By LORNE COOK

BRUSSELS (AP) — “Intimidation,” “threats” and “blackmail” are just some of the terms being used by European Union leaders to describe U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that he will slap new tariffs on nations opposing American control of Greenland.

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European language has hardened since Trump returned to the White House 12 months ago. Now it’s in reaction to the previously unthinkable idea that NATO’s most powerful member would threaten to seize the territory of another ally. Trade retaliation is likely should Trump make good on his tariff announcement.

A year into Trump 2.0, Europe’s faith in the strength of the transatlantic bond is fading fast. For some, it’s already disappeared. The flattery of past months has not worked and tactics are evolving as the Europeans try to manage threats from an old ally just as they confront the threat of an increasingly hostile Russia.

Trump’s first term brought NATO to the brink of collapse. “I feared that NATO was about to stop functioning,” former Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wrote in his recent memoir, after the U.S. president had threatened to walk out of a 2018 summit.

Now, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is warning that should he try to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous part of Denmark, “then everything stops … including our NATO.”

“We are at the very early stage of a rather deep political-military crisis,” said Maria Martisiute, a European Policy Centre analyst. “There is a greater realization, even though political leaders will not like to admit it, that America has abandoned NATO.”

FILE – President Donald Trump speaks before he signs a presidential memorandum imposing tariffs and investment restrictions on China in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, March 22, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Reading the riot act

In January 2025, U.S. allies at NATO were waiting to hear Trump’s plans for Ukraine.

Europe’s biggest land war in decades was about to enter its fourth year. The Europeans believed that President Vladimir Putin would pose an existential threat to their territory should Russia win.

Few thought that Biden administration policies would continue. But within weeks, any lingering hopes for the U.S. commitment to Ukraine dissolved. American arms supplies and funds began to dry up. Europe would have to fill the gap and pay for U.S. help.

In a speech at NATO headquarters in February, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth read the riot act to European allies and Canada. The United States had priorities elsewhere and Europe must handle security in its own backyard.

Ukraine would not join the alliance. Its territory seized by Russia would not be returned. The Europeans could pull together a force to help Ukraine if they wanted, but they wouldn’t get U.S. help if they went into the country and got attacked.

Trump has since blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the invasion.

Days later that February, in Munich, Vice President JD Vance met the leader of a far-right party during election campaigning in Germany. He claimed that Europe’s main threat was internal, not Russia. Free speech is “in retreat” across the continent, Vance warned.

But after winning the poll, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said that “in view of the increasing threat situation,” Germany and Europe “must now very quickly make very big efforts, very quickly,” to strengthen their defense capabilities.

Chairman of the Naalakkersuisut, Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, give a statement on the current situation at a press conference in the Mirror Hall at the Prime Minister’s Office in Copenhagen, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

Europe’s security independence

Over the course of last year, European leaders and Zelenskyy flew to Washington to try to keep Trump onside. A 28-point plan to end the war that he floated would acquiesce to many Russian demands.

The plan was reworked. Talks continue, but without Putin. Few expect him to accept. Trump mostly blames Zelenskyy for the stalemate.

Meanwhile, Europe pressed ahead with new defense measures, even as Trump waged a global tariff war, including against U.S. allies, roiling their economies.

The EU created a multibillion-euro fund to buy arms and ammunition, with the emphasis on sourcing them from European companies and weaning nations off U.S. suppliers.

Debt rules were eased for security spending. Money was funneled into Ukraine’s defense industry. In December, European leaders agreed to pay for most of its military and economic needs for the next two years as Kyiv teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.

A new U.S. national security strategy further soured transatlantic relations. It paints European allies as weak, offers tacit support to far-right political parties, and criticizes European free speech and migration policy.

European Council President Antonio Costa warned the U.S. against interfering in Europe’s affairs. Merz said that the U.S. strategy underscores the need for Europe to become “much more independent” from the United States.

Work has since begun on Europe’s own security strategy. It aims to respond to “the geopolitical changes in our world and to give an appropriate answer to that,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Part of it is to make Europe even more autonomous.

As France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands sent troops to Greenland last week — small in number but highly symbolic in the message of resolve sent to the White House — French President Emmanuel Macron said that it’s important “to stand at the side of a sovereign state to protect its territory.”

“Europe is being shaken from some of its certainties,” he told French military chiefs. “It sometimes has allies that we thought were predictable, fearless, always by our side, who are now causing us to doubt a lot, or are even turning against those who expected it the least.”

By The Associated Press

Government offices, the stock market and many schools are closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but most businesses are open.

National Parks are still open on MLK Day although they are no longer free this year after President Donald Trump made a change in the two days that will be free this year.

