‘Greenland belongs to its people’, Europe tells Trump

He initially became interested during his first term in the White House after it was suggested by his friend Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics brand. Why is he so interested?

• Read in full: Why does Trump want Greenland?

The opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s movement has demanded the release of almost 900 political prisoners after the US captured Nicolás Maduro.

“Those who unjustly hold the civilian and military political prisoners should free them immediately,” Vente Venezuela said of political detainees linked to the movement, of which a leading local rights group estimates there are 863.

Two Royal Air Force jets are thought to be headed to intercept a Russia-flagged tanker that broke the US blockade of Venezuela.

An RAF Typhoon fighter, accompanied by a KC2 Voyager tanker aircraft, was tracked heading to where the Marinera, formerly Bella 1, was last spotted.

The ship is among at least 16 US sanctioned oil tankers that reportedly attempted to break the US naval blockade over the past two days in a possibly co-ordinated action.

The Marinera tanker vessel is now sailing in stormy weather towards Iceland. Since last month, US forces have pursued the crude oil tanker. Two officials familiar with the Marinera seizure plans told CBS on Monday that the US planned to seize the ship.

The Danish parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee has been called to an extraordinary meeting this evening, with only item on the agenda — Copenhagen’s relationship with the US.

Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper reports that the meeting will take place at 6pm local time and will be held in a “secret, secure room at Christiansborg Palace”, a government building in central Copenhagen.

The meeting comes amid growing alarm in Denmark over claims in Washington that it could annex Greenland.

Kuno Fencker, a Greenland MP, has said he would favour a “bilateral agreement” on defence and security between Greenland and the US and urged his government to “go and talk” to the Trump administration.

He told Times Radio the Northwest Passage was opening up to shipping which means Greenland is “a very important geopolitical area”.

Fencker, a member of Naleraq, a pro-independence party, added: “In my opinion, we should have a bilateral agreement — Greenland, the United States — in regards to defence and security.” He also accused the Greenland government of throwing “a childish tantrum”.

Fencker said: “And they have to go and talk to the US administration and find out what are their interests, what are their concerns.”

Greenland belongs to its people and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on their relations, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain and Denmark said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

“It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” the statement read.

The statement added that Arctic security remains a “key priority” for Europe and is critical for international and transatlantic security.

A former CIA director has warned that President Trump is putting Nato at risk and predicted he will not stop at Venezuela.

John Brennan, who has long been critical of Trump, told Times Radio that the Venezuela intervention was “a shameful exhibition of American imperialism under the Trump administration”.

Brennan, who served as head of the CIA from 2013 to 2017 under Barack Obama, said that Trump’s actions could lead its allies, including Ukraine, to question the value of the US commitment to Nato.

“Donald Trump is somebody who is very mercurial,” he said. “He goes back on his word. And I don’t think you can trust what he says. He’s going to do what he wants, when he wants, and the way he wants.”

Brennan added: “I think what we’re seeing now is a demonstration of the Trump administration’s imperialist agenda. And I don’t think it’s going to stop at Venezuela.

“The question is, what is next? When is it going to happen? And he’s already made some very public threats against Colombia … Mexico and Cuba, Iran and then Greenland, a Nato partner. It’s just outrageous to think that we are threatening Denmark in terms of taking over Greenland.”

Armed police were deployed on the streets of Caracas overnight, according to the Venezuelan minister of the interior, justice and peace.

Diosdado Cabello posted photos of himself to social media surrounded by security forces holding automatic weapons.

A caption says that he visited several areas on Monday evening to oversee the deployment of security forces.

The former vice-president and spy chief had been a key ally of Maduro and is accused of high-level involvement in alleged corruption and drug trafficking by the Venezuelan opposition and the US.

Hours after removing Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela by abducting him from Caracas, President Trump vowed that America’s oil giants would invest “billions” in a revival of the resource-rich nation’s beleaguered energy industry.

However, industry observers are sceptical about the feasibility of attracting US oil majors back to Venezuela more than a decade after all but one abandoned it.

• Read in full: Trump wants to pump more Venezuelan oil. The cost may surprise him

“There are a few very important problems here,” said Jorge León, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy and a former official at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec). “The first one is underinvestment in infrastructure: the national oil company is completely broken, they have not invested at all. [There is] a lot of corruption … so you really need to fix the infrastructure and that is quite expensive.”

