Two events this week will give Greenland and friends in Europe a juddering sense of alarm. 

From the West, the US vice president JD Vance has landed for a controversial visit, despatched by a president openly talking of annexation.

From the East a speech from a Russian leader hinting at carving up the Arctic and its vast mineral wealth with Moscow’s new friends in Washington.

In a closely watched speech, Vladimir Putin seemed to give Donald Trump’s plans to seize Greenland the green light.

They were “serious”, he said, and “have deep historical roots”.

Kremlin officials went further saying Russia was open to cooperating with America to exploit the Arctic with “joint investment”.

The Arctic is a huge prize. Its vast mineral wealth is increasingly accessible thanks to climate change.

Russia is well placed to exploit it with bases and ports ringing the Arctic Circle.

Mr Putin though warned that “NATO countries in general are increasingly designating the Far North as a springboard for possible conflicts”.

This would appear to be a warning to European nations to back off.

Yet another challenge for Europe

The threat of Russia and America jointly exploiting the Arctic in a great power carve-up is yet another challenge for Europe in this new Trumpian world order. And Greenland is caught in the middle.

Mr Trump has said he thinks the American annexation of Greenland “will happen”.

He said so with breezy nonchalance in front of NATO’s secretary general in the White House as if taking another alliance member’s territory was entirely normal.

Astonishingly NATO secretary general Mark Rutte did not push back at the idea.

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Both President Trump and his vice president say America needs Greenland for security.

This seems disingenuous. There are no hostile fleets circling the Arctic territory whatever they claim.

Besides, America already has a military base there and could ask to build more.

Mr Vance also says Denmark has neglected Greenland. Denmark actually subsidises the territory to the tune of £480m a year.

In reality, what the Trump administration seeks in Greenland is what it seems to seek in Ukraine. Mineral wealth.

When we visited this month, Greenlanders told Sky News Mr Trump’s threats are little more than a gangster shakedown.

A menacing threat designed to extract material gain.

There is no appetite for an American takeover among Greenlanders. And no enthusiasm for the vice president and his wife.

US officials were reportedly going door to door this week asking if anyone would like to meet America’s second lady. None said yes.

The Vances have had to downscale their visit, and have only gone to the US base at Pittufik.

But it seems the Trump administration is determined one way or another to acquire more territory and Greenland seems top of the list.

And its president may have been persuaded by Mr Putin it is in his best interests to share the world with Russia, whatever that means for America’s allies.

That is a challenge they will need to meet.

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US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene hit the headlines this week when she told Sky’s US correspondent Martha Kelner to “go back to your own country”.

It was the latest controversy in a political career for the Republican firebrand – a staunch supporter of US President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

But who is she and how influential has she become?

Host Jonathan Samuels speaks to Tia Mitchell, Washington bureau chief for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who has been covering Ms Taylor Greene since she first entered politics five years ago.

She tells us what she’s like in person, how she emerged and her most controversial moments.

Producer: Emma Rae Woodhouse

Editor: Paul Stanworth & Philly Beaumont

Caroline County is the kind of quiet place that found its voice in electing Donald Trump.

It’s rural and Republican territory, a 90-minute drive from Washington DC, and it backed Trump at the election.

Gauging political opinion isn’t necessarily easy here, division runs raw in small-town America.

As one cafe owner told me, in declining an interview: “My business is worth more than my opinion.”

Did we find any buyer’s remorse among Trump voters? In a word, no.

It’ll exist, no doubt, and there is enough anecdotal evidence of voters having second thoughts.

In Bowling Green, Caroline County, our straw poll – unscientific – found that Signalgate had left a Trump support shaken but not stirred.

“I’m impressed with the agenda,” said Robert Hayman, who voted for Trump.

On Signalgate, he said: “In my opinion it’s a non-story, compared to the misgivings of the previous administration.

“(It’s not a big story) to the extent that it has the effect on our safety.”

Patty Roberts, who also voted for Trump, said the Signalgate episode had passed her by.

She told me: “I don’t know a whole lot about that. So I would probably refrain from talking about that. I don’t watch TV.”

How politics lands with people here depends on who they support and where they get their information.

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The response of the Trump administration has been to deny, dispute and deflect from the notion of incompetence surrounding the Signal chat story.

Non-Trump supporters were damning in their assessment of the Signalgate episode.

Iris Silver told me: “It just shows you where putting the wrong people in power positions is not a great idea.”

Jeremiah Hirsch, also anti-Trump, told me how the politics of the day weighed on the community.

He said: “We need this thing that we all deserve that’s a part of the American dream. I feel in some ways we’ve lost that.”

For some, Signalgate is a stone-cold scandal, for others not so much.

Caroline County is known as the cradle of horse racing.

The runners and riders are currently out of season, unlike the politics.

In that race, it’s a marathon and a sprint.