Large demonstrations are planned across Denmark and Greenland on Saturday to protest against US President Donald Trump’s designs to take over the Arctic island. Thousands of people have indicated on social media that they intend to take part in marches and rallies organised by Greenlandic associations in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense and the Greenlandic capital Nuuk.”The aim is to send a clear and unified message of respect for Greenland’s democracy and fundamental human rights,” Uagut, an association of Greenlanders in Denmark, said on its website.The protests follow Trump’s warning on Friday that he “may put a tariff” on countries that oppose his plans to take over Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.The demonstration in Nuuk is scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT), to protest “against the United States’ illegal plans to take control of Greenland”, organisers said. Demonstrators would march to the US consulate carrying Greenlandic flags.The Copenhagen rally was due to begin at 12:00 pm (1100 GMT), and make a stop outside the US embassy in the Danish capital around an hour later.”Recent events have put Greenland and Greenlanders in both Greenland and Denmark under pressure,” Uagut chairwoman Julie Rademacher said in a statement sent to AFP, calling for “unity”.”When tensions rise and people go into a state of alarm, we risk creating more problems than solutions for ourselves and for each other. We appeal to Greenlanders in both Greenland and Denmark to stand together,” she said. – ‘Demand respect’ -Uagut, along with the citizens’ movement “Hands Off Greenland”, and Inuit, an umbrella group of Greenlandic associations, were staging the demonstrations to coincide with a visit to Copenhagen by a bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers.On the event’s Facebook page, at least 900 people in Greenland said they planned to take part in the territory, which has a total population of about 57,000.”With this demonstration, we want to show that we are taking action, that we stand together and that we support our politicians, diplomats and partners,” Kristian Johansen, one of the organisers, said in a statement.”We demand respect for our country’s right to self-determination and for us as a people,” added Avijaja Rosing-Olsen, another organiser. “We demand respect for international law and international legal principles. This is not only our struggle, it is a struggle that concerns the entire world.”According to the latest poll published in January 2025, 85 percent of Greenlanders oppose the territory joining the United States. Only six percent were in favour.

The son of Iran’s late shah said Friday he was confident that mass protests would topple the Islamic republic and urged international action, as US President Donald Trump holds off on intervening in the unrest.Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the Washington area, has presented himself as leader of the opposition as the cleric-run state ruthlessly represses mass protests.”The Islamic republic will fall — not if, but when,” Pahlavi told a news conference in Washington.Since the demonstrations erupted in late December with a rallying cry of solving Iran’s severe economic woes, Pahlavi has pleaded for US intervention.Trump had repeatedly warned Iran that if it kills protesters, the United States would intervene militarily. He also encouraged Iranians to take over state institutions, saying “help is on the way.”But two weeks after he first suggested help, he has not acted. Security forces in the meantime have killed at least 3,428 protesters, according to Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, with other estimates putting the toll at more than 5,000 or possibly as high as 20,000.Trump instead has highlighted what he said was an end to the killing of protesters, as the size of demonstrations diminished in recent days.Trump wrote Friday on his Truth Social platform that Iran had called off executions of hundreds of protesters and said to the clerical state, “Thank you!”Pahlavi also took to social media Friday, with posts on X and Instagram calling for Iranians across the country to “raise your voices in anger and protest with our national slogans” at 8:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday.Pahlavi, seeking to touch a nerve with Trump, called on him not to be like Democratic predecessor Barack Obama who negotiated with Tehran.”I believe that President Trump is a man of his word and ultimately he will stand with the Iranian people as he has said,” Pahlavi said when asked if Trump had given false hope.”Iranian people are taking decisive actions on the ground. It is now time for the international community to join them fully.”Gulf Arab monarchies, despite frequent friction with Iran, have urged Trump to show caution.- ‘Surgical’ strikes -Pahlavi called for targeting the command structure of the elite Revolutionary Guards, as it is key to “instituting terror at home or terrorism abroad.””I’m calling for a surgical strike,” said Pahlavi, who controversially backed Israel’s military campaign on Iran in June.He also urged all countries to expel diplomats from Iran and to help restore internet access, which has been severely hampered.Many protesters have chanted the name of Pahlavi, whose pro-Western father fled in 1979 in the Islamic revolution.While Iran’s last Shah presented a glamorous image of the oil-rich nation to the world — replete with caviar, glittering crown jewels and a jet-setter lifestyle — domestically, repression and the brutality of his secret police force as well as a lack of economic mobility opened the door to political challenge.Asked about repression under his father, Pahlavi told reporters, “I let historians write history. I’m here to make history.”Pahlavi, 65, said he wants to be a figurehead to lead a transition to a secular democracy, with a popular referendum to choose the next system of government.He also has plenty of detractors who suspect a desire by his supporters to restore the monarchy and say changes should come from the opposition within Iran.”I reaffirm my lifelong pledge to lead the movement that will take back our country from the anti-Iranian hostile force that occupies it and kills its children,” Pahlavi said.”I will return to Iran.”Pahlavi promised that a new Iran would have better relations with the leadership’s sworn enemies — the United States and Israel — and integrate into the global economy.He said Iran would quickly normalize relations with Israel in a “Cyrus Accord,” a reference to Cyrus the Great, the celebrated Persian emperor who freed Jews from Babylonian captivity.”Iran today should have been the next South Korea of the Middle East,” he said. “Today we have become North Korea.”

