Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of backtracking

Good morning and welcome again. Immediately we’re protecting:

• Israel-Hamas settlement delays

• US shares’ finest day since Trump’s election victory

• Citi’s £1bn refit of its London headquarters

• And the affect of New York’s congestion cost

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas of reneging on components of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage launch deal and delayed a cupboard assembly meant to endorse the settlement.

US President Joe Biden, president-elect Donald Trump and the prime minister of Qatar final evening introduced that Hamas and Israel had agreed a multi-phase deal that might halt the 15-month conflict in Gaza and free the 98 hostages nonetheless in captivity. The ceasefire is meant to come back into impact and the primary hostages launched on Sunday.

However Netanyahu’s authorities, which depends on the help of two far-right events bitterly against any deal, this morning stated the deal’s last particulars had not been resolved and added that Hamas had backtracked by looking for to dictate which Palestinian prisoners must be launched in change for Israeli hostages.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who’s a member of the far-right Non secular Zionist occasion, branded the deal “bad and dangerous” final evening and a member of his occasion this morning stated that “in all likelihood” the occasion would resign from Netanyahu’s authorities if it agreed to the deal.

The settlement is the closest Israel and Hamas have come to this point to agreeing an finish to the brutal conflict which has change into the deadliest chapter within the decades-long historical past of the Israeli-Palestinian battle. James Shotter in Jerusalem has the newest.

Right here’s what else we’ll be watching at present:

• Earnings: Financial institution of America and Morgan Stanley are the newest main US banks to report earnings, following yesterday’s bumper income from JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, amongst others.

• Financial knowledge: The US commerce division’s Census Bureau is because of publish retail gross sales figures for December, and the labour division will launch preliminary jobless claims for the week ending January 11.

• Congress: Hedge fund supervisor and Donald Trump’s nominee as Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will seem earlier than senators for the newest affirmation listening to.

• Starmer in Kyiv: Sir Keir Starmer will signal a symbolic “100-year partnership” treaty with Ukraine in his first go to to the nation as UK prime minister.

5 extra prime tales

1. Joe Biden has warned that an “oligarchy is taking shape in America” that dangers damaging democracy. 5 days earlier than he fingers energy to Donald Trump, the outgoing US president blasted an rising “tech industrial complex” in a veiled assault on his successor’s allies, together with Elon Musk. Right here’s extra from Biden’s farewell deal with.

2. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has reached orbit on its maiden flight, 5 years later than initially deliberate and roughly an hour into its launch window. Nevertheless it boosts the ambitions of Jeff Bezos to problem the maintain of Elon Musk’s SpaceX on the satellite tv for pc launch market and paves the best way for a brand new period in area flight.

3. Trump may use the approval of cross-border offers to press overseas governments into aligning with US coverage priorities, dealmakers and buyers have warned. One European banker stated: “The people in this administration have no compunction about using every lever at their disposal to achieve their aims.”

• Nippon Metal: An anti-Japan tirade by the pinnacle of US steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs is symptomatic of the abrasive atmosphere brewing within the Trump period, writes Leo Lewis.

4. Pension funds are dipping their toes into shopping for bitcoin, in an indication that even usually staid corners of finance are discovering it onerous to disregard the potential outsized returns from cryptocurrencies. Pension schemes for the states of Wisconsin and Michigan are among the many major holders of US inventory market funds dedicated to crypto. Listed here are extra examples of establishments diving into digital currencies.

5. Citigroup is on track to spend greater than £1bn on the overhaul of its 25-year-old Canary Wharf tower in east London. When the financial institution launched the refit in 2022, it was reported the fee can be greater than £100mn. However individuals near the challenge stated that determine had by no means been lifelike.

The Large Learn

International oil has underpinned China’s financial rise, because the nation constructed the world’s largest automobile trade from scratch, new railways and air journey networks, and hundreds of skyscrapers. However China’s thirst for crude could also be reaching a peak earlier than anticipated, a improvement that has despatched shockwaves by the oil market.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• LA fires: The harm — and the insurance coverage crunch that may comply with — wouldn’t have been as monumental have been it not for a sequence of misguided state insurance policies.

• 🎧M&A: The top of Lex discusses the outlook for dealmaking over the subsequent 4 years and the shocking similarities it may share with Biden’s administration.

• Scholz’s legacy: We hint the German chancellor’s shortlived authorities in charts, together with its failure to cease the nation’s financial decline.

Chart of the day

New Yorkers are cruising a lot quicker alongside Manhattan’s bridges and thru its tunnels for the reason that metropolis carried out its long-debated congestion pricing plan this month, in response to newly obtainable site visitors knowledge. In a single route from New Jersey, morning rush-hour velocity has virtually doubled.

Take a break from the information . . . 

Asia’s quickly rising economies have bolstered, and at instances rescued, the worldwide artwork market for the reason that monetary disaster of 2008. Lately, although, demand from China has waned. However, happily for the artwork market, nations similar to South Korea, Taiwan and Japan are amongst these now on the industrial cultural map. Right here’s what Asia’s prime artwork collectors are shopping for as collectors put together to assemble in Singapore for Artwork SG.