World

(LONDON )– Denmark’s new government was less than two months old when U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to acquire Greenland broke into public view in the summer of 2019.

“We thought it was unprecedented,” recalled former Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, who then was in post and suddenly tasked with a transcontinental fire drill. 

Trump’s desire for what he at the time called “essentially a large real estate deal” threw a wrench in the works of a planned state visit by the president to Denmark. The president ultimately cancelled the trip, saying Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had shown “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”

Frederiksen at the time rejected Trump’s proposal as “absurd.”

Kofod, who has since left Danish politics, told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday that the 2019 saga was “a really bad situation for the bilateral relationship.” 

“We also saw it as offending a close ally,” Kofod recalled. “We were very surprised that the first major comments he had were, ‘Why can’t I just buy Greenland?'”

Copenhagen, he said, never considered formulating a price for Greenland’s potential sale.

At the time, though, Danish leaders did not believe Trump was “determined” to force a U.S. acquisition of the world’s largest island, Kofod said. Rather, the Danish government saw the proposal as a means to foster more U.S. engagement in and influence over Greenland.

Nearly seven years later, Kofod’s successors — again under the leadership of Frederiksen — have faced a more protracted and aggressive campaign from Washington. Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. will acquire Greenland — “one way or another,” he said earlier this month.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump’s second term has seen the president double down on his ambition to acquire the minerals-rich island — despite Danish and Greenlandic politicians repeatedly rebuffing him.

Trump has suggested that U.S. sovereignty over Greenland is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. A 1951 defense agreement already grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, but Trump has suggested the accord is inadequate and has demanded “ownership.”

The issue dominated this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump said in a Wednesday address that he would not use military force to seize control of the Arctic landmass.

On Wednesday, Trump said during the event that a “framework” of a deal had been reached on Greenland after talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Details of the purported agreement are yet to be revealed.

Frederikson said in a Thursday morning statement that Copenhagen “cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a Thursday press conference that Nuuk is “willing to do more in a NATO frame,” but also said they have some “red lines” including territorial integrity, international law and sovereignty.

In Davos on Wednesday, Trump said that Greenland’s mineral deposits are “not the reason we need it,” though also said the professed deal “puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security and to minerals.”

Trump’s professed security concerns have prompted Danish efforts to increase military spending in the Arctic and the deployment of small contingents of NATO troops to Greenland. 

But the deployments — which the eight European nations involved said were for military exercises to enhance the defense of the region — prompted Trump at the time to threaten new tariffs against the American allies starting on Feb. 1 unless the U.S. was able to acquire Greenland.

That raised the prospect of a new transatlantic trade war, though Trump said Wednesday that he would drop the tariffs citing the purported deal.

European and allied leaders have said they are open to deeper and broader cooperation with the U.S. in Greenland, to address American security concerns and to develop shared commercial opportunities across the mammoth, resources-rich territory.

For Kofod — who said his time in office saw Copenhagen and Washington forge a “path forward” despite tensions over Greenland — any deal should be twinned with a European show of force.

“The first step is power,” Kofod said. Trump may soften his attacks “if he sees that he will have all of Europe — including the U.K., France, Germany — against him, and they are ready to defend Greenland,” Kofod said, plus if he sees that European “retaliation is so massive that it will hurt the U.S. economy and interests.”

“Trump plays with all the instruments he has. Europe has to learn to play the power game,” Kofod said, and “move him to a narrower path if this is going to stop.”

The Danish and Greenlandic experience in 2019 bears striking similarities to 2026. Then, as now, Trump set off a diplomatic storm by repeatedly declaring his ambitions to take control of Greenland. 

In both instances, Copenhagen and the Greenlandic government in its capital Nuuk responded by expressing openness to further collaboration, stressing the importance of sovereignty and dispatching a high-level delegation for talks in Washington.

Kofod said the de-escalation of tensions in 2019 was achieved through closer cooperation and modernization in the security sphere. “We took the security concerns of Trump very seriously,” he said.

The period spanning Trump’s first term and that of his successor, President Joe Biden, saw the U.S. reopen its consulate in Nuuk, modernize the Thule Air Base — since renamed to the Pituffik Space Base — and agree a new economic cooperation strategy in Greenland.

