ran against ...

by Philip Hensher. In this historical telling of an art form that’s seen a slow decline in popularity, Hensher details the evolutionary scramble that motivated writers and publishers to do justice to the medium’s name: find something . Hensher rehashes centuries of publishing-house drama with an investigative eye, evaluating famous ...

The News A fresh cash injection from the World Bank’s private investment arm will help Africa’s largest ecommerce vendor absorb shocks spurred by ongoing geopolitical crises in the Middle East and meet profit targets over the next year, the company’s chief executive told Semafor. New York-listed Jumia raised $50 million ...

Liz’s view There’s always money in the sports team. Mark Walter controls a vast financial empire and is under federal investigation for undisclosed related-party transactions between its interlocking parts. Unwinding those transactions will require him to raise billions of dollars. Most people in that situation would look to sell their ...