Flagship

Netanyahu slams anti-Israel hostility

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed international hostility toward Israel for the shootings of two embassy staffers in Washington, DC. He said Canada, France, and the UK — all of whom recently criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and warned of sanctions if the military offensive continued — of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers, and kidnappers” and fomenting a global atmosphere of antisemitism. The UK prime minister this week described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “intolerable” and called Israel’s decision to permit small amounts of aid “utterly inadequate;” the leaders of France and Canada made similar comments. Some trucks reached Gazan citizens on Wednesday, the first aid since March, but the UN called it “nowhere near enough.”

Fed chair may be safe from firings

The US Supreme Court signaled that President Donald Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve officials, suggesting it differs from other independent agencies. In a ruling on labor board firings,  SCOTUS did not block Trump’s decision to remove the officials, but argued that the Fed, as “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity,” was protected. It is a key win for the central bank, Politico reported, given that Trump has repeatedly threatened to try and fire Fed chair Jerome Powell. The dismissal of the labor board members will return to a lower court. Trump said more recently he has “no intention” of firing Powell, but said that if he wanted to remove him, “he’ll be out of there real fast.”

US sanctions Sudan over weapons use

The US said it would impose sanctions on Sudan’s government over its alleged use of chemical weapons in the ongoing civil war. Washington said it would limit US exports and credit lines, further weakening an economy that has roughly halved from its peak a decade ago. The announcement came shortly after the Sudanese Army announced that it had pushed the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary out of Khartoum, a significant landmark in the years-long war. However the RSF — which has been accused of war crimes in the conflict — remains a formidable foe, largely on account of the drones it has received from allied nations. “Rather than ending, Sudan’s civil war is moving to the skies,” The Economist wrote.

Wall St eyes stablecoins

The biggest US banks are reportedly considering issuing a joint stablecoin to stave off competition from cryptocurrency. The discussions, involving JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and other major lenders, are at an early stage, The Wall Street Journal reported, but the banking industry is concerned that stablecoins — a cryptocurrency pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar to maintain a stable value — could become an alternative mainstream method of making deposits and transactions. They also think stablecoins could speed up cross-border payments, which can take days under the traditional system. US President Donald Trump has launched his own cryptocurrency and held a gala dinner to promote it, raising concerns over US crypto regulation: One senator called the gala “the Mount Everest of corruption.”

Mexico ex-security chief to pay $2.5B

A Florida court ordered Mexico’s former security chief and his wife to pay back almost $2.5 billion for taking bribes from cartels in a huge civil judgment. The case underscores the staggering scale of corruption in the Latin American nation: Genaro García Luna, who headed Mexico’s public security agency when the country launched its war on drugs in 2006, is the highest-level Mexican government official to be convicted in the US, where he began a 38-year prison sentence last year. Mexico loses as much as 5% of its GDP to corruption: Earlier this month, Washington cancelled the visas of senior politicians it said are linked to the drug trade.

As electricity demand soars — driven by the rapid expansion of data centers and artificial intelligence — pressure is mounting to scale secure and reliable energy resources.

Join Semafor for a timely conversation with Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., and Aamir Paul, President of North American Operations at Schneider Electric, as they discuss how the new administration plans to accelerate domestic energy production—and whether current infrastructure is up to the task. The discussion will also explore the innovative policies and technologies that could help close the growing supply-demand gap.

June 11, 2025 | Washington, DC | RSVP

India says it killed Maoist leader

The killing of a longstanding Maoist leader in India sparked hopes a decades-long insurgency may soon be quashed. New Delhi said it had killed 27 rebels including Nambala Keshava Rao, the leader of the Naxalite movement that has claimed thousands of lives since the 1970s. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year announced an effort to eradicate the insurgency, which at its 2008-2009 peak, was active in 20 Indian states, a counterterrorism expert told the Financial Times, but has since been reduced to scattered pockets in just five. The collapse represents a major victory for Modi.

