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A Chinese worker makes new year lanterns at a factory in Weifang in eastern China’s Shandong province.

China’s economy loses steam ahead of new year holiday

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.1, the lowest since August, missing economists’ forecast for a modest expansion.

  • Yujing Liu
Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s comments add to the chorus of discontent in Latin America.

Trump pauses tariffs as Colombia backs down on migrant flights

The US and Colombia have pulled back from the brink of a trade war over military aircraft carrying deported migrants.

  • Updated
  • Phil Stewart and Oliver Griffin

Elon Musk: Tech giant, political force and video game king. Or is he?

For the US billionaire, being a “hardcore gamer” is a key part of his identity. But some in the community are starting to doubt whether he has the time or skill to be on the leaderboards.

  • Eli Tan and Mike Isaac

NATO alarm as another undersea cable ‘sabotaged’

Disruption of the line between Sweden and Latvia follows earlier incidents linked to suspected sabotage by Russia and China.

  • Richard Milne

Trump’s Palestinian refugee idea falls flat with Arab allies

Middle East nations rejected Donald Trump’s idea to resettle Gaza’s population as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in the enclave held after a major crisis.

  • Updated
  • Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy and Joseph Krauss

Greenland would be sold to UK before Trump due to 100-year-old deal

The US president needs approval from the UK prime minister to buy the island because of an agreement signed the first time America was interested in doing so.

  • Dominic Penna

Opinion & Analysis

A woke mining boss shows why Trump’s DEI crusade will fail

Davos showed how many companies are convinced diversity and environmental measures make financial sense.

Pilita Clark

Columnist

Pilita Clark

Why nothing can stop Trump now

Very little stands in the way of the president’s goal of remaking America as he ploughs ahead with signing executive orders.

Edward Luce

Columnist

Edward Luce

Trump will only make China great

Readers’ letters on Donald Trump’s White House return, the ESG revolt, taxpayer-funded lunches, DEI initiatives, antisemitic attacks, and the return of Joe Aston.

Contributor

CEOs at Davos feel ready, even heady, for Trump 2.0

At the World Economic Forum, much of the global corporate elite is responding with surprising optimism to the new president’s radical and hyperactive agenda.

Hans van Leeuwen

Europe correspondent

Hans van Leeuwen

From the Financial Times

Leaders at Davos made it clear the MAGA vision of corporate life will be resisted by boardrooms.

A woke mining boss shows why Trump’s DEI crusade will fail

Davos showed how many companies are convinced diversity and environmental measures make financial sense.

  • Updated
  • Pilita Clark

NATO alarm as another undersea cable ‘sabotaged’

Disruption of the line between Sweden and Latvia follows earlier incidents linked to suspected sabotage by Russia and China.

  • Richard Milne

War room, webinars: Corporate America tries to cope with Trump blitz

Businesses have been left trying to nail down what the tax, immigration, DEI and energy orders will mean for them.

  • Stephen Foley, James Fontanella-Khan and Jamie Smyth
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Leaders at Davos made it clear the MAGA vision of corporate life will be resisted by boardrooms.

A woke mining boss shows why Trump’s DEI crusade will fail

Davos showed how many companies are convinced diversity and environmental measures make financial sense.

  • Pilita Clark
President Donald Trump signs an executive order relating to cryptocurrency in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

War room, webinars: Corporate America tries to cope with Trump blitz

Businesses have been left trying to nail down what the tax, immigration, DEI and energy orders will mean for them.

  • Stephen Foley, James Fontanella-Khan and Jamie Smyth
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

Stop ‘grotesque’ politicising of antisemitism: Dreyfus at Auschwitz

In Poland for a Holocaust remembrance service, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus took aim at those he says are politicising attacks on the Jewish community.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

Yesterday

Russian President Vladimir Putin hung up on a caller

Is Ukraine scamming Russian pensioners into blowing up ATMs?

Ukrainian phone scammers posing as Russian security agents are thought to be encouraging elderly Russians to set fire to infrastructure in Russia.

  • Daniel Hardaker
Elon Musk on screen at the rally.

Musk praises ‘German values’ at far-right rally

The tech billionaire made a surprise appearance during an AfD rally, speaking in support of the far-right party for the second time in as many weeks.

