Politics
‘A volatile White House’: What shaped responses to U.S.’s Venezuela attack? – National TenX News
The world woke up Saturday morning to the news that the U.S. had conducted a military operation in Venezuela and captured its president.
While the move by the Trump administration marked a “violation” of international law, experts say, the statements issued by many world leaders appear cautious in tone — and are likely an example of how some are trying to bridge the realities of dealing with “a volatile White House.”
“[American] domestic law takes precedence over international law (in the U.S. justification),” said Jordi Diez, professor of political science at the University of Guelph.
For many U.S. allies, how they respond to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife on narco-terrorism charges may come down to not wanting to anger the U.S. administration, Diez said.
“They’re dealing with a volatile White House,” he said.
“If you say the wrong thing, there’s going to be pushback. I think everything has been very much calibrated in light of the negotiations taking place on trade,” Diez said, referring to the ongoing negotiations on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA) that is up for review this year.
Luis van Isschot, associate professor of history at the University of Toronto, said the U.S. capture is “a particularly bold move, and a particularly bold violation of international law, and of Venezuelan sovereignty.”
“The abduction of Nicolas Maduro and his wife is a violation of international law, and that is not something that I have heard clearly stated yet from Canada or other countries that are close to the United States,” he said.
Article 2 of the UN Charter, to which both the U.S. and Venezuela are signatories, prohibits “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”
The U.S. military actions set a “dangerous precedent,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement.
“He’s deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected,” a spokesperson for Guterres said.
However, allies of the U.S. have not spoken out in such terms.
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Canada’s official statement does not specifically mention the United States, with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Ananda calling on “all parties to exercise restraint and uphold international law.”
U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer, for example, refused to answer in an interview whether he thought U.S. actions were a violation of international rights.
In a statement posted to social media, French President Emmanuel Macron decried the Chavista regime in Venezuela but made no reference to the U.S. or the alleged violation of international legal principles.
The cautious responses are likely a reflection of the fact that “the world is more unpredictable and uncertain following the USA’s unilateral military action,” said Arif Z. Lalani, a distinguished fellow at both the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
In detailing U.S. military action on Saturday, Trump referenced the Monroe Doctrine, a maxim that has shaped American foreign policy for two centuries.
The doctrine formulated by former U.S. president James Monroe was originally aimed at opposing European meddling in the Western Hemisphere. It has since been invoked repeatedly by subsequent presidents angling to justify U.S. intervention in the region.
“It’s ‘might make right,’ essentially,” Diez said.
The 1823 doctrine was used heavily during the Cold War and Trump invoked it again on Saturday, even calling it the ‘Donroe doctrine’ — a play on his own name.
The very next day after he announced the military action in Venezuela, Trump renewed his threats of annexing Greenland.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” Trump said.
Saturday’s actions and Trump’s emboldened stance should send alarm bells ringing in Ottawa, Diez said.
“I think he’s serious about his vision of America in a new world. I think he’s serious about a new order, for sure,” he said.
“This is a very serious threat and it’s an existential threat (to Canada). It just shows that he’s willing to do anything to get what he wants,” he said.
“Canada has great cause for concern generally as the Trump administration continues to challenge the fundamental basis of our economic and security relationship. The administration is unpredictable and unreliable — it tends to repudiate agreements it has signed,” Lalani said.
Saturday’s developments are a return to the 19th-century-style great power rivalries, when a handful of world powers divided up the world into zones of influence.
“The reaction of Trump to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was one of the first steps there. There was no denunciation of the invasion. There’s talk about actually conceding land to a murderous dictator (Russian President Vladimir Putin),” Diez said.
The most immediate threat from Trump’s expansionist rhetoric, however, is being felt in Latin America, van Isschot said.
“I would be less surprised if they moved against Cuba. It’s been tried before by both Republican and Democratic administrations. The idea that you can topple such a strongly rooted regime as the Cuban government by simply removing the president is dangerous and foolhardy. It’s also illegal,” he said.
Both Cuba and Mexico should be especially concerned since Trump has used the claim of acting against drug traffickers, Diez said.
“And then there’s (U.S. Secretary of State Marco) Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, and I’m sure he may want to be seen in history as being the one that ‘liberated’ Cuba,” he added.
Trump has also accused Canada of not stopping the flow of fentanyl into the United States. This is despite U.S. data showing a tiny amount of fentanyl is seized at the Canada-U.S. border, amounting to less than one per cent of all fentanyl intercepted by American authorities.
Foreign policy experts say Ottawa should reach out to nations threatened by the United States to co-ordinate a response to the Trump administration’s actions against Venezuela.
— With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday even as he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the U.S. ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Institute has said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honour that he has coveted. Even if the gesture proves to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who has long been the face of resistance in Venezuela. He has signalled his willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s second in command.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill. She said she had done so “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
Trump confirmed later on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
The White House later posted a photo of Machado standing next to Trump in the Oval Office as he holds the medal in a large frame. A text in the frame reads, “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.”
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela, giving no timetable on when elections might be held. Machado indicated that he had provided few specifics on that front during their discussion.
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She did not provide more information on what was said.
