Former Rep. Billy Long has reportedly apologized after privately joking to House lawmakers that Iceland would be the “52nd state” and he would be its governor. Long was recently nominated to be ambassador to the island nation by President Donald Trump, who has said he wanted to make Canada the 51st state and is now seeking to take over another Arctic realm, Greenland. “There was nothing serious about that, I was with some people, who I hadn’t met for three years, and they were kidding about Jeff Landry being governor of Greenland and they started joking about me and if anyone took offense to it, then I apologize,” Long told Arctic Today, an Alaska-based nonprofit news site. Long did not respond to multiple requests for comment from POLITICO. Trump recently named Landry, the elected governor of Louisiana, as a special envoy to Greenland. Long, who represented a southwest Missouri House district for six terms and served a brief stint as IRS commissioner last year, was visiting former colleagues on the House floor earlier this week. His private quip first reported in POLITICO kicked off a minor diplomatic row, with Iceland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs demanding answers from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík over Long’s comments. Long’s comment appears to have struck a nerve as NATO countries, including Iceland, cringe at Trump’s repeated threats to commandeer Greenland, a Danish territory. Some Icelanders launched a petition drive urging their government to reject Long as ambassador.

Het enige schip van de Zonnebloem heeft een aanvaring gehad in Duitsland en is mogelijk meerdere maanden uit de vaart. Geen van de opvarenden raakte gewond.

Nach einzelnen Festnahmen deutscher Staatsbürger bei ihrer Einreise in die USA hat jetzt das Auswärtige Amt reagiert: Das Ministerium hat die Reisehinweise für die Vereinigten Staaten ergänzt.

The Associated Press issued this statement on Tuesday from Executive Editor Julie Pace: As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs