US President Donald Trump hasn’t won the energy war in Venezuela yet. The White House this week released the first details of the deal Trump announced Friday between Washington and Caracas: The Pentagon will take an equity stake in the Venezuelan oil producer NABEP, which will then assume responsibility for ...
Category: Semafor
Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
China’s Xi pledges stronger Russia tiesChina’s Xi pledges stronger Russia ties
Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged stronger ties with Russia after meeting President Vladimir Putin on Monday, as Beijing flexed its diplomatic might at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan. With 10 member states in attendance, the gathering offers Xi the chance to demonstrate that Beijing has “friends and options ...
BoE chief warns of AI cyber risksBoE chief warns of AI cyber risks
The head of the world’s financial stability watchdog warned that greater cyber threats from frontier AI are heightening the risk of market disruptions. Financial institutions and service providers should prepare for “severe scenarios involving simultaneous disruption across multiple firms or shared technology dependencies,” Andrew Bailey wrote in a letter Monday ...
Japan plots record $55 billion defense spendJapan plots record $55 billion defense spend
Japan will seek to build more drones and missiles as part of a record defense spend of more than $55 billion next year, amid growing concerns over China’s military assertiveness. Under a plan that Beijing has decried as “new militarism,” Japan is targeting more uncrewed weapons systems — including a ...
Communities opposed to data centers will end up “backwards and poor,” Trump saysCommunities opposed to data centers will end up “backwards and poor,” Trump says
US President Donald Trump said communities opposed to data centers will end up “backwards and poor,” in remarks that are unlikely to soften mounting public criticism of Big Tech. “Let data reign,” Trump said Monday, as bipartisan backlash to the AI buildout reaches fever pitch ahead of the US midterm ...
Bessent faces G20 ‘credibility test’Bessent faces G20 ‘credibility test’
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s attempt to sell Washington’s economic agenda at this week’s G20 finance meeting will have to contend with global anxieties over US debt and the Iran war’s economic fallout. Bessent’s controversial interventions of recent weeks — propping up the Japanese yen and doubling Treasury’s bond purchases ...
How kidnapping became an industry in NigeriaHow kidnapping became an industry in Nigeria
Alexis’s view Insecurity was a major issue during Nigeria’s 2015 election, my first as a Reuters correspondent there. It still is today, ahead of presidential polls in January — on a far larger scale, with implications for the country’s economy greater than ever before. That 2015 election is significant because ...
‘Creatures of expedience’‘Creatures of expedience’
by Jacob Weisberg. The scathing portrait of American elites’ accommodations to US President Donald Trump has a title styled after John F. Kennedy’s , but it’s a portrait of the opportunism of leaders focused on their own interests at the expense of civic life. Weisberg includes familiar stories like that ...
UAE investigates Egyptian bank targeted by US sanctionsUAE investigates Egyptian bank targeted by US sanctions
The Central Bank of the UAE launched an investigation into the local branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr after the US Treasury said it would bar the lender’s UAE operations from dollar transactions over its dealings with Iran. The probe follows the US announcement last week of a fresh sanctions campaign ...
Iran war widens split in Gulf stock marketsIran war widens split in Gulf stock markets
The Iran war is widening the divide between Gulf stock markets. Dubai and Qatar have fallen as they remain more exposed to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, while Saudi Arabia and Oman have performed positively. Qatar’s problems predate the war due to the post-2022 men’s soccer World Cup ...