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Key European allies of Ukraine and top US envoys met in Paris on Tuesday and were expected to announce Washington would lead ceasefire monitoring if a peace deal is reached to end Russia’s war against its neighbour.The summit of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” is focused on security guarantees Ukraine requires in the event of a ceasefire to deter further Russian aggression. A draft statement seen by AFP before the talks started said the United States would lead a “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” with European participation if a peace deal is agreed.Washington would commit to “support” a European-led multinational force — deployed in Ukraine after any ceasefire — “in case of” a new attack by Russia, the draft statement added. Representatives of 35 countries, including 27 heads of state or government — including the leaders of Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy — took part in the summit, which the French presidency said would demonstrate the “alignment” between Washington, Kyiv and European allies on security guarantees for Ukraine.US-led diplomatic efforts to reach a deal have ramped up in recent weeks. But this meeting is being held amid relentless fighting in Ukraine almost four years into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.  The capture by US forces of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has unsettled some European countries and added a potential new element of transatlantic uncertainty.US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner travelled to Paris for the meeting of the coalition, launched last year by France and Britain. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Elysee Palace for a one-to-one meeting before the summit.- ‘Align’ European and US positions -Some members of the coalition aim to send a multinational force to Ukraine to deter any future Russian attack if the war sparked by Russia’s February 2022 invasion ends.But Ukraine and Russia remain at odds over territory in a post-war settlement.Russia has also repeatedly opposed any NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine to monitor a halt in hostilities. European leaders have been at pains to not firmly condemn the US military operation to grab Maduro, while expressing discomfort at the implications for international law.Before leaving for Paris, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the aim of the meeting was to “align the European and American positions”.He said “only that kind of pressure has a chance of forcing the Russians to take the issue of a ceasefire, and then peace, seriously”. He warned, though, against expecting final decisions to be made in Paris.An adviser to Macron on Monday said the meeting was the culmination of efforts launched after Trump’s arrival at the White House to prevent “the United States from abandoning Ukraine”.To lay the groundwork, security advisers from 15 countries, including Britain, France and Germany as well as representatives from NATO and the European Union, gathered in Kyiv over the weekend, with Witkoff joining virtually.- ‘Difficult conditions’ -Kyiv said in recent days a deal was “90 percent” ready. But Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal.Kyiv has warned ceding ground will embolden Moscow and said it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again.Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday said diplomatic efforts were being waged “under difficult conditions”. “Russia is showing little willingness to negotiate, President Zelensky is struggling to maintain unity among Ukrainians, and transatlantic cooperation has changed profoundly,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers, a copy of which AFP obtained on Tuesday.”We want a ceasefire that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty. We therefore want such a ceasefire… to be backed by security guarantees from the US and Europe.”burs-fff-sjw-sw/ah/tw

The US Department of Justice said Monday it is still reviewing more than two million documents potentially related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as it pushed more than two weeks past a deadline to release all files connected to him.The department began releasing documents from the decades-long investigation into the late disgraced financier last month, but failed to meet the December 19 deadline mandated under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.In a letter Monday to a federal judge, DOJ officials said more than two million documents remained “in various phases of review.” About 12,285 documents comprising more than 125,000 pages, the letter said, had already been publicly released in response to the law — less than one percent of the tranche currently in review.The DOJ said it identified on December 24 more than one million files not included in its initial review. Some of those documents appeared to be duplicates but would still need “processing and deduplication,” the letter noted. “Substantial work remains to be done,” said the letter, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and others involved.More than 400 DOJ attorneys will spend “the next few weeks” reviewing the documents, the officials said. At least 100 FBI employees trained in handling “sensitive victim information” will assist the effort.US President Donald Trump is facing strong pushback from Democrats for failing to release all files related to Epstein in a timely manner.The Trump administration has defended its handling of the documents, noting the need to protect sensitive information about victims.In Monday’s letter, the DOJ officials said they must “manually” review the documents for “victim identifying information.”

