#ICE says Cuban immigrant died while attempting suicide. A witness says guards pinned and choked him.


The federal government has provided a differing account surrounding the Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, saying the detainee was attempting suicide and staff tried to save him.

A witness told The Associated Press that Lunas Campos died after he was handcuffed, tackled by guards and placed in a chokehold until he lost consciousness. The immigrant’s family was told by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday that a preliminary autopsy report said the death was a homicide resulting from asphyxia from chest and neck compression, according to a recording of the call reviewed by the AP.

The death and conflicting accounts have intensified scrutiny into the conditions of immigration jails at a time when the government has been rounding up immigrants in large numbers around the country and detaining them at facilities like the one in El Paso where Lunas Campos died.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is legally required to issue public notification of detainee deaths. Last week, it said Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old father of four and registered sex offender, had died at Camp East Montana, but made no mention of him being involved in an altercation with staff immediately before his death.

In response to questions from the AP, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, on Thursday amended its account of Lunas Campos’ death, saying he tried to kill himself.

“Campos violently resisted the security staff and continued to attempt to take his life,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. “During the ensuing struggle, Campos stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”

In an interview before DHS updated its account, detainee Santos Jesús Flores, 47, from El Salvador, said he witnessed the incident through the window of his cell in the special housing unit, where detainees are held in isolation for disciplinary infractions.

“He didn’t want to enter the cell where they were going to put him,” Flores told the AP on Thursday, speaking in Spanish from a phone in the facility. “The last thing he said was that he couldn’t breathe.”
Among the first sent to Camp Montana East

Camp Montana East is a sprawling tent facility hastily constructed in the desert on the grounds of Fort Bliss, an Army base. The AP reported in August that the $1.2 billion facility, expected to become the largest detention facility in the United States, was being built and operated by a private contractor headquartered in a single-family home in Richmond, Virginia. The company, Acquisition Logistics LLC, had no prior experience running a corrections facility.

It was not immediately clear whether the guards present when Lunas Campos died were government employees or those of the private contractor. Emails seeking comment on Thursday from Acquisition Logistics executives received no response.

Lunas Campos was among the first detainees sent to Camp Montana East, arriving in September after ICE arrested him in Rochester, New York, where he lived for more than two decades. He was legally admitted to the U.S. in 1996, part of a wave of Cuban immigrants seeking to reach Florida by boat.

ICE said he was picked up in July as part of a planned immigration enforcement operation due to criminal convictions that made him eligible for removal.

New York court records show Lunas Campos was convicted in 2003 of sexual contact with an individual under 11, a felony for which he was sentenced to one year in jail and placed on the state’s sex offender registry.

Lunas Campos was also sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervision in 2009 after being convicted of attempting to sell a controlled substance, according to the New York corrections records. He completed the sentence in January 2017.

Lunas Campos’ adult daughter said the child sexual abuse accusation was false, made as part of a contentious custody battle.

“My father was not a child molester,” said Kary Lunas, 25. “He was a good dad. He was a human being.”
Conflicting accounts

On the day he died, according to ICE, Lunas Campos became disruptive while in line for medication and refused to return to his assigned dorm. He was then taken to the segregation block.

“While in segregation, staff observed him in distress and contacted on-site medical personnel for assistance,” the agency said in its Jan. 9 release. “Medical staff responded, initiated lifesaving measures, and requested emergency medical services.”

Lunas Campos was pronounced dead after paramedics arrived.

Flores said that account omitted key details — Lunas Campos was already handcuffed when at least five guards pinned him to the floor, and at least one squeezed his arm around the detainee’s neck.

Within about five minutes, Flores said, Lunas Campos was no longer moving.

“After he stopped breathing, they removed the handcuffs,” Flores said.

Flores is not represented by a lawyer and said he has already consented to deportation to his home country. Though he acknowledged he was taking a risk by speaking to the AP, Flores said he wanted to highlight that “in this place, guards abuse people a lot.”

He said multiple detainees in the unit witnessed the altercation, and security cameras there should have captured the events. Flores also said investigators had not interviewed him.

DHS did not respond to questions about whether Lunas Campos was handcuffed when they say he attempted suicide, or exactly how he had tried to kill himself.

“ICE takes seriously the health and safety of all those detained in our custody,” McLaughlin said. “This is still an active investigation, and more details are forthcoming.”

DHS wouldn’t say whether other agencies were investigating. The El Paso medical examiner’s office confirmed Thursday that it conducted an autopsy, but declined further comment.

A final determination of homicide by the medical examiner would typically be critical in determining whether any guards are held criminally or civilly liable. When such deaths are ruled accidental or something other than homicide, they are less likely to trigger criminal investigations, while civil wrongful death lawsuits become harder to prove.

The fact that Lunas Campos died on an Army base could also limit state and local officials’ legal jurisdiction to investigate. An El Paso County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson declined to comment Thursday on whether it was involved in an investigation.

