Middle Eastern Business Headlines at 3:09 p.m. GMT
Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's rebel-held capital and port city after Houthi attack targets Israel
Latest stories
The TelegraphDenmark in ‘crisis mode’ after ‘horrendous’ phone call from Trump demanding to buy Greenland
Denmark is in “crisis mode” after Donald Trump made a direct play for Greenland in a “horrendous” phone call with the country’s prime minister.
- The Independent
Trump says Ukraine should have surrendered to Russia and blames Zelensky for war
Trump claims that the Ukrainian leader decided he ‘wanted to fight’ when it was actually Russia who started hostilities between the two countries
- The Daily Beast
British Officials Left in Tears Over Trump’s ‘Hilarious’ Phone Calls
Staffers to two British prime ministers have shared insight into the laugh-out-loud phone calls the politicians had with President Donald Trump. Former 10 Downing Street officials who worked for Theresa May and Boris Johnson told Politico that any intended agenda for the conversations would “quite quickly fall by the wayside” and the discussions “would always go off beam.” “Everyone was in there with tears (of) laughter because they were hilarious,” one staffer claimed.
- The Daily Beast
Trump Fired Highest-Ranking Woman in Military at His Ball
President Donald Trump fired the highest-ranking woman in the military while at a ball celebrating his role as commander in chief. The Coast Guard commandant, Admiral Linda L. Fagan, was the first female uniformed leader of a branch of the armed forces. Fagan learned she had been fired while waiting to take a photo with Trump at the Commander in Chief Ball on Inauguration Day, The New York Times reported.
- CNN
Trump suggests his plan for Gaza Strip is to ‘clean out the whole thing’
President Donald Trump indicated Saturday that he had spoken with the king of Jordan about potentially building housing and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, a remarkable proposal from a sitting US president.
- Fortune
Nearly a third of Elon Musk’s EV-loving Dutch customers may sell their Teslas: ‘There’s been a debate in the Netherlands around Tesla shame’
An opinion poll conducted last week might finally shed some light on just how many of Musk's customers suffer from "Tesla shame."
- The Independent
Trump’s first foreign call was with ‘fantastic guy’ Prince Mohammed bin Salman about $600 billion deal
Trump hailed the crown prince American intelligence accused of ordering the assassination of a Washington Post journalist, and said he’s going to press Saudia Arabia to invest $1 trillion in the U.S.
- The Guardian
What went wrong with ‘Pakistan’s Dubai’? – inside the Chinese initiative that is prompting terror attacks
The small port city of Gwadar has a huge new airport funded by China, but local suspicion of Beijing’s true intentions threatens to wreck the project
- Reuters
Trump says he may consider rejoining World Health Organization
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he may consider rejoining the World Health Organization, days after ordering a U.S. exit from the global health agency over what he described as a mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. The U.S. is scheduled to leave the WHO on Jan. 22, 2026. Trump announced the move on Monday after he was sworn in for a second term in the White House.
- INSIDER
A former soldier in North Korea's army says he was restricted to firing 3 bullets a year
Hyunseung Lee, a former soldier who fled North Korea, told BI that those sent to fight against Ukraine have "zero relationship with modern warfare."
- GOBankingRates
Did You Buy a Trump Commemorative Coin? Here’s How Much It Could Be Worth in 10 Years
If you own a presidential coin commemorating President Donald Trump, the first thing you need to know is that it's not a true "coin" in the strict technical sense, as it doesn't represent actual...
- The Telegraph
Hamas warns Israel of ‘repercussions’ as hostage release row escalates
Israel and Hamas accused each other of breaching the terms of the ceasefire deal on Saturday after four more hostages were released from Gaza.
- Associated Press
Trump wants Jordan and Egypt to accept more Palestinian refugees and floats plan to 'clean out' Gaza
President Donald Trump said he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip, potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create a virtual clean slate. During a 20-minute question-and-answer session Saturday with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump also said he has ended his predecessor’s hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.
- CNN
US freezes almost all foreign aid
The US State Department has frozen nearly all foreign assistance worldwide effective immediately days after President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order Monday to put a hold on such assistance for 90 days.
- Reuters
Mexico refuses US military flight deporting migrants, sources say
WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico has refused a request from President Donald Trump's administration to allow a U.S. military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country, a U.S. official and a Mexican official told Reuters. U.S. military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday. The government was not able to move ahead with a plan to have a C-17 transport aircraft land in Mexico, however, after the country denied permission.
- The Independent
JD Vance forced to break Senate nail-biter tie in Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Defense Secretary
Surprise third Republican Mitch McConnell opposed Hegseth’s confirmation after a series of revelations about his personal life and alleged misconduct
- HuffPost
U.K. Magazine Expertly Trolls Donald Trump With Front Page ‘Apology’ For The Ages
Private Eye apologized “unreservedly” for its previous critical coverage of the president. But then came an utterly brutal twist.
- Reuters
Brazil to demand explanations on 'degrading treatment' of deportees
Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to seek explanations from the U.S. government over the "degrading treatment" of Brazilians on a deportation flight, the ministry wrote on X on Saturday night. There, Brazilian officials ordered the removal of the handcuffs, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement Saturday. The flight was the second this year from the U.S. carrying undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil and the first since U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration, according to Brazil's federal police.
- The Daily Beast
Musk Follows That Salute by Telling Germans: Don’t Feel ‘Guilt’ Over Country’s Past
Elon Musk urged an audience at a German far-right political rally not to feel “guilty” about their country’s history. The surprise speech comes less than a week after he was accused of making a “Sieg Heil”-style salute while giving a speech during President Donald Trump’s inauguration. (Musk has denied this was his intent in making the gesture.) Projected onto a massive screen at a campaign event for right-wing political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Musk told supporters on Saturday,
- Reuters
Brazil condemns handcuffing of deportees on flight from US
Brazilian officials demanded that U.S. agents remove handcuffs from a group of deportees who were flown to the South American country on Friday, with a prominent minister in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government calling the practice "blatant disrespect" for the rights of his fellow citizens. Federal police, acting under the instructions of Brazilian Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, met the flight after it made an unexpected landing in the Amazonian city of Manaus due to technical problems, the Brazilian government said in a statement on Saturday. The handcuffs were removed from the passengers after the intervention of the Brazilian police, the government said.