Crypto News: FEMA under pressure

President Donald Trump said he was considering scrapping the federal emergency response agency FEMA during a trip to disaster zones in North Carolina. Trump blasted the agency for having "let the country down," and said it could be less involved in recovery efforts in the future. He leveled the criticism during an appearance in Asheville, North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene floods last year, before he heads to survey fire damage in California. FEMA has been in the political cross-hairs since the October storms that hit North Carolina stoked a wave of claims—debunked or unsubstantiated—that it was withholding aid to Republican communities. Trump himself on the campaign trail charged FEMA with having spent its funds on "illegal migrants," in remarks rejected by the Biden administration. Earlier this week, Trump floated turning over disaster assistance to individual states rather than having the federal government respond, and installed a former Navy SEAL with no obvious disaster management experience as interim head of the agency. Trump doesn't have the authority to fold FEMA—only Congress has that power. But the scrutiny over the agency's response comes at a time when it's still actively dealing with deadly wildfires in San Diego and Los Angeles, which are likely to be some of the most expensive in US history. Scientists have long warned the very kind of natural disasters FEMA is supposed to respond to will become more dangerous and more expensive thanks to man-made climate change, something Trump has signaled he's not interested in addressing. — Margaret Sutherlin

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Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Commerce Department detailed his wealth and influence across 800 entities in a complicated ethics disclosure. The filing (part of the cabinet confirmation procedure) showed the chief executive officer of Wall Street investment bank and brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald had assets worth at least $806 million. Lutnick also confirmed he'll divest his interests in the three core firms that constitute his business group: Cantor Fitzgerald, brokerage BGC Group and Newmark Group. He left open the possibility that his adult children, two of whom work for his companies, could buy stakes in the firms. There's been much speculation about who will take over for Lutnick at his real estate firms. Meanwhile, Trump's embattled nominee for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, faces a final Senate confirmation vote Friday night, and some in Trump's camp are wondering why two banking watchdogs from President Joe Biden's administration haven't been fired yet.

Deported immigrants were sent on US military planes back to Guatemala and El Salvador, as the Trump team looks to demonstrate that it's acting on campaign promises to return millions of migrants to their home countries. The deportations are part of a broader sweep to round up migrants across the country. In New Jersey, the mayor of Newark and a Democratic Congresswoman criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly raiding a business to detain undocumented residents without producing a warrant. Trump has vowed to target an estimated 11 million people in the country without documentation, even at risk of upending the job market and US economy.

Migrants on the US-Mexico border in December. Photographer: David Peinado/Bloomberg

Some steelmakers in Canada and Mexico are telling customers they are refusing new orders to the US on concerns that President Donald Trump will soon reimpose duties. Trump this week signaled plans to impose previously threatened tariffs of as much as 25% on Mexico and Canada by Feb. 1. While the two countries are exempt from a sweeping 25% steel tariff the US imposed during the first Trump administration, there's increasing concern that a carve-out won't happen this time. Canada is the top source of imported steel into the US and Mexico is the third largest.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms will invest as much as $65 billion in artificial intelligence this year, including building a giant new data center and increasing hiring in AI teams. It's a remarkable increase in spending for the company, and a significant vote of confidence in the future of AI computing. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's announcement comes days after Trump along with executives from OpenAI, SoftBank. and Oracle announced a $100 billion joint venture called Stargate to build out data centers and AI infrastructure projects around the US.

Economics

US Consumer Sentiment Declines for First Time in Six Months

US consumer sentiment declined in January for the first time in six months on concerns about unemployment and the impact of potential tariffs on inflation.

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How has Silicon Valley reacted to the TikTok whiplash? With caution for starters. After the ban—which was upheld by every branch of government—took effect, Trump effectively overrode it with an executive order. Both Google and Apple have left the popular, China-owned video streaming app out of their stores, but Oracle—which was a part of the AI infrastructure deal brokered by the Trump administration—has reinstated it. That divergence in approaches by some of the country's biggest and most powerful tech companies underscores the confusion around Trump's order, the broader uncertainty about TikTok's future and just how much political capital matters under the new administration.

For women in the US seeking fertility treatment or considering donating their eggs, there's a fair amount of information they can find about any given clinic or hospital. They might look for data on how many egg retrievals the clinic has done or the ages of its patients. Many times they'll want to know how often treatment resulted in the birth of a baby. But one thing they won't be able to find out is how often the procedure has gone wrong. That's because, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discloses "success rates," it doesn't reveal information about complications. The data gap is particularly troubling at a time when fertility treatment is increasingly relying on eggs from donors—who are paid and may not fully understand risks.

A woman undergoing injects herself with a hormone therapy injection meant to be used in fertility treatments including egg collection into her stomach. Photographer: SolStock/Getty Images

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Spirit Airlines has updated its passenger dress code with new restrictions on lewdness, building on efforts by the discount US carrier to shake off its image as a downscale brand.