Jan. 30, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 1933, Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany..
QOTD: “It’s very dangerous for them to do that,” Mr. Trump, referring to Britain, told reporters in Washington outside a screening of a documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.
“It’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China,” Mr. Trump later said. “Canada’s not doing well, they’re doing very poorly. And you can’t look at China as the answer.”
WORLD/COMMODITIES/ANYTHING BUT SWEET -Less Chocolate, More Pain for Cocoa
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-01-30/cocoa-price-plunge-accelerates-as-chocolate-sales-tumble
Shrink and Skimp
Some have become smaller, others are loaded with cheaper ingredients, while squeezed shoppers aren’t buying as many of them.
The world of chocolate bars, candies, pralines, truffles and even frogs has been simultaneously gripped by shrinkflation, “skimpflation” and inflation. Now that’s at the heart of a dramatic tumble in the price of cocoa.
Cocoa is roughly two-thirds cheaper than it was a year ago following a blistering rally when prices more than tripled due to poor harvests in West Africa, the key producing region. This week, it hurtled below a closely watched trading threshold of $4,000 a ton, where it last was in late 2023.
What accelerated the decline this month was a series of data pointing to demand destruction: The world’s biggest bulk chocolate producer reported a slump in sales, while processing of cocoa in Europe — the world’s top consuming region — fell to the lowest for any quarter in data going back to 2013.
US/UK/CANADA/CHINA - Trump Tells U.K. and Canada That Boosting Trade With China Is ‘Dangerous’
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/world/asia/trump-starmer-china-canada-trade.html
President Trump on Thursday warned Britain and Canada against boosting trade with China, which several Western leaders have visited in recent months to hedge against their increasingly volatile relationships with the United States.
“It’s very dangerous for them to do that,” Mr. Trump, referring to Britain, told reporters in Washington outside a screening of a documentary about the first lady, Melania Trump.
“It’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China,” Mr. Trump later said. “Canada’s not doing well, they’re doing very poorly. And you can’t look at China as the answer.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain arrived in Shanghai on Friday for the last leg of a three-day trip aimed at drumming up business with Beijing. His Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, also made a recent high-profile trip to China, as some U.S. allies try to diversify their trading relationships and reduce reliance on the United States.
UKRAINE/RUSSIA/MIL - Ukraine Can’t Defend the Entire Front. Russia Is Finding the Gaps.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/world/europe/ukraine-war-zaporizhzhia-huliaipole.html
As their lines began to buckle, the Ukrainian units hunkered down in the small town of Huliaipole, bracing for an assault.
It came under cover of fog, with Russian troops slipping into the town by moving along a river that bisects it. Drawn by the hum of a generator, they charged into a Ukrainian command post. A firefight erupted. Caught off guard, the soldiers defending the post retreated, leaving behind laptops and battlefield maps that exposed the positions of nearby Ukrainian drone operators. Soon enough, those teams came under heavy Russian fire.
“It was a catastrophe,” said Capt. Dmytro Filatov, commander of the Ukrainian First Separate Assault Regiment, whose unit was rushed in to reinforce Huliaipole, in southeastern Ukraine.
The fall of the command post in late December — recounted by Captain Filatov, who said he tracked it through radio communications — highlights the central challenge facing the Ukrainian Army after four years of grinding war. Stretched by Russian assaults across a 700-mile front line, Ukraine lacks enough troops to defend every sector equally, creating gaps where Moscow’s forces can advance more easily.
EU/MIL/SPENDING - Exclusive: European crisis fund worth over $500 billion could be used for defence, says ESM chief
https://www.reuters.com/business/500-billion-euro-crisis-fund-could-be-used-defence-says-esm-chief-2026-01-30/
European crisis fund with more than 430 billion euros ($514 billion) of firepower could lend money to countries for defence, the head of the European Stability Mechanism told Reuters, as the bloc scrambles to reinforce its military.
Pierre Gramegna, managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, said the ESM could give credit lines for defence and would not demand stringent economic reform in return, in part to dispel any stigma that might arise from asking the emergency euro zone fund for money.
