Donald Trump threatened Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, with “high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions” if he does not “make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine. Mr Trump has missed the deadline of his campaign-trail promise to stop the conflict within “24 hours” of entering office. The president says he intends to meet with Mr Putin, but has not specified when.
The UN said that a further 900 aid trucks had entered Gaza, bringing the total to 2,400 since a ceasefire started on Sunday. The agreement between Israel and Hamas calls for at least 600 daily aid deliveries during the six-week truce. But fighting raged elsewhere: Israeli forces killed ten people and injured almost 40 others as it launched a big operation in the West Bank.
Elon Musk criticised Stargate, a new American artificial-intelligence infrastructure project, saying its backers lack the funds to support the venture. OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle said they could spend as much as $500bn on Stargate over four years. Mr Musk appears to be at odds with his ally, Donald Trump, on the matter. The president eagerly promoted Stargate after the deal was signed.
A new wildfire in northern Los Angeles County grew to more than 5,000 acres in two hours. About 19,000 people were issued mandatory evacuation orders. Wind gusts fuelled the blaze, as they did earlier in January, when five fires killed at least 28 people and destroyed thousands of buildings. The Palisades and Eaton fires—the two biggest—are still burning.
Houthi rebels released the crew of the Galaxy Leader, a ship it seized in the Red Sea in November 2023. The Iran-backed group, which has targeted dozens of vessels since the October 7th Hamas-led attack on Israel, said that the move was in “solidarity with Gaza” and the recent ceasefire agreement. It added that it could seize more ships if the truce fails.
Shares in Netflix rose to their highest-ever level after the streaming firm’s results, posted on Tuesday, cheered investors. The firm gained nearly 19m subscribers in the last quarter of 2024, far surpassing analysts’ expectations. Revenue rose by 16% year on year. Netflix also said it would raise subscription fees in a number of markets to further boost earnings.
News Group Newspapers, Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper business, issued an apology to Prince Harry for “incidents of unlawful activity” by investigators employed by the Sun. NGN also agreed to pay “substantial damages” to the prince as part of a settlement, which was reached before the matter went to trial. Prince Harry has engaged in lengthy legal battles against British tabloids.
Figure of the day: $1.3trn, the accumulated fortune of the billionaires who turned up at Donald Trump’s inauguration. Read the full story.
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