By JOSH BOAK, DAVID KEYTON AND DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press

Greenland and Denmark appeared cautiously relieved early Wednesday by the news that U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife are changing their itinerary for their visit to Greenland Friday, reducing the likelihood that they will cross paths with residents angered by the Trump administration’s attempts to annex the vast Arctic island, a semi-autonomous Danish territory.

The couple will now visit the U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland, instead of Usha Vance’s previously announced solo trip to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut.

Houses covered by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, Friday, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

President Donald Trump irked much of Europe by suggesting that the United States should in some form control the self-governing, mineral-rich territory of Denmark, a U.S. ally and NATO member. As the nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, Greenland has broader strategic value as both China and Russia seek access to its waterways and natural resources.

The vice president’s decision to visit a U.S. military base in Greenland has removed the risk of violating potential diplomatic taboos by sending a delegation to another country without an official invitation. Yet Vance has also criticized long-standing European allies for relying on military support from the United States, openly antagonizing partners in ways that have generated concerns about the reliability of the U.S.

Timing of Vance’s visit stirred concerns

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told Danish broadcaster DR Wednesday that the Vances’ updated travel plans are a good thing. The minister said the change was a deescalation, even as he said the Americans are treating it as the opposite, with Vance suggesting in an online video that global security is at stake.

Anne Merrild, a professor and Arctic expert at Aalborg University in Denmark, said recent anti-U.S. demonstrations in Nuuk might have scared the Trump administration enough to revise the trip to avoid interactions with angry Greenlanders.

Related Articles

US intelligence officials to appear at House hearing after Senate grilling over leaked military plan

Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits the El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

Trump administration says it will pull back billions in COVID funding from local health departments

Republicans look to rein in courts, judges as Trump rails against rulings

Democrats say EPA illegally canceled hundreds of grants aimed at boosting ‘environmental justice’

Still, Merrild said, even a visit to the space base shows that the U.S. administration still considers annexing Greenland to be on the table.

“It’s a signal to the whole world, it’s a strong signal to Denmark, it’s a signal to Greenland,” she said. “And of course it’s also an internal signal to the U.S., that this is something that we’re pursuing.”

Vance is allowed to visit the base, said Marc Jacobsen, a professor at the Royal Danish Defense College, because of a 1951 agreement between Denmark and the U.S. regarding the defense of Greenland.

“What is controversial here is all about the timing,” he said. “Greenland and Denmark have stated very clearly that they don’t want the U.S. to visit right now, when Greenland doesn’t have a government in place,” following the election earlier this month. Coalition negotiations are ongoing.

Ahead of the vice president’s announcement that he would join his wife, discontent from the governments of Greenland and Denmark had been growing sharper, with the Greenland government posting on Facebook Monday night that it had “not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish national broadcasts Tuesday that the visit was “unacceptable pressure.”

Greenland was ignored for too long, Vance says

Usha Vance’s office said Sunday that she would depart Thursday for Greenland and return Saturday. She and one of the couple’s three children had planned to visit historic sites and learn about Greenland’s culture, but her husband’s participation has reoriented the trip around national security, her office said.

Vance said leaders in Denmark and North America had “ignored” Greenland for “far too long.”

During his first term, Trump floated the idea of purchasing the world’s largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland also have firmly rejected Trump’s plans.

Dwayne Ryan Menezes, founder and managing director of the Polar Research & Policy Initiative, said that the Trump administration’s “intimidation” of Greenland could backfire.

Menezes said if Trump was “smart enough” to understand Greenland’s strategic importance, then he should also be “smart enough to know there is no greater way to weaken America’s hand and hurt its long-term interests than turning its back on its allies, the principal asymmetrical advantage it enjoys over its adversaries.”

Trump’s return to the White House has included a desire for territorial expansion, as he seeks to add Canada as a 51st state and resume U.S. control of the Panama Canal. He has also indicated that U.S. interests could take over the land in the war-torn Gaza Strip and convert it into a luxury outpost, displacing up to 2 million Palestinians.

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Dollar Tree is selling Family Dollar to a pair of private equity firms for $1 billion after a decade of trying to make its acquisition of the bargain chain fit.

Dollar Tree Inc. acquired Family Dollar for more than $8 billion in 2015 after a bidding war with rival Dollar General.

Dollar Tree last year announced that it planned to close hundreds of Family Dollar stores. The company also said at the time that it would record a $950 million impairment against the trade name Family Dollar, on top of a $1.07 billion goodwill charge.

Dollar Tree had been scouting options for Family Dollar for a while and said Wednesday that the sale to Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management will allow it to focus on its core business.

