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Bosnia issues international arrest warrant for Serb leader Dodik

Bosnia issues international arrest warrant for Serb leader Dodik

Yahoo27-03-2025
Bosnia issued an international arrest warrant Thursday for Milorad Dodik, the leader of the deeply divided country's Serb statelet who is accused of flouting the constitution.
Dodik, who for years has led a campaign chipping away at the Balkan country's weak central institutions, denounced the warrant as an "abuse of the justice system for political ends" while on a visit to Israel.
A similar arrest warrant was issued for the speaker of the Serb entity Republika Srpska's (RS) assembly, Nenad Stevandic, who returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina on March 18 after a visit to Serbia.
Since the end of the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia has been split into two semi-autonomous halves -- the Republika Srpska and a Muslim-Croat federation. Both have their own governments and parliaments and share weak central institutions.
The prosecutor's office said warrants were issued for Dodik and Stevandic for "using their high-ranking positions in the Republika Srpska entity" to go abroad "while evading legally prescribed border control procedures".
After travelling to Israel on Tuesday to attend an international conference on combating anti-Semitism attended by European far-right figures, Dodik said he was "relaxed" about the warrant.
"Nothing surprising. The abuse of the justice system for political ends continues," he said from Jerusalem on Wednesday, alleging that the purpose of the warrant was "to isolate me".
Without giving details on his coming schedule, Dodik hinted that he had "some very important activities" planned in the coming days.
The RS leader, who is an ally of the Kremlin, had postponed a trip to Moscow last week.
"We will do all that and return to the RS in a calm manner next week," Dodik said.
- 'Grounds for action' -
Dodik has threatened to secede the Serb entity from Bosnia and barred central police and judicial officials from working there -- an order that was suspended by the constitutional court.
Dodik, Stevandic and RS Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic are accused of attacking the constitutional order, and an arrest warrant was issued within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Dodik and Stevandic then defied this by travelling abroad.
"All of this suggests that both individuals could be abroad at any given moment, which provides grounds for action," the State Court said in a statement, adding that it had issued an international arrest order and the matter was now in Interpol's hands.
Stevandic was seen in the Serbian capital Belgrade on March 15.
Tensions have soared in Bosnia since Dodik was sentenced last month to a year in prison and handed a six-year ban from public office for defying Christian Schmidt, the international envoy charged with overseeing the peace deal that ended Bosnia's inter-ethnic war in the 1990s.
Bosnia's divided politics and fragile post-war institutions have faced increasing uncertainty amid the unfolding political crisis.
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Trump tariffs live updates: EU readies its reprisals as Trump pushes for higher tariffs; US-India deal stalls
Trump tariffs live updates: EU readies its reprisals as Trump pushes for higher tariffs; US-India deal stalls

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Trump tariffs live updates: EU readies its reprisals as Trump pushes for higher tariffs; US-India deal stalls

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The US determined that China, which dominates the processing capacity of graphite, had been unfairly subsidizing the industry. Graphite is a key raw material in the anodes of electric-vehicle batteries. About two-thirds of the material imported by the US still came from China last year. Read more here. China: Trade talks show there's no need for tariff war Reuters reports: Read more here. US set to impose 93.5% tariff on key battery material from China Bloomberg reports that the Commerce Department imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on Chinese imports of graphite, a key battery component, after concluding the materials had been unfairly subsidized. From Bloomberg: Read more here. Trump Tariff added $115M in aluminum costs for largest US producer The largest producer of aluminum in the US, Alcoa Corp., claims that tariffs cost it $115 million in Q2. 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The New Jersey-based company estimates that the Brazil tariffs would increase its costs for not-from-concentrate orange juice from Brazil by $68 million over the next 12 months and raise retail costs for consumers between 20-25%. According to the complaint, Brazil supplies more than half of all orange juice sold in the US. Read more here. Orange juice prices join the list of products that could see price increases as a result of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Bloomberg reports: A US orange juice distributor is suing over President Donald Trump's move to impose a 50% tariff on Brazil starting next month. Johanna Foods Inc. is arguing that Trump's reasons for the levy increase — including support for Brazil's former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro — don't present 'unusual and extraordinary' threats that give him emergency authority to circumvent Congress' taxing power. The New Jersey-based company estimates that the Brazil tariffs would increase its costs for not-from-concentrate orange juice from Brazil by $68 million over the next 12 months and raise retail costs for consumers between 20-25%. According to the complaint, Brazil supplies more than half of all orange juice sold in the US. Read more here. Brazil acknowledges