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Donald Trump is scheduled to fly out to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum where he'll hold high-stakes talks with European leaders over his Greenland plot.

The European Union’s top official says President Donald Trump’s threats of new tariffs over Greenland are “a mistake especially between long-standing allies,” and she’s calling into question Trump’s trustworthiness after he agreed last year not to impose more tariffs on EU countries. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was responding Tuesday to Trump’s announcement of a 10% import tax will be imposed in February on goods from eight European nations rallying around Denmark as he insists on a U.S. takeover of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged America’s trading partners to “take a deep breath.” One year into his second term, Trump is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos — an annual gathering of the global elite — where amid the Europeans’ resistance he may see many of the billionaires he has surrounded himself with. Follow live updates from Davos. The Latest: Trump slams UK deal to hand over Chagos Islands after he previously backed it A startled British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after Trump attacked the plan, which his administration had previously supported. Trump said that relinquishing the remote Indian Ocean archipelago, home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base, was an act of stupidity that shows why he needs to take over Greenland. The blast from Trump was a rebuff to efforts by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to calm tensions over Greenland and patch up a frayed trans-Atlantic relationship. Starmer on Monday called Trump’s statements about taking over Greenland “completely wrong,” but called for the rift to be “resolved through calm discussion.” Read more about Trump’s comments on the Chagos Islands Read what France’s Macron and the head of NATO are saying to Trump behind the scenes While Europe is pushing back publicly against Trump over Greenland, the language appears softer behind the scenes. Trump published a text message on Tuesday that he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, confirmed as genuine by Macron’s office. Starting with “My friend,” Macron’s tone was more deferential than the criticism that France and some of its European partner nations are openly voicing against Trump’s push to wrest Greenland from NATO ally Denmark. Before broaching the Greenland dispute, Macron opted in his message to first talk about other issues where he and Trump seem to be roughly on the same page. “We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” the French leader wrote in English. Then, he added: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” immediately followed by: “Let us try to build great things.” That was the only mention that Macron made of the semi-autonomous Danish territory that Trump covets in the two sections of message that Trump published. It wasn’t immediately clear from Trump’s post when he received the message. Read more about the messages Surrounded by billionaires in Davos, Trump plans to lay out how he’ll make housing more affordable Trump plans to use a key address Wednesday to try to convince Americans he can make housing more affordable, but he’s picked a strange backdrop for the speech: a Swiss mountain town where ski chalets for vacations cost a cool $4.4 million. On the anniversary of his inauguration, Trump is flying to the World Economic Forum in Davos — an annual gathering of the global elite — where he may see many of the billionaires he has surrounded himself with during his first year back in the White House. Trump had campaigned on lowering the cost of living. But in office, he has devoted more time to cavorting with the wealthy than talking directly to his working-class base. Trump’s attention in his first year back has been less on pocketbook issues and more fixed on foreign policy with conflicts. He is now bent on acquiring Greenland to the chagrin of European allies — a headline likely to…

RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Syrian military claims that Kurdish-led forces abandoned camp housing families of Islamic State militants. Source

