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Relations with US have taken ‘big blow’, says EU foreign policy chief

Transatlantic relations have “taken a big blow over the last week” the EU’s foreign policy chief said, as leaders from the bloc gathered for an emergency summit after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump over Greenland that were suddenly rescinded with a vague deal on Arctic security. Summing up the mood, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU was living through a lot of unpredictability: “One day, one way; the other day, again, everything could change.” Relations between Europe and the US “have definitely taken a big blow over the last week”, but Europeans were “not willing to junk 80 years of good relations”, she told reporters. Speaking after the meeting, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that EU unity and engagement with the US in “a firm but non-escalatory manner” had paid off. An emergency EU summit was hastily convened earlier this week after the US president announced he would impose 10% tariffs on eight European nations that resisted a US takeover of Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark. Although Trump abandoned his tariff threat on Wednesday, EU officials deemed the summit necessary to discuss the wider transatlantic relationship with a volatile and unpredictable US president. Arriving at the summit, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, hailed EU unity and “our willingness to stand up for ourselves”. Nato states, she said, backed having a permanent presence in the Arctic region including around Greenland. Stressing repeatedly that Danish sovereignty was not up for discussion, she said the US and Denmark “have to work together respectfully without threatening each other”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, still wearing the aviator shades that drew global attention in Davos, said Europe needed to “remain extremely vigilant and ready to use the instruments at our disposal should we find ourselves the target of threats again”. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, welcomed Trump’s change of heart: “I am very grateful that President Trump has distanced himself from his original plans to take over Greenland, and I am also grateful that he has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on 1 February.” Several EU leaders stressed determination to maintain the US as an ally. “I still treat the United States as our closest friend,” the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, said, referencing the two US battalions deployed in his country. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, another staunch transatlanticist, said: “Europe should be here absolutely united to protect our relations with our partners on the other side of the Atlantic, even if it is much more difficult than ever before.” But he went on to say that politics needed “trust and respect … not domination and for sure not coercion”. Greenland, which left the EU in 1985, also insisted that its sovereignty be respected. Speaking in Nuuk, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said he did not know what was in the deal but emphasised that the largely self-governing territory wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with the US, and its sovereignty was non-negotiable. If Greenlanders had to choose, he said: “We choose the Kingdom of Denmark, we choose the EU, we choose Nato.” The summit came after a withering takedown of Europe from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who accused the continent of being slow to act on key decisions in contrast with the US’s bold actions on Iran and Venezuela. Europe, he said, needed a united armed forces to defend the continent. “Right now, Nato exists thanks to the belief that the United States will act … but what if it doesn’t?” Europe had allocated €188.6bn to Ukraine by 31 October 2025 since January 2022, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, but decision making has often been slow, with hesitancy from some countries in releasing some military equipment. Referring to the EU’s financial aid for Ukraine, including a €90bn loan pledged last month, von der Leyen said “actions speak louder than words”. Meanwhile the European parliament signalled on Thursday it was ready to reconsider its decision to freeze ratification of the EU-US trade deal, one of the bloc’s strongest responses to Trump’s tariff threats so far. MEPs had been expected to vote in February to approve 0% tariffs on many US goods, a key part of the trade agreement signed at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort last summer, but pressed pause on the process on Wednesday in response to tariff threats. The European parliament can now go ahead with discussions on the EU-US trade deal, following Trump’s tariff threat reversal, its president, Roberta Metsola, said. Earlier in the day the head of the European parliament’s trade committee, the German Social Democrat lawmaker Bernd Lange, said his committee would revisit the issue next week, while stressing that the EU needed to remain vigilant. “There is no room for false security,” he wrote