Análisis por Stephen Collinson, CNN

En palabras del propio Donald Trump: “¡Es un mundo loco!”

El extraordinario —y absolutamente agotador— control del presidente de EE.UU. sobre la psiquis mundial se intensificó este miércoles.

La tensión se apoderó de Washington, se extendió al otro lado del Atlántico y cubrió Medio Oriente. Todos esperaban el fuego del cielo.

¿Atacaría Trump a Irán para cumplir su promesa de que “la ayuda está en camino” después de la brutal represión de los manifestantes?

¿O está tomando una salida basándose en garantías aparentes y cuestionables de una fuente en Irán de que las ejecuciones cesarían?

“Vamos a observar y ver cuál es el proceso”, declaró a los periodistas.

Todo el mundo está esperando ver qué hace Trump a continuación.

Y le encanta, mientras se sienta detrás del escritorio de la Oficina Oval, lanzando amenazas, subterfugios e insultos como un director de orquesta, pero en lugar de conjurar armonía provoca el caos mundial.

Cuando se le preguntó cómo podía confiar en las promesas de un régimen iraní que acaba de imponer una brutal represión y mató al menos a varios miles de sus propios ciudadanos después de décadas de severo autoritarismo, Trump dejó a los estadounidenses con una de sus clásicas situaciones de suspenso.

“Lo averiguaremos”, comentó a los periodistas. “Lo averiguaré después de esto. Ustedes lo descubrirán, pero nos lo han dicho de buena fuente, y espero que sea cierto. Quién sabe, ¿verdad? Quién sabe. ¡Qué locura!”.

Una de las cosas más locas fue que Trump estaba hablando sobre un grave tema de guerra y paz durante un evento en la Oficina Oval promocionando la leche entera que las escuelas podrán servir a los niños bajo una ley recientemente aprobada.

“¿Recuerdan aquellos tiempos, cuando éramos niños?”, preguntó Trump a la prensa, ansioso por saber si estaba a punto de lanzar un ataque contra Irán.

En una digresión que te deja sin palabras, el presidente continuó: “Todos compartimos una botella. Hoy en día, no solemos hacerlo. Pero si quieres, si confías en la persona que bebe, aquí la tienes, es tuya. ¿De acuerdo?”.

“Está semifresca, tiene cinco o seis días”, siguió el presidente refiriéndose a una botella de leche que estaba sobre el escritorio Resolute.

Como suele ocurrir durante la era Trump, fue un día surrealista en Washington.

La Casa Blanca recibió a una delegación de Groenlandia y Dinamarca tras la demanda de Trump de poseer la isla más grande del mundo.

Vale la pena subrayar lo extraña que fue esta visita.

Los funcionarios estaban en Washington para insistir en que el territorio danés semiautónomo no estaba a la venta y que Trump no debería intentar comprarlo o invadirlo.

Durante el primer mandato de Trump, la idea de intentar arrebatar Groenlandia para pasar a la historia como uno de los presidentes que honraron el “destino manifiesto” de Estados Unidos con nuevos territorios se consideraba una broma.

Pero en su segundo mandato, un comandante en jefe indomable ha sido tomado muy en serio por los líderes europeos, a quienes su estrategia de seguridad nacional ha prometido reemplazar con populistas de derecha.

El enfrentamiento es aún más extraño porqu

By Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — Several NATO countries are deploying small numbers of military personnel to Greenland to participate in joint exercises with Denmark as US President Donald Trump ramps up his threats to forcibly annex the Arctic island.

Trump’s declarations have thrown Europe’s decades-old, US-led security alliance into crisis, by raising the prospect of NATO’s largest and most powerful member annexing the territory of another.

Denmark, which is responsible for Greenland’s defense, has warned an attack on Greenland would all but end NATO, and announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its military presence “in close cooperation with NATO allies.”

Germany, Sweden, France and Norway have all since confirmed they are sending military personnel to Greenland this week for a joint exercise with Danish troops. Canada and France have also said they plan to open consulates in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, in the coming weeks.

It is not unusual for NATO countries to send troops to train in other NATO countries, and there has been a years-long push by allies, including the US, to ramp up joint exercises in the Arctic Circle. The US has about 150 troops stationed at its Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland.

But both the timing and symbolism of the latest announcements by European nations are a significant show of solidarity at a time of unprecedented tension within NATO.

Trump has been extremely vocal about his ambitions to seize control of the world’s largest island, including by force if necessary, saying he was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” during a press conference with oil executives on Friday.

In a statement Wednesday, the German Defense Ministry said it is sending a “reconnaissance team” of 13 military personnel to Greenland Thursday for “an exploration mission” alongside other partner nations, at Denmark’s invitation.

Sweden also sent an unspecified number of troops to Greenland Wednesday at Denmark’s request, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced on X. The Swedish officers will be part of a group of troops from other allied countries who will together prepare for an upcoming exercise called Operation Arctic Endurance, he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France will also participate in Operation Arctic Endurance. “The first French military units are already on their way. Others will follow,” he wrote on X.

Norway is also sending two defense personnel to Greenland, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Ministry of Defense confirmed to CNN.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a longstanding military alliance between 30 European states as well as the US and Canada.

