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Intelligence for the New World Economy
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Business
Meta plans nonvoting shares, eyeing more stock sales to fund its AI dreams
The company plans to offer new stock that wouldn’t dilute Mark Zuckerberg’s control stake.
How AI divided New York’s democratic socialists
The industry is definitely bad! Socialists disagree on why.
How AI divided New York’s democratic socialists
The industry is definitely bad! Socialists disagree on why.
The World at a Glance
Updated 6:56pm EDT
1
SpaceX and Tesla began exploring a merger that would create a $3.5 trillion giant spanning key sectors of cutting-edge technology.
2Meta will introduce new non-voting stock, as the firm looks to fund its AI buildout through share sales without diluting Mark Zuckerberg’s control.
3Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu pushed US President Donald Trump to resume strikes against Iran, as both leaders struggle with poor polling ahead of critical elections.
4US envoy Steve Witkoff hailed Vladimir Putin as a “true humanitarian,” after the Russian leader released an American prisoner and assented to trilateral talks on Ukraine.
5CATL shares plunged after the company missed on profit growth, as the batterymaker reckons with intensifying competition and China’s EV price wars.
6Multiple governments took websites offline after web developers used AI to identify a vulnerability affecting up to 70% of the world’s websites.
Meta tops Big Tech lobbying as AI labs talk antitrust
Meta spent $5.9 million lobbying Washington lawmakers in the third quarter of 2026 — the most of any Big Tech firm during that period — as the AI race grew more competitive.
Investors eye proxy fight at Mattel
Southeastern Asset Management has been pushing the Barbie-maker to sell itself.
View / What the GOP activist who confronted El-Sayed really got wrong
If Abdul El-Sayed wins next month, the clip of him admonishing a GOP activist will achieve legendary status in his party.
More Republicans break with Trump on Russia sanctions
‘Now is the time for us to turn up the pressure,’ said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.
Youth-led AI safety group demands protections for young users
Its top goals: Prevent catastrophic risk, allow states to pass their own laws, protect against digital fakes, and focus on design that helps and protects people.
Washington won’t say what it wants on AGOA, says South Africa ambassador
Pretoria’s envoy says relations with the US remain at a “stalemate”, with trade disputes and ideological divisions complicating efforts to rebuild ties.
Aid groups told to account for $700M of Ebola funding
Global bodies, including the UN, are accused of violating Congolese sovereignty by failing to tell the government of what has happened to the money.
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Politics
Witkoff calls Putin a ‘humanitarian’ after Russia releases US prisoner
US envoy Steve Witkoff hailed Vladimir Putin as a “true humanitarian” after the Kremlin released a 74-year-old retired teacher accused of fighting for Kyiv and agreed to trilateral talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Sputnik/Kristina Solovyova/Pool via Reuters
FT: Netanyahu pushing the US to bomb Iran before elections
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressures US President Donald Trump to resume strikes against Iran, as both leaders contend with poor polling ahead of critical elections.
Amir Cohen/Reuters
Poll shows big lead for South Dakota Republican Rounds
It’s a sign that any blue wave in November will have its limits.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
What the GOP activist who confronted El-Sayed really got wrong
If Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Senate race next month, the Saturday clip of him admonishing a GOP activist about freedom of religion will achieve legendary status in his party.
Meta tops Big Tech lobbying as AI labs talk antitrust
Meta spent $5.9 million lobbying Washington lawmakers in the third quarter of 2026 — the most of any Big Tech firm during that period — as the AI race grew more competitive.
US envoy Steve Witkoff holds talks with Putin
Russian officials have noted that the meetings are unlikely to result in any imminent agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
Fewer say US federal government improves their lives, poll finds
Forty-three percent of US adults say the federal government is effective at improving people’s lives, down from 51% in 2025, according to Gallup.
Youth-led AI safety group demands protections for young users
Its top goals: Prevent catastrophic risk, allow states to pass their own laws, protect against digital fakes, and focus on design that helps and protects people.
How a MAGA youth movement is training ‘10,000 Stephen Millers’
American Moment is filling the administration with the new right, and looking to play the long game.
Bloomberg’s $80 million bookends donor-dominated midterm
The donation to boost Democratic candidates is a last-minute entry in a US midterm cycle dominated by big spenders like Elon Musk.
Elon Musk ordered Starlink slowdown in Ukraine, WSJ reports
The Starlink slowdown was among a series of developments leading to a stunning breakdown in US-Ukraine relations.
Business
Batterymaker CATL tumbles on earnings miss, competition fears
China’s battery champion is reckoning with intensifying domestic competition amid the country’s EV price wars.
Maxim Shemetov/File photo/Reuters
Meta plans nonvoting shares, eyeing more stock sales to fund its AI dreams
The company plans to offer new stock that wouldn’t dilute Mark Zuckerberg’s control stake.
Investors eye proxy fight at Mattel
Southeastern Asset Management has been pushing the Barbie-maker to sell itself.
SpaceX and Tesla mega-merger under discussion
Elon Musk argued that combining the companies would allow them to deepen cooperation on chip design, robotics, software, and more.
Netflix grapples with slowing revenue growth
After laying off 6% of employees and bouncing both its content chief and head of feature films, Netflix reported its third straight quarter of slowing revenue growth and acknowledged its stagnating viewership.
Technology
AI helps find vulnerability affecting up to 70% of websites
France, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands took government websites offline Wednesday after web developers used AI to identify a bug affecting up to 70% of the world’s websites.
Annegret Hilse/Reuters
Tech firms monitor city council meetings to track data center sentiment
Startup Hamlet has parsed tens of thousands of city council meetings by scraping local governments’ video recordings, tagging comments as friendly or hostile to a potential project.
