The imprisoned leader is innocent, Delcy RodrÃguez told NBC as the US energy secretary visits Caracas to overhaul the oil sector Nicolas Maduro remains Venezuela’s legitimate leader despite his capture by US forces a month ago, the country’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, told NBC News on Thursday. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized in a US military raid on Caracas on January 3 and flown to New York, where they are being held in federal custody facing drug trafficking charges. Both have pleaded not guilty. Rodriguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president, assumed power following the intervention. Rodriguez insisted that both Maduro and Flores are innocent and condemned US actions. At the same time, she has moved to normalize relations with Washington. She told NBC she has been invited to the US capital and is “contemplating coming there once we establish this cooperation.” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived in Caracas on Wednesday to assess the country’s oi...
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Kiev could receive 35 interceptors for US-made Patriot systems from its Western backers soon, Boris Pistorius has said Germany is willing to supply five interceptor missiles for US-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, but only if other European countries agree to provide 30 more, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said. It usually takes two Patriot missiles, priced from to $3.5 to $5 million each, to intercept a single target. Russia deploys dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones in its airstrikes on Ukraine. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov asked for more munitions for the air defense systems during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, also known as the Ramstein group, in Brussels on Thursday. Vladimir Zelensky previously blamed the lack of supplies by Kiev’s Western backers for Ukraine’s inability to repel Russian attacks on military and dual-use infrastructure, which led to rolling blackouts in major cities. “There will be no light because t...
The 62-year-old sent “a peek” of a computer screen to a woman to show her what he does “for a living” A retired US Army colonel has been sentenced to two years in prison for sharing classified information about the country’s war plans with a woman he met online, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday. Kevin Charles Luke, 62, served in both active-duty and reserve roles for nearly four decades before retiring as a colonel in 2018. He later continued working as a civilian employee for US Central Command, which oversees the country’s military operations worldwide. Prosecutors said the retired colonel shared classified information in October 2024, alleging that he sent a woman a text message from his personal cellphone reading: “sent to my boss earlier, gives you a peek at what I do for a living.” The message was followed by a photo of a computer screen showing an email he had sent from his government account. A year later, Luke pleaded guilty, admitting as part of a p...
The ‘spirit of Anchorage’ risks becoming a ghost After last August’s meeting between the Russian and American presidents in Alaska, a new phrase entered diplomatic circulation: the “spirit of Anchorage.” The substance of the talks was never officially disclosed and can only be reconstructed from selective leaks. The form, however, was striking: a personal greeting, an honor guard, a shared limousine. Symbolism mattered. It was meant to signal seriousness. Yet the question remains: what exactly was born in Anchorage? And does it belong in the lineage of earlier diplomatic “spirits” that once defined entire eras? The term itself is not new. Before Anchorage, there was the “spirit of Yalta,” the “spirit of Helsinki,” and, briefly, the “spirit of Malta.” All three marked turning points in relations between the great powers during the second half of the twentieth century. Yalta in 1945 laid the foundations of the post-war world order, recognizing the USSR and the United States as it...
Chief adviser of the interim government Muhammad Yunus has pledged a peaceful transfer of power in Dhaka Bangladesh is voting in its 13th general elections today, a year and a half after an uprising led to the ouster of the Awami League government led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A referendum on constitutional and institutional reforms is also being held in the South Asian country. There are 127.7 million registered voters in Bangladesh; about 56 million, roughly 44% of the electorate, are between 18 and 37. Nearly 5 million are heading to the polls for the first time. The 15-year reign of Hasina’s party ended in a violent uprising in August 2024, reportedly led by Generation Z protestors . Hasina, who fled to neighboring India, has since been sentenced to death by a court in absentia. The Awami League, which ruled Bangladesh for a quarter century, has been barred from contesting the polls by the interim administration, led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. Muhammad Yu...
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Jim Ratcliffe to apologize for his “offensive and wrong” remarks British chemical industry tycoon Jim Ratcliffe has blamed the rapid influx of foreigners for the country’s economic problems, saying the UK “is being colonized by immigrants.” The 73-year-old drew criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the remarks. In a Sky News interview on Wednesday, the founder and CEO of INEOS chemicals group, who also co-owns English football giants Manchester United, argued that “you can’t have an economy with 9 million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in.” “The UK is being colonized by immigrants, really, isn’t it? The population of the UK is 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people,” Ratcliffe added. Government data shows the UK population surpassed 58 million in 1995 and was over 66 million in 2020. "The UK has been colonised by immigrants," Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. “You c...