Maduro’s immigration card could influence America’s election, not just Venezuela’s
CNN
What happens in the South American country this year could have an impact on Joe Biden’s hopes for reelection.
Venezuelan voters are supposed to go to the polls to choose a president this year, but they don’t know when the election will be held … or even if it will be held. Voters don’t know who the candidates will be either, other than the incumbent, socialist President Nicolás Maduro, who has made it abundantly clear he wants to stay in power for a third consecutive term. In many respects, this election year is beginning to look as chaotic as 2018, when the ruling Socialist United Party of Venezuela (PSUV) pulled the event forward from the traditional month of December to April of that year, then changed it again, to May. But the difference to 2018 is that what happens in the South American country’s presidential election this year may have an impact on another presidential election happening thousands of miles away. Less than four months ago, Venezuela made an agreement with the United States to hold free and fair elections – a move aimed at thawing relations between the two countries. The agreement was crucial for US President Joe Biden because Venezuelan cooperation is needed to help control illegal immigration, which is shaping up as a key issue in the 2024 US election. The problem for Biden is, that deal now seems irreparably broken.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.