Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run the Country’ After Capture of Maduro

THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Trump offered few details about how the United States would oversee Venezuela and for how long, but said its oil industry would “make a lot of money” under U.S. leadership. President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were being taken to New York to stand trial on drug and weapons charges.

President Trump said on Saturday that the United States had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and was taking him to New York to face criminal charges, the stunning culmination of a monthslong campaign by his administration to oust the authoritarian leader. The United States would “run” the country until a proper transition of power could be arranged, the president said hours later, raising the prospect of an open-ended commitment.

Mr. Trump offered few details about how the United States would oversee Venezuela, saying only that an unspecified “group” would do so. It was not clear whether that would involve an occupying military force, although Mr. Trump said he was not afraid of “boots on the ground.”

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. But Ms. Rodríguez earlier denounced the U.S. operation on state television, calling it a “brutal attack.”

While Mr. Trump said little about how the United States would be “running” Venezuela, he insisted it “won’t cost us anything” because American oil companies would rebuild the energy infrastructure in Venezuela, which holds vast reserves of oil. » | Anatoly Kurmanaev and Tyler Pager | Anatoly Kurmanaev reported from Venezuela, and Tyler Pager from West Palm Beach, Fla. | Saturday, Jan 3, 2026

So America is going to run Venezuela, eh? What a sick joke! America can't run its own country yet, still less run Venezuela as well. If Trump could run America properly, there wouldn't be millions upon millions of Americans homeless, and there wouldn't be millions upon millions of Americans unable to afford healthcare or, in many cases, enough groceries for adequate nutrition without having to go to foodbanks. It would be better for Trump to learn how to run his own country first, before embarking on these imperialist, colonising adventures. — © Mark Alexander

„Trump nimmt Venezuela, und wir die Ukraine“: So blickt Russland auf den Angriff auf Venezuela

BERLINER ZEITUNG: Moskau verurteilt die US-Operation in Venezuela, doch Militäranalysten und Blogger loben ihre Effizienz und ziehen unbequeme Vergleiche zur Ukraine.

Nach der nächtlichen Militäroperation gegen Venezuelas Staatschef Nicolás Maduro reagiert das offizielle Moskau bekannt kühl. Das russische Außenministerium verurteilte den amerikanischen Einsatz als „Akt bewaffneter Aggression“ und sprach von „tiefer Besorgnis“. Wichtig sei nun, so die diplomatische Formel im Außenministerium, eine weitere Eskalation zu verhindern und einen Ausweg „durch Dialog“ zu finden.

Lateinamerika müsse eine „Zone des Friedens“ bleiben, Venezuela das Recht haben, sein Schicksal selbst zu bestimmen. „Wir bekräftigen unsere Solidarität mit dem venezolanischen Volk und unsere Unterstützung für den Kurs seiner bolivarischen Führung, der darauf abzielt, die nationalen Interessen und die Souveränität des Landes zu schützen“, zitiert die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur Tass das russische Außenamt. Moskau unterstütze die Erklärung der venezolanischen Behörden und der Staats- und Regierungschefs der lateinamerikanischen Länder, die eine sofortige Sitzung des UN-Sicherheitsrates fordern. Russland, heißt es weiter in Moskau, sei bereit, Vermittlungsbemühungen zwischen Caracas und Washington zu unterstützen. » | Nicolas Butylin | Samstag, 3. Januar 2026

Was für ein Zeitalter! Es ist ein Zeitalter des Überflusses in vielerlei Hinsicht. Gier ohne Ende, ganz sicher. Und auch ein Zeitalter der Gesetzlosigkeit. Heutzutage greift man sich einfach, was man will! Wenn man es greifen kann, gehört es einem! Wir kehren zu einer Welt zurück, die dem Wilden Westen unweigerlich ähnelt! Putin wollte die Ukraine, also schnappte er sich alles, was er kriegen konnte, und versucht immer noch mehr zu schnappen. Jetzt schnappt sich Trump Venezuela. Warum? Ganz einfach, weil er es will, wegen seines Ölreichtums. Als Nächstes werden Grönland, Kuba, Kanada und Kolumbien in sein Visier geraten. Das Gesetz des Dschungels hat die Oberhand schon gewonnen! — © Mark Alexander

Trump Says the US ‘Has to Have Greenland’ as Denmark Pushes Back

Dec 23, 2025 | “They have absolutely no wish to become Americans.”

