Business
Greenland ‘will stay Greenland’, former Trump adviser declares
Faisal IslamEconomics editor
Getty ImagesOliver SmithBusiness producer, Davos
Donald Trump will not be able to force Greenland to change ownership, a former top adviser to the US president has told the BBC.
IBM’s vice chairman Gary Cohn, who advised Trump on the economy in his first term, said “Greenland will stay Greenland” and linked the need for access to critical minerals to his former boss’s plans for the territory.
Cohn is one of America’s top tech bosses, a leader in the race to develop AI and quantum computing, and served under Trump as director of the White House National Economic Council.
In a sign of how seriously business leaders are taking the crisis, he warned “invading an independent country that is part of Nato” would be “over the edge”.
He also suggested the president’s recent comments about Greenland “may be part of a negotiation”.
“I just came from a US congressional delegation meeting, and I think there’s pretty uniform consensus with both Republicans and Democrats that Greenland will stay Greenland”, he said.
Greenland would be happy for the US to increase its military presence on the island, he said, with the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean “becoming much more of a military threat”.
The US could also negotiate an “offtake” agreement for Greenland’s vast yet largely untapped supplies of rare earth minerals, Cohn suggested.
“But I think, you know, invading a country that doesn’t want to be invaded – that’s part of a militaristic alliance, Nato – seems to me to be a little bit over the edge at this point”, he said.
Cohn indicated the president may be overstating his demands as part of a negotiating tactic – something he says the president has done successfully in the past.
“You’ve got to give Donald Trump some credit for the successes he’s had and he’s many times tried to overreach to get something in a compromise situation,” he said.
“He has overreached in advertising something to end up getting what he actually wants. Maybe what he actually wants is a larger military presence and an offtake.”
The start of this year’s World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos has been overshadowed by the president’s increasingly aggressive stance on the arctic territory, with many political and business leaders alarmed about the potential geopolitical and economic impact. Trump is due to address delegates at the gathering on Wednesday.
While Cohn expressed reservations about some of the president’s actions, he said the US administration had “various different motives” for what they were doing.
He said Trump’s decision to intervene in Venezuela was “a path” to disrupt the country’s relationship with China, the biggest market for its oil, as well as Russia and Cuba.
Cohn also thinks that the president has become increasingly focused on the importance of rare earth minerals, noting that “Greenland has quite a supply” of the resources.
Those minerals are critical to the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing – also a major talking point in Davos.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday hit back at claims Trump has blamed his escalating threats over Greenland on the fact he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In a message to Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump blamed the country for not giving him the prize and said he no longer feels obliged to think only of peace.
Bessent said: “I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway, and I think it’s complete canard that the President will be doing this because of the Nobel Prize.
“The president is looking at Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States. We are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”
AI ‘to be part of every business’
Developments in quantum computing and AI are seen as critical not just for the US economy and productivity, but for US strategic influence in the world.
“IBM is dead centre in what’s going on in quantum today. We have the largest amount of quantum computers in use today” Cohn said, highlighting that his company has put many of these computers into use across America in firms from the banking industry to medicine.
“AI is going to be the backbone for data that feeds into quantum to solve problems we’ve never been able to solve”, he added.
“Where we’re heading is AI is going to be part of everyone’s enterprise. AI and quantum are going to be working in the enterprise behind the scenes to make every company more efficient. And we’re just at the beginning of that sort of long road, and that’s going to take probably another three to five years to get there.”
Earlier this month, Google, also a US company, told the BBC it had the world’s best-performing quantum computer. The race to develop the technology is the other key talking point – apart from Greenland – at the World Economic Forum.
Downing Street would not deny reports that Chancellor Rachel Reeves rowed with her US counterpart during a visit to Washington DC earlier this year.
Ms Reeves had an argument with Scott Bessent when she visited the US capital for the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings, according to the Financial Times.
The Chancellor publicly criticised the US-led war against Iran before travelling across the Atlantic, prompting Mr Bessent to berate her on the sidelines of the gathering, the newspaper reported.
Ms Reeves reportedly hit back that she did not work for the US treasury secretary, and disliked how he had spoken to her, before reiterating her argument that America lacked clear goals going into the conflict and was not making the world safer.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked if he would steer away from the reports, and appeared not to.
He did however insist Ms Reeves and her US counterpart have had “constructive” engagements since the Washington DC visit.
The spokesman said: “We would not get into private conversations. The Chancellor and the US treasury secretary have a good relationship.
“They have had constructive conversations together since the Chancellor’s visits to Washington.
“I think there is a readout from the US Department of Treasury, which made clear the productive nature of their relationship.”
The Chancellor emerged as one of the most outspoken UK Government critics of the US decision to go to war in Iran before travelling to the IMF meetings in April.
