It's Valentine's Day so I'm recommending a breakup podcast. This week's Econ World looks at the 'conscious decoupling' of the Fed and its peers.
Today's Top News
US Vice President JD Vance shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Germany. REUTERS/Leah Millis
A meeting in Munich
US Vice President JD Vance warned Russia that Washington could hit Moscow with sanctions if it does not agree to a good peace deal with Ukraine, and also urged Europeans to spend more on defense as he arrived for an international security conference.
A senior US official said the US had not ruled out potential NATO membership for Ukraine or a negotiated return to its pre-2014 borders, contradicting comments made this week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Follow our live updates from the Munich Security Conference, dubbed the 'Davos for Defense'.
Tariffs and trade
President Donald Trump tasked his economics team with devising plans for reciprocal tariffs on every country taxing US imports, ramping up prospects for a global trade war with American friends and foes.
India and the US agreed to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more US oil, gas and military equipment.
Trump's White House
Anxious US federal workers are expected to see another round of pink slips today as Trump and top adviser Elon Musk pursue a wholesale downsizing of the government.
Two federal judges will consider today whether Musk's team will have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at health, consumer protection and labor agencies.
Trump's early actions in office have in many cases expanded upon proposals from Project 2025's conservative policy blueprint that the Republican tried to distance himself from on the campaign trail, a Reuters review found.
Business
A replica of the astronaut capsule is displayed at the Blue Origin site in Texas. REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre
The CEO of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced company-wide layoffs of "about 10 percent" of its employees, a sweeping readjustment as it aims to cut costs and ramp up rocket launches.
Sony's shares closed up 8.7% in Tokyo after the technology and entertainment conglomerate reported strong results at its games and music divisions.
Airbnb posted higher quarterly revenue as international travel demand remained strong, although it forecast slower growth for the first quarter due to tough year-over-year comparisons and a stronger dollar.
French luxury group Hermes reported fourth-quarter results well above analyst expectations, showing robust appetite from wealthy consumers for its most expensive items including Birkin bags, which cost upwards of $10,000.
Fake news generated by artificial intelligence and spread on social media is heightening the risks of bank runs, according to a new British study that says lenders must improve monitoring to detect when disinformation risks impacting customer behavior.
The Week Ahead
Saturday could be make-or-break for the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The truce depends on whether Hamas releases the next group of Israeli hostages on schedule.
South Africa hosts a G20 meeting. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is skipping it but Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russia's Sergei Lavrov will be there.
Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to chair a symposium to boost private sector sentiment next week that will be attended by the country's business leaders including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma.
The scramble for an alternative to Trump's Gaza plan
A Palestinian girl looks out from the ruins of her family's destroyed house in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies were aghast at Trump's plan to "clean out" Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt, an idea immediately rejected by Cairo and Amman and seen in most of the region as deeply destabilising.
Now Saudi Arabia is spearheading urgent Arab efforts to develop a plan for Gaza's future as a counter to Trump's ambition for a Middle East Riviera cleared of its inhabitants.
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