The deaths of inmates and other detainees after officers hold them face down and put pressure on their backs and necks to restrain them have been a problem in law enforcement for decades. A 2024 AP investigation documented hundreds of deaths during police encounters in which people were restrained in a prone position. Many uttered “I can’t breathe” before suffocating, according to scores of body camera and bystander videos. Authorities often attempt to shift the blame for such deaths to preexisting medical conditions or drug use.

Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist who has studied prone restraint deaths, said the preliminary autopsy ruling of homicide indicates guards’ actions caused Lunas Campos’ death, but does not mean they intended to kill. He said the medical examiner’s office could come under pressure to stop short of calling it a homicide, but will probably “stick to its guns.”

“This probably passes the ‘but for’ test. ‘But for’ the actions of the officers, he would not have died. For us, that’s generally a homicide,” he said.
‘I just want justice, and his body here’

Jeanette Pagan-Lopez, the mother of Lunas Campos’ two youngest children, said the day after he died the medical examiner’s office called to inform her that his body was at the county morgue. She immediately called ICE to find out what happened.

Pagan-Lopez, who lives in Rochester, said the assistant director of the El Paso ICE field office eventually called her back. She said the official told her the cause of death was still pending and that they were awaiting toxicology report results. He also told her the only way Lunas Campos’ body could be returned to Rochester free of charge was if she consented to his being cremated, she said.

Pagan-Lopez declined and is now seeking help from family and friends to raise the money needed to ship his body home and pay for a funeral.

After failing to get details about the circumstances surrounding his death from ICE, Pagan-Lopez said she got a call from a detainee at Camp Montana East who then put her in touch with Flores, who first told her about the altercation with guards.

Since then, she said she has repeatedly called ICE, but is no longer getting a response. Pagan-Lopez, who is a U.S. citizen, said she also twice called the FBI, where an agent took her information and then hung up.

Pagan-Lopez said she and Lunas Campos were together about 15 years before breaking up eight years ago. She described him as an attentive father who, until his detention, had worked in a minimum-wage job at a furniture store, the only employment she said he could find due to his criminal record.

She said that in the family’s last phone call the week after Christmas, Lunas Campos talked to his kids about his expected deportation back to Cuba. He said he wanted them to visit the island, so that he could stay in their lives.

“He wasn’t a bad guy,” Pagan-Lopez said. “I just want justice, and his body here. That’s all I want.”

Michael Biesecker, Cedar Attanasio and Ryan J. Foley, The Associated Press

Attanasio reported from Seattle, and Foley from Iowa City.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, here are some resources that are available.

Canada Suicide Crisis Helpline (Call or text 988)

Crisis Services Canada (1-833-456-4566or text 45645)

Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868)

If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.

#Leonardo da Vinci’s #DNA may be hiding in his artwork, researchers say.

Artist, inventor and anatomist Leonardo da Vinci was the definition of a Renaissance man — and scientists are aiming to unlock the secrets of his genius on a genetic level.

But there’s just one wrinkle: More than 500 years after his death in 1519, Leonardo’s DNA has proved virtually impossible to locate.

He never had children, and his grave site in the Chapel of St. Florentin in Amboise, France, was destroyed during the French Revolution in the late 1700s. There are bones rumored to have been recovered from the wreckage and reburied, but their identity and authenticity have been disputed.

In the absence of verified remains, scientists participating in the Leonardo da Vinci Project have taken an inventive approach: sampling artifacts associated with the Italian polymath for DNA.

Leonardo left behind a wealth of paintings, drawings and letters — things he would have touched that may still contain traces of genetic material today.

The project team swabbed letters written by a distant Leonardo relative, as well as a drawing called “Holy Child” that was possibly created by the master artist. The late art dealer Fred Kline attributed the work to Leonardo, but other connoisseurs have disputed its authenticity.

The team uncovered a wealth of environmental DNA on the drawing and one of the letters, including from bacteria, plants, animals and fungi — and a matching sequence of Y chromosomes from a male. The findings were released on January 6 in a preprint of a study that has not been peer reviewed.

“There’s a lot of biological material that comes from the individual that can be tracked to a piece of paper or a canvas that absorbs that,” said study coauthor Dr. Norberto Gonzalez-Juarbe, assistant professor in the department of cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of Maryland, College Park. “And if you cover it with paint, it has like a protective coat on it.”

The study does not claim that the DNA belongs to Leonardo, but the team believes it has established a method and framework that can be used to investigate other artifacts. If the same Y chromosome sequence is consistently found across items, it could potentially be the key to assembling Leonardo’s genome, said study coauthor Dr. Charles Lee, professor at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, Connecticut.

Tracking down the artist’s DNA could provide insights into his brilliant capabilities. The team believes that he had unusually high visual acuity, or the ability to see things in a more detailed way than the average person, based on his artwork.

