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Business
Retirement giant Voya Financial fields ongoing takeover interest
Voya has been considered an attractive takeover target from almost the moment it spun out of Dutch financial giant ING in 2013.
The World at a Glance
Updated 6:41pm EDT
1
The US launched more strikes as the Iran conflict threatened to spiral into new territory: a key oil route through the Red Sea.
2A global selloff in chip stocks dragged markets down, as record earnings from TSMC failed to quell doubts over the sustainability of AI spending.
3China’s planned rare earth export curbs risk $6.5 trillion in production, the IEA said, underscoring Beijing’s hold on the critical industry.
4The US imposed 25% tariffs on Brazil over supposed “unfair” practices, potentially upending the South American country’s economy.
5Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected allegations from the US DEA that her government has ties to drug cartels.
6Ukraine’s president dismissed a popular defense minister as part of a wider government reshuffle, sparking protests.
Trump preparing to touch on Venezuelan elections in speech
Two people familiar with the situation shared details with Semafor ahead of a primetime address that is still subject to change.
Iran threatens Red Sea gateway as US launches more strikes
Tehran told the Houthis in Yemen to shut down a key oil route through the Red Sea if the US targets Iranian power infrastructure, a report said.
Markets sink on global selloff in chip stocks
Record earnings from TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, failed to quell doubts about the sustainability of AI spending.
US slaps 25% tariffs on Brazil
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on Brazil over what he says is the unfair prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
DR Congo unseals Glencore offices in latest tax dispute twist
The move comes amid a multibillion-dollar standoff between the Swiss commodities giant and DR Congo tax authorities.
Mexico rejects US claims of ties to cartels
Washington has pressured Mexico’s president to extradite officials with alleged ties to organized crime gangs, straining relations between the neighbors.
China rare-earth export curbs risk $6.5 trillion in production
Beijing’s planned restrictions underscored the country’s chokehold over an industry that is critical to the global economy.
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Politics
Trump preparing to touch on Venezuelan elections in speech
Two people familiar with the situation shared details with Semafor ahead of a primetime address that is still subject to change.
Kylie Cooper/Reuters
Migrants in US think highly of where they live, poll finds
Migrants living in the US are more likely than those in any other country to describe the community they live in as a good place for immigrants, Gallup found.
Seth Herald/Reuters
Rubio hosts ‘far-left terrorism’ summit
The US is hosting some sixty-five delegations from around the world.
Eric Lee/Reuters
Democrats lean further away from Israel
Nearly half of the Democratic House caucus voted to support an amendment blocking aid to Israel.
Democrats call truce in Maine amid proxy war over party’s direction
Lawmakers seem to have realized that their forays into Vacationland did not help their effort to defeat GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
Collins says Democrats want ICE reforms they rejected
Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills wrote to the state’s congressional delegation today, pushing for ICE “to be fundamentally reformed.”
Trump turns to commercial diplomacy in Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s warm welcome from Trump buoyed by billions in expected deal announcements
How Obama fits into Democratic centrists’ comeback plot
Recent campaigns have revealed how hard it is for the Democrats to fight an insurgency without a clear leader.
Democrats wage a new campaign culture war with the alpha left
The old divisions reopened between the party’s establishment and its swaggering young progressives won’t heal easily, despite Graham Platner’s exit.
Baltimore Sun owner threatens to sue Moore over Epstein comments
The Maryland governor tried to tie Sinclair chairman David Smith to the disgraced financier.
White House not ruling out action on open-source AI models
The administration has an interest in boosting the US’ nascent open-source industry, which is increasingly concerned about losing ground to China.
Business
Markets sink on global selloff in chip stocks
Record earnings from TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, failed to quell doubts about the sustainability of AI spending.
Ann Wang/Reuters
Stock-market volatility makes for new way to bet on World Cup
Stock-market volatility in country-specific indexes tends to spike after their national teams play, according to a new analysis from data-modeling firm Polybridge.
Kalshi bets on Wall Street
The prediction market platform on Thursday launched 13 contracts that let users bet on the outcome of clinical drug trials.
Morgan Stanley CEO drops M&A breadcrumbs
Ted Pick has been suggesting the bank is eyeing M&A targets. Here are a few suggestions from a former Morgan Stanley beat reporter.
Retirement giant Voya Financial fields ongoing takeover interest
Voya has been considered an attractive takeover target from almost the moment it spun out of Dutch financial giant ING in 2013.
Technology
Markets sink on global selloff in chip stocks
Record earnings from TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, failed to quell doubts about the sustainability of AI spending.
Ann Wang/Reuters
Robot-data startup raises largest seed round ever in Germany
Munich-based Microagi raised $55 million in a seed funding round, with the goal of scaling humanoid robot deployments.
Microagi
Hyundai workers in South Korea strike over humanoids
Hyundai workers in South Korea began a partial strike this week after the company unveiled plans to introduce humanoid robots on the factory floor.
US grapples with rise of Chinese open-source AI
Palantir’s chief technology officer said the Chinese technology poses an economic threat to the US.
Washington confronts China’s open-source models
American AI labs view Chinese open-source models as essentially stolen goods, built with the help of American frontier models to generate synthetic training data — a process known as distillation.
DeepSeek weighs IPO as Zhipu embraces AGI
The startup is also said to be considering raising new funds from private investors weeks after completing its first financing round that valued the company at $52 billion.