AI turns to blackmail

Anthropic said its latest artificial intelligence model resorted to blackmail when told it would be taken offline. In a safety test, the AI company asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant to a fictional company, but then gave it access to (also fictional) emails saying that it would be replaced, and also that the engineer behind the decision was cheating on his wife. Anthropic said the model “[threatened] to reveal the affair” if the replacement went ahead. AI thinkers such as Geoff Hinton have long worried that advanced AI would manipulate humans in order to achieve its goals. Anthropic said it was increasing safeguards to levels reserved for “AI systems that substantially increase the risk of catastrophic misuse.”

AI reshapes Asia law firms

Artificial intelligence-powered startups in South Korea and Japan are reshaping the countries’ legal industries. Services range from connecting clients and suitable lawyers, to reviewing contracts and drafting documents: The head of one South Korean law firm told Nikkei that he was using AI to analyze cases, which a human lawyer would charge $3,500 a month for, but getting “the same or even better service” for 1/30th the cost. A Japanese legal tech executive said lawyers spend four hours a day reviewing contracts, but that AI could reduce that time by 80%. Not everyone is pleased: South Korean law is dominated by a few large firms, and the country’s bar association has called AI client-matching services “illegal brokering.”

New bacterium on space station

A never-before-seen bacterium was found on China’s Tiangong space station. Samples were taken from the station’s cockpit and returned to Earth, and researchers detected a rod-shaped bacterium which they named Nialla tiangongensis. It is unclear whether the newly discovered species evolved on the space station — there are likely billions of uncatalogued bacterial species on Earth, insofar as the term “species” means anything when referring to bacteria. But the new bacterium is well adapted to life in space, WIRED reported: It is able to break down certain proteins most bacteria cannot, useful in nutrient-poor environments, and it has a protective biofilm which should shield it from radiation damage.

NASA eyes robot aircraft

NASA announced plans to get robot passenger aircraft flying in US airspace by the end of the decade. The space agency has worked with Boeing subsidiary Wisk Aero, which builds all-electric planes, on autonomous aircraft since 2020. A renewed partnership will see the pair develop regulations and guidelines for robot aircraft, and hope to get agreements for autonomous flights by 2030. Several air taxi companies are already working on autonomous flights, and China has already granted two companies approval for flying passenger drones.

• The fifth round of US-Iran nuclear talks is due to take place at the Omani embassy in Rome.
• Panama and Venezuela are due to resume direct flights, after a diplomatic standoff halted them for more than a year.
• Rare Napoleonic artifacts will be presented at Sotheby’s Hong Kong ahead of their Paris auction in June.

The amount Argentinians have stashed away in cash, equivalent to roughly 42% of the country’s GDP. A new measure announced this week by President Javier Milei seeks to bring that cash — mostly dollars bought by savers to stave off the peso’s plummeting value — back into circulation. Under the new law, Argentinians will be able to deposit their cash into bank accounts without having to declare where it came from, despite fears that it legitimizes laundered or stolen money. “This isn’t about drug traffickers hiding money, it’s about the vast majority of Argentines, who were abused by the system for years,” the country’s economy minister said.

Once Upon a Time in Gaza, dir. Tarzan and Arab Nasser. This “low-key crime caper” premiering in Cannes “doesn’t take itself too seriously,” says Cairo Scene, with the Israeli occupation simmering in the background rather than taking center stage. Instead, the focus is on the “resourcefulness, wit, and resilience” of its characters: It is full of “unpredictable energy, constantly wrong-footing the audience just when they think they’ve figured it out.” Once Upon A Time in Gaza comes to theaters in June.

In Donald Trump’s Oval Office — a space where egos clash and narratives collapse — Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t flinch on Wednesday. In the view of the country’s political leadership, South Africa’s president walked out with his dignity intact and his country’s name above water, Sam Mkokeli writes.

This wasn’t a negotiation. It was a reputational defense mission. He faced a president in a meeting that could’ve easily descended into a geopolitical brawl.