The Nation Newspaper

Category: Foreign

  • Venezuelan President, wife captured after  U.S. airstrikes, says Trump 

    Venezuelan President, wife captured after  U.S. airstrikes, says Trump 

    United States President Donald Trump has announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been captured following U.S. airstrikes on Venezuelan territory, making the claim in a statement posted on his Truth Social page.

    In the post, Trump said the United States had “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader,” adding that Maduro and his wife had been captured and flown out of the country. He said the operation was conducted in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement agencies and promised further details at a news conference scheduled for later in the day at his Mar a Lago residence.

    The White House did not immediately issue a formal statement beyond the social media post, while the Pentagon confirmed that U.S. forces had carried out air operations targeting what it described as strategic locations linked to the Venezuelan leadership.

    Venezuelan authorities acknowledged that airstrikes had hit a government facility near Caracas in the early hours of Saturday but disputed elements of the U.S. account. 

    In a brief broadcast, state media said the attack caused casualties and damage to infrastructure, while officials said clarification was still being sought regarding the status of senior government figures.

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    The airstrikes followed months of heightened U.S. military activity in the Caribbean and northern South America. In recent weeks, Washington had expanded naval patrols and aerial surveillance, citing efforts to disrupt drug trafficking routes allegedly linked to Venezuelan networks. 

    U.S. Southern Command announced multiple seizures of vessels it said were transporting narcotics, with American officials accusing elements within the Venezuelan state of providing protection for organised crime.

    Sanctions targeting Venezuelan military officials and shipping interests were also tightened, while joint maritime operations with regional allies were stepped up. U.S. officials repeatedly warned that stronger action would follow if Caracas continued to pose what Washington described as a security threat.

  • UN boss Guterres raises alarm over surge in global military spending

    UN boss Guterres raises alarm over surge in global military spending

    United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed concern over the sharp rise in global military spending, noting that it is now about thirteen times higher than funds allocated to development aid.

    According to him, military expenditure in 2025 is estimated at around $2.7 trillion, an amount equivalent to the entire Gross Domestic Product of Africa.

    Guterres warned that the world is at a critical crossroads, defined by escalating conflicts, deepening divisions and accelerating climate breakdown.

    He stressed that building a safer world requires greater investment in fighting poverty rather than waging wars.

    Looking ahead to 2026, the UN chief urged world leaders to make people-centred choices in their policy and spending decisions.

    He said, “As we enter the new year, the world stands at a crossroads. Chaos and uncertainty surround us. 

    “Division. Violence. Climate breakdown. And systemic violations of international law.

    “A retreat from the very principles that bind us together as a human family. 

    “People everywhere are asking: Are leaders even listening? Are they ready to act?

    “As we turn the page on a turbulent year, one fact speaks louder than words:

    “Global military spending has soared to 2.7 trillion dollars, growing by almost 10%.

    “That is thirteen times more than all development aid, equivalent to the entire Gross Domestic Product of Africa.

    “All, while conflict rages at levels unseen since World War II.

    “On this new year, let’s resolve to get our priorities straight.

    “A safer world begins by investing more in fighting poverty and less in fighting wars. Peace must prevail.

    “It’s clear the world has the resources to lift lives, heal the planet, and secure a future of peace and justice.

    “In 2026, I call on leaders everywhere: Get serious. Choose people and planet over pain.

    “And I urge everyone who hears this message: Play your part.

    “Our future depends on our collective courage to act.

    “This new year, let’s rise together:For justice. For humanity. For peace.”

  • Legal battle shadows European contractor as Nigeria’s energy projects stay on course

    Legal battle shadows European contractor as Nigeria’s energy projects stay on course

    Nigeria’s ongoing energy projects remain on track, but rising legal pressure on a major European contractor operating in the country is drawing increased attention.

    An Italian engineering firm, Tecnimont, involved in several Nigerian refinery and energy developments, is facing claims exceeding $2.2 billion following a ruling by Russian courts in favour of fertilizer producer EuroChem over a stalled industrial project.

