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Intelligence for the New World Economy
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The World at a Glance
Updated 11:16am EDT
1
Donald Trump said he and Xi Jinping “feel very similar about Iran,” though Xi was less forthcoming.
2US President Donald Trump left China after a summit which emphasized stability though without making any major breakthroughs.
3Political rivals are circling British Prime Minister Keir Starmer following devastating local elections, including his former deputy and health secretary.
4The director of the CIA met with Cuban officials in Havana to discuss the country’s economy and its communist political regime.
5OpenAI, for a long time the leader in generative AI, is facing challenges on several fronts.
6AI has disrupted parts of the labour market, though experts warned that fears of mass job cuts may be overblown.
Takeaways from the US-China summit
Experts and politicians offer Semafor their assessment of how this high-stakes meeting went from a US perspective.
Evan Vucci/Pool/Reuters‘The new era is here’: Fears rise over AI hacking
The Trump administration is being pressed to quickly deliver a plan to address AI-enabled attacks.
Elizabeth Frantz/ReutersView / Back to the Future in Beijing
Donald Trump and Xi Jinping seemed to call back to a prior era of bonhomie. But there’s no going back to the 1990s.
Evan Vucci/ReutersInside the Federal Reserve’s transition of power
At least one box has been checked.
African leaders call for an end to extractive foreign mining
“No one can take any metal out of Nigeria without adding value,” Nigerian President Bola Tinubu told the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and Gabon’s President Brice Oligui Nguema at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali.View / The age of executive power is missing CEOs
Big business has never been more politically salient, but the CEOs who sit atop it have rarely mattered less.
Evan Vucci/ReutersHow real are Trump’s China deals?
Optimistic talk about deepening the bilateral relationship only goes so far.
Kenny Holston/Pool/ReutersAD
PoliticsElizabeth Frantz/Reuters 
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty
‘The new era is here’: Fears rise over AI hacking
The Trump administration is being pressed to quickly deliver a plan to address AI-enabled attacks.
Elizabeth Frantz/ReutersInside the Federal Reserve’s transition of power
At least one box has been checked.
AOC is taking her time ahead of 2028
She’s endorsing more cautiously in the midterms, and moving more slowly, than others in the Democratic presidential mix. And she’s okay with that.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/GettyTrump’s ballroom security money faces a gauntlet
Even if it survives the “Byrd bath,” the proposed funding doesn’t yet have 50 votes.
Centrist Democratic group wades into primaries
The centrist New Democrat Coalition is weighing in on House races in Maryland and California.
Debatable: Can the US and China really talk AI?
The Trump administration is starting talks on AI ‘guardrails’ with Beijing.
Lawmakers skeptical of Trump plans for US-China investment board
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the board would determine “non-sensitive areas where it would be possible for the Chinese to invest.”
How real are Trump’s China deals?
Optimistic talk about deepening the bilateral relationship only goes so far.
Independent jumps into Nebraska race on “anti-monopolist” message
Progressive think tanker to test anti-corporate theory of politics.
Federal workers’ mood sank under DOGE, poll finds
Federal workers were less likely to trust their leaders or believe their workplace treats people with respect.
Senate’s crypto drama comes to a head
Republicans already amassed enough support to advance their latest bill text without Democrats on Wednesday.
Business
B Mathur/Reuters
Air India to cut international flights due to fuel shortages
The cuts deepen the turmoil at Air India, following a devastating crash last year and the departure of its CEO.
B Mathur/ReutersUS set to drop Adani bribery case
Asia’s richest man was under investigation for bribing officials and misleading US investors.
Trump says China to purchase 200 Boeing jets
The announcement marked one of the first major deals to come out of the Beijing summit.
Companies jostle for AI stock bump
If you’re, say, a flailing sneaker company, you might issue a press release announcing you’re now in the GPU-leasing business.
AI is coming for (some) jobs
The AI future is here, but unevenly distributed.
Technology
Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters
Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters
Everyone lost in Musk v. Altman
The trial revealed the worst side of the leaders running some of our most important tech companies.
Manuel Orbegozo/ReutersNewsom’s floated software tax misses the mark
California’s governor floated a new tax that could add some difficulty for the tech companies selling software out of the state.
Manuel Orbegozo/ReutersCodex untethers AI from the laptop
A new feature allows users to send messages to Codex via the ChatGPT app.
AI-generated papers flood submissions to scientific journals
arXiv, the largest host of pre-peer-reviewed scientific papers, will now ban scientists for a year if their research contains hallucinated references.
The Class of 2026 is cooked
Graduates ask in the AI era: “What am I doing with my life?”
AI assumes larger role in US elections
One Democratic congressional primary in New York City has become a proxy battle over AI regulation.
Energy
Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters
Megan Varner/Reuters
Eli Hartman/File Photo/Reuters
Surge in crackdown on environmental defenders, report finds
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre documented nearly 800 incidents drawn from publicly available sources.
Abubaker Lubowa/ReutersGlobal investments in clean tech manufacturing drop
Global investments in clean technology manufacturing peaked in 2023 and have since dipped 42% to $155 billion in 2025, a Rhodium Group report found.
