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Greenland’s PM says he doesn’t know details of rumoured deal and calls for US to respect red lines – latest updates

US vice-president JD Vance has also been speaking about Greenland this afternoon at an event in Toledo, Ohio. He said this: “Greenland matters to American national security because our entire missile defence relies on security. This is something the media who’s obsessed with Greenland, Greenland, Greenland, they completely forget why Greenland matters. What if, God forbid, I’m not saying it’s going to happen anytime soon, but what if a foreign country launched a missile at the United States of America? We would need control over the Arctic in order to shoot that missile down. Our entire missile defence system defends depends on that arctic security.” It seems that JD Vance has inexplicably missed Dan Sabbagh and mine’s explanation of this very point on Europe Live last week (there is even a map!) and our amazing maps on Greenland if he says the media “completely forget” to make that point, so here they are again: He then continued: “Meanwhile, the Chinese and the Russians and even the Danes who control Greenland admit that they want to control that facility, that island, that land mass. That would make us weaker, that would make our country more in danger. That would mean that if the President is negotiating with a foreign leader, he would have less leverage, because they would be able to realistically threaten the sovereignty and the territorial safety of the United States of America. We’re not going to let that happen.” He then claimed that talks with Nato are going “fine,” before adding: “I believe, having seen this for the past year, that when the President sets his mind to accomplish something in negotiation, he accomplishes it.”

Spanish train drivers call three-day strike after deadly railway crashes

Spain’s largest train drivers’ union has called a three-day nationwide strike to demand measures to guarantee the safety of railworkers and passengers after two deadly crashes this week killed at least 46 people, including two drivers. The death toll from Sunday’s collision between two trains near the Andalucían town of Adamuz rose from 43 to 45 on Thursday afternoon after two more bodies were recovered from the crash site. On Tuesday, a driver was killed and 37 people were injured when a train was derailed by the collapse of a retaining wall near Gelida in Catalonia. A number of people were also lightly injured on Thursday when a commuter train in the south-eastern region of Murcia crashed into a crane. Authorities said the incident was caused by “the intrusion … of a crane not belonging to the railway operation”, and the train was not derailed or overturned. The accidents in Adamuz and Gelida led the Spanish railway drivers’ union Semaf to announce industrial action. They have also prompted a stoppage by drivers that has shut down Catalonia’s regional rail services, affecting about 400,000 travellers. The union said three days of strikes would be held from 9 to 11 February, saying the action was “the only legal avenue left for workers to demand the restoration of safety standards on the railway system and, consequently, guarantee the safety of both railway professionals and passengers”. Semaf called for the relevant authorities to ensure people’s safety by addressing the “numerous reports” on poor track conditions that it said had gone “unanswered and inactive for months, or even years”. It added: “The serious accidents in Adamuz and Gelida, both of which resulted in people losing their lives, represent a turning point in demanding that all necessary actions be taken to guarantee the safety of railway operations.” Spain’s transport minister, Óscar Puente, said he understood drivers’ concerns but hoped the strikes could be averted, and he said the stoppage in Catalonia needed to end. He has stressed that the two accidents were “completely unrelated”. The Gelida incident is thought to have been caused by heavy rainfall. “This is a very difficult week,” he told Catalunya Ràdio on Thursday morning. “We need to remain calm and get this where it needs to be. Two terrible incidents have occurred in a very short space of time, and I believe that is significantly impacting the morale of the train drivers. I hope the situation will be resolved soon.” Investigators are continuing to examine the crash site in Adamuz and the wreckage of the two trains. The accident happened at 7.40pm on Sunday when a high-speed train travelling from Málaga to Madrid derailed, crossing on to another track where it hit an oncoming train travelling from Madrid to Huelva. Media reports suggest investigators are focusing on a 30cm (12in) crack in the track at the accident site. “There’s an initial point where the derailment is believed to have occurred,” Puente told the radio network Cadena Ser on Monday night. “Now we have to determine if it’s the cause or the consequence. It’s not a trivial matter, and it won’t be quick or easy. We’ll have to send the track to the lab; we have to determine what happened. At this point, nothing can be ruled out.” Puente said marks had been found on the wheels of the first five carriages of the high-speed train, and on the wheels of other trains that had travelled along the same stretch of track before the derailment. “The question now is how those marks appeared,” the minister told the TV channel Telecinco. “Was there something on the tracks, or was the track itself beginning to break down? At this point, it’s not possible to draw any conclusions about what caused those marks.” Spain’s efforts to mourn the dead have been marred by familiar political squabbles. A spokesperson for the far-right Vox party said the Adamuz tragedy was proof of the decline of the country’s once-great rail services. “All Spaniards can see with their own eyes that it’s not safe to travel and that the damage is getting worse by the day,” Pepa Millán said, adding: “Spaniards are scared to get on a train.” Vox’s leader, Santiago Abascal, has attempted to link the Adamuz accident to the series of corruption allegations that have enveloped the socialist-led government. “Corruptions destroys confidence in our institutions,” he said. “And corruption kills.” Meanwhile, the conservative People’s party (PP) called for Puente, who has made numerous media appearances over the past few days, to provide “absolute transparency”. “The minister has a knack for talking,” said the PP infrastructure spokesperson, Juan Bravo. “But it’s time for him to offer explanations and not spend two hours saying nothing.” The government’s spokesperson, Elma Saiz, said Abascal’s comments were abhorrent. “Given the two tragic nights we’ve just endured, with dozens of injured still hospitalised and not all the bodies recovered, Abascal’s attitude is despicable,” she said. “Using tragedy and fear to generate chaos and distrust is an anti-democratic and inhumane act.”

