German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Beijing on his first visit as leader for talks with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, aiming to reset ties and deepen cooperation with Germany’s largest trading partner amid record trade deficits and overcapacity concerns. Accompanied by a large business delegation from firms like Volkswagen and BMW, the meetings produced five narrowly focused agreements on climate change, green transition, animal disease prevention, poultry protocols, and sports while addressing market distortions, subsidies, and calls for fairer investment rules. I would imagine, as the distance between the United States and Europe increases, it will be paramount for European leaders to set their own terms with major economies like China.

The United Kingdom imposed nearly 300 new sanctions targeting Russia’s Transneft oil pipeline operator responsible for over 80% of exports, the 2Rivers shadow fleet network with 175 companies and 48 tankers, banks, military suppliers, LNG terminals, and nuclear entities to cut war funding. Russian firms have routed $8 billion in trade through British island territories since the 2022 invasion to evade restrictions, the Druzhba pipeline received exemptions, and Russian intelligence claimed the UK and France plan to send nuclear arms to Ukraine. The only path forward is to create a joint agreement and normalize relations. Trying to punish Russia out of its position is simply not going to work and will likely make any positive outcomes harder to come by.

The World Bank pledged $6 billion in mostly concessional financing to Mozambique over the next five years to support public investment projects, macro-fiscal consolidation, and resilience against climate shocks including cyclones and floods. Mozambique anticipates a total $10 billion partnership through 2031 with an additional $4 billion from private-sector arms like the IFC for initiatives such as the Mphanda Nkuwa hydroelectric project and economic recovery efforts. Populist leaders in Africa are pushing for the rejection of all foreign financing but the sentiment is obviously not widespread as Mozambique seems more than happy to take a gigantic loan from the pernicious World Bank.

President Trump presented a rosy vision of America’s economy with job and manufacturing booms, stock market gains, and low rates during his 2026 State of the Union address while awarding Purple Hearts to ambush survivors, a Medal of Honor to a 100-year-old Korean War veteran and a wounded pilot from the Maduro capture operation, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the U.S. men’s hockey Olympic goalie. The speech covered foreign policy achievements including a fragile Gaza ceasefire, improved Venezuela ties after Maduro’s capture, NATO spending demands, and a “war on fraud” with retirement matching proposals, drawing standing ovations from Republicans, protests and walkouts by Democrats including Rep. Al Green, and a rebuttal from Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger. The speech is definitely worth watching though it is outlandishly long. Perhaps watch it in parts, but it will give you a good sense of the tensions that define American political life as well as the key agenda items of the current administration.

Fifteen states led by California and Pennsylvania filed suit against HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC, and acting director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya challenging revisions that stripped universal recommendations for seven childhood vaccines, reducing coverage from 17 to 11 diseases. The lawsuit alleges the changes lack scientific evidence, bypassed proper processes, and followed the replacement of all 17 voting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with anti-vaccine activists, risking outbreaks and straining public health resources. This is such an interesting lawsuit as a judge, who is a legal professional, will have to come to a conclusion about the legitimacy of the complaint against the federal government here. My early guess is that the federal government will make a sound enough case to win the suit but we should definitely keep an eye on this one.

Magistrate Judge William Porter ruled that the Justice Department cannot conduct an unsupervised broad search of phone, laptops, recorder, hard drive, and smartwatch seized from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson in a leak probe involving a Pentagon contractor charged with transmitting classified information. The court will review materials itself to protect First Amendment rights and journalistic sources under the Privacy Protection Act, after criticizing the government for failing to disclose relevant safeguards when obtaining the warrant. This is wonderful in that it bolsters the first amendment protections associated with the press. In terms of the leak, the Pentagon needs to be concerned with its contractors, not with the journalists doing their jobs.

Florida House lawmakers advanced a constitutional amendment to eliminate city and county property taxes on homesteaded primary residences starting January 1, 2027, subject to 60% voter approval on the 2026 ballot and backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The plan would retain school taxes while potentially halving overall bills for homeowners and requires local governments to maintain 2024-2025 public safety funding levels to offset the projected $14.8 billion annual revenue shortfall. Great move by Florida! We have to incentivize the behavior we want to see and greatly reducing property taxes is a great incentive.

Waymo launched fully autonomous ride-hailing to select riders in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando using its fifth-generation system in Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, bringing operations to 10 U.S. cities with plans for general availability by end of 2026. Atlanta simultaneously began piloting Glydways’ Automated Transit Network with app-requested driverless electric pods on a 0.5-mile dedicated guideway linking the Georgia International Convention Center to the Gateway Center Arena, marking the first public deployment of such pod transit. Soon, we will move to a world where in urban areas there will be on-demand driverless transportation available to the public. At scale, the price should be quite reasonable so perhaps these innovations alongside a large-scale train system can create a better traffic environment in our urban hubs.

Gov. Jeff Landry formally asked the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to broaden its ongoing investigation into DEI policies from the Board of Regents to every public higher education institution in Louisiana. The request targets a 2019 strategic plan goal to increase Black and Hispanic student degrees and credentials, with Landry stating Louisiana is finished with discriminatory “woke” DEI policies and will ensure full compliance with federal law to avoid penalties or funding loss. Governor Landry is often overly concerned with culture war issues and this seems to be the case here. Nonetheless, we continue to take the stand that despite the intention of the policy, public institutions shouldn't discriminate; for better or worse discrimination does too much damage to the quintessential tenets of our system to be allowed.

A ransomware attack forced University of Mississippi Medical Center clinics statewide to remain closed for nearly a week, canceling elective surgeries, procedures, and appointments while emergency and inpatient services continue. Patients have been directed to a triage line for urgent needs as the FBI assists recovery efforts following the disruption to health services across Mississippi. Governments at every level have to take cyber security seriously as outcomes like this serve as a good reminder that our basic services are reliant upon technology being safeguarded and if not, then a clever hacker can hold an entire health care system hostage.