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By Ivana Kottasová, Christian Edwards, CNN (CNN) — US President Donald Trump told Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre that he no longer feels bound “to think purely of Peace” because the Norwegian Nobel Committee did not award him the Nobel Peace Prize. In an extraordinary message to Støre, first reported by PBS and confirmed by the Norwegian prime minister, Trump linked his repeated threats to seize control of Greenland to the fact that he has not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he has long coveted. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote. Støre confirmed he received the message from Trump, saying it came shortly after he and Finnish President Alexander Stubb “conveyed our opposition to his announced tariff increases against Norway, Finland and select other countries.” He said in a statement that he has “clearly explained, including to president Trump what is well known, the (Nobel Peace) prize is awarded by an independent Nobel Committee and not the Norwegian Government.” Trump’s missive came after he threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on goods from several European countries over their opposition to his plan to acquire Greenland, an autonomous part of Denmark, a fellow NATO member, from February 1. Trump’s threats have rattled NATO as the alliance based on collective defense confronts the prospect that one member might use force against another. “Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also,” Trump said in his message. Greenland, a vast Arctic island, was incorporated into Denmark in 1953 as part of global decolonization movements in the wake of World War II. It is self-governing, but its defense, security and monetary policy are still controlled by Denmark. “I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump said in his note to Støre. Although the US has been the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security for decades, and spent far more on defense in that period than any other NATO member, many NATO allies participated in recent US wars. Forty-three Danes died fighting in Afghanistan following the 2001 invasion. At a news conference in London, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stressed that Denmark is a “close ally” of the United Kingdom and the US, and “a proud NATO member that has stood shoulder to shoulder with us, including at real human cost.” The Nobel Committee awarded the 2025 peace prize to María Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s democratic opposition, who last week gifted her medal to Trump when the pair met in Washington. Trump said it was “a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.” The Nobel Committee since, however, clarified that while the physical medal may change hands, the honor itself cannot be transferred. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. CNN’s Issy Ronald contributed reporting. The post Trump ties failure to win Nobel Peace Prize to efforts to acquire Greenland appeared first on KRDO.

By Ivana Kottasová, Anna Chernova, CNN (CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” the committee that will oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, his spokesman said on Monday. Speaking to reporters during a regular media briefing, Dmitry Peskov said: “President Putin also received through diplomatic channels an invitation to join this Board of Peace.” He said the Kremlin is now reviewing the invitation and “hoping to get more details from the US side.” CNN has asked the White House for a comment. Later on Monday, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said President Alexander Lukashenko also received an invitation to join the board. The ministry’s press service said Minsk “highly appreciates that the American side sees Belarus – and this is clearly stated in the text of the address – as a country ready to take on the noble responsibility of building a lasting peace and leading by example, investing in a secure and prosperous future for future generations.” Lukashenko is Putin’s closest ally and has been described as Europe’s last dictator. The establishment of the board, chaired by Trump, is a key step in the United Nations-backed American plan to demilitarize and rebuild Gaza, which was ravaged by two years of war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. However, signs of discontent have already started to appear. Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee issued a statement on Sunday warning that the body proposed by Trump “would have a mandate wider than the implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan.” “The United Nations has a unique mandate to maintain international peace and security, and the legitimacy to bring nations together to find common solutions to shared challenges. While it may be imperfect, the UN and the primacy of international law is more important now than ever,” she said in a statement. ‘Greatest Board ever’ Described by Trump as the “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled,” the committee will include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump has also invited Israel to join the board as a founding member state, a senior Israeli official told CNN on Monday. According to the official, the invitation was extended to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or another Israeli representative on his behalf. It is unclear how many invitations have been sent out – the information about which countries and global leaders have been asked to join has been coming from the individual states, rather than the White House. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Argentinian President Javier Milei and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also received invitations to join, according to statements from them or their offices. The US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, said India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also invited to join. Some of the leaders, including Orbán, have shared the invitation letters publicly. They show that, while Trump addressed the letters personally to the leaders, he was inviting their country to join the board as a “founding state.” Members of the committee will receive a permanent seat if they pay $1 billion, according to a US official, who told CNN that, while there was no requirement to contribute funds to the board, members who do not make the $1 billion payment will have a three-year term. All funds raised will go toward rebuilding Gaza, the official said, adding that “there will not be exorbitant salaries and massive administrative bloat that plagues many other international organizations.” Return to global stage Putin’s appointment to the board would mark an extraordinary return to the global stage for the Russian leader, who has been mostly shunned from international cooperation projects since he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Kremlin’s involvement in the conflict…

