DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — There were grave warnings from European leaders and expletives from California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday as leaders at the World Economic Forum grappled with the Greenland crisis and heightened concerns over global trade.
The gathering in Davos, Switzerland, comes as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to push for the seizure of Greenland and the imposition of related trade tariffs.
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President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen talks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attends the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, January 20, 2026. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his way to take part in an event tilted "Country Strategy Dialogue: Canada" as he attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
California Governor Gavin Newsom is seen during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
French President Emmanuel Macron, wearing aviator sunglasses because of an eye infection, warned of a “new colonial approach” that would undermine decades of collaboration.
Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister and former central banker, urged countries below the top tier of global power to continue multilateral cooperation with a new, “dense web of connections.”
And in the forum’s entrance hall, Newsom was the most blunt, telling European leaders: “It’s time to get serious and stop being complicit. It’s time to stand tall and firm – have a backbone.”
Here’s a look at what attendees said:
“I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should’ve brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders,” the California governor and prominent Democrat said. “I hope people understand how pathetic they look on the world stage. I mean, at least from an American perspective, it’s embarrassing.” He added: “Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He’s a T-Rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other ... Wake up! Where the hell has everybody been? Stop with this (expletive) diplomacy of sort of niceties and somehow we’re all going to figure it out, saying one thing privately and another publicly. Have some spine, some goddamn (expletive).”
Before expressing his concern, the French president began his address with a joke: “It's a time of peace, stability and predictability.”
Warning major powers against the temptation of modern colonial adventures, he added: “It’s a shift towards a world without rules. Where international law is trampled underfoot and where the only law that seems to matter is that of the strongest, and imperial ambitions are resurfacing.” Then he took aim at the Trump administration, denouncing “competition from the United States of America, through trade agreements that undermine our export interests, demand maximum concessions, and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe, combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable, even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.”
“Great powers can afford for now to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not,” the Canadian prime minister said.
“In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favor or to combine to create a third path with impact,” he said. “(We) argue the middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
Carney strongly opposed U.S. aspirations to expand its Arctic territory. “We stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future.”
With President Trump not due to address the elite global gathering until Wednesday, it fell to his treasury secretary to take up his defense in Switzerland.
“I think our relations have never been closer,” Scott Bessent said, playing down the rift among Western countries over Greenland. ”Calm down the hysteria. Take a deep breath."
He added: “We are in the middle of President Trump’s policies. And of course, Europe is an ally, the U.S.-NATO membership is unquestioned. We are partners in trying to stop this tragic war between Russia and Ukraine, but that does not mean that we cannot have disagreements on the future of Greenland.”
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said that with Trump’s Greenland provocations, “so many red lines have been crossed” in Europe.
“Being a happy vassal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else. If you back down now you’re going to lose your dignity,” he said during a Davos panel discussion on redefining Europe’s place in the world.
De Wever said that he and Belgium’s King Philippe will meet with Trump on Wednesday when they will plan to press for a return to the old military alliance between Brussels and Washington.
“We either stand together or we will stand divided, and if we are divided, there is the end of an era, of 80 years of Atlanticism, really drawing to a close,” he said.
The former mayor of Antwerp, quoting the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, said that in a time of great transformation that it is up to U.S. president if the alliance holds. “It’s up to him (Trump) to decide if he wants to be a monster - yes or no.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a diplomatic “downward spiral” in the West would only embolden its adversaries.
“The proposed additional tariffs are a mistake, especially between long-standing allies. The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July. And in politics, as in business, a deal is a deal,” the EU’s top official said.
The Commission president said Europe was obliged to respond to international pressure.
“My point is: if this change is permanent, then Europe must change permanently too. It is time to seize this opportunity and build a new independent Europe,” von der Leyen said. “We consider the people of the United States not just our allies, but our friends. And plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape.”
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen talks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attends the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, January 20, 2026. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his way to take part in an event tilted "Country Strategy Dialogue: Canada" as he attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
California Governor Gavin Newsom is seen during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Republican Mike Johnson has delivered a historic speech to the British parliament, the first U.S. House speaker to address the body. Johnson spoke as U.S. President Donald Trump bitterly lashes out at America’s most trusted allies, posting overnight that the United Kingdom is acting with “GREAT STUPIDITY” in national security he intensifies his own claims to forcibly take Greenland in the Arctic.
