Good morning and welcome back. In today’s newsletter:
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US oil groups seek guarantees for Venezuela investments
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Brussels plans special rule book for EU companies
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Top-10 private equity funds take nearly half of US fundraising
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Berlin’s power outage shakes Germany
We begin in the US, where oil companies are asking for “serious guarantees” from Washington before they make splashy investments in Venezuela as President Donald Trump urges them to back his efforts to reshape energy markets.
What we know: American officials held crunch talks with top energy executives in Miami yesterday, just as the US president made a show of raw power over global crude markets, seizing control of Venezuela’s oil sector and ordering US special forces to capture a Russian tanker in the north Atlantic.
Demand for guarantees: Trump has summoned executives from some of the biggest US energy groups to a meeting at the White House tomorrow. They are expected to press the president on providing legal and financial guarantees before they agree to commit capital to Venezuela, according to people familiar with their plans.
Earlier this week Trump said US oil companies could be “reimbursed” if they invested in Venezuela. But executives remained cautious, with some citing the US president’s erratic policymaking. Read the exclusive story in full.
Read more of our coverage on the US intervention in Venezuela:
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Opinion: Trump’s imperial pursuit of Venezuelan mineral wealth will leave America no richer, writes Alan Beattie.
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Rubio’s gamble: US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s chance to reshape Latin America has arrived — if he can keep his boss onside.
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Gangs, goons and guerrillas: From street paramilitaries to Colombian insurgents, Venezuela is teeming with men with guns.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
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EU-Jordan summit: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council president António Costa meet King Abdullah II.
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Results: Acuity, Shell and Tesco report earnings. See The Week Ahead for a fuller list.
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Live Q&A: FT Editor Roula Khalaf will be hosting a live Q&A today on the events shaping 2026. Submit your questions here.
Five more top stories
1. Brussels is pressing ahead with plans for a supranational legal framework for EU companies, defying critics who fear creating businesses with a special rule book outside national law will dilute worker rights and disempower regulators. Read details of the voluntary “28th regime”.
2. An arson attack has left parts of Berlin without power for days in freezing temperatures. The incident has shaken the German capital’s residents and sparked a debate about the resilience of the country’s energy infrastructure. Read the full story.
3. To address acute housing shortages in the UK, ministers have promised a swath of new urban centres in rural areas. But the Labour government is hampered by under-investment in infrastructure, constrained finances and local opposition.
4. The top-10 private equity funds have accounted for nearly half of all US fundraising last year, the largest share in more than a decade. The concentration comes as institutional investors rein in commitments and back larger managers amid lacklustre distributions.
5. Economists and investors in China and beyond are calling on Beijing to allow a sharper appreciation of the renminbi, arguing that the currency is significantly undervalued and is being used to fuel an unprecedented trade surplus. Here are analysts’ views if a change in policy is on the cards.
The Big Read
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has presided over the longest period of political calm in decades and has stabilised finances. But she has struggled to articulate a clear vision for Italy’s future — especially for its sputtering economy, with its ageing workforce. With an election looming next year, some question if she has the solutions to pressing challenges.
We’re also reading . . .
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AI impact: It is premature to assume the artificial intelligence era will lead to non-inflationary growth like the 1990s computing boom, writes Chris Giles.
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Activist campaigns: US investors have been agitating for change at many UK companies, and are increasingly powerful, writes John Gapper.
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UK tax filing: Hundreds of thousands of landlords and self-employed people might not be ready for rules, starting in April, on quarterly reporting.
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Weight-loss drugs: People who stop taking anti-obesity medicine will within two years return to their original weight, a review finds.
Graphic of the day
Trump has repeatedly insisted in recent weeks that the US must “have” Greenland. But how could Washington go about taking more or total control of the Arctic island that is part of Denmark? Here are the options.
Take a break from the news . . .
Departure(s), Julian Barnes’s “last book”, is a moving mix of fiction and non-fiction that examines the struggle to find happiness and face life’s losses.