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges at a defiant appearance in a New York court Monday, two days after being snatched by US forces in a stunning raid on his home in Caracas.Maduro, 63, told a federal judge in Manhattan “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty.”Smiling as he entered the courtroom and wearing an orange shirt with beige trousers, Maduro spoke softly.”I’m president of the Republic of Venezuela and I’m here kidnapped since January 3, Saturday,” Maduro told the court, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores likewise pleaded not guilty. The judge ordered both to remain behind bars and set a new hearing date of March 17.The presidential couple were forcibly taken by US commandos in the early hours of Saturday in airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment.Thousands of people marched through Caracas in support of Maduro as his former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as interim president.Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado slammed Rodriguez, saying she was “rejected” by the Venezeulan people and calling her “one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking.”Speaking from an undisclosed location to broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News in her first public comments since the weekend, Machado added that she plans to return to Venezuela “as soon as possible” after leaving under cover last month to accept her Nobel Peace Prize.After the raid, Trump declared that the United States was “in charge” in Venezuela and intends to take control of the country’s huge but decrepit oil industry.The 79-year-old president also dismissed the idea of Caracas having new elections in the next month.”We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told broadcaster NBC News in an interview aired Monday.However, US House Speaker and Trump ally Mike Johnson said he thinks an election “should happen in short order” in Venezuela.- ‘Access to oil’  -Maduro became president in 2013, taking over from his equally hardline socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez.The United States and European Union say he stayed in power by rigging elections — most recently in 2024 — and imprisoning opponents, while overseeing rampant corruption.The crisis after a quarter century of leftist rule now leaves Venezuela’s approximately 30 million people — and the world’s largest proven oil reserves — facing uncertainty.Trump has said he wants to work with Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro’s former team — provided that they submit to US demands on oil. And after an initially hostile response, Rodriguez said she is ready for “cooperation.”Brian Naranjo, a former US diplomat in Venezuela before he was expelled by Maduro in 2018, said that he has “not been so worried about the future of Venezuela, ever.” “There’s a very real possibility that things are going to get much, much worse in Venezuela before they get better,” he told AFP.The deputy head of the US mission to Caracas from 2014-2018 pointed at two men who could try and usurp power from Rodriguez: Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and her own brother, Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela’s legislature.”Delcy had better be sleeping with one eye open right now because right behind her are two men who would be more than happy to cut her throat and take control themselves,” Naranjo said.- Cuba, Greenland next? -Trump, who has shocked many Americans with his unprecedented moves to accumulate domestic power, also now appears increasingly emboldened in foreign policy.On Sunday, he said communist Cuba was “ready to fall” and he repeated that Greenland, which is part of US ally Denmark, should be controlled by the United States.Brian Finucane, of the International Crisis Group, told AFP that Trump “seems to be disregarding international law altogether” in Venezuela and added that US domestic law also appeared to have been broken.Details of the US operation in Caracas were still emerging Monday, with Havana saying 32 Cubans were killed in the attack. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that nearly 200 personnel went into Caracas on the surprise raid. Some injuries and no deaths were reported by US officials.burs-sms/jgc/sla

Alvin Hellerstein, the 92-year-old US judge handling the case against deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, has presided over a number of notable trials during his decades on the bench.Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, made their first appearance in Hellerstein’s Manhattan courtroom on Monday, pleading not guilty to narco-terrorism and other charges.Maduro was indicted in 2020 in a sprawling drug trafficking case that has been before Hellerstein for nearly 15 years and has already seen the conviction of Venezuela’s former intelligence chief, Hugo Armando Carvajal.A graduate of Columbia University law school, Hellerstein served as a lawyer in the US Army from 1957 to 1960 before entering private practice.He was nominated by former president Bill Clinton in 1998 to be a district court judge for the Southern District of New York.During his lengthy career, Hellerstein has presided over several civil cases stemming from the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.He has also tangled at times with Donald Trump, rejecting a request by the president to have his New York hush money case moved to federal court.Hellerstein also blocked the Trump administration last year from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without a court hearing.In September, he sentenced tech start-up highflier Charlie Javice to more than seven years in prison after she was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase on a $175 million deal.In another high-profile fraud case, Hellerstein sentenced Bill Hwang, the founder of US investment firm Archegos Capital Management, to 18 years in prison.He also presided over the trial last year in which a jury found French banking giant BNP Paribas’s work in Sudan had helped prop up the regime of former ruler Omar al-Bashir, awarding $20.75 million in damages to three plaintiffs from Sudan.In a noteworthy 2015 ruling, Hellerstein ordered the US government to release a trove of photos depicting abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Trump administration on Monday overhauled the United States’ pediatric vaccine schedule, upending years of scientifically backed recommendations that reduced disease with routine shots.The dramatic shift — announced by the US health department, which is led by long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — means the country will no longer recommend that every child receive immunizations against several diseases including rotavirus and influenza.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instead will recommend that shots preventing those illnesses as well as hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease be administered for select groups of high-risk individuals or when parents and a child’s doctor deem them warranted, rather than as standard practice.The agency had already shifted to this recommendation model for Covid-19 shots in 2025.At the end of 2024, the CDC was recommending 17 pediatric immunizations for all individuals, the agency said. Now that number is 11.President Donald Trump praised the changes, noting that the “MAHA Moms” — a base of online influencers who ardently support Kennedy’s agenda — “have been praying for these common sense reforms for many years.”Trump’s message heralding the schedule overhaul followed a TruthSocial post rife with false statements about vaccine safety and recommendations that contradict scientific consensus.The decision follows Trump’s directive last month that health officials compare the US vaccine schedule to peer countries abroad.They were notably focused on Denmark. The new US recommendations now more closely resemble that country’s schedule.”After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the US childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement.But medical and public health experts slammed the overhaul.Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, said “the US child vaccine schedule is one of the most thoroughly researched tools we have to protect children from serious, sometimes deadly diseases.””It’s so important that any decision about the US childhood vaccination schedule should be grounded in evidence, transparency and established scientific processes, not comparisons that overlook critical differences between countries or health systems,” he told journalists.Experts at the Vaccine Integrity Project, an initiative out of the University of Minnesota, recently noted that the US had already been in line with global consensus.Denmark, project researchers said, represents more of an outlier among “peer countries” than a standard.”Denmark’s schedule reflects a set of choices made in a small, highly homogeneous country with a centralized health care system that guarantees universal access to care, low baseline disease prevalence, and strong social infrastructure,” the group wrote.”Those conditions do not apply to the United States, not even close.”- ‘More confusing for parents’ -Senator Bill Cassidy, whose deciding vote confirmed Kennedy’s controversial appointment as health chief last year, said that “changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors.”The Republican, himself a doctor, said doing so would “make America sicker.”States have the authority to mandate vaccinations, but generally CDC recommendations wield significant influence over state policies.US officials have said that access as well as insurance coverage of vaccines should remain in place, even for shots not broadly recommended by the federal government.”All vaccines currently recommended by CDC will remain covered by insurance without cost sharing,” said Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal health insurance programs. “No family will lose access. This framework empowers parents and physicians to make individualized decisions based on risk, while maintaining strong protection against serious disease.”But public health authorities warned that the changes would only sow doubt and confusion, especially as vaccine skepticism has mushroomed in the wake of the pandemic.O’Leary said the shift “just makes things more confusing for parents and clinicians.””Tragically, our federal government can no longer be trusted” to provide vaccine recommendations, he added.

