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Here are the nominees in key categories for the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, which will be handed out on Sunday.”One Battle After Another” leads all contenders with nine nods, followed by “Sentimental Value” with eight and “Sinners” with seven.- FILM -Best film, drama”Frankenstein””Hamnet””It Was Just An Accident””The Secret Agent””Sentimental Value””Sinners”Best film, musical or comedy”Blue Moon””Bugonia””Marty Supreme””No Other Choice””Nouvelle Vague””One Battle After Another”Best male actor, dramaJoel Edgerton, “Train Dreams”Oscar Isaac, “Frankenstein”Dwayne Johnson, “The Smashing Machine”Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”Jeremy Allen White, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”Best female actor, dramaJessie Buckley, “Hamnet”Jennifer Lawrence, “Die, My Love”Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”Julia Roberts, “After the Hunt”Tessa Thompson, “Hedda”Eva Victor, “Sorry, Baby”Best male actor, musical or comedyTimothee Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”George Clooney, “Jay Kelly”Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”Lee Byung-hun, “No Other Choice”Jesse Plemons, “Bugonia”Best female actor, musical or comedyRose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked: For Good”Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”Chase Infiniti, “One Battle After Another”Amanda Seyfried, “The Testament of Ann Lee”Emma Stone, “Bugonia”Best supporting actorBenicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”Paul Mescal, “Hamnet”Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”Adam Sandler, “Jay Kelly”Stellan Skarsgard, “Sentimental Value”Best supporting actressEmily Blunt, “The Smashing Machine”Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”Ariana Grande, “Wicked: For Good”Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”Amy Madigan, “Weapons”Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”Best directorPaul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”Guillermo Del Toro, “Frankenstein”Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just An Accident”Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”Chloe Zhao, “Hamnet”Best non-English language film”It Was Just An Accident” (France)”No Other Choice” (South Korea)”The Secret Agent” (Brazil)”Sentimental Value” (Norway)”Sirat” (Spain)”The Voice of Hind Rajab” (Tunisia)Best cinematic and box office achievement:”Avatar: Fire and Ash””F1″”KPop Demon Hunters””Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning””Sinners””Weapons””Wicked: For Good””Zootopia 2″Best animated feature”Arco””Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinity Castle””Elio””KPop Demon Hunters””Little Amelie or the Character of Rain””Zootopia 2″- TELEVISION -Best drama series”The Diplomat””The Pitt””Pluribus””Severance””Slow Horses””The White Lotus”Best male actor, dramaSterling K. Brown, “Paradise”Diego Luna, “Andor”Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”Mark Ruffalo, “Task”Adam Scott, “Severance”Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”Best female actor, drama Kathy Bates, “Matlock”Britt Lower, “Severance”Helen Mirren, “Mobland”Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”Rhea Seehorn, “Pluribus”Best musical or comedy series”Abbott Elementary””The Bear””Hacks””Nobody Wants This””Only Murders in the Building””The Studio”Best male actor, musical or comedyAdam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”Glen Powell, “Chad Powers”Seth Rogen, “The Studio”Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”Best female actor, musical or comedy Kristen Bell, “Nobody Wants This”Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face”Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”Jean Smart, “Hacks”Best limited series or TV movie”Adolescence””All Her Fault””The Beast in Me””Black Mirror””Dying for Sex””The Girlfriend”Best male actor, limited series or TV movie Jacob Elordi, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”Paul Giamatti, “Black Mirror”Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”Charlie Hunnam, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”Jude Law, “Black Rabbit”Matthew Rhys, “The Beast in Me”Best female actor, limited series or TV movie Claire Danes, “The Beast in Me”Rashida Jones, “Black Mirror”Amanda Seyfried, “Long Bright River”Sarah Snook, “All Her Fault”Michelle Williams, “Dying for Sex”Robin Wright, “The Girlfriend”- FILMS WITH MOST NOMINATIONS -“One Battle After Another” – 9″Sentimental Value” – 8″Sinners” – 7″Hamnet” – 6″Frankenstein” – 5″Wicked: For Good” – 5

Hollywood’s awards season kicks into high gear on Sunday at the Golden Globes gala, with the politically charged “One Battle After Another” expected to solidify its status as the film to beat, two months ahead of the Oscars.Paul Thomas Anderson’s screwball thriller, which centers on an aging revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), is a rollicking ride featuring violent leftist radicals, immigration raids and white supremacists.At a time when the United States is deeply polarized, many critics and pundits have hailed the film as capturing the moment.With nine nominations, “One Battle” appears a lock to take home the prize for best comedy/musical film.”We’re seeing a real sweep and a juggernaut in that movie,” Deadline’s awards columnist and chief critic Pete Hammond told AFP, recalling that so far, it has won every best picture prize so far this season.DiCaprio will vie for best actor with Timothee Chalamet, who boosted his Oscars campaign with a win at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday for his star turn in “Marty Supreme” as an ambitious 1950s table tennis player.”Leonardo DiCaprio would be tremendously helped by actually winning at the Globes. That’s the ideal moment to stop Timothee Chalamet’s momentum before the Oscars,” Hammond said.Teyana Taylor, who plays an unapologetically bold leftist revolutionary, could fuel a sweep for “One Battle” if she can pick up the prize for best supporting actress.But in her way are Amy Madigan for her wacky villainous turn in “Weapons” and Ariana Grande for her portrayal of Glinda in the blockbuster “Wicked: For Good.”