Israel said it freed 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Earlier three Israeli women were returned to Israel, the first of 33 hostages who are expected to be released over the next six weeks. The truce will be implemented in three phases. Discussions about the much trickier second phase are expected to start in two weeks.
Donald Trump told his supporters that “four long years of American decline” would end after his inauguration on Monday. Speaking at a “victory rally” in Washington, DC, Mr Trump vowed to impose “aggressive, sweeping” border-security measures. The president-elect is reportedly planning to sign around 100 executive orders during his first days in office, including on tariffs, energy and cryptocurrency.
TikTok started to restore services for American users, after Mr Trump promised to sign an executive order that would allow it to stay online for the time being. On Friday the Supreme Court upheld a law forcing the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it by Sunday or it shut down. Mr Trump said America should have a “50% ownership position in a joint venture”.
China’s central bank left its benchmark lending rates unchanged for a third consecutive month. The one-year loan prime rate and five-year LPR will stay at 3.1% and 3.6%, respectively. The bank is trying to stabilise the weakening yuan—which could further depreciate should Mr Trump follow through on his threat to increase tariffs on Chinese imports.
The price of Bitcoin soared to a record high of $109,000 ahead of Mr Trump’s inauguration. The rally followed the release of “memecoins” by the president-elect and his wife over the weekend. Bitcoin’s value has surged since Mr Trump’s election win in November. He has pledged to make America “the Bitcoin superpower of the world.”
Hedge funds have cumulatively charged investors $1.8trn in fees since 1969, according to new research by LCH, an investment firm. That is equivalent to half the profits they have paid out. The firm reckons that before 2000 the ratio was just a third. LCH data showed that D.E. Shaw was the best performing fund in 2024, returning $11.1bn to investors after fees.
Colombia’s human-rights office said that 80 people were killed during a bout of rebel violence in the Catatumbo region, an area on the border with Venezuela where coca, the plant-base of cocaine, is abundant. Columbia’s president, Gustavo Petro, on Friday called off peace talks with one of the groups involved, the National Liberation Army (ELN), accusing it of war crimes.
Figure of the day: $175bn, the increase in shipping costs caused by Houthi attacks in the ten months to October 2024. Read the full story.
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