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“It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the US needing ⁠to take over Greenland. The US has no right to annex any of ​the three countries in the Danish Kingdom,” Frederiksen said in ‍a statement on Sunday.

The comments followed an interview published by The Atlantic magazine, in which Trump said: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”

On Saturday, the United States bombed Venezuela and toppled President Nicolas Maduro, raising concerns in Denmark that the same could happen with Greenland, a Danish territory.

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There is a tendency to picture computers as cold, precise things, sealed away in clean rooms and humming quietly under desks. Brains feel different. Messier. Slower in places. Yet far more efficient overall. That contrast has been bothering computer scientists for years, especially as artificial intelligence grows more demanding. The human brain runs on very little energy, learns as it goes, and adapts without needing constant upgrades. Silicon machines struggle to match that balance. Some researchers have started looking away from metal and code and towards biology instead. Not animals or humans, but fungi. Specifically mushrooms. It sounds odd at first, almost playful. But beneath the surface, the idea is rooted in practical limits, rising costs, and a quiet frustration with how hard it is to copy what nature already does so well.

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday he had appointed former Liberal cabinet minister Chrystia Freeland as an economic development adviser, citing her experience in attracting investment.

“Right now, Ukraine needs to strengthen its internal resilience — both for the sake of Ukraine’s recovery if diplomacy delivers results as swiftly as possible, and to reinforce our defense if, because of delays by our partners, it takes longer to bring this war to an end,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

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A reporter asked President Donald Trump about the protests in Iran:

REPORTER: There’s been protesters killed in Iran. You said we were locked and loaded, ready to go. What is the line there for when the US is going to get involved in those protests?

TRUMP: We’ll take a look. We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.

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President Donald Trump has stated that he does not believe Ukraine carried out a drone strike targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence last week, pushing back on claims made by Moscow.

“I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling from Florida to Washington.

“There is something that happened fairly nearby, but had nothing to do with this.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Dec. 29 that Kyiv launched 91 drones toward Putin’s residence in Novgorod, and that all drones were destroyed. Ukraine denied the allegation.

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California has delayed its cancellation of thousands of commercial driver’s licenses held by migrants, setting it up for another showdown with Washington.

The Department of Motor Vehicles announced on Tuesday that the 17,000 migrant truck drivers whose licenses had been revoked can now keep them for 60 more days, which could enable the drivers to retake tests and do whatever is necessary to remain legal.

“Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy — our supply chains don’t move, and our communities don’t stay connected without them,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon in a statement after the extension.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reacted by threatening to cut $160 million in federal funding to California if the state doesn’t meet the Jan. 5 deadline to revoke unvetted foreign trucker licenses.

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The US military struck five alleged drug-smuggling boats over two days, killing a total of eight people while others jumped overboard and may have survived, US Southern Command said in a social media post on Thursday.

Southern Command, which oversees South America, did not reveal where the attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday occurred.

Previous similar attacks have taken place in the Caribbean Sea and in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

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Pro-abortion medical students decided to reign in the new year in the most disgusting, vile, and satanic way possible — by filming themselves smiling as they practice child sacrifice on tomatoes.

Medical Students for Choice posted the footage to social media platform TikTok on Tuesday, captioning the event — from Portland, Oregon — “The type of energy we’re bringing into 2026:”

The brief clip shows students practicing abortions as the tomatoes are put where a baby’s head would be.

@msfchoice Abortion and family planning training should be a standard part of every medical school curriculum. Across the world, MSFC student leaders are advocating to provide abortion care and create change in the medical field on their campuses. With your support, we’re carrying this work forward. A donation to MSFC helps the next generation of providers has the skills and support they need. Donate now through the in our bio, and be part of what comes next! #medstudent #medschool #futuredoctor #reproductivehealth #abortionaccess ♬ original sound – ☀️

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Elon Musk issued a stark public warning after a viral TikTok livestream appeared to show a Somali user making a chilling remark about his life, prompting concern and backlash across social media.

