By Brenda Goh and Laurie Chen SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Jan 4 (Reuters) – A U.S. attack on Venezuela will encourage China to strengthen its territorial claims over areas such as Taiwan and parts of the South China Sea, but will not hasten any potential invasion of Taiwan, analysts said. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s views on Taiwan and … Read more
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has not minced words about the larger message he is trying to send to the world with the U.S. military raid to capture Nicolás Maduro and bring the ousted Venezuelan leader and his wife to the United States to face federal drug-trafficking charges. “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” … Read more
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Both allies and adversaries of the United States used an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Monday to express opposition to the bold U.S. military operation in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro. Before the UN’s most powerful body, the countries have criticized – if sometimes obliquely – President … Read more
Donald Trump has signaled that Greenland is in his sights after capturing Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator, and taking him to the US to stand trial. “We need Greenland, absolutely,” the US president told The Atlantic magazine, adding that the Danish territory is “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.” He said officials in his administration … Read more
Months before the U.S. military arrested Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, opposition leader María Corina Machado called for what she described as the most ambitious economic transformation in the nation’s history — radical privatization aimed at reversing his policies and what she calls “the disaster this socialist system has caused.” Appearing virtually on stage at the Fortune … Read more
On Nov. 2, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair that land strikes in Venezuela would require congressional approval. She said if Trump “authorized an activity on land, then it’s war, then (we need) Congress.” Days later, Trump administration officials privately told members of Congress much the same thing — that they … Read more
The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been captured and expelled from the country after months of intense pressure from Washington – an extraordinary overnight operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack. Multiple explosions erupted and … Read more
Videos and images appear on social media showing what appear to be a large-scale US military operation underway around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, which includes multiple large explosions and the presence of US special operations helicopters. While there has been no official announcement of the start of such an operation, it comes after months … Read more
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting with top national security officials Monday, a meeting that comes as the U.S. Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration’s campaign to increase pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. … Read more
President Donald Trump last week ordered a “complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela — a giant escalation in his pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The idea appears to be to cripple the country’s economy dependent on oil exports, although no official sanctions have been imposed. Over the weekend, … Read more