SPACE/COSMOS

Putin envoy says Russia could supply a small nuclear power plant for Musk's Mars mission

Andrew Osborn
Thu, March 27, 2025

The head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev speaks after the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh

(Reuters) - Russia could supply a small nuclear power plant for a mission to Mars planned by billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, President Vladimir Putin's international cooperation envoy said on Thursday.

The envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said Moscow could discuss the offer with Musk by video conference. It was the second time Dmitriev has spoken of potential cooperation with Musk this month.

The proposal comes after U.S. President Donald Trump launched talks with Russia aimed at reviving bilateral ties which were languishing at their lowest level in decades due to Russia's war in Ukraine. Moscow is seeking to develop economic cooperation with Washington, even as U.S. sanctions against Russia over the conflict remain in place.

Musk, a close Trump associate, said earlier this month that his Starship rocket would blast off for Mars by the end of next year despite various failures in tests and amid scepticism from some space experts about Musk's projected timeline.

In a post on X, Musk said human landings could take place as early as 2029, but that "2031 was more likely." He spoke last year of plans to build a "self-sustaining city in about 20 years" on Mars, something that would need a power source.

Speaking in Murmansk on the sidelines of an Arctic Forum, Dmitriev, who is also head of a fund that works to attract foreign investors, said Russia could contribute a lot to a potential Mars mission.

"Russia can offer a small-sized nuclear power plant for a mission to Mars and other advanced technological capabilities," the state RIA news agency cited him as saying.

"We believe that Russia has a lot to offer for a mission to Mars, because we have some nuclear technologies that I think could be applicable," he added, saying Russia regarded cooperation with Musk, whom Dmitriev hailed as a "great visionary", as important.

Yuri Borisov, the then head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, said last year that Russia and China were considering putting a nuclear power plant on the moon from 2033-35, something he said could one day allow lunar settlements to be built.


Russia said in 2022 it would start work on its own Mars mission after the European Space Agency (ESA) suspended a joint project after the start of the war.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

SpaceX reportedly has a secret backdoor for Chinese investment

TechCrunch · Image Credits:TechCrunch

Rebecca Bellan

TechCrunch
Wed, March 26, 2025 

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has allowed Chinese investors to buy stakes as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore hubs, according to reporting from ProPublica.

SpaceX is a defense contractor for the Pentagon, one that handles sensitive work like building a classified spy satellite network. Investment from China raises national security concerns, as it could grant a foreign adversary access to sensitive military technology, intelligence, or supply chains.

The insight into SpaceX’s investment approach surfaces new questions around Musk’s own ties with China, particularly amid reports that the Pentagon briefed Musk on a potential war with China. The billionaire executive who is leading the charge to gut federal spending has regularly met with Communist Party officials in China to discuss his business interests. Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory builds about half of Tesla’s cars, and the country makes up a significant (if shrinking) chunk of its sales.

The details of how SpaceX allows Chinese investors to buy into the company came to light through the testimony of its CFO, Bret Johnsen, and major investor Iqbaljit Kahlon during a recent corporate dispute in Delaware.

The dispute centered around an aborted 2021 deal with a Chinese firm that had planned to buy $50 million of the company’s stock. When the news became public, SpaceX executives pulled out to avoid potential problems with national security regulators.

Kahlon testified in December that SpaceX finds it “acceptable” for Chinese investors to buy into the company through offshore vehicles, which are often used to keep investors anonymous.

Experts who spoke to ProPublica said this practice is troubling because it’s a potential sign that the company is taking active steps to conceal foreign ownership interests. It’s unclear exactly why SpaceX does this; the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While passive, noncontrolling stakes from foreign investors are welcome, it is the Trump administration’s position that adversaries like China use concealed investment strategies to obtain technologies, IP, and leverage in strategic industries. As a result, typically such investments would be vetted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

There’s no public record of SpaceX undergoing a formal CFIUS review. TechCrunch has reached out to CFIUS and SpaceX to learn more.

ProPublica’s reporting follows an investigation from the Financial Times that found that Chinese investors are using special-purpose vehicles to quietly funnel millions into Musk-controlled companies, including SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink.

Researchers develop new design and fabrication method to make lightsails for interstellar travel

Brown University

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A process for designing ultra-thin membranes with billions of nanoscale holes may one day help small spacecraft reach the stars.

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Credit: Norte lab, TU Delft/Bessa lab, Brown University

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Since its launch in 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled over 15 billion miles into deep space. That’s a long way — but it’s not even 1% of the distance to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. If humans are going to send ships to the stars, space travel will have to get a lot faster. 

One promising way to pick up that kind of speed is a “lightsail” — a thin, reflective membrane that can be pushed by light much the same way that wind pushes a sailboat. Lightsails have the potential to reduce flight time to nearby stars from several thousand years using current propulsion systems to perhaps just a decade or two. 

Now, a team of researchers from Brown University and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands has developed a new way of designing and fabricating ultra-thin, ultra-reflective membranes for lightsails. In a study published in Nature Communications, the researchers describe a lightsail membrane that’s 60 millimeters (about 2.4 inches) wide by 60 millimeters long, but with a thickness of just 200 nanometers — a tiny fraction of a human hair. The surface is intricately patterned with billions of nanoscale holes, which help to reduce the material’s weight and increase its reflectivity, giving it more acceleration potential. 

“This work was a joint effort between theorists at Brown University and experimentalists at TU Delft making it possible to design, fabricate and test a highly reflective lightsail with the largest aspect ratio recorded to date,” said Miguel Bessa, an associate professor in Brown’s School of Engineering who co-led the research with Richard Norte, an associate professor at TU Delft. “The experimental breakthrough of Richard’s team proves their fabrication process is scalable to the dimensions needed for interstellar travel and can be done in a cost-effective manner. Simultaneously, my team is very enthusiastic to see the essential role of our latest optimization method guided by machine learning in solving such an interesting and difficult engineering problem.”

The research is a significant step toward realizing goals like those of the Starshot Breakthrough Initiative, founded by entrepreneur Yuri Milner and the late physicist Stephen Hawking. The goal is to use ground-based lasers to power hundreds of meter-scale lightsails carrying microchip-sized spacecraft. This new lightsail design could be scaled up to meter scale fairly easily, the researchers say, and with a manageable price tag. 