Trump’s comments that the US “has to have Greenland” have reignited anxiety in Copenhagen and Nuuk, though Greenlanders remain firmly opposed to becoming American, says EU politics reporter Magnus Land Nielsen.


Trump wants Greenland, Canada, Panama, and Venezuela. There's a word for this nonsense. It's called MEGALOMANIA! — © Mark Alexander

„Diebstahl und Entführung“: USA fangen erneut Öltanker vor Küste Venezuelas ab

BERLINER ZEITUNG: Caracas spricht von einem „schweren Akt internationaler Piraterie“ nachdem die USA einen weiteren Öltanker vor Venezuela abgefangen hatten. Das Schiff war offenbar nicht mit Sanktionen belegt.

Die USA haben erneut einen Öltanker vor der Küste von Venezuela beschlagnahmt. Die US-Küstenwache habe das Schiff mit Unterstützung des Verteidigungsministeriums am frühen Samstagmorgen festgesetzt, erklärte US-Heimatschutzministerin Kristi Noem im Onlinedienst X. Sie begründete den Einsatz mit dem Verdacht, das Schiff habe mit Sanktionen belegtes Erdöl transportiert.

Das US-Heimatschutzministerium erklärte weiter, bei dem Schiff handle es sich um den Tanker „Centuries“. Dem Online-Portal TankerTrackers zufolge hatte der unter panamaischer Flagge fahrende Tanker zuvor in einem venezolanischen Hafen 1,8 Millionen Barrel Rohöl geladen und war am Donnerstag aus der ausschließlichen Wirtschaftszone Venezuelas eskortiert worden. Das Schiff befindet sich demnach in chinesischem Eigentum. » | Sophie Barkey | Sonntag, 21. Dezember 2025

A Hidden Camera Caught Trump's Crime

December 19, 2025

What a trashy sh!thouse Trump has turned America into! — © Mark Alexander

Spit and Sulfur: How Venezuela Went From U.S. Ally to Trump Target

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Closely tied to Washington during much of the Cold War, Venezuela has gone through political upheavals over the years that now make it a major enemy in the eyes of the Trump administration.

Read the article here.

German AfD Courts MAGA as Europe's Far Right Surges | DW News

Dec 16, 2025 | Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has long sought to cozy up to Donald Trump's MAGA movement in the US. Those efforts were once again on display this weekend at a black-tie gala in New York hosted by the Young Republican Club. It's a key date for MAGA-aligned Republicans and international far-right figures, for whom the Trump administration has been signalling growing support.

Trump and the MAGA movement is the most dangerous politician and movement for the West since Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. — © Mark Alexander

Zelenskyy Plays ‘Clever’ Security Card after Calling Trump’s Bluff | Michael Weiss

Dec 15, 2025 | Michael Weiss - editor of The Insider - joins Times Radio’s Maddie Hale to discuss Ukraine’s meeting with US delegates in Berlin,Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges Donald Trump to commit to security guarantees and have it voted on in Congress and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warns Europe to take Putin seriously while comparing his ambitions to those of Hitler in the 1930s.

Post-Truth Is Pre-Fascism: Can We Still Save American Democracy?

Dec 11, 2025 | “Post-truth is pre-fascism.” In this conversation, we dig into what that actually means for the United States right now — the state of American democracy, the collapse of local news, tech oligarchs, social media, and even the impossible question: how do you know when it’s time to leave?

We talk about why democracy is not a thing you have but something you do, why facts are a form of protection for the least powerful among us, and how “both-sides” coverage and endless online outrage are quietly doing the work of authoritarians for them.