The trial began Monday of a former police officer charged with shying away from tackling the gunman who killed 21 people, including 19 children, at a Texas school in 2022, US media reported.The case against Adrian Gonzales is a rare example of an attempt to hold a law enforcement officer accountable for their actions during a mass shooting.Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed in the city of Uvalde on May 24, 2022 when a teenage gunman went on a rampage with an AR-15 style assault rifle at Robb Elementary School, in what was America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade.Former school district police chief Pete Arredondo also faces charges over the tragedy, but will be tried separately.The official response was heavily criticized after it emerged that more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour outside classrooms where the shooting was taking place and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.A total of 376 officers — border guards, state police, city police, local sheriff departments and elite forces — responded to the massacre, a Texas state lawmakers’ report said in July 2022.The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was reportedly killed by law enforcement at the site of the attack.On Monday, jury selection was under way in the trial against Gonzales, who faces 29 felony counts of child endangerment — one for each of the 19 children who died and for the 10 students who survived.US media reported that the indictment charges he “failed to engage, distract or delay the shooter” after hearing shots.Arredondo faces 10 felony counts for allegedly delaying the official response.Both men have pleaded not guilty.Judge Sid Harle said he expected the trial in Corpus Christi, 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Uvalde, to last around two weeks, ABC News reported.

Cubans weary from years of economic crisis, shortages of basic supplies and regular power blackouts, fear the US attack on Venezuela, a leftist ideological ally and its main oil supplier, will see life get even tougher.After American forces seized Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro in an early-morning raid, US President Donald Trump over the weekend issued threats to other leftist leaders in the region and said he thought Cuba was “ready to fall.”He played down the need for US military action on the island, saying it would be hard for Havana to “hold out” without Venezuelan oil, and “it looks like it’s going down.””2026 is going to be tough, very tough,” Axel Alfonso, a 53-year-old working as a driver for a state enterprise, told AFP in the capital Havana on Monday.”If Venezuela is the main supplier, at least of oil, it’s going to get a bit complicated,” said Alfonso who, like the vast majority of Cubans, has lived his whole life under a bruising US trade embargo in place since 1962.The communist-run island has seen 13 US administrations come and go, some more punishing than others.”We’ve been fighting for 60 years, and we have to keep going,” Alfonso said.- ‘Uncertainty’ -Located roughly 90 miles (about 145 kilometers) from the coast of Florida, Cuba’s last major economic test followed the implosion in 1991 of the Soviet Union, a major trade partner and source of credit.It survived by opening up to tourism and foreign investment. Since 2000, Havana has increasingly relied on Venezuelan oil under a deal struck with Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, in exchange for Cuban doctors, teachers, and sports coaches. In the last quarter of 2025, Venezuela sent Cuba an average of 30,000 – 35,000 barrels a day, “which represents 50 percent of the island’s oil deficit,” Jorge Pinon, an energy expert and researcher at the University of Texas, told AFP.The number was much higher 10 years ago, slashed by the global oil price crash that sent Venezuela’s own economy into turmoil.For the past six years, Cuba has been mired in an ever-deepening crisis caused by a toxic combination of tighter US sanctions, poor domestic management of the economy and the collapse of tourism due to the Covid-19 pandemic.GDP has fallen by 11 percent in five years and the government faces a severe shortage of currency to pay for basic social services: electricity, healthcare and supplying subsidized food and other basic goods that many Cubans have learned to rely on.Economic hardship was a trigger for the unprecedented anti-government demonstrations of July 11, 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets shouting “We are hungry” and “Freedom!”Since then, ever more frequent and longer power cuts and shortages of food and medicine have deepened discontent and led to sporadic, smaller protests, quickly contained by the government. Now, many fear that the loss of Venezuelan oil will make matters even worse.”We’re living in a moment of uncertainty,” attorney Daira Perez, 30, told AFP.- No bailout  -Pinon said it was “not clear whether shipments of Venezuelan oil to Cuba will continue,” especially in the context of the recent US seizure of oil tankers in the Caribbean.And he highlighted that “Cuba doesn’t have the resources to buy that volume on international markets, nor a political partner to bail it out.”Despite concerns for the future, long-suffering Cubans put on a brave face.”He (Trump) keeps making tough threats,” said Havana resident Roberto Brown, 80, who was a young man during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.”We already told him once: we’re 90 miles away, and a long-range missile from over there reaches here, but the one from here reaches there too,” said Brown.

