Denmark says US Vice President J.D. Vance will participate in Greenland negotiations – Europe Live | Ukraine

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Marine Le Pen’s appeal against embezzlement conviction begins

in paris

Elsewhere, France’s far-right party leader Marine Le Pen will face a new trial on Tuesday in the appeals court for the embezzlement of European Parliament funds, which could decide whether she can run in the 2027 presidential election.

Le Pen, 57, who heads the far-right anti-immigrant National Rally (RN), was considered a candidate for next year’s election until she was barred from running for public office in March last year after being convicted of a large-scale, long-running fake recruitment scam.

Le Pen, along with 10 of the 24 party members convicted last year, has filed an appeal and will be retried until February 12.

The verdict and sentencing, expected before the summer, will determine Le Pen’s political future and whether she can seek a fourth presidential election next year. If not, her successor will be Jordan Bardella, 30, a young protégé and party chairman.

Mr. Bardera appears to have benefited from Mr. Le Pen’s courtroom drama. A poll published over the weekend by Le Monde and Rémicicle Berrien found that 49% of French people thought Bardera was most likely to win the election, compared with 18% for Marine Le Pen.

Last fall, an Odoxa poll showed that Mr. Bardera would win the presidency no matter who his opponent was in the second round.

Analysts warn that it is too early to know for sure what the 2027 campaign will look like, as candidates from a wide range of political spectrums have not yet been decided.

Le Pen has said she is innocent and still wants to lead France. She has attacked what she called the “tyranny of judges” trying to block her from running for president, which she claimed she could win.

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Greenland rebels don’t want conflict with US

miranda bryant

Nordic correspondent
in Nuuk, Greenland

In Nuuk, Pere Broberg, leader of the opposition party Narelak, which came second in last year’s general election, said the desired outcome was to reach a deal with the United States.

“Do they want to trade the easy way or the hard way? Who wants the hard way? I don’t understand why it’s talked about. Even if a great trade happens, we don’t hear about it so we have no idea what he’s saying. So it’s going to be interesting after Wednesday.”

Broberg criticized the Greenlandic government’s statement on Monday, just before Wednesday’s meeting, saying it would step up efforts to ensure its defense “within the framework of NATO.”

“I don’t understand why they can’t wait until then to see what happens with this,” he told the Guardian.

He also questioned the participation of Denmark’s foreign minister.

“It’s a little strange that this is not a meeting between the foreign ministers of the United States and Greenland, but that the Danish foreign minister is participating in that meeting. The reason it makes no sense to me is because it has nothing to do with Danish foreign politics and everything to do with the future of the people of Greenland.”

He accused Copenhagen of “using NATO and Denmark’s ownership of Greenland” to have a say in Greenland’s future. “It shows they’re not ready to really let us go yet.”
He called on governments to be open about what they say at the meeting to discourage speculation.

“I’m hoping they can have a press conference afterwards and have a meeting where they can say, ‘We talked about this.’ It could be, ‘Is there an offer of free association?’ ‘Is there an offer of annexation?’ Whatever they talked about.”

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Joint talks between Denmark, Greenland and Faroese scheduled for Wednesday

And in a rather strange coincidence, the Danish government has just announced that it will host, uh, tomorrow, the bi-annual talks and Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense Policy Liaison Committee meeting with the governments of the Faroe Islands and the governments of Greenland.

The meeting will naturally be attended by Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, as well as Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens Frederik Nielsen.

“The three countries will have an opportunity to discuss the political and economic situation,” the government statement said.

This meeting will, in effect, be held in parallel with the meeting between J.D. Vance and Rubio in the United States.

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Denmark, US Vice President JD Vance to join Greenland negotiations

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen told reporters that U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance will participate in tomorrow’s talks with the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Speaking after a meeting of the Danish parliament’s foreign affairs committee, he said J.D. Vance wanted to participate in the talks and that he planned to host them at the White House.

Rasmussen said Denmark and Greenland had requested a meeting to directly discuss the latest information on Greenland, following increasingly hardline statements from U.S. officials, including President Donald Trump, about their ambitions to control the territory.

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen will also meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday to discuss “issues concerning security in the Arctic and its surroundings,” he said, adding that Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt would also be present.

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Central Europe airports report weather-related disruptions

Meanwhile, many airports in Central and Eastern Europe suffered delays and disruptions this morning due to difficult weather conditions.

Budapest Airport has been temporarily closed as a precautionary measure due to black ice and heavy icing, the airport announced on Facebook.

Reuters added that airports in Bratislava, Prague and Vienna were also affected.

According to FlightRadar24’s disruption meter, Vienna is experiencing the most disruption, with delays of up to two hours for both arrivals and departures.

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EU tells Musk to fix ‘scary’ AI tools or face regulatory action

Lisa O’Carroll

The EU has warned Elon Musk’s

The blunt warning comes after the European Commission last year extended a preservation order sent to Elon Musk’s Mr.

“Company X now needs to fix its AI tools within the EU, and it has to do so quickly. If not, we will not hesitate to make full use of the DSA to protect EU citizens,” EU technical commissioner Hena Virkunen said last night.

“It’s horrifying that X is proposing using Grok to create and share photos of undressed women and children,” she added in a post about X.

Governments and regulators from Europe to Asia are cracking down on sexually explicit content generated by Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok on X, launching investigations, imposing bans and requiring safeguards, increasing global efforts to curb illegal content.

Separately, Malaysia’s telecoms regulator announced on Tuesday that it would take legal action against social media platform X over user safety concerns related to its artificial intelligence feature Grok.

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Denmark holds talks on Greenland ahead of tense talks with US

Meanwhile, the Danish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to meet this morning to discuss the latest information on Greenland, with US President Donald Trump showing no signs of losing interest in the country.

Foreign Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen will represent the government and discuss the issue ahead of tomorrow’s important meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Meanwhile, DR says a number of protests against US policies are scheduled to be held across Denmark later this week.

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Morning Opening: After Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, President Zelenskiy says ‘Russia must learn that cold weather does not help win wars’

Jakub Krupa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with “nearly 300 attack drones” and 25 missiles, as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure across the country, which is already suffering widespread power and heating blackouts amid a harsh winter.

President Zelenskyy said the overnight attacks caused “widespread destruction of housing and civilian infrastructure” across the country, including in the capital Kiev, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

President Zelenskyy said “hundreds of thousands of households” in the Kyiv region were still without power and the situation was “not easy” with temperatures dropping to -12 degrees Celsius this morning.

“As always, wherever Russia seeks to destroy, Ukrainians support each other, and domestic resilience is what is needed most right now,” he said.

“Russia, without any military purpose, fired a missile at the postal terminal in Korotichi, Kharkiv region, killing four people,” President Zelensky added.

he said:

“All these attacks on life remind us that we cannot stop supporting Ukraine. Missiles for air defense systems are needed every day, especially during the winter.”

The world could respond to this Russian terrorism with new aid to Ukraine. Acceleration of deliveries already agreed with the US and Europe is expected.

Russia must learn that wars cannot be won in the cold. Thank you to everyone who helped.

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Updated on 04.25 ET