Copenhagen and Nuuk, Kofod said, encouraged “constructive engagement” with the U.S. in investment, education programs, tourism and other areas.

Similar measures might help ease the current round of pressure in the High North, Kofod said.

But he added that the future of the Arctic — which was long considered an area of scientific work largely free of geopolitical tensions — will be inextricably tied to security considerations.

Climate change, the subsequent melting of pack ice and the opening of new sea lanes is making the Arctic more navigable and — potentially — more lucrative. Russia’s 15,000 miles of Arctic coastline puts Moscow at the forefront in the region, while China’s declaration of itself as a “near-Arctic state” indicates Beijing’s long-term interest there.

“That’s why Trump is right on the concern about security in the future of the Arctic,” Kofod said. “Any U.S. president will find Greenland key to defending North America and the United States.”

Trump’s efforts “fit his ideology,” Kofod said, saying his bid to acquire Greenland despite broad opposition aligns with the “Donroe Doctrine” — a play on the 1823 Monroe Doctrine by which the U.S. said it would block European interference in the Western Hemisphere — which has in recent weeks been professed by members of Trump’s administration and noted by the president himself.

“There is something to that, that I think Europe hasn’t taken seriously enough,” Kofod said. “But now they are taking it seriously.”

The turbulence will undermine European, American and collective NATO security, Kofod warned. 

“For the U.S. it’s also a big self-inflicted problem,” he said. “But I don’t think Trump looks at the world like that. He  thinks that NATO is there, it’s important, but it’s not something you cannot live without, because you just can form another alliance.”

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(LONDON) — The heads of all 27 European Union member states will gather in Brussels on Thursday for what the body is calling an “extraordinary” summit regarding the recent crisis in transatlantic relations prompted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland.

European leaders “will discuss recent developments in transatlantic relations and their implications for the EU and coordinate on the way forward,” a notice posted to the website of the European Council — the body made up of EU national leaders — said.

The meeting, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time, comes after several weeks of tensions between the U.S. and its European allies over the fate of Greenland, a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark which Trump has repeatedly said — across both his first and second terms in office — that he wants to acquire for the U.S.

The issue has dominated this week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Trump addressed the event on Wednesday, swinging between apparent threats against NATO allies over Greenland while also ruling out the use of military force to seize the massive Arctic island.

Trump described Greenland as a “piece of ice” and framed his proposed acquisition of the territory — which he several times incorrectly referred to as Iceland, though the White House denied that he misspoke — as payment for decades of U.S. contributions to NATO and European security.

Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte after his address. Later, Trump wrote on social media that the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland had been reached on Greenland.

The president said he would shelve plans to impose tariffs on eight NATO allies who deployed small numbers of troops to Greenland earlier this month — a threat that prompted fierce criticism from European leaders and raised the prospect of a transatlantic trade war.

Neither Trump nor Rutte immediately revealed the details of the purported deal. Trump told CNN that the U.S. got “everything we wanted,” while Rutte told Fox News that the issue of Greenland’s sovereignty “did not come up” in his meeting with the president.

A NATO spokesperson told ABC News that trilateral talks between the U.S., Greenland and Denmark were ongoing.

Rutte told Reuters on Thursday, “We came to this understanding that collectively as NATO, we have to step up here, including the U.S.”

Rutte said that minerals exploitation in Greenland was not discussed during his talks with Trump on Wednesday, and that specific negotiations relating to Greenland will continue between Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk.

“You can always take Donald Trump at his word,” Rutte said. “He is the leader of the free world, and he is doing what I would love for a leader of the free world to do.”

On Thursday morning, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement that Copenhagen and Nuuk have been coordinating on discussions over Greenland. Denmark was in “close dialogue with NATO” and with Rutte before the latter’s meeting with Trump, she said.

“NATO is fully aware of the position of the Kingdom of Denmark. We can negotiate on everything political; security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty,” the prime minister said.

“I have been informed that this has not been the case either. And of course, only Denmark and Greenland themselves can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland,” Frederiksen said.

A European Council spokesperson told ABC News there had been “no change in the agenda” for Thursday’s meeting in Brussels following Trump’s announcement of a possible deal.

