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It's not just the triumphalism in the White House. Leaders loth to oppose this gangsterism must think how that looks to Putin, Xi and in the UAEI never thought it possible that you could look back on the Iraq war, and the foreign invasions of the war on terror" in general, and feel some measure of nostalgia. For a time when there were at least concerted attempts to justify unilateral interventions and illegal wars in the name of global security, and even a moral duty to liberate the women of Afghanistan or free the Iraqi people".Now, as the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, is in essence abducted and Venezuela taken over by the US, there is barely any effort to situate the coup in any reasoning other than the US's interests. Nor are there any attempts to solicit consent from domestic or international law-making bodies and allies, let alone the public. The days of the US trying to convince the world that Saddam Hussein did in fact have weapons of mass destruction despite secretly having no reliable intelligence were, in fact, the good old days. Continue reading...

The US president's fears about woke' Europe are laughable. He would feel right at home in today's EUI expected the EU to push back strongly against Donald Trump's new national security strategy. Not only does it show contempt for the EU and its weak" leaders, but it also targets European citizens and migrants with racist dog whistles and barely disguised Islamophobia. Yet instead of a rousing defence of the bloc's commitment to human rights and equality, there have just been bland platitudes.Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, denounced Trump's plans to boost support for Europe's far-right parties. But there was no public challenge to the racist logic underpinning his argument. Costa, who has spoken proudly of his mixed ancestry, could have made a convincing counterargument to the US president's false premise that Europe was heading for civilisational erasure" because of migrants and, by extension, millions of Europeans of colour.Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She runs New Horizons Project, a strategy, analysis and advisory company Continue reading...

US conduct could become more assertive in the Indo-Pacific in the remaining years of the Trump presidency - with serious implications for Anzus and Aukus

Trump has called on Venezuela's interim leader to adhere to US demands as top Republicans scramble to answer questions about what happens next - key US politics stories from 4 January 2026Proclaiming the US would run" Venezuela after abducting its president and his wife, president Trump has now qualified his claim. Amid questions, including from top Republicans, Trump has now called on Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, to accommodate US demands or face the possibility of a fresh military intervention.Rodriguez, 56, who had on Saturday pledged fealty to ousted president Nicolas Maduro and condemned his capture as an atrocity", appears to be adhering to the US line. Continue reading...

Broncos earn the No 1 seed in the AFC after beating the Chargers 19-3 while a Falcons win over the Saints pushed the Panthers through to the playoffsSaints 0-0 Falcons 8:07, 1st quarterBad news for Panthers fans ... Kirk Cousins has just been picked off.C Ward rush for seven yards Continue reading...

King tides cause highest floodwaters in decades for area, while people are rescued from trapped cars and roads closeHigh tides and heavy rains have flooded parts of the Bay Area, prompting road closures and rescues of people trapped in cars.Five northern counties remained under a flood watch, with up to 3in (7.6cm) of rain possible through Monday night in areas that have been drenched off and on since around Christmas, said the National Weather Service office in Eureka. At least a foot (0.3 meters) of snow was likely in the mountains. Continue reading...

Victoria Jones, daughter of US film actor, was found unresponsive at a San Francisco hotel on New Year's DayThe family of actor Tommy Lee Jones has asked for privacy following the loss of his daughter, Victoria Jones, who was found dead on New Year's Day at a San Francisco hotel.We appreciate all of the kind words, thoughts, and prayers," the family said in a statement. Please respect our privacy during this difficult time. Thank you." Continue reading...

Homeland security secretary says Venezuelan leader needs to protect America against drug trafficking and terroristsKristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, said on Sunday that the US wants a leader in Venezuela who will be a partner that understands that we're going to protect America" to stop drug trafficking and terrorists from coming into our country".Noem indicated in an interview on Fox News Sunday that the immigration status of Venezuelan nationals living in the US under temporary protected status (TPS) was part of an administration-wide decision-making process that her department would follow. Continue reading...

