Caracas has accused the US of seeking to overthrow the government under the guise of an anti-drug campaign
The US could begin land strikes targeting alleged Venezuela-linked drug operations “pretty soon,” President Donald Trump has said, while claiming to have almost completely stopped narcotics inflow by sea. Venezuela has vehemently denied having any links to drug cartels.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump claimed Venezuela-linked maritime drug trafficking had dropped by 92%, saying US forces were “knocking out drugs at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.”“We knocked out 96% of the drugs coming in by water,” he added, later asserting, “It’s going to be starting on land pretty soon.”
The US leader, however, provided no details on potential targets or the scope of the operation.
Since September, US forces have significantly ramped up military presence in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific and carried out more than 20 strikes against suspected drug vessels, killing scores of people. Trump has argued that the operations have saved tens of thousands of Americans by stopping narcotics from getting into the US.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has consistently rejected Trump’s claims about Caracas’ links to narcocartels, accusing Washington of seeking to overthrow his government under the guise of an anti-drug campaign.
This week, US authorities also seized the oil tanker Skipper off Venezuela’s coast, a cargo ship allegedly transporting oil from Venezuela and Iran. Officials in Caracas condemned the seizure as “blatant theft” and “criminal naval piracy.”
Meanwhile, Russia, which has long-established close ties with Venezuela, has publicly backed Maduro this week. According to the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin “expressed solidarity with the people of Venezuela and reaffirmed his support for the Maduro government’s resolve to defend national interests and sovereignty against foreign pressure.” The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to a strategic partnership treaty signed in May.
The Hungarian prime minister resembles Jon Snow as he stands alone against the “EU bureaucratic warmongers,” Kirill Dmitriev says
Senior Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev has compared Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to ‘Game of Thrones’ character Jon Snow, casting him as the lone defender of European law as the EU moved to indefinitely freeze Russian sovereign assets.
In a post on X on Friday, Dmitriev praised Orban for “defending the EU’s legal and financial system from crazy EU bureaucratic warmongers,” saying the Hungarian leader is fighting to “reduce migration, increase competitiveness, and restore sanity, values and peace.”
Dmitriev attached a clip from the Battle of the Bastards, one of Game of Thrones’ most iconic scenes. The sequence shows Jon Snow standing alone on a battlefield, drawing his sword as the cavalry of the House of Bolton thunders toward him.
Hungary PM Orbán as Jon Snow from Game of Thrones in defending the EU’s legal&financial system from crazy EU bureaucratic warmongers—fighting them to reduce migration, increase competitiveness, and restore sanity, values and peace. 🕊️
In the series, the Boltons are infamous for their ruthlessness and cruelty, while Snow is portrayed as a reluctant leader who repeatedly chooses duty over ambition, even at great personal cost.
On Friday, Orban – who has on numerous occasions blasted the EU’s confrontational policies on Russia – accused Brussels of “raping European law,” referring to the vote allowing the bloc to bypass unanimous approval when extending sanctions on Russian sovereign assets, estimated at €210 billion ($230 billion). Moscow has condemned the freeze as “theft,” warning of legal retaliation if the bloc confiscates the assets.
In a separate post, Dmitriev also took aim at NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, comparing him to the Night King, the central antagonist of Game of Thrones, who commands the undead and lacks empathy.
Unmasked NATO’s Mark Rutte.
He does not have family or children. He wants war.
The comparison followed comments by Rutte, who accused Russia of “bringing war back to Europe” and urged NATO members to prepare for a conflict on a scale faced by earlier generations. Dmitriev said Rutte “does not have family or children” and “wants war” – adding, however, that “peace will prevail.”
Dmitriev, who has played a prominent role in efforts to reach a settlement of the Ukraine conflict, echoed remarks by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who criticized Rutte for “fueling war tensions.”
Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malta have reportedly warned the European Commission against using frozen assets to aid Ukraine
Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malta have urged the EU to explore alternatives to seizing frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine, Politico Europe reported on Friday, citing an internal document.
The European Commission hopes to pressure individual member states into approving the plan ahead of the European Council meeting on December 18-19.
However, some members, including Belgium, which holds the bulk of Russia’s frozen assets, have warned that seizing them could undermine trust in the EU’s financial system, trigger capital flight, and expose member states to legal risks.
