Iran’s top diplomat is visiting Turkey on Thursday for talks aimed at averting a US strike, as President Donald Trump ramps up threats of military action against Tehran.

Ankara is trying to convince Iran to offer nuclear concessions to avoid a conflict, and has proposed a video call between Trump and his Iranian counterpart, The Guardian reported. Trump warned earlier this week that time is running out for nuclear negotiations following Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protests.

Security forces have since rounded up thousands to deter future demonstrations, Reuters reported.

But any US attempt to topple the regime “would confront the reality that Iran’s power extends beyond its top leadership, rooted in a deeply entrenched institutional network that could maintain control,” Al-Monitor wrote.

US tech stocks slumped on Thursday after earnings reports from industry giants raised questions about how long it will take for aggressive AI spending to pay off.

Microsoft shares fell 10%, the company’s biggest single-day plunge since March 2020, after it reported record AI spending, but slowing cloud growth. Fear is creeping back into investors’ minds that “the AI theme may not be as immediately lucrative as hoped,” one analyst said, though he cautioned that it’s far too early to declare the AI trade has peaked.

There are also rising concerns on Wall Street that “AI ‌investments will eat the software companies’ lunches,” another strategist said. Software stocks entered bear-market territory Thursday.

Apple’s stock rose, however, on record-breaking iPhone sales.

AstraZeneca will invest $15 billion in China through 2030, the British pharmaceutical giant announced Thursday during the UK prime minister’s visit to Beijing.

Astra is the biggest foreign drugmaker in China, and has been ramping up its investments there despite scrutiny from authorities: Beijing detained Astra’s top local executive in 2024.

The move reflects the recent boom in China’s biotech ecosystem, marked by thousands of new startups, innovative research and development, and a speedy clinical trial process, a pharma-focused outlet wrote. More than a third of biopharma licensing deals last year involved a Chinese firm.

The leaders of the UK and China, pledging closer ties, also reached other agreements, including 30-day visa-free travel to the mainland for Britons.

Tesla wants to make fewer cars and more robots. CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the EV giant, which has seen falling vehicle sales, will stop making its Model S and X, and instead use a California factory to build humanoids.

The shift reflects Musk’s “futuristic vision” of tech, CNN wrote: His rocket-maker SpaceX and AI startup xAI are in talks to merge ahead of a massive IPO later this year, Reuters reported, with a goal of launching data centers into orbit.

Tesla’s pivot to robots, accompanied by a $20 billion capital spending pledge this year, is risky.

China is considered the leader in humanoids, but its leading firm only shipped about 5,500 bots last year. Tesla shipped 150.

A slowdown in Russia’s defense and energy sectors is weighing on the country’s war economy.

Oil and gas revenues have fallen because of low prices, a global glut of crude, and sanctions, while military-related industries, including weapon and ammunition production, are seeing languishing growth, government projections show.

“This year’s problems seem more intense than usual,” The Bell wrote. Moscow is looking to hike taxes to shore up its budget, the only way it can find the resources to continue its war against Ukraine, Meduza argued. “Even so, the Kremlin shows no sign of moving toward peace — a choice that bodes poorly for the Russian economy in 2026.”

The French government will stop using US-made videoconferencing software in favor of homegrown technology, part of a wider European move toward self-reliance.

From 2027, the domestic Visio platform will replace Zoom and Microsoft Teams, among others. The EU is increasingly keen on digital sovereignty: It is backing a network of European data service providers to reduce dependence on US cloud computing, a card payment system to rival Visa and Mastercard, and semiconductor manufacturers to avoid relying on Intel and TSMC.

The bloc has accelerated efforts amid tensions with Washington, but the push is not new: The “Galileo” satellite navigation system was set in place in 2016 as a response to concerns that Europe was dependent on the US military’s GPS tech.

US President Donald Trump’s border czar said Thursday that immigration operations in Minneapolis would become “safer,” with plans for an eventual “drawdown” of federal agents on the streets.

Tom Homan’s comments followed Trump’s remarks suggesting a “de-escalation” after weeks of tumult over agents killing two US citizens in the city. The furor has become a political headache for Republicans: Democratic senators on Thursday blocked a spending bill that would keep the government open past Friday and put billions toward homeland security funding.

The unrest has also spotlighted private-sector actors that have benefited from Trump’s deportation push. Companies including Palantir and Deloitte have collectively made more than $22 billion from contracts with government agencies leading the immigration crackdown, the Financial Times reported.

Chinese airlines cancelled all flights on 49 routes to Japan as relations between the Asian powers worsened.

