Flagship

US oil reserves hit 43-year low

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell below 300 million barrels for the first time since 1983 on Monday, as Brent crude prices spiked after Middle East negotiations stalled. Washington has leaned heavily on reserves since the US-Iran war began, raising concerns about depletion. Meanwhile, China has been able to turn its own appetite for crude imports on and off with little noticeable effect on growth: “We don’t really know how they did that,” Bloomberg’s Javier Blas told Columbia Energy Exchange, adding that China, more than any other country, is “really truly… embracing all of the above,” leading in both emissions and green energy. Beijing’s ability to control oil prices is now unrivalled, The Economist argued, suggesting “China is the new OPEC.”

AI money machine churns

The money machine around AI continued whirring on Monday, with Nvidia announcing a partnership with Wall Street giants, including Apollo, Blackstone, and Goldman Sachs, striking a $500 billion deal to finance AI infrastructure development. The move underscores the growing efforts to raise capital to assemble the hardware required to power AI. Competitor Intel also initiated a $15 billion share sale as part of its efforts to expand its chip contract manufacturing business, cashing in on a stock surge fueled by its turnaround efforts; attracting investments from the US government has also helped with that recovery. Despite the exuberance — and the greater inventiveness around how they finance the projects — JPMorgan said investor discipline is holding firm.

US tech’s data center charm offensive

US tech leaders intensified their charm offensive in response to mounting bipartisan backlash against data center construction. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word essay Monday announcing plans for a $1 billion fund to invest in communities that host data centers, and OpenAI published an open letter to Texas’ governor on Friday pledging to be a partner in “responsible AI infrastructure development.” By contrast, The New York Times wrote, the White House has largely refrained from addressing the backlash against data centers, which the president calls “Money Machines.” Americans are “on fire” against data centers, a Republican senator told Semafor: New York banned their construction outright, and local bans nationwide jumped from 300 in late June to over 500 in July, The Information reported.

Chinese rocket explodes

A Chinese Long March rocket carrying a communications satellite exploded shortly after liftoff Monday, the “workhorse” rocket family’s second failure this year, as Beijing races to achieve launch parity with the US. The mission would have marked an acceleration, with a record 12 days between launches. Beijing and Washington are locked in a new space race, and despite China leading in some technologies, it still lacks a reliable reusable rocket, a US think tank analysis found: The US launched more than 2,700 tonnes of payload in 2025, mostly carried by commercial operators like SpaceX; China just 315. Still, President Donald Trump’s former NASA administrator predicted China’s taikonauts would land on the Moon before US astronauts.

Research monkeys in short supply

The price of a lab monkey in China has nearly doubled to $26,000 as the country races to catch the US on biotech. Primates remain the best animal models for drug effects on humans, and supply is a major bottleneck in trials worldwide: France is expanding breeding capacity, and US prices hit $50,000, Bloomberg reported. The squeeze is sharpest in China, which now accounts for a third of the new-drug pipeline, and analysts forecast an annual shortfall of 15,000-20,000 animals until 2028, compounded by regulatory requirements that the monkeys are at least three years old. The crunch may deepen: AI is accelerating hypothesis generation and experiment design, but those hypotheses still need to be tested on animals.

Japanese yen erases gains

The Japanese yen has already erased half the gains that came from the historic US-Japan currency intervention, raising questions over the efficacy of the maneuver and whether more currency moves may be needed to stop the yen’s slide. It’s “going to take more” to create a sustained upswing, a Russell Investments strategist told the FT in reference to the yen, which was trading around 164 per dollar last month before jumping to 155 after the joint action. It’s now at 159 and traders are “skeptical we can see a much stronger yen unless it’s followed up by stronger policy action,” a Pioneer Investments strategist told Bloomberg, with investors now pegging the probability that Bank of Japan hikes interest rates at 50%.

Natural disasters test LatAm right

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia killed more than 111 people on Monday, trapping potentially many more under rubble, in an immediate test of the country’s three-day-old rightist government. Along with President Keiko Fujimori in neighboring Peru, Washington-backed Abelardo de Espriella won a narrow majority promising to crack down on organized crime and boost economic growth. But regardless of those promises, both governments will likely be defined by something more tangible: their response to natural disasters, an expert argued in Americas Quarterly. The strongest El Niño on record threatens South America with flooding, disruptive heat, and droughts, and could knock nearly a full point off of Peru’s annual growth, a Peruvian think tank estimated. How leaders respond “could define their political fortunes.”

FIFA bodies call for new leadership

Three of FIFA’s largest regional bodies called for a change of leadership atop world soccer’s governing organization on Monday, accusing President Gianni Infantino of “trust broken through deception.” The statement doesn’t name Infantino, but should be seen as giving him the chance to “resign and leave his position with dignity,” BBC Sport reported, marking a dramatic escalation of a weeks-long crisis following his efforts to sell private stakes in the World Cup. Infantino has so far responded with defiance, but the stand-off is beginning to run up against the sport’s calendar: Next month’s under-20 women’s World Cup could take place without European teams, as Europe, Asia, North America, Central America, and the Caribbean — a comfortable majority — reportedly explore organizing new competitions.

Americans’ visits to Europe double

US overseas tourism has boomed, driven by a supercharged American economy and Europe’s relative cheapness. In 1990, just 5% of the US population had a passport; now more than half of them do. Americans were once “homebodies,” The Wall Street Journal reported, but they have become “zealous and moneyed international travelers.” US visits to Europe have doubled to 24 million since 2000, and are expected to go up another 5% this year, boosting economies even as they anger locals. Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Greece have seen the largest growth. Older Americans in particular are driving the new era of travel, thanks to longer life expectancies and ever-growing wealth, although younger generations are also spending on travel, seeking novel experiences.

Reddit goes after the bots

Companies are flooding Reddit with covert, bot-powered promotional material now that it has become the most-cited source for AI search. AI tools are replacing Google as people’s entry point into the internet, and many of them love Reddit, making it a tempting target for spam. A r/skincareaddiction moderator told The Verge that one AI spam account will ask a question and others will respond. Biohacking subreddits see promotional spam about peptides, weight-loss subreddits fill up with spam about diets and GLP-1 providers, and indie music subreddits have been abused by record labels. CEO Steve Huffman told Semafor’s Mixed Signals that the company is trying to fight the bots and has beefed up tools to detect fake behavior.

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