Germany’s double standard on peaceful protests
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LIVE: Barcelona vs Real Madrid: El Clasico Supercopa final 2026
blinking-dotLive MatchLive Match, Follow our live build-up with team news coverage before our live text commentary stream of Spain’s Super Cup final. Published On 11 Jan 202611 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
US launches ‘large-scale’ attacks against ISIL in Syria after deadly ambush
US military says the strikes are in response to an ISIL ambush that killed three American personnel in Palmyra last month. Published On 10 Jan 202610 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share The United States has carried out a new round of “large-scale” attacks against the ISIL or ISIS group in Syria following an ambush that killed two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter in the city of Palmyra last month. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Saturday that the attacks occurred at about 17:30 GMT and hit “multiple ISIS targets across Syria”. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” CENTCOM said. The statement did not say whether anyone was killed in the strikes. Grainy aerial video accompanying the statement, posted on X, showed several separate explosions, apparently in rural areas. CENTCOM said the attacks were carried out alongside partner forces, without specifying which forces had taken part. The US is calling the response to the Palmyra attacks Operation Hawkeye Strike. The ambush on December 13 involved a lone gunman, who Syria’s Ministry of Interior said was a member of the security forces and had been set to be fired for his hardline views. The US military launched the operation on December 19, with a large-scale strike that it said hit 70 targets across central Syria that had ISIL infrastructure and weapons. On December 30, it said its forces had killed or captured about 25 ISIL fighters following the launch of the operation. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has for years been the US’s main partner in the fight against ISIL in Syria, but since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Washington has increasingly been coordinating with the central government in Damascus. Advertisement Syria joined the global coalition against ISIL after reaching an agreement late last year, when Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the White House. Syrian officials said last month that leading ISIL figure Taha al-Zoubi had been arrested in the Damascus countryside. US President Donald Trump has long been sceptical of Washington’s presence in Syria, ordering the withdrawal of troops during his first term, but ultimately leaving US forces in the country. About 1,000 US troops remain in Syria. The US military has said it would further reduce the number of US personnel in Syria and eventually reduce its bases in the country to one. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,417
These are the key developments from day 1,417 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. By News Agencies Published On 11 Jan 202611 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is where things stand on Sunday, January 11: Fighting: Russian forces launched artillery and drone attacks on Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Saturday, killing a 68-year-old man, wounding three others and causing fires to break out in residential buildings, according to Ukraine’s emergency service. Russian shelling also killed another person in the Kramatorsk district of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the service said. Three other Ukrainians were killed, and nine more were wounded, in Russian attacks on the areas of Yarova, Kostyanynivka and Sloviansk in Donetsk, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin. Ukraine’s General Staff reported 139 combat clashes on Saturday and said that Russia launched 33 air strikes, deployed more than 4,430 drones and carried out 2,830 attacks on Ukrainian troops and settlements. Russian forces advanced near the villages of Markove and Kleban-Byk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState, but no other major changes were reported. In the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, engineers are working “around the clock” to restore electricity to residents after thousands of apartments lost power during Russia’s Thursday attacks, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the city’s military administration. Heat supplies have been returned to roughly half the homes that lost power, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko added. Russia’s TASS news agency reported that two people were wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the southwestern Russian city of Voronezh. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Saturday that 600,000 people in the area were without electricity, heating and water after a Ukrainian missile strike. Ukrainian forces also carried out a drone strike on Russia’s Volgograd region, sparking a fire at an oil depot in the Oktyabrsky district, regional authorities said. The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had struck the Zhutovskaya oil depot in Volgograd overnight. Russian air defence systems, meanwhile, intercepted and destroyed 33 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the agency reported. Advertisement Politics and diplomacy The United Nations Security Council will host an emergency meeting on January 12 to “address Russia’s flagrant breaches of the UN Charter”, after Russia fired an Oreshnik hypersonic missile near the Polish border, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha wrote on X. The foreign minister also spoke out about the antigovernment protests rocking Iran, saying that “Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its oppression of its own citizens are part of the same policy of violence and disrespect for human dignity”. The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, insisted that Russia will not accept European or NATO troops in Ukraine and that “European dimwits want a war in Europe after all”. “Well, come on then. This is what you’ll get”, the deputy chairman added, accompanied by a video of the Oreshnik strike. The Institute for the Study of War wrote in its latest report that Russia’s Oreshnik strike was likely “aimed to scare Western countries from providing military support to Ukraine, particularly from deploying forces to Ukraine as part of a peace agreement”. Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, “once again reached out to our American partners”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “We continue communication with the American side practically every day,” he said. South Africa kicked off a week of naval drills, also attended by Russia, Iran and China. Captain Nndwakhulu Thomas Thamaha, South Africa’s joint task force commander, told the opening ceremony that the drills are “a demonstration of our collective resolve to work together”. Sanctions Zelenskyy pledged on X that “we will continue strengthening the sanctions toolkit” and that “all lines of pressure on Russia and individuals associated with it must be maintained”. In reference to recent news that US President Donald Trump has greenlit a bill to sanction countries that buy Russian oil, Zelenskyy said: “What is important is that the US Congress is back in motion on tougher sanctions against Russia – targeting Russian oil. This can truly work.” Energy Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev said Russian oil products have “significantly increased” after Bloomberg reported that Russian refined fuel flows hit a four-month high in December, driven by stronger diesel shipments from ports in the Baltic Sea. Dmitriev added on X that “fake warmonger narratives are bad for decision-making”. Separately, Bloomberg also reported that Russia’s crude oil production dropped to its lowest level in a year and a half in December, hitting 9.32 million barrels per day. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Last Kurdish-led SDF fighters leave Syria’s Aleppo after days of clashes
Aleppo governor says last SDF fighters have left the city after the Syrian army took control of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood. The last fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have left the city of Aleppo, according to officials, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes in Syria’s second-largest city. Aleppo Governor Azzam al-Gharib told Al Jazeera early on Sunday that Aleppo has become “empty of SDF fighters” after government forces coordinated their withdrawal on buses out of the city overnight. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list SDF commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) said the group had reached an understanding through international mediation on a ceasefire and the safe evacuation of civilians and fighters. “We have reached an understanding that leads to a ceasefire and securing the evacuation of the dead, the wounded, the stranded civilians and the fighters from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods to northern and eastern Syria,” he said in a post on X. “We call on the mediators to adhere to their promises to stop the violations and work towards a safe return for the displaced to their homes,” he added. The development came after the Syrian army took over the Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud following days of clashes that broke out when talks to integrate the SDF into the national army collapsed. At least 30 people were killed in the clashes, while more than 150,000 were displaced. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Oghanna, reporting from Damascus, said calm has returned to Aleppo, and that the United States was instrumental in brokering the agreement between the SDF and the government. Advertisement “The US is in a unique position, because it enjoys good relations with the SDF and the government,” Oghanna said, noting that Washington has been working with the Kurdish-led force against ISIL (ISIS) for more than a decade. With the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad’s government in late 2024, the US has also built close ties with the rebel commander who became Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. The Syrian president met US President Donald Trump at the White House last year and has formally joined the US-led coalition against ISIL. The fighting in Aleppo began on Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Bani Zaid, amid tensions over a failure to implement a March 2025 agreement to reintegrate the Kurdish forces into state institutions. The deadline for the deal passed at the end of last year, and the SDF refused to leave areas that have been under its control since the early days of the Syrian war, which erupted in 2011. Al Jazeera’s Oghanna said that though the fighting in Aleppo has ended, “the fault line, the backdrop for this fighting, remains”. “There are many difficult issues in Syria, but the greatest threat to national stability and unity remains this question of whether the SDF join Damascus and be under Damascus’s control,” he said. The SDF has a large amount of fighters, estimated at between 50,000 to 90,000. They are mainly in the northeast of the country and control almost a quarter of Syria’s territory. Oghanna said the fighting in Aleppo makes the SDF integration “look far less likely”. “There are also other sticking points, which might make the SDF refuse to put down their weapons,” he said. “The SDF don’t want to cede control of the country’s northeast, and they want to maintain a certain amount of autonomy in order to have the governance in northeastern Syria.” Adblock test (Why?)
