Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump made a stunning announcement that the interim authorities in Venezuela, who apparently now serve at his pleasure, will let him sell between $1.8 and $3bn worth of their country’s oil, which made real a fantasy the president has been sharing in public for at least 15 years, about using the US military to “take the oil” of conquered nations.
Trump is actively discussing options for “acquiring Greenland”, including the use of the US military, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said.
Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, stressed at a meeting with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, that “the future of Greenland and Denmark” must be “decided solely by the people of Denmark and Greenland.”
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former marine who fought in Iraq, called the news that Trump is considering an invasion of Greenland “INSANE” and called for Congress to block it.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, hardened her tone against the United States on Tuesday, saying in a televised address that “no external agent governs Venezuela”. Hours later, Trump announced that the interim government was giving him up to 50 million barrels of its oil.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told lawmakers that the president was just using threats of military action in Greenland to convince Denmark to sell the territory to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, told reporters that he hopes to meet Rubio soon, with his Greenlandic counterpart, to try to correct what he called the false information Trump has spread about Greenland.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, issued a bipartisan statement urging Trump to accept that “Greenland is not for sale”.
Citing what it called concerns about fraud, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday that it froze more than $10bn in federal childcare and family assistance funds for state-run programs in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York – five states with Democratic governors that voted against Donald Trump in all three elections since 2016.
The action applies to three programs overseen by the health department’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF): the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grant.
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Trump to meet oil executives at the White House on Friday - report
Donald Trump will meet with oil company executives at the White House on Friday to discuss rebuilding Venezuela’s degraded oil sector, two unnamed sources told Reuters.
Raising crude output from Venezuela, which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves, is a top objective for Trump after US forces seized the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a raid on its capital Caracas on Saturday, and left his regime in place.
Chevron is the only major US oil firm now operating in Venezuela’s oil fields.
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips were major producers in the country before their projects were nationalized by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, nearly two decades ago.
Long before Venezuela, Trump fantasized about using the US military to seize foreign oil reserves
Donald Trump’s stunning announcement on Tuesday, that the interim authorities in Venezuela, who apparently now serve at his pleasure, will let him sell between $1.8bn and $3bn worth of their country’s oil, and decide how to spend the proceeds, makes real a fantasy the president has been sharing in public for at least 15 years, about using the US military to “take the oil” of conquered nations.
Earlier in the day, Joe Scarborough, a former Republican representative turned centrist pundit, reported that Trump had told him in a phone conversation that his plans for Venezuela were very different from the failed US occupation of Iraq two decades ago. “Joe, the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil,” the president said. “We’re going to keep the oil.”
“In 2016,” Trump added, “I said we should’ve kept the oil. It caused a lot of controversy. Well, we should’ve kept the oil.”
In Venezuela, he said, “we’re going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time, we’re going to keep the oil”.
As I reported in 2016, Trump did indeed tell Matt Lauer, at a presidential forum on the military two months before he was elected, that the US had made a grave mistake in Iraq by failing to “take the oil” before withdrawing all of its troops.
“If we would’ve taken the oil, you wouldn’t have Isis, because Isis formed with the power and the wealth of that oil,” Trump said.
“How are we going to take the oil?” Lauer asked.
Trump suggested that the US could have left troops behind to “take various sections where they have the oil”.
“You know, it used to be the victor belong the spoils,” Trump added. “But I always said, take the oil.”
In that interview, Trump was referring to the fact that he had, five years earlier, when he briefly considered running for president against Barack Obama, repeatedly called for the US to use its military force to extort control of foreign oil reserves.
In a YouTube video posted in late February 2011 on a channel set up to promote The Apprentice, Trump criticized Obama for not sending in troops to topple Col Muammar Gaddafi. “I can’t believe what our country is doing,” Trump said. “Gaddafi in Libya is killing thousands of people, nobody knows how bad it is, and we’re sitting around. We have soldiers all have the Middle East, and we’re not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage.”
“After it’s all done, we go to the protesters, who end up running the country,” Trump added, “and we should then say: ‘By the way, from all of your oil, we want reimbursement.’”
A month later, when the Fox host Bill O’Reilly quizzed him on how he would handle foreign policy as president, Trump proudly unveiled his plan to seize Iraq’s oil.
“I like the old system better: you won a war, you stay there, and you keep the oil,” Trump said. “You stay and protect the oil, and you take the oil and you take whatever is necessary for them and you take what’s necessary for us and we pay our self back $1.5tn or more. We take care of Britain, we take care of other countries that helped us, and we don’t be so stupid.”
“So, in a nutshell,” he added, “we go in, we take over the second-largest oilfields, and we stay.”
When O’Reilly stifled a laugh as he said: “So you’re going to take over the Iraqi oilfields?” Trump was indignant, saying: “Don’t smile!”
“I’m just saying,” O’Reilly said, “if you’re going to go into the Iraq oilfields and take them over, there’s going to be a lot of blowback.”
Five months later, after the US-led air campaign had forced Gaddafi from power in Libya – and Trump had decided not to challenge Obama for the presidency – the star of The Apprentice posted another YouTube video, this time complaining that the US should have waited longer to aid the Libyan rebels, to force them to agree to surrender half of the country’s oil reserves.
“What we should’ve done is we should’ve asked the rebels when they came to us – and they came to us, they were being routed by Gaddafi, they were being decimated – we should’ve said: ‘We’ll help you, but we want 50% of your oil,’” Trump said. “They would’ve said: ‘How about 75%?’”
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Pentagon demobilizes federalized national guard troops in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago
The US military’s Northern Command announced on Tuesday that hundreds of national guard troops, called up in support of immigration enforcement raids in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, are being returned from federal service to their respective states.
All of those troops “will return to their home units once their demobilization is complete”, the military command said in a statement.
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, welcomed the decision to release the reservists who were blocked from deploying to the streets of Portland by a federal court injunction.
Kotek said:
The citizen-soldiers of the Oregon National Guard are our neighbors, friends, and family. These courageous Oregonians deserve certainty and respect. While I am relieved that all our troops will finally return home, it does not make up for the personal sacrifices of more than 100 days, including holidays, spent in limbo.
