Flagship

Europe steps up Greenland presence

Denmark and allied European countries are sending troops to Greenland, as President Donald Trump pushes for a US takeover of the autonomous territory. The increased military presence comes as Greenlandic and Danish ministers said that “fundamental disagreement” remains with Washington after their “frank” conversation with top US officials in the White House on Wednesday. They agreed to create a high-level group to discuss Greenland’s future, as Europe scrambles for deals that lean toward “conciliation over confrontation with Trump,” Politico wrote. Trump has also demanded Denmark eradicate Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic, and while he overstated their Greenland presence, Danish intelligence suggests Beijing and Moscow are looking to expand activities there.

US evacuates MidEast military personnel

The US began evacuating military personnel from a key Qatar air base on Wednesday as Washington weighs its response to Iran’s deadly crackdown on anti-government demonstrations. While President Donald Trump has suggested he will “help” protesters, he claimed Wednesday that Tehran has no plans for executing those detained, despite Iran’s judiciary signaling otherwise. So far, Trump has not offered details of a potential US response, but “unpredictability is part of the strategy,” a Western military official told Reuters. “All the signals are that a US attack is imminent, but that is also how this administration behaves to keep everyone on their toes.”

Metal prices hit record highs

The price of gold, silver, copper, and tin all hit fresh highs on Wednesday, as investors rushed for safe havens amid concerns over geopolitics and the independence of the US Federal Reserve. “There is no precedent that I can remember in 20 years” for all four to peak simultaneously, a commodities analyst told the Financial Times. The specter of US military intervention in Iran following Nicolás Maduro’s ouster in Venezuela, coupled with the Trump administration’s probe into the central bank chair, has created an unusual physical metal stockpile in the US and set “the metals market on fire,” CNN wrote. While gold is a traditional haven asset, it’s rare for base metals like copper and tin to be driven by geopolitical fears.

Banks push back on interest rate cap

Donald Trump’s call for credit card companies to cap interest rates at 10% weighed on markets and sparked pushback from major lenders. The US president’s populist push — which comes as banks reported mixed earnings Wednesday — threatens a blistering stock rally, as investors eye possible threats instead of celebrating the prospect of limitless gains. “Nobody in banking thinks it’s going to be beer and skittles forever,” one finance attorney said. “It’s a messy intersection of politics and banking policy.” Citigroup’s CFO warned of a “deleterious impact on the economy,” while Bank of America’s CEO cautioned over “unintended consequences.” At least one firm is heeding Trump’s call: Bilt, known for offering rewards on rent payments, unveiled new cards with a 10% interest rate cap.

Mass US visa processing freeze

The US is halting immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, including Brazil, Russia, Somalia, and Iran, part of the Trump administration’s effort to restrict foreigners who might require public assistance. The move centers on a provision that allows the government to bar entry to anyone who might become a “public charge” and drain resources — Trump officials in recent weeks have fixated on allegations that members of Minnesota’s Somali community defrauded social safety net programs. Studies, though, have shown that immigrants use less welfare than US-born Americans. Aside from an illegal immigration crackdown, Trump has also severely restricted legal immigration, along with implementing travel bans and heightening vetting of tourists.

US authorities search reporter’s home

Press freedom groups condemned the FBI’s search of a Washington Post reporter’s home as part of a leak investigation Wednesday. The probe focuses on a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified documents; the Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who covers President Donald Trump’s overhaul of the federal workforce, wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. Still, the incredibly rare move reflects the Trump administration’s hostile posture toward the media. “Reporters can’t help but wonder whether this is also a fishing expedition,” CNN’s media analyst wrote. Natanson wrote last year that more than 1,100 current or former US employees reached out to her during the mass public-sector firings, with colleagues dubbing her “the federal government whisperer.”

UAE energy giant ‘loves the US’

Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy giant plans to increase its investments in the US, despite concerns about the White House’s clean power policies, Masdar’s CEO told Semafor. While Trump’s rollback of renewable energy subsidies “is not good for business,” Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi said, “we love the US.” The Emirati state-owned firm plans to pick up struggling wind and solar assets in the US, part of a rapid international expansion. Masdar is betting on electrification growing at breakneck speed, driven in part by the proliferation of AI data centers, but also rising urbanization. It broke ground last year on the world’s first large round-the-clock renewable energy project, combining a solar plant with a battery energy storage system.

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Joining the Advisory Board at this year’s convening will be our inaugural cohort of Semafor World Economy Principals — an editorially curated community of innovators, policymakers, and changemakers shaping the new world economy with front-row access to Semafor’s world-class journalism, meaningful opportunities for dialogue, and touchpoints designed for connection-building. Applications are now open here.

China advances in space race

China could put people on the Moon before the US, former NASA personnel told WIRED. Last year, Beijing successfully retrieved the first soil sample from the Moon’s far side, and is aiming to land humans by 2030, supported by a preponderance of engineers and entrepreneurs with a government that deems it strategically vital. In the US, meanwhile, nearly 4,000 NASA employees quit during the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce, and the agency’s efforts are bogged down by ballooning cost and complexity: Whereas Beijing’s lunar mission anticipates needing two rockets, NASA’s could require more than 40 Starship launches. “We did the worst of all worlds,” a former NASA official said. “We positioned it as a race without planning to win.”

Doubts over microplastics studies

An investigation raised serious doubts over the trustworthiness of research into microplastics. In recent years thousands of studies have found the presence of tiny fragments of plastic, some smaller than a millionth of a meter, in the human body, which are reported to cause health problems from heart failure to infertility. But the research is deeply problematic, The Guardian’s environment editor reported. For instance, many studies work by vaporizing samples and analyzing the fumes, but that method cannot reliably tell plastic from fatty tissue, leading to widespread false positives. One researcher said the attention on microplastics, given the weak evidence, risked “unnecessarily scaring the general population” and led to the rise of quack treatments claiming to clean microplastics from blood.