Syrian army ramps up Aleppo strikes against SDF fighters
The Syrian army is locked in intense fighting in Aleppo after Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters refused to withdraw under a ceasefire, as more civilians fled their homes to escape the violence in the northern Syrian city. Aleppo’s emergency chief Mohammed al-Rajab told Al Jazeera Arabic that 162,000 people have fled fighting in the city’s Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list A Syrian military source has told Al Jazeera Arabic that the army is “making progress” in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood, the epicentre of the most intense fighting, and now controls 55 percent of the area. Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said that the military had arrested several members of the SDF in its latest operations in Sheikh Maqsoud, which the army announced on Friday evening after a deadline for Kurdish fighters to evacuate the area, imposed as part of its temporary ceasefire, expired. Syria’s Ministry of Defence had declared the ceasefire earlier on Friday, following three days of clashes that erupted after the central government and the SDF failed to implement a deal to fold the latter into the state apparatus. After some of the fiercest fighting seen since last year’s toppling of Syria’s former leader, Bashar al-Assad, Damascus presented Kurdish fighters a six-hour window to withdraw to their semi-autonomous region in the northeast of the country in a bid to end their longstanding control over parts of Aleppo. But Kurdish councils that run the city’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts rejected any “surrender” and pledged to defend areas that they have run since the early days of Syria’s war, which erupted in 2011. Advertisement Syria’s army then warned it would renew strikes on Sheikh Maqsoud and urged residents to evacuate through a humanitarian corridor, publishing five maps highlighting targets, with strikes beginning roughly two hours later. As violence flared, the SDF posted footage on X showing what it said was the aftermath of artillery and drone attacks on Khaled Fajr Hospital in Sheikh Maqsoud, accusing “factions and militias affiliated with the Damascus government” of “a clear war crime”. A Defence Ministry statement cited by the state-run news agency SANA said the hospital was a weapons depot. In another post on X, the SDF said that government militias were attempting to advance on the neighbourhood with tanks, encountering “fierce and ongoing resistance by our forces”. Later, the Syrian army said three of its soldiers had been killed and 12 injured in SDF attacks on its positions in Aleppo. It also claimed that Kurdish fighters in the neighbourhood had killed more than 10 Kurdish youths who refused to take up arms with them, then burned their bodies to intimidate other residents. The SDF said on X that the claims were part of the Syrian government’s “policy of lies and disinformation”. At least 22 people have been killed and 173 others wounded in Aleppo since the fighting broke out on Tuesday, the worst violence in the city since Syria’s new authorities took power after toppling Bashar al-Assad a year ago. The director of Syria’s civil defence told state media that 159,000 people had been displaced by fighting in Aleppo. Mutual distrust The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria, with powerful Kurdish forces that control swaths of Syria’s oil-rich northeast resisting integration efforts by Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government. The agreement between the SDF and Damascus was struck in March last year, with the former supposed to integrate with the Syrian Defence Ministry by the end of 2025, but Syrian authorities say there has been little progress since. Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite the group’s assertion that it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighbourhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police. Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst with Al Jazeera, said there were significant gaps between the two sides, particularly when it came to integrating the Kurdish fighters into the army as individuals or groups. “What would you do with the thousands of female fighters that are now part and parcel, of the Kurdish forces? Would they join the Syrian army? How would that work out?” said Bishara. Advertisement “The Kurdish are sceptical of the army and how it is formed in Damascus, and of the central government and its intentions. While … the central government is, of course, wary of and sceptical that the Kurds want to join as Syrians in a strong united country,” he added. Turkiye refrains from military action In the midst of the clashes, Syria’s President al-Sharaa spoke by phone with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying he was determined to “end the illegal armed presence” in Aleppo, according to a Syrian presidency statement. Turkiye, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, views the SDF as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which waged a four-decade armed struggle against the Turkish state, and has warned of military action if the integration agreement is not honoured. Turkiye’s Defence Minister Yasar Guler welcomed the Syrian government operation, saying that “we view Syria’s security as our own security and … we support Syria’s fight against terrorist organisations”. Omer Ozkizilcik, nonresident senior fellow for the Syria Project in the Atlantic Council, told Al Jazeera that Turkiye had been intending to launch an operation against SDF forces in Syria months ago, but had refrained at the request of the Syrian government. Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts in Aleppo and of trying to end deals between the two sides. Alarm spreads Al-Sharaa spoke with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirming that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric”, the Syrian presidency said. The former al-Qaeda commander has repeatedly pledged to protect minorities, but government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and
