Plus: Flu Cases Surge & Mo News On The Ground At CES

Good evening,

Ask ChatGPT and call me in the morning!

Over 40 million U.S. adults are turning to ChatGPT for health care information every day, according to a new report from OpenAI shared with Axios.

OpenAI found that users ask up to 1.9 million questions a week related to healthcare, including comparing plans, clarifying medical bills, or even to self-diagnose. Globally, around 5% of questions asked to ChatGPT are healthcare-related.
Part of the issue: The U.S. is facing a severe and growing physician shortage. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians within the next ten years.

Just remember: AI is not perfect. And it can send incorrect advice. Last summer, a man poisoned himself after consulting the chatbot for advice on how to cut out salt from his diet.

Mo News Team

🚨 ONE IMPORTANT THING

Is The U.S. Considering Military Action in Greenland?

President Trump and his team are considering “a range of options” in order to acquire Greenland — including “utilizing the U.S. military,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

European leaders, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, on Tuesday issued a joint statement pushing back against Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela.

“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
- Greenland is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and therefore part of the NATO military alliance.

INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE
Trump officials on Tuesday told Reuters that the president’s drive to acquire Greenland during his remaining three years in office is “not going away.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly asked Miller whether he would rule out using military force. Miller said, “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”

Tapper was pressing Miller about Greenland after Miller’s wife on Saturday, shortly after the Venezuela operation, posted a map of Greenland covered by the American flag.

🥶 HOW WE GOT HERE
This is not new. In 2019, during his first term as president, Trump floated the idea of purchasing Greenland. It’s something he talked about on the campaign trail, and exactly one year ago, he wrote on Truth Social: “Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation.”

What’s so special about Greenland? The mineral-rich Danish territory has a plethora of natural resources, including rare earth metals in high demand for making electric cars, wind turbines, and military equipment. Trump officials have also said it would help counter Russian and Chinese national security concerns. Greenland is already home to a key U.S. military base.
When asked by reporters on Sunday about Greenland, Trump reiterated his position, saying the U.S. needs Greenland “from the standpoint of national security.” But also said, “we’ll worry about Greenland in about two months.”

🇻🇪 TO VENEZUELA

Trump has made it clear that he wants more than just to prosecute Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, he also wants to boost U.S. access to Venezuela’s oil and critical minerals.

Later this week, Trump administration officials are expected to meet with executives from oil and gas giants Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil to discuss Venezuela plans.
Iraq vs. Venezuela: MS Now’s Joe Scarbrough, who said he spoke to Trump about the military operation that captured Maduro, pressed Trump on running Venezuela and how it compares to President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq back in 2003.
- “The difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil. We’re going to keep the oil,” Scarborough said, quoting Trump.
- Scarbrough quoted the president as saying, “In 2016, I said we should have kept the oil. It caused a lot of controversy. Well, we should have kept the oil.”
  - “We’re going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time we’re going to keep the oil.”
  - Then vs. Now: Today, the U.S. is far less energy-desperate than it was during the Iraq War, thanks to the domestic shale revolution.

ALL THAT OIL
Venezuela holds the largest crude oil reserves in the world — yet its economy and energy sector collapsed after decades of isolation and mismanagement.

Rewind: For much of the 20th century, U.S. oil companies helped build Venezuela’s industry, making it a top global producer and a founding member of OPEC in 1960. The industry was nationalized in the 1970s, reopened to foreign investment in the 1990s — and rebounded — then went back to nationalization in the early 2000s under Hugo Chávez, who pushed out experienced managers and replaced them with political loyalists.
- In the late 1990s, production was at over 3.5 million barrels/day; by 2024, that number was under 1 million barrels/day.
Sour, sticky, and heavy: The U.S. Gulf Coast and West Coast refineries are built to process Venezuela’s heavy crude, which requires special equipment to get and refine.
- U.S. shale oil — which has led to historic oil production in the U.S. — is not compatible with those U.S. refineries.

Bottom line: Restoring Venezuelan oil production would take years and tens of billions of dollars, analysts note.

Flu Cases Surge Nationwide To Highest Level In 25 Years

Doctors’ visits for flu-like symptoms have hit their highest level in more than 25 years, according to the CDC. Health officials warn that cases are still climbing and could peak in late January or February.

BY THE NUMBERS
Forty-five states are reporting high or very high flu activity. The latest CDC data, published Monday for the week ending Dec. 27, shows 8% of all outpatient visits in the U.S. were for flu-like illness, the highest level recorded since the CDC began tracking in 1997. At this point, the numbers don't take into account the virus spreading from the end of holiday travel.

The flu has so far caused more than 11 million illnesses in the U.S. since the season began in October. Of those, there have been about 120,000 hospitalizations and at least 5,000 deaths, including nine children.
- New York has been hit especially hard, with state health officials announcing over 71,000 cases last week — the most cases ever recorded in a single week in the state.

Officials say Influenza A is the dominant strain, driven by a fast-spreading, mutated H3N2 subvariant known as subclade K, which emerged in Australia over the summer.

Another issue: This year's vaccine isn't that well aligned with that dominant strain. Still, doctors warn that symptoms can be more severe in unvaccinated people.

The spike also comes as flu vaccination rates are falling.
- Flu immunizations among children have dropped from 53% in 2019-20 to 42% this season, and adult vaccinations have declined from 61 million to about 48 million.
- On Monday, HHS removed the annual flu shot from the list of universally recommended childhood vaccines.

⏳ THE SPEED READ

🚨NATION

Sen. Kelly Says Hegseth’s Censure, Demotion Efforts Are About ‘Stifling Free Speech’ (MO NEWS)
Trump administration halting $10 billion in social service funding to 5 Democratic states (CBS)
DOJ says millions of Epstein files have yet to be released (POLITICO)
Trial underway for former Uvalde school police officer accused of slow response to shooting (FOX)
California GOP Congressman Doug LaMalfa dies at 65 (CNN)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

European leaders rally behind Greenland as US ramps up threats (GUARDIAN)
Swiss bar hit by deadly NYE fire had not been inspected in five years (CNN)
Tourists stranded on remote desert island in Yemen after rift between U.S. allies (NBC)
China bans exports to Japan of dual-use goods that could enhance Tokyo’s military power (AP)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children says his AI bot won’t stop creating sexualized images of her (NBC)
Nvidia unveils self-driving car tech as it seeks to power more products with AI (BBC)
Hyundai plans 30,000 humanoid robots a year for factories by 2028 (AXIOS)
Lego introduces ‘smart bricks’ with sound and light effects to new Star Wars sets (GUARDIAN)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A new Grammy category honors album covers, and the artists that make them (AP)
Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr — known for bleak, existential movies — has died (NPR)
Mickey Rourke’s latest crisis leads to crowdfunding campaign for alleged unpaid rent money (FOX)
Ruben Amorim fired as Manchester United head coach after 14 months (ESPN)

ICYMI FROM THE 📲

In case you missed it… Mo News is on the ground for CES in Las Vegas, once known as the Consumer Electronics Show, where some of tech’s most innovative products are on display.

Some products getting buzz are Lego’s new Smart Brick Star Wars sets, HP’s desktop computer that fits into a keyboard 🤔, and useful things like a $200 portable allergen-sensing gadget.

Check out the Mo News Instagram page for live updates.