Pope Leo Strikes Back against Trump Inside USA

Dec 13, 2025 | Pope Leo versus Trump moral authority versus immorality: The Catholic Church takes a stand against Trump's cruelty. The history and background to this conflict between heaven and hell in this two-part interview with E.J. Dionne, New York Times columnist and former Vatican correspondent

Let Donald Trump See Inside My Phone? I’d Rather Be Deported

THE GUARDIAN: The potential demand that visitors to the US hand over their social media records, or even their phones, opens up a world of embarrassment

As someone with a child in the US, this new Trump threat to scrutinise tourists’ social media is concerning. Providing my user name would be OK – the authorities would get sick of scrolling through chicken pics before they found anything critical of their Glorious Leader – but what if I have to hand over my phone at the border, as has happened to some travellers already? I would rather get deported.

There’s nothing criminal or egregiously immoral on there; I don’t foment revolution or indulge in Trump trolling, tempting as that would be. But my phone does not paint a flattering picture of me. Does anyone’s? Those shiny black rectangles have become contemporary confessionals, and we would like to believe they abide by the same kind of confidentiality rules. » | Emma Beddington | Sunday, December 14, 2025

Quite right! WTF wants to visit that SHITHOLE anyway? The American regime thinks more of itself than it ought to! People in their droves are staying away from that awful country already. It is to be hoped that in the coming months even more people will decide to stay away from Trump’s SHITHOLE. America was once the HOPE of the western world. Since Trump’s re-election, its HALO has dropped into the sewer. Nobody in his/her right mind would want to visit that dreadful country. — © Mark Alexander

If the US Forces Me to Choose between My Two Nationalities, I Choose France – and Europe

THE GUARDIAN: Proposals to change US citizenship rules leaves dual citizens like me caught in the crossfire. If push comes to shove, I know where my loyalty lies

ast week, a Republican senator from my home state of Ohio, Bernie Moreno, introduced the Exclusive Citizenship Act. The proposed legislation would strip me of my American citizenship, because I chose to be French too. Just as Moreno seeks to bully me into choosing citizenship, the US is bullying Europe, trying to force it to pick between total submission to its erstwhile partner, or a break with it.

It is now official US policy that Europe is facing “civilisational erasure”, and that the US will actively support far-right, ethnonationalist, neofascist parties hostile to the EU. Standing by historic alliances is out, protecting Elon Musk and his fellow techno-nihilist broligarchs is in – as is reaping the Kremlin’s praises for it.

What should have been clear as early as November 2024 should, by now, be abundantly so. This version of the US is worse than simply “not our friend”: it is an actively hostile actor seeking to fracture European society in the same way that Russia sought to fracture British society by promoting Brexit, and US society by fuelling disinformation, Maga and Trump. And yet Europe (the UK included) has spent the past year coddling, backtracking, cajoling and capitulating. It has ignored insult after insult from the White House, punitive measure after punitive measure.

Have we not yet had enough of the humiliation? » | Alexander Hurst | Friday, December 12, 2025

Alexander Hurst is very wise. Were I to be he, I too would choose to be French over being American. France is a land of culture and refinement. America is a shithouse by comparison! Vive la belle France ! — © Mark Alexander

Nicolás Maduro Blasts the US…

… for its criminality and piracy against Venezuela.

Planning to Visit the US? Take It from This American Citizen – Don’t

THE GUARDIAN — OPINION: I love many things about the land of my birth but Donald Trump’s America has become an unwelcoming country of deep divisions and waning trust

I’m in the US right now, but if I didn’t have family here (and a US passport), I wouldn’t be. My teenagers and I flew over the week of Thanksgiving from Australia, preparing ourselves for long lines and extra questions at customs. It took less than five minutes in the US citizens’ line.

With the news this week of the Trump administration planning to implement new invasive requirements for travellers from 42 countries, including Australia, that would require five years of social media history for visas, I would simply not travel here on another passport. There are plenty of places which welcome visitors without trawling their political opinions and family history.

The proposed regulations would require ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) applicants to share their social media for the past five years, email addresses they have used for the past 10 years and phone numbers and addresses of immediate family members. US Citizenship and Immigration Services now consider whether benefit applicants have ‘endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused’ anti-American, terrorist or antisemitic views.

