Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, January 21st. Here's what we're covering.

Zolen Keno Youngs: I'm Zolen Keno Youngs. I'm a White House correspondent. Any minute now, I'll be heading to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

Zolen Keno Youngs: The forum is a gathering of some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful leaders, but all eyes will be on President Trump as he is expected to give a keynote address amid very deep concerns over the future of the transatlantic alliance.

Zolen Keno Youngs: What normally would have been a brainstorming session amongst the world's elites has turned into this all hands emergency effort to deescalate tension with an emboldened American president. That's because of President Trump's lashing out at European leaders as well as his threats to take over Greenland. You know, I've been talking to foreign policy analysts who say that this this period is different, right? Yes, President Trump is known for disrupting global summits and, you know, brushing aside allies that make up the current global order. But these threats of a takeover of Greenland really have foreign policy analysts questioning whether or not the nearly 80year-old alliance between the US and European nations may be at risk.

Zolen Keno Youngs: Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

Zolen Keno Youngs: Ahead of President Trump's remarks, the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, addressed the rising global tensions in his own speech.

Mark Carney: Every day, we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can and the weak must suffer what they must. While Carney didn't mention Trump by name, he spoke not long after the president posted an AI image on social media showing American flags superimposed over Canada. Part of Trump's ongoing jabs that the country should become the 51st US state. In his speech, Carney called on medium-sized countries like his own to band together to offset the strength of superpowers like the US.

Mark Carney: The powerful have their power, but we have something too. The capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home, and to act together.

Mark Carney: We demand more from our federal government, more professionalism, more accountability, more humanity. We demand lawful policing that respects human dignity.

Tracy Mumford: In Minnesota, top police officials are criticizing the tactics being used by federal immigration agents, saying many residents are scared to go outside and that the agents are undermining trust in law enforcement. In a press conference yesterday with two police chiefs and a county sheriff, officials said they knew of American citizens, including at least one offduty police officer who'd been pulled over and questioned. They said they were all people of color.

Police Official: If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day.

Tracy Mumford: While the officials said they are not opposed to immigration enforcement, they accused ICE officers deployed to the region of being too heavy-handed.

Police Official: Can we please find a way to make sure that we can do these things without scaring the hell out of our community members and and freaking everyone out? People are afraid right now. And I get it.

Tracy Mumford: In response, federal officials defended the behavior of immigration agents in Minnesota, saying their actions are legal, ethical, and moral.

Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the Trump administration ramped up its investigation into Democratic officials in Minnesota who have been critical of the aggressive immigration enforcement push there. The Department of Justice has now formally served subpoenas to five officials, including Governor Tim Walls, as the administration has claimed that local leaders conspired to impede ICE agents in the state. Without citing any evidence, the deputy attorney general has accused Walls and the mayor of Minneapolis of terrorism, saying they'd encouraged violence against federal agents.

Tracy Mumford: In Texas, the family of a Cuban immigrant who died while in custody at an ICE detention center earlier this month claims that he was killed by guards. In a new court filing, the family asked that the government be blocked from deporting two other detainees who they say are witnesses. According to the filing, one fellow detainee said he saw the guards choke the man to death. Another said he saw the man struggling with the guards before he died. Both have since been given deportation notices. Federal officials have offered a different account. Initially, ICE said the man had been quote experiencing medical distress. Later, after the Washington Post reported on the family's claims, a Department of Homeland Security official said he had died by suicide and quote, "resisted interventions from security staff." According to the man's family, a staffer at the El Paso Medical Examiner's Office told them it planned to list the manner of death as homicide. and the family shared a recording of that conversation, though the Times could not verify it. The office declined to comment on the recording, saying an autopsy is pending. The facility where the man died is the largest of its kind in the country with about 2700 detainees. Last year, several human rights groups urged federal officials to close the center over reports of abuse. The DHS called those claims categorically false.

Tracy Mumford: The terrorists had hate in their hearts, but they also had highpowered rifles in their hands. We're taking action on both.

Tracy Mumford: Australia has passed new, tighter gun control laws in the wake of a mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration there last month. The legislation calls for a national gun buyback program. It also limits firearms imports and tightens background checks. The move echoes what Australia did back in the9s when a mass shooting shook the country. Almost immediately, it tightened its laws and did a massive buyback. A fifth of Australia's guns were taken out of public circulation. Since then, the country has had one of the lowest gun homicide rates per capita, but the number of firearms has climbed back up, and it's now at a record high. The details of how the new buyback program will work haven't been finalized. At the same time, in response to rising anti-semitism in the country, Australia's parliament also passed a bill targeting hate speech. It gives authorities more leeway to deny entry visas to people with extremist views and to designate organizations as hate groups, though some critics have warned it could have a chilling effect on protest and civil rights.

Tracy Mumford: And finally, in one of his final acts in office, the governor of New Jersey signed a law this week requiring that all elementary school students in the state learn cursive. Yes, cursive. So, practice your loop-de-loops because it is making a comeback. While the federal government dropped cursive from the Common Core standards back in 2010, New Jersey joins roughly two dozen other states that have revived it in recent years. Proponents of cursive point to studies that link handwriting to better information retention. And New Jerseyy's governor also said it can help people read the original US Constitution. Not everyone is on board. One education professor told the Times that while handwriting is important, valuing cursive specifically might just be a nostalgia thing. It is true that reading old school cursive is a dying art. The National Archives actually put out a call for help last year looking for volunteers who could read the script on old documents. That is the kind of task that would require remembering what an uppercase cursive Q looks like.

Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.