President Donald Trump said that America was “in mourning” after officials confirmed that there were no survivors of a mid-air collision between a military helicopter and a passenger plane in Washington, DC. Sixty-seven people are believed to have died. The cause of the crash remains unknown, but investigators have recovered the black boxes from the plane. Mr Trump suggested, without evidence, that diversity policies at the Federal Aviation Administration could be to blame.
China is reportedly building a massive wartime command centre in Beijing. According to the Financial Times, American officials believe that the complex would be bigger than the Pentagon, based on satellite images of the construction site. The Chinese embassy in America said it was “not aware” of the project, but insisted that China was committed to “a defence policy that is defensive in nature”.
Apple reported better-than-expected results for the last quarter of 2024. The tech giant’s revenues increased by 4% year on year to $124bn, despite lower iPhone sales in China. Profit increased by 7% to $36bn. The firm also said that the roll-out of artificial-intelligence features on its phones in December had been successful. Apple’s shares rose by around 3% in after-hours trading.
Mr Trump suggested he may exclude oil imports from the 25% tariffs he plans to impose on Canada and Mexico. He said the tariffs, which “may or may not rise with time”, would be implemented on Saturday, but possible exemptions would only be finalised on Thursday night. Mr Trump also said he was “thinking about something” for China because it is “sending fentanyl” into America.
A political leader of M23, a Rwandan-backed rebel group, vowed to march “all the way to Kinshasa”, the capital of Congo, to “take power, and lead the country”. On January 27th M23 invaded Goma, a city in Congo’s mineral-rich east; it is more than 1,500km from Kinshasha. France’s foreign minister arrived in Kinshasa on Thursday to meet Congo’s president, Félix Tshisekedi.
Israel belatedly released 110 Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefire deal in Gaza. The delay raised concerns over the fragile truce. Earlier, Hamas freed eight hostages—three Israelis and five Thais—in a chaotic handover. On Wednesday Hamas accused Israel of delaying aid deliveries, which Israel denied.
Italy’s data-privacy watchdog opened an investigation into DeepSeek and blocked the Chinese AI-model maker from processing Italian users’ information “with immediate effect”. This week regulators in Italy and Ireland asked DeepSeek to clarify its data-collection practices amid concerns about its Chinese origins. France’s watchdog also said it plans to question DeepSeek about data privacy.
Figure of the day: 73% , the proportion of voters for Germany’s centre-right Christian Democrats who reject collaboration with the hard-right Alternative for Germany. Read the full story.
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