The U.S. Negotiates For Greenland & China's Surplus Problem

Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering the U.S.’s Greenland negotiations, more on the Iran protests, China’s trade surplus, the Gaza ceasefire plan, Trump’s immigration freeze, why young people can’t find jobs, and using patents to predict the future. Kind of.

“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” – Mark Twain

Wheeling And Dealing For Greenland

Officials from Greenland and Denmark met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday, hoping to work out a compromise in Trump’s push to bring the island territory under U.S. control. Unfortunately for them, Danish officials left the meeting with no compromise in their hands – instead, they got to take home the understanding that they had a “fundamental disagreement” with the most powerful country in the world.

Despite that gap, the two teams agreed to establish a working group in the hopes of working out some of their differences. “The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, though he noted that it was clear to him that “the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland.”

Trump’s crusade is putting the U.S. at risk of an armed conflict with NATO ally Denmark and other European countries for very little reward (besides Trump’s “psychological need” for the island). The U.S. already has carte blanche to expand its military presence in Greenland at will, and while you could argue that the island offers vast mineral wealth, its climate and terrain make most mining projects extremely difficult and expensive to undertake. But at least the president will be able to sleep tight when/if he gets his hands on Greenland.

Protests Persist In Persia

The mass protests in Iran have continued on, though it seems like the crisis might be cooling off slightly. Yesterday, President Trump told the media that “very important sources on the other side” had promised him that Iran’s planned execution of protestors would no longer be happening. “They’ve said the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place,” he added. Meanwhile, Iran’s government appeared to (slightly) soften its communications blackout, as Iranians were able to make telephone calls out of the country starting late Tuesday.

That blackout, which has almost entirely cut the country off from internet access besides a few unreliable Starlink connections, has caused a whirlwind in the media. Earlier this week, Bari Weiss’ CBS News published an article claiming that between 12,000 and 20,000 Iranians had been killed by government forces over the past few weeks. Weiss’ newsroom cited Iran International, an outlet that was founded with a $250 million investment from Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the leader of one of Iran’s biggest regional rivals. Since then, other prominent outlets have published their own – much lower but still extremely concerning – death toll estimates. Reuters, the BBC, CNN, and the New York Times all say that between 2,000 and 3,000 people have been killed (and roughly 18,000 arrested) in protest-related incidents since late December, though the number is likely to be somewhat higher than that because their sources are only working off of official government numbers.

In terms of what’s next for Iran, it doesn’t seem like the U.S. is ready to intervene directly – Trump has reportedly told his national security team that any U.S. attack on Iran would only be greenlit if it’s guaranteed to quickly topple the current regime, which is far from guaranteed at the moment. He also questioned the authority of Iranian opposition leader Reza Pahlavi late last night. “He seems very nice, but I don't know how he'd play within his own country,” Trump told reporters. “And we really aren't up to that point yet.”

China Hits A Surplus Snag

• It’s 2026, which means that international diplomacy is more than just formal declarations worked out in embassy meeting rooms. On Sunday, President Trump demonstrated that fact by replying to a TruthSocial post, which suggested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio should be made president of Cuba. “Sounds good to me!,” he wrote.  

• Trump’s post stoked fears that the U.S. might be preparing some sort of attack on the Caribbean nation, which has been in the White House’s crosshairs (more than usual) since Delta Force operatives captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last weekend. 

• Prior to suggesting that Rubio should rule the island nation, Trump posted another threat against Cuba. “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela,” he wrote, adding, “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” So it looks like the Trump White House is currently planning to starve out Cuba (more than the U.S. already does) by cutting off its access to Venezuelan oil, as the country struggles to combat its massive economic and demographic issues. 

Any Takers For Phase Two?

• On Wednesday, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff announced that the Trump White House’s 20-point Gaza peace plan was entering its second phase, which includes “moving from ceasefire to demilitarisation, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.” 

• “Phase Two establishes a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), and begins the full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza, primarily the disarmament of all unauthorized personnel,” he said in an official statement.

• In concert with Witkoff’s announcement, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey announced the formation of the “Palestinian Technocratic Committee to Administer the Gaza Strip,” which will supposedly work on “efforts aimed at consolidating stability and improving the humanitarian situation” in the warzone. While that all sounds nice, this phase of the peace plan is unlikely to affect anything on the ground; Hamas has refused to lay down its arms until an independent Palestinian state is created, while Israel has refused to pull its troops out of Gaza. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 71,430 Palestinians have been killed as a result of the conflict so far.