In a statement on the Council’s website, the body’s President Antonio Costa said that the key topics for discussions on Thursday will include “unity around the principles of international law, territorial integrity and national sovereignty” and “unity in full support and solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.”

Also to be discussed, Costa said, are a “shared transatlantic interest in peace and security in the Arctic, notably through NATO” and “concern that further tariffs would undermine relations and are incompatible with the EU-U.S. trade agreement.”

“The EU wants to continue engaging constructively with the United States on all issues of common interest,” the statement said.

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(NEW YORK) — The world has entered an era of global “water bankruptcy,” as irreversible damage experienced by water systems has pushed many basins around the world beyond recovery, recent research has shown.

Some of the worst impacts include chronic groundwater depletion, overallocation of water, deforestation, pollution and degradation to land and soil, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH).

As a result, many regions around the world are experiencing a “post-crisis condition,” which entails irreversible losses of natural water capital and an inability to bounce back to historic baselines, the researchers said.

The Middle East and North Africa are among the water bankruptcy “hot spots” due to high water stress, climate vulnerability, low agricultural productivity, energy-intensive desalination, sand and dust storms and complex political economies, according to the report.

South Asia is also among the regions of concern due to groundwater-dependent agriculture and urbanization, which have produced chronic declines in water tables and local subsidence, the report noted.

In the U.S., the Southwest has also been labeled a hot spot due to the dwindling of the Colorado River and its reservoirs, which “have become symbols of over-promised water,” according to the U.N.

Of the world’s large lakes, 50% have lost water since the early 1990s, according to the report. A quarter of humanity directly depends on those lakes, the researchers said.

In addition, 50% of global domestic water is now derived from groundwater, and 40% of irrigation water is drawn from aquifers being steadily drained. Of the world’s major aquifers, 70% are showing long-term decline.

Global glacier mass has declined 30% since 1970, with entire low- and mid-latitude mountain ranges expected to lose functional glaciers within decades, according to the report.

An “overwhelming majority” of the statistics listed were caused by humans, the researchers said.

As a result, 2 billion people worldwide live on sinking ground and 4 billion people face severe water scarcity at least one month every year, according to the report.

Between 2022 and 2023, 1.8 million people were living under drought conditions.

“This report tells an uncomfortable truth: many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” Kaveh Madani, director of the UNU-INWEH and lead author of the report, said in a statement.

The researchers defined “water bankruptcy” as persistent over-withdrawal from surface and groundwater, relative to renewable inflows and safe levels of depletion, and the resulting of irreversible or prohibitively costly loss of water-related natural capital.

The impacts are so detrimental that terms like “water stressed,” which reflects high pressure that remains reversible, and “water crisis,” which describes acute shocks that can be overcome, do not adequately represent the scope of the damage to the world’s water systems, according to the report.

The authors stressed that water bankruptcy is not a series of isolated local crises, but rather a shared global risk, especially since agriculture accounts for the vast majority of freshwater use and food systems are tightly interconnected through trade and prices.

“When water scarcity undermines farming in one region, the effects ripple through global markets, political stability, and food security elsewhere,” Madani said.

The report, released ahead of the 2026 U.N. Water Conference in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 26, calls for a fundamental reset of the global water agenda to help ease the impacts. The authors called for water to be recognized as both a constraint and an opportunity for meeting climate, biodiversity and land commitments.

Managing water bankruptcy will require governments to focus on preventing further irreversible damage, such as wetland loss, destructive groundwater depletion and uncontrolled pollution, the report noted. It also called for transforming water-intensive sectors, such as agriculture and industry, through crop shifts, irrigation reforms and more efficient urban systems.

The peer-reviewed paper will be published in the journal of Water Resources Management.

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(LONDON) — Thousands of people thronged the snowy streets of the Greenlandic capital of Nuuk on Saturday to have their say on a transatlantic crisis that has shaken the 76-year-old NATO alliance.

“Greenland for Greenlanders,” “Our land, not yours,” and “Yankee go home” were among the signs held aloft by marchers, accompanied by a plethora of red-and-white Greenlandic flags.

The 56,000 Greenlanders who inhabit the world’s largest island — which is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark — have found themselves at the center of a geopolitical storm, as U.S. President Donald Trump wages an escalating pressure campaign to acquire the territory despite intense opposition from Greenlanders, Danes and America’s NATO allies.