The United Nations human rights office voiced deep concern Tuesday over the dramatic US operation in Venezuela, warning that it clearly “undermined a fundamental principle of international law”.

“States must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

The office added that the US intervention sent a message to the world that the powerful can so whatever they like.

Denmark can count on the solidarity of all of of Europe on the issue of Greenland, a Danish territory, the Polish prime minister has said, after President Trump reiterated that he wanted to take over the Arctic island.

“No member should attack or threaten another member of the North Atlantic Treaty. Otherwise, Nato would lose its meaning if conflict or mutual conflicts occurred within the alliance,” Donald Tusk said.

Her father was a Marxist guerrilla who kidnapped an American businessman. She calls herself a revolutionary and is sanctioned by the United States for repressing dissent.

She runs the national oil company in a country that has more of the black stuff than Saudi Arabia.

And now she seems to have been picked by President Trump as a “gracious” woman with whom he can do business.

• Read in full: Who is Delcy Rodríguez? Guerrilla’s daughter is new Venezuela leader

European leaders and senior American officials are to meet in Paris today to discuss Ukrainian security amid transatlantic tensions over US threats to annex Greenland.

Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, is expected to attend the “coalition of the willing” meeting, as are the senior US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The meeting of about 30 of Ukraine’s allies will seek to agree on concrete commitments to a multinational peacekeeping force to be deployed in the event of a ceasefire.

However, President Trump’s calls for Greenland to come under US control will also be discussed on the sidelines of the meeting.

Mark Carney, prime minister of Canada — another country that Trump has laid claim to — said he would have a bilateral meeting with Frederiksen in Paris.

A minute before noon a tall, broad-shouldered defendant with a bushy moustache and a curly rug of greying hair walked into room 26a on the 26th floor of the Manhattan federal courthouse. The courtroom is ruled by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, 92, a lifelong New Yorker.

“Are you, sir, Nicolás Maduro Moros?” Judge Hellerstein inquired.

• Read in full: Wearing prison garb, strongman Maduro is dressed down by a Manhattan judge

“I am president of the Republic of Venezuela and I’m here, kidnapped, since January 3,” the defendant replied, in Spanish. “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela, in —”

“Here, let me interfere,” said Judge Hellerstein, cutting him off. “There will be a time and a place to go into all of this. The counsel will be able to make motions addressing the legal sufficiency of what was done.”

• The rise and fall of Maduro — how Venezuela’s president lost control

The Trump administration claims it needs Greenland for strategic defence purposes despite the US already having a military presence on the island.

The US operates Pituffik Space Base on the northwest coast of Greenland under an agreement with Denmark.

The base is 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle and 947 miles from the North Pole. Formally Thule Air Base, it hosts 150 US service members — down from nearly 6,000 during the Cold War.

The 1951 Greenland Defence Agreement allows the US to operate the base under a Nato framework, as long as both Denmark and the US remain members.

In March last year, the US vice-president, JD Vance, toured the installation. In April, the base commander, Colonel Susannah Meyers, was relieved of command by the Trump administration for “undermining” Vance’s visit.

The intervention in Venezuela has heightened concerns the US may take military action against other countries.

Colombia: President Trump says “Colombia is very sick”. Asked whether the US would intervene in Colombia, Trump responded: “Sounds good to me.”

• Could the US now turn its attention to Colombia and Cuba?

Mexico: Shortly after the Maduro capture, Trump said: “Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.” He has offered to send US troops to help fight cartels, an offer Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has rejected.

Cuba: Trump called Cuba a “failing nation”.

Iran: Amid protests in Iran, Trump said if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters … the United States of America will come to their rescue”.

Canada: Last year Trump expressed a desire to make Canada the 51st US state.

Panama: Trump has said he wants to “take back” the Panama Canal.

Nigeria: The US launched strikes against what Trump has called Islamic State militant “scum” over Christmas.

The international figurehead of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, plans to return home “as soon as possible”.

In her first public interview since the US military forcibly removed President Maduro from power, the Nobel peace prize winner vowed to return to her country.

“I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,” Machado told Sean Hannity, the Fox News broadcaster.

• Read in full: María Corina Machado to return to Venezuela ‘as soon as possible’

At least 16 sanctioned oil tankers appear to have made an attempt to evade US sanctions, leaving Venezuelan waters since its forces captured Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.