Trump promises oil executives ‘total safety’ if they invest in Venezuela
United States President Donald Trump has called on oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House looks to quickly secure $100bn in investments to revive the country’s ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum. Trump, as he opened the meeting with oil industry executives on Friday, sought to assure them that they need not be sceptical of quickly investing in and, in some cases, returning to the South American country with a history of state asset seizures as well as ongoing US sanctions and the current political uncertainty. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “You have total safety,” Trump told the executives. “You’re dealing with us directly and not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.” Trump added: “Our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100bn of their money, not the government’s money. They don’t need government money. But they need government protection.” Trump welcomed the oil executives to the White House after US forces earlier on Friday seized their fifth tanker over the past month that has been linked to Venezuelan oil. The action reflected the determination of the US to fully control the exporting, refining and production of Venezuelan petroleum, a sign of the Trump administration’s plans for ongoing involvement in the sector as it seeks commitments from private companies. “At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said on Friday in a predawn social media post. Advertisement The White House said it invited oil executives from 17 companies, including Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela, as well as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which both had oil projects in the country that were lost as part of a 2007 nationalisation of private businesses under former President Nicolas Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez. “If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s un-investable,” said Darren Woods, ExxonMobil CEO. “And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections and there has to be change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.” Benjamin Radd, a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, told Al Jazeera that he had “noted the hesitation and less-than-full-throated enthusiasm for re-entering the Venezuelan market”, citing Woods, who told the gathering that the company had its assets there seized twice already. “The bottom line is that until Trump can outline and provide assurances of a plan towards political stability, it will continue to be a risky endeavour for these oil companies to re-engage Venezuela. And what is there is a regime change in Iran in the days or weeks or months to come, and all of a sudden that re-emerges as a place where Western oil companies can do business? Even though the reserves don’t equal what Venezuela has, the risk is far less, and the infrastructure is more sound,” Radd said. Other companies invited included Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Singapore-based Trafigura, Italy-based Eni and Spain-based Repsol, as well as a vast swath of domestic and international companies with interests ranging from construction to the commodity markets. Wait and see Large US oil companies have so far largely refrained from affirming investments in Venezuela, as contracts and guarantees need to be in place. Trump has suggested that the US would help to backstop any investments. Venezuela’s oil production has slumped below one million barrels per day (bpd). Part of Trump’s challenge to turn that around will be to convince oil companies that his administration has a stable relationship with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, as well as protections for companies entering the market. While Rodriguez has publicly denounced Trump and the abduction and ouster of Maduro, the US president has said that to date, Venezuela’s interim leader has been cooperating behind the scenes with his administration. Advertisement Most companies are in a wait-and-see mode as they await terms from the Venezuelans, stability and wait to find out how much the US government will actually help, said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Those like Chevron that are already in there are in a better position to increase investments as they “already have sunk costs”, Ziemba pointed out. Ziemba said she expects a partial ramp-up in the first half of this year as the volumes that were going to China – Venezuelan oil’s largest buyer – are redirected and sold via the US. “But long-term investments will be slow,” she said as companies wait to find out about US commitments and Venezuelan terms. Tyson