NEWS

Gezani is forecast to return to cyclone status when it strikes southern Mozambique on Friday evening.

Nearly 40 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others displaced after Cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar’s second-largest city earlier this week, as Mozambique braced for the storm’s arrival.

Updating its tolls as assessments progressed, Madagascar’s National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said on Thursday it had recorded 38 deaths, while six people remained missing and at least 374 were injured.

Gezani made landfall on Tuesday at the Indian Ocean island nation Madagascar’s eastern coastal city, Toamasina, bringing winds that reached 250km/h (155mph).

Madagascar’s new leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, has declared a national disaster and called for “international solidarity”, saying the cyclone had “ravaged up to 75 percent of Toamasina and surrounds”.

Images from the AFP news agency showed the battered city of 500,000 people littered with trees felled by strong winds and roofs blown off buildings.

Residents dug through piles of debris, planks and corrugated metal to repair their makeshift homes.

More than 18,000 homes were destroyed in the cyclone, according to the BNGRC, with at least 50,000 damaged or flooded. Authorities say many of the deaths were caused by building collapses, as many give inadequate shelter from strong storms.

The main road linking the city to the capital, Antananarivo, was cut off in several places, “blocking humanitarian convoys”, it said, while telecommunications were unstable.

The storm also caused major destruction in the Atsinanana region surrounding Toamasina, the disaster authority said, adding that assessments were still under way.

France announced the dispatch of food aid and rescue teams from its Reunion Island, about 1,000km (600 miles) away.

Thousands of people had been forced to leave their homes, said the United Nations’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), describing “widespread destruction and disruption”.

The cyclone’s landfall was likely one of the strongest recorded in the region during the satellite era, rivalling Geralda in February 1994, it said. That storm killed at least 200 people and affected half a million more.

Gezani weakened after landfall but continued to sweep across the island as a tropical storm until late on Wednesday.

It was forecast to return to cyclone status as it reaches the Mozambique Channel, according to the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre La Reunion (CMRS), and could from Friday evening strike southern Mozambique.

Mozambican authorities issued warnings on Thursday about the approaching storm, saying it could cause violent winds and rough seas of 10-metre waves and urging people to leave the area of expected impact.

Both Madagascar and Mozambique are vulnerable to destructive storms that blow in off the Indian Ocean. Just last month, the northwestern part of Madagascar was hit by Cyclone Fytia, killing at least 14 people.

Mozambique has already faced devastating flooding from seasonal rainfall, with nearly 140 lives lost since October 1, according to the country’s National Disasters Management Institute.

Two weeks ago, 12 miles from Twickenham, Scotland parked coaches on very English lawns.

In the stately surroundings of RGS Surrey Hills school in Dorking, a group of Under-16 and Under-18 prospects ran through drills under the eyes of staff from Scottish Rugby’s SQ (Scottish Qualified) programme.

The scheme is designed to establish connections with youngsters who, like Ashman, Rodd and many others, live and play outside of Scotland, but could one day represent its senior sides.

The SQ programme’s coaches, which include English-born former Scotland international Peter Walton, act on tip-offs from schools and clubs.

They also set up a recruiting station at high-level age-grade rugby events, inviting those with the ancestry and interest to scan a QR code and enter their details.

All countries work to maximise their talent pool.

England are keen to ensure that Under-20 Rugby World Cup winner Junior Kpoku, who plays for Toulon and could become available to France, will go on to wear white at senior level.

South African-born centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg will soon be eligible for England on residence grounds after the Rugby Football Union successfully asked for a review of his tie to the Springboks.

But for nations with a smaller talent pool – Scotland has about 50,000 club players, compared to England’s 880,000 – there is a higher premium on making sure a particular promising youngster chooses to represent them.

What are the factors that come into a player’s decision?

First and foremost, there is national pride.

Ashman said that back in 2021, he explained “quite bluntly” to England’s coaches that he wanted to play for Scotland.

Sometimes, however, players can be torn between different parts of their identity.

Flanker Gary Graham, the son of former Scotland prop George Graham, grew up in Carlisle. He attended a training camp with England and, perhaps in an effort to wind up his father in a joint interview, told the Daily Mail in February 2018, external that he “feels more English than Scottish”.

Within a year later, having not played for England, he made his debut for Scotland, assuring fans that he has “always wanted to play for his country”.

Nablus, the occupied West Bank – For decades, the Zenabia Elementary School has been offering an intimate learning environment to aspiring young students from across the educational spectrum in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

But now, due to Israel’s years-long withholding of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian school system is effectively broke. Like administrators at all government-run schools in the West Bank, the Zenabia school principal, Aisha al-Khatib, is struggling to keep her small, public school in session.

For most of the week, the Zenabia school is shuttered, and children roam the streets or stay at home. School supplies are woefully missing, with even regular schoolbooks now reduced to “bundles of pages”.

“We do everything we can, but we do not have the time or the materials or the consistency to properly teach our children and keep them off the streets,” says al-Khatib. “And this is everywhere in the West Bank.”

Targeting the education of Palestine’s children, she says, “means destroying the nation”.

Under the direction of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Israel has systematically been withholding billions of dollars in tax revenues over the past two years that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The measure is partly intended to punish the PA for its longstanding policy of paying families of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for resisting the occupation – even after the PA announced early last year that it was reforming such policies.

Public services have faced severe cuts, affecting the salaries of bureaucrats, sanitary workers, and the police.

But possibly nowhere has that budgetary crisis been felt more than in the education sector.

At Zenabia and elsewhere in the West Bank, public schools are currently only open for a maximum of three days a week. Teachers face long stretches of not being paid, and when they are, they only receive about 60 percent of what they were earning before, resulting in strikes.

And the effects of these cuts in education are showing up on the days when school is in session. Class time is so diminished at Zenabia that teachers focus almost solely on teaching mathematics, Arabic, and English, with subjects like the sciences being essentially cut altogether.

The result, educators warn, could be lasting educational gaps for a generation of Palestinian students.

“As principal of the school, I know that [the students] are not [at] the same [educational] level as before,” al-Khatib says.

‘We are always absent from school’

Spending most of his days out of school, star student Zaid Hasseneh, 10, tries to keep improving his English by looking up words on Google Translate. Zaid dreams of going to university someday in the United States, with hopes of becoming a doctor.

“I want my son to grow up to be cultured – not just memorise the material he learns at school,” says his mother, Eman. “No, I want his cultural knowledge to develop and become diverse and advanced.”

Eman helps Zaid when she can with his studies, but she is busy keeping the family afloat financially after her husband lost his work in Israel. Before Israel’s war on Gaza began in 2023, Eman’s husband worked in Tel Aviv as a mechanic. After Israel revoked his work permit, along with those of some 150,000 other West Bank Palestinians, he has been unable to find work. Eman now works in a halawa factory as the sole breadwinner.

“I go home tired from work, but I have to keep up with [Zaid] regularly,” says Eman. “I tell him, ‘The most important thing is studying. Studying is essential for life.’”

