Good morning. U.S. law takes a tough line on forced labor in China, but the Trump administration has taken a relatively soft enforcement approach—and companies seem to be noticing, Dow Jones Risk Journal reports.

• The numbers: During 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped about $183 million worth of shipments at the border under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, according to CBP data. In 2024, under President Biden, CBP stopped about $1.40 billion worth, following the detention of $1.58 billion in goods in 2023. Trump’s enforcers last year also didn’t add any entities to a UFLPA blacklist of companies, compared with 144 additions throughout the Biden administration.
   
• Cross-aisle complaints: Democratic lawmakers last month publicly complained the administration was letting its legal authority under the law languish, calling the absence of additions to the blacklist concerning.
   
• ‘Enforce more’: “Companies continue to maneuver around within the bounds of what is legal,” said Richard A. Mojica, the head of the customs and import trade group at law firm Miller & Chevalier. “In order for companies to continue to invest in diligence and to take it seriously, CBP has to enforce more.”

Trump regulators say they are ready to lay out crypto rules to foster growth.

President Trump’s regulators said they were ready to lay out rules that would help foster the crypto industry’s growth after legislation on the matter ran into an unexpected setback.

“In the long term, it’s better to have legislation,” Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins told The Wall Street Journal. He expects the legislation to pass this year, but added that “we can make do with our authority.”

• Once at Odds Over Crypto Regulation, SEC and CFTC Pledge to Join Forces

Treasury approves sanctioned Venezuelan oil sales for U.S. companies.

The U.S. Treasury has given U.S. companies permission to enter the sanctioned Venezuelan oil market, but with a few conditions, Risk Journal reports.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control, the agency’s sanctions unit, issued a general license Thursday allowing U.S. companies to conduct oil transactions that would otherwise be blocked under U.S. sanctions on the Venezuelan government and state-oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA.

Transactions with any Venezuelan or U.S. companies controlled by Chinese entities are explicitly not allowed under the license. It also restates prohibitions on transactions with businesses in Russia, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.

• A whistleblower who provided information on alleged bid-rigging and fraud has received a $1 million reward from the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Postal Service, a first under a cash-for-tips antitrust program started last year, Risk Journal reports.
   
• President Trump selected Laura DiBella, a former commerce secretary for the state of Florida, to lead the Federal Maritime Commission. DiBella takes over as leader of the commission as the maritime regulator plays a more muscular role in shipping.
   
• A PetroNor E&P subsidiary allegedly gave the family of Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso kickbacks through a share of a license for an oil drilling project off the coast of the country, according to an indictment filed by Norwegian prosecutors that was seen by Risk Journal.
   
• A $140 million loss at BlackRock is reviving questions about the accuracy of financial disclosures to individual investors in the booming private-credit industry.
   
• First Brands Group founder Patrick James and his brother Edward were indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of defrauding lenders ahead of the auto-parts company’s collapse into bankruptcy.
   
• New rules governing prediction markets are in the works at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
   
• The U.S. will block imports from Mexican coffee farm Finca Monte Grande over forced labor concerns, Risk Journal reports.

Middle East scrambles to find U.S., Iran a diplomatic off‑ramp.

A number of Middle Eastern governments are trying to push the U.S. and Iran into talks to head off a possible conflict, efforts that so far are failing to gain traction as both sides dig in.

The diplomatic efforts have new urgency now that the U.S. has moved more firepower into the region and President Trump is making new threats to attack Iran if a deal isn’t reached.

What CEOs are—and are not—saying about ICE and Minneapolis.

After weeks of pressure from employees and customers, some business leaders are speaking out about the federal immigration crackdown that led to two deadly shootings in Minneapolis and have sparked protests around the country.

Their buzzword? De-escalation.

A handful of CEOs have made public statements this week and those that have, including Apple’s Tim Cook and Target’s incoming boss Michael Fiddelke, have echoed the term.

• Corporate America faces growing shareholder pressure to talk about Trump’s immigration policies

• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chinese leader Xi Jinping moved to improve ties in Beijing on Thursday as Britain’s relations with the U.S. have been tested by President Trump’s tariff increases and calls for the seizure of Greenland.
   
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called on the Trump administration to respect his country’s sovereignty after a group advocating for Alberta’s secession from Canada said it had met with State Department officials about the province’s future.
   
• President Trump told Venezuelan interim leader Delcy Rodríguez that he will be opening all commercial airspace over the country.
   
• The new era of corporate cost-cutting is hitting American workers with full force.
   
• Confidence among businesses in the eurozone jumped more than expected in January, in line with a rise in consumer confidence at the start of the year.

You can listen to new episodes every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.

• President Trump and Senate Democrats said there is a deal to avert a partial government shutdown and temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security, as negotiations continue on proposed restrictions to immigration enforcement.
   
• A secret FBI bust nabbed an alleged drug lord—and rocked ties with Mexico.
   
• Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota on Thursday formally entered her state’s race for governor, pledging to unite the state amid a widening welfare fraud scandal and a federal immigration crackdown.
   
• Amazon.com is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a giant bet on the hot AI startup.
   
• Call screening is aggravating the rich and powerful.

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