The viral clip shows an unidentified TikTok user livestreaming while playing a video of Musk on her phone.

After speaking in Somali, she briefly switched to English and said:

“I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He about to die.”

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LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted in an interview on Sunday (Jan 4) that he will complete his five-year term amid speculation his centre-left Labour Party could oust him after the upcoming local elections.

Starmer, who won power in July 2024, also argued Britain should pursue further alignment with the EU single market, saying it was in the country’s “national interest” to get “closer” to the bloc.

A decade after Britons voted narrowly to leave the EU, the stance is likely to draw criticism from Brexit advocates like Nigel Farage, whose hard-right Reform UK party has led in the polls for the past year.

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Around 45,000 households were left without electricity in southwest Berlin after high-voltage power lines were damaged by a fire, which authorities have described as a politically motivated attack by far-left extremists.

Though power has been restored in some areas, thousands could be left without power until Thursday after what authorities say was a politically motivated attack by “left-wing extremists”.

The blaze erupted on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal near the Lichterfelde power plant on Saturday morning, local authorities said, affecting 2,200 businesses and 45,000 households across four districts, cutting their access to electricity, including internet and heating.

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South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung is set to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he seeks to reset frayed ties with his country’s biggest trading partner.

Regional security and Beijing’s unofficial ban on Korean pop culture are also on the agenda for Monday’s meeting, which is their second summit since November, when Xi visited South Korea.

Given what a vital economic partner China is, experts say Lee is looking for assurances that it would not weaponise that relationship in the face of political tensions in the region.

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The Senate passed a huge, $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Wednesday on a 77-20 vote, sending the measure to President Trump’s desk. The bipartisan package comes in at more than 3,000 pages and checks off several boxes on the president’s to-do list, including a pay raise of nearly four percent for military service members, improved military housing, a codification of Trump’s order to end DEI efforts at the Pentagon, and a restriction on U.S. investment in China.

Two Republicans, Sens. Mike Lee (UT) and Rand Paul (KY), voted no, while 18 Democrats also opposed it.

Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee were stoked:

✔️ensure @POTUS has sufficient military options.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on the Senate floor Tuesday that it would make America stronger:

This NDAA will make the most significant reforms to the way the Pentagon does business in a generation. These reforms will make our military stronger, more agile and more ready for whatever the mission may be, and that needs to be our mission here — to do whatever it takes to support American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians.

Armed Service Committee Chair Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) echoed President Trump’s (and Ronald Reagan’s) mantra, “peace through strength”:

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Former special counsel Jack Smith told members of Congress that his team had evidence that President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Smith’s case against the president began when former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him to lead two Justice Department investigations into Trump: the mishandling of classified documents and his post-2020 election conduct.

From The Associated Press:

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview on Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump had criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.

He also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” that Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.

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British authorities sentenced a Dorset man to 18 months in jail for inciting hate and violence on X in the heated aftermath of the 2024 Southport stabbings that left three children dead and another 10 people injured.

Luke Yarwood’s posts were viewed a total of 33 times before being taken down. If I’ve done my math correctly, that’s nearly 17 days of jail time per view. If I know anything about people, half of those views were Yarwood checking his mentions.

There’s no denying the nasty nature of Yarwood’s posts, sent to X before the identity of the killer — 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana — was known, but was widely misreported to have been a Muslim immigrant. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, but his parents were evangelical immigrants from Rwanda.

Yarwood’s posts called for “slaughter in the streets” of Muslims and encouraged people to “Head for the hotels housing them and burn them to the ground.”

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Former President Joe Biden has lost a battle in his effort to limit the investigation into the use of the autopen during his presidency.

Biden had contacted the National Archives in an effort to claim executive privilege over certain documents, but the Trump administration turned down the request Tuesday, Fox News has reported.

“I am concerned that disclosure of these materials would damage important institutional interests of the Presidency, including by impairing the ability of future Presidents to receive robust, candid advice from their close advisers,” Biden said in an Oct. 1 letter to the Archival Operations Division of the National Archives and Records Administration

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President Donald Trump added countries to a list that restricts nationals from traveling to the U.S.

