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President Donald Trump has said a lot of alarming things, but one comment that is sounding alarm bells across the Atlantic, from U.S. shores to Denmark, is his statement: “One way or another, we’re going to get [Greenland].” Now the Trump administration is sending an uninvited delegation to the autonomous Danish territory on Thursday, a move that Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede has criticized, calling it “highly aggressive” and a “provocation.” Greenland’s people are bracing for the visit from second lady Usha Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Vance is set to watch Greenland’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” while Waltz and Wright will see the Pituffik Space Base, a U.S. military facility in remote northern Greenland. Meanwhile, as the Trump administration closes in on Greenland, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has previously stated emphatically: “We seriously mean . . . that Greenland is not for sale. Denmark is responsible for the defense and security of the island’s 57,000 residents, and opinion polls show that while Greenland’s people prefer a looser relationship with Denmark, they are against becoming a United States territory. Nevertheless, Trump’s persistence raises an important question: Why is he so fixated on Greenland, anyway? Trump claims Greenland is a national security asset Greenland is attractive to Trump for two reasons: It has a wealth of natural resources and is strategically located on the shortest route between the U.S. and Europe. “The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region, and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get firsthand briefings from our service members on the ground,” National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told the Associated Press. According to the BBC, the U.S. has had its eye on the territory as far back as the 1860s, when President Andrew Johnson first wanted to buy Greenland. Much later, during World War II, the U.S. invaded Greenland and established military and radio stations across the territory. After the war, American forces remained in Greenland at what is now known as Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base). “If Russia were to send missiles toward the U.S., the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland,” Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defense College told the BBC. “That’s why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the U.S.” The Trump delegation’s visit also comes as both China and Russia are increasing their activity in the Arctic. The other reason Trump has his sights set on Greenland: It has large deposits of rare earth minerals needed to make computers, smartphones, and batteries, as well as its potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.
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E-Commerce
BYD, Chinas largest maker of electronic vehicles, surpassed $100 billion in sales last year, beating out its beleaguered American competitor Tesla. Per an earnings release on Monday, BYD notched $107 billion in sales last year. That’s decisively above the $97.7 billion that Tesla made in 2024. And in terms of vehicles delivered, BYD shipped 4.27 million hybrid and battery electric vehicles, while Tesla shipped 1.79 million EVs. Last year marked Teslas first sales decline in over a dozen years. As of this writing, shares in BYD Company ADR have risen around 5% today, bringing its stock up more than 55% since the start of the year. News of BYDs big year dominating Chinas EV marketboth in sales numbers and new innovationscomes as Teslas brand is being increasingly battered because of a plummeting stock price in 2025, massive recalls, and protests against company billionaire CEO Elon Musk’s over-involvement in the U.S. government. BYD is a BFD Aside from its record-breaking sales numbers, BYD has most recently made headlines for designing a new ultrafast charging system, an innovation that could be a game changer for the greater EV market. Earlier this month, the company announced that its flash chargers will be able to provide power for 400 kilometers (nearly 250 miles) in five minutes, or about the same amount of time it takes to fill the gas tank of an SUV. BYD plans to roll out 4,000 of the new chargers in China, where building EV infrastructure tends to be a much faster process than it is in the United States. Meanwhile, as climate reporter Dan Gearino writes for Inside Climate News, Tesla is in the midst of a corporate self-destruction unlike any Ive seen. The brands problems range from increasingly wide-scale backlash against CEO Muskwhose fund-slashing in the federal government has cut tens of thousands of jobsto a recall last week of nearly every Cybertruck ever made. Teslas woes have caused its stock to plummet 32% since the start of the year, and Tesla trade-ins recently hit an all-time high. Despite a rough few months, Teslas market valuation remains impressive, landing at around $800 billion compared to BYDs $157 billion, according to Bloomberg. And President Trump continues to implement new tariffs on Chinese imports and roll back EV subsidies. While Tesla stock had been falling since the beginning of 2025, it has been enjoying a rebound more recently, with shares up more than 15% over the past five days, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
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E-Commerce
Finally, some good news from The Social Security Administration (SSA): Over three million retirees and their spouses, including some teachers, firefighters, police officers, and federal employees, will see bump in their Social Security benefits by the end of the month, thanks to a law President Joe Biden signed before leaving office in January, called the Social Security Fairness Act. Here’s what to know about the update to Social Security benefits. What is the Social Security Fairness Act? The Social Security Fairness Act increases monthly Social Security benefits to 3.2 million Americans workers because it repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which will trigger retroactive payments and monthly increases to a select group of retirees. According to Yahoo Finance, this benefit is mostly for retirees who receive a government or state pension based on work not covered by Social Security, like a second part-time job or side hustle. For example, this would apply to a teacher who got summers off and worked at a camp each summer. Previously, if that teacher had a pension, it meant they weren’t getting Social Security benefits from that second job. This new rule changes that. However, as Forbes noted, the bad news is: By reversing the policy, the SSA will now resume withholding 100% of benefits to recover overpayments starting at the end of March. Who is eligible for the updated Social Security benefits? Who exactly is eligible? As noted above, this law applies to Americans who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security because they did not pay Social Security taxes. Those Americans could include some but not all of these types of workers: Teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states Federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System People whose work had been covered by a foreign social security system How much will Social Security payments increase? Beneficiaries will start receiving their new monthly benefit amount, which could range from a few hundred to over $1,000 larger, based on an average Social Security check of $1,900, in April 2025, for March 2025 benefits. (Social Security benefits are paid one month behind.) Additionally, the SSA increased payments are retroactive back to January 2024, and those who are eligible will get a one-time payment for a lump sum, via direct deposit, by the end of March. (For those who don’t have their Social Security direct deposit set up yet, now is the time to do it.) How has Social Security changed in the Trump era? President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have attacked the Social Security program, claiming that the Social Security Administration is plagued by immense waste and “fraud.” Those claims have been repeatedly debunked, and a report from the agency’s Inspector General found “less than 1% of payments in recent years were determined to be improper.” The new benefit from the Biden administration also comes as the Trump administration’s SSA is about to require millions of Americans to potentially verify their identity in person, even as the federal government plans on closing offices nationwide and has cut thousands of jobs at the agency as part of the Department of Government Efficiencys (DOGE) slashing of the federal workforce. Many older Americans rely on Social Security as their monthly income, for housing, food, and healthcare.
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E-Commerce
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