Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the US of seeking to overthrow his government and turn his country into a colony, rejecting Washington’s recent threats and oil blockade as a “diplomacy of barbarism.”

Speaking in a televised address on Wednesday, Maduro said the US was attempting to impose a “puppet government” in Caracas that “would not last even 47 hours.”

He described the pressure campaign launched by US President Donald Trump as “warmongering” and aimed at seizing Venezuela’s natural wealth.

“They want regime change in Venezuela to impose a puppet government that would hand over the constitution, sovereignty, and all our riches and turn the country into a colony,” Maduro said. “That is not going to happen – never.”

Maduro’s remarks followed Trump’s announcement of a blockade on “sanctioned” oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude. Trump has branded the government in Caracas a “foreign terrorist organization” and accused it of “stealing” US oil and other assets.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before – until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us,” Trump stated on Tuesday.

The Venezuelan leader insisted that the country’s oil trade and exports would continue, arguing that international law and the UN Charter protect freedom of navigation and commerce. “This is not the time for corsairs or piracy,” Maduro said.

He said Venezuela’s wealth belongs exclusively to its people, invoking independence leader Simon Bolivar and the country’s constitution. Maduro also warned that the US escalation represented what he called a “diplomacy of barbarism,” contrasting it with respect for international law and peaceful coexistence.

Maduro said Venezuela had both the legal right and the political strength to defend itself, while claiming support from “the peoples of the world.”

In a regional appeal, he called on Colombia and its armed forces to reject foreign military interventions and uphold what he described as Bolivar’s vision of unity. He vowed that Venezuela would defend its sovereignty “with strength, with truth, and with love for peace.”

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Russia’s newly developed medium-range Oreshnik missile system will enter combat before the end of the year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday during a keynote speech to the Defense Ministry.

The Russian leader was reporting military achievements over the year and outlined policy goals, including military research. He named Oreshnik alongside other weapons meant to “ensure the strategic parity, security and global positions of Russia for decades to come.”

The other systems he mentioned are the unlimited-range cruise missile Burevestnik and the underwater Poseidon drone, both powered by miniaturized nuclear reactors, which he said reached development milestones this year.

”We will keep working on those systems. Tune them and improve them, but we already have them,” Putin stressed.

Moscow revealed the Oreshnik system with a strike on a weapons plant in Ukraine in November 2024, which it described as a successful “combat test.” The missile is understood to carry multiple nuclear-capable individually targetable warheads.

Putin previously compared the conventional variant used in the Ukraine attack to a low-yield nuclear weapon in terms of destructive power. Russia has since announced plans to deploy some Oreshnik systems in Belarus, its key military ally.

During the meeting, Putin outlined progress in modernizing the Russian army, directed the military to study the  experience of the Ukraine conflict in developing new weapons, addressed the issues of medical rehabilitation and the provision of social services to soldiers, and warned Western leaders seeking to escalate tensions that their position is “irresponsible.”

Russia “has been seeking diplomatic resolutions to contradictions and conflicts as long as there is the slimmest hope of success. Those who convinced themselves that Russia can be spoken to in the language of force are fully responsible for those missed opportunities,” Putin stressed.

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The US House of Representatives has passed legislation that would criminalize performing gender transition treatments on minors, approving a bill sponsored by Georgia Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The measure passed the House by a narrow 216-211 vote on Wednesday. To become law, it would also need to clear the Senate, a step widely seen as unlikely because it would require the backing of a bipartisan coalition to advance.

The bill, titled the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” seeks to impose penalties of up to 10 years in prison for “genital or bodily mutilation” or “chemical castration” of a minor. The text covers a range of medical interventions, surgeries, and the admission of puberty blockers and hormones for gender-changing purposes.

”Children are NOT experiments. No more drugs. No more surgeries. No more permanent harm. We need to let kids grow up without manipulation from adults to make life-altering decisions,” Greene said on X ahead of the vote, urging Congress to “protect America’s children.”

The House action comes amid a broader push by US President Donald Trump to reverse federal policies on transgender issues. Since returning to office, he has signed executive orders ending government support for gender transition procedures for people under 19 and directing federal agencies to withdraw policies that recognize gender identity beyond biological sex.

Trump has also ordered bans on transgender participation in women’s sports at federally regulated events and reinstated restrictions on transgender individuals serving in the US military. The Pentagon has since barred anyone with a current or past diagnosis of gender dysphoria from enlisting or continuing service, with the Supreme Court upholding the ban.

