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Titanium Sands Limited (“TSL”) is pleased to announce the progression of the approval processes for its Mannar Heavy Mineral Project in Sri Lanka, following the release by the CEA of the Terms of Reference for the Mannar Island Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

  • Central Environment Authority (CEA) has provided the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the environmental assessment of the Mannar Heavy Mineral Project following site visits and input from 35 regulatory bodies and government departments
  • The ToR contains the requirements for the environmental studies for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
  • On completion of the EIA, the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) will then be in a position to issue an Industrial Mining License (IML) for the Project
  • The ToR outlines environmental, heritage, social and economic requirements necessary for GSMB approval of the IML
  • TSL is focused on delivering economic benefits to the people of Mannar, through job creation and generational wealth, while preserving cultural heritage and protecting the environment

The release of the ToR on 20 March 2025 followed a series of CEA meetings and presentations, culminating in the Scoping Presentation on 22 August 2024 and the Scoping Site Visit on 19 February 2025 by stakeholders in the Project. Submissions made by stakeholders at both the scoping meetings have been included in the ToR which forms the basis of the requirements of the EIA.

TSL’s Managing Director, Dr James Searle said“the release of the ToR is a significant step forward in the regulatory approvals process for this Project. The Project will deliver a high-grade mineral sands operation that will create significant employment opportunities and become a source of wealth for local communities, as well as a significant boost in revenues to the Government of Sri Lanka.

TSL is focused on delivering a low impact environmentally friendly project, with the highest levels of social awareness and inclusion. As heavy minerals have been mined for decades on the Sri Lankan mainland, TSL looks forward to building on the size and quality of the industry making a significant impact to the economic benefits of Sri Lanka”.

Next Steps

ToR

The ToR has been prepared on input from 35 departments and regulatory bodies within Sri Lanka’s Government. TSL’s EIA consultants will be required to address the following as outlined in the ToR:

  • Overview of the proposed project and reasonable alternatives
  • Report on existing environment and surrounds
  • Report on anticipated environmental impacts
  • Prepare an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and monitoring program
  • Assess all aspects of nature and wildlife restrictions
  • Host community consultation and engagement.

The ToR also requires a report on any areas beyond the project site where there is potential for environmental impacts.

Environmental Impact Assessment

The EIA process will commence immediately. The EIA consultants will now be in a position to prepare a draft EIA to address the requirements of the ToR. The EIA will address baseline and impact assessments, mitigation measures and proposed strategies and management plans culminating in an efficient and environmentally successful project. The final EIA submission for GSMB review and approval is expected mid 2025, with support from government agencies and community groups.

As part of the EIA process, community consultation and comment will be undertaken with Mannar communities ensuring any other issues or concerns are addressed in the EIA.

Recent meetings with all of CEA, GSMB and Board of Investment (BoI) in Sri Lanka have led to the understanding that on completion of the EIA, formal IML approval would be granted in a timely manner.

Click here for the full ASX Release

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

Markets surged out of the gate Monday morning, with all three major U.S. indexes notching early gains. But after a bruising two-week rout on Wall Street, the question facing investors is whether stocks can sustain the rebound.

If Monday’s bounce is driven more by short-term bargain hunting than long-term conviction, then certain scans, like StockCharts’ Strong Uptrends to New Highs can help cut through the noise — flagging the outliers breaking key levels and showing enough momentum to possibly hold the upward move.

How I Scanned the Market at the Open

First stop: A high-level sweep of the S&P 500 using MarketCarpets to catch the early movers. From there, I drilled down into the sectors to see where real strength, or weakness, was taking shape.

FIGURE 1. MARKETCARPETS S&P 500 AND SECTOR VIEW. The S&P 500 view gives you a sea of green, but zooming into sectors, Consumer Discretionary (XLY) stands out above the rest.

Consumer Discretionary is outpacing all sectors, a signal worth noting. Instead of looking for leadership, I considered stocks hitting new highs, and then checking to see if any Discretionary names stand out from the pack.