Hundreds came out to protest in large cities coast to coast, even as many in the diaspora celebrated ousting of Maduro

Lawmakers call US intervention and capture of Maduro wildly illegal' and say it lacked congressional approvalDemocratic leaders responded with fury on Sunday to Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela, slamming it as an illegal act carried out in the absence of required congressional approval that would lead to disaster for the American people.Top Democrats took to the Sunday TV political talk shows to express their dismay at the lack of any prior notification of lawmakers about the audacious military raid 24 hours earlier. Continue reading...

The illegal abduction of Venezuela's president, and threat to run' his country, is a dangerous act. Its repercussions will be felt far beyond the regionAmid the immense confusion surrounding the US strikes on Venezuela, the seizure of the president, Nicolas Maduro, and Donald Trump's announcement that the US will run" the country and take back the oil", one thing is clear - they set a truly chilling precedent. The US has a grim history of interference, invasion and occupation in the region, but the early hours of Saturday saw its first major military attack on South American land. American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again," Mr Trump declared. The decision to unilaterally attack another country and abduct its leader - days after he publicly sought an off-ramp - has still wider repercussions. It should alarm us all.Venezuelans have endured a repressive, kleptocratic and incompetent regime under Mr Maduro, widely believed to have stolen the last election. They now face profound uncertainty at best. Mr Trump has suggested that Mr Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, would follow US instructions, and dismissed the rightwing opposition leader and Nobel prize-winner Maria Corina Machado as a plausible replacement. But Ms Rodriguez, now interim president, has so far struck a defiant tone - and other parts of the decapitated regime are more hardline.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

New York's new mayor will face headwinds as he attempts to carry out a programme of civic renewal. But his affordability agenda speaks to the timesThe multiple firsts achieved by New York's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, have been well chronicled: he is the first Muslim to occupy that role, the first south Asian and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the youngest mayor of the largest city in the United States for over a century, having received more votes in November's election than any candidate since the 1960s. And politically, he is probably the most leftwing incumbent of the office since Fiorello La Guardia in the 1930s and 40s.Hardly surprising then, that Mr Mamdani's extraordinary rise to prominence should be accompanied by high expectations and tense anticipation. At last Thursday's inauguration ceremony, he promised to govern expansively and audaciously". Whether he succeeds in doing so will have considerable ramifications for progressive politics more widely. Continue reading...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends capture of Nicolas Maduro and says US has leverage' over countryMarco Rubio, the US secretary of state, and prominent Republicans swiftly backpedaled from Donald Trump's assertion that the US will run Venezuela in transition after US forces snatched the president, Nicolas Maduro, and brought him to the US to face federal criminal charges.Rubio appeared on numerous US politics shows on Sunday morning to defend the US operation in the early hours of Saturday to capture Maduro and his wife despite critics calling the operation illegal on multiple levels and the White House failing to demonstrate how it would run the South American nation. Continue reading...

Hannah Dugan faced calls to resign from state Republicans amid threats to impeach her if she did notThe Wisconsin judge convicted of obstruction for helping an immigrant evade federal officers has resigned.Hannah Dugan was convicted on 19 December and faced calls to resign from state Republicans, who threatened to impeach her if she did not. Continue reading...

The deaths came as the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement, detaining a record number of people Continue reading...

From Los Angeles to Nevada, younger people are preserving a longstanding tradition one lyric at a timeDeep in the heart of Los Angeles's Koreatown, just a few doors down from H Mart and a K-pop music superstore, an American flag hangs over the entrance of a saloon called Eastwood.The western-themed bar would normally be cranking Luke Bryan while customers play skee-ball, line dance and get bucked off their mechanical bull named Gucci. But tonight, the music is low and the loudest sounds come from the clacking of vintage mechanical typewriters. About 30 people in the bar are drafting poems about horses, sunsets and Stetson hats - which are plentiful atop the heads in the crowd.Heck, they thought they killed me back in 15flew me out in a chopper, covered me with a sheet. Continue reading...

Leaders try to focus on what comes next, as backing for ejection of Maduro mingles uncomfortably with voicing of support for international law

Trump's audacious arrest of Maduro marks a conspicuous break with convention, even as previously observed by the president himselfNothing speaks more eloquently of the disempowering of the US Congress under Donald Trump's second presidency than the brazenly audacious arrest of Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia.Far from recognizing it, Trump did not even acknowledge Congress's right to know - keeping senior members in the dark until the operation to seize the strongman was under way. Continue reading...

