Good morning.
Greenland’s prime minister has accused Washington of interfering in its political affairs with the planned visit of an American delegation this week to the Arctic island coveted by Donald Trump.
“It should be said clearly that our integrity and democracy must be respected without foreign interference,” Múte Egede said on Monday, adding that the visit by the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the second lady, Usha Vance, “cannot be seen as just a private visit”.
Fears are growing that the global rules-based order in place since the second world war is under threat amid Trump’s expansionist threats, which are unprecedented for a US president in modern times.
-
What do Greenlanders think of Trump’s desire for the territory? A January opinion poll found 85% do not want to join the US, 6% do, and 9% are undecided, according to Verian.
-
Here’s how the rules-based order is under threat: Article two of the UN charter of 1945 states that “all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”. But with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Trump’s comments about acquiring Greenland, Canada, the Panama canal and Gaza, the cover story of Foreign Affairs magazine recently said: “Conquest is back.”
‘There was just wave after wave’: Gaza doctors recount horrors of last week
An Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza has killed five people, including the Hamas political leader Ismail Barhoum and Palestinian medics, Hamas has said, in an attack that Israel said had targeted a key figure in the militant group.
Doctors in Gaza have been grappling with Israel’s renewed offensive that brought an end to the fragile ceasefire, with a ferocious bombardment starting last Tuesday. Palestinian medical officials say more than 200 people were killed on Tuesday morning alone across Gaza, and hundreds more injured.
Within five days, as more airstrikes and shelling continued, the overall death toll in the devastated Palestinian territory for the 18-month war would reach 50,000, mostly women and children, the health ministry said, with 113,274 others injured.
-
How do medics describe the horrors of last week? “There was just wave after wave,” said Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care doctor at Nasser hospital. “As soon as patients had died or been sent elsewhere and we cleared some space, more would come in. It was chaos. One doctor stepped on a corpse on the ground as he tried to do a life-saving procedure on a child.”
As deportations ramp up, IRS nears deal with Ice to share data of undocumented immigrants, say reports
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly nearing a deal to allow immigration officials to use tax data to support Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, according to reporting from the Washington Post.
Under the proposed data-sharing agreement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) could hand over the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS, raising concerns about abuse of power from the Trump administration and the erosion of privacy rights.
Meanwhile, on Sunday the Trump administration defended using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law, to deport 137 Venezuelans last weekend on the grounds that they were committing violent crimes and sending money back to Venezuela.
The administration deported them despite a judge’s verbal orders telling it not to do so, raising fears of a constitutional crisis as the government’s executive branch seemed to ignore or drag its feet on direct orders from the judicial branch.
-
What did the border tsar, Tom Homan, say to defend the actions? “I don’t care what the judges think as far as this case,” Homan told ABC.
In other news …
-
Talks between the US and Russia are to be held in Saudi Arabia on Monday, as Washington signalled its hope for “real progress” on a ceasefire while Moscow warned of “difficult negotiations”.
-
Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, has called a snap election for 28 April, firing the starting gun on a campaign to be dominated by US-Canada relations.
-
South Korea’s Han Duck-soo has been reinstated as acting president, after the constitutional court struck down impeachment.
-
Thousands of people protested in Istanbul after a court formally arrested the city’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on corruption charges, on the day he received his party’s nomination to run for president.
-
The golfer Tiger Woods confirmed he’s in a relationship with Donald Trump’s former daughter-in-law Vanessa Trump, who was married to Donald Trump Jr from 2005 to 2018.
Stat of the day: US states confirm 378 measles cases this year amid vaccine misinformation
More states are reporting measles cases amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, with 378 confirmed cases so far in the first few months of 2025, compared with 285 for all of 2024. Texas has had 40 hospitalizations and one death, of an unvaccinated six-year-old girl.
Don’t miss this: ‘You couldn’t trust anyone’: Argentina’s military dictatorship – a photo essay
After recording the brutality of Argentina’s Videla regime, the photographer José Luis Ledesma fled to Italy. He discusses the military dictatorship, the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, Javier Milei and being Diego Maradona’s personal photographer.
Climate check: Three wildfires burn more than 3,300 acres in North and South Carolina
Three major wildfires that broke out in one North Carolina county still recovering from Hurricane Helene have exploded to burn more than 1,335 hectares (3,000 acres), as South Carolina’s governor declared an emergency.
Last Thing: From The Simpsons to Werner Herzog – the coolest, craziest, scariest Loch Ness monsters
As a new stage production premieres in Scotland, we look at the best interpretations of the Loch Ness monster, from The Simpsons – who sent Mr Burns to do battle with the creature – to Werner Herzog, in the mockumentary Incident at Loch Ness.
Sign up
Sign up for the US morning briefing
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
