No change in plan to buy jets from US, Trump says US will ‘convince’ Greenland, local residents look for meteorites and more news from Denmark this Thursday.
No change in Danish plan to buy US F35s
Denmark said Wednesday that it planned to buy more US F-35 fighter jets despite strained relations with Donald Trump, who wants to annex its autonomous territory of Greenland.
“We have to strengthen our fleet of fighter jets and it is completely logical to acquire more F-35 fighter jets,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told the Børsen newspaper after Denmark announced a huge increase in defence spending.
Poulsen’s department declined to give more details about any future order when contacted by AFP.
Questions about whether it is wise for Denmark to keep buying weapons from the United States have been put into sharp focus since Trump’s rapprochement with Russia and threats of aggression against Canada and Greenland.
Canada said this month that it would re-examine its purchase of F-35s and look at other options.
But Poulsen said: “It’s completely unrealistic to think that we could stop cooperating with the United States and buying its military equipment.
Trump reiterates US need to ‘have’ Greenland ahead of Vance visit
US President Donald Trump ramped up his claims to Greenland on Wednesday, saying ahead of a visit by Vice President JD Vance that the United States needed to take control of the Danish island for “international security.”
“We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,” Trump told podcaster Vince Coglianese. “I hate to put it that way, but we’re going to have to have it.”
Asked if he thought Greenlanders were eager to join the United States, Trump said he did not know.
“We have to convince them,” he said. “And we have to have that land, because it’s not possible to properly defend a large section of this Earth, not just the United States, without it.”
Trump’s comments prompted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to say on her Facebook account: “We mustn’t have illusions — President Trump’s interest in Greenland is not going away”.
“They know that Greenland is not for sale. They know that Greenland doesn’t want to be part of the United States,” she added, saying the message had been communicated “unambiguously.”
READ ALSO: Is US change of plans over Greenland visit a deescalation?
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Kolding hit by large power outage
A large number of residents in Jutland town Kolding were without power yesterday evening due to an “unexpected” outage, utility company Trefor said.
Power went out just after 10pm and was restored just before 11pm after around 33,000 electricity customers were affected by the unexpected outage, Trefor confirmed in a social media post.
“We do not expect further disruptions to the electricity supply,” Trefor stated after restoring power.
The outage also caused issues with the water and heating supplies for the affected homes.
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Residents of Zealand town check gardens for meteorites
Fragments from a meteor may have landed in an area near Lumsås in Northwest Zealand according to calculations by a network of fireball observers, after a fireball was observed in the sky on March 18th.
Visual sightings and video recordings indicate that part of the fireball could have fallen over Lumsås, consisting of one or more pieces weighing around 30-40 grams.
A network of enthusiasts urged residents of the town to “inspect their houses, gardens, roofs, gutters, roads, paths, and so on, and look for small black stones.”
The Danish state pays a reward for meteorites which are discovered on its territory.