So, next, I ran a Strong Uptrends To New Highs scan (you can find it in your scan library).

FIGURE 2, IMAGE OF THE SCAN AS IT APPEARS IN THE LIBRARY: This is one among numerous bullish scans you can run in StockCharts.

Only four stocks came up as a result. The most recognizable figure is Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI).

Darden Restaurants Stock: A Tasting Menu of Profits or Bloat

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the stock, you know Darden. Here’s a short list: Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Chuy’s, Bahama Breeze, and a few more. Sound familiar?

DRI jumped after reporting strong fiscal Q3 results, with sales and EPS rising. The company also raised its full-year outlook and declared a $1.40 dividend; analysts also gave it an upgrade.

On the technical side of things, DRI also showed up on several other scan engines which appeared in the StockCharts Symbol Summary:

  • Moved Above Upper Bollinger Band
  • Moved Above Upper Price Channel
  • P&F Double Top Breakout
  • Moved Above Upper Keltner Channel
  • New 52-week Highs
  • P&F Spread Triple Top Breakout

Let’s take a look at DRI’s relative performance against its sector (XLY) and the S&P 500 using PerfCharts.

FIGURE 3. PERFCHARTS OF DRI, XLY, AND $SPX.  DRI’s outperformance is very recent, according to this chart.

This chart tells an interesting story. DRI has been the laggard for most of the last 12 months, though it began picking up steam as XLY began outpacing the S&P 500. As tariff fears brought XLY valuations down toward S&P levels, DRI maintained its valuations, and after a two-week dip, shot higher.

Let’s take a longer-term look using a weekly chart.

FIGURE 4. WEEKLY CHART OF DRI. The dotted line shows this week’s breakout to all-time highs.

So, what does this chart tell us relative to the PerfCharts above? First, while DRI has been underperforming XLY and the S&P over the last year (and longer than that if you extend the PerfCharts analysis period), the stock has been chugging along on a slow and steady, albeit volatile, uptrend, staying well above its 200-period simple moving average (SMA).

The StockCharts Technical Rank (SCTR) line shows you that DRI has had periods fluctuating from technical strength to weakness. I consider the 70-line signal, more or less, to be the strength threshold, and right now, the stock is at 92, an extremely bullish level. The question now is whether it can maintain its trajectory and if so, might there be an entry point for those who are bullish on the stock?

For that, let’s shift over to a daily chart.

FIGURE 5. DAILY CHART OF DRI. Watch the momentum and volume.

DRI has been marching steadily upward since the middle of last summer, with its recent push to all-time highs fueled by strong fundamentals. However, in terms of momentum and volume, the Money Flow Index (MFI), which is a volume-driven RSI of sorts, has been declining during DRI’s rise, signaling the potential for a pullback.

Whether DRI can sustain its current momentum remains to be seen. In the meantime, the Ichimoku Cloud can help anticipate and gauge any potential pullback, with a broad support zone forming below. The first key level to watch is $192, while $180 marks a critical support line — a close below that could open the door to further downside.

At the Close

This scan-driven approach began with a broad market view and drilled down to individual stocks that made new highs while others merely rebounded. DRI emerged as a standout: a fundamentally strong name hitting new highs while much of the market remains in recovery mode. Whether it continues to climb or pulls back toward support, tools like the Ichimoku Cloud and volume-based indicators can help you manage the risk and prepare for entry.


Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional.

A light earthquake rattled Beijing overnight, waking residents and sending students rushing from their dorms as videos of shaking living rooms went viral on Chinese social media on Wednesday.

The 4.5-magnitude quake struck a suburb of the nearby port city of Tianjin at 01:21 a.m. local time at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the quake at a magnitude of 4.2 and a depth of 20 kilometers (12.4 miles), placing the epicenter in Yongqing county in neighboring Hebei province.

The epicenter was only 13 kilometers from Beijing at the closest point, the Beijing Earthquake Agency said, with tremors felt strongly in some areas of the Chinese capital.