    It was gathered that the judgment covers unworked advance payments, interest and damages. EuroChem was said to have confirmed it is seeking to enforce the ruling across multiple jurisdictions.

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    According to report, legal proceedings have already commenced in India, where EuroChem has asked the courts to recognise the Russian judgment and approve its enforcement.

    Although the litigation does not reference any Nigerian contracts and ongoing projects in the country are unaffected, it was gathered that the situation may have raised concerns given Nigeria’s reliance on a small pool of European contractors for large-scale infrastructure delivery.

    In Nigeria, the company is involved in energy infrastructure critical to domestic fuel processing and industrial growth. These projects are central to reducing dependence on fuel imports, stabilising supply and easing inflationary pressures across the economy.

  • Trump’s new envoy vows to make Greenland part of the U.S.

    Trump’s new envoy vows to make Greenland part of the U.S.

    United States President Donald Trump has angered Denmark by appointing a special envoy to Greenland, a territory he has previously said he wants the United States to annexe.

    Responding to a question from the BBC concerning the new position of Jeff Landry, the Republican governor of Louisiana, Trump claimed the U.S. needed Greenland for “national protection and simply that “we have to have it”.

    According to the President, Landry would “lead the charge” as a special envoy to Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

    Unsurprisingly, the move has enraged Copenhagen.

    Greenland’s prime minister said the island must “decide our own future” and its “territorial integrity must be respected,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

    Landry wrote in a post on X that it was an honour to serve in a “volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”.

    Trump has recently revived his ever-growing interest in Greenland, referring to its strategic location and mineral wealth.

    Trump has since refused to rule out the use of force to gain control of Greenland, a stance that has shocked Denmark, which has long viewed itself as a close U.S. ally through NATO.

    “We’ll have to work that out,” Trump added. “We need Greenland for national security, not minerals.”

    Greenland is home to approximately 57,000 people and has had extensive self-government since 1979, however, defence and foreign policy remain in Danish hands.

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    Even though most citizens favour a future independence from Denmark, polls suggest an overwhelming opposition to becoming part of the US.

    Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s Foreign Minister, described the appointment of Landry as “deeply upsetting” and warned Washington to respect Danish sovereignty.

    He told Danish broadcaster TV2: “As long as we have a kingdom consisting of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, we cannot accept actions that undermine our territorial integrity.”

    Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the territory is open to cooperation with the US, but only if based on mutual respect.

    “The appointment of a special envoy does not change anything for us. We decide our own future. Greenland belongs to Greenlanders, and territorial integrity must be respected,” he said.

    Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission President, has shared her support for Greenland on social media, writing on X that the EU stand in “full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland”.

  • Sudan’s Prime Minister takes peace plan to UN

    Sudan’s Prime Minister takes peace plan to UN

    U.S. urges humanitarian truce now

    Sudan’s prime minister has proposed a wide-ranging peace initiative to end a nearly 1,000-day war with a rival paramilitary force, but the United States urged both sides to accept the Trump administration’s call for an immediate humanitarian truce.

    Kamil Idris, who heads Sudan’s transitional civilian government, told the Security Council his plan calls for a ceasefire monitored by the United Nations, African Union and Arab League, and the withdrawal of paramilitary forces from all areas they occupy, their placement in supervised camps and their disarmament, the Associated Press said.

    Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting, with widespread mass killings and rapes, and ethnically motivated violence. This has amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international rights groups.

    It seemed highly unlikely the RSF would support the prime minister’s proposal, which would essentially give government forces a victory and take away their military power.

    Idris stressed to the UN Security Council that the government’s proposal is “homemade — not imposed on us.”

    In early November, the Rapid Support Forces agreed to a humanitarian truce. At that time, a Sudanese military official told The Associated Press the army would only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and gives up their weapons — key provisions in the plan Idris put forward on Monday.

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    Idris said unless the paramilitary forces were confined to camps, a truce had “no chance for success.” He challenged the 15 members of the Security Council to back his proposal.

