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May 19, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's latest attempt to win over the people of Greenland crashed and burned after the president dispatched Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to the Danish territory as a goodwill ambassador — only to have locals greet him with middle fingers and rejections of his giveaway MAGA merchandise.According to the New York Times, Landry arrived in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, on Sunday claiming he was on a mission to "make a bunch of friends." Within hours, the Times reported, he got nothing but cold shoulders and dismissals. Landry toured the town in cold drizzle, offering free MAGA hats to Greenlandic children, only to be greeted with refusals. He then attempted to sweeten his pitch by telling some kids that if they visited his Louisiana mansion, they could have "all the chocolate chip cookies you can eat."Landry's delegation carried "cardboard boxes stuffed with MAGA hats," but few residents wanted them, the report said.As Landry traveled about on Sunday, he was the recipient of "scowls," with local Hanne Hansen bluntly stating, "They should fix their own country first," and her friend Vivi Nielsen adding, "They need to get out," the Times added.The next day, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen expressed his country's firm rejection of American pressure. "We have our red lines. And no matter how many chocolate cookies we get, we are not going to change them," Nielsen told Denmark's public broadcaster DR.The offer of free MAGA hats was noteworthy in that Greenlandic entrepreneurs have already had success selling red baseball caps reading "Make America Go Away"Landry's visit comes as the Trump administration is pursuing aggressive demands on Greenland far beyond Trump's earlier threats to seize the island. The U.S. is demanding effective veto power over major investment deals to exclude Russia and China, and is pushing to insert a "forever clause" into decades-old military agreements ensuring U.S. troops remain on the island even if Greenland becomes independent, the Times' Maya Tekeli and Jeffrey Gettleman reported.Greenlandic officials were particularly troubled by an American doctor accompanying Landry to assess Greenland's medical system — one of the top reasons Greenlanders cite for not wanting to join the United States.

May 19, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he was "an hour away" from striking Iran when Middle East allies asked him to stop.Trump was speaking to press at the White House ballroom construction site when he started taking questions. He was asked about the reversed decision on Monday to stop a strike in Iran after several countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates that said they needed more time while "serious negotiations are now taking place." He signaled the conflict was not over, although the military operation was postponed."We may have to give them another big hit," Trump said.Q: How close were you to striking Iran yesterday?TRUMP: I was an hour away pic.twitter.com/LbsR6X5nWe— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 19, 2026

May 19, 2026 - World

The Financial Times revealed a proposal President Donald Trump had reportedly floated to Chinese President Xi Jinping last week during the U.S.-China summit in Beijing, one that left onlookers floored at its implications.“An indication of how mentally unstable Trump is, and how much he is Israel's message boy,” wrote Scottish writer and political commentator Grouse Beater, who manages a political commentary blog.Citing “several people familiar with the U.S. assessment” of the U.S.-China summit, the Financial Times reported that Trump has suggested to Xi that the United States, China and Russia “co-operate against the International Criminal Court (ICC),” the only intergovernmental organization with the authority to prosecute individuals for certain crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity.Given that a close ally of Trump’s, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is currently wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, including “using starvation as a method of warfare,” several critics theorized that the alleged request was made at the behest of Netanyahu.“Of course he did,” wrote Max Uechtritz, a former foreign correspondent and senior news executive, in a social media post Tuesday on X.The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November of 2024 related to Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas. As of Monday, Israel has killed at least 72,769 Gazans, the majority of them women, children and the elderly, per Gaza’s Health Ministry and an independent study from The Lancet, respectively. Actual death tolls, however, may be significantly higher, with exact counts difficult due to Israel still prohibiting international journalists from entering Gaza.Of course he did https://t.co/IMbtAhob1y— Max Uechtritz (@plesbilongmi) May 19, 2026

