It's been one year since Donald Trump started his second term as US president, and he's pointing to the country's strong GDP growth rate and stock market performances to paint a glowing picture of the economy. But a closer look shows that while activity is booming, it's mostly benefitting the country's wealthier households. Also in this edition, we see how Trump's tariffs have pushed German winemakers to look to China for their exports.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has announced he will invoke Article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass the 2026 budget bill into law without parliamentary approval. He admitted that resorting to this tool represented a "partial failure", as he had promised not to use it. But after a host of concessions the government has made, he is betting he now has enough political support, notably from the Socialists, to survive even if no-confidence motions are tabled. 

US President Donald Trump's latest threat of tariffs on eight European nations if Greenland is not sold to the US has EU leaders in crisis mode. Meanwhile, Trump will be a marquee guest at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week amid a rapid increase in global wealth inequality.

In his New Year's address to the armed forces, French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a plan to add €36 billion to the country's multi-year defence budget in its next update, as he said France needed to be more powerful in order to be feared amid rising geopolitical tensions. We take a closer look.

Elon Musk's xAI says its Grok AI chatbot will be restricted from generating sexualised images of real people after it was used to create pictures of women and children in varying states of undress. Also in this edition: France's traditional Epiphany cake gets subsidised for Celiac disease sufferers.

Tourists visiting France from outside the European Union now have to pay significantly higher entrance fees at some of the most popular sites in the country: €10 more at the Louvre museum and €3 more at the Palace of Versailles. This after a recent daytime heist at the Louvre exposed shortcomings in its maintenance and security systems. Plus, Ryanair's CEO has blasted what he called "stupid" passenger taxes in Brussels and said the company would reduce its flights to the city by 10 percent this year. 

China's customs administration unveiled its latest trade data this Wednesday and announced that the country saw a record trade surplus last year, topping $1.19 trillion, which is about 20 percent higher than in 2024. Exports continued to surge, showing the Chinese economy's reliance on supplying external markets as domestic consumption fails to pick up. Also in this edition, iconic New York department store brand Saks Global files for bankruptcy.

US President Donald Trump says inflation in the country is low enough for Fed chair Jerome Powell to deliver "a big, beautiful cut" to interest rates. US consumer prices rose 2.7% in December, still significantly above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Meanwhile, the heads of global central banks come together in support of Powell, after the Justice Department's criminal investigation against him raised concerns over the Fed's independence. 

US President Donald Trump ramped up economic pressure on the Iranian regime on Monday by announcing he was imposing import duties on the goods of any country that trades with Tehran. The move could further disrupt US trade relationships with global economies like China and India. Also in this edition, we look at the global ramifications of any perceived attacks on the independence of the US Federal Reserve, as the Trump administration launches a criminal probe into Fed chair Jerome Powell. 

Criticism has been pouring in from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, former Fed chairs and top officials after the US Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell. After Powell described the move as retaliation against the Fed for not lowering interest rates as quickly as US President Donald Trump wanted, concern over the central bank's independence pushed prices of safe-haven assets like gold and silver higher.