Kangaroos’ giant ancestor probably able to hop despite 250kg weight, scientists say

Giant 250kg kangaroos that once roamed Australia would probably have been able to hop despite their enormous size, researchers have said. While modern kangaroos are known for their ability to travel large distances by jumping with both hind legs at the same time, it has long been debated whether their extinct relatives would have been so springy. “When [modern kangaroos] hop, the achilles tendon gets really, really pulled and stressed,” said Dr Megan Jones of the University of Manchester, the lead researcher on the study. “And that’s great because it stores a lot of energy so when they go to the next hop, it’s quite energetically efficient. “But it does imply that if [kangaroos] get bigger and they don’t change anything else, then you will get to the point where you just snap that tendon.” Unlike many previous studies, which have explored whether giant kangaroos might have hopped by extrapolating from the anatomy of today’s species, Jones and colleagues took a different approach. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports the team describe how they studied fossils from a range of giant kangaroos including species of sthenurine – short-nosed, browsing kangaroos that lived between 13m and 30,000 years ago. “They get up to 250kg, whereas the most we get today in the red kangaroos is 90kg at the absolute most,” said Jones. The team also looked at fossils from species of Protemnodon, longer-faced animals that lived between 5m and 40,000 years ago, and species of giant Macropus – animals that resembled larger versions of kangaroos living today. For each giant kangaroo species the researchers estimated strength of the achilles tendon in the ankle – a band of tissue that is required for hopping – as well as the bone strength of the fourth metatarsal, the least robust bone in the hindlimb. “It’s no use if their tendon is fine, but their bones are going to start breaking [if they hop],” said Jones. The results reveal that all of the giant kangaroos studied had fourth metatarsals strong enough to support hopping, as well as heel bones with enough space to accommodate a thick enough tendon for such movement. While some researchers have previously suggested thicker tendons could have made hopping less feasible, the researchers say this is unlikely to be the case, noting some hopping creatures alive today – including kangaroo rats – have relatively thick tendons yet use hopping to navigate difficult terrain and escape predators. Jones said it was possible giant kangaroos would have used hopping for similar purposes, adding it was unlikely they would have been able to hop for long distances or durations. “It is entirely possible that, as well as using hopping more infrequently, or over shorter distances, the giant kangaroos may have reduced stresses by hopping more slowly,” the authors add. However, Jones said the new study only suggested it was feasible for giant kangaroos to hop, not that they necessarily did so, and did not rule out other modes of getting around: for example studies have previously suggested sthenurine kangaroos strode forth on their tiptoes. “Any kangaroo is going to be using a combination of gaits, some for going slow, some for going fast,” said Jones. Dr Gilbert Price, a palaeontologist at the University of Queensland, Australia, who was not involved in the work, said the big jump from earlier research was that the new study was based on fossils from giant kangaroos themselves. “It shows that the giant kangaroos changed their proportions in ways that made hopping mechanically possible, even if it was less efficient than in modern species,” he said. But, he added, the study did not overclaim: “It doesn’t say these animals hopped across the landscape like modern red kangaroos, just that hopping wasn’t off the table, and that’s an important distinction.” Price said the study could also help to shed light on the fate of giant kanagaroos. “If you want to understand why these animals went extinct, you first have to understand what they were actually like,” he said. “Bringing the focus back to their biology and ecology isn’t just extra detail, but is central to understanding what happened.”