In an address to Congress in March, Trump also urged lawmakers to adopt legislation “permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children.”

Democrats criticized Greene’s bill during debate on Wednesday, claiming Republicans were “obsessed” with transgender people and focusing on what they described as a “misunderstood and vulnerable 1 percent of the population.” Other legislators argued that the bill would interfere with parental decision-making and expose doctors to prosecution for following established medical practices.

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Russia and China have continued to rapidly expand their bilateral relationship across economic, diplomatic, and people-to-people channels in 2025, with trade turnover exceeding $200 billion for a third consecutive year, Moscow’s ambassador to Beijing, Igor Morgulov, has told RT.

In an interview aired on Thursday, the envoy suggested that this year was “very successful for the development of our relations,” adding that Russian-Chinese ties “were deepened and strengthened in almost all directions.”

He said 2025 was also marked by the 80th anniversary of the shared victory in World War II. “The fraternity of our countries is still one of the important elements of our strategic partnership,” the envoy said.

Morgulov noted that the symbolism was underscored by reciprocal high-level visits, with Russian President Vladimir Putin attending ceremonies in Beijing on September 3 marking victory over Japan and Chinese President Xi Jinping being the main guest at Moscow’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9.

The envoy highlighted that China remains one of Russia’s top trading partners and that, despite a modest 7.8 % drop over the past 11 months, bilateral trade still topped $203 billion. “This is a serious achievement,” he said.

Morgulov noted that he “would not dramatize too much” the slight reduction, attributing it to natural market adjustments after trade expanded by nearly $100 billion over three years.

The diplomat said Western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict have affected trade but stressed that Russia and China have built effective mechanisms to sustain growth. According to Morgulov, both Russia and China treat Western sanctions as “illegal” and aimed exclusively at restraining the ties between the two countries.

He also highlighted promising logistics cooperation, citing a recent Chinese container ship voyage from Ningbo to a British port via the Northern Sea Route in 20 days, compared with 30-40 days through the Suez Canal.

Morgulov added that people-to-people ties are expanding following the mutual cancellation of tourist visas. China lifted visa requirements on September 15, and Russia followed suit on December 1, leading to a 40% increase in Russian tourist flows to China since mid-September, he said.

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US President Donald Trump has expanded America’s travel ban list, adding eight more countries, including Syria and the Palestinian Authority. The new restrictions are set to take effect on January 1.

The move is part of a broader effort to tighten entry restrictions for foreign nationals whose countries have “chronic vetting deficiencies” that make it difficult for US authorities to determine whether the travelers are admissible, the White House said in a proclamation on Tuesday.

Such gaps could be exploited to “threaten United States national security,” it said.

The expanded travel ban bars entry to citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, Syria, Laos, and Sierra Leone, as well as people traveling on Palestinian Authority-issued documents.

Syria was added to the list days after two US soldiers and a civilian were killed in the country by a suspected Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) gunman. The ban came despite Trump’s rapprochement with the new government in Damascus, which came to power last year after jihadist groups toppled long-time president Bashar Assad.

According to the proclamation, the decision will not apply to those who have already been granted asylum in the US.

The updated US travel ban follows an earlier proclamation in June 2025 that restricted entry for nationals from 19 countries on national security grounds.

Trump has recently criticized immigrants from Somalia, one of the countries on the list, after the emergence of a fraud scandal involving the Somali diaspora in Minnesota. “We’re gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” he said last month, urging the Africans to go home.

In early December, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she urged Trump to impose “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

Her comments followed the arrest of an Afghan asylum seeker who was charged with first-degree murder after shooting two members of the US National Guard in Washington last month, one of whom later died in a local hospital.

US President Donald Trump is moving into the fusion power sector through a $6 billion merger between his social media company and Google-backed TAE Technologies.

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), owner of the US president’s Truth Social platform, unveiled an unusual all-stock tie-up with the fusion firm on Thursday. The deal is a wager on surging electricity demand from the artificial intelligence boom and adds to the Trump family’s expanding slate of ventures spanning cryptocurrency, real estate, and mobile services.

TAE Chief Executive Michl Binderbauer told CNBC on Thursday that the deal would pair Trump Media’s “fortress balance sheet” with TAE’s technology platform.

“We’ve got capability and technology to really scale this,” Binderbauer told CNBC. “We’ve got the engineering prowess to do that, but the last piece of the puzzle was the capital,” he said. “Now, you’re marrying capital with that underlying base of technical capability.”