China was angered by Japan’s prime minister suggesting last year that Tokyo could get involved in any conflict over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a renegade province.

Since then, China has urged citizens to refrain from visiting Japan, and on Monday its foreign ministry warned of “serious safety threats” for Chinese tourists.

Travelers from China are not staying home, though: Flight data shows that South Korea is on track to overtake Japan as the top destination for Chinese tourists during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, while Vietnam is also seeing an upswing in visitor numbers.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed progress on lowering tariffs with China, arguing for a “more sophisticated” relationship after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Starmer is the latest in a string of Western leaders to visit recently, a sign of Beijing winning over US allies put off by Washington’s unpredictability and protectionism, according to Western analysts. The UK leader, by contrast, has portrayed himself as a “pragmatist applying common sense.”

Like the Canadian leader before him and Germany’s due next month, however, he is trying to maintain a tricky balance, wary of angering Washington and suspicious of Beijing’s intentions, while aiming to boost growth and gain greater access to the world’s second-biggest economy.

Gold, silver, and copper hit record highs on geopolitical turmoil and industrial demand.

Confidence in the dollar has fallen in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s renewed attacks on the Federal Reserve, Bloomberg reported, and investors are seeking haven assets. Goldman Sachs had forecast that gold might hit $5,400 an ounce by the end of 2026, but yesterday it reached $5,600.

Copper, already in demand for its uses in the energy transition, is also increasingly becoming a target of speculators, analysts told the Financial Times, with prices up 6% overnight. Silver, meanwhile, extended a “frantic” rise, up almost 60% since the start of the year.

FBI agents searched offices in the US state of Georgia containing records of the 2020 election, a vote which President Donald Trump has contested.

The US leader narrowly lost Georgia in 2020, and alleged election fraud; he in turn was indicted for attempting to subvert the count, although the case fell apart. Earlier investigations found no evidence of widespread corruption in the election.

The FBI warrant said the records may contain “evidence of the commission of a criminal offense.” The search appears to be “the most public step by law enforcement to pursue Trump’s claims of a stolen election,” The Associated Press reported. The justice department has recently investigated several other perceived political enemies of Trump, The Hill noted.

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The US Treasury secretary warned Canada’s leader against “virtue signaling” ahead of the impending review of a key, continental trade pact.

Scott Bessent’s remarks came after Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced Washington’s “rupture” of the global order and agreed to lower tariffs with China, sparking a threat of 100% duties from US President Donald Trump. Carney said this week he stood by his comments.

Despite recently making moves to diversify its trade, however, Ottawa remains heavily reliant on the US for the majority of its exports and a large share of its imports. Meanwhile, the US trade representative said negotiations had started with Mexico, the third signatory of the trade agreement.

Iran hit out at growing Western pressure over its nuclear program and a crackdown on protests.

The threat by the country’s foreign minister that Tehran’s forces had their “fingers on the trigger” came amid growing signs that the Washington was readying fresh strikes on Iran: US President Donald Trump warned of a “massive Armada” heading to Iran, adding that “time is running out” for the country’s leaders to agree a deal over its nuclear program.

Trump had previously suggested he would carry out strikes over Iran’s response to nationwide protests that left thousands dead, but later backed off. The EU, meanwhile, ramped up its diplomatic offensive: The bloc is expected to add Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to its terror blacklist.

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates steady, taking a breather after three straight cuts last year.

Despite intensifying pressure from US President Donald Trump to lower borrowing costs, the Fed signaled it isn’t in a rush to trim rates given low layoffs and steady economic growth.

The widely expected decision followed “a very boring meeting during very interesting times,” one analyst said. Tuesday marked Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s first press conference since revealing that the central bank is the subject of a federal probe. Powell declined to comment further on Trump or whether he’d stick around after his term ends in May.

Trump is gearing up to announce his pick to succeed Powell. BlackRock executive Rick Rieder has emerged as a frontrunner, with traders betting on more aggressive cuts.

The US’ top diplomat detailed how the US will control Venezuela’s finances, less than one month after Washington ousted Nicolás Maduro.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified to a Senate committee that Caracas will have to submit a monthly budget, and the Trump administration’s review will determine how the funds from oil proceeds can be spent.

The unusual arrangement has drawn comparisons to Iraq’s reconstruction, in which the US took control of Baghdad’s oil fund and lost track of $8.7 billion, Politico noted.

One leader of the Iraq rebuilding effort called on Trump to use the oil revenues to pay dividends to Venezuela’s citizens, “preventing old Maduro cronies from looting the country’s wealth.”