Get out of Greenland mode and stand up for yourself, Zelenskyy tells Europe

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has taken aim at Europe in a speech at Davos, accusing leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Donald Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action themselves. “Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words Europe needs to know how to defend itself,” Zelenskyy said in a speech at the World Economic Forum. “A year has passed, and nothing has changed.” He added: “Europe remains in Greenland mode: maybe someone somewhere will do something.” Zelenskyy’s speech nodded toward the extraordinary demands by Trump for the US to take over Greenland, but largely eschewed criticism of the US president, instead blaming Europeans for remaining at the behest of an increasingly unpredictable White House. He said: “Everyone gave attention to Greenland, and it is clear most leaders are not sure what to do about it. It seems like everyone is just waiting for America to cool down on this topic, hoping it will pass away. But what if it [does] not: what then? “Europe must learn how to defend itself,” he added. “Sending 14 or 40 soldiers to Greenland – what is that meant to achieve? What message does that send to Putin? To China? And perhaps, most importantly, what message does it send to Denmark?” During the speech, Zelenskyy also suggested that Ukraine could help defend Europe in the event of a Russian invasion of Greenland, saying: “We know what to do if Russian warships go near Greenland, Ukraine can help with that. They can sink near Greenland just as they do near Crimea.” He also suggested that Europe should play a more muscular role in targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers that help bankroll its war machine, and said it remained too easy for Russia to bypass sanctions that allow it to continue mass-producing missiles and other ordinance. The threats to Europe were existential for Nato, he said, and Europe needed a “united armed forces” that could defend the continent. “Today, Europe relies only on the belief that if danger comes, then Nato will react. But no one has really seen the alliance in action. If Putin decides to take Lithuania or strike Poland, who will respond? Right now, Nato exists thanks to the belief that the United States will act … but what if it doesn’t?” Zelenskyy’s speech – which mainly targeted Europe for failing to respond to the instability in US leadership – was delivered shortly after he met Trump to discuss stalled talks for a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump told reporters that his meeting with Zelenskyy was “good” but that there was “a ways to go”. His envoy Steve Witkoff is to meet Vladimir Putin later on Thursday. Witkoff said the fact that the meeting was called by the Russians was a good sign. “I think we’ve got it down to one issue and we have discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it’s solvable,” Witkoff said before flying to Moscow. He was joined by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Asked at Davos whether he had a message for Putin, Trump said: “The war has to end.”

Agreement with Nato will give US full and permanent access to Greenland, says Trump

