The autonomous Danish Arctic island has announced it's "not for sale"

Greenland has rejected any idea of selling out to Washington after US President-elect Donald Trump said control over the Arctic island would be in his country's strategic and national interest.

The autonomous territory of Denmark is sparsely inhabited and mostly covered by snow and ice. Trump has raised the issue of buying the island in his first term at the White House.

"Greenland is ours," the island's prime minister Mute Egede said in a statement quoted by AFP on Monday. "We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom."

Announcing the nomination of the new US ambassador to Denmark on Sunday, Trump said that "ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity" for the US, "for purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world."

Trump did not specifically mention an offer to buy Greenland and it was unclear whether his phrasing implied the willingness of his incoming government to seize the island by force from Denmark, a fellow NATO member.

In August 2019, one of Trump's aides confirmed that the then-president wanted to "take a look at a potential Greenland purchase," describing it as "a strategic place" with a lot of valuable minerals.

The island sits on top of several strategic trade routes in the Arctic Ocean, as well as significant deposits of uranium and precious metals. Control over the island would also allow the US to claim around 900,000 square kilometers of the adjacent continental shelf.

Though Greenland is over 2.1 million square kilometers in size, it has only around 55,000 residents, almost 90% of them Inuit. Greenland has been recognized as Danish territory since the 1814 Treaty of Kiel. It was administered as a colony until 1953 and has enjoyed home rule since 1979. Since 2009, the island has also had a parliament and a government managing internal affairs, law enforcement, and coast guard duties. Greenland has two deputies in the Danish parliament and relies on Copenhagen for its security, foreign and monetary policy, and more than half its budget.

The island formally left the EU's economic precursor in 1985 due to a dispute over fishing rights, but remains tied to the bloc as part of Denmark.

Greenland has no borders with the US, but it does with Canada. The talk about Greenland (In Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat, pronounced [kalaːɬːit nʉnaːt]) becoming a part of the US could be a warning to Canada as well.

DIIS, which prepares researches for Denmark's government and parliament, said that Washington remains a key ally to Copenhagen, but acknowledged that it's not always easy to work with the Americans.

"The US is unpredictable and, as experience shows, isn't too sensitive towards the national and local priorities and interests of the host countries."
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The think tank advised Denmark and other northern nations - Iceland, Finland and Norway - to carefully monitor not only the regional activities of Russia and China, but the US as well, the think tank said.

It's paramount for Denmark to boost its own potential in the Arctic in order to lower the dependence on the US and NATO, DIIS researches said in the report. They also suggested that the government develops a set of principles that would influence American drills and other military moves on the Danish territory more actively.

• Snow joke? US govt is apparently serious about buying Greenland off Denmark (Aug 2019)
• Report says Trump in real estate mode, toying with idea of 'buying' Greenland, internet loses its mind (Aug 2019)

• Fireball above US base in Greenland puzzles NASA scientist - jokes about 'Russian strike' (Aug 2018)
• Nukes at the bottom of the sea? (Jul 2018)
• Will Greenland join the family of independent nations? (May 2018)
• Defense Secretary: U.S. needs to upgrade radar system to detect Russian missiles (Sep 2015)
• US Army's top secret Arctic city under the ice 'Camp Century' (Feb 2015) See also from Nov 2024: NASA discovers abandoned US military installation under Greenland ice sheet
• No descendants are left from the first Eskimos (Aug 2014)
• Rush for iron spurred Inuit ancestors to sprint across Arctic, book contends (Feb 2010)
• Danish secret UFO archives opened (Jan 2009)

The Air Force said that most of the sightings remained 'unidentified' because the details were not precise enough. However, some of the reports contained enough description to rule out the UFOs as aircraft, weather phenomenon or paper lanterns. Not all of the sightings were centred over Denmark and one event over Greenland is attracting attention.

On the 5 January, 1981 at 12:50 a flaming, square disc was seen approximately 45 degrees over the frozen land near Thule Air Base. It then vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

Coincidentally, radar stations at the American base recorded an unidentified flying object on its radar at 12:50.

The death toll from Cyclone Chido is "several hundred" and may be close to 1,000, the island's top government official told the local broadcaster on Sunday.

Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ere that "I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we'll get close to a thousand."

He said it was "extremely difficult" to get an exact number right now after the Indian Ocean islands were pummelled by the intense tropical cyclone on Saturday, causing widespread destruction.

Officials had confirmed at least 11 deaths in Mayotte earlier Sunday but said that was expected to increase.

Mayotte in the south-eastern Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa is France's poorest island and the poorest territory in the European Union.

The death toll in Mayotte rose to 31 from Cyclone Chido on Wednesday.

Officials on the French Indian Ocean colony have concerns that the number could rise in the coming days.

A curfew remains in place on the island from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. local time.

Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X that more than 700 soldiers have been deployed to assist in relief efforts.

Lecornu also noted that patients have been evacuated to France's other overseas territory in La Reunion.

French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to visit Mayotte on Thursday to assess the situation.

On Monday, CNN posted a report -- written by Tim Lister and Eyad Kourdi but not Ward -- revealing the network had been duped. Unsurprisingly, the rolling ratings disaster that is CNN stopped short of taking responsibility for its failure.

CNN did credit Verify-Sy for first reporting the man's apparent real identity, which CNN corroborated with its own canvassing of residents in the Bayada neighborhood of Homs. Considering the crimes Salama is accused of, the CNN follow-up article ends on a darkly amusing note: "Salama's current whereabouts are unknown."

Yes, Ward yearned to bask in the glory of saving a regime victim, only to be exposed as aiding and abetting the escape of an apparent regime criminal.