“It did not cause any structural damage to buildings in the city and will not impact the normal functioning of daily life or production,” the agency said in an statement. The quake would not influence seismic activity in the city, it added.

Beijing, a metropolis of 22 million people, has periodically been affected by tremors from earthquakes nearby. The Beijing plain is a seismically active area and home to more than a dozen seismic fault lines, including one that runs from the city’s Shunyi district in the northeast through downtown.

But for many residents, tremors strong enough to wake them in the middle of the night were a novel experience.

The quake was among the top trending topics on Chinese social media platforms on Wednesday, with many Beijingers posting videos of swaying ceiling lights and sharing their experiences of waking up to their bedrooms quivering.

“I made a quick judgment and decided not to run – because I didn’t feel any tremors, and my phone showed that both the magnitude of the epicenter and the level expected to reach Beijing were low,” she said.

Chirimiri Li, a university student in the capital, took no chances after being woken by a loud ring on her roommate’s cellphone. She said she initially thought the alarm was set for the wrong time and was about to ask her roommate to turn it off.

“That’s when I realized the slight shaking I had felt earlier wasn’t from staying up too late – it was actually an earthquake,” Li said.

“I immediately woke up the rest of our dorm and told everyone there was an earthquake. When we opened the door, we saw people already running outside, so we figured it’s better to be safe than sorry and ran out too. By then, the shaking had already stopped.”

The students stayed in an open area for about half an hour before the crowd gradually started to head back.

“I was a bit scared when I first told everyone about the earthquake, but once we all decided to run out together, we calmed down,” Li said, adding that the only other quake she remembered in Beijing was back when she was in kindergarten.

On Chinese social media, some noted that most users who shared their experiences of running outside were students.

“Nothing happened in my residential complex,” one comment said.

“Office workers have already become lazy and numb — wearing eye masks and earplugs to sleep, completely unaware of anything going on,” said another.

A 4.5-magnitude quake struck Yangliuqing, a suburb of the port city of Tianjin at 01:21 a.m. local time Wednesday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
This post appeared first on cnn.com

Embattled genetic testing company 23andMe, once valued at $6 billion, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Missouri federal court on Sunday night.

The company’s CEO, Anne Wojcicki, has resigned from her role as chief executive effective immediately, though she will remain a member of the board. Joseph Selsavage, 23andMe’s chief financial and accounting officer, will serve as interim CEO, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We have had many successes but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today,” Wojcicki wrote in a post on X early Monday morning. “There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23andMe through an evolving business model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering.”

23andMe declined to comment further on the filing.

Anne Wojcicki speaks at the South by Southwest festival in 2023. Jordan Vonderhaar / Bloomberg via Getty Images file

The former billionaire co-founded 23andMe in 2006, and the company rocketed into the mainstream because of its at-home DNA testing kits that gave customers insight into their family histories and genetic profiles. The five-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company went public in 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, which valued the company at around $3.5 billion at the time.

23andMe’s stock has mostly been in free fall in recent years as the company struggled to generate recurring revenue and stand up viable research and therapeutics businesses. As of Monday morning, the company has a market capitalization of around $25 million.

23andMe in Mountain View, Calif.Smith Collection / Getty Images

Last March, 23andMe’s independent directors formed a special committee to evaluate the company’s potential paths forward. Wojcicki submitted multiple proposals to take the company private, but all were rejected. The special committee “unanimously determined to reject” Wojcicki’s most recent proposal earlier this month.

If 23andMe’s plan to sell its assets through a Chapter 11 plan is approved by the court, the company will “actively solicit qualified bids” over a 45-day process. Wojcicki plans to pursue the company as an independent bidder, she said in her post on Monday.

23andMe has between $100 million and $500 million in estimated assets, as well as between $100 million and $500 million in estimated liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filing.