Finding out whether Leonardo had a biological advantage is a long-term goal, Lee said. “I’m hoping that this study is an important first step towards that.”
Hunting for centuries-old DNA

Sampling objects for DNA can be a destructive process. The project members, aware of the invaluable nature of the items they wanted to study, first set out to identify a minimally invasive technique that could lift lingering genetic material from artwork and documents.

After testing punch holes, wet and dry swabs, wet and dry vacuuming, and tools used in the forensic science community, the research team determined that dry swabbing could collect enough DNA for a sample and would not damage the artwork.

Genetic material from “Holy Child” provided a composite look at the environment in which the artwork was created and stored over the past 500 years, Gonzalez-Juarbe said.

After ruling out potential environmental contaminants like dust, the team identified specific markers for plants, animals and organisms that suggested the piece originated in Italy.

Gonzalez-Juarbe and his coauthors detected DNA of the orange tree on the 15th century artwork that they believe may have come from the ruling Medici family’s gardens — famed for their rare citrus trees — in Italy’s Tuscany region.

The team also detected wild boar DNA. Paintbrushes made of the animal’s bristles were common during the Renaissance. Stiff and durable, they created a distinctive texture for oil paintings, Lee learned from his colleagues.

“Are we 100% certain that that’s where that pig DNA is coming from, from the paintbrush?” Lee said. “No, but it matches with what we know about art history.”

The researchers involved in the Leonardo da Vinci Project invited Lee’s group at The Jackson Laboratory to take a closer look at the human side of the story. Lee and his team at the research institute had assembled 43 human Y chromosomes end to end and covered 180,000 years of human evolution in a 2023 paper published in the journal Nature.

“When someone comes up to you and says, ‘wouldn’t you be interested in helping find out what the DNA of Leonardo da Vinci is?’ How do you say no to that?” Lee said.
Tracing a familiar Y chromosome

Lee and his team had access to all of the data accumulated from multiple swabs of the “Holy Child,” as well as the letters written by a cousin of Leonardo’s grandfather and Renaissance paintings by different artists.

Y chromosomes are only present in males and serve as markers of male lineage — so women were selected to sample the artifacts.

Lee insisted that everything be done in a blind manner so that he and his colleagues wouldn’t know which sequences came from which piece, and they analyzed each one for human Y chromosome DNA. Control samples were also taken from the researchers who swabbed the artifacts.

Lee’s group carried out Y chromosome profiling and found that the markers from one of the letters and the drawing were genetically related. The researchers compared these markers with a panel of about 90,000 known markers across the Y chromosome, which helped them determine that the DNA belonged to the haplogroup E1b1.

Haplogroups categorize people who share a common ancestor, identified by genetic variations that can be traced through paternal or maternal lines. Paternal lines are traced by the Y chromosome, and maternal lines through mitochondrial DNA.

Today, the E1b1 haplogroup likely would make up 2% to 14% of a random sampling of males in Tuscany — which makes it fairly common, Lee said. He added, however, that geneticists use the term common when anything is at a frequency of 1% or higher.

In Tuscany, the most common clade — or group that shares a common ancestor — belongs to the R haplogroup, which consists of about half of all males living there today. E1b1 is thought to have originated in Africa. About 9,000 years ago, it’s thought that a fair number of males with the E1b1 Y chromosome migrated from North Africa to Europe, Lee said.

The Y chromosome DNA is from the Tuscan region, consistent with where Leonardo was born and lived. Prior to this study, Leonardo was not attached to a haplogroup. If evidence of the E1b1 haplogroup remains consistent in future studies of other objects, and perhaps even in living descendants of Leonardo’s father, a baseline assumption about their haplogroup could be established, Lee said.

“This is not definitive proof,” Lee said. “This is initial observations. From this point on, it’s the foundation upon which we can now collect more data to prove or disprove, confirm or refute the data we found.”
Carrying out delicate work

Identification of the same Y chromosome across other objects could also eventually be used to help determine whethher “Holy Child” was actually drawn by Leonardo and settle the authentication debate, Gonzalez-Juarbe said.

But some experts question what materials should be used in the search for Leonardo’s DNA.

The primary materials the team selected for swabbing and analysis were not the most appropriate for attempting to reconstruct Leonardo’s DNA, said Francesca Fiorani, commonwealth professor of art history at the University of Virginia. Fiorani was not involved in the research.

While “Holy Child” is attributed to Leonardo, that attribution is not widely accepted, Fiorani said. She also believes a letter, document or contract written by Leonardo’s father, who was genetically much closer to the artist, would have been better suited for analysis rather than a distant relative.

“DNA research is adding important insights to our knowledge of people and the world, but it is based on secure DNA data collection,” Fiorani said. “In the case of Leonardo, there is no secure way to get to Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA as no remains of his body exist, even though many fanciful attempts have been carried out in past decades to identify his body.”

However, the impressive methodology used in the study could eventually lead to the successful retrieval of Leonardo’s DNA in the future, said S. Blair Hedges, the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Biology and director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University in Philadelphia. Hedges was not involved in the project.