on X. “The next threat is sure to come. That’s why it is even more important that we set clear boundaries, use all available legal instruments [and] apply them as appropriate to the situation.” In response to Trump’s tariff threats, the EU had been discussing levying duties on €93bn of US goods, as well as deploying its most powerful economic sanctions weapon, the anti-coercion instrument, which would allow the bloc to impose a broad range of economic penalties on US companies. Even the EU’s most transatlantic-minded governments said such a response could be necessary if the tariffs went ahead. European leaders had watched with growing alarm as Trump insisted on a US takeover of Greenland, a move that threatened to split Nato and the wider western alliance. European governments feared failure to resist a US takeover of Greenland would cast legitimacy over a Chinese seizure of Taiwan or a Russian invasion of the Baltic states, smashing the post-1945 rules-based order. While that threat has subsided, for now, European leaders shared their concerns about Trump’s proposed “board of peace”, amid fears he is seeking to create a rival to the UN. The European Council President António Costa, who chaired the meeting, said the EU had “serious doubts” about a number of elements in Trump’s board of peace, including its scope, governance and compatibility with the UN. He said the EU was ready to work with Trump on his peace plan for Gaza, where the board of peace was envisaged as a transitional administration for the strip, an idea endorsed by the UN. Launched in Davos on Thursday, the “board of peace” was initially part of Trump’s peace and reconstruction plan for Gaza, but is morphing into an organisation with a sprawling geopolitical role operating under his direct control. So far, Hungary and Bulgaria are the only EU member states to accept an invitation to join the “board of peace”, while France, Sweden and non-EU Norway and the UK have all declined.

Friday briefing: What the mood at Davos can tell us about a changing world order

Good morning. The annual gathering of political and business leaders in Davos opened against a backdrop of war, trade threats and a rapidly fraying global order – with the World Economic Forum once again struggling to reconcile its talk of cooperation with the realities of great-power confrontation. Above all, one figure has dominated the week more than any theme or panel discussion – Donald Trump. He appears to have been determined to use the Alpine summit as a stage for his own vision of how the world should work. For today’s newsletter I spoke to the Guardian’s economics editor, Heather Stewart, who has spent the week in Davos, to find out what the mood was on the ground at an event that the US president appeared to be using as a personal publicity stunt. First, though, here are the headlines. Five big stories Davos | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has taken aim at Europe in a fiery speech at Davos, accusing leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Donald Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action themselves. The day ended with news of trilateral talks to start on Friday in Abu Dhabi between the US, Russia and Ukraine. UK news | The UK government borrowed less than expected in December, official figures show, after record-breaking receipts, giving a boost to the chancellor. Daily Mail | Elizabeth Hurley has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of bugging her windowsill as well as using information obtained from tapping her landline as she gave emotional evidence at the high court. Climate crisis | Human-caused global heating made the intense heatwave that affected much of Australia in early January five times more likely, new analysis suggests. Immigration | Prosecutors were stunned to learn that federal immigration authorities allowed a suspect in a $100m jewellery heist, believed to be the largest in US history, to self-deport to South America. In depth: The old world order ‘swept away’ “It feels very busy. The restaurants feel very busy. The roads are absolutely jammed. It has always been busy, but it is probably even more crowded this year,” Heather tells me. This is the third time she has attended the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum – first in 2013, then again last year – and she says the changes over that period are striking. The forum was once a symbol of a stable, rules-based global trading system, dominated by a relatively small group of countries. “That order, the trading system as it was, with rich and powerful countries controlling the rules, that’s kind of gone,” she says. “It’s been swept away.” That is not entirely down to Trump, although he looms large over this year’s meeting. *** The Trump effect Rather like Miley Cyrus, Trump came in like a wrecking ball. Yesterday the morning schedule was simply cleared to allow the US president to unveil his new “board of peace” – a lengthy, unscheduled event featuring a lineup of allies, but notably none of the G7 nations. Trump has overshadowed almost everything else at Davos – with the conference also providing a useful platform for him to continue and escalate his