Slocum, director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen’s energy programme, criticised the gathering and called the US military’s removal of Maduro “violent imperialism”. Slocum added that Trump’s goal appears to be to “hand billionaires control over Venezuela’s oil”. So far, the US government has not said how the revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil will be shared and what percentage of the sales would be given to Caracas. Ziemba said she was worried that “if funds do not go to Venezuela for basic goods, among other local needs, there will be instability that will deepen the country’s economic crisis“. In the news conference on Friday, Trump said the US had a formula for distributing payments. UCLA’s Radd said that “if the US can or will guarantee security and stability, it makes sense for it to expect a return on investment in that sense. But then this makes it sound more like a mafia-style ‘racket’ than a government-led operation”, he told Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, the US and Venezuelan governments said on Friday they were exploring the possibility of restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, and a delegation from the Trump administration arrived in the South American nation on Friday. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416
These are the key developments from day 1,416 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. By News Agencies Published On 10 Jan 202610 Jan 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 10: Fighting: The death toll from a massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that began on Thursday night has risen to four, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service wrote in an update shared on Facebook on Friday. At least 25 people were also injured, including five rescuers, the service added. The attack left thousands of Kyiv apartments without heat, electricity and water as temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other local officials said. Klitschko called on people to temporarily leave the city, saying on Telegram that “half of apartment buildings in Kyiv – nearly 6,000 – are currently without heating because the capital’s critical infrastructure was damaged by the enemy’s massive attack”. Russian forces shelled a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kherson just after midday on Friday, damaging the intensive care unit and injuring three nurses, the regional prosecutor’s office wrote on Telegram. “As a result of the attack, three nurses aged 21, 49, and 52 were wounded. At the time of the shelling, the women were inside the medical facility,” the office said in a statement. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned attacks on healthcare in Ukraine in a statement shared on X, saying that there had been nine attacks since the beginning of 2026, killing one patient, one medic and injuring 11 others, including healthcare workers and patients. Tedros said that the attacks further “complicated the delivery of health care during the winter period” and called for “the protection of health care facilities, patients and health workers”. Russian forces attacked two foreign-flagged civilian vessels with drones in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing a Syrian national and injuring another, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba and other officials said on Friday. A Ukrainian drone attack on a bus in Russia’s Belgorod region injured four people, the regional task force reported, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency. Russian forces seized five settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, including Zelenoye, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS. Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState said on Friday that Russian forces advanced in Huliaipole and Prymorske in the Zaporizhia region, but did not report any further changes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russia’s Oreshnik missile strike late on Thursday was “demonstratively” close to Ukraine’s border with the European Union. The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun consultations to establish a temporary ceasefire zone near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after military activity damaged one of two high-voltage power lines, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Friday. Advertisement Sanctions US forces seized the Olina oil tanker and forced it to return to Venezuela so its oil could be sold “through the GREAT Energy Deal”, United States President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. According to The Associated Press news agency, US government records showed that the Olina had been sanctioned for moving Russian oil under its prior name, Minerva M. Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said that Ukrainian nationals were among members of the crew of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera seized earlier this week by US forces over its links to Venezuela, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency. The Russian Foreign Ministry separately said on Friday that the US had released two Russian crewmembers from the Marinera, expressing gratitude to Washington for the decision and pledging to ensure the return home of crewmembers. Politics and diplomacy Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret” over damage to its embassy in Kyiv, confirming that no diplomats or staff were hurt, in a statement on Friday. The ministry underscored the importance of protecting diplomatic buildings and reiterated its call for a “resolution to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and peaceful means”. British Defence Secretary John Healey said that the United Kingdom was allocating 200 million pounds ($270m) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv on Friday. The leaders of Britain, France and Germany described Russia’s use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable”, according to a readout of their call released by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office on Friday. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump says he doesn’t need international law amid aggressive US policies