May 18, 2026 - World

One of President Donald Trump's ambassadors has been linked to a scandal-ridden movement in Canada because of his involvement with a right-wing voting group, according to a new report. Pete Hoekstra, Trump's ambassador to Canada, has been linked to a separatist group in Alberta that has coordinated with a right-wing group in Michigan called 10xVotes for more than a year, PressProgress reported on Monday. The separatist group, known as the Centurion Project, is under investigation by Canadian authorities after it obtained private information about more than 3 million Alberta voters. A lawyer recently told the CBC that the data breach is one of the “the most significant privacy incidents” in Canadian history. "The issue of foreign support of Alberta separatist groups has been an open question since the US State Department confirmed earlier this year that Trump administration officials have held multiple meetings with Alberta separatist leaders," PressProgress reported. Hoekstra has claimed he "was not aware" of the relationship between The Centurion Project and 10xVotes, although some of the comments from David Parker, who leads The Centurion Project, have called that claim into question, according to the report. For instance, Parker has claimed that Hoekstra's group has been advising The Centurion Project behind-the-scenes for about a year. The report cites claims Parker made during a recent podcast interview, where he said the Centurion Project is the result of his collaboration with 10xVotes. The two groups also appear to be using almost identical apps to spur low-engagement voters to vote, according to the report. "First rolled out during the 2024 US presidential election, its backers tout 10xVotes as the secret weapon that helped deliver Michigan’s 15 electoral college votes to Donald Trump," according to the report. "Michigan Republicans are currently holding state-wide information sessions about 10xVotes in hopes that the technology will help send right-wing candidates to Congress after this fall’s midterm elections.""A version of 10xVotes’ Michigan app reviewed by PressProgress has a substantially similar interface and functionalities as the Centurion Project’s app in Alberta," it added.

May 18, 2026 - World

A former lawmaker and critic of President Donald Trump slammed the president's Iran war decisions following his announcement on Monday to stop a planned military attack amid "serious negotiations" and telling the military to be ready "on a moment's notice."Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told CNN that Trump's Truth Social post announcement stating alleged negotiations underway and that an attack had been stopped by allies was putting the United States in a bad position."This is so damaging," Kinzinger said. "You know, regardless of let's just be, you know, agnostic on whether he should attack again or not for the moment when you make threats and then you're eager to back down from those threats, which he has been every single time. I mean, he's gone from 'we will destroy an entire civilization' to 'we have a deal,' which we never actually had, by the way, claiming the strait's open, claiming it's closed, claiming he was going to pull the trigger on May 19th."But Trump's decision-making was troubling, and he has not offered a clear strategy for the war, Kinzinger argued."One of the greatest things the United States had is our ability to say, we will do something," Kinzinger explained. "The enemy knows that, and then hopefully we won't have to do that. This has just been like threat, back off, threat, back off. And I haven't seen the Iranians move in any way here. And we find ourselves in the worst-case scenario, which is a closed strait, this nebulous future. And gas is now having to price in, and futures are pricing in the uncertainty." Kinzinger argued that the United States was lacking a strategy to exit the ongoing military conflict."That's what's crazy, is we did go in with overwhelming military power. And now in the White House, they are trying to figure out what Iran needs to be satiated to be pleased," Kinzinger said. "And I mean, this is why they should have thought this through.""If you're going to do something like attack Iran, you have to know what the contingencies are," Kinzinger added. "And honestly, those contingencies, you have to be willing to do them. Otherwise, you probably should not have gone to this fight in the first place. And so, what is the future here look like? You know, I don't know. Are they going to find something that Iran wants? Maybe are they going to actually denuclearize them or whatever? I don't know. Is there going to be an Iranian, you know, toll on every ship that passes?"Kinzinger warned about what could be next for future generations."But I know this much. I know that my kid, who's 4 1/2 years old, is going to probably be in a country that has a worse situation based on what's going on because of this war, than had we done nothing," Kinzinger said. "I think Donald Trump needs to figure out if we resume hostilities with Iran, you need to have a plan in place to reopen that strait and stick to the use of the military until it's done, or quit these threats, because this is just making it worse."