possibility of no US trade deal by August 1 President Trump's August 1 tariff deadline is steadily approaching, and trading partners are preparing for multiple outcomes. Brazil, for example, is increasingly open to the possibility that a trade deal won't be reached in time. Reuters reported: Read more here. President Trump's August 1 tariff deadline is steadily approaching, and trading partners are preparing for multiple outcomes. Brazil, for example, is increasingly open to the possibility that a trade deal won't be reached in time. Reuters reported: Read more here. US steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs touts 'positive impact' of tariffs Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) CEO Lourenco Goncalves praised President Trump's protectionist policies on Monday, stating that the 25%-50% tariffs on foreign steel imports have had a "positive impact" on the US steel and automotive industries. The Section 232 steel tariffs "have played a significant role in supporting the domestic steel industry," Goncalves said during the company's earnings call. 'So far, there's no indication that the Section 232 tariffs will be used as a bargaining chip by the Trump administration as leverage in trade deals with other countries," Goncalves added. "We appreciate that and fully expect that the administration will keep in place and enforce these Section 232 tariffs." Goncalves said the only place where it's having a problem is with Stelco, the Canadian steel company it acquired in November 2024. The CEO urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to implement similar protectionist policies, saying that other efforts to curb unfair trade practices were "insufficient." Cleveland-Cliffs stock soared 11% in early trading Monday after the company reported record steel shipments of 4.3 million net tons for the three months ended June 30. Read more about how Cleveland-Cliffs' stock is trading. Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) CEO Lourenco Goncalves praised President Trump's protectionist policies on Monday, stating that the 25%-50% tariffs on foreign steel imports have had a "positive impact" on the US steel and automotive industries. The Section 232 steel tariffs "have played a significant role in supporting the domestic steel industry," Goncalves said during the company's earnings call. 'So far, there's no indication that the Section 232 tariffs will be used as a bargaining chip by the Trump administration as leverage in trade deals with other countries," Goncalves added. "We appreciate that and fully expect that the administration will keep in place and enforce these Section 232 tariffs." Goncalves said the only place where it's having a problem is with Stelco, the Canadian steel company it acquired in November 2024. The CEO urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to implement similar protectionist policies, saying that other efforts to curb unfair trade practices were "insufficient." Cleveland-Cliffs stock soared 11% in early trading Monday after the company reported record steel shipments of 4.3 million net tons for the three months ended June 30. Read more about how Cleveland-Cliffs' stock is trading. Bessent: Trump more concerned about quality of deals than making deals by Aug. 1 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said the US wouldn't rush to make trade deals ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline for many of President Trump's sweeping tariffs to kick in. "We're not going to rush for the sake of doing deals," Bessent told CNBC in an interview. More from Reuters: Read more here. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said the US wouldn't rush to make trade deals ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline for many of President Trump's sweeping tariffs to kick in. "We're not going to rush for the sake of doing deals," Bessent told CNBC in an interview. More from Reuters: Read more here. More signs that Europe is hardening its stance We detailed earlier (keep scrolling) how the EU is readying its plans for retaliation in case a trade deal with the US fails. The Wall Street Journal has a big report out today with some more details of those plans — and details on how delicate negotiations are on even thinner ice, as President Trump keeps wanting more. The report said the EU got a "surprise" when US officials said Trump would want a higher baseline tariff in any deal, likely north of 15%, after months of talks around a 10% baseline. That apparently prompted Germany, Europe's largest economy, to swing to more of an alignment with France, which has been pushing a harder line throughout the negotiations. 'All options are on the table,' a German official said. The official said there was still time to negotiate a deal but added, 'If they want war, they will get war.' More from the report: Read more here. We detailed earlier (keep scrolling) how the EU is readying its plans for retaliation in case a trade deal with the US fails. The Wall Street Journal has a big report out today with some more details of those plans — and details on how delicate negotiations are on even thinner ice, as President Trump keeps wanting more. The report said the EU got a "surprise" when US officials said Trump would want a higher baseline tariff in any deal, likely north of 15%, after months of talks around a 10% baseline. That apparently prompted Germany, Europe's largest economy, to swing to more of an alignment with France, which has been pushing a harder line throughout the negotiations. 