Today’s big topic: The United States has big plans for its consulate in Greenland
What’s happening?
A gilded portrait of Donald Trump glares sternly at visitors in the entrance to the United States’ new consulate in Nuuk. Otherwise, it is almost impossible to tell that the United States has moved into the high-rise on Imaneq, the central pedestrian street in the Greenlandic capital. For months, vertical blinds have been drawn across the windows, preventing passersby from peering inside. The doors are locked, and several of the large white-painted rooms stand empty.
But the American plans are expansive. A new document from the U.S. State Department, obtained by Politiken, shows that the United States intends to sharply increase its presence in Nuuk. A market survey issued by the State Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) shows that the Trump administration is planning a sweeping expansion and renovation of the consulate’s three floors, totaling 2,784 square meters.
The U.S. government has set aside between 167 million and 214 million kroner for the project. According to the plan, the consulate is to include a garage and a consular section on the ground floor, while the upper levels are to be outfitted with, among other things, a Public Diplomacy Room, a so-called Executive Suite, a conference room, and a series of other offices. Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, where he studies American foreign policy, notes that a consulate of that size could come to function as a true »shadow embassy«.
Why it matters!
The scale of the American presence stands out sharply in Greenland, where the population is just 57,000. By comparison, the EU office in Nuuk has four employees, Canada is represented by one consul, and the entire Danish High Commission in Greenland has 15 employees.
»It really stands out. Both in relation to other countries’ diplomatic presence in Greenland and the U.S. presence in comparable small countries around the world«, Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard says.
That makes the expansion about much more than office space. It signals »a long-term commitment« to Greenland and a much deeper U.S. political footprint at a time when sovereignty and influence in the Arctic are under growing pressure. The concern is palpable in Nuuk. As activist Aqqalukkuluk Fontain said in full:
»I am very worried about it. The United States has major plans for Greenland, and Donald Trump is already talking as if he owns Greenland. When you think about the fact that we are 57,000 people, it is completely out of proportion. If they expand in that way, then I think there will be more demonstrations. It is not something we want«.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
–Again on Thursday, a number of flights in Europe were targeted by bomb threats.
There have been no reports that there were actually bombs on board, but the threats have caused delays and chaos in several places. The bomb threats come after a number of flights on Tuesday were subjected to similar threats. Copenhagen Airport has also been affected – both on Tuesday, when one flight was threatened, and again on Thursday. The airport does not wish to give an interview, but confirmed in a written response that »there has been a threat against aircraft at Copenhagen Airport«.
– TV 2 executive: Threats against participants in sham program are far too severe
The scale of the hateful messages and threats directed at people involved in the much-criticized TV 2 program ’Everybody Loves Rasmus’ is far too severe. That is the message from TV 2’s director of content, Ulla Pors, in a written comment to Ritzau. The statement comes in the wake of comedian Martin Johannes Larsen’s decision to step down as host of TV 2’s program ’The New Year’s Party.’ He is one of the participants in ’Everybody Loves Rasmus,’ which TV 2 withdrew last week after massive criticism.
»No one should be subjected to that kind of thing, no matter how critical one may be of the program«, she says in the statement.
–New error: 800 decisions deleted from criminal records register
The National Police said so in a press release on Thursday. The statement says that the deletion of ’certain additional cases’ has been identified. The public first learned in September that a major deletion error had occurred in the criminal records register. Earlier on Thursday, TV 2 reported that additional deletions had taken place in the register, meaning cases involving ’particularly serious’ crime had been removed. According to the broadcaster’s information, legal affairs spokespersons from the parties in Parliament were informed at a meeting at the Ministry of Justice on Thursday that a new deletion error had in fact been found in the register, involving about 800 cases.
This weeken’d itinerary
Everyone should try calf tongue to the sound of Barry White, Politiken’s food critic Joakim Grundahl writes in his review of Louche, which he gave six whole hearts
Here in the Green Meatpacking District, Louche is a cozy out-of-the-way tavern in a back courtyard. The food concept is hands-on and loosely inspired by the whole world. There is open fire in the kitchen, small dishes in the Japanese izakaya style, with mushrooms, fish, meat, and pickled and fermented ingredients on skewers.
What to eat?
You can get a 10-course tasting menu for just 595 kroner, but he began an à la carte excursion with deep-fried oysters in a crumb crust of crackling bronze and a whipped sauce of Comté and browned butter.He describes how he could shovel those down like cheese puffs with shrimp flavor. Put them in a bag with a warning label, and watch him not care.
The first yakitori skewer came with chanterelles, smoked corn, pickled rose, celery purée, and a crazily good smear made from the pineapples hanging above the grill and taking on smoke in their tropical aroma. Madness transformed into inevitability in a single bite. The monkfish tail for the main course was glazed to a golden sheen and white and succulent, while the yogurt sorbet for dessert was arctically fresh and a small masterpiece.
But we have to rewind to get to the ending. The calf tongue. It had been boiled with vegetables, sliced thin on a deli slicer, and skewered in small squares separated by the kitchen’s own lamb bacon. It was grilled hard, brushed with n’duja barbecue sauce, and sprinkled with fresh thyme and pickled elderflower.
What to drink?
The restaurant manager and sake and wine sommelier, Sarah Faraone, has created a perfect wine list for the atmosphere.
Joakim Grundahl had a bottle of white, an oak-aged Rioja, Valenciso, in which the viura grape came through with a spicy edge and carried him to a place of smoke, honey, lemon, apples, and fresh wind in his hair. It embraced the entire menu, from cucumber to tongue and monkfish, he says.
Still curious? 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.