Trump's tax bill carved out several areas for tipped workers and older adults, among others, to lower their tax billsUS taxpayers will have a gigantic refund year in the first quarter" of 2026, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, recently said in an interview.Given all the untruths that come out of the current administration, you wouldn't be blamed if you don't believe him. But you should. This year, there will be a significant amount of tax refunds. Why? Well, it's not tariff cash. It's because many people overpaid their taxes this year. Continue reading...

Officials evacuated about 325 men and women from Bridge shelter on New Year's Day after heavy rainsFor the third time in seven years, hundreds of people had to flee a homeless shelter in downtown San Diego this week after a heavy storm dropped a month's worth of rain, causing floods.The area received 2in of rain on New Year's Day, which broke local records and forced multiple water rescues, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Continue reading...

Edward Ahmed Mitchell of Council on American-Islamic Relations says Texas and Florida governors abusing powerThe deputy director of the US's biggest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group warns that Republican governors' steps to declare his organization a terrorist organization" won't stop with the Muslim community.No governor should have the power to unilaterally declare a civil rights or advocacy group he disagrees with a terrorist organization, take punitive action against them, all in violation of due process and free speech," Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Guardian this month. If any governor can get away with abusing that kind of power, then no organization is safe." Continue reading...

The US president used largely fictitious charges to seize control, but can't know how Venezuelans will react. He may also overstep now as regards IranDuring his presidential campaigns, Donald Trump pledged to end forever wars", abandon nation-building" interventions and focus instead on reviving a US economy that, in his telling, had been deindustrialised by a floodtide of imports. Though Trump's electoral victories cannot be attributed to any one thing, his America first" narrative certainly struck a chord.But Trump's use of force to seize the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, his full-bore support for Israel's demolition of Gaza and his bombing of Iran's nuclear enrichment installations show that he's no less willing than his predecessors to resort to military interventions.Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Continue reading...

Analysts and investors voice caution about tech valuations and Trump's influence on the US central bankInvestors expect global stock markets to keep rising in 2026, despite fears that the AI bubble could burst, and anxiety about chaos engulfing the US central bank.Wall Street strategists broadly expect the S&P 500 share index of US-listed companies to continue to rise over the next 12 months, but said it could be a volatile year if geopolitical tensions increase and inflation fails to fall. Continue reading...

Experts say lifting production to former levels could take decades and huge investment will be neededThe Venezuelan oil industry has been a total bust" for a long time, according to Donald Trump. After attacking Caracas and taking the country's leader captive, Trump promised to take control of Venezuela's oil industry with the help of America's biggest oil companies.Venezuela's beleaguered oil industry could make a lot of money" with the might of the US behind it, Trump told the press, claiming that the new regime would invest billions to revive its fortunes. Continue reading...

He took office promising to annex Greenland and take back the Panama Canal. Now that he has ousted Maduro, other countries could be nextThis is genius," Donald Trump enthused. It was 22 February 2022. Vladimir Putin had just declared parts of eastern Ukraine to be independent and sent in Russian troops to serve as so-called peacekeepers. The once and future American president was impressed, even inspired. We could use that on our southern border," Trump mused.Trump didn't know then that he was speaking at the start of a full-scale invasion that has lasted nearly four years and inflicted upwards of 1.5 million casualties and counting. And Trump doesn't know now what he has unleashed in Venezuela. The South American country is not Ukraine, nor, for that matter, is it Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya. But by ordering military strikes to seize dictator Nicolas Maduro, Trump has thrown a country of around 28 million people into uncertainty and tossed aside the most obvious, hard-won lesson of decades of US foreign policy failures: regime-change wars are easy to start and hard to win, much less to turn into anything resembling genuine success.Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School Continue reading...

