We just casually out here kidnapping heads of state now?
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
475 points (98.8% liked)
World News
51726 readers
3150 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
- Blogsites are treated in the same manner as social media sites. Medium, Blogger, Substack, etc. are not valid news links regardless of who is posting them. Yes, legitimate news sites use Blogging platforms, they also use Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube and we don't allow those links either.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It’s an open act of war. But at least no one is talking about how he fucked kids.
I don't know if we can wag the dog any harder, he's starting to come apart....
Yeah… we’re definitely pushing the upper limits of dog-wagging.
load more comments
(1 replies)
If a country bombed Argentina and kidnapped Milei the US would retaliate immediately. But when the US pull this heinous shit it's fine. Always has been.
When you have the US military on your side, you can do anything you want.
Why so many people are missing this obvious threat is beyond me. All nations should be shoring up their military defense, and fast.
Maduro is not a good person. But that's not what matters here. Plenty of countries have evil people at the helm.
What matters here is MAGA, with by far the world's most powerful military, is imposing its will on the United States and the world. If you think this kind of successful operation is ever followed up by "ok guys we got everything we wanted, let's stop now", give your head a shake.
We will know Russia traded Venezuela for Ukraine in the next few days. I bet the EU is in pure panic mode now. Would not surprise me to see a move on Taiwan too.
load more comments
(2 replies)
And many world leaders will defend it because they know US bastards could do the same to them.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(36 replies)
Let's appreciate what this means for the global order.
Russia has proactively attacked Ukraine. Now the US has attacked Venezuela. If China ever needed a permissive international environment to attack Taiwan, this attack was a major step in this direction.
We are quickly sliding back to a world of great powers, where might makes right and hence smaller countries will be bullied into submission without any concerted opposition by what remains of the 'international community'.
If the US gets away with this, the same is going to happen to Panama in the not too distant futute and to Greenland soon after.
Unless Russia is burned out after the Uktain war, they might try their hand at the Baltics.
Should Russia collapse, China might integrate some of the Siberian regions.
And so on.
I wonder how this all will end.
It will end like it always does. Like the Roman and Byzantine empires ended, like the USSR ended, like Alexander the great's empire ended, like England's empire ended.
At some point great powers become too great to be stable, so they fracture into provinces that become separate countries and the cycle starts over.
Only this time there are nuclear weapons involved, so we'll see how that goes
Personally, I'm quite ready for an independent New England. We only get back 80% of what we contribute in taxes and manufacturing.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
load more comments
(13 replies)
Trump is friends with the Saudis. The Saudi's oil brings in billions of dollars a day. Trump covets that treasure, and wants the same thing for himself.
Venezuela sits on the largest oil reserve on the planet. Whoever controls Venezuela, controls the oil, and Trump has already announced this morning, even before his official announcement that the operation even happened, that they will be taking control of the oil.
Follow the money: This is all about stealing Venezuela's oil for Trump's personal financial benefit. Our military has become the muscle for the Trump Crime Family.
Bottom Line: This certainly isn't about drugs. He just PARDONED the ex-prez of Honduras, who had been convicted of Narcoterrorism in an America court, and was serving decades in an American prison, for doing the exact same thing that he is claiming for Maduro. So save me the breathless rationalization about flooding our cities with drugs.
Again, Follow the money: Trump will pardon Maduro once he pays the proper bribe, and he is in full control of the Oil.
load more comments
(1 replies)
So much for not following illegal orders. US army is the world's largest terrorist organization.
Well, it's an order by the president, so it has to be legal... it is legal right? RIGHT?
load more comments
(3 replies)
Capturing another countries leader just to hide the fact that you are a pedophile is ludicrous. C'mon internal america. Only you can stop this (for now).
How do I stop it? Half of my family is still delusional thinking this is a good idea. It feels helpless when his cult is still stuck on him.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
So this is where the Amarican people no longer accept this president and rovolt in an unprecedented rage, amiright?
Like, finally take an example of the French and other counties and finally unite in a massive violent protest, right?
Please learn from history, it's the only way.
We're patiently waiting and watch eagerly from the sideline here in Europe, come on, act!
