Flagship

Canada, Mexico vow tariff retaliation

US President Donald Trump’s order to impose tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico sparked immediate reprisals and heightened fears of global economic upheaval. Trump on Saturday announced 25% duties on imports from Canada and Mexico (Canadian energy is an exception, at 10%), while Chinese imports face 10% tariffs. Ottawa and Mexico City vowed to retaliate, likely looking to exert economic and political pressure by targeting US exports from Republican states or with influential lobbies in Washington, analysts said. Beijing, meanwhile, pledged unspecified “countermeasures,” leaving the door ajar for possible talks to avoid further damaging China’s beleaguered economy. US markets — which have so far “really been on Trump’s side” — are primed for turmoil, one investor said: “The market could challenge him for the first time.”

Syria, Saudi leaders meet

Syria’s new president visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday for his first foreign trip, a destination that signaled Damascus’s shift away from Iran as its top regional ally. The meeting between the former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman brings together the Arab world’s two youngest leaders, both born in Riyadh just three years apart, journalist Hassan I. Hassan noted. Saudi Arabia is pushing world governments to lift international sanctions on Damascus as it looks to shape the future of a country once firmly under Tehran’s influence. Riyadh, Hassan wrote, “is an important key in a very critical period to move Syria to political safety in Washington and then in the region.”

Indian budget aims to boost spending

Indian officials laid out a plan to cut taxes for middle-class earners in a bid to boost consumption in the world’s fifth largest economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously focused on infrastructure investments, but the country’s annual budget, presented Saturday, marks a shift in New Delhi’s strategy against slowing economic growth. Some 80% of taxpayers could benefit, with Goldman Sachs analysts forecasting that urban households particularly could see gains. The budget reflects “an acceptance by the government that more than anything else, the private sector investments require robust consumer demand. Everything else… is secondary,” The Indian Express wrote. Other analysts, though, worried the shift wasn’t ambitious enough.

US strikes in Somalia ‘symbolic’

The US struck Islamic State-affiliated targets in Somalia on Saturday, marking the first major overseas military operation since Donald Trump returned to the White House. The airstrikes, which the Pentagon said killed “multiple operatives,” were “more symbolic than substantive,” The New York Times wrote, serving to broadcast Trump’s muscular approach. Trump pulled US troops out of Somalia at the end of his first term — a decision Joe Biden reversed. Those troops are still there, but Trump “may eventually take a different approach, not just on Somalia but the African continent as a whole,” the BBC wrote: Trump has pledged to dramatically curtail US involvement in future foreign conflicts.

Zelenskyy pushes for Trump meeting

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Washington and Moscow had discussed ending the Ukraine war, saying omitting Kyiv was “dangerous for everyone.” Speaking to The Associated Press, the Ukrainian leader called for a face-to-face meeting with Trump to discuss “a common vision of a quick end to the war,” while stressing Ukraine’s need to bolster its presence on the battlefield before opening talks. Separately on Saturday, NATO chief Mark Rutte appeared to echo Zelenskyy’s stance, saying greater military support was needed for a lasting diplomatic solution to the war. Meanwhile, Trump’s special envoy to Russia and Ukraine told Reuters that Washington would press Kyiv to hold elections this year, which could see Zelenskyy challenged.

Trump fossil fuel plan hurdles

US President Donald Trump’s plan for a resurgence of oil and shale gas production faces hurdles from Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry itself. Trump promised to “bring prices down” with the “liquid gold under our feet,” but cutting fuel prices would also erode energy companies’ profit margins; analysts told the Financial Times that major upticks in production are unlikely. Slashing red tape “[works] wonders on industries previously fettered by regulation,” the FT noted, but “there is little evidence” that is the fossil fuel industry’s problem: Producers are already expanding wherever they can in the US, but it’s expensive work — and the companies need prices to remain above a certain level to cover the costs.

China sees record movie revenue

Government vouchers helped set record box office revenue in China over Lunar New Year. After the country’s film industry saw revenues drop by nearly a quarter in 2024, several local governments issued cinema-specific handouts to encourage moviegoing during the week-long holiday, which was extended by one day to boost spending. The campaign to combat broader economic malaise goes beyond movies: The government has also launched trade-in programs for appliances like microwaves, dishwashers, and rice cookers. The release of several popular sequels, Including animated film Ne Zha 2 and comedy Detective Chinatown 1900, also contributed to the higher ticket sales.

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India space ambitions to grow in 2025

NASA announced that the first Indian astronaut will travel to the International Space Station later this year, further cementing the collaboration between the US and India’s respective space agencies. Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will join three other crew members for a two-week stay as part of a mission by private company Axiom. NASA is increasingly looking to commercial firms like Axiom and SpaceX to get astronauts to and from orbit; India, meanwhile, is endeavoring to build up its domestic space industry, the Financial Times reported. “We have a great ecosystem already built in. We are super cost-efficient, and we also have a very high tech capability,” one space startup CEO said.

Japan looks to its rice reserve

Japan could dip into its strategic reserve of rice to combat rising prices and fears of a shortage. For the first time, the government is easing its policy on releasing the stockpiled rice, allowing for sales to major distributors. The emergency arsenal — 1 million tons of rice — was last tapped after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis. Rising inflation has sparked fears of a new shortage: Rice prices rose last year by their highest rate ever. Japan isn’t the only country that stockpiles staple foods: China has a pork reserve, while South Korea keeps an emergency supply of cabbage for kimchi.

Waymo eyes major US expansion

Robotaxi company Waymo is set to expand into several new US cities this year. The Alphabet-owned firm already ferries passengers in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and plans to bring its self-driving technology to Austin, Atlanta, and Miami soon. A Waymo executive told The Verge it would also start small-scale tests in Las Vegas and nine other, so far unnamed, cities: Waymo specifically wants “very, very different” environments to help its cars learn how to deal with a wider range of scenarios (a human driver will be present for the tests). Waymo taxis have driven tens of millions of miles so far, but almost entirely in very similar, sunny, dry cities with grid systems, making “generalizability” a top priority for 2025.

Feb. 3:

• The European Commission releases inflation estimates for January.
• European Union officials gather for an informal retreat to discuss defense spending and Ukraine.
• Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong faces an appeals court ruling on charges of stock manipulation and accounting fraud linked to a 2015 merger.

A 700-year-old Italian fresco may be the only surviving image of its kind showing how medieval Christian churches used Islamic textiles as altar curtains. The painting, discovered on the walls of a church in Ferrara, Italy, shows a high altar covered by an intricate blue and gold canopy that has a design resembling one used throughout the Islamic world. Researchers believe the tent may have existed in real life, and could have been a gift from a Muslim leader or seized during the crusades. “Tents, especially Islamic royal tents were among the most prized gifts in diplomatic exchanges, the most prominent royal insignia on campsites and the most sought-after spoils on battlefields,” one researcher said.

President Donald Trump is taking the Republican Congress on an economic wild ride, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Burgess Everett report.

Some GOP lawmakers are hoping they can still head off the tariffs, and a few complained about the conflicting guidance on government money, but most said they’re feeling little heat for the president’s moves.

Not only is there little evidence that party legislators mind his muscular executive power, there’s plenty of signs that Trump-state Republicans are happy to take the ride with him.