Trump made fresh threats to China and the EU
On his second day in office, President Trump announced plans to impose new tariffs on goods from European nations and China.
Trump wants to put a 10% tax on Chinese goods because, he claims, fentanyl (a dangerous drug) is being sent from China through Mexico and Canada into the United States. He’s also planning to put a 25% tax on goods from Canada and Mexico starting February 1st.
The business world briefly felt relieved when Trump didn’t immediately impose these taxes on his first day as president, as he had promised during his campaign. However, that relief was short-lived when he made these new announcements.
He told reporters at the White House: “The European Union is very, very bad to us. So they’re going to be in for tariffs. It’s the only way … you’re going to get fairness.”
South Korea’s birthrate is about to rise for the first time in nine years
After nine years of falling birth rates, South Korea is finally seeing more babies being born in 2024, thanks to more couples getting married after putting off their weddings during COVID-19.
South Korea has struggled with the world’s lowest birth rates, but things are looking up. Between January and November 2024, there were 220,094 newborns – a 3% increase compared to the previous year. This is a big change from 2023, when the number of newborns dropped by 7.7%, continuing an eight-year decline that led to a record-low birth rate of 0.72 babies per woman.
The increase in babies comes after more people got married in 2023 – the first time wedding numbers went up in 12 years. This makes sense in South Korea, where having children is strongly connected to being married. Most babies are born a year or two after couples tie the knot.
A government survey last year found that 62.8% of South Koreans don’t approve of having children outside of marriage. While this number is lower than it was ten years ago (when it was 77.5%), it shows that traditional views about family still influence how and when South Koreans choose to have children.
Trump ordered the US exit from the World Health Organisation
On his first day back in office, President Trump announced that the United States would quit the World Health Organisation (WHO). He claims the organisation hasn’t handled COVID-19 and other health emergencies well enough.
Trump’s main complaints are that the WHO lets other countries have too much political influence and asks the U.S. to pay too much compared to other large countries like China. At the signing ceremony, Trump stated: “World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
The WHO isn’t happy about losing its biggest supporter. Their spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, told reporters in Geneva that they hope the U.S. will change its mind and work with them to help people worldwide.
The U.S. provides about 18% of WHO’s money – more than any other country. The organisation’s budget for 2024-2025 is $6.8 billion. According to the rules, it will take 12 months before the U.S. officially leaves and stops paying its share.
Read Also: 22 Democrat-led states sue over Trump’s birthright citizenship rule
Nigeria’s public debt hit N142trn
Nigeria’s government debt has reached N142.3 trillion as of September 2024. This represents an increase of N8.02 trillion (or 5.97%) from June’s figure of N134.3 trillion.
The interesting part is how Nigeria’s weakening currency affects these numbers. While the money Nigeria owes to foreign lenders only went up slightly in dollar terms (from $42.90 billion to $43.03 billion), the amount looks much bigger when converted to naira. This is because the naira lost value against the dollar – going from N1,470 to N1,601 per dollar between June and September.
As for money borrowed within Nigeria, there’s a different story. When measured in dollars, this debt went down from $48.45 billion to $45.87 billion. But in naira terms, it still increased from N71.22 trillion to N73.43 trillion.
Nigeria generated N8.6tn from gas in 2024
Nigeria earned N8.6 trillion from natural gas in 2024, producing 2.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF) according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The production included 1.44 TCF of associated gas – natural gas found alongside petroleum deposits, either mixed with oil or sitting above it in reservoirs. The country also produced 1.06 TCF of non-associated gas, which comes from fields without crude oil.
However, of the total 2.5 TCF produced, Nigeria used 2.31 TCF while companies flared (burned off) 192.89 billion standard cubic feet of gas.
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