Donald Trump has said an agreement with Nato on Greenland will give the US full and permanent access to the island, as the defence alliance’s secretary general said its members would have to step up their presence in the Arctic. A day after backing away from his threat to use tariffs as leverage to seize Greenland, a largely self-governing part of Denmark, and ruling out the use of force, Trump said on Thursday that the framework deal would mean “total access” with “no end, no time limit”. The US president had on Wednesday hailed “the ultimate long-term deal” that he said would settle the transatlantic dispute over Greenland following weeks of escalating tensions that risked the biggest breakdown in transatlantic relations in decades. But the precise terms of the agreement apparently struck between Trump and Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, remained unclear and the Danish government said there was no question of it compromising Denmark’s or Greenland’s sovereignty. “We can negotiate all political aspects – security, investment, the economy – but we cannot negotiate our sovereignty,” said Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen. The Danish defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said Rutte “cannot negotiate” on Denmark’s or Greenland’s behalf. However, Poulsen said, Rutte was working “loyally to maintain unity within Nato” and it was “very positive” that the alliance wanted to do more to strengthen Arctic security. “We are in a much better place today than we were yesterday,” he said. Greenland’s deputy prime minister, Múte Egede, said that whatever pressure other countries may exert, “our country will neither be given away, nor will our future be gambled with”, adding: “It is unacceptable to attempt to hand our land to others.” Trump’s repeated and aggressive assertions that the US needed “complete control” of Greenland have threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe and also risked unravelling the Nato alliance that has guaranteed western security for decades. At the weekend, he threatened to impose a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland unless they dropped their objections to his plans, prompting EU leaders to consider retaliation. After meeting with Trump in Davos, Rutte told Reuters on Thursday that Nato would “come together with our senior commanders to work out what is necessary”, adding: “I have no doubt we can do this quite fast. Certainly I would hope for 2026, I hope even early in 2026.” The Nato secretary general earlier told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he had had a “very good discussion” with Trump on how the transatlantic defence alliance’s members could bolster Arctic security. “One workstream coming out of yesterday … is to make sure when it comes to Greenland, particularly, that we ensure that the Chinese and the Russians will not gain access to the Greenland economy [or] militarily to Greenland,” he said. Nato’s top military commander in Europe, Gen Alexus Grynkewich of the US, said the alliance had not yet received political guidance but was “doing some thinking about how we would organise for it. No planning has started, but we’re ready.” EU leaders are due to gather in Brussels later on Thursday for an emergency meeting to discuss how to handle the unpredictable US president amid a strong sense that transatlantic ties have been badly damaged by his Greenland grab. Shaken EU governments remain wary of another abrupt change of mind from Trump, who many in national capitals and in Brussels consider to be a power-monger to whom the bloc will sooner or later have to stand up. Trump has repeatedly said the US needs to take control of Greenland for “national security”, despite the US already having a military base on the island and a bilateral agreement with Denmark allowing it to significantly expand its presence there. Media reports suggested Wednesday’s putative deal could revolve around a renegotiation of that 1951 defence pact, which was updated in 2004 to take account of Greenlandic home rule. The US has one base on Greenland, the Pituffik space base. Frederiksen said Denmark wished to “continue a constructive dialogue with its allies on ways to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the US Golden Dome [missile-defence system], provided this is done with respect for our territorial integrity”. European officials cautiously welcomed the news. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, claimed a victory of sorts, saying Rome had “always maintained it is essential to continue fostering dialogue” between allies. The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, said it was “positive we are now on the path to de-escalation”, but added that the US, Canada and Europe must “continue to work together within Nato to strengthen security in the Arctic region”. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, welcomed Trump’s shift in rhetoric. “Despite all the frustration and anger of recent months, let us not be too quick to write off the transatlantic partnership,” he said in a speech at Davos. “We Europeans, we Germans, know how precious the trust is on which Nato rests. In an age of great powers, the United States, too, will depend on this trust. It is their – and our – decisive competitive advantage,” Merz added. France’s finance minister, Roland Lescure, said the announcement was “a first positive sign that things are moving in the right direction. The magic word for the last 48 hours has been de-escalation. Right now, we’re de-escalating.” Sweden’s foreign affairs minister, Maria Stenergard, suggested resistance from Denmark’s allies had “had an effect”. European leaders had lined up to criticise what the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called Trump’s “new colonialism”. The bloc also floated retaliatory economic action, including tariffs on €93bn (£80bn) of US imports and the bloc’s “big bazooka” – its “anti-coercion instrument” – which would limit US access to European markets including investment and digital services. Teresa Ribera, a European Commission executive vice-president, said the EU needed to speak up against Trump. “Silence is too ambiguous, too dangerous,” she said in an interview with La Vanguardia. “If Europe remains silent in the face of Trump, it fuels fear.” A European diplomat agreed that a strong EU reaction had influenced Trump. “EU firmness and unity have contributed to get him to change his position,” they said. “Obviously also internal political pressure in the US, and market reaction.” However, Germany’s vice-chancellor, Lars Klingbeil, said Europe “should wait and see what substantive agreements are reached. No matter what solution is now found, everyone must understand that we cannot sit back, relax and be satisfied.” Trump’s push for Greenland, first floated in 2019, had intensified dramatically over recent weeks, with the president saying the US would take control of the vast Arctic island “one way or the other”, and: “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”

