Trump indicates that Venezuela is responding to demands for ‘total access’ for US oil companies – US politics live

Statement on supposed agreement with Venezuelan government follows Trump’s threats of further military interventionDonald Trump has said Venezuela will be “turning over” $2bn worth of Venezuelan crude to the United States, a flagship negotiation that would divert supplies from China while helping Venezuela avoid deeper oil production cuts.Trump said in a post online:This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. 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.Trump’s administration is freezing more than $10bn in federal childcare and family assistance funds to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said, citing what it called concerns about fraud and misuse.The Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the so-called Epstein files, a court filing has revealed, as Democrats step up criticism of the Trump administration’s “lawlessness” for keeping records under seal.The Trump administration has sent more immigration agents to Minnesota, part of escalating attacks and rhetoric against the state and its immigrant populations in what immigration officials are saying is the agency’s “largest operation to date”.Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, urged Trump to give up his “fantasies about annexation” of Greenland and accused the US of “completely and utterly unacceptable” rhetoric. “Enough is enough,” he said. The prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen previously warned that an attack by the US on a Nato ally would mean the “end” of the military alliance and “post-second world war security”. It would, she said, be the end of “everything”.The Trump administration has abandoned efforts to combat child exploitation, human trafficking and cartels as it diverts thousands of law enforcement personnel to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Democratic senators said in a letter to the White House. Continue reading...