- ‘Sinners’ versus ‘Hamnet’ -The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals — widening the field of stars who could walk the red carpet, and fueling the suspense. “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s searing period horror film about the segregated South of the 1930s, is expected to be the toughest competition for “One Battle” at the Oscars. But at the Globes, they are in separate categories.”Sinners” surprised moviegoers with its eclectic mix of vampires, politics, race relations and blues music.It is the frontrunner for the best drama film Globe, against rival “Hamnet,” which stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his grief-stricken wife, as the two cope with the death of their young son.”Sentimental Value,” the Norwegian family dramedy starring Stellan Skarsgard, earned a strong eight nominations, is also in the running.A “Sinners” victory “would be an indication of a real change,” Hammond says, noting that in the past, voters “were never actually that drawn to Black stories.”Buckley is the favorite for best drama actress honors.The Golden Globes went through a crisis period, following a Los Angeles Times expose in 2021 that showed that the awards’ voting body — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — had no Black members.Now under new ownership, and with the HFPA disbanded, a wider net of overseas critics has been brought in to pick the winners.”That makes it much more difficult for pundits to predict,” Hammond explained.”These new voters are less keen on movies that make a lot of money at the box office, and more interested in international movies that are highly praised in Cannes and Venice.”- Prize for Iran’s Panahi? -One of those movies is Brazilian thriller “The Secret Agent,” and lead actor Wagner Moura — already a winner at the Cannes Film Festival — is favored to win best drama actor honors over “Sinners” star Michael B. Jordan, according to awards prediction site Gold Derby. Skarsgard, a Hollywood stalwart, is poised to take home the award for best supporting actor. “The Secret Agent” and “Sentimental Value” will vie for the Globe for best non-English language film with “It Was Just An Accident” from Iranian director Jafar Panahi. “The Globes may want to make a statement and give him this prize,” Hammond said of Panahi,  who has been sentenced in absentia to one year in prison over “propaganda activities” against the Islamic republic.The Globes also honor the best in television, with HBO’s black comedy anthology “The White Lotus,” sci-fi office thriller “Severance” and searing teen murder saga “Adolescence” leading the contenders.Comedian Nikki Glaser will return as host of the gala in Beverly Hills.

NASA crewmembers at the International Space Station will return to Earth within days after an astronaut suffered a health issue, the US space agency said Thursday, the first such medical evacuation in the orbital lab’s history.Officials did not provide details of the medical event but said the unidentified crewmember is stable. They said it did not result from any kind of injury onboard or from ISS operations.NASA chief medical officer James Polk said “lingering risk” and a “lingering question as to what that diagnosis is” led to the decision to return early. Officials insisted it was not an emergency evacuation.The four astronauts on NASA-SpaceX Crew 11 — US members Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman along with Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov — would return within the coming days to one of the routine splashdown sites.Amit Kshatriya, a NASA associate administrator, said it was the “first time we’ve done a controlled medical evacuation from the vehicle. So that is unusual.”He said the crew deployed their “onboarding training” to “manage unexpected medical situations.””Yesterday was a textbook example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, careful deliberations led us to the decision to return Crew 11… while ensuring minimal operational impact to ongoing work aboard.”- ‘Trained professionals’ -The four astronauts set to return have been on their mission since August 1. Such journeys generally last approximately six months, and this crew was already due to return in the coming weeks.Officials indicated it was possible the next US mission could depart to the ISS earlier than scheduled, but did not provide specifics.Chris Williams, who launched on a Russian mission to the station, will stay onboard to maintain US presence.Russians Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev are also there.NASA had previously said it was postponing a spacewalk planned for Thursday due to the medical issue.Astronauts Fincke and Cardman were to carry out the approximately 6.5-hour spacewalk to perform power upgrade work.Continuously inhabited since 2000, the ISS functions as a testbed for research that supports deeper space exploration — including eventual missions to Mars.The ISS is set to be decommissioned after 2030, with its orbit gradually lowered until it breaks up in the atmosphere over a remote part of the Pacific Ocean called Point Nemo, a spacecraft graveyard.

Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by a US immigration agent on Wednesday in the midwestern city of Minneapolis, was an “extremely compassionate” person, her mother told the Minnesota Star-Tribune newspaper.”She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being,” Donna Ganger told the newspaper. The 37-year-old — a poet and a mother to three children — was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while she was behind the wheel of her car. The Trump administration was quick to claim her death was an act of self-defense, but local authorities and witnesses dispute that account — and widely shared video evidence has called into question the officer’s use of deadly force. In 2020, Good earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Old Dominion University in Virginia, the school said in a statement honoring her Wednesday. “May Renee’s life be a reminder of what unites us: freedom, love, and peace. My hope is for compassion, healing, and reflection at a time that is becoming one of the darkest and most uncertain periods in our nation’s history,” university president Brian O. Hemphill said.Good was a published poet who was awarded the Academy of American Poets 2020 poetry prize while at her university. In a biography for the award, she was described as loving movie marathons and making “messy art with her daughter and two sons.” US media report that her private Instagram account bio described her as a “Poet and writer and wife and mom and shitty guitar strummer from Colorado; experiencing Minneapolis, MN” and had an emoji of a rainbow LGBTQ+ flag.Her children were from her first two marriages and at the time of her death, she was married to a woman, who she lived with in Minneapolis where they were raising her youngest child, a six-year-old boy.More than $800,000 has been raised to support her surviving family.Despite accusations from the Trump administration that she was endangering the lives of federal immigration agents, Good’s mother told the Minnesota Star-Tribune that she was not taking part in any action against ICE. Her first husband, who declined to be identified, told US media that Good was a devoted Christian and was not an activist.

Hours after a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent, AI deepfakes of the victim and the shooter flooded online platforms, underscoring the growing prevalence of what experts call “hallucinated” content after major news events.The victim of Wednesday’s shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV.AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to “unmask” the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.”We need his name,” Claude Taylor, who heads the anti-Trump political action committee Mad Dog, wrote in a post on X featuring the AI images. The post racked up more than 1.3 million views.Taylor later claimed he deleted the post after he “learned it was AI,” but it was still visible to online users.An authentic clip of the shooting, replayed by multiple media outlets, does not show any of the ICE agents with their masks off.Many of the fabrications were created using Grok, the AI tool developed by Musk’s startup xAI, which has faced heavy criticism over a new “edit” feature that has unleashed a wave of sexually explicit imagery.Some X users used Grok to digitally undress an old photo of Good smiling, as well as a new photo of her body slumped over after the shooting, generating AI images showing her in a bikini.Another woman wrongly identified as the victim was also subjected to similar manipulation.- ‘New reality’ -Another X user posted the image of a masked officer and prompted the chatbot: “Hey @grok remove this person’s face mask.” Grok promptly generated a hyper-realistic image of the man without a mask.There was no immediate comment from X. When reached by AFP, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: “Legacy Media Lies.”Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard identified four AI-generated falsehoods about the shooting, which collectively amassed 4.24 million views across X, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok.The viral fabrications illustrate a new digital reality in which self-proclaimed internet sleuths use widely available generative AI tools to create hyper-realistic visuals and then amplify them across social media platforms that have largely scaled back content moderation.”Given the accessibility of advanced AI tools, it is now standard practice for actors on the internet to ‘add to the story’ of breaking news in ways that do not correspond to what is actually happening, often in politically partisan ways,” Walter Scheirer, from the University of Notre Dame, told AFP.”A new development has been the use of AI to ‘fill in the blanks’ of a story, for instance, the use of AI to ‘reveal’ the face of the ICE officer. This is hallucinated information.” AI tools are also increasingly used to “dehumanize victims” in the aftermath of a crisis event, Scheirer said.One AI image portrayed the woman mistaken for Good as a water fountain, with water pouring out of a hole in her neck.Another depicted her lying on a road, her neck under the knee of a masked agent, in a scene reminiscent of the 2020 police killing of a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide racial justice protests.AI fabrications, often amplified by partisan actors, have fueled alternate realities around recent news events, including the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and last year’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.The AI distortions are “problematic” and are adding to the “growing pollution of our information ecosystem,” Hany Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.”I fear that this is our new reality,” he added.