'All options are on the table,' a German official said. The official said there was still time to negotiate a deal but added, 'If they want war, they will get war.' More from the report: Read more here. Stellantis warns of $2.7B loss as tariffs bite Big Three automaker Stellantis (STLA) warned on Monday that it expects a 2.3 billion euro ($2.7 billion) net loss for the first half of 2025, hit by restructuring costs, ebbing sales, and an initial hit from US tariffs. The Chrysler maker's US-listed shares slipped nearly 2% in premarket, mirroring a drop in its stock in Milan. Reuters reports: Read more here. Big Three automaker Stellantis (STLA) warned on Monday that it expects a 2.3 billion euro ($2.7 billion) net loss for the first half of 2025, hit by restructuring costs, ebbing sales, and an initial hit from US tariffs. The Chrysler maker's US-listed shares slipped nearly 2% in premarket, mirroring a drop in its stock in Milan. Reuters reports: Read more here. EU to prepare its retaliation plan as US hardens its stance on trade talks EU negotiators are scrambling to make a trade agreement with the US as the Aug. 1 tariff deadline closes in. But they are also stepping up preparations to strike back if the two sides fail to secure a deal. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. EU negotiators are scrambling to make a trade agreement with the US as the Aug. 1 tariff deadline closes in. But they are also stepping up preparations to strike back if the two sides fail to secure a deal. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Lutnick 'confident' US will get tariffs deal done with EU before Aug. 1 deadline WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday he was confident the United States can secure a trade deal with the European Union, but August 1 is a hard deadline for tariffs to kick in. Lutnick said he had just gotten off the phone with European trade negotiators and there was "plenty of room" for agreement. "These are the two biggest trading partners in the world, talking to each other. We'll get a deal done. I am confident we'll get a deal done," Lutnick said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation." President Donald Trump threatened on July 12 to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the major U.S. trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. Lutnick said that was a hard deadline. "Nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1, but they're going to start paying the tariffs on August 1," he said on CBS. Read more here WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday he was confident the United States can secure a trade deal with the European Union, but August 1 is a hard deadline for tariffs to kick in. Lutnick said he had just gotten off the phone with European trade negotiators and there was "plenty of room" for agreement. "These are the two biggest trading partners in the world, talking to each other. We'll get a deal done. I am confident we'll get a deal done," Lutnick said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation." President Donald Trump threatened on July 12 to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the major U.S. trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. Lutnick said that was a hard deadline. "Nothing stops countries from talking to us after August 1, but they're going to start paying the tariffs on August 1," he said on CBS. Read more here Trump's tariffs are already shaping the holiday shopping season NEW YORK (AP) — With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It's less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices. But President Donald Trump's vacillating trade policies have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff rates the president sets, postpones and revises. 'The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we're ordering, where we're bringing it in, when it's going to get here,' Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. 'We don't know which items we're going to have to put in the catalog or not." Months of confusion over which foreign countries' goods may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. U.S. retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations. Read more here NEW YORK (AP) — With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It's less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices. But President Donald Trump's vacillating trade policies have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff rates the president sets, postpones and revises. 'The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we're ordering, where we're bringing it in, when it's going to get here,' Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. 'We don't know which items we're going to have to put in the catalog or not." Months of confusion over which foreign countries' goods may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. U.S. retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations. Read more here Hawaii coffee growers say Trump tariffs may curb demand (Bloomberg) — Hawaiian coffee farmers have a message for President Donald Trump: Steep tariffs on major exporters such as Brazil will end up hurting them, too. Hawaii at first glance might seem the obvious beneficiary of tariffs on coffee. It is the only state in the country where the tropical goods grow, with the vast majority of java imbibed by Americans imported from South America and Vietnam. Higher priced foreign imports should, in theory, make the island state's products comparatively more affordable. But growers say the opposite is true: rising prices across the board will hit consumers already struggling with inflation, curbing demand on everything from popular everyday roasts available at grocery stores to luxury Kona beans. While the discourse around trade and Trump's 'Buy American' mantra could draw attention to Hawaiian goods, the upshot for the state's farmers is that 'tariffs will probably will hurt us as much as it would hurt the mainland roasters,' said Suzanne Shriner, the vice president of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association and the president of Lions Gate Farms. Read