US immigration agents now remind many Americans of the Gestapo — and not just the left-wing activists who have taken to the streets to protest violent raids commanded by President Donald Trump.Avid Trump supporter and podcaster Joe Rogan, whose massive audience heard him repeat Republican talking points in the run-up to the 2024 election, fueled debate this week by airing those concerns.”Are we really gonna be the Gestapo, ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?” Rogan asked millions of listeners.”You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people — many of which turn out to be US citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” he said.A growing number of Americans agree with that sentiment. In every national poll, a majority condemns the actions of the immigration officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, a US citizen, in Minneapolis on January 7.A Quinnipiac survey found that 57 percent of voters condemn ICE’s methods, with 94 percent of Democratic voters and 64 percent of independents against Republicans, by contrast, support them at 84 percent.Another poll from Economist/YouGov found that, for the first time, 46 percent of respondents support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), exceeding the 43 percent who oppose getting rid of it.- ‘Swing voter’ -“The most useful way to think about Joe Rogan is as America’s most famous swing voter,” left-wing commentator Ben Burgis posted on X this week.Rogan wasn’t the pliant conservative megaphone White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt may have had in mind when she reaffirmed the Trump administration’s hard line of the ICE officer’s innocence.ICE agents “are simply trying to enforce the law and the Democratic Party has demeaned these individuals,” Leavitt told reporters Thursday.”They’ve even referred to them as Nazis and as the Gestapo, and that is absolutely leading to the violence we’re seeing in the streets,” she added. Beyond differences on policy or polemics, the methods used by the masked and sometimes heavily armed federal agents run counter to deeply rooted principles within American political and legal culture, Steven Schwinn, a law professor at University of Illinois, Chicago, told AFP.During chaotic raids in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis —  all Democratic strongholds across the country — Schwinn points to the identity checks and stops that have outraged Rogan, because such stops were only authorized with “reasonable suspicion,” a standard used by law enforcement to stop people in the United States.- ‘Absolute immunity’ -When ICE agents demand peaceful protesters produce their papers, or when they target people solely on the basis of their perceived ethnicity, “a lot of folks associate that with dictatorial and authoritarian regimes,” Schwinn said. “What is happening with ICE is unprecedented,” Schwinn added, both in the scale of the deployment — federal agents now number 22,000 nationwide, compared with 10,000 a year ago, according to the Department of Homeland Security — and in the protection they seem to enjoy from the White House.Senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller has said all ICE officers have “federal immunity” to conduct their raids, adding “anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony.” Vice President JD Vance agreed, saying the agent who shot and killed Good in Minnesota “is protected by absolute immunity.”Legal experts and local officials, including prosecutors, have denounced those views.And according to Axios, the Trump administration has conducted its own polling and found support for immigration police is eroding, even among right-leaning voters.An anonymous senior advisor told the site Friday that the president “wants mass deportations. What he doesn’t want is what people are seeing. He doesn’t like the way it looks. It looks bad, so he’s expressed some discomfort at that.”