Flagship

Trump’s day-one flurry

US President Donald Trump signed a bevy of executive orders, declared two national emergencies, and insisted his term would reverse a nationwide decline. Trump rescinded dozens of his predecessor’s policies on issues ranging from electric vehicles to gender identification, signed orders withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, which was widely expected, and the World Health Organization, which was not, and pardoned almost all of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. His flurry of actions was notable, however, for what was not included: Trump said little about tax cuts, and though he created an “External Revenue Service” and spoke of raising tariffs on Canada and Mexico, did not actually levy any immediately.

Congress to slow president

US President Donald Trump’s political urgency — exemplified by his spate of executive orders — may be partly undone by a more languid Congress. Lawmakers are moving more slowly than the president on the Republican agenda, Semafor’s congressional bureau chief wrote, with approval of much of his cabinet likely to be “a grind,” and the details of his energy, immigration, and tax policies causing disagreement in both legislative chambers. An early challenge will be raising the country’s debt ceiling: Officials enacted “extraordinary measures” to avoid a default that would otherwise have taken place today, and while Trump has said he wants to see the limit raised, Republicans have previously clashed over the issue.

Trump’s foreign policy continuity

US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy so far looks much more like a continuation of Joe Biden’s than his rhetoric would suggest. “The two administrations could hardly have been more different in style,” Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security, wrote in Foreign Affairs: Trump touts “America first,” whereas Biden stressed the benefits of cooperation. But Trump looks likely to maintain support for Ukraine and Taiwan, while Biden maintained Trump’s previous overtures towards Saudi Arabia. The new Trump administration’s approach to Israel will “likely be broadly similar,” as it will be to China. Close alliances with Australia, India, Japan, and the UK will continue, and both men “share a fondness for… economic protectionism.”

Davos’ non-attendance

The declared theme of the World Economic Forum at Davos will be dominated as much by who is not there as who is. Several key world leaders — including those of Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, and the US — will not be in attendance. The only G7 leader present will be Germany’s Olaf Scholz, CNBC reported. Davos feels less relevant than it has in the past, Semafor’s Liz Hoffman wrote: The consensus around economic liberalism is fracturing, and Davos must “embrace the change or fade into irrelevance.” Attendees are responding to the new political climate, too: They are less likely to “tout diversity initiatives” and instead are talking about immigration and tax reform.

Gaza’s respite

Gaza received much-needed humanitarian aid as an uneasy truce took hold in the Palestinian territory. More than 600 trucks carrying a range of essentials entered the enclave on the first full day of the ceasefire, in the biggest single deployment of supplies since Israel’s war began there 15 months ago. “The market is now full,” one Gaza City resident told The National, which reported that prices for basic goods had dropped since Sunday’s truce began. Still, Gaza faces an enormous task in rebuilding: The southern city of Rafa is “mostly flattened,” according to The New York Times. US President Donald Trump, whose envoy helped negotiate the truce, said he was “not confident” it would hold.

Violence surges in South Sudan

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir imposed a curfew on parts of the country, in response to violence against businesses and homes owned by people from neighboring Sudan. At least three people were killed in reprisals after footage was published allegedly showing Sudanese soldiers shooting South Sudanese civilians. The ongoing conflict in Sudan has forced almost 15 million people to be displaced, many of them seeking refuge in their southern neighbor, one of the poorest countries in the world. The violence in South Sudan could spark conflict between both countries, which were unified until 2011 when the south broke away after decades of civil war.

Milei oversees trade boom

Argentina registered a record $19 billion trade surplus, the latest sign of the country’s economic transformation under President Javier Milei. In his first year in power, Milei has slashed inflation and tamed runaway public spending, helping Argentina achieve its first budget surplus in decades. Despite the economic pain — more than 53% of the population is living in poverty, up from 42% in 2023 — Milei’s approval rating remains high. However growth remains lackluster, while a law granting him exceptional powers expires in June. “The public’s tolerance for weak growth, high unemployment and poverty will not last forever, even if inflation has been wrestled down,” The Economist wrote.

Join us for our largest convening at Davos yet, featuring a world-class lineup of live journalism at the World Economic Forum 2025. Semafor editors will meet industry leaders to discuss key themes, including global finance, the blockchain, AI in the Gulf, Africa’s growth trajectory, and much more.

Huawei challenges Nvidia

Huawei is aiming to grab some of China’s lucrative artificial- intelligence chip market from Nvidia. AI relies on high-end processing units both for its training and for its “inference,” the computations it does to generate a response to a prompt. Nvidia dominates the training market, but Huawei is optimistic that it can win a larger segment of inference: “Training is important, but it only occurs a few times,” one researcher told the Financial Times. “Inference… will serve more customers.” Huawei’s plan is backed by Beijing, which is urging local firms to buy the Chinese firm’s Ascend chips rather than Nvidia’s. US sanctions prevent the export of Nvidia’s most cutting-edge chips to China.

Obesity drugs’ wider impacts

Obesity drugs such as Wegovy are associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s, addiction problems, and a wide range of other issues, but a raised risk of certain health conditions. A study of 2 million US patients found that those on GLP-1 drugs for obesity or diabetes had lower rates of 42 health conditions out of 175 studied, but were more likely to report pancreatitis, arthritis, and 17 other problems. An estimated one in eight Americans have taken the drugs, so their wider health effects are of great importance, but a researcher told Nature to be cautious of interpreting the findings: The study is observational, and cannot prove that the drugs cause the changes rather than just correlating with them.

Paris medalists complain

More than 100 medal winners at last summer’s Paris Olympics have complained their medals are crumbling, drawing criticism for their manufacturer, the luxury fashion house LVMH. One US athlete said his bronze medal began deteriorating just days after he received it, while two French swimmers displayed theirs — clearly flaking — on social media. The New York Times noted that earlier Olympics had also seen complaints over the quality of medals, but LVMH’s prominent role in the Paris Games has led to particularly intense scrutiny of the firm, which has not commented so far. The medals’ designer himself acknowledged in the runup to the event that the bronze medals, which have received the most complaints, were “the most difficult.”

• Britain’s Prince Harry’s lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers opens in London.
• The Slovak parliament is due to hold a vote of no confidence in the government.
• The Berlin Film Festival announces which movies will take part this year.

The temperature in degrees Celsius (180 million Fahrenheit) of the plasma inside the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, China’s experimental fusion reactor. The reactor maintained that temperature — six times hotter than the core of the Sun — for 1,066 seconds, breaking its own record of 403 seconds. Being able to hold fusion steady for prolonged periods so that it can maintain a self-sustaining reaction is vital if the technology is to become a viable source of energy.

Wingspan by Stonemaier Games. The New York Times’ Wirecutter team named this “unique, bird-themed” game one of its boardgames of 2024: It is “simply delightful to play,” the writers said, as well as being “beautiful enough to hang on the wall.” It won a prize at the prestigious Spiel des Jahres awards: “Be prepared to audibly gasp, Instagram everything, and wonder aloud if you’ll end up purchasing the cards as prints,” said Wirecutter. Buy Wingspan on Amazon.

The key Washington lobbying group for news organizations and publishers is gearing up for legal action against a major artificial intelligence company that it believes has been egregiously copying publisher content to power its large language model, Semafor’s Max Tani scooped.

Proponents of the move said that the current ambiguity of laws around copyright infringement by AI necessitates legal action by news publishers who feel that many LLMs have been trained on their work without any (or adequate) compensation.