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Dublin Bay’s oyster graveyard rises from dead in effort to restore rich ecosystem

The dinghy slowed to a stop at a long line of black bobbing baskets and David Lawlor reached out to inspect the first one. Inside lay 60 oysters, all with their shells closed, shielding the life within. “They look great,” beamed Lawlor. So did their neighbours in the next basket and the ones after that, all down the line of 300 baskets, totalling 18,000 oysters. They are, however, never to be eaten. Instead they are tasked with reproducing and restoring oyster reefs to Dublin Bay more than two centuries after they were wiped out. “We want them to live long and happy lives,” said Lawlor. This pioneering project in Dún Laoghaire harbour is betting that a species that thrived here for millennia – before the waters became an oyster graveyard – can do so again. Similar restoration projects are unfolding elsewhere in a continent that once had sprawling reefs of the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) until overfishing, dredging and pollution wreaked obliteration. Reefs create rich ecosystems, provide a habitat for almost 200 fish and crustacean species and play a vital role in stabilising shorelines, nutrient cycling and water filtration. “These oysters are amazing climate heroes,” said Lawlor, co-founder of Green Ocean Foundation, a nonprofit that is driving efforts in Dublin. “They are natural filter feeders. Each oyster filters at a rate of 190 litres of seawater a day.” By feeding on plankton and nitrates, the oysters clear algae and help sunlight to reach the seafloor, boosting sea grass – a carbon sink – which in turns helps other species and improves coastal biodiversity and marine habitat. Ireland’s inhabitants cultivated oysters in the middle ages but in the 1800s industrialisation and overfishing killed off the Dublin Bay reefs – a phenomenon replicated from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. Inspired in part by New York’s Billion Oyster Project, Lawlor enlisted volunteers and business sponsors for pilot projects that moved oysters from Tralee Bay in County Kerry to sites in Malahide, Howth, Poolbeg and Dún Laoghaire, which ring Dublin bay, and in Greystones, in County Wicklow. “You’re building your understanding of why things work well or don’t work well. You want to make sure they survived, to see what the growth was like, and to see if they spawn,” said Lawlor. The transplanted oysters fared especially well in Dún Laoghaire so it was chosen for the next phase of the project – last November volunteers placed 300 baskets with 18,000 adult oysters in a sheltered part of the harbour. It is hoped they will become broodstock – spawn baby oysters in summer that will settle around the harbour and, in time, create a reef. Scientists from Dublin City University’s Water Institute analysed the water last year for baseline indicators and will monitor the oysters’ impact with sensors and chemical and biological assessment. The baskets are connected along a 100-metre line and are flipped by hand every few weeks to let Arctic terns, gulls and other birds to peck away fouling that might otherwise curb the flow of water through the baskets. In Northern Ireland, the charity Ulster Wildlife used a different technique recently to place 2,000 adult oysters and 30,000 juveniles, sourced from Scotland, on the Belfast Lough seabed. The Luna Oyster Project, a collaboration between Norfolk Seaweed and Oyster Heaven, aims to restore 4 million oysters to the North Sea by using the first mass deployment of clay structures called mother reef bricks. The Dublin initiative is far smaller but will hopefully grow, said Lawlor. “The temptation is to think massive but you need to take one step at a time. A lot of the challenge is bringing people with you,” he said, citing government departments, local councils, wildlife groups and harbour authorities. Last weekend, accompanied by volunteers Andrew Collins and Aoibheann Boyle, he returned to Dún Laoghaire, a wealthy, liberal neighbourhood, and boarded a dinghy to flip the baskets. Under a winter sun the trio recorded clips for the Green Ocean Foundation’s social media accounts and fielded supporters’ queries. One, sent in jest, proved unanswerable: “Can the oysters filter the smugness out of the people of Dún Laoghaire?”

