Top World News

Jan 12, 2026 - World

Lawyers for Adichie and her husband serve Euracare hospital with legal notice after death of 21-month-oldThe Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has accused a Lagos hospital of negligence after the death of one of her 21-month-old twin boys.Nkanu Nnamdi died on 6 January after a brief illness. He was one of twin boys born to Adichie and Ivara Esege, a doctor, in 2024 by surrogacy, eight years after the birth of their first child, a girl. Continue reading...

Jan 12, 2026 - World

Leftwing leader rallies his supporters as US president accuses him of drug trafficking and threatens military actionA leftwing South American firebrand calls for his followers to rally in public squares nationwide to defend his country’s sovereignty and decry verbal attacks from Donald Trump. The US president accuses the leader of personally flooding American streets with illegal drugs and imposes sanctions against him and his wife. Threats of military action are followed by a phone conversation between the two leaders.One might imagine that this is a description of the buildup of tensions that led to the 3 January special forces raid on Caracas to capture the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, to face several criminal charges in New York. Continue reading...

Jan 12, 2026 - World

Picture is as murky as a barrel of oil, with US companies in 2026 expecting their first production drop in four yearsUS shale-oil producers were already contending with oil prices at four-year lows. News that they may soon face a significant competitor in their back yard probably wasn’t how frackers wanted to greet 2026.The US capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, hit the share prices of independent shale-oil producers, such as Diamondback Energy and Devon Energy, last week. Continue reading...

Jan 12, 2026 - World

The waning "strongman" image Donald Trump has attempted to present in office is causing "unpredictable" results, according to a political analyst. While the president may want to come across as tough on the world stage by throwing threats at Venezuela, Greenland, and Cuba, the actions are "unpredictable" and cause for concern. CNN analyst Stephen Collinson believes the recent acts of Trump and his administration are to counter the opinion from political commentators calling him a "lame duck" president. Collinson wrote, "So much for that lame duck in the White House. President Donald Trump is doubling down on retribution, global domination and relentless domestic power." He added that Trump was "never going to sit by and watch his strongman's aura erode."Doing so means unpredictability the world over, with Collinson observing a few recent choices from Trump had been made to bolster his image. Collinson added, "So far this year, Trump is indicating that his second year back in the White House will accelerate a trend of the first: Show him a constitutional curb, an international law, or a status quo, and his instinct is to smash it.""The result is that millions of people around the world now find their lives intricately bound up in the whims of the most untamed and unpredictable president in generations." Trump's long term goal with this image, Collinson argues, is to create "maximum disruption" during his time in office. He wrote, "Events of a turbulent early January are consistent with Trump’s aim to create maximum disruption after he left office in 2021 believing that establishment forces had thwarted his better instincts.""The president is seeking to reverse decades of progressive advances — for instance, at universities, law firms and businesses through his dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives." "And he is seeking to redefine America’s relationship with immigrants, not just by seeking to deport undocumented migrants, but with a string of steps to curtail legal immigration and even travel to the US from citizens of non-White nations. There is no backing down."