The merged company said it plans to select a site and start construction next year of the “world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant,” targeting electricity supply for artificial intelligence computing.

Nuclear fusion is a highly experimental, early-stage technology that seeks to produce electricity by replicating the reaction that powers the sun. It is often described as a potential source of plentiful energy with little pollution and without greenhouse-gas emissions or long-lived radioactive waste.

Trump Media and TAE Technologies said shareholders in each company would own about 50% of the combined entity after the deal closes, which the companies expect to occur in mid-2026.

TAE, which is backed by Alphabet’s Google and oil major Chevron, is developing next-generation neutral beam systems for fusion and related applications, aiming to cut costs.

The deal comes as Trump’s loss-making social media business has struggled to generate meaningful revenue from Truth Social, the platform he uses to post commentary, announcements, and attacks.

Trump Media reported revenue of $927,900 for the three months ended September 30, down from just over $1.01 million a year earlier, while its net loss widened to $54.8 million from $19.2 million in the prior-year quarter.

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Animated film ‘The Three Sisters’ by veteran Russian director Konstantin Bronzit has been shortlisted for an Academy Award, according to the Oscars website.

Based on a Montenegrin legend, the animated short follows three aging, unmarried sisters living alone in separate cottages on a remote island. Their quiet routines are disrupted when a sailor rents one of the houses, sparking rivalry and a transformation that brings unexpected vitality and joy into their lives.

Final nominations for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced in January, with the ceremony scheduled to take place on March 15 in Hollywood. ‘The Three Sisters’ has been shortlisted in the best animated short film category.

Bronzit, born in 1965 in St. Petersburg, is a leading figure in Russian animation and has worked for decades at the Melnitsa Animation Studio. His films, often marked by humor and social nuance, have earned wide recognition at international festivals. The Academy has previously nominated two of his animated shorts, ‘Lavatory – Lovestory’ in 2009 and ‘We Can’t Live Without Cosmos’ in 2016.

The inclusion of ‘The Three Sisters’ comes as Russian artists continue to appear on major international awards lists despite strained cultural ties with the West following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Last year, Russian actor Yura Borisov was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in ‘Anora’, directed by American filmmaker Sean Baker, though the prize ultimately went to Kieran Culkin for ‘A Real Pain’.

Moscow has condemned restrictions imposed on Russian cultural figures abroad as Russophobic censorship, warning that efforts to “cancel” Russian culture will ultimately fail.

Russia has produced a number of Oscar-winning films over the decades. The Soviet Union won its first Academy Award in 1943, when ‘Moscow Strikes Back’ took best documentary feature. Four Russian or Soviet films have won in the best international feature category, including ‘War and Peace’ (1969), ‘Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears’ (1981), and ‘Burnt by the Sun’ (1994), directed by Nikita Mikhalkov.

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Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said Washington could rethink its opposition to Ukraine’s NATO membership, if US President Donald Trump dies.

During a speech at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Zelensky suggested Washington’s opposition could change in the future.

“The US policy is consistent regarding Ukraine’s membership in NATO. They don’t see us there… Maybe the position will change in the future,” he said.

“That’s a matter of politics. The world changes, some live, some die. That’s life,” he said.

Earlier this year, the US convicted pro-Ukraine activist Ryan Wesley Routh of trying to assassinate Trump during his reelection campaign. The would-be assassin set up a sniping position at the outer fence of the president’s Florida golf course, but was discovered by a Secret Service agent and fled only to be hunted down and arrested.

Just months prior, Trump had survived an assassination attempt during a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman opened fire from a rooftop, grazing the then-candidate’s ear and killing a member of the crowd.

Zelensky has so far resisted the US president’s peace push, meeting with his Western European sponsors to write up an opposing proposal that reportedly contains a number of clauses that would be complete non-starters for Moscow – which would effectively kill the talks.

Western Europe is exploiting the Ukraine proxy conflict “to scheme against the US and all those who seek a just settlement,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Iranian news earlier this week, stressing that Kiev relies on “European money, instructors,” and intelligence data.

Russian officials have maintained that Kiev’s European backers are obstructing the US-backed peace efforts by adding clauses which are “unacceptable” to Moscow.

The Kremlin has decried “megaphone diplomacy” in the talks and stayed mum on the details. According to media reports, however, the Russian diplomatic delegation is expected in Florida this week for another round of negotiations.