BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

Hello, welcome to the programme. This is News Hour from the BBC World Service. My name's Paul Henley. We're coming to you live from London.

First up today, there have been many tests during the first year of Donald Trump's

second presidency of the famous transatlantic relationship. But European leaders always towed the line.

They've tried to manage, placate and charm Mr Trump. Something has now changed. Some senior EU figures

are now openly accusing the US president of blackmail

over his efforts to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland. Here's Germany's finance minister, Lars Klingbile,

speaking this morning alongside his French counterpart.

Germany and France agree that we will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed.

There will be a united, clear response from Europe, and we are now preparing united countermeasures with our European partners.

We are preparing for the event that President Trump maintains his tariff threat.

Washington repeats there will be punishment in the form of trade tariffs from next month

for any country that stands in the way of the president's Greenland ambitions.

The Danish and Norwegian foreign ministers gave a joint news conference yesterday,

affirming their solidarity against a U. a US takeover of Greenland.

That happened as Mr Trump wrote a letter to Norway's Prime Minister,

saying he no longer felt an obligation to think purely of peace

and blamed the Norwegian government for failing to ensure that he got the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the same letter, Mr Trump insists he wants complete and total control of Greenland.

President Macron of France wants the EU to fight back by deploying for the first time

the EU's so-called trade bazooka, a weapon originally designed to combat bullying by a hostile

external country. They were thinking about China, not the US. Kirstama, Britain's prime

...