“I told the president that I felt that my mission here today was to encourage our friends and help to calm the waters, so to speak,” Johnson told British lawmakers.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meanwhile, described Trump’s planned new tariffs over Greenland as “a mistake especially between long-standing allies” and called into question Trump’s trustworthiness, saying that he had agreed last year not to impose more tariffs on members of the bloc.
Trump announced that starting February, a 10% import tax will be imposed on goods from eight European nations that have rallied around Denmark in the wake of his stepped up calls for the United States to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland.
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A coalition of doctors’ groups and public health organizations are asking a judge to nullify the U.S. government’s recent decision to cut the number of vaccines recommended for every child.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other organizations sued the U.S. government in July in an attempt to overturn Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to stop recommending COVID-19 shots for most children and pregnant women.
The plaintiffs have since then asked a judge to undo Kennedy’s decision to fire and replace an advisory panel of vaccine experts. An amendment this week seeks to reverse Kennedy’s trimming of the childhood vaccine schedule.
With two weeks before a government shutdown deadline, House and Senate negotiators unveiled another multi-bill package — this time, to fund Defense Labor, Health, Transportation and Housing departments past Jan. 30, when current money expires.
The bills boost funding in most areas, and claw back some of the Trump administration’s proposed cuts.
“This latest funding package continues Congress’s forceful rejection of extreme cuts to federal programs,”said House Appropriations Committee Ranking Democratic Member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
While much progress has been made toward funding government for the year, still up for debate is funding for the Department of Homeland Security as immigration enforcement operations roils the nation.
The negotiators largely agreed to hold ICE spending flat, since so much money, some $75 billion is already available through Trump’s big tax cuts bill. But the package does not include many of the restraints Democrats are seeking on immigration enforcement and deportation operations.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff says he believes the Board of Peace proposal has “overwhelming support,” even though some allies like France have balked at joining.
“Everybody believes this is the pathway to bringing people together and being egalitarian about the decisions,” he told The Associated Press in Davos. “The president wants to save lives, and this is going to be a very important platform.”
As for Ukraine, one of his other key dossiers, Witkoff said he hoped that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who earlier on Tuesday said he had no plans to travel to Davos, would be able to meet with Trump.
“It’s tough for him to travel, but I’m hopeful that he’ll get here and we’ll meet him — with him — on Thursday with the president.”
China has bought 12 million tons of U.S. soybeans as promised, the U.S. treasury secretary told Fox News on Tuesday after meeting with Chinese Vice President He Lifeng on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
“He told me that just this week they completed their soybean purchases, and we’re looking forward to next year’s 25 million tons,” Bessent said. “They did everything they said they were going to do.”
Beijing had paused purchasing U.S. soybeans last summer during Trump’s trade war but later agreed to resume buying from American farmers. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show China bought more than 8 million tons of U.S. soybeans by Jan. 8, and its daily reports indicated that China placed several more orders since then, ranging from 132,000 tons to more than 300,000 tons.
Mikie Sherrill, the four-term congresswoman and former Navy helicopter pilot who cast her November election in New Jersey as a victory over Trump’s vision for the country, was inaugurated on Tuesday as the state’s 57th governor.
Sherrill is just the second woman to lead the state of nearly 9.5 million people, succeeding two-term Democrat Phil Murphy. She swept to victory over her Trump-endorsed GOP rival in part by pinning blame for high costs on the president’s tariffs and promising to order a freeze on skyrocketing utility rates.
Her former congressional colleague Abigail Spanberger also took office as a governor, after a similar double-digit victory over her Republican opponent in Virginia. Democrats are hopeful the president will be a drag on GOP candidates in key races across the country.
Republican leader Mike Johnson delivered a historic speech to the British parliament early Tuesday, the first U.S. House speaker to address the body.