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN (CNN) — A number of forces on the left questioned Josh Shapiro’s ties to Israel during Kamala Harris’ rushed running mate selection process in 2024. In his new memoir out next week, the Pennsylvania governor says the former vice president and her vetting team were among them. So much so, Shapiro writes in a copy obtained by CNN, that Dana Remus, a former White House counsel under President Joe Biden who became a senior member of Harris’ VP vetting team, asked him, “Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?” “Was she kidding?” Shapiro writes. “I told her how offensive the question was.” “‘Well, we have to ask,’” Remus, a former White House counsel under President Joe Biden, said, according to his book. “‘We just wanted to check.’ She added: ‘Have you ever communicated with an undercover agent of Israel?’” Shapiro’s anger was clearly rising. “If they were undercover, I responded, how the hell would I know?” he wrote. “I calmly answered her questions. Remus was just doing her job. I get it. But the fact that she asked, or was told to ask that question by someone else, said a lot about people around the VP.” Shapiro, an observant Jew and a proud Zionist, was critical of some protests proliferating on college campuses as tensions rose following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the Israeli military’s response, warning that some of those demonstrations seemed to tip into antisemitism. Despite his condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, some voices on the left called him “Genocide Josh,” which they didn’t do with other politicians. Shapiro spent time in high school working on an Israeli kibbutz and as a volunteer on an Israeli army base. He also wrote an op-ed in college saying Palestinians “do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States,” and had a brief stint in the Israeli Embassy’s public affairs division at the beginning of his career. His staff has previously downplayed the volunteer work in Israel and work at the embassy, and he has said that his writing as college student does not reflect his current views. Harris had her own questions in their interview at the Naval Observatory, which Shapiro writes that he was heading to when he got the call. He writes that she asked him whether he would apologize for statements he made condemning the campus protests at the University of Pennsylvania. “‘No,’ I said flatly,” he writes. But he says he told her he felt he could still make the case for her, even in places like Dearborn, Michigan, where there is a sizable Arab American population and where the state’s “Uncommitted” movement during the 2024 Democratic primary took off. “She heard me and expressed how bad she felt that I had been getting hammered with the antisemitic attacks that she had witnessed throughout the process,” Shapiro writes. Days after Harris became the nominee in 2024, a top aide opted not to answer directly when asked whether the vice president still considered herself a Zionist. The New York Times first reported on the details from the memoir. Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder pointed out that this material is only one chapter of a larger memoir prompted by the firebomb attack on the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg last year on the first night of Passover. ​​“Gov. Shapiro wrote a very personal book about his faith, his family, and the people of Pennsylvania he has learned from and fought for throughout his life in public service,” Bonder said Sunday. A spokesperson for Harris did not respond when asked for comment. Remus could not be reached for comment. Deborah Lipstadt, the former US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during the Biden administration, wrote in a social media post that the more she reads about Shapiro’s “treatment in the vetting process, the more disturbed (I) become.” “The questions to him, I repeat, are why they needed a…

By Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — Speaker Mike Johnson is actively working to unite his conference behind another Republican-only policy bill ahead of the midterms, with members clamoring for more wins and eager not waste what they fear could be the waning days of their majority. Despite facing one of the smallest House margins in history, Johnson has outlined an extraordinarily aggressive legislative plan for 2026 that, if successful, Republicans believe could help preserve their fragile hold on the chamber next year — and potentially protect the speaker’s own political survival. And the Louisiana Republican is moving quickly, telling CNN he held a “productive” meeting last week with key chairmen and has spoken with Senate GOP Leader John Thune in recent days. “We want to use all the tools that we have in the arsenal. And I’m very bullish, very optimistic. I think we can do something,” he said last week, discussing the prospect of Republicans passing a party-line package under a process known as reconciliation. Johnson has instructed chairmen to come up with a menu of ideas they’d like to see in another GOP economic bill. But whether the bill is focused on health care, tax policy or further deficit reduction is still not clear. And it will be difficult for Johnson to start cobbling together a new bill when he is still constantly quelling internal fights about GOP priorities on the floor and begging members to show up for votes with no room to spare in their narrow margin. Last week alone, GOP leaders lost a floor vote they didn’t even realize was in trouble and were forced to pull several other measures from their agenda. Johnson’s agenda 2.0 plan is a long-shot effort that comes with no shortage of potential downsides for him and for the party. Trying and failing — like Republicans did with their Obamacare repeal effort in 2017 ahead of Trump’s last midterm — could highlight GOP ineptitude just months before the election. And conservatives are already telegraphing they want to see significant cuts to a federal budget that moderates are struggling to defend on the campaign trail. “You never know ‘til you try,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said. “If you spend half your time in Congress and half your time running … that’s stupid.” Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio is another fiscal hawk with big dreams of enacting across-government cuts in the style of the Department of Government Efficiency in the next bill. But he also offered a reality check: “We barely had the votes to defund NPR. I don’t know how aggressively we’ll be able to reform some of the things.” Many Republicans agree that choosing not to use a legislative tool that allows them to pass conservative bills with just their own party’s votes would be a major waste in a GOP-controlled Congress. But that is where the agreement ends. GOP lawmakers acknowledge it will be much more difficult to deliver another package after Congress passed Trump’s tax break, spending cuts and immigration bill last year. To start, there is no clear idea of what the bill would include. One major faction of House Republicans, known as the Republican Study Committee, is pushing for housing policies and an expansion of health care savings, which they say would also cut $1 trillion from the federal deficit. They even have a name: “Making the American Dream Affordable Again.” “I think we have some really good proposals that leadership is looking at, that’s in line with what the president wants to do, some creative ideas,” the group’s chairman, Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, told CNN, saying the ideas have vast support among the American people, not just GOP voters. “I think we’re going to get some Democrats eventually to say, yeah, those are good ideas. … There’s a lot of legislative proposals that truly are 80-20 issues.” Other conservatives are pushing their Senate colleagues to relitigate a series of messy fights they already lost on pieces of the first bill that were deemed out of…

By John King, CNN Kellerton, Iowa (CNN) — Shanen Ebersole is smiling, keeping an eye on her cows as they graze. Calving season is soon, so election season will have to wait. “We’ll walk them the mile and a half home in a month or so,” Ebersole tells a visitor. “Then they will calve in a pasture just like this. So, these are all our old mama girls.” As we walk, the cows give an occasional gaze but mostly go about their business — calmly, with occasional bursts of playfulness. “I wish Washington could get along like cows,” Ebersole said. “They need to find a way to get along for us, because that’s what we the taxpayers pay them to do.” Ebersole was a Nikki Haley supporter when we first met early in the 2024 election cycle. She voted for Donald Trump in the end, believing his policies were better for her family farm. Now, though, there are signs of Trump exhaustion as she begins to think about 2026 races. “We have choices,” Ebersole said. “We can say calm down. We can say talk nice.” Trump has been back in the White House for a year now, and his standing — more than anything else — will define the mood and the direction of the midterm campaign. Ebersole scores his performance at a 3 out of 5. The economy feels a little better to her, and illegal border crossings are down. But she recoiled at Trump’s plan to increase low-tariff beef imports from Argentina, finding it to be anything but “America First.” Now, the president’s talk of somehow taking control of Greenland feels like another detour from his campaign agenda. “I don’t agree with that in any way, shape or form,” Ebersole said. “We need to take care of the 50 states that we have.” The Ebersole Cattle Farm is in Kellerton, a rural Iowa town close to the Missouri border. Ringgold County is ruby-red when you look at election results here the past few decades; it’s a place Republicans count on especially in big years like this. Iowa will pick a new governor in 2026, plus a new US senator. And Kellerton sits in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, a Democratic target as the party tries to capture the House majority in this year’s midterm elections. Ebersole has a dim view of Washington. She favors term limits and says that in her view, members of Congress are obsessed with fundraising and power and forget family farmers like her; forget trying to find compromise on issues such as health care. She includes her own representative, two-term GOP Rep. Zach Nunn, in that critique. “We want change,” she said. “We need more freshness.” Ebersole, of course, is just one voter. But her sentiment is potentially instructive. Democrats would have to flip just a few seats to take the House majority, but they would need gains in red states such as Iowa to build a bit of a cushion. To get there would likely require winning over a fair amount of reluctant Trump 2024 voters who see divided government as a way to check the Trump traits they don’t like. “I think you have to vote for the person who best meets your goals,” Ebersole said. “Every time we are met with a new election cycle, I am open-minded.” Recent history here favors the GOP. Trump carried Iowa in all three of his White House runs, with a bigger margin each time. The last Democratic governor finished his term in January 2011. The last Democratic US senator left office in January 2015. All four House seats are now held by Republicans, but at least two are potentially competitive. The 2024 GOP margin in the 3rd Congressional Districts was just shy of 16,000 votes; in the 1st Congressional District, the Republican incumbent won by just 799 votes. A Trump convert says, ‘I got what I voted for’ Betsy Sarcone lives 70 miles north of the Ebersole farm, in the fast-growing Des Moines suburbs. This is our sixth visit, dating to August 2023 when we began our “All Over the Map” project to track campaigns and big policy debates through the eyes and experiences of everyday voters. “I’m happy” is Sarcone’s take on Trump’s first year back in power. “I…