© Aaron M. Sprecher, via Associated Press
© Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Prime minister hopes for ‘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.
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© Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock
© Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock
Trump’s demand for Greenland is a throwback to the 1884 Berlin conference: a transaction of land and people driven by a might makes right worldview
The announcement on 17 January that Washington will impose punitive tariffs of 10% to 25% on eight European allies – unless they facilitate the “complete and total purchase” of Greenland – is likely to be the death knell of the post-1945 transatlantic order. By linking the territorial sovereignty of a Nato ally to trade access, the US has transitioned from Europe’s security guarantor to a 19th-century imperial rent-seeker.
This is a moment of profound rupture. For decades, the western world believed that raw imperialism had been relegated to the past among advanced industrial powers. Even China, for all its assertiveness, largely couches its ambitions in the language of revanchism – the “reclaiming” of lost territory. Washington’s current demand for Greenland, by contrast, is a throwback to the age of the 1884 Berlin conference: a transaction of land and people driven by a might makes right worldview.
Christopher S Chivvis is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former US national intelligence officer for Europe
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© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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 150th anniversary, in the knowledge that a unified European response may be required should Trump seek to escalate the situation.
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© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
© Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian
© Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian
© Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian
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.
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© Photograph: Michael Buholzer/EPA
© Photograph: Michael Buholzer/EPA
© Photograph: Michael Buholzer/EPA
Louisiana congresswoman is challenging Cassidy, who voted to convict the US president after 2021 Capitol attack
Louisiana congresswoman Julia Letlow officially announced her bid for Senate on Tuesday after receiving a “complete and total” social media endorsement from Donald Trump over the weekend.
Letlow, a Republican, is issuing a primary challenge to two-term GOP incumbent Bill Cassidy, a former physician who once voted to convict the president of inciting an insurrection during his second impeachment trial after the 2021 Capitol riots.
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© Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
© Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
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”.
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© Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini/Sipa/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Jeanne Accorsini/Sipa/Shutterstock
© Photo Illustration by Philotheus Nisch for The New York Times
A Paris appeals court will decide if Marine Le Pen can stand in next year’s presidential election. But legal troubles have not damaged the fortunes of her party
In a Paris courtroom, the first act of the 2027 French presidential election is already under way. On Tuesday Marine Le Pen began to answer judges’ questions in her appeal against a conviction relating to the embezzlement of European parliament funds. If she wins, the far-right leader will be free to run for the presidency for a fourth time. If the sentence is upheld, her 30-year-old protege, Jordan Bardella, is almost certain to take her place in the race.
Having presented the original verdict as an assault on democracy by judges bent on thwarting her political ambitions, Ms Le Pen has softened her stance. If the appeals court is swayed by arguments that offences committed by her National Rally party were inadvertent, a five-year ban on running for public office may be reduced or overturned. Even if she loses, however, her political opponents may not be inclined to celebrate too enthusiastically.
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© Photograph: Cyril PECQUENARD/SIPA/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Cyril PECQUENARD/SIPA/Shutterstock
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