World
France's Valérie Hayer elected president of liberal group Renew Europe
Valérie Hayer will lead the European Parliament’s faction of liberals and centrists – the Renew Europe group – after receiving the backing of its 101 lawmakers on Thursday.
Hayer, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, becomes the youngest person to lead the liberal group in the European Parliament at 37.
The position was left vacant earlier this month after Stéphane Séjourné was named Minister of Foreign Affairs in Emmanuel Macron’s government. Hayer was the only candidate for the role and was elected by acclamation.
Malik Azmani, a Dutch MEP and the Renew whip, was widely rumoured to be lined up for the role but did not put his name forward. His Dutch liberal VVD party are currently in delicate coalition talks in the Netherlands after Geert Wilders’ far-right populist Party for Freedom’s shock victory in November’s Dutch election.
Hayer takes the reins as Renew Europe, the umbrella group which includes centrist and liberal parties from across the bloc, is slipping in opinion polls ahead of the European elections on 6-9 June.
Current projections foresee the group losing as many as 15 seats, while right-wing groups appear set to gain enough territory to piece together a majority coalition in the parliament for the first time, buoyed by Wilders’ recent triumph in the Netherlands.
“Our family is strongly united and optimistic about the upcoming elections,” Hayer said.
“We are the most recognised political family in the fight against the extremes and the populists,” Hayer said about the far-right surge. “So we will give everything in this fight in the next weeks and we’ll see each other on election night.”
But she also warned that Europe’s “fundamental values” are at stake as Europeans head to the polls, naming far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán as major threats.
“I want to be absolutely clear that our family will not give in to blackmail,” she said in reference to Orbán.
Some liberal lawmakers have accused the Hungarian premier of vetoing the bloc’s financial support to Ukraine in a bid to pressure the EU executive to unblock EU funds for Hungary, frozen due to concerns over the rule of law and democratic backsliding.
Hayer – whose parents are both farmers – also used her first speech as Renew president to vow her group was “attentive” to the concerns of Europe’s agricultural sector.
Farmer protests have spread across the continent in recent weeks over grievances including high energy prices, burdensome environmental policies and the EU’s free trade agreements with third countries.
Brussels’ flagship Green Deal, which aims to significantly cut emissions in a bid to curb climate change, is emerging as one of the main sources of discontent among rural farming communities.
Hayer refrained from confirming whether the Renew group would pitch a “pause” on Green Deal policies in its manifesto ahead of June’s elections, but indicated it would be discussed by her group’s parties.
“That will be the subject of discussions we will all have together,” she said.
World
Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation
new video loaded: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation
By Meg Felling
January 9, 2026
World
Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.
Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.
TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’
Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.
“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.”
Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro.
Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.
A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.
That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.
“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
What Canada, accustomed to extreme winters, can teach Europe
Euronews spoke to Patrick de Bellefeuille, a prominent Canadian weather presenter and climate specialist, on how Europe could benefit from Canada’s long experience with snowstorms. He has been forecasting for MétéoMédia, Canada’s top French-language weather network, since 1988.
-
Detroit, MI7 days ago2 hospitalized after shooting on Lodge Freeway in Detroit
-
Technology4 days agoPower bank feature creep is out of control
-
Dallas, TX5 days agoDefensive coordinator candidates who could improve Cowboys’ brutal secondary in 2026
-
Iowa4 days agoPat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
-
Dallas, TX2 days agoAnti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis
-
Health6 days agoViral New Year reset routine is helping people adopt healthier habits
-
Delaware1 day agoMERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach
-
Nebraska3 days agoOregon State LB transfer Dexter Foster commits to Nebraska