During this crisis, Oregonians stood united against the unwanted, unneeded, unconstitutional military intervention in our state, with thousands peacefully voicing their opposition to the Trump Administration’s abuse of power.
President Trump’s disregard for the facts on the ground revealed that he is more focused on provoking a fight in cities and states that don’t share his politics than serving the American people. I remain committed to defending our values and the rule of law.
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Senators Tillis and Shaheen urge Trump to accept 'Greenland is not for sale'
Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, issued a bipartisan statement urging Donald Trump to accept that “Greenland is not for sale”.
The senators, who co-chair a Senate group on Nato, wrote:
Denmark is one of our oldest and most reliable allies. Danish troops have fought and died alongside Americans in numerous conflicts, and Denmark was among the first to stand with us when NATO invoked Article 5 following the 9/11 attacks. Today, Denmark is significantly increasing its defense spending and remains a critical partner in Arctic security. This is an ally that has earned our unwavering respect.
When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honor its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark. Any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our Alliance exists to defend.
They added: “As we confront the challenges of the 21st century, we do so alongside allies like Denmark who stand with us by choice, not by compulsion.”
Trump says Venezuela has agreed to let him sell 30-50m barrels of oil
Donald Trump, who has for years claimed that the US military can and should be used to take control of the oil of foreign nations, announced on Tuesday that the interim authorities in Venezuela have agreed to let him sell 30-50m barrels of their oil.
“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America. This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately,” he added. “It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
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Trump's claims about Greenland are misinformation, Denmark's foreign minister says
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, responds to a request from Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for the three of them to meet soon to discuss threats from Donald Trump to seize the Danish self-governing territory.
According to the Danish public broadcaster DR, Rasmussen said that such a meeting would give the Danes and Greenlanders a chance to correct what he called the false information Trump has used to argue that Greenland poses a threat to the security of the United States.
That misinformation, the foreign minister said, includes false claims that there are a lot of Russian and Chinese ships around Greenland, and that China exerts great influence there through investments.
“Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.
“We do not share this image that Greenland is plastered with Chinese investments,” Rasmussen said, “nor that there are Chinese warships up and down along Greenland”.
Rasmussen spoke to reporters after an emergency session of Denmark’s foreign policy committee and defense ministry with just one item on the agenda: “The Kingdom’s relations with the United States.”
Denmark’s defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said after the meeting that Denmark had spent billions to increase security in Greenland, not, as Trump had claimed this week, by adding just “one more dog sled”.
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Joint statement by Nordic foreign ministers on Greenland rejects US advances on territory
The foreign ministers of five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – have rejected the Trump administration’s statement that it is reviewing options for “acquiring Greenland” in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“We collectively reiterate that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are for Denmark and Greenland to decide alone,” the foreign ministers write.
The statement also says that the nations “support NATO increasing its presence and vigilance” in the arctic region, but security “rests on respect for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders”.
“The Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland, is a founding member of NATO,” the foreign ministers note, “and has historically worked closely with the United States on Arctic Security, including through the Defense Agreement between the US and Denmark from 1951, which offers opportunities for increased security cooperation.”
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Rubio told US lawmakers Trump wants Denmark to sell Greenland to US - report
During a classified briefing on Venezuela on Monday, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told lawmakers that the president was just using threats of military action in Greenland to convince Denmark to sell the territory to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal, Rubio was responding to a question from Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, about whether the Trump administration plans to make good on threats to use military force in Mexico and Greenland.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator who was a scathing critic of Trump’s qualifications to be commander-in-chief in 2016 but has since turned into a staunch supporter, told the newspaper the threat to attack Greenland “is all about negotiations”.
After Graham dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he told reporters that choosing between the final two candidates, Trump and Ted Cruz, was “like being shot or poisoned”.
“Donald Trump I think is the most unprepared person I’ve ever met to be commander-in-chief,” Graham added. “When Donald Trump speaks about foreign policy, it scares the hell out of me.”
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Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, hardened her tone against the United States on Tuesday, saying in a televised address that “no external agent governs Venezuela” – a clear rebuttal to Donald Trump’s claim that, following the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, the US would now run the South American country.
It marked another shift in tone from Maduro’s former vice-president. After being sworn in as president by Venezuela’s supreme court on Saturday, Rodríguez released a conciliatory statement late on Sunday in which she “invited the US government to work together on an agenda of cooperation”.
That softer message came hours after the US president threatened that she could “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she did not comply with his demands.
In Tuesday’s address, however, Rodríguez reverted to harsher language, describing Saturday’s strike – the first large-scale US military operation on South American soil – as a “terrible military aggression” and a “criminal attack” whose “absolutely illegal outcome, in violation of international law”, was the “kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
“We are a people who do not surrender, who do not give up, and we are here, governing together with the people. The government of Venezuela rules in our country – no one else. There is no external agent governing Venezuela. It is Venezuela, it’s constitutional government and the consolidated power of the people,” said Rodríguez, who had served as Maduro’s vice-president since 2018.
Since Monday, the regime has stepped up internal repression, with armed militias patrolling streets, operating checkpoints and checking people’s mobile phones.
The regime also made public a decree dated Saturday and signed by Maduro – who was arrested at 2.01am – declaring a “state of external commotion”, effectively a state of emergency, and ordering the “immediate search and capture of anyone involved in the promotion or support of the US armed attack”.
At least 14 journalists and media workers, including 13 linked to international outlets, were detained in Caracas. Thirteen were later released, one of whom was deported. Gunshots and explosions were reported overnight near the Miraflores presidential palace, and the government said it had fired at unauthorised drones flying over the area.
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Gallego moves to block Pentagon funds for Greenland invasion
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former marine who fought in Iraq, called the White House statement that Donald Trump is considering using the military to invade Greenland “INSANE” in a social media post and called for Congress to block the threatened invasion of Danish territory.
In response to the news, Gallego wrote on Bluesky: “INSANE. This is why I’m taking action. Congress MUST act so I’m introducing my War Powers Resolution to stop this Dumbroe Doctrine.”