Assembling Leonardo’s genome will likely require DNA from descendants and possibly his own remains if they are authenticated, which could then be used in comparison with smaller genetic fragments collected from his artwork and artifacts, Hedges said.

“More research will need to be done to develop an exclusive DNA ‘barcode’ for Leonardo da Vinci. They don’t yet have the da Vinci barcode,” Hedges added.

While swabbing is considered the gold standard in forensic science, brushing could be a quick, nondestructive method the authors could consider in the future, said Kelly Meiklejohn, associate professor in forensic science at Western Sydney University in Australia. She did not participate in the new research. Gently sweeping with a brush and using its bristles to collect genetic material from manuscripts has been used with success in the past by Meiklejohn and her colleagues.

Meiklejohn appreciated that standard precautions were taken to reduce contamination in the lab, such as having women process samples.

“It is however not feasible to assume that the human DNA sequenced from each sample is derived from a single individual,” she said.

Meiklejohn believes the authors could use other methodologies like the FORensic Capture Enrichment panel, designed to isolate human DNA for identifying extended kinship, ancestry and phenotype analysis.
The quest to understand a genius

Multiple lines of research are underway to continue the goals of the Leonardo da Vinci Project.

Gonzalez-Juarbe’s group is working with the French government to swab artifacts associated with the master artist that are kept in France. Rather than focusing on famous paintings, such as the “Mona Lisa,” his team is eager to swab Leonardo’s notebooks or lesser-known drawings and paintings that haven’t been handled as much over the years. Other members of the group are collecting samples from Leonardo’s father’s descendants. And interest remains in the bones purported to be Leonardo’s.

Gonzalez-Juarbe and Lee hope that all the separate studies will intersect.

“At some point, I’d love to see a study done where we, if we show that E1b1 consistently comes up in these multiple avenues of exploring Leonardo da Vinci’s artifacts and living descendants of his father, then going to check those bone samples to see if they contain E1b1,” Lee said. “And if they do, then I’m getting to a point where I think Leonardo did carry the E1b1 Y chromosome with high probability.”

Then, the work of determining which genetic traits and markers Leonardo carried could be used to understand his visual acuity.

However, items associated with Leonardo are closely guarded by conservationists, and convincing private owners of artifacts that the work is important enough to execute is also a challenge, Lee said.

Integrating analysis into routine restoration or cleaning work is something Lee hopes will become common practice in the future, resulting in an exchange of information between geneticists, biologists and art historians.

For now, the team has no idea what they’ll find, or whether it will conclusively lead to the discovery of Leonardo’s DNA and gleaning insights from his genome.

“It’s like watching a movie, right? If you know what the ending is going to be like, there’s no gratification in it. But when you’re surprised by it, you don’t know what it’s going to be. That’s what makes the whole journey more fulfilling,” Lee said.

By Ashley Strickland

#Ecuador deploys 10,000 #soldiers to fight #drug #violence.

Ecuador on Friday deployed 10,000 soldiers in three coastal provinces to fight drug-trafficking gangs blamed for a surge in violence in the once-peaceful country.

President Daniel Noboa’s government has vowed an iron-fist approach as the South American nation hits record levels of murders and other violent crimes.

Hundreds of special forces soldiers were deployed Friday to “reinforce security operations” in the provinces of Guayas, Manabi and Los Rios, Air Force General Mario Bedoya told reporters.

Planes with military personnel were also sent to Manta, the country’s main fishing port.

Ecuador is located between the world’s two top exporters of cocaine -- Colombia and Peru -- and has seen a surge in violence by gangs linked to Mexican and Colombian cartels.

Killings and clashes in neighbourhoods and public spaces have become commonplace, and the country closed 2025 with a rate of 52 homicides per 100,000 residents -- one every hour, according to the Geneva-based Organized Crime Observatory.

“Prison or hell for anyone who jeopardizes security,” the defence ministry said in a statement Friday.

Defence Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo has instructed the military high command to operate indefinitely out of the port city of Guayaquil, where troops are inspecting seaports strategic for drug trafficking.

U.S. federal immigration agents filmed dragging a woman from her car in Minneapolis.

A U.S. citizen on her way to a medical appointment in Minneapolis was dragged out of her car and detained by immigration officers, according to a statement released by the woman on Thursday, after a video of her arrest drew millions of views on social media.

Aliya Rahman said she was brought to a detention centre where she was denied medical care and lost consciousness. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said she was an agitator who was obstructing ICE agents conducting arrests in the area.

That video is the latest in a deluge of online content that documents an intensifying immigration crackdown across the midwestern city, as thousands of federal agents execute arrests amid protests in what local officials have likened to a “federal invasion.”

Dragged from her car

Rahman said that she was on her way to a routine appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center when she encountered federal immigration agents at an intersection. Video appears to show federal immigration agents shouting commands over a cacophony of whistles, car horns and screams from protesters.

In the video, one masked agent smashes Rahman’s passenger side window while others cut her seatbelt and drag her out of the car through the driver’s side door. Numerous guards then carried her by her arms and legs towards an ICE vehicle.