    “This initiative can mark the moment when Sudan steps back from the edge and the international community — You! You! — stood on the right side of history,” the Sudanese prime minister said. He said the council should “be remembered not as a witness to collapse, but as a partner in recovery.”

    US deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos, who spoke to the council before Idris, said the Trump administration has offered a humanitarian truce as a way forward and “We urge both belligerents to accept this plan without preconditions immediately.”

    Bartos said the Trump administration strongly condemns the horrific violence across Darfur and the Kordofan region — and the atrocities committed by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, who must be held accountable.

    The devastating war in Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher. The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with over 14 million people displaced, disease outbreaks and famine spreading in parts of the country.

  • Libya confirms death of army chief of staff

    Libya confirms death of army chief of staff

    •Plane signal lost near Ankara

    The Prime Minister of Libya’s U.N.-recognised Government of National Unity, Abdulhamid Dbeibah, said he had received news of the death of Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, after Haddad’s plane lost radio contact above Turkey’s Ankara.

    Dbeibah, mourning Haddad’s death, said the army chief of staff had been accompanied by others, including military officials.

    Radio contact was lost yesterday with the jet carrying Al-Haddad, shortly after takeoff from the Turkish capital Ankara en route to Tripoli, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

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    Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that the jet had taken off at 1710 GMT and radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT. He said the flight had made a request for an emergency landing while over the Haymana district of Ankara, but that no contact was established after.

    Four others were on the jet, he added, while flight tracking data showed other flights being diverted away from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport.

    Turkey’s defence ministry had announced the Libyan chief of staff’s visit earlier, saying he had met with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, along with other Turkish military commanders.

    While officials did not say whether the plane had crashed, footage on Turkish broadcasters showed a flash of light where the jet was said to have lost radio contact.

    There was no immediate comment from Libyan officials.

  • Death toll in South Africa’s pub shooting rises to 10

    Death toll in South Africa’s pub shooting rises to 10

    The death toll in South Africa ’s latest mass shooting at a pub rose to 10 yesterday, while police said they had identified two potential suspects.

    Three women and seven men were killed in Sunday’s early-morning assault in the township of Bekkersdal, 46 kilometres (28 miles) west of Johannesburg. Nine people remained hospitalised.

    Gauteng police spokesperson Col. Mavela Masondo told The Associated Press that the owner will be charged with fraud and operating an illegal liquor outlet. Authorities confiscated all alcohol in the pub.

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    Maj. Gen. Fred Kekana, acting provincial commissioner of Gauteng, told reporters that two other people have been identified as potential suspects in the shooting based on community reports to the police.

    It was the second mass shooting in three weeks at a township pub, which are sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa.

    In early December, a mass shooting at an unlicensed bar near the capital, Pretoria, left at least 12 people dead. On Monday, a 32-year-old man was arrested.

    South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with over 26,000 reported in 2024, or a daily average of over 70. Despite stringent gun ownership rules, firearms are the most common weapons used, and many crimes employ illicit firearms, according to authorities.

  • Trump recalls U.S. envoys from Nigeria, 29 other countries

    Trump recalls U.S. envoys from Nigeria, 29 other countries

    In moves to reshape the United States (U.S.) diplomatic posture abroad, the President Donald Trump administration has recalled 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and other senior embassy posts.

    The recalled envoys are to be replaced with personnel deemed fully supportive of Trump’s “America first” priorities.

    The chiefs of mission in about 29 countries, including Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills, were informed last week that their tenures would end in January, according to two state department officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel moves.

    The ambassadors, who had had taken up their posts under the Joe Biden administration, had survived an initial purge in the early months of Trump’s second term that targeted mainly political appointees.

    But that That changed on Wednesday when they began to receive notices from officials in Washington DC about their imminent departures, according to UK Guardian.

    The State Department officials said those affected by the shake-up are not losing their foreign service jobs, but will be returning to Washington for other assignments should they wish to take them.

    Africa is most affected by the removals, with ambassadors from 13 countries being removed.

    The affected African nations include: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Cote d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, and Uganda.

