Evelyn Reynolds

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Thursday briefing: What’s going on with Trump’s board of peace?

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In today’s newsletter: What began as a temporary mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction is quietly mutating into a permanent system of external control, raising urgent questions about who​ will govern in PalestineGood morning. Donald Trump wants to be the supreme leader of the world.That may sound hyperbolic, but it is difficult to read the latest plans for his so-called “Board of Peace” as anything else. What was initially framed as a narrow mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction has quietly shifted into something far larger. In Trump’s most recent announcement, Gaza barely features at all.Davos | Donald Trump dropped his threat to impose tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed with Nato “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland. Danish, Greenlandic and other European officials pushed back on Trump’s claim, pointing out Nato has no authority to make such a deal.New Zealand | Emergency services in New Zealand are searching for several people, including a child, believed missing after a landslide hit a campsite during storms that have caused widespread damage across the North Island.Media | Prince Harry has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of wanting to drive him “to drugs and drinking” by placing his life under surveillance, as he told the high court that it continued to “come after” him and his wife.Reform UK | Nigel Farage apologised for 17 breaches of the MPs’ code after failing to declare £380,000 on time, describing himself as an “oddball” who does not do computers.South Korea | Former PM Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in an insurrection stemming from former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law declaration. Continue reading… More

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    Thursday briefing: What’s going on with Trump’s board of peace?

    In today’s newsletter: What began as a temporary mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction is quietly mutating into a permanent system of external control, raising urgent questions about who​ will govern in PalestineGood morning. Donald Trump wants to be the supreme leader of the world.That may sound hyperbolic, but it is difficult to read the latest plans for his so-called “Board of Peace” as anything else. What was initially framed as a narrow mechanism to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction has quietly shifted into something far larger. In Trump’s most recent announcement, Gaza barely features at all.Davos | Donald Trump dropped his threat to impose tariffs on eight European countries, claiming he had agreed with Nato “the framework of a future deal” on Greenland. Danish, Greenlandic and other European officials pushed back on Trump’s claim, pointing out Nato has no authority to make such a deal.New Zealand | Emergency services in New Zealand are searching for several people, including a child, believed missing after a landslide hit a campsite during storms that have caused widespread damage across the North Island.Media | Prince Harry has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of wanting to drive him “to drugs and drinking” by placing his life under surveillance, as he told the high court that it continued to “come after” him and his wife.Reform UK | Nigel Farage apologised for 17 breaches of the MPs’ code after failing to declare £380,000 on time, describing himself as an “oddball” who does not do computers.South Korea | Former PM Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in an insurrection stemming from former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law declaration. Continue reading… More

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    Trump declaration of Greenland framework deal met with scepticism amid tariff relief

    Nato chief Mark Rutte says there is ‘a lot of work to be done’, as some Danish MPs voice concern at Greenland apparently being sidelined in US president’s talks Donald Trump’s announcement of a “framework of a future deal” that would settle the issue of Greenland after weeks of escalating threats has been met with profound scepticism from people in the Arctic territory, even as financial markets rebounded and European leaders welcomed a reprieve from further tariffs.Just hours after the president used his speech at the World Economic Forum to insist he wanted Greenland, “including right, title and ownership,” but backed away from his more bellicose threats of military intervention – Trump took to social media to announce “the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland” and withdrew the threat of tariffs against eight European countries. He later called it “a concept of a deal” when he spoke to business network CNBC soon after Wall Street closed. Continue reading… More

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    Greenlandic lawmaker says Nato has no mandate to negotiate nation’s status – as it happened

    This blog is now closedTrump declaration of Greenland framework deal met with scepticism as doubts persistTrump news at a glance: at Davos, president rambles, backs down and touts ‘future deal’ on GreenlandHouse Republicans are starting a push on Wednesday to hold former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, opening the prospect of the House using one of its most powerful punishments against a former president for the first time.The contempt proceedings are an initial step toward a criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice that, if successful, could send the Clintons to prison.They’re not above the law. We’ve issued subpoenas in good faith.For five months we’ve worked with them. And time’s up. Continue reading… More

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    ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials

    Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to TexasUS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a five-year-old Minnesota boy on Tuesday as he returned home from school and transported him and his father to a Texas detention center, according to school officials.Liam Ramos, a preschooler, and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway, the superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, said at a press conference on Wednesday. Liam, who had recently turned five, is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in the region over the last two weeks, the district said. Continue reading… More

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    Trump news at a glance: at Davos, president rambles, backs down and touts ‘future deal’ on Greenland

    Trump told Davos attendees the US won’t use military force to take Greenland but demanded ‘immediate negotiations’ – key US politics stories from Wednesday 21 January at a glanceIt was quite a day in Davos.Donald Trump began his time at the World Economic Forum Wednesday with a rambling, racism-drenched speech in which he attacked European leaders and reasserted his demand to acquire Greenland. But hours later, the US president backed down and eased off his threats to impose tariffs on several allied nations, claiming he had reached “the framework of a future deal” concerning the US’s involvement in the Danish territory. Continue reading… More

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    Minneapolis leaders call the ICE surge a ‘siege’. My reporting from there concurs

    After covering Trump’s immigration policies from Chicago and LA, the Twin Cities operation feels like a marked escalationThe Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial board described the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities as “a military occupation”. Local leaders have used words like “siege” and “invasion”. After a week of reporting in Minneapolis and St Paul, I wouldn’t know how else to describe the scene.I’ve been covering the administration’s immigration policies since Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January last year. I was in Chicago in January last year, when the administration assigned hundreds of federal agents to conduct “enhanced targeted operations” in the city. I was in Los Angeles last summer, when agents began seizing workers at car washes and garment warehouses, grabbing bicyclists and raiding churches. Continue reading… More

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    US treasury secretary cuts awkward figure as Trump’s diplomatic defender

    Scott Bessent’s maladroit efforts to calm European anger and Americans’ puzzlement over Greenland have fallen flatTrump steps up demand to annex Greenland in rebuke to Europe’s leaders Scott Bessent has gained a reputation as one of Donald Trump’s suavest enablers but his dismissal of Denmark as “irrelevant” is likely to earn him a place in the annals of infamy rather than diplomacy.The US treasury secretary’s tactless put-down of a Nato ally has come as the annual World Economic Forum at Davos has cast him into the international limelight at the very moment when Trump is upping the ante to take over Greenland, which is Danish sovereign territory. Continue reading… More

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    Speak hysterically and carry a big stick: Trump’s foreign policy threats

    In his second term, Trump’s bluster has been accompanied by an emotional and aggressive approach to foreign policyThis was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every WednesdayTheodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, characterized his approach to international relations as “speak softly and carry a big stick”. It was an approach that won him a Nobel peace prize in 1906, for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese war.In recent days, Donald Trump’s own take on diplomacy has come into focus, one that might be characterized thusly: speak hysterically and threaten to use (and sometimes actually use) a big stick. This idiosyncratic approach to statecraft has yet to win Trump a Nobel peace prize, although that is something that the president has said – many, many times – does not bother him at all. Continue reading… More