But Eman realises how limited she is in helping her son with his studies. “The teacher knows one thing, but I don’t know how to explain it,” says Eman. “And now, the books [they receive in school] aren’t complete books anymore. They’re bundles. Regular books are 130 pages, but these are 40 or 50 pages.”

To compound the dearth in school resources, students and their families describe erratic schedules that make cumulative learning a near impossibility. “The whole family’s routine is affected,” says Eman.

Even Zaid is now often spending his days out in the streets rather than studying in the classroom – or otherwise on his phone, playing mobile games.

That is the case for most students these days.

Muhammad and Ahmed al-Hajj joined Zenabia four years ago as six-year-olds when they faced extreme bullying in another school. They came to love the new school and the intimate setting it offers. But the twins now mostly spend their time on their phones. With their parents also struggling to earn enough money to get by, they’re left at home alone during their days off from school.

“It’s not good at all. We are always absent from school,” says one of the twins. “It’s not like a full schedule, and we try to study as much as we can, but still, we don’t feel good about it.”

Some families have switched their children over to private schools, but few can afford to do so. “My [monthly] salary is 2,000 shekels [$650],” explains Eman Hassaneh. “About 1,000 goes towards the home rent. Another 500 goes towards bills. And only very little is left for food. I cannot also take care of his education.”

Teachers quitting, and mounting dropouts

Collectively, the PA’s multi-year budget cuts of billions of dollars are shrinking both the attendance of students and the number of teachers, too.

“Many of the teachers left working in the schools to work in factories because they do not get enough salary,” says al-Khatib. “And they don’t feel that they are giving what they need to give the students.”

Tamara Shtayeh, a teacher at Zenabia, nowadays only teaches maths, English, and Arabic due to the reduced funding. “As a teacher, the three-day solution is a bad solution because it doesn’t cover the minimum education that is needed,” she said. “Not for the students, and not for the teachers as well.”

Due to her reduced salary, Shtayeh, a mother of three girls, is selling products online on the side to support her family. Even the school’s principal, al-Khatib, says she can now only afford to send one of her two college-age daughters to university, with the other daughter staying at home.

School hours are reduced even further as Israeli soldiers regularly raid the surrounding areas, closing the school every time they do so. With the crisis stretching on for years now, Shtayeh is sensing a generational gap widening between the previous generation that received five days of school, and this one going to school for about half of that.

Shtayeh and al-Khatib worry about the lack of routine in the children’s lives. For every student like Zaid, who is devoted to educating himself despite the circumstances, many more students are dropping out of the system altogether.

Not far from Zenabia, Talal Adabiq, 15, now spends his days selling sweets and drinks for eight hours a day on the streets of Nablus.

“I don’t really like school,” says Talal. “I prefer working.”

Talal told his parents about a year ago that he wanted to drop out of school. Though they wanted him to continue his studies, he told them he did not find much use for school anymore – and he used the irregular school schedule to prove his point.

Offering to help support his struggling family financially, Talal subsequently dropped out of al-Kindi School. He now makes “about 40 to 50 shekels a day” ($13-16) hawking street goods.

As he sells lollipops and other sweets on a Tuesday afternoon, several teenage boys looked on nearby. They say they’re still in school, but on this budget-mandated day off, some of the boys joke about how “fun” it would be to not go to school at all.

Talal, meanwhile, shrugs off questions about what dropping out of school portends for his future. “God willing, things will be better,” says Talal. “I don’t know how.”

In the estimations of educators and representatives from the Palestinian Authority, about 5 to 10 percent of students have dropped out of school in the West Bank in the past two years.

‘Our children deserve a chance at life’

While massive budget cuts roil the education sector, the Palestinian Authority is struggling to come up with solutions as its budgetary woes deepen – and schoolchildren otherwise face threats, violence and demolitions at the hands of Israeli soldiers, settlers and the Israeli Civil Administration.

Even before the war on Gaza began, the school sector was facing a variety of crises, with teacher strikes commonplace, as well as Israeli attacks on school infrastructure and children on their way to class, with at least 36 demolitions of 20 schools between 2010 and 2023.

But systemic attacks on education are now intensifying. According to Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus, in his district alone, three schools have been attacked in the last two months by settlers. In nearby Jalud last month, settlers set a school on fire. The rise in violence is leaving students at once traumatised and fearful of going to school, says Daghlas.

“In the past three months, most of the invasions that target homes in the Nablus district are targeting schoolchildren. They will take the kid along with one of the parents. They subject them to interrogation for a few hours,” says the governor. “What kind of psychological state will the students have after these interrogations?”

According to PA estimates, more than 84,000 students in the West Bank have had their education disrupted by incidents including settler attacks, military raids and demolitions of schools. More than 80 schools serving approximately 13,000 students are under threat of full or partial demolition by Israeli authorities in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Between July and September 2025 alone, more than 90 such education-related incidents were documented in the West Bank.

In Area C – the 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control – students from isolated villages sometimes have to walk several kilometres to reach their schools, in which they regularly face harassment or attacks from settlers as well as soldiers on the way, with a rising trend in settler outposts deliberately placed near schools.

“These are not individual acts by some violent settlers,” says Mahmoud al-Aloul, the vice chairman of the central committee of Fatah, the Palestinian Authority’s ruling political party. “Rather, it’s a general policy that is supported by the occupation.”

In 2025, Nablus governorate alone had 19 students killed by Israeli army gunfire, according to Daghlas. A total of 240 were injured.

Education officials say the longer the crisis persists, the greater the long-term impact will be as teacher attrition, interrupted learning and rising dropout rates compound over time.

“The continuation of the crisis means risking long-term institutional erosion, in which temporary solutions become permanent, and the regime becomes less able to restore its previous level of quality, efficiency and justice,” says Refaat Sabbah, the president of the Global Campaign for Education. “Saving education today is not a sectoral option, but a strategic necessity to protect society and its future.”

For Eman Hassaneh, that means safeguarding her son Zaid’s future hopes and dreams. “We hope all of these barriers to education won’t actually affect our children and their passion for learning,” she says.

“Our children deserve a chance at life.”

The CIA’s latest YouTube video offers instructions on how to contact the agency on the encrypted Tor Browser.

The CIA has released a new Chinese-language recruitment video on its YouTube channel, encouraging members of China’s military to spy for the United States.

Released on Thursday, the video is the latest addition to a YouTube series targeting Chinese and Russian citizens with information about how to securely contact the US spy agency using the encrypted Tor Browser.

The videos typically focus on a fictional character who is having doubts about their government before deciding to spy for Washington.

The latest video by the CIA, which runs just under two minutes, focuses on a Chinese military officer going through the motions of his job while sharing his growing alarm with his country’s leadership, who are said to be “protecting only their own selfish interests” in the clip.

The video then moves to the officer at home with his wife and daughter, observing that he cannot “allow these madmen to shape my daughter’s future world”.

