The full text of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, yesterday (with his opening remarks translated from French by Paul Wells): It’s a pleasure — and a duty — to be with you at this turning point for Canada and the world. I’ll speak today about the rupture in the world order, the end of the pleasant fiction and the dawn of a brutal reality in which great-power geopolitics is unconstrained. But…
The Guardian reports: At a Nato meeting on Wednesday, military officers from member states of the transatlantic alliance discussed a compromise through which the US would be granted sovereignty over small pockets of Greenland, the New York Times reported, citing three unnamed senior officials. Two of the officials compared the proposal with the UK’s military bases in Cyprus, which are regarded as British territory, it said. Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, wrote on Facebook Wednesday…
The Telegraph reports: Criminals could be stopped before they strike under Minority Report-style policing plans. Police chiefs are evaluating around 100 projects in which officers are trialling the use of AI to help combat crime. The expanded use of AI and technology by police – with the aim of putting the “eyes of the state” on criminals “at all times” – is expected to be part of police reforms by Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, in a white paper next…
Fortune reports: As the European Union weighs options to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, its most potent weapon may be in financial markets. France is already urging the EU to deploy its “anti-coercion instrument,” which can target foreign direct investment and finance as well as trade. That’s after Trump announced new U.S. tariffs on NATO countries that sent troops to Greenland amid his plans to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory. At face value, a 10% tariff rising…
The Washington Post reports: As the Trump administration intervenes in Venezuela, readies troops for a possible deployment to Minnesota and threatens to seize Greenland, the Catholic archbishop for the U.S. armed forces said it “would be morally acceptable” for troops to disobey what violated their conscience. Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio is one of a chorus of Catholic leaders questioning the administration’s use of force. His comments also underscored the mounting concern being voiced by the first American pontiff, Pope Leo…
The New York Times editorial board writes: President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him. He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes…
Paul Krugman writes: Trump is so deeply unwell that it’s time to stop blaming him for all the terrible things he’s doing. He is what he is. Responsibility for the catastrophe overtaking America now rests with his enablers — people who have to know that he’s a sick man but continue to support his depredations. Some of these enablers are monsters themselves. For example, Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration czar and the architect of his violent ethnic cleansing policies, is clearly…
Andrea Pitzer writes: Events are moving so quickly that it’s worth stopping to assess where we are. The U.S. government is currently building massive detention facilities, already detaining tens of thousands of people there and elsewhere, with incompetent and deeply racist secret police sweeping undocumented all kinds of people—immigrants, those with their paperwork in order, and US citizens alike—off the street. We’re hearing grass-roots calls to abolish ICE, while opposition leadership instead speaks mostly about affordability issues. When they do…
Kiel Institut reports: • The 2025 US tariffs are an own goal: American importers and consumers bear nearly the entire cost. Foreign exporters absorb only about 4% of the tariff burden—the remaining 96% is passed through to US buyers. • Using shipment-level data covering over 25 million transactions valued at nearly $4 trillion, we find near-complete pass-through of tariffs to US import prices. • US customs revenue surged by approximately $200 billion in 2025—a tax paid almost entirely by Americans….
David Hearst writes: Everyone and his dog appears to have been invited on US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” but thus far only Morocco, Albania, Argentina, Hungary and Vietnam have accepted. With admission priced at $1bn, and with the suspicion they could be joining a half-baked proposal to sideline the UN, it is little wonder that few are rushing in. The Board of Peace is supported by a founding executive board, which is stacked full of people who denied…
Steve Rosenberg writes: Listen to Donald Trump and you would think Moscow and Beijing were lying in wait off the coast of Greenland, ready to pounce to boost their power in the Arctic. “There are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place,” President Trump said recently. That is why, according to America’s president, US control of Greenland is essential. So how do you think Moscow has reacted to its alleged plot…
Bloomberg reports: The European Union is in talks to potentially impose tariffs on €93 billion ($108 billion) of US goods if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to hit European countries with a 10% levy on Feb. 1. The EU is also weighing additional countermeasures beyond the tariffs but will first try to find a diplomatic solution, according to people familiar with the discussions. Representatives from the EU’s 27 countries met Sunday to begin preparing options. EU leaders…
Politico reports: Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on countries that have shown support for Greenland is pushing transatlantic relations to a breaking point as EU leaders contemplate ways of retaliating against Washington that until now have been unthinkable. Relations between Washington and Europe have been rocky for months as the U.S. president has wavered on support for Ukraine, pressured EU countries into accepting a lopsided trade deal and forced NATO allies to massively ramp up their spending on defense….
Politico reports: As Donald Trump threatens to use the U.S. military to seize Greenland, European officials and diplomats have started quietly airing a previously unsayable thought: What would it look like to fight back? While a military confrontation between the U.S. and any European force would likely result in one of the shortest wars in history, there are other ways that Greenland’s allies can resist the American president if he refuses to compromise. Chief among the potential pressure points is…
Lydia Polgreen writes: Late last Wednesday night, I was standing on a street corner in the Hawthorne neighborhood in North Minneapolis when I witnessed an extraordinary confrontation. A federal agent marched up a narrow residential sidewalk flanked by modest bungalows, kitted out in gear fit for the battle of Falluja: full body armor, military boots and camouflage fatigues and helmet, with a heavy machine gun slung by his side. His carriage was erect, his gaze fixed straight ahead, seemingly oblivious…
The Associated Press reports: A New Hampshire Episcopal bishop is attracting national attention after warning his clergy to finalize their wills and get their affairs in order to prepare for a “new era of martyrdom.” Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire made his comments earlier this month at a vigil honoring Renee Good, who was fatally shot on Jan. 7 behind the wheel of her vehicle by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. The Trump…