"In these times of geopolitical turmoil, which have triggered higher expenditure, defence costs for all countries, we must use the full potential of the ESM," said Gramenga.
He pointed to the use of credit lines for defence for countries in good financial health but whose budgets are stretched, in particular smaller euro zone states.
"We have instruments," he said. "It is in the best interests of Europe ... to use the full potential."
"It is obvious that the relationship between Europe and the United States is becoming more and more bumpy."
JAPAN/POL - Tokyo hopes voters will hand PM Takaichi new clout to counter China
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/tokyo-hopes-voters-will-hand-pm-takaichi-new-clout-counter-china-2026-01-29/
China may rethink its escalating pressure campaign on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi if she delivers a resounding victory in a February 8 snap election, say current and former Japanese officials and political analysts.
Weeks after taking office last year, Takaichi touched off the biggest diplomatic dispute with Beijing in over a decade, by publicly outlining how Tokyo might respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, the self-ruled island claimed by China.
Beijing demanded she retract the remarks, which she has not done, and then rolled out a series of retaliatory measures that are starting to weigh on the world’s fourth largest economy.
"China's initial thinking was probably to try to bring down the Takaichi government," said Kazuhisa Shimada, a former vice minister of defence.
"This election is extremely important... a weak government simply won't be taken seriously."
Japan's first female leader hopes to capitalise on her high personal approval ratings, hardly dented by the China row, to bolster her coalition's razor-thin majority in parliament.
A poll showed on Thursday that she may be on course to do just that, though analysts have described the ballot as Japan's most unpredictable in years.
ISRAEL/EGYPT/GAZA - Israel reopening Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt on Sunday after long closure
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-rafah-border-crossing-reopening-823d4b0aef641c3f19d4cc7b527325b1
Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in both directions over the weekend, marking an important step forward for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement that starting on Sunday a “limited movement of people only” would be allowed through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world.
The announcement followed statements from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ali Shaath, newly appointed to head the Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza’s daily affairs, that it would likely open soon.
COGAT said both Israel and Egypt will vet individuals for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. In addition to screenings at the crossing, Palestinians leaving and returning will be screened by Israel in the adjacent corridor, which remains under Israeli military control.
BURKINA FASO/POL/MIL - Burkina Faso junta dissolves all political parties
https://www.dw.com/en/burkina-faso-junta-dissolves-all-political-parties/a-75720851
Burkina Faso's military-led government dissolved all political parties by decree on Thursday.
"The government believes that the proliferation of political parties has led to abuses, fuelled divisions among citizens and weakened the social fabric," it said.
A bill scrapping party statutes, financing rules and the post of opposition leader will be sent to the transitional council, according to cabinet minutes. All assets of the dissolved parties will be transferred to the state.
Before the coup, Burkina Faso had more than 100 registered political parties, with 15 holding seats in parliament after the 2020 election.
But the junta that seized power in 2022 under Captain Ibrahim Traore has clamped down on dissent. Political parties in Burkina Faso have already been barred from holding public events, but they could still operate internally.
Interior Minister Emile Zerbo said the decision to stop any political activity was part of a broader effort to "rebuild the state" after what he said were widespread abuses and dysfunction in the country's multiparty system.
Traore took power in a September 2022 coup, ousting fellow military ruler Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had ruled for only nine months. Damiba, long accused by the current junta of plotting coups from exile, was extradited back from Togo earlier this month.
US/ECON/POL - Trump Picks Kevin Warsh as Fed Chair
https://www.wsj.com/economy/central-banking/the-long-campaign-of-kevin-warsh-e5bd26d6?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1
President Trump said Friday he would nominate Kevin Warsh to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, choosing a former Fed official who has aligned himself with the president’s criticism of the central bank.
“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best. On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down,” Trump said in a post on his social-media account.
Warsh served on the Fed’s board of governors from 2006 to 2011, playing crucial behind-the-scenes roles in Washington’s rescue of Wall Street during the financial crisis. If confirmed by the Senate, he would succeed Jerome Powell, whose term as chair expires in mid-May.