For their design, the team used single-layer silicon nitride, a lightweight and high-strength material that’s well suited for lightsail design. The researchers then worked to maximize its reflectivity while minimizing its weight. The reflectivity of the surface determines how much light pressure is created behind the sail, which in turn determines how fast it can accelerate. At the same time, a lighter material requires less force to accelerate, so less mass equals more speed.

The optimization process involved designing a pattern of nanoscale holes — billions of them across the material’s surface with diameters smaller than the wavelength of light. Bessa’s team, including Brown Ph.D. student Shunyu Yin, used a new artificial intelligence method they developed to optimize the shape and placement of the holes for increased reflectivity and decreased weight. 

Once they had an optimized design, a team led by Norte at TU Delft went to work fabricating it in the lab. 

“We have developed a new gas-based etch that allows us to delicately remove the material under the sails, leaving only the sail,” Norte said. “If the sails break, it’s most likely during manufacturing. Once the sails are suspended, they are actually quite robust. These techniques have been uniquely developed at TU Delft.”

Fabricating this design with traditional methods would have been expensive and taken as long as 15 years, the researchers say. But using Norte’s techniques, fabrication took about a day and is thousands of times less expensive. The result is a membrane that the researchers believe has the highest aspect ratio — centimeter-scale length but with nanoscale thickness — of any lightsail design to date. The researchers hope that their methods will not only help humans reach the stars, but also push the limits of nanoscale engineering. 

“The new machine learning and optimization techniques we used here are very general,” Bessa said. “We could use them to create lots of different things for different purposes. This is really just the beginning. We might be on the verge of solving engineering problems that have remained unsolvable up to now.”

The research was funded by the European Union (ERC, EARS, 101042855) and a Limitless Space Institute I2 Grant.

A process for designing ultra-thin membranes with billions of nanoscale holes may one day help small spacecraft reach the stars.

Credit

Norte lab, TU Delft and Bessa lab, Brown University

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-57749-y 

Article Title

Pentagonal photonic crystal mirrors: scalable lightsails with enhanced acceleration via neural topology optimization

Article Publication Date

25-Mar-2025

Scribd.comwww.scribd.com/doc/245927492/Samuel-Delany-Nova-pdf

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Atmospheres of new planets might have unexpected mixtures of hydrogen and water

Water and gas react under intense heat and pressure in the atmospheres of young Earth-to-Neptune-sized planets

University of California - Los Angeles

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Key takeaways

• Planets can be extremely hot when they are born, and new computational experiments show that such planets would have an atmosphere composed of a homogenous mixture of hydrogen and water. As the planets age, their temperature decreases, and the hydrogen and water begin to separate. 
• The subsequent rainout of water could not only generate an unexpected amount of heat deep inside these worlds but reshape the composition of atmospheres and evolution of these planets for billions of years.
• The work has implications for potentially habitable exoplanets with a hydrogen atmosphere overlying a water ocean, depending on the planets’ internal temperatures. 

All planets are made of gas, ice, rock and metal, and models of how planets form usually assume that these materials don’t react chemically with each other. But what if some of them do? UCLA and Princeton planetary scientists asked that question and got a surprising answer: Under the intense heat and pressure of newborn planets, water and gas react with each other, creating unexpected mixtures in the atmospheres of young Earth-to-Neptune-sized planets and a “rainfall” deep inside the atmospheres.

Recent studies show that the most common type of planets in our galaxy, those between the sizes of Earth and Neptune, typically form with a hydrogen atmosphere, resulting in conditions where hydrogen and the planet's molten interior interact for millions to billions of years. Interactions between the atmosphere and the interior are thus crucial to understanding the formation and evolution of these bodies and what might lie beneath these atmospheres.

But the temperatures and pressures involved are so extreme that laboratory experiments to study them are nearly impossible. The researchers took advantage of UCLA and Princeton supercomputers to conduct quantum mechanical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how hydrogen and water — two of the most important planetary constituents — interact over a wide range of pressure and temperature in planets Neptune-sized and smaller. The results are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“We usually think of basic physics and chemistry as being known already,” said study co-author Lars Stixrude, a UCLA earth, planetary and space sciences professor. “We know when things are going to melt and when they're going to dissolve and when they're going to freeze. But when it comes to the deep insides of planets, we just don't know. There’s no textbook where we can look these things up, and we have to predict them.”

The researchers set up simulations of a system split into hydrogen and water, with several hundred atoms of each, and calculated how they interact with each other at the quantum level. The atoms responded in a natural way, as they would in a laboratory experiment under the same conditions.

Planets can be extremely hot when they are born or if they are very close to their parent stars, and these computational experiments showed that such planets would have an atmosphere composed of a homogenous mixture of hydrogen and water. But as the planets age, their temperature decreases, and the hydrogen and water begin to separate. The subsequent rainout of water could not only generate an unexpected amount of heat deep inside these worlds but reshape the composition of atmospheres and evolution of these planets for billions of years.

 “Over time, as the planet cools down, in the outer regions of the atmosphere, clouds begin to form as water condenses out,” said first author Akash Gupta, who conducted the research as a UCLA doctoral student and is now a 51 Pegasi b and Harry H. Hess Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University. “Shortly thereafter, water and hydrogen would begin to separate deep within the atmosphere — a pivotal event, given that the majority of the planet’s hydrogen and water reserves lie in these depths. This would then lead to a ‘rainfall’ deep inside the planet’s atmosphere as heavier water sinks while the lighter hydrogen rises, resulting in an outer, hydrogen-rich envelope and an inner, water-rich one.”

The finding could also help solve the mystery of why Uranus emits much less heat than Neptune even though these planets are very similar in size.

“Rainout of water may have so far occurred to a greater extent in Neptune than in Uranus, thus generating more internal heat within Neptune,” Gupta said. “This could explain why Uranus exhibits significantly lower heat flow compared to Neptune.”  

