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Weekend Briefing
Weekend Briefing
From Reuters Daily Briefing
By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor
Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. There’s plenty to read below, but first I recommend this story on grassroots activism among Minnesota’s Somalis, the people President Donald Trump has described as garbage. Does the president have a case against JPMorgan for closing his accounts? Would you rather forget all about that and just take a trip to Lisbon?
New reality: Donald Trump may have backed off his threats to take Greenland by force and to hit European countries with tariffs, but Europe’s leaders expect these kinds of issues to come up again. U.S. asset managers and corporate investors say they need to invest more in geopolitical risk analysis. One result of such risk: The price of silver surpassed $100 an ounce for the first time. Another: Big northern European investors are becoming wary of holding U.S. assets.
Europe: Spain suffered four train accidents this week, including a high-speed collision in Andalusia that killed 45 people, leading to questions about whether rail-network maintenance is keeping up with demand. Prince Harry, Keir Starmer and others castigated Trump for accusing allies of shirking their front-line roles in Afghanistan. The owner of the Swiss bar that burned in a deadly New Year’s Day fire was released on bail, prompting an outcry from victims’ families and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Closed: Scores of businesses shut their doors and workers went outside in extremely cold weather to protest Trump’s deployment of ICE troops in Minneapolis. Vice President JD Vance defended ICE’s actions, saying “far-left agitators” and uncooperative local officials are to blame for demonstrations in the city. A U.S. appeals court lifted a lower court’s order that restrained federal officers from arresting or tear-gassing peaceful protesters.
Politics: Some Republicans worry that the ICE deployments could turn voters off in November’s congressional midterm elections, while Democrats are concerned that calls in their party for ICE’s abolition could hurt their chances among voters who are concerned about immigration and border security.
Syria: The government seized large portions of territory held by Kurdish fighters after reaching a deal for Kurdish civilian and military authorities to come under Damascus’ control. Forces from each side massed on the front lines as an evening deadline approaches to determine whether they resume fighting.
Second strike: The 30,000 jobs on the block amount to 10% of Amazon’s corporate workforce. It put an earlier round of 14,000 cuts down to AI, but CEO Andy Jassy later told financial analysts that the reduction was about culture – read “bloat” – and not about artificial intelligence.
Jobs, jobs, jobs: Business leaders at Davos predicted that AI will herald higher pay and more jobs for electricians, plumbers and steelworkers. Some delegates countered that AI could lead consumers to psychosis and suicide, while labor leaders questioned the costs of recent technology gains.
Before I forget…
Nearly half the U.S. population is expecting a winter storm by Sunday and Monday that brings the threat of power outages and icy roads.
China is investigating senior military officials, including Xi Jinping’s closest military ally, for what it called serious violations of discipline and law.
Police in Indian Kashmir asked journalists to sign a pledge to not “disturb peace” in the region. A journalism advocate said it is part of a pattern of intimidation against the press.
