Mōrena, it's Monday and time for your wrap of the major business and political headlines from around the world.
First up, European leaders have called for urgent talks after US President Donald Trump said he would introduce a 10% tariff against several countries for opposing his bid to purchase Greenland.
On social media over the weekend, Trump said he would introduce the additional levy from February 1, rising to 25% after four months if the US had not reached a deal for the "complete and total" purchase of Greenland. That would affect Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland.
The leaders of those countries have hit back against the threat, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for example, saying it was "completely wrong", while French President Emmanuel Macron called it unacceptable.
Trump has claimed Greenland is key to his plans for a defensive "golden dome" to protect the US from military assaults. He has also claimed that Russia or China could take Greenland if the US doesn't.
"Only the United States of America, under PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, can play in this game, and very successfully, at that!" he wrote on Truth Social. "Nobody will touch this sacred piece of land, especially since the national security of the United States, and the world at large, is at stake.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Sticking with tariffs, and CNBC reports that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday it was "very unlikely" the Supreme Court would overturn Trump's use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. A decision from the court could be released as early as this week.
“I believe it is very unlikely that the Supreme Court will overrule a president’s signature economic policy,” Bessent said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’. “They did not overrule Obamacare, I believe that the Supreme Court does not want to create chaos.”
Elsewhere, The Guardian reports the Syrian government has announced an immediate ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, ending nearly two weeks of fighting.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa said the deal would allow Syrian state institutions to reassert control over three eastern and northern governorates, with the announcement following a meeting between him and a US special envoy.
In Israel, meanwhile, several members of the country's governing coalition have rejected a US-backed plan for postwar governance in Gaza.
Last week, the White House said it had picked world leaders to join the so-called Gaza ‘board of peace’, which would temporarily oversee reconstruction in the strip. The board is part of Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was critical of the board over the weekend, however, taking aim at its inclusion of representatives from Turkey and Qatar.
"The countries that inspired Hamas cannot be the ones that replace it. Those who support it and continue to host it even now will not be granted a foothold in Gaza. Period," he posted to X. “The prime minister must stand firm on this, even if it requires managing a dispute with our great friend and President Trump’s emissaries.”
Jannik Sinner, the top-ranked men’s tennis player.
Finally today, the Australian Financial Review is reporting that the world's top tennis players and their agents have held a series of private meetings in Melbourne over the past three days and agreed to escalate industrial action.
That comes as the Australian Open kicks off to record crowds, with players wanting a bigger share of the tournament's revenue. A source told the AFR the agents of the top 10 men’s and women’s players met in Melbourne on Saturday, following a meeting of a new player council on Friday to discuss the escalating dispute.
Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley has said he is aware of the meetings but added that this year's A$111.5 million prize pool has increased by 16%.
“We always commit to player compensation first, in fact, since 2020, our prize money has increased by 77%. I don’t know too many industries where, over the last five years, they’ve increased pay to their staff or talent by almost 100%.”
The AFR, however, says that while top players have welcomed the increase this year, including a record A$4.2m payday for the men’s and women’s singles champions, they also say it is still not enough to stop a campaign to lobby the four grand slam bosses for better pay and conditions.
They claim that while the professional prize pool had increased in line with revenue, it still represented less than 22% of the events’ overall revenue, in line with what the ATP and WTA tours offer at their combined Masters 1000 events. The players also want the grand slams to contribute US$12m each event to a welfare fund for pension, healthcare, and maternity benefits.