PARIS (AP) — While Europe is pushing back publicly against U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland, the language appears softer behind the scenes. Trump published a text message on Tuesday that he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, confirmed as genuine by Macron’s office. Starting with “My friend,” Macron’s tone was more deferential than the criticism that France and some of its European partner nations are openly voicing against Trump’s push to wrest Greenland from NATO ally Denmark. Before broaching the Greenland dispute, Macron opted in his message to first talk about other issues where he and Trump seem to be roughly on the same page. “We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” the French leader wrote in English. Then, he added: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” immediately followed by: “Let us try to build great things.” That was the only mention that Macron made of the semi-autonomous Danish territory that Trump covets in the two sections of message that Trump published. It wasn’t immediately clear from Trump’s post when he received the message. Trump breaks with tradition World leaders’ private messages to each other rarely make it verbatim into the public domain — enabling them to project one face publicly and another to each other. But Trump — as is his wont across multiple domains — is casting traditions and diplomatic niceties to the wind and, in the process, lifting back the curtain on goings-on that usually aren’t seen. Trump also published a flattering message from Mark Rutte, secretary general of NATO, which the alliance also confirmed as authentic. “I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland,” Rutte wrote. “Can’t wait to see you. Yours, Mark.” Rutte has declined to speak publicly about Greenland despite growing concern about Trump’s threats to “acquire” the island and what that would mean for the territorial integrity of NATO ally Denmark. Pressed last week about Trump’s designs on Greenland and warnings from Denmark that any U.S. military action might mean the end of NATO, Rutte said: “I can never comment on that. That’s impossible in public.” Macron’s relationship with Trump Macron likes to say that he can get Trump on the phone any time he wants. He proved it last September by making a show of calling up the president from a street in New York, to tell Trump that police officers were blocking him to let a VIP motorcade pass. “Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you!” Macron said as cameras filmed the scene. It’s a safe bet that Macron must know by now — a year into Trump’s second term in office — that there’s always a risk that a private message to Trump could be made public. An official close to Macron said that his message to Trump “shows that the French President, both in public and in private, takes the same views.” The official added that on Greenland, France considers respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states is “non-negotiable.” They spoke anonymously in line with the French presidency customary practices. Still, the difference between Macron’s public and private personas in the message that Trump published was striking. Hosting Russia and Ukraine together Most remarkably, the French leader told Trump in his message that he would be willing to invite representatives from both Ukraine and Russia to a meeting later this week in Paris — an idea that Macron has not voiced publicly. The Russians could be hosted “in the margins,” Macron suggested, hinting at the potential awkwardness of inviting Moscow representatives while France is also backing Ukraine with military and other support against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Macron wrote that the meeting could also include “the danish, the syrians” and the G7 nations — which include the United States. The French president added: “let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us.”…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians have been struggling for nearly two weeks with the longest, most comprehensive internet shutdown in the history of the Islamic Republic — one that has not only restricted their access to information and the outside world, but is also throttling many businesses that rely on online advertising. Authorities shut down internet access on Jan. 8 as nationwide protests led to a brutal crackdown that activists say has killed over 4,000 people, with more feared dead. Since then, there has been minimal access to the outside world, with connectivity in recent days restored only for some domestic websites. Google also began partially functioning as a search engine, with most search results inaccessible. Officials have offered no firm timeline for the internet to return, leading to fears by businesses across the country about their future. One pet shop owner in Tehran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity like others for fear of reprisals, said his business had fallen by 90% since the protests. “Before that, I mainly worked on Instagram and Telegram which I don’t have access to anymore. The government has proposed two domestic alternatives. The point is our customers are not there — they don’t use it.” Internet outages are the latest squeeze on businesses The internet outage compounds economic pain already suffered by Iranians. The protests, which appear to have halted under a bloody suppression by authorities, began Dec. 28 over Iran’s rial currency falling to over 1.4 million to $1. Ten years ago, the rial traded at 32,000 to $1. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it traded at 70 to $1. The currency’s downward spiral pushed up inflation, increasing the cost of food and other daily necessities. The pressure on Iranians’ pockets was compounded by changes to gasoline prices that were also introduced in December, further fueling anger. Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA quoted a deputy minister of communications and information technology, Ehsan Chitsaz, as saying the cut to the internet cost Iran between $2.8 to $4.3 million each day. But the true cost for the Iranian economy could be far higher. The internet monitoring organization NetBlocks estimates each day of an internet shutdown in Iran costs the country over $37 million. The site says it estimates the economic impact of internet outages based on indicators from multiple sources including the World Bank and the International Telecommunication Union, which is the United Nations’ specialized agency for digital technology. In 2021 alone, a government estimate suggested Iranian businesses made as much as $833 million a year in sales from social media sites, wrote Dara Conduit, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne in Australia, in an article published by the journal Democratization in June. She cited a separate estimate suggesting internet disruptions around the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests cost the Iranian economy $1.6 billion. The 2022 internet disruptions’ “far-reaching and blanket economic consequences risked further heightening tensions in Iran and spurring the mobilization of new anti-regime cohorts onto the streets at a time when the regime was already facing one of the most serious existential threats of its lifetime,” Conduit wrote. More than 500 people were reportedly killed during that crackdown and over 22,000 detained. Prosecutors target some businesses over protest support Meanwhile, prosecutors have also begun targeting some businesses in the crackdown. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported Tuesday that prosecutors in Tehran filed paperwork to seize the assets of 60 cafes it alleged had a role in the protests. It also announced plans to seek the assets of athletes, cinema figures and others as well. Some cafes in Tehran and Shiraz have been shut down by authorities, other reports say. Internet cuts drive more outrage The financial damage also has some people openly discussing the internet blackout. In the comments…