Flagship

Trump picks Ukraine and Russia envoy

US President-elect Donald Trump named retired General Keith Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, a key role in the incoming administration’s effort to end the war. The pick was met with cautious optimism from Ukraine and its allies, with one European official telling Semafor: “Thank god. Not the worst option.” Kellogg previously advocated for arming Ukraine only if Kyiv enters peace talks with Russia, and for pushing the Kremlin to the table by threatening to ramp up support for Kyiv. Even so, Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to agree to negotiations as long as his troops are making progress on the battlefield, an expert wrote in Foreign Policy.

Ruble falls over sanction fears

The Russian ruble hit its lowest level against the US dollar since March 2022. Russian traders are rapidly snapping up foreign currency due to fears that US sanctions will soon limit inflows into the country, an analyst told Bloomberg. A weak ruble boosts Russia’s export revenues, putting more money into government coffers, but also adds pressure to the country’s runaway inflation, The Wall Street Journal reported. Russia’s borscht index, which measures the price of ingredients for the popular soup, showed a 20% increase from 2023 in October, and Russia’s central bank has warned it will likely raise key interest rates beyond their current record highs.

US economy grows as inflation ticks up

The US economy is growing at a steady pace, but a key indicator of inflation is also ticking up, new government data showed. The US saw 2.8% GDP growth in the third quarter, while an index measuring household expenditures also rose last month. The data could give central bankers pause as they consider a third interest rate cut in December. Sticky inflation complicates the country’s economic outlook as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office. One financial strategist told CNBC that Trump can’t afford inflation to get out of control before the midterm elections. Many economists have argued that the president-elect’s tariff proposals will hike prices for consumers, although some have suggested the proposals are only a negotiating tool.

ICC requests warrant for Myanmar leader

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s ruling junta. The application alleges Min Aung Hlaing committed crimes against humanity in regards to the country’s Rohingya minority. The application, which Myanmar did not recognize because it is not a member of the ICC, is the first against a high-level junta official. “More will follow,” the prosecutor said. The request follows a slew of high-profile decisions by the court: Last week, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, as well as a Hamas commander. While these individuals are unlikely to ever appear before the court, that doesn’t make the rulings meaningless, Arash Azizi wrote in The Atlantic. “International law has always been aspirational.”

China tech firms poach Western talent

Chinese tech firms are aggressively trying to poach top talent in the US and Europe, worrying Western officials and companies. German authorities are investigating after recruiters from Huawei allegedly bombarded workers at a local semiconductor company with offers to triple their salaries, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, Chinese firms Alibaba and ByteDance are reportedly trying to build artificial intelligence teams in Silicon Valley by poaching staff from rival US companies, despite Washington’s efforts to restrict China’s access to high-end AI technology. Taiwan’s tech sector has also faced heavy Chinese recruitment efforts, and laws to prevent trade-secret theft have been strengthened. “In some cases, a whole team could be poached by a Chinese company,” a Taiwanese justice official said.

Takeaways from battery maker collapse

The bankruptcy of one of Europe’s most promising climate tech companies is forcing a rethink on how the bloc can best compete with China in the electric vehicle supply chain. Sweden-based battery maker Northvolt was considered the crown jewel of European automakers’ EV aspirations, but it burned through cash, showing that “even lavish public subsidies… and booming customer demand aren’t enough to break China’s vise-grip on EV tech,” Semafor’s Tim McDonnell wrote. That’s largely because Chinese firms control most of the resources, manufacturing equipment, and other technology needed to make batteries, leading some to call for the US and Europe to replicate that base. Meanwhile, Chinese battery firms like CATL are expanding and localizing in Europe as a strategy to keep their grip on the market.

