The Debate

While the world waited Wednesday on what Donald Trump would utter on Greenland, what if we missed the bigger picture? That for 73 minutes, the US president before an audience of traditional transatlantic allies in Davos, hurled invectives and insults while doubling down on what’s now official US policy, the assessment that Europe’s a continent in civilizational decline, implied in that, overrun by non-Christians and non-whites. 
How do Europeans respond? Even far-right aficionados of MAGA have a hard time with the Greenland grab. Trump's imminent threat has passed for now, but can European leaders establish a common framework for what lies ahead? How do what the Canadian prime minister called “middle powers” coalesce? And if the time for flattery and calling Trump daddy truly has passed, then what’s the next step for Europe, for NATO, for nations the world over that still believe in the rules-based order of old?
Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Piera Rocco.

From windmills to NATO, Donald Trump let the world have it from the podium of the World Economic Forum. For more than an hour, the president of the United States took on all-comers in his first return to Davos in six years. We ask about the latest threatening language on tariffs and grabbing Greenland, and how an audience of corporate executives feels about a showdown with Europe that's rekindled the threat of a trade war.
How much of it is really about Greenland and, as the US frames it, the broader scramble for the raw materials that will power artificial intelligence?
Flying into the Swiss Alps, Trump is harder on Europeans than on the Chinese and the Russians, whom he again blamed in equal measure with the Ukrainians for so far failing to agree to a settlement.
Ultimately, after a year when they paid even less tax and netted yet more profits, do the corporate titans in the room at Davos care if the US is turning its back on free trade, international law and the independence of its own central bank?
Produced by Rebecca Gnignati, Elisa Amiri, Juliette Brown.

He's back with a vengeance. On the first anniversary of his second inauguration, Donald Trump is using all the levers at his disposal to enact retribution on his adversaries at home and the guardians of the old liberal order abroad. 
Read moreThousands rally across US against Trump policies on inauguration anniversary
One year on, why did voters in the US decide to overlook the attempt by his supporters to overturn by force the result of the 2020 elections and return to office the twice-impeached Donald Trump? This time, it's different, very different.
The 79-year-old president wields so much power that he can send masked federal agents into the streets and even raise doubts for some over the fair conduct of midterm elections in opposition strongholds. Inside the Oval Office, boomers raised during the Cold War have been replaced by Gen Zers enthralled by the "move fast and break things" mantra of Silicon Valley tech titans. 
As Europeans scramble in the face of hostile tariffs, calls to grab Greenland and official policy that states the US must "cultivate resistance" within the continent to "Europe’s current trajectory", its leaders face many of the same post-pandemic issues: an ageing population, a head-swimmingly fast digital transformation, a loneliness epidemic among young and old alike, and echo chambers that monetise shock and outrage.

So much for appeasement. The same Europeans who held their nose and swallowed their pride when the EU agreed to Donald Trump's tariffs last summer can no longer ignore the obvious – that there are limits with a president of the United States who tends to treat them as vassals, not allies, or even as adversaries for pushing back on its White nationalist brand of nativism.
We ask how much pain citizens are willing to bear in the name of safeguarding the continent's security and sovereignty, and how far countermeasures can go in the face of Trump's grab for Greenland, the tariffs slapped on Denmark's allies and official US policy that views liberal values as a threat.
Read moreWhat is the EU anti-coercion 'bazooka' it could use against the US over Greenland?
And then there’s Ukraine. A lot of the carefully-worded "diplospeak" from European capitals this past year has been about keeping the US president on board. But from Greenland to the Baltics, is Europe ready for what lies ahead?

US President Donald Trump had started his Wednesday pondering military strikes against Iran before pouring cold water on the concept, even expressing doubts that Iranians would accept as leader the late shah's son. In a sign of how fast a news cycle can flip, Iran's foreign minister expressed his assurances in English on Trump-friendly Fox News. After a ruthless response to nationwide protests, has the Islamic Republic once again seen off an existential challenge? 
Read moreIranian foreign minister says there is 'no plan' to hang people during crackdown
After a third night of reported quiet in the capital Tehran, the internet is still restricted and the death toll is still mounting, while the same economic woes weigh heavier than ever on citizens.
Read moreTrump says Iran executions ‘stopping’ as Tehran signals fast trials and hangings
What lessons do Iranians draw? What comes of this latest show of defiance?
Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.