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<p>‘Trump has announced a policy not of blissful isolationism, as his Maga movement yearned for and expected, but of neo-imperialism. America will not only “run” Venezuela, but make the Venezuelans pay for it from their own oil wealth’</p>
Sean O'Grady

The people of Venezuela are exchanging one old tyrant for another

Vowing to ‘run’ a country is an extraordinary and dangerous break from the platform on which Donald Trump was elected, says Sean O’Grady

<p>Venezuelan president Nicolas Madura was captured in a US-led operation</p>
The Independent View

Trump’s Maduro gamble must be turned to Venezuela’s advantage

<p>The ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march in London went beyond protest and challenged the moral fabric of our society</p>
Imam Qari Asim

Extremism is tearing Britain apart - we should choose hope over hate

<p>‘I live in London. I work. I pay taxes. I contribute. I speak, write, explain, justify, contextualise my own grief endlessly so that others might find it comfortable. And yet I remain trapped in a world that demands Palestinians be patient, polite, and silent – even as it excuses the machinery that crushes our lives’</p>
Ahmed Najar

My new year’s resolution is to hug my parents before they die

<p>The legacy of the Covid 19 vaccine should not be squandered</p>
Dr Tim Bradshaw

5 years ago UK unis gave us a Covid jab – let’s keep the legacy alive

<p>‘We’ll hear a lot about American Exceptionalism over the coming year ahead, but it is exceptionalism for all the wrong reasons’</p>
Jon Sopel

Why 2026 is the year Trump and Maga could be in trouble

<p>People thought to be migrants scramble onboard a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France, in an attempt to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel</p>
Melissa Pawson

From festive swims to migrant crossings - why every life matters

<p>Lotte Jeffs has returned to university after a high-flying media career</p>
Lotte Jeffs

Why over-40s like me are quitting careers and heading back to school

<p>Nigel Farage has questioned whether the UK would be better off without the OBR</p>
John Rentoul

Scrapping the OBR could be Nigel Farage’s Liz Truss moment

<p>‘Was Alaa wrong to make those remarks? Indisputably. But to somehow suggest that he should therefore have his citizenship revoked is the height of political cynicism’</p>
Peter Greste

The Alaa Abd el-Fattah I know is a humanitarian

<p>This most stoic of prime ministers must be wondering what he can do to lift his government and his party out of its unprecedented unpopularity</p>
The Independent View

Keir Starmer’s promise to deliver should have brought results by now

<p>Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran</p>
Mary Dejevsky

Is this the endgame for Iran’s ayatollahs?

<p>‘The Queen talked publicly for the first time of her own attack at the hands of a young man on a train when she was just a teenager’</p>
Emily Sheffield

Queen Camilla’s radical honesty shows the good this monarchy can do

<p>Actor Claire Foy says she doesn’t have “authority to discuss or proclaim about anything other than what I do as an actor”</p>
Flic Everett

Claire Foy is right – stars should try philanthropy, not deep speeches

<p>Frieda Hughes hits the gym</p>
Frieda Hughes

Pumping iron has the power to lift my spirits

<p>‘The close proximity of Christmas to birthday seemed to somehow make both feel less generous. Having two brothers didn’t help. I was once given a left-handed glove for Christmas and the right-hand one for my birthday’</p>
Anne Atkins

Winter is the best time to have a birthday. Romance is for the spring

I hated my new year birthday for 40 years, says Anne Atkins. It took age, family and a few surprises to show me why midwinter celebrations might be the best of all

<p>The Academy Awards will be streamed by YouTube from 2029</p>
James Moore

By showing the Oscars, can YouTube bring back Hollywood’s golden age?

<p>‘The upset of the year will be Labour doing better than expected in the Scottish parliament elections in May, and the Scottish National Party falling so far short of a majority that the Greens cannot not save them’</p>
John Rentoul

Scandal, folly and surprise: My political predictions for 2026

Explore news for you

More Voices

<p>Keir Starmer was left in the dark over the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela</p>
The Independent View

Starmer’s Venezuela dilemma exposes Britain’s post-Brexit weakness

The Independent View

Starmer’s Venezuela dilemma exposes Britain’s post-Brexit weakness

Editorial
<p>Keir Starmer was left in the dark over the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela</p>
<p>China's President Xi Jinping and Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro arriving at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China September 2023.</p>
China

From Caracas to Taiwan: How Venezuela has changed China’s calculations

<p>’How many national leaders will be tempted to ask themselves why, if the US can mount such unilateral action against a sovereign country in pursuit of what it may justify in terms of its own national security, they should not do the same?’</p>
Voices

How the capture of Nicolas Maduro will upend the global order

<p>Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro has been captured during a US operation</p>
Voices

Who is Nicolás Maduro? From Chávez’s heir to Venezuela’s undoing

<p>In October, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans that could see the company spend more than $100bn on AI projects this year</p>
Voices

Zuckerberg is taking a huge bet on AI. The results will be spectacular

<p>In October, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans that could see the company spend more than $100bn on AI projects this year</p>
Voices