Gallego has drafted an amendment to the Pentagon defense appropriations bill “To prohibit the use of funds for military force, the conduct of hostilities, or the preparation for war against or with respect to Greenland”.
In his social media post, Gallego also made a mocking reference to Trump’s recent boast that his attack on Venezuela was a development of the 1823 Monroe doctrine, which the president claimed some were calling the “Donroe doctrine”.
“This is not more complicated than the fact that Trump wants a giant island with his name on it,” Gallego added. “He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong. The US military is not a toy.”
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'The future of Greenland' is solely up to the people of Greenland and Denmark, Canada's prime minister says
As the White House says that a military option for seizing the Danish territory of Greenland is under active consideration, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, just met with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, in Paris, and stressed that “the future of Greenland and Denmark” must be “decided solely by the people of Denmark and Greenland.”
Carney also stressed that Denmark and Canada “share a maritime border of 3,000 kilometers” and a close relationship through Nato.
Carney also mentioned that Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, is about to visit Greenland.
“I will be in Nuuk in the coming weeks to officially open Canada’s consulate and mark a concrete step in strengthening our engagement in support of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Greenland,” Anand wrote on social media.
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Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, is demanding US big oil bosses disclose any prior knowledge of Trump’s attack on Venezuela and capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
“President Trump and his administration lied about and concealed their plans to attack the territory of, and conduct regime change in, Venezuela, keeping the American public and members of Congress – who have the sole constitutional power to declare war – in the dark. The only outside entities that appear to have known the truth are oil executives,” Markey wrote in the letters to the heads of Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, the three biggest US oil companies.
The missives, sent Tuesday, follow a claim from Trump on Sunday that he talked to oil companies “before and after” the attack on Venezuela, describing them as crucial to “fix the infrastructure” in the country.
On Friday, an industry insider told Politico big oil executives did communicate with Trump about the attack. “In preparation for regime change, there had been engagement,” the person said, adding that “it’s been sporadic and relatively flatly received by the industry”.
Trump purportedly seeks a massive ramp-up of fossil fuel extraction from Venezuela. The country is home to the world’s largest oil reserves, though production has plummeted since its peak in the 1970s.
“The oil companies are going to go in, they are going to spend money, we are going to take back the oil, frankly, we should’ve taken back a long time ago,” the US president said in the wake of the extraction of Maduro, as well as his wife, Cilia Flores.
In his letters, Markey called on Chevron – the sole US oil company doing business in Venezuela – as well as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips to turn over any communication with US officials about the military operations before they occurred.
He also asked the companies whether they had had advance notice of attempts at regime change, and to disclose their plans to boost oil extraction in Venezuela. In addition, he asked how the firms would be affected by the military action in the South American country. And he asked for their take on officials’ claims that the country “stole” American oil.
“The American people deserve to know,” Markey wrote.
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Mark Warner, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, just posted a statement on social media urging his Republican colleagues to take Trump’s threats of military action against three more countries seriously.
“Now, Trump threatens Greenland, Colombia, and Mexico,” Warner wrote on Bluesky. “Where is the line? When will Republicans find a spine to say this is ridiculous and dangerous?”
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White House says Trump is weighing options for 'acquiring Greenland', including military action
Donald Trump is actively discussing options for “acquiring Greenland”, including the use of the US military, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday:
President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.
At a news conference in Paris, the ITV correspondent James Mates just asked Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, who touted new commitments from the Trump administration to defend Ukraine: “What value do these commitments have on the very day that at the highest levels of government in Washington they are talking about seizing the sovereign territory of a fellow Nato member?”
Starmer said that he stood by the statement he made on Monday, when he said that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must determine the future of Greenland and nobody else”.
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Top House Democrat on foreign affairs committee says 'critical questions remain' over what happens next following Venezuela briefing
After top Trump administration officials gave a briefing to congressional leaders on the military operation in Venezuela, the top House Democrat on the foreign affairs committee said that he “heard nothing” to dispel his “very serious concerns about the Trump administration’s attempted regime-change” in the country.
“Donald Trump used US military force to invade a sovereign nation without authorization from Congress. He did so not to address an imminent threat to the United States, nor to advance a democratic transition in Venezuela,” said the representative Gregory Meeks. “Instead, the administration is embracing a dangerous worldview in which the United States can run roughshod over our hemisphere, mirroring the same logic Vladimir Putin uses to justify domination over his neighbors.”
Meeks said he would push for “public hearings, transparency and meaningful oversight to reassert Congress’s constitutional role and prevent further escalation and instability”.
A reminder that the same officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will brief all senators on the weekend strikes in Caracas and the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, tomorrow on Capitol Hill.
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The Trump administration has sent more immigration agents to Minnesota, part of escalating attacks and rhetoric against the state and its immigrant populations.
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed on X that it is “surging to Minneapolis to root out fraud, arrest perpetrators and remove criminal illegal aliens”. Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Newsmax that the agency has in the city “the largest immigration operation ever taking place right now”.
CBS News reported on Monday that the administration would bring another 2,000 agents, both from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations, into the state for 30 days. Lyons didn’t confirm the number of agents, but said it was an effort from both ICE and HSI. DHS wouldn’t confirm a number to the Guardian, but said that the agency had “surged law enforcement”.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, appears to be in the state. She can be seen in a video produced by DHS of an arrest in Minneapolis of a man from Ecuador whom the agency said is wanted for murder in his home country.
Operation Metro Surge, the agency’s name for its crackdown on Minnesota, has been under way since early December. Community members have fought back against ICE, protesting and impeding deportations, as some immigrants have stayed away from public life, avoiding grocery stores or medical care for fear of apprehension.
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Here are a few pictures of the January 6 supporters who have been marching in DC today, on the fifth anniversary of the Capitol insurrection. A note that the demonstration was billed as a “memorial march” for the killed rioter Ashli Babbitt.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
In a lengthy, sprawling speech to House Republicans at their annual retreat, Donald Trump said that the military operation in Venezuela, which included strikes on Caracas and the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, was “brilliant tactically” and “an incredible thing”. He added that the deposed leader, who remains in US federal custody, is a “violent guy”. Trump added: “He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit, but he’s a violent guy, and he’s killed millions of people.”