The message of the weekend march in Nuuk was clear. But many Greenlanders fear that their voices are being lost in the transatlantic furor, Pele Broberg — the leader of the pro-independence Naleraq party — told ABC News.

“We are currently being caught in broader political conflicts driven by opposition to Donald Trump, because we are just a stepping stone between the Europeans and the Americans,” Broberg said.

“Everybody is busy and stepping on Greenland to make a point that Donald Trump is a bad man,” he added. “I’m not a pro-Trump guy. I’m not pro anything with the U.S. with regards to how they’re handling this situation.”

‘Territories don’t have any rights’
Naleraq is the second-largest party and the official opposition in Greenland’s parliament. While Greenlandic political parties have agreed on independence as a shared eventual goal, Naleraq is widely seen as pushing for a more immediate breakaway from Denmark. The party is also considered by observers to be the most open to U.S. cooperation.

Broberg was clear that he considers Copenhagen at least partly responsible for the crisis engulfing Greenland. “The problem is that everybody talked about the Greenlandic people without the Greenlandic people,” he said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has repeatedly said that Greenland belongs to Greenlanders and that no decision on the island’s future can be made without their agreement. But Broberg said that the framing of Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland as an attack on Denmark has sown confusion.

“Either Greenland truly belongs to the Greenlandic people, or it is treated as part of the Danish Kingdom. In practice, it cannot be both,” he said. Copenhagen, he said, “has managed to marginalize the Greenlandic government … They have managed to make it a matter of the Danish Kingdom and not the Greenlandic people.”

“Territories don’t have any rights — peoples have rights,” Broberg added.

Broberg said he believes there is “no doubt” that the Danish government is using the current crisis to undermine the goal of Greenlandic independence, using the threat of U.S. domination as a foil.

The Greenlandic government — currently led by the Demokraatit party — and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen have made clear they have no intention of joining the U.S.

“If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,” Nielsen said during a press conference earlier this month. “Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States.”

The next general election in Greenland is scheduled for 2029, the year Trump’s second term ends.

Amid Trump’s threats, the leaders of all five political parties holding seats in Greenland’s parliament also released a joint statement. “We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” they said.

A bipartisan U.S. Congressional delegation traveled to Denmark last weekend in a bid to reassure Danes and Greenlanders of their support. Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said at an event in Copenhagen, “I hope that the people of the Kingdom of Denmark do not abandon their faith in the American people.”

Broberg, whose party placed second in last year’s elections with 24% of the vote, suggested there had been a damaging lack of communication between Nuuk and Washington.

“The problem is that they are reacting out of panic rather than having a clear strategy,” Broberg said of the Greenlandic government. “I encouraged them last year, before the elections, to actually go to speak to the U.S. representatives. But they didn’t want to do that because they felt insulted by the way they were talked about.”

‘This started with Trump’
Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Frederiksen at that time dismissed the proposal as “absurd.” 

President Joe Biden’s administration also showed a keen interest in Greenland, though it engaged in a softer approach. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the island in 2021 and told reporters he was there “because the United States deeply values our partnership and wants to make it even stronger.”

His trip followed bilateral successes in 2020 — before Trump left office — that saw the U.S. reopen its Nuuk consulate, expand cooperation at the American Thule Air Base, since renamed as the Pituffik Space Base, and agree to a new economic collaboration strategy.

Broberg said it is clear that Greenland is part of the long-term, bipartisan U.S. strategic picture. But the crisis over the island’s sovereignty, he said, “started with Donald Trump.”

“We’re not a pro-Trump or pro-U.S. party,” he said. “We’re a pro-Greenland party. We don’t tolerate anything of what came out of the American president’s mouth with regards to Greenland and its people’s rights.”

Broberg, a former Greenlandic foreign minister, urged dialogue. “You have to work this problem, not become the problem,” he said.

Still, Broberg acknowledged that the situation “has escalated to a point where simple solutions are no longer available,” citing the brewing transatlantic trade war. “I don’t see a way out of this that doesn’t involve an election in Greenland.”

