Political leaders in Norway have condemned the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s “absurd” decision to present her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump, accusing the US president of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work.

The Nobel laureate gave her medal to Trump at the White House on Thursday “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. Several hours later, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Machado “presented me with her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”

Infantile Sore Loser and Pragmatic Political Opportunist:

I’m sitting at my desk. Outside it’s crystal clear, icy cold, the frozen forest like a black edge in the distance. I’ve looked into a trip to my hometown, Nuuk, I’ve even bought the ticket and now I know I’m going in March. It feels unreal, even though I’ve traveled that way many times before. It feels unsafe to want to do it, and important.

Buying the trip was a leap in the middle of the task I’m currently working on. I’ve been asked if I’d like to write about the things going on in and around Greenland. Forgive me if the result comes across as me trying my hand. This is the third time I’ve started this text, I’ve discarded the first two drafts. I’ve thought about writing to the editor of the newspaper that I can’t do it anyway. But it won’t work.

Statement by President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany, Prime Minister Meloni of Italy, Prime Minister Tusk of Poland, Prime Minister Sánchez of Spain, Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Frederiksen of Denmark on Greenland.

Arctic security remains a key priority for Europe and it is critical for international and transatlantic security.

NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European Allies are stepping up. We and many other Allies have increased our presence, activities and investments, to keep the Arctic safe and to deter adversaries. The Kingdom of Denmark – including Greenland – is part of NATO.

Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.

The United States is an essential partner in this endeavour, as a NATO ally and through the defence agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States of 1951.

Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.

From visitgreenland.com:

Cultures at the mercy of mother nature:

People have lived in Greenland for more than 4500 years although there have been long periods when the country has been completely uninhabited because conditions made it impossible.

This could have been due to a lack of animals to hunt or in the event of a change of climate that made conditions too harsh for survival.

Excavations from throughout Greenland and finds of ruins, tools, bones and clothing bear witness to highly developed cultures that immigrated in several separate waves.

First wave of immigration: Independence I:

The first people in Greenland came from Northern Canada around 2500 BC. The Independence I culture spread along the northern coastline of Greenland to the southern parts of the present day National Park in Northeast Greenland.

These early hunters were dependent on relatively stationary animal populations and primarily lived of musk oxen and ringed seals. The latest finds from Independence I has been dated approx. 1730 BC.

Second wave of immigration: The Saqqaq culture:

The second immigration from Canada to Greenland took place in around 2400 BC and lasted until 8-400 BC. The Saqqaq people settled from the southern part of Melville Bay, round Cape Farewell and up the southeast coast to what is today Ittoqqortoormiit.

At the small settlement of Saqqaq in Disko Bay the first tools from this culture were found, and subsequently gave the name to the culture. The people of the Saqqaq culture are the ones who has lived in Greenland for the longest unbroken period.

This was mainly due to the fact that these hunters were able to hunt and use a wide variety of animals, such as whales, seals, fish, birds and land mammals.

New DNA research has proven that the Saqqaq people originated from the Aleutian Islands and were not genetically related to the later Inuit.

Third wave of immigration: Independence II and the dorset culture third:

The next two immigrations were by the Independence II culture along Greenlands northern coastline and into Northeast Greenland from approx. 800 BC to 0 AD and a new culture, the Dorset, which came across the ice near present day Qaanaaq, and moved then southwards along Greenland’s west coast and probably on to the southern part of the east coast.

The Dorset people brought with them a women’s knife, the ulo, which is still in use today in Greenland. Large knives for cutting snow indicate that this was the first culture to have learnt the art of building an igloo.

The culture, named after Cape Dorset in Canada, lived primarily on the tundra and hunted land mammals such as reindeer and musk oxen.

Fourth wave of immigration: Dorset 2, norse settlers and the thule people:

Around the end of the first millennium no less than three different cultures arrived in a fourth wave of immigration to Greenland. These immigrations happened after a seemingly uninhabited period of 800-900 years.

The Dorset 2 people arrived in the 8th-9th centuries AD. This group settled primarily around Qaanaaq, in North and Northeast Greenland.

The Thule culture presumably moved into Greenland around 1200 AD. This was the first people to settle all around Greenland both on the East- and the West coast.

Greenlanders today are direct descendants of the Thule people, who primarily were a maritime culture, highly specialized in the hunting for sea mammals. The last known immigration from Canada took place in around 1860.

Nearly the same time the first eastern immigrants arrived, when settlers from Iceland and Norway took land in South and Southwest Greenland. This immigration can be dated rather precisely to 982 AD thanks to the Icelandic Chronicles, when Erik the Red set foot in South Greenland.

The last historical evidence of the Norse settlers, who were primarily farmers, was a report of a wedding held in Hvalsey Church in 1408. Archeological findings indicate, that the norse culture in Greenland disappeared around 1450 AD. Many of the Norse settlers’ ruins are still visible on plains and mountainsides in South Greenland and at Nuuk.

Following the disappearance of the Norse population, expeditions from England and Norway came to Greenland throughout the 16th and 17th centuries and from the 17th and 18th centuries it was primarily the European whalers who came into contact with the Inuits. This resulted in extensive trade, and the Inuits were particularly taken with the Europeans’ small glass beads, which today are used in the national costume. The missionary Hans Egede from the joint kingdom of Denmark-Norway arrived in what is today known as Nuuk in 1721 in his search for the Norse settlers. He never found them, but instead converted the Inuits to the Christian faith. The Inuits today are Lutheran evangelists.

The hardy Inuit cultures have survived in Greenland by inventing and developing essential tools and implements that have been adapted and refined over generations, and which are in fact still in use today.

This applies to, for example, the qajaq – the Greenlandic sea kayak – which is perhaps the best symbol of an Arctic culture that has lived on, by and from the sea and its resources.

The ulo, which is a special, curved knife used by the women to cut up the prey the men brought home from the seal hunt, is also worthy of mention.

Like the qajaq and the ulo, the dogsled is also a tool from the past, and is probably the traditional appliance that is most used in today’s modern society.

Greenland has become a modern society, where snowmobiles have in some cases replaced the sleds and where mobile phones and the Internet have become common means of communication for young and old alike. However, some things never disappear from even the most modern cultures, and the traditional myths and legends still hold a key place in the Greenlandic consciousness.

Many places in Greenland traces of the last immigrant cultures, in particular the Thule and Norse, can be seen today, and local museums and the National Museum in Nuuk exhibits collections of finds from these cultures.

When President Donald Trump‘s longest-serving chief of staff, John Kelly, declared he fit the definition of a fascist in 2024, Republicans called him crazy. They claimed there was no way fascism could’ve made its way to the U.S. But almost two years have passed, and fears of fascism continue to brew. Now, experts believe it’s finally time to call a spade a spade, bringing even more fears about the future of American democracy to the forefront.