Category Archives: Greenland

Greenland’s prime minister calls for calm after Trump comments

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Pro-independence Múte Egede says Greenland must stay unified after becoming centre of US-Denmark spat

Greenland’s prime minister has called for unity, urging citizens not to panic, after being thrown into a geopolitical battle between the US and Denmark by Donald Trump’s interest in taking control of the territory.

Múte Egede said he understood people may be concerned after the incoming US president declined to rule out using military and economic force to gain control of Greenland, but called on his fellow citizens to “put aside differences and stand together”.

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US seizure of Greenland is ‘not going to happen’, says David Lammy

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UK foreign secretary plays down idea of Trump taking control, in speech exposing differences with president-elect

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said a US military seizure of Greenland is not going to happen, as he played down Donald Trump’s threats to seize the territory from Denmark.

“No Nato countries have gone to war [with each other] since the establishment of Nato, and I do not envisage that,” he said, adding: “It is not going to happen.”

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Blinken says Trump’s push for US to take over Greenland is ‘not going to happen’ – US politics live

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Outgoing secretary of state says Trump’s idea is ‘obviously not a good one’, while Department of Justice plans to withhold part of Jack Smith’s report

Greenland is an autonomous part of Denmark, and the Danish foreign minister said they would be open to discussing security concerns over the island with Donald Trump’s administration, but downplayed the possibility of it becoming part of the United States. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour, Kim Willsher and Miranda Bryant:

Denmark has said it is open to dialogue with Donald Trump about his legitimate security concerns after the incoming US president said he was prepared to use economic tariffs or military force to seize control of Danish-administered Greenland.

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Why is Donald Trump talking about annexing Greenland?

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The US president-elect has refused to rule out military force to take control. This is why it is important – and what Greenlanders think

Hours after his son Donald Trump Jr touched down in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, on Tuesday in a Trump-branded plane, the US president-elect, Donald Trump, held a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he refused to rule out using military force to make Greenland part of the US, and threatened to impose “very high” tariffs on Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, if it gets in his way.

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Donald Trump Jr visits Greenland amid father’s interest in owning island

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President-elect has pledged to ‘make Greenland great again’ as Danish PM says autonomous territory is ‘not for sale’

Donald Trump Jr touched down in Greenland on Tuesday, hours after his father reiterated his interest in taking control of the Arctic autonomous territory, pledging to “make Greenland great again”.

After arriving in the Greenlandic capital in a Trump-branded plane, the US president-elect’s son told a waiting crowd in the Nuuk airport arrivals hall – some wearing red Make America Great Again caps – that he was “very excited to be here”. It was, he said, “a little colder here than it is in Florida”, adding that his father “says hello to everyone in Greenland”.

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Danish king changes coat of arms amid row with Trump over Greenland

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Design shows intent to keep control of Faroe Islands and Greenland – which Trump says he would like the US to buy

The Danish king has shocked some historians by changing the royal coat of arms to more prominently feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in what has also been seen as a rebuke to Donald Trump.

Less than a year since succeeding his mother, Queen Margrethe, after she stood down on New Year’s Eve 2023, King Frederik has made a clear statement of intent to keep the autonomous Danish territory and former colony within the kingdom of Denmark.

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Trump tells 37 people on death row with commuted sentences to ‘go to hell’

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On Truth Social, president-elect also lashes out at Chinese troops in Panama Canal and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau

Donald Trump has told 37 people on death row who had their sentences commuted by Joe Biden to “go to hell” in a lacerating Christmas Day social media post.

The president-elect – long a vocal advocate of capital punishment – lashed out at Biden’s decision on his Truth Social platform, after wishing a merry Christmas to political opponents he addressed as “Radical Left Lunatics”.

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Greenland split over benefits of tourism as territory opens to the world

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Direct flights from the US to Nuuk expected to double next year but there are concerns about the expected influx

The capital’s new airport has been opened, two more are in the making, and expectations are high: the Americans are coming to Greenland.

On Thursday, the first ever international flight into Nuuk, the most populous settlement on the autonomous Danish territory, landed to cheers on the ground and in the cabin of Air Greenland flight GL781 where passengers were served miniature bottles of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne.

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Danish parenting tests under fire after baby removed from Greenlandic mother

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Campaigners say psychometric tests are discriminatory amid protests over case of Keira Alexandra Kronvold

Denmark is under pressure to stop subjecting Greenlandic people to “parenting competency” tests that campaigners say discriminate against them, amid uproar over the case of a mother whose baby was removed two hours after she gave birth.

The psychometric tests are widely used in Denmark as part of child protection investigations into new parents, and have long been criticised by human rights bodies as culturally unsuitable for Greenlandic people and other minorities.

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Anti-whaling activist held in Greenland appeals for political asylum in France

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Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd organisation faces extradition to Japan after arrest in Nuuk in July

Paul Watson, the anti-whaling activist detained in Greenland and awaiting possible extradition to Japan, has appealed to Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France.

Watson was detained in July after a Japanese request to Interpol over his confrontational tactics aimed at disrupting whaling operations in the Antarctic, and could face up to 15 years in prison if he is extradited and convicted.

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Anti-whaling activist to stay in Greenland jail while extradition decided

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Paul Watson fighting efforts byJapan to have him stand trial there for 2010 confrontation with whalers

A Greenland court has ordered the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson to remain in custody until 5 September pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan.