United States President Donald Trump has dismissed international law, saying only his “own morality” can curb the aggressive policies he is pursuing across the world after the abduction of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. “I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people,” Trump told The New York Times on Thursday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Asked whether he needs to abide by international law, Trump said he does, but it “depends what your definition of international law is”. Trump has shown a willingness to use the brute force of the US military to achieve his foreign policy goals. On Saturday, the US launched an early-morning attack on Venezuela, with explosions reported across the capital Caracas and at Venezuelan military bases. US troops ultimately abducted Venezuelan President Maduro from Caracas in what critics say was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”. The attack on Venezuela appears to have supercharged the belligerence of the US president, who received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize Award last month. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Trump said the US would “run” Venezuela and exploit the country’s vast oil reserves, though his administration has said it would cooperate with interim President Delcy Rodriguez. Still, the Trump administration said it would “dictate” policy to the interim government and repeatedly threatened a “second wave” of military actions if US demands were disobeyed. Advertisement “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump said of Rodriguez in a Sunday interview with The Atlantic. Earlier this week, Trump also suggested that the US may carry out a strike against Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro, and he has escalated his campaign to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland. In June, Trump joined Israel’s unprovoked war against Iran, ordering the bombing of the country’s three main nuclear sites. Trump aide Stephen Miller has criticised the post-World War II international order, saying that, from here forward, the US would “unapologetically” use its military force to secure its interests in the Western Hemisphere. “We’re a superpower, and under President Trump, we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower,” Miller told CNN on Monday. But experts warn that disregard for international law could have catastrophic consequences for the entire global community, including the US. International law is the set of rules and norms that govern ties between states. It includes UN conventions and multilateral treaties. Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, told Al Jazeera earlier this week that US statements dismissing international law are “extremely dangerous”. Satterthwaite said she is concerned the world may be returning to an “age of imperialism”, stressing that degrading international laws may embolden Washington’s adversaries to launch their own acts of aggression. “International law cannot stop states from doing terrible things if they’re committed to doing them,” Satterthwaite told Al Jazeera. “And I think that the world is aware of all of the atrocities that have happened in Gaza recently, and despite efforts by many states and certainly by the UN to stop those atrocities, they continued. But I think we’re worse off if we don’t insist on the international law that does exist. We’ll simply be going down a much worse kind of slippery slope.” Yusra Suedi, an assistant professor of international law at the University of Manchester, warned against the belief that “might is right” and the trend towards disregarding international law. “It signals something very dangerous, in that it gives permission to other states to essentially follow suit – states such as China, who might be eyeing Taiwan, or Russia with respect to Ukraine,” Suedi told Al Jazeera. Ian Hurd, a professor of political science at Northwestern University, said history illustrates the perils of US policies in Latin America. Advertisement The region has witnessed more than a century of US invasions and US-supported military coups, leading to instability, repression and human rights abuses. “There are innumerable examples historically of this, from Panama to Haiti to Nicaragua to Chile in the ’70s and on and on,” Hurd told Al Jazeera. He added that Trump’s policies in Venezuela are “in line” with how the US has previously attempted to decide how other parts of the Americas are governed. “You can see that in every one of those cases, the US came to regret its choice to intervene. These never work well.” Adblock test (Why?)