China began allowing purchases of Nvidia’s powerful H200 chips for the first time, pointing to a nascent US-China rapprochement ahead of a planned visit by President Donald Trump in April.

The first Nvidia approvals went to three of China’s tech giants — ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent — Reuters reported, after the US greenlit their exports last month.

It was previously unclear whether China would allow the sales given its push for high-tech self-sufficiency.

But the approval suggests the “extreme hunger for high-quality computing power” from China’s tech scene is taking priority, a Taiwan-based expert said.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is bringing a cavalcade of business leaders with him on his trip to China this week, as he pursues a reset with the world’s second-largest economy.

Executives from top British banks and manufacturers are joining Starmer, who plans to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday with a goal of unlocking more export business for UK firms. But Starmer is walking a tightrope in enhancing trade ties with Beijing while trying not to rile US President Donald Trump, who has threatened Canada with tariffs if Ottawa strikes a broad deal with China.

Trump’s shakeup of global commerce has driven more US allies toward Beijing: German investments in China hit a four-year high last year.

A cluster of cases of the deadly Nipah virus in India caused nearby countries to step up screening measures, although New Delhi said it had the outbreak under control.

Nipah, first detected in 1999, is usually found in bats and pigs, but occasionally breaks out into humans. There’s no vaccine for the virus, which can lead to fevers, brain swelling, and respiratory illness.

It can spread person-to-person, but only via fluid contact, and so is less contagious than airborne diseases like COVID. It is, however, extremely deadly — up to 75% of cases are fatal — and so Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand began temperature checks for incoming passengers.

Europe is building weapons and ammunition at its fastest pace in decades as it aims to manage its defense independently of the US.

German defense giant Rheinmetall has been building a slew of new factories since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and will soon make more 155mm artillery shells than the entire US defense industry.

Italy’s Leonardo has increased its headcount by nearly half. Europe spent $560 billion on defense last year, twice what it spent a decade ago, and by 2035 its spending will be equivalent to 80% of the Pentagon’s.

Although the continent still relies on the US for satellite support, advanced fighters, and long-range drones, The Wall Street Journal reported, the pivot toward defense self-reliance is well under way.

The likelihood of US strikes on Iran increased once again, as Washington deployed a carrier group to the Middle East.

President Donald Trump threatened attacks after Tehran’s crackdown on anti-government protests, but seemed to back away. Now, though, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its escorts, along with land-based fighter-bombers, are in the region, and US forces are conducting military exercises; Trump said the “beautiful armada” should encourage Iran to “make a deal.”

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two key US regional allies, ruled out the use of their airspace or territory, making any attacks more complicated, although not impossible. Estimates of the number killed by the Iranian regime in the recent protests range from 6,000 to more than 30,000.

The first of more than 1,000 lawsuits against social media platforms in the US goes to trial this week, with tech giants’ internal communications likely to play a key role.

A 20-year-old woman is suing YouTube and Meta — TikTok and Snapchat settled with her out of court — alleging they designed their platforms to be addictive.

The case faces significant hurdles: The allegation that social media causes mental health issues, rather than simply correlating with them, is scientifically contentious; the existence of “social media addiction” as a meaningful concept is widely disputed; and courts are rarely a good place to settle scientific questions.

But recently unsealed documents apparently showing that tech giants targeted young users could be influential to the jury.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to hold rates steady today, a decision overshadowed by threats to its independence and questions over its future leadership.

Fed chair Jerome Powell, long the target of US President Donald Trump’s ire for refusing to aggressively lower borrowing costs, is the subject of a criminal inquiry, while a bank governor is contesting Trump’s attempt to fire her. Economists worry the cases could erode the Fed’s credibility as apolitical.

Powell’s term is up in May, but Trump “wants something that may not exist,” The Wall Street Journal said, “a new chair who will pursue his demands for lower interest rates while still commanding enough credibility on Wall Street and from his colleagues to deliver them.”

Europe’s economy is showing signs of recovery, despite widespread despair over its prospects.

Surveys suggest Europeans are pessimistic about the continent’s future, but International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva told Politico that was misplaced: Seven of the world’s top 10 performing economies are European, and ING analysts said Germany’s economy, stagnant for years, is expected to accelerate this year after stimulus.

The continent still faces economic challenges. Georgieva echoed former European Central Bank head Mario Draghi in calling for deregulation and economic integration, while consulting firm BCG said in a report published today that both problems could be alleviated by changing the financial architecture of European state pension funds, freeing up capital to invest in the continent’s businesses.

