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US President Donald Trump is discussing options including military action to take control of Greenland, the White House said Tuesday, upping tensions that Denmark warns could destroy the NATO alliance.Trump has stepped up his designs on the mineral-rich, self-governing Danish territory in the arctic since the US military seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro last weekend.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority” for Trump to deter US adversaries like Russia and China.”The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal,” she said in a statement to AFP.The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that Trump’s preferred option is to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding the threats did not signal an imminent invasion.Denmark has warned any move to take Greenland by force would mean “everything would stop,” including NATO and 80 years of close transatlantic security links.Any US military action against Greenland would effectively collapse NATO, since the alliance’s Article Five pledges that member states will defend any of their number that come under attack.Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt wrote on social media that they’d sought a meeting with Rubio throughout 2025 but “it has so far not been possible.”Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Rubio should “clear up certain misunderstandings.” And Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen insisted that the island was not for sale, and only its 57,000 people should decide its future.- ‘Not acceptable’ -Allies have rallied around Denmark and Greenland while simultaneously trying not to antagonize Trump.The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain joined Denmark in a statement on Tuesday saying they would defend the “universal principles” of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both sought to play down the row as they attended Ukraine peace talks in Paris alongside Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.”I cannot imagine a scenario in which the United States of America would be placed in a position to violate Danish sovereignty,” Macron said.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Wednesday he believed the US was committed to NATO, but he suggested European leaders were prepared to strike back against potential US “intimidation.” The United States has 150 military personnel stationed at the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.Greenland residents have rejected Trump’s threats.”This is not something we appreciate,” Christian Keldsen, director of the Greenland Business Assocation, told AFP in the capital Nuuk. “It is not acceptable in the civilized world.”Trump has been floating the idea of annexing Greenland since his first term. In the last year, Copenhagen has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner ($14 billion).- Big and strong -Still steaming over Trump’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, US legislators spoke out against the idea of military action against Greenland on Tuesday.In social media posts, Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, vowed to introduce a resolution “to block Trump from invading Greenland,” saying the 79-year-old Republican simply “wants a giant island with his name on it. He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong.”In a sharp departure from the party’s typical partisanship, Republicans also pushed back against Trump’s military-backed expansionism. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told reporters Tuesday night that he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for Washington to take military action on Greenland, Politico reported.Republican Senator Jerry Moran of the midwestern state of Kansas, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told HuffPost “it’s none of our business” and warned that the move would lead to “the demise of NATO.”Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon put it even more bluntly in a post on X: “This is really dumb. Greenland and Denmark are our allies.”burs-dk/sla/jgc/abs/lga/fox

Aldrich Ames, the Central Intelligence Agency spy who was sentenced to life in prison for selling secrets to Moscow, costing the lives of a dozen double agents, died Monday in custody, US authorities said.He was 84, according to the Bureau of Prisons.Ames worked as a counterintelligence analyst for the CIA for 31 years and, along with his wife Rosario, was convicted of selling information to the Soviet Union between 1985 and 1993 — compromising secret missions and costing lives — in exchange for more than $2.5 million.Ames had been head of the Soviet branch in the CIA’s counterintelligence group, and gave the Kremlin the names of dozens of Russians who were spying for the United States.The couple’s luxurious lifestyle at the time — they kept cash in Swiss bank accounts, drove a Jaguar and ran up $50,000 annually in credit card bills — drew suspicion. Federal prosecutors said Ames spied for the Soviet Union — and kept selling Russia information after its collapse — until he was exposed in 1994.Relying on bogus information from Ames, CIA officials repeatedly misinformed US presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and other top officials about Soviet military capabilities and other strategic details. Ames’ prosecution heated up tensions between Washington and Moscow as Russia and the US were trying to normalize their relations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.Then-CIA director James Woolsey resigned over the scandal, after refusing to fire or demote colleagues over it in Langley, Virgina, where the spy agency is headquartered. His successor, Belgian-born John Deutch, oversaw an overhaul of the spy agency, resulting in arrests and charges.  Then-US president Bill Clinton called Ames’ case “very serious” and suggested it could harm ties with Moscow, while the Kremlin downplayed the incident, with one Russian diplomat calling Americans “extremely emotional.”The White House eventually expelled a senior Russian diplomat, Aleksander Lysenko, who was accused of involvement with Ames, after Russia refused to withdraw him.Scandals have long bedeviled spycraft, as Washington and Moscow vie for secrets in quiet battles for power and diplomatic leverage. Despite their claims of innocence, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair in 1953, accused of selling atomic secrets to Moscow at the height of McCarthyism — an anti-communist movement characterized by political persecution of the left in the United States, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.Former Navy communications expert John Walker was convicted after pleading guilty in 1986 to decoding more than a million encrypted messages for over 30 years, to feed information to the Soviets, and was jailed for life.