“I’m disabled trying to go to the doctor up there, that’s why I didn’t move,” Rahman said, gesturing down the street as officers pulled her arms behind her back.

Rahman was caught in a “terrible and confusing position” and had “no where to go,” according to Alexa Van Brunt, Rahman’s attorney and director of the MacArthur Justice Center.

“Her only options were to move her car forward in the direction of ICE officers and risk being accused of trying to harm them--which led to Renee Good’s death--or stay stationary, which in the end led to physical violence and abuse,” Van Brunt wrote in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security disputed that account in an emailed statement on Thursday, saying that Rahman was an agitator who “ignored multiple commands by an officer to move her vehicle away from the scene.” She was arrested along with six other people the department called agitators, one of whom was accused of jumping on an officer’s back.

The department did not specify if Rahman was charged or respond to questions about her assertion that she was denied medical treatment.

Barrage of viral videos draw scrutiny

The video of Rahman’s arrest is one of many that have garnered millions of views in recent days -- and been scrutinized amid conflicting accounts from federal officials and civilian eyewitnesses.

Often, what’s in dispute pertains to what happened just before or just after a given recording. But many contain common themes: Protesters blowing whistles, yelling or honking horns. Immigration officers breaking vehicle windows, using pepper spray on protesters and warning observers not to follow them through public spaces. Immigrants and citizens alike forcibly pulled from cars, stores or homes and detained for hours, days or longer.

In one video, heavily armed immigration agents used a battering ram to break through the front door of Garrison Gibson’s Minneapolis home, where his wife and nine-year-old child also were inside. The video shot inside the home captures a woman’s voice asking, “Where is the warrant?” and, “Can you put the guns down? There is kids in this house.”

Another video shows ICE agents, including Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, detain two employees at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota. Both are U.S. citizens who were later released, according to social media posts from family members.

Monica Bicking, 40, was leaving the homeless shelter where she works as a nurse when she took a video that appears to show a federal agent kneeing a man at least five times in the face while several other agents pin him facedown on the pavement in south Minneapolis.

Bicking works full time, so she says she doesn’t intentionally attend organized protests or confrontations with ICE. But she has started to carry a whistle in case she encounters ICE agents on her way to work or while running errands, which she says has become commonplace in recent weeks.

“We’re hypervigilant every time we leave our houses, looking for ICE, trying to protect our neighbours, trying to support our neighbours, who are now just on lockdown,” Bicking said.

‘I thought I was going to die’

Rahman said in her statement that after her detainment, she felt lucky to be alive.

“Masked agents dragged me from my car and bound me like an animal, even after I told them that I was disabled,” Rahman said.

While in custody, Rahman said she repeatedly asked for a doctor, but was instead taken to the detention center.

“It was not until I lost consciousness in my cell that I was finally taken to a hospital,” Rahman said.

Rahman was treated for injuries consistent with assault, according to her counsel, and has been released from the hospital.

She thanked the emergency department staff for their care.

“They gave me hope when I thought I was going to die.”

--

By Safiyah Riddle, Sarah Brumfield And Hallie Golden

Associated Press journalist Rebecca Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

Carney says he spoke with China’s Xi about Greenland, Arctic sovereignty.

#OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday he found “much alignment” between his views on Greenland’s sovereignty and those of Chinese President Xi Jinping in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against the territory.

“I had discussions with President Xi about the situation in Greenland, about our sovereignty in the Arctic, about the sovereignty of the people of Greenland and people of Denmark, and I found much alignment of views in that regard,” Carney said at a press conference in Beijing.

Carney said Canada’s position is that Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, should determine its own future.

Noting that Denmark is a NATO ally, Carney said “our full partnership stands, our obligations under Article 5, Article 2 of NATO stand and we stand full square behind those.”

Article 5 is the alliance’s collective defence agreement, which states that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all. It has only been invoked once in NATO’s 75-year history -- by the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks.

Trump insists the U.S. needs control of Greenland for national security reasons and has said he would take it over “whether they like it or not.”

On Friday, he told reporters he’s considering imposing tariffs on countries that oppose his plans for Greenland.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the U.S. would like to buy the island, something officials in both Greenland and Denmark have said is not going to happen.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said an American takeover of the island would mark the end of NATO.

Trump also has claimed that if the U.S. doesn’t have control of Greenland, Russia or China would try to take it over. Arctic experts say that claim is false.

China, which views itself as a “near-Arctic state,” has taken an increasingly aggressive posture in the region that includes joint military exercises with Russia near Canadian territory and around Alaska.

Canada’s latest defence policy warns of Chinese and Russian ambitions in the Arctic and says China’s interests “increasingly diverge from our own on matters of defence and security.”

That policy was released in May 2024, before Carney came to office and began a major reset of relations with China.

He told reporters Friday that his government has increased Canada’s military presence in the Arctic “to 365 days a year on land, sea, and in the air.”

