Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of backtracking

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

• Israel-Hamas settlement delays

• US shares’ greatest 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 supposed to endorse the settlement.

US President Joe Biden, president-elect Donald Trump and the prime minister of Qatar final night time introduced that Hamas and Israel had agreed a multi-phase deal that will halt the 15-month warfare 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 assist of two far-right events bitterly against any deal, this morning stated the deal’s closing particulars had not been resolved and added that Hamas had backtracked by looking for to dictate which Palestinian prisoners ought to be launched in trade for Israeli hostages.

Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who’s a member of the far-right Spiritual Zionist celebration, branded the deal “unhealthy and harmful” final night time and a member of his celebration this morning stated that “in all chance” the celebration would resign from Netanyahu’s authorities if it agreed to the deal.

The settlement is the closest Israel and Hamas have come up to now to agreeing an finish to the brutal warfare which has turn into the deadliest chapter within the decades-long historical past of the Israeli-Palestinian battle. James Shotter in Jerusalem has the latest.

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

• Earnings: Financial institution of America and Morgan Stanley are the most recent main US banks to report earnings, following yesterday’s bumper profits 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 most recent 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 high tales

1. Joe Biden has warned that an “oligarchy is taking form in America” that dangers damaging democracy. 5 days earlier than he palms energy to Donald Trump, the outgoing US president blasted an rising “tech industrial complicated” in a veiled assault on his successor’s allies, together with Elon Musk. Here’s more from Biden’s farewell address.

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. But it surely 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 way for a new era in space flight.

3. Trump might use the approval of cross-border offers to press international governments into aligning with US coverage priorities, dealmakers and traders have warned. One European banker stated: “The individuals on this administration don’t have any compunction about using every lever at their disposal to achieve their aims.”

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

4. Pension funds are dipping their toes into shopping for bitcoin, in an indication that even sometimes 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 primary holders of US inventory market funds dedicated to crypto. Here are more examples of institutions diving into digital currencies.

5. Citigroup is heading in the right direction 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 could be greater than £100mn. However individuals near the challenge stated that determine had never been realistic.

The Huge Learn

Overseas oil has underpinned China’s financial rise, because the nation constructed the world’s largest automotive business from scratch, new railways and air journey networks, and 1000’s of skyscrapers. However China’s thirst for crude could also be reaching a peak earlier than anticipated, a improvement that has sent shockwaves through the oil market.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• LA fires: The injury — and the insurance coverage crunch that can observe — wouldn’t have been as huge had been it not for a series of misguided state policies.

• M&A: The pinnacle of Lex discusses the outlook for dealmaking over the following 4 years and the surprising similarities it might 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 much faster alongside Manhattan’s bridges and thru its tunnels because the metropolis carried out its long-debated congestion pricing plan this month, in keeping with newly out there 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 occasions rescued, the worldwide artwork market because the monetary disaster of 2008. Lately, although, demand from China has waned. However, luckily for the artwork market, nations reminiscent of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan are amongst these now on the industrial cultural map. Here’s what Asia’s top art collectors are buying as collectors put together to assemble in Singapore for Artwork SG.