Denmark pushes back as Trump touts Greenland oil and mineral deals

Recent US-Greenland-Denmark agreement excludes mining or drilling rights while reinforcing Greenland’s sovereignty.

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US President Donald Trump attends the signing ceremony between the United States, Denmark, and Greenland at the UN Headquarters in New York, September 22, 2026 [Mads Claus Rasmussen/EPA]

By Al Jazeera Staff and Reuters

Published On 14 Oct 202614 Oct 2026

Denmark has demanded that US resource exploration in Greenland respect the island’s laws amid President Donald Trump’s claim that oil, gas and mineral extraction will soon begin there.

The Danish Foreign Ministry reaffirmed on Wednesday that last month’s agreement between Denmark, Greenland and the US did not alter the rules for extraction.

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The agreement “does not grant investors from the US any preferential treatment” over investors from other NATO and EU countries when it comes to access to natural resources in Greenland, the ministry said.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Trump called the semi-autonomous Danish territory “our new and beautiful Greenland”.

“Massive Oil, Gas, and Mineral Exploration is getting ready to begin,” he wrote, without providing details.

What the deal covers

Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed the 10-page agreement on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 22, ending months of tensions over Trump’s threats to control Greenland.

The deal allows the US to “modernise and expand” its activities at the Pituffik Space Base, a remote US military installation in northwest Greenland.

It also paved the way for two new military bases and Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defence system, while reaffirming Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination.

It did not allocate any rights for mining or drilling.

Greenland’s ban

Greenland banned uranium mining and all future oil exploration in 2021.

Its government is reviewing whether a Texas firm, Greenland Energy, can use permits that predate the ban.

The company said in August it planned to drill for oil in 2027 at an untested basin on Greenland’s east coast, although it lacked its own permit.

Danish security policy adviser Jacob Kaarsbo said Trump’s comments could signal that his desire to control Greenland remains unchanged.

“It is extremely dangerous to view this agreement between the Trump administration and Denmark as something that has altered Trump’s intentions,” he said.

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US signs ‘tremendous’ Arctic security deal with Denmark, Greenland

Mikkel Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told Al Jazeera that details regarding mining and exploration rights remained unclear and that information coming mostly from the US side should be taken “with a grain of salt”.

Richard Weitz, a fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome, said Trump “backed down and settled for less” than he sought, but still “got pretty much everything he wanted, except formal annexation”.

 

Al Jazeera probe exposes fake viewing numbers for Israeli counter-film

An Al Jazeera data investigation raises questions about claims that an Israeli counter-documentary to NAZA got 40mn views.

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By Mohamed Alzanin

Published On 15 Oct 202615 Oct 2026

An Al Jazeera investigation has exposed holes in claims that an Israeli counter-film to the acclaimed documentary NAZA achieved more than 44 million views. By examining domain registries, web archives, source code, and three independent traffic tools, the investigation exposed the fabricated numbers adopted by official Israeli entities to promote the film.

The original award-winning film, NAZA, draws on testimony from 24 unnamed Israeli military whistleblowers, accusing the army of using artificial intelligence-powered targeting systems to kill numerous civilians in Gaza. The documentary takes its name from the Israeli military term for civilian casualties expected in air strikes. After winning the special jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival and receiving a historic 25-minute standing ovation, the film was scheduled to screen in 56 countries.

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Official backlash

The success of the original documentary triggered a political storm in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that the chief of general staff, the head of the Shin Bet, and the attorney general launch a comprehensive investigation into the participants and prosecute them for information security violations.

The film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, were accused of treason, and Netanyahu and Culture Minister Miki Zohar threatened to revoke their Israeli citizenship.

Network of domains

To counter the film’s global resonance, opponents created a counter-film. On September 16, just days after NAZA premiered, the domain nazadocumentary.com was registered via Cloudflare, with the owner’s details hidden.

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine revealed the site initially disguised itself as the official NAZA website, listing the directors’ names and information on screenings and press. However, it described the film as exposing the systems behind the calculated mass killing of terrorists in Gaza. By September 30, this deceptive page vanished, replaced by a new title, “NAZA: The Real Story”.

