With Musk at his side, Trump ordered US agencies to plan for 'large-scale' staff cuts. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque |
- Donald Trump ordered US agencies to work closely with Elon Musk's attempt to shrink the federal workforce by identifying government employees who can be laid off and functions that can be eliminated entirely. Musk stood next to Trump in the Oval Office before the order was signed, taking questions from reporters.
- The first phase of their rapid-fire effort to cut waste from government agencies appears driven more by an ideological assault on federal agencies long hated by conservatives than a good-faith effort to save taxpayer dollars, according to two veteran Republican budget experts.
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- Israel's military has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumption of fighting in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to release more Israeli hostages.
- Trump's plan to take over Gaza will threaten a fragile ceasefire in the enclave and fuel regional instability, senior Arab officials said. Gazans also oppose the proposal to resettle them elsewhere.
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- A pre-dawn Russian missile salvo on Kyiv killed at least one civilian and injured four others, sparking several fires in the city of three million, according to Ukrainian officials. Separately, the Kremlin said that a Russian citizen was freed from a US prison in exchange for the release of jailed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel.
- More than 10 million devout Hindus seeking absolution from their sins took a dip in holy waters in northern India during a span of four hours, authorities said, as they braced for millions more to swarm the site of the Kumbh Mela.
- Greece's parliament elected its former speaker, Constantine Tassoulas, as the country's president, approving the conservative government's nominee for the largely ceremonial role.
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- Donald Trump's trade advisers are finalizing plans for the reciprocal tariffs the US president has vowed to impose on every country that charges duties on US imports, ratcheting up fears of a widening global trade war. Trump is likely to dust off a largely forgotten 1930 trade law to back his new tariffs, trade and legal experts say.
- As countries respond to Trump's economic threats, listen to European Economics Editor Mark John on the Reuters World News podcast to find out what capitals are doing to calibrate with or head off the US president's pressure.
- Investors will be shifting their attention to the US inflation report later today. Expectations are for a slight slowdown in January's core inflation print to an annual 3.1% and for the headline number to hold steady at 2.9%, although analysts expect progress on reining in inflation will stall later in the year.
- OpenAI's board has not yet received a formal bid from an Elon Musk-led consortium, although a lawyer for the billionaire said the offer had been sent to OpenAI's outside counsel.
- Spirit Airlines rejected Frontier Group's acquisition offer, saying the bid from its fellow ultra-low-cost carrier was less beneficial to shareholders than its ongoing reorganization plan.
- China oversaw its largest-ever wave of rural bank mergers last year, a Reuters review of official data showed, but analysts say Beijing's efforts to tackle risks in the small banking sector could end up creating more problems down the road.
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How Nissan and Honda's $60 billion merger talks collapsed |
Press conference on the companies' merger talks in December. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon |
Nissan was deep in trouble when rival Honda offered a lifeline: a $60 billion tie-up that would help both Japanese automakers compete against the Chinese brands upending the car industry. But the merger talks unraveled in a little more than a month due to Nissan's pride and insufficient alarm about its predicament, as well as Honda's abrupt decision to revise the terms and propose that Nissan become a subsidiary, according to six people familiar with the matter. |
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Cynthia Erivo attends the 82nd Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills. REUTERS/Daniel Cole |
Out of the top 100 movies in 2024, more than half featured a story centered on a female actor as a lead or co-lead, the first time representation has been above the US Census where girls and women comprise 50.5% of the population, a 2025 report from the University of Southern California found. However, representation fell for people of color in film, the report said. |
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