Coming Up This Week

• Venezuela inaugurates its new president on Friday, Jan. 10. Pres. Maduro intends to be re-inaugurated, but opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia – who election tally data suggest won the vote – has vowed to return to Venezuela from exile in Spain to be inaugurated instead. On his way back, Gonzalez Urrutia will meet Pres. Biden in Washington today to lobby for U.S. support for his inauguration (he's unlikely to get much help from the outgoing Biden administration, though).
• Mozambique’s exiled opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, said he would return to his home country at 8:05 am local time on Thursday morning, and called on his supporters to greet him at the airport. The ruling Frelimo party plans to inaugurate its candidate, Daniel Chapo, as president Jan. 15, but Mondlane – who came in second in the official tally – plans to incite demonstrations to topple Frelimo’s long reign and be inaugurated in Chapo’s place.

Commodity Prices

• Aluminum: $2,494/ton
• Antimony (ingot min. 99.65% fob China): $33,550/ton
• Cobalt: $24,300/ton
• Copper: $8,877/ton
• Gold: $2,627/toz
• Lead: $1,923/ton
• Natural Gas (Nymex): $3.64/MMbtu
• WTI Crude Oil (Nymex): $74.38/barrel
• Zinc: $2,888/ton

Ukraine

• Ukraine launched a new round of its offensive in the Russian region of Kursk. It captured chunks of Kursk during a surprise first round offensive over the summer but has since lost around 40% of what it had captured.

Gaza

• Israel believes Hamas is regrouping and reinforcing its ranks faster than airstrikes and ground operations can pick militants off. A weekend barrage of airstrikes killed 88 in Gaza, according to Hamas health ministry data (which does not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties).

North Korea

• North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile – its first launch in two months – in a fresh tantrum over U.S. SecState Blinken’s trip to South Korea this week.

Other News

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to resign this week. He was popular for most of his nine-year term, but political winds changed against him this year, and 75% of Canadians now disapprove of him.