Flagship

Biden’s farewell warning

US President Joe Biden used his farewell Oval Office address to warn of the rise of a new “oligarchy.” Biden hands over to Donald Trump on Monday, and his comment was a thinly veiled reference to the billionaires — notably Elon Musk, but also Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — who have signaled willingness to work with the incoming president, and whom Biden compared to the “robber barons” of the American gilded age, like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. He balanced his concerns with “a sense of optimism,” The Washington Post reported, waxing lyrical about the opportunities the US grants its citizens. His final days have seen a rush to entrench his legacy at home and abroad before Trump takes power.

New Glenn, new space race

New Glenn, the massive rocket built by Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, successfully reached orbit in the first real challenge to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Blue Origin has struggled to maintain SpaceX’s pace and its first launch represents a step forward, although plans to land its booster were unsuccessful. Bezos wants to use New Glenn to deploy a constellation of internet satellites to compete with Starlink, and like Musk has a longer-term eye on colonizing other planets. SpaceX itself delayed the next test launch of its enormous Starship rocket until today, but its workhorse Falcon 9 yesterday took off carrying two lunar landers, a sign that the space race is now between private companies rather than countries.

Bessent hearings to offer tariff clues

Confirmation hearings today for US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for treasury secretary will likely be low-drama, but may offer clues on the incoming administration’s tariff strategy, according to Semafor’s business & finance editor. Scott Bessent is viewed by Wall Street as more cautious on tariffs than his boss, who has pledged across-the-board curbs that have worried even some Republicans who fear their impact on what has been strong economic growth and moderating inflation. That may be “wishful thinking,” Semafor’s Liz Hoffman writes in her newsletter, out later today. Democrats, meanwhile, will likely press Bessent — who is widely expected to be confirmed — on whether parts of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts will be renewed.

Changing US ties to Mideast

Israel’s ceasefire in Gaza underscores both the impact incoming US President Donald Trump is already having on geopolitics and the changing nature of American diplomacy in the Middle East. A former Israeli foreign minister characterized regional actors as “preparing for Trump the best Middle East they can produce,” describing his as “a presidency that started before it started.” The deal comes as the US’ regional ties shift: Iran’s decline, combined with the growing roles of American partners Turkey and Saudi Arabia, “is detracting from Israel’s exclusivity as a US ally,” a Haaretz analyst noted, while Riyadh’s oil sales to Washington are reaching their “twilight,” according to a Bloomberg columnist, as US energy dependency on the Middle East wanes.

Investor interest in defense grows

Investor interest in the defense sector — shunned either because of a long-held assumption of movement towards peace, or over ESG concerns — is on the rise. Asset managers debuted 15 defense-focused funds in Asia last year, compared to six in the prior four years overall, the Financial Times reported. A top NATO official warned this month that Western financial institutions were “stupid” to neglect such investments, arguing that they were missing out on surging defense spending resulting from Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Not all military investments are a sure thing, though: Russia’s defense exports, a lucrative sector for Moscow, have collapsed as once-dependable customers have turned away and sanctions have begun to bite, an analyst noted.

Somaliland looks to ‘savior’ Trump

US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week has raised hopes among many in Somaliland that their breakaway territory will finally be recognized as an independent state. “Donald is our saviour. He is a wise and practical man. God bless America,” a university student in Hargeisa, the capital, told the BBC. Although the territory declared independence from Somalia more than 30 years ago, no country has yet recognized its statehood. However, worsening conditions in neighboring Djibouti — where the US has a military base — have prompted people close to Trump to call for Somaliland’s recognition in a bid to protect US operations along the Gulf of Aden.

Big Oil’s lithium pivot

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company said it would mine the country for lithium, part of a growing wave of fossil fuel giants upping their investments in the metal, which is crucial for the global energy transition. Saudi Aramco said it would form a joint venture with Riyadh’s main mining company after finding “promising lithium concentrations” in areas where it is already producing oil. It is far from alone in making such moves: An Exxon executive told The Economist last year that part of $20 billion the company is dedicating to low-carbon investments through 2027 is for lithium, while Chevron, Equinor, and Occidental Petroleum have all either made major bets or voiced an interest in producing the metal.

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Hopes for NYC congestion charge

New York’s recently imposed congestion pricing program appears to be working, with some trips taking 30-40% less time. Since Jan. 5, vehicles entering parts of Manhattan during peak hours have been charged at least $9. The transport authority said that total traffic was down 7.5% compared to normal times, with a particular impact on busy river crossings. The charge’s launch was delayed because of pushback, and New Yorkers are concerned, but Vox noted that similar programs also started out unpopular but gained public support: London, which introduced a congestion charge in 2003, saw a 30% reduction in traffic, and while fewer than a third of Londoners approved of it initially, that figure doubled within five months.

Golden Globe-winner panned in Mexico

Mexican film critics have panned Golden Globe-winner Emilia Pérez, which some reviews say trivializes cartel violence in the country. Many in the Latin American country — which for the past two decades has had some of the world’s highest murder rates — have criticized the recent wave of shows based on cartel leaders, including Netflix’s Narcos and El Chapo. According to experts, these shows glorify ruthless crime bosses responsible for mass atrocities, often portraying them as seductive masterminds. “In reality, they are minuscule men who build their power with government complicity,” a prominent crime journalist in Mexico said last year. “These shows should tack closer to reality.”

Meta’s real-life Babel fish

Meta unveiled a real-time translator which works in more than 100 languages and which commentators likened to “a Babel fish.” In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, putting a fish in one’s ear instantly renders all speech comprehensible: The SEAMLESSM4T does something similar, rendering speech in 101 languages into any of 36 target languages. If widely adopted, it could change many industries: English’s global dominance means that, say, a Japanese physicist must learn not only physics but also English if they want to have wider impact, and real-time translation could change that. On the downside, Adams wrote that the fictional fish removing communication barriers was “responsible for more and bloodier wars than anything else in history.”

• Angola’s president embarks upon a state visit to France.
• The Future Minerals Forum in Saudi Arabia concludes.
• Two NASA astronauts embark upon a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

The share China’s central government revenue that comes from tobacco sales. Although tobacco consumption has fallen in much of the world since the turn of the century, sales have risen more than 35% in China since 2003, while the state-owned tobacco company now employs more than a million people. Despite attempts to phase out consumption, Beijing’s reliance on the industry’s revenues has halted most progress. “The tobacco industry was too strong for them,” an expert told the Financial Times. “It’s just massively powerful.”

Tokyo Ex Machina by Femm. The Japanese duo’s third album is a “smoother, lusher affair” than their previous releases, the music blog J-Pop Go reported, but maintains the “angular, kinetic” feel. This, their most “accomplished work,” will also be their last: It is a “fine epitaph” and deserves more commercial success than they have so far achieved. Listen to Tokyo Ex Machina on Spotify.

The wildfires that are sweeping Los Angeles may accelerate the flight of home insurance companies, in spite of recent regulatory changes aimed at retaining them, the state’s previous top insurance official told Semafor’s Tim McDonnell. For California to experience fires like these “was never a question of if, it was a question of when,” the official said.