Over in the Greenland Senate Committee meeting, politicians are hearing ideas for how the US could bring the Danish territory closer?

Witness Alexander Gray - a former Trump national security advisor - is listing ways in which the two countries could be aligned more closely, focusing on two in particular:

• Make Greenland an insular area territory under US control, of which there are currently 14 - including Guam, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
• Offer a Compact of Free Association whereby, Gray says, sovereignty would be maintained by Greenland but the US would have a defence obligation and a defence access to the country

"The United States is running out of time to develop a coherent strategic response to an independent Greenland," Gray adds.

"The security stakes are too high to allow Greenland to obtain independence without a plan in place for the US to ensure our core strategic interests are assured."

Image source, Reuters

The meeting on Greenland has just heard from Maria Cantwell, the Democrat ranking member, who underlines the importance of the relations between the US and Greenland.

She suggests "we stop talking about buying Greenland and instead work quickly to re-establish US interests".

"The United States is an Arctic nation," she tells the meeting more than once - adding the US has interests there and underlines the need to continue moving forward.

The meeting then hears from its first witness - senior fellow in national security affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council Alexander Gray.

Gray served as deputy assistant to Trump during his first term.

He starts by acknowledging that while the issue has gained attention recently, Greenland has "long been a focal point" for US strategists.

Gray says he strongly supports efforts to bring the two countries together - adding the administration has "several options" as to how to do that.

He turns to idea that the current debate has become centred on the Kingdom of Denmark rather than the people of Greenland.

Gray suggests the question for policy makers is for when Greenland "inevitably gains independence from Denmark" - who will be there to greet them on the other side?

Image source, Getty Images

We're turning now to an update from the House hearing on Doge.

A panel of witnesses have just finished giving their opening statements before lawmakers. Some praised the new Department of Government Efficiency, while others called into question several of the administration's moves, including firing a host of inspectors general across several government agencies.

Now, Representative and subcommittee head Marjorie Taylor Greene is beginning her questioning of the experts, focusing first on fraud. She asks if the level of what Doge has called "improper payments" are found at similar levels in the public and private sectors.

Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions' Government division, says the fraud rate in public sector is 20%, while it's around 3% in the private sector.

Talcove says fraudsters learned during the Covid-19 pandemic that government money could a good target for scams because it never runs out.

"And the likelihood of getting caught is virtually zero," he says.

Image source, Getty Images

Ahead of the House subcommittee hearing on Doge today, Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a new executive order giving more power to the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), run by Trump's ally, billionaire Elon Musk.

The action requires government agencies to work with Doge to make cuts to its staff and limit future hiring. Since Musk took the helm at Doge, he has advocated for massive cuts across the government.

Trump also ordered a “DOGE Team Lead” to be installed within each agency and to oversee hiring decisions.

The order, signed by Trump, states that "By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself."

As we listen to the House and Senate committee hearings on Doge and Greenland, we'll also be bringing you some other news lines from US politics today.

We've heard this morning that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is "unrealistic".

Hegseth has been speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels, where he also downplayed suggestions of sending US troops to the embattled country.

Kyiv has been calling for Nato membership, but despite being backed by the UK, Hegseth suggested that the US does not see this as a "realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement".

The US defence secretary instead says that support for Ukraine should come from its European partners.

"Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine," he added, warning that the US would no longer provide the lion's share of future aid to Kyiv.

• We've more on Hegseth's comments, as well as how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky might react in our news piece

The US Senate Committee for Commerce, Science and Transportation is meeting this morning to discuss Greenland’s geostrategic importance to the United States.

The Committee is set to hear from a number of witnesses including the director of exploration stage mining company Texas Mineral Resources.

"Red, White and Blueland" was proposed as an alternative name for the country by House Republican Buddy Carter - who this week introduced a bill around acquiring the country and renaming it.

It follows previous comments from the president about his interest in acquiring the Danish territory.

Trump has suggested control of Greenland is a “necessity” for international security.

