China tariffs, Canada and Mexico pause, Netanyahu-Trump and DOGE v. USAID
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Today, China hits back at the U.S. with tariffs after deals with Canada and Mexico. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Donald Trump in the U.S. Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency strikes USAID. Plus, an indigenous community in Brazil welcomes its first movie theater. It's Tuesday, February 4th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago.

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Available for a limited time at participating restaurants. Tax not included. Prices may vary. Not valid with any other offer, discount, or combo. Let's kick off Weird Market. It's another big tariff day with China in focus. Additional 10% tariffs across all Chinese imports into the U.S. came into effect at 12.01 a.m. Eastern Time today.

Within minutes, China's finance ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for U.S. coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment and some autos. Those tariffs are set to start on February 10th, giving Washington and Beijing some time to try and reach a deal. U.S. President Donald Trump plans to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the week.

It comes after yesterday's whiplash, with Trump sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico rocking markets before agreeing to a 30-day pause with the two neighboring countries. Our economics editor for the Americas, Dan Burns, explains what went down.

Mid-morning, we got this announcement that a 30-day reprieve had been struck with Mexico after Mexican President Scheinbaum had agreed to reinforce their border with 10,000 Mexican troops. And then bookending the day, we got a comparable announcement from Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. So what does Trump want from these tariff negotiations?

And did he get it? Well, it would appear that he did achieve one of the goals, which was he wanted a much more forceful commitment from Mexico and Canada at border security, both for the flow of migrants and then...

the flow of fentanyl, which the White House has tried to make the case that Canada has had an increasing role in the flow of fentanyl. It's not quite clear that that's the case, but that has been something that he has said repeatedly. Same time, Trump himself, when asked about this, always veers into other economic complaints he has, particularly with Canada right now. He

He talks about the Canadian trade deficit being too high. It's about $64 billion. And if it wasn't for oil, it would actually be U.S. trade surplus. But he exaggerates the size of it. But he says that the U.S. is essentially subsidizing Canada. And it clearly irks him. And you can hear more about tariffs and trade wars on the next episode of Reuters Econ World out later this week. You can catch it on the Reuters app or wherever you get your podcasts.

President Trump is ordering the creation of a sovereign wealth fund that he says could potentially buy TikTok. Typically, such funds rely on a country's budget surplus to make investments. The U.S., however, operates at a deficit. Trump is invoking a wartime law to deport immigrants alleged to be gang members without court hearings.

The 1798 Alien Enemies Act was last used to justify internment camps during World War II. El Salvador has offered to house in its jails dangerous criminals from anywhere in the world who are deported by the U.S. That's according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio after talks with the Central American country's leader.

Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK party has overtaken Britain's governing Labour Party to become the most popular political party in a new poll. The Eastern Congo Rebel Alliance that includes the M23 has declared a ceasefire starting today. Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels and is seeking sanctions to curb the conflict.

Rwanda has said it's defending itself against the threat from Congolese militias, without directly commenting on whether its troops have crossed the border. On Santorini, families are boarding ferries and taking additional scheduled flights to leave after dozens of tremors shook the Greek island for several days. And Trump is today expected to stop US engagement with the United Nations Human Rights Council, as well as continue a funding freeze for the UN Palestinian Relief Agency, UNRWA.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington today in a bid to reset relations. He's the first world leader to meet Trump since the inauguration. And the two will have plenty to discuss, from the future of the Gaza ceasefire to Iran and Saudi Arabia. Matt Spitalnik covers the State Department.

Bibi and Trump, during their overlapping administrations, had quite a good relationship overall. In the first term, Trump did hand Netanyahu a series of major successes, including relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and signing the Abraham Accords. Trump remains a staunch supporter of Israel, but he's also insisted that he wants to end the wars in the Middle East and claim credit for helping broker the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

He also hopes to kickstart an effort toward a historic normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. So all these have created a kind of uncertainty over how much leeway Trump will give Netanyahu, who is also facing pressure from the far-right members of his coalition to restart the fighting in Gaza to fulfill his pledge to destroy Hamas.

How might this meeting influence phase two of the negotiations between Israel and Hamas?

It's a very complex puzzle that both of these leaders are going to have to deal with as they move forward. The second phase of negotiations for a ceasefire deal are set to begin this week. Trump, in his Oval Office comments, has just made clear that he has no assurances that that deal will hold. His Middle East envoy, who was also president in the Oval Office, Stephen Witkoff, said, we're hopeful.

And that's about as far as I can go right now. If Netanyahu does want to return to war, it may be very hard to hold him back. But Trump does have a lot of leverage to at least delay that kind of move and keep negotiations going for the moment, at least. This is a constitutional crisis. Senator Chris Murphy, joined by other Democratic lawmakers outside the shuttered offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

They were there to protest Elon Musk's cuts to the agency, calling it an abuse of power. The people get to decide how their taxpayer money is spent. Elon Musk does not get to decide. Musk has targeted USAID for closure in his mission to downsize government spending. On Monday, staff received an internal email saying the agency's main office was going to be closed.

A senior White House official says Trump is considering merging USAID into the State Department.

Steve Holland covers the White House. This is an agency that expands the reach of the United States worldwide to help people recover from various disasters, illnesses. The Republicans feel like this money is being misspent. It needs to be monitored more closely. Now, I think we're seeing numbers that U.S. foreign aid amounts to a very small amount compared to the overall budget. But this is

Trump's efforts to clamp greater control on the federal government, basically. Now, what authority does Musk have to do this? He's not an elected official. In fact, he's not even been confirmed by the Senate. There's bound to be a fight over this between Musk and Democrats in the Congress. What the White House is telling us now is that Musk is what is known as a special government employee, meaning that he

He acts on behalf of the president, but he's not drawing a paycheck. So for now, Musk has Trump's support, but this can always change. The indigenous community of Inhabé in Brazil's northern Manaus has inaugurated its first movie theater. The building seats 150 and is made in the style of a traditional hut, apart from solar panels to help power the cinema.

Indigenous producer and creator of the project, Thais Kokama, says that locals now have the opportunity to be the protagonists of their own story. And for today's recommended read: to Argentina, where farmers are battling a drought and a shrinking harvest. It could become a major problem for a country which relies heavily on grain exports, but much needed foreign currency to prop up its economy.

There's a link to that story in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.