more here (Bloomberg) — Hawaiian coffee farmers have a message for President Donald Trump: Steep tariffs on major exporters such as Brazil will end up hurting them, too. Hawaii at first glance might seem the obvious beneficiary of tariffs on coffee. It is the only state in the country where the tropical goods grow, with the vast majority of java imbibed by Americans imported from South America and Vietnam. Higher priced foreign imports should, in theory, make the island state's products comparatively more affordable. But growers say the opposite is true: rising prices across the board will hit consumers already struggling with inflation, curbing demand on everything from popular everyday roasts available at grocery stores to luxury Kona beans. While the discourse around trade and Trump's 'Buy American' mantra could draw attention to Hawaiian goods, the upshot for the state's farmers is that 'tariffs will probably will hurt us as much as it would hurt the mainland roasters,' said Suzanne Shriner, the vice president of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association and the president of Lions Gate Farms. Read more here Trump pushes for 15%-20% minimum tariff on all EU goods President Trump appears to have settled on a tariff rate on all EU member countries, according to reports. Financial Times reports: Read more (subscription required). President Trump appears to have settled on a tariff rate on all EU member countries, according to reports. Financial Times reports: Read more (subscription required). Battery materials stocks jump after US lays out 93.5% graphite duty Bloomberg reports: Stocks of battery material makers climbed after the US announced it would impose preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on graphite imports from China. Shares of Australian graphite miner Syrah Resources Ltd. (SYAAF) surged as much as 38%, while shares of South Korea's Posco Future M Co. ( climbed 24%. Novonix Ltd. (NVNXF), an Australian-listed company with a graphite production plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, surged 21%. Gains in these and other Asian stocks tracked earlier jumps in Canadian peers including Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. (NMG) The Commerce Department issued the preliminary determination Thursday, and a final plan should be announced by Dec. 5. The US determined that China, which dominates the processing capacity of graphite, had been unfairly subsidizing the industry. Graphite is a key raw material in the anodes of electric-vehicle batteries. About two-thirds of the material imported by the US still came from China last year. Read more here. Bloomberg reports: Stocks of battery material makers climbed after the US announced it would impose preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on graphite imports from China. Shares of Australian graphite miner Syrah Resources Ltd. (SYAAF) surged as much as 38%, while shares of South Korea's Posco Future M Co. ( climbed 24%. Novonix Ltd. (NVNXF), an Australian-listed company with a graphite production plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, surged 21%. Gains in these and other Asian stocks tracked earlier jumps in Canadian peers including Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc. (NMG) The Commerce Department issued the preliminary determination Thursday, and a final plan should be announced by Dec. 5. The US determined that China, which dominates the processing capacity of graphite, had been unfairly subsidizing the industry. Graphite is a key raw material in the anodes of electric-vehicle batteries. About two-thirds of the material imported by the US still came from China last year. Read more here. China: Trade talks show there's no need for tariff war Reuters reports: Read more here. Reuters reports: Read more here. US set to impose 93.5% tariff on key battery material from China Bloomberg reports that the Commerce Department imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on Chinese imports of graphite, a key battery component, after concluding the materials had been unfairly subsidized. From Bloomberg: Read more here. Bloomberg reports that the Commerce Department imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 93.5% on Chinese imports of graphite, a key battery component, after concluding the materials had been unfairly subsidized. From Bloomberg: Read more here. Trump Tariff added $115M in aluminum costs for largest US producer The largest producer of aluminum in the US, Alcoa Corp., claims that tariffs cost it $115 million in Q2. Bloomberg reports: Alcoa Corp., the largest US aluminum producer, said tariffs on imports from Canada cost it $115 million in the second quarter, showing how US President Donald Trump's trade agenda has affected the industry. The company redirected Canadian produced aluminum to customers outside the US to mitigate additional tariff costs, it said Wednesday while reporting earnings that beat analyst estimates. Alcoa shares rose as much as 6.4% Thursday in New York, the biggest intraday increase since June 26. Metal producers are navigating the trade tumult Trump created after raising import tariffs on steel and aluminum, first to 25% in March and then to 50% in June, in an effort to revive domestic production. Alcoa's latest toll from tariffs is about six times more than in the first quarter when the Pittsburgh-based firm said the levies, which were then 25%, had cost it an additional $20 million. Mining giant Rio Tinto Group also revealed Wednesday that its Canada-made aluminum generated costs of more than $300 million in the first half due to the tariffs. Read more here. The largest producer of aluminum in the US, Alcoa Corp., claims that tariffs cost it $115 million in Q2. Bloomberg reports: Alcoa Corp., the largest US aluminum producer, said tariffs on imports from Canada cost it $115 million