Washington, Jan 08: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he plans to meet with Danish officials next week after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over Greenland, the strategic Arctic island that is a self-governing territory of Denmark.

Since the capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump has revived his argument that the United States needs to control the world’s largest island to ensure its own security in the face of rising threats from China and Russia in the Arctic.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenland counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, had requested a meeting with Rubio, according to a statement posted Tuesday to Greenland’s government website. Previous requests for a meeting were not successful, the statement said.

Rubio told a select group of US lawmakers that it was the Republican administration’s intention to eventually purchase Greenland, as opposed to using military force.

The remarks, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, were made in a classified briefing Monday evening on Capitol Hill, according to a person with knowledge of his comments who was granted anonymity because it was a private discussion.

On Wednesday, Rubio told reporters in Washington that Trump has been talking about acquiring Greenland since his first term. “That’s always been the president’s intent from the very beginning,” Rubio said. “He’s not the first US president who has examined or looked at how we could acquire Greenland.”

European leaders express concern

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in issuing a statement this week reaffirming that the mineral-rich island, which guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, “belongs to its people.” Frederiksen warned that a US takeover would amount to the end of NATO.

“The Nordics do not lightly make statements like this,” Maria Martisiute, a defence analyst at the European Policy Centre think tank, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “But it is Trump whose very bombastic language bordering on direct threats and intimidation is threatening the fact to another ally by saying, I will control or annex the territory.’”

Rubio, who was on Capitol Hill for a classified briefing on Wednesday with the entire US Senate and House, did not directly answer reporters’ questions about whether the administration was willing to risk the NATO alliance by potentially moving ahead with a military option regarding Greenland.

“I’m not here to talk about Denmark or military intervention. I’ll be meeting with them next week, we’ll have those conversations with them then, but I don’t have anything further to add to that,” Rubio said. He added that every president retains the option to address national security threats to the United States through military means.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that using the military to acquire Greenland was an option, though she told reporters Wednesday that “the president’s first option always has been diplomacy.”

Some Republican senators said they saw strategic value in Greenland, but they stopped short of supporting military action to acquire it.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said he hoped “we can work out a deal,” while North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said some of the discussion about taking Greenland by force has been “misconstrued.”

“One of the things about President Trump, you may have noticed, is he keeps our adversaries off balance by making sure they don’t know what we’re going to do,” Hoeven said.

But Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she hated “the rhetoric around either acquiring Greenland by purchase or by force,” adding, “I think that it is very, very unsettling.”

Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group, said the US needs to honour its treaty obligations to Denmark.

“Any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our Alliance exists to defend,” the senators said in a joint statement.

This is America now

Thomas Crosbie, an associate professor of military operations at the Royal Danish Defence College, said an American takeover would not help Washington’s national security.

“The United States will gain no advantage if its flag is flying in Nuuk versus the Greenlandic flag,” he told the AP. “There are no benefits to them because they already enjoy all of the advantages they want. If there’s any specific security access that they want to improve American security, they’ll be given it as a matter of course, as a trusted ally. So this has nothing to do with improving national security for the United States.”

Denmark’s parliament approved a bill in June to allow US military bases on Danish soil. It widened a previous military agreement, made in 2023 with the Biden administration, in which US troops had broad access to Danish air bases in the Scandinavian country. Denmark’s foreign minister has said that Denmark would be able to terminate the agreement if the US tries to annex all or part of Greenland.

In the event of military action, the US Department of Defence operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, and the troops there could be mobilised.

Crosbie said he believes the US would not seek to hurt the local population or engage with Danish troops.

“They don’t need to bring any firepower. They don’t need to bring anybody,” Crosbie said Wednesday. “They could just direct the military personnel currently there to drive to the centre of Nuuk and just say, This is America now,’ right? And that would lead to the same response as if they flew in 500 or 1,000 people.”

The danger in an American annexation, he said, lies in the “erosion of the rule of law globally and to the perception that there are any norms protecting anybody on the planet.”

