Greenland’s newly elected Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said he will not hand over the territory to the United States in response to IS President Donald Trump’s recent comments about annexing the vast Arctic region.
“President Trump says that the United States is getting Greenland. Let me be clear: The United States won’t get that. We do not belong to anyone else. We determine our own future”, Nielsen stated in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Trump had told NBC News on Saturday that he had “absolutely” discussed the possibility of annexing Greenland. “We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100 percent”, he said, doubling down on his claim.
The tension between the two nations escalated after US Vice President JD Vance visited a military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of failing to adequately protect the strategically located island.
Vance claimed the US could offer better security for the region, which holds significant geopolitical value.
In response, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen expressed frustration with the US administration’s “tone” during their criticism.
“We do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies”, Rasmussen stated in a video on social media, reaffirming Denmark’s commitment to Arctic security and its willingness to cooperate with the US.
Despite this diplomatic row, Trump remained defiant, telling NBC News, “I never take military force off the table” regarding Greenland.
Rasmussen, however, insisted that Denmark and the US are still close allies, despite the ongoing tensions over the issue.
US President Donald Trump has said he is “p****d off” at his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and has threatened to impose secondary sanctions on Russian oil if Moscow does not agree to a ceasefire to end the war in Ukraine.
“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russian’s fault – which it might not be – but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia”, Trump told in an interview with NBC on Sunday.
Trump said 25 percent tariffs could happen at any moment, adding that he plans to speak with Putin this week.
According to the report, Trump was “angry and p****d off” when the Russian president started questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy and discussed the prospect of a new leadership in Ukraine.
On Thursday, Putin suggested a temporary administration under the supervision of the United Nations should be introduced in Ukraine – a proposal swiftly rejected by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Russian officials have repeatedly discredited Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as president, noting that no elections have been held since his term expired.
A vote has not been scheduled in Ukraine because the country’s constitution mandates that elections cannot be held under martial law, which has been in place since the start of Russia’s invasion of its neighbouring country three years ago.
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow on Trump’s comments. Russia has called numerous Western sanctions and restrictions “illegal” and designed for the West to take economic advantage in its rivalry with Russia.
Trump’s latest remarks followed a day of meetings and golf with Finnish President Alexander Stubb over the weekend.
Stubb’s office said he told Trump that a deadline needs to be set for establishing a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire to make it happen, and suggested April 20 since Trump would have been in office then for three months.
US officials have been separately pushing Kyiv to accept a critical minerals agreement, a summary of which suggested that the US was demanding all of Ukraine’s natural resources income for years. Zelenskyy has said Kyiv’s lawyers needed to review the draft before he can say more about the offer.
Trump last week imposed what he called a 25 percent secondary tariff on US imports from any country buying oil or gas from Venezuela.
His remarks on Sunday suggest he could take similar action against US imports from countries that buy oil from Russia, a move that could hit China and India particularly hard.
Barcelona thumped visitors Girona 4-1 in the Catalan football derby after Robert Lewandowski netted twice in the second half to move Hansi Flick’s side three points clear of Real Madrid, who beat Leganes 3-2 on Saturday, at the top of LaLiga.
Sunday’s victory moved Barcelona to 66 points from 29 games as 36-year-old Lewandowski – who scored twice after the score was tied at 1-1 – extended his tally at the top of LaLiga’s scoring chart to 25 goals, three clear of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe.
“I know a lot of people talk about my age, but I work as hard as I did when I was 21 and I want to play for more seasons”, Lewandowski said with a smile.
“At the moment I’m feeling great physically, and if you look at the numbers, they’re the same as they’ve always been”.
Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski scores his team’s second goal]Albert Gea/Reuters]
Barcelona predictably dominated the opening stages as Fermin Lopez and Lewandowski tested Paulo Gazzaniga in Girona’s goal with two early shots.
Moments later, Lopez went down on the edge of the box and the referee awarded a free kick. But when VAR asked him to review his decision for a potential penalty, he gave Girona a free kick instead, much to the shock of the Barcelona players.
Jules Kounde had a goal disallowed when he strayed offside as Girona had no answer to Barca’s forays into the box. But Gazzaniga stood strong to deny the home side time and again, making four crucial saves in the first half alone.
The Argentine keeper could only stand and watch, however, when Yamal’s free kick was deflected off Girona defender Ladislav Krejci for an own goal two minutes before the break.
Girona struck back after the restart against the run of play when they won the ball back in midfield and Dutch forward Arnaut Danjuma curled his shot past Wojciech Szczesny in goal.
