Donald Trump wants to take and develop Greenland, but what do businesses there think?
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
How did Christmas sales go for retailers and the cost of doing one of the most popular fitness challenges?
High Rocks.
After Venezuela, now it's Greenland that finds itself at the centre of a geopolitical struggle.
We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.
And Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you that.
That was US President Donald Trump speaking to the press on Air Force One on Sunday, prompting European leaders to push back.
But beyond the politics, what does this uncertainty mean for business?
Christian Kelsen is the managing director of the Greenland Business Association, which represents more than 300 companies from all sections of the business community.
I think you'll find that people are very annoyed with what's going on now.
Greenland has been very, very clear.
We're not for sale.
We're not interested in becoming American.
We are interested in dialogue.
We're interested in being part of the global economy.
We're interested in international relations, diplomacy, and so on.
And we've always had a good relationship with the US.
We see opportunities in working with the US, with Canada, with the EU, with UK, with Denmark.
And then on top of all that, you have someone saying, I'm going to take over Greenland.
You know, that is just, that's just pissing people off.
But locally, we're more focused on the downturn in our economy.
We're more focused on the lack of workers for our industries.
The population is in fact decreasing.
So I think our concerns are other places and not so much with what's being said in the US when it comes to major parts of the business community.
We wanted to understand what it's actually like to do business there.
Could you take us through that?
About 60% of the people here work for the government or the municipalities.
And in addition to that, you've got 20% working for the government-owned companies.
Our biggest export is fishing and seafood, and they make up about 95% of exports.
Then we're trying to grow our tourism and our minerals sector.
But primary, it's fishing.
There's this sense from the outside that Greenland is just full of untapped wealth.
It's easy opportunities.
But from the inside, how hard is it actually to make money there?
Yeah, there's always talks about the potential in Greenland, but I wouldn't say it's easy as such.
Obviously, our infrastructure, we've got a well-built infrastructure, but it's very limited if you compare us to other parts of the world.
You know, transportation locally between towns is by air or by sea.
You've got no roads, for instance.
A lot of the major projects in terms of mining, for instance, would require you to invest heavily in your infrastructure to even get to the site.
So that's an additional cost you have to take on.
So there's a lot of upfront cost involved in the large scale projects.
Add to that that the fishing industry is not open to foreigners in terms of ownership and investments.
Our tourism is also putting in bands in terms of foreign ownership.
And we're seeing more and more mechanisms in our legislation that is making it hard for foreigners to come into Greenland, invest and actually make money.
So I wouldn't say it is easy.
So the whole idea of Greenland being easy access, I think that is worth questioning.
That was Christian Keldsen, Managing Director of the Greenland Business Association.
OK, Christmas is officially over.
And that means the first of the Christmas retail sales figures are starting to come out.
The clothing firm Next says figures are up with a strong international performance.
Fiona Sincotta is Senior Markets Analyst at Citi Index.
Fiona, how important are Christmas figures to firms like Next and other retailers?
Yeah, Christmas sales figures are actually critically important for many retailers and they can often make or break the year.
You know, the festive period brings a disproportionate share of profits.
For many retailers, you know, 20 to 40 of annual sales and even larger share of profits are generated during that Christmas period.
And you know importantly, margins are typically higher and this sort of strong festive demand can then offset weaker performance earlier in the year.
I know in January, we're all trying to rein it in, don't we?
What do sales like that say about it?
Like a retailer like Next, which is kind of a bellwether, isn't it?
Because it does everything.
It does from clothes to furniture.
How should we look at the economy overall from that?
Yeah, I know these levels are important because they reflect sort of the level of consumer confidence and how the consumer is behaving.
And in Western and developed economies, retail sector is a major driver of economic activity.
So if we're seeing strong consumption, then that tends to be a positive signal for the health of the consumer as and therefore potentially for the outlook for the economy.
Okay, Fiona Sincotta, Senior Market Analyst at Citi Index.
Thank you so much for joining us.
South Korean carmaker Hyundai is the latest company to say it will use human-like robots in its factories.
The firm unveiled the technology called Atlas at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Hyundai says the robots could be rolled out from 2028, including at its battery plant in Georgia, where a large immigration raid took place last September.
Now one of the world's most well-known sports clubs, Manchester United, finds itself on the hunt for a new head coach again after sacking Ruben Amorim after just 14 months in charge.
But with every sacking, the club incurs a financial cost.
Here's Chris Weatherspoon, football finance writer at The Athletic.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, Manchester United have spent at least £55 million on sacking managers.
So it's all starting to rack up.
They've slashed jobs across the business and they're really focusing on getting the football right.
The issue with that is when they don't get it right.
They've spent over £500 million on new players.
And I think that in part, is why Amarim and other managers continue to be under a lot of pressure, not only because it's Manchester United, but because it's Manchester United still spending.
That was Chris Weatherspoon from The Athletic.
Now, New Year, January, it's often when many of us resolve to get fitter.
Some sign up for marathons, others are turning to competitions like High Rocks.
It started in Germany in 2017 and has grown to one of the biggest amateur and professional fitness events around.
But taking part takes serious commitment and money.
Competitors often spend hundreds on kit and travel, as Annabelle Rachman has been finding out.
For many of us, a fitness challenge involves notching up the treadmill a bit during a run or lifting slightly heavier weights.
But for people taking part in High Rocks, that challenge is quite a bit more difficult.
It involves a race that combines running and strength exercises.
And, after being set up five years ago, more than 13 million people are set to take part in a race this year in locations across the world, including the United States Australia, India and Germany.
I'm here in a gym in London that is full of athletes who are getting ready to compete in the coming days.
Hi, my name's Alana Faulkner and I'm a High Rocks athlete.
What I love about High Rocks is it's such a great community.
I think it brings together so many people that are enthusiastic about fitness.
Travelling is very expensive, kit is very expensive.
Is this all of your money aside from work that you're putting into High Rocks?
All my holidays revolved around High Rocks and shoes.
I burn through shoes ridiculous amounts, unfortunately.
I also love and i think a lot of females will agree with me on this when you do a female's doubles, do you like a matching outfit?
So you've got to get that.
My name is evgenia.
I'm the founder seo, of one london leading high performance functional fitness gym.
What are the costs involved in creating your own high rocks gym specifically?
You can do high rocks anywhere.
That's the beauty of it.
But in order to make a bespoke high rock space that's fit for training many athletes at the same time and being able to run high rock classes, you need somewhere between £50000 to £100000 to really well-equipped space to provide high-performance facility.
How do you attract people to this space?
Because on the outside it looks brutal, it looks difficult, but everyone that is training seems to absolutely love it.
The beauty of high-performance training high rocks.
It's very addictive and many people when they first try it, they absolutely get hooked straight away.
People do high rocks races and they sign up again and again and again and what we find is we just get people to try once and then they see how fun it is, how many people they can meet and how much they can get involved in it.
Annabelle Rackman with that report.
And that's it from World Business Express.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Thanks for listening.
