Welcome again to World Temporary, the place we’re taking a look at how Europe is responding to escalating tensions over Greenland, the rising mandate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” and the approval of a brand new Chinese language embassy in London.
Texts, Threats, and Tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump introduced on Tuesday that there’s “no going again” on his threats to take over Greenland. The remark follows a flurry of drama over the weekend, beginning with Trump’s announcement {that a} group of seven NATO international locations which have expressed solidarity with Denmark, in addition to Denmark itself, can be topic to a ten % tariff beginning on Feb. 1, with a rise to 25 % if a deal for a U.S. buy of Greenland just isn’t reached by June 1.
Welcome again to World Temporary, the place we’re taking a look at how Europe is responding to escalating tensions over Greenland, the rising mandate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” and the approval of a brand new Chinese language embassy in London.
Texts, Threats, and Tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump introduced on Tuesday that there’s “no going again” on his threats to take over Greenland. The remark follows a flurry of drama over the weekend, beginning with Trump’s announcement {that a} group of seven NATO international locations which have expressed solidarity with Denmark, in addition to Denmark itself, can be topic to a ten % tariff beginning on Feb. 1, with a rise to 25 % if a deal for a U.S. buy of Greenland just isn’t reached by June 1.
The European Union convened an emergency assembly on Sunday, producing a joint assertion from the focused international locations—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland—asserting their continued solidarity and dedication to the ideas of “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Following outrage from Europe, Trump then turned to a moderately nontraditional type of diplomacy: publicly sharing personal textual content messages with world leaders. Trump first posted screenshots revealing Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Retailer’s pleas for de-escalation, adopted by screenshots of Trump’s response. “Contemplating your Nation determined to not give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I now not really feel an obligation to suppose purely of Peace,” Trump’s message reads. (The Norwegian authorities doesn’t select the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, although that call is made by a committee whose members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament.)
Trump additionally posted a message from French President Emmanuel Macron through which the French chief expresses confusion over Trump’s objectives in Greenland; affords to arrange a G-7 assembly in Paris on Thursday after the leaders attend the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland; and invitations Trump to have dinner with him in Paris earlier than heading residence to the US. Trump’s publish, in the meantime, got here a day after he threatened to impose a 200 % tariff on French wine if Macron didn’t agree to hitch Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace.”
Though Macron didn’t instantly point out Trump in his speech at Davos on Tuesday, a number of the French chief’s remarks had been evidently delivered with Trump in thoughts. Macron pushed again in opposition to unilateralism and emphasised Europe’s collective power. “Confronted with the brutalization of the world, France and Europe should defend an efficient multilateralism,” he stated. “We do favor respect to bullies. We do favor science to plotism [conspiracy theories], and we do favor the rule of legislation to brutality,” Macron added.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney equally careworn coalition constructing in his tackle, as did European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, who added that Europe clearly “wants to regulate to a brand new safety structure.”
Trump is about to talk on the discussion board on Wednesday.
As we speak’s Most Learn
What We’re Following
Help and skepticism. In keeping with CBS Information sources, greater than 10 international locations to this point have signed on to hitch Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace,” out of the greater than 4 dozen which have reportedly been invited. Nevertheless, solely 5 have made their settlement public: the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Morocco, Hungary, and Canada (though Canadian Prime Minister Carney has not agreed to pay the $1 billion price proposed by Trump because the required contribution to change into a everlasting member).
In keeping with Trump’s imaginative and prescient, the board—which Trump is to chair—shall be composed of world leaders and tasked to pursue the tip of varied world conflicts.
In keeping with experiences, Trump desires the board’s signing ceremony to happen on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos on Thursday. Chief issues for world leaders contemplating the proposal embody the choice of international locations invited—Russia and China are on the checklist—and the board’s potential risk to the authority of the United Nations.
The board was first conceived as a postwar transitional physique for Gaza following the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and it was formally backed by the U.N. Safety Council in November 2025 as a “transitional administration with worldwide authorized persona that can set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza pursuant to the Complete Plan.”
The board’s proposed constitution, which was launched on Friday, reveals a mandate of far higher scope that might permit Trump to call his personal successor and authorize “resolutions or different directives” to implement the board’s mission. Notably, the constitution makes no point out of Gaza, the place the cease-fire stays tenuous: On Tuesday, Israeli authorities ordered dozens of households from their properties within the first compelled evacuation because the cease-fire started.
Nonetheless, two subcommittees which can be anticipated to report back to Trump’s board had been established final week to hold out his Gaza plan, and Carney has emphasised that Canada’s involvement hinges on circumstances within the enclave. “We nonetheless shouldn’t have unimpeded help flows, humanitarian help flows at scale to the folks in Gaza,” Carney stated. “That could be a precondition for transferring ahead on this.”
A brand new embassy. On Tuesday, the British authorities accepted plans for a brand new Chinese language embassy close to the Tower of London after years of delays. The proposal remains to be topic to quite a few authorized challenges, but when constructed, the embassy can be Beijing’s largest in Europe and exchange the seven places presently utilized by Chinese language diplomats within the capital metropolis.
The approval comes regardless of warnings from native residents, Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, and British and U.S. politicians throughout the political spectrum that Chinese language officers might use the embassy to spy on British residents and firms in addition to exiled Chinese language dissidents. Opponents of the plan cite the constructing’s proximity to fiber optic cables carrying delicate knowledge as a selected trigger for concern.
In a joint letter launched on Tuesday, British intelligence officers Ken McCallum and Anne Keast-Butler addressed these worries, citing the creation of a package deal of mitigations to take care of a “wide selection” of nationwide safety points, together with cables. Nonetheless, they wrote, “as with every international embassy on UK soil, it isn’t lifelike to anticipate to give you the chance wholly to get rid of every potential threat.”
Some analysts see the safety gamble as an indication of altering calculations for the West, citing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s objective to revive Britain’s economic system by bettering relations with China and boosting international funding. The choice additionally appears to take away a barrier to Starmer’s potential go to to China later this month, which might be the primary go to by a British chief since 2018.
Odds and Ends
An internet petition interesting for Denmark to “Danify California” by buying it from the US has amassed greater than 286,000 signatures. The petition was created in early 2025 following Trump’s preliminary calls for to purchase Greenland; now, as Trump escalates threats to take over the territory, assist appears to be surging once more. The petition’s organizer, Xavier Dutoit, stated in a latest interview that the marketing campaign’s intention was “purely to make some extent about how absurd Trump’s claims to Greenland actually had been.”
The petition factors out that Trump has by no means actually appreciated California anyway and would certainly be prepared to half with it for the correct worth—which would come with a lifetime provide of Danish pastries to sweeten the deal.