Energy
Iran threatens Red Sea gateway as US launches more strikes
Tehran told the Houthis in Yemen to shut down a key oil route through the Red Sea if the US targets Iranian power infrastructure, a report said.
Reuters
Depleted stockpiles stoke global oil supply anxiety
Energy markets had some slack to absorb the first shock, but renewed fighting jeopardizes oil shipments.
Kim Soo-hyeon/Reuters
Asian buyers cool on Gulf LNG
Around 83% of the Gulf’s LNG exports head to Asia, but the Iran war is changing dynamics, prompting importers to cut demand, switch to other suppliers, or turn to other fuels.
QatarEnergy’s liquefied natural gas production facilities. Stringer/Reuters.
Gulf
Iran threatens Red Sea gateway as US launches more strikes
Tehran told the Houthis in Yemen to shut down a key oil route through the Red Sea if the US targets Iranian power infrastructure, a report said.
Reuters
Ultra-rich pull back from Dubai real estate
Home sales above 10 million dirhams fell 54% in the second quarter compared to the first, according to real-estate brokerage Savills.
UAE developer Alabbar to invest $20B in Syria developments
The proposed projects, part of a wave of Gulf capital being poured into Syria’s reconstruction, align with a broader effort to keep the country out of Iran’s orbit.
Ras Al Khaimah growth stalls ahead of Wynn casino opening
The low-profile emirate has been reinventing itself around Wynn Resorts’ Al Marjan Island resort, which will house the Gulf’s first legal casino, but the Iran war has caused delays.
Energy will cost more in a ‘low-trust world’: IEA’s Faith Birol
With inventories falling and ships under fire in Hormuz, “it’s too optimistic to believe that the global economy is off the hook,” Birol told the Aspen Security Forum.
China
Chinese chip giant’s growing ambitions
Chinese chip giant CXMT is poised to go public in Asia’s largest market debut of the year, as it benefits from intense demand for memory.
Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/Reuters
US grapples with rise of Chinese open-source AI
Palantir’s chief technology officer said the Chinese technology poses an economic threat to the US.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
China reports lowest quarterly growth in more than three years
The world second-biggest economy expanded 4.3% in Q2, as the Iran war, lackluster domestic demand, and a lingering real estate slump weighed on growth.
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Africa
DR Congo unseals Glencore offices in latest tax dispute twist
The move comes amid a multibillion-dollar standoff between the Swiss commodities giant and DR Congo tax authorities.
A copper mine in DR Congo. Jonny Hogg/Reuters.
West African photo project maps climate change solutions
The project uses imagined climate-adapted photos of areas that have already been hard hit by sea-level rise, flooding, and coastal erosion.
Courtesy of Adolphus Opara
Mining developments eroding Africa’s forests, study finds
Nearly 190,000 hectares of forest were converted to mines in Africa between 2001 and 2020, according to researchers at the universities of Cambridge and Sheffield.
Human vaccine trials begin for latest Ebola strain
The trial comes as the virus spread to two new provinces in the DR Congo, fueling fears the fast-moving outbreak is becoming harder to contain.
South Africa plans major fuel stockpile to buffer against energy shocks
Africa’s largest economy once refined its own fuel, but is now wholly dependent on imported petrol, diesel, and jet fuel, leaving it vulnerable to major disruptions.
Dangote refinery eyes pricing products in dollars over naira
The refinery agreed in 2024 to set depot prices in the local currency following a government deal that involved sourcing crude oil domestically.
Security
EU defense push meets reality
Europe remains reliant on China and the US for critical military components even as it projects confidence in shouldering its own defense.
Charles Platiau/Reuters
Ukraine locks in on Crimea strategy
In targeting Crimea, Ukraine is trying to demonstrate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failure to defend the peninsula.
Stringer/Reuters
Europe steps up commitments to Kyiv
Ukraine and its European allies on Monday announced a coalition to develop an anti-ballistic missile system to protect against Russian attacks.
Stringer/Reuters
Media
Baltimore Sun owner threatens to sue Moore over Epstein comments
The Maryland governor tried to tie Sinclair chairman David Smith to the disgraced financier.
Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
Paramount weighs leaving California over Warner Bros. rift
David Ellison is wary of decamping, but his battle with state regulators is intensifying.
Mamdani squares off with ‘The View’
The New York City mayor’s allies were frustrated by a host’s comments about fellow democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier.
NYT tries to catch up to video-addicted audiences
New York Times Executive Editor Joe Kahn said the paper is pouring resources into visual content, prompting comparisons to the media’s “pivot to video” in the 2010s.
The Daily Wire sells Jeremy’s Razors to media company’s former CEO
The sale represents the further uncoupling of Jeremy Boreing and the conservative media company he co-founded with Ben Shapiro.
CEO Signal
Why Edward Jones thinks AI can defuse a demographic time bomb
Managing partner Penny Pennington wants to capture financial advisers’ insights before they retire.
How Allianz’s CEO prepares for the risk of ‘huge havoc’
Oliver Bäte says Europe can no longer afford all the options its citizens expect.
Courtesy of Allianz/Graph Massara/Semafor
The MSCI boss helping Elon Musk get closer to Mars
Henry Fernandez says the index provider has grown by playing soccer, not singles tennis.
Courtesy of MSCI/Graph Massara/Semafor
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