World Briefing: January 29, 2025

U.S. tech stocks plunged on Monday, amid a wider market sell-off. The culprit: DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company that last week introduced a new — and low-cost — model into the red-hot AI tech market.DeepSeek on Monday morning became the most downloaded free app on Apple’s U.S. app store — ousting OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the process. Shares of Nvidia, the chip company whose AI technology has made it into one of the world’s most valuable companies, dropped more than 13% by late morning on Monday. Rival chip companies, including Arm and Broadcom, also plunged, dragging down the major indexes. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell almost 600 points, or nearly 3%, by late morning. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta and other big tech companies have poured billions of dollars into building up their artificial intelligence capabilities, fueling a Silicon Valley arms race. But now investors are calling these pricey investments into question: DeepSeek says it costs less to train its models, and its open-source AI assistant uses less advanced chips than rivals’ models do - NPR

The European Union renewed on Monday its wide-ranging sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, after Hungary stopped holding up the move in return for a declaration on energy security. “Europe delivers: EU Foreign Ministers just agreed to extend again the sanctions on Russia,” Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, posted on social media. “This will continue to deprive Moscow of revenues to finance its war,” she added. “Russia needs to pay for the damage they are causing.” Officials from other EU countries had warned that failure to roll over the sanctions before a Jan. 31 deadline would have consequences, such as the unfreezing of Russian assets in Europe used to help Kyiv. The sanctions up for renewal include all sector-based bans on trade as well as measures that immobilised Russia’s central bank assets. Legally, the EU’s 27 countries must unanimously vote to renew these restrictions every six months - Reuters

The White House budget office has ordered a pause in grants, loans and other federal financial assistance, according to a memo sent to government agencies on Monday, potentially paralyzing a vast swath of programs and sowing confusion and alarm among the array of groups that depend on them. The directive threatened to upend funds that course throughout the American economy: Hundreds of billions of dollars in grants to state, local and tribal governments. Disaster relief aid. Education and transportation funding. Loans to small businesses. But the two-page memo from Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, left the scope of the pause, and much else, unclear. Among the uncertainties was whether President Trump has the authority to unilaterally halt funds allocated by Congress. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said in a statement that the memo “blatantly disobeys the law.” - NYT

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned following weeks of mass protests demanding accountability for a deadly accident in Novi Sad where the collapse of a concrete canopy killed 15 people at the northern city’s rail station, which critics have blamed on rampant government corruption. Speaking at a hastily called news conference in Belgrade on January 28, Vucevic said that he and Novi Sad Mayor Milan Djuric were stepping down to show accountability for what happened. “The mayor of Novi Sad and I consider ourselves objectively responsible for what happened in Novi Sad and for that we are willingly paying the political price,” he said. “With the resignation of the prime minister, the entire cabinet falls, so practically speaking, the entire government is resigning. We will do our job responsibly until a new government is elected or until a new or different political decision is made,” Vucevic said, adding that President Aleksandar Vucic had accepted his decision - RFE/RL

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich maintained a decade-long scheme to mislead tax authorities, now uncovered in an investigation by the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The scheme falsely presented the Russian oligarch’s fleet of yachts as a commercial leasing operation, to dodge millions of euros in VAT on their purchase and running costs. “There has been tax evasion,” Italian tax lawyer and professor Tommaso Di Tanno told the BBC. “This is criminal.” In a statement, lawyers for Mr Abramovich - who now reportedly divides his time between Istanbul, Tel Aviv and the Russian resort of Sochi - said he had “always obtained independent expert professional tax and legal advice” and “acted in accordance” with it. The billionaire, who was sanctioned by the UK in March 2022 over his connection to Vladimir Putin’s regime, bought five luxury yachts over the course of the 2000s that were involved in the tax scheme. Among them was the 115m (377ft) Pelorus, which he reportedly lent to Chelsea footballer John Terry for his honeymoon in 2007 - and Eclipse, which at 162.5m (533ft) was once the largest private yacht in the world and worth an estimated $700m (£559m) - BBC

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to visit the Louvre on Tuesday and make an announcement about its future, days after the museum’s director issued a warning about the dire conditions for visitors and artefacts at the iconic Paris landmark. “There will be announcements concerning the Louvre and its future,” the French presidency said on the eve of the visit without providing further details. The seat of French kings until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles in the late 1600s, the Louvre is regularly listed as the world’s most visited museum and houses masterpieces including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting and the Greek marble sculpture of Venus de Milo. “The Louvre is a symbol of France, it is a source of French pride,” an aide to Macron told AFP. “It would be wrong to remain deaf and blind to the risks affecting the museum today.” - France 24

Renowned Turkish talent manager Ayşe Barim has been arrested on charges of plotting to “overthrow the government” during the 2013 Gezi Park protests. Prosecutors claim Barim encouraged actors under her management to join the protests, citing wiretaps and links to high-profile figures like Osman Kavala, Memet Ali Alabora, and Çiğdem Mater. Barim denies the allegations, calling them slanderous, insisting her contact with Kavala was limited to promoting the film The Cut. The investigation has expanded to include questioning prominent actors like Halit Ergenç, Bergüzar Korel, and Merve Dizdar. Prosecutors accuse some of giving “evasive answers” to protect her, alleging frequent contact during the protests. With Barim’s arrest and growing scrutiny on artists linked to the protests, critics fear this is another escalation in the government’s crackdown on dissent - DuvaR

This Briefing is reprinted with the author’s permission. Please find the original here.