While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Jan 22, 2026
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NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (left) speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan 12.
PHOTO: DOUG MILLS/NYTIMES
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Trump says ‘framework’ deal agreed on Greenland
US President Donald Trump abruptly stepped back on Jan 21 from threats to impose tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, ruled out the use of force, and said a deal was in sight to end a dispute over the Danish territory that risked the deepest rupture in transatlantic relations in decades.
On a whirlwind trip to the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Trump backed down from weeks of rhetoric that shook the NATO alliance and risked a new global trade war.
Instead, Mr Trump said, Western Arctic allies could forge a new deal that satisfies his desire for a “Golden Dome” missile-defence system and access to critical minerals while blocking Russia and China’s ambitions in the Arctic.
“It’s a deal that everybody’s very happy with,” Mr Trump told reporters after emerging from a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “It’s a long-term deal. It’s the ultimate long-term deal. It puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”
World’s oldest cave art discovered in Indonesia
PHOTO: AFP
A red stencil of a hand pressed against the wall of an Indonesian cave is the oldest rock art ever discovered, scientists said Jan 21, and sheds light on how humans first migrated to Australia.
The cave art dates back at least 67,800 years, according to research published in the journal Nature by a team of Indonesian and Australian archaeologists.
The new discovery is more than 15,000 years older than previous art found in the Sulawesi region by the same team.
Death toll in Karachi mall fire climbs to around 50
PHOTO: AFP
Pakistani firefighters on Jan 21 retrieved the bodies of up to 25 people from the debris of a shopping mall fire in Karachi, taking the death toll to around 50.
The port city’s largest fire in more than a decade broke out late on Jan 17 and quickly spread through the sprawling Gul Plaza shopping complex, famous for its 1,200 family-owned stores selling wedding clothes, toys, crockery and other goods.
A total of 84 people have been registered missing, according to a state-run rescue service. Police have said most of the missing are feared dead, meaning the toll could rise still further.
Pope Leo invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’
PHOTO: EPA
Pope Leo is among world leaders invited to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace”, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official, said on Jan 21.
Leo, the first US pope and a critic of some of Mr Trump’s policies, is evaluating the invitation, he said.
“The pope has received an invitation and we are considering what to do,” Cardinal Parolin told journalists.
Emotional Harry says Mail made Meghan’s life a misery
AFP
Prince Harry held back tears as he said the Daily Mail had made his wife Meghan’s life “an absolute misery” during his appearance in the witness box on Jan 21 at London’s High Court in his privacy lawsuit against the paper’s publisher.
The Duke of Sussex, 41, and six other claimants including singer Elton John are suing the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, for violations of their privacy from the early 1990s until the 2010s.
Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, has called the allegations “preposterous smears”, saying their journalists had legitimate sources for information, including from the celebrities’ friends and acquaintances.
