https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-demote-sen-kelly-retired-navy-rank-captain-stops-short-threatened-trial-2026-01-05/
WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief announced plans on Monday to demote U.S. Senator Mark Kelly from his rank as a retired Navy captain for alleged "reckless misconduct" after he and other Democratic lawmakers urged troops to refuse any illegal orders.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon has begun proceedings that would ultimately slash Kelly's retirement pay and attach a letter of censure to his military record. Kelly, who represents Arizona in the Senate, is a decorated military veteran and former NASA astronaut.
Kelly said he would "fight this with everything I've got."
"Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn't like, they will come after them the same way. It's outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that," Kelly said in a statement on X.
Kelly could face additional measures in the future depending on his actions, Hegseth said in a statement on X.
The steps announced by Hegseth represent the latest actions taken by the Trump administration targeting critics of the Republican president. Democrats and other critics have accused Trump of seeking to stifle dissent.
Although extraordinary, the censure of Kelly stops short of the threat previously made by the administration to recall Kelly to active military duty status in order to prosecute him after what it described as seditious behavior.
Hegseth noted that Kelly has 30 days to respond and that the administrative process would conclude 15 days later.
"Captain Kelly's status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action," Hegseth wrote in his social media post.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelas-maduro-appear-us-court-trump-says-further-strikes-possible-2026-01-05/
NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Toppled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges after President Donald Trump's stunning capture of him rattled world leaders and left officials in Caracas scrambling to respond.
Maduro, 63, pleaded innocent in New York federal court to four criminal counts: narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
"I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country," Maduro said through an interpreter, before being cut off by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Maduro's wife Cilia Flores also pleaded not guilty. The next court date was set for March 17. Dozens of protesters, both pro- and anti-Maduro, gathered outside the courthouse before the half-hour hearing.

>ACCUSATIONS OF COCAINE-TRAFFICKING
Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network that partnered with violent groups including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, Colombian FARC rebels and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang.
Maduro has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela's rich oil reserves.
Trump has made no secret of wanting to share in Venezuela's oil riches. U.S. oil companies' shares jumped on Monday, fueled by the prospect of access to its vast reserves.
While world leaders and U.S. politicians grappled with the extraordinary seizure of a head of state, an emergency order in Venezuela, published in full on Monday, ordered police to search and capture anyone who supported Saturday's U.S. attack.
At the United Nations, the Security Council debated the implications of the raid, which was condemned by Russia, China and leftist allies of Venezuela.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/irans-leaders-struggle-end-protests-us-action-venezuela-stokes-fears-2026-01-05/
DUBAI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Iran's efforts to quell a wave of anti-government protests have been complicated by Donald Trump's threat to intervene on their side, a warning firmly underlined by the subsequent U.S. capture of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, officials and insiders said on Monday.
A day before U.S. special forces seized Maduro and his wife on January 3 and whisked them off to New York, the U.S. president warned in a social media post that if Iran's leadership killed protesters who have taken to the streets since December 28 the U.S. "will come to their rescue". At least 17 people have died so far.
Tehran's options have been limited by Trump's threats and a long-running economic crisis that deepened after Israel, joined by the U.S., launched strikes on the Islamic Republic in June in a 12-day war that pummelled several of Iran's nuclear sites.

"These twin pressures have narrowed Tehran's room for manoeuvre, leaving leaders caught between public anger on the streets and hardening demands and threats from Washington, with few viable options and high risks on every path," one Iranian official told Reuters.
The view was echoed by two other officials and a former Iranian official who remains close to Iran's decision makers. All of them asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the situation.
A second official said that, after U.S. action in Venezuela, some of the authorities feared Iran could be "the next victim of Trump's aggressive foreign policy".
Iran's economy has been hammered by years of U.S. sanctions, but its rial has been in freefall since last year's Israeli-U.S. strikes that mainly targeted nuclear sites, where the West says Tehran has been working on nuclear arms. Iran denies this.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-03/trump-says-venezuela-s-maduro-captured-and-flown-out-of-country-mjy3kziv

President Donald Trump said the US captured President Nicolas Maduro and flew him out of Venezuela after a series of airstrikes, an extraordinary escalation in his months-long campaign against the country.

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” Trump wrote on social media.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/06/trump-venezuela-oil.html
President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening that the interim authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States.

Trump, in a social media post, said the oil will be sold at its market price, “and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”

“I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately,” Trump wrote. “It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”

Trump said that the oil being turned over the U.S. was “high quality” and “sanctioned.”

The announcement came three days after U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, and his wife in Caracas, and took them to New York, where they are charged in a federal drug-trafficking conspiracy indictment.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Trump plans to meet with representatives from the major U.S. oil companies Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil

, along with other domestic producers, at the White House on Friday “to discuss making significant investments in Venezuela’s oil sector.”

Trump has said that U.S. oil companies would end up investing billions of dollars to rehabilitate Venezuela’s aging oil production capabilities.

Chevron currently operates in Venezuela, the only U.S. oil company to do so. The assets of ConocoPhillips and Exxon were nationalized by Venezuela’s then-President Hugo Chávez in the mid-2000s.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-guard-withdrawal-cities-6b7b02b832b24e17e6db483eb6c74425

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump said he’s dropping — for now — his push to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, a move that comes after legal roadblocks hung up the effort.

Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that he’s removing the Guard troops for now. “We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again - Only a question of time!” he wrote.

