Flagship

SoftBank pledges US investment

Japanese tech giant SoftBank will invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years, the firm’s CEO announced alongside President-elect Donald Trump. SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son said the money will mostly go toward artificial intelligence efforts and create at least 100,000 jobs. New and incoming US presidents often make such pronouncements with large companies to project economic strength, but they have a mixed record: Taiwan-based Foxconn promised in 2017 to build a $10 billion complex in Wisconsin, but the plans were largely abandoned. For SoftBank, a US push would bolster its global AI ambitions: The company is also pumping funds into Latin American’s AI scene, Semafor reported.

Milei set to attend Trump swearing-in

Argentina’s Javier Milei plans to attend US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, breaking with tradition. There is no record of a foreign head of state ever attending a US president’s swearing-in, the BBC noted; typically diplomats go in their stead. Milei, a staunch fan of the president-elect, was initially hesitant, but accepted an invitation after Trump called him, Argentine newspaper La Nación reported. The Republican has also reportedly invited the leaders of China, El Salvador, and Italy, outreach that reflects his foreign policy posture, analysts said: Trump is eager to turn his inauguration into a “global event” and a chance to reembrace world leaders, including those who have “shaken the nerves of the US… for their embrace of strongman tactics and their far-right politics,” CNN wrote.

Shanghai officials visit Taiwan

Chinese officials made a rare trip to Taiwan at a particularly tense moment in the island’s relations with Beijing. A deputy Shanghai mayor led the delegation for the city-to-city forum in Taipei, whose own mayor belongs to a Taiwanese party that favors closer ties to the mainland. The visit comes after China unexpectedly launched its largest naval deployment around the island in decades, and as Taiwan received a shipment of 38 US tanks. Beijing views the island as a breakaway province it will eventually absorb, by force if necessary: Taiwan’s government blocked some Shanghai officials from attending, citing the latest drills, and the delegation is expected to keep a “low profile,” The Taipei Times reported.

Key Trudeau ally resigns

Canada’s finance minister abruptly quit, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government as it prepares to respond to Donald Trump’s tariff threats. Chrystia Freeland, who was also deputy prime minister and a staunch Trudeau ally, criticized his fiscal policies in her scathing resignation letter, and called for “pushing back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism.” Freeland was seen as a potential Trudeau successor: Her “jaw-dropping” resignation sent shockwaves through Canadian politics, CBC wrote, throwing the country’s economic agenda “into a tailspin.” She was instrumental to maintaining Trudeau’s government, which has now “completely, entirely, and functionally broken down,” a Toronto Star columnist wrote.

Scholz vote deepens Germany turmoil

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz overwhelmingly lost a parliamentary vote of confidence, setting the stage for February elections. The unpopular center-right leader called for the vote — which he was expected to lose — after his three-party coalition collapsed last month. The calculus is that triggering an election seven months early may be his best chance of political survival. Germany is beset with other challenges: Its industrial export-heavy economy is struggling to compete with China, and its GDP is forecast to shrink this year. At a moment when Europe is especially in need of strong leadership, the world’s fourth-largest economy is “on a path of decline that threatens to become irreversible,” Bloomberg wrote.

Assad says he didn’t plan to flee

Bashar al-Assad said he did not plan to flee Syria as rebel fighters took over Damascus, in what were apparently the first remarks from the ousted dictator since his regime fell. A statement posted to Assad’s Telegram account stated that he moved to Russia’s airbase as rebel forces advanced, and evacuated only after Moscow told him to. Reuters reported that Assad seemingly informed almost no one, including some members of his family, about his plan to flee, “casting around for outside help… before leaning on deception and stealth to plot his exit.” Rebel leaders vowed to punish regime officials responsible for torture and other abuses; Assad has “let his supporters face their own fate,” one analyst said.

Norway set to cut overseas cables

Norway wants to cut its overseas electricity interconnection cables. Last week, a lack of wind in Germany and the North Sea caused a significant electricity shortfall, pushing prices up to 20 times higher than they were the week before: The energy minister called it a “shit situation.” Norway has cables to Denmark, the UK, as well as Germany, and the government wants to cut the Denmark cable contract when it’s up for renewal in 2026. Some lawmakers advocate cutting them all, as voters increasingly associate the cables with high prices. It’s alarming for the European Union, which faces its own high prices and is increasingly reliant on Norwegian hydropower and gas in the absence of Russian energy.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s antipathy toward industrial agriculture and his stance on abortion concern Senate Republicans more than his anti-vaccine comments, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott reported. After Matt Gaetz, the risk of fallout from another Trump pick failing could make “GOP senators think hard about whether they want the headache that comes with opposing Trump’s nominees,” Everett and Talcott wrote.

AI puts focus on nuclear reticence

The energy demands of artificial intelligence will require more fossil fuel generation in the short term, a nuclear industry boss said. Big Tech firms plan to power their rapidly expanding data centers with nuclear energy, but plants take a long time to build. That’s certainly true in the US, and gas will meet the boom in demand for now. But it is doubly so in Japan, the chair of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s nuclear committee told Bloomberg, where expanding atomic energy remains a sensitive topic because of the 2011 Fukushima accident. Electricity demand in Japan is declining thanks to depopulation, but the proliferation of data centers could reverse that trend.

Obesity fall may be Wegovy effect

A modest fall in US obesity rates after decades of increases may reflect the stunning rise of Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs. Between 2020 and 2023, adult obesity rates fell from 41.9% to 40.3%, with some commentators attributing the decline to newly ubiquitous drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro, although Ars Technica pointed out that there could be other, simpler explanations. Meanwhile, Wegovy may be slimming medical bills as well as waistlines, Gizmodo reported: A study suggested people who lost 5% of their bodyweight spent 8% less on healthcare. The trend reversal could become global: Novo Nordisk recently launched the drug in China, and is racing to gain regulatory approval in India.

Indian tabla legend dies

A tabla player widely recognized as one of India’s greatest musicians died aged 73. Zakir Hussain is credited with revolutionizing how the tabla — a pair of hand drums used in Indian classical music — is played, transforming it from a percussion accompaniment to a solo instrument in its own right. Known for his ability to fuse musical styles, the four-time Grammy winner collaborated with global music stars over his six-decade career, including former Beatle George Harrison, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and sitar master Ravi Shankar. “He was a pathbreaker, a game-changer, an icon who put tabla and Indian music on the world map by transcending the boundaries of genre,” a fellow tabla player told the BBC.

Dec. 17:

• The European Central Bank publishes its annual evaluation of eurozone banks.
• Drugmaker Pfizer issues its 2025 profit forecast.
• Comedy show Ronny Chieng: Love To Hate It premieres on Netflix.

An image of a squirrel stuck in a tree won a photography contest dedicated to showcasing nature’s funny side. Italian Milko Marchetti’s shot, Stuck squirrel, beat 9,000 entrants, including images of a “flamenco-dancing” mantis, a tern crash-landing, and two owlets that look like they are kissing to take the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards’ top prize. Captured in a park in the town of Bagnacavallo in 2022, the picture actually shows the rodent pushing itself into a tree hollow left by a woodpecker’s nest, Marchetti explained, adding: “I have taken several photos of squirrels in many situations, but [this shot] immediately struck me for the strange position assumed by the squirrel.”