US President Donald Trump is in Davos, Switzerland, to attend the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF), where the issue of Greenland will be front and centre.

Trump’s long-running fixation on acquiring Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, has escalated into a transatlantic imbroglio, with threats of sweeping new tariffs and even taking Greenland by military force rattling stock markets.

Speaking at a White House media briefing on Tuesday to mark one year since his second-term inauguration, he said Greenland was “imperative for national and world security”.

He warned the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland that they will face 10 percent tariffs on all goods from February 1, rising to 25 percent by June, unless they back his proposed takeover of the Danish autonomous territory. It comes as European leaders meeting in Davos warn the dispute risks a trade war and a rupture in the NATO alliance.

Where is Greenland?

Greenland is the world’s largest island, located mostly within the Arctic Circle between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. Geographically, it is part of North America, lying northeast of Canada and west of Iceland, but politically it is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Approximately 80 percent of Greenland is covered by the Greenland ice sheet, the second-largest body of ice on Earth. Because the interior is largely uninhabitable, most of Greenland’s population lives along the coastline. The capital city, Nuuk, located on the southwest coast, is Greenland’s largest city, home to about one-third of the island’s roughly 56,000 residents.

Countries in the Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line at 66.5 degrees north that includes the North Pole, the northernmost point on Earth.

Eight countries, including Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, have land lying within this region.

Some Arctic countries are closer to each other than many people realise.

Greenland’s closest neighbour is Canada, and at its narrowest point, between the Nares Strait, the two countries are only 26km (16 miles) apart. Canada and Greenland also technically share a land border, having settled a decades-long dispute over Hans Island, a small rock in the strait, by dividing it in half.

Russia and the US are also neighbours, with Alaska and Russia separated by the Bering Strait, which is about 85km (53 miles) at its narrowest point – a distance similar to that between New York City and New Jersey.

In fact, when you count the Diomede Islands located within the Bering Strait, Russia and the United States are less than 4km (2.4 miles) apart. These small, rocky islands consist of Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia and hosts a weather station, and Little Diomede, part of Alaska. The islands are separated by the International Date Line, creating a 21-hour time difference and marking the boundary between North America and Asia.

How big is Greenland?

On some map projections, which enlarge landmasses near the poles, Greenland appears much bigger than it really is.

In reality, the Arctic island covers 2.17 million square kilometres (836,330 square miles), making it roughly three times the size of the US state of Texas, or about the same size as Saudi Arabia, Mexico or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Arctic shipping routes

Most of the Arctic is divided into exclusive economic zones (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles (370km) from the territorial waters of states and where they have jurisdiction over natural resources.

According to data from Arctic Ship Traffic Data, the number of ships operating in the Arctic has increased 37 percent between 2013 and 2023, driven by melting ice and expanding economic opportunities in the region.

There are three main shipping routes in the Arctic, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific:

• The Northern Sea Route (NSR)/Northeast Passage runs along the Arctic coast of Russia and could cut maritime travel between East Asia and Western Europe by 10-15 days compared with travelling via the Suez Canal. In Soviet Russia, the route was used for military supplies and extraction of resources in the Arctic. Now Russia uses it to transport liquified natural gas (LNG).
• The Northwest Passage (NWP) crosses Canada’s Arctic Ocean and could cut maritime vessel journeys between East Asia and Europe by 10 days compared with vessels travelling via the Panama Canal.
• The Transpolar Sea Route (TSR) goes from the centre of the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and is a direct route via the North Pole. While this route avoids the territorial waters of Arctic states, it is rarely used due to the presence of permanent sea ice. Due to melting ice caps, it is predicted that this sea route may be fully open to vessels by the 2050s, potentially even sooner with high-strength icebreakers.
  

What is the military presence in the Arctic?

Greenland has one major permanent US base, the Pituffik Space Base, and several smaller Danish military facilities.

Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, is located in the northwest corner of the island. It supports missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance missions and satellite command and control. It is strategically positioned to counter Russian activities in the Arctic.

About 650 personnel are stationed at the base, including US Air Force and Space Force members, as well as Canadian, Danish and Greenlandic civilian contractors. Under a 1951 agreement with Denmark, the US is permitted to establish and maintain military facilities in Greenland as part of mutual defence within the NATO framework.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a US-Canadian joint military organisation, also operates systems from Pituffik in the form of a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) for the organisation’s space surveillance.

In Alaska, NORAD controls the Clear Space Force Station, equipped with missile warning, defence and space awareness capabilities. The US also implements forward operating locations – temporary military airfields and radar stations – in Alaska, which are used to extend US defence and response.

Denmark manages the defence of Greenland through the Joint Arctic Command (JAC) with its headquarters in the capital, Nuuk. The base’s main tasks are surveillance and search and rescue operations, and the “assertion of sovereignty and military defence of Greenland and the Faroe Islands”, according to Danish Defence.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Northern Sea route is central to Russia’s security posture in the Arctic. Control of the route sits with Rosatom, giving Moscow the ability to restrict foreign military traffic without direct government approval. In the eastern Arctic, access through the Bering Strait has pushed Russia to expand radar coverage, search and rescue capacity and airfields, including the Sopka-2 radar installations on Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt.