“This is a major milestone in our multi-year transformation journey to help us fully achieve our potential,” said Mike Creedon, who was made permanent chief executive officer of Dollar Tree late last year.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said that after acquiring the rival chain, Dollar Tree struggled with supply chain issues, poor store locations and other operational difficulties.

“Basically, Dollar Tree bit off far more than it could chew,” he said.

But Dollar Tree had little room to maneuver, particularly in the months leading up to the sale. Americans have tightened their spending, even at bargain chains, as consumer confidence in the economy slides.

Family Dollar, which moved its headquarters from North Carolina to Chesapeake, Virginia, after the sale, will maintain its headquarters in Virginia.

“This transaction presented a unique opportunity to play a key role in reinvigorating an iconic business,” Jonathan Duskin, CEO and Partner of Macellum, said.

Saunders said Brigade and Macellum with have several issues to fix at Family Dollar, including pricing that isn’t as sharp as many of its rivals and a customer base that isn’t as loyal.

The deal is expected to close later in the second quarter.

Shares of Dollar Tree rose 5% before the opening bell.

By DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s top intelligence officials will brief House lawmakers Wednesday on global threats facing the U.S. — though they’ll likely be questioned again over their use of a group text to discuss plans for military strikes in Yemen.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel are among those who were asked to testify before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its annual review of threats facing the U.S.

Related Articles

Republicans look to rein in courts, judges as Trump rails against rulings

Democrats say EPA illegally canceled hundreds of grants aimed at boosting ‘environmental justice’

Newly unsealed memo sheds light on Justice Department’s rush to drop NYC mayor’s corruption case

Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship

President Trump pardons former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer

At a similar hearing on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard briefed lawmakers on her office’s threat assessment, noting that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea continue to pose security challenges to the U.S., as do drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

The presentations from top Trump appointees reflect Trump’s foreign policy priorities, including a focus on combating the flow of fentanyl, illegal immigration and human trafficking, and are taking place as Trump attempts to work out a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine three years after Russia’s invasion.

Tuesday’s hearing was dominated by questions about Ratcliffe and Gabbard’s participation in a group chat on Signal in which they discussed plans to strike Houthi rebels in Yemen. The group included a journalist, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

Gabbard and Ratcliffe have said no classified information was included in the messages, but Democrats have decried the use of the messaging app, saying that any release of information about timetables, weapons or military activities could have put U.S. servicemembers at risk. At Tuesday’s hearing they asked Patel, who was not a participant in the text chain, if he would investigate. It’s likely House Democrats will press Patel on the same question Wednesday.

The National Security Council has said it will investigate the matter, which Trump on Tuesday downplayed as a “glitch.” Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday will visit the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have been held since their removal from the U.S.

Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”

Since taking office, Noem has often been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown. She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.

Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She’ll also travel to Colombia and Mexico.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak during a tour, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Kodiak, Alaska. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In El Salvador, she’ll visit the prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, and meet with President Nayib Bukele, according to a Homeland Security statement.

The Venezuelans were removed from the U.S. this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the U.S. was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.

A central outstanding question about the deportees’ status is when and how they could ever be released from the prison, as they are not serving sentences. They no longer appear in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator and have not appeared before a judge in El Salvador. The U.S. government has acknowledged that many do not have criminal records.

Flights were in the air March 15 when a federal judge issued a verbal order temporarily barring the deportations and ordered planes to return to the U.S.

The Trump administration has argued that the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the U.S.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that about 261 people were deported on the flights, including 137 under the Alien Enemies Act.

Related Articles

Republicans look to rein in courts, judges as Trump rails against rulings

Democrats say EPA illegally canceled hundreds of grants aimed at boosting ‘environmental justice’

Newly unsealed memo sheds light on Justice Department’s rush to drop NYC mayor’s corruption case

Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections, including requiring proof of citizenship

President Trump pardons former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer

Bukele opened the prison in 2023 as he made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.

Prisoners can’t have visitors. There are no workshops or educational programs.

El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have consular support from their government. On Monday, lawyers in El Salvador hired by the Venezuelan government said they had filed habeas corpus petitions seeking the Venezuelans’ release.

Video released by El Salvador’s government after the deportees’ arrival showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down.

They were later shown at the prison kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.

For three years, El Salvador has been operating under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights as Bukele wages an all-out assault on the country’s powerful street gangs. During that time, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties and jailed, often without due process.

Bukele offered to hold U.S. deportees in the prison when U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited in February.

Associated Press journalist Marcos Alemán in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.