Smuggled to suburbia: no end to danger for Ethiopians looking for better life in South Africa

On the evening of 5 January, residents driving through the suburb of Mulbarton in south Johannesburg saw five young men in the street dressed only in underwear. They were later picked up along with seven other young men by South African police. Police said two were in a car involved in a high-speed chase. A 47-year-old Ethiopian man was arrested and charged with kidnapping and failing to stop when police instructed him to. The 12 men, originally thought to be teenagers but said by police to be 22 to 33, were charged with being in South Africa illegally. The incident was just the latest involving young Ethiopian men and boys escaping from suburban houses in Johannesburg, where they were allegedly locked up in dire conditions while people smugglers demanded money from their relatives to free them. The UN’s International Organization for Migration estimated in 2024 that as many as 200,000 Ethiopians live in South Africa. Yordanos Estifanos, who has researched the “southern route” from Ethiopia to South Africa, said his “educated guess” was that tens of thousands arrived each year. Ethiopians have been migrating to South Africa since Nelson Mandela opened the country up to other Africans when he became president in 1994 at the end of apartheid, a few years after the brutal Derg junta that ruled Ethiopia was overthrown. “There have been other political moments in Ethiopia which have inspired waves of migration from particular regions, particularly where there’s been repression in those places,” said Tanya Zack, whose book The Chaos Precinct profiles Jeppe, the economic heart of Ethiopia’s diaspora in downtown Johannesburg. Aseged Yohannes arrived in South Africa in 2012 after fleeing Addis Ababa. He had been arrested and briefly imprisoned, after expressing support for an opposition party on Facebook and attending political meetings. “I did not feel safe there,” he said. Yohannes caught a bus with three friends to Moyale on the Kenyan border. There, he paid 22,000 birr (then about £785) to a smuggler, with another 20,000 due on arrival in South Africa. They walked over the border at night, then drove across Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique, taking about two months in total. Yohannes claimed asylum, worked in spaza corner shops, sold clothes and now manages an alcohol store in a Johannesburg township. The 36-year-old considers himself fortunate to have had a relatively smooth journey: “It was luck. God first, actually. And I paid and then I found the right people [smugglers].” Since then, the journey has become more dangerous and extortionary. In 2020, 64 people were found dead in a truck in Mozambique. The lucrative nature of the smuggling has drawn in more rival gangs, who sometimes intercept groups of migrants en route so they can trade them, said Estifanos. The profile of the Ethiopians travelling the more than 3,000 miles overland has also changed. “Increasingly, the migration is inspired by economic opportunity here and lack of opportunity in Ethiopia,” Zack said. Those who head south are now mostly following others from a region around the town of Hosanna in southern Ethiopia. This was at least partially catalysed by Tesfaye Habiso, Ethiopia’s ambassador to South Africa from 2002 to 2004. He told Dereje Feyissa, an Addis Ababa University adjunct professor, that he arranged for dozens of people from the region, including 15 extended family members, to come to South Africa. Estifanos said the migrants, who are mostly male, are driven by a combination of poverty in the largely rural area where they live and comparisons made with wealthy returnees and extravagant social media posts from people in South Africa. “It inculcates a sense of feeling inferior and left behind,” he said. Sahlu Abebe’s brother, who migrated to South Africa in 2012, told Abebe not to follow. But three years later, he set out anyway. His brother had no choice but to pay the first half of the 63,000 birr (then about £2,030) smuggler’s fee. In Tanzania, while travelling through a forest on foot, his friend fell sick with diarrhoea and vomiting and was left behind with another group. Abebe, now 36, assumed that he died, along with more than 40 others that he later heard had perished in Tanzania. “I was hoping to see him here,” he said, through a translator, at the township spaza shop he works at. “I never thought he would die on the road.” His group was then arrested in Malawi, where he spent six months crammed in a jail cell with up to 90 others. “The route was the most painful thing, as a human being,” he said. Abebe was not abused at the smugglers’ final stop in Johannesburg, something that appears to be a newer phenomenon. However, he did say he had been violently robbed twice in South Africa, where xenophobic attacks are also a constant risk. Abebe said he would not advise others in Hosanna to follow him. “I can’t say that you must come this side,” he said. “It is not safe.”

