Flagship

China unveils bailout

Beijing unveiled a $1.4 trillion bailout for local governments, part of efforts to ward off a looming debt crisis and kickstart a moribund economy. The funds will help provincial authorities refinance a huge pile of loans that had left many struggling to provide basic services and pay civil servants. The widely expected announcement followed a five-day meeting of China’s rubber-stamp parliament. Though a huge sum, it fell short of analysts’ hopes for a broader package targeting China’s deeper economic challenges, ranging from a collapsing real-estate sector to high levels of youth unemployment: Chinese stock futures dropped, while one economist told The New York Times, “What is announced so far is likely not enough.”

Trump begins appointments

Donald Trump’s appointment of his new chief of staff came amid fevered speculation in Washington over his cabinet picks. The choice of Susie Wiles, the president-elect’s campaign manager, indicates Trump’s second term “may operate more drama-free” than his first, according to Semafor’s Shelby Talcott. Thus far, the news has been dominated by who will not serve: Senator Tom Cotton, a hawkish conservative seen as a potential defense secretary, has told Trump’s team he does not want an administration post, Axios reported, while Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner may advise on Middle East policy but will not join the administration, according to the Financial Times.

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Moscow and Kyiv vie for Trump

Moscow and Kyiv vied for Washington’s support following Donald Trump’s reelection. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his victory, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged “a fair ending” rather than “a quick ending” to the nearly three-year war. Trump has previously argued he would force a rapid end to the conflict, sparking fears in Kyiv that he would push Ukraine to give up territory in exchange for peace. But The Economist noted that Zelenskyy’s team was already growing frustrated with outgoing US President Joe Biden’s fear of escalation with Moscow, and Trump could offer Ukraine “a way out of what looks like a bloody deadlock at best, defeat at worst.”

EU told to boost defense

Europe is under pressure to step up its defense spending. US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to once again call on European countries to contribute more to NATO, and defense manufacturers told the Financial Times that they anticipate greater investment. It will be challenging for the EU to “step up,” the Carnegie Council wrote — defense manufacturing lead times are long, and Europeans are best at “talking a good game” rather than doing anything: French President Emmanuel Macron labeled the continent a “herbivore” in a world of carnivores. But there has been change, with Europe’s NATO members spending 50% more on defense than they did 10 years ago, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Officials look to their old Trump comments

World politicians are scrambling to excuse old comments about Donald Trump as he returns to power. The Australian ambassador to the US removed old tweets, notably one calling Trump “the most destructive president in history.” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy as a backbench MP in 2018 called Trump “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath,” something he now says is “old news.” For Britain the situation is especially complicated: The country trumpets its “special relationship” with the US, but its new left-leaning Labour government will be working with Trump “through gritted teeth,” one minister told The Guardian. Bloomberg noted that the UK now has few friends in Washington, and Trump “is not a forgive-and-forget type of guy.”

Mexico turns back to bullets

Mexico’s “hugs, not bullets” policy of avoiding confrontation with drug cartels is crumbling in the face of growing violence. Eleven bodies were found Wednesday in a pick-up truck in a southern city, whose mayor was beheaded last month, the latest grim incident in a six-year spiral of violence that has killed 200,000 people. The government had employed social programs to steer people away from cartels, but recent bloody confrontations and a change in tone from the new administration suggests that policy is being abandoned, The Associated Press reported. The violence is affecting foreign relations too: US President-elect Donald Trump wants to label drug cartels as terrorist groups, potentially permitting US military operations in Mexico.

Botswana’s migrant amnesty

Botswana’s new government plans to legalize undocumented Zimbabwean migrants, with the country’s recently elected president arguing such workers “do jobs that would otherwise not get done.” Duma Boko’s remarks came after his historic election win last week, unseating the party that had ruled Botswana since its independence in 1966. Botswana is host to the second-biggest Zimbabwean diaspora in the world, with many employed as farm laborers or domestic workers, the BBC noted, and the country had previously organized periodic deportations. The announcement came after Thailand this month approved a pathway to residency and citizenship for a half-million stateless people in the country — the largest reduction of statelessness by any country, ever.

The 2024 election cycle is finally over — so, what’s coming to your screens next? Ben and Nayeema dissect what the media learned from 2024 and where we go from here. They first chat to Semafor’s Max Tani about the news media, and then sit down with Ankler Media’s Janice Min, who has been reporting on (and embedded in) Hollywood culture for decades. The conversation tackles whether politics and art stay linked or divorce, if Donald Trump will wake up “wokeism” again or if Americans turn to escapism, and why TV is chasing the “gourmet cheeseburger.”

BP kills hydrogen projects

The oil giant BP is shuttering 18 early-stage hydrogen projects, a damaging blow for the nascent industry. BP has been one of hydrogen’s biggest backers, investing in several startups, but according to its latest earnings report will cut back significantly, TechCrunch said. The oil and gas industry is eyeing hydrogen as its route into a zero-carbon future, since many fossil fuel majors already make hydrogen from natural gas and some of the infrastructure — and skills for making and maintaining it — is transferable. But hydrogen has been slower to take off than other green-energy technologies, notably batteries and solar, and BP at least is reducing its bets on its future.

Next CERN boss bullish on collider

The newly appointed director general of CERN pledged to push ahead with plans for a new $18 billion particle accelerator to replace the Large Hadron Collider. Mark Thomson, a British particle physicist, was part of the CERN team that discovered the Higgs boson in 2012 and is bullish on the Switzerland-based physics collaboration’s future, using a press conference to stress the importance of upgrading the LHC and investing in the 60-mile-long Future Circular Collider. He faces challenges: Germany, CERN’s largest contributor, has expressed doubts about the project, and China could beat Europe to developing its own giant accelerator.

Bookselling resurgent in US

The US bookstore chain Barnes & Noble plans to open 60 bookstores this year, part of a wider uptick in the world of books. B&N will open a dozen stores this month alone, Publishers Weekly reported, having already opened 10 net new locations in 2023. It is not alone in its expansion: Membership of the American Booksellers Association has nearly doubled since 2016, according to The Associated Press, driven in large part by a growth in independent bookstores across the United States. Among newly opened bookstores are That’s What She Read, a romance-focused retailer, and Octavia’s Bookshelf, named after a late Black science fiction writer.

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• Israel’s top diplomat travels to Amsterdam after clashes at a football match left several Israeli fans injured.
• Indonesia’s president begins a state visit in China.
• The 2025 Grammy nominations will be announced.

The price a dental patient in New Jersey paid for tooth implants to replace all her natural teeth — implants she now says were unnecessary. US dentists are increasingly convincing patients to remove healthy teeth and replace them with implants, Ars Technica reported: Millions of metal-and-porcelain implants are placed each year, in many cases unnecessarily, with patients claiming they were “persuaded, pressured, or forced” to have the procedure. Implants do not suffer cavities, but require lifelong upkeep and can lead to infections. Patients wouldn’t ask to amputate a broken finger, one periodontist said: “Why would I extract your tooth because you need a root canal?”

Jouer by Annarella and Django. This collaboration between Django Diabaté, a Malian virtuoso on the West African lute-like instrument called the ngoni, and the Swedish flautist Annarella Sörlin has “a gentle yet pervasive chemistry,” The Guardian’s reviewer said, especially when the two are left to their own devices and their instruments and skills are allowed to shine. Listen to Jouer on Spotify.