Several European countries have recently sent troops to Greenland in response to Trump’s threats, in co-ordination with Denmark.

The office of Defence Minister David McGuinty has not answered questions about whether any Canadian military personnel are in the territory.

“While the Canadian Armed Forces are not initiating any new operations at this time, we have several joint operations with European allies, including in Greenland,” said spokesperson Maya Ouferhat in an emailed statement.

Carney said Canada and Denmark are working together through NATO and the Nordic-Baltic Eight group, and noted Ottawa plans to formally open a consulate in Greenland’s capital Nuuk next month.

Carney’s meeting with Xi in Korea in October and his trip to Beijing this week were the first interactions between the leaders of the two countries since 2017.

A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office after the meeting said Canada and China are “both strong advocates of multilateralism.”

After the bilateral meeting, Carney announced the two countries cut a deal to dramatically reduce their respective tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian agriculture products.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2026.

By Sarah Ritchie

With files from The Associated Press

Trump floats tariffs to garner support on U.S. control over Greenland, Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”

During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

“I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” he said.

He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.

European leaders have insisted that is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.
A relationship that ‘we need to nurture’

In Copenhagen, a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, thanked the group’s hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialog about how we extend that into the future.”

Canada-Denmark: Carney meets with Danish PM, Greenland focus

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and “it is one that we need to nurture.” She told reporters that “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation.”

The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.

“We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland,” said Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Friday’s meetings. “And mostly, I would say the threats that we’re seeing right now is from the U.S. side.”

Murkowski emphasized the role of Congress in spending and in conveying messages from constituents.

“I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say, we do not think that that is a good idea,” she said.

Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally’s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.
Inuit council criticizes White House statements

The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose #NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

The situation in the international arena is getting increasingly worse, and what mankind needs now is more cooperation between the world’s nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a ceremony of presenting credentials of new ambassadors.

He also suggested returning to a substantive discussion of Russian initiatives on a new and fair security architecture.

TASS has compiled the key statements of the head of state.
On the international situation

The situation in the international arena is "deteriorating more and more": "It seems to me that no one will argue with this."

Diplomacy, the search for consensus and compromise are increasingly being replaced by unilateral, "and very dangerous actions": "And instead of dialogue between states, there is a monologue by those who, by right of the strong, consider it permissible to dictate their will, teach others how to live and give orders."

It is necessary to more persistently demand that the entire world community comply with international law, "and provide real assistance to the new, more just, multipolar world order that is emerging."
Russia's foreign policy course

Russia is "sincerely committed to the ideals of a multipolar world": "Our country has always pursued and will continue to pursue a balanced, constructive foreign policy course that takes into account both our national interests and objective trends in global development."

Russia is interested in maintaining truly open and mutually beneficial relations with all partners, deepening ties in politics, economics, and the humanitarian sphere, and jointly countering urgent challenges and common threats.

Russia is ready "to build equal and mutually beneficial relations with all international partners for the sake of universal prosperity, well-being and development."

Russia "stands for strengthening the key, central role" of the United Nations in world affairs.

The imperatives of the UN Charter are "needed now more than ever."
Security Architecture

Security must be comprehensive: "It cannot be ensured for some [countries] at the expense of the security of others. This principle is fixed in the fundamental international legal documents. Neglecting this basic, vital principle has never led to anything good and will never lead to anything good."

Russia has repeatedly taken initiatives to build a new, reliable and fair architecture of European and global security: "We believe that it would be worthwhile to return to their substantive discussion to consolidate the conditions on which a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine can be achieved, and the sooner the better."
The conflict in Ukraine

The crisis over Ukraine was "a direct result of years of ignoring Russia's just interests and a deliberate policy of creating threats to our security and advancing towards the Russian borders of the NATO bloc."

Russia strives "for a long-term and sustainable peace that reliably ensures the security of everyone": "Not everywhere, including in Kiev and its supporting capitals, is ready for this. But we hope that awareness of this need will come sooner or later. In the meantime, Russia will continue to consistently achieve its goals."

A peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine must be achieved, and "the sooner the better."
Relations and cooperation with other countries

The state of Russia's relations with European countries "leaves much to be desired."

Russia is ready to restore relations with European countries: "In general, as I have repeatedly noted, we are open to mutually beneficial cooperation with all countries without exception."

Russia stands in solidarity with Cuba, which intends to defend its sovereignty with all its might: "I would like to note that Russia and the Republic of Cuba have truly strong and friendly relations. We always provide assistance to our Cuban friends, and we stand in solidarity with their determination to defend their sovereignty and independence with all their might."

Russian-Afghan cooperation has recently "gained noticeable momentum," facilitated by #Russia's official recognition of the country's new authorities last year.

The positive capital in Russia's cooperation with South Korea has been "largely squandered," Moscow is counting on the restoration of relations.

Bodies of 32 Cuban officers killed during US strike on Venezuela repatriated as US threat lingers.

