Good morning. Companies navigating new tariffs, sanctions and export controls are looking to hire employees who can help. Experts in a niche field known as trade compliance say this is the moment they have been training for, reports Liz Young for Risk Journal.

• What they do: Trade-compliance professionals are responsible for making sure companies are following U.S. and international trade laws, from verifying import values and classifying products correctly under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to staying on top of the latest trade restrictions.
   
• More demand, more postings: Recruiting site Indeed said there were 22% more job postings for trade-compliance officers in December 2025 from the same month a year earlier, and 41% more than December 2019. 
   
• Why? President Trump’s on-again, off-again approach to tariffs over the past year has brought trade-compliance professionals into the limelight as companies race to comply with frequently changing rules and regulations.
   
• Now a ‘must have’ role: “Companies are starting to recognize and really realize that this isn’t just something that is a nice-to-have—this is a must-have,” said Colleen Erickson, who worked in trade compliance for more than two decades at companies including Medtronic, Target and Honeywell.

Goldman Sachs plans to scrap DEI criteria for its board.

Last year, Goldman Sachs dropped a commitment to support board diversity for clients it was taking public. Now it plans to drop diversity criteria for its own board.

The Wall Street giant is preparing to remove race, gender identity, sexual orientation and other diversity factors from the criteria its board will consider when identifying potential candidates, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump greenlights more oil-and-gas investments in Venezuela.

The Trump administration is officially paving the way for global oil companies to jump back into Venezuela, a country that most of the U.S. oil industry has stayed out of for the past two decades.

Who got the nod? On Friday, the Treasury Department issued a general license allowing certain large oil companies to invest in new oil-and-gas operations in the Latin American country. The companies that made the list were Chevron, the only U.S. oil company currently operating in Venezuela, as well as some European rivals Shell, BP, Italy’s ENI and Spain’s Repsol.

• More fallout from the Epstein scandal: Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler will step down after her ties to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed. Also leaving their jobs due to alleged Epstein ties: Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the leader of ports operator DP World; and Hotel magnate Thomas Pritzker, who is retiring as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels.
   
• The European Union approved Universal Music Group’s $775 million acquisition of Downtown Music after the companies offered concessions, ending a lengthy investigation by the bloc’s competition officials.
   
• Medical device maker Stryker said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission closed a probe into whether it bribed foreign officials in undisclosed countries, Risk Journal reports. 
   
• The U.S. Treasury Department launched a new website for its whistleblower award program, offering financial rewards to individuals who report alleged fraud, money laundering and sanctions evasion, reports Risk Journal. 
   
• Ireland’s data protection watchdog said on Tuesday it is investigating X over concerns the social-media platform could be breaching European Union privacy rules.
   
• An arbitration panel has ordered UBS to pay $5.5 million, plus interest, to a New York real estate agent who alleged that the brokerage firm mismanaged his stock options in his employer as it was going public.
   
• The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission has made it clear that he wants to focus on punishing fraud and shift away from aggressively pursuing steep fines for technical compliance failures. This week, the new leader of the agency’s enforcement division amplified that message, but with some qualifications.
   
• The U.K.’s audit regulator is considering changing its accounting rules in order to encourage Chinese companies to list in London.
   
• The European Union opened an investigation into e-commerce company Shein, citing concerns about illegal products sold online and potential risks to users from the platform’s design.

Rubio seeks to reassure European allies in Munich speech.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made an unapologetic defense for American might and pursuit of national interests Saturday while seeking to recast President Trump’s sharp disputes with Europe as a form of tough love with the U.S.’s closest allies.

In a speech at the Munich Security Conference, an annual trans-Atlantic gathering, Rubio said that the current global order, with its free-trade regimes and minimization of national identities, was a “foolish idea” that the U.S. and its allies must work to reshape.

• U.S. and Europe, No Longer Kindred Souls, Enter a Marriage of Convenience
• Germany’s Merz Calls for an Overhaul of the U.S.-Europe Alliance
• Europeans Quietly Press U.S. Lawmakers for Clues on the Midterms

China watchers are trying to spot the next target of Xi’s purges.

Xi Jinping’s autocratic rule has made Chinese politics more opaque, leading to a resurgence in “Pekingology” to divine insights.

Pekingologists used the unexplained public absences of He Weidong, who was expelled as China’s no. 2 general late last year, to predict his downfall. China watchers also study seating arrangements at Communist Party events in the hunt for clues.

• CIA Seeks to Recruit Spies Out of China’s Military Turmoil

• Soaring memory-chip prices, driven by AI demand, are forcing consumer-electronics companies to raise prices or reduce product specifications.
   
• The Trump administration is considering an overhaul of steel and aluminum tariffs that is in part likely to reduce levies on many consumer goods, according to people familiar with the administration’s plans.
   
• Companies from Levi Strauss & Co. to McCormick & Co., among others, say they are raising prices early this year on items from bluejeans and spices to housewares and industrial products.
   
• The young daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears increasingly positioned to become the rogue nation’s next leader, Seoul’s spy agency said, though Pyongyang itself has stayed mum on succession plans.
   
• Japanese authorities said they seized a Chinese fishing boat and arrested its captain after he refused to stop for an inspection while sailing in Japan’s maritime zone, an incident that risks adding to tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.
   
• Iran’s theocratic rulers are extending their clampdown beyond the streets and into the broader political sphere, targeting politicians who took a stand against the bloody crackdown on protesters.
   
• Iran’s economic meltdown, which around the new year triggered protests that threatened the regime’s grasp on power, is getting worse.
   
• In much of Canada, President Trump’s provocations like making the country a 51st state are deeply unpopular. In this conservative, oil-rich province, Trump presents an opportunity.
   
• U.S. public companies experienced record CEO turnover last year, resulting in a new crop of younger, less experienced chief executives.