Trump’s divisive 'Board of Peace’

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Today is Friday, January 23rd, and this is your FT News briefing. Intel had itself a rough earnings report, and will more countries sign up for Trump's Board of Peace? Plus the unrest in Iran has settled, but the government is still Still cracking down on dissenters. I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

Shares in the American chipmaker Intel slid as much as twelve percent in after hours trading yesterday. The company said in its earnings report that revenue fell four percent last quarter compared to the same period the previous year. Intel's chief financial officer said the company was dealing with quote industry wide supply shortages, and CEO Lip Bouton said Intel was quote working aggressively to grow supply to meet strong customer demand.

The company's share price had skyrocketed 150% over the past year after the Trump administration took a 10% stake in the company. Intel also got a boost earlier this month with the launch of the new Panther Lake PC chips.

US President Donald Trump spent his first day at Davos walking back his threats to invade Greenland. He spent his second day signing the charter of his Board of Peace, which some are seeing as a rival to the U.S. He was joined by a motley crew of other nations. This project is yet another controversial flashpoint in the president's fraying relationship with his allies in Europe. Most weren't even at the signing yesterday. The FT's Mahul Shrivostova is here to tell us all about it. Hey Mahul.

All right, so give me the backstory on this board of peace. Why did Trump create it in the first place? So initially this Board of Peace had a very small mandate. It was designed to kind of oversee the ceasefire that Trump himself had broken between Israel and Hamas and Gaza, and then to kind of manage the reconstruction of Gaza. But it seems about three weeks ago Trump was so enamored with this idea that he's now expanded it.

to all kinds of conflicts around the world. A charter was quickly drawn up and invitations went out last week to thirty, forty countries. And then all of a sudden yesterday in Davos we saw a signing ceremony where none of the major European nations were there to support what's supposed to be a major international alliance that's supposed to help bring into to war around the world.

Tell me a little bit more about the stark divide uh between the countries who have signed onto this charter and maybe more importantly who uh those who haven't. So we've been getting tracked. Those who have openly signed up include six monarchs, three ex Soviet apparatus, two military backed regimes, and even Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu who himself is sought by the International Criminal Court.

for alleged war crimes. We see uh Viktor Orban in Hungary, who himself is suspicious of uh international norms that uh seek to constrain his behaviour, and Bulgaria joining in. But you haven't seen the United Kingdom or France or Germany countries that are uh that help form the foundation of the the international rules based order embrace this in any way at all.

And perhaps more controversial is the fact that you have to pay a billion dollars to join this uh Board of P's for its perpetual membership. You can join in and be a member for three years, but perpetual membership with its perpetual lifetime leader. Donald Trump will cost a country a billion dollars. So Mahul, some European allies have raised concerns that this board of peace could have actually been designed to replace the United Nations. Is that a meaningful threat?

Well it's certainly something that President Trump himself has mentioned. He was complaining on the flight over to Davos that the United Nations hasn't helped him in ending any wars. Uh he's called this the Board of Peace. The Charter talks about, you know, finding solutions to conflicts around the world, which is something that we tend to assume that the United Nations, the Security Council, peacekeeping missions.

etcetera will be involved in helping to bring an end to conflicts. And we have seen them succeed in the past. And we've also seen them fail in the past. But in general this is seen by the Europeans and by other countries as a way to create an alternate system in the world, an alternate world order.

within which Donald Trump has a lot more sway than he can have over the United Nations, which tends to be quite more democratic. Do we have any idea what the board is gonna do from here now that its charter has been signed? I mean the charter's been signed. We imagine more and more countries would probably sign off because US pressure is quite significant on this is Donald Trump's uh signature foreign policy initiative for at least this week.

But there is an immediate test in front of it and and a test that is perhaps the toughest that can be out there, which is the original goal for the Board of Peace, which is the administration and the reconstruction, the management of Gaza from a war ravaged ruin. And within three to six months it'll become clear whether the Board of Peace is able to um tackle the problems in front of itself in this one specific

and perhaps most difficult, the most intractable conflict in the world. Whether it'll expand on to the other wars around the world that Donald Trump wants to bring an end to and then ensure that he wins the Nobel Peace Prize remains to be seen. That's the FT's Mahul Shrivastava. Thanks, Mahul. And thanks for having me.

