The ‘very stable genius’ zigzagged wildly in a packed press room – Nato’s future lies in the hands of a modern Caligula

“I was quite the baseball player, you wouldn’t believe,” said Donald Trump, suddenly wistful as he recalled his salad days when his mother would tell him, “Son, you could be a professional baseball player,” and he would reply, “Thanks, mom.” Carpe diem!

Not for the first time on Tuesday, the US president had veered wildly off topic. The point of this story was a “big building” that “loomed over the park” in Queens, New York, where he used to play little league baseball. When he asked why it had bars on the windows, she told him it was a mental hospital.

Emmy award winner faces charges of inappropriately touching a minor while on set directing a TV series

A judge has ordered that actor Timothy Busfield be released from jail during a detention hearing on child sex abuse charges .

The order Tuesday by state district court judge David Murphy is linked to accusations that Busfield inappropriately touching a minor while working as a director on the set of the series The Cleaning Lady.

Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney sign letter timed for WEF in Davos saying wealthy are buying political influence

Nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries are calling on global leaders to increase taxes on the super-rich, amid growing concern that the wealthiest in society are buying political influence.

An open letter, released to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, calls on global leaders attending this week’s conference to close the widening gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

European countries now reliant on US liquified natural gas shipments, creating risk of higher bills amid recent tensions

Donald Trump has a stranglehold over EU and UK energy supply as a result of Europe swapping its dependency on Russia for reliance on the US, analysis has shown.

In part due to the war in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions on Russian pipeline gas, European countries have become dependent on shipments of US liquified natural gas (LNG), according to a paper co-authored by the Clingendael Institute, in The Hague, the Ecologic Institute, in Berlin, and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

‘Cost-cutting’ announcement comes amid uncertainty over deal struck with Saudi Arabia to perform in Riyadh

New York’s Metropolitan Opera has announced a round of layoffs, pay cuts and program reductions as it grapples with financial strain.

The organization cited problems left over from the Covid pandemic, which drastically affected performing arts shows across the US and internationally.

Prime minister puts faith in ‘pragmatic’ solutions, while US president drops one diplomatic bomb after another

In his account of Tony Blair’s years in power, The New Machiavelli, Jonathan Powell sets out two opposing strategies for any British prime minister in dealing with their counterpart in the White House.

The first, he says, is “cutting a bella figura” – parading for show – by openly criticising the US president, for which he gives the example of the French. The other, and the approach preferred by Powell, is to do diplomacy in private and build a close relationship, in the hope of having greater influence.

Authorities believe that in 2022 Austin Thompson, then 15, went on killing rampage, beginning with his older brother

An 18-year-old plans to plead guilty to a 2022 mass shooting in North Carolina that left five people dead – including his older brother – avoiding a trial in February, his attorneys have said.

A written notice filed in Wake county court by the lawyers for Austin Thompson said their client intends to plead guilty to all charges against him.

PM’s spokesperson insists government’s position is unchanged and that the US still supports the deal

The UK will press ahead with plans to hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius despite Donald Trump calling it an “act of great stupidity” and suggesting it was among the reasons he wants to take over Greenland.

The US president said ceding sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes the Diego Garcia military base, was a sign of “total weakness” by the UK.

• Annex attempt could bring about Uefa-led boycott

• Implications for World Cup alarming heads of FAs

European football leaders are increasingly concerned about Donald Trump’s wish to annex Greenland, and they have held initial discussions about how the sport could respond.

The Guardian understands the implications for the World Cup this summer were among the topics raised among about 20 football association heads in Budapest on Monday. Talks about the Greenland crisis were held informally on the sidelines of an event organised to celebrate the Hungarian football federation’s 125th anniversary, in the knowledge that a unified European response may be required should Trump seek to escalate the situation.

Leaders of EU, France and Canada stake out positions on Greenland ahead of US president’s speech to World Economic Forum

“There’s no diplomacy with Donald Trump: he’s a T rex. You mate with him or he devours you.” Debate at the World Economic Forum annual meetings high in the Swiss Alps is usually scrupulously polite, but as this year’s gathering got under way in Davos on Tuesday, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, had this blunt advice for handling the week’s star speaker.

The US president was yet to arrive but throughout the blond wood congress centre the hottest topic among the global elite of business and politics – on and off conference stages – was Trump’s intemperate attack on European allies, threatening punitive tariffs if they fail to let him annex Greenland.

US president says there is ‘no going back’ on goal of controlling Arctic territory as Emmanuel Macron leads European resistance

European leaders have lined up to condemn Donald Trump’s “new colonialism” and warn that the continent was facing a crossroads as the US president said there was no going back on his goal of controlling Greenland.

After weeks of aggressive threats by Trump to seize the vast Arctic island, which is a largely autonomous part of Denmark, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Tuesday he preferred “respect to bullies” and the “rule of law to brutality”.

If history teaches us anything, it is that making lists of Jews, no matter the ostensible purpose, is often a prelude to their and others’ persecution

This month, a judge ordered the University of Pennsylvania to justify its refusal to collect and disclose the names and personal contact information of Jewish faculty, staff and students to the federal government. Late last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Penn to force compliance with this chilling demand, made in the name of fighting antisemitism. Jewish and non-Jewish community members at Penn and beyond have united to support the university’s resistance to compiling and releasing data about members of campus Jewish organizations, the Jewish studies department, and individuals who participated in confidential listening sessions and surveys about antisemitism.

That such a diverse array of organizations, including Penn’s Hillel and Meor chapters, AAUP-Penn, the Association for Jewish Studies, the American Council on Education and Pen America, as well as local chapters of the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federation and the American Jewish Committee, have all spoken against the EEOC’s lawsuit reflects how deeply disturbing it is to think of the government demanding such a list. The Trump administration claims to act in the name of Jewish safety and against antisemitism, but this common reaction from groups with often divergent views may reflect a growing concern that its actions belie those laudable aims.