Alluding to ancient China’s military strategist Sun Tzu’s The Art of War text, the narrator observes that while the greatest winner is the one who “triumphs without fighting”, China’s leadership is eager “to send us to the battlefield”.

In its final scenes, the video cuts to the protagonist removing a bag from a work safe and then driving through a military checkpoint to a deserted car park. Sitting alone, he logs onto a computer to contact the CIA, which he says is a “way of fighting for my family and my nation”.

The video ends with a dramatic flourish of words: “The fate of the world is in your hands” – before sharing instructions on how to download the Tor Browser to contact the CIA.

The accompanying text below the YouTube video asks users: “Do you have information about high-ranking Chinese leaders? Are you a military officer or have dealings with the military? Do you work in intelligence, diplomacy, economics, science, or advanced technology fields, or deal with people working in these fields?”

Beijing did not immediately comment on the CIA’s video, but its Ministry of Foreign Affairs has described previous US intelligence recruitment drives as malicious “smears and attacks” against China that deceive and lure Chinese personnel to “surrender”.

The CIA’s network in China was famously dismantled by Beijing between 2010 and 2012, leading to the death or imprisonment of at least 30 people, according to a 2018 investigation by Foreign Policy magazine.

The collapse of the US spying network was linked in part to a botched communication system.

The United States has revoked a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for its actions to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.

The decision on Thursday is the most aggressive move by President Donald Trump to roll back environmental regulations since the start of his second term.

Under his leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalised a rule rescinding a 2009 government declaration known as the “endangerment finding”.

It is the legal underpinning for nearly all climate regulations under the Clean Air Act for motor vehicles, power plants and other pollution sources that are heating the planet.

Established under the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama, the finding establishes that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare.

But President Trump, a Republican, has called climate change a “hoax” and a “con job”. The endangerment finding, he argued, is “one of the greatest scams in history”, adding that it “had no basis in fact” or law.

“On the contrary, over the generations, fossil fuels have saved millions of lives and lifted billions of people out of poverty all over the world,” Trump said at a White House ceremony on Thursday.

He hailed the repeal of the endangerment finding as “the single largest deregulatory action in American history, by far”.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, who also attended the ceremony, described the endangerment finding as “the Holy Grail of federal regulatory overreach”.

Rescinding the endangerment finding repeals all greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks. It could also unleash a broader unravelling of climate regulations on stationary sources such as power plants and oil and gas facilities, experts say.

But Thursday’s new rule is likely to face pushback in the US court system.

Overturning the finding will “raise more havoc” than other actions Trump has taken to roll back environmental rules, environmental law professor Ann Carlson told The Associated Press news agency.

Environmental groups described the move as the single biggest attack in US history against federal authority to address climate change. Evidence backing up the endangerment finding has only grown stronger in the 17 years since it was approved, they said.

As part of Thursday’s decision, the EPA also announced it will end tax credits for automakers who install automatic start-stop ignition systems in their vehicles. The device is intended to reduce emissions, but Zeldin said “everyone hates” it.

Zeldin, a former Republican congressman who was tapped by Trump to lead EPA last year, has criticised his Democratic predecessors, saying that, in the name of tackling climate change, they were “willing to bankrupt the country”.

The endangerment finding “led to trillions of dollars in regulations that strangled entire sectors of the United States economy, including the American auto industry”, Zeldin said, criticising the leadership of Obama and former President Joe Biden in particular.

“The Obama and Biden administrations used it to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish list of costly climate policies, electric vehicle mandates and other requirements that assaulted consumer choice and affordability.”

The endangerment finding had allowed for a series of regulations intended to protect against climate change and related threats.

They include deadly floods, extreme heat waves, catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters in the US and around the world.

Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator who served as the White House’s climate adviser in the Biden administration, called the Trump administration’s actions reckless.

“This EPA would rather spend its time in court working for the fossil fuel industry than protecting us from pollution and the escalating impacts of climate change,” she said.

EPA has a clear scientific and legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, McCarthy explained, adding that the health and environmental hazards of climate change have “become impossible to ignore”.

Thursday’s EPA action follows an executive order from Trump that directed the agency to submit a report on “the legality and continuing applicability” of the endangerment finding.

Conservatives have long sought to undo what they consider overly restrictive and economically damaging rules to limit the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Democratic Senator Ed Markey said that keeping the endangerment finding should have been a “no-brainer”.

“Trump and Zeldin are putting our lives and our future at risk,” he said in a video statement.

“They have rolled back protection after protection in a race to the bottom. Instead of ‘Let them eat cake,’ Zeldin is saying, ‘Let them breathe soot.’”

A United States judge has granted an injunction preventing the Department of Defense from stripping Senator Mark Kelly, a military veteran, of his retirement pension and military rank.

The Defense Department had taken punitive action against Kelly for critical statements he had made against President Donald Trump.

But on Thursday, Judge Richard J Leon, an appointee of Republican President George W Bush, issued a forceful rebuke, accusing the Trump administration of trying to stifle veterans’ free speech rights.

Leon directed much of his ruling at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a senior Trump official who announced on January 5 that Kelly would be censured for what he characterised as “seditious” statements.

“Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired service members, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired service members have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years,” Leon wrote.

“If so, they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the first Amendment in the Bill of Rights!”

History of the case

Thursday’s decision comes after Kelly, a Democratic member of Congress, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on January 12, alleging “punitive retribution”.

He had drawn the Trump administration’s ire with several public statements questioning the president’s military decisions.

Kelly, who represents the swing state of Arizona, had condemned the administration for sending military troops to quell protests in Los Angeles in June 2025.

Then, in November, he was also one of six former members of the US’s military and intelligence communities to participate in a video reminding current service members of their duty to “refuse illegal orders”.

That video quickly attracted Trump’s attention, and the president issued a string of social media posts threatening imprisonment and even the death penalty.

“This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP?” Trump wrote in one post.

In another, he suggested a harsher punishment: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Shortly thereafter, the Defense Department announced it had launched an investigation into the video and Kelly specifically, given his role as a retired Navy captain.

Hegseth accused Kelly of using “his rank and service affiliation” to discredit the US armed forces, and he echoed Trump’s claims that the video was “reckless and seditious”.

His decision to pen a formal letter of censure against Kelly prompted the senator to sue.

Such a letter serves as a procedural step towards lowering Kelly’s military rank at the time of his retirement, as well as curbing his post-military benefits.

But Kelly argued that such punishment would serve to dampen the rights of veterans to participate in political discourse – and would additionally hinder his work as a member of Congress.

An exclamation-filled ruling

In Thursday’s ruling, Judge Leon determined that Kelly was likely to prevail on the merits of his case – and, citing the folk singer Bob Dylan, he added that it was easy to see why.

“This Court has all it needs to conclude that Defendants have trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms and threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees,” Leon said in his often quippy ruling.

“After all, as Bob Dylan famously said, ‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.’”

Leon acknowledged that granting an injunction against the government is an “extraordinary remedy”. But he argued it was necessary, given the gravity of the case.

