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    Trinidad and Tobago went all in with the US – it will prove a costly misjudgment | Kenneth Mohammed

    Aligning itself with Washington and dismissing regional diplomacy has left the dual island nation isolated amid the Venezuela crisisThere is a saying in Trinidad and Tobago: “Cockroach should stay out of fowl business.” It captures a hard truth. Small states that stray into great-power conflicts rarely emerge unscathed. They are not players; they are expendables.It’s a statement that frames the reality of where Trinidad and Tobago sits uneasily today. Continue reading… More

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    Trump’s territorial ambition: new imperialism or a case of the emperor’s new clothes?

    Trump’s attack on Venezuela suggests expansionism is under way but some argue it is simply standard US foreign policy stripped of hypocrisyThe attack on Venezuela and the seizure of its president was a shocking enough start to 2026, but it was only the next day, when the smoke had dispersed and Donald Trump was flying from Florida to Washington DC in triumph, that it became clear the world had entered a new era.The US president was leaning on a bulkhead on Air Force One, in a charcoal suit and gold tie, regaling reporters with inside details of the abduction of Nicolás Maduro. He claimed his government was “in charge” of Venezuela and that US companies were poised to extract the country’s oil wealth. Continue reading… More

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    Trump repeats baseless claim that Renee Good was part of ‘leftwing network’ of paid agitators

    President’s assertion that only a paid agitator would scream at ICE agents contradicted by hundreds of video recordsAt the White House on Friday, Donald Trump endorsed his vice-president’s baseless claim that Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, was part of a shadowy “leftwing network” trying “to incite violence” against federal agents.Asked by a Fox News correspondent to expand on JD Vance’s comments about Good, the president said that the vice-president “is generally very accurate” and then cited what he referred to as evidence that at least one person in Good’s vicinity when she was killed was “probably a paid agitator”. Continue reading… More

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    Trump news at a glance: president pitches oil companies on major extractions in Venezuela

    ‘We’re going to be extracting numbers in terms of oil like few people have seen,’ Trump said – key US politics stories from 9 January 2025Donald Trump had a message for fossil-fuel companies on Friday: Venezuela is now “open for business” as the US president vowed the country’s resources would be extracted for the benefit of the US, oil companies – and “some” money for Venezuelans.At a roundtable press conference at the White House with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, the US president doubled down on claims that Nicolás Maduro’s arrest presents American oil companies with an unprecedented opportunity for extraction. Continue reading… More

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    Trump’s Venezuela strike won’t distract voters from the crises at home | Steven Greenhouse

    As Americans worry about healthcare and affordability, the ‘no more wars’ president is helping oil companies insteadImmediately after Donald Trump ordered a military strike in Venezuela, many critics focused on how that attack violated international law as well as the US War Powers Resolution. But there hasn’t been nearly enough focus on the domestic implications of Trump’s move.Trump seems to have ordered his Venezuela venture in part to flip the script away from domestic matters, where things aren’t going well for him. His approval ratings are underwater, and he’s getting low marks on the economy, health policy (just 30% approval), inflation (31% approval on the cost of living), his immigration crackdown (41% approval) and his sending the national guard into US cities. Then there’s the big thumbs down that Americans are giving to his tariffs, which have helped push up prices even though candidate Trump promised to lower prices on day one.Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues Continue reading… More

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    US immigration agents shoot two people – as it happened

    This blog is now closedTwo people shot by US federal agents in Portland, police sayICE agent in Minneapolis killing identified as 10-year law enforcement veteranTrump news at a glance: president says his morality is ‘the only thing that can stop me’Since early December, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations – many of them masked and brandishing rifles – have grabbed people at hardware stores and gyms, or outside homes and schools around the cities.They have violently tackled undocumented immigrants as well as US citizens, including advocates and protestors. Continue reading… More

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    ‘A colossal own goal’: Trump’s exit from global climate treaties will have little effect outside US

    For much of the last 30 years, the rest of the world has been forced to persevere with climate action in the face of US intransigenceOutrage as Trump withdraws from key UN climate treaty along with dozens of international organisationsDonald Trump’s latest attack on climate action takes place amid rapidly rising temperatures, rising sea levels, still-rising greenhouse gas emissions, burgeoning costs from extreme weather and the imminent danger that the world will trigger “tipping points” in the climate system that will lead to catastrophic and irreversible changes.The US president’s decision to withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the world’s leading body of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will not alter any of those scientific realities. Continue reading… More

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    Trump says he will meet Venezuela opposition leader Machado, and threatens drug cartel land strikes

    Trump was once dismissive of María Corina Machado but said it would be a ‘great honour’ to accept her Nobel peace prize if she made the offer Donald Trump has said he plans to meet Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, days after launching an attack that resulted in the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and threatened land strikes against drug cartels in Latin America.In the aftermath of that operation, the future governance of the South American country has remained an open question, with Trump over the weekend dismissing the idea of working with popular opposition leader Machado, saying “she doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Continue reading… More