Noah Berger for AWS via Reuters
Microsoft’s Nadella is back in business
“We, as an industry, have to wake up to this,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Semafor about the AI race. “It’s not about the shiny object and FOMO.”
Meta tops Big Tech lobbying as AI labs talk antitrust
Meta spent $5.9 million lobbying Washington lawmakers in the third quarter of 2026 — the most of any Big Tech firm during that period — as the AI race grew more competitive.
How AI divided New York’s democratic socialists
The industry is definitely bad! Socialists disagree on why.
South Korean chip makers upgrade manufacturing in China
Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have also placed orders totalling $35 billion from US chipmaker Nvidia, which is already struggling to fulfill Chinese demand.
Energy
Breach of Paris Agreement global warming level ‘inevitable,’ UN says
Overall global warming is now likely to be between 2.6℃ and 2.8℃ by the end of the century, the UN Environment Programme predicted.
Bruno Kelly/Reutrs
European airfares will jump next year, Ryanair CEO warns
Ticket prices could jump as much as 20%, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary predicted.
Matteo Minnella/File Photo/Reuters
Rubio to push India on refining more crude
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed India as a “refining superpower” during his visit to the country.
Kylie Cooper/Pool via Reuters
Gulf
Carriers reroute Riyadh flights to airport four hours’ drive away
The route is an alternative to the capital while its airport remains closed following a deadly Houthi attack almost two weeks ago.
Manal Albarakati/Semafor
Mecca draws Indonesian sovereign wealth fund investment
That agreement is the first time a foreign state has acquired property in one of the holiest sites in Islam.
Survey: Energy executives upbeat about Gulf opportunities despite war
In a poll of more than 1,800 people ahead of ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi, executives credit diversified energy supplies for absorbing the shock.
UK fighter jets to defend Saudi Arabia from Houthi strikes
The UK said Tuesday it will send fighter jets to protect Saudi Arabia’s cities and critical infrastructure from escalating aerial attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Abu Dhabi in talks to sell government services app to US cities
The platform’s services span business registration, ID renewal, and, since last year, virtual weddings.
China
Batterymaker CATL tumbles on earnings miss, competition fears
China’s battery champion is reckoning with intensifying domestic competition amid the country’s EV price wars.
Maxim Shemetov/File photo/Reuters
South Korean chip makers upgrade manufacturing in China
Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have also placed orders totalling $35 billion from US chipmaker Nvidia, which is already struggling to fulfill Chinese demand.
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Chinese tech firms purchase more than $35 billion of Nvidia chips: Reuters
Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have together ordered tens of billions of dollars worth of Nvidia chips as China’s compute-hungry tech giants turn to the US.
Florence Lo/Reuters
Africa
Ghana eyes mineral export ban to boost domestic processing
This is part of a broader push by Africa’s resource-rich countries to capture more value from their resources.
Philip Mostert/Reuters
JPMorgan closes in on Nigeria merchant banking license
If successful, the New York-based lender would add considerable heft to the investment banking sector as the country seeks to attract more foreign capital.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Africa doesn’t have to ‘pick sides’ between US and China
The head of the UK’s development finance body added that prioritizing clean power made it impossible to remove Chinese firms from supply chains.
Aid groups told to account for $700M of Ebola funding
Global bodies, including the UN, are accused of violating Congolese sovereignty by failing to tell the government of what has happened to the money.
Washington won’t say what it wants on AGOA, says South Africa ambassador
Pretoria’s envoy says relations with the US remain at a “stalemate”, with trade disputes and ideological divisions complicating efforts to rebuild ties.
South Africa fears end of US trade deal amid growing rift
In response, Pretoria is looking to boost trade with China and India though a flood of cheap imports from the former has angered domestic producers.
Security
US envoy Steve Witkoff holds talks with Putin
Russian officials have noted that the meetings are unlikely to result in any imminent agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool via Reuters
European fuel crisis energizes far-right parties
The crunch has energized Europe’s rightist parties who are pressuring governments in Germany, Italy, and Poland to restore energy ties with Russia.
Abdul Saboor/Reuters
Elon Musk ordered Starlink slowdown in Ukraine, WSJ reports
The Starlink slowdown was among a series of developments leading to a stunning breakdown in US-Ukraine relations.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
Media
Four years of Semafor
Semafor is starting to emerge clearly as the thing we hoped it would become.
The Semafor team after Semafor World Economy in April 2026. Kris Tripplaar/Semafor
How CBS News’ Middle East war spread to the Upper Midwest
Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has personally advocated for CBS News journalists to pursue numerous story angles related to Abdul El-Sayed’s supposed sympathy towards the Muslim Brotherhood.
Fox stays positive on data centers even as public backlash grows
More than half of the references to data centers on Fox News over the last two years would have left viewers with a favorable impression, according to a Semafor analysis.
Hack reveals Netanyahu campaign’s media ties
The latest breach comes from the Whatsapp account of Netanyahu aide Jonatan Urich.
ABC News offers contradictory explanation for vanishing Anduril story
Emails between ABC News and its subjects, provided to Semafor, show the network seeking to downplay its errors by misrepresenting its own processes.
CEO Signal
The $22B startup co-founder working to make chatbots talk back
ElevenLabs’ Mati Staniszewski is betting that “voice AI” will soon become the norm.
Why Suntory’s CEO is still investing in a sobered-up spirits market
Nobuhiro Torii sees a chance to build the family company’s brands as listed rivals cut back.
The CEO who put Canary Wharf back on the map
Shobi Khan’s success in filling the east London site is tempting him to think about international expansion.
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