标签： North America

In a major national rally held in Venezuela’s western Lara State as part of a nationwide campaign calling for an end to punitive U.S. measures and lasting peace, acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez has publicly reaffirmed that any future diplomatic relations between Caracas and Washington can only proceed on the foundation of full mutual respect. The high-profile statement came on the same day that new U.S. special envoy John Barrett touched down in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, a development that follows the January 2026 U.S. military operation that resulted in the forced removal of sitting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Rodriguez, who was leading the “Great National Pilgrimage for a Venezuela Without Sanctions and in Peace” — a cross-country movement that kicked off formally in Maracaibo on April 19, 2026, to rally public support for ending decades of U.S. economic restrictions — made clear that the Venezuelan side is open to continuing its diplomatic work agenda with the newly arrived U.S. representative, but that non-negotiable respect for Venezuelan sovereignty forms the baseline of any engagement.

A core demand at the heart of Rodriguez’s address was the full, permanent removal of all the increasingly harsh economic sanctions that the United States has levied against Venezuela over the course of many years. These restrictions have placed crippling pressure on the country’s economy and everyday Venezuelan households for more than a decade. Even in the face of these punitive measures, Rodriguez highlighted that the Venezuelan government and its population have demonstrated remarkable resilience, successfully expanding domestic production and building up the country’s independent economic and institutional capacities against the odds.

Looking ahead to the country’s future, Rodriguez called on all of Venezuela’s diverse political and social factions to set aside differences, engage in collective reflection, and work in unity to prevent a repeat of the January 3 U.S. military incursion that upended the country’s existing political order and led to Maduro’s forced seizure. “May missiles and bombs never again fall on our territory,” she emphasized, echoing the widespread Venezuelan public desire for lasting peace and sovereign self-determination. The address comes at a pivotal moment for U.S.-Venezuela relations, as Washington pushes its proposed political transition plan for the South American nation amid ongoing domestic and international tension over the intervention.

WASHINGTON – As negotiations over a ceasefire to the weeks-long conflict between the US-Israeli bloc and Iran remain deadlocked, former and current US President Donald Trump made clear Thursday that he feels no urgency to bring the military confrontation to an early end, warning American consumers that they will need to shoulder elevated gasoline costs for the foreseeable future as part of the tradeoff for his administration’s policy goals.

Speaking to reporters on the White House grounds, Trump emphasized he has no intention of forcing a rushed resolution to the conflict. “I don’t want to rush myself,” he stated, noting that US citizens should prepare to pay more at the pump for the short term, arguing the long-term outcome — an Iran stripped of nuclear weapons capabilities — would make the financial pain worth it.

Earlier the same day, Trump doubled down on this position in a post to his social media platform Truth Social, framing the conflict as a battle of endurance that favors Washington. “I am possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position. I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking! Time is not on their side!” he wrote.

Trump went on to insist that any final peace agreement with Iran must be structured exclusively on US terms and aligned with his own preferred timeline. “A deal will only be made when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World,” he added.

The comments echoed remarks Trump made one day earlier, when he confirmed there is no fixed timeline for ending the conflict and no immediate pressure to act on the ceasefire extension he announced Tuesday, even as talks remain stalled. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reinforced this stance Wednesday, telling reporters that Tehran has not been given a firm deadline to put forward a formal peace proposal to Washington.

A diplomatic controversy has erupted between India and the United States after former and returning U.S. President Donald Trump shared inflammatory, anti-Indian comments made by podcaster Michael Savage to his Truth Social platform, drawing sharp condemnation from New Delhi and sparking public outrage across the country.

In the shared transcript of Savage’s commentary centered on U.S. birthright citizenship policy, the podcaster claimed immigrants from India and China are systematically abusing the 14th Amendment provision that grants automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil. Savage went further, making unsubstantiated claims that Indian and Chinese migrants have taken over high-tech hiring processes in California, displacing qualified white American workers, and referred to India and China as “hellholes” in his remarks.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs issued a formal public response to the incident, stopping short of naming either Trump or Savage directly but leaving no ambiguity about New Delhi’s position. The ministry described the comments as “uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste,” emphasizing that they do not align with the longstanding foundation of the India-U.S. partnership, which is built on mutual respect and overlapping strategic and economic interests.

The criticism extended beyond the Indian government to the country’s main opposition bloc, the Indian National Congress, which labeled the remarks “extremely insulting and anti-Indian.” The party called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to raise the issue directly with the U.S. president and formally register a strong diplomatic objection in a public post on X.