Trump’s selection of Warsh would bring to an end a monthslong internal deliberation among the president and his top advisers over who should lead the central bank.
The Fed chair nomination was arguably the most important personnel decision Trump faced for the remainder of his term because the central bank serves as a first responder in financial crises and sets interest rates that affect every corner of the economy and markets.
Warsh will inherit a central bank divided over whether to cut interest rates further. Several Fed officials are uneasy about cutting when inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% target. Warsh gained a reputation for being an inflation “hawk” during and after leaving the Fed because he spent years warning that easy monetary policy would fuel rising prices.
More recently, he has said the Fed should cut rates faster.
Warsh will also have to satisfy a president who has made clear he expects rates to fall—and who has shown no patience for Fed chairs who disappoint him. Trump showered praise on Powell after nominating him in 2017, only to lash out regularly when the Fed bucked his demands for lower rates.
Trump has made clear he doesn’t want to make what he regards as the same mistake again. “Anybody that disagrees with me will never be the Fed Chairman!” he wrote on social media in December.
UKRAINE/RUSSIA/EU/MIL/ENERGY - Zelensky Voices Support for U.S.-Backed ‘Energy Truce’ With Russia
https://www.wsj.com/world/zelensky-voices-support-for-u-s-backed-energy-truce-with-russia-1aeadb27?mod=world_lead_story
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv supported the U.S.-proposed pause to strikes on energy infrastructure, as he said that Russia hadn’t struck Ukrainian energy facilities overnight.
An energy truce would be the first tangible result from a renewed U.S.-mediated push for peace in Ukraine, where Russia’s four-year invasion has killed tens of thousands of people.
Massive Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s power plants and electrical grids in recent weeks have left hundreds of thousands in blackouts and with disrupted heating across the country. Ukraine has used long-range drones to strike Russian oil refineries, aiming to hamper the Kremlin’s economic ability to wage war.
President Trump said on Thursday that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for the halt in the strikes.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said.
US/PANAMA/CHINA - Panama High Court Gives Trump a Win Over Canal by Ousting Hong Kong Port Operator
https://www.wsj.com/business/logistics/panamas-high-court-rules-against-hong-kong-firm-running-canal-ports-714c23c8?mod=world_feat3_americas_pos1
The Supreme Court of Panama has annulled a contract for a Hong Kong company to operate two ports at either end of the Panama Canal, handing President Trump a victory for his security ambitions in the Western Hemisphere and denting China’s influence in the region.
The high court said the terms under which CK Hutchison runs the ports of Balboa on the Pacific Coast and Cristóbal on the Atlantic side were unconstitutional, setting the stage for the company’s departure from the port facilities.
For Panama’s Supreme Court justices, the political pressure was significant, as the port operations put Panama center stage in the rivalry between the U.S. and China.
The ruling comes a year after Trump set his sights on Panama. He said Chinese infrastructure that has been built up around the canal in the past three decades was a security threat to the U.S.
“China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn’t give it to China,” Trump said in his inaugural address last year.
Hutchison can’t appeal a Supreme Court ruling, but it can request clarifications that could delay the termination of its operating license.
SYRIA/KURDS - Syrian Government and Kurdish-Led Militia Seal a Deal to Merge Forces
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/world/middleeast/syria-kurd-sdf-agreement.html
Syria’s government and a powerful Kurdish-led militia reached a comprehensive agreement on Friday to integrate Kurdish forces into the Syrian military, according to Kurdish leaders and a Syrian official, the most decisive step yet to bringing calm after clashes between the sides had threatened to reignite a full-blown conflict in the country’s northeast.
The agreement included the formation of a Syrian military division made up of three brigades from the Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as the integration of Kurdish-led civil institutions into Syria’s central government. Government forces that had amassed along a front line in the north would also withdraw.
“The agreement aims to unify Syrian territory and achieve full integration in the region by strengthening cooperation between the concerned parties and unifying efforts to rebuild the country,” according to the text of the deal that was published by the Syrian Democratic Forces.
A Syrian government official confirmed the agreement, which was also reported in state media, to The New York Times. The official requested anonymity to speak to the news media about the deal.