What happened
Andy Burnham has welcomed an agreement between Denmark and the US intended to increase security cooperation around Greenland and the wider Arctic. Trump says the agreement gives Washington permanent control over Greenland’s security, although its full terms have not been published.

Burnham’s comments come ahead of his expected first meeting with Trump at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week.

Who said what
Burnham and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said they “welcomed the US’s commitment to the region” in a call yesterday morning.

Trump had “tried for months to purchase or annex the semi-autonomous territory, arguing that it was vulnerable to adversaries, including Russia and China”, said Henry Moore on the BBC. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called the new agreement a “pretend” victory, arguing that it largely replicated existing arrangements.

What next?
The agreement is expected to be signed during the UNGA meeting. Trump’s announcement on Friday in fact “means Greenland remains under Danish control”, said Kit Maher on CNN. “Despite this Trump painted the deal as a win, with the midterms looming.”

What happened
Ed Sheeran apologised to fans at his Philadelphia concert on Saturday after a week of turmoil surrounding the removal of rapper Macklemore from his US tour. Sheeran took to the stage alone after several other musicians – including his backing band Beoga – withdrew in solidarity with Macklemore. The rapper had been dumped after making pro-Palestinian remarks during a performance in New Jersey.

Who said what
Sheeran said he had made “difficult decisions” and was “making mistakes”, adding: “I’m so, so sorry.” He said the Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel was “horrific”, but described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate”.

Stephen Millar, the author of “Sounding Dissent”, called the situation “a maelstrom partly of Sheeran’s own making”. In Macklemore, Sheeran had chosen an artist whose politics were well established, he said. The tour has now “turned into a full-blown culture war”, said Nadia Khomami in The Guardian. This is a “moment of reckoning for the ‘Mr Nice Guy’ of music”.

What next?
The tour will continue despite the dispute, with new musicians expected to join Sheeran soon.

The British glass industry could become “No. 10 North’s first major test”, according to the Financial Times. A new government green levy introduced last year has put thousands of jobs at risk in the “heavily northern-based sector”, creating a headache for Andy Burnham.

The Extended Producer Responsibility scheme is based on “the ‘polluter pays’ principle to help local councils with the cost of recycling”, said The Times.  It makes businesses responsible for the collection and recycling costs of the goods they put on the market, including packaging. Because the fees are calculated according to weight, glass is facing disproportionate costs compared to cardboard and plastic.

The policy, drawn up by the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, is expected to raise about £1.6 billion a year. But it comes at an “acute time” for the glass sector, industry body British Glass told The Times.

The policy is making the British glass industry more expensive than the cheap imports from China and Turkey that are flooding the market. Five of the six main glass packaging manufacturers are based overseas, so the UK “has to be attractive to foreign owners as an economy, but also from a policy point of view”, said a British Glass spokesperson.

Action needs to come swiftly, said Labour List. “Stand next to a glass furnace for a few minutes, feel the heat, listen to the noise and one thing becomes obvious.” This is not an industry “that can simply switch off at the end of the day” or “wait for market conditions to improve”.