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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is traveling to Greenland for a visit aimed at building the trust of Greenlandic officials as the Trump administration is seeking control of the Arctic territory

In today’s newsletter: The administration’s sweeping tariffs have left markets bracing for volatility – but what impact will they have on an unsteady global economy?Good morning. According to Donald Trump, it’s “liberation day”: the advent of a new trade order in which Americans reap the benefit of massive tariffs on imports, and the rest of the world picks up the tab.Unsurprisingly, the United States’ trading partners tend to take a very different view. And they are doing everything they can to avoid being passive targets for the White House’s carnivorous vision of American exceptionalism.Israel-Gaza war | Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a major expansion of the military operation in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel. Follow the latest here.Israel-Gaza war | Some of the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to two eyewitnesses. The accounts add to evidence pointing to a potentially serious war crime on 23 March.UK news | More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come. Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.US politics | Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator by spending 25 hours and five minutes inveighing against Donald Trump in the chamber. Booker’s speech was intended to highlight the “grave and urgent” danger that Trump poses to democracy.Cinema | Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65. His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia. Continue reading...

China’s military says drills will continue in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday and will use live fireThe US has accused China of putting the region’s security at risk after it launched a second day of military drills targeting Taiwan with a rehearsal blockade and attack.China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began the joint drills without notice on Tuesday morning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 navy and coastguard ships, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around Taiwan’s main island. Continue reading...

A 26-year-old man was rescued from hotel in capital Naypyidaw, long after disaster that has killed thousandsA man was pulled alive from the rubble of a hotel in Myanmar on Wednesday, five days after the country’s worst earthquake in a century flattened entire neighbourhoods and tore through temples, bridges and highways.The 26-year-old was found alive in the ruins of the building in the capital, Naypyidaw, by a joint team of rescuers from Myanmar and Turkey after midnight, the fire service and the country’s ruling junta said. Continue reading...

Severe storms battered the Greek islands for a second day, with Crete experiencing the most intense rainfall

President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform was slammed as an "unsuccessful and money-losing Twitter competitor" in a Mother Jones article Tuesday.Yet to him, it remains a valuable tool keeping his cash flow moving and his administration in line, the report claimed.According to senior reporter Anna Merlan, "The company that owns TruthSocial, Trump Media & Technology Group, has also been a way for the president to draw his political allies closer, through payments, board seats, and generous stock rewards."The Trumps see the company as a sort of piggy bank, with Merlan writing, "TMTG paid Donald Trump Jr. $813,000, a quarter of TMTG’s 2024 annual revenue, 'just for showing up at board meetings,'" and "CEO Devin Nunes, a former California Republican congressman, has made at least $6.3 million running the company since 2022 — 'a stunning figure for a firm that is struggling to earn any money.'" ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the worldMerlan writes that the publicly-traded TMTG "is unlikely to ever become a real success outside of the Trump universe," but it provides a valuable service to those seeking a window into Trump's transactional presidency and how he and his administration dabble in "unprecedented mingling of his corporate and political fiefdoms."For example, Merlan writes that "three people who have held shares or served on the board of TMTG have been appointed to high-profile positions in the Trump administration: Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel, and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon." Trump has appointed "at least four others with TMTG ties to federal roles," Merlan writes, but none has filed paperwork to divest from the company as they promised to.Tony Carrk, the executive director of the government watchdog Accountable U.S., told Mother Jones, “The unprecedented situation of president Trump rewarding investors and executives in his media company with administration jobs sends a clear message to the wealthy, corporate lobbyists and foreign interests that the road to influence in the United States runs through Trump Media."He continues, “No one should be surprised that president Trump’s first weeks in office have been about removing barriers to corruption and dismantling oversight, not about lowering costs for working families. Trump cares more about lining his own pockets and his wealthy friends’ than putting money back into yours.”Read the Mother Jones article here.