When in doubt, call ahead or look up more specific schedules online for stores in your neighborhood.

Here’s a rundown of what’s open and closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2026:

Government offices

MLK Day is an official holiday honoring the civil rights leader’s birthday and legacy, so federal and state government offices are closed. Courts and most schools are also closed.

Banks and the stock market

U.S. stock markets and banks are closed Monday but will reopen on Tuesday.

National and state parks

Last month, the National Park Service announced it will no longer offer free admission to parks on King Day and Juneteenth, but instead on Flag Day and Trump’s birthday.

But California Gov. Gavin Newsom defied Trump and ordered more than 200 state parks to offer free admission on Monday.

Retailers

Most stores and other businesses are open.

By SAM McNEIL, Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Threats from the White House over Greenland have sparked outrage and a flurry of diplomatic activity across Europe, as leaders consider possible countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs and the first-ever use of the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations because of their opposition to American control of Greenland.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland would face the tariff, Trump said in a social media post while at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The rate would climb to 25% on June 1 if no deal was in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States, he said.

European leaders from Dublin to Helsinki quickly condemned the announcement as economic coercion and sent representatives to Brussels on Sunday for an emergency meeting.

If diplomacy fails, they have signaled a new willingness to wield the economic might of the 27-nation European Union.

“Our priority is to engage, not escalate. Sometimes the most responsible form of leadership is restraint,” said European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill on Monday. “The EU has tools at its disposal and is prepared to respond should the threatened tariffs be imposed.”

What next for the EU?

Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and other world leaders will are now traveling to Davos for the annual World Economic Forum. No meetings are yet scheduled between European leaders and Trump.

After Davos, the 27 EU leaders will convene in Brussels on Thursday evening for an emergency meeting on transatlantic relations.

Costa has said EU leaders agree “that tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-U.S. trade agreement.”

The leaders expressed “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion.”

What are options on the table?

Europe has a lot of tools at its disposal but a fraught path ahead, said Penny Naas, senior vice president of the German Marshall Fund, a Washington-based think tank.

“It’s tough for the Europeans to find that space where they can both demonstrate strength without incurring significant retaliation. And as long as they’re unwilling to accept retaliation, they’re going to have trouble projecting strength,” she said.

The EU has three major economic tools it could use to pressure Washington: new tariffs, suspension of the U.S.-EU trade deal, and a “trade bazooka,” the unofficial term for the bloc’s Anti-Coercion Instrument that could sanction individuals or institutions found to be putting undue pressure on the EU.

The EU and the U.S. agreed in June on a framework for a trade deal. It was due to be ratified by the European Parliament this week, but on Saturday, the leader of the largest group in the Parliament, center-right German lawmaker Manfred Weber, said approval was “not possible at this stage.”

The EU could also levy tariffs on U.S. goods worth 93 billion euros ($108 billion) that it suspended after the July deal. However, commission spokesperson Gill said that unless that suspension is extended, those levies would take effect on Feb. 7 if the U.S. follows through on its tariff threat.

Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. are pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments, and wine and spirits.

The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.

In 2021, the European Commission set up the Anti-Coercion Instrument after Beijing restricted trade to Lithuania, which has built ties with Taiwan, claimed by China as its territory.

“The primary objective of the ACI is deterrence. The instrument will, therefore, be most successful if there is no need to use it,” according to a commission statement.

There’s widespread refusal to use the instrument in European capitals out of fears it would escalate matters – but France and Germany, the bloc’s two economic juggernauts, have signaled their support.

“Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in a social media post. “Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld.”

Indirectly, the EU has sought to shift its economies from the U.S. to other parts of the world.

Brussels signed a massive trade deal last week with the five Mercosur nations in South America as well as separate agreements with Indonesia and Japan. EU officials are working on similar free trade deals with the United Arab Emirates and India, where von der Leyen is expected in late January to finalize negotiations.

Gill, the commission spokesperson, said the India deal would cover nearly 2 billion people, and together with the Mercosur deal it provides a clear victory for the EU in the wake of the global economic chaos unleashed by the second Trump administration.

“We can see very clearly that the value of responsible, mature leadership on the global stage is paying off in terms of the EU trade agenda, in terms of our efforts to diversify our trade partners and give ourselves the maximum economic potential from our partnerships around the globe,” he said.

By TERRY TANG, Associated Press

As communities across the country on Monday host parades, panels and service projects for the 40th federal observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the political climate for some is more fraught with tensions than festive with reflection on the slain Black American civil rights icon’s legacy.

In the year since Donald Trump’s second inauguration fell on King Day, the Republican president has gone scorched earth against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and targeted mostly Black-led cities for federal law enforcement operations, among other policies that many King admirers have criticized.