The individuals behind the 49-minute counter-film are Ariel Averbuch, Roy Danino, and Hagai Gutman, who claimed the work was self-funded. Later, two more domains, whatisnaza.com and watchnaza.com, were registered to redirect users to the counter-film.

The fake counter

By the morning of October 14, the nazadocumentary.com website’s counter displayed 43,758,421 views, without disclosing the source of the number or how it was calculated.

Public platforms told a drastically different story. The full 49-minute version of the film on its official YouTube channel had not exceeded 130,000 views by the same date. This means the website’s counter displayed roughly 336 times the actual viewership. The YouTube channel had fewer than 2,000 subscribers, and the film’s account on X had only 170 followers.

Independent traffic analysis platforms confirmed the discrepancy. The US-based platform Semrush estimated the site’s total visits by October 8 at about half a million. Israeli-founded Similarweb estimated only 326 visits for September. Furthermore, the film’s domains were absent from the Tranco list of the world’s top one million visited domains.

Data from the web analytics platform Semrush shows that 80 percent of the website’s initial visits originated from Israel. [Semrush]

Semrush analytics reveal that direct links were the primary traffic source for the Israeli counter-film’s website in October. [Semrush]

Discrepancies and code

An examination of the page’s source code revealed that the element displaying the huge number was internally tagged as “visitors” but displayed to users as “views”. The number is delivered directly from the site’s server, making its calculation method invisible from the outside. Upon opening the page, the counter begins at 97 percent of its value and counts up for three seconds, creating the illusion of a live counter.

Additionally, the site collects actual viewing data without publishing it, sending a “watch-tracker” file after about 25 seconds of video playback to identify the viewing session and parts watched, leaving it unknown whether the counter is based on this data.

State promotion

Despite the seemingly fabricated metrics, official Israeli accounts spearheaded the promotion of the counter-film. The Israeli Embassy in Washington promoted it on October 3 on social media.

Tzipi Hotovely, head of Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, awarded the three creators certificates of recognition for countering the original film. Hotovely said the film had garnered tens of millions of views, transforming an unsupported, fabricated number into an official talking point.

This elaborate digital campaign unfolds against the backdrop of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which began in October 2023. Since the conflict started, Israel has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Budget 2027: How much tax could Malaysians save under the proposed new rates? We did the maths for you

Budget 2027: How much tax could Malaysians save under the proposed new rates? We did the maths for you



How much will you be able to save in taxes in Malaysia, based on the proposed new income tax rates and individual tax relief in Budget 2027? — Picture by Miera Zulyana


Summary

• In Budget 2027, Malaysia proposes changes to income tax rates, reducing taxes for certain middle-income brackets while increasing the rate for income above RM1 million.
• These adjustments, combined with a hike in individual tax relief from RM9,000 to RM12,000, are expected to increase taxpayers' disposable incomes by up to RM1,600.
• The initiative aims to uphold the progressive tax system, burdening higher earners more while alleviating tax on middle-income groups.
• All proposed changes are slated to apply from the tax assessment year 2027 onward.

First Published: Friday, 16 Oct 2026 7:00 AM MYT


KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — How much will you be able to save in taxes in Malaysia, based on the proposed new income tax rates and individual tax relief in Budget 2027?

But first, very quickly, take a look at how the government proposes to change the income tax rate from 2027 onwards:


The main changes include reducing the tax rate for the chargeable income band of RM70,001 to RM100,000 from 19 per cent to 18 per cent, and reducing it for the RM100,001 to RM150,000 band from 25 per cent to 24 per cent.



What it means for you in ringgit and sen

To calculate how much tax you will be paying, take your total income in 2027, and then subtract the tax reliefs you will claim, which leaves you with the “chargeable income”.

Since Malaysia uses a progressive tax system, the tax you have to pay will be based on the different tax rates for the different income bands in your overall chargeable income, instead of one flat tax rate for your entire chargeable income.

So based on the proposed new tax rates for 2027, you could save RM300 or RM800 in tax, if your chargeable income is for example RM100,000 or RM150,000.


If your chargeable income is RM2 million, you will have to pay RM19,200 more in taxes, as the higher tax rate of 30 per cent is proposed to kick in earlier when the chargeable income exceeds RM1 million.