But his talk came as Trump is bitterly lashing out America’s most trusted allies. The U.S. president posted overnight that the United Kingdom is acting with “GREAT STUPIDITY” in national security he intensifies his own claims to forcibly take Greenland in the Arctic.
Johnson said he spoke with Trump ahead of the visit, and insisted his mission was celebrate the two countries, what “we’ve achieved together in the past, and importantly to face and overcome together the challenges of our present day.”
“I told the president that I felt that my mission here today was to encourage our friends and help to calm the waters, so to speak,” he said. “And I hope to do so.”
“It’s an honor to share with you, after the endorsement and encouragement from the president, the president of the United States, Trump, that today I will officially be announcing my candidacy for the U.S. Senate,” she said, according to audio of her speech, obtained by The Associated Press.
A reliable Trump vote, Letlow won a 2021 special election after her husband died of COVID complications shortly after winning the congressional seat. She didn’t mention Cassidy during her 18-minute speech Tuesday, instead emphasizing her support for the Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy and tax bill Trump signed.
“Julia Letlow has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JULIA, RUN!!!” Trump posted on posted on Truth Social on Saturday, pitting the White House against the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which has endorsed Cassidy as part of its tradition of backing incumbents.
Cassidy posted on X that Letlow had called him to say she was running. “She said she respected me and that I had done a good job. I will continue to do a good job when I win re-election.”
Letlow announced her decision during a Tuesday breakfast in Baton Rouge, according to three people with knowledge of the event who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment publicly.
The development further complicates Cassidy’s difficult reelection path and effectively marks the final failure of his attempts to placate the president after voting to convict Trump on impeachment charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Cassidy, a physician who was an outspoken critic of Republican health care policies before entering politics himself, incensed Louisiana conservatives with his 2021 support for Trump’s conviction.
He later tried to return to the fold, casting himself as a member of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, and provided the decisive vote to advance Robert Kennedy Jr.’s controversial nomination as health secretary, despite expressing concerns about Kennedy’s views on vaccines.
The vice president is scheduled to speak at an industrial shipping facility in Toledo to promote Trump administration efforts to address inflation and other economic issues, especially the impact in the Midwest.
Vance and Trump are making an effort to travel throughout the U.S. to speak more to voters’ concerns about affordability ahead of pivotal midterm elections this November that could set control of Congress. They both visited Pennsylvania last month as part of a White House effort to speak to economic anxieties.
The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal judge to reject a move to stop the immigration enforcement surge that has roiled the Twin Cities area.
Its memo filed Monday evening calls the lawsuit filed by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul “legally frivolous” and asked U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez to deny it. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of the two cities sued after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, provoking outrage and protests across the country.
The memo argues that Minnesota is safer because Operation Metro Surge has arrested more than 3,000 people in the country illegally, and that “Put simply, Minnesota wants a veto over federal law enforcement.”
Menendez ruled separately Friday that federal officers in Minnesota can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including when these people are observing agents arresting people.
The justices handed down decisions in three other cases Tuesday.
The court heard arguments two-and-a-half months ago in a challenge to the president’s authority to impose wide-ranging tariffs under an emergency powers law that, before last year, had never been used to levy tariffs.
The issue has arguably taken on more urgency as Trump threatens new tariffs on allies because of disagreements over Greenland.
The court took on the case on an expedited basis, raising the prospect of a quick decision. But the court is about to embark on a nearly monthlong break and the next scheduled day when decisions are possible is February 20.
A Palestinian baby girl died from hypothermia on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip, another casualty of grim humanitarian conditions in the territory as world leaders gather at a Swiss resort with Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan high on the agenda.
Shaza Abu Jarad’s family found the 3-month-old “freezing, and dead” on Tuesday morning in their tent in Gaza City, the baby’s father, Mohamed Abu Jarad, told The Associated Press by phone after a funeral.
He lives with his wife and their seven other children in a makeshift tent, one family among the hundreds of thousands sheltering in tent camps and war-battered buildings in the cold, wet winter. Their baby was the ninth child to die from severe cold this winter in Gaza, according to the strip’s health ministry. Israel disputes the ministry’s war casualties toll but has not provided its own.