The world's attention has moved on from the Iranian protests the government suppressed, but the country is still in shock and facing an intense crackdown. Officials have seized property, closed businesses, and arrested people who are connected to prominent figures the government says stoked the unrest. The FT's Najme Bzorgmair has been following the latest developments and she joins me now. Hi Najmeh. Hello. So who is the government cracking down on?

The crackdown is mainly targeting leading figures. This may be an act of intimidation aimed at punishing those who encourage people to join the recent protests and at raising the cost of mobilization in any future unrest. fifteen sports figures and actors. now face the threat of confiscation of their properties and legal cases have opened against them. If they are convicted their assets will be used to compensate for damage to private and public property. Has Iran done this kind of thing before?

Confiscating uh private properties is not unprecedented in Iran. It happened after the nineteen seventy nine Islamic revolution when революціарі confiscated the properties of many people affiliated with the režim. But this is quite unusual to do it at this level and announcing it publicly without any judicial procedures. I saw some lawyers are now complaining that uh this is not legal and the judiciary has no right to uh confiscate properties without holding the court.

And there is concern that this basically scares the private sector. Nanajme, has the regime made any concessions to the protesters? So far we do not see any political concessions. We see some promises of economic incentives. Teachers will be given some bonuses, food vouchers are working and the Ministry of Housing has also promised to deliver the new houses that they had promised to low income people soon.

And in a kind of concession to the families who lost their dear ones, the Islamic Republic has announced that about two thirds of people who got killed will be classified as martyrs. and this would make them uh subject to financial benefits and educational advantages. Najme, just to zoom out a little bit, with so much happening globally, there's less focus on what's going on in Iran. What does that mean for the country? That shift in attention is not ideal for sure.

But for now Iranians are mourning their dead trying to help the injured or searching for those who are missing or detained. I can say it's a deeply wounded nation. Trying to figure out what to do next. Najme Bazorgmair is the FT's Tehran correspondent. Thanks so much, Najme. Thank you.

There's been an overwhelming amount of geopolitical news this year, especially after this week's World Economic Forum in Davos. So it might be welcome news that we're gonna focus on central banks next week. Here to talk about that is Victoria Craig, host of the Monday edition of the briefing. Hi Victoria. Hey Mark. So what's on tap? The Fed. It's back in focus. Ray. Yeah. And it's a bit of a steady as she goes situation on interest rates.

So what's interesting is a new Reuters poll out at the end of this week showed one hundred percent of economists responding expect the central bank to keep rates on hold at its meeting on Wednesday. and about half expect no change for the entire first quarter. And that's a bit of a change from a December poll that showed that forecasts were calling for at least one reduction.

by March. And to sort of wrap all of this up, some of the data out this week sort of helped bolster this case for the Fed. We got an upward revision to GDP, which showed the economy grew at four point four percent. annualized rate in the third quarter, and that is alongside the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, which is still well above target. Okay. So that's the monetary policy side of the Fed. But we should also talk about

Chair Jay Powell, do we finally have an idea of who's gonna replace him this year? Well, we have a bit of an idea. So Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at Davos this week said that we could get the official long-awaited announcement next week. President Donald Trump at Davos also told C N B C that it's down to three candidates and then he said really it's just down to one in his mind, but he didn't tell us who he's thinking.

So if we sort of parse that out a little bit, the president in that interview called Rick Ryder. He's right now the head of fixed income at BlackRock. The president called him, quote, impressive. And so he's emerged as a possible leading contender alongside former Fed Governor Kevin Walsh. So if you're still with me on this name game, this is all after President Trump last week worried

that longtime front runner Kevin Hassett, he worried about him sort of trading his post as chief of the White House's National Economic Council for head of the Fed. He didn't really want to rock the boat too much that way. A lot of Kevins to keep track of. Lots of Kevins. Well, I'm sure you're on top of it. That's the FT News Briefing Monday host, Victoria Craig. Thanks so much, Victoria. Thanks, Mark.

You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Check back next week for the latest business news.

The FT News briefing was produced this week by Henry Larson, Clara Williamson, Josh Gabbertoon, Julia Webster, Sonia Hudson, Fiona Simon, and Victoria Craig. I'm your host and editor, Mark Filipino. Our show is mixed by Alex Higgins, Kent Millitzer, and Kelly Gary. We had helped this week from Peter Barber, Michael. David DeSilva and Gavin Colman. Our executive producer is Topher Forge. Our global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley, and our theme song is by Metaphor Music.

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