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Intelligence for the New World Economy
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The World at a Glance
Updated 6:32pm EDT
1
In a rare meeting, US envoy Jared Kushner held talks with Hamas’ leader in Egypt to push for the group’s disarmament.
2The US moved to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed to the Middle East for more than 260 days.
3A suspected Russian drone was shot down over Romania on Sunday, two days after NATO downed a similar drone over Latvia.
4Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei pushed back against criticism that his AI messaging has stoked the backlash against the technology.
5Zhipu says its new AI model beat Anthropic’s on a cybersecurity benchmark, the latest Chinese model claiming parity with Western frontier AI.
6Experts warned that Europe’s latest summer heat wave risks worsening already-fragile global food security.
Phillips 66, Marathon held now-scuttled merger talks
The talks underscore the exuberance in today’s dealmaking environment.
‘It’s an unbundling’: ADP’s Maria Black on how AI is changing the workforce
The payroll processor sees technology disrupting low-value tasks but making human judgment more valuable.
Pirro’s special grand jury raises eyebrows among Trump allies
Some officials see the special grand jury move as an obvious ploy to “save her job at all costs,” as one administration official put it.
Talarico touts endorsement from man who accused Paxton of stealing his pen
Joe Joplin left his $1,000 pen in a dish near a courthouse metal detector, after which a security camera captured Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton picking it up and walking away.
Democrats eye Republican-held Florida district
Democrats are hoping a potential blue wave will make a Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s district competitive.
OpenAI annual revenue set to top $40 billion
The figures, reported by Bloomberg, mark one of the quickest growth stories in history, as the company prepares for what is expected to be a blockbuster IPO in the coming months.
Tech companies mum on Trump executive privilege memo
Top tech companies are staying quiet so far about a new Justice Department memo that signals an executive privilege assertion over a wide swath of his communications with the private sector.
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Politics
Amodei addresses AI backlash
In rare social media remarks, Amodei acknowledged AI firms “haven’t yet delivered on our big promises to benefit the world.”
Denis Balibouse/Reuters
White House prepares to host crypto and prediction market execs
Attendees will include executives from Coinbase, a16z, Ripple, and Chainlink, plus Kalshi and Paradigm, as well as trade association Digital Chamber, according to people familiar with the plans.
Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
Talarico touts endorsement from man who accused Paxton of stealing his pen
Joe Joplin left his $1,000 pen in a dish near a courthouse metal detector, after which a security camera captured Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton picking it up and walking away.
Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters
Democrats eye Republican-held Florida district
Democrats are hoping a potential blue wave will make a Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s district competitive.
Pirro’s special grand jury raises eyebrows among Trump allies
Some officials see the special grand jury move as an obvious ploy to “save her job at all costs,” as one administration official put it.
Tech companies mum on Trump executive privilege memo
Top tech companies are staying quiet so far about a new Justice Department memo that signals an executive privilege assertion over a wide swath of his communications with the private sector.
US develops cheaper drones in arms shift
The US has lost upwards of 25% of its Reaper drones since the start of the Iran war.
Trump administration accuses China of dodging tariffs
“It’s big money, but there’s also a very human cost here,” said Peter Navarro, senior counsel for trade and manufacturing.
‘At a standstill’: Türkiye’s F-35 buy faces headwinds
A Russian air defense system is still standing in the way of a deal that President Donald Trump announced last month.
Balkans’ Trump lobbying heats up
Bosnian Croat leader Dragan Čović has tapped Trump-linked firm Mercury Public Affairs to lobby for his party.
Republican students trust their colleges despite Trump scrutiny, poll finds
Sixty-two percent of Republican students said their college’s leadership mostly acts in students’ best interests, compared with 55% of Democrats and half of independents.
Business
Phillips 66, Marathon held now-scuttled merger talks
The talks underscore the exuberance in today’s dealmaking environment.
Semafor
‘It’s an unbundling’: ADP’s Maria Black on how AI is changing the workforce
The payroll processor sees technology disrupting low-value tasks but making human judgment more valuable.
Chipmaker CXMT becomes China’s most valuable company
The changeover occurred after Tencent reported it had doubled its quarterly AI spending.
What the LA Lakers ‘firesale’ says about sports investing
The fact that Mark Walter found the cash he needs in a professional sports team, and not in his pile of loans and financial instruments, points to a bigger change unfolding in the financial frenzy around sports these days.
How Britain’s No. 10 intervened in the AstraZeneca-Bristol merger
The scuttled pharma deal triggered UK government worries.
Technology
New Chinese model adds to AI competition
Chinese AI startup Zhipu said its new GLM-5.3 model outperformed Anthropic’s Mythos 5 in a key cybersecurity benchmark, marking the latest Chinese open-weight model to claim parity with the Western AI frontier.
Laurie Chen/Reuters
Amodei addresses AI backlash
In rare social media remarks, Amodei acknowledged AI firms “haven’t yet delivered on our big promises to benefit the world.”
Denis Balibouse/Reuters
China’s AI ecosystem gears up to challenge US
ByteDance is reportedly developing an AI model rivaling Anthropic’s most advanced Mythos system, and DeepSeek is touting its efforts to build a Claude Code challenger.
