 |
|
|
|||||
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they dont back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital. Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be unacceptable. During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals. I may do that for Greenland too, Trump said. I may put a tariff on countries if they dont go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that, he said. He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue. Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. That encounter didnt resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views. European leaders have insisted that it is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies. A relationship that we need to nurture In Copenhagen, a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, thanked the groups hosts for 225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner and said that we had a strong and robust dialogue about how we extend that into the future. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and it is one that we need to nurture. She told reporters that Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think thats what youre hearing with this delegation. The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasnt ruled out taking the territory by force. We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland, said Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Fridays meetings. And mostly, I would say the threats that were seeing right now is from the U.S. side. Murkowski emphasized the role of Congress in spending and in conveying messages from constituents. I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say, we do not think that that is a good idea, she said. Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that allys consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council. Inuit council criticizes White House statements The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders. Greenlands prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU. The chair of the Nuuk, Greenland-based Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russias Chukotka region on international issues, said persistent statements from the White House that the U.S. must own Greenland offer a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers. Sara Olsvig told The Associated Press in Nuuk that the issue is how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning. Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to be colonized again, she said. Daniel Niemann and Darlene Superville, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said on Friday it will start including ads for those who use the app for free, or have the cheapest subscription, ChatGPT Go. In the coming weeks, the company plans to start testing those ads in the U.S., which will directly relate to user prompts and conversations, “so more people can benefit from our tools with fewer usage limits or without having to pay,” the company said. According to OpenAI, the ads will be “clearly labeled” at the bottom of the chat and users can turn off personalization if they want. As for whether the ads will influence the answers ChatGPT provides, OpenAI said the “responses are driven by whats objectively useful, never by advertising,” and user data and conversations “are protected and never sold to advertisers.” ChatGPT Go, which launched in India last August and has since rolled out in 170 countries, is now coming to the U.S. and everywhere the AI chatbot is available. It’s ChatGPT’s fastest-growing plan, and OpenAI claims it is “among the most affordable AI subscriptions globally.” (Of course, many AI chatbots are free.) ChatGPT Go costs $8 a month, and offers access to its latest model, GPT5.2 Instant, giving users expanded access to messaging, image creation, file uploads, and memory, the company said in a statement. For those who want to avoid ads, more premium subscriptions such as ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro come ad-free. With this launch, ChatGPT now offers three subscription tiers globally: ChatGPT Go at $8 per month; ChatGPT Plus at $20 per month; and ChatGPT Pro at $200 per month.
Category:
E-Commerce
Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday as the first week of corporate earnings season closes out with markets trading near record levels. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% after shifting between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 3:17 p.m. ET. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. Technology stocks were the strongest forces behind the market’s moves. The S&P 500 has slightly more losers than gainers, but several big technology stocks made strong gains and countered losses elsewhere. Nvidia rose 0.4%, Broadcom rose 2.8%, and Micron Technology rose 6.8%. All three are semiconductor companies that are among several Big Tech companies with outsized valuations that often push the market higher or lower. A handful of regional U.S. banks reported their earnings following mixed reports from their larger peers. Pittsburghs PNC jumped 3.9% after it beat Wall Streets fourth-quarter targets, but Regions Financial fell 3% after reporting results that missed forecasts. Outside of the banking sector, transport company J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell 1% after reporting mixed quarterly financial results. The latest round of earnings updates from companies could help give Wall Street a better sense of how consumers are spending their money and how businesses are operating amid economic concerns brought on by inflation and tariffs. Results from the technology sector are being scrutinized by investors trying to figure out whether the high stock prices fueled by the craze around artificial intelligence are justified. Despite the strong start to 2026, we would not be surprised if markets experience volatility in the coming weeks as fourth-quarter earnings progress and the threat of escalating geopolitical tensions remains, wrote Doug Beath, global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in a note to investors. Wall Street will have a broader mix of earnings to review next week, coming from airlines, industrial companies, and technology companies. United Airlines, 3M, and Intel are all scheduled to release their quarterly earnings results next week. Crude oil prices rose after dropping sharply on Thursday. The price of U.S. crude oil rose 0.4% to $59.44 and the price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $64.13. Oil prices have been volatile amid widespread protests in Iran against that countrys leadership and President Donald Trump’s warnings that the U.S. will come to their rescue. Gold prices, which have also been volatile this week, fell. Prices for the precious metal, often viewed as a safe haven amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty, fell 0.6%, but are still up more than 5% so far in January. Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23%, from 4.17% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, rose to 3.60%, from 3.57% late Thursday. The Fed’s next policy meeting on interest rates is in two weeks, and Wall Street is betting that it will maintain its current benchmark interest rate. The central bank is trying to balance a slowing jobs market with stubbornly high inflation. Updates on inflation this week showed that prices remain above the Fed’s 2% goal. The U.S. central bank will get one more update on inflation next week when the government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE. It is Fed’s preferred measure for inflation. European markets fell, and markets in Asia were mixed. Taiwan’s benchmark index rose 1.9% after its government signed a trade deal with the U.S. China, which claims the self-governed island as its own territory, protested the agreement. The deal with Taiwan comes amid an ongoing trade war between the U.S. and much of the world. Uncertainty over tariffs have raised concerns about inflation and economic damage because of higher costs for businesses and consumers. Canada is the latest to shift its partnerships because of the uncertainty. It has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products as part of the break with the U.S. Tesla rose 0.4%, and Rivian fell 2.6%. By Damian J. Troise, AP business writer
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||