U.S. will not 'get' Greenland, island's new PM says
"President Trump says the United States 'will get Greenland.' Let me be clear: The United States will not get Greenland. We don't belong to anyone else. We decide our own future," Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post.
"We'll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%," Trump said on Sunday in an interview with NBC News.
This latest exchange culminates a week of heightened tensions between the United States, Denmark and Greenland, marked by U.S.Vice President JD Vance's visit to a U.S. military base on the vast Arctic island.
Danish diplomacy on Saturday criticized Vance's "tone," after he said that Denmark "has not done a good job by the people of Greenland."
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will be in Greenland from Wednesday to Friday to "strengthen unity" between the kingdom and its Arctic territory.
Four of the five parties represented in the Greenlandic Parliament reached an agreement on Friday to form a coalition government.
Greenland's main parties all want independence, but they disagree on the roadmap. American pressure convinced them to form a coalition as quickly as possible with only the Naleraq party, which advocates rapid independence, declining to join.
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Japan Today
26 minutes ago
- Japan Today
Trump says no ground troops, but maybe air support, to back Ukraine peace deal
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy walk during a meeting, amid negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 18, 2025. REUTERS/Al Drago/File Photo By Andrea Shalal, Tom Balmforth and Anastasiia Malenko U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine but might provide air support as part of a deal to end Russia's war in the country. A day after Trump pledged security guarantees to help end the war at an extraordinary White House summit, the path to peace remained uncertain as the U.S. and allies prepared to work out what military support for Ukraine might include. "When it comes to security, Europeans are willing to put people on the ground. We're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, ... by air," Trump said in an interview with the Fox News "Fox & Friends" program. He did not elaborate. Following Monday's meeting, Russia launched its biggest air assault in more than a month on Ukraine, and Trump conceded that Russian President Vladimir Putin might not want to make a deal after all. "We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks," he said. The nature of U.S. military aid for Ukraine under a peace deal was unclear. Air support could take many forms such as missile defense systems or fighter jets enforcing a no-fly zone. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed U.S. air support was "an option and a possibility," but like Trump did not provide any details. "The President has definitively stated U.S. boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies," she said at a news briefing. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the White House talks as a "major step forward" towards ending Europe's deadliest conflict in 80 years and setting up a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump in the coming weeks. Zelenskiy's warm rapport with Trump contrasted sharply with their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February. Analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or wounded in the conflict, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. RUSSIAN ATTACKS Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said. The energy ministry said the strikes caused big fires at energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine's only oil refinery. However, Russia also returned the bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. Moscow received 19 bodies of its own soldiers in return, according to the state-run TASS news agency. Ukraine's allies held talks in the so-called Coalition of the Willing format on Tuesday, discussing additional sanctions to crank up the pressure on Russia. The grouping has also agreed that planning teams will meet U.S. counterparts in the coming days to develop security guarantees for Ukraine. NATO military leaders were expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine, with U.S. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expected to attend virtually, officials told Reuters. "We are now actively working at all levels on the specifics, on what the architecture of the guarantees will look like, with all members of the Coalition of the Willing, and very concretely with the United States," Zelenskyy said on social media 'TIPTOEING AROUND TRUMP' Although Trump said on Monday Putin asked for a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy, the Kremlin has made no explicit commitment. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow did not reject any format for Ukraine peace talks but any meeting of national leaders "must be prepared with utmost thoroughness". Putin has said Russia will not tolerate troops from the NATO alliance in Ukraine. He has also shown no sign of backing down from demands for territory, including land not under Russia's military control, following his summit with Trump on Friday in Alaska. Neil Melvin, a director at the International Security at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said Russia could drag out the war while trying to deflect U.S. pressure with a protracted peace negotiation. Melvin said both Ukraine and its European allies on one side and Russia on another were striving "not to present themselves to Trump as the obstacle to his peace process," Melvin said. "They're all tiptoeing around Trump" to avoid any blame, he said, adding that Trump's statements on security guarantees were "so vague it's very hard to take it seriously". © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
