Key events
Lauren Gambino
The US Senate has voted against a war powers resolution that would have prevented Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without giving Congress advance notice.
Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, who had joined three other Republicans to advance the resolution alongside Democrats last week, flipped after they said they received assurances from the Trump administration.
With Hawley and Young’s votes, the Senate was split 50-50 on the resolution. JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Republican senators Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins cast their votes for the war powers resolution alongside Democrats.
Senate Democrats forcefully condemned Republican opposition to the resolution, which aimed to check the president as he threatens further action in other countries including Greenland, Iran and Mexico.
“Make no mistake about it: this vote makes things more dangerous, not less,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said. “It emboldens Donald Trump to push further down this reckless path.”
Trump set to meet Venezuelan opposition leader at White House today
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that president Donald Trump is set to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the White House later today.
Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-president Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month, AP reported.
Less than two weeks after US forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting president Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice-president and along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his ‘America First’ policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro – a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In other developments:
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The US Senate has voted against a war powers resolution that would have prevented Donald Trump from taking further military action against Venezuela without giving Congress advance notice. Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, who had joined three other Republicans to advance the resolution alongside Democrats last week, flipped after they said they received assurances from the Trump administration.
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The Trump administration received approval from the justice department to use the military to seize Nicolás Maduro even as it declined to address whether the operation would violate international law, according to a legal memo. The dark-of-night raid to capture Venezuela’s president has raised a host of legal issues concerning the president’s power to start an armed conflict without congressional approval and possible breaches of international law.
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The Trump administration has indefinitely suspended immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, marking one of its most expansive efforts yet to restrict legal pathways to the United States. The freeze, which takes effect on 21 January, targets applicants officials deem likely to become a “public charge” – who they describe as people who may rely on government benefits for basic needs.
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Donald Trump has said it would be “unacceptable” for Greenland to be “in the hands” of any country other than the US, reiterating his demand to take over the arctic island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. “The US needs Greenland for the purpose of national security. Nato should be leading the way for us to get it,” the US president said on social media. The alliance “becomes far more formidable and effective” with the territory under US control, he said.
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The Iranian government has signalled that detained protesters are to face speedy trials and executions, defying a threat by Trump to intervene if authorities continue their crackdown.
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The Democratic representative Robin Kelly on Wednesday formally introduced articles of impeachment against Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, following the fatal shooting of a US citizen by an immigration agent in Minneapolis last week.
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The Trump administration on Tuesday evening unexpectedly canceled up to $1.9bn in funding for substance use and mental health care, which providers say will immediately affect thousands of patients. “The scope of care that’s disrupted by these grants is catastrophic,” said Ryan Hampton, founder of Mobilize Recovery, a national advocacy organization for people in and seeking recovery. “Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people will die.”
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