At the time, she described the war as a “folly” and said: “This is a war that we did not start. It was a war that we did not want.
“I feel very frustrated and angry that the US went into this war without a clear exit plan, without a clear idea of what they were trying to achieve.”
Business
Govt lists 40 sub-sectors for faster FDI clearance from border nations-check details – The Times of India
The government has identified 40 sub-sectors, including rare earth magnets and printed circuit boards, for expedited clearance of foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals from countries sharing land borders with India, PTI reported.Under the revised framework, proposals from countries such as China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan in these sectors will be processed within 60 days, as per the updated standard operating procedure (SOP).The move follows a decision taken in March to fast-track FDI approvals in specified manufacturing sectors from these countries.However, the government has clarified that majority ownership and control of the investee entity must remain with resident Indian citizens or Indian-owned entities at all times.The 40 identified sub-sectors fall under six broad categories –capital goods manufacturing, electronic capital goods and electronic components, polysilicon and ingot-wafer production, advanced battery components, rare earth permanent magnets, and rare earth processing.These include manufacturing of insulation items, castings and forgings for thermal, hydro and nuclear power plants, machine tools, display components such as LCD and LED panels, camera modules, electronic capacitors, speakers and microphones, lithium-ion batteries, wearables, and rare earth metal and magnet processing facilities.The SOP also introduces detailed reporting norms for investments involving entities with direct or indirect ownership from land-bordering countries.“The reporting under these guidelines will be governed under the Foreign Exchange Management (Mode of Payment and Reporting of Non-debt Instruments) Regulations, 2019, and the information will be accessible by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” the DPIIT said.The responsibility for reporting lies with the Indian investee company, which must submit required details to the DPIIT before receiving foreign capital.“The reporting is to be made prior to the inward remittance of foreign capital. In cases which do not involve foreign capital inward remittances, the reporting is to be made prior to execution of the relevant transactions, including issuance/transfer of capital instruments, as the case may be,” it added.Investors will be required to disclose details such as shareholding patterns, beneficial ownership, organisational structure, promoters, board composition, key managerial personnel and control rights.The Indian entity will also need to provide incorporation details and disclose existing or proposed shareholding linked to entities from land-bordering countries.
Ferrari technicians inspect supercars on the production line inside the company’s factory in Maranello, Italy, October 2, 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
Remo Casilli | Reuters
DETROIT — Ferrari on Tuesday beat Wall Street’s first-quarter earnings expectations and reconfirmed its guidance for the year, weeks ahead of the sports car maker revealing its first all-electric vehicle.
Here’s how the company performed in the first quarter compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 2.33 euros (US $2.72) adjusted vs. 2.27 euros expected
- Revenue: 1.85 billion euros vs. 1.81 billion euros expected
Ferrari’s revenue was up more than 3% compared with 1.79 billion euros during the first quarter of 2025, while its operating profit and adjusted earnings increased 1.1% and 4.2% year-over-year, respectively.
The company’s 2026 guidance includes 7.5 billion euros in net revenues and an adjusted operating profit of at least 2.22 billion euros, or 9.45 euros adjusted EPS. Its industrial free cash flow is targeted at 1.5 billion euros or more for the year.
Those results were despite deliveries being down 4.4% year-over-year to 3,436 units, as the sports car maker said it slowed production to “ease the execution of the planned model change-over.”
The company said deliveries “were not impacted by the surge of hostilities in the Middle East, as Ferrari leveraged its geographical allocation flexibility, bringing forward certain deliveries to other regions.”
Ferrari’s results come weeks before the scheduled debut of the Luce, its first fully electric vehicle, on May 25.
“With only twenty days to the world premiere of the Ferrari Luce, the sense of anticipation has never been so high. The Ferrari Luce brings together so much extraordinary technologies and the passion of so many people. It is the evidence of how tradition and innovation can come together to create something unique,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said in a statement Tuesday.
Climate is now in the cost sheet
Dolly Parton shares health update after canceling Las Vegas residency
[CinePlex360] Please moderate: “Hundreds in Teh
-
Tech1 week agoA Brain Implant for Depression Is About to Be Tested in Humans
-
Business1 week ago‘I had £20,000 stolen and had to fight a 13-month fraud reporting rule to get it back’
-
Tech1 week agoAlmost 90% of women leave tech industry within 10 years | Computer Weekly
-
Sports1 week agoPro wrestling star Steph De Lander reveals how colleague’s advice helped lead her to title triumph at ACW
-
Entertainment1 week agoNorway joins Type 26 Frigate Programme to boost NATO naval power
-
Entertainment1 week agoMelania Trump says ABC should ‘take a stand’ on late-night host Kimmel
-
Tech1 week agoThis Ambitious Laptop Doesn’t Leave Much Room for Your Hands
-
Business6 days agoPSX plunges over 4,800 points | The Express Tribune