The controversy comes at a fragile moment for bilateral relations between New Delhi and Washington, which have faced growing friction since Trump returned to the U.S. presidency. Trump has repeatedly pressured India to cut all purchases of Russian crude oil, arguing that Indian import revenues help fund Russia’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine. In a temporary reversal earlier this year, however, the U.S. eased some sanctions restrictions to allow India to take delivery of millions of barrels of Russian oil that had been stranded at sea, preventing a potential domestic energy supply disruption.

Trade relations have also been turbulent under the second Trump administration. Last year, Trump imposed steep 50% tariffs on a range of Indian goods, with 25 percentage points of that levy framed as a penalty for India’s continued Russian energy purchases. Earlier this year, the administration rolled those tariffs back to 18% as part of an ongoing broader trade negotiation between the two powers. To advance efforts to repair strained ties, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to conduct an official visit to New Delhi next month, a trip widely viewed as a key step toward resetting the bilateral relationship.

Consistent with his administration’s hardline stance on immigration, Trump has implemented sweeping new restrictions on unauthorized migration since returning to office, and has repeatedly argued that immigrants displace American workers in the U.S. labor market. A key policy target for the current administration has been the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to hire skilled foreign workers for specialty roles. Indian nationals account for the majority of H-1B visas issued annually; the program is widely credited with boosting U.S. innovation by attracting global talent, but critics, including Trump, claim it suppresses wages for domestic workers and limits employment opportunities for Americans.

Savage’s comments, which Trump amplified via his social media platform, align closely with the administration’s existing views on immigration and the H-1B program. All of Savage’s claims about systemic hiring discrimination against white workers in California’s technology sector were made without any supporting evidence to back the allegations.

The controversy is tied to a pending legal challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently hearing arguments against a Trump executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and certain temporary visa holders. Savage’s remarks were framed as part of the broader public debate over that policy change.

An active-duty U.S. Army special forces soldier has been arrested and charged by the Department of Justice for illegally trading on classified information about the military operation that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, turning confidential mission details into hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal profits, federal officials announced Thursday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, used nonpublic classified information about Operation Absolute Resolve — the codename for the night-time raid that seized Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their Caracas compound on January 3 — to place targeted bets on Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction platform, according to the unsealed indictment. Prosecutors allege that Van Dyke, who was involved in the planning and execution of the operation between December 2025 and January 2026, gained authorized access to highly sensitive mission details including the operation’s timing and expected outcome.

In late December 2025, Van Dyke created a Polymarket account and invested more than $33,000 across Venezuela and Maduro-related prediction markets, all with the explicit goal of personal financial gain, the DOJ said. When the operation concluded as planned, Van Dyke walked away with more than $409,000 in winnings from his insider trades.

Polymarket officials confirmed Thursday that after the platform detected suspicious activity tied to classified government information, it immediately referred the case to the Department of Justice and fully cooperated with the ongoing investigation. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works,” the company said in a social media statement.

Van Dyke faces five separate federal charges: unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud, and making an unlawful monetary transaction. As a member of the U.S. military granted access to classified information, Van Dyke had previously signed binding non-disclosure agreements promising he would never reveal or misuse any classified or sensitive operational information for any unauthorized purpose, DOJ officials noted.

“Our men and women in uniform are trusted with classified information in order to accomplish their mission as safely and effectively as possible, and are prohibited from using this highly sensitive information for personal financial gain,” said acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Widespread access to prediction markets is a relatively new phenomenon, but federal laws protecting national security information fully apply.”

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York — the judicial district where the case will be tried — echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that prediction markets do not qualify as safe havens for actors looking to profit from misappropriated confidential or classified information. The independent U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed a separate civil complaint against Van Dyke on Thursday, bringing additional insider trading allegations against him.

The raid that captured Maduro transferred the former Venezuelan leader and his wife to New York, where they face ongoing charges of weapons trafficking and drug trafficking, allegations the pair have repeatedly denied.

During a press briefing on an unrelated matter Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters he had not yet been briefed on the allegations against Van Dyke but would review the case. When asked about growing concerns that unregulated prediction markets create openings for widespread insider trading involving sensitive government information, Trump said he disapproved of the practice. “The whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino, and you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things,” he said. “I was never much in favour of it.”