rhetoric about Greenland, and his need to “defend it”. Even those deeply sceptical of him wanted to be in the room when he spoke, Heather tells me. “It’s a compelling spectacle,” she says. “People who aren’t necessarily fans still want to be there because it feels historic.” In his analysis of Trump’s speech earlier in the week, my Washington colleague David Smith described parts of it as “pure racism”. The US president went on a rambling diatribe against Somalia and outlined what Smith said was Trump’s racially motivated “insidious and sinister project” to portray himself as “the great white hope.” *** Farage in Davos The WEF, which organises and hosts Davos, has long been a bogeyman of the populist and anti-globalist right. Danish politician Ida Auken’s speculative thinkpiece for the organisation in 2016 which included the phrase “You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” has been repeatedly cited as evidence that the WEF aims to act like a world government bringing in global socialism. In 2023, Nigel Farage derided Keir Starmer as a “full-on globalist, hanging out with his mates at the WEF” for attending. Yet this year Farage himself was among the roll-call of attenders, putting out a video to supporters to justify his appearance. “My message to Davos is simple,” he said. “You guys, the globalists, have had it your way for far too long.” Heather saw Farage speak at an event and says his argument – that Davos itself has changed – is not entirely wrong. “Globalisation hasn’t suddenly evaporated overnight,” she says. “But it has been eroded and undermined for quite a long time.” Conversations about tariffs, economic nationalism and sovereignty, once marginal here, are now everywhere. *** Davos isn’t entirely about politics Davos, Heather stresses, is not only about speeches by world leaders. Away from the headline events, there is still a packed programme of panels on artificial intelligence, the future of work, technology and global growth. “It’s supposed to be a place to exchange ideas, business cards and do deals,” she says – and all of that is still happening. But this year, she adds, it has unmistakably been a geopolitics-first gathering. At one point during our call she casually name-drops the people walking past her: the UK’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell and the chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband. “It’s that kind of place,” she says. “You just spot people like Rishi Sunak wandering around. And there are lots of spontaneous conversations – most of them, obviously, about Trump.” *** A day of resistance If Trump dominated the week, Heather says there was also a moment of pushback. On Tuesday – after his weekend threat to use tariffs to force allies to back US ambitions over Greenland – it felt as if a “day of resistance” was taking shape ahead of his delayed arrival. Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, cut through with a speech – there is a transcript here – arguing that the old rules-based international order was always partly a fiction and has now definitively collapsed. Pretending it will simply re-emerge, he warned, leaves countries vulnerable to coercion. Instead, so-called middle powers need to build new, flexible alliances or risk being “on the menu”. As Heather puts it: “We can’t all just sit around waiting for another flavour of US president to show up and then go back to how things were. So much has been blown up. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” She notes that Emmanuel Macron struck a similar note to Carney in his speech, saying there was a “shift towards a world without effective collective governance where multilateralism is weakened by powers that obstruct it”. What shocked many European leaders, Heather says, was not just the threat itself, but how openly economic power was being used to bludgeon other countries into line. *** What Davos tells us now Davos remains an odd, intensely hierarchical bubble – a place where access is everything, badges matter, and the world’s elite briefly cluster in one snowy town. But this year, Heather says, it has also felt unusually alive, precisely because so much feels unsettled. “Is it the start of a resistance?” she wonders. “Or is it just acceptance that there’s a new reality? I don’t know.” At the moment, it feels like it might be a front row seat to a messier international future. What else we’ve been reading Gloria Dickie reports that Indonesia is to take action against mining firms after floods devastated the population of the world’s rarest ape – the Tapanuli orangutan. Martin The Guardian has been charting the fallout of Donald Trump’s second term in words and this piece smartly shows how some of the clearest truths emerge through charts and graphs. Aamna Mohdin, newsletters team Alex Peters reports for Dazed on the extraordinary sounding performance art by Tilda Mace in which she appears to cut someone open live on stage, recalling the transgressive acts of Leigh Bowery. Martin Stuart Heritage makes a compelling argument for why Nigella Lawson, who is rumoured to be the next Great British Bake Off judge, should get the job. Aamna A lovely in-depth view of the undersung art