Kia ora and welcome to your Friday recap of international business and political news from overnight.
In developing news, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has arrived at the White House to meet US President Donald Trump, largely behind closed doors for a lunch time discussion.
Al Jazeera reported that while Trump had expressed support for her, he did not suggest that she could run the country after the military operation against now-ousted President Nicolas Maduro. The opposition leader could convince Trump about her political strengths and support in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, several Nato countries are deploying small numbers of troops to Greenland following Trump’s desire to annex it, CNBC reported. Denmark, Germany, France, Sweden and Norway confirmed plans to send military personnel to the island.
Elsewhere, the Trump administration has introduced new sanctions on Iranian officials following violent protests in the country.
The US Treasury Department said it had designated 18 people, including the secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security and people allegedly involved in managing Iranian oil sales to avoid US sanctions, Al Jazeera reported.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration “will use every tool to target those behind the regime’s tyrannical oppression of human rights”.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticised unnamed world leaders who he said were seeking to “put international cooperation on deathwatch” amid violations of international law.
Guterres, who will step down at the end of 2026, delivered his final annual speech to the UN General Assembly where he outlined his priorities for the year ahead.
He said the world had “self-defeating geopolitical divides [and] brazen violations of international law”, while he also criticised “wholesale cuts” to humanitarian aid.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In earnings news, Goldman Sachs reported a jump in annual revenue and profitability, with global revenue up 9% to US$58.28 billion last year. That was driven by higher activity at its global banking and markets division, the Guardian reported.
Chief executive David Solomon said the firm had high levels of client engagement, with an expectation of further growth this year.
“While there are meaningful opportunities to deploy capital across our franchise and to return capital to shareholders, our unwavering focus remains on maintaining a disciplined risk management framework and robust standards.”
An aircraft that crashed in flames in Kentucky in November, killing 15 people, had a structural flaw that had been identified by Boeing on similar planes 15 years ago, the BBC reported.
The MD-11F freighter operated by UPS, crashed after one of its engines separated from the wing as it was preparing to take off. Fifteen people died, including three crew and 12 on the ground.
The US National Transportation Safety Board said that cracks found in the engine mounting assembly had previously occurred on several other aircraft. The MD-11 is a relatively old design that was originally produced by McDonnell Douglas. Boeing acquired the company in 1997. The last MD-11 came off the production line in 2001.
Over the Ditch, more than 4.7 million social media accounts have been deactivated in Australia after a youth ban took effect in December. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the data from platforms such as Tiktok, Snapchat and Instagram as "encouraging".
Meta revealed it removed 330,000 users from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook and 39,000 from Threads between December 4 and 11 last year. The social media company was still critical of the age restriction, the ABC reported.
"The premise of the law, which prevents under-16-year-olds from holding a social media account, so they aren't exposed to an 'algorithmic experience', is false," Meta said.
"Platforms that allow teens to still use them in a logged-out state still use algorithms to determine content the user may be interested in, albeit in a less personalised way that can be appropriately tailored to a person's age."