According to Politico, the four countries said they “invite the Commission and the Council to continue exploring and discussing alternative options in line with EU and international law, with predictable parameters, presenting significantly fewer risks, to address Ukraine’s financial needs, based on an EU loan facility or bridge solutions.”
On Friday, the EU invoked its rarely used emergency powers to circumvent potential vetoes from Hungary and Slovakia and made the asset freeze indefinite.
Although Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malta supported the measure, they reportedly stressed that the “vote does not pre-empt in any circumstances the decision on the possible use of Russian immobilized assets, which needs to be taken at leaders’ level.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Friday’s vote unlawful and accused the commission of “systematically raping European law.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also condemned the move, arguing that “providing tens of billions of euros for military spending is prolonging the war” between Ukraine and Russia.
Russia has said that seizing the assets would be tantamount to theft and vowed to retaliate. On Friday, the Russian central bank initiated legal proceedings against Belgian clearinghouse Euroclear, which holds the bulk of Russia’s foreign assets in Europe.
Some of the images include US President Donald Trump and conservative strategist Steve Bannon
US House Democrats released around 100 new photos obtained from the estate of the late disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Friday.
The latest batch is part of a Democratic push to force the Justice Department to release the remaining files related to the Epstein case, which President Donald Trump has condemned as a politically motivated campaign to slander him.
Most of the images show the interior of Epstein’s home and his private island; others show high-profile members of his social circle, including billionaires Bill Gates and Richard Branson, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, filmmaker Woody Allen, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his UK royal title in October.
One undated photo shows Epstein and Trump together at a social event, while another shows Trump posing with six women whose faces were redacted by the House Oversight Committee.
One image, apparently taken at Epstein’s home, shows the financier sitting across the table from conservative podcaster and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. On the table is a framed picture of what appears to be a woman whose face was redacted.
None of the released photos depict sexual misconduct, although some show sex toys, and one features a pack of novelty condoms illustrated with a caricature of Trump, alongside a sign reading “Trump Condom $4.50.”
Ranking House Oversight Committee member Robert Garcia said the photos “raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Democrats were “selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative.”
“The Democrat hoax against President Trump has been repeatedly debunked, and the Trump administration has done more for Epstein’s victims than Democrats ever have by repeatedly calling for transparency, releasing thousands of pages of documents, and urging further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends,” Jackson added.
Fernand Kartheiser told RT that Brussels has damaged the bloc’s reputation
The EU’s move to invoke emergency powers and freeze the assets of the Russian Central Bank indefinitely will seriously damage the bloc’s credibility, European Parliament member Fernand Kartheiser has told RT.
On Friday, the EU invoked Article 122 of its treaty to override vetoes from Hungary and Slovakia and bypass the European Parliament. Brussels has been pressuring individual members to agree to using the Russian assets for a ‘reparations loan’ for Ukraine.
Kartheiser, an MEP from Luxembourg, argued that the move will “weaken the member states.”
“Europe will lose much of its credibility as an investment place for people around the world. It is not only legally questionable but will also have a lot of economic and institutional consequences which are harmful to the EU and other countries,” he said.
With Hungary and Slovakia sidelined, the European Commission’s actions will fuel Euroskepticism among voters, Kartheiser said. “The smaller and medium-sized countries will simply lose confidence in the functioning of the European institutions.”
Kartheiser added that by shutting itself off from negotiations with Russia, the EU is “prolonging the war” in Ukraine. “It is morally questionable and diplomatically not very intelligent because we are standing in the way of American-Russian efforts to bring this war to an end.”
Belgium, which holds the bulk of the Russian assets, has warned that “stealing money from the Russian Central Bank” would damage the EU’s financial system, trigger capital flight, and expose Belgium to legal risks. Hungary and Slovakia have also urged the EU to focus instead on diplomacy.
Moscow has said that tapping into its funds would be tantamount to theft and warned that it would retaliate.
Berlin is deliberately whipping up domestic “anti-Russian sentiment,” the Russian Embassy in Germany has said
German accusations of Moscow’s alleged involvement in “hybrid attacks” are “unsubstantiated, unfounded and absurd,” the Russian Embassy in Germany said in a statement on Friday.