Nearby, thousands of Cubans lined one of Havana’s most iconic streets to await the bodies of colonels, lieutenants, majors and captains as the island remained under threat by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The soldiers’ shoes clacked as they marched stiff-legged into the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, next to Revolution Square, with the urns and placed them on a long table next to the pictures of those killed so people could pay their respects.

Thursday’s mass funeral was only one of a handful that the Cuban government has organized in almost half a century.

Hours earlier, state television showed images of more than a dozen wounded people described as “combatants” accompanied by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez arriving Wednesday night from Venezuela. Some were in wheelchairs.

Those injured and the remains of those killed arrived as tensions grow between Cuba and the U.S., with Trump recently demanding that the Caribbean country make a deal with him before it is “too late.” He did not explain what kind of deal.

Trump also has said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela’s money and oil. Experts warn that the abrupt end of oil shipments could be catastrophic for Cuba, which is already struggling with serious blackouts and a crumbling power grid.
‘That will always unite us’

Officials unfurled a massive flag at Havana’s airport as President Miguel Díaz-Canel, clad in military garb as commander of Cuba’s Armed Forces, stood silent next to former President Raúl Castro, with what appeared to be the relatives of those killed looking on nearby.

Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casa said Venezuela was not a distant land for those killed, but a “natural extension of their homeland.”

“The enemy speaks to an audience of high-precision operations, of troops, of elites, of supremacy,” Álvarez said in apparent reference to the U.S. “We, on the other hand, speak of faces, of families who have lost a father, a son, a husband, a brother.”

Álvarez called those slain “heroes,” saying that they were an example of honor and “a lesson for those who waver.”

“We reaffirm that if this painful chapter of history has demonstrated anything, it is that imperialism may possess more sophisticated weapons; it may have immense material wealth; it may buy the minds of the wavering; but there is one thing it will never be able to buy: the dignity of the Cuban people,” he said.

Thousands of Cubans lined a street where motorcycles and military vehicles thundered by with the remains of those killed.

“They are people willing to defend their principles and values, and we must pay tribute to them,” said Carmen Gómez, a 58-year-old industrial designer, adding that she hopes no one invades given the ongoing threats.

When asked why she showed up despite the difficulties Cubans face, Gómez replied, “It’s because of the sense of patriotism that Cubans have, and that will always unite us.”
‘People are upset and hurt’

Cuba recently released the names and ranks of 32 military personnel — ranging in age from 26 to 60 — who were part of the security detail of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during the raid on his residence on January 3. They included members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, the island’s two security agencies.

Cuban and Venezuelan authorities have said that the uniformed personnel were part of protection agreements between the two countries.

A demonstration was planned for Friday across from the U.S. Embassy in an open-air forum known as the Anti-Imperialist Tribune. Officials have said they expect the demonstration to be massive.

“People are upset and hurt. There’s a lot of talk on social media; but many do believe that the dead are martyrs” of a historic struggle against the United States, analyst and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated Press.
The first mass funeral in decades

In October 1976, then-President Fidel Castro led a massive demonstration to bid farewell to the 73 people killed in the bombing of a Cubana de Aviación civilian flight financed by anti-revolutionary leaders in the U.S. Most of the victims were Cuban athletes.

In December 1989, officials organized “Operation Tribute” to honor the more than 2,000 Cuban combatants who died in Angola during Cuba’s participation in the war that defeated the South African army and ended the apartheid system. In October 1997, memorial services were held following the arrival of the remains of guerrilla commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara and six of his comrades, who died in 1967.

The latest mass burial is critical to honor those slain, said José Luis Piñeiro, a 60-year-old doctor who lived four years in Venezuela.

“I don’t think Trump is crazy enough to come and enter a country like this, ours, and if he does, he’s going to have to take an aspirin or some painkiller to avoid the headache he’s going to get,” Piñeiro said. “These were 32 heroes who fought him. Can you imagine an entire nation? He’s going to lose.”
Cuba riled by U.S. aid for hurricane recovery

A day before the remains of those killed arrived in Cuba, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced $3 million in aid to help the island recover from the catastrophic Hurricane Melissa, which struck in late October.

The first flight took off from Florida on Wednesday, and a second flight was scheduled for Friday. A commercial vessel also will deliver food and other supplies.

“We have taken extraordinary measures to ensure that this assistance reaches the Cuban people directly, without interference or diversion by the illegitimate regime,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. government was working with Cuba’s Catholic Church.

The announcement riled Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.

“The U.S. government is exploiting what appears to be a humanitarian gesture for opportunistic and politically manipulative purposes,” he said in a statement. “As a matter of principle, Cuba does not oppose assistance from governments or organizations, provided it benefits the people and the needs of those affected are not used for political gain under the guise of humanitarian aid.”

___

By Andrea Rodríguez and Dánica Coto

Coto contributed from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The U.S. president’s claims, which were made with few details, come as he’s told protesting Iranians in recent days that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” to respond to the Iranian government.