Washington on Tuesday marked five years since a mob overran the US Capitol, with rioters pardoned by Donald Trump retracing their steps even as Democrats revived hearings to hold the president accountable.The anniversary highlights a nation divided between irreconcilable accounts of an attack that reshaped American politics — one supported by official findings of a violent bid to overturn an election, the other portraying it as a protest unjustly criminalized.”Five years ago today, a violent mob brutally attacked the US Capitol on January 6. Their mission was to overturn a free and fair election. We will never allow extremists to whitewash their treachery,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries posted on X.Trump supporters gathered in Washington on January 6, 2021 after the president urged them to protest Congress’s certification of his election defeat to Joe Biden.Several thousand breached the Capitol grounds, overwhelming police lines and wounding more than 140 officers, smashing windows and doors, ransacking offices and forcing lawmakers into hiding as the electoral count was halted for hours.On Tuesday, the White House published a website attempting to rewrite that history, labeling the rioters “peaceful patriotic protesters” and accusing police of provoking the violent clashes. Democrats, meanwhile, convened an unofficial hearing inside the Capitol featuring police, former lawmakers and civilians who experienced the violence firsthand. And they later held a candlelit vigil, joined by relatives of five police officers whose deaths on the day and in the aftermath have been directly or indirectly linked to the violence.”While Donald Trump pardons insurrectionists, lets those who attack our police officers walk free, we stand here with our first responders. “We’ll make sure that your sacrifices that day are never forgotten, or will we ever, ever forget the lives of those we lost in connection with the attack.”- ‘Martyrs’ -Many involved in the original congressional investigation say the aim is not to relitigate the past but to prevent it from being erased — particularly after Trump returned to office and pardoned or commuted sentences for nearly all defendants charged in connection with the attack.A new Democratic report documents dozens of pardoned rioters later charged with new crimes — from child sexual assault and rape to conspiracy to murder FBI agents, robbery and reckless homicide — and the party warns that the clemency risks normalizing political violence.Outside the building Trump supporters, including figures linked to the far-right Proud Boys, staged a march retracing the route taken by rioters in 2021.A crowd of at most 200 marchers — a fraction of the attendance on the day they were commemorating — donned Trump’s trademark red “Make America Great Again” hats and waved banners demanding “justice 4 jan 6ers.”Tami Jackson, who flew from Texas, said she was rallying “in remembrance of the people that lost their lives that day” while her husband Brian called some of the rioters “martyrs.”The event was promoted by former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy before Trump pardoned him.Organizers said they wanted to honor those who died, including pro-Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt, and protest what they describe as excessive force by police and politically motivated prosecutions.The competing events mirror a broader political dispute, with Democrats saying Trump incited the attack to overturn the election. Republicans reject that view, instead citing security failures and criticizing the Justice Department.Trump alluded briefly to the riot in remarks at a House Republican strategy retreat, accusing Democrats and the media of misrepresenting his role in the violence, while the White House published its own account of the riot that was riddled with inaccuracies. The Trump administration’s new website praised Trump for issuing the rioters sweeping pardons and labeled the investigation into the attack a “partisan witch hunt.” It repeated Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.Former special counsel Jack Smith has said the attack would not have occurred without Trump, but abandoned the federal case after the Republican leader’s reelection, in line with Justice Department policy barring prosecution of a sitting president. Trump was impeached soon after the riot by the Democratic-controlled House but acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.