According to Federal Foreign Office spokesperson Martin Giese, the ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Nechayev earlier in the day to protest alleged disinformation and cyberattacks. He cited alleged interference in this year’s federal election, and an attack on a German flight controller in August by two separate hacker groups, which he claimed had links to Russian military intelligence agency (GRU).
In response, the embassy said the ambassador had “categorically rejected” the “unsubstantiated, unfounded and absurd” accusations of GRU’s involvement.
The accusations are “yet another unfriendly step aimed at inciting anti-Russian sentiment in Germany” and undermining bilateral relations, it said.
The embassy also referred to EU scaremongering and accusations of alleged Russian plans to attack NATO, calling for Berlin to “stop whipping up hysteria.” Russia “poses no threat to European states,” as President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, it said.
The embassy also referred to the US-brokered peace talks on the Ukraine conflict, a recent point of tension between European NATO states and Moscow.
Russia stands ready to negotiate, provided they “take Russia’s security interests into account and contribute to addressing the root causes of the Ukraine conflict,” it said.
“It is regrettable that European elites continue supporting the Kiev regime, prolonging the war to the last Ukrainian, and thwarting any progress toward a peaceful settlement.”
A day earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow views the various “fabrications” thrown about by European NATO countries as being primarily aimed at “complicating” the Ukraine peace process and “prolonging the conflict.”
“The West is running out of financial, logistical, and military resources for waging a proxy war,” he said.
Western leaders are desperately trying to “escalate the situation and remain on the warpath,” by advocating for militarization and hyping up an alleged threat from Russia in the hopes that a large conflict will “erase” their political failures, the top diplomat said.
Kiev is ready to call a vote once its demands are met, Vladimir Zelensky’s top adviser has said
Kiev is ready to hold an election, but only if a series of conditions are met, including Western funding of the vote, Mikhail Podoliak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, has said.
Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024, but he has refused to organize elections, citing martial law. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said Kiev should no longer use the ongoing conflict as an excuse for the delay.
Moscow has maintained that Zelensky has “lost his legitimate status,” which would undermine the legality of any peace deal signed with him.
Zelensky has claimed he was not trying to “cling to power,” declaring this week readiness for the elections, but insisting that Kiev needs help from the US and European countries “to ensure security” during a vote.
Podoliak expanded on the position on Friday, writing on X that Zelensky had called on parliament to prepare changes to the constitution and laws. Podoliak, however, added that three conditions must be met for a vote to go ahead.
President Zelenskyy confirms Ukraine's readiness for elections and calls on Parliament to prepare changes to the Constitution and laws. However, three basic questions must be solved first.
No missiles or drones can fly during the vote. The only realistic path is a ceasefire.…
“No missiles or drones can fly during the vote. The only realistic path is a ceasefire,” Podoliak wrote, adding that those on the front and in frontline zones must be able to “elect and get elected.” He said that “millions of displaced persons” make the process “complex and costly.”
“This burden cannot fall on Ukraine alone,” Zelensky’s aide stated, adding that Kiev would be “ready” to proceed with a vote only if the funding and two other conditions are guaranteed.
Commenting on Kiev’s U-turn on holding an election, top Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told RT that the idea is a ploy to secure a ceasefire. Moscow has long insisted that Kiev would use the pause in fighting to rearm and regroup.
President Vladimir Putin recently noted that Russia held presidential elections in March 2024, even though it is engaged in a military conflict.
While Ukraine and its Western backers have repeatedly called for a temporary ceasefire, the Kremlin has ruled out the option, insisting on a permanent peace that addresses the conflict’s underlying causes. Moscow argues that a sustainable peace deal can only be reached if Ukraine withdraws completely from the new Russian territories and commits to neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification.
The justice and energy ministers were sacked last month amid a large-scale graft scandal
Ukraine’s government has no active candidates for the vacant post of energy minister, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources, more than a month after a major corruption scandal forced the dismissal of the previous official.
Last month, Ukraine’s Western-backed anti-graft agencies announced the preliminary results of a probe into the alleged extortion of about $100 million in the energy sector by individuals in Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle. Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk and Justice Minister German Galushchenko were sacked over the scandal, followed soon by the dismissal of Zelensky’s top aide and right-hand man Andrey Yermak. None of the now-vacant posts have been filled.
