Crypto News: Blazes engulf US

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America is burning in the dying days of Joe Biden's presidency.

The symbolism is inescapable as wildfires rage across Los Angeles, engulfing the homes of the rich and famous.

The winds are also fanning the flames of political polarization. Even in the face of a national tragedy, Republicans and Democrats are at odds.

Flames from the Palisades Fire burn a building in Los Angeles yesterday. Photographer: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump blamed Governor Gavin Newsom for mismanaging water supplies.

Days from his swearing-in, Trump is already taking a scorched-earth approach to his second term, threatening US neighbors with tariffs, setting impossible targets for NATO partners, even holding out the possibility of military action to seize Greenland and the Panama canal.

At home, though, the California blaze is yet another reminder that climate change doesn't distinguish between the haves and the have-nots — nor on the basis of one's political proclivities.

Hollywood actor James Woods, a MAGA supporter and climate denier, broke down in tears live on CNN after losing his home in the wealthy enclave of Pacific Palisades. "I'm sorry, it's just one day you're in the pool and the next it's all gone," he said.

The catastrophe forced the departing president to cancel a soul-restoring trip to see the pope.

More significantly, it also denied Biden his chance to bid a bittersweet farewell to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as he writes his last check of US military assistance to Kyiv. Ukraine's fate in its ongoing war against Russia's invasion is now in Trump's fickle hands.

It wasn't meant to end like this. Biden maintains he could have defeated Trump, though acknowledged in a USA Today interview that he may not have had the stamina to serve out another term.

As Biden, who just became a great-grandfather, has discovered, time stops for no-one. — Flavia Krause-Jackson

Biden speaks to members of the media in the White House on Sunday. Photographer: Leigh Vogel/Abaca

Global Must Reads

The Chinese government pledged to deepen its anti-corruption drive across a broad sweep of industries including finance and energy — a sign that President Xi Jinping's campaign against dirty officials will roll on for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, a Chinese Ministry of Commerce probe found that the European Union's measures to shield its companies from foreign subsidies are a barrier to trade and investment, marking the latest clash in the ongoing trade dispute between the two sides.

Buildings in Beijing on Dec. 30. Photographer: Na Bian/Bloomberg

The French government, presiding over the largest deficit in the euro area this year, must be as ambitious as possible with budget cuts to tackle the "chronic sickness" of the country's public finances and restore economic confidence after months of political upheaval, Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said. The government is in negotiations with parties on a new budget that could pass a National Assembly where there is no clear majority.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government has made a priority of fiscal stability, yet the UK is among the hardest hit by a rout in global bond markets this week driven by investor concerns over levels of public debt. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will favor fresh cuts to public spending over tax hikes if soaring UK borrowing costs wipe out her fiscal headroom.

Venezuela's government has ramped up repression, with the detention of about two dozen people since the start of the year triggering a protest from close allies including Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The opposition plans nationwide demonstrations against Nicolás Maduro's inauguration as president this week.

Maduro speaks at a rally in Caracas on Tuesday. Photographer: Jesus Vargas/Getty Images South America

American defense companies are hurting the nation's security interests by prioritizing share buybacks over delivering weapons to the US military and its allies, according to the outgoing US envoy to Japan. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel said in an interview the firms are more focused on increasing their stock value than on investing in production capacity, a reality he said contributes to delays in weapons shipments which could harm US security and weaken American alliances.

Lebanese lawmakers will attempt to elect a first president in more than two years today, with army commander Joseph Aoun emerging as the main candidate to lead a country battered by months of war and years of economic crisis.

Polish President Andrzej Duda asked the government to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from potential arrest if the Israeli prime minister attends a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Netanyahu is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Chad said it averted a "destabilization attempt" after security forces repelled two dozen assailants who briefly entered the presidency where the junta leader of the central African nation had received China's foreign minister just hours earlier.

Italian reporter Cecilia Sala, arrested in Tehran on Dec. 19, was back in her home country yesterday after her release from prison in Iran in a case linked to that of an Iranian man wanted by the US.

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Chart of the Day

A three-year boom in India's economy fueled exuberance that the South Asian nation had entered a new era of faster growth, but a deepening slowdown is raising concerns that it's just a blip. The latest government figures show the economy will expand at a four-year low of 6.4% in the current fiscal year, a return to a slower pre-Covid norm. Analysts say growth in the coming years will likely remain well below the 8% average of the past three years — a pace that Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to meet his ambitious economic goals.

And Finally

China took the unprecedented step of easing visa requirements for scores of countries last year, throwing open its doors to 1.9 billion would-be visitors. Only a fraction of the hoped-for tourists have come, a Bloomberg analysis shows, with visitors from the US and most of Western Europe staying away, though tourists from nearby Asian countries and less-developed markets did come calling.