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Greenland, Denmark Set Aside Troubled History to Face Down Trump

Greenland and Denmark put their difficult past to one side to face the greater threat from the United States. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Greenland and Denmark put their difficult past to one side to face the greater threat from the United States. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
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Greenland, Denmark Set Aside Troubled History to Face Down Trump

Greenland and Denmark put their difficult past to one side to face the greater threat from the United States. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Greenland and Denmark put their difficult past to one side to face the greater threat from the United States. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

Greenland and Denmark have formed a united front to face down US President Donald Trump, momentarily setting aside the troubled history between them.

The Arctic island, a Danish colony for three centuries, still has a complicated relationship with Denmark, which now rules it as an autonomous territory.

Greenland's main political parties all want independence, but disagree on how exactly to get there. Trump's designs on the island led them to forge a coalition government in March last year, AFP said.

Greenland's leaders made clear last week they had no interest in Trump's bid to take over the vast island -- an idea he pushed hard, before backing off on Wednesday after reaching what he called a framework deal on Arctic security with NATO's secretary-general.

"Greenlanders still have a lot of grievances concerning Denmark's lack of ability to reconsider its colonial past," said Ulrik Pram Gad, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).

"But Trump's pressure has prompted the wide majority of the political spectrum that forms (Greenland's) coalition government to put independence preparations -- always a long-term project -- aside for now," he told AFP.

"The clear European support has made this easier in the sense that the relation to Denmark feels a lot less claustrophobic when joined by others," he added.

While the main Greenland parties differ on how to achieve independence, the growing US pressure led them in March 2025 to put their differences to one side to form their coalition.

Only the Naleraq party, which wants a fast track to independence, stayed in opposition.

At the height of the crisis, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen made it clear that if the government had to choose between the United States and Denmark, it would choose Denmark.

Colonial past

Trump's talk of a framework deal negotiated with NATO chief Mark Rutte prompted Denmark and Greenland to reiterate that only they can take decisions concerning them.

In the last month of diplomatic back-and-forth, Greenland and Denmark have presented a united front, speaking with one voice.

On January 14, Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt was in Washington alongside her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen for talks with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

By Monday, she was in Brussels for talks with Rutte, this time with Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.

But that unity conceals the scars of their colonial past.

Greenland was a Danish colony from the early 18th century. It became a Danish territory in 1953, a full part of Denmark -- before becoming an autonomous territory in 1979, a status that was strengthened in 2009.

"It's a long history. It has gone through different stages," said Astrid Andersen, a specialist in Danish-Greenlandic relations at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

"Any colonial relation is a question of domination and there have been some injustices committed."

Forced sterilization

Those injustices include a 1951 social experiment in which 22 Inuit children were forcibly separated from their families and prevented from speaking Greenlandic -- part of bid to create a Danish-speaking elite.

In 2021, the six still alive were each awarded compensation of 250,000 crowns (33,500 euros).

Another dark chapter was Denmark's efforts from the 1960s and for three decades on to reduce the birth rate in Greenland.

Several thousand women and teenagers -- at least 4,000 -- had IUDs fitted without their consent to prevent them conceiving.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has presented her apologies to the women concerned -- nearly half of whom were unable to have children -- and a compensation procedure is underway.

Denmark's social services even used controversial psychological tests to -- as they saw it -- evaluate if Greenlandic mothers were fit to be parents.

A 2022 study showed that in metropolitan Denmark, children born to Greenlandic families were five to seven times more at risk of being placed in children's homes than those born to Danish families.

The use of such tests was only discontinued last year.

The recent debate over these issues has, for the moment, been put to one side, said Andersen.

"Right now I think there's a general agreement with a few exceptions that the common opponent right now is Trump and we kind of need to face this together somehow."

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World

Iran Police Chief Says Anti-Government Protesters Treated as ‘Enemies’

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)
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Iran Police Chief Says Anti-Government Protesters Treated as ‘Enemies’

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)

Iranian protesters will be treated as enemies if they support Tehran's foes, the country's top police officer warned, as the Middle East war sparked fears mass anti-government rallies could reignite.

"If anyone comes forward in line with the wishes of the enemy, we will no longer see them as merely a protester, we will see them as an enemy," said national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan in comments aired by state broadcaster IRIB late on Tuesday.

"And we will do to them what we do to an enemy. We will deal with them in the same way we deal with enemies," he added.

"All our forces are also ready, with their hands on the trigger, prepared to defend their revolution."

His warning comes after the government cracked down on anti-government protests in January, sparked a month before over economic grievances in the sanctions-hit country.

The authorities deemed the protests to be "riots" and Radan at one point issued an ultimatum to protesters to hand themselves in or face the full force of the law.

