Attention to the Unseen

  Iran is in the grip of its most intense unrest in years with protests spreading across the country and Donald Trump vowing that the US will defend Iranian protesters – prompting Tehran to accuse him of psychological warfare. What began in Tehran’s bazaar over soaring prices and a collapsing currency has spread across 27 provinces, with inflation above 50% and a government struggling to contain anger over corruption and falling living standards. Human rights groups say dozens have been…

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  Politico reports: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller says the U.S. is in charge of Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. Miller told CNN on Monday the U.S. is “by definition” in control of Venezuela after it removed Maduro in a striking military raid and has established a naval blockade of the South American country. “We are in charge because we have the United States military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and…

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Olga Lautman writes: If the United States were to use military power against allied territory, it would bring the post–WW II security order to an end, collapse NATO from within, and hand Russia the biggest geopolitical victory it has never been able to secure on the battlefield, while placing the alliance on a path where American forces could, for the first time, find themselves in direct confrontation with NATO troops. I wrote about Greenland yesterday and will continue to focus…

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Politico reports: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued a dire warning about the future of Europe, saying the continent is “finished” without unity, following a week that saw fractures in the stances of EU countries on foreign policy. Tusk, a pro-European centrist, wrote on social media Monday that Europe won’t be taken “seriously” if it is “weak and divided: neither enemy nor ally.” “It is already clear now. We must finally believe in our own strength, we must continue to…

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Larry Diamond writes: To understand the depth of Donald Trump’s betrayal of the democratic movement in Venezuela, it is necessary to appreciate the consummate courage, planning, and organization behind the opposition victory on July 28, 2024. For her valiant efforts to organize and lead the campaign for democracy, María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. In her moving acceptance speech on Dec. 10, read by her daughter (due to her late arrival in Oslo from a perilous…

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The Guardian reports: The meeting had been requested by Colombia, which delivered a carefully calibrated rebuke of Washington. The country’s ambassador, Leonor Zalabata Torres, condemned the US action as a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity. “Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” she said. “There is no justification whatsoever, under any circumstances, for the unilateral use of force to commit an act of aggression.”…

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Olga Lautman writes: When a sitting U.S. president openly claims the right to seize foreign territory for “security” and resources, Europe is no longer dealing with rhetoric but with timing. Yesterday should have been another clear wake-up call that these threats are no longer hypothetical. As with Venezuela, which Trump sought to act against during his first term, Greenland has been on his agenda since at least 2019. The difference is that during his first term, there were still restraints—Congress,…

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The New York Times reports: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday appeared to pivot away from President Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the United States would “run” Venezuela, emphasizing instead that the administration would keep a military “quarantine” in place on the country’s oil exports to exert leverage on the new leadership there. When asked how the United States planned to govern Venezuela, Mr. Rubio did not lay out a plan for a U.S. occupation authority, like the…

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