Politics
Trump announces 10% tariffs on eight European nations over Greenland
- Tariffs will stay until US buys Greenland: Trump.
- European nations reiterate support for Denmark.
- UK PM Starmer terms US move “completely wrong”.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to implement a wave of increasing tariffs on European allies until the Washington is allowed to buy Greenland, escalating a row over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that an additional 10% import tariffs would take effect on February 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Great Britain — all already subject to tariffs imposed by Trump.
Those tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1 and would continue until a deal was reached for the US to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he will settle for nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. Leaders of both Denmark and Greenland have insisted the island is not for sale and does not want to be part of the US.
Security, minerals
The president has repeatedly said Greenland is vital to US security because of its strategic location and large mineral deposits, and has not ruled out using force to take it. European nations this week sent military personnel to the island at Denmark’s request.
“These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable,” Trump wrote.
Protesters in Denmark and Greenland demonstrated on Saturday against Trump’s demands and called for the territory to be left to determine its own future.
The countries named by Trump on Saturday have backed Denmark, warning that the US military seizure of a territory in NATO could collapse the military alliance that Washington leads.
“The president’s announcement comes as a surprise,” Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was unusually blunt in condemning Trump’s threat, saying on X that his country would raise the issue directly with Washington.
“Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong,” Starmer said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in separate but identical posts on X that the European Union stood in “full solidarity” with Denmark and Greenland.
“Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty,” they said.
Officials from Norway, Sweden, France and Germany reiterated support for Denmark on Saturday and said tariffs should not be part of Greenland discussions.
Cyprus, which currently holds the EU presidency, said it has called for an emergency meeting of ambassadors from the union’s 27 countries on Sunday.
Trade deals under threat?
Saturday’s threat could derail tentative deals Trump struck last year with the European Union and Great Britain. The deals included baseline levies of 15% on imports from Europe and 10% on most British goods.
“The biggest danger, it seems to me, is his decision to treat some EU countries differently from others,” said William Reinsch, a trade expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “I’m not surprised [….] It may well convince the European Parliament that it is pointless to approve the trade agreement with the US, since Trump is already bypassing it.”
Trump floated the general idea of tariffs over Greenland on Friday, without citing a legal basis for doing so. Tariffs have become his weapon of choice in seeking to compel American adversaries and allies alike to meet his demands.
He said this week he would put 25% tariffs on any country trading with Iran as that country suppressed anti-government protests, though there has been no official documentation from the White House of the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use.
The US Supreme Court has heard arguments on the legality of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, and any decision by the top US judicial body would have major implications on the global economy and US presidential powers.
The encroaching presence of China and Russia makes Greenland vital to US security interests, Trump has said. Danish and other European officials have pointed out that Greenland is already covered by NATO’s collective security pact.
A US military base, Pituffik Space Base, is already in Greenland, with around 200 personnel, and a 1951 agreement allows the US to deploy as many forces as it wants in the Danish territory.
That has led many European officials to conclude that Trump is motivated more by a desire to expand US territory than by security concerns.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones who benefit from divisions among allies,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X in response to Trump’s threat.
Some US senators also pushed back. “Continuing down this path is bad for America, bad for American businesses and bad for America’s allies,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, bipartisan co-chairs of the Senate Nato Observer Group, said in a statement.
Europeans should not react hastily to Trump’s tariff threat, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Research.
“Just ignore it and wait and see,” Brzeski told Reuters. “Europe has shown that it will not accept everything, and so the tariffs are actually already a step forward compared to the threatened military invasion.”
- Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashes during training.
- Jet went missing after taking off from Jorhat airbase.
- Dead pilots identified as Sq Ldr Anuj, Flight Lieutenant Duragkar.
Two pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) were killed after a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashed in India’s northeastern state of Assam, NDTV reported, citing officials.
The Indian Air Force said on Friday that a fighter jet, which was on a training mission, crashed in the northeast Indian state of Assam.
“The Su-30MKI, which was on a training mission, crashed in the area of Karbi Anglong, Assam, approx 60 km from Jorhat,” the Indian Air Force said on X.
The aircraft had gone missing shortly after taking off from the Jorhat airbase. Communication with the Russian-origin fighter jet was lost at 7:42pm, according to officials.
The crash occurred in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, around 60 kilometres from the airbase. The aircraft reportedly went down in a remote hilly area.
The IAF identified the deceased pilots as Squadron Leader Anuj and Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar.
“All personnel of the IAF express sincere condolences, and stand firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” the Air Force said in a post on X.
Local residents in the area said they heard a loud explosion from a nearby hill and saw a ball of fire shortly afterwards.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of the two pilots in the “tragic” crash.
The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a two-seater, long-range fighter aircraft developed by Russian manufacturer Sukhoi. It is produced under licence in India by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the IAF.
The aircraft was first inducted into the Indian Air Force in 1997, and the service currently operates a fleet of more than 260 Su-30MKI jets.
Similar incidents have occurred in recent years. A Sukhoi fighter jet crashed in Nashik, Maharashtra, in June 2024, while another Su-30 aircraft crashed in January 2023 shortly after taking off from the Gwalior airbase in Madhya Pradesh.
TEHRAN: The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Kolivand, has said that recent US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran have damaged more than 3,000 civilian properties, according to reports cited by Al Jazeera.
Kolivand stated that the strikes affected 3,643 civilian locations, including 3,090 residential homes, highlighting the significant impact on populated urban areas.
Civilian Infrastructure Hit
According to the Red Crescent chief, the attacks also caused damage to several public and service facilities, including:
528 commercial and service centres
14 healthcare and pharmaceutical facilities
9 Red Crescent sites
Officials said the majority of the destruction occurred in densely populated residential areas, raising humanitarian concerns.
Growing Humanitarian Impact
The latest figures underscore the expanding civilian toll as the conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel continues to intensify.
Emergency teams from the Iranian Red Crescent are currently involved in rescue, relief and medical operations in affected areas.
Authorities have not yet released updated casualty figures but say humanitarian agencies are continuing to assess the full extent of the damage.
- Hegseth acknowledges US military was investigating incident.
- Press Secy Leavitt says Iran continues to targets civilians, children.
- Rubio says US would not deliberately target a school.
US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation, two US officials told Reuters.
Reuters was unable to determine more details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the US might have struck the school.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday acknowledged the US military was investigating the incident.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, did not rule out the possibility that new evidence could emerge that absolves the US of responsibility and points to another responsible party in the incident.
Reuters could not determine how much longer the investigation would last or what evidence US investigators are seeking before the assessment can be completed.
The White House did not directly comment on the investigation, but press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Reuters, “While the Department of War is currently investigating this matter, the Iranian regime targets civilians and children, not the United States of America.”
Asked about the incident during a news briefing on Wednesday, Hegseth said: “We’re investigating that. We, of course, never target civilian targets. But we’re taking a look and investigating that.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that the United States would not deliberately target a school.
“The Department of War would be investigating that if that was our strike, and I would refer your question to them,” Rubio said.
Israeli and US forces have until now divided their attacks in Iran both geographically and by target type, a senior Israeli official and a source with direct knowledge of the joint planning said. While Israel was striking missile launch sites in western Iran, the United States was attacking such targets, as well as naval ones, in the south.
The UN human rights office, without saying who it believed was responsible for the strike on the school, called on Tuesday for an investigation.
“The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it,” UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.
Images of the girls’ funeral on Tuesday were shown on Iranian state television. Their small coffins were draped with Iranian flags and passed from a truck across a large crowd towards the grave site.
Deliberately attacking a school, hospital, or any other civilian structure would likely be a war crime under international humanitarian law.
If a US role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the Middle East.
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