The work has implications for planets outside our solar system, such as K2-18 b and TOI-270 d, which have been argued to be potentially habitable worlds with a hydrogen atmosphere overlying a water ocean. However, the internal temperatures of such exoplanets, if high enough, could lie entirely in the regime where hydrogen and water can’t separate, so that they would consist of a single homogeneous hydrogen-water fluid.

“If water and hydrogen are indeed substantially mixed throughout a planet’s interior, the structure and thermal evolution of Earth- and Neptune-like exoplanets can be substantially different from the standard models typically used in the field,” said Hilke Schlichting, study co-author and UCLA earth, planetary, and space sciences professor.

“On the other hand, planets that are colder could have a separate layer enriched in water, possibly in liquid form.”

The research thus further provides a physics-inspired framework to narrow the search for planetary systems in our galaxy in which water-rich exoplanets could have water oceans or if they might have atmospheres where hydrogen and water are completely mixed and uncovers what possibly governs this bifurcation. 

The research was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation and Princeton University.

---

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

XI PRO GLOBALISM AND FREE TRADE

China's Xi to meet with BMW, Mercedes, Qualcomm CEOs, sources say

Chinese President Xi Jinping · Reuters

Reuters
Thu, March 27, 2025 


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The global heads of German automakers BMW and Mercedes, as well as chip giant Qualcomm are among foreign business leaders due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, two sources said on Thursday.

The meeting in Beijing planned for Friday comes as Chinese authorities seek to bolster ties with foreign companies amid a drop in investment and in the face of U.S. tariffs targeting the world's second-biggest economy.


The meeting follows on from last weekend's China Development Forum (CDF), a flagship business event that this year saw Premier Li Qiang urge countries to open their markets and combat "rising instability and uncertainty".

Li also pledged that China would deliver more active macroeconomic policies.

Executives from Apple, Pfizer, Mastercard, Cargill and others met with Chinese commerce ministry officials over the course of CDF.

The sources, who have direct knowledge of the planned meeting between Xi and the Mercedes, BMW and Qualcomm executives, asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak with media. They gave no details regarding the expected substance of the talks.

The companies did not immediately reply to Reuters' requests for comment. The Chinese foreign ministry also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The frequency of meetings between foreign executives and high-level Chinese authorities has picked up over the past month after official data showed foreign direct investment (FDI) plummeted 27.1% year-on-year in local currency terms in 2024.


That marked the biggest drop in FDI since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Global firms have been moving manufacturing away from China in an effort to diversify their supply chains and derisk their operations among escalating geopolitical tensions.

China's slowing economy has also played a role in the decline in investment, while a sweeping crackdown on consultancy and due diligence firms has rattled some foreign executives.

Beijing is also eager to mend relations with global business leaders to help fend off disruptions sparked by tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

China remains one of the biggest markets for German automakers, including BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen, in spite of market share leakage to Tesla and Chinese rivals including BYD and Xiaomi.

It may become even more important after Trump's announcement of a new 25% tariff on imported autos to the U.S. due to go into effect on April 3.

German automakers have recently ramped up efforts to seek technology partnerships with Chinese companies to enhance their product competitiveness there.

(Reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Joe Bavier)


China's Xi urges global CEOs to protect trade as Trump tariffs loom

Thu, March 27, 2025 
By Joe Cash and Casey Hall

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's President Xi Jinping urged a gathering of multinational CEOs on Friday to protect global industry and supply chains, as Beijing seeks to assuage foreign firms' concerns over the Chinese economy's health amid threats of more U.S. tariffs.


Beijing is battling to dispel fears that a renewed trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump will further pinch growth in the world's second-largest economy, which has been struggling to recover since the pandemic.

Longstanding unease over China's tightening regulations, abrupt crackdowns on foreign firms, and an uneven playing field favouring state-owned Chinese companies are also sapping business sentiment.

"We need to work together to maintain the stability of global industry and supply chains, which is an important guarantee for the healthy development of the world economy," Xi told the business leaders, who included the bosses of AstraZeneca, FedEx, Saudi Aramco, Standard Chartered and Toyota.

Around 40 executives joined the meeting, the majority of whom represented the pharmaceuticals sector. The meeting ran for just over 90 minutes and seven companies were invited to speak, a source with direct knowledge of its planning said.

"The CEOs I spoke with, and I spoke with a lot of them, felt it was worth it," said Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council and one of the meeting's attendees. "Not only did the president acknowledge various challenges facing companies and industry, in many cases he pledged the government would take action."


The executives sat in a horseshoe formation, with Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius and FedEx's Raj Subramaniam sitting directly across from Xi.

HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery, SK Hynix boss Kwak Noh-jung, Saudi Aramco president and CEO Amin Nasser, and chair of Hitachi Toshiaki Higashihara also sat in the first row.

"This meeting is a big illustration of business diplomacy. Now there is not just dialogue between bodies, WTO entities and states, but diplomacy being led by companies that are not just representing themselves, but also their sectors," said Frank Bournois, VP and dean of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, adding that its success would depend on future actions and not just words.

The frequency of meetings between foreign executives and high-level Chinese officials has picked up over the past month, after official data showed foreign direct investment plummeted 27.1% year-on-year in local currency terms in 2024.


That marked the biggest drop in FDI since the 2008 global financial crisis.

"Foreign enterprises contribute one-third of China's imports and exports, one-quarter of industrial added value and one-seventh of tax revenue, creating more than 30 million jobs," Xi said.

"In recent years, foreign investment in China has also been interfered with by geopolitical factors... I often say that blowing out other people's lights does not make you brighter."

Trump has renewed his trade war with China since taking office and has announced a wave of fresh "reciprocal" tariffs to take effect on April 2, targeting countries with trade barriers on U.S. products, which could include China.


He imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese exports this month, prompting China to retaliate with additional duties on American agricultural products.

"The essence of China-U.S. economic and trade relations is mutually beneficial and win-win," Xi told the meeting.

The Chinese leader last year singled out American business leaders for an audience after the China Development Forum, but USCBC's Stein said such meetings were unlikely to become a routine fixture at the annual business summit, which this year ran from March 23-24.

"China's messaging is that it isn't an annual event and that businesses shouldn't expect it to be."

