ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: President Donald Trump said on Sunday (Jan 11) that the United States would take Greenland "one way or the other", warning that Russia and China would "take over" if Washington did not act.

Trump said that controlling the mineral-rich Danish territory was crucial for US national security, given the increased Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.

"If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I'm not letting that happen," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, despite neither country laying claim to the vast island.

Trump said that he would be open to making a deal with the Danish self-governing territory, "but one way or the other, we're going to have Greenland".

Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump's threats over the island, which plays a strategic role between North America and the Arctic, and where the US has had a military base since World War II.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

The vast majority of its population and political parties have said that they do not want to be under US control and insisted that Greenlanders must decide their own future – a viewpoint continuously challenged by Trump.

"Greenland should make the deal, because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over," Trump warned, as he mocked its defences.

"You know what their defence is, two dog sleds," he said, while Russia and China have "destroyers and submarines all over the place".

Denmark's prime minister warned last week that any US move to take Greenland by force would destroy 80 years of transatlantic security links.

Trump waved off the comment, saying: "If it affects NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), it affects NATO. But you know, (Greenlanders) need us much more than we need them."

SEOUL: North Korea condemned on Monday (Jan 12) what it called "shameless" moves by the United States that it said undermined the United Nations and accused Washington of a "hideous criminal act".

Pyongyang's mission to the United Nations in New York blasted reported plans for a briefing on its alleged violations of sanctions, in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. 

Instead, it said, "what should be questioned and openly discussed in the UN as the most important pending issue is the hideous criminal act of the US".

"The US despises the existence of the UN itself," Pyongyang said.

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Pyongyang's envoys did not specify the act in question, but the statement comes just over a week after the United States' capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

That operation represents a nightmare scenario for North Korea's leadership, which has long feared a so-called "decapitation strike" of that kind and accused Washington of seeking to remove it from power.

Washington's "irrationality and malpractice of abusing the UN arena to satisfy its geopolitical self-interest should never be allowed", North Korea's mission said.

It also accused Washington of "shameless illegal and immoral acts" and "trying to make a mockery of the UN arena for unilateral and selfish purposes".

President Donald Trump last week announced the United States would leave a number of United Nations organisations it identified as "contrary to the interests of the United States".

North Korea is under a slew of United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear and missile programme.

SYDNEY: Australia's ⁠national parliament will cut short its summer break to pass laws tackling hate speech after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday (Jan 12), as concerns were also expressed over free speech.

The Dec 14 shooting in Sydney that killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group.

The federal parliament will return next Monday, and Albanese said he wanted legislation to ‍step up penalties for hate speech and ⁠authorise ‍a gun buyback to pass the following day.

Australians were entitled to express different views about the Middle East, he told reporters in Canberra.

"What they are not entitled to do, is to hold someone to account for ⁠the actions of others because they are a young boy wearing a school uniform going to a Jewish school or a young woman wearing a ‍hijab," he said.

The proposed laws will also ease visa denials on the ground of racial bigotry, and lower the threshold for banning hate organisations including neo-Nazi groups, officials said.

ALBANESE FACED CRITICISM FROM JEWISH GROUPS, ISRAEL

In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticised Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticised protest marches against Israel's war in Gaza held since 2023.

Last week, Albanese said a Royal Commission would consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia.

A top ‌Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author.

The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah ‍from February's ‌Writers Week in the state of South Australia because "it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to programme her at this unprecedented time, so soon after Bondi".

A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded, criticising the move as "a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship".

Around 100 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, local media reported.

The festival's executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was "navigating a complex and unprecedented moment" after the "significant community response" to the ‌board decision. Three board members and the chairperson had resigned.

MOST POPULOUS STATE ADOPTS TOUGHER RULES

New South Wales state premier Chris Minns unveiled new rules on Monday that allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls and impose bigger fines, as part of measures to curb "hate preachers".

Minns said the move was prompted by the difficulty in closing a Muslim prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.

The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield, which has a large Muslim community, said councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.

"Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it ‌is done in a peaceful way," Mayor ‌Frank Carbone told Reuters.

United States President Donald Trump's administration is threatening to bring criminal charges against Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell over cost overruns at the US central bank's headquarters complex in Washington, the latest broadside by Trump ⁠against Powell and a Fed he wants to lower interest rates dramatically.

The cost of the Fed's years-long renovation of two historic buildings has spiralled beyond the original estimates, and rose earlier this year as a new pressure point for Trump against Powell.

Here are five things to know about the project:

What are the buildings the Fed is renovating that have drawn Trump's scrutiny?

The structures are the Eccles Building, constructed between 1935 and 1937 as the Fed's headquarters, and the 1951 Constitution ‍Avenue Building, completed in 1932 for the ⁠US ‍Public Health Service and used over the years for various purposes, including in World War II to house the Combined Chiefs of Staff. 

By 2018, it was transferred by the first Trump administration to the Fed to allow a ⁠renovation that would put "a vacant building back in productive use, allow the Federal Reserve Board to consolidate several leases and result in savings for taxpayers”. ‍

The 1951 Constitution Avenue Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

How much are they over budget?

As of mid-year 2025, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the cost overrun is "US$700 million and counting". 

The Fed's budget showed the project's current estimated cost at US$2.46 billion, up from US$1.88 billion in 2024 - a difference of about US$580 million. 

The Fed's budget data for 2025 is not yet available.

The document also shows that the Fed eliminated the planned renovation of a third building, cutting about US$510 million in costs.

Why are they over budget?

It comes down to ‌three things: higher-than-estimated labour and materials costs, design changes to preserve the historic buildings and their appearance as well as unforeseen problems, including lead contamination in the ground and higher-than-anticipated amounts of asbestos.

Do they include lavish elements?

Built nearly ‍a ‌century ago and never renovated, the buildings required new plumbing, electrical, heating, water, and other infrastructure, as well as updating to allow access for people with disabilities, a basement for one of the buildings and an addition for the other to make enough room for existing staff currently occupying other leased offices.

There is no governors-only elevator or VIP dining room, the Fed says, and a new water feature in the original plans for the 1951 Constitution renovation was eliminated. 

There are no "rooftop terrace ‌gardens" as Vought asserts. 

One building has a ground-level front lawn that doubles as the roof of an underground parking structure, which planning documents referred to as a "garden terrace". Plans also refer to "vegetated roofs" used to help with stormwater runoff and building efficiency.

What about oversight of the project?

The Fed, by law, has the authority to determine its spending on capital projects. 

Its Office of Inspector General receives monthly reports on the project, conducted a review in 2021 and is now charged with conducting a fresh review.

The Fed consulted a number of planning bodies, including the Fine Arts Commission and the National Capital Planning Commission, on the design and development of the project. 

The Fed says it made some changes to the ‌original plans to save money, but the changes ‌were not substantial.