Trump also implored Republican lawmakers to win the upcoming midterms, saying that Democrats would impeach him if they won control of Congress. Trump also gave several policy points for House GOP to double down on when campaigning, encouraging them to “own” healthcare. “Figure it out. Let the money go directly to the people,” he said, referring to his own preference to give low-income enrollees the money in health savings accounts to use for medical expenses.
The president also used his speech to double down on election conspiracies. He made several baseless comments that elections in the US are “crooked” or “corrupt”. Trump repeated the falsehood that the 2020 election was “rigged” – a claim that has added weight given the five-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.
Trump also paid tribute to the late Doug LaMalfa, a California Republican who died at age 65, according to statements from GOP officials. LaMalfa represented the state’s rural northern region in the House of Representatives and was known for his work on water and forestry policy. His death means that Republicans have a 218 member majority in the lower chamber, compared to 213 Democrats.
Dozens of supporters of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, which included pardoned rioters, descended on Washington today. Later, a brawl erupted after a counter-protester used a bullhorn to interrupt speeches. One attendee tried to wrestle the bullhorn out of the protester’s hands while she called those present “traitors”. Eventually, she was handcuffed by the police. Many of those at today’s march, said that they were there to protest against the death of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was killed by Capitol police on the day of the attack.
At the US Capitol earlier, Democrats held a hearing commemorating the anniversary of the insurrection. House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said that Donald Trump and “far-right extremists in Congress have repeatedly attempted to rewrite history and whitewash the horrific events of January 6”. Several other Democratic lawmakers issued sharp statements and criticism of the Trump administration on today’s anniversary.
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Reporting from Capitol Hill:
Supporters of January 6 defendants have arrived at the edge of the Capitol, but are being stopped from proceeding on to its grounds by lines of police.
The crowd, which numbers in the dozens, has attracted many journalists as well as a small group of counter protesters that are being kept away by police.
They were playing Trump rally staple God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, and just sang the national anthem, after which they chanted, “Ashli Babbitt!” – the name of the rioter shot dead by police during the insurrection five years ago.
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Brawl erupts as counter-protester is arrested at march by pardoned January 6 rioters
At a march held by dozens of supporters of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, which included pardoned rioters, a brawl erupted after a counter-protester used a bullhorn to interrupt speeches. One attendee tried to wrestle the bullhorn out of the protester’s hands while she called those present “traitors”. Eventually, she was handcuffed by the police.
Many of those at today’s march, including Enrique Tarrio – the former Proud Boys leader who was convicted and later pardoned for his role in the January 6 insurrection – said that they were there to protest against the death of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was killed by Capitol police on the day of the attack.
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Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has said he will look at bringing state charges against Venezuela’s deposed president Nicolás Maduro, ostensibly for trafficking drugs to the state. “We’ve had people in Florida that have been victimized,” DeSantis said at a Tuesday morning press conference in Clearwater.
Maduro remains in federal custody in New York after being snatched from his home in Caracas by US special forces on Saturday. He pleaded not guilty to “narco-terrorism” and weapons charges in a Manhattan court on Monday, and is unlikely to be able to travel to Florida any time soon to answer any charges state prosecutors bring.
Even so, DeSantis said that might be necessary because of what he saw as an omission in the federal indictment.
“He was obviously very involved with bringing drugs particularly to Florida, but you know what he would also do, and this is not in the federal indictment in New York, he would empty his prisons and send them to America across the border,” DeSantis said.
“We’d end up with some of these people in Florida, Tren de Aragua gang members that were in prison there. To me, that is a very hostile act.” Florida is home to the largest number of Venezuelan expatriates in the US, many of whom cautiously celebrated Maduro’s downfall at the weekend.
DeSantis did not elaborate on what any charges might be, but said he would support any action taken by Florida’s unelected state attorney, James Uthmeier, according to Miami’s NBC 6.
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Congressional Democrats have noted today that a plaque meant to commemorate the sacrifices of Capitol police while defending lawmakers during the January 6 attack has not been hung in the Capitol halls.
“They’re observing this solemn anniversary by doing, well, exactly nothing,” Jamie Raskin, a Maryland congressman, said today at the opening of a hearing of the House judiciary committee. “It’s been five years since January 6. It’s been three years since that plaque was supposed to be put up but they still haven’t put it up. It took them 24 hours to put up a new plaque, allegedly changing the name of the Kennedy Center to the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’. 24 hours. And that was illegal. That’s like graffiti that was put up on the Kennedy Center building. They have a legal requirement to put the plaque up, and I call on Speaker Johnson to put it up today. It’s gathering dust in a closet somewhere.”
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The five-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol is drawing sharp and poignant reactions from Democratic lawmakers.
”Those who fear the truth or attempt to distort it face a lesson in history,” Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote on X. “The reality of events will prevail and those who distort it will be relegated to a shameful trash heap reserved for traitors and liars.”
“Donald Trump has done everything he can to try to rewrite the history of that day, even letting the 1500 insurrectionists, including those who senselessly beat cops, off scot-free,” Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin wrote in a series of posts on X. “But, Americans won’t forget what they saw that dark day. And, neither will I. It was an attack on our Capitol, an attack on our police officers, an attack on your vote being counted fairly, and an attack on our very Democracy.”
Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland described Trump as “a demagogue, a wannabe dictator, a man with no loyalty to our democracy and our Constitution,” in a statement commemorating the attacks. “He told a mob of his supporters to ‘stop the steal’ and ‘fight like hell.’ There was no steal. But they did fight like hell. … They paraded the Confederate flag through the Capitol – something the Confederacy itself never achieved even in the most dire hours of the Civil War. They hunted for Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi, hoping to hang them from gallows they erected on the National Mall. Trump did nothing to stop the violence.”
Many, like Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, took note of Trump’s day-one blanket pardon of crimes committed in connection to the attack after his inauguration. She described the pardon as “shameful” and “un-American”.
The condemnations come as the president contends with the revelation of congressional testimony by former federal prosecutor Jack Smith had “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.” Smith’s attempt to prosecute Trump was derailed by Trump’s election win in 2024.