‘He hoped Trump’s help would arrive’: why protesters in Iran feel betrayed

When Donald Trump, said he would “rescue” protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad believed the US president. The 38-year-old father had seen protests rise up before, only to be brutally crushed by authorities. But this was the first time in his life that the president of the United States had promised to help demonstrators. Reassured, Shirzad took to the streets, ignoring his family’s warnings and joining the growing crowds. Authorities started shooting, but no help came. On 8 January, the internet was shut off and Iran went dark, Shirzad was shot at a protest in Tehran and died of his wounds hours later, leaving behind a 12-year-old son. “Siavash hoped until the very end that Trump’s help would arrive,” his cousin said, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions. “We told him: ‘Don’t go, it’s dangerous.’ But he gave a firm answer: ‘Trump said he supports us, I’m going.’” On Tuesday, Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and to “take over your institutions”, telling them “help is on its way”, as reports grew that a strike on Iran was imminent. But just a day later, Trump abruptly did an about-face, telling reporters that he had received assurances that Iranian authorities would not execute anyone, walking back from military intervention in Iran, at least temporarily. In Iran, protesters despaired. Despite Trump’s reassurances, killings of demonstrators continued. The streets of Tehran were empty, except for pickup trucks with armed security forces patrolling where tens of thousands had marched just days before. Protests continued in provinces outside the capital, but getting an accurate picture of their scale was difficult amid the communications blackout. “Mass arrests are taking place. As soon as Trump’s attention moves elsewhere, the executions will start,” a resident of Tehran said in messages forwarded to the Guardian via an activist. Iran doubled down on the prosecution of protesters, with state TV on Thursday airing footage of forced confessions and Iran’s chief justice interrogating detained protesters. Rights groups warned that protesters would probably not receive fair trials and that they had grave concerns over the conditions in which detainees are held. “Past patterns in Iran demonstrate that periods of widespread unrest are accompanied by heightened abuses inside detention facilities, where these groups are particularly vulnerable to extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment,” more than 30 rights groups wrote in a joint letter on Thursday. However, the authorities refrained from executing protesters, most notably cancelling the death sentence of the 26-year-old protester Erfan Soltani and announcing no hangings would take place. Trump seemed pleased, sharing news that Soltani’s execution would not take place. Iranians in the diaspora felt betrayed. For two weeks they watched a brutal crackdown on the streets of Iran. Messages from family came infrequently, if at all, and Trump’s statement that “help is on the way” seemed their only lifeline. “As someone living in the diaspora, this feels like a slap in the face,” said Elham, an Iranian living in Sydney. “Iranians have been let down before. This time, there was a sense it was going to be different.” To many Iranians abroad, Trump’s about-face felt like a victory for the Iranian regime. Instead of helping topple the Iranian government as protesters demanded, he was going to negotiate with them. The comments on Wednesday by the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Fox News, urging the US to engage in diplomacy only furthered their fears. “If Trump gives the regime a lifeline, it will be such a profound betrayal from which ordinary Iranians won’t recover. It will be the end of hope. Many talk of Trump’s unpredictability, but using innocent lives for political theatre is intolerable,” said Elham. Even as US forces pulled back from bases in the Middle East and indicators of a US strike gathered, it was unclear what Trump planned to do in Iran. Though unprecedented, nationwide protests had not threatened the short-term stability of the Iranian state, which has well-armed and trained security forces. A strike on Iran could trigger retaliation on Israel and the US, without necessarily shielding protesters from harm. Other Iranian analysts warned that US intervention could further the accusation that protests are foreign-backed, without giving meaningful benefit to the demonstrators’ aims. Nonetheless, Iranians abroad and inside the country hoped that the world would do something to help, even if they were unsure of what. “The people of Iran believed him. They placed their trust in his words. If he fails to act against this brutal regime, that trust will be broken and the people of Iran will not forget who stood with them, and who turned away,” said Azam Jangravi, an Iranian based in Canada whose close friend was killed in protests in Isfahan last week. Though Trump appeared to walk back from the brink of a strike, the US has said it had not completely ruled out intervention. Trump “has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter,” the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the UN security council on Thursday. A US aircraft carrier was heading to the Middle East and military assets were being redeployed to bolster Israeli air defences – two indications that a US strike on Iran was still possible. In Iran, many protesters feel as if they are in limbo. Cut off from the rest of the world and under the heavy boot of authorities, they are unsure if they should take to the streets again. “The protests have come to a pause, people are waiting to see what Trump will do,” said Alborz, a Tehran resident, in messages forwarded to the Guardian.

