South Korea’s president denies nuclear ambitions amid submarine deal
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(SEOUL) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung sought to ease international concerns over the country’s nuclear ambitions on Monday, drawing a clear line between pursuing nuclear-powered submarines and any intent to develop nuclear weapons during a foreign press briefing at the presidential office in Seoul.
The briefing marked the one-year anniversary of South Korea’s return to democratic rule after former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law attempt last year.
Lee and U.S. President Donald Trump reached a $350 billion investment and security agreement last month that included U.S. approval for South Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Reflecting on the negotiations, Lee described Trump as “interesting and entertaining” and called the deal a “remarkable outcome” that provides South Korea with greater strategic flexibility.
Asked by ABC News whether he is aware of nuclear proliferation concerns in Washington, Lee said “nuclear nonproliferation is an international principle we must respect,” stressing that the treaty restricts the spread of nuclear weapons but not all nuclear technologies.
Any move toward nuclear armament would be “unrealistic and unwise,” Lee continued, adding that uranium enrichment for power generation and spent fuel reprocessing are “not directly related to nonproliferation.”
Meanwhile, Trump has praised the agreement as a boost for American shipbuilding, saying it would create jobs in the United States. “South Korea will build the nuclear-powered submarines right here, at the Philly Shipyard in the United States. The U.S. shipbuilding industry will soon regain its vigor,” Trump wrote Oct. 30 on X.
But Lee pushed back on that characterization, saying South Korea — which has one of the world’s most efficient shipbuilding industries — intends to build the submarines domestically using homegrown technology.
“We’re not asking for construction or tech transfer. Just approval for fuel supply,” he said.
Greenland residents and political leaders have publicly rejected suggestions by U.S. President Donald Trump that the Arctic island could become part of the United States. Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has emphasized that its future will be decided by its own people, with officials stating that the island is not for sale and does not wish to become American. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were expected to meet Wednesday at the White House with top diplomats from the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland, its semiautonomous territory, U.S. officials said, as tensions escalate amid President Donald Trump’s threats to “acquire” the island — possibly even by military force.
When asked about his strong personal interest in the world’s largest island, Trump repeatedly cites its rare earth minerals and other natural resources he says are critical to U.S. national security.
“One way or the other, we are going to have Greenland,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. He told the New York Times last week that his desire to take over the territory is “what I feel is psychologically needed for success.”
At the same time, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen argues Trump using the U.S. military to seize Greenland would mark “the end of NATO” because Denmark, a NATO ally, like the U.S., is obligated to come to the island’s defense, as are other European NATO allies.
The European Union’s defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, echoed her grave hypothetical scenario, contending Europe would be forced to confront the U.S. if Greenland’s NATO allies had to protect it from an American takeover attempt.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has downplayed the diplomatic alarms, saying the alliance is “not at all” in crisis and offered assurances it was focused on securing the Arctic from inroads by China and Russia, something Trump has said Greenland, and Denmark, have failed to do.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Wednesday’s meeting was aimed at understanding the U.S. position after weeks of heated rhetoric from Trump and his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who has said the U.S. has a “right” to Greenland and has notably declined to rule out military force to secure it.
“Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given,” Rasmussen said, “was to move this whole discussion, which has not become less tense since we last met, into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things.”
But Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, was more direct ahead of the Washington meeting.
“We are now facing a geopolitical crisis,” he said. “If we have to choose between the U.S. and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark, NATO, and the EU.”
On Tuesday, when was asked about the prime minister’s comments, Trump told reporters, “That’s their problem. I disagree with them. I don’t know who he is. Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him.”
Danes shocked by US rhetoric toward Greenland Danish and Greenlandic officials have said consistently that Greenland is not for sale, even as Rubio appeared to try to temper Trump’s strong rhetoric — and defuse congressional opposition to using force — by floating the idea of the U.S. buying the island, saying Trump has talked about doing so since his first term.