(Reporting by Joe Cash Beijing and Casey Hall in Shanghai; Additional reporting by Xiuhao Chen, Liz Lee and Bu Shi; Editing by Saad Sayeed, Stephen Coates and Mark Potter)

U.S. officials went door-to-door in Greenland to find anyone who wanted to be visited by the Vances. They found no one

Graig Graziosi
Fri, March 28, 2025 

The Independent

No one wants to talk to Usha Vance—at least no one in Greenland.

US officials have reportedly been traveling around the Danish-controlled territory looking for locals who wanted to receive a visit from the Second Lady, according to a report from Danish TV 2.

Greenlanders' response? No thanks.

Residents aren't the only ones snubbing the Second Lady ahead of her high-profile visit to the island; Tupilak Travel, which is based in Greenland's capital city, Nuuk, initially said it would host Usha Vance, but pulled out on Thursday.

In a post on Facebook, the company said that the US Consulate called and asked if it wanted the visit, and the company initially said yes, but then backed out.

“After closer consideration, however, we have now informed the consulate that we do not want her visit, as we cannot accept the underlying agenda and will not be part of the press show that, quite, of course, comes with it. No thanks to nice visit… Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders," the company said.

The cancellation comes on the same day that Vice President JD Vance announced that he would join his wife's upcoming trip to Greenland.

“There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday, that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her,” Vance said in a video posted to X.

Vance, the Second Lady, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Christ Wright are scheduled to depart for Greenland on Friday, though those plans could change by the time the delegation departs.

The U.S. delegation was also scheduled to attend the Avannaata Qimusserua, one of the world's largest dog-sledding events, but that visit has been cancelled as well, according to USA Today.

As it currently stands, the American visitors will only be visiting the U.S. Space Force Base at Pituffik.

Greenlanders and Danish authorities aren't pleased about the trip. Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused the US of exerting "unacceptable pressure" on Greenland through its planned visit.

“I have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being placed on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it is pressure that we will resist,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2 on Tuesday. “You cannot make a private visit with official representatives from another country, when the acting Greenlandic government has made it very clear that they do not want a visit at this time,”

Frederiksen went on to say the US delegation's arrival is "clearly not a visit that is about what Greenland needs or wants."

“President Trump is serious. He wants Greenland. Therefore, [this visit] cannot be seen independently of anything else,” Frederiksen said.

Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to buy Greenland or obtain it through other means, including potential military action.

Thanks to climate change driven by human burning of fossil fuels, new shipping corridors are opening up in the Arctic Circle as sea ice melts. Trade routes between Asia and Europe or Asia and the U.S. are approximately 40 percent shorter through the Arctic than by way of the Suez or Panama Canals, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.

Currently, only five countries have territory in the Arctic Circle: Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark, by way of the semiautonomous Greenland, and the U.S. via Alaska. If the U.S. controls Greenland, it would be a major expansion of the nation's control over Arctic shipping routes.

Trump has gone so far as to say that the island is "very, very important" for U.S. “military security."

In addition to its potential military and economic strategic benefits, the Arctic may also have as of yet untapped fuel resources. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic holds 13 percent of undiscovered oil resources and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas, primarily all offshore.

Greenland itself is rich with rare earth minerals, which are essential components in the production of cellphones, batteries, and other consumer technologies.

'Charm offensive failed': Not one Greenlander was willing to publicly welcome Usha Vance

Travis Gettys
March 28, 2025 

RAW STORY

U.S. Vice President JD Vance talks with Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheal Martin as he and second lady Usha Vance welcome Martin and his wife Mary O'Shea (not pictured) for breakfast, ahead of St. Patrick's Day, at the vice president's residence in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 12, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

An advance team knocked on doors in Greenland’s capital Nuuk seeking someone who would welcome a visit from second lady Usha Vance, but every single person said no, according to a Danish TV report.

Vice president J.D. Vance joined his wife on the trip after she got a cold shoulder from prospective hosts, according to a report by Denmark's TV 2 that was flagged by The Hill, and the couple's plans shifted from a dogsled race in Sisimiut and meetings with Nuuk locals to a visit to a remote Space Force base.

“The Americans’ charm offensive has failed,” reported TV 2 correspondent Jesper Steinmetz. “They have finally understood what the Greenlanders here in town have been trying to tell them for a little over a week: We don’t want visitors right now.”


ALSO READ: 'Came as a surprise to me': Senators 'troubled' by one aspect of government funding bill

A senior White House official denied the report, saying the couple was happy to visit the ice-bound military base, where temperatures for March typically stay well below zero.

“This is categorically false," that official said. "The Second Lady is proud to visit the Pituffik Space Base with her husband to learn more about arctic security and the great work of the Space Base."


The vice president is expected to attack Denmark, a U.S. ally, during the visit, which comes as president Donald Trump has inflamed international tension over his threats to annex the country's autonomous territory.

Until recently, we could safely rely on the Americans, who were our allies and friends, and with whom we liked to work closely,” said Greenland prime minister Múte Bourup Egede earlier this week.

“But that time is over, we have to admit that, because the new American leadership is completely and utterly indifferent to what we have stood together on so far, because now it is only a matter of them taking over our country over our heads,” Egede added.


'P.R. disaster': J.D. Vance expected to attack Denmark on scaled-back visit to Greenland

Travis Gettys
March 28, 2025 

RAW STORY

Vice president J.D. Vance is expected to launch an attack on a U.S. ally during an unsolicited visit to Greenland with his wife.

Second lady Usha Vance had been scheduled to visit the autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark with one of the couple's young sons, but her husband decided to join her on a drastically scaled-back trip after watching outrage over her trip grow amid Donald Trump's threats to take control of the world's largest island, reported CNN.

“It was a combination of a little bit of commotion from Danish leaders combined with Vance wanting to go for a while,” said a senior White House official.

The Vances departed early Friday on Air Force Two and will return later the same day after visiting the remote U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, with all cultural exchange events canceled, and the vice president is expected to strike a militaristic tone against Denmark, a fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“Unfortunately, Danish leaders have spent decades mistreating the Greenlandic people, treating them like second class citizens and allowing infrastructure on the island to fall into disrepair," the senior White House official said. "Expect the vice president to emphasize these points as well."