Most of the oil tankers that left Venezuela in the past days have transmitted false GPS location signals, disguising their true locations, or cut off transmissions entirely.

Thirteen of the tankers were carrying around 12 million barrels of crude oil and refined oil products, according to Tanker Trackers.

The US blockade could affect up to 600 oil tankers, according to an AFP analysis of data provided by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and the International Maritime Organisation.

From Miami to Melbourne and Bogota to Buenos Aires, thousands of Venezuelan migrants have been celebrating the demise of Nicolás Maduro. On the streets of Caracas the mood is far quieter.

The two million residents of the capital, who are famously loquacious, have been largely keeping their heads down in the two days since they were awoken by the sound of US missile attacks and the news that their unpopular president was gone.

• Read in full: Venezuelans brace for what comes next: ‘Now there is fear’

Their reticence is understandable. Venezuela is under a state of emergency, imposed months before Saturday’s attack, making it clear that supporting any US intervention would be deemed treason. On Monday an additional clause was introduced calling on security forces to search for and arrest anyone involved in facilitating the operation that captured Maduro.

The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, says she plans to share her Nobel peace prize with President Trump.

In her first public interview since the US military forcibly removed Nicolás Maduro from power, she told Fox News: “Because this is the prize of the Venezuelan people, certainly we want to give it to him and share it with him.”

However, Machado, who said she wants to return to her country as soon as possible, appears to have been sidelined by the US after the removal of Maduro, with Trump seeming to dismiss the option of involving her in the political transition.

• Machado: I’ll return home as soon as possible

He said it would be “tough” for Machado to lead the nation because she did not have the “respect within or the support within the country”.

Machado said that her ally Edmundo González, a former diplomat who is widely believed to have defeated Maduro in an election in July 2024, should “immediately assume his constitutional mandate” as president.

Wes Streeting said that the events in Venezuela were “just the latest morbid symptoms of the disintegration of the rules-based international system”.

The health secretary told Times Radio: “That concerns us as a government, and should concern all of us, because a world without rules is a world in which we are all less safe.”

Streeting defended Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper for not criticising the Trump administration over alleged breaches of international law in Venezuela.

“They are choosing their words and their timing carefully because they are not commentators,” he said.

Wes Streeting has said that “Greenland is already part of our team” after President Trump threatened to annex the territory for national security reasons.

“They are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and they are playing their part,” the health secretary told Times Radio.

“They are playing their part for our national security and national self-interest and for the contribution to our collective security through Nato.

“So I’d say to President Trump, Greenland is already part of our team. They are already delivering with and for Nato, and they are doing that very well as part of the kingdom of Denmark.”

The shadow defence secretary has sought to play up the US commitment to Nato, despite Trump’s threats to annex Greenland.

James Cartlidge told Times Radio that the “fundamental position” of the US is that it is an ally, and that Nato is “absolutely central to them as it is to us”.

Cartlidge said that he backed Sir Keir Starmer’s defence of Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland, but he added: “President Trump has a point in particular that he’s made many times that Nato countries need to spend more on defence, to do more to defend … our backyard, because the US has enough on its hands in terms of looking at the China threat.”

In further comments during his CNN interview, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, questioned Denmark’s legitimacy to govern Greenland.

When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he could rule out military action against Greenland, Miller said: “It wouldn’t be military action against Greenland. Greenland has a population of 30,000 people, Jake.

“The real question is: by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?”

• Trump’s hardline border tsar ‘set for top role in Venezuela’

He added that “there is no need to think or even talk about” a military operation in Greenland.

The Danish ambassador to the US has responded after the wife of President Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted a map of Greenland overlaid with an American flag with the caption “soon”.

Katie Miller, a former White House aide, posted the contentious image of the Danish autonomous territory in the colours of the US flag on her X feed on Saturday.

Jesper Møller Sørensen, the ambassador of Denmark to the US, said: “Just a friendly reminder about the US and the Kingdom of Denmark: We are close allies and should continue to work together as such.”

He added: “We expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”

Nicolás Maduro claimed to be a “prisoner of war” who was “kidnapped” by America during his first court appearance on Monday since being arrested in Venezuela on Saturday.

“I am a decent man, president of my country,” Maduro declared as he and his wife, Cilia Flores, entered not guilty pleas on drug-trafficking and weapons charges. The couple were then returned to jail.