in the second quarter, showing how US President Donald Trump's trade agenda has affected the industry. The company redirected Canadian produced aluminum to customers outside the US to mitigate additional tariff costs, it said Wednesday while reporting earnings that beat analyst estimates. Alcoa shares rose as much as 6.4% Thursday in New York, the biggest intraday increase since June 26. Metal producers are navigating the trade tumult Trump created after raising import tariffs on steel and aluminum, first to 25% in March and then to 50% in June, in an effort to revive domestic production. Alcoa's latest toll from tariffs is about six times more than in the first quarter when the Pittsburgh-based firm said the levies, which were then 25%, had cost it an additional $20 million. Mining giant Rio Tinto Group also revealed Wednesday that its Canada-made aluminum generated costs of more than $300 million in the first half due to the tariffs. Read more here. Nordic finance heads urge EU to stand firm in US trade talks Financial leaders in European Union member countries are clearly telling their peers to hold their ground and act fast in trade talks with the US. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. Financial leaders in European Union member countries are clearly telling their peers to hold their ground and act fast in trade talks with the US. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. EU lines up tariffs on US digital services as retaliation: Sources The European Commission is drawing up a list of measures against US services as part of its potential response to President Trump's 30% levies due to kick in on Aug. 1, sources told the Financial Times. The FT reports: Read more here. The European Commission is drawing up a list of measures against US services as part of its potential response to President Trump's 30% levies due to kick in on Aug. 1, sources told the Financial Times. The FT reports: Read more here. EU stalls probe into Musk's X amid US trade talks The EU seems to be treading carefully during negotiations to avoid a 30% tariff it sees as "prohibitive" to transatlantic trade. The Financial Times reports: Read more here. The EU seems to be treading carefully during negotiations to avoid a 30% tariff it sees as "prohibitive" to transatlantic trade. The Financial Times reports: Read more here. Volvo CEO wants EU to cut 'unnecessary' auto tariffs Reuters reports: Read more here. Reuters reports: Read more here. Trump eyes tariffs of 10% or 15% for the 150+ countries, muses on EU deal President Trump said the tariff rate could be 10% or 15% for the more than 150 countries he has promised will get a notification letter soon. Bloomberg reports: Read more here. President Trump said the tariff rate could be 10% or 15% for the more than 150 countries he has promised will get a notification letter soon. Bloomberg reports: Read more here.

The metamorphosis of Shaun Maguire
The metamorphosis of Shaun Maguire

Business Insider

time21 minutes ago

  • Business Insider

The metamorphosis of Shaun Maguire

Shaun Maguire wanted New York City voters to know about the dangers ahead. On July 4, the general partner at the industry-leading Sequoia Capital posted on X that Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was a secret "Islamist" who "comes from a culture of lying." Mamdani, he added, "has basically advocated for the destruction of America." The comments were not unusual for Maguire, a self-described moderate former Hillary Clinton voter who has become a full-throated MAGA convert, defender of Israel, and one of the most provocative right-wing political commentators among an increasingly right-leaning group of venture capitalists and founders. This time, though, the social-media dam broke, bringing a flood of critical comments from startup founders and tech workers. Hundreds of Muslim founders signed an open letter asking that Sequoia apologize and discipline Maguire. At the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference, the annual " summer camp for billionaires" in Idaho, Sequoia's managing partner Roelof Botha was hounded with questions about Maguire, The New York Times reported. Several other people I spoke to — including Maguire's friends, colleagues, and executives from a Sequoia limited partner and a Sequoia portfolio company — wondered what might happen to tech's new leading controversialist. More broadly, the ongoing fury over Maguire's posts reflects a tech industry riven by subterranean faultlines over Israel and whether venture capitalists should be funding companies involved in what a UN Special Committee and several other international organizations have deemed a genocide in Gaza. Those disagreements, which have been tamped down by some Muslim tech workers' fear of losing their jobs or funding, are now exploding into the open. Osman "Ozzie" Osman, the founder of financial planning app Monarch Money, wrote on X that Sequoia Capital was "OK with racism and Islamophobia." "It just feels asymmetric," Osman wrote to me in a message. "People who feel unhappy about the devastation in Gaza are scared to speak up," he said. "Meanwhile, someone like Shaun can repeatedly make bigoted statements like this one with no ramifications." He added, "I'm just surprised Sequoia tolerates these sorts of statements." Powerful industry figures like Elon Musk, Joe Lonsdale, and Keith Rabois, meanwhile, came to Maguire's defense. "Shaun Maguire is brave," wrote Josh Wolfe, a cofounder of Luxe Capital. Hundreds of technologists signed an open letter of support that called Maguire a "principled thinker and a partner to countless founders who span geographies, faiths, and political beliefs." Maguire, who has taunted his critics and journalists on X, forwarded a request for an interview to Sequoia's communications team, which did not respond to requests for comment. "I