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As the Trump administration escalates pressure on Venezuela, U.S. military activity across the Caribbean continues to grow. The U.S. has deployed more than 15,000 troops to the region and carried out airstrikes on over 20 boats, killing at least 83 people in operations the White House has justified, without providing evidence, as targeting drug traffickers. On Monday, the administration also designated the so-called Cártel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, alleging President Nicolás Maduro leads the group.
"It's certainly not a cartel," says Phil Gunson, senior analyst for the Andes region with the International Crisis Group. He explains that while some parts of the Venezuelan military are involved in the drug trade, "these people are in it for the money," and declaring them terrorists is "ridiculous."
We also speak with Alexander Aviña, associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University, who says the anti-Maduro campaign is part of a "broader plan" to remake the entire region. "It's not just about Venezuela."
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While President Trump attacked the Ukrainians, Secretary of State Marco Rubio flew to Geneva to seize control of negotiations that were going off the rails.
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The move sets up a possible rematch between Mr. Jones, the last Democrat to win statewide office in Alabama, and Tommy Tuberville, the Republican who ousted him from the Senate in 2020.
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After months of mutual animosity, President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met for the first time in a widely anticipated meeting late last week. But after the two discussed Mamdani's plans to lower the cost of living in New York City, where both men grew up, Trump said that he and Mamdani "agree on a lot more than I would have thought" and promised to work together once Mamdani takes office in January. The newly friendly relationship is likely temporary, but still "remarkable," says Ross Barkan, who is writing a book about Mamdani's rapid political rise. "If Trump is less antagonistic towards Mamdani, the idea is to have Trump do as little damage as possible to New York City," Barkan says of Mamdani's conciliatory approach to the meeting. "He's not going to attack. He's going to try to build coalitions."
Barkan also comments on the brewing intra-party conflict between the Democratic establishment and the more left-wing Democratic Socialists of America — whose members, including Mamdani, typically run for elected office as Democrats — as well as what Trump's lack of challenge to Mamdani's assertion that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza says about the shifting discourse on Israel-Palestine in the United States.
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In an unusual move, Xi Jinping, the leader of China, called President Trump. The two spoke about trade, Taiwan and Ukraine, according to separate official statements.
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The placement of a screen to shield a child-abuse victim in court might violate the constitutional right of a defendant to face their accuser, high court says.
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Global negotiations at the annual U.N. climate summit ended Saturday in Belém, Brazil, with a watered-down agreement that does not even mention fossil fuels, let alone offer a roadmap to phase out what are the primary contributors to the climate crisis. The COP30 agreement also makes no new commitments to halt deforestation and does not address global meat consumption, another major driver of global warming.
"I'm angry at a really weak outcome. I'm angry at the fossil fuel lobbyists roaming the venue freely, while the Indigenous activists [were] met with militarized repression," says Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA. "I have a special level of incandescent outrage at … the rich, developed countries of the Global North who come in to these conferences, and they act like they're the heroes, when, in fact, what they're doing is shifting the burden of a crisis that they caused onto the backs of the poor."
"The absence of the United States is critical," adds Jonathan Watts, global environment writer at The Guardian. "The United States under Donald Trump is trying to go backwards to the 20th century in a fossil fuel era, whereas a huge part of the rest of the world wants to move forward into something else."
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The central fight in the U.S. federal government shutdown has been over healthcare costs, with Democrats demanding that Republicans agree to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act set to expire this Saturday. Without an extension of those subsidies, health premiums could more than double for millions of people across the country. The enhanced subsidies were first put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The purpose of healthcare has increasingly become profit-making rather than a public service," says Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, professor of public health at Hunter College and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. She says that while extending the Obamacare subsidies is vital, the United States should move toward universal public healthcare like every other major Western economy "and away from our private, profit-oriented healthcare system."
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