Beyond its financial woes, privacy concerns around 23andMe’s genetic database have swirled in recent years. In October 2023, hackers accessed the information of nearly 7 million customers. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday issued a consumer alert urging residents to consider deleting their genetic data from 23andMe’s website.

23andMe said there will be no changes to the way that it stores, protects or manages customer data through the sale process, and it will continue operating business as usual.

“As I think about the future, I will continue to tirelessly advocate for customers to have choice and transparency with respect to their personal data, regardless of platform,” Wojcicki said.

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

The full Senate voted Tuesday evening to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

The party-line vote followed approval from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which also voted along party lines to advance Bhattacharya, leading to today’s full Senate vote.  

A physician, Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bhattacharya was a leading voice during the COVID-19 pandemic against lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. 

He was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 by a group of scientists advocating against widespread COVID lockdowns and promoting the efficacy of natural immunity for low-risk individuals as opposed to vaccination.

Bhattacharya was probed by the Senate HELP Committee earlier this month over various issues related to his potential role as NIH director. However, for much of the hearing, he was forced to defend the president’s decision to cut certain research funds at NIH, including a 15% cap on indirect research costs, also known as facilities and administrative costs, dispersed by the NIH.

Bhattacharya would not explicitly say he disagreed with the cuts, or that, if confirmed, he would step in to stop them. Rather, he said he would ‘follow the law,’ while also investigating the effect of the cuts and ensuring every NIH researcher doing work that advances the health outcomes of Americans has the resources necessary.

‘I think transparency regarding indirect costs is absolutely worthwhile. It’s something that universities can fix by working together to make sure that where that money goes is made clear,’ Bhattacharya said of the indirect costs going to universities, hospitals and research clinics from the NIH. 

In addition to addressing questions about the Trump cuts, Bhattacharya also laid out what he called a new, decentralized vision for future research at NIH that he said will be aimed at embracing dissenting ideas and transparency, while focusing on research topics that have the best chance at directly benefiting health outcomes of Americans. Bhattacharya added that he wants to rid the agency’s research portfolio of other ‘frivolous’ efforts that he says do little to directly benefit health outcomes.

‘I think fundamentally what matters is do scientists have an idea that advances the scientific field they’re in?’ Bhattacharya said last week during his confirmation testimony. ‘Do they have an idea that ends up addressing the health needs of Americans?’

Prior to his confirmation, Bhattacharya, alongside several other scientists, including Trump’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, launched a new research journal focused on spurring scientific discourse and combating ‘gatekeeping’ in the medical research community. The journal, the Journal of the Academy of Public Health (JAPH), aims to spur scientific discourse by publishing peer reviews of prominent studies from other journals that do not make their peer reviews publicly available.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Over the weekend it was announced that tariffs will be narrowing and possibly not as widespread as initially thought. Negotiations are continuing in the background and this seems to be allaying market participants’ fears. The market rallied strongly on the news.

Carl and Erin gave you their opinions of whether this rally has staying power. Carl began the program with a look at the current DP Signal Tables. Biases remain very negative but as we often say things get as bad as they’re going to get before they start turning it around.

After looking at the tables, Carl analyzed the market in general and then covered Gold, the Dollar, Yields, Bitcoin and more. Get a sense of market conditions with a review of this section.

The Magnificent Seven were next up on the agenda. Carl reviewed both the daily and weekly charts seeing many new rallies kicking in. Their improvements bode well for the market in general.

Erin took the reins and gave us a complete overview of sector rotation. She took a deep dive in the aggressive sectors with an under the hood view of Consumer Discretionary (XLY), Communication Services (XLC) and Technology (XLK).

Erin concluded the program by looking at viewer symbol requests that included SOFI, RIVN, F and SMCI.

01:18 DP Signal Tables

03:42 Market Overview

13:24 Magnificent Seven

22:05 Sector Rotation

28:31 Symbol Requests

Join us LIVE in the trading at Noon ET on Mondays by registering once here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D6iAp-C1S6SebVpQIYcC6g

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Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The ideas and strategies should never be used without first assessing your own personal and financial situation, or without consulting a financial professional. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.