A video shared by an official White House account appears to show US Drug Enforcement Administration officials escorting the handcuffed Venezuelan president at the agency's offices in New York. It follows Washington's pre-dawn assault on Caracas, during which Maduro and his wife were captured

Donald Trump says US will run' Venezuela as Nicolas Maduro and wife Cilia Flores are flown to New York

Most of the Americas have suffered from interference from their powerful northern neighbour - and are usually the worse off for it

With Nicolas Maduro in US custody, Donald Trump says we will run' Venezuela until a safe, proper and judicious transition' can be made - key US politics stories from 3 January 2026The US attacked Venezuela and captured its long-serving president Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, with Donald Trump promising to put the country under American control for now, even as Venezuelan officials vowed defiance.As part of a dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas, US special forces captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, the US president said. Continue reading...

US president says oil majors primed to invest in rebuilding infrastructure following Maduro ousterUS oil giants have so far remained silent on Donald Trump's claim that they are primed to spend billions and billions of dollars" rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry following the ouster of Nicolas Maduro.Chevron, the only US oil company still operating in Venezuela, committed only to following relevant laws and regulations" after the US president suggested American energy multinationals would be central to his plans for the country. Continue reading...

Though he also discussed plans to run' Venezuela, the US president could not resist upending his moment of glory

Republicans cheer capture of Venezuelan leader, but Democrats say it risks pulling our nation into another war'

Some suspected the attacks on Venezuela were coming, but the shock was still real and no one knows what will happen next

Donald Trump has announced that US forces captured the Venezuelan president,Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and have taken out of the country.The US carried out overnight strikes across the country with explosions rocking the capital, Caracas, before dawn

The Sisters of Watts have served families for a decade, providing food, fitness, money and after-school programsThe weekend before Thanksgiving, the gymnasium in Ted Watkins park in the south Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts was crowded with more than 100 families. For three hours, they ate and talked while their kids ran around and a DJ blasted west coast hip-hop staples during games of limbo and musical chairs.Toward the back of the room, people clamored around a step-and-repeat to get a picture with the event's organizers: four siblings known as the sisters of Watts, who for the past decade have arranged food giveaways, backpack drives and after-school activities for kids growing up on the same blocks they did. At this event, there were bags of fresh produce available for families that wanted them. Continue reading...

The world will be anxious, and rightly so. For a man so bent on a peace prize, Trump appears to revel in conflictThe overthrow and reported capture by invading US forces of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's hardline socialist president, will send a shiver of fear and consternation around the world. The coup is illegal, unprovoked and regionally and globally destabilising. It upends international norms, ignores sovereign territorial rights, and potentially creates an anarchic situation inside Venezuela itself.It is chaos made policy. But this is the world we now live in - the world according to Donald Trump.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...

The state has created the first registry in the US to track repeat domestic violence offendersLet's say you're going on a first date and you want to make sure the person you're meeting up with isn't a registered sex offender. If you live in the US, you can find this out very quickly: there's a centralized website provided by the US Department of Justice that lets you search a name or location in seconds.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

As explosions hit Caracas, the Venezuelan government confirmed attacks had been made on the capital, as well as three other states: Miranda, La Guaira and Aragua. Donald Trump claimed the US had 'captured' Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them out of the South American country

Years of scandal and disappointment have left a void in our politics. But New York's new mayor offers an alternative to more apathy: hopeOn 1 January, to mark his inauguration as mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani threw a block party. As he was sworn in outside city hall in front of a crowd of a few thousand of us, a nearby street in Manhattan was closed to traffic so that tens of thousands more could gather to watch the historic moment live on enormous screens. The weather - a cloudless blue sky and arctic winds - felt somehow fitting: a licence to dream and a warning against complacency.Mayors don't usually take office amid such a festival atmosphere. A smaller, more exclusive event is normally adequate. But a key feature of Mamdani's rise has been the desire for mass participation in politics. There was no chance this day was going to pass without an open-invitation party. Continue reading...

Venezuelan leader calls for dialogue and diplomacy' between Washington and Caracas following US claims of airstrike - key US politics stories from 2 January 2026The Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, has urged Donald Trump to abandon his illegal warmongering" and begin serious talks" with his administration as mystery continued to surround a purported pre-Christmas CIA airstrike on the South American country.Speaking during an hour-long TV interview, Maduro declined to confirm reports of the apparent US attack, which would be the first on Venezuelan soil since Trump began his five-month campaign of military pressure in August. Continue reading...