Jan 12, 2026 - World

On Friday, Donald Trump summoned his largest donors — U.S. oil execs — to the White House, and exhorted them to invest $100 billion in Venezuela’s oil industry. The unspoken through line was that Trump would look ridiculous if they didn’t.The CEOs weren’t exactly enthusiastic. Venezuela is known as one of the most dangerous places to operate a business, and oil firms in particular have expressed concern about the safety of their operations and their workers. When Trump asked ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods how long it would take his company to restart operations there, Woods called Venezuela “uninvestable,” suggesting it wasn’t a matter of Trump just snapping his fingers. First, “significant changes have to be made.” Woods told Trump bluntly, “There are a number of legal and commercial frameworks that would have to be established to even understand what kind of returns we would get on the investment.” To a failed businessman selling himself as a savvy one, that assessment must have come as a shock.Why Trump invadedBy now it is obvious to everyone that Trump didn’t topple Maduro to:Restore democracy after Maduro lost the 2024 election but refused to leave.Support Maria Machado after Maduro “banned” her candidacy but her coalition won by 37 points anyway.Protect Venezuelans living under a regime that disappears people.Better the lives of suffering Venezuelans in any way. Instead, as Trump and his henchmen have made patently clear, he deployed the U.S. military against a foreign nation to “take back” oil and oil extraction equipment he claims was “stolen” from private investors in 1975. That was the year Venezuela passed the Oil Industry Nationalization Law and first appropriated its oil industry. It was also the year Maduro turned 12. Trump’s claim Venezuela “stole” land from the U.S. is absurd. The U.S. never owned land there. No companies were kicked out of the country. When the oil industry was nationalized, companies like Exxon, Mobil, and Chevron were compensated, just not at the levels they wanted. They chose, 50 years ago, to let it go. A failed businessmanAfter violating international law, mocking in particular the UN Charter that has kept WWIII at bay for 80 years, Trump gave U.S. oil executives their marching orders: they must rebuild Venezuela's fossil fuel industry.But after bankrupting six businesses, closing one failed business after another, and now killing small companies with illogical tariffs, Trump’s hyped business acumen is thin. As Friday’s meeting made embarrassingly clear, Trump has no clue what it will take to rebuild Venezuela’s rusted-out oil infrastructure. He has not thought through what legal, structural, and market impediments exist, how much those impediments would cost to remove, or how it could be done. He also has no idea how much all of this would cost, or how many years it would take to see a return. The kicker, to any successful CEO, is that Trump didn’t do this homework before he deposed Venezuela’s president and announced he’d be “running” the country.Not all oil is the sameOil in Venezuela is “sour.” This means it is extra-heavy, thick, and higher in sulfur than “sweet oil.” Sulfur must be removed from crude oil during the refining process. The more sulfur, the more refining is needed. In result, Venezuelan oil is more expensive to extract, process and transport. More intensive industrial techniques are required, mainly specialized equipment for desulfurization (like hydrotreating/hydrocracking). Stricter safety protocols are needed to remove harmful hydrogen sulfide, adding significant costs and complexity. Pioneer Energy reports that sour crude “presents a threat to both infrastructure and human health, requiring specialized equipment for sour service, safety procedures, frequent maintenance, and PPE and specialized training for workers.” Although Trump would likely waive away corporate liability for killing workers and poisoning surrounding communities, CEOs know there is no guarantee courts will go along with him.All major investments depend on the rule of lawThe Dallas Federal Reserve confirms that oil investors are worried about a lack of clarity about America’s own economic outlook under Trump. Legal and market instability, along with low oil prices, makes investing in and operating Venezuelan oil fields an even higher-risk endeavor. A central concern for industry executives is whether Trump “can guarantee the safety of the employees and equipment that companies would need to send to Venezuela, how the companies would be paid, whether oil prices will rise enough to make Venezuelan crude profitable, and the status of Venezuela’s membership in the OPEC oil exporters cartel.” The political risk is of paramount concern. As Carrie Filipetti, former deputy assistant secretary for Cuba and Venezuela told Politico, “It’s not just about getting rid of Maduro. It’s also about making sure that the legitimate opposition comes into power.”History also matters. Chris Perez asks in his poignant substack, ‘How will Trump guarantee Big Oil that their investments will not be renationalized?’ How indeed. The only way to guarantee that is through prolonged U.S. operational and military presence, for which American taxpayers have little appetite.Even without regime change, there’s climate change and pending legal liability. Big Oil has known since the 1950s that their product is killing the environment, but has lied about it for decades. Looking at pending legal dockets, that bill may soon become due. Then there’s legal uncertainty affecting safety, contractual relations, market regulations, import/export controls, OPEC, and economic controls, all of which would make or Venezuelan investments. Given that the rule of law under Trump is already on life support, businesses are taking a wait and see approach, even here. Trump commanding his donors to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry under these facts while he “runs” the country sounds like delusional gibberish.Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.