Additional World News

• Uganda Cuts Internet Days Before Presidential Election (NYT, $)

• At least 32 killed after crane collapses on train in Thailand (BBC) 

• France, Spain Increase Russian LNG Imports as EU Ranks Among Top Buyers (Kyiv Post)

• Trump Declared a Space Race With China. The US Is Losing (Wired, $)

• Trump set to meet Venezuelan opposition leader after cozying up to Maduro’s successor (AP)

• Japan, Philippines sign new security pacts as regional tensions rise (Reuters)

The Nation of Immigrants Freezes Out Immigrants

• Yesterday, the Trump White House announced that it had indefinitely paused immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries including Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Russia. In a post on social media, the State Department clarified its reasoning (kind of) by stating that it “will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates.”

• “The freeze will remain active until the US can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people,” it went on. “We are working to ensure the generosity of the American people will no longer be abused.” The pause is the latest move in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has seen the State Department revoke over 100,000 visas while the Department of Homeland Security has deported over 600,000 individuals. 

Young, Wild, Free, and Unemployed

• Over the past few years, recent college graduates say they’ve found it increasingly hard to break into the workforce. A recently published report from workforce data firm Revelio Labs has backed up those stories, showing that the U.S. workforce is quickly aging and young workers are finding it harder and harder to find stable jobs.

• According to the report, the average age for a new hire was 40 in 2016, 40.5 in 2022, and 42 in 2025, indicating that companies are quickly shifting their hiring practices to value experienced workers who will require less training than a younger candidate. Meanwhile, the percentage of U.S. workers aged 25 and younger saw a significant dropoff over the past few years, plunging from 14.9% in 2022 to just 8.8% in 2025.

• “Younger workers face fewer entry opportunities. This pattern is consistent with a labor market that is slowing, becoming more selective, and prioritizing experience over long-term potential,” the company wrote in its report. But the bad news doesn’t end there – 2025 was the worst year for hiring since the Covid pandemic, meaning young workers are facing more competition for a shrinking pool of jobs.

Additional USA News

• Journalist Tests ICE Recruitment; Surprised to Find Herself Hired with No Background Check (Democracy Now) (Video) 

• FBI raids home of Washington Post reporter in ‘highly unusual and aggressive’ move (Guardian) 

• Bill and Hillary Clinton Refuse to Testify in Epstein Inquiry (NYT, $)

• America’s Biggest Power Grid Operator Has an AI Problem—Too Many Data Centers (WSJ, $)

• L.A. Rams Owner Stan Kroenke Becomes Largest Private Landowner in the U.S. (NYT, $) 

• Peter Thiel makes $3m donation to fight California’s proposed billionaire tax (Guardian) 

The Pattern In The Patents

• If you read the news, you’d expect that AI is one of the biggest growth industries in America. Well, it is. But according to a recent report released by patent analytics firm IFI, the real innovation – in terms of the number of new patents submitted over the past five years – is happening in non-AI research areas. This indicates that the AI industry is likely to see more incremental improvements in the future, while those non-AI industries will see steeper growth.

• So where is the patent growth happening? The IFI report outlines the top 10 research areas in terms of patent application growth between the start of 2021 and the end of 2025. Five of those areas involve battery technology or the electrolytic processes that make batteries work; three of the categories involve the metal creation process; two involve waste reclamation; and the field of bioinformatics was the only medical category in the top 10.

• What does this mean? Largely, it indicates that research institutions and corporations are focused on pushing for sustainability and efficiency in terms of things like energy and metals, despite the current White House’s apparent disdain for anything green besides Greenland. Out of the goodness of their own hearts? Probably not, but we’ll take it.

Additional Reads

• How Did TVs Get So Cheap? (Construction Physics)

• Pentagon bought device through undercover operation some investigators suspect is linked to Havana Syndrome (CNN)

• ‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body (Guardian) 

• Nasa astronauts begin 'bittersweet' medical evacuation from space station (BBC)

• How Claude Reset the AI Race (Intelligencer)

• A Different Type of ‘Muscle Memory’: Repeated exercise, or wasting, can change the way key genes work. (Atlantic, $)

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