Closing summary
This live coverage is ending now, thanks for following along. Here is a summary of the key recent developments:
Funeral services for Jimmy Carter continued today with a service at the US Capitol Rotunda, where Senate majority leader John Thune, House speaker Mike Johnson and vice-president Kamala Harris delivered eulogies. In her speech, Harris touched on the late Democratic president’s progressive accomplishments as Republicans prepare to take over the statehouse in under two weeks.
At a press conference convened at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Donald Trump signaled that he was serious about the United States gaining control over Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada. He refused to rule out using military force to put Washington in charge of the two former areas, but said “economic force” could be used to merge with the US’s northern neighbor. He also proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”. In response, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said there’s not “a snowball’s chance in hell” of Canada merging with the US and Greenland’s prime minister Múte B Egede said “Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland.”
Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon has temporarily prevented the release of justice department special counsel Jack Smith’s report into his two failed attempts to bring Trump to trial on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election and hiding classified material. The president-elect called her decision “great news”.
A New York appeals court judge denied Donald Trump’s request to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush-money case.
Meta ended fact-checking on Facebook, which the company’s leaders acknowledged was a reaction to Trump’s return to power.
Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the Proud Boys militia group who is serving a 22-year sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy, asked Trump for a pardon.
The Republican-led House has passed its first bill of the new Congress that would require the Department of Homeland Security to take into custody undocumented people charged with certain crimes.
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With Donald Trump’s son visiting Greenland today, sparking renewed attention on the president-elect’s past comments that he would like to acquire the Danish-governed island for the United States, the prime minister of Greenland has released a statement rejecting Trump’s advances.
“Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland,” prime minister Múte B Egede said. “Our future and fight for independence is our business.”
At a press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier today, Trump said, “We need Greenland for national security purposes.”
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