Zuckerberg is taking a huge bet on AI. The results will be spectacular

<p>Nigel Farage was visibly campaigning ahead of the Caerphilly Senedd by-election to spread the party’s plans ahead of the Welsh elections next year</p>
UK Politics

‘Tired of broken promises’: Readers on the rise of Reform in Wales

<p>People leave flowers in Crans-Montana, the upscale ski resort in southwest Switzerland where 47 people were killed in the New Year’s Day fire</p>
Voices

I use psychics – I’m taking Nostradamus’s 2026 predictions seriously

Most commented

Burnham is Labour’s best hope of keeping Farage out of No10, UK’s top pollster says

209 comments

The Venezuelans are very clear about who their president is – and it’s not Trump

285 comments

Starmer says UK sheds ‘no tears’ at the end of Maduro regime in Venezuela

188 comments

Venezuela live: Maduro officials accuse US forces of killing civilians

582 comments
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More Voices

<p>To manage new year anxiety, focus on gentle, realistic goals instead of overwhelming resolutions</p>
Voices

How do I stick to my 2026 resolutions without feeling like a failure?

<p>‘Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller described absurd moral universes of totalitarianism and war that seem a long way from Britain in 2026. Yet there are people in this country, this year, who are trapped in an unjust system as extreme as any in fiction’</p>
The Independent View

The nightmarish catch-22 at the heart of a burning injustice

<p>Over 40 political parties, including the NLD, have been dissolved by the regime and banned from contesting the elections</p>
Voices

The UK must act against Myanmar’s shameful sham election

<p>Bingo for the future: 2026 looks set to be filled with fireworks</p>
Voices

On my bingo card for 2026? No alarms and no surprises, please

<p>Making new year’s resolutions often leads to guilt</p>
Voices

New year, same me: my resolution for 2026? Not to make any

<p>Between 2020/21 and 2024/25, almost 1.4 million A&E attendances were for a cough, while 1.2 million sought help for a sore throat</p>
Health

‘Only way to be seen early’: Readers on A&E visits for minor problems

<p>Bingo for the future: 2026 looks set to be filled with fireworks</p>
Voices

On my bingo card for 2026? No alarms and no surprises, please

<p>Making new year’s resolutions often leads to guilt</p>
Voices

New year, same me: my resolution for 2026? Not to make any

<p>Between 2020/21 and 2024/25, almost 1.4 million A&E attendances were for a cough, while 1.2 million sought help for a sore throat</p>
Health

‘Only way to be seen early’: Readers on A&E visits for minor problems

<p>‘If anything justified the decision to call a halt, however, it was the history of the appalling project management of a scheme that had become a boondoggle for construction companies and a vast secondary economy of consultants’</p>
The Independent View

The never-ending fiasco of HS2 is a case study in how not to build

The Independent View

The never-ending fiasco of HS2 is a case study in how not to build

Editorial
<p>‘If anything justified the decision to call a halt, however, it was the history of the appalling project management of a scheme that had become a boondoggle for construction companies and a vast secondary economy of consultants’</p>
<p>‘Putin may be contemplating raising another army of up to one and a half million over two years – and prepared to lose a large part of it’</p>
Voices

The 5 signs Putin is preparing for a bigger war in Europe

<p>’When something happens once, it can be considered unfortunate, but when it happens twice, it looks an awful lot like careless misogyny’</p>
Voices

What the Lionesses’ new year honours list snub tells us about women

<p>The real threat to trust isn’t fake news, it’s the information that spreads without challenge</p>
Voices

Why 2025 was the year trust died

<p>Frankie says relax: Should you dress up for the airport, or prioritise comfort?</p>
News & Advice

‘Treated like cattle’: Readers reject calls for smarter airport dress

<p>Frankie says relax: Should you dress up for the airport, or prioritise comfort?</p>
News & Advice

‘Treated like cattle’: Readers reject calls for smarter airport dress

<p>The Reform UK leader’s supporters seek to dismiss his behaviour as, in effect, youthful folly that he has long since put behind him</p>
The Independent View

Even Nigel Farage should welcome fierce scrutiny of his school days

<p>Teachers could follow resident doctors and strike next year unless Labour hikes pay and plugs school funding gaps</p>
Home News

‘A recruitment crisis is coming’: Readers on teacher strike threat

<p>‘Donald Trump seems to assume that Vladimir Putin would want to bask in the glory of a victorious peacemaker, but peace is probably a threat to Putin and his system’</p>
Voices

This ‘drone attack’ shows paranoid Putin will never be a peacemaker

<p>The price of gold will rise to new records in 2026, predicts James Moore</p>
Voices

My 2025 predictions fell short – and six calls for the 2026 economy

<p>‘President Trump, though always upbeat about his own supposed unique diplomatic gifts, no longer even pretends that a truce, let alone a lasting peace settlement, is in sight’</p>
The Independent View

Zelensky can buy Europe 15 years to finally get its act together

<p>Swimming champion Adam Peaty has changed his name on Instagram following his wedding to Gordon Ramsay’s daughter, Holly</p>
Voices

