Donald Trump doesn’t appear to be backing down on his plan to take Greenland as European leaders hope to clear the air at the World Economic Forum. Follow the latest below.
Wednesday 21 January 2026 09:04, UK
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is going to take up a fair bit of attention today, with Donald Trump speaking there this afternoon.
It’s been running since 1971 and, according to its website, it has a “55-year track record of enabling global cooperation”.
Its annual meeting is held at the end of January every year in Davos, Switzerland.
Critics argue it’s simply a gathering of the world’s wealthiest people, allowing them to influence governments.
But the WEF sets out grand aims on its website, stating:
“We align our work around three impact areas: Growth, Resilience, and Innovation… Working with partners across these areas to facilitate efforts to unlock new economic opportunities, enhance societal well-being, advance technology and innovation, and accelerate the transition to nature-positive, future-ready systems.”
The overall mission of the WEF is to “improve the state of the world” through public and private cooperation, it adds.
Global leaders from the political, business, academic and civil society sectors all come together to discuss major global issues.
Those include: climate change, tech and economic instability, among others.
This year’s edition of the forum will run from today until Friday.
Donald Trump and his threats over Greenland as well as yesterday’s tirade against the UK’s Chagos Islands deal are dominating this morning’s frontpages.
Emmanuel Macron’s Davos appearance (see our post at 7.59) was a popular motive to illustrate the fallout, as the French president warned against “new colonialism” in his speech.
The US has stepped up its criticism of the UK this morning.
During his speech at Davos, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the UK “is letting us down” over its decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
It comes after Donald Trump also criticised the deal, which includes a formal transfer of Diego Garcia, home to a key US military base.
However, when the UK agreed to transfer sovereignty in October last year, the US said it “welcomed the historic agreement”, commending both countries’ leaders for their vision.
In February 2025, ahead of the signing, Donald Trump also expressed preliminary support for the deal.
Watch part of Bessent’s remarks today here…
As we reported in our post at 7.15, Donald Trump’s journey to Davos faced an unexpected obstacle.
A minor electrical issue aboard Air Force One forced the plane to turn around shortly after take-off, as flight tracker data indicated.
Trump and other passengers on board then had to switch to a replacement plane.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who is already in Davos, said the president is now expected to arrive about three hours behind schedule.
Beyond discussion of Donald Trump’s Greenland threats, Emmanuel Macron’s fashion choices drew the most attention on the first headline day of the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.
The Elysee Palace said that he was wearing aviator sunglasses due to a ruptured blood vessel in his eye.
The French President said last week the condition was “completely harmless” when he appeared with a puffy red eye for a speech at a military base.
“Simply see an unintentional reference to the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ … For those who catch the reference, it is a sign of determination,” he joked.
Earlier that day, he had also donned the sunglasses for a troop inspection.
The episode was reminiscent of Germany’s former chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who once wore an eye patch while in office due to a jogging injury.
The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, kicked off properly yesterday, with the first headline speeches from world leaders.
Given the ongoing turmoil over US foreign-policy interventions, many of them shared their views on what many saw as an emerging new world order.
Here’s a rundown of the most notable bits from their speeches:
France has asked for a NATO exercise in Greenland and is ready to contribute to it, the office of Emmanuel Macron has revealed this morning.
This comes as European allies are falling over themselves to demonstrate their commitment to Arctic security to the US after Donald Trump has repeatedly aired his concerns.
It comes as the i paper reports this morning that UK surveillance units from the RAF and the Navy are in talks to join a new military “tripwire” stationed in Greenland.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised a “massive European investment surge” in Greenland and Arctic security in her Davos speech yesterday.
Last week, military delegations from eight European countries flew to the island for a reconnaissance mission – which led to a row with Trump, who interpreted this as a threatening gesture.
Donald Trump is expected to give his highly anticipated speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos at 2.30pm local time (1.30pm UK time) today.
He arrived by helicopter at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland last night to change to Air Force One.
His overnight plane journey to Switzerland was disrupted, however, by what the White House described as a minor electrical issue aboard Air Force One.
The aircraft returned to Washington not long after take-off, so the US president and members of the media could board another plane.
The US president’s presence at the World Economic Forum in Davoswill provide an opportunity for face-to-face talks with European leaders about his threats over Greenland.
Trump says “a lot of meetings” have been scheduled.
At his “surprise” news conference yesterday, he did not appear to back down, however.
When asked how far he’ll go on Greenland, the president simply responded: “You’ll find out.”
Read back the key bits from Trump’s news conference in our summary below…
Welcome back to our live coverage.
All eyes will be on Davos today as Donald Trump arrives in the Swiss town to give a speech to the World Economic Forum.
He joins the international summit with US and European relations on a knife-edge – the US president seems unflinching in his desire to acquire Greenland, threatening more economic tariffs if he doesn’t get his way.
He spoke again about the situation last night in typical Trump style, as part of a lengthy ramble at a White House press briefing, before jetting across the Atlantic.
Asked by a reporter how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, he simply answered: “You’ll find out.”
He also commented on his relationship with Keir Starmer – watch it back in the video…
As part of his address, Trump rattled off all of his “accomplishments” from his first year in office. And he hinted to reporters that his speech today would strike a similar tone.
It all came after several strong messages on social media, in which Trump said NATO would have been “in the ash heap of history” were it not for him and described the UK’s decision to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as an “act of GREAT STUPIDITY”.
Meanwhile, several other leaders are already in Davos as they’re hoping to discuss the latest tensions with Trump – more on that shortly.
Stay with us as we bring you the latest.
Our business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso has previewed Trump’s arrival in Davos.
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