  • Emma-Victoria Farr
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This Month

Israeli female soldier hostages wave and react at a Palestinian crowd before being handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.

Hamas frees four Israeli hostages in second swap

The four hostages Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, 20, and Liri Albag, 19, are all conscripts from a military surveillance unit.

  • Maayan Lubell, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas
Trump’s defence secretary pick Pete Hegseth made a strong rebuttal of the allegations against him at the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Hegseth wins US defence secretary confirmation after historic tie-break

Donald Trump-backed Pete Hegseth narrowly secured enough votes on Saturday to become the next US defence secretary in what was only the second time in history a cabinet nominee needed a tie-break to be confirmed.

  • Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Patricia Zengerle
Nelly, a Mexican migrant from Oaxaca, helps her son as they jump the border fence to get into the US to apply for asylum in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term.

Shackled migrants marched onto military plane

“Deportation flights have begun,” Mr Trump’s press secretary declared, sharing photos of men on an airfield wearing chains around their ankles and wrists.

  • Ben Smith and Cameron Henderson
President Donald Trump, along side first lady Melania Trump, said he won’t be responsible if attacks happen.

‘They can hire their own’: Trump ends security for Fauci, Bolton

President Donald Trump said he would feel no responsibility if Anthony Fauci or John Bolton were attacked.

  • Stephanie Lai
Russian President Vladimir Putin said there could only be “preliminary outlines” of a negotiation at this point, not serious talks.

Putin ready to meet Trump to ‘talk about’ Ukraine

If the 2020 US election had not been stolen, then “perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022”, Vladimir Putin said.

  • Vladimir Soldatkin and Anastasia Lyrchikova
Donald Trump reiterated his admiration for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump says he would ‘rather not’ impose tariffs on China

The president says threatening tariffs is his “one very big power” over Beijing, but he would prefer not to have to use it.

  • Iris Ouyang
Migrants eat at a shelter set up in Mexico near the US border.

Trump moves fast to deport 1m legal migrants

A memo appears to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to target programs that let in more than a million people.

  • Hamed Aleaziz
President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office.

Rude discovery: Trump confronts limits to his power in the complex US

Supreme power appealed to Donald Trump’s supporters, but the reality is America’s complex and at times cumbersome democracy just won’t allow for it.

  • Matthew Cranston
Elon Musk arrives to speak at an indoor presidential inauguration parade event in Washington.

Inside Musk’s huge White House power grab

The billionaire is pushing ahead with plans to infiltrate all parts of Trump’s administration after axing his co-leader at DOGE.

  • James Crisp
Argentinian president Javier Milei lays out his vision of geopolitics in Davos.

Argentina’s Milei tells West: Join Trump’s anti-woke alliance

The firebrand, chainsaw-wielding libertarian says a new axis is forming that wants to stamp out bloated bureaucracy and politically correct ideology.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
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People in Davos following Mr Trump’s virtual speech.

Trump slams Europe, threatens ‘trillions’ in tariffs

The president lambasted Canada’s trade surplus with the US and also fired a verbal volley at the European Union’s restrictions on his country.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
 Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess , Kim Philby and Donald Maclea

The Queen, the spy and the decade-long conspiracy of silence

Anthony Blunt was a Russian spy for decades but he always told the Kremlin the Royal Family was off limits.

  • James Hanning
Trump has continued to repeat false claims about immigration and the LA fires in his first TV interview with Fox.

Trump shrugs off China TikTok spying threat

The president downplayed any national security risk posed by TikTok, saying it doesn’t matter if China spies on “young kids watching crazy videos”.

  • Ben Smith
Chris Wright at a confirmation hearing last week. The incoming US energy secretary’s Liberty Energy is a big backer of Tamboran Resources.

Gas hopeful Tamboran pitches Trump on $8b outback data centre plan

The ASX-listed LNG developer is backed by incoming US energy secretary Chris Wright, and wants to power defence-focused digital infrastructure in the Northern Territory.

  • Matthew Cranston
Trump speaks while signing executive orders in the Oval Office.

Why nothing can stop Trump now

Very little stands in the way of the president’s goal of remaking America as he ploughs ahead with signing executive orders.

  • Edward Luce

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/world