Broberg said Naleraq foresees a free association agreement with Denmark twinned with a defense-and security-agreement with the U.S., under which Washington would gain exclusive rights to military operations on the island.

“Under the current defense agreement, the U.S. does not hold full military exclusivity over Greenland,” he said, referring to the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement that gave the U.S. military access across the island. “That’s why you can see that Donald Trump looked at the stationing of troops this week as an escalation, as a provocation.”

Broberg also said Naleraq has discussed the formation of a Greenlandic coast guard — with personnel potentially numbering in the low thousands — to help guard Greenland’s 27,000-mile coastline.

Trump has repeatedly dismissed suggestions that a larger U.S. military footprint on Greenland can address his purported concerns over Russian and Chinese presence in the High North. “I could put a lot of soldiers there right now if I want. But you need more than that. You need ownership,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One this month.

Nonetheless, Broberg said his party is “genuinely interested” in working with the U.S. on security and trade. “We are, from a political point of view, looking to be globalist. We are a free trade country. We don’t impose tariffs on anybody, no matter what,” he said.

Asked if he was currently in touch with the Trump administration, Broberg replied, “Not at all.”

Trump has been dismissive of Greenland’s prime minister. After Nielsen said the island would not join the U.S., Trump told reporters, “That’s their problem. I disagree with him. I don’t know who he is. Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him.”

Subs in the fjords
Trump’s reasoning for wanting “complete and total control” of Greenland is the purported threat posed by Russia and China in the Arctic.

NATO allies have said they agree that regional military capabilities and readiness should be bolstered. Last year, Copenhagen announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package in response to U.S. criticism that it had failed to adequately protect Greenland.

And last week, eight NATO nations sent small contingents of troops to Greenland for what they said were military exercises. In an interview early this week, Broberg was fiercely critical of what he described as that “very stupid” move, saying he felt it would be interpreted as “an escalation” by the U.S.

Broberg also said it was a mistake to send the troops to Nuuk and Greenland’s west coast. “The Russians are on the east coast, they’re in the northeast,” he said.

“If they really wanted to placate the US … they should put them on the northeast coast where nobody lives,” Broberg added.

Asked whether the Russian-Chinese threat to Greenland was genuine or concocted, Broberg replied, “I think the truth is somewhere in between … You don’t have smoke without some fire.”

But he noted that hunting parties — traveling over the frozen terrain quickly and quietly on dogsleds, a mode of transport Trump appeared to mock when criticizing Danish military capabilities in Greenland — “have, on occasion, reported seeing submarines near the coast or fjords.”

“We have never been told what kind of subs there are. But the presumption is Russian subs. So there is some truth to it. But if it’s crawling with them, or if it’s one every 10 years — I have no idea.”

 

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(LONDON) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney added his voice to the condemnation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, warning that the international community is “in the midst of a rupture.”

Several allied leaders have used their speeches at the annual event in the Swiss Alps to push back on Trump’s pressure campaign over Greenland, which has seen Trump and administration officials propose tariffs on NATO allies and even threaten the use of force to seize control of the massive Arctic territory.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.

NATO allies have mobilized to bolster Greenlandic security in response to Trump’s assertions that the territory — and the wider Arctic region — are at risk from growing Chinese and Russian regional influence.

On Tuesday, Carney warned that the world has entered a new “era of great power rivalry,” in which “the rules-based order is fading … the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.”

“Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration,” Carney continued.

“But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” he added.

“On Arctic sovereignty, we stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland’s future,” Carney said. “Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland and calls for focused talks to achieve our shared objectives of security and prosperity in the Arctic.”

Trump is scheduled to speak at Davos on Wednesday afternoon local time. Speaking with reporters before heading to Switzerland, the president showed no sign of softening his approach to the Greenland issue.

“I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and we’re — we’re going to be very happy,” Trump said of the upcoming Davos trip during a press briefing. “But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security and even world security. It’s very important.”

When asked by a reporter how far he was willing to go to secure Greenland, Trump replied, “You’ll find out.”

Other European leaders on Tuesday spoke at Davos and criticized Trump’s threat of tariffs on NATO allies related to Greenland. 

The president announced new 10% tariffs on all goods from the eight nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that sent small contingents of troops to Greenland last week. The European nations said the deployments were for a military exercise intended to boost regional security.

