Good morning everyone. It is already an extraordinarily busy and consequential news morning. I am tracking several major developments, including President Trump freezing all food stamp assistance to Minnesota, escalating threats to take Greenland as Greenland’s political leaders unite in opposition to the United States, and reports that ICE agents were directed to capture arrest content on personal cellphones for social media distribution. All of this is unfolding as legacy media continues to shrink. Overnight, we learned that PBS News Weekend will air its final episode this Sunday following federal funding cuts.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. will take action to secure control of Greenland “whether they like it or not,” citing national security concerns and warning that Russia or China could otherwise gain influence, despite firm opposition from Greenland, Denmark, and bipartisan U.S. lawmakers.
All five political parties in Greenland’s parliament issued a rare joint statement rejecting Donald Trump’s threats to take control of the island, saying Greenlanders alone must decide their future, reaffirming they “do not want to be Americans,” and announcing plans to accelerate parliamentary debate amid fears that U.S. pressure and security claims could undermine their path toward self-determination and eventual independence.
Trump told the New York Times that the U.S. may have to choose between seizing Greenland and preserving NATO, arguing that outright ownership matters more than treaties or international law, remarks that prompted warnings from Denmark and other European leaders that any U.S. attack on Greenland would effectively end the alliance and deepen transatlantic tensions.
PBS News Weekend will air its final episode this Sunday after federal funding cuts eliminated support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, forcing producer WETA to end the show, prompting anchor John Yang’s departure and leaving PBS to restructure programming and staffing.
A new investigation from the Washington Post revealed how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and public affairs staff were repeatedly instructed by leadership, under pressure from the White House, to actively capture content during raids and arrests—shadowing operations day and night, flagging “cinematic” moments, prioritizing “high-profile” takedowns, and rapidly filming with professional cameras or phones so videos could be quickly edited and pushed online to showcase enforcement intensity rather than routine law-enforcement work.
The Trump administration froze $129 million in Minnesota food stamp and hunger-relief funding, with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins citing fraud investigations and demanding new justifications from Gov. Tim Walz, even as a federal judge blocked broader attempts to halt social-services funding to Democratic-led states, signaling a narrower pressure campaign focused on Minnesota.
The Hill confirmed that Donald Trump placed a profanity-laced phone call to Susan Collins after she voted for a Democratic-led war powers resolution to block potential U.S. military action in Venezuela, angrily accusing her of undermining his authority as commander in chief, publicly urging that she and four other Republican supporters of the measure never be reelected, and deepening intraparty tensions as Collins faces a competitive reelection race in Maine.
Washington National Opera announced it will leave its longtime home at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after the center ended their relationship, a dramatic break that follows declining ticket sales and institutional turmoil since Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, marking a major shift for the 70-year-old company and Washington’s cultural landscape.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from withholding child care and social-services funding from California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, ruling the states showed immediate harm after the administration, citing unproven fraud allegations, moved to freeze billions in grants administered by the Department of Health and Human Services while the case proceeds.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe told CBS News that four of its homeless members were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, prompting tribal leaders to seek answers from state officials and warn members not to speak without lawyers, as the detentions intensified protests and scrutiny following the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by an ICE officer in the city.
According to Reuters, at least four oil tankers that had slipped out of Venezuela in “dark mode,” with transponders switched off to evade a strict U.S. blockade, have now turned back and are back in Venezuelan waters after one, the Panama-flagged M Sophia, was intercepted and seized by U.S. authorities and another, the Olina, was intercepted but allowed to return, underscoring the impact of the embargo on Venezuelan crude exports.
Donald Trump urged credit card companies to cap interest rates at 10% for one year starting in January 2026, drawing bipartisan praise from lawmakers who say it would ease record consumer debt, but sharp warnings from banks and industry groups that such a cap could slash credit access for millions of higher-risk borrowers.
According to NBC News, three Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to remove X and its AI tool Grok from their app stores, arguing that Elon Musk’s platforms enabled widespread creation of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes of women and children, violating app store rules, despite X partially limiting the feature after public backlash.
Security forces in Iran launched a violent nationwide crackdown as mass protests escalated into one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic in decades, with rights groups reporting dozens killed, internet blackouts imposed, and Donald Trump warning Tehran that the United States would intervene if protesters were shot, a stance echoed by Marco Rubio and condemned by European leaders urging restraint.