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Trump implores GOP to win midterms, fears impeachment if Democrats regain control of House
Donald Trump implored Republican lawmakers to win the upcoming midterms while delivering an address that’s lasted almost an hour and a half. “If we don’t win the midterms … they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump said of Democrats. “We don’t impeach them, you know why, because they’re meaner than we are. We should have impeached Joe Biden for 100 different things. They are mean and smart, but fortunately for you, they have horrible policy.”
Earlier, the president pushed several policy points for House GOP to double down on when campaigning. Chief among them: healthcare.
A reminder that the widely popular Affordable Care Act premium tax credits lapsed at the end of last year, and lawmakers are now in search for a plan to stop healthcare premiums spiking for millions of Americans. Republican House speaker Mike Johnson is expected to bring a vote to the floor this week on a plan by GOP-centrists that would extend the Obamacare subsidies for three years.
Today, Trump pushed Republicans to “own” healthcare.
“Figure it out. Let the money go directly to the people,” he said, referring to his own preference to give low-income enrollees the money in health savings accounts to use for medical expenses.
“You have to let no money for the insurance companies,” Trump told House members today. “They [Democrats] are owned by the insurance companies. You guys don’t get money from the insurance companies. They do. They get a massive amount of money. It’s their biggest donor. They’re going to try and fight you, but they can’t win the fight if you explain it, the money goes directly to the people.”
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Trump teases meeting with oil executives following Maduro arrest
Speaking to House Republicans today, Trump teased his upcoming meeting with US oil manufacturing executives this week. “You know what that’s about. We got a lot of oil to drill, which is going to bring down oil prices even further,” the president said, telegraphing his plans to regain control of production in Venezuela.
Just a note that Doug LaMalfa’s death means that the Republican majority in the US House stands at 218 members, compared to the 213 Democratic lawmakers in the lower chamber. This also reflects the resignations of former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – whose last day in Congress was on Monday.
Throughout his remarks to House GOP today, Donald Trump has made several baseless comments that elections in the US are “crooked” or “corrupt”. He’s also repeated the falsehood that the 2020 election was “rigged” – a claim that has added weight given the five-year anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.
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Top House Democrat says Trump has 'attempted to rewrite history' on fifth anniversary of January 6 attacks
Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, opened a hearing commemorating the fifth anniversary of the January 6 attack by strongly criticizing Donald Trump and his Republican allies’ efforts to undercut accountability for the insurrection.
“Instead of holding those responsible for the attack accountable, Donald Trump and far-right extremists in Congress have repeatedly attempted to rewrite history and whitewash the horrific events of January 6. We will not let that happen,” Jeffries said.
Trump pardoned almost everyone convicted or facing charges in the attack on his first day in office, and Jeffries noted that many of those went on to be charged with other offenses.
“It’s been a Trump-inspired crime spree. Why won’t Republicans in Congress condemn this dangerous behavior and ongoing threat to public safety?” Jeffries asked.
“They refuse to serve as a check and balance on an increasingly out of control executive branch, preferring to be nothing more than a reckless rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. The January 6 violent attack on the Capitol that took place five years ago today was shameful then, it is shameful now, and it will be shameful always and forever.”
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Trump calls Caracas strikes 'amazing' and 'brilliant' at House GOP retreat
Donald Trump has characterized the weekend strikes on Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, as “amazing” and “brilliant”.
“It was amazing. And think of it, nobody was killed. And on the other side, a lot of people were killed,” Trump said, noting the large number of Cubans who were killed in attacks. “They knew we were coming, and they were protected, and our guys weren’t. You know, our guys are jumping out of helicopters … it was so brilliant.”
The president called the operation “brilliant tactically” and “an incredible thing”. He added that the deposed leader, Nicolás Maduro, is a “violent guy”.
“He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit, but he’s a violent guy, and he’s killed millions of people,” Trump said.
Speaking to House Republicans at their annual retreat, the president also said that lawmakers across the aisle have been reluctant to congratulate the president, despite their ongoing condemnation of Maduro’s regime.
“At some point they should say, you know, ‘you did a great job’,” Trump said. “Wouldn’t it be good? I would say that if they did a good job, their philosophies are so different, but if they did a good job, I’d be happy for the country. They’ve been after this guy for years and years and years, and he was a violent guy.”
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Donald Trump addresses House Republicans at annual retreat
The president is now addressing GOP House lawmakers at their annual retreat. “You win the presidency, and we sure as hell are having a successful presidency, I will say that,” Trump said in his opening remarks. “There’s been nothing like what we’re doing. We had a very good day two days ago too,” he added, seemingly referring to the strikes in Venezuela that resulted in the capture and arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Trump went on to express his condolences at the death of California congressman Doug LaMalfa.
“A true defender of American children. He was a defender of everybody,” the president added. “And our hearts go out to his wife, Jill, and his entire family.”
Top Trump administration officials to brief all US senators on Venezuela strikes and Maduro capture
Several of the Trump administration’s top officials will brief all Senate lawmakers on Capitol Hill tomorrow. This comes as the same group, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, attorney general Pam Bondi, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Dan Caine, spoke with a small group of congressional leaders on Monday about the military operation in Venezuela.
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My colleagues, Dharna Noor and Oliver Milman, have been reporting on the climate implications of the president’s focus on taking over oil production in Venezuela. Here’s an excerpt of their story below:
Donald Trump, by dramatically seizing Nicolás Maduro and claiming dominion over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, has taken his “drill, baby, drill” mantra global.
Achieving the president’s dream of supercharging the country’s oil production would be financially challenging – and if fulfilled, would be “terrible for the climate”, experts say.
Trump has aggressively sought to boost oil and gas production within the US. Now, following the capture and arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, he is seeking to orchestrate a ramp-up of drilling in Venezuela, which has the largest known reserves of oil in the world – equivalent to some 300bn barrels, according to research firm the Energy Institute.
Leading US oil businesses such as Exxon and Chevron have so far remained silent on whether they would spend the huge sums required to enact the president’s vision for Venezuela. But should Venezuela ramp up output to near its 1970s peak of 3.7m barrels a day – more than triple current levels – it would further undermine the already faltering global effort to limit dangerous global heating.
