United States President Donald Trump says he is abandoning plans to impose steep tariffs on European countries opposed to his plans to take control of Greenland, after holding talks with NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday that the tariffs won’t be imposed because he and Rutte agreed to “the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region”.
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“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations”, he said, without going into further details about what was agreed upon.
Trump has been threatening for weeks to take control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous island that belongs to Denmark, spurring widespread condemnation in Europe and around the world.
Trump announced on Saturday that he would impose 10 percent tariffs on Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, starting on February 1, over the countries ‘ opposition to his Greenland takeover push.
Trump has repeatedly accused Denmark of failing to do enough to secure Greenland’s territorial waters in the Arctic, and he has argued that the US needs to seize the island for its own national security.
But Greenlandic and Danish leaders have rejected the US president’s stance, which recently spurred mass protests under the banner, “Hands off Greenland”.
“Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context”, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media after Trump issued his economic threat on Saturday.
“Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld”, Macron said.
‘ Well-earned criticism ‘
Trump’s about-face on the tariffs came just hours after he told world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that while the annexation of Greenland was necessary, his administration would not use force to do it.
“People thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force”, said Trump, adding that he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland” by the US.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen had reiterated that negotiations on the transfer of Greenland to the US were out of the question.
After Trump’s speech at Davos, Rasmussen told the broadcaster DR, “We will not enter into negotiations based on abandoning fundamental principles.” “That’s never going to happen.”
He continued, “He says he will not use military force, but it does not solve the problem. “
Rasmussen and other European leaders were equally pleased with Trump’s declaration that he would not impose tariffs on their nations.
According to Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, Trump’s “demands about moving borders” have received “well-earned criticism.”
After a number of daytime attacks, the military claimed Hezbollah personnel and infrastructure were the targets of Israel’s continued bombardment of southern Lebanon until Wednesday evening. The strikes were flagrant violations of Lebanese sovereignty, according to Lebanon’s military.
In Novosibirsk, Russia, the roof of a shopping center collapsed, killing at least one person and injuring two others. The heavy accumulation of snow is thought to be the accident’s preliminary cause. In the rubble, emergency teams are searching for survivors.
Following three fatalities and injuries this week, the largest train drivers’ union in Spain has called for a nationwide strike to demand safety assurances.
SEMAF, the union for train operators, said in a statement on Wednesday that it would “demand criminal liability from those whose responsibility is to ensure safety in the railway infrastructure.”
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The union remarked, “This situation of the railroad’s ongoing decline is unacceptable.”
At least 43 people were killed on Sunday when two high-speed trains collided in Cordoba, the country’s deadliest train collision in more than a decade.
A commuter train hit a retaining wall that fell onto the tracks in Gelida, near Barcelona, in a separate incident late on Tuesday, killing one driver and injuring 37 others, according to regional officials.
A rock fell on the Barcelona regional network, leading to yet another train derailment, but no injuries were reported, according to rail network operator ADIF, despite reports of another derailment.
Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente stated that the government and the union would “sit down and talk” to stop the strike, which he claimed was being motivated by “the emotional state that the train drivers are currently in following the death of two colleagues.”
However, the incidents have sparked criticism from opposition lawmakers and commuters as well as concerns about the safety of Spain’s rail network.
High-speed trains “have been shaking lately,” according to waitress Raluca Maria Pasca, 45, who claims to be a waitress.
“I’ve experienced it myself. At the train station in Cordoba’s southern city, she told the AFP news agency that “they need to fix the problem.”
The state of the country’s railways has also been demanded by Spain’s conservative main opposition Popular Party. Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo wrote on X, “This is too much.”
imposed speed restrictions
The wreckage from Sunday’s high-speed collision is still undetermined by the Spanish authorities.
While the cause is being investigated, there are three days of national mourning.
According to ADIF, a train’s tail end derailed and collided with an incoming train coming from Madrid to Huelva, another southern city, on its way from Malaga to Madrid’s capital, Madrid.
Local authorities said bodies were discovered hundreds of meters from the collision site near the town of Adamuz.
On Wednesday, authorities discovered a 43rd victim and continued their search. According to regional officials, 86 people were treated and discharged while another 37 people remained in the hospital on Wednesday morning.
While safety checks are being conducted, Catalonia’s main commuter rail network has been completely suspended, and trains won’t start operating until the lines are determined to be secure, according to officials.
After train drivers reported bumps, ADIF has placed a temporary 160 km/h (100 mph) speed limit on certain sections of the high-speed line between Madrid and Barcelona.
The network operator announced on Wednesday that trains between Madrid and the eastern city of Valencia were also given a restriction on the speed on a 1. 8 km (one mile) stretch of the line.
The train operators’ union, SEMAF, wrote a letter to ADIF in August to request an investigation into flaws in the country’s train lines as they increased usage and to slow down certain speeds until the tracks were fully repaired.
Eight Middle Eastern and Asian nations have made it known that they want to join US President Donald Trump’s so-called “board of peace” in the Gaza Strip, underscoring the need for a “permanent ceasefire” in the Palestinian-occupied area.
In a joint statement released on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar announced their intention to appoint a new board.
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The ministers “reaffirm their countries’ support for the President Trump-led peace efforts,” the statement read.
The board’s goal is “consolidating a permanent ceasefire, supporting the reconstruction of Gaza, and advancing a just and lasting peace grounded in the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood in accordance with international law, thereby paving the way for security and stability for all countries and peoples of the region.”
The “board of peace,” which is a component of Trump’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, was unveiled just days after the White House made the announcement.
A Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with overseeing day-to-day operations in the Strip will be led by senior Trump advisors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as well as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Palestinians in Gaza continue to be subject to deadly Israeli military sieges and humanitarian aid restrictions, and they have questions about how the US-led mechanisms actually work.