With Republican control of Congress, even if Congress wanted to curtail Trump’s immigration operations — by threatening to shut down the government, for example — it would be difficult to stop the spend.
What Trump called the “big, beautiful bill” is essentially on autopilot through 2029, the year he’s scheduled to finish his term and leave office.
The legislation essentially doubled annual Homeland Security funding, adding $170 billion to be used over four years. Of that, ICE, which typically receives about $10 billion a year, was provided $30 billion for operations and $45 billion for detention facilities.
Congress will need to consider routine funding for Homeland Security by Jan. 30 or risk a partial shutdown in some operations.
The GOP’s version of the annual bill would provide about $92 billion for the agency, including $10 billion for ICE. A growing group of Democratic senators and the Congressional Progressive Caucus say they won’t support additional funds without significant changes.
Lawmakers are considering various restrictions on ICE operations, including limiting arrests around hospitals, courthouses, churches and other sensitive locations and ensuring that officers display proper identification and refrain from wearing face masks.
“I think ICE needs to be totally torn down,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on CNN over the weekend. “People want immigration enforcement that goes after criminals,” he said, and not what he called this “goon squad.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned Democrats that “they need to get out of the way and allow federal law enforcement to do its duty.”
The US treasury secretary was asked at Davos about the emergency summit E.U. leaders are planning in response to U.S. plans for Greenland.
“I would say exactly what I said after Liberation Day last April, when the President imposed tariff levels on the whole world. I tell everyone sit back, take a deep breath. Do not retaliate. Do not retaliate. The President will be here tomorrow, and he will get his message across,” Bessent said.
Macron says Trump’s threats could push the EU to use the mechanism to block American companies from accessing European markets “for the very first time.”
“Can you imagine that?” Macron said Tuesday at Davos. “This is crazy.”
It’s not time for “new imperialism or new colonialism,” Macron said. “Let’s not accept a global order which will be decided by those who claim to have, I would say, the bigger voice or the bigger stick.”
Instead of trade disputes, allied countries should be focused on bringing peace to Ukraine and focus on the global challenges of “growth, peace, climate,” he said.
Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in response to a question from The Associated Press that his government has had good meetings with NATO and its allies and that all western countries should be united by “respect for national, territorial integrity (and) respect for international law.”
Nielsen pointed out that Greenland has been “a close ally of the United States to NATO many, many, many years” and is “willing to cooperate much more.”
Speaking earlier at parliament in Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen also stressed that Denmark had been a “loyal and close ally” for many years, but “nevertheless, we are now being threatened by our closest ally.”
Fredriksen told party leaders during question time in parliament on Tuesday that “the worst may still be ahead of us.”
A stunning military intervention in Venezuela. Telling the New York Giants which coach to hire. Threats against Iran, Denmark, Greenland and Colombia. Posing ith someone else’s Nobel Peace Prize. Dangling the potential of deploying U.S. troops in Minneapolis. Flipping off a critic. Announcing an aggressive round of tariffs. Threatening political enemies. For President Donald Trump, this blizzard was just the first half of January.
If a president’s most valuable currency is time, Trump operates as if he has an almost limitless supply, commanding constant attention with little regard for consequences, leaning more toward virality than virility, with social media as his primary accelerant.
“The president exists loudly,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “The president will play with fire. I haven’t seen him yet play with live hand grenades, but I’ve seen him come damn close. That’s just the way he is, and it’s not going to change.”
▶ Read more about Trump’s attention-grabbing second term
A ballooning Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget. Hiring bonuses of $50,000. Swelling ranks of ICE officers, to 22,000, in an expanding national force bigger than most police departments in America.
Trump promised the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, and the big tax and spending cuts bill passed by Republicans in Congress is now fueling unprecedented immigration enforcement actions in cities like Minneapolis and beyond.
As the president marks the first year of his second term, the immigration enforcement and removal operation that has been a cornerstone of his domestic and foreign policy agenda is rapidly transforming into something else — a national law enforcement presence with billions upon billions of dollars in new spending from U.S. taxpayers.
The Department of Homeland Security announced in December that it had arrested and deported about 600,000 people and that 1.9 million others had “voluntarily self-deported” since January 2025.