of prop-making for the movie business, which includes a fantastic anecdote about accidentally setting off a nuclear missile crisis. Martin Sport Cricket | England fell short in their run chase after Sri Lanka made 271 for six, ending up 252 all out to lose the opening one-day international in Colombo by 19 runs. Australian Open | On day six in Melbourne, women’s number one Aryna Sabalenka has defeated Anastasia Potapova. The men’s number one, Carlos Alcaraz, defeated Corentin Moutet to advance. Earlier, Naomi Osaka was a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 winner over Sorana Cirstea, but tempers frayed at the end of the match when the Romanian accused the American of unfair play with her self-motivational shouting. Football | Why are goalless draws on the rise in the Premier League this season? David Segar investigates. Aston Villa, meanwhile, sealed a top-eight finish in the Europa League as Nottingham Forest crashed to defeat at Braga. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now TV The Beauty | ★★★★☆ In comparison to his last screen offering, the existentially terrible All’s Fair, Ryan Murphy’s new show is a triumph; it has a plot, structure, characters that often speak like real human beings, and even a touch of commentary on the state of society today. The 11-part body horror series (be prepared for gore) follows FBI agents Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) and Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) as they investigate the spread of a sexually transmitted disease that makes infected parties spectacularly beautiful and then spectacularly dead. Lucy Mangan Music Megadeth: Megadeth | ★★★☆☆ Megadeth’s self-titled final studio album offers listeners a career-summarising redux. Some tracks underline their position as thrash metal progenitors, most notably the superb opener Tipping Point. On I Don’t Care, you get the punkish leanings that led Megadeth to cover Anarchy in the UK in 1988. More surprisingly, there are tracks rooted in the more melodic style the band controversially pursued in the mid-to-late 90s. All of it is performed with the kind of technical precision for which Megadeth have long been famed. Alexis Petridis Film No Other Choice | ★★★★☆ In Korean director Park Chan-wook’s new film, You Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) has been made redundant from the paper factory where he works. Devastated, and desperate to reclaim his manhood in the eyes of his wife and children by getting a new job before his severance pay runs out, a brilliant idea occurs to him. He sets up a phoney recruitment ad in a paper industry trade magazine and, using the personal information that these trusting applicants will send him, plans to murder them all, creating a string of job vacancies. An effortlessly fluent portrait of family dysfunction, fragile masculinity, and the state of the nation itself. Peter Bradshaw Art Crossing into Darkness, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate | ★★★★☆ Tracey Emin curates this generous exhibition, setting artists she nurtures at the Emin Studios alongside Edvard Munch, Louise Bourgeois and other luminaries of modern art – if luminary is the right word in this stygian setting; the gallery has been plunged into nocturnal shadow. It begins with a concrete waistcoat by Antony Gormley. Munch gazes like a numbed, ragged pair of claws from his 1895 self-portrait, with a skeletal arm. The photographer Johnnie Shand Kydd captures eerie mists over icy still waters. Emin’s exhibition, she says, recognises the dark times we are in but also offers solace. There is hope in darkness. It is where you have to go to start again. Jonathan Jones The front pages “Stand up for yourselves, Zelenskyy tells Europe in fiery Davos speech” – that’s the Guardian. “Gaza or gaga?” – the Metro delves into “Trump’s glitzy Middle East tourist vision”. The Times runs with “Starmer’s allies to bar the return of Burnham”, the i paper has “Operation Stop Burnham: PM’s allies try to block return of his rival” and the Mail latches on as well with “Does Andy Burnham have the bottle?”. The Financial Times splashes on “Musk’s SpaceX meets big Wall Street banks to line up record-breaking IPO”. “Shameful” – the Mirror brands it an “insult to the fallen” after Trump suggested other Nato countries stayed away from the frontline in Afghanistan, when they lost hundreds dead there. The Express embarks on a “crusade” with “Britain needs better care for cancer patients”. “4.5m to be denied vote as more polls axed” – that’s in the Telegraph about delayed local elections. Today in Focus Why are so many Tories joining Reform? There have been a slew of defections as Reform rides high in the polls. But is it changing the party? Peter Walker reports Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Engineers are urging architects to embrace bamboo as a serious, low-carbon building material, challenging steel and concrete. The Institution of Structural Engineers has published a manual to encourage its use in permanent structures. Bamboo has already been used in large-scale, innovative projects globally, including the ceiling of Bengaluru airport, a 20-metre-tall tower in China, and a gymnasium in Bali. Its composite forms have also proven resilient against earthquakes in countries like Colombia and the Philippines. This shift is crucial as the construction industry, responsible for a third of global carbon emissions, seeks to meet net-zero targets amid increasing urbanisation and demand for infrastructure. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