Even raising production to 1.5m barrels of oil a day from current levels of around 1m barrels would produce around 550m tons of carbon dioxide a year when the fuel is burned, according to Paasha Mahdavi, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is more carbon pollution than what is emitted annually by major economies such as the UK and Brazil.
“If there are millions of barrels a day of new oil, that will add quite a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and the people of Earth can’t afford that,” said John Sterman, an expert in climate and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
You can read their full story here:
A reminder that in an interview with NBC News on Monday, Donald Trump named several top administration officials – including secretary of state Marco Rubio, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and vice-president JD Vance – as the team who will help oversee America’s involvement in Venezuela.
“They have all expertise, different expertise,” Trump said.
Trump also told NBC that there was no possibility of an election within the next 30 days.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump said.
The president also noted in the interview that Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim leader after Maduro was arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday, has been “cooperating” with US officials. Trump also declined to say whether he’s spoken to Rodríguez yet, but he said that Rubio “speaks to her fluently in Spanish” and that their “relationship has been very strong”.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. We’ll hear from him at 10am ET, when he addresses House Republicans at their annual retreat – taking place at the newly-minted ‘Trump Kennedy Center’. It will be the president’s first public appearance since Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, appeared in federal court on Monday and plead “not-guilty” to all charges against them.
At the same time, House Democrats are holding a hearing to mark the five-year anniversary of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. Those speaking include Brendan Ballou, who prosecuted several of the rioters, Winston Pingeon, a former Capitol police officer who was attacked on the day, and Pamela Hemphill, a rioter who refused Donald Trump’s sweeping pardon.
A group of European countries underlined their support for Denmark today amid Donald Trump’s renewed calls to take over Greenland after the removal of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro.
You can read the statement from the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain, and Denmark, and catch up with the latest developments on Ukraine, in our Europe live blog.
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My colleagues Tom Phillips and Sam Jones have looked at the opposition’s reaction to the US’s operation in Venezuela and Donald Trump’s apparent dismissal of the idea that the conservative activist María Corina Machado could now lead Venezuela. Here is an extract from their story:
“[I felt] astonished, I could not believe what I was hearing,” Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister and opposition supporter, said, capturing the opposition confusion and frustration that their movement’s leader appeared to have been unexpectedly cast aside by the White House.
“The political strategy that Trump and Marco Rubio have laid out is truly bizarre,” Hausmann added, warning that post-Maduro Venezuela found itself in “a legal and a political vacuum” and still under the control of “illegitimate leaders” led by Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president on Monday.
One US official told the New York Times: “[Rodríguez is] certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level than we were able to do with [Maduro].”
Machado, whose movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, sought to put a brave face on the situation on Monday, hailing Trump’s “courageous vision” and offering to share her Nobel peace prize with him during an interview with Fox News.
“[Maduro’s removal] is a huge step for humanity,” said Machado, who has not returned to Venezuela since sneaking out to travel to Oslo last month to receive the Nobel prize.
But analysts said opposition leaders were bitterly disappointed by Trump’s decision not to back Machado and Edmundo González, a former diplomat who ran in the 2024 election on Machado’s behalf after she was banned and who is widely believed to have won by a landslide.
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Free all the Venezuelan political prisoners, opposition demands
The Reuters news agency has a quick snap saying that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado’s movement has demanded the release of all political prisoners after the US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro.
“Those who unjustly hold the civilian and military political prisoners should free them immediately,” the Vente Venezuela movement said of political detainees, whom a leading local rights group puts at 863.
Machado’s movement is widely believed to have beaten Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, which many countries, including the US, rejected the official result of.
Many people were imprisoned for protesting Maduro’s declaration of victory or for participating in the opposition’s electoral campaign.
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Protesters have gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, to demonstrate against the US attack in Venezuela:
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If you would like to hear some reflections on Donald Trump’s first year in power (this time around) you can join our upcoming event: Year One of Trumpism: Is Britain Emulating the US?
On Wednesday 21 January 2026, join Jonathan Freedland, Tania Branigan and Nick Lowles as they discuss the first year of Trump’s second presidency. Book tickets here or at guardian.live
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US trial of Maduro undermines stability of international relations, China's foreign ministry says
Amy Hawkins is the Guardian’s senior China correspondent
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that the trial of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in New York “severely violat[ed] Venezuela’s national sovereignty” and undermined the stability of international relations.
The comments came the day after a China-backed emergency meeting at the UN Security Council in which countries condemned the US’s military operation to capture Maduro as illegal.
Venezuela is a key China ally in Latin America. The South American country has received over $100bn in Chinese loans and Maduro’s last meeting was with a Chinese delegation visiting Caracas, who he greeted hours before he was captured by US forces.
Here is some more of the statement on Venezuela from the spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights:
The state of emergency declared by the Venezuelan authorities that took effect on Saturday raises concerns as it authorises restrictions on free movement of people, the seizure of property necessary for national defence, and the suspension of the right to assembly and to protest, among other measures.
The high commissioner calls on the US and the Venezuelan authorities, as well as the international community, to ensure full respect for international law, including human rights.
The future of Venezuela must be determined by the Venezuelan people alone, with full respect for their human rights, including the right to self-determination, and sovereignty over their lives and their resources.
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It is 'clear' the US raid on Venezuela 'undermined a fundamental principle of international law', UN human rights office says
A spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, has said it is “clear” that the US military operation to capture Maduro and his wife over the weekend “undermined a fundamental principle of international law”.
In a statement, the spokesperson said Türk, a career UN official and human rights lawyer, is “deeply worried” about the “situation in Venezuela”, which has left many Venezuelans fearful as the country’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, starts presiding under the apparent supervision of Washington, with Trump vowing to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry with the help of America’s biggest oil companies.
Here is more of the statement issued by the spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights:
It is clear that the operation undermined a fundamental principle of international law – that states must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
The US has justified its intervention on the grounds of the Venezuelan government’s longstanding and appalling human rights record, but accountability for human rights violations cannot be achieved by unilateral military intervention in violation of international law. The people of Venezuela deserve accountability through a fair, victim-centred process.