don't think it's harmed his deal flow," a venture capitalist who's worked with Maguire told me. "In many cases it's probably been helpful, especially in this whole category of American resilience tech." And Maguire keeps posting. Two days after he called Mamdani an Islamist, he shared a 28-minute video to X in which he apologized to any Muslims who were offended, and then proceeded to lay out a case for why he was right. "I think Zohran Mamdani is a wolf in sheep's clothing," he said. He explained that he had done a huge amount of research on Islamism and the Iranian revolution, visited mosques in 30 countries, and fasted for Ramadan. He said that he was kidnapped by a Muslim man in Hyderabad, India. "I have gone to extreme lengths to understand this conflict," Maguire said. "I don't think it's harmed his deal flow. In many cases it's probably been helpful, especially in this whole category of American resilience tech." For Maguire, who worked on a DARPA (Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) program as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan, the conflict is between radical Islam and the West — a rhetorical throwback to the Bush-era war on terror, this time with tech startups churning out drones and surveillance systems. "I am personally very worried about what's happening in the West," he said in the video. "I really do believe that we have pretty major sleeper cell infiltration." Taking the viewer through a series of tabs in his web browser, Maguire dove into the background of Mahmood Mamdani, Zohran's father, a professor of anthropology at Columbia University. Maguire unspooled a string of epithets — not all of them negative — to describe the relatively obscure academic: He was a member of an "ideological sleeper cell," "a mastermind," "a genius," and "one of the architects of the anti-Israel movement in America." Maguire seemed to think that his son, the Democratic mayoral nominee, was at best an unwitting accomplice to the sort of political Islam that swept through Iran in the 1979 revolution. Maguire's wife's family, who is Jewish, fled revolutionary Iran. He closed by asking for advice. "If someone has a suggestion about how to criticize Islamists and call out the risk and danger of Islamism in the West without lumping in Muslims more broadly, I would really like the feedback." On X, the video was received with more condemnation from a growing chorus of critics and cheers from pro-MAGA tech accounts. "Never back down," he wrote to one booster. Maguire, who is 39, has described himself as growing up fascinated by computers but indifferent to schoos. He found his academic stride at the University of Southern California and Stanford, before enrolling in a Ph.D. program at Caltech, where he studied quantum physics, participated in student government, and explored startup ideas with peers. Friends from the time recall him as "pragmatic," with a sense of quantitative rigor, interested in where the facts would take him. He did not come across as very political — a centrist, perhaps. He was a good communicator, able to explain scientific and technical concepts to a lay audience, and he was driven. Maguire lived about 30 miles from the Caltech campus, and once in a while he would commute on foot, running the distance, a former colleague recalled. Maguire finished 22nd in the 2011 Marine Corps marathon, and he ran another marathon in the sweltering heat at Burning Man. In 2011, Maguire put his Ph.D. on hold to become a civilian employee for DARPA in Afghanistan. He was recruited, he told an interviewer for a Caltech history project, by DARPA's director Regina Dugan, a Caltech alumnus. As part of DARPA's Memex program, an initiative to collect and make search tools for data beyond the surface web, Maguire's group mapped internet-connected devices to form a picture of what was connected to a military network and what was but shouldn't be. Maguire has spoken proudly about his work in Afghanistan, posting pictures of himself riding in a military helicopter and telling Blackwater founder Erik Prince on X that he trained at one of his facilities. In a 45-minute video he released in response to a New York Times article last week, Maguire said that he was once woken up by the pressure wave from a deadly suicide bombing. He said that he was "one of about 50 people" who was getting "real-time translations" from the library of intelligence Seal Team 6 gathered from raiding Bin Laden's compound. "At no point did I ever hear anything like this back then," said someone who knew him in Afghanistan when told about Maguire's comments on Mamdani. This person asked not to be named, citing their ongoing relationship. "He seemed like a very reasonable, empathetic, competent scientist who embraced travel and being in foreign cultures." The former colleague described Maguire as having a sense of mission and being concerned about national security issues without seeming ideological. Afghanistan was another stop on the backpacker's adventure. Eventually, Maguire and some of his DARPA colleagues, including Tim Junio, a CIA analyst-turned-CEO, spun out a startup called Qadium, which worked with government and industry clients like Goldman Sachs to secure their systems. Peter Thiel's Founders Fund was an early backer. Qadium later rebranded itself as Expanse and was sold to cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks for about $1 billion in 2020. A VC who worked with Maguire and Qadium described him in admiring terms. "Shaun is somebody who just knows things," the VC said, saying that Maguire had an impressive depth of technical knowledge, with a sense for where business opportunities might lie. "Shaun's a smart person who thinks several steps ahead." Maguire, now rich, returned to Caltech to finish his Ph.D. and got a job with Google Ventures, or GV. He did well there, investing in