Highlights

President Donald Trump's metal tariffs are forcing U.S. auto suppliers to make tough choices. In order to keep costs in check they are being forced to choose to either absorb the extra costs, pass them on to customers or find ways to slash material costs. “We don’t have the money to buy our way out problems like this,” said Bob Roth, chief executive of RoMan Manufacturing Inc, which makes equipment for automakers. Trade consulting firm Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC estimated last summer metals tariffs could cost 5,000 jobs in the U.S. auto industry and 400,000 jobs overall.

With the partial U.S. government shutdown now in its 26th day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has urged President Donald Trump to reschedule his State of the Union address - a move that could deny him the opportunity to use the pageantry of the speech to attack Democrats in their own chamber over the impasse. With Trump’s address set for Jan. 29, Pelosi wrote him a letter citing security concerns because the Secret Service has not received funding during the dispute.

North Korea’s top envoy involved in denuclearization talks boarded a flight in Beijing for Washington on Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. U.S. and South Korean media previously quoted unidentified sources as saying U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean official Kim Yong Chol were expected to meet in the U.S. capital on Friday to discuss a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

World

Riven by crisis, UK searches for Brexit emergency 'plan B'. Prime Minister Theresa May will try on Thursday to break the impasse in Britain’s political elite over how to leave the European Union by searching for an emergency exit deal, though there is so far little sign of compromise. Opposition parties wrote to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to demand he now back a second referendum, which Labour has agreed should be considered if it cannot force a general election. If a referendum is held, a YouGov poll has found that the UK would vote to stay in the EU by a 12 percentage point margin.

“The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated,” U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said hours after Americans were killed in a northern Syria bomb attack claimed by the militant group. President Trump made a surprise announcement on Dec. 19 that he would withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria after concluding that Islamic State had been defeated there. His decision led to the resignation of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who cited policy differences with the president for his departure.

Zimbabwean doctors said on Thursday they had treated nearly 70 people for gunshot wounds while police rounded up hundreds after violent protests this week triggered by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decision to steeply raise fuel prices. Zimbabweans had hoped Mnangagwa would make good on pre-election pledges to revive the economy and break with the Robert Mugabe era, but Zimbabwe has fallen back into familiar ways.

Commentary: Putin can't afford to ditch the dollar. The charges that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort gave private polling data to an alleged Russian spy has increased pressure on Russia's President Vladimir Putin - and shown why he can't afford to ditch the U.S. dollar. "The possibility of further revelations of complicity between Russian intelligence and Trump associates augurs badly for any sanctions relief from Washington,” writes Steven E. Halliwell, former corporate finance head of Central and Eastern Europe for Citibank N.A. The question now is whether Putin will recognize that his political survival depends on accepting that Russia is part of global financial markets.

.@Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned in Myanmar for 402 days. Follow updates on the case: https://reut.rs/2FIbo09

6:51 AM - 17 Jan 2019