Flagship

Shock at Trump’s Gaza plan

The Arab world reacted with shock to US President Donald Trump’s proposal that the US annex Gaza and move its citizens out. Alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump told reporters that Gaza had been a “symbol of death and destruction,” and that the people who have “lived a miserable existence there” should leave so that the US can turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Palestinian leaders rejected the idea, and Saudi Arabia said the plan was unacceptable, insisting it would not normalize ties with Israel — a key US priority — in the absence of a Palestinian state. “Mr Trump, it’s time for America to recognise Palestine,” a former Saudi ambassador to Washington wrote in The National.

Guantanamo deportations begin

The US began transporting detained migrants to its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as Washington expands its crackdown on migration. The move comes a day after the Trump administration said it would consider a proposal from El Salvador to send migrants there too. Mexico’s foreign minister — whose country makes up almost a quarter of all migrants in the US — said deportees should only be sent to their homelands. Beyond the human toll of transporting people to nations they haven’t lived in for years, if at all, mass deportations could have a major impact on Latin American economies: Mexicans in the US sent home a record $65 billion in remittances in 2024, making up around 3.6% of the country’s GDP.

US civil service chaos

The US civil service is in chaos as it scrabbles to adjust to the new administration’s demands. Two groups of FBI agents sued the justice department over plans to collect information on thousands of staffers who helped investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, while at least 20,000 government employees have taken a buyout aimed at slashing the workforce: The CIA, for example, offered redundancy to all its workers. Meanwhile, NASA issued a memo to staff telling them to “drop everything” and scrub mentions of terms including DEI, Indigenous people, environmental justice, and women in leadership from public-facing websites, 404 Media reported. All federal agencies are “facing an onslaught of changes,” The Verge wrote.

US-China trade curbs come into force

The US Postal Service stopped accepting parcels sent from Hong Kong and China as President Donald Trump’s trade curbs came into force. The new US tariff rules end the “de minimis” rule, a loophole that exempted packages valued at less than $800 from customs inspections and tariffs. The system had been in place since the 1930s in order to reduce bureaucracy, but has come into political focus as Chinese online retailers use it to ship goods to the US. It is also allegedly used for fentanyl trafficking. The number of items entering the US under de minimis rules rose more than sixfold between 2015 and 2023.

Trump backlash threatens tech giants

Tech leaders are facing a backlash after supporting the new US administration’s combative approach to foreign policy. Elon Musk’s Starlink was on the verge of signing a deal with South Africa to provide satellite internet, but officials delayed the plan after Musk and US President Donald Trump attacked Pretoria’s controversial racial equality laws. Canada ended its existing $68 million Starlink contract until US tariff threats are lifted. And the European Union plans retaliatory measures against Silicon Valley firms in response to expected tariffs on European goods, with officials telling the Financial Times that a regulatory “bazooka” — possibly involving the revocation of intellectual property rights, or bans on streaming services — could be deployed.

Nissan-Honda deal nears collapse

Honda’s merger with rival automaker Nissan — aimed at bolstering the Japanese automakers against competition from fast-growing Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers — was reportedly nearing collapse. The companies had said in December they were exploring joining forces to form the world’s third-largest carmaker. But negotiations stumbled over their competing visions for the future company, with Nikkei reporting that Honda proposed Nissan operate as its subsidiary, a suggestion the smaller firm rejected. Legacy automakers have been caught flat-footed by the swift rise of Chinese EV manufacturers which have braved cutthroat competition at home and are now rapidly expanding abroad.

Spotify turns a profit, finally

Spotify recorded its first annual profit in its 16-year history after adding paid subscribers and cutting costs. The Stockholm-based streaming giant has expanded its offering beyond music into podcasting — it hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, the world’s most successful show — audiobooks, and, increasingly, video. Spotify reported a 140% increase in the number of viewers who watch filmed recordings of the US’ 50 most popular podcasts. The surge underscores podcasting’s shift as the industry vies to compete with YouTube, the dominant platform. “I don’t quite understand why people wanna watch this… but if they want it, what’s the difference?” journalist and podcasting veteran Kara Swisher told Semafor’s Mixed Signals.

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Wegovy sales put Novo back on track

Shares in Novo Nordisk soared after it said sales of blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy more than doubled in the fourth quarter. The Danish pharmaceutical firm last year lost its title of Europe’s largest company by market capitalization owing to fears of growing competition from other weight-loss drugs such as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, as well as licensed copies. Investors are also worried about disappointing medical results from a recent trial of Novo’s much-touted successor to Wegovy. But the latest results — which analysts called “good enough” — were sufficient to ease investors’ nerves. GLP-1 obesity drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro are forecast to be worth about $150 billion by the early 2030s, Reuters reported.

Bird flu hits Waffle House prices

Bird flu is causing a US-wide egg shortage. Breakfast cafe chain Waffle House now charges customers an additional 50 cents an egg, and restaurants across the country are rethinking recipes — finding ways of making bread or pasta with less egg — as prices shoot up. Nationwide flu outbreaks caused price spikes at the end of 2022 and 2023, Eater reported, and the same happened in December, with prices up 36.8% year-on-year. More than 13 million hens have died or been culled during the outbreak, according to NBC, and the total US flock is down to around 305 million birds, below the US human population of 340 million: “A good rule of thumb is you need a hen per US citizen,” one analyst told Axios.

Refugee city idea gathers steam

A Swiss entrepreneur’s plans to build a world-class city for refugees, once seen as fanciful, appear to be gaining traction. Christian Kälin — the chair of the immigration advisory firm Henley & Partners — hopes the city will initially house 20,000 people and eventually grow to 1 million, a population that will be legally allowed to work, own property, and pay taxes. Kälin told prospective investors at Davos that negotiations on the project, expected to cost at least $700 million, were “well advanced” and that a site had been selected in an undisclosed location outside the European Union. “Right now, we treat refugees as charity cases,” he told NZZ. “Immigrants should be able to build their own livelihoods.”

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives in the Dominican Republic on the latest leg of his Latin America tour.
• The leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, and Thailand are all visiting Beijing.
• A collection of vintage cars go on display at Paris’ Grand Palais ahead of a Thursday auction.

The approximate annual budget of the Aga Khan Development Network, the philanthropic organization founded by spiritual leader the Aga Khan, who died yesterday aged 88. The billionaire leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims — whose title translates to “commanding chief” — was known for a lavish lifestyle in which he held multiple citizenships, private jets and yachts, as well as his own island. But he also built up a formidable philanthropic network and lent his name to universities, cultural trusts, and awards in the US, India, and Pakistan, along with founding the Nation Media Group in East Africa.

The Copernic Affair by Canadaland Investigates. This true-crime podcast investigates a 1980 case in which a sociology professor from Canada is accused of bombing a synagogue in Paris. Nearly half a century later, Hassan Diab still protests his innocence: Two journalists ask whether he has been made a scapegoat. Listen to The Copernic Affair on Apple Podcasts.

South Africa should prevent the US from accessing its minerals if Washington withdraws funding to the nation over its land expropriation policies, its mining minister said on Monday.

US President Donald Trump, in a social media post hours earlier, accused South Africa of “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY” — referencing a law passed last month that allows land to be seized without compensation if deemed to be in the public interest — and added that he’d be “cutting off all future funding” to the country.

“If [the US] don’t give us money, let’s not give them minerals,” Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said at a conference in Cape Town.