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    Next is the Asia-Pacific region, with ambassadorial changes coming to six countries, including Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

    Four countries in Europe (Armenia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovakia) are affected; as are two each in the Middle East (Algeria and Egypt); South Asia (Nepal and Sri Lanka); and the western hemisphere (Guatemala and Suriname).

    Trump has sought to place loyalists in senior roles since starting his second term after encountering resistance during his first term advancing his foreign policy priorities within the U.S. national security establishment.

    Jeanne Shaheen, ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, assailed the Republican administration’s removal of the diplomats while about 80 ambassadorial posts remain vacant.

    “President Trump is giving away U.S. leadership to China and Russia by removing qualified career Ambassadors who serve faithfully no matter who’s in power,” Shaheen posted on X.

    “This makes America less safe, less strong and less prosperous.”

  • U.S., Russian officials continue Ukraine peace talks in Miami

    U.S., Russian officials continue Ukraine peace talks in Miami

    Washington has proposed the first face-to-face negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in six months, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though he expressed skepticism about the matter.

    Meanwhile, U.S. and Russian special envoys are holding talks over the weekend in Miami on ending the war in Ukraine, which U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he might join.

    These meetings are part of the U.S. President Donald Trump administration’s push for a lasting ceasefire, which also includes talks with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week.

    Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev told reporters in Miami on Saturday that the talks on the U.S. 20-point proposed peace plan to bring the war to an end “are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today.”

    According to Russian state media, Dmitriev met with U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

    However, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, told state-run media that changes to the peace plan being made by Ukraine and Europe are causing delays in reaching an agreement. “I am more than sure that the provisions that the Europeans have introduced or are trying to introduce with Ukrainians do not improve the documents and do not improve the possibility of achieving long-term peace,” he said.

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    Despite negotiations which Zelenskyy on Sunday called “constructive” and said they mattered, he shared his worries in a post on X, stating: “Much depends on whether Russia feels the need to end the war for real – it must not be a rhetorical or political game on Russia’s part.”

    He warned that the signals from Russia so far remain negative, citing assaults along the frontline, war crimes in border areas, and continued strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure.

    On Saturday President Zelenskyy said an agreement can only happen depending on how much pressure the US puts on Russia, he said “America must clearly say: if not diplomacy, then there will be full pressure…Putin does not yet feel the kind of pressure that should exist,”.

    Ukrainian, EU and American partners met on Friday

    This followed Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov saying his delegation had held separate meetings on Friday with American and European partners in the United States and that they agreed to keep on working together “in the near future”.

    On Friday, Putin said he was confident Russia could achieve its goals by force if Kyiv refuses to accept Moscow’s terms in peace talks

    Although Trump has deployed a big diplomatic push to end the war, he has been met with conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin is sticking to his biggest demands on Ukraine, even as Russian troops make slow progress and suffer heavy losses

  • Dozens of Epstein files have disappeared from govt website

    Dozens of Epstein files have disappeared from govt website

    One of the files that no longer appears on the United States Department of Justice’s website includes a photograph of United States President Donald Trump.

    About 16 files have disappeared from the Justice Department’s public webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein less than a day after they were posted, with no explanation from the government and no notice to the public.

    The missing files, which were available Friday and no longer accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude women, and one showing a series of photographs along a credenza and in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photograph of Trump, alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

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    The Justice Department didn’t answer questions Saturday about why the files disappeared but said in a post on X that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.”

    Online, the unexplained missing files fuelled speculation about what was taken down and why the public was not notified, compounding long-standing intrigue about Epstein and the powerful figures who surrounded him. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee pointed to the missing image featuring a Trump photo in a post on X, writing: “What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

    The episode deepened concerns that had already emerged from the Justice Department’s much-anticipated document release. The tens of thousands of pages made public offered little new insight into Epstein’s crimes or the prosecutorial decisions that allowed him to avoid serious federal charges for years, while omitting some of the most closely watched materials, including FBI interviews with victims and internal Justice Department memos on charging decisions