…

I love my country of birth for its diversity, innovation and opportunity, but in the time I’ve lived in Australia I’ve seen the US change. It has become a country of vast wealth and privilege in the hands of very few; of deeper divisions and waning trust. The Trump administration sows hatred and fear of the ‘other’, so it should come as no surprise that tourism numbers are dropping sharply. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the US was predicted to lose $12.5bn in international visitor spending in 2025. » | Eleanor Limprecht* | Friday, December 12, 2025

* Eleanor Limprecht is the author of What Was Left, Long Bay, The Passengers and The Coast. Her next novel, Cul de Sac, will be published in 2026 by Ultimo Press

Democracy Now! US Seizes Venezuelan Oil Tanker as Anti-Maduro Campaign Escalates

Dec 11, 2025 | U.S. troops seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, a major escalation that the Venezuelan government called "international piracy." We speak with New York University professor Alejandro Velasco about the Trump administration's intentions in the country, which has the world's largest known oil reserves. Though the Pentagon has claimed the conflict is aimed at combating narcoterrorism, Velasco says the violence is actually an effort "to get rid of leftist governments in the region.

Democracy Now! can be supported here.

The US Is Not Just Europe’s Unwilling Ally, But an Adversary Steeped in Far-right Ideology

THE GUARDIAN: Don’t say you weren’t warned: Trump’s new national security strategy seeks to destroy liberal democracy as we know it

On the same day that Donald Trump received his made-to-order “peace prize” from his newest pal, Fifa president “Johnny” Infantino, his administration published an equally gaudy national security strategy. The relatively short document oozes Trump and Trumpism. It starts out with the typically modest claim that the president has brought “our nation – and the world – back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster”.

Even if the strategy mostly formalises the ongoing actions and statements of Trump and his administration, it should be heeded as a warning for the world, and Europe in particular.

The document espouses an aggressive form of foreign-policy interference in which the US explicitly sets itself the goal of “promoting European greatness”. Its language could have been directly lifted from Viktor Orbán’s speeches during the so-called refugee crisis of 2015-16: “We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilisational self-confidence.” Even more ominously, the document claims that Europe’s “economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure”.

The whole section on Europe is steeped in decades of European far-right ideology and propaganda. The EU and migration policies are held responsible for “transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence”. According to the document, if “present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies”. Indeed, the Trump administration believes that “within a few decades at the latest, certain Nato members will become majority non-European”.

Expanding on this theme in an interview with Politico, Trump claimed this would make these countries “much weaker”. » | Cas Mudde | Wednesday, December 10, 2025

U.S. Plans to Scrutinize Foreign Tourists’ Social Media History

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Even visitors from countries like Britain and France, whose citizens don’t need visas, would have to share five years’ worth of social media.

Travelers visiting the United States from countries like Britain, France, Germany and South Korea could soon have to undergo a review of up to five years of their social media history, according to a proposal filed on Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The change would affect visitors eligible for the visa waiver program, which allows people from 42 countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa as long as they first obtain electronic travel authorization.

In a document filed on Tuesday in the Federal Register, C.B.P. said it plans to ask applicants for a long list of personal data including social media, email addresses from the last decade, and the names, birth dates, places of residence and birthplaces of parents, spouses, siblings and children. » | Christine Chung | Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Friedrich Merz Challenges US Strategy, Calls Europe Fully Independent Now

Dec 9, 2025 | Friedrich Merz Challenges US Strategy, Calls Europe Fully Independent Now

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz strongly questions parts of the new US National Security Strategy, warning that Europe does not need American intervention to “save democracy.” His comments come after Washington referred to “civilizational erasure” in Europe, raising concerns across EU capitals. This video explains the debate, the political signals from Berlin, and what this means for Europe’s independence and transatlantic relations.

Americans and Their FAKE Christianity — Christian Nationalism!

Polluting the world yet again! Father David explains.

Trump’s Ethnic Cleansing

Father David talks of Trump’s Gestapo and their un-Christian actions.