On Deloitte Malaysia’s website, its tax leader Sim Kwang Gek in her Budget 2027 commentary noted that the proposed 30 per cent tax rate (starting from above RM1 million instead of only to above RM2 million) appears aimed at partially offsetting the lesser revenue from middle-income taxpayers due to their lower tax rates, while ensuring higher-income taxpayers contribute more to the government’s overall tax revenue.

“The proposal therefore reinforces the progressive nature of Malaysia’s personal income tax system by shifting part of the tax burden towards those with a greater ability to pay,” she said.

Wait, there’s more: Taxpayers could save up to RM1,600 when lower tax rates are combined with higher tax relief

The individual tax relief, which is automatically given to taxpayers, will be raised from RM9,000 to RM12,000 from tax assessment year 2027 onwards. (This is the first time it has been raised since 2010).

That means you will automatically see an additional RM3,000 being deducted from your chargeable income, which ultimately means you will be paying less tax.

Here’s what this means, based on our own calculations using hypothetical figures for illustration purposes and also Deloitte’s examples:

• You will pay RM840 less in tax

(If your chargeable income would have been RM100,000 based on the RM9,000 tax relief figure, but it was pushed down to RM97,000 based on the RM12,000 tax relief figure. And also based on the proposed lower tax rate of 18 per cent for RM70,001-RM100,000 band, as compared to the current higher tax rate of 19 per cent for this band.)

• You will pay RM1,520 less in tax

(If your chargeable income is reduced from RM150,000 to become RM147,000, due to higher tax relief of RM12,000. Lower tax also due to proposed lower tax rates for the chargeable income bands RM70,001-RM100,000 (18 per cent) and RM100,001-RM150,000 (24 per cent), as compared to current tax rates.)

That’s more cash in your pocket, or more disposable income left for you to spend, save or invest.

So this is why Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in his Budget 2027 speech that the combined effect of the higher tax relief and lower income tax rates would give an additional disposable income of up to RM1,600 to approximately five million taxpayers.

Of course, this is before factoring all the other tax reliefs you may be claiming, so the total tax you would be paying could be even lesser.

Do remember that all these proposed new income tax rates and higher tax relief is for tax assessment year 2027 and onwards, which means they are expected to only apply to the income you get in the year 2027 and the years after that.

Mohamad Hasan on haze crisis - How to deal with a Gorilla

Mohamad Hasan says diplomacy first in haze crisis, warns enforcement risks severing Indonesia ties



Firefighters containing a wildfire in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan province, on October 13, 2026. — AFP pic


Summary

• Malaysia will employ diplomatic channels and ASEAN mechanisms to address the transboundary haze issue with Indonesia, prioritizing public health and bilateral relations, according to Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
• The government seeks a comprehensive regional solution and is ready to assist Indonesia in tackling the fires causing the haze.
• Malaysia plans to propose discussions on strengthening regional responses to the haze at upcoming ASEAN meetings, without resorting to legal or diplomatic enforcement measures.

First Published: Friday, 16 Oct 2026 9:17 AM MYT
Last Modified: Friday, 16 Oct 2026 9:19 AM MYT


SEREMBAN, Oct 16 — Malaysia will continue to use diplomatic channels and Asean mechanisms to address the transboundary haze issue with Indonesia through a phased approach that prioritises its people’s interests and health, without jeopardising bilateral relations, said Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

He said discussions between leaders and regional channels are the preferred approaches to addressing sensitive issues involving neighbouring countries, rather than legal enforcement measures or the issuance of diplomatic notes.


“We have not reached that stage yet. It is easy to talk about taking legal enforcement action, but doing so would mean we were prepared to sever relations.


“We have not reached that point, so there is no need to issue a diplomatic note. Such a note is a last resort,” he told reporters after presenting contributions to senior citizens and assistance for further studies in the Rembau parliamentary constituency here yesterday.


He said Malaysia’s position does not mean the government is doing nothing about the persistent haze, but that it is pursuing a more comprehensive approach to finding a joint regional solution while remaining ready to help Indonesia tackle the fires responsible for the haze.

“I have instructed the Foreign Ministry’s secretary-general to take this up, and was informed yesterday that a coordination meeting will be held to discuss how Malaysia can help Indonesia tackle the fires. The Indonesian government is making concerted efforts to put them out, but the task is not easy,” he said.