Auto industry experts expect US car sales to moderate in 2026 after last year’s churn of trade announcements and environmental policy changes spurred increased sales.Analysts attribute some of 2025’s sales gains to President Donald Trump’s announcements early in the year of huge tariff increases. Although the president ended up striking deals that moderated levies from the threatened level of 40 percent or more, initial headlines led to a noticeable spring surge in sales.A similar uptick in electric vehicle sales occurred at the end of September after Trump signed legislation phasing out a tax credit. Again, consumers flocked to dealerships before the $7,500 EV tax credit went away.Such a landscape was treacherous for car executives like Ford CEO Jim Farley, who complained in February 2025 that Trump’s tenure was producing “a lot of cost and a lot of chaos.”But by the end of year, automakers still did okay. US auto sales for all 2025 came in at 16.3 million, up about two percent from 2024, according to Edmunds.com.”A lot of the activity we had in 2025 was driven by the president’s announcements,” said Cox Automotive economist Charlie Chesbrough.Ford on Tuesday announced final sales for the year of 2.2 million, up six percent from 2024 and the best year since 2019.- Higher prices? -But with the changing of the calendar, industry insiders expect a modest pullback in 2026 sales, pointing to tepid consumer confidence and a slowing job market, partly offset by more favorable factors like lower interest rates.Cox expects “the market to be similar to (2025) but just a little bit slower,” said Chesbrough, who described surveys of auto dealers as “very pessimistic.”Cox has projected 2026 sales to drop to 15.8 million, while Edmunds sees them coming in at 16.0 million.The new car market is heavily impacted by the split-screen nature of the US economy, with wealthier households strengthened by stock market records, while working-class consumers struggle with increased prices.Economists now speak of the US economy as “K-shaped” to reflect the opposite fortunes of these subsets, with new cars out of reach for lower-income shoppers.Average transaction prices for new autos approached $50,000 for most of 2025, compared with under $35,000 less than a decade ago, according to Edmunds data.One wildcard heading into 2026 is pricing. Even with lower tariffs, automakers still face billions of dollars in added costs from the levies — but with retail prices already so high, they are reluctant to pass them on to consumers.Carmakers have opted to charge more for delivery costs, reduce incentives or strip away features that might once have been included, a step Chesbrough likens to “shrinkflation.”Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights, described deep reluctance to raise retail prices further. “The sticker shock is kind of flooring,” said Drury, who notes that there are currently no new models under $20,000.The landscape is particularly difficult for first-time buyers, consigning many to the used car market, Drury said.While the cadence of tariff news has slowed in recent months, the Trump administration is set to negotiate a new version of the USMCA, a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, later this year.Given that Detroit automakers and other car companies have established much of their supply chains around the three countries, significant tariff changes could potentially impact prices. But Drury believes car consumers will be less tuned-in to tariffs in 2026.”At some point, it becomes a bit of a white noise,” he said.

AI companies are on the hunt to design the ideal device to deliver AI’s superpowers, and some new enterprises are convinced that headphones or earbuds are the way.Startups have for a while tried to beef up headphones beyond their basic functions, like listening to music and making phone calls.Nearly a decade ago, tech startups Waverly Labs and Mymanu added real-time translation to that list, and Google quickly followed suit, creating a voice-activated AI assistant in 2020.Riding the AI wave, other tech industry leaders Samsung and Apple have also entered the fray, with noise cancellation now almost a product standard.Startups, many of which are attending this week’s CES consumer electronics extravaganza in Las Vegas, are now trying to refine this technology and apply it to specific uses.Such is the case with OSO, which wants to take the concept of a professional assistant further.Its earbuds will record meetings and retrieve conversation elements on demand using everyday language.Viaim, a competitor, offers similar services and intends to focus on interoperability in a world controlled by major smartphone manufacturers that impose their own platforms.”If you use a different brand of cell phone, it doesn’t have any AI functions at all. That’s the opportunity for our earbuds,” explained Shawn Ma, CEO of Viaim, whose devices are compatible with all brands, including iPhones in China.Timekettle, meanwhile, is enjoying success in a completely different context, with “90 percent of its sales coming from schools,” according to Brian Shircliffe, head of US sales for the Chinese company.Many schools equip their non-English-speaking students with the devices so they can follow lessons without the need for a translator.- Reading minds -As for whether earbuds can replace smart glasses, connected speakers, or even smartphones as the dominant physical extension of generative AI, remains unanswered.For now, any AI functionality “is really dependent on the phone that it’s connected to,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.”Earbuds are certainly a more accessible entry for AI than smart glasses,” said Avi Greengart, president of Techsponential, a consultancy.”They’re a lot less expensive, they’re a product most smartphone users are buying anyway, and they don’t require a prescription.”However, “people generally don’t wear them all the time,” unlike glasses, “and they can only interact with voice, so you’ll need to be in an environment where talking is acceptable,” the analyst cautioned, adding that the lack of a camera limits the device’s potential.Some won’t be constrained by the shortcoming, notably Naqi Logix, whose Neural Earbuds are equipped with ultra-sensitive sensors that detect tiny movements.Thanks to these sensors, a quadriplegic user can control their wheelchair or surf the internet simply by looking at their computer screen.Operations manager Sandeep Arya sees great potential for these innovations, “because people would like to be able to interact with their environment in a more discreet, subtle way,” without having to call out to Siri on their smartphone, Alexa on their speaker, or Meta on their glasses.Arya envisions the technology going further, thanks to improved sensors capable of deciphering facial movements that a chatbot can use to find the right tone and words according to mood.Neurable, another startup whose MW75 Neuro LT headset measures brain activity, dreams of using its equipment to enable communication through thought, without gestures or words.”It’s remarkable,” says Ben Wood of these breakthroughs, “but it’s still a niche market for now.” Until further notice, “the hundreds of millions of headphones that have been sold will remain focused on listening.”