Real Madrid could face trial over noise pollution from stadium concerts

Real Madrid could face trial for alleged environmental offences after a Spanish judge ruled there was sufficient evidence that loud concerts held at the club’s Bernabéu stadium, which has been dubbed “the torture-drome” by local residents, could have broken the law. The Residents’ Association for those Affected by the Bernabéu (AVPB) began legal action against the football club and the city council in 2024, saying a series of punishingly loud concerts held that spring and summer had made their lives a misery. Performers included Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and the Colombian star Karol G. “It’s just hideous – you can’t move your car, you can’t take the dog out, and you’re having to prepare yourself mentally because it’s awful,” one resident told the Guardian at the time. “It also creates health problems – lots of us are suffering from more frequent headaches, stress, anxiety and depression.” Although Real Madrid eventually cancelled or rescheduled all concerts at the arena and said it was working to comply with council noise regulations, the AVPB pushed on with their legal action. It emerged on Thursday that Mónica Aguirre, the judge investigating the complaints, has indicted the club’s CEO, José Ángel Sánchez, and the Real Madrid subsidiary company that operates the venue. According to legal documents seen by the Spanish news agency Efe, both will face “abbreviated proceedings” after Aguirre determined that there were “indications of the commission of allegedly criminal acts” – namely the environmental offence of noise pollution. The complaint alleges that the football club hired out the stadium to concert promoters despite “knowing that the facility lacked the minimum acoustic insulation necessary to avoid contamination of the stadium’s surroundings and an impact on the rights of its neighbours, with serious danger to their health”. Enrique Martínez de Azagra, the president of the AVPB, welcomed the judge’s decision, saying the group had overwhelming evidence of decibel levels “exceeding the zone of health risks” on more than 100 occasions. In a statement released in September 2024, Real Madrid said it had decided to cancel or reschedule all concerts at the Bernabéu. “This decision is part of a raft of measures the club is taking to ensure the concerts comply strictly with the relevant municipal regulations,” it said. The club added that despite the introduction of soundproofing measures, “different organisers and promoters” had still found it difficult to comply with council noise regulations. The club has been contacted for comment.

‘Not a typical day’: makers of Macron’s sunglasses deluged with demand

The world leaders and company executives meeting in Davos this week were meant to be discussing the most complex and alarming geopolitical crisis most could remember. Instead, all eyes were on Emmanuel Macron. The French president’s appearance in reflective Top Gun-style aviator sunglasses was the image that launched a thousand pithy jokes, memes and questions. Had he been injured while sparring in the boxing ring? Had he injured himself while working out in the gym? Did he simply, some wondered, want to avoid looking Donald Trump in the eye? Few could have blamed Macron for channelling Tom Cruise in a mission impossible to neutralise the US president’s plan to take over Greenland and impose 200% trade tariffs on French wine and champagne. Some, like the communication specialist Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, saw the president’s decision to wear the French-made eyewear as symbolic in the context of France’s strained relations with the US. The real reason was more prosaic: Macron was stylishly disguising a subconjunctival haemorrhage, a burst blood vessel in his right eye – a condition he described as “totally benign”. But even he was not immune to cliches. Addressing French troops at a military event last week, Macron had described the problem as “l’oeil du tigre” (the eye of the tiger). The comment referenced the 1982 song by the rock band Survivor used in the boxing film Rocky III starring Sylvester Stallone. For those too young to get the reference, it was a “mark of determination”, he added. For the artisan workers at Maison Henry Jullien in the département of Jura in eastern France, where glasses have been made for more than 100 years, it was publicity impossible to buy. Stefano Fulchir, the president of iVision Tech, the Italian company that owns Henry Jullien, said the first he knew of the presidential endorsement was when French opticians rang him to say: “The president’s wearing our glasses!” When news spread, the company website crashed for most of the day. “My first reaction can be summed up in three letters: wow! It has not been a typical day. I feel very honoured that the president is wearing our glasses,” he said. Macron’s office had contacted the company in 2024 to buy a pair of €659 Pacific S 01 Double Gold sunglasses as a diplomatic gift during the G20 summit and a second pair for himself, he said. “I said I would be happy to send him a pair but they said no. He did not accept them as a gift, but wanted to purchase them personally. The French president paid a lot of attention to whether the glasses were entirely made in France.” iVision acquired Henry Jullien, founded in 1921, in 2023. Fulchir said the team of 10 staff at the factory at Lons-le-Saunier, north of Geneva, produced about 1,000 of the sunglasses worn by Macron a year. The glasses are hand assembled and made using what iVision calls an “ancient technique”, where gold is bonded rather than plated to the base metal, making it harder wearing. The blue-tinted UV lenses are produced by Dalloz, another Jura-based company. Fulchir said the glasses were available at opticians around the world and even in war-ravaged Ukraine, but the company had yet to find a UK distributor. “This is not ordinary eyewear; it’s a luxury product that won’t break after two years and that can be used for a long time. It’s an investment, like jewellery, like a watch,” he said. Jimmy Mohamed, a medical doctor and media commentator, told the French broadcaster RTL that he believed Macron had worn the sunglasses for “aesthetic reasons”. “The glasses protect his image, but not really his eye,” Mohamed said.

What’s in Trump’s Greenland ‘deal’ and will it last?