Ukraine war briefing: Russia readying strikes on nuclear power system, Zelenskyy warns

Russia is taking aim at Ukraine’s nuclear power system, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, as the Kremlin continues to try to freeze Ukraine into submission by crippling its energy grid. “We do not see any willingness on the part of the aggressor to comply with any agreements or end the war,” the Ukrainian president said. “Instead, there is ample information about preparations for further Russian strikes on our energy sector and infrastructure, including facilities and networks that serve our nuclear power plants. Each such Russian strike on the energy sector amid such a harsh winter weakens and undermines the efforts of key states – in particular the United States – to end this war.” Zelenskyy spoke after a briefing from Ukraine’s chief of defence intelligence, Oleh Ivashchenko – the recent replacement for Kyrylo Budanov, who was made head of the president’s office. Budanov on Saturday confirmed his own arrival in the US to discuss peace proposals. He and Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia would meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and the US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, Budanov said. Zelenskyy has tasked his delegation at the Miami talks with finalising proposals about security guarantees and economic recovery. If American officials approve the proposals, the US and Ukraine could sign a deal next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to Zelenskyy. However Russia has given no indication it will accept any peace deal without Ukraine’s entire Donbas region being handed over for a start. Russian attacks left at least two people dead and others injured in Kharkiv oblast on Saturday, regional authorities said. A strike that damaged a critical infrastructure facility in Kharkiv city’s industrial district could seriously affect power and heating, said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov, with the energy system “constantly operating at its limits”. One person was wounded in the attack. An attack on a house in Kharkiv city killed a woman aged 20 and wounded others. In the village of Borivske, a 52-year-old woman was killed when a drone hit a public transport stop, prosecutors said. In the Sumy region, emergency services said an airstrike on a residential neighbourhood wounded three women and a seven-year-old child, and left 15 residential buildings damaged. Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Odesa regions overnight into Saturday, the ministry of energy said. More than 20 settlements in the Kyiv region were left without power. Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed to ramp up the importation of electricity and the acquisition of additional equipment from partners. Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Denys Shmyhal, the energy minister. Shmyhal announced that Lithuania would be providing Ukraine with more energy generating equipment for Kyiv and the most critically affected regions, after already supplying equipment for emergency repairs on coal and nuclear power plants. “In addition we have received over 2,000 solar panels, various equipment and machinery from our Lithuanian friends,” Shmyhal said. “Lithuania has contributed €5.7m euros to the energy support fund of Ukraine … There is not a single power plant left in Ukraine that has not been hit by Russian strikes. Ukrainian energy workers continue to repair around the clock and return electricity to people.”

European leaders warn of ‘downward spiral’ after Trump threatens tariffs over Greenland – as it happened

Thank you for following today’s live blog on the escalating crisis over Greenland. Here’s a summary of everything that happened: Donald Trump said he will impose 10% tariffs on eight countries - the UK, Norway, and six EU members - over their opposition to his plans to take over Greenland. The tariffs will be imposed on all goods exported to the United States by the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland from 1 February, followed by a 25% rate from 1 June. Keir Starmer condemned the tariffs as “completely wrong”, insisting that Greenland is part of Denmark and “its future is a matter for the Greenlanders and the Danes”. The tariffs were also criticised by senior EU officials, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. Trump’s announcement came after he threatened to impose tariffs on countries that do not “go along” with his plan to annex Greenland on Friday. He doubled down on those statements by posting on Truth Social an image of himself accompanied with the caption “Mister Tariff” and “The Tariff King”. Earlier today, thousands gathered all around Denmark and in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, as part of a planned “Hands Off Greenland” action protesting Donald Trump and his threats to take over the island. “We are demonstrating against American statements and ambitions to annex Greenland. We demand respect for the Danish Realm and for Greenland’s right to self-determination,” Camilla Siezing, chair of the Joint Association Inuit, said in a statement. Meanwhile, a bipartisan congressional delegation continued to meet with Danish and Greenlandic leaders in Copenhagen, where they maintained their support of both Greenland and Denmark in direct contrast with statements coming from the White House. With Nato troops in Greenland this week, some Greenland residents are now preparing for the worst, either stocking up on supplies or readying themselves to flee quickly.

Trump’s tariff threat is an attempt to divide Europe and quash opposition over Greenland

