“I don’t know how much is for, you know, yesterday’s war. And what’s for tomorrow’s war,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., told Semafor. “So suffice it to say, I’ve begun my investigation, but I can’t tell you have a good sense of it.” Read more from Shelby Talcott, Burgess Everett, and Nicholas Wu:

The UK’s new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, wants to make British business great again. But businesses want to be where their customers and investors are, which are are increasingly becoming elsewhere. www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

🟡 NEW: Center-left Democrats are urging the party to abandon Medicare for All and instead work towards universal healthcare in other ways that wouldn’t disrupt private insurance companies. www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

Novo argued that Lilly’s ads used outdated comparisons for how much weight users lost using the drugs. The legal tactics are part of the Danish company’s “strategy for clawing back market share.”

The market’s performance reflects the fact that Saudi Arabia has weathered the US-Iran war better than many other Gulf countries, and its economy is still expected to grow this year.

The recent announcement of a relatively powerful, open-source Chinese AI model has crystallized US worries over Beijing’s growing capabilities: The bosses of Anthropic and OpenAI have asked Washington to better restrict the use of new powerful Chinese models in the country.

America's apprehension towards AI isn't stopping them from using it at work, poll shows. Fifty-two percent of US workers reported using AI in their jobs during the second quarter of this year, according to Gallup, including 30% who said they used it frequently and 15% who turn to it daily.

China blamed the Philippines for the clash at Scarborough Shoal, a disputed part of the South China Sea; Washington, Canberra, Tokyo and others pointed the finger at Beijing. Asian powers — notably Australia and Japan — have been deepening continental ties over what they see as an aggressive China.

Bets against the stock market are at all-time highs, as investors doubt the S&P 500’s months-long rally can survive a potential AI bubble and the Iran war’s threat of renewed inflation. The total amount currently bet against shares of the S&P 500 companies recently hit $1.4 trillion.

🟡 NEW: Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn is threatening to sink Trump nominees unless the Trump administration releases money aimed at fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa. www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

China closed more than 30,000 preschools and primary schools in 2025, new data showed, in the starkest sign yet of the country’s demographic crisis. Kindergarten enrolment has been plunging for years, with the number of registrations falling by a quarter just between 2020 and 2024.

Britain has low growth, high inflation, and heavy debt, and he is constrained by his own fiscal pledges. The country also lacks energy infrastructure and housing, but struggles to build enough of either. Read more from Tom Chivers: www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

The US and Brazil have blamed each other for the latest salvos of their trade war: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said challenger Flavio Bolsonaro and his family had courted the tariffs in response to what they say is the political “witch hunt” of Bolsonaro’s father.

Thousands of members of the Cockroach Janata Party descended on Delhi in frustration over failures in the national exam system, while an activist held a three-week hunger strike to call for the education minister’s resignation.

🟡 NEW: Senators confront their closing window to reshape college sports www.semafor.com/article/07/2...

Reed writes: There’s now an established pattern: American frontier labs come out with state-of-the-art AI models. Chinese firms allegedly “distill” those models — they use them to extract a form of training data, which is then used to train new open-source models for anyone in the world to download.

Eli Lilly will buy a psychedelic drug developer for up to $3.8 billion, a sign of rising interest in using the chemicals as psychiatric treatments. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

Though Nigeria, like much of Africa, has made major strides in increasing the number of years people spend in school, levels remain far below those of wealthier nations.

The Trump administration is replacing the gutted American foreign aid apparatus with, in part, a push to export more US propane. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

Betting on who’s going to win World Cup games isn’t the only way to bet on the tournament. Stock-market volatility in country-specific indexes tends to spike after their national teams play, according to a new analysis. Read more from Liz Hoffman: www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

The ultra-wealthy are pulling back from Dubai real estate amid the Iran war, bringing a sharp pause to the years-long rush that made the city one of the hottest property markets in the world. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

While the US and other Western countries have vowed to reduce their reliance on China’s rare earths, experts say the shift could take years to play out.

Despite President Donald Trump’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, migrants living in the US are more likely than those in any other country to describe the community they live in as a good place for immigrants. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

CXMT, which nearly doubled the fundraising target for its Shanghai offering, is increasingly central to Beijing’s efforts to achieve technological self-sufficiency. The chip industry also provides an economic boost to an otherwise sluggish Chinese economy.

Brussels is allowing Ukraine to spend EU funds on Chinese drone parts, underscoring “the gaps that remain in the EU’s domestic defense production.” And Germany’s air force chief said the country will need to keep buying weapons like fighter jets from the US amid Russian aggression.

Kalshi is continuing its push onto Wall Street as it launches 13 contracts that let users bet on the outcome of clinical drug trials, distilling the biggest milestones for biotech stocks into a simple yes or no. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

Mexico’s president rejected allegations from the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration that there is a “deadly connection” between her government and cartels. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

Africa’s forests are gradually disappearing due to mine development, a study finds. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

ASML raised its sales outlook, forecasting that AI-driven demand for computing power will continue to surge. The company reported 21% year-on-year sales growth in Q2, and expects more. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...

The collapse of the interim peace deal between the US and Iran is delaying any recovery in crucial economic sectors for Gulf countries, including aviation, energy, tourism, and real estate. www.semafor.com/article/07/1...