Latest news with #U.S.NavalInstitute
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Arctic leadership sees stunning shakeup at the highest level — here's what you need to know
Greenland's recent political appointment demonstrates that the territory is making environmental policies its top priority. The Arctic has recently come into the crosshairs of powerful governments. President Trump has discussed the acquisition of Greenland as global forces show interest in its rich mineral deposits and tactical military position. However, the response of Greenlandic and Danish leaders has been clear: The island is not for sale, and the Arctic should restrict drilling and trade. On Friday, Greenland appointed Kenneth Høegh as its first Arctic ambassador to the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum that works to promote cooperation in the region. As the planet's warming has melted Arctic ice, new trade routes have been exposed, and the potential for accessing untapped natural resources has changed. "It is often noted that routes across the top are up to 40% shorter than the more traditional routes between Asia and Europe (via the Suez Canal) or the East Coast of the United States (via the Panama Canal)," reported the U.S. Naval Institute. Although there are increased risks and costs of Arctic shipping routes, shipping has increased by 37% in the past 10 years, according to the Arctic Council, and governments are continuing to pressure Greenland and Denmark. In response, Greenland's ambassador will serve "as a platform for collaboration on issues such as pollution, economic development, and search-and-rescue missions," according to Reuters. "This is basically the opposite of Trump's agenda: building welfare states that respect the equality and diversity of indigenous peoples while securing the green transition to combat climate change," said Ulrik Pram Gad, an academic at the Danish Institute for International Studies. While the Arctic Circle may contain lucrative oil fields and minerals, the environmental ramifications of increased drilling for dirty energy could be devastating. Høegh's appointment is an important step in continuing to protect this region from new drilling. Should the government be able to control how we heat our homes? Definitely Only if it saves money I'm not sure No way Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Sink ships, get Scotch: An officer's spirited revenge for Pearl Harbor
'December 7th 1941 was a watershed in the lives of nearly everyone in Hawaii,' wrote Wilfred J. 'Jasper' Holmes in his memoir, 'Double-Edged Secrets.' 'Monday dawned on a different world with different problems, different objectives, and different schedules, differently oriented than before Sunday's sunrise.' For Holmes, who had been medically retired from the Navy in 1936 before being recalled to active duty in June 1941 as a lieutenant and assigned to the Fourteenth Naval District intelligence staff at Pearl Harbor, that Monday after the day of infamy also dawned with a renewed purpose: revenge. The 1st Air Fleet of Japan — known as Kido Butai — had not just assaulted the port at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, it had simultaneously hit every major airfield across the breadth of Oahu — Ewa Mooring Mast Field, Naval Air Station Pearl Harbor, Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Wheeler Field, Hickam Field and others. 'In fact, Kido Butai was a truly revolutionary weapon system for its time because it embodied the conceptual leap from single-carrier to coordinated multicarrier operations,' according to the U.S. Naval Institute. 'Kido Butai's ascendancy would last only about six months before it was permanently mauled at the Battle of Midway, but during that time there was nothing else like it.' For Holmes, who was present on the day of the attack, the trauma of it all remained close to his heart for most of the war. Holmes had come to Estimates Section of the Fleet Radio Unit Pacific (FRUPAC), or Station HYPO as it was known, via an unusual route. Graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1922, Holmes was originally a line officer in the Navy — a submariner — before arthritis in the spine forced him to retire. (He noted in his memoir that at the beginning of the war he had neither a desk at which to work nor even a chair — 'a real handicap for anyone with arthritis of the spine' — adding that he eventually brought his own chair from home.) Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Holmes became involved in much more vital work than his prewar task of keeping track of the positions of noncombatant ships at sea in the Eastern Pacific, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. He also got his own desk. From his underground lair at HYPO, Holmes' duties expanded under Cmdr. Joseph J. Rochefort and his Communications Intelligence Unit, an outfit best known for the breaking of the Japanese naval encryption code JN-25 — classified as 'Ultra — and helping to deliver an American victory at the Battle of Midway. Despite being neither a cryptologist nor an intelligence officer by training, Holmes became deeply involved in the interpretation and analysis of Japanese wireless intercepts, according to the Galveston Naval Museum. In fact, he was one of a handful of officers in Hawaii who was privy to material classified above 'top secret.' But Holmes never forgot Pearl Harbor, nor his roots as a submariner. In his memoir, Holmes revealed his personal vendetta against the Japanese and the anonymous thanks he would send to U.S. submarine skippers for helping him to achieve revenge: Of the six Japanese aircraft carriers that had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Shokaku was the fifth to be sunk. We had long since identified