Crypto News: When life imitates art

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In the most recent season of Danish TV drama Borgen, Greenland is portrayed at the center of competing great-power interests, with Denmark's female foreign minister having to navigate treacherous political waters to protect her nation's sovereignty.

The series writers couldn't have been more prescient.

The year has only just begun, and even before taking office, US President-elect Donald Trump is laying claim to the self-ruling Danish territory, reopening a brief and bizarre episode from his first term when he expressed interest in purchasing Greenland.

Re-elected and reaffirmed, Trump has made it clear that he believes the US should own and control what is the world's biggest island. He's threatening tariffs and refused to rule out military force to get what he wants.

Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Greenland yesterday in a supposedly private midwinter daytrip that succeeded in getting everyone talking about his father's ambitions.

Trump's fixation on Greenland has taken Danes by surprise, and like her fictional counterpart, it's caught Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a diplomatic conundrum.

Mette Frederiksen. Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

The US is Denmark's "most important and closest ally," she says. On the other hand, Greenland is an historically important part of the kingdom that Danes don't want to give up.

Yet its eventual independence from its former colonial power appears inevitable. Local lawmakers have already unveiled a draft for a constitution and published a foreign-policy strategy. Greenlanders face a general election by the spring that will define the priorities ahead.

Rather than bluster, Trump's assertions may be the opening gambit of an elaborate negotiating tactic.

Denmark will have to engage in talks with the US to avoid escalating conflict.

Even if Trump doesn't gain Greenland, he's laying the groundwork for more regional influence, and sending a signal to islanders they won't be on their own if and when they secede.

For Denmark, it's a real-life dilemma worthy of Borgen. — Sanne Wass

Global Must Reads

Elon Musk's pivot from US to European politics, including personal attacks on the leaders of Germany and the UK, has caused outrage mixed with bewilderment at his trashing of relations with core US allies where he has significant business interests. It's all the more puzzling to governments since Musk has a "gigafactory" producing Teslas just outside Berlin, while the UK has emerged as Europe's largest market for his electric vehicles.

Tesla cars on the dockside in Southampton, southern England. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

Germany's poll-leading conservatives are toughening their rhetoric on migration ahead of next month's snap election to try to mitigate the threat of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Friedrich Merz, who heads the center-right CDU/CSU bloc and is a strong favorite to seize the chancellery from Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, has pledged to make it harder to obtain a passport and easier to strip citizenship from foreign-born Germans who commit serious crimes.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will replace his communications minister with a veteran campaign adviser as the leftist leader seeks to improve messaging and calm market concerns about his government's commitment to fiscal responsibility. The administration in Brasilia is weighing additional spending cuts after a much-anticipated package of reductions failed to soothe investor worries.

Paraguay's finance chief highlighted the importance of sustainable fiscal policy in a region that has become a battleground of government spending extremes, with Javier Milei's chainsaw of spending cuts in Argentina at one end and a ballooning Brazilian deficit under Lula at the other. Finance Minister Carlos Fernandez narrowed Paraguay's deficit to 2.6% of gross domestic product last year and is seeking to cap future gaps at 1.5% by 2026, a fraction of the 10% shortfall in Brazil.

Carlos Fernandez. Source: Paraguay Finance Ministry

US President Joe Biden's administration plans to streamline permitting for geothermal-energy development as part of a broader executive order to boost infrastructure for AI data centers, according to sources. The measures, which could be immediately reversed by Trump when he takes office, include establishing a competitive process for companies to build data centers on federal land.

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González said his son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped on Tuesday in Caracas just days before his vowed return to the capital.

Bangladesh's anti-money-laundering agency requested information on the domestic bank accounts of UK City Minister Tulip Siddiq, who's also the niece of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a potential precursor to a broader financial probe.

South Korean corruption-office leaders are mulling how to peacefully bring impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol — who is barricaded in his Seoul residence and protected by a blockade — into custody, five days after they gave up on their first try to haul him in for questioning over his failed bid to impose martial law last month.

The US sanctioned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's influential cabinet chief, Antal Rogan, for his alleged role in corruption a matter of days before Orban's ally Trump enters the White House.

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Chart of the Day

Trump said NATO members should spend the equivalent of 5% of their economic output on defense, escalating his demands on US allies to increase military outlays. No member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization currently allocates that much for defense, including the US, and the president-elect didn't say if he plans to lift spending to that level.

And Finally

A wildfire is threatening densely populated Santa Monica after ripping through an affluent area of Los Angeles, with strong winds grounding firefighting aircraft overnight and fueling other blazes. Authorities have expanded mandatory-evacuation orders to parts of northern Santa Monica, with alerts covering a large swath of the coastal city warning residents may need to evacuate. Widespread and damaging wind gusts are expected to worsen, hampering efforts to contain the fire.