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CEOs: Trade war hurts US brand

Global CEOs appeared increasingly anxious over US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy and the resulting market tumult. Speaking at the Semafor World Economy Summit, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin warned Trump’s actions “eroded” the country’s strong fiscal reputation — “It can be a lifetime to repair the damage that has been done,” the hedge fund boss said — while Neuberger Berman’s head said market volatility was pushing investors “further afield” to Europe and elsewhere. Their comments came after executives from major retailers privately told Trump that his trade policy would disrupt supply chains and increase prices. Trump softened his tone on China and the US Federal Reserve after that meeting, causing markets to rebound.

Europe takes softer tone on trade

Top European officials voiced optimism over coming trade talks with the US. France’s finance minister said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit that the European Union was ready to make a deal “anytime,” calling for a “new partnership” between Brussels and Washington, while his German counterpart said a “sense of urgency” could drive negotiations. Britain’s finance chief, meanwhile, said the White House had indicated it was “keen” to cut a UK-US trade deal. Amid the anxiety, Europe also sees opportunity in the disruption to global trade: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently said countries are “lining up to work with us,” while the bloc’s economy commissioner said at the World Economy Summit that Europe’s “stability and predictability” are advantages.

US officials float China deescalation

US leaders voiced openness to improving ties with Beijing, while a senior analyst predicted that tensions between the world’s two biggest economies had peaked. “We’ve seen the worst in terms of escalation,” Bank of America’s top economist said at the Semafor World Economy Summit. US officials, meanwhile, floated a possible de-escalation in the trade war: “I’m optimistic that we will be able to take the temperature down a bit,” Stephen Miran, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, added, echoing remarks from the Treasury secretary and marking a shift in the administration’s posture after weeks of market turbulence and economic disruption.

• BHP CEO calls Trump’s tariffs a ‘vexed question’
• US business needs clarity before it can ‘win,’ GM’s CEO says
• Netflix boss says US entertainment sector gets ‘thrown under the bus’ in trade deals
• Data restrictions threaten economic growth, LSEG chief says

EU and China near deal

Beijing neared a deal with Brussels to ease sanctions against European lawmakers, signaling an emerging détente between the EU and China, both of which face trade pressure from the US. Beijing hopes its decision to remove the restrictions will reopen talks over an investment pact that was torpedoed by the EU imposing sanctions on Chinese entities over alleged human rights violations in the Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang, the journalist Noah Barkin reported. The EU and China were at loggerheads just months ago but, faced with hefty tariffs from the US, have reportedly opened discussions on reducing electric vehicle tariffs and Beijing has pushed a charm offensive across the bloc, though that latter effort has so far been to little avail.

China AI model made locally

A Chinese artificial intelligence firm said it trained a large language model comparable to industry-leading rivals entirely using domestically designed chips, underlining the pace at which China’s tech sector is slashing its dependence on the US. The announcement by iFlytek suggested Huawei had made significant progress in catching up to Nvidia, the American firm that dominates the market for the chips that power AI models, chips that Chinese tech companies are stockpiling, according to Nikkei, because they fear Washington will soon cut off shipments: The US has sought to progressively restrict China’s access to cutting-edge semiconductors in an effort to maintain a lead in AI development, and is considering imposing tariffs to drive growth in domestic chipmaking.

Impact of rare-earth controls limited

China’s restrictions on rare-earth exports may not be as powerful a weapon in the trade war as Beijing hopes, experts said. “Heavy” rare-earth elements are important in batteries and other high-tech applications, and China processes “pretty much 100%” of them, an analyst told WIRED. After the US imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing blocked their export. But the minerals are used in very small quantities in manufacturing, and often can be worked around: Earlier export controls did not significantly change prices. Companies which need them may be able to survive for the short term “on existing stockpiles,” said WIRED, “or even turn to recycled electronics to find them.”