I've been in the US two months ago, in a very Democratic city, socialising with only very anti-Trump people. Not a single one cared what happened outside US borders. They were upset about the inflation, cost of living, loss of privacy and civil liberties, etc. There may be some who do care about the US foreign policy, but unless thousands of Americans start returning in body bags, there won't be enough critical mass to stage any revolt or even protests worthy of Trump's attention.
I've lived in the US my entire life. I wish I could tell you your wrong.
I can't.
Some of my earliest memories revolve around watching the evening news, listening to them say that "X amount of American lives were lost" and wondering why "American" lives were substantially different or worthy of note. A life lost is a life lost. And that's a tragedy no matter how you slice it. Where that life started or where it lived has no bearing whatsoever on it's value.
At least... that's what I believe. The current state of things has me thinking I might be in the minority on that one.
As to revolution, protest, anything that could even prove an inconvenience to the status quo... I'll believe it when I see it. Not to make excuses, but I think forces in the American culture have been working to defang popular protest since at least the civil rights movement, or perhaps even earlier. Even if it's demostriably wrong... I can't begin to tell you how demoralized I feel. My government just... went and did this. It's illegal. The very shape of our government is supposed to prevent this kind of thing from happening. And yet... here we are. One illegal invasion and (apparently) kidnapping of a sovereign head of state later.
...I wish it were otherwise, but it feels like there's very little that can be done about it. Americans just... don't seem equal to the task of holding their government to account. The one thing we are supposed to be good at.
I can't even begin to tell you how many outrages there were up to this point. Too many. Far too many for concence to allow. This... feels different. Is different. Has to be different, then the way we've been allowing things to ride.
But... I've been disappointed before. I'm certain I'll be disappointed again. I hope this will be different, but...
...I can point to plenty of times it should have been different before. Times that would have prevented this from happening. It's... hard to maintain hope in the face of that.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
It may be time for the rest of the world to stop waiting patiently for Americans to mobilize. When non-US states commit atrocities, the civilized world does sanctions to erode public support for the regime. It's time for sanctions on the US. Russia can't be the only nation that condemns us.
load more comments
(8 replies)
I'm flabbergasted, this is insane. Why wouldn't China invade Taiwan now ?
China isn't AS imperial as the US or Russia. They're focused on domestic issues and spiking the price of consumer electronics by bombing fabs and spiking the price of everything else through western sanctions is not good for the domestic economy.
Why wouldn't China invade Taiwan yesterday? Cheap justifications are a dime a dozen, allied fleets of over a hundred ships next door ready to respond to an invasion on a dime are not.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(21 replies)
This is a disgusting lawless action by a convicted felon who deserves to face trial for war crimes.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Maduro seemed like a dictator to me, but I don't know if unilaterally removing him from Venezuela by force is the best option. Ideally Venezuelans would decide for themselves who they want their leader to be.
They tried, but the last two elections were massively fraudulent, and it's hard to have a revolution when the army is behind the regime.
But this isn't the solution. As my Venezuelan friend said:
But ok, maduro captured, and theeeeen? Not like he's the only one. Delcy Rodriguez, Jorge Rodriguez, Diosdado Cabello, General Padrino Lopez, and there are 200+ more people that need capturing
There’s also a massive fraud behind the fraud: there was a huge fake polling and disinformation campaign designed to make it look like there’s more support for the capitalists and right wingers than there is. Like…yes…the election was fake…but where the fuck are these 80% support for his opponent numbers coming from? None of these numbers match what’s on the street.
If you dig through the bullshit…elections would be close…far from the landslides either side promise.
All that we’ve learned here is that in Latin America the USA really really doesn’t like losing its investments. A lesson we already learned 20 times. Soon most of it will just be Puero Rico with less influence.
load more comments
(3 replies)
trump is gonna install an even worse dictator
load more comments
(3 replies)
3rd fucking day of 2026!…
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Every country pretty much needs to have a nuke now.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The collective WTF said as both nations wake up to hearing about all of this will be heard around the world. We need anti war protests ASAP to show the world we as the citizens do not condone this invasion by our government, march on DC would be better obviously but we need people to at least start speaking out instead of it just being a scroll on their phone til it hits us in higher prices and shortages of products from South America and China
load more comments
(2 replies)
😐
view more: next ›