Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Thursday.
Europe scrambles to find a path forward with TrumpTop European leaders gathered today in Brussels to discuss the continent’s increasingly dire relationship with the U.S. Some were relieved that President Trump’s demands to own Greenland seem to have been diffused. But the leader of Denmark, which controls the icy island, bristled at one of the potential compromises NATO officials have floated. Eight senior Western officials told my colleagues that negotiators had proposed giving the U.S. sovereign claim to bases in Greenland, blocking adversaries from mining on the island and increasing NATO’s presence in the Arctic. Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, rejected the notion that her country would give up control over parts of Greenland. Those details and more offer the fullest picture yet of a potential Greenland compromise that Trump announced yesterday after meeting with the NATO leader, Mark Rutte, in Davos, Switzerland. Here’s what is currently under discussion. In other news from Davos:
Jack Smith defended his decision to prosecute TrumpJack Smith, the special prosecutor who indicted Trump twice in 2023 but never got a trial, appeared at a tense congressional hearing today and forcefully defended his investigation. He declared that Trump “engaged in criminal activity” and caused the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. “No one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Smith said. “So that is what I did.” Republicans used the hearing to accuse Smith of participating in a conspiracy to destroy Trump and undermining the democratic process. The president insulted Smith this afternoon on social media, calling him “a deranged animal.” Also on Capitol Hill: The House passed a bill to fund several parts of the government, despite a Democratic revolt over spending on ICE.
The murder rate is projected to hit its lowest point in a centuryA new analysis of 2025 crime data from dozens of U.S. cities found across-the-board decreases in violent crime last year compared with 2019, including 13 percent fewer shootings, 29 percent fewer carjackings and 36 percent fewer robberies. The analysis also found that last year will likely register as the lowest national homicide rate since 1900. No one knows for sure why the rate of violence is down, though some criminologists pointed to efforts over the past few years, including hot-spot policing, summer jobs for youth and cognitive behavioral therapy. Polls suggest that even the public has started to believe that there has been improvement, which is unusual in any era.
A year inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.My colleagues Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser spent the past several months reporting on the Trump administration’s transformation of the F.B.I. They interviewed 45 employees who either work at the F.B.I. or who left the bureau during Trump’s second term. Many of the employees said that the F.B.I.’s director, Kash Patel, has turned the bureau into a weapon of the White House. They described a year marred by vendettas, mismanagement, an obsession with social media and meltdowns. Read their full account here, or check out Emily and Rachel’s takeaways from their reporting.
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‘Sinners’ was the big winner of this year’s Oscar nominationsRyan Coogler’s “Sinners,” a big-budget horror fantasia starring Michael B. Jordan as twins, received 16 Academy Award nominations. That is the most in Oscar history, topping “All About Eve,” “Titanic” and “La La Land,” which each received 14 (thanks to some category changes). “One Battle After Another” was close behind with 13 nods. Our awards-season columnist, Kyle Buchanan, put together a good rundown of the biggest snubs (“Wicked”) and surprises (“F1” somehow received a best picture nomination). Check it out. For more: Brazil’s latest icon is a 79-year-old woman who briefly appears in “The Secret Agent,” an Oscar contender.
What travelers should expect in 2026The only certainty in travel is uncertainty. But luckily, The Times has a team of travel reporters who track what might lie ahead. They expect prices to remain all over the place; “microvacations,” one- to three-day trips to sometimes far-flung destinations, to rise in popularity; sonic wellness experiences to catch on; and European travel to spread out more across the year. Read more about this year’s trends.
Dinner table topics
Cook: These lemon cookies are a chewy delight. For those who want more than a dozen, you can use our new tool to automatically scale any recipe to your liking. Watch: The documentary “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!” is a funny and bittersweet tribute. |