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang described robots as “AI immigrants” on Tuesday, arguing they could solve a global labor shortage that is hampering manufacturing.Addressing concerns about machines replacing human workers, the leader of the world’s dominant AI chip company took the opposite stance.”Having robots will create jobs,” Huang told 200 journalists and analysts during a 90-minute session at a Las Vegas hotel on the sidelines of the CES technology show.”We need more AI immigrants to help us on manufacturing floors and do work that maybe we’ve decided not to do anymore,” said Huang, whose off-the-cuff remarks have become a popular CES tradition.The gathering runs through Friday, with some 130,000 attendees.Like every year, robots are a major presence at CES, with companies hoping they will break into the mainstream as useful devices instead of novelties.A “robotics revolution” will compensate for labor losses from aging populations and demographic decline while boosting the economy, Huang argued.”When the economy grows, we hire more people,” he said, sporting his signature black leather jacket.Huang, who leads the world’s most valuable company at roughly $3.5 trillion, estimated the worker shortage reaches “tens of millions,” not thousands, due to demographic shifts.His comments align with other Silicon Valley leaders, particularly Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, who frequently cite population decline and workforce aging as reasons to embrace automation.Nvidia is investing heavily in providing the foundational software that can make robots work across multiple industries, including manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.

Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez insisted Tuesday no foreign power was governing her country, even as US President Donald Trump announced Caracas will be swiftly turning over millions of barrels of oil to the United States.Rodriguez, who was vice president under toppled leader Nicolas Maduro, has given mixed signals about how much she is prepared to cooperate with Trump, at times sounding conciliatory, at others defiant.Speaking three days after US special forces snatched Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid in Caracas, Rodriguez said: “The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no-one else.””There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela.”Trump insists Washington is now “in charge” of the Caribbean country but has said he is prepared to work with Rodriguez — provided she submits to his demand for access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.The US leader was startlingly direct about his intent regarding the South American country’s reserves, announcing on his Truth Social platform late Tuesday that Rodriguez “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the United States.”This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me” as president, Trump said, adding that he has tasked Energy Secretary Chris Wright with “immediately” executing the plan.- No surrender -Rodriguez has offered an olive branch but also appeared anxious to keep on her side the hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries, which have patrolled the streets since Maduro’s capture.”We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up,” she declared, paying tribute to the “martyrs” of the US attacks.She said the country is holding seven days of mourning for those killed.In its first confirmation of losses, Venezuela’s military on Tuesday published a list of 23 troops, including five generals, killed in the US strikes.Top ally Havana separately issued a list of 32 dead Cuban military personnel, many of whom were members of Maduro’s security detail.Venezuela has not yet confirmed the number of civilian casualties in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and Flores and took them to the United States to face trial.Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of “dozens” of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.- ‘Trump, murderer’ -Thousands of supporters of the presidential couple, including powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, marched through Caracas demanding their release.Fear of state repression has made it so the unpopular Maduro’s many detractors loathe to celebrate his downfall.Maduro and Flores appeared in court Monday in New York, where they pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called on the United States to ensure they receive a fair trial.- Interim president’s challenges -Rodriguez has sought to project unity with Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, two hardliners seen as the main powerbrokers in the Maduro administration.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, sidelined by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, warned in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 16 journalists and media workers were detained in Venezuela on Monday, according to a journalists’ union.All were later released.Trump has warned that Rodriguez will pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners.Trump told Republican lawmakers Tuesday that Maduro was a “violent guy” who “killed millions of people” and claimed that Rodriguez’s administration was “closing up” a torture chamber in Caracas.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent — which could happen after six months — elections must then be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News she was confident the opposition, widely seen as the real victors of 2024 elections, would win “over 90 percent of the votes.”

