Flagship

Kirk shooting suspect’s motive probed

Utah police on Friday arrested Tyler Robinson for allegedly killing right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, although his potential motive remains hazy. On Sunday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox suggested that Robinson, 22, may have been radicalized by “deep, dark internet” and gaming culture. Bullet casings found at the scene and with the rifle police think Robinson used to shoot Kirk were etched with antifascist messages and internet memes, indicating he wanted to reach a specifically online audience, The Atlantic wrote. Robinson is due to be charged on Tuesday. Politicians from both parties warned against further polarization, even as US President Donald Trump on Sunday decried the “radical left” — and as a growing number of people face retaliation for posting about Kirk’s death.

UK rocked by anti-immigrant protests

As many as 150,000 people marched through London Saturday to protest against immigration and in support of freedom of speech. The “Unite the Kingdom” rally was organized by a far-right activist and featured a video message of support from Elon Musk; many of the protesters held British and English flags, while others carried messages supporting free speech and pictures of Charlie Kirk. The rally represented “a sense of disquiet and grievance,” one UK politician said. It caps a summer marked by demonstrations and clashes outside hotels housing migrants, while polls show support for Reform UK, an anti-immigration party, has surged above the ruling party, Labour.

Rubio heads to Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Jerusalem Sunday for a visit aimed at lowering tensions between Israel and Qatar. Israel’s airstrike last week targeting Hamas officials living in Doha united Gulf states in condemnation; the US and its allies had previously assumed Qatar, which has played a mediator role in negotiations between Israel and Hamas, would be off-limits in the war. Doha has pledged a “collective” response, and Qatar’s prime minister met Rubio and US President Donald Trump in New York on Friday. Washington has signaled its displeasure over the attack, but Israel’s leaders appear undeterred: Israeli forces ramped up strikes on Gaza City on Sunday, and a ceasefire seems ever more distant.

US-China trade talks resume

Chinese and US officials met in Spain on Sunday for talks primarily aimed at easing trade tensions. Pressure is mounting on officials on both sides over the economic fallout from escalating tariffs. This is the fourth time in as many months that negotiators have met to try to smooth relations, although experts said there’s little hope for a breakthrough. Instead, analysts argued that the meeting will likely result in Washington extending the deadline yet again for TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest or face a ban in the US. More substantive outcomes may be possible if US President Donald Trump meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this year, with a potential summit mooted for October in South Korea.

US-Venezuela tensions rise

Caracas on Saturday accused the US of raiding a Venezuelan fishing boat while in Venezuelan waters, underscoring the rising tensions in the region. The allegation comes days after President Donald Trump said US forces struck a vessel carrying drug cartel members; Caracas has said none of the 11 people killed in the attack were in the cartel. Trump first ordered warships to the Caribbean in August, and American fighter jets landed in Puerto Rico on Saturday. Washington’s increased military presence in the region is likely at the urging of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long pushed the US to pursue cartels more aggressively and has “cast himself as a top general in that war,” The New York Times noted.

World Trade Organization Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will join the stage at The Next 3 Billion — the premier US summit focused on closing the global digital divide. Semafor editors will sit down with global executives and thought leaders to highlight the economic, social, and global impact of bringing the next 3 billion people online.

Sept. 24, 2025 | New York City | Delegate Application

US overtakes Israel in spyware investments

The US has overtaken Israel as the largest investor in global commercial spyware, a new report found. The Atlantic Council identified a notable increase in the number of US investors in spyware in 2024 compared with 2023. The US government has tried to curb the technology through trade restrictions, sanctions, and other limits on its use, but the industry has “continued to operate largely without restraint,” Wired wrote. Governments have used spyware to covertly surveil politicians, journalists, and activists, and while US President Donald Trump’s stance on the tech has been less defined, immigration officials recently gained access to Israeli spyware that can hack phones and encrypted apps.

Kenyan startups reimagine khat

Kenyan entrepreneurs are making khat, a mild drug chewed as leaves in East Africa, more palatable. One startup owner told Bloomberg that when he tried leaves he had hated the taste and texture, but had enjoyed their stimulant effect: “There had to be a better way to experience that feeling,” he recalled. He knew that some locals turned khat into a drink called jaba, and so he founded a business making a higher-quality version mixed with fruit juice; the company now produces 220 gallons a day for use in cocktails in Nairobi’s clubs. But jaba is in a regulatory gray area. Khat is legal to grow and sell, but its active ingredients are classified as narcotics.

Delivery drivers spur new fashions

Delivery driver fashion has become the latest battleground in the war between China’s e-commerce giants. Couriers on electric scooters and mopeds are a fixture in Chinese cities, and they’ve become a symbol of the country’s economic challenges as growth slows and more people take up gig work. Intense competition to woo customers has some companies extending their sales pitches to their delivery drivers: Alibaba recently gave couriers for its Taobao brand a uniform upgrade resembling Formula 1-style streetwear. Delivery giant’s Meituan bright yellow outfits are so well-known, they have spawned bootleg knockoffs — perhaps part of a broader fetishization of delivery drivers that reflects their cultural ubiquity, Radii China wrote.

Hawking’s black hole theory proven

Ten years after scientists observed gravitational waves for the first time, confirming Albert Einstein’s then century-old prediction, new data confirmed another renowned physicist’s seminal hypothesis. Stephen Hawking’s “area theorem” posited that the event horizon of a black hole, from which not even light can escape, can only grow, and never shrink. The perfect way to test that is to use gravitational waves to measure the surface of two colliding black holes and the resulting, unified black hole. And so physicists did just that: An analysis of a black hole collision detected in January conformed to Hawking’s predictions perfectly, with the surface area of the merged black hole slightly larger than the sum of the two originals.

Why cats eat grass

Scientists may have discovered why cats eat grass only to vomit it back up, one of their more mysterious — and gross — behaviors. In a new study, resear