In the central Arctic, Russia has hardened its military footprint. Bastion-P and Pantsir-S1 systems – mobile defence systems – are deployed on Novaya Zemlya and Kotelny Island, extending area-denial across air and sea approaches.

In the western Arctic, the Northern Fleet, which oversees Russia’s second-strike capability, is based in Severomorsk. CSIS says Moscow has also reactivated dozens of Soviet-era facilities, reopening airbases, radar stations and border posts across the region.

Chinese investments in the Arctic

China has emerged as a key player in the Arctic, stating its desire to create a “Polar Silk Road”, similar to the Belt and Road Initiative, where new shipping routes would emerge as ice sheets recede.

According to the Carnegie Endowment, China views the Arctic as a future transport and industrial corridor. A number of Chinese companies also have mining projects in Greenland, including for iron ore, rare earths and uranium. China also has projects focused on Arctic energy via Russia’s LNG sector.

Chinese state-owned firms have stakes in Novatek’s LNG projects and are a major buyer of Arctic gas. The Chinese have also supplied key equipment to Russia’s Arctic LNG projects, especially after Western sanctions on Russia.

What are Greenland’s resources?

Greenland is rich in natural resources, including zinc, lead, gold, iron ore, rare earth elements (REEs), copper and oil.

It is home to some of the world’s largest deposits of rare earths used in high-tech industries. These resources have attracted significant attention, including from President Trump.

Gold pockets exist in areas like Nanortalik and South Greenland. Greenland also has deposits of diamonds in the Maniitsoq region, just north of Nuuk.

Copper deposits are largely unexplored in Greenland, according to the Mineral Resources Authority, with areas in the northeast and central east largely untapped. Iron ore deposits are dotted around West Greenland, while nickel traces have been found around the island’s southwest coast.

Graphite, used mostly in EV batteries and steel-making, is also reported to exist in Greenland, with exploration around Amitsoq. While zinc has been found in the north of Greenland, titanium and vanadium deposits are located in the southwest, east and south of the territory. Tungsten is also found in central east and Northeast Greenland with assessed deposits in the south and west.

A brief history of Greenland

The first Inuit people settled in Greenland in about 2500 BCE.

In the 10th century, Norse explorers arrived in Greenland and established settlements. By 1721, Denmark had made Greenland a colony.

Though a Danish territory, Greenland became self-governing in 1979 after more than two centuries under Danish control. It is one of Denmark’s two autonomous territories, with the Faroe Islands being the other.

In 1941, during World War II, the US and Denmark agreed to allow American forces to defend Greenland. Its strategic location was vital for countering German submarines and securing shipping routes. The US maintained a military presence throughout the Cold War, using Greenland for early-warning radar and monitoring Soviet activity.

In 2009, Greenland gained self-rule over most of its internal affairs, including control over natural resources and governance. However, Denmark still handles foreign policy, defence and funding.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.

A statement from his office said Netanyahu would become a member of the board “which is to be comprised of world leaders”.

The board was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. But its proposed charter does not mention the Palestinian territory and appears to be designed to supplant functions of the UN.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have also agreed to join, as have Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam. Many others have expressed reservations.

It is not clear how many countries have been invited to join Trump’s new body -Canada, Russia, Turkey and the UK are among them, but have not yet publicly responded.

Norway has said it will not join because the current proposal “raises a number of questions”, while France and Sweden have indicated they will do the same.

According to a copy of the charter leaked to the media, member states will be given a renewable three-year term, but they can secure a permanent place if they contribute $1bn (£740m) of funding to the board.

The document says the Board of Peace will be “an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”. It will “undertake such peace-building functions in accordance with international law”, it adds.

Trump will be the chairman but also “separately serve” as representative of the US. A US official has said the chairmanship can be held by Trump “until he resigns it”, but that a future US president may choose a new representative.

As chairman, he will have “exclusive authority to create, modify or dissolve subsidiary entities as necessary or appropriate to fulfil the Board of Peace’s mission”, according to the document.

He will also select “leaders of global stature” to serve two-year terms on an Executive Board that will help deliver the mission of the Board of Peace, US officials say.

Last Friday, the White House named the seven members of the founding Executive Board. They included US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Trump also named Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former UN Middle East envoy, as the Board of Peace’s representative on the ground in Gaza during phase two of Trump’s peace plan, which should see the reconstruction and demilitarisation of the territory, including the disarmament of Hamas, as well as a full withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Mladenov will act as a link with a Palestinian technocratic government which will “oversee the restoration of core public services, the rebuilding of civil institutions, and the stabilisation of daily life”.

A separate Gaza Executive Board will help support the technocratic government, according to the White House.

Witkoff, Kushner, Blair, Rowan, Mladenov will serve on it with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Qatari strategic affairs minister Ali al-Thawadi, UAE minister of state for international co-operation Reem al-Hashimy, billionaire Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabay, and Sigrid Kaag, a Dutch politician and UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process.

On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said the Gaza Executive Board’s composition “was not co-ordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy”.