Troops had already left Los Angeles after the president deployed them earlier this year as part of a broader crackdown on crime and immigration. They had been sent to Chicago and Portland but were never on the streets as legal challenges played out.

The president has made a crackdown on crime in cities a centerpiece of his second term — and has toyed with the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to stop his opponents from using the courts to block his plans.

He has said he sees his tough-on-crime approach as a winning political issue ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

In November, U.S. Northern Command had said it was ” shifting and/or rightsizing ″ operations in Portland, Chicago and Los Angeles, but there would be a “constant, enduring and long-term presence in each city.”

Trump’s push to deploy the troops in Democrat-led cities has been met with legal challenges at nearly every turn.

The Supreme Court in December refused to allow the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area as part of its crackdown on immigration. The order was not a final ruling but was a significant and rare setback by the high court for the president’s efforts.

In the nation’s capital, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to halt the deployments of more than 2,000 guardsmen.

Americans connect the poor economy "directly" to Trump's tariffs on U.S. trade partners. He noted that despite Trump campaigning to undo economic conditions under former President Joe Biden "on day one," most Americans' conditions "have gotten a little worse" since Trump's second term began. He added that Trump's lack of focus on kitchen-table issues has only built up more resentment among the public.

"People can see that they've gotten worse because of things he has done. He has done including these tariff policies. And they also see that he's not focused on their issues,"

"Americans know that jobs are harder to get now than they were a year ago. The labor market has cooled down considerably. There hasn't been much job creation lately," he said. "You can't talk people out of that, just like you can't talk them into thinking that their grocery costs have gone down."

"We're not in a what economists call a recession because the GDP is still growing," he continued. "But for all practical purposes, a jobs recession is what ordinary Americans think of as a recession, right? ... It's going in the wrong direction and it's going in the wrong direction as they head into an election year. Republicans know it. This is one of the reasons why Democrats are headed for a strong midterm election unless things change."

https://www.alternet.org/trump-jobs-recession/

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/one-person-killed-iran-protests-over-economic-woes-2026-01-01/
DUBAI, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Several people were killed during unrest in Iran, Iranian media and rights groups said on Thursday, as the biggest protests to hit the Islamic Republic for three years over worsening economic conditions sparked violence in several provinces.
The semi-official Fars news agency reported that three protesters were killed and 17 were injured during an attack on a police station in Iran's western province of Lorestan.

"The rioters entered the police headquarters around 1800 (local time) on Thursday ... they clashed with police forces and set fire to several police cars," Fars reported.
Earlier, Fars and rights group Hengaw reported deaths in Lordegan city in the country's Charmahal and Bakhtiari province. Authorities confirmed one death in the western city of Kuhdasht, and Hengaw reported another death in the central province of Isfahan.
The clashes between protesters and security forces mark a significant escalation in the unrest that has spread across the country since shopkeepers began protesting on Sunday over the government's handling of a sharp currency slide and rapidly rising prices.

Fars reported that two people had been killed in Lordegan in clashes between security services and what it called armed protesters. It earlier said several had died. Hengaw said several people had been killed and wounded there by security forces.
The Revolutionary Guards said one member of its affiliated Basij volunteer paramilitary unit had been killed in Kuhdasht and another 13 wounded, blaming demonstrators who it accused of taking advantage of the protests.
Hengaw said that the man, named by the Guards as Amirhossam Khodayari Fard, had been protesting and was killed by security forces.
Hengaw also reported that a protester was shot dead on Wednesday in Isfahan province in central Iran.

> 1/3/2026
Trump bombs Venezuela and takes Maduro for himself.
Venezuela accuses USA of attacking residential areas…
> https://www.barrons.com/news/venezuela-accuses-us-of-bombing-residential-areas-feb2b615
Demands ‘Proof of Life’.
> https://www.barrons.com/news/venezuela-demands-us-provide-proof-of-life-of-maduro-7e49e130
Dictator and wife to stand trial in New York…
> https://nypost.com/2026/01/03/world-news/venezuelan-leader-nicolas-maduro-to-face-criminal-charges-in-us-after-capture-trumps-50m-bounty-sen-mike-lee/
Condemnation and concern for foreign nationals.
> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-strikes-venezeula-trump-maduro-international-reaction/
Abduction shows new level of unrestrained global power.
> https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/03/americas/trump-flexes-global-maduro-intl
Maduro captured!
> https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us-explosions-caracas-ca712a67aaefc30b1831f5bf0b50665e
Trump bombs Caracas…
> https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/03/world/trump-united-states-strikes-venezuela?unlocked_article_code=1.BlA.zVsJ.iXhwBaAHYVoK&smid=url-share
‘Large Scale Strike’.
> https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/03/world/trump-united-states-strikes-venezuela?unlocked_article_code=1.BlA.zVsJ.iXhwBaAHYVoK&smid=url-share
Legal authority unclear.
> https://www.nbcnews.com/world/latin-america/live-blog/venezuela-explosions-trump-maduro-live-updates-rcna251053
Sky: Live.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDvsBbKfLPA
“Teranemen Square”…
> https://nypost.com/2026/01/02/world-news/viral-image-of-iranian-protester-in-front-security-forces-draws-parallels-to-tiananmen-square-tank-man/
New York has record number of Flu hospitalizations in 1 week…
> https://abcnews.go.com/Health/new-york-reports-record-breaking-number-flu-hospitalizations/story?id=128849108
“Special K”: New subclade called Subclad K.
> https://apnews.com/article/flu-subclade-k-cdc-vaccine-ca9bd270ca70602775168b0b651e3b2a