The judge conceded that the Defense Department does have the ability to restrict the speech of active-service military members, given the need for discipline among troops.

But the Trump administration argued in its court filings that those restrictions extended to retired military veterans as well.

Leon, however, dismissed that assertion with the verbal equivalent of a snort: “Horsefeathers!”

“Speech from retired servicemembers – even speech opining on the lawfulness of military
operations – does not threaten ‘obedience, unity, commitment, and esprit de corps’ in the same way as speech from active-duty soldiers,” Leon wrote.

“Nor can speech from retired servicemembers ‘undermine the effectiveness of response to command’ as directly as speech from active-duty soldiers.”

Leon also acknowledged that Kelly’s role as a lawmaker in Congress compounded the harms from any attempts to curtail his free-speech rights.

“If legislators do not feel free to express their views and the views of their constituents without fear of reprisal by the Executive, our representative system of Government cannot function!” he wrote, in one of his many exclamatory statements.

The judge was also harshly critical of the Trump administration’s arguments that Kelly’s rank and retirement benefits were solely a military matter, not a judicial one.

Leon described Hegseth’s letter of censure as making Kelly’s punishment a “fait accompli” – a foregone conclusion – given that such a document cannot be appealed and could itself serve as the basis for a demotion.

“Here, the retaliation framework fits like a glove,” Leon said, appearing to validate the crux of Kelly’s lawsuit.

At another point, he rejected the government’s arguments by saying, “Put simply, Defendants’ response is anemic!”

The injunction he offered, though, is temporary and will last only until the lawsuit reaches a resolution.

Trump administration responds

In the wake of the injunction, Kelly took to social media to say the short-term victory was a win for all military veterans.

“Today a federal court made clear that Pete Hegseth violated the Constitution when he tried to punish me for something I said,” Kelly said in a video statement.

“But this case was never just about me. This administration was sending a message to millions of retired veterans that they, too, can be censured or demoted just for speaking out.”

He added that the US faces a “critical moment” in its history, warning of the erosion of fundamental rights.

Kelly then proceeded to accuse the Trump administration of “cracking down on our rights and trying to make examples of anybody they can”. He also acknowledged that the legal showdown had only just begun.

“I appreciate the judge’s careful consideration of this case,” Kelly said. “But I also know that this might not be over yet, because this president and this administration do not know how to admit when they’re wrong.”

Within a couple of hours of Kelly’s post, Hegseth himself shared a message on social media, confirming that the Trump administration would forge ahead with contesting Thursday’s decision.

“This will be immediately appealed,” Hegseth said of the injunction. “Sedition is sedition, ‘Captain.’”

Kelly is considered a Democratic contender for the presidency in 2028.

Caracas, February 12, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez hosted US Energy Secretary Chris Wright at Miraflores Palace in Caracas on Wednesday.

Wright is the highest-ranked US official to be received at the presidential palace in over 25 years. The high-profile visit took place a little over a month after US forces bombed Caracas and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores on January 3.

Rodríguez and Wright, who was accompanied by US Chargé d’Affaires Laura Dogu, held a private meeting before briefly addressing the press.

Venezuela’s acting leader centered her statements on a joint “energy agenda” between Caracas and Washington that could be “mutually beneficial.” The talks reportedly included discussions on oil, natural gas, electricity, and mineral projects.

“The main point in our agenda is the establishment of a long-term productive alliance, with an energy agenda that becomes the engine of our bilateral relations,” Rodríguez told reporters. “This energy agenda should be effective, complementary, and beneficial for both countries.

Defending the recent rapproachment, she pointed to Venezuela and the United States’ energy ties dating back 150 years. 

“Our relationship has had its ups and downs in political terms, but I am confident that through diplomacy we can overcome our differences,” Rodríguez added. She made no mention of Maduro in her public remarks. 

Rodríguez, who served under Maduro as vice president, assumed the presidency on an acting basis on January 5 as directed by the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber. Maduro and Flores have pleaded not guilty to charges including drug trafficking conspiracy.

Venezuelan authorities have fast-tracked a diplomatic reengagement with the Trump administration since the January 3 attacks. In a recent interview, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, brother of the acting president, emphasized the prospect of establishing a “win-win” relationship with Washington.

The parliamentary leader stated that Venezuela was “adapting” legislation to attract US investment. The Venezuelan legislature recently overhauled the country’s Hydrocarbon Law to grant increased incentives to foreign corporations. Under the reformed law, private corporations will enjoy reduced taxes and royalties, as well as expanded control over operations and sales and the prerogative to take disputes to external arbitration bodies.

For his part, Wright said that he brought “a message” from Trump, that the US president was committed to a “broader agenda to make the Americas great again.” The Energy Secretary praised a “wonderful and candid dialogue” with Venezuelan leaders and spoke of “tremendous opportunities” in the Caribbean nation’s energy sector.

Wright highlighted the Trump administration’s recent sanctions waivers allowing US companies to return to the Venezuelan oil sector and permitting exports of diluents, other inputs, and technology for oil operations to the South American country.

“We have been working to issue licenses to existing businesses, to new businesses that want to enter Venezuela, for Venezuelan companies to buy [US] products and raise oil production,” he continued. “We want to set the Venezuelan people, and the economy, free.”

On Thursday, Rodríguez and Wright visited Petroindependencia, a crude upgrader in the Orinoco Oil Belt. According to reports, Wright is also scheduled to visit Petropiar. Chevron is a minority stakeholder in both joint ventures. The US official will also hold meetings with business executives, and claimed he wants to “improve the management” of PDVSA.

Since January, the Trump administration has exerted control over Venezuelan oil exports. Commodity traders Vitol and Trafigura have lifted Venezuelan crude to resell to other customers, while depositing proceeds in US-run accounts in Qatar. Washington has thus far returned to Caracas US $500 million out of a reported $2 billion initial agreement.

The recent licenses likewise mandate that payments be made to accounts designated by the US Treasury and block transactions with companies from China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia. US forces have maintained a naval blockade and seized several tankers for allegedly transporting Venezuelan crude. PDVSA also remains under financial sanctions.

Former President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) had a confrontational relationship with Washington, repeatedly denouncing US interventions abroad, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. He likewise promoted several regional integration projects.

Maduro severed diplomatic ties with the US in 2019 after the first Trump administration formally recognized the Juan Guaidó-led self-proclaimed “interim government” as the country’s legitimate authority.

Despite the rapid rapprochement, the White House has yet to recognize the acting government of Delcy Rodríguez. The formal recognition could pave the way for a restructuring of Venezuela’s sizable foreign debt.

Police say 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her mother and stepbrother before carrying out mass shooting in BC.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he will shortly visit the remote British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge, where nine people died in one of the country’s worst mass shootings, according to his office.

Police say 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who had suffered mental health problems, killed her mother and stepbrother on Tuesday before shooting a teacher and five young students at the local school.

Van Rootselaar, who police say was born a male but began identifying as a woman six years ago, then died by suicide.