As has been clear in the UN Human Rights Office’s consistent reporting on the continued deterioration of the situation in Venezuela for about a decade, the rights of the Venezuelan people have been violated for too long. We fear that the current instability and further militarisation in the country resulting from the US intervention will only make the situation worse.
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Maduro’s legal team includes acclaimed lawyer who represented Julian Assange
Adam Gabbatt is a writer and presenter for Guardian US, based in New York
When Nicolás Maduro appeared in court in New York on Monday, his choice of lawyer quickly raised eyebrows.
The captured Venezuelan president was accompanied by Barry Pollack, a top-tier US trial lawyer who spent years representing Julian Assange, eventually securing the WikiLeaks founder’s release from prison in the UK in 2024.
Pollack is a partner at Harris St Laurent & Wechsler, a law firm based on New York’s Wall Street in the financial district of lower Manhattan, just a few minutes walk from the federal court where Maduro pleaded not guilty to criminal charges on Monday.
Pollack will take on a case as Maduro’s private counsel that could prove to be just as challenging as that of Assange. Maduro was charged on Monday with drug-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, with the US government labelling Maduro a “narco-terrorist” and an “illegitimate president”. He faces up to life in prison.
Harris St Laurent & Wechsler did not respond to requests for comment about Pollack’s involvement, but it is clear that in the legal world, he is highly regarded. According to Chambers USA, Pollack is a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials, and has such a natural way in front of juries”.
You can read the full story here:
Among the international laws the US may have breached, if it provides no justification for the attacks, is the founding charter of the UN.
Article 2 of the UN charter says all members should refrain from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.
My colleague Geraldine McKelvie spoke to leading experts in the field of international law to ask for their view on the US attack on Venezuela. Here is an extract from her story:
The experts the Guardian spoke to agreed that the US is likely to have violated the terms of the UN charter, which was signed in October 1945 and designed to prevent another conflict on the scale of the second world war. A central provision of this agreement – known as article 2(4) – rules that states must refrain from using military force against other countries and must respect their sovereignty.
Geoffrey Robertson KC, a founding head of Doughty Street Chambers and a former president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone, said the attack on Venezuela was contrary to article 2(4) of the charter. “The reality is that America is in breach of the United Nations charter,” he added. “It has committed the crime of aggression, which the court at Nuremberg described as the supreme crime, it’s the worst crime of all.”
The UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, made a statement in the House of Commons on Monday about the US raid on Venezuela.
Cooper told the Commons she had stressed the importance of international law in a conversation with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, but would not say whether she saw the US attack as illegal, saying it was for Washington to set out its justification.
A large section of her statement focused on the brutality of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship. “We have seen Maduro’s regime systematically dismantle democratic institutions, silencing dissent and weaponizing state resources to maintain power through fear and corruption,” she said.
Cooper added:
I discussed with Secretary Rubio what should happen next and our continued commitment to a transition to a peaceful and stable democracy.
Our collective immediate focus must be on avoiding any deterioration in Venezuela into further instability, criminality or violence. That would be deeply damaging for the people of Venezuela, our own overseas territories, our allies in the US and other regional partners.
The UK has long been clear that leadership of Venezuela must reflect the will of the Venezuelan people.
You can read her full statement on Venezuela here.
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British PM choosing his 'words carefully' over response to US attack on Venezuela, health secretary says
In the UK, the health secretary Wes Streeting has defended Keir Starmer’s cautious response to the US attack in Venezuela despite MPs wanting the prime minister to condemn what is seen as an operation against a sovereign country in violation of international law.
Starmer, always keen to keep on the good side of the US, has declined to criticise the US military operation over the weekend, unlike several Labour MPs including Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee.
Streeting told BBC Breakfast this morning that he had “enormous respect” for Thornberry, who was “right” to speak “honestly and candidly” about her view (that the lack of western condemnation could embolden China and Russia to take similar action against other countries).
But he added:
The prime minister and the foreign secretary have a different role and responsibility, and their words carry different weight.
And what I can tell you is that at every moment in recent days, since the US action in Venezuela, the prime minister has judged what he says and when he says it with one overriding consideration, which is how to make a challenging situation better, not worse, and how to do so in a way that protects the UK’s national interests, our collective security, particularly in Europe at a difficult time, and also the best interests of the people of Venezuela who have the right to choose their own leaders and who governs them.
That’s what the prime minister has been doing, and I appreciate there are others who have been more strident and have been more critical of the United States.
The prime minister has a different responsibility, and he is choosing his words carefully and wisely to try and influence how events unfold from here on.
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My colleague Sibylla Brodzinsky has reported on the relationship between the US and Colombia, home to significant oil reserves. Here is an extract from her story:
Colombia has long been a close partner of the US in the fight against drug trafficking and enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington but relations have soured dramatically since Trump came to office.
Colombia’s narcotics trade is largely controlled by illegal armed groups such as the Gulf Clan, the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissident factions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group, the majority of whose members demobilised after a 2016 peace deal …
Many among Colombia’s right wing opposition have allied themselves with Trump, but voices from across the political spectrum have rejected the threats of a US attack on Colombia.
The US revoked the Petro’s visa in September after he called on American soldiers to disobey any illegal orders. In October, it placed financial sanctions on Petro, his wife and several close collaborators.
At the same time the US was building up its military presence in the Caribbean and bombing suspected drug boats to put pressure on Venezuela’s Maduro, US forces have also conducted strikes on boats in the eastern Pacific region to the west of the Colombian coast.
After the deadly US military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their Caracas compound on Saturday, tensions between the Trump administration and Colombian President Gustavo Petro are boiling over.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said Colombia was “very sick too” and “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
“He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories and is not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said.
While Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine there is no evidence that Petro, who condemned the US attack on Venezuela as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America, is in any way involved in the business.
In a lengthy post on X, Petro, who was elected in 2022, wrote yesterday:
If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children. If you bomb peasants, thousands of guerrillas will return in the mountains. And if you arrest the president whom a good part of my people want and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar.