Greenlanders and their government officials had spoken openly against the second lady's planned visit, and public protests were expected in the capital Nuuk, where about a third of the island's residents live, and its second-largest city Sisimiut, where a dogsled race is taking place.

“Trump’s talk of annexation and the visit of the Vances has united Greenlanders in defiance, with Greenlanders rallying together to protest,” said Dwayne Ryan Menezes, director of the UK-based think tank Polar Research and Policy Initiative.

“The Vances clearly realized that if they visited Nuuk or Sisimiut, the strategy would backfire even more than it has," Menezes added. "It would be a PR disaster, as all footage would likely feature protestors with placards of the sort we saw earlier this month (Yankee Go Home, and Make America Go Away), and would expose to the U.S. electorate the misinformation they were fed about how enthusiastically Greenlanders wished for Greenland to join the U.S.”

Usha Vance had apparently been invited to the dogsled race by American Daybreak, a group founded by Tom Dans, who worked on Arctic issues in the first Trump administration, and organizers for the race made clear they did not specifically invite her, and local media reports indicated Sisimiut residents had planned to silently protest her visit by turning their backs on her motorcade.

“In general, I think most Greenlanders are relieved that the unofficial visit to Sisimiut and Nuuk was cancelled," said said Jakob Nordstrøm, who runs a local pilot business in Nuuk. "Personally, I think it is a big win for Greenland. Most Greenlanders welcome tourists from the United States, but obviously this was not a tourist visit."

The White House official insisted that Usha Vance's original plans was set aside because they were incompatible with the vice president's schedule, not because of the backlash.

'But Greenland has a government': CNN host confronts conservative about J.D. Vance visit

Travis Gettys
March 28, 2025 

RAW STORY

CNN

CNN's Audie Cornish redirected a conservative blogger after he justified vice president J.D. Vance's visit to Greenland.

The vice president will join his wife Usha Vance in a drastically scaled-back unsolicited visit as Greenland officials and citizens make clear they're not welcome amid president Donald Trump's threats to take control of the autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark, but Vance tried to put a happy spin on the backlash.

"There was so much excitement around his visit to Greenland this Friday that I decided that I didn't want her to have all that fun by herself," the vice president said, "and so I'm going to join her."

The second lady had planned on attending a dogsled race with one of the couple's young sons, but they'll instead visit the remote, ice-locked Pituffik Space Base, which caused Daily Signal executive editor Rob Bluey and other panelists on "CNN This Morning" to chuckle.

"I'm not going to front, I want to see a Space Force outpost, too," said host Audie Cornish. "That sounds good, but Rob, I heard you laughing a bit when you heard [Vance] explain this, that he wanted to join the fun. So is this a person who needs to get out of town because of the Signal chat fubar? Or is this going over there to do his tough talk with our friends and allies? What are you looking at?"

Vance was among the participants in a group chat on the Signal app where defense secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed top-secret military plans despite a journalist's unnoticed presence, but Bluey said the vice president was advancing U.S. strategic interests by visiting the world's largest island.

"Well, Donald Trump has talked about Greenland now for months, so I don't think this has just popped up out of the blue," Bluey said. "I think it's clearly a strategic interest of his because he's worried about the influence of Russia and China in that that region, particularly for the shipping lanes in the Arctic, but also for the minerals and the natural resources in Greenland. He does not want those adversaries to necessarily take advantage of Greenland at the expense of the United States."

Cornish looked askance at her conservative panelist.

"All those things sound good," she interjected, "but Greenland has a government. Like, we're talking about it like it doesn't."

Watch below or click here.

Photos show the unique culture of Greenland, the massive ice-covered island Trump wants to acquire

Jenny McGrath
Fri, March 28, 2025 




People first arrived to Greenland over 4,000 years ago, and it has a unique culture.


Its population is mostly Inuit, though it's been part of the Danish kingdom for hundreds of years.


There are Scandinavian influences, but Inuit traditions remain strong.

US Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, are traveling to Greenland this week, after the second lady's original itinerary in the Arctic island was amended.

Her initial agenda, which included watching a dog-sled race, sparked backlash because of the US government's designs on Greenland.

President Donald Trump has said the US needs to acquire Greenland — the largest island in the world and an autonomous Danish territory — for security reasons, recently saying, "I think, we'll go as far as we have to go" to control it.

Now, the Vances are only expected to visit the US military base on Greenland, a change the Danish government called "very positive."

The Vances "are proud to visit the Pituffik Space Base," JD Vance's press secretary, Taylor Van Kirk, said in a statement to Business Insider.

"As the Vice President has said, previous US leaders have neglected Arctic security, while Greenland's Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island," Van Kirk added. "The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island."

Greenland is known for its long, freezing winters, stunning glaciers, and fishing industry, but in many ways, it remains a frozen mystery to much of the world.

Part of that mystique is because it's been difficult for some tourists to travel to, except by cruise ship or lengthy plane rides. A new international airport is making the country more accessible, including to US residents.

Marianne A. Stenbaek, a professor of cultural studies at McGill University who studies Greenlandic art and literature, described Greenland as a "modern society with a traditional touch." That's because Denmark colonized it hundreds of years ago, but aspects of its Inuit traditions remain.

From its arts to its cuisine, Greenland has a culture all its own.

Greenland is located between Canada and Iceland, with much of the country above the Arctic Circle.

A map showing Greenland's critical minerals.Graphic by Jonathan WALTER and Valentina BRESCHI / AFP via Getty Images

The country is a little bigger than Mexico. It's also much colder. About 80% of Greenland's 836,330 square miles are buried in snow and ice. An enormous national park, the world's largest, covers much of the northeast.

The island has long made it of interest to many other countries for military purposes and as a source of natural resources, from rare minerals to natural gas and oil.

But to Greenlanders, it's simply home.

Greenland's first humans arrived over 4,000 years ago.

An 18th-century drawing of Greenland.Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Pre-Inuit groups, including members of the Saqqaq culture, came to the island around 2,500 BCE via Canada. They settled in northern, western, and southeastern Greenland. Today's Greenland Inuit population is descended from the Thule people, who moved into the country's north from Alaska through Canada around 1,000 years ago.