“The Prime Minister will be visiting Tumbler Ridge shortly in support of the community … [we are] working closely with the community and local authorities to finalise details based on their own immediate needs,” Carney’s office said on Thursday in a brief statement, which gave no details.

Across Tumbler Ridge, a town of about 2,400 in the Canadian Rockies, flowers and stuffed animals could be seen at unofficial public memorials.

“Hold your kids tight, tell them you love them every day. You never know,” a tearful Lance Young, father of 12-year-old victim Kylie Smith, told reporters on Wednesday.

Carney announced on Wednesday that Canadian flags will be flown at half-staff for seven days on federal buildings following the mass school shooting.

Honouring the victims

Police, who say they still do not have a motive, held a meeting with provincial officials late on Wednesday.

“They are working very hard – they recognise the public does need to hear information to fill that vacuum,” local provincial legislator Larry Neufeld told CBC News on Thursday.

Police said they had visited Van Rootselaar’s house on several occasions to address mental health issues and had twice taken her away for formal assessments.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said on Wednesday he had reached out to local health officials to ask for more details of the interactions.

At one point, police seized guns from the house but returned them after the owner, whose identity they did not disclose, successfully appealed the decision.

British Columbia on Thursday observed an official day of mourning. Provincial Lieutenant-Governor Wendy Cocchia, the personal representative of King Charles, Canada’s head of state, is scheduled to deliver a speech in the legislature to honour the victims.

In Toronto, the iconic CN Tower went dark at the top of every hour on Wednesday to honour the victims of the tragedy.

“Tonight the #CNTower will dim for 5 minutes at the top of each hour in honour of the victims of the attack in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia,” the CN Tower’s official social media account posted on Wednesday.

When India and Pakistan meet in the T20 World Cup on Sunday, the match will not just be significant for its on-field cricket action but also the political climate that has shrouded the encounter and the tournament itself.

The South Asian nations share a decades-old history of wars and hostile relations. The most recent encounter came in May 2025, when the nuclear-armed neighbours were engaged in a four-day cross-border conflict.

This 78-year-old bitter history has fuelled the sporting rivalry, which has – at times – led to tournament boycotts, cancelled matches and ground invasions.

Players from both teams have often been involved in heated encounters on the field, but have also publicly shared lighter moments off it.

However, the lingering hostility of the last conflict has made a severe and long-term impact on cricket, which is the most widely followed sport in South Asia.

We look back at the deteriorating cricket relations between India and Pakistan since the May conflict and the on-field events steeped in politics:

September 14 – No handshake row

The controversy began when India’s Suryakumar Yadav opted out of the customary pre-toss captains’ handshake with Pakistan’s Salman Ali Agha, prompting fans to wonder if politics were at play.

The doubts were cleared at the end of the match when, after hitting the winning runs, Yadav and his batting partner Shivam Dube walked off the field without approaching the Pakistani captain and team for the traditional post-match handshakes.

Pakistan’s players trudged off in a group and waited for the Indian squad, but the Indian contingent only shook hands with each other before walking into their dressing room and shutting the door as the waiting Pakistan players looked on.

Later, Yadav confirmed that his team had planned to not shake hands with Pakistani players all along, linking it to the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that preceded the May conflict.

“A few things in life are above sportsman’s spirit,” the 35-year-old said.

September 17 – Pakistan refuse to take the field against UAE

The fallout of the handshake row carried over into Pakistan’s next group game in the Asia Cup, when they refused to take the field against the UAE in protest against match referee Andy Pycroft.

Pakistan insisted that Pycroft be removed from their fixture as he was the key official in the India match and helped carry out India’s request that the captains not shake hands at the toss.

“Andy Pycroft had barred the captains of India and Pakistan from shaking hands during their match,” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement.

The Pakistan-UAE match was delayed by an hour as negotiations took place behind closed doors, and Pycroft apologised for the “miscommunication”.

September 21 – Players exchange heated words, make references to conflict

When the teams met for the second time in the Asia Cup, players from both sides were seen exchanging verbal blows in the middle of the pitch.

Pakistan’s Haris Rauf had a go at India’s batter Abhishek Sharma, who later said his match-winning innings of 74 runs was a response to Pakistani players.

“The way they were coming at us without any reason, I didn’t like it at all,” Sharma said after the match.

Rauf was also seen making gestures towards the Indian supporters while fielding on the boundary. He held up his hands to indicate the numbers six and zero, a reference to Pakistan’s claim of downing six Indian jets during the May conflict.

The fast bowler also made gestures indicating an aircraft nosediving into the ground.

Following the match, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) lodged a complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC) against Rauf and Pakistani batter Sahibzada Farhan, who marked his half-century with a mock gun celebration.

Pakistan, too, lodged a complaint against India’s captain Yadav for using his post-match press comments to mention the Indian missile attacks in Pakistan.

September 28 – India refuse to receive trophy from Pakistani official

The controversial tournament peaked in the final when India, who beat Pakistan by five wickets, refused to accept the Asia Cup trophy because it was presented by Mohsin Naqvi, who is the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president as well as the chairman of the PCB.

Naqvi is also Pakistan’s federal interior minister.

“We have decided not to take the Asia Cup trophy from the ACC chairman, who happens to be one of the main [political] leaders of Pakistan,” Devajit Saikia, the chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said.

The final award presentation was delayed by more than an hour due to India’s refusal and Naqvi’s insistence on presenting the trophy. The Indian team celebrated by pretending to hold a trophy.

India’s captain Yadav added it was the team’s decision to refuse the trophy and “no one told us to do it”.

October 5 – Handshake row hits Women’s Cricket World Cup

When India and Pakistan faced off at the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 in Sri Lanka, the Indian women’s team followed the precedent set by the men’s side by not offering to shake hands with the opposition.

November 4 – ICC sanctions Indian and Pakistani players for on-field behaviour

Five weeks after the conclusion of the Asia Cup, the ICC said Rauf, Farhan and Yadav had been found guilty of breaching its code of conduct and bringing the game into disrepute.

Yadav and Rauf were fined 30 percent of their match fees from the September 14 match and received two demerit points each, while Farhan walked away with a warning and one demerit point.

Rauf was found guilty of the same offence in the final and handed the same punishment, which led to a two-match ban on him.

Meanwhile, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who displayed a plane-crashing celebration of his own in the final, was also found guilty and handed one demerit point.

January 25 – Pakistan casts doubt on T20 World Cup participation

Following Bangladesh’s ouster from the T20 World Cup, Pakistan said it would reconsider its own presence at the tournament.

“The prime minister is not in Pakistan right now. When he returns, I’ll be able to give you our final decision,” PCB chief Naqvi said.

February 1 – Pakistan announces boycott of India match

In an unprecedented decision at a World Cup, Pakistan’s government said its team would not take the field against India on February 15.

A few days later, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif revealed the move was an act of solidarity with Bangladesh.