One year ago, Trump’s executive orders, “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” accelerated a rollback of civil rights and racial justice initiatives in federal agencies, corporations and universities. Last month, the National Park Service announced it will no longer offer free admission to parks on King Day and Juneteenth, but instead on Flag Day and Trump’s birthday.

The fatal shooting this month of an unarmed Minneapolis woman in her car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent there to target the city’s Somali immigrant population, as well as Trump recently decrying civil rights as discrimination against white people, have only intensified fears of a regression from the social progress King and many others advocated for.

Still, the concerns have not chilled many King holiday events planned this year. Some conservative admirers of King say the holiday should be a reminder of the civil rights icon’s plea that all people be judged by their character and not their skin color. Some Black advocacy groups, however, are vowing a day of resistance and rallies nationwide.

FILE – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial during the 9th Annual Wreath Laying and Day of Reflection and Reconciliation, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

‘We’ve always strived to be a more perfect union’

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Trump said he felt the Civil Rights Movement and the reforms it helped usher in were harmful to white people, who “were very badly treated.” Politicians and advocates say Trump’s comments are what are harmful, because they dismiss the hard work of King and others that helped not just Black Americans but other groups, including women and the LGBTQ+ community.

“I think the Civil Rights Movement was one of the things that made our country so unique, that we haven’t always been perfect, but we’ve always strived to be this more perfect union, and that’s what I think the Civil Rights Movement represents,” Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor and only the nation’s third elected Black governor, said this week in an interview with The Associated Press.

Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said the Trump administration’s priorities make clear it is actively trying to erase the movement.

“From health care access and affordable housing to good paying jobs and union representation,” Wiley said, “things Dr. King made part of his clarion call for a beloved community are still at stake and is even more so because (the administration) has dismantled the very terms of government and the norms of our culture.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank is encouraging the holiday’s focus to stay solely on King himself. Brenda Hafera, a foundation research fellow, urged people to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta or reread his “I have a dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington nearly 63 years ago.

But using the holiday as a platform to rally and speak about “anti-racism” and “critical race theory” actually rejects King’s ambition for the country, Hafera argued.

“I think efforts should be conducted in the spirit of what Martin Luther King actually believed and what he preached. And his vision was a colorblind society, right,” Hafera said. “He says very famously in his speech, don’t judge by the color of your skin, but the content of your character.”

Groups call for holiday of reclamation, education and rallying

The NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil right organization which had a myriad MLK Day events planned for Monday, asserted that the heightened fears among communities of color and in immigrant communities mean King Day observances must take a different tone. People will have to put their safety first, even if their government isn’t, said Wisdom Cole, NAACP senior national director of advocacy.

FILE – A crowd marches across the Lefty O’Doul Bridge during the MLK Day March in San Francisco on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Dan Hernandez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)

“As folks are using their constitutional right to protest and to speak out and stand up for what they believe in, we are being faced with violence. We are faced with increased police and state violence inflicted by the government,” Cole said.

The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of organizations affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, has planned its events under the banner “Reclaim MLK Day of Action.” Organizers planned demonstrations in Atlanta, Chicago and Oakland, California, among other cities, over the weekend and Monday.

“This year it is more important than ever to reclaim MLK’s radical legacy, letting his wisdom and fierce commitment to freedom move us into the action necessary to take care of one another, fight back, and free ourselves from this fascist regime,” Devonte Jackson, a national organizing director for the coalition, said in a statement.

Indiana school cancels historic MLK Day event

For the first time in its 60-year history, Indiana University in Indianapolis canceled its annual Martin Luther King dinner. Over the years, the event drew notable guest speakers including Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, and activist Angela Davis.

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The reasoning was “budget constraints,” according to a social media post by the school’s Black Student Union. However, the group said it was worried this was “connected to broader political pressures.” A few students have since organized smaller community dinners or “eat-ins” to fill the void, WTHR-TV in Indianapolis reported.

Meanwhile, the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Westbrook, Maine, canceled a MLK Day service due to “unforeseen circumstances,” according to the parish website. But a member of the church’s “social justice and peace committee” told NewsCenterMaine.com that the pastor was concerned about people’s safety amid rumors of ICE agents being in the area.

Overall, there have been few reports of King Day events being majorly scaled down or canceled altogether.

In Memphis, Tennessee, the National Civil Rights Museum is going about its annual King Day celebration as normal. The museum is located on the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was shot on April 4, 1968. The museum is offering free admission on the holiday, an annual tradition.

“This milestone year is not only about looking back at what Dr. King stood for, but also recognizing the people who continue to make his ideals real today,” museum President Russell Wigginton said.

Tang reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Washington, Adrian Sanz in Memphis, Tennessee, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this report.