Semafor Flagship-The World Today

"Outrage in Minnesota, Trump agenda faces pushback, top Chinese general ousted."

Views expressed in this geopolitical news and analysis are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 25 January 2026, 2221 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).

Beijing  Kunming  Jakarta January 26, 2026 Read on the web Flagship Sign up for our free email briefings→   The World Today Minn. shooting sparks outrage Trump agenda faces pushback Top China general ousted Pentagon rethinks China threat Canada-US spat widens US deepens rare earth push Winter storm blasts US Ozempic makes planes lighter Our four-eyed ancestors Y2K style makes comeback The world’s oldest known rock art sheds light on the history of human creativity. ↓ 1 Anger erupts after 2nd fatal Minn. shooting Shannon Stapleton/Reuters Furor erupted across the US after immigration agents on Saturday shot and killed a second person in Minnesota, escalating tensions over the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown. Video footage appeared to show authorities firing on the man, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and American citizen, at least 10 times after they removed a gun from his waistband, contradicting the White House’s account of the incident. More than 60 CEOs called for “immediate de-escalation,” and Democrats could partially shut down the federal government this week by blocking homeland security funding. For weeks, federal agents have been “visibly unprepared to handle the policing situations their presence created,” The New York Times wrote. The latest shooting, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune, “upended any sense” that tensions would ease. ↓ 2 Shooting adds to pressure facing Trump Saturday’s killing by US immigration agents in Minneapolis is set to compound the political pressure on President Donald Trump as his domestic and foreign agendas face sharper opposition, analysts said. The shooting “is a crescendo rather than a singular event,” CNN wrote, and accompanies a broader “change in atmosphere,” The Washington Post wrote, as those in Trump’s crosshairs — from Washington to Brussels — take a firmer approach to his tactics. “There is this new energy when our allies are rattling the saber back, and that is in turn emboldening folks at home,” a Republican strategist said. The global press cast the shooting as a crisis for Trump and the country. “American politics is likely to descend into chaos this year,” a Chinese state outlet wrote. For more on the fallout in Washington, sign up for Semafor DC, our daily US politics briefing.  → ↓ 3 China’s top general removed Tingshu Wang/Reuters China’s top general was ousted after being accused of leaking nuclear secrets to the US, a stunning purge that raises questions about Beijing’s military readiness. Zhang Youxia — who was second in military command only to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and considered one of his closest confidants — allegedly undermined Xi’s authority, official statements suggest, but The Wall Street Journal reported that he was also accused of providing data on China’s nuclear weapons to Washington. Xi has overseen a corruption crackdown, cementing his grip on power, though Zhang’s ouster deals a blow to Beijing’s chain of command that could take years to rebuild, analysts said. “The chances of an attack on Taiwan in the short term have been lowered,” a Taipei-based expert said. ↓ 4 New Pentagon plan deprioritizes China Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters A new US national security strategy deprioritized China as the military’s top threat, shifting focus to the homeland and Western Hemisphere. The Pentagon plan calls for the abandonment of “grandiose strategies” and prioritizes diplomacy with Beijing in an effort to deter the superpower “through strength, not confrontation.” It signals a longer-term goal of reducing Washington’s military role in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East. But even as the Pentagon strikes a more conciliatory tone toward Beijing, many in President Donald Trump’s inner circle view the “Donroe Doctrine” — Trump’s focus on the Western Hemisphere — as a show of might that weakens China’s geostrategic influence, Nikkei wrote. ↓ 5 Trump warns Canada over China deal US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened Canada with 100% tariffs if Ottawa strikes a broad trade deal with China, deepening the spat between the North American neighbors. Canada last week agreed to lower tariffs on Chinese EVs in exchange for Beijing dropping duties on key Canadian agricultural imports — at the time, Trump said it was “a good thing.” But he soured on Mark Carney after the Canadian prime minister gave a speech in Davos declaring that the US-led world order had ruptured. Ottawa should “deploy strategic empathy and political theatre to meet the administration where it’s at,” a geopolitical consultant wrote in The Globe and Mail, calling for a “splashy deal” that addresses Trump’s longstanding but minor grievances. ↓ 6 US to make biggest rare earth investment USA Rare Earth CEO Barbara Humpton. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Semafor The US government is reportedly pursuing a $1.6 billion investment in an American rare earth company, its largest such foray into the sector, as Washington looks to build up its domestic mineral supply chain. The planned 10% stake in USA Rare Earth, the Financial Times reported, marks the latest intervention by the Trump administration into private industries it deems central to national security: The government has stakes in at least six other minerals companies. USA Rare Earth’s CEO told Semafor last year that she welcomed the administration’s involvement. “We have a very fragile supply chain that relies on the whole country of China,” she said. “Our job now… is to take this off of the geopolitical leverage game board.” ↓ 7 Dangerous winter storm blasts US Jeenah Moon/Reuters A massive winter storm pounded much of the US with snow, ice, and dangerously cold temperatures. Airlines canceled more than 17,000 flights on Sunday — a level last seen during the early days of the pandemic, according to an aviation analytics firm — while ice across the mid-Atlantic and South knocked out power for more than 1 million customers; outages could last for days in hard-hit areas like Nashville. The storm shattered records and was unique in its spread, stretching from New Mexico to New England: Copenhagen, New York, saw a temperature reading of minus 49°F (minus 45°C). “An Arctic siege has taken over our state,” the governor said. ↓ Semafor World Economy Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn & Manas AI, is joining the Semafor World Economy Global Advisory Board — a forum of visionary business leaders guiding the largest gathering of global CEOs in the US. The expanded board represents nearly every sector across the US and G20. Joining the Advisory Board at this year’s convening will be our inaugural cohort of Semafor World Economy Principals — an editorially curated community of innovators, policymakers, and changemakers shaping the new world economy with front-row access to Semafor’s world-class journalism, meaningful opportunities for dialogue, and touchpoints designed for connection-building. Applications are now open here. ↓ 8 Ozempic could save airlines millions Hamuda Hassan/Reuters Weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic could save airlines millions, research suggested. Lighter aircraft need less fuel — and planes with less fuel are lighter, saving more weight, making every kilogram of payload saved even more important. Airlines are thus “obsessive” about reducing weight, The Washington Post reported: One carrier’s decision to use lighter paper in its in-flight magazine saved it $290,000 a year in fuel. But airlines have been unable to control passengers’ growing waistlines. The recent peak in US obesity, which coincided with the rise of GLP-1 drugs, could change that: If passenger weight dropped 10%, the four largest US carriers could save as much as $580 million per year. ↓ 9 Early vertebrates may have had four eyes Our oldest vertebrate ancestors may have had four eyes. The earliest known vertebrates — animals with spinal columns — are jawless fish that lived more than half a billion years ago. Fossils of two species found in southwest China between 2019 and 2024 had partially preserved the animals’ bones and soft tissue — even their eyes. Vertebrate eyes contain pigment structures called melanosomes that determine eye color; the researchers found melanosomes in the usual places, but also in two smaller patches between the eyes. Scientists posit that the extra pair of eyes eventually evolved in mammals into the pineal gland, which regulates our sleep cycle. Some rare reptiles still have a third, light-sensitive organ atop their heads. ↓ 10 Gen Z embraces Y2K fashion Moritz Scholz/Getty Images Gen Z has revived the trends of the 1990s and early 2000s, down to the baggy, low-rise jeans, Ugg slippers, and sweatpants with words written on the backside. The “Y2K aesthetic” reimagines the fashions of elder millennials from the turn of the century. The Washington Post’s retail correspondent argued that it “speaks to a yearning for what [young people] perceive as simpler times,” before phones and brain rot. Alternatively, it could be the usual 20-year fashion cycle, where everything old becomes new again. Whatever the explanation, Gen Z — if they truly embrace the style of the fin-de-siècle years — will, as their forebears did, have to work out how to stop treading on the backs of their needlessly enormous trousers. ↓ Flagging Jan. 26: Germany hosts the third international North Sea Summit. Japanese political party leaders debate ahead of a Feb. 8 election. Indian markets are closed in observance of Republic Day. ↓ Curio Oktaviana, A.A., Joannes-Boyau, R., Hakim, B. et al. in Nature/CC BY-ND 4.0 Research found that drawings in an Indonesian cave are likely the world’s oldest known rock art, changing our understanding both of the development of human creativity and of our species’ spread through Asia. The art, made by spraying pigment while using the hand as a stencil, is at least 67,800 years old, 1,100 years older than the oldest previously known rock art, from Spain. The researchers believe, due to the art’s complexity, that the artists were Homo sapiens. It implies that the region’s first settlers already had “a sophisticated artistic culture,” they wrote in Nature, but also that the ancient settlers of Papua New Guinea and Australia traveled by a northern route via Sulawesi rather than a southern one via Java. ↓ Semafor Spotlight The Signal Interview: “It’s clear you can get a deal done now,” says Brian Moynihan.  → You’re receiving this email because you signed up for briefings from Semafor. Manage your preferences or unsubscribe here. Read our privacy policy. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Semafor in your inbox. Semafor, Inc. 228 Park Ave S, PMB 59081, New York, NY, 10003-1502, USA