Flagship

Harris raises record-breaking funds

Democrats and donors are rallying behind Kamala Harris for the party’s presidential nomination. On Monday, Nancy Pelosi became the most powerful Democrat after Joe Biden to endorse Harris, following more than 30 senators who have backed her. Within 24 hours of Biden dropping out, Harris all but cleared the Democratic presidential field, Politico wrote, after being endorsed by other rumored contenders, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Within those 24 hours, Harris also raised more than $81 million in what The New York Times described as “one of the greatest gushers of cash of all time.” The rapid support from Democrats and donors, Politico wrote, was a “show of force — and unity — after weeks of unrest and anxiety” over whether Biden would step aside.

Harris will echo Biden’s foreign policy

US foreign policy in a Kamala Harris presidency wouldn’t deviate too far from President Joe Biden’s legacy, analysts predicted. As a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin, she would continue to support Ukraine and counter Russian aggression, and there’s “no daylight” between her views and Biden’s tough-on-China approach, a Beijing-based think tank researcher said. However, Harris — who has appeared more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than Biden, and was one of the earliest high-profile White House officials to call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict — could galvanize Arab American and youth voters who were turned away by Biden’s Israel stance. Harris has limited foreign policy experience, a former NATO official told Politico, leaving her dependent on largely “straight-arrow” and traditionalist advisers.

Taiwan chip stocks dip after Biden exit

Taiwanese tech stocks dipped Monday after US President Joe Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign. In the latest sign of the impact of American political shake ups on Asia’s chip market, the benchmark Taiwan index fell 2.68%, dragged down by the stock values of key chip manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), ASE Technology Holding, and United Microelectronics Corp, which all dipped more than 3%. Investors are concerned about how geopolitical uncertainties could accelerate in the aftermath of Biden dropping out, one analyst told Nikkei; US-listed shares of TSMC also fell 8% last week after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Taiwan should pay the US for its defense.

China wants more foreign scientists

Beijing is mulling a “green card” scheme to attract more foreign scientists, according to a resolution published after China’s plenum session. Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday warned that current scientific innovation “falls short” of expectations. A China-based Russian-French physicist told the South China Morning Post that permanent residency would help foreign scientists navigate challenges like traveling outside China and salary delays. However, scientific collaboration with China is controversial in the West: A recent study found that in 2022, the total number of papers co-authored by Chinese researchers and international peers fell for the first time since 2013. Researchers worry about the impact of escalating geopolitical tensions on scientific collaboration, with one saying it could have a “chilling effect” on tackling global problems like climate change and food security.

India seeks critical mineral licenses

India is seeking licenses to explore the Pacific Ocean for critical minerals, Reuters reported, highlighting Delhi’s ambitions to decouple from the Chinese supply chain. Investors want India to become a clean tech hub, but the nascent industry still relies heavily on Chinese mineral imports. That dependency also poses an “imminent risk” to its defense production sector, one China-India relations expert argued. China is better prepared for mining: Industry leaders say India hasn’t yet perfected its deep sea technology, and it will be three to four years before mining can begin. It also depends on India getting approval from the UN-backed International Seabed Authority, which is currently debating how to regulate global mining over concerns of its impact on marine ecosystems.

China’s green boom skews global figures

The explosive growth of renewables in China is masking their slow uptake elsewhere in the world, an academic argued. Brett Christophers wrote in the Financial Times that charts showing exponential increases are misleading: “The outsized materiality of [China’s transition] means global figures veil more than they reveal.” China accounted for 63% of new global capacity in 2023. And while the surface reading suggests a rapidly accelerating growth — 50% more wind, solar and other zero-carbon energy sources were built in 2023 than 2022 — an overwhelming amount comes from China. The rise is slowest in Africa and elsewhere in Asia, Christophers noted, which have some of the most fossil fuel-intensive power sectors: “The pace of progress is slowest precisely where it is needed most.”

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The new platform will be led by veteran journalist and editor Mohammed Sergie. Sergie, who began his career in the UAE, previously established the Saudi Arabia bureau for Dow Jones in 2008, covering the major economic, social and political stories in the kingdom. He later served as an editor at Bloomberg News where he shaped coverage of energy and commodities in the region and was the company’s sole reporter in Qatar.

Semafor Gulf will launch with a team of staff reporters as well as columnists covering Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and will continue to expand through 2025.

You can sign up for Semafor Gulf here.

Meltdown-proof nuclear plant tested

Chinese researchers successfully tested the world’s first meltdown-proof nuclear power station. Most nuclear plants have rods of fuel which heat water. The rods need constant cooling, and if the system loses power they can melt down, as happened in Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011. The plant in Shandong, China uses “pebbles” rather than rods, which dissipate heat faster — meaning that even if power is lost they will not overheat. Engineers recently shut off power to the plant as it was operating: It naturally cooled and reached a stable temperature within 35 hours. Existing reactors cannot be retrofitted with this design, New Scientist reported, but it “could be a blueprint for future ones.”

European farmers’ bête noire

A signature European Union policy may be undercut by what proponents say is the future of food and what farmers say is a science experiment gone bad. “Frankenmeat” is deeply controversial: Big farmer unions say lab-grown beef and other products have the power to upend the social order, and destroy farming, which is at the heart of the EU. As Politico notes, lab-grown meat isn’t even sold there, yet the threat to the Common Agricultural Policy, farmers contend, is deadly: “Break the CAP, their argument goes, and you might just break the EU.”

HSBC Tower set for garden redesign

Chunks of the HSBC Tower in London’s Canary Wharf will be carved out and replaced with terraced gardens and apartments under newly unveiled plans. The bank will vacate the 45-storey, Norman Foster-designed skyscraper in the financial district in 2027 and move to an office half the size. London, like many other cities, is reshaping following the pandemic, with the rise of hybrid working dampening demand for commercial real estate. Office occupation in the Canary Wharf is at 85%, down from above 90% pre-2020, as other big names leave: JP Morgan vacated its offices in 2021, while ratings agency Moody’s and law firm Clifford Chance are either planning to or considering it. New York also set an office vacancy record this year.

Harvard course attracts celebrities

A-list stars are shelling out $12,000 to attend a four-day Harvard University course in hopes of building the “next celebrity business empire,” Bloomberg reported. Business school professor Anita Elberse dives into case studies such as David Beckham’s brand management, Beyoncé’s music launches, and YouTube star MrBeast’s $100 million content creation machine. The course has become a “blockbuster” for Harvard, Bloomberg wrote, and counts celebrities like Hollywood actor Channing Tatum and Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn as its students. However, stars or not, Elberse said they have to go through the same admission process as other applicants to fill the 80 seats.

July 23:

• Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Vladimirovich Ruzenkov visits North Korea.
• Washington D.C. braces for protests ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress.
• The Venice Film Festival unveils its 2024 line-up.

An arguably opportune exhibition titled Democracy explores art inspired by the despots who overthrew it. Instead of striking a triumphant note about the enduring appeal of democratic governance, many of the 137 works displayed at Greece’s National Gallery in Athens — the very birthplace of democracy — use pop art to expose the political violence of coups and crackdowns. The somber tone feels timely in a year “with watershed plebiscites that have an ominously terminal feel and pose uneasy questions,” The Guardian wrote.

• Joe Manchin might challenge Harris.
• Wall Street donors are getting excited again.
• Global leaders cheer Biden’s choice to drop out.