February 9 – Pakistan reverses boycott

More than a week later, Pakistan reversed its decision and said its cricket team had been ordered to take the field in the match on Sunday.

Pakistan’s government said it had “reviewed formal requests extended by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, as well as the supporting communications from Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, and other member nations”, which sought “a viable solution to recent challenges”, referring to its decision to boycott the game.

Pal Lonseth, chief of the specialised Okokrim economic crimes unit, says Jagland suspected of ‘aggravated corruption’.

Norwegian police say that they had conducted searches of properties owned by former Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland as part of a corruption investigation into his connections with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The probe was initiated after documents released by the US Department of Justice in January indicated that Jagland and/or members of his family may have stayed at or vacationed at Epstein’s residences between 2011 and 2018, the AFP news agency reported.

Norwegian television footage showed investigators carrying several boxes from Jagland’s apartment in Oslo during the searches on Thursday.

Jagland, 74, served as Norway’s prime minister from 1996 to 1997 and during the period mentioned in the files, he was serving as chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and as secretary-general of the Council of Europe.

In the documents released by the US Justice Department, Epstein referred to him as “the Nobel big shot”, the AFP news agency reported.

Pal Lonseth, chief of the specialised Okokrim economic crimes unit, said that Jagland’s residence in Oslo had been searched and that he was now formally suspected of “aggravated corruption”.

His lawyer, Anders Brosveet, confirmed the searches and stated that they were standard procedure in these types of investigations.

“Jagland wishes to contribute to ensuring that the case is thoroughly clarified, and the next step is that he will appear for questioning by Okokrim – as he himself has stated he wants,” Brosveet said.

The raids were enabled by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers by waiving Jagland’s diplomatic immunity on Wednesday, following a request from Norwegian authorities. Police told the council in the request that they are investigating whether the benefits Jagland may have received could amount to “passive bribery”.

Okokrim cited repeated instances, between 2011 and 2018, when Jagland and/or members of his family made use of Epstein’s apartments in Paris and New York, as well as stays at his property in Palm Beach, Florida.

“For at least one of these private vacations, travel expenses for six adults appear to have been covered by Mr. Epstein,” Okokrim wrote.

After previously maintaining that his ties with Epstein were part of normal diplomatic activities, Jagland told the newspaper Aftenposten this month that he had shown “poor judgement”.

Votes are still being tallied, but unofficial results in the Bangladesh election suggest that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party is ‘clearly leading’. Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury provides an update from Dhaka.

The Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Truxtun collided with the support ship USNS Supply while the two were conducting an at-sea replenishment yesterday, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has confirmed. Both ships have continued to sail safely, but two sailors were injured.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the collision, which is said to have occurred somewhere in the Caribbean Sea.

The full statement from SOUTHCOM, as provided to TWZ, is as follows:

“Yesterday afternoon, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Truxtun (DDG103) and the Supply-class fast combat support ship USNS Supply (T-AOE-6) collided during a replenishment-at-sea. Two personnel reported minor injuries and are in stable condition. Both ships have reported sailing safely. The incident is currently under investigation.”

No further details have been provided yet about the extent of the damage to either ship.

At-sea replenishment, also known as underway replenishment, is an essential capability that provides a way for warships to receive additional fuel, munitions, and other supplies without having to visit a friendly port. This, in turn, can help ships transit greater distances with fewer interruptions or stay on station longer after arriving in an operating area.

The video below shows the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Barry conducting an at-sea replenishment with the Henry J. Kaiser class oiler USNS Rappahannock.

USS Barry Conducts Replenishment-at-Sea with USNS Rappahannock (T-AO 204)

At the same time, by the Navy’s own admission, at-sea replenishment operations, which inherently involve ships sailing closely side-by-side, are complex and potentially hazardous, in general.

“Underway Replenishment (UNREP) is a critical (and often dangerous) operation to resupply ships at sea, and it carries inherent risks that must be carefully managed. The proximity of vessels, adverse weather, fatigue, and loss of situational awareness (to name a few) in this dynamic environment can risk personnel safety and mission success,” a 2024 dispatch from the Naval Safety Center explains. “Seemingly minor mistakes can turn into potential severe mishaps in seconds.”

On February 3, the Navy announced that Truxtun had departed its homeport at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia for a scheduled deployment, but did not say specifically where the ship was headed. The ship subsequently returned to port for repairs to an unspecified piece of equipment, but was underway again by February 6, according to USNI News. The destroyer’s last deployment, which had taken it to European and Middle Eastern waters, only concluded in October 2025.

While Truxtun is said to still be sailing safely, it remains to be seen how its current deployment may be disrupted further by yesterday’s collision.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

A surge in armed violence has uprooted hundreds of locals from their homes in the Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State in northeastern Nigeria. Terrorists raided the Chanchanji District in the LGA on Sunday, Feb. 8, disrupting church services and opening fire on worshippers.

Residents told HumAngle that at least 14 churches were attacked in several villages across the Chanchanji District, leaving many dead. “People were confused and began to scatter. Most of the casualties were women and children,” said Monday Vincent, a resident in the Amadu area of the district.

The Sunday attack lasted for about two hours. Just as residents were trying to recover from the horror of this incident, another attack occurred the following day, in which terrorists killed dozens of people and set houses on fire. While there have been no official statements on the total number of casualties, locals said scores of people were rushed to the hospital for emergency care. The affected communities include Amadu, New Gboko, Adu, and Tse-Tseve.

In the past year, terrorists repeatedly attacked locals in the area, causing mayhem and violating law and order. In September, for instance, they attacked Akate ward, within the Tor-Damisa axis, leading to the establishment of a displacement camp in the area. 

“It used to be two to three casualties, but this time, it’s worse,” Monday said of the attacks, noting that the areas affected are the economic hubs of the Chanchanji District, which have now been deserted. 

He said people are leaving the district en masse, with thousands moving to the displacement camp for shelter and protection. He stressed that security officials have not been deployed to the area, despite the recurring attacks.

“There have been soldiers stationed around the area, but they said they are awaiting official orders,” Monday said. 

Terkuma Moses, a community leader in Amadu, told HumAngle that about 80 deaths have so far been recorded.  Lember Tyozua, the community leader of the Mberev community, corroborated this, saying about 200 people are generally affected. He said they are still documenting the tragic events, and investigations are ongoing.

“We can’t say the situation is under control. It feels like we are at the mercy of the attackers,” Terkuma said, noting that the biggest worry for most residents is survival. 

Kingsley Chidiebere, the commander of the 6 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, visited the area on Feb. 10 and ordered the deployment of soldiers to protect locals and extend patrols across all affected communities. However, locals insisted that security officials have not yet been deployed to the area.

“What we need the most is protection of lives and property because almost all the surrounding villages in Amadu are deserted,” Torkuma stated. 

With astonishing speed amid so many postponed emergencies, the reform of the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons, enacted in 2006 by President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, has been approved. Amending the work of such a towering figure requires prudence and restraint. Let us examine the result.

