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Israel approves Hezbollah ceasefire

US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Israel has reached a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, after Israeli leaders voted in favor of the proposal. Under the agreement, set to take effect early Wednesday, Israeli troops would retreat from southern Lebanon while Hezbollah’s forces would move away from the Israeli border. The ceasefire is designed to be “permanent,” Biden said, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would resume fighting if Hezbollah violated the agreement’s terms. The Jerusalem Post called the ceasefire “a fragile peace with future war risks,” arguing that the Iran-backed group could make a comeback in a few years. The conflict that began in October 2023 has killed more than 3,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million.

Mexico threatens tariff retaliation

US President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, and hike duties on Chinese goods, rattled global markets and the targeted countries. Mexico’s president warned in a letter to Trump that “for every tariff, there will be a response in kind,” while Canada’s prime minister stressed the need for cooperation. “The impact on global commerce will be immediate and extensive,” The Economist wrote, with the automotive industry likely to be especially affected. China, which has been bracing for another trade conflict over Trump’s tariffs, could ignite a currency war in response, in which it would let the yuan lose value to make Chinese exports cheaper, The New York Times wrote. But such a move risks damaging its already fragile domestic economy.

Investors prepare for another Trump era

Global investors are reopening their trade war manuals to prepare for another Donald Trump term marked by tariff hikes. “It feels like we’ve just had a time warp back to 2016,” a New Zealand-based banking strategist said, as the dollar surged and the currencies of China, Canada, and Mexico sank following Trump’s tariffs announcement. On Wall Street, investors are down on semiconductors and up on software, which is seen as less exposed to tariffs, Bloomberg reported. Trump’s win has also boosted ideologically conservative investments: One planned fund will shun companies that use diversity quotas in hiring or promotion, as part of “a bet on the Trump economy and the broader backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts,” Semafor’s Liz Hoffman wrote.

Trade tensions loom over China expo

A high-profile supply chain exhibition that kicked off in Beijing on Tuesday will highlight the challenges that Donald Trump’s second term could present to global trade. US-China trade tensions “are set to be at the forefront of discussions” at the expo, the South China Morning Post wrote, with one economist predicting supply chains will become further “elongated”: Third-party countries are set to benefit under Trump by processing Chinese materials and exporting the finished goods to the US, hence avoiding duties. “The content of ‘made in China’ may diminish, but that of ‘made by China’… will remain unshakeable,” he said. Some Chinese exporters are looking to other markets entirely, the Associated Press wrote, with the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Russia seen as promising.

Pakistan clashes turn deadly

At least six people were killed in violent clashes between Pakistani authorities and supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan who stormed the capital Tuesday. The country has been on a days-long lockdown amid intensifying protests demanding Khan’s release, with officials imposing internet blackouts, closing schools, and reportedly giving police shoot-on-sight orders. “In Pakistan, protests usually set the stage for a weakening of a government rather than prove to be the final blow,” a columnist wrote for Dawn. The lockdown alone hurts the government, because it “puts paid to its claims of a healthy economy with interest from investors abroad.” But in this case, she argued, Khan’s supporters may simply try to use the protests as a bargaining chip for his release.

Merkel defends legacy in memoir

Angela Merkel’s efforts to defend her 16-year tenure as Germany’s chancellor in a 700-page memoir failed to convince critics. Merkel, once heralded as the world’s most powerful woman, has seen her reputation nosedive since leaving office, with many blaming her leadership for chronic underinvestment, an underfunded military, and the far right’s rise in Germany. Almost every big decision Merkel took put Germany and Europe in a worse position, The Economist argued. Writing in Freedom, Merkel defended her choice to increase Germany’s dependence on Russian gas; the Financial Times described it as a “baffling” refusal to admit her mistake. Others have been more forgiving, with an El País columnist arguing that Europe has been “running around like a headless chicken” ever since Merkel left office.