As well as Colombia, the Trump administration could target Cuba, Mexico, Greenland or Iran next. His recent attack in Venezuela – considered illegal under international law by many observers and experts – reaffirms the extent of American military power and the way the US can act overseas with little repercussions.
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What exactly is the US accusing Nicolás Maduro of and what’s in the criminal indictment against him that was unveiled by attorney general Pam Bondi at the weekend?
The US alleges the deposed Venezuelan president has spent the past two decades working with international drug trafficking groups.
He pleaded not guilty – as did his wife, Cilia Flores, who said she was “completely innocent” – at their court appearance in New York.
What are the charges, how comprehensive is the indictment and who might be helping US prosecutors? This explainer has the details.
Returning now to Nicolás Maduro’s court appearance in New York, the deposed Venezuelan president pleaded not guilty to drugs, weapons and narco-terrorism charges on Monday, two days after his capture by US forces.
The brevity and formality of the arraignment hearing in federal court – barely 30 minutes long, during which Maduro was asked to confirm his name and that he understood the four charges against him – belied the far-reaching consequences of the US action, report Victoria Bekiempis and Richard Luscombe.
Maduro, 63, insisted to the judge that he was “still president of my country”, had been illegally “captured” at his Caracas home and was “a prisoner of war”.
“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man,” Maduro said in Spanish during repeated attempts to speak over the judge.
The full report is here:
Minutes after Donald Trump announced a “large-scale strike” against Venezuela early on Saturday, false and misleading AI-generated images began flooding social media. There were fake photos of Nicolás Maduro being escorted off a plane by US agents, images of jubilant Venezuelans pouring into the streets of Caracas and videos of missiles raining down on the city – all fake.
The fabricated content intermixed with real videos and photos of US aircraft flying over the Venezuelan capital and explosions lighting up the dark sky. A lack of verified information about the raid coupled with AI tools’ rapidly advancing capabilities made discerning fact from fiction about the incursion on Caracas difficult.
By the time Trump posted a verified photo of Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed aboard a US warship, the fake images with the US drug enforcement agents had already gone viral. Across X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, the AI photos have been seen and shared millions of times, according to the factchecking site NewsGuard.
See the full story here:
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Fresh from his military operation in Venezuela, Donald Trump has said the US needs Greenland “very badly”, renewing fears of a US invasion of the largely autonomous island that remains part of the Danish kingdom.
Greenland prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen pushed back on Monday against Trump’s calls to annex the Arctic territory, while Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen warned that any US attack on a Nato ally would be the end of the military alliance and “post-second world war security”.
Here’s a video taking us through it, including Nielsen starting by saying: “First of all I would say that our country is not really the right one to compare with Venezuela.”
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At noon on Monday in New York, Nicolás Maduro was escorted into a Manhattan federal courtroom following his capture early on Saturday in Caracas, completing the seized Venezuelan leader’s stunning journey from his capital city to a US courtroom.
It was a surreal display amid the fallout of a brazen US military operation to grab Maduro that has roiled global politics and stunned observers in the US and overseas.
In Manhattan the spectacle played out as Maduro’s larger-than-life persona soon filled Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s courtroom with a mixture of bravado, seriousness, jocularity and defiance.
Maduro, who was not handcuffed but constrained by ankle shackles, looked forward, toward the jury box, as he walked into court. Before sitting down, Maduro told the public gallery “Happy new year!” in English.
His wife, Cilia Flores, followed shortly after, and she had two large Band-Aids on her face.
Proceedings started in earnest with an exchange of greetings that did little to hint at the enormous significance of the events playing out in the room.
You can read the full account here:
The United States has faced widespread condemnation for a “crime of aggression” in Venezuela at an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council.
Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Spain were among countries that have denounced the weekend US attack in Venezuela.
“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line … and set an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community,” Sérgio França Danese, the Brazilian ambassador to the UN, told the meeting on Monday.
Donald Trump’s UN ambassador, Mike Waltz, defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute longstanding criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader, not an act of war.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that the capture of Maduro risked intensifying instability in Venezuela and across the region. He questioned whether the operation respected the rules of international law.
I am deeply concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country, the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted.
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More than a dozen media workers were detained on Monday while covering events in the Venezuelan capital, including a march in support of ousted president Nicolás Maduro and the swearing-in of the country’s new legislature, the Venezuelan press association said.
All 14 of those detained in Caracas were later released, the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) posted on X, though one was a foreign journalist who was deported.
Reuters quoted the SNTP as saying those detained included 11 people working with international media outlets and one with a national outlet.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the continuing aftermath of the US military’s weekend raid on Venezuela and removal of president Nicolás Maduro from power.
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace prize winner María Corina Machado has said in her first televised interview since then that she hasn’t spoken to Donald Trump since October 2025.
“Actually, I spoke with president Trump on October 10, the same day the [Nobel Peace] prize was announced, [but] not since then,” Machado said on Fox News. Machado – widely seen as Maduro’s most credible opponent – left Venezuela last month to travel to Norway to accept the award and hasn’t returned since.
“I’m planning to go as soon as possible back home,” she told Fox when asked about her plans to return to Venezuela.
Trump on Saturday dismissed the idea of working with Machado, saying: “She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” US media reported on Monday that a classified CIA assessment presented to Trump concluded that senior Maduro loyalists, including interim president Delcy Rodríguez, were best positioned to maintain stability.
Despite this, Machado welcomed the US actions as “a huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity”.
In other key developments:
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the US House, emerged from a classified briefing for congressional leaders insisting that “we are not at war” and “this is not a regime change” but “a demand for a change of behaviour by a regime”.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader, expressed discontent with the briefing, calling the Trump administration’s “plan for the US ‘running Venezuela’ … vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying”.
The reported appearance of unidentified drones over the presidential palace in Venezuela’s capital on Monday night filled the night sky with the sound of heavy gunfire and tracer fire as the regime’s security forces reacted to what they mistook for another raid.
Trump suggested to NBC News that US taxpayers could fund the rebuilding of Venezuela’s infrastructure for extracting and shipping oil. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.”
White House adviser Stephen Miller reaffirmed to CNN the Trump administration’s position on Greenland becoming a part of the US.
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