A source familiar with the emerging rift said the policy pronouncement came as a shock, and that the U.S. goal to buy the island was never communicated to Copenhagen — which the source said had never received an offer of any kind.
State Department officials under Rubio had never driven a Greenland policy aimed at acquiring it, the source said, and Copenhagen had been satisfied with bilateral relations through most of 2025.
That changed in December, when Trump appointed Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry to be his special envoy to Greenland, a move designed to steer policy from the White House instead of through the State Department, the source said.
Vance, who traveled to Greenland last March, said last Thursday, “I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously.”
Following some of Trump’s comments that he wanted Greenland to be part of the U.S., which came days after he ordered the American military to attack Venezuela, Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington went to Capitol Hill to voice concerns to lawmakers.
A source familiar with those meetings said there was a tone shift among Republicans, who said they took the president’s threats seriously – not as a laughing matter.
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee emerged from his meeting with the Danish envoys foreclosing any suggestion the future of Greenland was in dispute.
“I think it has been made clear from our Danish friends and our friends in Greenland that that future does not include a negotiation,” Sen. Roger Wicker said.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of American lawmakers was crossing the Atlantic for meetings in Copenhagen at the end of this week.
Arctic security as a central argument Trump has said the U.S. would demand sovereignty over the island for its own national security purposes, suggesting China and Russia could pose a threat to America by taking the island themselves.
“Basically, their defense is two dog sleds,” Trump said of Greenland, where the U.S. has a military base and 150 troops stationed. “In the meantime, you have Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place.”
Danish officials have pointed to new investments there and a willingness to work with NATO and the U.S. on protecting the island. The kingdom announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package last year.
Denmark’s top lawmaker overseeing defense said the threat to the island did not come from the east, but instead from the U.S., its NATO ally across the Atlantic.
“It is my job to be on top of security in Greenland and I get all relevant information about it,” Rasmus Jarlov wrote in a post on X. “I can assure you that your fantasies about a big threat from China and Russia against Greenland are delusional. You are the threat,” he wrote of the U.S. “Not them.”
Provocations from China and Russia have been more concentrated near Alaska than Greenland, said Connor McPartland, who noted China has minimal commercial interests on the island and there’s been no uptick in Russian or Chinese naval activity near the island.
McPartland, who was the deputy director of the Pentagon’s Office for Arctic and Global Security until September, said Trump’s attention to Arctic security comes as a needed focus on an overlooked region.
“Caring about the Arctic is not just caring about the Arctic,” he said. “It has ramifications for our global security, not just in this one little sliver of at the top of the world.”
“In my office, we’d like to say that the Arctic is the front door to the homeland, because most of the really existential threats to the United States that we think about [like a] nuclear missile … are going to fly over the pole to get to the continental United States,” said McPartland, who is now an an assistant director with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative.
“It’s the fastest way to get to the United States, from Russia, from North Korea, from Iran, from China.”
A 1951 treaty between the U.S. and Greenland allows the American military, which has downsized its presence to only one base in Greenland, to upscale its footprint as it wants. During the Cold War, the U.S. had 17 military installations there.
“There aren’t really problems to be solved by the United States controlling Greenland,” said McPartland. “We can build infrastructure, we can station troops, we can operate from Greenland almost at will, as long as we recognize the sovereignty of Denmark and Greenland.”
Prince Andrew, Duke of York arrives for the Requiem Mass service for Katharine, Duchess of Kent at Westminster Cathedral on September 16, 2025, in London, England. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt – Pool/Getty Images)
(THAMES VALLEY, England) — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, is facing new scrutiny over his communications with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police department in Thames Valley, England, confirmed Monday it is assessing new allegations that Mountbatten-Windsor, a brother of Britain’s King Charles III, shared with Epstein confidential reports from a 2010 tour of Southeast Asia he took as Britain’s then-envoy for international trade.
“We can confirm receipt of this report and are assessing the information in line with our established procedures,” a Thames Valley Police spokesperson told ABC News Monday.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Monday the palace will support authorities as needed.
