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Politics
How Zuckerberg shaped Trump’s AI industry pledge
The Meta CEO started thinking about what became the Tuesday White House pact during last week’s state dinner, a source familiar told Semafor.
Trade tensions hover over G20 meeting
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is welcoming his G20 counterparts to Milwaukee for two jam-packed days.
Trade tensions hover over G20 meeting
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is welcoming his G20 counterparts to Milwaukee for two jam-packed days.
View / How Democrats learned to stop worrying about gender politics
View / OpenAI’s new pricing tiers highlight compute bottleneck
The World at a Glance
Updated 7:01am EDT
1
France said it would issue a record amount of bonds, stoking concerns about government debt ahead of next year’s divisive elections.
2US bond yields hovered near quarter-century peaks due to concerns over high inflation, persistent fiscal largesse, and geopolitical uncertainty.
3OpenAI hopes to raise $30 billion in a new funding round, after delaying its blockbuster IPO in the face of souring investor appetite.
4Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo licensed a new Chinese weight-loss drug, highlighting Beijing’s rapid advancement in biotech.
5European countries tightened migration rules in a bid to quell support for nationalist parties both domestically and in the European Parliament.
6The UK’s prime minister raised the specter of rejoining the EU, as the country grapples with the lasting impacts of Brexit.
Mattel’s Kreiz to join Warner Bros.-Paramount
The Barbie chief will help refashion Warner-Paramount into an IP company
White House manages expectations for Iran breakthrough
Some US officials have long conceded that there’s no clear — or clean — way out of the conflict.
Solving for the hand: Startup wants to pay prosthetic users to teach robots
San Diego-based Psyonic wants to deploy prosthetic hands in developing nations to collect data for building advanced humanoid hands.
France plans record bond sale as debt fears grow
The spread between French government bonds and their German equivalents widened after the news, reflecting what investors see as a rising risk premium.
OpenAI hopes to raise $30B in new funding round
The financing push, reported by Bloomberg, comes after the frontier AI lab said it would delay its stock market debut.
Pharma giant Novo licenses Chinese weight-loss drug
Novo’s agreement with Hengrui Pharma, which struck an even bigger deal with GSK last year, highlights the rapid advances in China’s cutting-edge biotech sector.
As US troops leave Iraq, withdrawal carries risks
Iraq’s government is facing pressure from the Trump administration to disarm militia groups.
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Politics
How Zuckerberg shaped Trump’s AI industry pledge
The Meta CEO started thinking about what became the Tuesday White House pact during last week’s state dinner, a source familiar told Semafor.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
How Democrats learned to stop worrying about gender politics
As they prepared for Republicans to drop another billion dollars of ads on their heads this summer, Democrats passed around fresh advice on gender politics.
Sherrod Brown. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
UK PM Andy Burnham floats possibility of rejoining EU
Brexit remains politically divisive in the UK, despite growing numbers of voters voicing frustration over the lasting impacts of leaving the EU.
Phil Noble/Reuters
Europe hardens on migration as nationalist support grows
Anti-immigration parties have been on the rise in both domestic politics and the European Parliament.
Supreme Court faces sour American public, poll finds
Thirty-four percent of US adults say they approve of the job the high court is doing, according to new Gallup polling.
Hispanic Democrats tap creators for voter outreach
Latino creators will receive briefings from BOLD PAC on issues important to Latino voters with the option of rebroadcasting the messaging to their audiences.
Trade tensions hover over G20 meeting
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is welcoming his G20 counterparts to Milwaukee for two jam-packed days.
As US troops leave Iraq, withdrawal carries risks
Iraq’s government is facing pressure from the Trump administration to disarm militia groups.
White House manages expectations for Iran breakthrough
Some US officials have long conceded that there’s no clear — or clean — way out of the conflict.
Democrats flex filibuster muscle ahead of election
Senate Democrats increasingly oppose a data center-focused bill and are poised to block an insider trading bill with added voter ID requirements.
Decline in tourism hits US economy
Overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year.
Business
Mattel’s Kreiz to join Warner Bros.-Paramount
The Barbie chief will help refashion Warner-Paramount into an IP company
Semafor
France plans record bond sale as debt fears grow
The spread between French government bonds and their German equivalents widened after the news, reflecting what investors see as a rising risk premium.
US Treasury yields near 25-year highs
The yield on 30-year Treasurys briefly hit its highest level since 2002.
Decline in tourism hits US economy
Overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year.
US consumer sentiment hits lowest level in more than a decade
US consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level since 2014, new data showed, as unexpectedly weak jobs figures and elevated energy prices rekindled Republicans’ midterm fears.
Technology
FTC probes OpenAI, Anthropic, and METR
The agency is expected to demand information from the companies in the coming weeks as part of an investigation it launched earlier this year.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
America.gov holds a Minecraft-themed Easter egg
The bot seems to come to life when users ask it to “play Minecraft.”
America.gov website/Screenshot/Semafor
OpenAI’s new pricing tiers highlight compute bottleneck
Offering always-on, agentic assistant tools will cost OpenAI.
