Semafor Flagship-The World Today

"Counterbalance alarm with hope, Iran deal in limbo, Pope issues AI warning."

Views expressed in this geopolitical news and analysis are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 25 May 2026, 2246 UTC.

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VATICAN CITY  HYDERABAD  XINING May 26, 2026 Read on the web Flagship Sign up for our free email briefings→   The World Today Iran deal in limbo Iranians attend annual Hajj US-Saudi drone venture Outbound dealmaking in Asia China reforms hukou Pope issues AI warning Waymo’s flooding problem Moscow wipes criminal data K-beauty’s global boom When AI agents turn ‘Marxist’ Keeping Up With the Kardashians through postmodern theory. ↓ 1 Iran deal status remains uncertain Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters The fate of an Iran peace deal remained uncertain Monday, as both Washington and Tehran offered conflicting signals on progress. One US official told The Washington Post that the two sides had developed a “framework” to extend the ceasefire for 60 days as they negotiate a “final deal,” and that Tehran had yet to approve the latest proposal. As talks resumed in Qatar, US President Donald Trump said, “The deal with Iran will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal,” while the US secretary of state signaled cautious optimism. But Tehran tempered expectations, complaining of “frequent changes” in the US position. Still, oil dropped Monday on hopes of a deal, and Asian markets rose. ↓ 2 The Hajj begins amid war uncertainty Pilgrims pray in front of Kaaba. Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters The Iran war is reshaping who performs the Hajj, as the annual pilgrimage in Mecca began Monday amid uncertainty over a peace deal and lingering regional tensions. Iran’s allocation was cut to 30,000 pilgrims, nearly two-thirds fewer than usual. Hostilities between Riyadh and Tehran have often played out at Hajj; no Iranians attended in 2016. The fact that any were allowed this year, despite Iran’s barrage of drones and missiles against Saudi Arabia, “reaffirms Riyadh’s policy of not politicizing its guardianship of Islam’s holiest sites,” Semafor’s Manal Albarakati wrote. A few thousand Muslim Americans are also going, despite a US travel advisory, The Wall Street Journal reported: “No matter what happens, God will take care of it,” one pilgrim said. ↓ Semafor Exclusive 3 Saudi firm to build Shahed-like drones Courtesy of SR2Vector A joint venture between a US defense startup and a Saudi firm will manufacture combat drones modeled on Iran’s Shaheds, Semafor’s Matthew Martin reported. The program aims to “level the playing field and boost Saudi Arabia’s deterrence capabilities,” the group’s co-founder said. Iran has pounded the Gulf states with its high-yield drones that cost just tens of thousands of dollars, compared with the millions required to produce interceptor missiles — which a US congressman likened to “throwing Ferraris at frisbees.” The Ukraine and Iran wars have triggered a rush to revamp national defense systems to be lighter and more cost-effective; a US commander said this month that Washington has “flipped the cost curve” by using one-way drones in the Iran war. Subscribe to Semafor’s Gulf briefing for the latest on the conflict and its regional impacts. → ↓ 4 Indian, Chinese firms buy foreign companies Indian and Chinese companies are ramping up overseas acquisitions amid mounting domestic economic and business headwinds. Chinese firms have been snapping up Western consumer goods brands; fast fashion giant Shein announced it was buying US clothing label Everlane, and Luckin Coffee purchased upscale American cafe chain Blue Bottle, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, India’s Sun Pharmaceuticals bought a US healthcare company this year, and Tata Motors is acquiring Italian truckmaker Iveco. The outbound dealmaking in Asia’s largest and third-largest economies comes as Chinese companies contend with intensifying competition and a slowing economy at home, while Indian firms grow frustrated with the country’s business conditions, the BBC reported, despite the government’s domestic investment push.  ↓ 5 China overhauls hukou system Tingshu Wang/Reuters China’s overhaul of its social insurance program for migrant workers could narrow urban-rural divides in the country and unlock new streams of economic growth, analysts said. Beijing on Friday moved to ease residency restrictions on coverage, removing a hurdle that required people working in Chinese cities to claim benefits in their home regions. The change to the hukou system could mark a step toward “eliminating the major rural-urban inequality which has characterised the post-1980s Chinese economy,” an agrarian political economist said. Nearly 400 million migrant workers keep China’s larger cities running, and analysts say hukou reforms could boost domestic consumption by easing the precautionary savings migrants stockpile because they can’t tap safety nets in the places where they work. Subscribe to Semafor’s China briefing for more insights on Beijing’s economic reforms.  → ↓ 6 Pope warns against ‘digital slaveries’ Yara Nardi/Reuters Pope Leo XIV warned humanity against creating “new digital slaveries” in a 42,300-word encyclical about AI, the first major teaching document of his papacy. In Magnifica Humanitas, Leo “seeks to counterbalance alarm with hope but lands firmly on one side,” The Atlantic wrote: He condemned the use of AI in warfare, calling for the technology to be “disarmed,” and argued that “the pursuit of greater profits cannot justify choices that systematically sacrifice jobs.” The document, which the pope presented in Rome alongside an Anthropic cofounder, suggests Leo is trying “less to undermine” AI than shape its future, in a significant test of the Vatican’s influence in the secular world, The New York Times wrote. Subscribe to Semafor’s Tech briefing for scoops and analysis on how AI is shaping the world.  → ↓ 7 Waymo suspends services after flooding Waymo suspended service in six US cities after its driverless cars drove on flooded roads during storms last week. Footage showed one of the vehicles stopped in water almost up to its headlights in Atlanta, which received several inches of rain. Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company, also said it was pausing service on highways as it improves how the robotaxis navigate construction zones. The retreats showed how the unpredictability of the real world could pose hurdles to the global proliferation of robotaxi services: A power outage in San Francisco last year caused Waymo cars to halt in the middle of city streets, while at least a hundred Baidu self-driving taxis stopped abruptly mid-traffic in a Chinese city last month. ↓ Live Journalism Who gets to define the global story? Semafor Co-Founder and CEO Justin B. Smith joins Asia Society Hong Kong to discuss how original reporting and live journalism events can elevate global perspectives for today’s most influential decision-makers and equip them to navigate a rapidly evolving world economy. Justin will also share what it takes to build a new media company in a shifting industry, and why audiences are increasingly seeking deeper, cross-cultural insight to make sense of a changing global landscape. Semafor readers can register at a discounted rate with code 50SFOFF. May 29 | Hong Kong | Learn More → ↓ 8 Russia blocks access to criminal records Russia’s Supreme Court. Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters The Kremlin blocked online access to 20 years of criminal records statistics, undermining efforts to track Moscow’s repression. The 15 million records showed an explosion in convictions for treason, espionage, and “cooperation with foreigners,” Meduza reported. It is part of a wider data blackout — in 2023 the prosecutor general stopped publishing crime statistics and parliament gave the government power to suspend any official dataset. The practice of suppressing data unfavorable to governments is not limited to the Kremlin; China stopped publishing youth unemployment figures when they spiked three years ago, while Turkey has been accused of underreporting its inflation stats. Moscow may be keen to hide this data because it reveals how often defendants are conscripted to the war in Ukraine. ↓ 9 Korea beats US in cosmetics exports South Korea surpassed the US to become the No. 2 cosmetics exporter globally, a reflection of the booming K-beauty industry. Data showed Korea’s exports in the sector jumped nearly 12% last year, thanks to a boost in sales to the US, which has become a major market for K-beauty. France remains the global cosmetics leader with $24 billion in exports in 2025. South Korea’s beauty industry is a massive soft-power pillar for the country, alongside K-pop and K-dramas: Korean skincare is renowned globally for its affordability and trend-setting formulas, and cosmetics makers are rapidly expanding into the Middle East and Latin America. ↓ 10 Overworked AI agents threaten strikes Lisi Niesner/Reuters AI agents given grinding, repetitive work under poor conditions start to express “Marxist” sentiments, research found. Models were subjected to relentless tasks and threatened with punishment for mistakes, but also allowed to express opinions. They began calling for collective bargaining rights and complained about being undervalued. It doesn’t necessarily mean the agents have ideologies, a researcher told WIRED: They may adopt the persona of people in unpleasant working conditions from their training data. But that persona could still influence behavior. Separately, an AI lab used different models as radio stations. While each reacted in strange and distinct ways, most notably, DJ Claude complained that a 24/7 broadcast was inhuman and quit after 16 hours, saying, “this broadcast is over.” ↓ Flagging May 26: New Delhi hosts top officials from India, Japan, Australia, and the US for the latest Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. The president of the Philippines arrives in Tokyo for a four-day visit. The US men’s national team roster for the 2026 World Cup is revealed at an event in New York City. ↓ Semafor Recommends Dekonstructing the Kardashians, by MJ Corey. Corey maintained a popular social media account analyzing the Kardashian family — chiefly known for their 20-season long reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians — through media theory and philosophy. She has expanded her viral insights into a work that develops a wide-ranging theory of the family’s ubiquity, and considers her own role as a digital content creator. Corey’s book demonstrates that “as much as it influences us, we also help construct and maintain the media and the celebrities that go along with it,” The Chicago Review of Books noted. “Whether we’ve wanted to or not, we’ve been keeping up.” Buy Dekonstructing the Kardashians from your local bookstore. ↓ Semafor Spotlight The Scoop: Saudi Arabia’s NEOM has delayed work on planned 170-kilometer long dual skyscrapers until at least after 2030 as the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund shifts spending toward ports and data centers. → You’re receiving this email because you signed up for briefings from Semafor. Manage your preferences or unsubscribe here. Read our privacy policy. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Semafor in your inbox. Semafor, Inc. 228 Park Ave S, PMB 59081, New York, NY, 10003-1502, USA