61 h. ago ‘Embarrassed’ v ‘force to be reckoned with’: Americans on Trump’s foreign interventions

From capturing Maduro to proposing a take over of Greenland – people respond to the president’s rhetoricAs Donald Trump continues to call for the US to take control of Greenland, not long after the US captured the deposed president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, we asked people in the US what they thought about Trump’s foreign intervention and rhetoric. Here are some of their responses. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Scotland's roads becoming deadlier amid rising fatalities and surging traffic offences

The news comes as reckless drivers increasingly flout the law, with rises in drink and drug driving, speeding, dangerous driving and unsafe vehicle offences.

Events

5 d. ago Leaked video shows Venezuela regime’s desperate struggle to control message

Interim leader Delcy Rodríguez told influencers of US threat to kill leaders if they did cooperate after capture of MaduroThe communications minister holds a phone up to a microphone before a gathering of regime-friendly influencers.On speakerphone is Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, who claims that when US forces captured the dictator Nicolás Maduro, she and other members of his cabinet were given 15 minutes to decide whether to comply with Washington’s demands – “or they would kill us.” Continue reading...

Culture

6 d. ago Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez assured US of cooperation before Maduro’s capture

Exclusive: sources say powerful figures in the regime secretly pledged US and Qatari officials they would welcome Maduro’s departureBefore the US military snatched Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month, Delcy Rodríguez and her powerful brother pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration once the strongman was gone, four sources involved at high levels with the discussions told the Guardian.Rodríguez, who was sworn in on 5 January as acting president to replace Maduro, and her brother Jorge, the head of the national assembly, secretly assured US and Qatari officials through intermediaries ahead of time that they would welcome Maduro’s departure, according to the sources. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Olympics chief admits she has not spoken to US president Trump about LA 2028 Games

Kirsty Coventry steers clear of global politics in buildupOrganisers will meet with vice-president JD VanceThe International Olympic Committee has yet to establish formal communications with the US president Donald Trump on preparations for the Los Angeles Games in 2028, the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, has confirmed.Trump has been speaking in Davos in Switzerland after a turbulent start to 2026 during which he has suggested he will invade Greenland, threatened a trade war with Europe and ousted the Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Trump seizes SEVENTH tanker in Caribbean as footage shows special forces on boat after it ‘took oil from Venezuela’

AMERICAN forces have seized a seventh oil tanker linked to Venezuela as President Donald Trump ramps up his campaign to choke off illicit crude exports from the country. US Southern Command said the Motor Vessel Sagitta was boarded and taken under control “without incident” in the Caribbean after operating in defiance of Trump’s quarantine on...

Politics

1 week ago Growing sense of embarrassment at Fifa over Donald Trump peace prize

Mid-level and senior officials uncomfortable with awardFifa says it still ‘strongly’ supports the peace prizeThere is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of its peace prize to Donald Trump. The US president was handed the award at the World Cup draw in Washington DC in December with the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, telling Trump: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader and you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize.”Since then, the US has launched airstrikes across Venezuela and captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown them to the US, where he was put in jail. Maduro appeared in court on 5 January, pleading not guilty to drugs, weapons and “narco-terrorism” charges. Trump has also threatened to invade Greenland because he said the US needs the territory “very badly”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago CIA chief visits Maduro successor as Machado vows to become Venezuela’s president

John Ratcliffe meets Delcy Rodríguez in Caracas less than two weeks after his agents helped to oust her precedessorThe CIA chief whose agents reputedly played a key role in abducting Nicolás Maduro has flown to Venezuela to meet his successor as the sidelined opposition leader, María Corina Machado, vowed she would become the country’s first elected female president.Machado’s comments were broadcast on Friday, a day after she handed her Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump in recognition of what she called a principled and decisive move against Maduro, whom US special forces snatched on 3 January. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Has a Nazi theorist’s vision of a world divided into 'great spaces' found a new advocate in Trump? | Brendan Simms

Carl Schmitt wanted empires that dominated the small countries in their orbits. But the US president’s chaotic actions are not that strategicIt is axiomatic to many of his critics that the US president, Donald Trump, is a fascist. Indeed, some have seen echoes of the work of the Nazis’ “crown jurist” and political theorist, Carl Schmitt, in the Trump administration’s domestic policies, particularly his doctrine of “the exception”, which can be used to suspend certain constitutional rights. After a tumultuous few weeks in geopolitics, his work is being discussed for its contemporary relevance again.In the wake of the release of the new US National Security Strategy in 2025, its raid on Venezuela, the president’s rhetoric on Greenland, Panama, Colombia, Mexico and Cuba, and his apparent indulgence towards Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the question now being asked is whether Trump is also an advocate of aspects of Schmitt’s concept of “great space”.Brendan Simms is director of the Centre fo...