Trump said the new tariffs will come into force on Feb. 1 and will increase to 25% on June 1. The president said the measures would remain in place until the U.S. is able to purchase Greenland.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a speech in Davos that the “proposed additional tariffs are a mistake.” Referring to the trade deal signed by the EU and U.S. in July, von der Leyen added, “In politics as in business, a deal is a deal.”

“Plunging us into a dangerous downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape,” she said. “Our response will be unflinching, united and proportional.”

On Wednesday, von der Leyen said during a press conference at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France, “The threat of additional tariffs for security reasons is simply wrong.”

“We are at a crossroads. Europe prefers dialogue and solutions, but we are fully prepared to act, if necessary, with unity, urgency, and determination,” von der Leyen added.

European Council President Antonio Costa said, “Further tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-US agreement.” He added, “We stand ready to defend ourselves, our member states, our citizens, our companies against any form of coercion.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, criticized “competition from the United States of America through trade agreements that undermine our export interests, demand maximum concessions, and openly aim to weaken and subordinate Europe.”

Such measures, he said, were “combined with an endless accumulation of new tariffs that are fundamentally unacceptable — even more so when they are used as leverage against territorial sovereignty.”

The Greenland military exercises, Macron said, posed no threat and were a step taken to support Denmark. “Cooperating is not about blaming others,” Macron said. “We do prefer respect to bullies.”

On Wednesday, Paris called for new allied drills. “France requests a NATO exercise in Greenland and is ready to contribute,” a source at the Elysee Palace — which houses the presidential office — told ABC News.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, meanwhile, said in a post to Facebook on Tuesday that the autonomous territory must be “prepared for the worst.”

“It is unlikely that we will be arrested by force, but we cannot be indifferent either,” Nielsen wrote. “Our neighbor did not miss this opportunity. It is therefore important that we be prepared for the worst.”

Nielsen said Greenland is in “constant dialogue with the EU and NATO and others,” about the situation.

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(K’GARI, Australia) — A 19-year-old Canadian woman was found dead on an Australian beach surrounded by a pack of dingoes, according to police.

The cause of death remains under investigation in the “shocking” incident, according to Queensland Police.

Two passersby found the teen’s body on Monday morning local time on the island of K’gari, located off the coast of Queensland, police said. There was a small pack of dingoes around her body at the time, according to Queensland Police Inspector Paul Algie, calling it a “traumatic and horrific scene.”

“I can confirm there was marking on her body consistent with having been touched and interfered with by the dingoes,” Algie said during a press briefing on Monday, though he noted it was too early to speculate on the cause of death, pending the autopsy report.

Algie said police are investigating all possibilities in the death. 

“We simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned or died as a result of being attacked by dingoes,” he said.

The woman had been working for the past several weeks at a backpackers’ hostel on K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, police said.

Police said she is believed to have gone for a swim alone on the beach, near a popular shipwreck, around 5 a.m. local time Monday and was found dead over an hour later.  

An autopsy is expected to be conducted on Wednesday, police said.

K’gari, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a popular tourist destination. Dingoes are protected on the island as a native species.

The last fatal dingo attack on K’gari was 25 years ago, according to Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour. In that incident, a 9-year-old boy died.

“This is a shocking tragedy that has really affected our community,” Seymour told the Australian network 9News amid the investigation into the 19-year-old’s death.

“Dingoes are an essential part of this wilderness on K’gari, it’s part of why people go there — to escape, be part of a World Heritage wilderness,” he said. “There are dangers there.”

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(LONDON) — The escalating showdown between the U.S. and its NATO allies over the fate of Greenland looks set to be a dominant topic of conversation as leaders gather at this week’s World Economic Forum event in Davos, with U.S. President Donald Trump again declaring on Monday that American ownership of the Arctic island is “imperative.”

Trump said in a post to social media that, following a phone call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, “I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland. As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!”

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.

European leaders, meanwhile, continued to push back on Trump’s ambitions and publicize their coordination efforts on the issue.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post to X that she met with a bipartisan congressional delegation to discuss both Russia’s war in Ukraine and recent tensions around Greenland.

Von der Leyen said she “addressed the need to unequivocally respect the sovereignty of Greenland and of the Kingdom of Denmark. This is of utmost importance to our transatlantic relationship.”