Scientists leave X for Bluesky

Two prestigious science journals have noted the rush of scientists joining X’s rival, Bluesky. X has long been a hub for researchers to communicate and share job offers and memes, Science reported. But after Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover, many felt it changed, citing a rise in spam, misinformation, and abuse. Despite the rise of alternative platforms, few scientists actually ended up leaving, and some who did returned to X and its 500,000 or so scientists. After the US presidential election, however, scientists started leaving X for Bluesky in greater numbers, Nature reported. One told Science that Bluesky was like “Old Twitter,” although others were concerned about leaving for an echo chamber.

Carlyle Co-Chairman David Rubenstein, Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and KKR Co-Chairman Henry Kravis will serve as co-chairs of Semafor’s World Economy Summit on April 23-25, 2025, in Washington, DC.

The third annual event will bring together US cabinet officials, global finance ministers, central bankers, and Fortune 500 CEOs for conversations that cut through the political noise to dive into the most pressing issues facing the world economy.

Join the waitlist for more information and access to priority registration.

China set to fire up X-ray light source

China is set to switch on one of the most powerful sources of X-ray light in the world. The High Energy Photon Source near Beijing is essentially a circular track around which electrons will be beamed at incredibly high energies, creating laser-like X-ray beams that can then be used to capture images of materials at the atomic scale. Once the $657 million synchrotron gets its operating license, Chinese scientists hope to use the machine to study proteins and other tiny biological structures, like viruses. “It’s like getting a major new telescope. You can see things that were not observable before,” a quantum materials scientist at MIT told Science.

Aging is more complex than thought

A new research field called “organ aging” seeks to understand why some parts of our body deteriorate faster than others. While chronological age is pretty straightforward, the physical decline of our bodies is “much more haphazard than we once thought,” The Washington Post wrote. Specific organs like the heart can age drastically faster than other tissue in some people, putting them at higher risk of related diseases. Conversely, preliminary, not yet peer-reviewed results published in June suggest that people with relatively young brains had far lower odds of developing Alzheimer’s than those with older brains. Scientists suspect that it may even be possible to influence how parts of our body age, although more work is needed to test that idea.

Tech spawns new sounds

Technology is generating new sounds and musical tools. Chip giant Nvidia unveiled an AI audio model that it labeled the “world’s most flexible sound machine,” capable of turning text inputs into sounds that don’t currently exist, ranging from “saxophones barking to people speaking underwater to ambulance sirens singing in a kind of choir,” Ars Technica wrote. The model can also change the tone or accent of someone’s voice, which researchers said could be used for ad campaigns to target different regions or audiences. Meanwhile, a new instrument created by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker uses just 13 keys to create complex synth sounds, bringing “colorful, textured, and complex chord progressions to life without any prior music theory knowledge,” Consequence of Sound wrote.

Over 30 million people have turned to Replika, “the AI companion who cares.” It can text, flirt, and even promises unconditional love. But who are users really entrusting with their hearts—and their data? The Slow Newscast by Tortoise Media explores the hidden world behind the chatbot and the questions it raises about love, trust, and privacy. Listen to the latest episode here.

Nov. 27:

• The European Parliament votes to approve a new European Commission.
• The US releases key economic indicators on inflation, consumer spending, and the housing market.
• Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Queer releases in US theaters.

A single year in the shared lives of three giants — and rivals — of Renaissance art is the focus of a major exhibition at London’s Royal Academy. Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 examines how the artists inspired and competed against one another as they vied for commissions from wealthy Florentine patrons. Their fierce rivalry would fuel the creation of masterpieces that defined the High Renaissance, impacting European art for centuries after. “Everything he learned, he learned from me,” Michelangelo claimed after his younger rival Raphael died at 37. The drawings, paintings, and sculptures on display are “lit like holy relics,” wrote the Times of London, calling the exhibition “the nearest thing to a miraculous artistic resurrection.”

Senate Democrats don’t sound like they’re gearing up for the “hell no” approach to Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks that they adopted during his first term, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported. Trump nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard probably won’t get many Democratic votes, but a repeat of the rage the party channeled in public eight years ago looks unlikely, Everett wrote.