Good morning. China is said to be discussing the sale of TikTok US to Elon Musk. Donald Trump’s team weighs gradual tariffs. Read about a planned $100 million school campus set to open in Dubai. Listen to the day’s top stories.

Chinese officials are weighing having Elon Musk acquire TikTok’s US operations if the app is banned, people familiar said, though it’s unclear whether Musk, TikTok and ByteDance have held talks. Meanwhile, Chinese social apps Xiaohongshu and Lemon8 have taken over the top two positions on Apple's iPhone download charts in the US.

Geopolitics: Israel and Hamas are very close to a ceasefire deal that would see Israeli hostages returned before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the president-elect told Newsmax. Ukraine’s allies in Europe are cautiously optimistic the incoming US leader won’t force Kyiv into premature negotiations with Russia.

Trump’s economic team is said to be discussing slowly ramping up tariffs, potentially by about 2% to 5% a month, to avoid an inflation spike.

Francois Bayrou, France's prime minister.  Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou delivers a crucial speech to lawmakers today in his fight to stay in power and secure a plan to repair the country’s public finances. The far-left party France Unbowed pledged to propose a no-confidence motion.

The UK auctions £1 billion of 30-year inflation-linked bonds this morning, the first bond sale since last week’s market turmoil when yields rose to the highest in decades and the pound fell to its weakest in over a year.

Deep Dive: Dubious Ties

The Dubai skyline. Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images

Investors looking to raise money in the Middle East increasingly face the difficult conundrum of navigating a landscape littered with financiers who tout tenuous ties to the region’s royalty.

• Dealmakers recently have claimed to represent wealthy family offices with ties to royals that were distant at best, with the biographies exaggerated and the money a specter.
• “In the last few years there have appeared–particularly in the UAE–a number of private offices that seem to represent sheikhs who have almost no substance at all,” said Michael Field, a British author and consultant on Emirati family lineage.

The Big Take

Opinion

Italy’s defense of bank jobs is an EU-wide obstacle, Paul J. Davies writes. Mario Draghi’s plan to boost the bloc’s competitiveness risks foundering on government reluctance to allow industry consolidation.

Before You Go

A rendering of the new private school from GEMS. Source: GEMS Education

Dubai’s getting a new private school with annual fees eventually planned to reach up to $56,000. The School of Research and Innovation will feature a helipad, Olympic-sized pool and robotics labs.

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