US President Donald Trump participates in a video call with military service members from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, on November 27, 2025, during the Thanksgiving holiday.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that US control of Greenland was “vital” for his planned Golden Dome air and missile defense system.

“The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building,” Trump, who has vowed to seize the Arctic island from ally Denmark, wrote on social media.

“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES. Anything less than that is unacceptable.”

Trump’s post came early on a day when top Danish and Greenlandic diplomats were to visit the White House for talks on Greenland with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Hours before the meeting was due to start, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen sought to ease US concerns about security in Greenland, telling AFP that Denmark was boosting its military presence there and was in talks with allies on “an increased NATO presence in the Arctic.”

Trump for his part said that NATO “should be leading the way” in building the multi-layer missile defense system.

“IF WE DON’T, RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!” Trump wrote.

The US leader has repeatedly threatened to take over the vast, strategic and sparsely populated Arctic island, and he has sounded emboldened since ordering a deadly January 3 attack in Venezuela that removed its president.

AFP

Pope Leo XIV stressed the importance of listening to victims of clerical sex abuse during a meeting with cardinals from around the world this week, according to comments released Saturday.

In a speech concluding the two-day, closed-door consistory, the US pope said the abuse of children and vulnerable adults by priests was still a “wound” in the Catholic Church.

“Listening is profoundly important,” Leo said, according to a Vatican transcript, adding: “We cannot close our eyes, nor our hearts.”

He noted that abuse was not a specific topic for discussion during the consistory, his first since taking over as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics in May following the death of Pope Francis.

But he said he wanted to raise it in his closing remarks, saying the scourge was “a problem that still today is truly a wound in the life of the Church in many places.”

“I would like to say, and encourage you to share this with the bishops: many times the pain of the victims has been worsened by the fact that they were not welcomed and listened to,” he said.

“The abuse itself causes a deep wound that can last a lifetime.

“But many times the scandal in the Church is because the door has been closed and the victims have not been welcomed.”

He added: “A victim recently told me that the most painful thing for her was that no bishop wanted to listen to her.”

Some 170 cardinals were present at the Vatican for the consistory on Wednesday and Thursday, where they discussed the future direction of the Church.

Leo invited them to meet again at the end of June, in what the Vatican said would become an annual event.




AFP

In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, United States President Donald Trump signalled that the US could undertake multiple military strikes in Nigeria if violence against Christians persists.

Trump, asked whether the December 25 military operation against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria marked the start of a broader campaign, said, “I’d love to make it a one-time strike… but if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”

The US strike, which Washington described as targeting Islamic State affiliates at the request of the Nigerian government, drew global attention when it was carried out on Christmas Day.

Trump framed it as a response to what he characterised as repeated killings of Christians by extremist groups in Nigeria, language that has fuelled debate over the motivations behind the intervention.

When pressed about comments from his senior Africa adviser that groups such as Islamic State West Africa Province and Boko Haram had killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, Trump acknowledged that Muslims were also victims.

“I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians,” he said.

The Federal Government has rejected claims of a genocide against Christians, pointing out that violent armed groups operate with mixed motives and have killed both Muslims and Christians across the country’s troubled north.

The Nigerian government has emphasised cooperation with international partners in counter-terrorism efforts while reiterating that violence against any community, regardless of faith, is unacceptable.