Today’s big topic: Trump didn’t get Greenland, but he got to call himself the winner
On Jan. 17, 2026, thousands of people demonstrated against the United States’ desire to take over Greenland. Self-Government leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen joined them in front of the American consulate, where the demonstration ended.
What’s happening?
An agreement has been reached between the United States, Greenland, and Denmark: a piece of paper that, apparently, all three capitals can live with, and that will be signed at the United Nations General Assembly next week.
Nothing has been signed yet, and most of what we know about the deal comes from Donald Trump, who has a habit of overselling his accomplishments.
But with that caveat, the agreement looks like a soft landing after an exceptionally hard conflict: Greenland and Denmark still decide most things on the vast island, and the Kingdom remains intact.
The Americans get certain military and economic assurances, and Donald Trump gets to look like a winner – especially if one forgets that what he wanted was to own Greenland.
It was Trump himself who first broke the news on his own platform, Truth Social, late Friday night as Denmark was heading for the weekend.
Why it matters!
The agreement lifts enormous pressure off Denmark and Greenland, which have fought with every tool available since Trump, in December 2024, began dreaming out loud about owning the country he regarded as a piece of land that could be bought. Or conquered.
When the United States took control of Venezuela this January and removed the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, the idea of an American invasion of Greenland began to seem less unthinkable.
After Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, met on Jan. 14 with the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance, there was agreement to form a working group where the three countries could meet behind closed doors and find a common language, while their political leaders could still talk tough if someone shoved a microphone in their faces.
For the process, it was important to avoid a direct confrontation between Donald Trump and Mette Frederiksen, who do not have the best relationship.
The agreement looks like a win for the diplomats and for the Europe that stood together in those frantic days in January. Because Donald Trump did not get Greenland. He got only an agreement and the chance to tell his voters that he won.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Stripefish, seahorses, red mullet and wrasse: New fish are thriving in warmer Danish waters
Climate change will transform life in Denmark’s seas, making them resemble the Mediterranean more than they do today. That is the forecast from marine scientists, after the Danish Meteorological Institute, DMI, recently concluded in its new Climate Atlas that temperatures in Danish waters will continue to rise because of greenhouse-gas emissions. According to DMI, by the end of this century Denmark’s seas will be so warm that, by today’s standards, they would experience marine heat waves every other day.
– Every other non-Western immigrant experiences discrimination
Nearly half of non-Western immigrants and their descendants in Denmark experience discrimination, a new study shows. The minister for immigration and integration, Morten Bødskov, is using the new figures as an occasion to point out that discrimination also takes place within the community itself. In summary, the conclusion is that a total of 47 percent of non-Western immigrants and their descendants in Denmark report that they experience discrimination.
»We have a challenge when so many young people from different ethnic backgrounds feel they are being discriminated against«, he says. »What I also find extremely striking, when we talk about discrimination against minorities in Danish society, is those very communities’ views on, for example, LGBT+ people – and whether it is acceptable to have sex with someone of the same sex«.
– World Road Racing Championships in Copenhagen
Sweden’s Andreas Almgren was a surprise winner on Sunday morning at the World Half Marathon Championships on the streets of Copenhagen. In the final meters, he unleashed a ferocious kick and relegated Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir to second place. Joshua Cheptegui of Uganda took bronze. Almgren was timed in 58 minutes 6 seconds, making him the first European winner in 30 years. The most recent European medalist was in 2016. Jacob Simonsen finished 16th in 1 hour 46 seconds, improving his own Danish record by 25 seconds.
Among the women, there was no suspense about the victory. The 25-year-old Agnes Jebet Ngetich was utterly dominant. She led from the first kilometer and ran alone for virtually the entire distance. She crossed the finish line on Øster Allé in 1 hour 5 minutes 15 seconds, setting a world record for a women-only half marathon. She lowered the record by just one second. Carolien Millenaar was the top Danish finisher in 1 hour 13 minutes 47 seconds, good for 69th place.
Talk of town: Working-class children have all but vanished from the capital
Amager has transformed from an area of factories into a district of desirable housing.
The capital has undergone a transformation over the past four decades.
A walk through the city streets makes it clear that construction has picked up again in every corner of town after grinding to a complete halt in the 1980s.
The Economic Council of the Labor Movement (AE) has put numbers to that shift. There are now nearly seven times as many families with children who belong to the elite as there were 40 years ago. That has consequences, among other things, for working-class families, who have to commute farther to get to their jobs.
In 1984, 8 percent of children ages 0 to 2 grew up in upper-class or upper-middle-class families in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. Forty years later, in 2024, 54 percent of young children are growing up in the upper class or the upper middle class.
»It’s interesting to look at what kinds of families small children are born into, because it shows where the city is headed«, says Lars Andersen, AE’s director.
The highest social strata have, quite simply, displaced working-class children from Copenhagen and Frederiksberg over the course of a few decades. In 1984, 44 percent of children ages 0 to 2 were born into a working-class family; in 2024, only 7 percent of young children belong to the working class.
Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.