all the ships of the Kido Butai that had attacked Pearl Harbor, and their silhouettes were posted on the wall in the Estimates Section. It gave me an unprofessional vindictive satisfaction to check off each of those ships as it was sunk. I told Voge I would give a bottle of Scotch to any submarine skipper who sank one of them. Voge was careful to present every qualifying skipper for his bottle, but I never saw Herman J. Kossler, the captain of the Cavalla, after he sank the Shokaku. Kossler was the only submarine captain to sink a capital ship of the Kido Butai, and I still owe him a bottle of Scotch. Holmes' act of thanks soon spread among the Pacific fleet. Edward L. Beach, a submariner in the Pacific whose first novel, 'Run Silent Run Deep,' became a Hollywood blockbuster, confirmed the officer's dedication to revenge. Beach recalled many years later: [Holmes] had become an intelligence officer at Pearl Harbor and, after the attack on the Day of Infamy, had taken on himself the particular and personal dedication to see the destruction of every ship that had participated in it. During the war, from time to time, commanders of submarines would receive by messenger, without explanation, a bottle of fine whiskey [scotch]. Little by little the word got around that one of the ships sunk on a recent patrol had carried special significance for someone. In this way Jasper Holmes never left out submarines. It was through him that we would receive orders to be somewhere at a certain time — and on occasion there was a bottle of booze at the end of the trail. Of the six carriers, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, 12 destroyers and seven auxiliary oilers of the Kido Butai only the destroyer, Ushio, survived the Pacific War. In other words, quite a lot of Scotch. After the war Holmes once again retired from the Navy, returning to the University of Hawaii where he eventually became the dean of the engineering department. After more than 30 years, the existence of Ultra intelligence — and Holmes' Scotch-fueled revenge — was finally made public.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Putin says it's ‘a profound mistake' to treat Trump's push for Greenland and its vast deposits of rare minerals as ‘some preposterous talk'
President Donald Trump's repeated interest in taking control of Greenland has not gone unnoticed in Russia. During a Thursday speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he considered the U.S. interest in Greenland to be serious, pointing to past efforts to acquire the territory. Greenland has massive deposits of rare minerals that are critical to global supply chains, which the Trump administration sees as vital to U.S. interests. Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned against taking the Trump administration's newly declared push for taking over Greenland lightly. In a speech in the Arctic Circle city of Murmansk, which lies in the northwestern corner of Russia, 110 miles from the Finnish border, Putin said he was taking President Donald Trump's efforts to claim Greenland for the U.S. seriously. 'It can surprise someone only at first glance,' Putin said, according to an English translation of the speech by state-owned media. 'It is a profound mistake to treat it as some preposterous talk by the new U.S. administration. Nothing of the sort.' Since taking office two months ago, Trump has made clear he is eyeing U.S. territorial expansion by annexing Greenland. Trump pointed to Greenland's rich but untapped mineral deposits as a reason why controlling the territory was vital to U.S. national interest. The government of Greenland, which is an autonomous region of Denmark, has adamantly rejected any notion that it would become part of the U.S. Both political leaders and citizens have said they have no intention of joining the U.S., while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the island was 'not for sale,' and that Trump's interest in Greenland was 'not a joke.' Greenland has 25 of 34 'critical raw materials,' according to a 2023 report from the European Commission. Among those deposits are rare earths and graphite, which are critical for the production of EVs. Other rare and highly coveted raw materials include titanium, tungsten, and uranium, which are used in everything from medical devices to light bulb filaments to nuclear fuel. Currently, the global market for these materials is dominated by China, which has deep reserves of them within its borders. If the U.S. were to control Greenland's critical resources, it would have its own access to them, thus breaking its reliance on Chinese mining. Greenland also has unmined supplies of valuable commodities like gold and diamonds. On Thursday, ahead of Vice President JD Vance's visit to Greenland, Trump reiterated his desire to take the island. 'We'll go as far as we have to go,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 'We need Greenland.' Greenland's geographic positioning between North America and Europe also makes it a crucial trade route between the western and eastern hemispheres. Shipping routes to Asia and Europe through the Arctic are about 40% shorter than others, such as via the Suez and Panama canals, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, though it cautions shorter shipping routes does not necessarily equate to faster or cheaper transport. Traveling through the Arctic is more cumbersome because cargo ships need icebreakers and crews need to be specially trained for the frigid climate. Russia, which controls more territory in the Arctic Circle than any other country, sees that part of the world as critical to its own national interests for the same reasons. In his speech, Putin referenced Russia's need for trade routes through the Arctic and its role as a critical hub of oil and natural gas production. In recent years, Putin has grown increasingly concerned about what he considers to be the West's encroachment on Russia's influence in the Arctic. He was particularly frustrated when Finland and Sweden joined NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Russia, which shares an 800-mile border with Finland, called the country's admittance to NATO a mistake. 