Megan Varner/ReutersGlobal oil reserves deplete at record pace, IEA warns
The US government reported that global reserve depletions for the full year could reach up to 2.6 million barrels per day on average.
Eli Hartman/File Photo/ReutersGulf
Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters
Saudi Arabia’s sizable deficit is a risk worth taking
Higher spending led to an unexpectedly large deficit in the first quarter, but inaction would have been a bigger risk.
Hamad I Mohammed/ReutersPhoenix Group makes AI data center pivot into Europe
The Abu Dhabi-based Bitcoin miner told Semafor last year it was pivoting to small-scale AI infrastructure.
Abu Dhabi backs $30B infrastructure partnership
The agreement is the latest sign of Abu Dhabi pushing ahead with investment activities despite the Iran war.
UAE denies Israeli PM’s claim of ‘historic’ visit
Netanyahu’s office said the secret visit had deepened cooperation, but the UAE foreign ministry insisted that the reports of the “alleged visit” were false.
Fertiglobe warns of war’s long-term impact on food prices
High urea prices are squeezing farmers and raising fears of lower crop yields, conditions that could persist even if Gulf shipping routes reopen.
ChinaEvan Vucci/Pool/Reuters 
Tingshu Wang/Reuters
Evan Vucci/Reuters
Takeaways from the US-China summit
Experts and politicians offer Semafor their assessment of how this high-stakes meeting went from a US perspective.
Evan Vucci/Pool/ReutersChina notches soft-power win in US summit
The summit has cast the world’s attention on China’s pandemic recovery and tech innovations.
Tingshu Wang/ReutersOpposing US-China readouts expose diplomatic fault lines
Experts noted that Beijing’s briefing included a warning over Taiwan, which Washington’s didn’t mention.
Evan Vucci/ReutersAfrica
Nigerian fans edit anime with Afrobeat soundtracks on TikTok
Fight scenes from shows including ‘Naruto’ and ‘Demon Slayer’ have been injected with the vocal urgency of Nigerian music, Native Mag reported.
Nearly 60% of self-employed women in Nigeria use WhatsApp for work
It was the highest rate across four countries surveyed in a new study.
South Africa’s rail network opens to 11 private firms
The move is aimed at boosting mineral exports and easing financial pressure on state-owned Transnet after years of operational crisis.
Rwandan president shrugs off US sanctions over DR Congo
Paul Kagame said Washington’s moves will not alter Kigali’s stance over eastern DR Congo.
Angola backs mining investment, not sales quotas or export bans
DR Congo and Zimbabwe have implemented an all-out ban on lithium exports to build up refining capacity.
African leaders call for an end to extractive foreign mining
“No one can take any metal out of Nigeria without adding value,” Nigerian President Bola Tinubu told the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali.
Security
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch. Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Ints Kalnins/Reuters
Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via Reuters
Japan, EU seek out AI models for cyber defense
Governments and businesses are racing to detect and fix software vulnerabilities before AI systems get to them first.
Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch. Denis Balibouse/ReutersSpain calls for creation of EU army amid US unreliability
The call is part of a broader shift toward European sovereignty.
Ints Kalnins/ReutersPutin says Ukraine war is ‘coming to an end’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believes the Ukraine war is “coming to an end,” hours after vowing victory over Kyiv at a pared-down Victory Day parade devoid of its usual military hardware display.
Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via ReutersMedia
Alyson Shontell. Amal Alhasan/Getty Images for Fortune Media
Fortune chairman joined Trump interview
Editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell conducted the interview with the president.
Alyson Shontell. Amal Alhasan/Getty Images for Fortune MediaParamount seeks to calm California’s creatives — and a litigious attorney general
Paramount is racing to reassure Hollywood that its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, with its HBO streaming service, isn’t aimed at killing movie theaters.
CBS’ Tony Dokoupil to broadcast from Taiwan after failing to get China visa in time
It was a stumble in the network’s efforts to play a leading role in this week’s dominant global story.
Hollywood appears to avoid Cannes Film Festival
Only two American entrants are competing for the Palme d’Or, both relatively small and financed outside the US.
Weiss deputy says CBS owners are ‘independent of the news operation’
“The convention in American journalism is that the owners are independent of the news operation, and that’s the case at CBS,” Charles Forelle told Semafor.
CEO Signal
Reckitt Benckiser/Handout via Reuters 
Courtesy of Government of Dubai/Joey Pfeifer/Semafor
Reckitt’s Kris Licht on moving at ‘China speed’
The CEO behind Lysol and Durex ‘pivoted hard’ for a new era of TikTok-driven commerce.
Reckitt Benckiser/Handout via Reuters Dan Schulman’s plan to get Verizon back in the fight
“If somebody’s going to punch me, I’m going to punch back,” Verizon CEO Dan Schulman says in this episode of The CEO Signal.
How Dubai’s Hadi Badri builds confidence in a crisis
The Dubai Economic Development Corp. CEO says data, proactive engagement, and long-term goals can turn the Iran conflict into a “speed bump.”
Courtesy of Government of Dubai/Joey Pfeifer/SemaforAD