The self-described “animal” behind a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor admitted to the crimes in a video made after the spree but gave no motive, authorities said Tuesday.Gunman Claudio Neves Valente killed two people and wounded nine at the Ivy League school before also killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with whom he had previously studied, two days later.The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that while searching a storage unit to where Neves Valente apparently fled and later killed himself, they found a video of him admitting to the shootings.”I particularly like Trump’s shit, to have — have called me an animal, which is true. I am an animal and he is also, but uhm, I have no love — I have no hatred towards America,” he said according to the DOJ transcript translated from Portuguese.At the height of the days-long manhunt for the shooter, US President Donald Trump told reporters “hopefully, they’re going to catch this animal.”The gunman did not state a motive for the bloodshed but did complain about injuries sustained during the attacks — a shell casing he said struck him in the eye.Neves Valente carried out the college mass shooting on December 13 before heading to the home of renowned MIT professor Nuno Loureiro and killing him two days later.”Neves Valente admitted that he had been planning the Brown University shooting for a long time,” the DOJ said.”Although Neves Valente stated that Brown University was his intended target, based on initial review of the evidence collected, he did not provide a motive for targeting students at Brown University or the professor at MIT. (He) showed no remorse during the recordings.”The clips have not been publicly released.He blamed the two student victims from Brown — Ella Cook, vice president of the university’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan — for their deaths, according to the statement.”The only objective was to leave more or less on my terms,” Neves Valente said in the transcript in which he apparently claims to have had multiple opportunities to execute the mass shooting but “always chickened out.”The Justice Department said the investigation was ongoing and there was not believed to be any threat to the public.

Reared in the Cuban exile community of Miami, Marco Rubio grew up dreaming of the downfall of Havana’s communists and, since entering politics, dedicated himself to battling Latin America’s leftists.With the US military’s overthrow and snatching of Venezuela’s firebrand president Nicolas Maduro, Rubio is savoring victory — but the outcome came only after compromises that again left many wondering where the old Rubio had gone.Rubio, the first Latino to serve as US secretary of state, will enjoy a unique role in charting the future of oil-rich Venezuela, with President Donald Trump saying Rubio and other aides will call the shots.Rubio had for years called Maduro illegitimate. Speaking as a senator in 2023, Rubio demanded further sanctions on Maduro’s Venezuela without free elections and vowed that “a democratic transition of power must be prioritized.”Now, Rubio said, it is “premature” to discuss elections. Trump has brushed aside democratic opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose Nobel Peace Prize he coveted, and has sought to work with Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, so long as she accedes to his demands including letting in US oil companies.”I don’t think this is the real Rubio. This is the realpolitik Rubio,” said Brett Bruen, a former US diplomat who served in Venezuela.”He sees an opportunity and is willing to forego some of his positions on human rights, democracy, the role of America as guarantor of global stability, in the pursuit of the prize of dethroning Maduro and, potentially, communist control of Cuba,” he said.Venezuela supplied about half of Cuba’s oil needs.Rubio, hours after Maduro’s fall, said: “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”- ‘Little Marco’ to ‘normal’ Trump person -When Trump tapped Rubio as secretary of state, the nomination initially caused groans within Trump’s MAGA movement. The two had run bitterly against each other in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination, with Trump infamously mocking his rival as “Little Marco,” who for his part suggested that the real estate tycoon had an unusually small penis.The rift appears long over. Rubio has loyally stood by Trump’s side and taken on the additional job of national security advisor, the first person to hold both key foreign policy jobs since Henry Kissinger.The dual-hat means Rubio spends much of his time at the White House with Trump rather than the constant globe-trotting of many previous secretaries of state.Rubio’s sullen face became a meme as he appeared to sink into the White House couch on February 28, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who relies on US support against Russia.”We thought of Rubio as the ‘normal’ person in the administration, the one we can talk to,” one diplomat from a US ally said on condition of anonymity.”But of course it’s clear that priority number one for him is Trump,” the diplomat said.