Chapter 1: What are the key factors that make the UK a unique place for business?
The UK stands apart as a place to do business, not because of one advantage, but many working together. Over Ā£10 trillion in capital, four of the world's top universities, a 10-year industrial strategy in action, its stability with dynamism, global reach with local depth. It all adds up to greater growth. Find out more at business.gov.uk slash growth.
News when you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Karen Moscow. We have some breaking news on the jobs front, but first we want to bring you comments from White House border czar Tom Homan, who's holding a news conference in Minneapolis this morning. President Trump sent him to the city to cool tensions over the shooting deaths of two citizens by federal immigration officers this month.
Homan says the Trump administration is going to scale down operations in Minnesota and conduct targeted anti-immigration actions.
I didn't come to Minnesota for photo ops or headlines. You haven't seen me. I came here to seek solutions. And that's what we're going to do. And we've come a long way. And we got some good wins for the people of Minnesota, I think. and for the administration and for the safety and security of this city.
MS White House border czar Tom Homan. The president is warning Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry he's, quote, playing with fire for saying he will not change his city's immigration laws. Minneapolis is a sanctuary city, but Minnesota's Department of Corrections says it's handed over dozens of criminal suspects to ICE.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar held another town hall last night after a man appeared to attack her with a liquid at an event the night before.
Well, I think my presence here should tell you that the fear and intimidation doesn't work on me.
And that's Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar launched a bid to replace outgoing Governor Tim Walz, centering a race that's drawn national attention after the immigration crackdown in the state turned violent.
These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration, but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state.
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Chapter 2: What comments did White House border czar Tom Homan make about immigration in Minnesota?
What we see Democrats wanting to do is a kind of carve out here that would leave out the Department of Homeland Security. And in so doing, shortening that funding would give them time to spell out, list more demands here to the administration Republicans for what they'd like to see DHS doing here when it comes to enforcement of immigration policy.
and David Gura is host of the Bloomberg Big Take podcast. The European Union appears poised to sanction Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard over Tehran's deadly crackdown on nationwide protests. The EU's top diplomat said that she expects foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today to agree on adding Iran's Guard to its terrorist list.
She said the move would put the Guard on the same footing as al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Islamic State group. The sanctions would further squeeze the Islamic Republic into as it faces U.S. threats to potentially launch a military strike against it. That's pushing Brent futures higher. They hit $70 a barrel for the first time since September earlier this morning.
Currently, Brent is at $70.46 a barrel. NYMEX crude oil is at $65.19. Now to that breaking economic news crossing the Bloomberg. The U.S. trade deficit widened in November from the lowest level since 2009 as imports rebounded and exports fell, highlighting wide monthly swings in response to the Trump administration's tariffs.
The goods and services trade gap nearly doubled from the prior month of $56.8 billion. Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits were a little changed last week, adding to evidence of some stabilization in the labor market. Initial claims edged down by 1,000 to 209,000 in the week ending January 24th after an upward revision to the previous week.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits fell to 1.83 million in the week ending January 17th. That was the lowest since September 2024. U.S. stock index futures, meanwhile, mostly higher in cautious trading as doubts resurface over whether the vast sums being spent on artificial intelligence infrastructure will translate into earnings.
Meta Platforms, among the first AI hyperscalers to report, said it would invest as much as $135 billion this year. That was well above estimates, and its shares are moving higher, up almost 9%, to begin more with Bloomberg's Mandeep Singh.
In the case of Meta, I mean, the core business seems to be accelerating. And what they highlighted last night was, look, I mean, we are spending all this money, but we already see some return in terms of our ad conversions, better recommendation systems. And eventually we'll be launching separate products in terms of, you know,
having an ai assistant that will work within the apps as well as content generation tools so the investors seem to have given them a green light in terms of you know investing up front and with the hope that they will launch new products that can that they can monetize you know later in the year
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Chapter 3: How is the Minneapolis Mayor responding to federal immigration policies?
As a place to do business, the UK stands apart. Not because of a single advantage, but a uniquely powerful combination of many. As one of the world's leading financial centres, the UK puts over Ā£10 trillion to work every day, fuelling innovation across every sector. Home to four of the world's top universities, it provides exceptional talent and breakthrough research.
This sits alongside a clear 10-year industrial strategy, unlocking smarter regulation and making it faster and easier to operate. Stability with dynamism. Global connectivity with local depth. It all adds up to greater growth. Visit business.gov.uk slash growth.