But Trump has not offered any details about how the U.S. might respond and it wasn’t clear if his comments Wednesday indicated he would hold off on action.

The Islamic Republic shut its airspace to commercial flights early Thursday morning for about two hours, without explanation, a notice to pilots read.

Earlier Wednesday, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, Iran’s judiciary chief, said the government must act quickly to punish more than 18,000 people who have been detained through rapid trials and executions.

The security force crackdown on the demonstrations has killed at least 2,586, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. The death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Here is the latest:
U.S. Embassy in Qatar urges `increased caution’

The U.S. Embassy in Qatar issued a notice early Thursday, saying it had “advised its personnel to exercise increased caution and limit nonessential travel” to Al Udeid Air Base.

“We recommend U.S. citizens in Qatar do the same,” it added.

Some personnel at a key U.S. military base in Qatar were advised to evacuate by Wednesday evening, according to a U.S. official and the Gulf country.
Execution of protester delayed, family says

A 26-year-old protester who was detained last week by Iranian authorities has had his execution postponed but has not been released, according to one of his relatives.

Activists said that Erfan Soltani, a clothing shop employee, was among the thousands of Iranians who were rounded up in the last week after nationwide protests sparked by economic distress turned into days of deadly anti-government unrest.

Somayeh, a 45-year-old close relative of Soltani who is living abroad and asked to be identified by first name only for fear of government reprisal, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his family had been told his execution would be set for Wednesday but it was postponed when they got to the prison in Karaj, a city north-west of Tehran.

The relative said that his family has spent the last six days in agony over what could happen to him and now are left with even more uncertainty.
Iran closes airspace

Iran issued an order early Thursday to close its airspace, without explanation.

The order came amid heightened tensions over its bloody crackdown on protesters during nationwide protests and the possibility of American strikes in response.

The flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com noted the order closed Iran’s airspace for a little more than two hours.
Iranian foreign minister urges U.S. to choose diplomacy

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” that Iran is “ready for negotiation” and has been for the past 20 years. He urged the U.S. to find a solution through negotiation, and said “diplomacy is much better than war.”

Araghchi blamed terrorist groups for the violence as part of an “Israeli plot” to “drag (Trump) into the conflict.”

‘Canada is right in the middle’: What Trump’s Greenland threats mean for #Canada.

For people living in Canada’s Arctic, rhetoric that once seemed absurd has quickly become frightening.

“In the beginning when (U.S. President) Donald Trump said he wanted to buy Greenland, I just laughed it off because it was so absurd,” says Aaju Peter, a Greenlander who now lives in Iqaluit. “I (now) find it unsettling, and I don’t know the word in English but it’s really a threat.”

Peter is not only worried for her native Greenland, but also for all Inuit people who live throughout the Arctic. She believes if the United States is successful in annexing Greenland, that Canada’s north could be next.

“Canada is right in the middle, between Greenland and the United States,” she says. “And he is going to want to take over Canada. Seeing a threat being made to the Inuit in Greenland is also a threat to us in Arctic Canada.”

The Trump administration says controlling Greenland is necessary for U.S. security. Today, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra was asked by CJAD Talk 800 host Elias Makos if Trump has his sights set on Canada’s Arctic territory next.

“We’re not moving to a point where are disagreeing on how to protect the north,” Hoekstra said. “We are actually moving to a point where we are in lockstep.” Hoekstra cited a deal between Canada, the U.S. and Finland to build icebreakers as an example of the two countries working together.

While Ottawa has pledged billions of dollars in new defence spending, including money to protect the north, experts say asserting security – and sovereignty – must also include efforts to build and grow strong communities.

“It’s really a whole of society approach,” says Gaëlle Rivard Piché, executive director of the CDA Institute, a security think-tank. “Working with northerners, governments, Indigenous People who live in the region and make sure they have the same services.”

In its national security strategy, the Trump administration laid out its plans to restore American dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

“After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region,” the document says.

And while Trump’s actions in Venezuela and threats against Colombia and Mexico are examples of a changing U.S. foreign policy, some experts warn his sabre-rattling against NATO member Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, poses a significant risk to international security.

“This is very in-line with his modus-operandi, but it is going to come at a terrible cost,” says Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

“It calls into question the trust that is essential to a collective defence alliance like NATO continuing to exist and creates a rupture between the allies,” she says.

Charron adds it could also lead other countries to move on their own ambitions within their regions.

“It really sends a signal to adversaries that we are in chaos and now is the time to take control of your spheres of influence,” Charron says. “This is sending the wrong message to what we call the CRINKs (China, Russia, Iran and North Korea).”

As Danish and Greenlandic leaders urge the United States to end its threats to annex the territory, France and Germany plan to send troops to the territory at the request of Denmark. Canada also has troops in Greenland, but the Ministry of Defence says Canadian Forces members are participating in a previously planned training exercise that takes place every year in Greenland, not because of the ongoing threats.