The Venezuelan government has responded defiantly to heightened pressure by the US government, including Donald Trump’s statements on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be closed.
In a statement, the Venezuelan government said Trump’s comments were a “colonialist threat” against their sovereignty and violated international law. The government also said it demanded respect for its airspace and would not accept foreign orders or threats.
Here are the key stories:
Venezuela denounces ‘colonialist threat’ as Trump orders airspace closed
Trump on Saturday, in a Truth Social post said: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Due to Trump’s announcement, all migrant deportation flights were “unilaterally suspended”, the Venezuelan government said. Deportation flights to Venezuela have been a significant point of contention for the Trump administration, as it continues to engage in its mass deportation program. The US defense department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean have been under way for months, along with a US military buildup in the region, and Trump has authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela.
White House launches website to excoriate media for ‘biased’ stories
The White House rolled out a new section of its official website on Friday that publicly criticizes and catalogs media organizations and journalists it claims have distorted coverage.
At the top of the page, the text reads: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” The feature names the Boston Globe, CBS News and the Independent as “media offenders of the week”, accusing them of inaccurately portraying Trump’s remarks about six Democratic lawmakers who released of video encouraging military members to not follow illegal orders.
Pete Hegseth denies he gave orders to ‘kill everybody’ on alleged ‘narco-boat’
The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has declared recent reporting that he may have illegally ordered all people to be killed in a military strike in the Caribbean as “fake news” on Friday evening, adding that the series of strikes of people on boats had been “lawful under both US and international law”.
The remarks came after a Washington Post report this week alleged that Hegseth ordered defense officials to “kill everybody” traveling on a boat that was being surveilled by analysts on 2 September, the first strike of many carried out in recent months by the Trump administration. The White House said – without proof – that the people in the boats in the Caribbean, killed in Pentagon operations, were drug smugglers.
Experts say strict new FDA protocol for vaccine approval is ‘dangerous’
The leading vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a far stricter course for federal vaccine approvals, following claims from his team that Covid vaccines were linked to the deaths of at least 10 children. Experts suggest the announcement will make the vaccine approval process significantly more difficult.
Dr Vinay Prasad, whose vaccine policy direction has been supported by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, told FDA staff that the agency would rethink its approach to vaccination programs, according to an internal agency email circulated on Friday.
What else happened today:
Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75m to the US government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.
Speculation intensifies that people implicated in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes could face criminal charges or, at the least, social ostracism, as a deadline looms for the release of more documents about the disgraced financier.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 28 November 2025.