Israeli media said the decision to include representatives of Turkey and Qatar – which both helped broker the ceasefire that took effect in October, along with Egypt and the US – had happened “over Israel’s head”.

Under phase one of the peace plan, Hamas and Israel agreed to the ceasefire, an exchange of living and dead Israeli hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a partial Israeli withdrawal, and a surge in deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Phase two faces major challenges, with Hamas having previously refused to give up its weapons without the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and Israel having not committed to fully withdrawing from Gaza.

The ceasefire is also fragile. More than 460 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes since it came into force, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, while the Israeli military says three of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 71,550 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.

US allies reacted to President Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland on Tuesday, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney telling delegates at Davos that it was time to imagine a future without US leadership.

The man who killed Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe has been sentenced to life in prison, three and a half years after he shot him dead at a rally in the city of Nara in 2022.

Tetsuya Yamagami had pleaded guilty to murder at the trial’s opening last year, but how he should be punished has divided public opinion in Japan. While many see the 45-year-old as a cold-blooded murderer, some sympathise with his troubled upbringing.

Prosecutors said Yamagami deserved life imprisonment for his “grave act”. Abe’s assassination stunned the country, where there is virtually no gun crime.

Seeking leniency, Yamagami’s defence team said he was a victim of “religious abuse”.

His mother’s devotion to the Unification Church bankrupted the family, and Yamagami bore a grudge against Abe after realising the ex-leader’s ties to the controversial church.

Nearly 700 people lined up outside the Nara district court on Wednesday to attend the sentencing hearing.

Abe’s shocking death while giving a speech in broad daylight prompted investigations into the Unification Church and its questionable practices, including soliciting financially ruinous donations from its followers.

The case also exposed links with politicians from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and resulted in the resignations of several cabinet ministers.

Journalist Eito Suzuki, who covered all but one of Yamagami’s court hearings, said Yamagami and his family seemed “overwhelmed with despair” throughout the trial.

Yamagami “exuded a sense of world-weariness and resignation”, recounts Suzuki, who began looking into the Unification Church long before Abe’s shocking murder.

“Everything is true. There is no doubt that I did this,” Yamagami said solemnly on the first day of his trial in October 2025. Armed with a homemade gun assembled using two metal pipes and duct tape, he fired two shots at Abe during a political campaign event in the western city of Nara on 8 July 2022.

The murder of Japan’s most recognisable public figure at the time – Abe remains the longest-serving PM in Japanese history – sent shockwaves around the world.

Calling for a jail term of no more than 20 years, Yamagami’s lawyers argued that he was a victim of “religious abuse”. He resented the church because his mother donated to it his late father’s life insurance and other assets, amounting to 100 million yen (S$828,750), the court heard.

Yamagami spoke of his grievance against Abe, who was 67 when shot, after seeing his video message at a church-related event in 2021, but said he had initially planned to attack church executives, not Abe.

Suzuki recalls Abe’s widow Akie’s look of disbelief when Yamagami said the ex-leader was not his main target. Her expression “remains vividly etched in my mind”, Suzuki says.

“It conveyed a sense of shock, like she was asking: Was my husband merely a tool used to settle a grudge against the religious organisation? Is that all it was?”

In an emotional statement read to the court, Akie Abe said the sorrow of losing her husband “will never be relieved”.

“I just wanted him to stay alive,” she had said.

Founded in South Korea, the Unification Church entered Japan in the 1960s and cultivated ties with politicians to grow its following, researchers say.

While not a member, Abe, like several other Japanese politicians, would occasionally appear at church-related events. His grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, also a former PM, was said to have been close to the group because of its anti-communist stance.

In March last year, a Tokyo court revoked the church’s status as a religious corporation, ruling that it coerced followers into buying expensive items by exploiting fears about their spiritual well-being.

The church has also drawn controversy for holding mass wedding ceremonies involving thousands of couples.

Yamagami’s sister, who appeared as a defence witness during his trial, gave a tearful testimony on the “dire circumstances she and her siblings endured” because of their mother’s deep involvement with the church, Suzuki recalls.

“It was an intensely emotional moment. Nearly everyone in the public gallery appeared to be crying,” he says.

But prosecutors argue there is “a leap in logic” as to why Yamagami directed his resentment of the church at Abe. During the trial, the judges also raised questions suggesting they found it hard to understand this aspect of his defence.

Observers, too, are divided on whether Yamagami’s personal tragedies justify a reduced penalty for his actions.

“It’s hard to dismantle the prosecution’s case that Abe didn’t directly harm Yamagami or his family,” Suzuki says.

But he believes Yamagami’s case illustrates how “victims of social problems are led to commit serious crimes”.

“This chain must be broken, we must properly examine why he committed the crime,” Suzuki says.

Rin Ushiyama, a sociologist at Queen’s University Belfast, says sympathy for Yamagami is largely rooted in “widespread distrust and antipathy in Japan towards controversial religions like the Unification Church”.

“Yamagami was certainly a ‘victim’ of parental neglect and economic hardship caused by the [Unification Church], but this does not explain, let alone justify, his [actions],” Ushiyama says.