Why South Koreans showing less interest in Oscar-nominated Minari
- The film about a hard-luck immigrant farming family in rural Arkansas in the 1980s highlighted the heyday of immigration from South Korea to the US
- But for younger Koreans, the tale presented a far too dated view of immigration to America
Trump’s threat to gobble up Greenland tests Nato unity, serves as wake-up call for Europe
The US president-elect’s rhetoric has sparked alarm in Europe, raising concerns about the future of Nato and the international order
Trump’s suggestions that international borders can be redrawn – by force if necessary – are particularly inflammatory in Europe. His words run contrary to the argument European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are trying to impress on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But many European leaders – who’ve learned to expect the unexpected from Trump and have seen that actions do not always follow his words – have been guarded in their response, with some taking a nothing-to-see-here view rather than vigorously defend European Union member Denmark.
Analysts, though, say that even words can damage US-European relations ahead of Trump’s second presidency.
Several officials in Europe – where governments depend on US trade, energy, investment, technology, and defence cooperation for security – emphasised their belief that Trump has no intention of marching troops into Greenland.
“I think we can exclude that the United States in the coming years will try to use force to annex territory that interests it,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed back – but carefully, saying “borders must not be moved by force” and not mentioning Trump by name.
This week, as Zelensky pressed Trump’s incoming administration to continue supporting Ukraine, he said: “No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map.”
Since Putin marched troops across Ukrainian borders in 2022, Zelensky and allies have been fighting – at great cost – to defend the principle that has underpinned the international order since World War II: that powerful nations cannot simply gobble up others.
The British and French foreign ministers have said they cannot foresee a US invasion of Greenland. Still, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot portrayed Trump’s remarks as a wake-up call.
“Do we think we’re entering into a period that sees the return of the law of the strongest?” the French minister said. “‘Yes.”
On Friday, the prime minister of Greenland – a semi-autonomous Arctic territory that isn’t part of the EU but whose 56,000 residents are EU citizens, as part of Denmark – said its people do not want to be Americans but that he is open to greater cooperation with the US.
“Cooperation is about dialogue,” leader Múte B. Egede said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called the US “our closest ally” and said: “We have to stand together.”
European security analysts agreed there’s no real likelihood of Trump using the military against Nato ally Denmark, but nevertheless expressed profound disquiet.
“There is a possibility, of course, that this is just … a new sheriff in town,” said Flemming Splidsboel Hansen, who specialises in foreign policy, Russia and Greenland at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “I take some comfort from the fact that he is now insisting that Canada should be included in the US, which suggests that it is just sort of political bravado.
“But damage has already been done. And I really cannot remember a previous incident like this where an important ally – in this case the most important ally – would threaten Denmark or another Nato member state.”
Hansen said he fears Nato may be falling apart even before Trump’s inauguration.
“I worry about our understanding of a collective West,” he said. “What does this even mean now? What may this mean just, say, one year from now, two years from now, or at least by the end of this second Trump presidency? What will be left?”
Paris-based analyst Alix Frangeul-Alves said Trump’s language is “all part of his ‘Make America Great Again’ mode”.
In Greenland’s soils, she noted, are rare earths critical for advanced and green technologies. China dominates global supplies of the valuable minerals, which the US, Europe and other nations view as a security risk.
“Any policy made in Washington is made through the lens of the competition with China,” said Frangeul-Alves, who focuses on US politics for the German Marshall Fund.
Some observers said Trump’s suggested methods are fraught with peril.
Security analyst Alexander Khara said Trump’s claim that “we need Greenland for national security purposes” reminded him of Putin’s comments on Crimea when Russia seized the strategic Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Suggesting that borders might be flexible is “a completely dangerous precedent,” said Khara, director of the Centre for Defence Strategies in Kyiv.
“We’re in a time of transition from the old system based on norms and principles,” he said, and “heading to more conflicts, more chaos and more uncertainty”.
How celebrities are driving TCM’s boom in the West and the treatments people seek
Stars from Ariana Grande to Tom Brady are helping traditional Chinese medicine treatments like cupping and acupuncture soar in popularity
This series is based on our reporting on TCM: its history, treatments and growing acceptance around the world. This is the third instalment.
When photos emerged of Gwyneth Paltrow attending a New York film premiere in 2004 with her back covered in circular purplish bruises, eyebrows were raised.
US Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is a proponent of cupping. Retired NFL champion quarterback Tom Brady credits acupuncture for improving his muscle pliability.