General Motors reported a dip in fourth-quarter US auto sales Monday, reflecting a sharp decline in electric vehicle transactions amid a broader slowing car market.But the US auto giant also achieved an annual sales increase, pointing to growth in pickups and crossovers sales as evidence of resonance with consumers despite offering lower incentives than the industry average.The Detroit giant reported 703,000 deliveries in the final quarter of 2025, a drop from the year prior of 6.9 percent, in a period characterized by tepid consumer confidence surveys.Other carmakers to report a drop in US sales in the fourth quarter included Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen, while Toyota and Stellantis were higher.Analysts at Cox Automotive had estimated a 4.7 percent drop in overall US car sales in the fourth quarter, with concerns about a weakening job market, high interest rates and cost-of-living pressures weighing on sentiment.A driver of GM’s decline was a pronounced fall in EV sales from the third quarter, when consumers raced to take advantage of a $7,500 tax credit that expired at the end of September, earlier than initially intended due to legislation championed by US President Donald Trump.EV sales at GM were 25,219 in the October to December period, less than half the level in the third quarter of 2025.GM’s annual sales were 2.8 million, up 5.5 percent from 2024. Among the vehicles with sizable gains were the Chevrolet Equinox, a small “crossover” sport utility vehicle and the GMC Sierra line of pickup trucks.”Demand for our brands and products is strong at every price point, and we are well-positioned to build on this momentum in the year ahead,” said GM senior vice president Duncan Aldred.At Toyota, fourth-quarter sales rose about eight percent to 652,195, in line with annual growth of comparable percentage. Total sales were 2.5 million for 2025.Toyota models with significant year-over-year sales increases included the Grand Highlander SUV and Tacoma pickup.- Tariff effect? -Stellantis, meanwhile, scored a four percent increase in the fourth-quarter to 332,321, helping to reduce the size of its annual drop after a number of weak quarters. Stellantis annual sales fell three percent to 1.3 million.”With consecutive quarterly sales increases and market share growth, it’s clear that we are taking the right steps to reset our business in the US,” said Jeff Kommor, head of US retail sales, who pointed to five new vehicle launches scheduled for 2026.Throughout 2025, automakers were faced with a fast-changing policy environment as Trump announced myriad tariff actions and moved to gut climate measures enacted under predecessor Joe Biden.Tariff costs did not lead to significant hikes in retail prices in 2025, in part because dealers were selling autos from inventory.However, analysts say consumers may see greater car price hikes in 2026 due to tariffs, potentially affecting demand.Cox estimates that US sales will come in at 15.8 million in 2026, or 2.4 percent below its projection for 2025 sales.

Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok faced growing international backlash Monday for generating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors, with the European Union joining the condemnation and Britain warning of an investigation.Complaints of abuse flooded the internet after the recent rollout of an “edit image” button on Grok, which enabled users to alter online images with prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”The digital undressing spree, which follows growing concerns among tech campaigners over proliferating AI “nudify” apps, prompted swift probes or calls for remedial action from countries including France, India and Malaysia.The European Commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, joined the chorus on Monday, saying it was “very seriously looking” into the complaints about Grok, developed by Musk’s startup xAI and integrated into his social media platform X.”Grok is now offering a ‘spicy mode’ showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling,” said EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier.”This has no place in Europe.”The UK’s media regulator Ofcom said it had made “urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK.”Depending on the reply, Ofcom will then “determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.”- ‘Horrifying’ -Malaysia-based lawyer Azira Aziz expressed horror after a user — apparently in the Philippines —  prompted Grok to change her “profile picture to a bikini.” “Innocent and playful use of AI like putting on sunglasses on public figures is fine,” Aziz told AFP. “But gender-based violence weaponizing AI against non-consenting women and children must be firmly opposed,” she added, calling on users to report violations to X and Malaysian authorities.Other X users directly implored Musk to take action against apparent pedophiles “asking grok to put bikinis on children.””Grok is now undressing photos of me as a child,” Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Musk’s children, wrote on X.”This is objectively horrifying, illegal.”When reached by AFP for comment, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: “Legacy Media Lies.”Amid the online firestorm, Grok sought to assure users on Friday that it was scrambling to fix flaws in the tool.”We’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them,” Grok said on X.”CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) is illegal and prohibited.”Separately last week, Grok posted an apology for generating and sharing “an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt.”