Flagship

Israel targets Hamas leaders in Doha

Israel launched an airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday, an unprecedented attack on Qatari soil that antagonized a close US ally and mediator in Gaza peace efforts. The White House criticized the attack — Israel’s first such strike on the Gulf nation — reassuring Qatari leaders that “such a thing will not happen again.” But the bombing of a building where Hamas leaders had gathered to discuss a US ceasefire proposal complicates Washington’s role in peace negotiations, and signals that Israel has given up on talks, the BBC wrote. It marks “the start of a new normal” in the region, a Bloomberg columnist argued, where the path to coexistence is unclear, and the “alternative is constant insecurity.”

Nepal PM resigns as protests explode

Nepal’s prime minister resigned Tuesday over fiery youth-led protests against government corruption. Following a deadly crackdown by authorities, the “Gen-Z protest” escalated with demonstrators torching the country’s parliament, along with several government buildings and the homes of prominent politicians. The turmoil began over the government’s social media ban last week — which was lifted Tuesday — but the protests ballooned into wider anti-government outrage, reflecting years of discontent toward Kathmandu’s political elite. K.P. Sharma Oli’s resignation marks the third time since 2022 that a South Asian leader was overthrown by youth protests, following movements in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “The common thread is clear — democracies without strong institutions are fragile,” India-based ThePrint wrote. “Stability lies in institutions, not parties or personalities.”

US job growth revised down massively

The US economy added 911,000 fewer jobs than previously reported in the 12 months leading up to March, heightening fears of an economic slowdown. Tuesday’s sharply revised figures could support US President Donald Trump’s argument that his tariff and immigration policies aren’t to blame for the cooling labor market, analysts said, and fuels an ongoing debate over the integrity of economic data. That lack of trust reflects how “psychology can trump data in today’s attention economy,” Semafor’s Liz Hoffman wrote, as “companies and consumers are behaving like everything is fine” despite the bleak numbers. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the downgrade confirmed that the economy is “weakening,” but there’s “a lot of different factors… We just have to wait and see.”

Asian stocks surge

Asian stocks are surging on the back of a weaker US dollar, artificial intelligence, and the region’s resilience amid global trade tumult, analysts told Caixin. Hong Kong’s exchange has proven especially strong this year, marking a rebound for the global financial hub after years of dampened interest from foreign investors. That’s partly down to “mainlandization,” the Financial Times wrote: Most new companies being listed are in China, and capital pouring in is increasingly Chinese. “Our slogan used to be Asia’s world city,” one local businessman said. “Our new identity is China’s world city.” On the mainland itself, a recent rally has regulators worried, and analysts say the central bank may delay rate cuts to avoid another 2015-style bubble.

Apple announcements light on AI

Apple unveiled a new slate of products Tuesday, including a hyper-slim iPhone, in a presentation that was light on AI advancements. The tech giant has been slow to integrate AI throughout its software, while rivals like Google roll out AI-powered phones. Apple has instead leaned on OpenAI, integrating ChatGPT across its platforms. The “collective shrug” over Apple’s new iPhone is akin to the lackluster advances in AI itself, The Economist argued, with smaller language models now showing more promise than larger ones. That could actually validate the decision of an AI laggard like Apple not to invest billions in building LLMs, and to “continue to market itself as a best-in-class hardware maker first, not an AI device maker,” TechCrunch wrote.

Ukraine debuts AI drone swarms

Artificial intelligence-powered drone swarms were used in active combat for the first time. Individual drones controlled by humans have been used on the battlefield in Ukraine for years, but in Kyiv’s recent attacks, three drones decided on their own when and how to strike a Russian position. Military experts say future swarms could involve tens or even thousands of drones to overwhelm a target’s defenses. The drones were developed by a Ukrainian company: “You set the target and the drones do the rest,” its CEO told The Wall Street Journal. “They work together, they adapt.” AI deciding whether to kill a human raises ethical concerns, but reduces the manpower required to control attacks and improves decision speed.

Machine beats Man in SF hackathon

Engineers using AI tools narrowly outperformed human-only coders in a recent competition, fueling a debate over whether the tech aids or slows down programmers. The “Man vs. Machine” hackathon in San Francisco reflected the tug-of-war in Silicon Valley over so-called “vibe coding,” using AI tools that quickly write and edit complex code. Tech giants have widely adopted such tools, hurting young coders’ job prospects — but a recent study showed AI-assisted coding can actually slow experienced developers down, Wired wrote. “You always want to believe in the man,” said one of the hackathon’s winners, who used AI to create a heatmap tool. “But in this kind of format, the machine will almost always win.”

G42 Chief Strategy Officer Ali Dalloul will join the stage at The Next 3 Billion — the premier US summit focused on connecting the unconnected. Semafor editors will sit down with global executives and thought leaders to highlight the economic, social, and global impact of bringing the next three billion people online.

US math, reading scores suffer

Math and reading scores for US high school seniors fell to their lowest levels on record last year. New national test results deepen concerns that students aren’t learning as much as they used to, furthering a slide that began before the pandemic, The Wall Street Journal wrote: “Few if any student groups or regions of the country have been entirely spared.” Experts haven’t identified a singular reason for the lagging scores — other countries have also seen worsening education metrics post-COVID. One important asterisk: Because US graduation rates are up, more underperforming students who might have dropped out in earlier years are taking the senior-year tests.

Longest-lasting pig organ transplant

A US man is still alive more than six months after receiving a genetically modified pig kidney in a transplant. The 67-year-old, who had end-stage kidney disease and had been on dialysis for two years, is the longest-lasting recipient of a pig organ; another patient lasted four months before it had to be removed, and a third has so far managed three months. The organs are modified to look like human body parts to the immune system. More than 100,000 people are waiting for organ transplants in the US alone, and scientists hope the use of animal organs — xenotransplantation — could help supply meet demand, Science reported in May.