Mohamad said the Japanese assistance team had also been forced to pull out because of difficulties accessing the fire sites.


“Our helicopters cannot operate either, as the haze is so thick that flying would be dangerous,” he said, adding that visibility is less than 50 metres, making flying extremely dangerous.

In a related development, Mohamad said Malaysia will submit a non-paper at the upcoming Asean Senior Officials’ Meeting and Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting as part of efforts to strengthen regional mechanisms to address transboundary haze.

The move also aims to enable the haze issue to be discussed within the natural disasters framework, he said, paving the way for Asean to strengthen its regional response and cooperation.

The media had previously reported that Malaysia would raise the issue of transboundary haze at the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting ahead of the 49th Asean Summit in Manila, the Philippines, next month, to discuss more effective regional mechanisms to address the problem. — Bernama

Children among multiple victims in Oregon elementary school shooting, reports say

Children among multiple victims in Oregon elementary school shooting, reports say



Sheila Miller, a spokesperson at the Bend Police Department, said officers responded to calls of a gunshot fired into a car, and that then multiple emergency calls came within minutes of an active shooter inside the school. — Pixabay pic


Summary

• A tragic shooting occurred at Silver Rail Elementary School in Oregon, resulting in multiple casualties, including three children and one adult, according to news reports.
• The assailant was reportedly a 16-year-old male who was shot and killed at the scene, although details about who shot him remain unconfirmed.
• The incident prompted a lockdown and a swift response from law enforcement, who later facilitated the safe reunification of students with their families.
• Community members and officials expressed profound grief and condemned the violence, and classes were suspended across the district as the community mourns.

First Published: Friday, 16 Oct 2026 9:00 AM MYT



LOS ANGELES, Oct 16 — A shooting at an elementary school in the northwestern state of Oregon yesterday left “multiple victims,” police said, with several media outlets reporting three children and one adult had been killed.

Police said the assailant had been “shot and killed.”


Sheila Miller, a spokesperson at the Bend Police Department, said officers responded to calls of a gunshot fired into a car, and that then multiple emergency calls came within minutes of an active shooter inside the school.


Officers arrived on the scene within minutes of the 1pm (2000 GMT) call and then quickly received word over the radio that “the shooter had been shot and killed.”


Miller said they did not yet know who shot the suspect, and that it may have been a bystander.

In a later statement police confirmed that “children are among the victims,” and added that at least two people were transported to a local hospital.


“Their status at this time is not known.”

Police had scheduled a second briefing for 5.30pm (0030 GMT) local time.

CNN and CBS News both reported that four people—three children and an adult—were killed, citing law enforcement.

Police had not yet confirmed that information.

CNN said the shooter was a 16-year-old male, a detail police also had yet to confirm.

Miller said between 400 and 450 children attend Silver Rail Elementary, where more than 40 staff work.

After a lockdown Bend-La Pine School District said law enforcement was escorting students in buses to a separate location, where families could reunite with their children.

Parents were anxiously waiting at the site near a church, where parent Drew Sharp told CBS News “I have faith that he’s okay and that he’ll be alright.”

Sharp said his son was a fifth grader, the highest grade in the school, and that children were disembarking from the bus youngest to oldest.

“Which makes sense,” Sharp said, but it’s just more time waiting.”

Cannot keep accepting this

Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said district officials were “stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy.”

“We extend our deepest sympathy to the families and to everyone affected by this violence. No words can adequately express the grief our community is experiencing.”

Today's classes at schools across the district along with activities and athletic events were canceled, Bend-La Pine said in a statement.

The elementary school is approximately 170 miles (270 kilometers) southeast of the city Portland. It serves primary-age students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The United States, where firearms are readily available, is a frequent scene of gun violence, with thousands of people killed every year. It has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among all developed nations.

The deadliest school shooting in US history took place at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when South Korean student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.

There have been more than 360 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.

“Our hearts are with the terrified children and the families anxiously waiting to hear that their loved ones are safe,” GIFFORDS, a gun safety organization, said on X.

“We cannot keep accepting this as a fact of life.” — AFP