‘The sound of mayhem’: witness to New Zealand landslide describes ‘almighty cracking’

It was the “almighty cracking” that they heard first, an unmistakable deep rumble before the mountain gave way, swallowing up caravans and cars as it collapsed at speed on the campsite below. Aerial images show the aftermath of the landslide that struck New Zealand’s North Island on Thursday – a massive piece of brown earth gouged out of the green slope, flattened roofs and a few trees sticking out an unnatural angles. “It was almost like the air pressure changed. It was a real powerful event,” says local Alister McHardy. “It just came down, a lot of cracking and people screaming and car alarms going off … The sounds of mayhem.” Rescue efforts at the campsite on Mount Maunganui continue after voices were heard calling for help from beneath the rubble in the immediate aftermath. But nothing has been heard since, witnesses and emergency officials say. Heavy rains triggered the landslide on the country’s east coast at 9.30am, bringing soil and rubble down on the busy campsite where families had been enjoying the summer school holidays. Two people were killed in the landslide, including a Chinese citizen. New Zealand officials have not provided any details about the fatalities, although police have said six people may be missing, including children. McHardy was going out to fish at sunrise on Thursday, when he noticed a “mountain of soil” at the north end of the beach next to Mount Maunganui. He rang emergency services and the council to warn them. “It was obvious that there was going to be more slips,” he says, citing his experience working as an underground miner for eight years. He says at the time people were still walking along the tracks at the top of the slip. He saw tents about 15 metres away from the foot of one of the slips. He told the Guardian that he woke the campers and advised them to move away. After waiting for about an hour and a half, he went down to Pilot Bay on the other side of the mountain to fish for trout. When he was walking back to his car, he heard this “almighty cracking”. He says he ran across the road and up to the side of the slip where he tried to help people as the slip continued. He recalls that it took about 10 minutes before emergency services arrived. “It didn’t take long at all, but that’s when the helicopter and all that came in, and the sirens made it difficult because I was trying to listen for ground noise and we needed silence for that.” New Zealand is in shock after the tragedy. The prime minister, Christopher Luxon, who on Friday visited areas hit by the recent flooding, says it is a highly anxious time for the families of the missing campers. Luxon says he has met with some of the grieving families, who had told him they were feeling well supported during an “absolutely tragic” time. “New Zealand is full of grief today … and grieves with them,” he said. Tauranga mayor Mahe Drysdale told Radio New Zealand there had been no progress in finding missing people and that the area remained unstable. “That’s really hard, and we’re here with the families and as you can imagine, just that uncertainty of where they are and when we might have a result is pretty hard,” Drysdale said. New Zealand police commissioner Richard Chambers told the New Zealand Herald the scale of the disaster and the risks at the site could delay rescue efforts. “It could be days and we appreciate that everybody is anxious and waiting for their loved ones, and for some answers but we also have to be very careful,” Chambers said. Progress is slow as teams painstakingly clear layers of debris, says fire and emergency assistant national commander David Guard. “We are operating in a complex and high-risk environment,” Guard says. “We will continue the operation until the search is complete.” The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, posted on X that one of the dead in the landslides is a Chinese citizen. McHardy says the area is his sanctuary. “Just being in the environment, all these little amazing creatures. It’s just a beautiful spot. We take it for granted how awesome the spot is.” The Mount Maunganui region is a big tourist draw in summer for hikers and beach lovers. The landslide happened after heavy rains soaked much of the North Island’s east coast this week and caused widespread damage. A landslide in the neighbouring town of Papamoa killed two people on Thursday, and a man was washed away with his vehicle north of Auckland on Wednesday. Roads remain closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land. The civil defence organisation in Tairawhiti District said in a social media post that people were walking over landslides to collect water and food from welfare hubs and warned against this because of fears of further landslides.

