In a meeting with Ishiba Shigeru, Japan’s prime minister, Donald Trump suggested levying tariffs against Japan if its trade deficit with America (valued at $68bn last year) does not fall. Tariffs, he said, would be “reciprocal”. He also said Nippon Steel would invest in, rather than buy, US Steel. Its $15bn bid for the American steelmaker was blocked by the Biden administration.
America’s economy added 143,000 jobs in January, missing analysts’ expectations of around 170,000. The labour market remains resilient, however. Unemployment dipped to 4%, and December’s job gains were revised up significantly to 307,000 from 256,000. The figures bolster expectations that the Federal Reserve will proceed cautiously with rate cuts this year.
A federal judge in America temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to put 2,200 workers from the US Agency for International Development on leave. The order also pauses a plan to recall most of the agency’s overseas staff to America. Earlier the Trump administration reportedly told USAID workers to expect their numbers to drop from 10,000 to fewer than 300.
More than 40,000 people across Slovakia protested against Robert Fico, the prime minister, for the second time in two weeks. The demonstrations followed the discovery that he had secretly visited Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, in December. Mr Fico previously stopped military aid to Ukraine and criticised EU sanctions targeting Russia.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected six Chinese balloons near the island in the past 24 hours, with one flying directly overhead—one of the highest daily tallies ever recorded. Nine Chinese aircraft and six warships were also detected in the surrounding waters. Taiwan has called these incursions “grey zone” tactics designed to exhaust its military resources.
Accenture, a consultancy, will scrap most of its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to the Financial Times. Julie Sweet, the chief executive, told staff that the company would phase out diversity goals set in 2017 and career programmes for specific demographic groups. The move follows Mr Trump’s executive orders cutting federal DEI initiatives. Other firms, including Meta and McDonald’s, have also scaled back similar efforts.
Venezuela’s foreign ministry said that Marco Rubio, America’s secretary of state, had gone “from mercenary of hate to aircraft thief”. On Friday Mr Rubio supervised the seizure of a plane belonging to the Venezuelan government in the Dominican Republic. America said the plane violated sanctions against the regime of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator. Last week Mr Trump sent an envoy to the country to press it to accept deported migrants.
Word of the week: pig-butchering, a scam in which fraudsters build trust with victims over weeks or months before luring them into fake investments and stealing their money. Read the full story.
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