Reuters reported, citing a source, that a replacement for Grinchuk had been expected to be named quickly, but the process stalled after at least four potential candidates either withdrew or were deemed unfit for the role. Another source, a senior lawmaker, told the agency there were currently “no candidates.”
“Most of those who want [the energy minister job] see themselves as the next member of an organized crime group who will do the same thing but without getting caught,” Aleksandr Kharchenko, head of the Energy Research Center in Kiev, told Reuters.
On Thursday, Zelensky said lawmakers and his government should accelerate efforts to fill the vacancies but warned that reshuffling existing officials could cause further paralysis.
“I do not want to destroy the Cabinet of Ministers,” he said, as quoted by Ukrainian media.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Andrey Osadchuk told local news outlet NV that Zelensky has a very limited pool of people he can appoint to senior government posts, as many qualified professionals are “simply not ready to take part in this political brothel.”
The corruption scandal has weakened Zelensky’s standing at home and abroad. His approval rating has dropped to 20.3%, according to a recent opinion poll published by the research firm Info Sapiens.
Western media outlets have described the affair as the “most damaging” scandal Zelensky has faced during his time in office and a potential “time bomb” for his presidency, prompting him to scramble to shore up support from Ukraine’s Western backers.
The bloc has invoked emergency treaty powers to override opposition from individual member states
The European Union has voted to keep Russian central bank assets frozen indefinitely despite opposition from member states. The bloc pushed through the controversial agenda by invoking emergency powers legislation to bypass the need for unanimous approval.
The European Commission, and its head Ursula von der Leyen, want to use the $246 billion in Russian sovereign funds immobilized by the bloc after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, to back a “reparations loan” for Kiev.
The loan scheme has been opposed by member states, including Hungary, Slovakia, which are against providing further aid to Kiev. Belgium, where most of the funds are held, has also raised concerns due to legal and financial risks. The European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund have warned that tapping Russian money would undermine the reputation of the euro and more broadly the Western financial system.
Russia has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds as “theft,” warning of economic and legal retaliation.
The vote put forward by von der Leyen reframed the issue of frozen Russian assets as an economic emergency rather than a sanctions policy. This allowed the Commission to invoke Article 122 of the EU treaties, an emergency clause that permits decisions to be adopted by a qualified majority vote instead of unanimity, effectively bypassing veto threats from countries opposed to the move.
Invoking the clause is unprecedented and raises concerns about the sanctity of the fundamental principle of EU politics that major foreign policy, budget, and defense decisions are made by unanimous consent.
Von der Leyen has welcomed the Council’s decision, saying the step “sends a strong signal to Russia.”
However, not all member states responded positively.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has condemned the EU for using a qualified majority vote as “unlawful,” which would cause “irreparable damage to the Union.”
Danish Finance Minister Stephanie Lose, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, has said there were still “some worries” to be addressed over the Russian asset freeze.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the EU with one-word: “Swindlers.”
The Ukrainian leader has refused to call elections for more than a year despite the expiration of his presidential term
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is ready to do anything to maintain his grip on power, which has become “a kind of drug” for him, political scientist Anton Orlov told RT on Friday.
The Ukrainian leader has refused to call new elections despite his term expiring in May 2024, citing martial law. Following mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump, Zelensky has insisted that a vote can only take place if the West guarantees a ceasefire – an absolute non-starter for Moscow.
“Zelensky is ready to do anything to retain power, and this is possible as long as elections have not been held,” according to Orlov, director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Politics.
If he gives up political control “he faces a swift and final political death,” the political scientist added.
“As soon as a political calm sets in, he will slowly but surely sink to the bottom. He knows this, which is why he continues hostilities.”
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian leader told reporters that he could hold elections within the next 60 to 90 days, provided they take place during a ceasefire supported by security guarantees from his Western backers. Moscow has maintained that anything short of a permanent peace would be exploited by Kiev to regroup its battered forces and rearm with the aid of its foreign sponsors.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader’s approval rating has dropped to 20.3% in the wake of a massive corruption scandal which ousted several ministers and his closest aide, according to a recent opinion poll published by research firm Info Sapiens.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Zelensky “lost his legitimate status” after his term expired, which would undermine the legality of any peace deal signed with him. Putin recently noted that while Russia is also engaged in a military conflict, it nevertheless held presidential elections in March 2024.