Politics

1 week ago María Corina Machado presents Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal

Trump heaped praise on the Venezuelan opposition leader for presenting him with ‘her Nobel peace prize for the work I have done’The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has presented her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters on Thursday she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Venezuela’s acting president pushes major shift toward foreign oil investment

The move challenges deeply rooted beliefs within her government

Politics

1 week ago Photos show daily life along Venezuela’s oil coast after Maduro’s capture

Less than two weeks after a U.S. military operation captured former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and as his successor, acting President Delcy Rodriguez, announced plans to reform Venezuela’s energy sector, the country’s largest oil refining hub dominates the northwestern coast. Across the Paraguana Peninsula, fishing boats share the water with oil tankers, as daily life stretches from refinery-side coastal communities and salt flats to the sand dunes of Medanos de Coro National Park.

Culture

1 week ago María Corina Machado says she presented Trump with her Nobel peace prize medal

The Venezuelan opposition leader did not confirm whether the US president accepted the awardThe Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has said she “presented” her gold Nobel peace prize medal to Donald Trump after meeting him in the White House, nearly a fortnight after he ordered the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.Machado, who received the award last year for her struggle against Maduro’s “brutal, authoritarian state”, told reporters she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”. It was not immediately clear whether Trump had accepted the gift. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Venezuela’s new leader faces competing pressures from the US and a government loyal to Maduro

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez is set to deliver her first state of the union speech

Politics

1 week ago Why big oil giants may not rush to buy into Donald Trump’s Venezuelan vision

It may well be safer, easier and cheaper for US companies to procure whatever oil the US economy needs at homeThere are a few reasons that Donald Trump – now self-anointed acting President of Venezuela, as well as the United States – might be so excited about appropriating Venezuela’s oil.Trump may be counting on some boost from cheap oil to the US economy: he is obsessed with the price of gas. As the midterm elections approach, he has become concerned about unemployment. Deeply imprinted memories of scarcity during the oil crises of the 1970s may prime his belief that cheap oil cures it all. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Donald Trump brags about 'very good call' with 'terrific' Venezuelan president ahead of meeting with opposition leader

Donald Trump boasted of a 'very good call' with Interim Venezuela President Delcy Rodriguez after the Senate blocked a resolution that would have limited his powers in the region.

Politics

2 w. ago Venezuela regime claims release of political prisoners is sign of new era

NGOs estimate that there are still close to 1,000 political prisoners in Venezuela despite claims by new leadersVenezuela’s acting president has claimed that the regime’s release of political prisoners sent a “very clear message” that the country was “opening up to a new political moment”, days after the seizure and rendition of the dictator Nicolás Maduro.Delcy Rodríguez also vowed to continue the releases and accused NGOs that have described the process as slow and opaque of “lying to the world and trying to sell falsehoods about Venezuela”. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Venezuela's acting president vows to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez vows to continue releasing prisoners detained under former President Nicolás Maduro

Events

2 w. ago DoJ deemed it ‘unnecessary’ to conclude whether seizing Maduro violated law, memo reveals

Memo on US military raid to capture Venezuela’s president effectively argued that presidents can blow through UN charterUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration received approval from the justice department to use the military to seize Nicolás Maduro even as it declined to address whether the operation would violate international law, according to its legal memo released on Tuesday.The dark-of-night raid to capture Venezuela’s president has raised a host of legal issues concerning the president’s power to start an armed conflict without congressional approval and possible breaches of international law. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago DoJ deemed it ‘unnecessary’ to conclude whether seizing Maduro violated international law, memo reveals

Memo on US military raid to capture Venezuela’s president effectively argued that presidents can blow through UN charterUS politics live – latest updatesThe Trump administration received approval from the justice department to use the military to seize Nicolás Maduro even as it declined to address whether the operation would violate international law, according to its legal memo released on Tuesday.The dark-of-night raid to capture Venezuela’s president has raised a host of legal issues concerning the US president’s power to start an armed conflict without congressional approval and possible breaches of international law. Continue reading...

Society