He added: “The impact is changing the map. The impact I don’t think would be storming the parliament.”

Washington, Jan 08: The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which it described as a sweeping reset of federal nutrition policy that is aimed at reversing chronic disease, lowering health care costs, and shifting government food programs toward what officials called “real food.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the guidelines alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, calling the move central to President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda to “make America healthy again.”

“These are not just an updated guideline,” Leavitt said. “These are the foundation of all federal food programs in our country.” These dietary guidelines are for the five-year period 2025-2030.

Kennedy said the new framework marked “the most significant reset of federal nutrition policy in history,” arguing that prior guidelines promoted “highly processed foods and refined carbohydrates” while discouraging protein and healthy fats.

“The hard truth is that our government has been lying to us to protect corporate profit,” Kennedy said. “Today, the lies stop.”

Under the new guidance, federal nutrition policy will emphasise whole, nutrient-dense foods, increased protein intake, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and limits on added sugars. Kennedy said the government was “ending the war on saturated fat diets” and “declaring war on added sugar.”

“These guidelines will revolutionise our nation’s food culture,” he said. “My message is clear: eat real food.”

Rollins said decades of federal incentives had displaced foods grown by American farmers and ranchers, contributing to what she described as the “worst chronic health crisis in our nation’s history.”

“This crisis is unacceptable,” Rollins said. “The solution is simple and should be non-controversial: eat real food.”

The guidelines will shape meals served in public schools, the military, veterans’ hospitals, and nutrition programs such as SNAP, WIC and Head Start. Officials said implementation would begin with revised rules and procurement standards rather than immediate mandates.

“Nothing changes overnight,” Kennedy said. “But you’ll begin to see some real changes coming very soon.”

Dr Mehmet Oz said the guidelines could sharply reduce federal health spending by lowering obesity-related diseases. “The best way to reduce drug spend in America is to not need the drugs in the first place,” he said.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary described the move as “the beginning of the end of an era of medical dogma on nutrition,” saying protein recommendations for children would increase by as much as 50 to 100 per cent.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans are updated every five years and influence food policy across multiple federal agencies, affecting tens of millions of Americans daily.

Washington, Jan 08: President Donald Trump has said that Venezuela has agreed to purchase only American-made products using proceeds from a new US-brokered oil deal, describing the arrangement as a major shift in the Caracas economic orientation and a boost for American manufacturers, farmers, and exporters.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had been informed that Venezuela would use the revenue it receives from the oil agreement to buy US goods across a wide range of sectors.

“I have just been informed that Venezuela is going to be purchasing only American Made Products, with the money they receive from our new Oil Deal,” Trump wrote.

He said the purchases will include “American Agricultural Products, and American Made Medicines, Medical Devices, and Equipment,” as well as technology and hardware to improve Venezuela’s electricity grid and energy facilities.

Trump described it as a strategic realignment, saying Venezuela is committing to doing business with the United States as its principal partner after years of economic ties with US rivals.

“In other words, Venezuela is committing to doing business with the United States of America as their principal partner,” Trump said. “A wise choice, and a very good thing for the people of Venezuela, and the United States.”

The announcement follows the Trump administration’s decision to take control of Venezuelan oil sales under a new framework that places exports and revenues under US oversight.

Administration officials have said the oil will be sold at market prices, with proceeds directed through US-controlled mechanisms.

Trump presented the purchasing commitment as a direct benefit to the US economy, particularly American farmers, manufacturers and medical suppliers.

Venezuela’s electric grid has suffered repeated failures in recent years, while shortages of medicines and medical equipment have been widely documented. Trump said US-made equipment would be used to “improve Venezuela’s Electric Grid and Energy Facilities.”

Under Mudoro’s regime, Venezuela relied heavily on imports from China, Russia and Iran, often using discounted oil shipments as payment. The new arrangement reverses that trend.

By tying oil revenue to US purchases, the Trump Administration has linked Venezuela’s access to global energy markets with demand for American goods.