In this news round-up of the week for Friday January 16th, 2026: Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado hands her medal to President Trump - and it's as cringeworthy as you would expect. Trump threatens punitive action against the countries standing up for Greenland, even as US lawmakers are drawing a line. More consequences of Trump's policies become visible, as Canada's Mark Carney agrees a major deal with China's Xi Jinping. And President Trump is taking a major delegation to the World Economic Forum in Davos - which is odd, because they're supposed to be the anti-MAGA.

He was a highly influential Trump endorser in the election - but he has been critical several times since the Trump administration took office. And this week, in his most forthright commentary yet, even comparing ICE officers to the Nazi Gestapo. This is just a side-note, of course, to the massive chorus of concern that President Trump's souped up immigration police is morphing before our eyes into something more expansive, and something that feels it can act with impunity. Well, let's discuss.

Staring directly in the face of the End Of NATO, the European NATO countries, along with Denmark and Greenland, have come up with their best version of an off-ramp - a solution that would enable President Trump to claim a win, while still keeping Greenland's territorial integrity intact, and the NATO alliance, at least in name. But Trump dashed all hopes with new contributions that made it clear he was not interested in anything short of total ownership. Meanwhile, Danes and Greenlanders had a one-to-one summit with JD Vance and Marco Rubio today ... and it went about as well as you would expect. Let's discuss.

Over the weekend, we heard that Trump had instructed options to be drawn up for taking Greenland through military action. Also, the European NATO members discussed what could be done to fend this off. And the proposal was made that they should send their own military forces to Greenland as soon as possible. But the reason they said they were doing this is certainly not the actual reason. Let's discuss.

To mark the start of 2026, and also the milestone of 150k subscribers for this channel, a Q&A, where we cover Trump, Venezuela, Europe, Greenland, economic collapse, and a great deal more besides. Also, I recount the moment where I nearly died in Washington DC. Seriously.

Trump enjoyed his most dramatic "success" at the start of the year, with his military's flawless operation to grab Nicolas Maduro, and to extort Venezuela into giving the US exclusive access to its oil resources. He promised big as a result - American oil companies would now invest $100 billion into Venezuela's crumbling oil infrastructure to bring it back up to peak productivity. But in a major humiliation to arguably his biggest achievement so far, the oil companies are turning him down. It turns out that Trump's promises are not something they feel they can take to the bank. Even an industry used to managing risk finds President Trump plain too risky. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday January 9th, 2025. The US takes another step towards normalising political violence with the shooting of a woman by ICE in Minneapolis. President Trump declares that it might well be that he has to choose between taking Greenland and keeping NATO intact. Elon Musk’s Twitter is on the verge of being banned from the United Kingdom, and maybe the European Union. And the White House launches a new website with its own version of recent history - that is as bad as you might expect.

Since the operation against Nicolas Maduro, the Trump Administration has been in bullish mood about its ability to use military power to get anything it wants around the world. And one of the most commonly mentioned targets in the last few days has been Greenland. They assume that the US has such overwhelming force, nobody would try to stop an armed invasion. But Denmark is a member of NATO, and the pledge is that an attack on one is an attack on all. So will European NATO members actually fight for Greenland should it come to it? Let's discuss.

Two things we've learned in the last couple of days. One - the Trump administration officially could not care less about international law, at least - if it should ever prove to be a constraint on them doing exactly what they want to do. And two - for all that MAGA social media posts have been bigging up the initial celebration of Venezuelans at Maduro's downfall, Trump actually is just fine with an authoritarian regime staying in place, just with someone different at the head of it. So all those people who initially celebrated are now feeling crushing disappointment, and the ones actually living in Caracas are hiding from the armed militia crackdown. Let's discuss.

So the plan to oust Nicolas Madura resulted in an attack, during which the dictator and his wife were seized and transported to the United States. This is an undoubted breach of international law, but Trump and MAGA don't care about that. It also broke the rules of the United States, but nobody seems inclined to enforce those. Nevertheless, this isn't just another mad President Trump moment - this has pushed Trump, the bully who used tariffs to put extreme pressure on other countries - across the line into the use of military force to do likewise. This makes it highly likely more will follow. Let's discuss.