In a major defeat for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) led the effort to advance remote voting for members of Congress who are new parents.Nine Republicans joined all House Democrats to advance the measure that would allow the new parents to designate a colleague to vote for them for 12 weeks after they or their spouse welcome a new child.The measure was introduced by Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) in January and gained bipartisan support. The fight against Johnson's attempts to undermine the measure caused Luna to leave the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members backed Johnson.Johnson and other Republicans have called proxy voting unconstitutional and rife for abuse.Political writer @Monaheart1229 posted to social media, "Johnson's attempt to block MAGA House Rep Anna Paulina Luna's DP giving proxy voting rights to new parents has FAILED 206-222 Nine MAGA 'no' votes Luna: 'Never bet against the Luna.” House Dem Rep Brittany Pettersen’s message to Johnson: “Don’t f--- with moms.”ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the worldReporter Melanie Zanona wrote, "An effort by GOP leadership to kill @realannapaulina’s proxy voting push for new parents just failed on the House floor. Remote voting will still need to come to the floor & pass, but this is a big win for Luna — & big defeat for Speaker Johnson. 8 Rs sided w/ Luna."Luna, no liberal squish, did a brave thing by trying to enact a simple pro-family policy in a bipartisan manner. Mike Johnson tried to punish her for it and failed," wrote The Bulwark's Joe Perticone.Columnist Eric Michael Garcia posted, "Goodness gracious! EIGHT Republicans opposing this rule that would have killed Anna Paulina Luna's discharge petition! Mike Johnson is facing a mutiny!" Garcia added, "Conservatives just embarrassed Mike Johnson on a level I haven't seen since the McCarthy days. Johnson USED proxy voting regularly during the 117th Congress, but he needed to keep Chip Roy happy so he sided with her instead of Luna and got a jailbreak."Congressional correspondent Julie Tsirkin called it a "HUGE win for @realannapaulina… who moments before the vote expressed her disappointment with House GOP leadership’s efforts to kill her proxy voting push for new parents 8 Republicans joined Luna in defeating Speaker Johnson."And PatriotTakes wrote, "Anna Paulina Luna attacks Speaker Mike Johnson’s hypocrisy over proxy voting," along with photo evidence of Johnson having voted by proxy as late as 2022.Luna posted before the vote, "Here are some documents showing [Johnson] voting by proxy in the 117th Congress, as late as December 2022. He argues it's 'unconstitutional' but has done it several times! Since the case is being made to the public via press, I'm doing the same."

President Donald Trump has signed more than 300 executive orders since coming into office — and a New York Times reporter thinks he knows why.According to opinion writer Carlos Lozada, Trump "favors the flourish of the order over the hassle of lawmaking." After all, "Why bother assembling legislative coalitions when you can just write, 'By the authority vested in me as president by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered' and then tack on whatever you like?" he asked.Lozada has read through every single Trump orders so far, and found that they laid bare "the assumptions, obsessions and contradictions of the man signing them." Lozada described Trump's orders as "a bit of a mess."ALSO READ: 'The Hard Reset': Here's how the U.S. is exporting terrorism around the worldHe continued, "Some of the orders are so generic as to be meaningless. One of the shortest declares that U.S. foreign policy must always 'put America and American citizens first.'" Another order "requires that taxpayer money should be spent 'only on making America great.' It’s hard to know how to execute such orders, other than to proclaim them."Lozada wrote that although some orders are "specific in their instructions," still "others list no precise actions but only instruct some new task force or council to think of things to do."For example, Lozada wrote, "An agency or program may receive new responsibilities in one executive order only to find itself dismantled in another. Orders sometimes echo Trump’s standard slogans, whether putting America first or making America great, without adding much meaning to them. And stylistically, they veer from formal policy pronouncement to campaign speech to social media diatribe, sometimes all within the same text."Lozada wrote that "despite the muddle — or perhaps because of it — the new administration’s orders fulfill one essential service: They affirm and expand Trump’s vision of the presidency, of politics, of our Nation...they "illuminate the president’s interpretation of America’s values — what kind of people belong herebelong here, how the nation’s history should be taught, which principles are worth upholding and defending."The trouble with executive actions, which Trump may find out one day, "do not carry the same legitimacy or endurance of laws passed by Congress and can be revoked by future presidents."Read The New York Times opinion piece here.