Iranian authorities acknowledge more than 3,000 deaths in the unrest, including members of the security forces and bystanders, but say the violence was caused by "terrorist acts" fueled by Iran's enemies.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), however, has recorded more than 7,000 killings in the crackdown, the vast majority protesters, though the toll may be far higher. More than 50,000 have been arrested, it says.

US President Donald Trump had initially cheered on the protesters, threatening to intervene on their behalf as authorities launched a deadly crackdown, but his threats soon shifted to Iran's nuclear program.

Washington launched strikes with Israel on Iran on February 28, sparking retaliatory strikes by Tehran against Israel and US bases across the Gulf region.

World

UN Warns Hormuz Standstill Will Hit World’s Most Vulnerable

The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Warns Hormuz Standstill Will Hit World’s Most Vulnerable

The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)

The standstill in the Strait of Hormuz caused by the Middle East war could hammer some of the world's most vulnerable people, the United Nations warned Tuesday.

The strait is the only sea passage from the Gulf towards the Indian Ocean, through which nearly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil supplies pass, as well as a significant amount of cargo.

Iran has all but blocked the waterway following the launch of the February 28 US-Israeli airstrikes on the country that triggered the war.

"The current shock comes at a time when many developing economies struggle to service their debt, face a tightening of fiscal space and limited capacity to absorb new price shocks," the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said.

"Higher energy, fertilizer and transport costs -- including freight rates, bunker fuel prices and insurance premiums -- may increase food costs and intensify cost-of-living pressures, particularly for the most vulnerable," it said.

UNCTAD added that, in terms of seaborne trade volume, in the week before the conflict 38 percent of crude oil, 29 percent of liquified petroleum gas, 19 percent of liquified natural gas and 19 percent refined oil products went through the strait.

But while an average of 129 ships transited daily through the passage between February 1 and 27, that number dropped to just three on March 3.

UNCTAD said the disruptions underscored the vulnerability of critical maritime chokepoints and their potential for disruption to them to send shocks across supply chains and commodity markets.

"Rising energy, transport and food costs could strain public finances and increase pressure on household budgets, potentially heightening economic and social pressures... particularly in economies heavily dependent on imported energy, fertilizers and staple foods," it said.

- Food aid hit -

UN rights chief Volker Turk echoed the alarm for the effect the plunge in commercial shipping activity could have, "particularly for the world's most vulnerable".

"The impact of an oil price surge will have a knock-on effect for macro-economic and social stability in many countries, particularly those already experiencing debt distress," he said.

The UN's World Food Program said the costs and time lost to the Strait of Hormuz disruptions were already impacting its humanitarian operations.

"This is nothing less than another seminal moment in global supply chain history," Jean-Martin Bauer, the director of WFP's food and nutrition analysis service, told reporters in Geneva.

Speaking from the WFP's Rome headquarters, he said shipping lines were diverting services and adding surcharges, leading to congestion "in places that are very far from Hormuz".

"We're seeing congestion in Asia. It's quite a severe disruption that's taking place right now," Bauer said.

"We're needing to go the long way around the Cape of Good Hope to reach some of our key geographies."

WFP's biggest operation is in Sudan, but now it is facing approximately 25 days of additional shipping time.

"It's basically 50 percent more than we would usually have. So that's really extending the supply chain and adding to cost," said Bauer.

World

Israel Says Iran Hacked Security Cameras

People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)
People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)
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Israel Says Iran Hacked Security Cameras

People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)
People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)

Israel's cybersecurity directorate said it had identified "dozens of Iranian breaches into security cameras for espionage purposes" since the start of the war in the Middle East, urging the public to be vigilant.

"The directorate is working to alert hundreds of camera owners and calls on the public to change their passwords and update their software to prevent any security risk, whether national or personal," Cyber Israel wrote on X Monday.

Cyberattacks between Iran and Israel have been a frequent occurrence in recent years, as the two foes conducted a shadow war that culminated in open conflict last June and again on February 28.

In December 2025, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett -- who is set to run against incumbent premier Benjamin Netanyahu in a general election this year -- said he had been the victim of a cyberattack targeting his Telegram account, after hackers claimed to have broken into his phone.

Private messages, videos and photographs said to be taken from Bennett's phone were published on a hacker site named after "Handala", a character symbolizing the Palestinian cause, and on an associated X account.

Iran-linked hackers have stepped up their operations in the region since strikes began on the country, an expert told AFP.

Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point said in a report that since the launch of the US-Israeli offensive on February 28, it has seen hackers accessing surveillance cameras, which are widely used but often poorly secured.

The images were likely used to assess damage caused by the attacks or "to gather the necessary information" on "the habits (of targeted individuals) or locations to hit", Gil Messing, head of cyberintelligence at Check Point, told AFP.

The hackers "are part of (Iran's) army" and "are largely supported by the state", notably by the Revolutionary Guards and the ministry of intelligence and security, he added.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that Israel had hacked nearly all of Tehran's traffic cameras for years in preparation for the operation that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the offensive.