First of all, what stands out is the unconstitutional attempt to repeal Article 151 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic through Article 8 of a simple law, which proposes:

Article 8. Any doubts or disputes of any nature that may arise in connection with the activities covered by this Law and that cannot be resolved amicably by the parties may be decided by the competent courts of the Republic or through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including mediation and independent arbitration.

This article directly contradicts Article 151 of the Venezuelan Constitution:

Article 151. In the public interest contracts, unless inapplicable by reason of the nature of such contracts, a clause shall be deemed included even if not expressed, whereby any doubts and controversies which may raise concerning such contracts and which cannot be resolved amicably by the contracting parties, shall be decided by the competent courts of the Republic, in accordance with its laws and shall not on any grounds or for any reason give rise to foreign claims.

There is no doubt that the Constitution of the Republic is the Supreme Law of the Nation and therefore cannot be repealed by a lesser legal norm. Contracts on hydrocarbons are in the public interest, as Article 12 of our Constitution considers them to be “public domain assets”:

Article 12. Mineral and hydrocarbon deposits of any nature that exist within the territory of the nation, beneath the territorial sea bed, within the exclusive economic zone and on the continental sheaf, are the property of the Republic, are of public domain, and therefore inalienable and not transferable. The seacoasts are public domain property.

Articles 103, 126, paragraph 12, and 136, paragraphs 8 and 10, as well as Article 156, paragraphs 12 and 16 of the Constitution assign the same classification of public interest and public domain to mines and hydrocarbons.

This is a harmonious development of what Article 1 of our Constitution considers “Fundamental Principles”: immunity, the sovereign power not to be subject to foreign courts or jurisdictional bodies to decide disputes of internal public interest: “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is irrevocably free and independent, basing its moral property and values of freedom, equality, justice and international peace on the doctrine of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator. Independence, liberty, sovereignty, immunity, territorial integrity and national self-determination are unrenounceable rights of the Nation.”

These are not mere abstract principles. Sovereignty is the absolute and perpetual power of a political body to make its own laws, enforce them, and resolve for itself any disputes that may arise from their application. A state that loses any of these powers ceases to be sovereign and independent. This is what happens when we agree to resolve disputes over internal public interest issues not through our courts and laws, but “through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including mediation and independent arbitration.” Precisely because we handed over the resolution of the dispute concerning our sovereignty over Guayana Esequiba to “independent arbitration” [in 1899], that territory was taken from us.

Venezuela has systematically lost almost all disputes on matters of public interest brought before foreign bodies, which is why we withdrew from the infamous ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, part of the World Bank) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR, part of the OAS).

In short, if we allow external courts to decide on matters of public interest, how can we oppose foreign courts also judging our legitimate President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife, Congresswoman Cilia Flores, according to foreign laws?

The law we are examining includes numerous other objectionable proposals. Among them, Article 34 establishes that the creation of joint ventures and their operating conditions require only the mere “notification” of the National Assembly, which has no decision-making powers in matters so fundamental to the interests of the nation.

Articles 35, 36, 37, 38, and 40 [of the reform] progressively grant joint ventures and minority partners authority for the extraction, management, and commercialization of hydrocarbons, which Article 302 of our Constitution reserves for the Republic:

Article 302. The State reserves to itself, through the pertinent organic law, and for reasons of national expediency, the petroleum industry and other industries, operations and goods and services which are in the public interest and of a strategic nature. The State shall promote the domestic manufacture of raw materials deriving from the exploitation of nonrenewable natural resources, with a view to assimilating, creating and inventing technologies, generating employment and economic growth and creating wealth and wellbeing for the people.

Article 41 of the aforementioned law authorizes private companies to carry out the “integrated management” of exploitation, receiving crude oil as payment, which displaces PDVSA and the State from their decisive functions in the industry, as set forth in the aforementioned Article 302 of our Constitution.

Article 52 of the recently approved reform empowers the executive branch to reduce the amount of royalties at will when it is demonstrated “to its satisfaction” that the project’s economic needs justify it. It should be noted that the previous [2006] law allowed the nation to receive between 60% and 65% in royalties and taxes, while the provisions of the recently amended law allow multinationals to reduce this contribution to below 15%, depending on the category of assets and activity. This represents a significant reduction in public revenue from this source of up to 50% in favor of private operators, almost all of which are foreign.

Article 56 of the recently amended law defines a 15% “integrated hydrocarbon tax” but the executive is also allowed to reduce it at its discretion. Ultimately the national fiscal share can go down from 65% to 25%.

On the sensitive issue of royalties, Andrés Giuseppe noted in a study dated January 28, 2026 (Poli-data.com): 

This report thoroughly analyzes the premise that royalties, as compensation for the depletion of a non-renewable asset, should be inalienable and non-negotiable, and argues that any incentives for the industry should be limited to the scope of taxes on profits and not to the owner’s gross share. (…) The transition from the current legal framework to the 2026 proposal represents a significant change in the protection of oil revenues. While the [2006] law strictly limits the conditions under which payments to the State can be reduced, the reform expands the discretion of the National Executive. The 2026 reform introduces greater flexibility that, in practice, weakens the concept of royalties as a “floor” for state participation. Under the 2006 law, the reduction to 20% was restricted to specific fields with proven geological difficulties; in contrast, the new Article 52 allows the National Executive to reduce the royalty at its discretion for any project, provided that the lack of economic viability is demonstrated “to its satisfaction” (,,,) The oil royalty, historically linked to jus regale, represents the compensation that the exploiter of a non-renewable natural resource owes to the State for the right to extract and appropriate an asset that belongs to the public domain. In Venezuelan doctrine, this concept is based on Article 12 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which establishes that hydrocarbon deposits are public property, inalienable, and imprescriptible.

The royalty, therefore, is non-negotiable and cannot be diverted from its spirit, purpose, and rationale to satisfy other legal obligations arising from different causes and motivations. Furthermore, the Organic Law on National Public Finance establishes: “Article 5. Under no circumstances is compensation against the Treasury admissible, regardless of the origin and nature of the credits to be compensated.” 

Compensation is an institution of private law whereby an individual can extinguish a debt with another individual by offsetting it against a debt that he or she has with that individual. As we can see, the Organic Law on National Public Finance itself, which has specific jurisdiction in tax matters, categorically prohibits it, which means that a citizen cannot cancel the payment of royalties on the grounds that he or she used that debt to satisfy another obligation.

In summary, numerous provisions of the recently reformed Organic Law on Hydrocarbons tend to diminish the Republic’s exclusive jurisdiction over hydrocarbon exploitation, enabling a gradual privatization of the industry. Other provisions make significant reductions in public revenue dependent on the discretion of officials, which do not take into account the real value of the hydrocarbons extracted but rather the alleged economic situation of the private company involved in the project. The overal result will be to significantly reduce the revenue generated by these resources, jeopardizing the financial management of state oil company PDVSA and that of the Republic itself.

