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Ongoing: All flights in the U.S. have been , which initially affected 1,200 flights just before 7 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration is working to bring operations back online.
GLOBAL RISKS AND TRENDS
DAVOS ON A DIET
It’s a much reduced list of big leaders this year — a dynamic set to be matched by a toned-down tech presence.
Once again German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tops the list of leaders who will speak from the main stage.
White House officials aren’t participating (recap of ), and the most senior person coming from China is Liu He, the Chinese Communist Party Politburo member in charge of finance and the economy. He steps down officially in March.
WHO’S AFRAID OF DAVOS: We already know Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s team is afraid of foreign media (going as far as to ban POLITICO from asking a question to her at the G-20 in 2021, despite us operating in her backyard in Ottawa). But it’s odd she has yet to confirm her 2023 Davos plans, given she’s on
Where to find POLITICO: POLITICO will have a team of eight reporters up the mountain from Jan.15-20. We’ll bring you a daily podcast and merged editions of Global Insider and Davos Playbook each day next week.
OTHER LEADERS ATTENDING
G-20 leaders
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission
Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament
Yoon Suk-yeol, president of the Republic of Korea
Cyril M. Ramaphosa, president of South Africa
Pedro Sánchez, prime minister of Spain
Dictator watch
Ilham Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan
Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic backslider watch
Aziz Akhannouch, Head of Government of Morocco
Andrzej Duda, president of Poland
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., president of the Philippines
Aleksandar Vučić, president of Serbia
Najla Bouden, prime minister of Tunisia
Samia Suluhu Hassan, president of Tanzania
Best of the rest
Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands
Alexander De Croo, prime minister of Belgium
Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, president of Colombia
Sanna Marin, prime minister of Finland
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, prime minister of Greece
Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach of Ireland
Maia Sandu, president of Moldova
ECONOMY — WOULD YOU LIKE A 40 PERCENT PAY RISE? Fast Retailing, the owner of Uniqlo, is making that offer to some staff from the beginning of March. New graduates will get an 18 percent increase and store managers 36 percent, .
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida — in Ottawa today and heading to the White House on Friday — last week called for wage increases across the country. While Japan’s inflation rate of 3.8 percent is low compared to other advanced economies, the country is more used to battling deflation.
FINANCE — CRYPTO WINTER CONTINUES: Coinbase is cutting as it looks to preserve cash during the crypto market downturn.
The cryptocurrency exchange plans to cut 950 jobs, according to a blog post published Tuesday morning. Coinbase, which had roughly 4,700 employees as of the end of September, slashed 18 percent of its workforce in June citing a need to manage costs after growing “too quickly” during the bull market.
CLIMATE — OZONE LAYER’S BACK, BABY! For everyone worried about our world on fire — both literally and the international rules-based order — the United Nations offers a brief respite. The hole in the by 2066, and in the Arctic by 2045. Send your thanks to the negotiators of the 1989 Montreal Protocol, whose treaty efforts have caused the elimination of 99 percent of the chlorofluorocarbons that created the hole.
GLOBETROTTERS
THOSE BORIS JOHNSON COMEBACK RUMORS: The former prime minister’s boosters are making no secret hey think the U.K. Conservatives are doomed to lose the next election (due in 2024) if Johnson is not re-installed in Downing Street. Take journalist Tom Newton Dunn and former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries.
Johnson’s critics see the danger and aren’t letting up: The Mirror that the former PM’s financial guardian angel, Lord Anthony Bamford, is renting him a posh Knightsbridge home for one-third of the market rate ($11,000 a month versus $33,000).
Meanwhile, ITV has a new podcast series about the Partygate scandal that brought down Johnson. Paul Brand reveals Johnson himself called one notorious party “the most unsocially distanced party in the U.K.” and that staff destroyed evidence prior to police investigations, including to avoid some of the parties being investigated altogether. “Partygate: The Inside Story” .
KLEPTOWATCH
FREE FLIGHTS, A SECRET DEAL — INSIDE THE EU’S ‘QATARGATE’ COMMITTEE: Blame your secretary! Eddy Wax has a on the grubby horse trading and forgetful people involved in the EU’s Qatar bribery scandal. No wonder the European family of socialist parties at the heart of the Qatargate scandal decided to cancel their new year party scheduled for today in Brussels.
PRE-EMPTIVE EXTRADITION SUPPORT FOR BRAZIL: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) almost sounded like he was willing an extradition order into existence Tuesday, telling my colleague Alex Ward, “I think we need to be responsive if there is a legit criminal proceeding and an extradition request.” , where he has been spending his post-presidency days in Florida. While the U.S. can decide at any moment which non-citizens it wants on its territory, typically a Brazilian public figure would not be removed unless Brazil officially asked American authorities to hand him over.
NOT MOVING — YELLEN TO STAY ON AS TREASURY CHIEF THROUGH BIDEN’S TERM: Treasury Secretary . Why it matters: Biden needs Yellen to help deal with a possible recession and the risk of more government debt drama, via Congressional disputes over the U.S. debt ceiling.
PASSED
King Constantine II, the last king of Greece. He won an Olympic gold medal for sailing before becoming entangled in his country’s volatile politics in the 1960s, later spending decades in exile. He was 82.
George Pell, the Catholic cardinal and former top Vatican official who was convicted and then acquitted of sexual abuse allegations in 2020. He was 81.
Blake Hounshell: The On Politics editor at The New York Times, formerly a top POLITICO editor. Among dozens of other achievements, Blake edited the first incarnation of Global Insider at the U.N. General Assembly in 2019, and worked with an unforgettable intensity and talent. He died yesterday morning, aged 44, after what his family described as a long battle with depression. | | , and at POLITICO Magazine.
POLITICO Editor-in-Chief Matt Kaminski said "there were few people in the history of our publication who have left a more lasting mark. Blake was a mentor to countless great journalists here, many of whom he recruited and edited. He championed unusual talents and quirky ideas. He hated conventionality. In so many ways, Blake personified the essential journalistic values of this publication."
Thanks to editor Sue Allan, Emilio Casalicchio and producer Sophie Gardner.
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- Ryan Heath