US President Donald Trump is considering adding a second story to the famed White House colonnade as part of his plans to build a huge $400-million ballroom, the architect in charge of the project said Thursday.The addition of a new level above the West Wing colonnade would restore “symmetry” to the presidential residence, Shalom Baranes told the first Washington planning committee meeting on the project.The blueprints already envisage a two-story colonnade linking the main White House mansion to the 1,000-seat ballroom, where Trump plans to host foreign dignitaries and major events.Baranes added that the new ballroom, for which Trump last year demolished the historic East Wing, will be at the same height as the main building to preserve its historic proportions.It is the first time that plans have been unveiled to change the West Wing of the White House. Trump appeared on the roof of the current colonnade earlier this year with the previous architect for the project.”This scheme does require a two-storey colonnade connecting the East Room in the White House to the new ballroom,” Baranes told the National Capital Planning Commission.”The White House is therefore considering the idea of a modest one-storey addition to the West Wing colonnade which would serve to restore a sense of symmetry around the original central pavilion.”The addition would sit above the famous white-columned colonnade, where presidents have been pictured for decades strolling on their way from the main residence to the Oval Office.It would also lie above the briefing room where presidential press secretaries address the media, and the working areas for the White House press corps.Trump faced criticism for demolishing the entire East Wing, the traditional home for the offices of the US first lady, without first consulting historical organizations or the capital planning commission.He has also paved over the grass of the White House Rose Garden.The Republican president has installed his staff secretary Will Scharf — who is often seen at Trump’s side in the Oval Office during his lengthy executive order signing sessions — as head of the commission.The cost of the ballroom has meanwhile soared. The White House cited $200 million when the plans were first unveiled in July, but Trump said in December it could cost double that.

US lawmakers voted Thursday to revive health insurance subsidies that expired at the end of last year, offering hope to millions of Americans facing steep premium hikes — and pressuring the Senate to follow suit.The bill, which passed with Democratic support and backing from a small bloc of Republicans defying their own leadership, would extend enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act — widely known as Obamacare — for three years. Those subsidies lower monthly insurance costs for Americans who buy coverage on government-run marketplaces.Their expiration on January 1 more than doubled payments for many households, reigniting a politically sensitive debate over health care affordability in a year set to be dominated by the high-stakes midterm congressional elections.Even supporters concede the House bill is unlikely to become law in its current form.President Donald Trump has criticized the subsidies as wasteful and has urged Republicans to push for changes, though he has also told lawmakers they may need to be flexible to reach a deal.House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump loyalist, had resisted allowing the measure onto the floor, reflecting deep divisions within his party over the program. But a handful of centrist Republicans joined Democrats in using a rarely successful procedural maneuver — a discharge petition — to force the vote over leadership’s objections.Ultimately, 17 Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the bill, a public break that underscored growing anxiety among lawmakers from competitive districts about voter backlash over rising healthcare costs.”The affordability crisis is not a hoax. It is very real despite what Donald Trump has had to say,” Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the House Democratic minority, told reporters. “Housing costs are too high. Grocery costs are too high. Utility bills are too high. Childcare costs are too high. And healthcare costs are out of control.” The subsidies were originally created under the Affordable Care Act and expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, making coverage cheaper and available to more people. An estimated 22 million Americans currently benefit from the enhanced assistance.The bill now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. A similar three-year extension failed there in December, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to advance. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates a three-year clean extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies would cost almost $81 billion over a decade — but would lead to eight million more people getting health insurance by 2029.The House vote appears to have injected new momentum into bipartisan talks now underway in the upper chamber.A small group of senators from both parties has been negotiating a narrower compromise that could include a shorter extension, tighter income limits and new options for directing aid straight to patients rather than insurers.