DecisionPoint is not a registered investment advisor. Investment and trading decisions are solely your responsibility. DecisionPoint newsletters, blogs or website materials should NOT be interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to take any specific action.


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A court ordered the dissolution of the Unification Church in Japan, upholding a government request for a revocation spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The Tokyo District Court’s revocation of the church’s legal status means it will lose its tax-exempt privilege and must liquidate its assets. However, the church can still appeal the decision to higher courts.

The order follows a request by Japan’s Education Ministry in 2023 to dissolve the influential South Korea-based sect, citing manipulative fundraising and recruitment tactics that sowed fear among followers and harmed their families.

The Japanese branch of the church had criticized the request as a serious threat to religious freedom and the human rights of its followers.

The investigation into the 2022 assassination of Abe revealed decades of cozy ties between the South Korea-based church and Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party. The church obtained legal status as a religious organization in Japan in 1968 amid an anti-communist movement supported by Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi.

The man accused of killing Abe resented the church and blamed it for his family’s financial troubles.

The church, which officially calls itself the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, is the first religious group to face a revocation order under Japan’s civil code. Two earlier case involved criminal charges – the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, and Myokakuji group, whose executives were convicted of fraud.

Japan has in place hurdles for restraining religious activities due to lessons from the prewar and wartime oppression of freedom of religion and thought.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Thursday walked back comments he made in January, when he cast doubt on whether useful quantum computers would hit the market in the next 15 years.

At Nvidia’s “Quantum Day” event, part of the company’s annual GTC Conference, Huang admitted that his comments came out wrong.

“This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong,” Huang said.

In January, Huang sent quantum computing stocks reeling when he said 15 years was “on the early side” in considering how long it would be before the technology would be useful. He said at the time that 20 years was a timeframe that “a whole bunch of us would believe.”

In his opening comments on Thursday, Huang drew comparisons between pre-revenue quantum companies and Nvidia’s early days. He said it took over 20 years for Nvidia to build out its software and hardware business.

He also expressed surprise that his comments were able to move markets, and joked he didn’t know that certain quantum computing companies were publicly traded.

“How could a quantum computer company be public?” Huang said.

The event included panels with representatives from 12 quantum companies and startups. It represents a truce of sorts between Nvidia, which makes more traditional computers, and the quantum computing industry. Several quantum execs fired back at Nvidia after Huang’s earlier comments.

A third panel included representatives from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, which are also investing in quantum technology and are among Nvidia’s most important customers.

Nvidia has another reason to embrace quantum. As quantum computers are being built, much of the research on them is done through simulators on powerful computers, like those that Nvidia sells.

It’s also possible that a quantum computer would require a traditional computer to operate it. Nvidia is working to provide the technology and software to integrate graphics processing units (GPUs) and quantum chips.

“Of course, quantum computing has the potential and all of our hopes that it will deliver extraordinary impact,” Huang said on Thursday. “But the technology is insanely complicated.”

Nvidia said this week that it will build a research center in Boston to allow quantum companies to collaborate with researchers at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The center will include several racks of the company’s Blackwell AI servers.

Quantum computing has been a dream of physicists and mathematicians since the 1980s, when California Institute of Technology professor Richard Feynman first proposed the idea behind a quantum computer.

While classical computers use bits that are either 0 or 1, the bits inside a quantum computer — qubits — end up being on or off based on probability. Experts predict that the technology will be able to solve problems with massive amounts of possible solutions, such as deciphering codes, routing deliveries or simulating chemistry or weather.

No quantum computer has yet beat a computer at solving a real, useful problem. But Google claimed late last year that it discovered a way to do error correction.

One question at the panel centered around whether quantum computing might one day threaten companies like Nvidia that make computers based on transistors.

“A long time ago, somebody asked me, ‘So what’s accelerated computing good for?’” Huang said at the panel. Accelerated computing is a phrase he uses to refer to the kind of GPU computers that Nvidia makes.