Flock tightens guardrails aimed at stopping cops from abusing its license plate cameras
CEO Garrett Langley pushed back against a “misconception that we are some evil entity that has these diabolical plans.”
AI trade surges on firms’ cloud earnings
The race to develop ever more sophisticated AI models shows no sign of slowing.
The gap is widening between corporate AI adopters and laggards
OpenAI’s enterprise customers are shifting toward agents that do work, not chatbots that answer questions, new data suggests.
Energy
Houthis claim strikes on Saudi refinery
The strikes could impact the kingdom’s efforts to maintain shipping volumes amid ongoing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
US clean energy investment surges 22% in second quarter
The results, published by the Clean Investment Monitor, were largely driven by residential battery storage installations.
Mike Blake/Reuters
US power demand to hit new highs on data center buildout
The federal projections come after two years of record electricity demand peaks.
Shelby Tauber/Reuters
Gulf
US to relieve USS Abraham Lincoln, leaving Pacific without carrier
US President Donald Trump dismissed reports of poor living conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln as the military prepared to replace it.
US Navy/Handout via Reuters
US and Hamas hold rare direct talks
US envoy Jared Kushner met with Hamas’ leader in Egypt on Sunday to push for the group’s disarmament as Washington attempts to salvage stalled negotiations.
Gulf stuck in war-and-peace limbo
The “region cannot remain in a state of neither war nor peace indefinitely,” Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, warned this week.
Houthis claim strikes on Saudi refinery
The strikes could impact the kingdom’s efforts to maintain shipping volumes amid ongoing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Falcon frenzy descends on Riyadh
Falconry is an important part of Saudi sporting heritage — along with camel racing and horse racing — but its economic importance is increasing too.
China
New Chinese model adds to AI competition
Chinese AI startup Zhipu said its new GLM-5.3 model outperformed Anthropic’s Mythos 5 in a key cybersecurity benchmark, marking the latest Chinese open-weight model to claim parity with the Western AI frontier.
Laurie Chen/Reuters
China’s AI ecosystem gears up to challenge US
ByteDance is reportedly developing an AI model rivaling Anthropic’s most advanced Mythos system, and DeepSeek is touting its efforts to build a Claude Code challenger.
Go Nakamura/Reuters
Chipmaker CXMT becomes China’s most valuable company
The changeover occurred after Tencent reported it had doubled its quarterly AI spending.
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Africa
Solar demand prompts calls for local manufacturing
China’s supply chain dominance means local manufacturing ambitions could take years to materialize, say energy analysts.
Stringer/Reuters
Tecno, PalmPay seek Hong Kong listings
The two Chinese tech firms with major African businesses are turning to Hong Kong to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in fresh capital.
Joyce Zhou/Reuters
Africa’s Amazon turns to World Bank for shock absorber
Jumia is betting that fresh capital from the IFC and existing investors will help it navigate geopolitical and supply-chain disruptions.
Africa gets new sovereign bond ETF
The new sovereign bond exchange-traded fund launched with up to $250 million in commitments.
US lawmakers mull extending AGOA trade program
The US Senate passed a government funding bill over the weekend that included an extension for the program.
Ebola spread undetected for months, WHO says
The revelation raises the likelihood that the latest Ebola outbreak’s true scale is far larger than previously thought.
Security
NATO counters suspected Russian drone incursions
A Spanish fighter jet shot down a suspected Russian drone over Romania on Sunday, two days after NATO downed a similar drone over Latvia.
Stringer/Reuters
Europe’s heat strains global food supply
Weeks of record temperatures across the continent are endangering a fragile agricultural environment.
Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters
Reform UK leader Farage faces parody candidate in by-election
Farage will likely win, but at some cost to his reputation.
Toby Melville/Jack Taylor/Reuters
Media
The Daily Show faces uncertain future under Paramount
Jon Stewart’s deal is up at the end of the year, and while there is strong interest from Paramount to renew, the two sides have yet to ink an extension.
Cheriss May/Reuters
Daily Mail brings on exec as it plans video expansion
The US outpost of the UK tabloid told Semafor that it had hired Mike Rothman as the company’s new general manager.
CNN president pitches giving network an editorial board to shield it from Paramount
The editorial board is intended to assuage concerns about any future meddling by Paramount in the news network’s journalism.
Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl on AI, streaming power, and why music royalties are the safest asset on Wall Street
The Warner Music Group CEO joins Mixed Signals to explain what a record label actually does in a world where anyone can upload a song to Spotify.
Spotify’s new ‘skip’ button could end the podcast business as we know it
The Swedish streaming giant cast the move as streamlining a feature that already exists, the Spotify app’s 15-second skip button.
CEO Signal
‘It’s an unbundling’: ADP’s Maria Black on how AI is changing the workforce
The payroll processor sees technology disrupting low-value tasks but making human judgment more valuable.
Courtesy of ADP/Graph Massara/Semafor
Reed Hastings on life after Netflix and the coming ‘creative destruction’
The streaming pioneer says we’re underestimating how AI will change competition.
Why Max Levchin wants Affirm to act like your smarter older sister
The fintech founder sees AI threatening traditional lenders by alerting consumers to their hidden fees.
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