Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has said she believes Donald Trump still wants to own Greenland, despite dialling back his recent threats to seize it by force.
Asked at the Munich Security Conference if the US president still wanted to own the Arctic island, Frederiksen said: “Unfortunately, I think the desire is the same.”
Trump’s designs on Greenland have caused tension to soar between the United States and Europe. Last month, he backed down from his threats to seize the island, an autonomous territory of ally Denmark, after striking what he called a “framework” deal with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.
But relations have remained strained.
Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said the pressure on the island’s people was “unacceptable”. But Nielsen said “some steps” had been taken “in the right direction”.
Rubio tells Europe US wants renewed alliance – but on Trump’s terms
The remarks came after Frederiksen and Nielsen had a 15-minute meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Friday on the sidelines of the security conference.
On Saturday, Rubio described America as “a child of Europe” and made an emotional but highly conditional offer of a new partnership, insisting the two continents belong together.
In a much-anticipated speech at the annual Munich Security Conference, he said the US was intent on building a new world order, adding “while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe”.
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Democratic senators launch inquiry into EPA’s repeal of key air pollution enforcement measure
More than three dozen Democratic senators have begun an independent inquiry into the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following a huge change in how the agency measures the health benefits of reducing air pollution that is widely seen as a major setback to US efforts to combat the climate crisis.
In a regulatory impact analysis, the EPA said it would stop assigning a monetary value to the health benefits associated with regulations on fine particulate matter and ozone. The agency argued that the estimates contain too much uncertainty.
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Barack Obama publicly states support for anti-ICE demonstrators in Minneapolis
Barack Obama publicly gave his support to demonstrators in Minneapolis for standing up to the “unprecedented nature” of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota.
Speaking in an interview with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday, the former president discussed the power that US citizens hold when standing up for the values they believe in and his hopes for the next generation of American leaders.
“The reason I point out that I don’t think the majority of the American people approve of this is because ultimately, the answer is going to come from the American people,” he said. “We just saw this in Minnesota, in Minneapolis.”
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Venezuelan deportee can return to US but fears repeat of ordeal
A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador must be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases has been greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees.
US district judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees who are currently in countries outside Venezuela, saying they must be given the opportunity to seek the due process they were denied after being illegally expelled from the US last March.
Luis Muñoz Pinto, 27, is one of the men affected and he spoke exclusively to the Guardian on Thursday by telephone from Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, where he has lived since being released from detention in El Salvador.
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What else happened today:
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Claude, the AI model developed by Anthropic, was used by the US military during its operation to kidnap Nicolás Maduro from Venezuelathe Wall Street Journal revealed on Saturday, a high-profile example of how the US defence department is using artificial intelligence in its operations.
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Since the federal immigration surge began late last year, Minnesotans have offered varying theories for why their state was targeted by the Trump administration.
Many suggest that the Democratic-leaning, midwestern state is in many ways anathema to the administration.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Friday 13 February.