‘We can count on President Trump’
After the closed-door meeting, Machado greeted dozens of cheering supporters waiting for her near the White House gates, stopping to hug many.
“We can count on President Trump,” she told them without elaborating, prompting some to briefly chant, “Thank you, Trump.”
Before her visit to Washington, Machado had not been seen in public since she travelled last month to Norway, where her daughter received the peace prize on her behalf. She had spent 11 months in hiding in Venezuela before she appeared in Norway after the ceremony.
The jubilant scene after her meeting with Trump stood in contrast to political realities in Venezuela. Rodríguez remains in charge of day-to-day government operations, along with others in Maduro’s inner circle. In her first state of the union speech Thursday, the interim president promoted the resumption of diplomatic ties between the historic adversaries and advocated for opening the state-run oil industry to more foreign investment after Trump pledged to seize control of Venezuelan crude sales.
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” but also said the meeting didn’t mean Trump’s opinion of her changed, calling it “a realistic assessment.”
Leavitt told reporters that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
A ‘frank and positive discussion’ about Venezuela
Leavitt said Machado had sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. She spent about two and a half hours at the White House.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado,” the press secretary said while the meeting was still going on, other than to have a ”frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”
After leaving the White House, Machado went on to a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Machado told them that “if there’s not some progress, real progress towards a transition in power, and/or elections in the next several months, we should all be worried.”
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” he added.
Asked if Machado had heard any commitment from the White House on holding elections in Venezuela, Murphy said, “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, was exultant following the meeting, saying Machado “delivered a message that loud and clear: What President Trump did was the most important, significant event in Latin America. That getting rid of Maduro was absolutely essential.”
Machado’s Washington stop coincided with U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seizing another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife less than two weeks ago at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela’s interim authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and noted that Rodríguez’s government said it planned to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
Machado doesn’t get the nod from Trump
Just hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader.” Machado had steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize, and had sought to cultivate relationships with him and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate, Machado began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for travelling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, whom Chávez considered an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshalled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown.
Politics
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday underscored the importance of keeping central banks independent and threw her support behind beleaguered Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who is facing a Trump administration investigation for renovation cost overruns.
Georgieva told Reuters in an interview that there was ample evidence that central bank independence worked in the interest of businesses and households, and that evidence-based, data-based decision-making is good for the economy.
The IMF managing director said she had worked with Powell and respected his professionalism.
“I have worked with Jay Powell. He is a very good professional, very decent man, and I think that his standing among his colleagues tells the story,” she said, when asked about a letter of support signed by her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, now head of the European Central Bank, and other large central banks.
Powell on Sunday disclosed that the Trump administration had opened an investigation into him over cost overruns for a $2.5 billion project to renovate two historical buildings at the Fed’s Washington headquarters complex.
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Powell denies wrongdoing and has called the unprecedented actions a pretext to put pressure on him for not bowing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-running demands for sharply lower interest rates.
The probe has sparked widespread criticism from some key members of Trump’s Republican Party in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his nominee to succeed Powell, along with foreign economic officials, investors and former U.S. government officials from both political parties.
Trump has repeatedly derided Powell’s leadership of the Fed and attacked him, often personally, over what he sees as the Fed chair’s slow moves to cut interest rates. On Wednesday, he dismissed concerns that eroding central bank independence would undermine the value of the U.S. dollar and spark inflation, telling Reuters, “I don’t care.”
Georgieva said the IMF looked carefully at issues such as monetary and financial stability, as well as the strength of a country’s institutions. It was specifically interested in the Fed, given the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.
“It would be very good to see that there is a recognition … that the Fed is precious for the Americans. It is very important for the rest of the world,” she said.
Trump has also attempted to fire another Fed official, Governor Lisa Cook, who has challenged her termination in a legal case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week.
B.C. Premier David Eby spoke to reporters on Thursday morning from Mumbai, India, during his six-day trade mission.
He said that mining and energy companies in India are showing an interest in B.C.
“They are looking strongly to LNG as one of their ways of reducing carbon intensity, as well as reducing smog in the country,” Eby said.
“And so B.C. LNG has been an item of considerable interest, especially the projects that are reaching final investment decision over the next year — LNG Canada Phase 2, KSI Lisims LNG — as well as the projects that are under construction like Woodfibre LNG.”
Eby was also asked about the rise in extortion cases in B.C.
He said the province’s extortion task force will provide an update next week.
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“We have assembled a remarkable and historic task force, RCMP, CBSA,” Eby said.
“There are more police in Surrey right now than there have ever been. The RCMP has surged resources into the community.”
Eby said he has not been happy with the fact that there has been no update from the task force and he has asked them to provide one.
“There have been some important developments, people deported, an arrest here in India, cooperation between the Indian government and the Canadian government on this at the law enforcement level,” he added.
“That needs to continue, but, bluntly, we need better results, we need to see more arrests and whatever we can do to support the police to get the job done, we will do so.”
As of Jan. 12, Surrey police said there have been 16 reported extortion incidents in the city since the beginning of the year.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Trump gifted Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuela’s María Corina Machado – National TenX News
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
B.C. Premier David Eby says province’s LNG, mining of interest to India TenX News
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