The European Union, she said, “remains ready to continue working closely with the United States, NATO, and other allies, in close cooperation with Denmark, to advance our shared security interests.”

“We also discussed transatlantic trade and investment. They are a major asset for both the EU and US economies. Tariffs run counter to these shared interests,” von der Leyen wrote.

Danish and Greenlandic ministers traveled on Monday to Brussels to meet with NATO chief Rutte.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said afterward that the Greenland issue poses challenges “fundamentally to Europe and, for that matter, also the future of NATO.” Poulsen said Rutte is “very aware of the difficult situation.”

Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said the meeting “achieved some important things with regard to security in the Arctic.” She added, “It is important to know how to work with security in the Arctic. That is why we are now carrying out various exercises.”

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, meanwhile, was in the U.K. on Monday to meet with his counterpart in London. “In turbulent times, close allies are crucial — Denmark and the UK stand close together,” Rasmussen wrote on X. “We agree on the need for stronger NATO engagement in the Arctic and closer security cooperation.”

Trump has suggested that U.S. sovereignty over Greenland is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. A 1951 defense agreement already grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, but Trump has suggested the deal is inadequate.

Denmark and its European allies have sought to ease concerns about the supposed vulnerability of the Arctic through more military spending and by sending small contingents of troops to Greenland last week.

But Trump interpreted the deployments as a provocation, and announced new 10% tariffs on all goods from the eight nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that sent troops.

European leaders hit back at Trump’s decision and said the move threatened a new transatlantic trade war.

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(ADAMUZ, Spain) — At least 40 people have been killed and more than 100 others were injured after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain, according to emergency officials.

A train traveling from Málaga to Madrid on Sunday derailed near Adamuz, crossing over to the adjacent track where it hit another train coming from Madrid to Huelva, according to the Spanish Interior Minister.

Eighty-one of the injured have been discharged and 41 remain hospitalized, emergency officials said on Monday. Twelve of the hospitalized victims are in the intensive care unit, officials said.

An unknown number of people remained unaccounted for on Monday as rescue crews continued to work at the scene, according to a Spanish official.

Regional President of Andalusia Juan Manuel Moreno said rescue crews are working through difficult conditions to try to reach the train carriages, where more victims could be inside.

About 400 people were on board both trains, officials said.

Oscar Puente, the Spanish transport minister, said in a statement early on Monday that the death toll was “not final.”

“I want to express all my gratitude for the huge effort of the rescue teams during the night, under very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families in these terribly painful moments,” he said in Spanish on social media.

The cause of the train derailment has not been released.

Iryo, the company operating the train that initially derailed, released a statement, saying the company “deeply regrets what has happened and has activated all emergency protocols, working closely with the competent authorities to manage the situation.”

Puente, the transport minister, said the high-speed Iryo train was “relatively new.”

Puente said the derailment of the Iryo train bound for Madrid and its subsequent collision with the second train happened on a straight stretch of track, which had undergone extensive renovation work that was only finished in May.

The Spanish minister called the accident “extremely strange.”

“It’s very difficult at this moment to explain,” Puente added, and said he hoped the investigation would help clear up what has happened.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — The leaders of all 27 European Union nations will meet for an “extraordinary meeting” later this week, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Sunday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating pressure campaign to acquire Greenland.

European leaders are mobilizing after Trump on Saturday announced a 10% tariff to be imposed on all goods sent to the U.S. from eight NATO nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that recently sent small contingents of troops to Greenland to take part in military exercises there.

On Sunday, Trump sent a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in which the president again expressed his desire to take control of Greenland. Store’s office confirmed to ABC News on Monday that Oslo received the message from Trump. The details of the letter were first reported by PBS.

“Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote.

“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also,” the president continued. “I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.”

Costa said he had called the meeting due to the “significance of recent developments.”

European leaders are mobilizing after Trump on Saturday announced a 10% tariff to be imposed on all goods sent to the U.S. from eight NATO nations — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Finland — that recently sent small contingents of troops to Greenland to take part in military exercises there.