The prime ministers of Greenland and Denmark have both previously said the island was not for sale.

Cachella Smith
Reporting from Washington DC

Here from the Washington DC newsroom I'm listening in to this morning's Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee meeting discussing Greenland's geostrategic importance for the US.

Since taking office a little over four weeks ago, President Donald Trump has focused on the idea of the US acquiring the autonomous Danish territory of 57,000 people.

"I think we're going to have it," he told reporters on Air Force One last month, adding that the island's 57,000 residents "want to be with us".

Those comments came after reports that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen insisted Greenland was not for sale in a fiery phone call with the president.

Today, Republican Senator Ted Cruz opens the meeting saying: "Today we are here to talk about something that just a few years ago was treated as far-fetched but has long been worth serious consideration - the potential of the United States acquiring Greenland."

This is not a new idea - Trump had previously raised this idea back in 2019. Both Denmark and the Greenlandic government rejected the proposal at the time.

Cruz continues to list a number of factors to be considered - among which is the location and proximity of the country to critical transatlantic trade routes as well as the "growing influence China and Russia in the Arctic region".

The senator further suggests the prospect of the US acquiring territory is not "unusual" - citing Thomas Jefferson's negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase in the early 1800s and the acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867.

Over the next few hours I'll be listening into this meeting to bring you the key lines while my colleagues listen in to the ongoing Doge hearing - stay with us, we'll be bringing you updates from both.

Image source, Reuters

A newly created advisory group headed by the world's richest man has been behind many of the most radical efforts to remake the US government in the weeks since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Elon Musk, who Trump has asked to head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, is leading the effort to seize access to the federal payment system, dismantle an aid agency and offer millions of federal workers an ultimatum - quit or face being fired.

Known as "Doge" - seemingly a winking reference to Musk’s cryptocurrency of choice, dogecoin, which is itself a reference to a humourous dog meme - the cost-cutting initiative was first announced by Trump after his victory in November.

You can read more about this in our story from last week.

Madeline Halpert
US Reporter

I'm tuning into the first hearing from The Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee, led by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The House subcommittee is a partner to the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) led by billionaire Elon Musk. Musk has pledged to implement a host of sweeping cuts since he has taken the helm at Doge, which is not an official government agency.

I'll be bringing you updates on the hearing, which you can watch live at the top of this page.

Greene has just opened up the hearing, pledging to examine how Americans "hard-earned tax dollars are spent".

Greene says this week the subcommittee plans to look into "improper payments" by the federal government, including within the government health insurance programmes Medicare and Medicaid.

We're starting off our updates with some economics news: statistics released this morning by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics have shown that the Consumer Price Index has risen by 3% over the last 12 months - following a 2.9% increase across the 12 months to December.

Weeks ago the US central bank held interest rates citing uncertainty over where the economy might be headed.

In a post this morning, the president has blamed the uptick on his predecessor - writing on Truth Social "BIDEN INFLATION UP!".

• As a reminder, Trump has previously pledged to "end to the devastating inflation crisis" - saying repeatedly "prices will come down"

Cachella Smith
Reporting from Washington DC

From Doge to tariffs to Greenland policy - the Trump administration is continuing to work on a number of areas that the president has highlighted as priorities since returning to power just over three weeks ago.

A Senate hearing on Greenland is on the agenda this morning, as is a House subcommittee meeting on Doge, the newly established division headed by Elon Musk tasked with cutting wide swaths of the federal government - though it is not itself officially a government agency.

We’re also expecting to hear some more on tariffs with Canadian provincial premiers due to meet with members of the administration and Congress in Washington DC.

They're not the only ones visiting the capital - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be landing in the city later this evening.

He will be the latest international leader to meet with the president - although we're expecting to hear more from him tomorrow.

Here on the news desk in Washington we'll be keeping across these updates today while our colleagues will be covering developments in the Middle East, including around Donald Trump's comments on Gaza, on a separate live page.

For anyone in need of a quick reminder, we'll have some background information with you shortly as the main events of the day begin.