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

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

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 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 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

2 w. ago Drugs and gangs exist in Venezuela, but don’t be fooled. Trump arrested Nicolás Maduro to plunder our wealth | Andrés Antillano

The US president invokes the usual suspects – drugs, organised crime, illegal migration – but this is simply a grab for resources and powerIn the early hours of 3 January, Caracas and other cities in Venezuela were bombed and the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, was kidnapped along with his wife by US military personnel. In addition to the 100 deaths recorded so far as a result of the attack, approximately 100 more were caused by US attacks on small boats in the previous months, under the pretext of combatting drug trafficking. Although it seems clear that the real intention of Donald Trump’s administration was to seize Venezuela’s wealth, the initial argument to justify the military deployment in the Caribbean was that it was to fight the illegal drugs trade and stop the flow of migrants that the Venezuelan government was allegedly causing by emptying prisons of criminals and sending them to the US.As a criminology professor who has studied Venezuelan drug trafficking for 20 y...

Events

2 w. ago Greenland is Europe’s credibility litmus test – it must show Trump that aggression carries a price | Fabian Zuleeg

In the new dog-eat-dog world order, appeasement doesn’t work. Time for the EU to grow upFabian Zuleeg is chief executive of the European Policy CentreDonald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela is not a one-off shock. It epitomises his approach of interventionist isolationism based on a revisionist, neo-nationalist agenda in which power is exercised bluntly, international rules are optional and alliances are transactional. In such a dog-eat-dog world, hesitation and ambiguity do not stabilise the system; they become vulnerabilities to be exploited by a volatile and predatory Washington.The seizure of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, combined with Trump’s renewed musings about acquiring Greenland, potentially by using the US military, should dispel any lingering illusion that this is merely erratic behaviour. It reflects a worldview in which sovereignty is conditional, spheres of influence are legitimate, and coercion is normalised when it delivers results in the interest of Trump...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump declares himself ‘acting president of Venezuela’ in Truth Social post

US President Donald Trump has posted a fake Wikipedia page on Truth Social where he is calling himself the "acting President of Venezuela" following the capture of Nicolas Maduro

Politics

2 w. ago Venezuelan soldiers 'bled and collapsed' after US deployed powerful sonic weapon during dramatic Maduro capture, according to eyewitness account

The United States launched a strike on Venezuela on January 3, capturing President Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking charges.

Events

2 w. ago America used a powerful sonic weapon that left Venezuelan soldiers vomiting blood: Harrowing 'new account of Maduro raid'

The United States launched a strike on Venezuela on January 3, capturing President Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking charges.

Events

2 w. ago The Guardian view on the new global disorder: Britain and Europe must find their own path | Editorial

Donald Trump’s Venezuela policy confirms he has no time for rules or process. America’s allies must find new ways to guarantee their own interestsOccasionally, history generates smooth changes from one era to another. More commonly, such shifts occur only gradually and untidily. And sometimes, as the former Downing Street foreign policy adviser John Bew puts it in the New Statesman, history unfolds “in a series of flashes and bangs”. In Caracas last weekend, Donald Trump’s forces did this in spectacular style. In the process, the US brushed aside more of what remains of the so-called rules-based order with which it tried to shape the west after 1945.The capture of Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro has precedents in US policy. But discerning a wider new pattern from the kidnapping is not easy, especially at this early stage. As our columnist Aditya Chakrabortty has argued this week, the abduction can be seen as a assertion of American power, but also as little more than a c...

Politics

2 w. ago US protester arrested after TV interview says she was targeted due to Venezuela trip

Jessica Plichta faces misdemeanor charges, which locals say is a tactic of Grand Rapids, Michigan, police to suppress protestsJessica Plichta was arrested on 3 January after a live interview with a local news station about a Grand Rapids, Michigan, protest against the Trump administration’s seizure of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, in an attack with a reported death toll of 100. The clip went immediately viral, racking up millions of views across social media. While the headlines focused on Plichta’s age (22) and that she’s a preschool teacher, Plichta believes the reason for her arrest – seemingly the only one among roughly 200 protesters – went beyond the day’s events.Plichta, who recently co-founded local group Grand Rapids Opponents of War, which helped organize Saturday’s protest, had visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas just last month, amid the Trump administration’s blockade. She was a part of a delegation to the International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty a...

Events

3 w. ago Venezuela's military buries soldiers slain in US operation to capture Maduro

Venezuela’s military held a mass funeral in Caracas as it began to bury dozens of soldiers slain during the United States' weekend operation to capture former President Nicolás Maduro

Events

3 w. ago US troops abseil from aircraft in training drills at RAF base as Trump builds up military forces in Britain after capture of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro

Elite soldiers were seen rappelling from CV-22B tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft as part of an exercise at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire yesterday.

Politics

3 w. ago People from Venezuela and neighbouring countries: share your reaction to US raid

We’d like to hear from people in Venezuela, as well as from neighbouring countries mentioned by the Trump administration, about how they are responding to recent US actionsAs Donald Trump prepares to make his first public appearance since Venezuela’s former president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, appeared in a US court and pleaded not guilty to all charges, there is growing international concern over the shock US military operation in Venezuela, which the UN human rights office has said undermined a fundamental principle of international law.We would like to hear from Venezuelans, both in the country and abroad, about how you are feeling in the wake of these events – either positively or negatively – and what concerns or hopes you have for Venezuela’s future. You might want to share how this is affecting you personally, your family, or people you know on the ground. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago From dramatic capture in Venezuela to a New York courtroom: How Maduro’s extraordinary arrest unfolded minute by minute

Nicolas Maduro was snatched from Venezuela by the U.S. military, throwing the country’s future into chaos. James C. Reynolds reports on how operation Absolute Resolve was planned and executed

Events

3 w. ago Jon Stewart on Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela: ‘This is all exhausting’

Late-night hosts react to Trump’s shocking attack on Venezuela and surprise capture of Nicolás MaduroLate-night hosts tore into the Trump administration’s surprise military attack on Caracas, capture of president Nicolás Maduro and vague plans to “run” Venezuela. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago US military builds up aircraft at bases in Britain as fleet of C

The United States is building up air forces in Britain following its audacious capture of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. Ten C-17s and two AC-130Js have landed in recent days.

Events

3 w. ago Chaos as gunfire erupts near Venezuela's presidential palace in Caracas

Videos circulating on social media captured the sound of sustained gunfire echoing across Caracas, Venezuela, following the removal of President Nicolás Maduro from power

Events