26 minutes ago
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U.S. destroyers head toward waters off Venezuela as Trump aims to pressure drug cartels
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Japan Today
26 minutes ago
- Japan Today
Despite flurry of meetings on Russia's war in Ukraine, major obstacles to peace remain
By BARRY HATTON and KATIE MARIE DAVIES In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits practice military skills on a training ground on a sunflower field in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP) The second Oval Office meeting in six months between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off smoothly Monday, in sharp contrast to their disastrous encounter in February. European leaders joined the discussions in a show of transatlantic unity, and both they and Zelenskyy repeatedly thanked Trump for his efforts to end Russia's three-year war on Ukraine. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his expectations for the meeting 'were not just met, they were exceeded,' while Zelenskyy on Tuesday called the sit-down 'an important step toward ending this war.' But despite the guarded optimism and friendly banter among the leaders, there was little concrete progress on the main obstacles to peace — and that deadlock likely favors Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces continue to make steady, if slow, progress on the ground in Ukraine. 'Putin cannot get enough champagne or whatever he's drinking,' Gabrielius Landsbergis, a former foreign minister of Lithuania, said of Monday's meeting. As NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told The Ingraham Angle on Fox News: 'All the details have to be hammered out." Here is a look at the issues that must be resolved: To agree to a peace deal with Russia, Ukraine wants assurances that it can deter any future attacks by the Kremlin's forces. That means, Zelenskyy says, a strong Ukrainian army that is provided with weapons and training by Western partners. It could potentially also mean securing a guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate, which sees an attack on one member of the alliance as an attack on all. How that would work is not clear. Additionally, Kyiv's European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement in Ukraine. A coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative, although the role that the U.S. might play in such a force is unclear. European leaders, fearing Moscow's territorial ambitions won't stop in Ukraine, are keen to lock America's military might into the plan. On Tuesday, Trump told Fox News Channel's 'Fox & Friends' that U.S. troops would not be sent to help defend Ukraine against Russia. Russia has repeatedly said that it would not accept NATO troops in Ukraine. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired an online meeting Tuesday of the coalition countries. Ukraine and its European supporters have repeatedly called for a ceasefire while peace talks are held. Putin has balked at that prospect. With his forces inching forward in Ukraine, he has little incentive to freeze their movement. Ahead of his meeting with the Russian leader last week, Trump threatened Russia with 'severe consequences' if it didn't accept a ceasefire. Afterward, he dropped that demand and said it was best to focus on a comprehensive peace deal — an approach that Putin has pushed for. Trump said in Monday's Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was 'unnecessary.' But after his closed-door meeting with European leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump told reporters that 'all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.' Where Trump ultimately falls on that issue is important because it could affect how much Ukrainian land Russia has seized by the time the two sides get around to hammering out how much it could keep. Zelenskyy and European leaders said that Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up the Donbas, the country's industrial heartland made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war though Russian forces have failed to capture it completely. Moscow also illegally annexed Crimea and its forces hold parts of four other regions outside the Donbas. In all, they hold about one-fifth of Ukraine. Zelenskyy has long noted the Ukrainian Constitution prohibits breaking up his country. He has also suggested the demand for territory would serve as a springboard for a future Russian invasion. Rutte said the possibility of Ukraine ceding occupied territory to Russia in return for peace wasn't discussed in Monday's talks. That is an issue for Zelenskyy and Putin to consider, he said to Fox News. Zelenskyy has repeatedly suggested sitting down with Putin, even challenging the Russian leader to meet him as part of direct peace talks between the two sides in Turkey in May. Putin snubbed that offer, saying that significant progress on an agreement would have to be made before the pair met in person. On Monday, Trump appeared to back Zelenskyy's plan. 'I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,' Trump said in a social media post. He said he would join the two leaders afterward. But when discussing a phone call held after the meeting between Trump and the Russian leader, Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov gave no indication that either a bilateral or a trilateral meeting with Ukraine had been agreed. European leaders know that Putin doesn't want to meet Zelenskyy and that he won't allow Western troops in Ukraine — but they're expressing optimism that these things could happen in the hopes of forcing Putin to be the one to say no to Trump, according to Janis Kluge of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. 'Europeans hype up expectations to create a reality in which Putin disappoints,' he wrote on X. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