Donald Trump’s threat to impose fresh tariffs on eight European countries – UK, Norway and six EU member states – is a wrecking ball to the carefully stitched deals he concluded with those countries last summer. The two biggest voting blocs in the European parliament, the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists & Democrats (S&Ds), said on Saturday night the deal with the EU cannot be approved in the present circumstances. Trump’s threat also disregards the fact that individual member states do not have individual trade deals with the US. All EU international trade deals are conducted centrally through Brussels, as was the case last summer. The EU-US trade deal was agreed under considerable pressure from Trump at his Scottish golf course last July. However, while it has entered into force in the US, the 0% tariffs promised to the US have yet to be legally ratified in the EU. “The EPP is in favour of the EU-US trade deal, but given Donald Trump’s threats regarding Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage,” said Manfred Weber, the leader of the EPP. “The 0% tariffs on US products must be put on hold.” Kathleen Van Brempt, vice-president for trade for the S&Ds, said there could be “no trade deal under [the] given circumstances”. Later on Saturday, the liberal voting bloc Renew said it would join attempts to halt the ratification of the US trade deal. The UK’s trade deal, as it was described last May, is already in force, but applies to a limited number of products – cars, beef, aerospace, ethanol and steel – with a 10% tariff deal on other exports ranging from salmon to bone china. Both the EU and the UK are in the middle of sensitive negotiations to reduce tariffs Trump has already imposed, particularly on steel, which are rated at 25% for British exports and 50% for EU products. The latest threat will be seen as another attempt by a man – sometimes ally, sometimes adversary – desperate to win an argument, using one of his favourite weapons. It will also be seen as an attempt to divide Europe and quash their opposition to his Greenland takeover ambition. Saturday’s threat underlines the unstable nature of any deal with Trump but also seems to have fired up the EU, which many have considered weak in the face of multiple episodes of bullying by the US. An emergency meeting of EU ambassadors is expected on Sunday. Late last year the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, warned there would be no deal on reducing steel tariffs unless the EU rolled back on tech laws. This is despite the EU and the US’s common interest in forming a club to fight cheaper Chinese imports. The EU has consistently pushed back on any attempt to link tech with tariffs, and in particular to revise a €120m fine on Elon Musk’s X. It is unlikely to do anything other than issue a further statement on Saturday reiterating its right and strong intention to defend its sovereignty. Mikkel Runge Olesen, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said Trump’s latest threat was a sign that Europe’s opposition to his threat to takeover Greenland was working. “I think it is a reaction to the European troops going to Greenland, because if you look at the tariffs they match the countries who sent troops,” he told Sky News. “We are never going to see American troops on the ground in Greenland, this is a negotiating tactic.”

Macron: ‘No amount of intimidation’ will change EU nations’ course on Greenland

Emmanuel Macron has hit back at Donald Trump’s latest threats to impose tariffs on any country opposing his Greenland takeover, warning that “no amount of intimidation” will persuade European nations to change their course on Greenland. The US president on Saturday announced 10% tariffs on eight European countries from 1 February, with a further 25% tariff from 1 June. Macron’s message was echoed by the Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, who warned the EU would not be “blackmailed” by Trump, and the Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, who said “threats have no place among allies”. In a joint statement, EU leaders said “tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral”. EU ambassadors are expected to meet for an emergency session on Sunday. Trump’s threats appear to have fired up the EU, which up to now has been loathe to go down a confrontational path, with MEPs threatening to pause the ratification of the US trade deal next week. Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s party, the largest voting bloc in the institute, said they would have to pause the legal rubber stamping process. The tariffs threatened against Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland target the countries that have been most vocal in their opposition to Trump’s intentions to take over Greenland. European leaders, in Paraguay to sign their biggest trade deal ever with the Mercosur alliance of South American countries, were taken by surprise by Trump’s latest outburst on Truth Social. “This Tariff will be due and payable until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland,” Trump said. Macron immediately called the tariff threats “unacceptable”. He said they had “no place” in a context in which Europe was trying to defend Greenland, and in which Denmark was an EU member state, Nato member and signatory to the UN charter embodying international law. “France is committed to the sovereignty and independence of nations, in Europe and elsewhere. This guides our choices. It underpins our commitment to the United Nations and our charter,” Macron said. “It is for this reason that we support and will continue to support Ukraine, and that we have built a coalition of the willing for robust and lasting peace, to defend these principles and our security. “It is also for this reason that we have decided to join the exercise decided by Denmark in Greenland. We stand by this decision, not least because it concerns security in the Arctic and at the borders of Europe. “No intimidation or threats will influence us, whether in Ukraine, Greenland or anywhere else in the world, when we are faced with such situations.” Kristersson warned: “We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed. Only Denmark and Greenland decide on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland. I will always stand up for my country, and for our allied neighbours.” In their joint statement, the president of the European council of EU leaders, António Costa and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said they had “consistently underlined” the “shared transatlantic interest in peace and security in the Arctic, including through Nato”. They added that “dialogue remains essential”. “Tariffs would undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” the statement continued. “Europe will remain united, coordinated, and committed to upholding its sovereignty.” Denmark attempted to lower the diplomatic temperature in the growing crisis. In a statement, its foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, referred to “constructive” talks with Marco Rubio last week and an acknowledgment that more had to be done to increase the security in the Arctic. “That is why we and Nato partners are stepping up in full transparency with our American allies,” he said. The threat of 10% tariffs in addition to the 15% tariffs that Trump imposed on EU exports last August was described as a “negotiating tactic” by Mikkel Runge Olesen, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “I think it is a reaction to the European troops going to Greenland, because if you look at the tariffs they match the countries who sent troops,” he told Sky News. “We are never going to see American troops on the ground in Greenland; this is a negotiating tactic.” The EU-US tariff deal was agreed last August at Trump’s Scottish golf course but it has not yet been ratified by the European parliament. The German MEP Bernd Lange, chair of the trade parliamentary committee, said he expected MEPs to pause all progress on ratification. “In view of the threat of imposing an additional 10% tariff from 1 February, I cannot imagine that we will continue business as usual and I assume that we will suspend our continued work.” He added: “The EPP is in favour of the EU-US trade deal, but given Donald Trump’s threats regarding Greenland, approval is not possible at this stage. The 0% tariffs on US products must be put on hold.” Also pulling the plug on talks were the second-biggest voting bloc, the Socialists and Democrats, with Kathleen Van Brempt, its vice-president for trade, saying there could be “no trade deal under given circumstances”.