- Never breaking with Trump -During his 14 years as senator, Rubio was generally well-liked by his colleagues, who unanimously confirmed him as secretary of state — a rarity in such polarized times.He has since gained MAGA stardom not for his diplomacy overseas but for zealously revoking visas of thousands of foreigners, including students who protested against Israel.Some Democrats have since said they regretted voting for Rubio.Asked about the criticism in a year-end news conference in which he took a marathon 46 questions, Rubio said that having a secretary of state who disagrees with the president is “stupid, really.”But Trump’s abrasive tone still is at odds with the old Rubio. The 54-year-old top American diplomat is the son of immigrants who fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba. In his 2012 autobiography, “American Son,” Rubio wrote, “I can’t stand to hear immigrants described in terms more appropriate to a plague of locusts than human beings.”He came from a family that “felt a deep pain at the loss of their country,” he recalled. “They could never return to Cuba as long as Castro remained in power. That made them exiles in their hearts, and in mine.”

President Donald Trump is exploring how to take control of Greenland and using the US military is “always an option,” the White House said Tuesday, further upping tensions with NATO ally Denmark.Washington’s stark warning came despite Greenland and Denmark both calling for a speedy meeting with the United States to clear up “misunderstandings.”The US military intervention in Venezuela has reignited Trump’s designs on the autonomous Danish territory in the Arctic, which has untapped rare earth deposits and could be a vital player as melting polar ice opens up new shipping routes.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States,” to deter adversaries like Russia and China.”The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander in chief’s disposal,” she said in a statement to AFP.Trump’s renewed claims over self-governing Greenland have stoked concerns in Europe that the transatlantic alliance with the United States could be about to fracture.Earlier, Greenland and Denmark said they had asked to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly to discuss the issue.”It has so far not been possible,” Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt wrote on social media, “despite the fact that the Greenlandic and Danish governments have requested a meeting at the ministerial level throughout 2025.”Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said meeting Rubio should resolve “certain misunderstandings.”Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen again insisted that the island was not for sale and only Greenlanders should decide its future.His comments came after Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain joined Denmark in saying that they would defend the “universal principles” of “sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.””For this support, I wish to express my deepest gratitude,” Nielsen wrote on social media. Washington already has a military base in Greenland, which is home to some 57,000 people.Trump hinted on Sunday that a decision on Greenland may come “in about two months,” once the situation in Venezuela, where US forces seized President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, has stabilized.- ‘Broken record’ -The European leaders’ joint statement called Arctic security “critical” for international and transatlantic security.Denmark, including Greenland, was part of NATO, it added, urging a collective approach to security in the polar region. The statement was signed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.”Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” the statement said.But Macron and Starmer both sought to play down the issue as they attended Ukraine peace talks in Paris alongside Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.”I cannot imagine a scenario in which the United States of America would be placed in a position to violate Danish sovereignty,” Macron said.Starmer said he had made his position “clear” in the joint statement — although he did not restate that position in front of the cameras.Trump has been floating the idea of annexing Greenland since his first term.”It’s like a broken record,” Marc Jacobsen, a specialist in security, politics and diplomacy in the Arctic at the Royal Danish Defence College, told AFP.Trump has claimed that Denmark cannot ensure the security of Greenland, saying it had bought just one dog sled recently. But Copenhagen has invested heavily in security, allocating some 90 billion kroner ($14 billion) in the last year.burs-dk/bgs