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Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez defends ‘endless’ benefits of her oil deal with Trump

Deal that will reportedly see US take control of 65bn barrels of Venezuelan oil has provoked outrage in her country

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has defended her government’s highly controversial energy deal with Donald Trump, insisting the South American country will maintain ownership and sovereignty over its massive oil reserves.

Rodríguez, who assumed power in January after Trump ordered the abduction of the president, Nicolás Maduro, took to the airwaves on Saturday to push back against criticism of what the US president has called “the biggest oil deal in world history”.

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© Photograph: Presidency Of Venezuela/EPA

© Photograph: Presidency Of Venezuela/EPA

© Photograph: Presidency Of Venezuela/EPA

Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez defends ‘endless’ benefits of her oil deal with Trump

Deal that will reportedly see US take control of 65bn barrels of Venezuelan oil has provoked outrage in her country

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has defended her government’s highly controversial energy deal with Donald Trump, insisting the South American country will maintain ownership and sovereignty over its massive oil reserves.

Rodríguez, who assumed power in January after Trump ordered the abduction of the president, Nicolás Maduro, took to the airwaves on Saturday to push back against criticism of what the US president has called “the biggest oil deal in world history”.

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© Photograph: Presidency Of Venezuela/EPA

© Photograph: Presidency Of Venezuela/EPA

© Photograph: Presidency Of Venezuela/EPA

Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates

30 August 2026 at 21:57

Meanwhile, Trump posts video of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America sign

Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the Ontario premier erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting a video of him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA.

Rhetoric over the naming of Lake Ontario is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and its northern neighbor involving a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.

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© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates

30 August 2026 at 21:57

Meanwhile, Trump posts video of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America sign

Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the Ontario premier erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting a video of him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA.

Rhetoric over the naming of Lake Ontario is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and its northern neighbor involving a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

‘You’re at war when you get attacked’: Mark Carney shows combative nature in face-off with Trump

The Canadian PM is one of the few world leaders to stand up to the US president. Former colleagues say they are not surprised

Mark Carney stood before a walnut-veneered lectern, his face drawn tight, as he announced that talks with Canada’s biggest trading partner had collapsed. “Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us,” he said. “And I promised: that will never, ever happen. We are keeping that promise.”

For years, the former central bank governor had worked hard to calm markets. Now, he was asking Canadians to accept uncertainty and confrontation.

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© Illustration: Guardian Design/Anaïs Mims/Getty Images

© Illustration: Guardian Design/Anaïs Mims/Getty Images

© Illustration: Guardian Design/Anaïs Mims/Getty Images

‘Inept, incompetent, craven’: Scott Bessent struggles to clean up the president’s mess

29 August 2026 at 15:00

There’s little optimism about treasury secretary’s ability to handle Trump’s tariffs, Iran sanctions and colossal US debt

History remembers Gen Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe during the second world war, for his role in the D-day invasion of Normandy. Whether Scott Bessent will achieve similar posterity as the face of the “economic D-day” in Iran remains to be seen.

The US treasury secretary, already trying to manage a $40tn national debt pile, this week took charge of Donald Trump’s effort to reverse-engineer his war of choice. Whereas the US would typically take on an adversary with diplomacy, sanctions and military force, in that order, the US president started with a six-month bombing campaign and now hopes that economic isolation can finish the job.

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© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

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