The outline deal struck by Mark Rutte and Donald Trump to step up Nato’s presence in the Arctic – so long as it does not undermine the sovereignty of Greenland or Denmark – has been available to the US for some time, but it will require new resources being devoted to the central task of monitoring Russian ship movements in the region. What remains in question is whether the deal will stick given Trump’s erratic behaviour, and whether it gives the US president the access to Greenland’s critical minerals as he claims it does. The issue of a multibillion-dollar “Golden Dome” defence shield potentially being partly housed in Greenland also remains unresolved. That leaves the agreement in a fragile state. Over the past year Trump has launched endless impetuous confrontations with maximalist demands, only to back down and then relaunch the fight weeks later, so it is quite possible he is only midway through this exhausting process. Aware of Trump’s volatility, the UK, which played a key role in reaching the agreement by pressing for Nato to do more in the Arctic, was not crowing over Trump’s U-turn, but instead was agreeing that Chinese and Russian fleets did pose a new threat in the high north. The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, explained why the proposal for a Nato-led “Arctic sentry” made sense. The idea is modelled on two existing sentries set up by Nato in 2025. The Baltic sentry is overseeing the monitoring of undersea sabotage in northern Europe, while the eastern sentry is designed to protect Poland from Russian drone incursions. The Arctic sentry discussed at successive Nato meetings in January is one that the UK and the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, have been promoting inside the alliance for some weeks. They had been unable to gain US agreement as Trump was demanding much more, including full ownership of Greenland, as the only way to protect American security interests from the threat posed by China and Russia. Some Nato states have been wary of the Arctic sentry concept on the basis that no imminent threat from Russian shipping exists. But the reconnaissance mission by eight Nato states last week – the mission that led to Trump’s objection and the threat to impose tariffs – was designed to assess the real scale of the Russia problem and the feasibility of setting up a monitoring mission. Trump, misinformed, thought the mission was to prepare European defences for a US move to seize Greenland by force. Both the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, rang the president to gently disabuse him. Detail has never been Trump’s forte, as demonstrated by his muddling of Greenland with Iceland throughout his Davos speech. In a sign that Denmark does not believe any red line has yet been crossed, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, sounded calm about the meeting between Rutte and Trump, saying she had spoken to the Nato chief both before and after the meeting, and adding that the military alliance was “fully aware” of Copenhagen’s position. Rutte – who Trump said had been given licence to negotiate on behalf of Denmark – said the topic of sovereignty did not come up in the discussions. The 1951 agreement between the US and Denmark, updated in 2004, is clear that whatever the US does inside its Greenland bases, the territory they are on remains sovereign Danish land. Although there have been claims that the new framework to which Trump has agreed is modelled more closely on the UK bases in Cyprus, that would be surprising since that land is treated as UK sovereign territory governed by the UK Ministry of Defence. As many as 20,000 Cypriots live on the sovereign UK territory, and have rights to pass property on to family or sell it to a third party. One of the two main outstanding issues is whether, as Trump claims, the deal gives the US access to critical minerals in Greenland. That would not be an issue that a Nato secretary general would be permitted to negotiate, but Trump insisted he had secured the concession in the talks. A second US demand surrounded the planned $175bn Golden Dome defence system, a futuristic weapon designed to shoot down hypersonic, ballistic and advanced cruise missiles and drones even if they are launched from the other side of the world or from space. Trump has repeatedly said full US ownership of Greenland is vital for this project to proceed. No contracts for this project have been issued, but the bulk of the shield would not be land-based but operated by satellites. The main land-based interceptor site considered so far was in New York state. Frederiksen says she is open to discussing this project. The US already has a “space base” in Danish territory, known as Pituffik – formerly Thule airbase – which houses a substantial part of the US military’s global network of missile warning sensors. The 1951 agreement focuses more on ports, but gives the US licence “to construct, install, maintain and operate facilities and equipment including meteorological and communication facilities and equipment”. It also allows “the US to construct such facilities and undertake such activities therein as will not impede the activities of the Kingdom of Denmark”. Partly because Trump primarily operates through broad-brush social media posts, a detailed explanation of why ownership of Greenland was vital for the Golden Dome has never been given in public by the US administration. The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said at Davos: “It’s strategically important for his Golden Dome project to protect the US. He [Trump] has invited Canada into that if they want to pay their fair share. It’s important the US has control of Greenland and that will stop any kind of a kinetic war. So why not preempt the problem before it starts?” Instead, the only kinetic war Trump launched was with his European allies. For the moment, at least, there is now a truce.