Solving for the hand: Startup wants to pay prosthetic users to teach robots
San Diego-based Psyonic wants to deploy prosthetic hands in developing nations to collect data for building advanced humanoid hands.
OpenAI unveils its Muse competitor: Dots
The consumer-facing agent tool integrates with Slack and Microsoft Teams and will eventually be available via texting.
Around 11 million US workers may face AI displacement
Voters globally have soured on AI because of existential risks the technology poses as well as concerns such as job losses and energy use.
Energy
White House taps Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The US will offer to loan energy producers up to 40 million barrels of oil.
Adrees Latif/Reuters
Africa and Asia expected to drive a boom in refining capacity
The outlook found Africa and the Asia-Pacific region would account for 95% of total refining growth.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Bond selloff deepens on oil fears
The US 10-year Treasury yield returned to highs not seen since 2007, as faltering US-Iran diplomacy rekindled fears of higher-for-longer oil prices.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Gulf
Saudi introduces regulations for camel renters
Camels must be returned to their original owner’s registry when the rental agreement ends.
Mohammed Bimansour/Reuters
Saudi bundles up Hajj services on one platform
Some 1.7 million people made the trip in 2025, with spots rationed by country at roughly one per 1,000 Muslims.
UAE-Israel flight survives suspected hijacking
An altercation between the pilots led to the plane plunging more than 14,000 feet before climbing sharply.
Iran war mutes Gulf rivalries
The UAE Vice President’s meeting with Saudi’s Crown Prince is the most prominent effort to repair ties.
Singapore’s Temasek to open Gulf offices despite war uncertainty
Temasek will use Abu Dhabi and Riyadh as hubs for investing in the Middle East and bringing portfolio companies to the region
China
Brussels trains ‘trade bazooka’ at Beijing
Beijing and Berlin “exchanged opinions” on trade relations Tuesday, The South China Morning Post reported.
Yves Herman/Reuters
Dugongs won’t move the needle for US businesses in China
The US-China trade deal is good for politics, not-so-good for business.
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Shein underwhelms in first post-IPO earnings
Geopolitical and economic headwinds have dented the Chinese fast-fashion giant’s already-battered business model.
Johanna Geron/Reuters
Africa
Africa’s data centers prompt water consumption fears
A petition by civil society groups to South African authorities highlighted concerns over a lack of awareness around data center water consumption.
Teraco Data Centre in South Africa. Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Africa aid cuts provide health ‘opportunity’
Governments across the continent relied heavily on USAID, Washington’s development agency, to fund health programs before it was shuttered last year.
Semafor
Pretoria summons US ambassador over criticism
Leo Brent Bozell III was first summoned in March over his remarks on the “Kill the Boer” chant.
Burkina Faso opens first gold refinery
The nation is among Africa’s largest gold producers, but has struggled to regulate its informal mining sector.
Dangote breaks ground on $16B Kenya refinery
The project aims to replicate the success of Dangote’s plant in Nigeria, which has turned the country into a fuel-producing powerhouse amidst a global energy crisis.
Airtel Money bets on payment growth as $800M London IPO takes shape
The company’s offering is expected to be the London Stock Exchange’s largest in years.
Security
Washington eyes sanctions trade-offs with Russia: Report
The US could offer Russia sanctions relief in exchange for the release of political prisoners, The Atlantic reported.
Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via Reuters
Irish factory could face EU sanctions over ties to Russia
An Irish factory supplying alumina to Russia could face EU penalties in the bloc’s upcoming sanctions package.
Alexander Manzyuk/Reuters
UK foils suspected attack on air base used to strike Iran
British authorities held five men suspected of plotting an attack on a UK airfield, with investigators reportedly believing a motive tied to Tehran to be most likely.
Toby Shepheard/Reuters
Media
Euractiv relaunches as ‘Rapporteur’ in Brussels
The newsroom, founded in 1999, has rebooted in recent years as a competitor to Politico Europe.
Rapporteur
Beverage brand Liquid Death will make others’ ads
Liquid Death is one of the purest marketing stories of the moment: a billion-dollar company that sells the ultimate commodity through edgy comedy.
Trump battles press as Xi heads to town
A judge is expected to hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by the three news outlets the president banned from the White House last week.
Inside the US Treasury secretary’s tense relationship with financial media
Scott Bessent’s blacklist starts with Bloomberg.
Fertile ground
Flagship’s lead writer Tom Chivers says goodbye after four years.
CEO Signal
How Harvard Business School’s former dean thinks AI will test today’s CEOs
Nitin Nohria sees the technology as a decentralizing force that will challenge company power structures.
How splitting from GSK taught Haleon a spin-off is not a finish line
Brian McNamara took his consumer health group through an independent listing, only to find that it needed fresh energy and new leaders.
Why Kai-Fu Lee thinks companies need an AI boss
Google’s former China chief says CEOs face a Darwinian choice if they want more than “AI theater.”
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