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Trump diplomacy

Yesterday

Volodymyr Zelensky opposes lowering the conscription age.

Trump to urge Zelensky to lower Ukraine’s conscription age to 18

Ukraine’s conscription age was lowered to 25 last year, but lowering it further is unpopular and Ukraine says it lacks enough weapons to arm its current forces.

  • Isobel Koshiw
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades.

How the LA fires became part of the culture wars

The hunt for blame has quickly turned into a Democrat v Republican, left versus right row, taking in everything from smelt fish to “woke” diversity policies.

  • Benedict Smith and Susie Coen
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, North Korea, last year.

North Korean secret diary reveals deadly ‘drone bait’ tactic

The written notes of a dead soldier published by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces describe the reckless ploy, along with expressions of love for Kim Jong-un.

  • James Kilner

This Month

Penny Wong will represent Australia at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Penny Wong to represent Australia at Trump inauguration

Penny Wong will hold early meetings with top Trump officials after the US president-elect took the unusual step of inviting foreign dignitaries to his inauguration.

  • Updated
  • Andrew Tillett
NA

Who can best manage Trump – Albanese or Dutton?

Instead of caution and guile from Canberra, we have the absurd posturing of the prime minister and opposition leader on who is best fitted to influence the mad king.

  • James Curran
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LA fires water drop

Elon Musk blames female firefighters, DEI for LA disaster

The billionaire’s use of X to stoke partisan outrage about the disaster underscores how the platform has transformed into a megaphone for his political views.

  • Updated
  • Pranshu Verma, Will Oremus and Trisha Thadani
Donald Trump has said he wants America to annex Greenland.

The art of dealing with Donald Trump

The president-elect’s aggressive claims about potential territorial expansion are a crash course for allies in his negotiating tactics.

  • Alex Rogers, Felicia Schwartz and Lucy Fisher
Greenland PM Mute B Egede, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen.

Greenland wants to be independent, prime minister says

“We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic,” Prime Minister Múte B. Egede told reporters.

Donald Trump has upeneded the rules for big business since his re-election in November.

Trump 2.0 has business racing to ditch diversity and climate goals

Corporates face a new reality – one where they stand to benefit immensely, as long as they don’t cross the White House. Australian companies are taking notice.

  • Mark Wembridge
South Korea’s political crisis will delay much needed corporate reforms. A protester demands the arrest of President Yoon Suk Yeol near the presidential residence this week.

South Korea’s political turmoil embroils family dynasties

A protracted political stand-off could delay crucial corporate governance reforms aimed at reining in the powerful family conglomerates and that is already triggering a backlash.

  • Jessica Sier
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is winning over voters who traditionally supported Trudeau’s Liberals

Poilievre and Dutton are taking a stand for pragmatic working-class conservatism

Both opposition leaders in Canada and Australia have little concern for the progressive agendas and opinions of affluent elites.

  • Matthew Doman
Alice Weidel, parliamentary group leader, party chairwoman and candidate for chancellor of the AfD, prepares for a live X interview with U.S. billionaire Elon Musk in her office in the Jakob Kaiser House in Berlin, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/Pool Photo via AP)

Musk hosts German far-right leader on X, stirs election meddling angst

In a wide-ranging, sometimes stilted conversation, the billionaire and chancellor candidate Alice Weidel agreed that the AfD was the answer.

  • Sarah Marsh and Thomas Escritt
Donald Trump jnr during his surprise visit to Greenland this week.

Donald Trump’s icebreaker leaves Greenland and Denmark adrift

The president-elect’s latest proposal places politicians in Copenhagen and the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk in a great bind.

  • Richard Milne
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has hinted at retaliation.

Mexican president trolls Trump, calls for renaming of parts of US

Claudia Sheinbaum’s comments came after Trump this week called for the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the “Gulf of America” and for Canada to become a US state.

  • Updated
  • Christine Murray and Ilya Gridneff
Mark Zuckerberg has warned of threats to its business, from the rise of AI to ByteDance-owned rival TikTok, which has grown in popularity among younger users.

Meta exempted top advertisers from standard content moderation

According to internal documents from 2023 seen by the FT, the Facebook and Instagram owner introduced a series of “guardrails” that “protect high spenders”.

  • Hannah Murphy and Madhumita Murgia
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President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Buckle up. The ‘Trump tendency’ in foreign policy is on its way

The eccentricities of the Republican’s dogma were apparent in his first administration. However, they mattered less because the world was more stable.

  • John McCarthy
Elon Musk and Donald Trump. It would be an understatement to say there is no precedent for such a relationship between America’s president and the world’s richest man.

Musk is at war with America’s allies, quiet on its enemies

The Trump administration’s antipathy towards European liberal democracy is real. The eastern side of the Atlantic alliance thus faces a journey without maps.

  • Edward Luce
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump refuses to rule out military takeover of Greenland, Panama Canal

The president-elect also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and reverse Joe Biden’s offshore drilling ban.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston
Donald Trump’s personal jet, carrying his son, arrives in the Greenland capital Nuuk on Monday.

Donald Trump jnr goes window-shopping for his dad in Greenland

The gambit comes at a tricky time for Copenhagen, as leaders on the mineral-rich island push harder for full independence from Denmark.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
Donald Trump: “It’s just another example of fake news.”

Trump denies report that his team could pare back tariffs

The president-elect responded on Truth Social after the Washington Post cited three sources saying aides were exploring a narrower approach to tariffs.

  • Andrea Shalal

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/trump-diplomacy-1m2u