Between 985 and roughly 1450 CE, Vikings lived and then died out in Western Greenland. Erik the Red was the one who called the icy island Greenland. In Greenlandic, its name is Kalaallit Nunaat.

Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede established a settlement in what's now Nuuk, Greenland's capital, in 1721. Over the centuries, Denmark's culture profoundly changed the country.

Greenland remained a Danish colony until 1953 and became an autonomous territory in 1979. It has its own parliament, known as the Inatsisartut.

While the country self-governs its domestic matters, Denmark retains jurisdiction over defense and foreign affairs.




More people live in Ames, Iowa, than in all of Greenland.

Customers leave a shop in western Greenland in 2007.REUTERS/Bob Strong

Around 56,000 people make Greenland their home.

Just under 90% are Inuit, though most also have some European ancestry, according to genetic testing published by the American Society of Human Genetics in 2015. Danish people make up the rest of the population. Most live in coastal cities or communities.

Residents speak Greenlandic and Danish.

Politician Aki-Matilda Hoeegh-Dam speaks Greenlandic at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen in 2024.LISELOTTE SABROE/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

Kalaallisut, also known as Greenlandic, is an Inuit language and is the official language of the country. It's widely spoken, though some groups in the east speak Tunumiit, according to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.

Most residents also speak Danish, which is taught as a second language in schools.

Fishing is the country's biggest industry.

The Halibut Greenland fish processing center in 2025.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The population has long depended on fishing for their livelihoods. However, it's not enough to support the entire country. Denmark heavily supplements its budget with about $511 million annually, according to The BBC.

"The economy has been difficult," Stenbaek said. Tourism and the country's natural resources may be its future.

Cruise ships stop by in the summer, but airports are opening around the country, too.

The cruise ship Sea Venture arrives in Ilulissat, Greenland in 2022.ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images

Whether they're hoping to spot narwhals or want to glimpse glaciers, nature-loving tourists are drawn to Greenland.




For a long time, it was difficult to get to the island by plane. Nuuk only opened its international airport in November 2024. Before that, only a few airports had runways long enough to land large jets.

Ilulissat, which has an ice fjord on UNESCO's World Heritage list, and Qaqortoq are also getting international airports, Reuters reported. Later this year, Americans will be able to hop on a direct flight from New York to Nuuk for the first time.

To get ready for the surge of tourists, some residents are buying snowmobiles to rent out, The New York Times reported. New hotels are opening, too.

Rich in both rare earth minerals and wildlife, Greenland is divided on what to do.

Euhedral quartz crystals and cryolite fill a cavity in Greenland.Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Greenland has a history of mining cryolite, which is used in aluminum smelting. A recent documentary, "The White Gold of Greenland," claimed that for over 100 years, Danish mining companies extracted billions worth of the mineral, and Greenland reaped very little of the benefit, Variety reported.

That's not a history it would want to repeat if it taps its deposits of uranium, gold, natural gas, lithium, and other resources. While some see mining as an opportunity to enrich the country, others have concerns.

"Greenlanders are very hesitant about many aspects of mining because it impacts the nature so much," Stenbaek said.

There are also worries about how it could affect the fishing industry, while residents in Narsaq are concerned about their health if a company moves forward with mining radioactive uranium at a nearby proposed site, The Guardian reported.

Colonialism turned some aspects of Greenland Scandinavian while also stamping out some of its Inuit culture.

Denmark's King Frederik and Queen Mary visit the village of Qassiarsuk in Greenland in 2024.Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters

Danish culture is visible in Greenland's healthcare system, educational institutions, and government. "To that extent, it has had a huge impact," Stenbaek said. At the same time, authorities contributed to the loss of many aspects of the Inuits' way of life.

Between the 1950s and '70s, the Danish government forced Inuit populations to relocate from smaller settlements and communities to cities, Reuters reported. During this time, doctors implanted IUDs in thousands of Inuit girls and women, sometimes without their consent, The BBC reported. Denmark is investigating the matter and has offered counseling to those affected, AP reported last year.

Members of the Inuit community were also pressured to give up their culture and language.

"We were told to act more Danish, to speak Danish, if we wanted to be something," Nadja Arnaaraq Kreutzmann, a Nuuk resident, recently told Reuters.

Some Inuits are preserving and reclaiming their culture.

Greenlandic goldsmith Nadja Arnaaraq Kreutzmann works on a ring in her studio in Nuuk, Greenland, in 2025.Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters

From sewing national costumes to making jewelry to carving animal tusks, Inuit people in Greenland are finding ways to continue traditional practices.

"I'm concerned if we do not give the old traditions to younger people, it'll die out within 35 years," Greenlander Vera Mølgaard told National Geographic.

Qupanuk Olsen, a new member of Greenland's Parliament, has spent over five years gaining more than 300,000 Instagram followers by highlighting the country's food and traditions.

Most Greenlanders are Lutheran, but Inuit religious practices remain.

Salik Schmidt and Malu Schmidt hold their daughter as they pose for a photo during their wedding at the Church of our Savior in Nuuk, Greenland in 2025.AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

Some estimates put Greenland's Lutheran population at 90%, heavily influenced by Hans Egede, the missionary who came to the island in 1721. His statue stands in Nuuk, and some want it removed, saying it's a symbol of the start of colonization, the AP reported.

Many Greenlanders incorporate traditional religious practices into their services, Stenbaek said. They also sing hymns in Greenlandic, she said.

About 15,000 people live in Nuuk, Greenland's capital and biggest city.

Houses covered by snow on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, in 2025.AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka

The city's architecture is Scandinavian, but its artwork incorporates Inuit tales, according to Lonely Planet. That duality is Nuuk in a nutshell.

"It's very much, in many ways, like a modern Scandinavian city," Stenbaek said. "And at the same time, the Greenlandic culture, the traditional culture, is still there."

There are plenty of cafés, restaurants, and shopping for residents and tourists to visit.

A more traditional way of life survives in smaller communities.

The village of Attu in Greenland in 2024.IDA MARIE ODGAARD/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

Small settlements remain along the west and east coasts, Stenbaek said. Some have fewer than 100 people.