• I’m a prisoner of war, defiant Nicolás Maduro tells US court

The UN held an emergency meeting of its security council. The US ambassador said his country was not at war with Venezuela and that the raid was a law enforcement operation. The UN heard criticism of the US from several countries including China and Russia.

In the UK, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said the British government would “shed no tears” for the end of Maduro’s rule and that she had raised the importance of international law with her US counterpart, Marco Rubio. She told MPs it was for the Trump administration to set out the legal basis for the raid.

The Greenland prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has looked to calm fears among the Arctic island’s residents.

“We are not in a situation where we think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight, and that is why we are insisting that we want good co-operation,” he told a news conference on Monday.

“The situation is not such that the United States can simply conquer Greenland,” Nielsen added.
Nielsen also called a post by Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, showing Greenland in the colours of the American flag “disrespectful”.

“Relations between nations and peoples are built on mutual respect and international law — not on symbolic gestures that disregard our status and our rights,” he said on X.

But he added: “There is neither reason for panic nor for concern. Our country is not for sale, and our future is not decided by social media posts.”

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has warned that any move by the US to take over Greenland will result in the end of the Nato military alliance.

Frederiksen made the comments on Monday after President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would “talk about Greenland in 20 days”.

The military operation to kidnap the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife has caused alarm in Denmark and Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and thus part of Nato.

“If the United States chooses to attack another Nato country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen said.

“That is, including our Nato and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” she told the Danish broadcaster TV2.

Greenland, the world’s largest island, is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark that has its own language, flag and political institutions. Monetary, defence and foreign affairs fall under Danish control.

Norway ruled Greenland under an agreement with Norse settlers in 1261. It came under the union of Denmark, Sweden and Norway from 1397 to 1523 until Sweden departed, and finally fell under sole Danish sovereignty by the Treaty of Kiel of 1814.

Greenland’s colonial status ended with the Danish constitution of 1953, although it remained within the Kingdom of Denmark. The Home Rule Act of 1979 gave Greenland’s legislature more autonomy and in 1985 it left the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the EU. Greenland gained self-rule in 2009 but continues to receive an annual grant from Denmark. Its citizens retain EU as well as Danish citizenship as an overseas territory of the EU.

In fresh comments, President Trump said he is “very serious” about annexing Greenland.

Talking to the US broadcaster NBC, Trump reiterated his belief that the US has a claim to the semi-autonomous Danish territory. “We need Greenland for national security, and that includes Europe.”

Trump added that despite alarm among European countries over US claims to Greenland, he was “very loyal” to Europe. “You know, I’m very loyal to Europe. We need [it] for national security, right now.”

Sir Keir Starmer chooses what to say to the United States “very carefully” to use his influence in a way that works in the UK’s national interest, a cabinet minister has said.

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said the prime minister was attempting to shore up “the rules-based system, which we’ve seen disintegrating before our eyes”.

On Monday, a junior minister refused to say if the government would criticise President Trump if he attempted to annex Greenland.

Starmer said on Monday, in response to Trump’s threats: “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”

Wes Streeting said that “this is not the time to destabilise Nato” in response to threats by the Trump administration against Greenland — which is part of Denmark, a member of the alliance.

The health secretary said: “The UK and Nato members are doubling down on support for Greenland, their right to self-determination, their place as part of the Kingdom of Denmark and the role that they are already playing as part of the Nato alliance.

“The good news for President Trump is that Greenland is already part of the team and is playing its part in defending our national security as the UK and our collective security.”

He added: “At a time when we can see the security of Nato members and the alliance at threat, particularly from Russia, but also from our other adversaries, this is not the time to destabilise Nato and to undermine our collective security.

“We’re really clear about where we stand. We’re really clear with the United States about where we stand on Greenland.”

One of President Trump’s top aides, Stephen Miller, has said that Greenland rightfully belongs to the United States and that no country can stop America from annexing the Danish territory.

In explicit remarks, Miller also told CNN that the world is “governed by strength”.

“Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Miller said, after being asked repeatedly whether he would rule out using military force.

He added: “We live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.”

The comments come at a time of growing alarm in European capitals over Washington’s with regards to Greenland.

• Who is Stephen Miller? Trump’s hardline border tsar ‘set for top role in Venezuela’