Buyers warned over Black Friday ‘deals’

Buyers were warned to be wary of so-called Black Friday “deals,” after many were found to be ripoffs. Despite being a US shopping holiday tied to Thanksgiving, Black Friday has become increasingly globalized, and so have associated scams. A UK consumer group said that nine in 10 promoted items they investigated were available either at the same price or cheaper at other times of the year. Indeed, some brands seemingly raised their prices in the lead-up to Black Friday, so they could “advertise ‘big discounts’ that, in reality, aren’t genuine,” an industry consultant said. Euronews noted similar schemes in Europe last year, and US retailers have also been found inflating pre-sale prices, one consumer savings expert told CNBC. Others used fake countdown timers on deals that don’t actually expire.

Semafor has announced Carlyle Co-Chairman David Rubenstein, Citadel Founder & CEO Ken Griffin, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and KKR Co-Chairman Henry Kravis as Co-Chairs of the World Economy Summit on April 23-25, 2025.

Their participation reflects the extraordinary prestige of this unique event in Washington, D.C., which brings 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.

Activists revive Taiwan language

A native Taiwanese language is undergoing a revival after more than a century of diminishing use. The disappearance of Tâi-gí, a variety of Hokkien, “is tied to a long history of colonization,” The Dial wrote. When Taiwan came under Japanese rule in the 1800s, Japanese became the dominant language; then, after the Chinese Civil War, the defeated Nationalist government that took over the island in 1949 promoted Mandarin. Now, shepherded by a group of Taiwanese linguists, activists, and artists, more written works, songs, TV shows, and movies are starting to embrace it. “Our identity is complex and difficult to explain. So I think language is the simplest way for me to understand who I am,” one Taiwanese activist and YouTuber said.

India Sun mission yields new data

India’s solar observatory Aditya-L1 has enabled scientists to estimate the precise moment a massive July explosion from the Sun began. The data from the space-based observatory represents a major step toward better modeling coronal mass ejections, which hurl charged particles out into space — sometimes toward Earth, where they can interfere with electricity grids and satellites (and cause auroras). Such explosions can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach speeds of up to 3,000km per second, an Indian astrophysicist told the BBC: “Now imagine this huge fireball hurtling towards Earth.” By tracing the origin of the coronal ejection, scientists can track its course and warn satellite and grid operators if Earth seems in the firing line.

Immigration boosts UK population

Deaths outnumbered births in the UK by more than 16,000 in the year to June 2023, but the population still rose 1% because of immigration. The UK saw a net inflow of 677,300 migrants in that period, according to government data; the economy increasingly relies on immigrants to support the aging population. Yet immigration polls among UK citizens’ biggest concerns. Migration is unpopular across Europe and leaders are taking increasingly hardline approaches — except Spain, which has repeatedly emphasized that newcomers are welcome. The share of the Spanish population that is foreign-born has tripled since 2002, and the country’s prime minister recently warned the European Union it could choose between being “open and prosperous [or] closed and poor.”

Nov. 28:

• The 98th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade takes place in New York City.
• France’s President Emmanuel Macron hosts Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Élysée Palace.
• The exhibition Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet opens at the Tate Modern in London.

A Chinese museum is dedicated to preserving letters written across the centuries by migrants to loved ones back home. The 1800s and 1900s saw a wave of migration from China, with millions of people, many from the Teochew ethnic group, seeking to escape poverty in their homeland for a better life abroad. The remittance letters they sent home evolved into a tradition known as qiaopi (emigrant letters), with professional writers composing missives for illiterate workers. The UNESCO-recognized letters displayed at the Qiaopi Museum in the coastal city of Shantou range “from happy to heartbreaking,” the South China Morning Post wrote: In one, a Chinese immigrant in Thailand asks his wife to pay 50,000 yuan to retrieve a daughter she had sold due to poverty.

Sanctions on Iran have kept smugglers busy, operating small boats in broad daylight in one of the world’s busiest waterways, Camilla Wright reports from Oman. Back and forth across the Strait of Hormuz, loading and unloading — “If you’ve ever wondered how ordinary Iranians get around US primary sanctions, this is it. This is smuggling, 2024 style.”