Translated and with minor edits by Venezuelanalysis.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Luis Britto García

In Syria’s Aleppo, an artists’ collective is bringing Syrians from different religious and political backgrounds together in a creative shared space. Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi had a look at how workshops, concerts and film screenings are helping rebuild trust in a city marked by years of war.

On January 6, a group of 25 British members of parliament tabled a motion urging global sporting authorities to consider excluding the United States from hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup until it demonstrates compliance with international law. It followed weeks of mounting pressure across Europe over the political climate surrounding a tournament expected to draw millions of viewers and symbolising international cooperation.

Dutch broadcaster Teun van de Keuken has backed a public petition urging withdrawal from the competition while French parliamentarian Eric Coquerel has warned that participation risks legitimising policies he argued undermine international human rights standards.

Much of the scrutiny has focused on US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and broad assaults on civil liberties. The deaths of Minneapolis residents Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti during immigration enforcement operations in January triggered nationwide outrage and protests. In 2026, at least eight people have been shot by federal immigration agents or died in immigration detention.

These developments are serious, but they point to a broader question about power and accountability – one that extends beyond domestic repression and into the consequences of US policy abroad. The war in Gaza represents a far deeper emergency.

For decades, Washington has served as Israel’s most influential international ally, providing diplomatic protection, political backing and roughly $3.8bn in annual military assistance. That partnership finances and shapes the destruction now unfolding across Palestinian territory.

Since the day the war began on October 7, 2023, Israel’s military has killed more than 72,032 Palestinians, wounded 171,661 and destroyed or severely damaged the vast majority of Gaza’s housing, schools, hospitals, water systems and other basic civilian infrastructure. Nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population – about 1.9 million people – has been displaced, many repeatedly, as bombardments move across the enclave. Meanwhile, Israeli forces and armed settlers have intensified raids, farmland seizures and sweeping movement restrictions across Palestinian communities in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

By many accounts, Israel is carrying out a genocide.

Across the African continent, this grave assault carries profound historical resonance because organised sports competitions have often been inseparable from liberation struggles.

On June 16, 1976, 15-year-old Hastings Ndlovu joined thousands of schoolchildren in Soweto protesting against the imposition of Afrikaans language education. By the end of the day, he was dead, shot by police as officers opened fire on unarmed pupils marching through their own neighbourhoods.

Hastings was murdered by a regime that viewed African children as political threats rather than students or even human beings. Police killed 575 youths and injured thousands more that day, yet the bloodshed failed to disrupt diplomatic and sporting relations between the apartheid state and several Western allies.

Weeks later, as families buried their children in solemn funerals, New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, landed at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg on June 25, ready to play competitive matches inside the segregated republic.

The tour provoked fury among many young African governments. Within weeks, the backlash reached the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games in Canada. Twenty-two African countries withdrew after President Michael Morris and the International Olympic Committee chose not to act against New Zealand.

Athletes who had trained for years packed their bags and left the Olympic Village in Montreal, some after already competing. Morocco, Cameroon, Tunisia and Egypt began the Games before withdrawing as their delegations were urgently recalled by their governments.

Nigeria, Ghana and Zambia pulled out of the men’s football tournament, collapsing first-round fixtures at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and Varsity Stadium mid-competition. Television viewers worldwide watched empty lanes and abandoned tracks replace what had been promoted as a global event. More than 700 athletes forfeited Olympic participation, including world-record holders Filbert Bayi (1,500 metres) of Tanzania and Uganda’s John Akii-Bua (400-metre hurdles).

African leaders recognised the scale of the decision. Nonetheless, they concluded that their countries’ Olympic participation would give “comfort and respectability to the South African racist regime and encourage it to continue to defy world opinion”.

That moment offers a defining lesson for 2026: Boycotts come at a cost. They demand sacrifice, coordination and political courage. History shows that collective refusal can redirect global attention and force both institutions and spectators to confront injustices they might otherwise overlook.

Nearly five decades later, Gaza presents a similar test amid a deepening and seemingly endless catastrophe.

Take what happened to Sidra Hassouna, a seven-year-old Palestinian girl from Rafah.

She was killed along with members of her family during an Israeli air strike on February 23, 2024, when the home they had sought shelter in was struck amid intense shelling in southern Gaza.

Sidra’s story mirrors thousands of others and reveals the same truth: childhoods erased by bombardment.

These killings have unfolded before a global audience. Unlike apartheid South Africa, Israel’s destruction of Gaza is being transmitted in real time, largely through Palestinian journalists and citizen reporters, nearly 300 of whom have been killed by Israeli air and artillery strikes.

At the same time, the US continues supplying Israel with weapons, diplomatic cover and veto protection at the United Nations. While Trump’s civil liberties abuses are serious, they are not comparable in scale to the devastation endured by Palestinians in Gaza.

The humanitarian toll is measured in destroyed hospitals, displaced families, enforced hunger and children buried beneath collapsed apartment blocks.

The central question now is whether football can present itself as a weeks-long celebration of sporting prowess across 16 host cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June to July while the United States continues to sustain large-scale civilian destruction abroad.

African political memory understands these stakes. The continent has witnessed how stadiums and international competitions can project political approval and how withdrawal can destroy that image.

A coordinated boycott would require joint decisions by governments representing the qualified teams – Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cape Verde and South Africa – supported by the African Union, regional institutions and the Confederation of African Football.

The consequences would be immediate.

The tournament would lose its claim to global inclusivity, and corporate sponsors would be compelled to confront questions they have long avoided.

Most importantly, international attention would shift.

Boycotts do not end conflicts overnight. They accomplish something different: They remove the comfort of pretending injustice does not exist. The 1976 Olympic withdrawal did not dismantle apartheid instantly, but it accelerated isolation and broadened the universal coalition opposing it.

At present, FIFA’s longstanding political contradictions intensify the need for external pressure. At the World Cup draw in Washington, DC, on December 5, its president, Gianni Infantino, awarded Trump a “peace prize” for his efforts to “promote peace and unity around the world”.

The organisation cannot portray itself as a neutral body while extending symbolic legitimacy to a leader overseeing mass civilian death.

In that context, nonparticipation becomes a critical moral position.

It would not immediately end Gaza’s calamity, but it would challenge US support for the sustained military onslaught and honour children like Hastings and Sidra.

Although separated by decades and continents, their lives reveal a shared historical pattern: Children suffer first when imperial systems determine that Black and Brown lives hold absolutely no value.

Africa’s stand in 1976 reshaped international resistance to apartheid. A comparable decision in 2026 could strengthen opposition to contemporary systems of domination and signal to families in Gaza that their suffering is recognised across the continent.

History remembers those who reject injustice – and who choose comfort while children die under relentless air strikes and occupation.

If African teams compete in the 2026 World Cup as if nothing is happening in Gaza City, Rafah, Khan Younis, Jenin and Hebron, their involvement risks legitimising colonial power structures.

While European critics urge authorities to exclude the US, our history demands a complete withdrawal.

Football cannot be played on the graves of Palestinian martyrs.

Africa must boycott the 2026 World Cup.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.