Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Europe deploying troops to Greenland, a deadly U.S. immigration crackdown in Minnesota, and internet blackouts disrupting Uganda’s presidential election.
Prioritizing Arctic Security
Several European countries deployed troops to Greenland on Thursday in a pointed message against U.S. ambitions to acquire the Danish territory. Although the military buildup appears small, this symbolic display of European unity aims to demonstrate that a U.S. takeover of the island is unnecessary to safeguard the Arctic from NATO’s adversaries.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Europe deploying troops to Greenland, a deadly U.S. immigration crackdown in Minnesota, and internet blackouts disrupting Uganda’s presidential election.
Prioritizing Arctic Security
Several European countries deployed troops to Greenland on Thursday in a pointed message against U.S. ambitions to acquire the Danish territory. Although the military buildup appears small, this symbolic display of European unity aims to demonstrate that a U.S. takeover of the island is unnecessary to safeguard the Arctic from NATO’s adversaries.
Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden sent military staff to Greenland on Thursday to begin what they said were preparations for larger military drills later this year. Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on Thursday that the intention was “to establish a more permanent military presence with a larger Danish contribution” on and around the island.
“It is clear that we now will be able to plan for a larger and more permanent presence throughout 2026,” Poulsen added. “And that is crucial to show that security in the Arctic is not only for the Kingdom of Denmark. It is for all of NATO.”
The European troop movements follow U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio failing to broker a deal with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt on the United States’ annexation ambitions. Rasmussen cited a “fundamental disagreement” with the White House for the lack of a breakthrough on Wednesday.
On Monday, Poulsen and Motzfeldt are expected to meet NATO chief Mark Rutte in Brussels to further discuss security in and around the Arctic.
U.S. President Donald Trump has long coveted Greenland for its rich mineral deposits and strategic Arctic location—despite Denmark being a member of NATO and the United States having legally recognized Danish sovereignty over the island in 1916. In recent days, Trump has asserted that Copenhagen could be relied on to protect the territory if Russia or China were to try to occupy it.
However, the Russian Embassy in Belgium told local media on Thursday that alleged Russian and Chinese threats toward Greenland are “fictitious.” “The instigators of these bellicose plans appeal to mythical challenges that they themselves generate,” the embassy said, appearing to refer to the United States.
Beijing has similarly accused Washington of using supposed Chinese threats as “pretext” for its own actions.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation led by the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced this week that several lawmakers from both chambers will begin a two-day visit to Copenhagen on Friday to express solidarity with the Danish government.
According to a CNN poll published on Thursday, 75 percent of Americans oppose U.S. efforts to seize Greenland.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Deadly immigration crackdown. Trump threatened on Thursday to invoke the Insurrection Act in the U.S. state of Minnesota, after a deadly shooting by a federal immigration officer last week led to widespread protests. The Insurrection Act allows the U.S. president to deploy military forces or federalized National Guard troops inside the United States to quell rebellions or enforce the law in certain situations—actions that are usually barred by the Posse Comitatus Act. Trump has previously sent National Guard troops to Democrat-run cities—such as Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Chicago—as part of the White House’s immigration crackdown, but those troops were not allowed to engage in law enforcement actions, such as making arrests and conducting searches.
Unrest in Minnesota ignited on Jan. 7, when a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good. According to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Good was one of several “agitators” who were trying to block ICE agents from leaving a Minneapolis neighborhood. However, video footage appears to show Good driving away from the agents—not toward them—when she was killed, sparking questions as to whether her death was legally justified.
On Wednesday, an immigration officer shot and wounded a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis who the Department of Homeland Security said was trying to flee a traffic stop. The incident sparked further protests across the city, with some demonstrators hurling rocks, ice, and fireworks at law enforcement agents who fired tear gas.
Trump and Noem must “end this occupation,” Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said during a rare primetime address late Wednesday. “News reports simply don’t do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma the federal government is raining down upon our communities.”
Election blackouts. Sweeping internet blackouts across Uganda caused widespread disruptions to the country’s presidential election on Thursday. Government authorities cut web access and limited mobile services earlier this week ahead of the vote, claiming that such actions were necessary to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” Security forces also detained hundreds of supporters of opposition candidate Bobi Wine in the lead-up to the vote, all but ensuring that incumbent Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni can extend his 40-year grip on power.
The United Nations and rights groups, such as Amnesty International, denounced the government’s actions as violating democratic practices.
Museveni, 81, first took office in 1986 after leading a five-year rebellion. He has previously accused the opposition of fraudulently obtaining extra ballots to try to rig the vote in its favor, and he has reorganized the country’s electoral commission so that all of its members are hand-chosen by the president.
On Thursday, Wine claimed widespread “massive ballot-stuffing,” without providing evidence. And locals have reported Ugandan police using live rounds and tear gas to disperse peaceful rallies. The election results are expected to be announced over the weekend.
U.S. plans for Venezuela. U.S. forces seized a sixth sanctioned oil tanker with alleged ties to Venezuela in the Caribbean on Thursday. “The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” U.S. Southern Command wrote on X, accusing the vessel of “operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.” The Guyana-flagged tanker, named the Veronica, is believed to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet; it previously went by the name Galileo and was owned and managed by a Russian company.
The oil seizure comes as the White House puts greater political and economic pressure on Caracas’s administration, led by interim leader Delcy Rodríguez. On Thursday, a Venezuelan government envoy traveled to Washington to meet U.S. officials. The representative, a close ally of Rodríguez, hopes to thaw U.S.-Venezuela tensions by reopening the Venezuelan Embassy in the United States.
At the same time, though, Trump hosted Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado for lunch at the White House on Thursday; Machado had previously suggested that she might give her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump during the meeting as a token of her gratitude for U.S. forces capturing President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month; however, after the meeting, she refused to say whether she did so. Trump has refused to endorse Machado for president, saying earlier this month that “she doesn’t have the support within—or the respect within—the country.” Machado was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election.
Odds and Ends
It wasn’t all work and no play for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung during their meeting on Tuesday. After the serious business of state was concluded, the two Asian leaders whipped out their drumsticks for a surprise cultural exchange, playing iconic K-pop songs such as BTS’s “Dynamite” and “Golden” from the movie Kpop Demon Hunters. “Just as we respected our differences and harmonized our rhythms, I hope that Korea and Japan would deepen cooperation and move closer to each other step by step,” Lee later wrote on X, thanking Takaichi—an avid heavy metal fan—for the jam session.