'The role and importance of the Arctic for Russia and for the entire world are obviously growing,' Putin said. 'Regrettably, the geopolitical competition and fighting for positions in this region are also escalating.' Owing to the Arctic Circle's growing importance in global geopolitics, Putin was unsurprised the U.S. was angling for more influence in the region. 'The United States has serious plans regarding Greenland,' Putin said in his speech. 'These plans have long historical roots … and it is obvious that the United States will continue to consistently advance its geo-strategic, military-political, and economic interests in the Arctic.' The U.S. first took an interest in acquiring Greenland in 1867. Shortly after completing the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire, then–Secretary of State William Seward set his sights on acquiring Greenland from Denmark. The two countries never reached an agreement. Later, after World War II, President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold and a portion of Alaskan oil. That offer was rebuffed. During World War II, the U.S. had several military bases in Greenland that surveilled the Axis powers and were meant to be a first line of defense against any potential westward expansion on their behalf. The U.S. continues to maintain bases in Greenland. Putin alluded to the possibility that if the U.S. were to take control of Greenland, it would escalate tensions with Russia. He accused NATO countries of using the Arctic as a 'springboard for possible conflicts.' This story was originally featured on
USA Today
28-03-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Why Trump wants Greenland: Military security, rare minerals, trade routes, for starters
Why Trump wants Greenland: Military security, rare minerals, trade routes, for starters President Donald Trump has wanted to acquire Greenland – by direct purchase, economic pressure, strategic pact or outright annexation – since at least 2019. His overtures have been rebuffed over the years, but his efforts continue. "I think we're going to get it," Trump said in his congressional address in March. "One way or the other, we're going to get it." Greenland is vital to U.S. national security, Trump says. USA TODAY analysis: Five ways Trump's Greenland saga could play out Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a member of NATO. Leaders of both countries have pushed back against Trump, saying Greenland is not for sale. A January poll of island residents showed 85% don't want to be part of the U.S. Can't see our graphics? Click here. Relations between the U.S. and Greenland further deteriorated this week with the announcement of a visit by a U.S. delegation that includes national security adviser Michael Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and Vance's wife, Usha Vance. They're expected to arrive Friday. Múte B Egede, Greenland's prime minister, said the visit was 'foreign interference' by Trump and asked the international community to intervene. Why does Trump want Greenland? Greenland is an island nation roughly as big as Alaska and Montana combined. It has a population of about 56,000, nearly the same as Carson City, Nevada. About 80% of Greenland is covered with ice, some of it a mile thick. Most of the island is inside the Arctic Circle, which is being transformed by climate change. The nation's economy is based on exports of fish and shrimp, along with economic support from Denmark. But that could change as the Arctic ice melts. What is the US interested in? Minerals. Along with uranium and iron, Greenland has rare earth minerals, a group of 17 metals valued for their use in advanced industries from smartphones to MRI machines to weapons systems. The U.S. was once a top producer of rare earths, but it has been replaced by China. Greenland is estimated to have the eighth-largest reserve of rare earths. Gaining access to them would reduce U.S. reliance on China – though the Chinese have already invested in Greenland mining projects. Shipping. The Arctic Ocean provides a shortcut for ships traveling between the U.S. and Asia and between Europe and Asia, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. The distance is about 40% less than routes using the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal. That has revived geopolitical interest in which nations will control the trade routes, not only for economic interests but also national security. Military. Trump has said Greenland is vital to U.S. security. There is historical precedent: After Germany occupied Denmark in World War II, the U.S. set up military bases in Greenland as part of the Allied effort and remained there after the war. Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, is still operated by the U.S. and Denmark. It's the only U.S. base in Greenland and is used for missile defense and space surveillance missions. China and Russia have been increasing their Arctic military presence, according to a 2024 report by the Arctic Institute. The study recommended that the U.S. and NATO pursue a proactive Arctic strategy. CONTRIBUTING Kim Hjelmgaard SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; U.S. Naval Institute; Arctic Institute
Chicago Tribune
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Why does President Donald Trump want Greenland? Here's what to know.
