New LA fire, Davos and DEI, Trump's immigration threats, tariffs-for-tax cuts and Syria’s police
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Today, the global elite in Davos are bracing for Trump's speech and what his campaign against diversity could mean for business. Trump warns local officials against interfering with his immigration crackdown. How Syria's new authorities are using Islamic teachings to train a fledgling police force. Plus how the U.S. president is looking to pay for his tax cuts using tariffs.

It's Thursday, January 23rd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Jonah Green in New York. And I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. When you hear LSEC Data & Analytics, what do you think of? Comprehensive data you can trust. Exclusive access to Reuters news. Industry-leading analytics and unique insights. Discover new possibilities with LSEC Data & Analytics.

A new fast-spreading wildfire north of Los Angeles has exploded to over 9,000 acres, forcing evacuations for more than 30,000 people. The huge fire is being fanned by strong winds and dry brush, and it's pressuring firefighters who have managed to bring two major fires in the LA area under control in recent days.

Matthew Van Hagen is the Hughes Fire Public Information Officer. Out here it's more sparsely populated. However, out here we are dealing with high winds, which we also saw with the other fires, along with a thick fuel bed, very receptive fuel bed, and steep topography again.

The Trump administration has urged government employees to inform on each other in order to root out any attempts to hide diversity programs. The move comes a day after he pressured the private sector to join the initiative and told government employees in offices administering such programs they would be placed on paid leave.

Business and world leaders are scrambling to keep pace with Trump's early actions, and we'll be watching his video address at the World Economic Forum in Davos later today. Our executive producer, Lila DiCrezza, is there. This is definitely the event everyone has been waiting for. It's

It's actually quite late here. It's about 5.30 this afternoon. But I know many, many, many world leaders and business leaders will be really interested in it. Funnily though, Trump's shadow has loomed over this event the entire time. How exactly has that manifested? We had one banker tell us that they set up a war room to deal with the flurry of information that's coming in.

But I think by far the biggest impact we've seen and the one that's had the most sort of reverberations is the rollbacks on DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion. The WEF has always had gender parity, better representation as part of its goals. And rollbacks against DEI go against that very grain. What a company is going to do, are they going to do what he says?

There were definitely people who believe in better representation, believe in gender parity, have been pushing their companies to do that. But they said DEI had almost become like ticking the boxes.

We had some very important advocates for better diversity in the workplace saying the words were causing problems, so they were searching for new words. And then we had tech companies who face a real issue here. They've got contracts with the US. Trump has said he's going to remove those. One of our reporters spoke to three tech executives. He said what they would probably do is they would keep the initiatives but call them a different name.

Mexican authorities have begun constructing giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez. They're preparing for a possible influx of Mexicans deported under Trump's promised mass deportations. Interior Minister Rosa Isela Rodríguez says the government will be ready. As Mexico prepares, Trump is sending a warning to officials in the U.S.,

On Wednesday, the administration directed federal prosecutors to criminally investigate state and local officials who attempt to resist its immigration enforcement efforts. That's according to a memo to Justice Department staff seen by Reuters. Sarah Lynch covers the DOJ. So the memo that came out this week is an escalation, I would say, of sort of the sanctuary city policies that we saw in the first Trump administration.

The first Trump administration, they primarily used a kind of carrot and stick approach by withholding grant money that cities vitally need and rely upon if they wouldn't cooperate and provide information about anybody who they picked up for a possible crime who might be here in the country illegally. And if they refuse to provide that information, then in turn, they would be refused access to grant money.

This time around, they're saying to all the federal prosecutors across the United States, if we encounter instances where local police or sheriffs or district attorneys or whoever, if they refuse to provide information that we need in order to determine who is in the country illegally and has been accused of a crime, we authorize you and we, in fact, order you to pursue investigations into those individuals.

for obstructing the federal process, which is carrying out the immigration laws of the country. During the campaign, President Trump promised sweeping tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico on day one.

But as industries from oil and gas to automakers and even food companies brace for these new tariffs, the Trump administration is now positioning his sweeping approach to international trade as a way to pay for extending billions of dollars in tax cuts. Our White House reporter, Jarrett Renshaw, has been looking into those claims. They want to extend about $4 trillion worth of tax cuts. And Trump has signaled that he kind of wants to redefine what tariffs are in Washington.

and kind of use them like we do corporate taxes, income taxes, raise them to generate revenue to pay for government programs, or in this case, pay for a permanent extension of his 2017 tax cuts. And who actually pays for tariffs? Studies have shown there's typically two outcomes. One is consumers pay more because they're charged more, or companies...

So what's been the reaction to this proposal among lawmakers?

Syria's new authorities are racing to fill a security vacuum after dismantling ousted President Bashar al-Assad's notoriously corrupt and brutal security forces. And our reporting has shown that they're using Islamic teachings to train a fledgling police force, a move officers say aims to instill a sense of morality. Amina Ismail joins us with more.

They put together an emergency plan which includes strategies like importing police officers who served in the north, in areas basically where they ruled in the past. And there's a massive shortage in personnel, of course. So their strategy is to reappoint defectors from Assad's interior ministry and recruit new policemen. What has your reporting shown about this use of Islamic teachings in police training?

We have spoken to many police officers in Damascus and what they have told us that they are incorporating Islamic teachings into their police training, but they have also emphasized that their goal is not to impose Islamic law on the general population and their aim is to instill a sense of morality and ethical behavior in the police force. They said that they believe that understanding religious matters is crucial

for recruits to act justly. But they did not elaborate much on the details of what exactly they'll be teaching people. So what are the concerns within Syria about this new approach? The worries are more about how big a role Islam might play in Syria's constitution and also

There are fears that putting a religion at the center of policing may alienate the cosmopolitan population and minorities who are not interested in religious law. There's also a fear of potential discrimination against those of other faiths. The new authorities have shown pragmatism in the past, backing away from enforcing strict interpretations of Islamic law, which suggests potential flexibility in their approach to policing.

However, the real test will be how this approach is implemented in practice, considering Syria's diversity and the need to maintain stability and earn trust across the country. Thailand has become the first country in Southeast Asia to hold legal same-sex weddings. And they're aiming to mark the occasion with more than a thousand marriage registrations in a single day.

Colorado's top court has unanimously ruled that animals can't sue to demand their release because they are not human. The decision means that five elderly African elephants will have to stay put at the Colorado Zoo after an animal rights group sued on their behalf. To stay ahead in fast-moving markets, you need to transform quality data into tailored, practical and valuable intelligence.

And for today's Recommended Read, an exclusive look at President Vladimir Putin's growing concerns about the Russian economy.

Sources tell us that Putin has grown increasingly concerned about distortions in Russia's wartime economy, just as Donald Trump pushes for an end to the Ukraine conflict. There's a link to the story in today's pod description and also a link to a special episode of Econ World podcast all about Russia's wartime economy. 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.