“The King has made clear, in words and through unprecedented actions, his profound concern at allegations which continue to come to light in respect of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s conduct,” the spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “While the specific claims in question are for Mr Mountbatten-Windsor to address, if we are approached by Thames Valley Police we stand ready to support them as you would expect.”
The spokesperson continued, “As was previously stated, Their Majesties’ thoughts and sympathies have been, and remain with, the victims of any and all forms of abuse.”
The new allegations against Andrew come shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice public released 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minor girls.
Mountbatten-Windsor’s name shows up in the documents in his communications with Epstein, including correspondence in 2010 after Epstein concluded a 13-month jail sentence and work release — the result of a 2008 plea bargain with federal prosecutors in Florida.
The documents also show the two men communicated beyond the time that Mountbatten-Windsor said publicly that he had cut ties with Epstein.
ABC News has reached out to a representative for Mountbatten-Windsor for comment about the documents.
The former prince has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with respect to Epstein.
Last year, Charles ordered that Mountbatten-Windsor, a son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, have his “style, titles and honours,” including his “prince” title, removed amid continued fallout from his relationship with Epstein.
ABC News confirmed that Mountbatten-Windsor has also moved out of his longtime royal residence, Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion on the grounds of Windsor Estate, and will now live permanently on the king’s privately owned Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England, over 100 miles away from his previous home.
As the fallout for Mountbatten-Windsor continues, his nephew and heir to the throne, Prince William, and William’s wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, spoke out publicly for the first time Monday about the latest release of Epstein-related documents.
Ahead of William’s arrival in Saudi Arabia for an official visit, a Kensington Palace spokesperson released a statement, saying, “I can confirm The Prince and Princess have been deeply concerned by the continuing revelations. Their thoughts remain focused on the victims.”
Buckingham Palace has so far not commented publicly on the latest Epstein documents.
Charles, as well as his wife Queen Camilla and younger brother Prince Edward, have each faced questions about the Epstein documents from onlookers at public engagements over the past week.
An Israeli flag and flowers are laid outside Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach as people gather to mourn in the wake of a mass shooting on December 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Audrey Richardson/Getty Images)
(SYDNEY) — The 24-year-old man who allegedly opened fire alongside his father on a Jewish gathering at Australia’s Bondi Beach has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and dozens of other offenses, the New South Wales Police said on Wednesday.
Naveed Akram has been charged with 59 offenses, including 40 counts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder, police said in a statement.
Akram, who remains under police guard in a hospital, was expected to appear in court on Wednesday via a video link, police said.
He allegedly opened fire alongside his father, Sajid Akram, 50, at an event at the beach on Sunday, killing fifteen people and injuring another 41, according to officials. The alleged assailant’s father, who was also alleged to have fired on the group, was shot and killed by police, law enforcement said.
The NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team is leading an investigation into the shooting, after Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon declared it to be terror-related.
“Police will allege in court the man engaged in conduct that caused death, serious injury and endangered life to advance a religious cause and cause fear in the community,” the investigators said in announcing the charges. “Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by ISIS, a listed terrorist organisation in Australia.”
Akram has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder, 40 courts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to person with intent to murder, discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, causing a public display of a prohibited terrorist organization’s symbol and placing an explosion in or near a building with intent to cause harm, according to police.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters Tuesday that the father and son traveled to the Philippines in the weeks leading up to the attack and may have been inspired by the ISIS terrorist organization.
“It would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organization, by ISIS,” Albanese told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.
Twenty of those who were injured in the attack were still being treated at hospitals across Sydney, officials said on Wednesday. Two of the injured were police officers. A constable was listed on Wednesday in critical but stable condition, while a probationary constable was listed in stable condition, police said.
“Doctors. Nurses. Surgeons. Radiologists. Pathologists. And so many more. We’ve seen humanity at its very best, as you’ve worked tirelessly to save lives,” Albanese said on Wednesday on social media. “We can’t thank you enough.”
