Trump's threats to seize Greenland and Panama Canal
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 8th of January, these are our main stories. The US President-elect Donald Trump has refused to rule out using military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal. The social media giant Meta is ending fact-checking on Facebook and other platforms, saying it wants to prioritise free expression over censorship. The outgoing US Secretary of State has accused the paramilitary rapid support forces of committing genocide in Sudan.
Also in this podcast... I was up on Everest and my tent was shaken very hardly this morning, so I woke up to realise I was surrounded by avalanches coming down the mountain.
We meet the climber who spent an earthquake on the side of Mount Everest. US President-elect Donald Trump has ramped up threats to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, saying he can't offer assurance that he wouldn't use military or economic coercion. He also said eliminating the artificially drawn US-Canada border would be beneficial to national security. And his intervention comes on the day that his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic. While answering a journalist's question during a news conference in Florida, it was difficult to separate humour or bombast from genuine policy. Just how likely is it, then, that the next President of the United States will try to take these territories with military force? A question for our North America correspondent, Neda Torfik.
I don't think he would. I think he is making these statements as sort of leverage. Look, when you look at Greenland as an island in the Arctic, it's very strategically placed. He's seeing Greenland in the sense that it's part of that geopolitical tension and competition with China and Russia. who have their eyes on the Arctic, of course. Greenland also has rich minerals, which would certainly be very beneficial to the United States. So certainly when Donald Trump makes these statements, you kind of understand that he is thinking about projecting, as I say, again, strength in terms of competition with China and Russia. It's interesting that this also comes as his son, Don Jr., is in Greenland.
He's saying he's there just as an outdoorsman on a personal trip. But it does give a little bit of kind of trolling, doesn't it, from the Trumps. And when you look at Panama, again, Donald Trump again complained today that Panama was ripping off the United States by charging U.S. ships higher rates than other countries, that the canal was being operated by China. The authorities there have denied that, but clearly China does have an interest as well in the Panama Canal and Donald Trump doesn't like that. So again, these comments really do have to be seen in light of how he wants to position the United States against Russia and China in the future.
As you say, it was in response to a reporter's question. Did he plan to say this or was it something that he came up with on the spur of the moment?
Look, Donald Trump in these press conferences really does speak kind of on the fly. He doesn't have many scripted remarks. I don't think it's something that he would have stayed away from saying in the future if he felt like it would help him. Again, he knows how to grab attention, how to grab headlines, how to get media attention. And so I think that was a very calculated answer to that question to project strength.
So let's hear what Donald Trump Jr. had to say to reporters when he flew into Greenland.
Here as tourists, seeing it looks like an incredible place. We've been talking about going for a while. I was actually supposed to be here last spring for some of the stuff I do in my free time. But just really excited to be here. Awesome country. The scenery coming in was just spectacular. So just very excited to be here.
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Speakers
19 identified
Alex Ritson 7 min
Unknown 5 min
Chris Ewokor 3 min
Joost Kobusch 2 min
Archana Shukla 2 min
Neda Torfik 2 min
Klaus Iversen 1 min
Laura Bicker 1 min
Aga Nirviana 1 min
Steve Rosenberg 1 min
Katie Watson 1 min
Rebecca Kesby 1 min
Unknown PLA Captain 1 min
Mark Lowen
Barbara Pletasha
Donald Trump
Akash Kumar
Oliver Conway
Unknown Chinese Official
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