US, Ukraine and Russia delegations head to Abu Dhabi for their first trilateral talks of the war

Ukraine, Russia and the US are set to hold three-way talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday, marking the first time that the three countries have sat down together since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The meeting was confirmed in the early hours of Friday morning after talks at the Kremlin between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters those talks were “useful in every respect”, adding that it was “agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi”. The full details of the talks in the United Arab Emirates were not released at time of writing, and it was not clear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet face to face. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the talks would last two days. Witkoff, Kushner and the US team are scheduled to meet a Russian delegation, headed by Gen Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, in Abu Dhabi on Friday. The Trump administration has been pushing for a peace settlement, with its envoys shuttling between Kyiv and Moscow in a flurry of negotiations that some worry could force Ukraine into an unfavourable deal. The US president said on Wednesday that Putin and Zelenskyy would be “stupid” if they failed to come together and get a deal done. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Witkoff said one major issue remained to be resolved in the negotiations, without saying what it was. Zelenskyy said the future status of land currently occupied by Russia in the east of the country was unresolved but peace proposals were “nearly ready”. Both sides have previously highlighted the issue of territory as crucial. In particular, Putin has demanded that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of the eastern region of Donetsk. Zelenskyy has refused to give up land that Ukraine has successfully defended since 2022 through grinding, costly attritional warfare. Russia also demands that Ukraine renounce its ambition to join Nato, and rejects any presence of Nato troops on Ukrainian soil after a peace deal. “Russians have to be ready for compromises because, you know, everybody has to be ready, not only Ukraine, and this is important for us,” Zelenskyy said from Davos, adding that postwar security guarantees between Washington and Kyiv were ready, should a deal be reached, although they would require each country’s ratification. Zelenskyy was speaking after a closed door meeting with the US president at Davos. Ukraine’s president made a blistering Davos speech accusing European leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action themselves. Despite Trump’s limited and scattershot support for Ukraine since taking office one year ago, Zelenskyy focused instead on Europe’s role in the conflict, accusing the continent’s leaders of complacency and inaction. “Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words ‘Europe needs to know how to defend itself’,” Zelenskyy said. “A year has passed, and nothing has changed.” Speaking to reporters as he flew back to Washington, Trump said his meeting with Zelenskyy went well, adding that the Ukrainian president told him he wanted to make a deal to end the war. “I had a good meeting, but I’ve had numerous good meetings with President Zelenskyy and it doesn’t seem to happen,” he said. Trump claimed that both Putin and Zelenskyy wanted to reach a deal and that “everyone’s making concessions” to try to end the war. He said the sticking points in talks had remained the same over the past six or seven months, noting “boundaries” was a key issue. “The main hold-up is the same things that’s been holding it up for the last year,” he said. Trump also said he and Zelenskyy discussed how Ukrainians were surviving the cold winter without heat. “It’s really tough for the people of Ukraine,” Trump said, noting that it was “amazing” how residents were able to persevere through the winter facing relentless Russian strikes. Ukraine is enduring a bitter winter, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure cutting power and heating to much of the capital, Kyiv, as well as other major cities. With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Ukraine war briefing: Russians must compromise, Zelenskyy says as envoys race to Abu Dhabi

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “Russians have to be ready for compromises” as his envoys rushed to Abu Dhabi for two days of trilateral meetings bringing together the US, Ukraine and Russia. The peace talks simultaneously involving Russia and Ukraine mark one of a handful of times the warring parties have convened in one forum since 2022 and the early days of the war. “I hope [the] Emirates know about it. Sometimes, we have such surprises from the American side,” Zelenskyy said of the talks, suggesting they were called by the US at short notice. “It will be the first trilateral meeting in the United Arab Emirates,” said Ukraine’s president, who spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Everybody has to be ready [for compromise], not only Ukraine, and this is important for us,” Zelenskyy said. Steve Witkoff, one of the US envoys, said the Abu Dhabi proceedings would take the form of “military to military” working groups. He met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday and a Kremlin spokesperson said: “It was agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi.” More details had not been released at time of writing, and it was not clear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet face-to-face. White House representatives have for months been alternating between talks with the Russians and Ukrainians – usually appearing to bestow their greatest favour on the Russian side and prioritising Moscow’s concerns, to the consternation of Kyiv and its other allies. In 2025, Donald Trump feted Vladimir Putin with a meeting in Alaska that proved unproductive, and also announced direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy that never happened. Trump repeated at Davos on Wednesday his oft-stated belief that Zelenskyy and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, were close to a deal. Zelenskyy said a draft deal was “nearly, nearly ready” and that he and Trump had agreed on the issue of postwar security guarantees. He said the UK and France had already committed to forces on the ground. The French navy has intercepted a Russian tanker, the Grinch, in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” that enables Russia to export oil despite sanctions, writes Jason Burke. “The operation was carried out on the high seas in the Mediterranean, with the support of several of our allies,” said Emmanuel Macron. The UK announced it had provided support. At Davos, in a blistering speech criticising European allies, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they should be playing a more muscular role in targeting the “shadow fleet” and complained that it remained too easy for Russia to bypass sanctions, and to continue mass-producing missiles and other ordnance. Russian forces launched four strikes on the town of Komyshuvakha, killing one person and injuring 10, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said. Several homes were damaged in the attack on the town, which is east of the region’s main city, also called Zaporizhzhia. In the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s home town in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a drone and missile attack injured 13 people, including four children, said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration. The attacks hit apartment buildings, schools and critical infrastructure. “The main thing is everyone is alive,” Vilkul wrote. “Six people are in hospital, including three children.” Ukraine is no longer considered in default after completing an exchange of securities after a missed 2025 payment, S&P Global Ratings said on Thursday. The rating agency cited the completion in late December of an exchange for $2.6bn of Ukraine’s GDP warrants for new and existing bonds. A “small” portion of Ukraine’s commercial debt remains in default, but S&P said Ukraine is engaged in restructuring talks with creditors and that the funds in question represent less than 2.5% of Ukraine’s total outstanding commercial debt. S&P said Ukraine’s overall credit rating – which is deep into the “speculative” category on the firm’s scale – reflects that its financial condition “remains vulnerable and dependent on favourable financial and economic conditions, including the evolution of the war and continued support of its allies”.

Two dead and six missing after landslides hit house and campground in New Zealand

New Zealand is ‘full of grief”, the prime minister has said, after landslides tore through a house and busy campground, leaving two dead and at least six victims still missing. Police said emergency crews were still searching for at least six people, including two teenagers, believed missing beneath the debris of a landslide which struck a Mount Maunganui campsite on Thursday morning. Police were attempting to contact another three people. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed. During a visit to the region on Friday, prime minister Christopher Luxon said he had met with some of the grieving families, who had told him they were feeling well supported during an “absolutely tragic” time. “New Zealand is full of grief today … and grieves with them,” he said. The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, posted on X that one of the dead from the landslides was a Chinese citizen. “Our hearts are with the impacted families at this difficult moment,” he said. “Deeply appreciate the assistance provided promptly by Mfat and NZ Police when we reached out yesterday.” The first landslide hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand’s North Island at 4.50am, police said. Two people escaped the house, and the bodies of two who were trapped inside were recovered hours later, the emergency management minister, Mark Mitchell, said. Later the same morning, emergency services were called to a second slide at the base of nearby Mount Maunganui, also on the North Island. The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park in a town named after the extinct volcano. Images showed vehicles, travel trailers and an amenities block crushed by debris. New Zealand authorities are facing questions about why people were not evacuated after reports of a landslip at the campsite earlier in the day. “We’ve heard there was possibly a small slip where people did move away from the site,” local Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale said. “Those questions will be answered.” Drysdale told Radio New Zealand that search-and-rescue teams had continued at the campground through the night but no one else had