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Intelligence agencies have been identifying individuals who align with U.S. strategic interests. On Thursday, Denmark’s Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the acting U.S. ambassador for a meeting on Thursday over media reports suggesting an escalation of U.S. intelligence operations in Greenland.

The meeting with U.S. Acting Ambassador to Denmark Jennifer Hall Godfrey was held in Copenhagen and included a representative from Greenland’s government. “The focus of the meeting was the article in the Wall Street Journal: U.S. Orders Intelligence Agencies to Step Up Spying on Greenland,” the ministry said in a statement.

The report, published on Tuesday, said that U.S. intelligence agencies have been directed to identify individuals in Greenland and Denmark who align with American strategic interests concerning the Arctic island, citing unnamed sources.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen stressed that Denmark had expressed its concerns clearly to the U.S. “The purpose of the meeting was to make the Kingdom’s position completely clear. It is our impression that the acting ambassador took that seriously,” he said, adding that the meeting did not verify the article’s claims.

“I cannot disclose what was said during the conversation. The purpose of the meeting was to convey to the U.S. that we take what we read in the paper very seriously. I have not had the accuracy of it confirmed,” he said.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen strongly condemned the reported espionage activities. “Spying in Nuuk (the capital of Greenland) by the U.S. is completely unacceptable. It’s disrespectful to an ally and entirely abnormal,” Nielsen told Danish broadcaster DR.

Greenland, once a Danish colony, became an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953. It was granted home rule in 1979, expanding its autonomy, although Denmark retains control over foreign affairs and defense.

Britain will expand market access for U.S. products such as beef, ethanol and some industrial goods. On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States and Britain had reached a new trade agreement, which includes partially rolling back tariffs in certain sectors and further expanding market access for each other’s products.

“The final details are being written up in the coming weeks,” Trump said at the White House Oval Office. Meanwhile, the 10 percent reciprocal tariff previously imposed by the U.S. remains in place. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not attend the event in person but delivered a speech remotely via phone.

Under the deal, the first 100,000 vehicles imported into the U.S. from Britain each year are subject to the “reciprocal rate” of 10 percent and any additional vehicles each year are subject to 25 percent rates.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that 100,000 vehicles only accounted 0.6 percent of U.S. auto market. But according to a statement from the British government, a quota of 100,000 cars is “almost the total” the Britain exported last year.

Britain will reduce or eliminate non-tariff barriers and expand market access for U.S. products such as beef, ethanol and some industrial goods. Lutnick also noted that Rolls-Royce engines and aircraft components from Britain will enter the U.S. tariff-free, while Britain will purchase US$10 billion worth of Boeing aircraft. The British government didn’t mention this part in its statement.

The White House also announced that this deal creates “a new trading union” for steel and aluminum. The statement from the British government said that tariffs on British steel exports to the United States will be removed.

“In a win for both nations, we have agreed new reciprocal market access on beef,” the statement read. “We will also remove the tariff on ethanol — which is widely used in our manufacturing sector — coming into the UK from the U.S., down to zero.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would agree to meet Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump told him immediately to accept Putin's proposal of direct talks.

The Ukrainian leader had responded guardedly earlier on Sunday after the Russian president, in a night-time televised statement that coincided with prime time in the U.S., proposed that Ukraine and Russia hold direct talks in Istanbul next Thursday, May 15.

It was not clear that Putin had proposed to attend in person, however.

"I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses," Zelenskiy wrote on X.

Putin's proposal came hours after major European powers demanded on Saturday in Kyiv that Putin agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face "massive" new sanctions, a position that Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg endorsed on Sunday.

Zelenskiy too had said Ukraine would be ready for talks with Russia, but only after Moscow agreed to the 30-day ceasefire.

But Trump, who has the power to continue or sever Washington's crucial supply of arms to Ukraine, took a different line.

"President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!"

Putin sent Russia's armed forces into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and triggered the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

With Russian forces grinding forward, the Kremlin chief has offered few, if any, concessions so far.

In his overnight address, he proposed what he said would be "direct negotiations without any preconditions".

But almost immediately, senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the talks must take into account both an abandoned 2022 draft peace deal and the current situation on the ground.

This language is shorthand for Kyiv agreeing to permanent neutrality in return for a security guarantee and accepting that Russia controls swathes of Ukraine.

Putin also dismissed what he said was an attempt to lay down "ultimatums" in the form of Western European and Ukrainian demands for a ceasefire starting on Monday. His foreign ministry spelled out that talks about the root causes of the conflict must precede discussions of a ceasefire.

Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and has repeatedly promised to end the war, earlier responded to Putin's address by saying that this could be "A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!".