Trump tariff threats risk triggering ‘spiral of escalation’ in world economy, says IMF

Donald Trump’s tariff threats over Greenland risk triggering a “spiral of escalation” that would damage the world economy and lead to a sharp sell-off in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.In an update as Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Nato allies opposed to his ambition to take over the Arctic territory from Denmark, the Washington-based fund said a renewed eruption in trade tensions was among the biggest risks to global growth in 2026.Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, said a “spiral of escalation” between the US and Europe would have a “material impact” that would inflict pain on households on both sides of the Atlantic. “We all know there are no winners in a trade war and that’s the thing to remember,” he said.Speaking at the launch of the Washington-based fund’s updated world economic outlook (WEO) report, Gourinchas called for both sides to find an “amicable solution” to the current situation

Afraid to take vacation? The problem isn’t your boss – it’s how you work

A recent survey of more than 3,000 US workers for employment search site FlexJobs found that almost a quarter didn’t take a vacation day during the past year and – more concerning to the study’s authors – as many as 82% “avoid using” their accrued time off. Why?Kelsey Szamet, an employment lawyer, says the reason is a shift in mentality. “Many employees are concerned about the security of their jobs,” she told Quartz. “The adoption of AI and automation technologies has allowed employees to actually consider their own replaceability before requesting a leave or a holiday, or any kind of time-off benefit.”Are you hesitant to take time off because of a slowing economy and the onset of AI? Don’t be

‘Still here!’: X’s Grok AI tool accessible in Malaysia and Indonesia despite ban

Days after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate “grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images”, the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the country.“Still here! That DNS block in Malaysia is pretty lightweight – easy to bypass with a VPN or DNS tweak,” Grok’s account on X said in response to a question from a user.Grok’s ability to allow users to create sexually explicit images, including images of children, has created a global outcry over recent weeks, with regulators and politicians around the world launching investigations. Indonesia and Malaysia became the first two countries to announce blocks on the technology, with Malaysia’s regulatory body saying last Sunday it had “directed a temporary restriction” on access to Grok, effective as of 11 January 2026. Officials in the Philippines have said they too plan to ban the technology

‘We could hit a wall’: why trillions of dollars of risk is no guarantee of AI reward

Will the race to artificial general intelligence (AGI) lead us to a land of financial plenty – or will it end in a 2008-style bust? Trillions of dollars rest on the answer.The figures are staggering: an estimated $2.9tn (£2.2tn) being spent on datacentres, the central nervous systems of AI tools; the more than $4tn stock market capitalisation of Nvidia, the company that makes the chips powering cutting-edge AI systems; and the $100m signing-on bonuses offered by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to top engineers at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.These sky-high numbers are all propped up by investors who expect a return on their trillions

Buffalo Bills reportedly fire Sean McDermott after latest playoff failure

The Buffalo Bills have fired Sean McDermott after the team yet again fell short in the NFL playoffs, according to ESPN.The Bills lost a dramatic divisional round game in overtime to the Denver Broncos on Saturday. Buffalo have reached the playoffs in all but one of the seasons since McDermott took over in 2017, when he helped the Bills reach the postseason for the first time in 17 years. However, they have failed to reach the Super Bowl in that time despite the presence of Josh Allen, one of the best quarterbacks of his generation. Under McDermott, the Bills became the first team to win a playoff game in six straight seasons and not claim a Super BowlMcDermott compiled a 98-50 record in his nine seasons in Buffalo, transforming a team who had languished at the bottom of the AFC East for long periods

Australia’s Ben O’Connor is out of the shadows and primed to scale cycling’s heights | Martin Pegan

Ben O’Connor is just one of the many in the current generation of professional cyclists who knows how it feels to finish as the best of the rest. The Australian’s proudest moment on a bike comes not from raising his arms in triumph on the road, but while finishing second behind Tadej Pogacar at the world championships in 2024. “That was a huge race, an amazing experience, and one where I was very proud to carry myself on to the podium and to hold up the Aussie flag,” he says.It was that Pogacar victory in Zurich which made him just the third rider to claim the “triple crown” of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and world road title in the same year – the toughest prize in men’s cycling. The 27-year-old added a fourth Tour de France overall title in 2025, to now be one short of equalling the record haul, as he continues to stake his claim as road cycling’s GOAT