Barcelona did not panic and they restored their lead just after the hour-mark when Lopez headed a ball across the box and Lewandowski converted with an acrobatic finish at the far post.
Robert Lewandowski scores Barcelona’s third goal of the football match]Albert Gea/Reuters]
Lewandowski then made it 3-1 in the 77th minute from a counterattack when Frenkie de Jong found him in the box and the Polish striker curled a low shot past Gazzaniga.
Substitute Ferran Torres made it 4-1 when he expertly controlled a pass from the wing with a sublime first touch before finding the bottom corner. Then Yamal nearly made it five, only to see his curling shot cannon off the crossbar.
“It’s very clear to see that when they had the ball this afternoon, it wasn’t easy for us. We knew we were up against a great team”, Danjuma said of Barcelona.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit Hungary this week, despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s trip, announced on Sunday by his office, comes at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The visit, scheduled from Wednesday to Sunday, comes as Orban has dismissed the warrant when it was announced in November.
Orban, a right-wing nationalist leader often at odds with the European Union over democratic norms, has made clear that Hungary will not enforce the ICC’s decision.
According to The Times of Israel, Netanyahu will use his visit to Hungary this week to push for Hungarian support for Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
“Netanyahu is trying to build a coalition of as many countries as possible backing Trump’s plan for Gaza”, the source told the paper.
Trump unveiled his vision for Gaza in February, to ethnically cleanse the territory of Palestinians and turn it into a Mediterranean resort.
Hungary has not publicly commented on Trump’s proposal, but Netanyahu’s visit suggests he is seeking to rally international backing for the controversial plan.
While Hungary, as an EU member, is obligated to comply with ICC rulings, there has been no official response from Budapest regarding the upcoming visit.
This will be Netanyahu’s second foreign trip since the ICC issued warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In February, Netanyahu travelled to Washington to meet United States President Donald Trump.
Russian drones have struck Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv, killing two people and wounding dozens, the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov has said.
“For the second time in a week, the enemy launched a combined attack, launching seven ‘ Shaheed ‘ at residential areas, hospitals, and the city’s infrastructure”, Terekhov said in a Telegram message on Sunday, referring to Iranian-made Shahed drones.
The swarm of drones also targeted a military hospital, a shopping centre and apartment blocks, he said.
Five of the 35 people wounded in the attack overnight were children. At least 13 have been hospitalised, including a teenage girl who is in serious condition.
“The events of yesterday evening were indeed very, very violent in Kharkiv, seeing really the brunt of this war in many ways throughout the course of the last several months”, said Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv.
“Ukraine’s military said that servicemen were undergoing treatment in this medical centre at the time of the attack and they’re accusing Russia of carrying out a war crime, of violating norms of international humanitarian law in what they described as a deliberate and targeted shelling of this medical facility”, Basravi said.
One survivor, who identified himself as Anton, described running to an adjacent room in his apartment when a drone struck and showered him with shrapnel.
“I had already bid farewell to life”, the 22-year-old, whose head and left hand were heavily bandaged, told the Reuters news agency.
Ukrainian authorities said residential areas of Kharkiv were hit]Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Reuters]
Kharkiv was not the only city to be targeted overnight. Ukraine’s Air Force said on Sunday that Russia had launched 111 drones and one ballistic missile, causing damage also in the Sumy, Odesa and Donetsk regions. It said air defences shot down 65 drones and jammed another 35.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a daily bulletin that its forces had struck 140 districts in Ukraine, including military airfields and ammunition depots. It did not mention the hospital.
The attack came as Ukraine seeks strong backing from Western allies to pressure Russia into ending its full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour. Both sides have accused one another in recent days of violating a US-brokered partial ceasefire, and Russia has continued sending regular swarms of drones over Ukraine.
In a statement on Sunday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine expected a response from the United States and other allies to the near-daily attacks, adding that Moscow had fired more than 1, 000 drones in the past week.
“Russia is dragging out the war, and we are providing our partners with full information on the strikes the Russian army is carrying out and the actions it is preparing for”, the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskyy has also warned in recent days that Russia is planning a spring offensive in parts of northeastern Ukraine.
A peace effort led by US President Donald Trump, whose administration has sought closer ties with Russia, has sparked fears in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could be pressured into making far more concessions than Moscow.
During a summit in Paris last week, European leaders pledged to strengthen Kyiv’s army, while France and Britain tried to expand support for a planned foreign “reassurance force” in the event of a truce with Russia.
Following the Kharkiv attack, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Russia was flouting a ceasefire that Ukraine was following.
