
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced on Monday a plan to stabilize Venezuela’s collapsing currency by re-engaging with global financial institutions. The strategy consists of unfreezing approximately US$4.9 billion in International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to provide much-needed liquidity to Caracas' Central Bank.

A Venezuelan serviceman stationed at the Meseta de Mamo military academy in La Guaira described the Jan. 3 U.S. bombardment as a rapid, overwhelming assault that “blinded” radar and electronic systems, preventing any organized defense. “There was no time to counterattack. They were very fast,” he said anonymously in an account published by La Hora de Venezuela and echoed by other Venezuelan outlets.

Over 500 people have been reported dead during this past weekend in the Islamic Republic of Iran as groups supporting the return to power of a monarchy under Mohamed Reza Pahlavi II (son of the shah deposed in 1979) took to the streets, women taking off their religious clothing and appearing uncovered, challenging Islamic morals.

The Venezuelan interim government of caretaker President Delcy Rodríguez has allowed some relatives to visit political prisoners still held by Caracas at the Rodeo I detention facility. Among them is Argentine Border Guard (Gendarmería Nacional) NCO Nahuel Gallo, about whom nothing concrete has been heard.

Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has vowed to secure Nicolás Maduro's return while simultaneously opening a fragile diplomatic exploratory process with the United States.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pulled his country's diplomats from the building that was once Argentina's Embassy in Caracas, but which had been placed under Brasilia's care when Javier Milei severed all ties with the Nicolás Maduro totalitarian regime.

US President Donald Trump has issued a total oil embargo and a diplomatic ultimatum to Cuba, signaling a Venezuela-style transition coming up. It was even rumored that US Secretary of State could be Cuba's next President.

Nicaragua's Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo announced on Saturday that Managua would be releasing a series of political prisoners in a gesture marking the 19th anniversary of the far left administration, never admitting it could also play out as a concession to Washington, as the Donald Trump government embarked on a crusade to rid the hemisphere from governments carrying out these crimes against humanity.

“I am a soldier in the service of an idea,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on receiving the Margaret Thatcher Awards, an event in mid- December organized at the Roman Aquarium by New Direction, the think tank of the European Conservative and Reformist family.

Today January 10th is Margaret Thatcher Day in the Falkland Islands. The date remembers and celebrates when the former Prime Minister and victorious in the Falklands War spent a four-day visit to the Islands beginning precisely on 10 January 1983 only eight months after the end of the conflict with Argentina.