Flagship

Europe pushes to unite West

European leaders launched a fresh effort to unite the West amid a US-brokered push for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. G7 foreign ministers were meeting Thursday in Quebec and NATO’s secretary general was due to hold talks with US President Donald Trump, who has led wild policy whipsaws, swerving between calling Ukraine’s leader a dictator and throwing him out of the White House to then patching up relations and agreeing a truce proposal. Much now depends on how Moscow responds: An influential Russian think tank recently laid out a hard-line position with “maximalist demands,” The Washington Post reported, and even if a ceasefire were agreed, vexing questions are likely to make a lasting peace unlikely, the Financial Times warned.

US shutdown risk rises

The odds of a US government shutdown rose after the top Senate Democrat said his party would not support a Republican-drafted funding bill. Lawmakers must reach a resolution by the weekend, which Semafor’s politics team noted was “an eternity away in government funding time.” Democrats have not yet ruled out striking a deal, The Washington Post reported, with one telling the outlet they faced “a choice between two terrible alternatives.” Democrats have voiced frustration both over the bill’s partisan drafting process — the two parties normally work together to avert shutdowns — as well as Republicans’ proposed move to raise military spending while cutting non-defense expenditure: Democrats want both to move in the same direction.

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USAID cuts hit health care

Swingeing cuts to US aid are fast being felt in global health. More than 80% of USAID programs have been ended following a six-week purge that has radically reshaped the global aid landscape: The vast majority of America’s spending was on health and humanitarian programs, with Africa particularly badly hit by the cull. In Kenya, the distribution of HIV and tuberculosis drugs has been halted, while hundreds of thousands of people have lost access to TB treatments and testing worldwide, according to The New York Times. “I was just seeing death now coming,” one 50-year-old Kenyan who is HIV-positive told Reuters.

SAfrica budget rejected

South Africa’s revised budget was rejected, leaving the government facing an unclear path ahead. The budget had been delayed by several weeks, an unprecedented move driven by disputes between the coalition government’s two biggest parties, and continued disagreement — even after a controversial VAT hike was reduced — has led to suggestions the government might collapse. “South Africa has entered unchartered waters,” the BBC wrote. The domestic turmoil comes as South Africa faces external pressures including an aid freeze by Washington, while a vital free trade deal with the US is also under threat. In a sign of the fraying ties, Pretoria’s ambassador to the US is struggling to secure crucial meetings in Washington, Semafor Africa reported.

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Intel picks new CEO

Intel named an outsider as its next chief executive, hoping to revive the iconic American firm as it struggles with falling sales and a failure to crack the artificial intelligence market. Lip-Bu Tan — the firm’s fourth CEO in seven years — previously headed a chip-design software business and is a former Intel board member. The company’s shares soared on news of Tan’s appointment, though it was not clear if he would revamp its strategy: His predecessor sought to compete with Taiwanese giant TSMC, which is reportedly interested in launching a joint venture to take over Intel’s factories. Tan is stepping into “the toughest gig in US tech,” a Bloomberg columnist warned, describing his selection as Intel’s “last throw of the dice.”

China ramps up robotics focus

China is ramping up its focus on cutting-edge robotics, and is increasingly outpacing the US, analysts said. The government this month listed “embodied AI” — physical robots that interact with and learn from their environment — as a priority for the first time, while the powerhouse province of Guangdong recently unveiled financial incentives to spur innovation in robotics. The potential market is huge: Bank of America this week projected that humanoid robots will number 1 million by 2030, and 3 billion by 2060. “The only country that is positioned to capture this level of automation is currently China,” SemiAnalysis, an AI- and chip-focused outlet, argued.

Brazil’s controversial COP30 path

Brazil cut through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest to build a highway for this year’s UN climate conference. Conservationists expressed outrage at the project’s environmental impact, with some questioning the government’s green credentials, the BBC reported. Brazilian President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva made protecting the Amazon a key pledge of his campaign to oust his right-wing predecessor, under whom deforestation soared, with the upcoming COP30 summit in Belém intended to showcase the government’s efforts. However despite a recent fall in deforestation, an estimated 6,000 km2 were estimated to have been cut down last year.

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SEAsia’s luxury property boom

Burgeoning wealth in Southeast Asia is driving demand for luxury residential property, reshaping the global market. The luxury property sector has long been dominated by the US, with the Gulf a fast-rising player. Yet last year Asia accounted for more than a fifth of all “branded residences,” often in glitzy skyscrapers, with Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia the continent’s biggest markets, Nikkei noted. Future years may see even more construction: One global real-estate company forecasts the ranks of Asia’s wealthy to expand more quickly than the Gulf’s, while another property executive said the continent could rival North America over the next decade in overall activity.

Wealth transfer to benefit women

Women will benefit from a huge wealth transfer in the coming decades, new research showed. An estimated $124 trillion is set to be handed over to family members by 2048, roughly 80% of which is estimated to go to women, either because they are the surviving spouse or because they are the child of a person who died. As a result, women will control around two-thirds of all private wealth in the US by 2030, according to a McKinsey estimate. That could drive growth in women’s sports, refashion the travel industry, and narrow long-term gaps in health care provision, Bank of America said in a recent report. “Women will soon control more money than ever before,” the bank’s economists wrote.