▶ Read more about Trump’s ICE force
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says world leaders should “have an open mind” about Trump’s plan to acquire Greenland.
“Greenland is becoming more and more attractive for foreign conquest” and the president “believes that it must be part of the United States to prevent a conflict,” Bessent said during a conversation with Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo, Tuesday on the sidelines of Davos.
U.S. futures tumbled alongside global markets early Tuesday after Trump threatened to hit eight NATO members with new tariffs as tensions escalate over his attempts to assert American control over Greenland.
Futures for the S&P 500 sank 1.8% while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.6%, almost 600 points. The tech heavy Nasdaq slumped 1.8%.
Markets in Paris, Frankfurt and London all fell more than 1% and were on track for a second straight day of losses.
Silver and gold both rose to records again as investors sought safety amid heightened geopolitical tensions. Gold was up 3% at $4,733 an ounce while Silver jumped more than 7% to $95.30.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives predicts that tensions will ultimately calm down and that “just like over the last year the bark will be worse than the bite.”
▶ Read more about developments in financial markets
A startled British government on Tuesday defended its decision to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after Trump attacked the plan, which his administration had previously supported.
Trump said that relinquishing the remote Indian Ocean archipelago, home to a strategically important American naval and bomber base, was an act of stupidity that shows why he needs to take over Greenland.
The blast from Trump was a rebuff to efforts by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to calm tensions over Greenland and patch up a frayed trans-Atlantic relationship. Starmer on Monday called Trump’s statements about taking over Greenland “completely wrong,” but called for the rift to be “resolved through calm discussion.”
▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on the Chagos Islands
While Europe is pushing back publicly against Trump over Greenland, the language appears softer behind the scenes.
Trump published a text message on Tuesday that he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, confirmed as genuine by Macron’s office.
Starting with “My friend,” Macron’s tone was more deferential than the criticism that France and some of its European partner nations are openly voicing against Trump’s push to wrest Greenland from NATO ally Denmark.
Before broaching the Greenland dispute, Macron opted in his message to first talk about other issues where he and Trump seem to be roughly on the same page.
“We are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran,” the French leader wrote in English.
Then, he added: “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” immediately followed by: “Let us try to build great things.”
That was the only mention that Macron made of the semi-autonomous Danish territory that Trump covets in the two sections of message that Trump published. It wasn’t immediately clear from Trump’s post when he received the message.
▶ Read more about the messages
Trump plans to use a key address Wednesday to try to convince Americans he can make housing more affordable, but he’s picked a strange backdrop for the speech: a Swiss mountain town where ski chalets for vacations cost a cool $4.4 million.
On the anniversary of his inauguration, Trump is flying to the World Economic Forum in Davos — an annual gathering of the global elite — where he may see many of the billionaires he has surrounded himself with during his first year back in the White House.
Trump had campaigned on lowering the cost of living. But in office, he has devoted more time to cavorting with the wealthy than talking directly to his working-class base.
Trump’s attention in his first year back has been less on pocketbook issues and more fixed on foreign policy with conflicts. He is now bent on acquiring Greenland to the chagrin of European allies — a headline likely to dominate his time in Davos, overshadowing his housing ideas.
▶ Read more about Trump at Davos
The European Union’s top official on Tuesday described Trump’s planned new tariffs over Greenland as “a mistake especially between long-standing allies” and called into question Trump’s trustworthiness, saying that he had agreed last year not to impose more tariffs on members of the bloc.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was responding to Trump’s announcement that starting February, a 10% import tax will be imposed on goods from eight European nations that have rallied around Denmark in the wake of his escalating calls for the United States to take over the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland.
“The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July,” Von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “And in politics as in business – a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.”
She vowed that the EU’s response “will be unflinching, united and proportional.”
Trump has insisted the U.S. needs the territory for security reasons against possible threats from China and Russia.
▶ Read more about von der Leyen’s comments
US House Speaker Mike Johnson addresses MPs in the House of Commons alongside Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall, left, and Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, right, in Westminster, London, Tuesday Jan. 20, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/Pool Photo via AP)
People march and gather near the post office during a protest, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
