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US president says of Jens-Frederik Nielsen: ‘I don’t know anything about him, but this is going to be a big problem for him’
In other reactions, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said that any move by the US to take control of Greenland would be an unprecedented situation for Nato, echoing earlier warnings from the EU defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius.
“The least we can say is that it would be a real unprecedented situation in the history of Nato and in the history of any defence alliance in the world,” he said at a press conference in Berlin yesterday.
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Extreme weather events and biodiversity loss identified as the biggest global threats over a 10-year timeframe
Economic conflicts between major powers are the greatest risk facing the world over the next two years, according to experts polled ahead of next week’s Davos summit.
Among 1,300 business leaders, academics and civil society figures surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), “geoeconomic confrontation” was identified as the most pressing threat.
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© Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
© Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
© Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Erfan Soltani, 26, is reportedly facing imminent execution, as rights groups fear for more than 18,000 people detained in the crackdown
Hundreds of gunshot eye injuries found in one Iranian hospital
Iran protests: what we know so far about the anti-government demonstrations
Donald Trump has threatened to “take very strong action” if Iranian authorities begin executing anti-government protesters this week, as the reported death toll from the crisis surged past 2,500.
“If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action,” Trump told CBS News in an interview broadcast on Tuesday night, hours before the US president was due to be briefed on the scale of casualties inside Iran.
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© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
How do you retain a space of democracy in a world that is reverting to violent conquest? By building a protective moat of federalism around it
‘He keeps encouraging me … to choose between Europe and the US. That would be a strategic mistake for our country,” Keir Starmer said in response to Ed Davey’s question in the House of Commons last week, about whether a US move against Greenland would mean the end of Nato.
What about Europe, though? As Danish and Greenlandic ministers prepared to face JD Vance in the White House, the question was would Europe finally choose between Europe and the US? Will its leaders have the courage to tell the full truth – that the US isn’t simply abandoning its allies and destroying the international order but is now in the position of active and hostile predation by force – and more importantly, to act on it? To offer Denmark moral and material backing, and Greenland a future of self-determination and membership, rather than subservience to US resource plunder?
Donald Trump has already set the tone by saying the US will seize Greenland “one way or the other”, and no part of the triumvirate around him is trying to hide their imperial intentions any more. Not the nepotists and grifters amassing ever greater private fortunes. Not the white supremacist ideologues drawing inspiration from Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer! to post “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage”, via official US government social media accounts. Not the techno-nihilists salivating to mine every bit of Greenland’s mineral resources and rule their own neofeudal city states on its coast.
When Trump says that the only constraint on his exercise of power is “my own morality”, that means there is no constraint. Like Vladimir Putin, he will keep grabbing until someone imposes a limit on him.
Alexander Hurst writes for Guardian Europe from Paris. His memoir, Generation Desperation, is published this month
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© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
© Pool photo by Yoan Valat
President speaks to CBS News about killing of woman by ICE agent and defends immigration crackdown
Donald Trump has defended his administration’s increasingly violent immigration crackdown, describing the 37-year-old woman killed by federal agents as likely a “wonderful person” whose “tough” actions justified a lethal response.
Trump’s comments, made during an interview with CBS News after touring a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, came as tensions continue to rise in Minneapolis days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good at the wheel of her SUV on a residential street last week.
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© Photograph: Riley Harty/Zuma/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Riley Harty/Zuma/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Riley Harty/Zuma/Shutterstock
Administration issues warning to US citizens: ‘Leave Iran now’ – key US politics stories from 13 January at a glance
Donald Trump has told Iranians to keep protesting and said help was on the way, in the clearest sign yet that the US president may be preparing for military action against Tehran.
“Iranian Patriots, keep protesting – take over your institutions!!! … help is on its way,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday. He added that he had cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the “senseless killing” of protesters stopped.
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© Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
© Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
© Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
In speech, president delivers triumph assessment, claiming US prices are down despite official data showing otherwise
Donald Trump claimed victory on the economy after 12 months back in office on Tuesday, declaring it to be the “greatest first year in history” as many Americans express alarm over the cost of living.
In a stream-of-consciousness speech at the Detroit Economic Club, the US president delivered his gold-tinted view of how the economy has fared on his watch. Prices were down, he claimed, despite official data showing otherwise, and productivity was “smashing expectations”.
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© Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
© Kenny Holston/The New York Times
US president says ‘help is on its way’, as reported death toll rises into the thousands
For the first time in days, Iranians were able to make calls abroad from their mobiles on Tuesday, according to reporting by Associated Press. Texting services have not been restored, however, and nor has the internet.
Although Iranians were able to call abroad, they could not receive calls from outside the country, several people in the capital told Associated Press. The internet remained blocked, they said, though it is possible to access some government-approved websites.
Cloudfare - an internet infrastructure provider, and one of several companies and monitors tracking the status of internet traffic in Iran – said traffic volumes have remained “at a fraction of a percent of previous levels”. Its latest update as of 01:00 UTC (which is about three hours and 30 minutes ago), shows a continued widespread blackout. Iran has been under an internet shutdown since Thursday night.
Brief windows of connectivity were observed on Friday, but these did not last, according to Cloudfare.
Netblocks, an independent global internet monitor, also notes that while some phone calls from Iran are connecting, there is “no secure way to communicate” and the general public remain cut off from the outside world.
© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
© Photograph: AP
© Eric Lee for The New York Times
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