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Denmark responds to Trump’s Greenland ownership comments by boosting defense spending: Live

Danish defense minister says country will spend $1.5 billion to ensire ‘stronger presence’ in Arctic

Congress Narrowly Averts Government Shutdown — And Rejects Trump’s Debt Ceiling Commands

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Denmark is boosting defense spending for Greenland. A Danish official said Tuesday that the timing of the announcement, coming as President-elect Donald Trump made comments that the U.S. should own the territory, was an “irony of fate.”

Troels Lund Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, told the paper Jyllands-Posten Tuesday that the country plans to spend a “double-digit billion amount” in krone — about $1.5 billion — to make sure they have a “stronger presence” in the Arctic.

Trump said Sunday that the “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for the U.S. The U.S. military operates a base in northwest Greenland.

After seemingly joking about Canada becoming the “51st” state, the incoming president fired off ominous messages alleging the Panama Canal and Greenland pose serious economic and national security threats to the United States and might be targeted for some kind of annexation or purchase.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is reeling after an ethics committee report into former congressman Matt Gaetz “determined there is substantial evidence” that he paid tens of thousands of dollars for sex and used illicit drugs while he was a member of Congress.

Chair of Ethics Committee did not vote to release report

The chair of the Ethics Committee, Republican Rep. Michael Guest said that while he does “not challenge the Committee’s findings,” he did not vote to release the report.

I believe, have publicly stated, and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024.

While I do not challenge the Committee’s findings, I did not vote to support the release of the report and I take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006.

Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress. The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice and is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Michael Guest
Gustaf Kilander24 December 2024 10:00

Biden commutes most federal death row sentences. Here’s the full list

Thirty-seven people on death row had their sentences commutated by President Joe Biden on Monday morning and will now serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, rather than face execution.

Maintaining the tradition of offering clemency in the last few weeks of a presidency, Biden exercised his power to remove most inmates from federal death row. Only three people will remain.

It comes a little less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Unlike Biden, Trump supports the death penalty and has suggested more people should be given death sentences – though he has not offered specifics on that. Trump restarted federal executions after a 17-year pause during his first term, with 13 being carried out.

Read more:

Biden commutes most federal death row sentences. Here’s the full list

Three people who committed hate-motivated mass killings or terrorism were exempt from commutation

Ariana Baio24 December 2024 09:00

Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory: ‘We are not for sale’

The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.

“Greenland is ours,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

Egede’s comment comes after the incoming president announced that he wanted to revisit the idea of buying the semi-autonomous land from Denmark. During his first term in the White House, Trump expressed a desire to make a “large real estate deal” because “strategically” it would be “very nice.”

Read more:

Greenland leader balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory: ‘We are not for sale’

The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.

Justin Baragona24 December 2024 08:00

Lord Mandelson ‘open to working with Farage to win over Trump’

Lord Mandelson is reportedly set to call on Nigel Farage to help him win over Donald Trump in his new role as UK ambassador to the US.

He is said to be ready to work with the Reform UK leader, as part of an attempt to persuade the president-elect not to target Britain with tariffs.

Experts have warned of a looming trade war after Mr Trump himself said: “Tariff is my favourite word”, and promised to implement 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on all goods coming into the country – a figure that rises to 60 per cent for those from China.

Read more:

Peter Mandelson ‘open to working with Farage to win over Trump’

Nigel Farage, who has been a close ally of Donald Trump since his 2016 presidential election campaign, has offered his services to Lord Mandelson to act as a link to the president-elect

Millie Cooke24 December 2024 07:00

Biden cheered by Democrats and civil rights groups for commuting dozens of death row sentences

Civil rights groups who were anxiously preparing for the onset of Donald Trump’s presidency breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as President Joe Biden announced the largest single-day commutation of federal death row inmates in modern history.

The White House announced early Monday morning that the president would commute the sentences of 37 inmates awaiting execution in the federal prison system. Now, just three people will remain on death row following the commutations: mass murderers Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.

Read more:

Biden cheered by civil rights groups for commuting dozens of death row sentences

Biden’s announcement leaves Democrats breathing easier after Hunter, ‘Kids for Cash’ clemency news

John Bowden24 December 2024 06:00

Watch: Ethics report finds ‘substantial evidence’ Matt Gaetz violated statutory rape law

Ethics report finds ‘substantial evidence’ Matt Gaetz violated statutory rape law
Gustaf Kilander24 December 2024 05:00

‘We are not for sale’: Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory

The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.

“Greenland is ours,” the territory’s prime minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

Justin Barangoa reports.

Greenland leader balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory: ‘We are not for sale’

The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.

Oliver O'Connell24 December 2024 04:43

Biden to decide on US Steel acquisition after no consensus on national security risks

A powerful government panel on Monday failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of a nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase U.S. Steel, leaving a decision to President Joe Biden, a longtime opponent of the deal.

Continue reading...

Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus

A powerful government panel has failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of a nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase U.S. Steel

AP24 December 2024 04:20

Who is Matt Gaetz’s wife, Ginger? The woman proudly standing by her man amid sex allegations

Ginger Gaetz beams as she stands beside her husband in loved-up photos curated on her Instagram page.

The 30-year-old wife of the former Florida congressman and Donald Trump’s original pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, proudly describes herself as his “wifey” in her profile bio.

Her supportive posts about Gaetz, 42, signaled an intent to stand by him as he battled resurfaced sexual allegations from his past.

She also stood by him after he announced he was withdrawing from the process of becoming Trump’s next attorney general.

Read more:

Who is Matt Gaetz’s wife, Ginger? The woman standing by her man amid sex allegations

Gaetz’s 30-year-old wife Ginger describes herself as his ‘wifey’ in her Instagram profile bio. Rhian Lubin reports

Rhian Lubin24 December 2024 04:00

Biden signs defense bill despite objections to ban on transgender health care for military children

President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a defense bill that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members, aims to counter China‘s growing power and boosts overall military spending to $895 billion despite his objections to language stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children in military families.

Biden said his administration strongly opposes the provision because it targets a group based on gender identity and “interferes with parents’ roles to determine the best care for their children.” He said it also undermines the all-volunteer military’s ability to recruit and retain talent.

“No service member should have to decide between their family’s health care access and their call to serve our nation,” the president said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Biden signs defense bill despite objections to ban on transgender health care for military children

President Joe Biden has signed the annual defense authorization bill into law despite his objections to language banning transgender health care for military children

AP24 December 2024 03:40

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