US, Ukraine clash over peace deal

US and Ukrainian leaders clashed Wednesday over the terms of a possible peace agreement with Russia. US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy for refusing to accept a deal, and said Kyiv’s refusal to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea was “very harmful” to negotiations, while Vice President JD Vance said the US would “walk away” from the talks unless a deal was reached. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has ruled out such concessions, and complained that even as he has called for a ceasefire, Moscow has hammered Ukrainian cities. “There is an old Russian saying that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,’” the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent wrote. “Right now we seem far away from that.”

Business as usual no longer works — today’s challenges are moving too fast. AI is redrawing entire industries. Economic volatility is rising, and long-established trade patterns are fracturing. To make sense of this moment, we convened some of the world’s sharpest minds to create The Semafor View — a new annual guide for navigating global uncertainty. This year’s edition breaks down the businesses, policies, and technologies reshaping the global economy.

India downgrades Pakistan ties

New Delhi downgraded its ties with Islamabad after gunmen killed 26 people at a resort in Indian-held Kashmir. India — which has long accused Pakistan of aiding militants — closed a border crossing, canceled a visa-free travel program, and suspended a water-sharing treaty that has survived two wars. Ties between the two — which both claim Kashmir, and have fought multiple wars over prior decades — were already rocky before the attack. India had justified asserting tighter control over Kashmir by saying it was keeping militants in check. “The whole idea… behind this attack was to sort of puncture that narrative that, you know, everything is fine,” a former Indian army general told The New York Times.

Academic journals at risk

“Journal snatcher” companies buy scientific publications and turn them from reputable outlets to predatory, low-quality ones, research suggested. Analysis found that several newly founded companies had bought small journals from established publishers, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The companies then imposed author fees and began churning out more studies. Those are traits associated with “predatory journals,” which “cut corners to generate low-quality or fraudulent research papers” and charge scientists large sums to publish research, Nature reported. Predatory journals pollute the scientific record with bad research, but they are downstream of the real problem, one scientist said: Academics are under enormous pressure to publish many papers, so are often willing to pay those fees.

Worst coral bleaching on record

More than 80% of the planet’s coral reefs are affected by an ongoing bleaching event, the worst on record. Corals have a symbiotic relationship with certain colorful algae which live in their tissues: When the corals become stressed, often by heat or pollutants, they expel the algae, leaving the coral pale and colorless. Record high temperatures have led to a two-year worldwide bleaching event which has now hit reefs in at least 82 countries or territories, new US government data showed: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has in fact had six bleaching events in nine years. Reefs are home to much of the ocean’s biodiversity, and while they can recover from bleaching, prolonged events can kill the coral entirely.

April 24:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Pretoria for talks with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.
• French President Emmanuel Macron visits Mauritius as part of a tour of Indian Ocean states.
• The parent company of Vietnamese EV maker VinFast holds its annual general meeting.

New research suggests William Shakespeare didn’t actually abandon his wife in Stratford-upon-Avon. While scholars have believed for decades that Shakespeare felt bitterness toward his wife Anne Hathaway and moved to London by himself, analysis of a fragment of a letter addressed to a “good Mrs Shakespeare” apparently shows they lived together in central London between 1600 and 1610. The letter was first discovered in 1978, but researchers at the University of Bristol only recently pieced together the names and places involved. The finding counters the notion that Anne Hathaway “was ugly, that Shakespeare hated her, that she trapped him into marriage, that she was illiterate, that she was stupid,” said an author who wrote a fictionalized account of their marriage.

Elon Musk isn’t the only one fighting to keep OpenAI a nonprofit.

More than 30 individuals, including Nobel laureates, former OpenAI employees, and law experts, submitted Wednesday a 25-page letter to the attorneys general of California and Delaware, asking them to block OpenAI’s proposed restructuring to a for-profit entity, Semafor’s Rachyl Jones reports.

While Musk’s argument revolves around a breach of contract claim, the central issue remains — that OpenAI abandoning its nonprofit structure violates its original charitable mission.