Stripe, IonQ, and OpenDoor, but he wasn't promoted to general partner. Years later, Maguire claimed that he was denied a promotion because he was a white man. He attributed the decision to Google's leadership — a product of the supposed woke excesses that have triggered a reactionary tilt in some tech elites, from Musk on down. (A Google spokesperson told the New York Post at the time that Maguire's account was "completely untrue.") Maguire was prompted to share the story on X in 2024 after Google's Gemini AI generated images of America's founding fathers as black men. In 2019, Maguire jumped ship for tech's most storied VC firm, Sequoia Capital, with a recommendation from Stripe cofounder Patrick Collison. (After I posted on X that I was writing about Maguire, Collison sent me a direct message asking for a galley of my forthcoming book. He did not respond when I requested an interview and asked whether he helped Maguire get the Sequoia job.) "Back in 2016 I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was scared out of my mind about Trump," Maguire wrote in a May 2024 post endorsing Trump. At Sequoia, where he has the general partner position denied to him at GV, Maguire has become known for investing in Musk's companies, including the Twitter acquisition, The Boring Company, xAI, and SpaceX. On X, Maguire and Musk are chummy, sharing each other's posts and offering supportive emojis, especially when Western civilization is at stake. In a recent video, Maguire said that his paper returns for Sequoia were approaching $10 billion. "His status at the firm is predicated on his relationship with Elon. He's an Elon guy," said a vice president at one of Sequoia's limited partners. "He's made incredible returns on SpaceX and some of the other Elon-backed companies." Paul Biggar, a tech entrepreneur and the founder of Tech for Palestine, an incubator for activist groups involved with the open letter, has sparred with Maguire. "You may not know this... but I've been watching you 👀," Maguire recently wrote on X. Biggar called the message a threat and demanded that Sequoia investigate. Biggar thinks that Maguire's connection with Musk is overrated. "Sequoia doesn't need a racist partner to talk to Elon Musk," Biggar told me. Headed by Botha, PayPal's former CFO, Sequoia has no official political alignment; prominent partners like Doug Leone and Michael Moritz have been major donors to the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. "We're proud of the fact that we've enabled many of our partners to express their respective individual views along the way, and given them that freedom," Botha said at a conference last year. Sequoia seems to have kept a hands-off approach regarding Maguire's rising notoriety, and there may be little risk in doing so. "Given the way this progressed, and because Sequoia didn't shut this down super early, I don't think they could do anything about it at this point, even if they wanted to," said the VC who knows Maguire. "He's delivered good returns for Sequoia. Just because he has strong political views doesn't mean he's not meriting of a role as a partner there." Maguire is not alone in his views. Very much in line with a rising ethos in the VC and founder class, he holds himself out as a warrior on behalf of the American ideal, a patriot investing in the country and helping defend it from its enemies. The VC firm Andreessen Horowitz calls it American Dynamism. It's the same proudly jingoistic attitude seen in industry eminences like Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey. It's why Founders Fund is getting into the action-movie business. "Western Civilization is approaching the Event Horizon," Maguire recently wrote on X. "If we don't max thrust our boosters in the other direction we're not gonna make it." He wasn't always like this. People who knew him pointed to his GV experience and Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7 as milestones on his journey toward the inner circle of tech's new right-wing elite. Maguire has also written at length about his own political transformation. "Back in 2016 I had drunk the media Kool-Aid and was scared out of my mind about Trump," Maguire wrote in a May 2024 post endorsing Trump. "As such I donated to Hilary Clinton's campaign and voted for her." Maguire said that he didn't vote in 2020 and that he turned against the Biden administration after its withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan was accompanied by deadly bombings and the collapse of the US-installed government. After October 7, Maguire thought that the Biden administration was responding with weakness, especially toward Iran. "If you start looking, it's hard to see anything other than Iranian foreign influence in the Biden administration," Maguire wrote. By now Maguire's posts often came laden with MAGA shibboleths about the corrupt legacy media, anti-Trump lawfare, and woke politics. He touted a $300,000 donation he made to a pro-Donald Trump PAC last year. After Trump's election in November, he advised the president-elect on intelligence appointments. Maguire also began talking more publicly about his Judaism — he added the last name Cohn after getting married in 2018 — and his support for Zionism. (One colleague said that he had no idea Maguire was Jewish until he arrived at his wedding in Israel.) He became a leading tech voice agitating on behalf of Israeli war aims. After October 7, Sequoia opened an office in Israel, and Maguire traveled there regularly, leading investments in cybersecurity and military firms. Maguire helped lead a $10 million seed round in Kela, a defense tech company founded by what he and his colleagues called "technowarriors" from elite Israeli military units. Kela produces sensors and AI systems that have been deployed in Gaza — its website touts that its technology is "battle tested" — and