Watson, an American-Canadian who has been detained since his arrest in Nuuk in July, had appealed against the court’s decision, the statement on Thursday added.

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Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson could face up to 15 years’ prison in Japan if convicted

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Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and co-founder of Greenpeace, has been arrested on an international warrant and is facing charges including accomplice to assault and ship trespass

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson could face up to 15 years in prison in Japan, after the founder of US-based group Sea Shepherd was arrested on an international warrant in Greenland earlier this month.

According to the Japan Coast Guard, Watson, who is also a co-founder of Greenpeace, is facing charges including accomplice to assault and ship trespass, after he was arrested on an international warrant in Greenland.

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‘Get on a plane’: Danish minister urged to meet Greenland coil scandal women

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Exclusive: Territory’s government calls for visit to listen to those thought to be living with consequences of forced fitting of IUDs

The Danish health minister should “get on a plane and visit” some of the thousands of women thought to be living with the consequences of being forcibly fitted with the contraceptive coil as children, Greenland’s gender equality minister has said.

In an attempt to reduce the population of the former Danish colony, at least 4,500 women and girls are believed to have undergone the medical procedure, usually without their consent or knowledge, at the hands of Danish doctors between 1966 and 1970 alone.

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Greenlandic women sue Danish state for contraceptive ‘violation’

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Group of 143 allege they were fitted with coils without consent or knowledge between 1966 and 1970, when some were children

Nearly 150 Greenlandic women have sued the Danish state, alleging that they were fitted with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge.

A group of 143 women took legal action on Monday, demanding a collective payment of close to 43m Danish kroner (£4.9m) for what they describe as a violation of their human rights.

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Greenland startup begins shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE

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Arctic Ice argues its rare, pure product can be part of Greenland’s green transition and greater independence

Frozen daiquiri anyone? Drinking a cocktail on top of a Dubai skyscraper may seem decadent enough, but a Greenland entrepreneur wants to add ancient glacier ice scooped from the fjords to the glass, for the ultimate international thrill.

Arctic Ice harvests ice from the fjords of Greenland, and then ships them to the United Arab Emirates to sell to exclusive bars. Using glacial ice in drinks is a common practice in Greenland, and, over the years, several entrepreneurs have unsuccessfully attempted to export it. Its co-founder Malik V Rasmussen said the ice, which has been compressed over millennia, is completely without bubbles and melts more slowly than regular ice. It is also purer than the frozen mineral water usually used in Dubai’s ice cubes.

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Greenlandic women plan to sue Danish state over historical contraceptive ‘violation’

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Group of 67 claim they were fitted with an IUD between 1966 and 1970 without consent or knowledge

Dozens of Greenlandic women who say they were fitted with the contraceptive coil without their consent or knowledge are planning to sue the Danish state.

The group of 67 women, some of whom were as young as 12 when they say they were fitted with an IUD by Danish doctors in an attempt to reduce Greenland’s population, are among the 4,500 women and girls affected between 1966 and 1970.

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Three passengers with Covid on board cruise ship grounded off Greenland

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Passengers in isolation with virus as Ocean Explorer remains stuck in Alpefjord national park

Three people on board a cruise ship run aground in Greenland’s Alpefjord national park have Covid-19, the ship’s operator, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, has confirmed, but a passenger aboard says everybody remains in “good spirits”.

The Australian-operated Ocean Explorer, which is carrying 206 passengers and crew, ran aground while touring the national park on Monday, around 1,400km north-east of Greenland’s capital Nuuk.

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Cruise ship runs aground in Greenland with 206 passengers onboard

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There are no reports of injuries on the Ocean Explorer, which was grounded in the remote Northeast Greenland National Park

A cruise ship with 206 passengers and crew onboard has run aground in north-west Greenland, and remained stuck even after high tide.

Cmdr Brian Jensen of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command said that nobody on board was in danger and that no damage has been reported, but added that officials “take this incident very seriously”.

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Canada and Denmark end decades-long dispute over barren rock in Arctic

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Hans Island ‘whisky war’ – described by some as a ‘pseudo-confrontation’ – ends after formal division agreed

It has been described by some as a “pseudo-confrontation”, and by others as a diplomatic afterthought. Now, however, the so-called “whisky war”, which was never really a conflict at all, has finally been resolved with the formal division of a tiny barren Arctic island between Canada and Denmark.

Sitting in the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait between the north-western coast of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island, the uninhabited half-mile-square Hans Island has no mineral resources nor much else of interest unless you are a visiting seabird.

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Denmark PM says sorry to Greenland Inuits taken for ‘heartless’ social experiment

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Mette Frederiksen apologises in person to six surviving Greenlandic Inuits who were snatched from families as children more than 70 years ago

Denmark’s prime minister has apologised in person to a group of Greenlandic Inuits who were removed from their families and taken to Copenhagen more than 70 years ago as part of an experiment to create a Danish-speaking elite.

“What you were subjected to was terrible. It was inhumane. It was unfair. And it was heartless,” Mette Frederiksen told the six surviving members of that group at an emotional ceremony in the capital. “We can take responsibility and do the only thing that is fair, in my eyes: to say sorry to you for what happened.”

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