“I said, a long time ago, because I was wrong, this is going to replace computers,” he said. “This is going to be the way computing is done, and and everything, everything is going to be better. And it turned out I was wrong.”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

President Donald Trump has named Susan Monarez as his nominee for the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), calling the candidate ‘a dedicated public servant.’

Monarez, who is currently acting director of the CDC, replaces Trump’s original nominee for the role, Dr. David Weldon. The Trump administration never gave an official reason why Weldon’s nomination was withdrawn earlier this month, but a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that it would have been a ‘futile effort.’

‘It became clear that the votes weren’t there in the Senate for him to get confirmed,’ the source explained. ‘This would have been a futile effort.’

In a Truth Social post published on Monday, Trump wrote that Monarez ‘brings decades of experience championing Innovation, Transparency, and strong Public Health Systems.’

‘She has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and PostDoctoral training in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine,’ the president wrote. ‘Dr. Monarez understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future.’

Trump also claimed that Americans have ‘lost confidence’ in the CDC, citing ‘political bias and disastrous mismanagement,’ as reasons why.

‘Dr. Monarez will work closely with our GREAT Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr,’ the president continued. ‘Together, they will prioritize Accountability, High Standards, and Disease Prevention to finally address the Chronic Disease Epidemic and, MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!’

According to Monarez’s CDC biography, she previously worked at the White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and on the National Security Council.

‘[She led] efforts to enhance the nation’s biomedical innovation capabilities, including combating antimicrobial resistance, expanding the use of wearables to promote patient health, ensuring personal health data privacy, and improving pandemic preparedness,’ the biography states. ‘She has also held leadership positions at the Department of Homeland Security and has led numerous international cooperative initiatives to promote bilateral and multilateral health innovation research and development.’

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory.

Vance, the wife of US Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week, according to a source familiar with the trip.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday, and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit.

“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.”

Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory, which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US, Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion, even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.

“I think we’re going to get it one way or the other,” Trump said during remarks to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.

Egede, who has pushed for Greenland’s independence from Denmark, said Greenlanders’ effort to be diplomatic just “bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.”

Egede’s ruling left-wing party IAInuit Ataqatigiit was defeated in parliamentary elections earlier this month, but he remains prime minister until a new governing coalition is formed.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who is likely to be Greenland’s next leader after his party won the election, said the timing of the American visit shows “a lack of respect.”

“The fact that the Americans know very well that we are still in a negotiating situation and that the municipal elections have not yet concluded, they still capitalize on the moment to come to Greenland, once again, which shows a lack of respect for the Greenlandic population,” Nielsen told Sermitsiaq.

The White House presented Vance’s visit as a cultural one, and said the second lady “will travel to Greenland with her son and a United States delegation to visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race.”

“Ms. Vance and the delegation are excited to witness this monumental race and celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” the White House statement said.

It is unclear whether the US has ever sent a delegation to the dogsled race, much less a group featuring a second lady.

Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953, when the island achieved greater powers of self-governance. In 2009, it gained more powers pertaining to minerals, policing and courts of law, but Denmark still controls security, defense, foreign and monetary policy. Greenland also benefits from Denmark’s European Union and NATO memberships.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a written comment to Reuters that the visit of the US delegation is “something we take seriously.” She said Denmark wants to cooperate with the US, but that should be based on “the fundamental rules of sovereignty.”

While Greenlandic politicians have repeatedly signaled they are opposed to annexation, they are open to deals with the United States for rare earth mining, expanding tourism, stronger diplomatic connections and other investments.

A poll in January, commissioned by Danish and Greenlandic newspapers, found that 85% of Greenlanders did not want to become part of the US, with nearly half saying Trump’s interest was a threat, Reuters reported.

The president’s son Donald Trump, Jr. made headlines with a visit to Greenland in January.

“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside world. Make Greenland Great Again!” Trump Jr. posted on social media at the time.

This post appeared first on cnn.com