reflects the increased interest from American VCs in Israeli startups closely tied to the country's ongoing war with Hamas and its occupation of the West Bank. "We at Sequoia had independently formed a thesis around Israeli defense tech," Maguire and two colleagues wrote in an article on Sequoia's website. "In the long term, the ambition is to convert Israel into a defense tech hub for Western militaries — a source of strategic advantage for NATO and the US as they seek to deter their adversaries." This thesis sits uncomfortably for some who don't share Maguire's politics. The last two years have been "extremely painful and just demoralizing," said Hosam Arab, the Palestinian founder of fintech startup Tabby, who signed the open letter to Sequoia management. He said that the tech industry has essentially proscribed pro-Palestinian activism while broadly supporting Israel. "You see what's happening on the ground and you just don't get the support," he said, speaking about the predicament for startup founders working in the US. "And you're worried about speaking out." (Tabby, which is based in the Middle East, has received investment capital from Sequoia India, which has since become independent of Sequoia Capital.) People aren't defending just Maguire, said an executive at a Sequoia portfolio company. "They're defending the privatization of western defense." Several Muslim and South Asian tech executives I talked to worried that they could be fired for posting pro-Palestinian messages on social media. They described a culture of fear in which they believe only the most successful — founders — could speak out without experiencing major blowback. One of them was Amjad Masad, CEO of billion-dollar AI coding startup Replit, who recently talked about Gaza during an appearance on Joe Rogan's show. On X, Maguire wrote that Masad, whose father is Palestinian, had lied to Rogan's vast audience about a massacre of Palestinians at an aid site. Masad shot back that Maguire's comment was "a slanderous lie," based on a misleading screenshot. Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois, who has compared Masad to a Nazi, later joined the digital melee, calling Masad a Hamas supporter. Khosla Ventures is an investor in Masad's company. "If you think I'm Hamas supporter why don't you do something about it. Or are you a coward?" wrote Masad. (Masad did not respond to a request for comment.) Among its investments, Sequoia has participated in two funding rounds for nsave, which provides digital banking services to people from "distressed economies," especially in the Middle East. The company was started by two Rhodes scholars from Syria and Gaza. Nsave's Palestinian cofounder Abdullah AbuHashem didn't respond to a request for comment. While Sequoia can likely weather the media storm, Muslim tech workers, including at Sequoia portfolio companies, are beginning to organize alongside like-minded allies. "We're producing groups that advocate for Palestine in some part of the ecosystem," said Biggar, likening Tech for Palestine to a Y Combinator for activist groups. Maguire's volubility has struck some observers as out of character with a VC class that once was expected to be quantitative, measured, profit-seeking — and politically agnostic. "I genuinely thought he was a shit poster," said an executive at a Sequoia portfolio company, who learned about Maguire through his X posts. "I had no idea he was an investor until very recently. I could not believe it. I thought this had to be a podcaster of some sort." The executive, who is an Indian Hindu, said that there was a certain broad acceptance that firms like Sequoia would do business in Israel. The issue, he argued, is that a general partner at Sequoia "visibly entering the end-of-days culture wars as a pundit" indicates that Sequoia might not just be following the money. "He actually is saying out loud what is coalescing into a real capital structure." The sectors Maguire invested in — cyber, space, crypto, defense tech — are part of "this new military-industrial complex which Sequoia is very much in the middle of." People aren't defending just Maguire, the executive said. "They're defending the privatization of western defense. They are defending the privatization of global citizens data in the form of Palantir and the massive ICE budget. That's what this debate is obscuring." With more than $85 billion in assets under management, Sequoia's decisions carry great industry weight, but the firm can afford to take its time. The VP from one of Sequoia's LPs told me that while some of Sequoia's backers might disagree with the company's policies, it's hard to exert influence. As the tech industry's leading VC, Sequoia had its pick of relationships, and potential LPs were eager to give the firm its money. "The Sequoia relationship is one where they have all the power." Maguire continues to post daily about the supposed dangerous, secret Islamism of Zohran Mamdani — and his father. "I have been fighting Islamist radicals for well more than a decade," Maguire said in his recent 45-minute response to the Times' article. "I have seen true evil up close and personal. I have been trained in identifying evil and terrorists. With Zohran Mamdani's father, Mahmood Mamdani, the evidence is extremely clear." If anything, Maguire seems unbowed, emboldened by the attention afforded to him. "Btw this me at 1% throttle," he wrote after the 4th of July furor. "i wish i could show u the unconstrained version." Jacob Silverman is the author of "Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection" and co-author of "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud," which was a New York Times Bestseller. His next book, "Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley," will be published by Bloomsbury in October.

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