“The United States must exercise extreme vigilance during the visa-issuance and immigration processes to identify, prior to their admission or entry into the United States, foreign nationals who intend to harm Americans or our national interests,” Trump declared. “The United States Government must ensure that admitted aliens do not intend to threaten its citizens; undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions, or founding principles; or advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security.”

The move comes days after two terrorists killed 16 people celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney, Australia.

Blurb:

The FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022, but did it anyway after pressure from then-President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, according to newly uncovered emails.

Emails released by Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office show that officials at the FBI and DOJ communicated about FBI concerns about the warrant in the months leading up to the August raid.

In one June 1 email an unidentified FBI assistant special agent in charge wrote to FBI official Anthony Riedlinger, “Very little has been developed related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents.”

“[FBI Washington Field Office] has been drafting a Search Warrant affidavit related to these potential boxes, but has some concerns that the information is single source, has not been corroborated, and may be dated. DOJ CES opines, however, that the SWs meet the probable cause standard.” The same agent described the “potential boxes” as “presumably of the same type as were sent back to NARA [National Archives and Records Administration] in January.”

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A growing number of ultra-wealthy Chinese nationals are turning to U.S. surrogates to have children on American soil, taking advantage of America’s largely unregulated market and birthright citizenship, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

In one such case, Chinese video game billionaire Xu Bo has sought parental rights for at least four unborn children in Los Angeles, having already fathered or arranged surrogacy for at least eight additional children, according to the WSJ. The trend coincides with intensifying debates over the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the country, a policy the Trump administration has sought to reinterpret.

Blurb:

At least 15 people were murdered at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Australia on Sunday after two alleged Islamic terrorists opened fire.

One of the suspects, Sajid Akram, moved to Australia in 1998 on a student visa before becoming a permanent resident, while his son, Naveed Akram, was born in Australia, according to Sky News. Authorities previously investigated the son “on the basis of being associated with” alleged terrorists, but authorities ultimately determined “there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” according to the report.

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The second student who was killed over the weekend in the tragic Brown University mass shooting has just been identified.

MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman who dreamed of becoming a brain surgeon, lost his life on Saturday.

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The largest gain in jobs was in the healthcare sector, with 46,000 jobs added.

The US economy added 64,000 jobs in November, beating economists’ expectations. The unemployment rate has remained little changed from September, at 4.6 percent for the year’s penultimate month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed on Tuesday. The release of November’s jobs report was delayed due to the government shutdown that went from October 1 through November 12, and the October jobs report was not released due to the shutdown.

The largest gain in jobs was in the healthcare sector, with 46,000 jobs added. Of that total, 24,000 were in ambulatory health care services, 11,000 were in hospitals, and 11,000 were in nursing and residential care facilities. Construction saw 28,000 jobs added, and 18,000 jobs were added in social assistance. Transportation and warehousing saw a decrease in 18,000 jobs. The BLS noted that the federal government went down by 6,000 jobs, with a total of federal government employment going down by 271,000 since January.

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A few days ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped a bombshell press release about U.S. anti-discrimination law. 

“Disparate impact” is effectively dead. 

“The prior ‘disparate impact’ regulations encouraged people to file lawsuits challenging racially neutral policies, without evidence of intentional discrimination,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the release. “Our rejection of this theory will restore true equality under the law by requiring proof of actual discrimination, rather than enforcing race- or sex-based quotas or assumptions.”

The Justice Department will essentially deprioritize discrimination cases that rely on “disparate impact” under this new standard.  

Most of the media ignored the announcement. But Politico regurgitated left-wing talking points, asserting in a supposedly straight news story that the move “end[s] long-standing civil rights policies that prohibit local governments and organizations that receive federal funding from maintaining policies that disproportionately harm people of color.” They added it “will make it harder to challenge potential bias in housing, criminal law, employment, environmental regulations and other policy areas.”