Semafor

The News A gun safety group founded by former Rep.

An anti-data center bus tour traversing key midterm states will add another complication for Republican candidates in tight races who are trying to navigate Trump’s support of the AI infrastructure with growing voter opposition — and it’s being spearheaded

The Republican Party kicked off its first-ever midterm convention in Dallas Wednesday, nicknamed a “Trump-a-Palooza,” as party figures bet President Donald Trump’s center-stage performance can lift their fortunes despite his record-low approval ratings.

The European Commission rolled out new “Made in Europe” guidelines Wednesday to protect the continent’s manufacturers from Chinese competition, though some worried a lack of binding quotas would undermine their efficacy.

Anthropic declined to submit its latest model for testing to a top British AI safety institute, sparking fears in the UK that reviews of frontier AI would become the sole province of Washington.

US long-term bond yields spiked to three-year highs Wednesday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bond buybacks failed to impress markets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to sue Haaretz over its report that he ignored the UAE president’s explicit warning about Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, revelations that caused uproar in Israel and widened Netanyahu’s rift with Abu Dhabi.

Houthi rebels on Wednesday said Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen, as hostilities between Riyadh and the Iran-backed militia escalate toward all-out war.

The Scoop Meta AI researcher Andrew Tulloch, who gained attention for being one of the highest paid employees in the tech industry, is leaving the company, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The News The White House is shrugging off the internal Republican tension kicked up by its still-unreleased proposal to divert federal childcare aid to stay-at-home parents.

The Treasury Department will buy back up to three times its usual amount of long-term debt tomorrow as the Trump administration continues trying to bring borrowing costs down.

J.D.’s view A potentially devastating bug in Chinese superapp WeChat is the latest security scare underscoring why relying on slow-moving — and often opposing — governments won’t solve AI’s thorniest problems.

Chinese tech companies are pushing to integrate AI and coding tools into smart glasses as a global debate builds over the devices’ privacy and security implications.

Meta’s new AI assistant Muse could be the first experience a lot of people have with the power of AI that can actually do things for you, rather than just answer questions.

Students won’t learn without exercising their brains, “in the same way that we do not become fit by watching sports but by doing sports,” wrote an OECD researcher in a recent report.

The ominous trailer for the Sam Altman movie, Artificial, launched Tuesday, the same day OpenAI became the first AI company to solve one of the Millennium Prize challenges.

A new startup wants to make American robotics fun again.

David’s view Candidates who think they’ve escaped or explained their pasts keep having to explain comments that “resurface” online, again and again.

by Jon Ronson.

Qatar posted its widest quarterly budget deficit since 2016 as the Iran war choked off most of its liquefied natural gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia may give the UN nuclear watchdog greater inspection powers as part of its attempts to get a nuclear deal with the US approved and head off criticism that the agreement does not sufficiently limit proliferation risks.

Abu Dhabi’s financial hub ADGM says entities licensed there now hold more than $100 billion in AI-focused investment, as it looks to draw more fund managers by dangling proximity to the UAE capital’s prodigious coffers and appetite for cutting-edge techno…

South Africa’s GDP shrank in the second quarter of this year, as the impact of the Iran war ended an 18-month period of growth in Africa’s biggest economy.

As the Dangote Group nears the opening bell for its Nigerian refinery’s IPO, plans to build a similar plant in Kenya are under the spotlight because of an array of potential challenges.

African infrastructure investor Africa50 plans to raise the value of its portfolio to $20 billion over the next five years, an executive told Reuters.

Nigeria’s trade surplus grew to $9.5 billion in the second quarter, doubling in size compared with the same period last year, the government’s statistics agency said.

Senegal will try to buy more time to pay off its debt by extending the maturity of its borrowing, its prime minister said, as the country works to qualify for an International Monetary Fund program.

The News Kenya’s crackdown on foreign small-scale traders is exposing a tension at the heart of President William Ruto’s economic agenda in trying to protect jobs for Kenyans while keeping the country open to overseas capital and regional trade.

The US-Canada trade war intensified, with Washington moving to ban a raft of goods from its northern neighbour after Ottawa imposed retaliatory tariffs on its biggest trading partner.

Trump administration officials expressed worries about Chinese firms they said undermined Washington’s agenda, comments that come weeks before a planned meeting between the countries’ leaders.

An Anthropic researcher quit, warning that the rush to “self-improving superintelligence [is] gambling with our lives.”

Singapore increased its prime minister’s salary to $2.8 million, part of its longstanding strategy to boost talent and reduce corruption.

The global diesel refining crunch could lead to high prices and tight supplies for months, roiling industry, analysts warned.

Israel hit back at the UK for leading a twelve-country alliance that is restricting trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a grouping that showcases the growing closeness between Europe and Canada.

The News More than two dozen organizations from both the left and right are urging the White House to publicly release its voluntary AI security framework, per a letter shared first with Semafor.

Democratic state Rep.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is betting he can advance the fight against narcoterrorism in Latin America after a string of right-wing victories in the region.

The House’s abbreviated schedule will punt a host of legislative items to the post-election period.

The Trump administration is moving to ban Canadian imports like alcohol, whey, and motorcycles in the latest escalation of the countries’ trade war.

The News New Hampshire’s premier Senate race is on after party leaders secured their top choices in what’s shaping up to be one of the tightest contests in the entire country come November.

The Scoop European private-equity firm CVC has hired a top TPG executive to be its co-CEO.

The Scoop The US Justice Department is widening its antitrust inquiry into Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of streaming platform Roku, people familiar with the matter said.

The first Chinese cargo ship traveling along the Northern Sea Route is set to dock in England this week, reflecting Beijing’s growing Arctic ambitions, though analysts cast doubt on the venture’s commercial feasibility.

Global AI infrastructure spending could exceed $31 trillion through 2050, PwC analysts projected, as firms forge ahead with a flurry of data center deals.

OpenAI announced the proof to one of math’s great outstanding questions — although not without drama.

A US startup used AI models to identify a potentially devastating bug in Chinese super-app WeChat, in the latest sign of the cyber capabilities — and risks — of advanced AI tech.

One of Beijing’s top America experts wrote that the upcoming US-China summit offers a “rare opportunity” to put a floor under the countries’ relations, potentially signaling Beijing’s mindset ahead of the Washington meeting.

France and Canada joined the UK in announcing trade sanctions on Israel’s West Bank settlements Tuesday, as rising settler violence in the occupied territory widened a geopolitical rift between Israel and its allies.

Liz’s view There are reasons for Kevin Warsh to raise interest rates next week — though President Donald Trump’s new Fed chief was chosen to keep rates low — and there’s no shortage of possible excuses to perpetually wait and see.

Robinhood landed its first IPO underwriting assignment, a sign that retail investors — long an afterthought for companies going public — are a fan base worth courting.