It is built on the principle that an attack on any one member must be considered an attack on them all, which is what makes US threats against Greenland – which is part of NATO by its association with Denmark – so extraordinary.

The Danish defense minister called a potential US attack on Greenland “completely hypothetical.”

It is “unlikely that a NATO nation would attack another NATO country,” Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

Meetings with Trump officials

News of European deployments to Greenland came as Danish and Greenlandic officials met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance Wednesday, hours after Trump said on Truth Social “anything less” than US control of Greenl

By Jackie Wattles, CNN

(CNN) — Four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule are slated to splash down early Thursday in the Pacific Ocean, ending a weeklong effort to get an unnamed crew member home to evaluate a medical issue.

The crew left the International Space Station at 5:20 p.m. ET Wednesday aboard the spacecraft and are on a 10-hour journey, gradually lowering in altitude and preparing to reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

The astronauts, part of a mission called Crew-11, are scheduled to splash down around 3:40 a.m ET Thursday off the coast of California.

NASA made the decision to bring the crew home last week after it announced it was canceling a planned spacewalk due to a medical issue.

“This is not an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations,” said Dr. James Polk, chief health and medical officer at NASA headquarters, during a January 8 news conference.

Rather, the problem relates to having a “medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity,” Polk added, noting that NASA wanted to bring the astronaut home to make use of diagnostic tools. While the International Space Station does have a suite of medical equipment, it does not have all the tools a typical emergency room would have.

NASA’s Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman would have carried out the spacewalk that was canceled — both are members of the Crew-11 team. The duo is returning home alongside crewmates Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos.

NASA has not disclosed which crew member has the medical issue, nor has the agency revealed details about the nature of that crewmate’s condition other than to say the person is in stable condition and would not require special arrangements for the return trip. Typically, medical information is kept confidential to ensure an astronaut’s privacy.

Returning to Earth

The journey home can take a toll on astronauts’ bodies; the g-forces experienced as the Crew Dragon capsule dives back toward Earth can reach more than five times the force of Earth’s gravity.

The mission’s final stretch is also among the most dangerous as the Crew Dragon capsule reenters the atmosphere at more than 22 times the speed of sound. The process can heat the exterior of the returning spacecraft to more than 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,926 degrees Celsius), creating a buildup of plasma and triggering a communication blackout.

After the capsule splashes down in the Pacific, recovery ships will be waiting nearby to bring it out of the water. Once on board, the crew members will likely exit their capsule aboard medical stretchers — a common practice for transporting astronauts when they return to Earth and begin readjusting to gravity. Using a stretcher is not an indicator of whether an astronaut is experiencing a serious medical condition.

But NASA said the affected astronaut will be undergoing a medical workup upon the return to Earth.

Who is left on board the space station?

Crew-11 originally had been slated to depart the space station in mid-February, only after a replacement team — the Crew-12 astronauts — would have arrived to take over operations.

The Crew-11 astronauts’ premature departure leaves the football field-size space station with three staff members: two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who traveled to the orbiting laboratory as part of a rideshare agreement with Russia.

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By Danya Gainor, CNN

(CNN) — A person was shot in the leg by a federal law enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening after resisting arrest and “violently assaulting” an officer, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, as the city is still reeling in the aftermath of last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.

The person was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the city of Minneapolis said.

Officers were conducting a “targeted” traffic stop at about 6:50 p.m. local time involving a Venezuelan man who DHS said is in the United States illegally. The man fled the scene in his vehicle, crashed into a parked car and then ran away on foot, DHS said.

“The law enforcement officer caught up to the subject on foot and attempted to apprehend him when the subject began to resist and violently assault the officer,” the post said.

During the struggle, DHS said two people came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the officer using a snow shovel and a broom handle.

After the suspect got loose and joined the attack, the officer fired “defensive shots,” DHS said, striking the initial subject in the leg. The three individuals then ran back into the apartment building, barricading themselves inside, the agency said.

The officer and initial subject are both in the hospital, and the two other individuals are in custody, DHS said. The statement did not detail how their detention unfolded.

Minneapolis leaders are asking the city — once again rocked by violence involving federal law enforcement — to remain calm.

“The City of Minneapolis again demands that ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand by our immigrant and refugee communities – know that you have our full support,” the city’s post said.

Federal agents launched an array of less lethal munitions to clear the crowd that gathered at the scene, including pepper balls and what sounded like flash bangs. At one point, it appeared a member of the crowd threw one of the gas canisters back at agents, who then kicked it away.

Smoke hung in the air as officers deployed multiple tear gas canisters, one striking CNN correspondent Whitney Wild.

A growing crowd had followed federal agents through the neighborhood, with a line of officers forming a wall behind yellow police tape to block off the road that sits about 10 minutes from downtown Minneapolis.

A CNN team on the ground witnessed a convoy of officers from the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota State Patrol also arriving. While local law enforcement officers have not actively taken part in immigration enforcement operations in the city, they have often been dispatched to the scenes of critical incidents and demonstrations to ensure public safety.

“We are aware of reports of a shooting involving federal law enforcement in North Minneapolis. We are working to confirm additional details,” a city spokesperson said in an email to CNN Wednesday eve

The post Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: What Happens After an ICE Arrest appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.