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Intelligence for the New World Economy

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Intelligence for the New World Economy
Semafor World Economy
Tom Chivers

Tom Chivers

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Mexico triumphs in World Cup opener

Hosts Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 in a promising opening game of the men’s soccer World Cup.
Mexican players celebrating a goal. Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters

Switzerland mulls capping population

Switzerland will vote this weekend in a referendum on whether to cap its population at 10 million amid concerns about immigration.
Sign is pictured ahead of a vote on a plan backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million inhabitants, in Glarus.A sign ahead of the referedum reads: “Preserve what we love”. Stefan Wermuth/Reuters.

AI price war begins

Users are increasingly looking for value as well as capability.
Sam Altman.Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo/Reuters

SpaceX makes record market debut

The IPO values the company at above $1.75 trillion and stands to make CEO Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
Jeenah Moon/Reuters

China is betting on medical tourism boom

The country has set up a special international medical tourism zone in Hainan, and relaxed visa rules have encouraged visitors.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee visits Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone at the free trade port in Hainan, China cnsphoto via Reuters

Europe at risk of AI-driven irrelevance

Europe’s AI buildout is orders of magnitude too small, a group of AI policy thinkers warned.
Sembcorp employees stand on a patch of disused land earmarked as a future site for a data center on the Wilton International site near Middlesbrough, BritainPhil Noble/Reuters

World Cup gives limited economic boost to host countries

Goldman Sachs looked at every tournament since 1982 and found negligible long-term impact.

Anthropic’s Amodei calls for workers’ rights over AI

Amodei said AI could soon create both huge economic growth and massive unemployment.

German court rules on Google AI liability

Search engines are partially protected against liability for their results in most jurisdictions, because they point to outside websites.

New US-Iran strikes threaten fragile ceasefire

Donald Trump said Iran would “pay the price” for not making a deal.

Conflicts at highest level since WWII

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program recorded 65 active conflicts.

Ukraine’s cheaper version of Patriots

Patriots cost more than $4 million each and take around two years to build.

The case for data centers in space

Building data centers in space could be cost-effective by the early 2030s, analysis suggested.

Europe expands regulatory crackdown on Big Tech

Brussels ordered Meta to reverse a block on third-party AI assistants on WhatsApp.

Iran war expansion fears grow as attacks widen across Middle East

The Iranian military said it struck US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.

The case for space data centers

By the early 2030s, space data centers could be only around 30% more expensive than terrestrial ones.

OpenAI files for IPO amid intensifying AI race

OpenAI and Anthropic’s impending public offerings, as well as SpaceX’s, are expected to be among the biggest in history.

Somali referee denied entry into US ahead of World Cup

No reason was given but Somalia is on a travel ban list and the White House hailed “the right decision.”