Spain plans to grant 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status, bucking a trend among many Western nations that are cracking down on immigration.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has for years sought to increase immigration to Spain: The country ranks as the seventh oldest in the world by median age, and spends around 12% of its GDP on pensions.

Despite fears of an impact on domestic workers, Sánchez said the unemployment rate has fallen by 40% even as Spain has added two million foreign workers.

Though facing similar demographic challenges, much of the West has turned against migration, while East Asian governments have maintained a historic aversion to it, with economists warning the decision could cripple their economies.

Mexico cancelled an oil shipment to Cuba following pressure from Washington, as US President Donald Trump warned the island nation would be “failing pretty soon.”

Since Washington captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba have plummeted, leaving Mexico as Havana’s biggest crude supplier. But the White House has urged Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to cut oil sales, despite pressure from hard-left members of her governing party to support Havana’s Communist regime. Sheinbaum has defended the move to halt oil deliveries as a “sovereign decision.”

Cuba, among the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, is facing the worst economic crisis in a generation, compounded by plummeting tourist numbers over the US threats.

​​African nations now send more money to China in the form of loan repayments than they receive in new borrowing from the world’s second-biggest economy, signaling the stark shift in Beijing’s strategy on the continent.

China began accelerating lending to African nations two decades ago, with annual loans peaking at almost $30 billion in 2016. However, under-performing projects and economic mismanagement led several countries to default on their loans, with China pulling financing in response.

Yet Beijing remains keen on expanding its footprint in Africa as competition with the US for access to critical resources heats up: Chinese foreign direct investment in the region has boomed, growing almost tenfold in the two decades to 2024.

Investors and analysts upped their bets on an AI boom, despite fears of a bubble.

The AI startup Anthropic will raise a further $20 billion in funding at a $350 billion valuation; it sought $10 billion, but investor demand was high.

The tech investment group Softbank, meanwhile, is in talks to back OpenAI with a further $30 billion to improve its position in the AI race, Reuters reported, and semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML saw its stock price surge 7% after announcing increased orders on the back of surging demand for AI.

The Dutch giant, which makes the world’s most advanced chipmaking machines, is already Europe’s largest company by market capitalization.

Hundreds of US tech workers are speaking out about the US’ deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, but most of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs remain silent.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman told employees that ICE operations are “going too far,” while Anthropic’s CEO characterized the situation in Minnesota as “horror” in a post.

They couched their condemnation with praise for President Donald Trump, however, reflecting the tightrope tech chiefs are walking in responding to the unrest without drawing the White House’s ire.

More than 800 employees, including those from Google, Microsoft, and Meta, called on their bosses to condemn ICE, but many in AI would prefer staying quiet to “getting dragged into the mind-killing field that is politics,” Transformer wrote.

US consumer confidence plummeted this month to its lowest level since 2014, a leading index showed, as Americans grew more anxious about high prices and a cooling job market.

Even as the US economy keeps growing and inflation eases, the country has been stuck in a “low hire, low fire” labor environment, and the latest reading is a “warning sign to policymakers” to focus on affordability and reviving hiring, one economist said.

Geopolitical shocks fueled by President Donald Trump’s volatile foreign policy also weighed on consumers, the survey showed.

Trump on Tuesday hopes to refocus voters’ attention on his efforts to bring costs down in a speech in Iowa, a state whose farming industry was hurt in the president’s trade war.

Japan’s currency strengthened Tuesday as speculation simmered that Japanese and US authorities could intervene after a sharp slide in the yen.

Such a coordinated step — which could involve the US buying Japanese assets — is rare and remains unlikely, analysts said. Unilateral moves by Tokyo are more likely: Last week’s sharp yen selloff was fueled by concerns over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s spending and tax cut proposals, and she is eager to get through a Feb. 8 snap election “without markets blowing up,” Bloomberg wrote.

A Brookings economist, though, argued that the yen’s best hope is for the Japanese government to sell assets to pay down its debt, which is the highest among the world’s major economies: “The only way to get there… is for things to get worse before they can get better.”

Aggressive government spending in wealthy countries is propping up global economic growth, but poses a threat to long-term financial stability.

From the US to Europe to Asia, countries are rolling out large stimulus packages financed by budget deficits, a trend that is expected to boost growth and jobs, The Wall Street Journal reported. But the record debt raises questions about the ability to weather future crises, and risks causing market turbulence: Japan’s bond market was roiled last week by concerns over government spending measures.

“The menace of unsupportable borrowing” now looms over the global economy, The New York Times wrote. “The more you consume now, the less you can consume later,” an economist said.