"They live very much like they would have lived 100 years ago," Stenbaek said. That means relying on fishing and other traditional knowledge to survive.

When there are no roads, residents use boats, sleds, and helicopters to get around.

An Air Greenland passenger helicopter in 2009.Reuters/Bob Strong

In the more remote areas of the country, it's not always easy to get from place to place.

"If you have to go from settlement to settlement, it's either by boat or dog sleigh or skiing," Stenbaek said.

If the water is too icy for boats, Greenlanders might have to jump in a helicopter. There are dog sled races in Uummannaq, but it's also a practical mode of transportation in the snowy weather. The same goes for snowmobiles.

Greenland has polar nights and the midnight sun.

The northern lights appear over homes in Nuuk, Greenland, in 2025.AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

Far north regions experience polar nights in the winter, when the sun doesn't rise above the horizon. The opposite happens in the summer, when Greenland gets nonstop daylight for a couple of months.

Both are significant to Greenlanders.

Since the sun is not visible in the winter, when spring comes it brings life back," photographer Inuuteq Storch told The Guardian in 2024. "That time of total darkness is very spiritual."

Weather rules Greenlanders' worlds.

Sisters Tukummeq and Eva-Vera in Nuuk, Greenland, in 2025.Marko Djurica/REUTERS

Greenland is a maritime culture, according to Stenbaek. "Everything depends on ice and water," she said.

In some parts of the country, winters can last through April. The temperatures can be frigid, with some regions getting down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Summers in northern towns are still chilly, averaging around 41 degrees Fahrenheit, per The Guardian. Temperatures are getting warmer, though.

Lots of Greenlanders read through those long, dark nights.

Ebbe Volquardsen, a professor at the University of Nuuk, in 2017.Julia Wäschenbach/picture alliance via Getty Images

Greenland has a very literary culture, Stenbaek said. "It's an old tradition that goes back 100 years," she said. It's long been a good way to pass a polar night. Local authors are published in both Greenlandic and Danish.

There are plenty of other types of Greenlandic art, too, including theater, sculpture, and music.

"Greenlanders are very artistic," Stenbaek said.

Locals love to get outdoors, too.

A cross-country skier outside of Nuuk, Greenland, in 2025.ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images

Plenty of Greenlanders' pastimes involve braving the cold.

"Many of them are connected directly to nature, like fishing, hunting, skiing," Stenbaek said.

Greenland is rich in biodiversity.

A southeast Greenland polar bear on a glacier in 2016.Thomas W. Johansen/NASA Oceans Melting Greenland/Handout via Reuters

The snowy landscape and arctic waters surrounding the island are habitats for musk ox, reindeer, seals, polar bears, whales, and dozens of bird species.

Berries, flowers, and cottongrass also grow in some parts of the country.

The Greenland dog is an ancient breed.

A musher walks with his Greenlandic sled dogs in 2025.Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Sled dogs aren't just companions. They're often working animals, and have a long history of surviving alongside humans. Greenland's first dogs arrived with the Thule people hundreds of years ago.

The husky-like dogs have thick coats, muscular bodies for pulling sleds, and a digestive system suited to high-fat diets, as reported by Newsweek.

Some dog sled races ban the use of other breeds, according to the Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation.

Lamb, ox, and lots of seafood are all part of Arctic cuisine.

Muskox broth from Koks restaurant in Ilimanaq, Greenland.ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images

Long before there were grocery stores in Greenland, locals survived by hunting and fishing. Since the island doesn't have a lot of plant life, they got their vitamin C from whale skin, The New York Times reported.

Even today, there isn't much farming in Greenland, though people do raise sheep in the south.

While supermarkets sell imported food, like milk and vegetables, they'll also stock local fare, including fish, seal, and whale. Some Greenlanders also supplement their shopping by hunting reindeer, ox, and other animals.

"In Greenland, we have the world's wildest kitchen," chef Inunnguaq Hegelund recently told NPR.

The warming world is already affecting Greenland.

An iceberg melts in Kulusuk, Greenland.AP Photo/John McConnico

As the planet heats up, Greenland has started to melt. Its glaciers are shrinking, and the permafrost is disappearing. In 2016, researchers found that the Greenland ice sheet was losing the equivalent of 110 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of water each year.

"It had an influence on roads and airports and houses when all of a sudden the earth starts to unfreeze," Stenbaek said.

It's started to change animals' migration patterns, and polar bears have had to adapt to a new way of hunting without sea ice.

It's a hotbed of scientific research.

Researchers on the Isunnguata Sermia glacier in Greenland in 2024.Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The US National Science Foundation has been studying Greenland's ice sheet for decades.

The country's location also makes it the perfect location to obtain ice cores, test cold-weather engineering, monitor climate change, and study the elusive Greenland shark.

Most Greenlanders want to break away from Denmark.

People voting during the general election in Nuuk, Greenland in 2025.Marko Djurica/Reuters

Over the years, Greenland has become increasingly independent from Denmark. In 2008, it voted for a referendum granting them more autonomy. Many want to go even further and become completely independent from the Danish kingdom.

About 80% of Greenlanders support the move, according to recent polling. Yet one longtime backer of the movement has recently become a bit more hesitant.

Aqqaluk Lynge is the former president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a nongovernmental organization representing Inuit people in several countries. He recently told NPR that he now supports Greenland staying tied to Denmark because "if Greenland secedes from Denmark, it will be taken by United States."

"This is surprising because Aqqaluk used to be head of much of the independence movement," Stenbaek said.

Some want to stay independent from the US, too.

A protester in Nuuk, Greenland, in 2025.CHRISTIAN KLINDT SOELBECK/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to buy Greenland. In a recent speech to the US Congress, he said that if Greenland chose to join, "we welcome you into the United States of America."

It may be one of the reasons the Democratic party, which advocates for a slow approach to independence, won in recent elections, Stenbaek said. The majority of Greenlanders, 85%, according to a recent opinion poll, don't want to become part of the US.

"Greenlanders want to remain Greenlandic," Stenbaek said.

She said she thought it was important for Greenland to strengthen connections with other countries, Canada in particular. They have a lot in common in terms of environmental concerns and large Inuit populations, she said.

"Both are Arctic countries," she said. "They would be quite strong."