US President Donald Trump said in an interview published Thursday that his “own morality” was the only constraint on his power to order military actions around the world.Trump’s comments to The New York Times came days after he launched a lightning operation to topple Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and threatened a host of other countries plus the autonomous territory Greenland.”Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” Trump told the newspaper when asked if there were any limits on his global powers.”I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”The Republican president then added that “I do” need to abide by international law, but said “it depends what your definition of international law is.”The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which tries war criminals, and it has repeatedly rejected decisions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court.Trump himself has had his own run-ins with domestic law, having been impeached twice, faced a slew of federal charges including conspiring to overturn the 2020 election — which were eventually dropped after his re-election — and convicted for covering up a hush money payment to a porn star.While proclaiming himself as “peace president” and seeking the Nobel Prize, Trump has launched a series of military operations in his second presidential term.Trump ordered attacks on Iran’s nuclear program in June and in the past year has also overseen strikes on Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen — and most recently on Venezuela.Since Maduro’s capture, an emboldened Trump has threatened a string of other countries including Colombia, as well as Greenland, which is administered by fellow NATO member Denmark.Asked whether his priority was preserving the NATO military alliance or acquiring Greenland, Trump told the Times: “it may be a choice.”Some members of Congress, including a handful of Republicans, are trying to check Trump’s power.On Thursday the Senate advanced a measure to rein in presidential military action in Venezuela. But even if it reaches his desk, Trump would likely veto it.Billionaire Trump, who made his fortune as a property developer, added that US ownership of Greenland is “what I feel is psychologically needed for success.”Trump said separately that he had no problem with his family conducting foreign business deals since his return to office.”I prohibited them from doing business in my first term, and I got absolutely no credit for it,” Trump told the daily. “I found out that nobody cared, and I’m allowed to.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence for prostitution-related crimes, has asked Donald Trump for a pardon, but the US president said he does not plan to grant clemency to the hip-hop star.Trump, in an interview with The New York Times published Thursday, also said he does not plan to issue pardons to several other high-profile individuals, including deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.The 56-year-old Combs was convicted last July of two counts of transporting people across state lines for prostitution. A jury acquitted the music mogul of the most serious charges — sex trafficking and racketeering.Trump told the Times during Wednesday’s interview that Combs had sent him a letter asking for a pardon but he was not inclined to grant it.Asked about pardoning Maduro, who was seized by US forces over the weekend and is facing drug trafficking charges, Trump said: “No, I don’t see that.”In November, Trump pardoned Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving a 45-year sentence after being convicted of drug trafficking.Trump also said he did not plan to issue pardons to disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence, and former Democratic senator Robert Menendez, who is serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes.The Times said the Republican president was also asked whether he would consider pardoning Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer convicted of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, whose death sparked nationwide racial justice protests.”I haven’t been asked about it,” Trump said.On the day of his inauguration Trump pardoned more than 1,500 people who had been convicted or were facing charges for involvement in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.He has carried out a slew of other pardons since then of other loyalists.

US Vice President JD Vance warned Europe on Thursday to take Donald Trump “seriously” on Greenland as the president ramps up threats against the Danish-ruled Arctic territory.Vance accused fellow NATO member Denmark and the rest of Europe of failing to do enough to protect the strategically-located island from the designs of Russia and China.European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.”I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously,” Vance told a briefing at the White House when asked about Greenland.Vance urged them to respond in particular to Trump’s insistence that the United States needs the island for “missile defense,” with Moscow and Beijing increasing military activities nearby and the Arctic ice melting due to climate change. “So what we’re asking our European friends to do is to take the security of that land mass more seriously, because if they’re not, the United States is going to have to do something about it,” Vance said.”What that is, I’ll leave that to the president as we continue to engage in diplomacy with our European friends and everybody on this particular topic.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet officials from Denmark and Greenland next week.An emboldened Trump has long talked about acquiring Greenland but has ramped up his threats since the US military operation to topple Venezuela’s ruler Nicolas Maduro last week.- ‘Turning away’ -The threats have infuriated Denmark, a founding NATO member and long-time US ally, and set alarm bells ringing across Europe.An invasion would pit Washington against fellow NATO member Denmark and threaten to blow up the entire military alliance, which is based on a mutual self-defense clause.A flurry of diplomacy is underway as Europeans try to head off a crisis while at the same time avoiding the wrath of Trump, who is nearing the end of his first year back in power.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “set out his position on Greenland” during a call with Trump on Wednesday and then said more could be done to protect the “high Arctic” from Russia in a second call on Thursday, Downing Street said.Vance was meeting British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy in Washington for talks that would focus on the Ukraine war, but where Greenland could come up.European countries have stood in solidarity with Denmark, with key leaders issuing a joint statement with Copenhagen saying it was for Denmark and Greenland alone to decide its fate.French President Emmanuel Macron even warned on Thursday that the United States was “turning away” from allies in some of his strongest criticism yet of Trump’s policies.Macron said “global governance” was key at a time when “every day people wonder whether Greenland is going to be invaded.” Vance, however, has long been critical of Europe over defense issues, saying in a leaked chat with senior US officials last year that he hated “bailing out” the continent.The Trump administration’s new US national security strategy launched a brutal attack on Europe in December, describing it as facing “civilisational erasure” from migration and calling for “cultivating resistance” among right-wing parties.