Trump says US will "run" Venezuela after Nicolás Maduro captured and taken to New York
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The US attacked Venezuela and captured its long-serving president Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, with Donald Trump promising to put the country under American control for now, even as Venezuelan officials vowed defiance, The Guardianreports.
As part of a dramatic overnight operation that knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas, US Special Forces captured Maduro in or near one of his safe houses, Trump said.
With Maduro in US custody, "we will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition", the US president said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn’t have the interests of Venezuelans in mind."
Trump hailed the attack - in which the New York Times reported at least 40 people, including civilians and Venezuelan soldiers, died - as "an assault like people have not seen since world war two".
A plane carrying Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, landed in upstate New York on Saturday evening, multiple news outlets reported.
Maduro, in US custody hours after being seized from his Caracas compound in a US raid, landed at Stewart air national guard base after 4.30pm in a white Boeing 757. He was expected to be taken by helicopter to New York City, where he will be processed and transported to the Metropolitan Detention Center prison, officials told NBC News.
They said the Venezuela president was set to appear in court by Monday evening.
Video shared by an official White House account appears to show Maduro in handcuffs being escorted by agents at the US Drug Enforcement Administration offices in New York.
The dramatic intervention in Caracas was condemned by Democrats on Capitol Hill and several leaders around the world as the most dangerous example of US imperialism since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Trump, who campaigned for the presidency with a promise to end foreign wars, did nothing to quell those fears when he told reporters that the US would be temporarily seizing control of Venezuela and its oil infrastructure.
Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chávez to succeed him in 2013, has accused the US of seeking to take control of his nation’s oil reserves, the biggest in the world.
At his press conference, Trump said: "We’re going to have our very large US oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so."
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Trump says Maduro, his wife, captured, taken out of Venezuela
Images | Xinhua
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday in a Truth Social post that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of Venezuela, Xinhua reports.
Trump confirmed that the United States launched "a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro."
There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago," Trump added.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on early Saturday morning barred U.S. aircraft from flying at any altitude within Venezuelan airspace following reports of explosions in Caracas, citing "safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity."
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Explosions were heard in Venezuela
Images | AP Photo / Matias Delacroix
Early Saturday morning that low-flying aircraft were spotted, and clouds of smoke were seen following loud explosion sounds in the Venezuelan capital, Xinhua reports.
Photos and videos circulating on social media showed smoke rising from multiple locations in the capital, with residents seen fleeing in the streets.
Reports said brief power outages occurred in some areas, including a military base in Caracas.
According to media reports, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had banned U.S. commercial flights from Venezuelan airspace due to "ongoing military activity" shortly before the explosions were reported.
Hours after the incident, CBS White House correspondent Jennifer Jacobs said that U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered the strikes, citing U.S. officials. FOX News also reported that U.S. officials had confirmed the military action.
Following the attacks, Venezuela condemned the incident as "military aggression" by the United States. The Venezuelan government said that the military strike targeted civilian and military sites in at least four states of the country, including Caracas, as well as the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, adding that the U.S. action blatantly violated the United Nations Charter.
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Paris police detained 40 people for using fireworks
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Paris police have detained 40 people for launching fireworks and smoke bombs on Trocadero Square opposite the Eiffel Tower and on the Seine embankment, iz.ru reports, citing BFMTV.
According to law enforcement officials, the detainees were identified using surveillance cameras.
The Prefect of Police thanks the staff for their promptness and professionalism in stopping the riots," the prefectural police told BFMTV.
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Mount Etna emits light ash, sporadic explosions in Sicily
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Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily witnessed renewed volcanic activity yesterday, marked by the emission of incandescent material and limited amounts of ash from the volcano’s north-eastern crater, WAM reports.
In a statement, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said that winds pushed the eruption cloud towards the north-east, with light ashfall recorded in the coastal town of Taormina and the Piano Provenzana area, which includes ski slopes.
The institute reported intermittent explosions at the Bocca Nuova crater, during which incandescent material was ejected to heights of several tens of metres above the crater rim.
The regional civil protection agency temporarily raised the alert level as a precaution against the possible occurrence of lava fountains.
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