Brazil’s President Lula vetoes bill to trim Bolsonaro prison sentence
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vetoed a bill that would have reduced the prison sentence of his right-wing rival and predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup. On Thursday, Lula followed through with his promise to block the legislation, which had passed Brazil’s opposition-controlled Congress last year. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “In the name of the future, we do not have the right to forget the past,” Lula wrote in a series of social media posts, saying that it would have benefitted “those who attacked Brazilian democracy”. The veto came on the third anniversary of the 2023 attack on the Three Powers Plaza in the capital of Brasilia, where government buildings representing the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court stand. On January 8 of that year, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the buildings in an apparent attempt to provoke a military response that would remove Lula from power. In marking the anniversary of the attack, Lula called on Brazilians to stand up for their young democracy, which began after a period of violent dictatorship in the late 20th century. “January 8th is marked in history as the day of democracy’s victory. A victory over those who tried to seize power by force, disregarding the popular will expressed at the ballot box. Over those who have always defended dictatorship, torture, and the extermination of opponents,” Lula wrote online. “The attempted coup on January 8, 2023, reminded us that democracy is not an unshakeable achievement.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, centre, and his wife, First Lady Rosangela da Silva, attend a ceremony marking the three-year anniversary of Brazil’s capital riot, on January 8, 2026 [Eraldo Peres/AP Photo] Bolsonaro’s sentence The January 8 attack caused millions of dollars in property damage and dozens of injuries, as police and protesters clashed in the government plaza. Advertisement The incident evoked comparisons to the violent riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, where supporters of President Donald Trump attempted to disrupt the certification of his 2020 election defeat. Likewise, Bolsonaro, a former army captain, had refused to concede his defeat to Lula after a narrow loss in the 2022 elections. Rather, he and his allies had argued that Brazil’s electronic voting machines were susceptible to fraud, and they challenged the election results in court. Their petition, however, was thrown out for its “total absence of any evidence”. Still, many of Bolsonaro’s supporters backed his claims and took to the streets to protest the election results. The weeks surrounding Lula’s inauguration in January 2023 were fraught, with reports of a bomb threat and an attack on police headquarters in Brasilia. Prosecutors later accused Bolsonaro and his allies of leading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the election results. One of the options the defendants allegedly weighed was to declare a “state of siege” in Brazil, which would allow the military to take control and new elections be held. Another option was reportedly to assassinate Lula and his running mate, Geraldo Alckmin. Bolsonaro has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied any wrongdoing, framing the accusations instead as a political hit job. Still, in September, he was sentenced to 27 years in prison after being found guilty on counts including attempting a coup, causing damage to public property, attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, participation in a criminal enterprise, and the deterioration of a listed national heritage site. He began his prison term in November, after he was found to have damaged the ankle monitor used to ensure he was not a flight risk. Weighing October’s election Conservative politicians, however, have decried the prison sentence as excessive and called for its reduction. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo has petitioned the Trump administration in the US to intervene on behalf of the imprisoned ex-president, and his eldest child, Flavio Bolsonaro, even hinted he might suspend his 2026 presidential bid if his father were released. On December 10, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies passed legislation that would reduce the sentences of nearly 1,000 people linked to the January 8 attack, including Bolsonaro. A week later, on December 17, the Senate followed suit, sending the leniency bill to the president for his signature. But Lula had repeatedly pledged to reject the bill, risking the possibility that Brazil’s Congress could override his veto. Advertisement “ This is a bill that really is a litmus test in Brazilian politics,” Gustavo Ribeiro, a journalist and founder of The Brazil Report, told Al Jazeera. “Conservatives overwhelmingly supported it, while liberals are adamantly against it.” Still, Ribeiro described the bill as a compromise between Brazil’s centre-right and far-right forces. “The centre-right tried to work a sort of a middle-of-the-road solution that is not full amnesty but would allow Bolsonaro to leave incarceration after two years, in what we call in Brazil a semi-open prison sentence,” he explained. He sees Brazil’s general election in October as a significant factor in Congress’s passage of the bill, noting that Bolsonaro remains a popular figure on the right. “Because Bolsonaro has such a big clout with conservatives, many in Congress – many right-of-centre lawmakers – fear that if they do not lend their full support to any cause that Bolsonaro espouses, they will lose support,” Ribeiro said. Lula is seeking a fourth term as president in October’s election, and he is expected to face Bolsonaro’s son Flavio at the ballot box. Adblock test (Why?)