Donald Trump offered international companies “among the lowest taxes of any nation” if they produce their goods in America—and warned that he would impose tariffs if they do not. In a remote address to the World Economic Forum Mr Trump also called on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down oil prices, before demanding that the world’s central banks then lower interest rates “immediately”.
Ireland’s lawmakers elected Micheál Martin as prime minister after one day of deadlock. The centre-right coalition government is bracing for trade tensions with America. Mr Trump is threatening higher corporate taxes and tariffs on Ireland, which hosts several multinational companies. Mr Martin, who returns to office, has pledged to fend off the fallout to protect the country’s economic model.
A judge temporarily blocked Mr Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, a practice guaranteed in America by the 14th Amendment. The judge, agreeing with the four Democrat-led states that brought the legal challenge, called Mr Trump’s executive order “blatantly unconstitutional”. It would restrict automatic citizenship to newborns with a parent who is either an American citizen or permanent resident.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and the Sackler family, which owns it, offered to settle litigation related to their role in spawning America’s opioid epidemic for $7.4bn. The Sacklers would contribute $6.5bn; $800m of that would be put aside for their legal defences. The Supreme Court rejected a previous deal, which would have granted the family immunity from all future civil lawsuits.
Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said he had filed an application to issue arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders in Afghanistan. Mr Khan accused Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, its chief justice, of crimes against humanity, specifically “persecuting Afghan girls and women” since the jihadists seized control of Afghanistan in 2021.
People with ADHD live shorter, according to a paper published in the British Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers studied the health records of more than 300,000 people in Britain, and found the average life expectancy was 6.8 years shorter for men with the neurological condition, and 8.6 years for women. People with ADHD tend to binge eat, smoke and undertake risky activities more, which could explain the difference in longevity.
Iceland’s new government is crowd-sourcing ideas on how to save public money. Consecutive governments have grappled with budget deficits. High inflation has made that gap more expensive—Iceland has western Europe’s highest borrowing costs, at a rate of 8.5%. So far some 3,500 people have submitted suggestions to the government’s online portal, representing almost 1% of the country’s population.
Figure of the day: 27%, the extension of wildfire seasons around the world between 1979 and 2019. Read the full story.
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