The US President ramping up “pressure on Venezuela” leads the Financial Times today after the White House warned of further armed force in Caracas if “a series of conditions laid out” by Marco Rubio is not met by Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the paper reports. Over the weekend, the US captured the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. The US accuses Maduro, who is charged with drug trafficking and weapons offences, of running a “narco-terrorist” regime – a claim he denies.
Trump’s warning to Caracas to toe the line or pay a “big price” is given full prominence on the Guardian’s front page. US officials said they would keep 15,000 troops in the Caribbean in case there was need for fresh intervention “if Venezuela’s interim president did not accommodate their demands”, the paper reports.
The Times also focuses on Trump’s warning to “Venezuela’s new leader” against defying the US. Following questions over the president’s claim that the US would run the South American country, Trump said Delcy Rodríguez would “pay a very big price” if she “doesn’t do what’s right”.
The Daily Telegraph focuses on Donald Trump’s possible next moves, with his sights set on Greenland. The paper includes a quote the president gave in an interview to the Atlantic, in which he states: “We do need Greenland… we need it for defence.” Trump has previously refused to rule out using force to secure control of Greenland.
A handcuffed Maduro surrounded by US Drug Enforcement Administration officers takes up the majority of the Independent’s front page, accompanied by words “We are NOT at war”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists “America is at war with drug cartels, not with Venezuela”, the paper reports, as Caracas military leaders called for the release of their president.
Labour MPs have accused Sir Keir Starmer of “double standards” for not condemning the US strikes on Venezuela and capture of Maduro, the Daily Mail reports. So far, Sir Keir has said he would “shed no tears” over “America’s Venezuela coup”. According to the paper, “left-wing hardliners” want the UK to criticise its “greatest ally”.
The i Paper takes a different approach, leading with Sir Keir’s comments on the UK moving “even closer” to “EU’s single market”. The paper describes it as the “starkest sign yet” of a “radically softer Brexit deal”.
The Daily Express says Sir Keir has been accused of a “full-blown Brexit betrayal”. The paper quotes Reform UK’s Richard Tice on the matter, who says “Brits will be rightly worried” over Starmer’s pursuit of closer relations with Europe.
A picture of Anthony Joshua and the families of his two close friends and team members killed in a horror crash in Nigeria feature on the front page of the Daily Star. The British boxer shared the picture on social media showing him sitting alongside his mother and the mothers of Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele, who died in the crash.
The Sun focuses on AJ’s “pledge to families of ‘brothers’ Ghami and Ayodele who died in the crash. Their funerals took place at a London mosque on Sunday. A source told the Sun that AJ is “fiercely loyal to his friends and family” and “will be there for them for the rest of their lives”.
Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson is pictured in the Daily Mirror along with the agonising revelation that her twin babies have a rare genetic condition. “I am grieving a life I thought I was going to have with my children,” the 34-year-old is reported saying, after her twin girls were diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy.
The US raid on Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, continues to feature prominently, with many papers choosing an image of the ousted leader in handcuffs as he arrived in New York for their front pages.
The Daily Telegraph says Trump has now “set his sights on Greenland” after the raid on Caracas, as he says he needs the territory for defence against Russia and China. The paper acknowledges that a US invasion of Greenland is unlikely, but adds that the renewed threat may alarm European leaders.
The Guardian tells its readers that the prospect of the US seizing direct control of Venezuela appears to be receding after Trump’s warnings to the interim president, Delcy Rodríguez. It describes the operation to depose Madura as a ‘distorted fever dream’ which was made real by Trump’s return to power.
A number of theories about the seizure of Maduro are highlighted by the Times. His son, Nicolas Ernesto Maduro Guerra, a Venezeulan congressman, is quoted voicing suspicions it was an inside job and that “history will tell who the traitors were”. Eva Bolinger, the biographer of the country’s former leader, Hugo Chavez, alleges that President Trump made a deal with Rodriguez and “everything else is just noise”.
Domestic reaction to events in Venezuela is the focus of The Daily Mail, which claims Labour is “tearing itself apart” because Sir Keir Starmer has refused to describe the attack as illegal. It says the Prime Minister is under increasing pressure from left-wing MPs to criticise the US. Sir Keir initially said he wanted to establish the facts before adding that the government would “shed no tears” over the end of the Maduro Regime.
The Daily Express claims Sir Keir Starmer is plotting what it calls a “full blown Brexit betrayal” by edging the UK closer to the EU single market. The I Paper’s take is that his push for a “softer Brexit” is an attempt to appease what it calls “unruly” Labour MPs posing a threat to his leadership. Sir Keir has said the UK should align more closely with the EU if it is in the national interest.