been found. “That’s really hard, and we’re here with the families and as you can imagine, just that uncertainty of where they are and when we might have a result is pretty hard,” Drysdale said. He said the area remained unstable. Mitchell told Radio New Zealand it was a challenging and difficult environment. He said police were checking if some campers may have left without informing authorities. The landslide happened after heavy rains soaked much of the North Island’s east coast earlier this week and caused widespread damage. NZ Civil Defence warned on Thursday morning that landslides can happen without warning, and advised the public to keep an eye out for rockfalls or sinking land at the bottom of slopes, as well at stuck doors and windows, or gaps in window frames. “Get out of the path of the landslide quickly. Evacuate if the building you are in is in danger,” the agency posted on Facebook. Roads remained closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land. The civil defence organisation in Tairawhiti District said in a social media post that people were walking over landslides to collect water and food from welfare hubs and warned against this because of the risk of more landslides. Police superintendent Tim Anderson said the number of people missing was in the “single figures”. No survivors or bodies had been recovered by late Thursday from the Mount Maunganui rubble, where dogs were being used to sniff for human victims, Mitchell said. “There was a shower block and a, sort of, combined shower block-kitchen block and there were people using that at the time the slide came through and they are some of the ones that we’re working hard to try to recover now,” Mitchell told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Further north near Warkworth, a man was missing after flood waters swept him from a road Wednesday morning as heavy rain lashed large swathes of the North Island, a police statement said. Luxon urged residents in affected areas to heed local authorities’ safety advice during the extreme conditions. “Extreme weather continues to cause dangerous conditions across the North Island. Right now, the government is doing everything we can to support those impacted,” Luxon posted on social media. Fire and Emergency NZ commander, William Pike, said there were some signs of life immediately after the Mount Maunganui slide. “Members of the public … tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” Pike told reporters. “Our initial fire crew arrived and … were able to hear the same. Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to possible movement and slip.” Australian tourist Sonny Worrall said he was lazing in a hot pool in the campground when he heard, then saw the landslide. “I looked behind me and there’s a huge landslide coming down. And I’m still shaking from it now,” Worrall told New Zealand’s 1News news service. “I turned around and I had to jump out from my seat as fast as I could and just run.” He looked back to see the rubble carrying a travel trailer behind him. “It was like the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Worrall said. With Associated Press and Reuters

EU stands by Denmark and Greenland and wants ‘respectful’ relations with US, says European Council president – as it happened

This also concludes our live coverage of the summit. There will be more national reactions overnight and tomorrow morning – some leaders are hosting their press conferences now – and they tend to be more outspoken. But that’s for tomorrow. For now, good night!

Six injured after knife attack at Kurdish demonstration in Antwerp

Six people have been injured after a knife attack at a demonstration in Belgium on Thursday evening, police said. Two of the victims were in a critical condition in hospital after the incident in the port city of Antwerp near the Operaplein (Opera Square), police spokesperson Wouter Bruyns said. Bruyns said police apprehended the two suspects who, based on initial findings, had mingled with the demonstrators. Four of the people who were stabbed were found in the square, with two others nearby in the vicinity of Rooseveltplaats and Sint-Elisabethstraat, local reports suggested. Police said the incident was being investigated as a case of attempted murder, “not terrorism”, and that officers were looking at CCTV footage to ensure no other suspects had evaded arrest. The demonstration outside the Opera House, attended by about 50 people, was initially peaceful, according to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. Flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ party and national flags were waved during the protest in support of Kurds in northern Syria, where Kurdish-led forces have been fighting a government advance. However, shortly after the demonstration ended at about 7.20pm local time, the situation escalated. Orhan Kilic, a spokesperson for Navbel, a group representing the Kurdish diaspora in Belgium, said families, women, young people and children attended the protest. He said: “Just as the protest was disbanding, the Kurdish demonstrators were attacked by a group of men. “These men had sneaked into the demonstration and suddenly pulled out knives and began stabbing people indiscriminately. “It is clear that this attack is not an isolated instance of senseless violence, but a motivated attack on a community.” Forensic officers were seen at the square, and police have urged people to stay away from the area.