The US Occupation of Greenland Began Last Night

by Jan Oberg / March 26th, 2025

Preserve this video of street-boy demeanor Trump Regime arrogance. It can be interpreted as an indeed creative declaration of war on Denmark/Greenland.

Listen carefully to the end. It will be historic. Interestingly, if you can not see it embedded here from my homepage (see below). But just click this link to see it on YouTube.

Vice-president JD Vance’s 59 seconds speech about the “fun” in Greenland that he wants to join in marks the beginning of an occupation of Greenland by that US, which Denmark’s governments since 1948 have blindly been submissive to, supported politically and militarily no matter its illegal interventions and wars, CIA worldwide, regime changes, 650 foreign bases, mass killings, genocide, country-destruction, NATO militarism and economic exploitation.

In sum, the most violent and war-addicted country on earth for more than half a century.

He invents a series of “threats” from many other countries against Greenland (and the US…). He scolds Copenhagen for having ignored Greenland’s security for far too long, and he twice elevates Greenland to a world security issue and insists that only the US can make it secure and thereby secure “the entire world.”

For equally long, some of us argued – warned – that the US was not that good – and Russia and China were not that bad. That our world was not a black-and-white world. But that was too much of an intellectual challenge. Over time, facts, analyses, conflict analysis, objective threat analyses based upon decent intelligence as well as national and international law, the UN, diplomacy – not to mention peace-making – were treated as petty issues and thrown overboard.

The Danish foreign policy kakistocracy has finally entered a situation in which they will feel what it means to be blind friends of the Evil Empire and opportunistically never prepare for the obvious: That that empire would ruthlessly pursue only its own interests and humiliate its friends (except Israel) and treat them like dirt. It allegedly gave them “protection”…

Like the rest of Europe, Denmark will now face two Cold Wars for decades ahead – one with Russia and one with the US – and in best Frederiksen-Leyden-Kallas-style, militarise itself to death. You don’t have to be a prophet to see that, like “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

The tragedy – which is now also Sweden’s and Finland’s – is that it could all have been avoided.

By independent, free thinking and research, by listening and prudent decision-makers, not servants listening only to His Master’s Voice.

Europe will now be dragged down with the decline and fall of the US/Western world. What? Oh yes, the Trump Regime will not get away with all its crystal-clear extremist imperialism, its megalomania and delusional ways: It will meet increasing worldwide resistance and fall – “one way or the other” as Trump said about getting Greenland.

I fear the price to be paid with Trump in his undoubtedly golden bunker fiddling with the red button when he hears someone say, Mr President, it is all over. It’s all over.

Do you?

Jan Oberg is a peace researcher, art photographer, and Director of The Transnational (TFF) where this article first appeared. Reach him at: oberg@transnational.org. Read other articles by Jan.

Trump's tariffs may cause toilet paper supply to unroll, Bloomberg reports

Josh Fellman
Thu, March 27, 2025 
QUARTZ

Sparse toilet paper supplies in Maryland in April 2020 - Photo: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)

The U.S. supply of toilet paper may come unspooled. President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber could have the unintended effect of disrupting production of the bathroom essential, Bloomberg News reports.

The Trump administration’s plans to jack duties on Canadian softwood lumber to 27% — and possibly to over 50% later — may hit the availability of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp, or NBSK, a key ingredient in toilet paper and paper towels, the news agency said, citing industry participants and observers.

The import taxes on the lumber will eventually put some sawmills out of business, reducing the supply of wood chips to make pulp. That will lead to temporary closures and lower production of the ingredient, which given the finely-balanced nature of the market may result in pandemic-like shortages of the finished products and possibly higher prices.




Trump is scheduled to announce “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign products on April 2, when delayed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods are also due to come into effect. He’s already announced 25% tariffs on all imported cars, trucks and auto parts, including those made by U.S. companies in Canada.

Import taxes on Canadian softwood lumber, now 14%, are set to rise to almost 27% this year. The 25% tariffs on most Canadian products would bump the duties to about 52% — and a “national security” probe on lumber imports could raise the charges even further.

Replacing the approximately 2 million tons of pulp now imported from Canada won’t be easy. Not only does it constitute most of the American supply, many U.S. paper plants rely on single Canadian mills because their own production processes are attuned to that specific pulp.

“They don’t buy our products for our pretty eyes,” Frederic Verreault, VP of corporate affairs at Les Chantiers de Chibougamau, a Quebec wood processor, told Bloomberg. “They buy our products because they are the best and the most integrated into their factories.”

Judge blocks Trump's Labor Department from requiring grant recipients to abandon DEI

Luc Cohen
Thu, March 27, 2025 


U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday temporarily allowed Labor Department grant recipients to continue their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, but the judge allowed the Trump administration to bar most "equity-related grants."

The order by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago will prevent the Labor Department from requiring grantees to certify that they do not operate DEI programs that violate anti-discrimination laws for two weeks, while he considers a longer-lasting injunction against the measure.

The decision by Kennelly, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, was a partial win for Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT), a nonprofit organization that receives federal funds to train women for jobs like carpentry, welding and plumbing.

The judge agreed with CWIT's argument that the requirement that grant recipients certify they do not operate any DEI programs, even if those programs are unrelated to their federal contracts, violated their free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

"The impact of this provision on CWIT and other grantees is likely to result in self-censorship," Kennelly wrote.

Kennelly also barred the Labor Department from cutting off any grants to CWIT on the basis of Republican President Donald Trump's January 21 executive order instructing federal agencies to terminate "equity-related grants."


That portion of Kennelly's order was limited to CWIT. The judge said nationwide orders are appropriate only in rare circumstances because they can encourage plaintiffs to seek out favorable jurisdictions to bring their cases.

The Trump administration and other Republican officials have said that nationwide orders from judges improperly limit the president's powers.

Neither the Labor Department nor the Justice Department immediately responded to requests for comment.

The case is one of several challenges to Trump's larger efforts to eradicate DEI initiatives, which he and other critics say are discriminatory, from the government and the private sector.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court said the Trump administration could temporarily ban DEI programs at federal agencies and businesses with government contracts, which had been blocked by a lower court.