Keir Starmer says Trump’s threat to impose tariffs over Greenland ‘completely wrong’

Keir Starmer has said Donald Trump’s decision to impose 10% tariffs on the UK and seven other European countries over Greenland was “completely wrong”. The US president said on Saturday that the levies would apply from 1 February to Nato members – including the UK, France and Germany – who have deployed troops to the territory in response to growing uncertainty over its future. Trump said the tariffs would rise to 25% on 1 June if a deal to buy Greenland had not been reached. In a Truth Social post, Trump said: “Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown … This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet.” The prime minister said on Saturday evening: “Our position on Greenland is very clear – it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and its future is a matter for the Greenlanders and the Danes. “We have also made clear that Arctic security matters for the whole of Nato and allies should all do more together to address the threat from Russia across different parts of the Arctic. “Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of Nato allies is completely wrong. We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration.” Opposition politicians also condemned Trump’s threats. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said: “President Trump is completely wrong to announce tariffs on the UK over Greenland. “These tariffs will be yet another burden for businesses across our country. The sovereignty of Greenland should only be decided by the people of Greenland.” Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “Starmer’s US policy lies in tatters. Trump is now punishing the UK and Nato allies just for doing the right thing. “Time for the PM to stand firm against the bully in the White House, and work with European and Commonwealth allies to make him back down from this reckless plan.” The Reform leader, Nigel Farage, said Trump’s Greenland tariffs would “hurt” the UK. He said: “We don’t always agree with the US government and in this case we certainly don’t.” Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said: “Trump’s tariffs and threats mean it’s make your mind up time. If we can’t rely on America and we don’t want to cosy up to China, the answer is to get serious about our strategic future with Europe. “Nato needs this too – the reset must be real, and it must happen quickly for all our sakes.” Lord Peter Ricketts, a former national security adviser and retired senior diplomat, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that “the right thing for the European countries is to react very calmly” and “go on making the case that America can have all its security interests served by working with Denmark and with Nato”. “Remember that in the cold war, America had 10,000 troops in Greenland, so it’s entirely open to the Americans to increase their military presence without going unilateral and these kind of threatening approaches,” he said. He added that European leaders could in private make clear that “this tariff business isn’t going to work – for one thing, the European Union has a single tariff, so he will find he can’t put tariffs on individual EU countries; it’s the EU as a whole”. “Rather than threatening tariffs, we need to be working together to work out the very legitimate issues about Greenland security – not that China is about to take it over, but that all of us in Nato have Arctic security as a priority,” he said. “The way to do this is to work together and in the past, I think Keir Starmer and others have been quite effective at working with President Trump privately, not taking him on in public, and I think we need to go back into that routine to get him to see that there are other ways of achieving what he wants without this sort of threatening, blustering language about tariffs.”