Several ardent supporters of Israel have also been criticized by Trump for joining the “board of peace,” as well as for Benjamin Netanyahu’s participation, according to observers.
Netanyahu’s office announced that he would participate in the mechanism on Wednesday, as he is currently facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.
Abu Ramzi al-Sandawi, a resident of Gaza, criticized Netanyahu and called him “the leader of the war on Gaza.”
Al-Sandawi in Gaza City told Al Jazeera, “He destroyed our entire world.” Netanyahu is credited with starting this war, saying, “It is known.”
What many call the world’s rules-based order was either crumbling or had already collapsed, according to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the World Economic Forum.
The United States has invaded Venezuela in recent weeks, threatened to invade Greenland, and pledged to impose tariffs on any of its Western allies who might oppose it. This is due to the country’s military and financial resources.
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Additionally, US President Donald Trump is pushing what he has suggested might be the “Board of Peace” in place of the United Nations, the organization intended to embodie the modern world order.
In a speech on Tuesday in Davos, Switzerland, Carney stated that the rules-based order was essentially over in light of the behavior of the US, most recently in its push to seize Greenland.
The upcoming era of great power rivalry, he claimed, would take its place, where the stale “fiction” of the past rotted in the unforgiving light of day.
According to him, “The system’s strength comes not from its truth, but from everyone’s willingness to act as if it were true, and its fragility comes from the same source.” The trick begins to crumble when even one person stops acting.
We participated in the rituals, Carney continued, “but we largely avoided blatantly bridging the gap between rhetoric and reality.” This offer is no longer valid. Be direct with me. Not a transition, but a rupture is occurring right now.
The US president made it clear that times had changed in Donald Trump’s speech from Davos the following day. He nodded to Venezuela, where his forces earlier this month staged a raid to kidnap Nicolas Maduro’s government. He criticized Europe, calling its nations “weak.”
And he made a constant mention of his desire to abandon Greenland, regardless of what Greenlanders or Denmark, the nation they are a part of, think.
For world protection, we require a piece of ice. And they refuse to give it, Trump asserted. They now have a choice, they say. We will be very grateful if you say yes. Or you can decline and we will remember.
Trump has made it clear that he is uninterested by the traditional method of business. It was no longer relevant to resolve disputes through negotiations and post-World War II rules-based order concepts of sovereignty.
Not a friend, but a predator
lawmakers from across Europe and the West have been confronted by Trump’s and his administration’s reliance on the US, and Richard Shirreff, NATO’s former deputy allied commander for Europe, described on Tuesday as having “turned from an ally” to a “predator” due to the challenges of confronting the world’s most significant superpower.
A small number of troops have been dispatched to the island in response to limited efforts by Europe to stop the US from trying to influence its intentions in Greenland, only to be met by American fury and the immediate threat of tariffs.
The rule-based order’s conclusion refutes the decades-old myth that both the US and European values and security interests were the same, according to Geoffrey Nice, a human rights lawyer and former prosecutor in Slobodan Milosevic’s war crimes trial.
Despite Washington’s refusal to accept the court’s own jurisdiction, the US has since withdrawn from numerous international treaties, including the International Criminal Court, whose former US President Joe Biden has been actively prosecuting the warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Similar to how the US simply refrained from pleading guilty to the US in a 1986 case involving Washington’s support for rebels in Nicaragua. Other international obligations, such as those relating to the environment or commitments to Iran to impose sanctions in exchange for greater transparency of its nuclear program, have also been negated.
“The reality is that the US consistently prioritized its own interests and sovereignty.” According to Nice, the United States’ interest in international law, which dates back to the Nuremberg, has always been ad hoc rather than a treaty-based. The fact that Europe and other countries have deceived themselves into believing this is not the case has compounded this.
In Nuuk, Greenland, on March 15, 2025, protesters march in front of the US Consulate under the banner “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.” [Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters]
a contradictory belief system
Over the past few decades, the so-called rules-based order’s reputation has become more undone.
Despite Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, which has resulted in more than 71 Palestinian deaths over the past two years, the Western support for it is perhaps most notable for many. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest warrant has been largely ignored by Western leaders, which raises questions about whether international law is relevant to some people but not for others.
The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, in the words of HA Hellyer, said, “The idea of holding to a singular — and frequently deeply hypocritical — rules-based order is finished, to the extent that it ever truly existed.”
Israel’s war on Gaza, according to critics, exposed the hypocrisy of the world’s rules-based order.
“The Canadians and Europeans recognize that reality in very different ways,” says one researcher. It “seems to be a shocking collapse” for some, much like Europe and Canada, Hellyer said. It’s simply the moment when a system that never protected Black and brown populations, or the “Global South,” is being given its current name.
“It’s telling that the supposed breaking point of the rules-based order is actually the threat to Greenland, not the destruction of Gaza, or other examples before,” Hellyer continued. Although the cases are different, and I’m not comparing them, it’s difficult to argue that talking about annexation is more offensive to international standards than the destruction of an entire population and territory. However, the US, the primary underwriter of the rules-based order, did not only work to prevent the violation of international law from being fully accountable, but also actively encouraged and encouraged those violations.
According to Karim Emile Bitar, a professor of international relations at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, there is nothing new about Western commentators who assert that events that occur on their own doorstep define the state of the world regardless of circumstances elsewhere.
When a blue-eyed, blonde Ukrainian lady arrives as a refugee, he said, “We see such a stark contrast between Western attitudes toward Gaza as opposed to Western attitudes.”
When a territory that belongs to the “European Union” is in danger, they completely change their course and no longer resort to the ostensible justifications that have been employed for decades and decades.