President Donald Trump's plans to send representatives to Greenland this week have angered political leaders on the island territory, who see the group's visit as an aggressive escalation of his threats to seize the area, by force if necessary. Trump has made no secret of his designs on Greenland, repeating his threats to acquire the territory through a financial transaction or military force several times since his return to the Oval Office. To date, the response of Greenland's leaders has been polite but firmly opposed, stating it was not for sale. But this week's visits from Usha Vance, the second lady, and Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, have elicited a more agitated response. Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede told Sermitsiaq, a local newspaper, that their expected arrival, little more than two weeks after Greenland held parliamentary elections, is 'highly aggressive,' and 'the only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.' He also said he feared that the visit would drum up fervor in the United States for a takeover of Greenland, 'and the pressure will increase after the visit.' So why is Trump so determined to have Greenland? Here's a window into his thinking. Greenland is in strategically important territory. Most of Greenland lies within the Arctic Circle, a region that the world's powers are vying for over for its untapped natural resources and its proximity to emerging shipping corridors that would accelerate global trade. Already, melting Arctic ice has transformed the region that was once largely unnavigable into an area of competitive commerce, as more ships traverse the Arctic Circle and countries with land in the region scramble to lay claim to as much of the seabed as possible. Routes between Asia and Europe, or Asia and the United States, are about 40% shorter through the Arctic than either the Suez or Panama Canals, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. That makes the question of who controls the seas there critical for both financial and security purposes, especially given the claimants also happen to be rival geopolitical superpowers. Only five countries can claim to have an extended continental shelf into the Arctic: Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark via Greenland, and the United States via Alaska. Acquiring Greenland would give the United States a significantly bigger claim in the Arctic. Trump has said it is vital for national security. 'We need Greenland for national security and even international security,' Trump said in March during an address to Congress, adding the territory was 'very, very important for military security.' The United States has had troops in Greenland since World War II, and keeps a small missile defense base there called Pituffik Space Base — formerly Thule Air Base, before Trump redesignated it during his first administration. It is possible that base could become part of the 'Golden Dome' missile defense system, modeled after Israel's Iron Dome system, that Trump has said he wants to build to protect the entirety of the United States from potential threats from adversaries, especially China. In an executive order, Trump gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth until March 28 to produce the plans for that missile defense shield. But there are market-based threats Trump wants to protect against as well. Russia and China are already cooperating on Arctic shipping routes, and with Russia's extensive presence in the region — it has the largest area of Arctic coastline — that partnership threatens to remain the dominant economic force in the area. Greenland could be a rich source for rare earth minerals and energy. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic holds 13% of undiscovered gas resources and 30% of undiscovered natural gas, most of it offshore. Controlling Greenland would give the United States an expanded claim to those seabed resources. But Greenland also uniquely boasts huge stores of rare earth minerals that are vital to the production of batteries, cellphones, electric vehicles and other technology — and the Trump administration has been looking globally to augment its rare earth mineral holdings. Rare earth minerals have been a key part of an agreement that the United States has been trying to strike with Ukraine. Greenland's stores of cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium, zirconium and other minerals have proved challenging to mine, but there is another incentive for the United States to seek to control that market: China. Currently, China dominates the world's raw mineral market, and has already attempted to make inroads in Greenland. Acquiring the territory would allow Trump to check China's efforts to exploit minerals there and expand America's holdings. Climate change could soon make Greenland a hot commodity. Part of the reason it has been difficult to exploit Greenland's resources to date is that it is so cold. But with climate change, melting ice is creating new opportunities for resource exploitation. In the past 30 years, about 11,000 square miles of ice sheet have melted, an area about the size of Maryland. Denmark has also recognized the potential of Greenland's resources to be vital in the global transition to greener forms of energy. For the local population, the potential for an economic boom from mining is seen as helpful in its bid for independence, which a majority of the population wants. But the development of the industry has been slow. Greenland has taken steps to limit the potential for environmentally destructive mining practices through laws, including a ban on uranium mining in 2021. But those could be overturned if the United States acquires the territory. Originally Published: March 25, 2025 at 11:08 AM CDT