Costa said recent conversations with European leaders had reconfirmed their “strong commitment” to international law, Arctic security through NATO and solidarity with Denmark and Greenland in the face of Trump’s continued effort to acquire the Arctic island.

European leaders also agreed that “tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and are incompatible with the EU-U.S. trade agreement,” Costa said, noting the bloc’s “readiness to defend ourselves against any form of coercion” and to engage “constructively with the US on all issues of common interest.”

An EU Council spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the summit would be an in-person meeting in Brussels.

Trump said the new tariffs will come into force on Feb. 1 and will increase to 25% on June 1. The president said the measures would remain in place until the U.S. is able to purchase Greenland.

Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the minerals-rich island in his first term. Danish and Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly rebuffed such proposals.

Trump’s new tariffs raise the risk of a fresh transatlantic trade war. A French official confirmed to ABC News on Monday that French President Emmanuel Macron “will request the activation of the EU’s anti-coercion instrument in the event of new U.S. tariffs.”

That mechanism, colloquially known as the bloc’s “trade bazooka,” would allow the EU to impose severe restrictions on U.S. goods and services. Among the available measures would be restrictions on U.S. investment in EU nations, blocks on access to public procurement schemes and limits on intellectual property protections.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. sovereignty over the world’s largest island is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region. On Sunday, the president again claimed that only the U.S. can ensure the security of Greenland.

A 1951 defense agreement grants the U.S. military access to Greenland. Danish politicians have repeatedly expressed willingness to work with Washington to expand the American and NATO presence there.

Danish officials have also sought to head off concerns about the supposed vulnerability of the Arctic. Last year, Copenhagen announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package in response to U.S. criticism that it had failed to adequately protect Greenland.

But such steps do not appear to have deterred Trump, who has said he would consider taking Greenland by force if other means to acquire the land fail.

Indeed, it was the recent deployment of more NATO forces to the Arctic territory that prompted Trump to threaten a new raft of tariffs. The troops traveled to Greenland to take part in the Danish-led Operation Arctic Endurance.

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt are scheduled to visit NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Monday for a previously planned meeting with the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte, NATO said in a press release.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged “calm discussion” between allies. “The security of Greenland matters and it will matter more as climate change reshapes the Arctic,” he said, noting the need for “greater attention, greater investment and stronger collective defense.”

“The United States will be central to that effort, and the U.K. stands ready to contribute fully alongside our allies through NATO,” Starmer said, adding that any decisions about the territory’s future should be left to Greenlanders and Danes.

Trump’s use of tariffs against allies, Starmer continued, “is completely wrong. It is not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance. Nor is it helpful to frame efforts to strengthen Greenland’s security as a justification for economic pressure.”

ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Tom Soufi Burridge and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.

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(ADAMUZ, Spain) — At least 39 people were killed and about 152 others were injured after two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday, according to officials.

A train traveling from Málaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, crossing over to the adjacent track where it hit another train coming from Madrid to Huelva, according to the Spanish Interior Minister.

The number of confirmed dead rose to 39 from the previously reported 21 and was “not final,” Oscar Puente, the Spanish transport minister, said in a statement early on Monday.

“I want to express all my gratitude for the huge effort of the rescue teams during the night, under very difficult circumstances, and my condolences to the victims and their families in these terribly painful moments,” he said in Spanish on social media.

Spain’s prime minister is expected to visit the crash site this morning.

Officials had earlier said that of those injured, 75 were hospitalized, with 15 in very serious condition and five in life-threatening condition.

Rescue crews are on the scene, and all trains between Madrid and the Andalusia region are suspended, according to officials.

The cause of the train derailment has not yet been released.

Iryo, the company operating the train that initially derailed, released a statement, saying the company “deeply regrets what has happened and has activated all emergency protocols, working closely with the competent authorities to manage the situation.”

The company said there were 300 passengers on the train at the time.

Puente, the transport minister, spoke to reporters late Sunday night and the high-speed Iryo train was “relatively new.”

Puente said the derailment of the Iryo train bound for Madrid and its subsequent collision with the second train happened on a straight stretch of track, which had undergone extensive renovation work that was only finished in May.

The Spanish minister called the accident “extremely strange.”

“It’s very difficult at this moment to explain,” Puente added, and said he hoped the investigation would help clear up what has happened.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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