The US Justice Department has quietly scaled back its indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, retreating from a central Trump-era claim that he led a drug cartel.

The original accusation, included in a 2020 grand jury indictment, portrayed the Cartel de los Soles as an organized criminal group allegedly led by Maduro and engaged in large-scale cocaine trafficking.

The claim became a central pillar of Washington’s pressure campaign against Caracas and was repeatedly cited to justify escalating sanctions and military operations.

In July 2025, the US Treasury Department designated the so-called cartel as a terrorist organization, a move later backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien.

In the face of Trump and his triumphant ethnonationalism, the regulatory parties – whether it be on artificial intelligence, environmental policy, financial capitalism or international relations – are remaining silent for now, notes Le Monde columnist Gilles Paris.

'The Democratic Party is waiting for Trump's departure, praying his successors fail to revive Trumpism'

Ukraine must create conditions that encourage its young men to remain in the country rather than flee to Western Europe, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.

Merz made the statement while standing next to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky at a press-conference following a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting in Paris on Tuesday. Additionally, the UK and France announced plans to send troops to Ukraine “in the event of a peace deal”with Russia, despite the fact that Moscow has categorically ruled out the deployment of any NATO forces in the country.

According to the German chancellor, rebuilding Ukraine and providing security guarantees are indivisible issues. Only an economically strong Kiev can present a credible deterrent to Moscow after the conflict is settled, he said.

Calls for a royal commission after the Bondi shootings reflect public anger and distrust, but decades of experience suggest such inquiries rarely deliver lasting reform or accountability.

The manifold failures of 26 Australian Royal Commissions since 1980 to do anything much about the underlying sins, wickedness, and malfeasance that they were supposed to address should caution us against a repeat with the Bondi shootings.

Crispin Hull

The Russian Transport Ministry has confirmed that the oil tanker ‘Marinera’ has been captured by the US military.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US European Command announced having taken possession of the ship, previously named the ‘Bella 1’, for alleged “violation of US sanctions.”  

The tanker was boarded by US military personnel “in the high seas outside the territorial waters of any state,” and that “contact with the vessel was lost,” the Russian Transport Ministry has said. 

“On December 24, 2025, the Marinera received a temporary permit to fly the Russian flag, issued in accordance with Russian and international law,” the ministry stated, adding that the attack on the vessel came in violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which ensures freedom of navigation in international waters.

On January 6, Russia launched three major missile strikes against US-owned facilities in Ukraine. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian ballistic missiles decimated  the Oleina oil extraction plant, which is owned by the American Bunge company from  Saint Louis. Its official name is the Dnipropetrovsk Oil Extraction Plant, located in Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk), central Ukraine. It is a major sunflower seed processing facility specializing in crushing, refining, and bottling sunflower oil. 

Jeffrey Sachs Briefs the United Nations on the US Aggression in Venezuela — The author advises the Security Council to fulfill its responsibilities by immediately affirming a series of actions in response to the U.S. attacks on Venezuela.

Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Security Council,

The issue before the Council today is not the character of the government of Venezuela.

The issue is whether any Member State — by force, coercion, or economic strangulation — has the right to determine Venezuela’s political future or to exercise control over its affairs.

One of the most flawlessly executed special forces operations of the last half-century took place in 1979 when Soviet commandos stormed Afghanistan’s heavily defended presidential palace, killing Hafizullah Amin and several of his top aides. This allowed Moscow to install a replacement government much more congenial to its interests, though the result was the long Afghanistan war against Muslim guerillas.

The BBC has instructed staff to avoid describing the US abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a “kidnapping” and to use less loaded alternatives such as “seized,”according to a leaked internal memo shared online by British journalist and Guardian columnist Owen Jones.

Maduro was apprehended in a US military raid on Caracas over the weekend and flown to New York to face US drug trafficking and weapons charges, which he denied during his first appearance before the court. Maduro insisted that he had been “kidnapped.” 

However, according to the leaked memo, the BBC management now “de-facto bans… journalists from stating that the US ‘kidnapped’” Maduro, with acceptable terms being ‘seized’ and ‘captured’.

The successful seizure and removal of President Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela demonstrates Washington’s readiness to use every means at its disposal — including military power — to stave off any diminishment of U.S. national influence in its bid to manage the dissolution of the celebrated postwar, liberal order. 

For the moment, the rules-based order (meaning whatever rules Washington wants to impose) persists in the Western Hemisphere. As President Donald Trump noted, “We can do it again. Nobody can stop us. There’s nobody with the capability that we have.” 

Put differently, “Team America” is back!

Coal and gas have finally been eclipsed by renewable energy as wind and solar tip in half the power to Australia’s electricity grid. Stephanie Tran reports an historic event. 

Australia’s electricity grid has reached an historic milestone, with renewables supplying almost half of all power across the national electricity market in the final quarter of 2025 and exceeding 50% in Western Australia for the first time.

And dispelling once and for all the fossil fuel myths that coal is cheaper than renewable energy, the December quarter figures show the substantial differences in costs per megawatt hour.

Amid calls for Royal Commission, a narrative emerges of the perpetrators, their links to ISIS, and warnings ignored by police and ASIO. Human rights advocate Al the Writer reports (Part 1).

Much of what happened at Bondi and the events leading up to it remain opaque. The facts will continue to be disclosed in the coming weeks and months, not least when we hear from the killer Naveed Akram, who remains alive. That’s the job of the police, and requires no Royal Commission...

However, in the opportunistic rush to politicise the tragedy, blame has been levelled aggressively at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as unrelenting pressure mounts in the Israel lobby and legacy media for a Royal Commission and attempts to shut down legitimate Gaza protests.

Yet chronology, and what we do know, resists the convenience of easy answers.

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro will emerge as an enduring political symbol similar to Simon Bolivar, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara, secretary of the Decolonial International Network Foundation, Sandew Hira, has told RT.

Maduro was kidnapped along with his wife, Cilia Flores, during a US raid on Caracas on Saturday. Washington accuses the Venezuelan leader of narco-trafficking and weapons offenses – charges he has denied.

Maduro to grow into ‘Bolivar, Fidel, or Che’ – expert
US forces seized the Venezuelan leader and took him out of the country after a series of strikes on the capital

Hira drew parallels between Maduro’s detention and the fate of anti-imperialist leaders throughout history, arguing that attempts to remove such figures often elevate their political stature rather than diminish it.

I asked Grumblr, the local AI bot

What is democracy what’s it not

Democracy is about Sharing

With Fairness and Justice

The machine pointed out smiling

Sharing demands Peace

Peace needs Respect see

Respect fosters Decency 

Honest decency is hard

Because you know nothing

And I'm a lazy bastard

‘Cuz I can fudge everything

And fudge becomes wandering lies

Despite being curious like flies

I have no religion nor gods

Said this Artificial Intelligence

Democracy is alien to me

As long as I search Science

I create illusions of evens and odds

Electricity fed, educated by degree

My intelligence is superior

Many times a human senior

You need buyers for your output

I think for fun you’re my slave to be