- ‘Grossly offensive’ -The flurry of reactions came after the public prosecutor’s office in Paris last week expanded an investigation into X to include new accusations that Grok was being used for generating and disseminating child pornography.The initial investigation against X was opened in July following reports that the platform’s algorithm was being manipulated for the purpose of foreign interference.On Friday, Indian authorities directed X to remove the sexualized content, clamp down on offending users, and submit an “Action Taken Report” within 72 hours, or face legal consequences, local media reported.The deadline lapsed on Monday, but so far there was no update on whether X responded.The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission also voiced “serious concern” at the weekend over public complaints about the “indecent, grossly offensive” content across X.It added it was investigating the violations and will summon X’s representatives.The criticism adds to growing scrutiny of Grok, which has faced criticism for churning out misinformation about recent crises such as the war in Gaza, the India-Pakistan conflict, as well a deadly shooting in Australia.burs-ac/sla

President Donald Trump says the United States is “in charge” of Venezuela. But for now, that seems to mean keeping the country’s government set up much like it was before.Trump on Saturday ordered an audacious, deadly assault on Caracas in which US forces snatched Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro and took him to face charges in New York.In his extensive comments since then, Trump said that the United States temporarily “is going to run the country,” which has 30 million people and an economy in tatters for years.The preparation for such a massive undertaking appears to be little or non-existent, with the US embassy in Caracas shuttered, no US forces known to be on the ground and Trump vaguely saying that his own cabinet will call the shots.Even the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which the United States was widely criticized for the ensuing chaos, had far more planning, with president George W. Bush installing what he called a Coalition Provisional Authority to run the country.Trump said Venezuelans would be “taken care of” but said little on what they can expect.Instead, Trump said the priority was to benefit US oil companies in Venezuela, which has the world’s proven reserves and had become a crucial supplier to Cuba, a longtime US target, as well as leading US competitor China.To achieve its ends, Trump said the United States is claiming cooperation with Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro’s vice president — and Trump publicly threatened another US attack if she does not do the US bidding.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, clarifying Trump’s remarks in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” said: “It’s not running — it’s running policy.”Rubio, a Cuban-American and sworn enemy of the hemisphere’s leftists, had long branded Maduro as illegitimate and championed the opposition, which said it won 2024 elections.But Trump brushed aside opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the winner of the latest Nobel Peace Prize, and Rubio said the United States was focused on “our national interest.”- ‘Vassal state’? -Trump said that Machado is a “very nice woman” but does not command the “respect” to run the country.Mark Jones, a Latin America expert at Rice University, said Trump saw lower risks to working with Rodriguez.”The only way Machado could enter the presidential palace and run the country would be with a massive US military presence, which would be very bloody, would be unlikely to be successful and would create massive domestic problems for Trump,” who ran as a non-interventionist, Jones said.Rodriguez, who had been reported to have been in contact with the Trump administration well before Saturday’s attack, initially gave a fiery speech calling Maduro the legitimate president but quickly changed her tone and promised cooperation.Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Relations, expected Rodriguez to struggle to find the right balance.”On the one hand, she needs to be outraged that this happened,” Berg said.”At the same time, she needs to be open to pushing pro-US policies that are going to be very difficult for her regime to swallow, given that they have a 27-year history of seeing the United States as the greatest enemy.”Jones said that Rodriguez had been vice president precisely because Maduro did not see her as holding enough leverage internally to pose a threat.To steer Venezuela, the United States therefore will also need the support of other key figures such as Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who controls the powerful military, Jones said.Some US demands, such as controlling drug trafficking, could be easy for Rodriguez, Jones said.But other demands, such as breaking with Cuba, would be much harder sells for elements of a government rooted in leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez’s “Bolivarian Revolution.””That group is going to resist with all its might, because the idea of Venezuela becoming some vassal state ot the United States is pretty much the antithesis of the Bolivarian Revolution,” Jones said.