Adam Ramsay Peaty has done the right thing in taking his wife’s name

<p>’What began as a quirky Soho sandwich shop has curdled into a beige cathedral of culinary capitalism. Nothing tastes of anything. Everything costs too much. And yet the faithful still file in’</p>
Voices

Why 2025 was the year I finally fell out of love with Pret

<p>Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un photographed together in September at an event to commemorate the end of the Second World War</p>
Voices

Five flashpoints that could spark World War Three in 2026

<p>‘My plans did not include peeling swedes and a fruit pudding until 24 hours before the advent calendars had opened their last tiny glitter doors, and the final delivery of seasonal cards had hit the hallway floor’</p>
Voices

Christmas is not for the birds

<p>‘It seems to be the year of the “Get ready with me” video,’ says William Hanson. I do not want to get ready with you. I’d rather be dead. I don’t even want to get ready with myself, let alone anyone else. So these have to stop’</p>
Voices

William Hanson: 5 ways manners changed forever in 2025

<p>Jailbroken’ devices can be packed with illegal streaming apps – and with malware</p>
Lifestyle

‘Rip-off Britain’: Readers clash over rise of illegal streaming

Lifestyle

‘Rip-off Britain’: Readers clash over rise of illegal streaming

Independent
<p>Jailbroken’ devices can be packed with illegal streaming apps – and with malware</p>
<p>Late-night marking has become a symbol of the pressures driving teachers out of the profession</p>
The Independent View

Market forces, not militancy, are pushing teachers towards strikes

<p>Could the economy be hit by another black swan event?</p>
Business

From AI to Trump, the biggest threats to the economy in 2026

<p>Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in Florida to discuss a peace deal</p>
The Independent View

Zelensky still has cards to play in Trump’s Ukraine poker game

<p>Single people are declaring that nobody even fancies anyone any more</p>
Voices

2026 will be the year of the ‘crush recession’ – here’s why

<p>Single people are declaring that nobody even fancies anyone any more</p>
Voices

2026 will be the year of the ‘crush recession’ – here’s why

<p>Women responding to anything with anger was taboo - until now</p>
Voices

She-volution: why 2025 was the year women’s rage took centre stage

<p>That a ceasefire was agreed and formally came into effect has by no means stopped either the slaughter or the suffering of those hundreds of thousands of people remaining in Gaza, even if it has diminished them</p>
The Independent View

The shocking brutality behind Gaza’s crumbling ceasefire

<p>‘It became starkly clear early in the new century that liberal democracy was not going to have it all its own way’</p>
Voices

25 moments that have shaped the 21st century

<p>Joy at Christmas is not a spectator sport, so put down your phone</p>
Voices

Breakup with your smartphone for Christmas – and maybe for life

The Independent View

Starmer needs to tell a better Christmas story about Labour

<p>There’s really nothing wrong with allowing yourself to be a little selfish</p>
Voices

Bing! How I learnt to make Christmas magical again as a single parent

<p>‘There are some really small tricks and tips that might ease the burden today’</p>
Voices

How do I cope with being alone this Christmas?

The Independent View

Thanks to Independent readers, young people will have a haven to call

<p>Buying Christmas presents leaves many families stressed and in debt</p>
Voices

Why I stopped buying Christmas presents years ago – and you should too

<p>Not every Christmas feels merry, and that’s OK</p>
Voices

Bah humbug? Why I refuse to let Christmas make me miserable

<p>Choosing how to spend Christmas Day with divorced parents came with military-level coordination</p>
Voices

My parents are divorced: here’s how I decide where to spend Christmas

Voices

My parents are divorced: here’s how I decide where to spend Christmas

Lucy Pearson
<p>Choosing how to spend Christmas Day with divorced parents came with military-level coordination</p>
<p>Kate and Gerry McCann take part in the ‘Miles For Missing People’ 10km run in Hyde Park in 2010</p>
The Independent View

The hope and heartbreak of Kate McCann

<p>‘For some, the most elderly and vulnerable, who were trapped by age and an inability to take advantage of gifting rules, this tax was cruel, pernicious, and terrifying’</p>
Voices

Farmers like me took on Labour’s cruel inheritance tax raid – and won

<p>Healthcare professionals listening to patients would transform the NHS</p>
Voices

My biggest health shock? A hospital visit that shows NHS can be saved

<p>‘Some experiences never leave; you simply learn to carry them’</p>
Voices

Kate McCann: ‘Life is divided into a before and an after’

<p>‘Some experiences never leave; you simply learn to carry them’</p>
Voices

Kate McCann: ‘Life is divided into a before and an after’

<p>’My family story was suffused with secrecy. Unknown to us children, each of my grandparents conducted multiple same-sex relationships throughout their otherwise happy marriage’</p>
Voices

I like sharing a good secret at Christmas...

<p>‘Cash-strapped councils across London, hollowed out by austerity and desperate for revenue, now behave less like custodians of place and more like players in a high-stakes game of Monopoly’</p>
Voices

Rowans bowling alley is loved. Of course the council wants it gone

<p>High prices were the most common complaint</p>
Home News

‘A broken industry’: Readers on why pubs are struggling to survive

<p>‘Each statistic is a real life set back, harmed, potential unfulfilled’</p>
Voices

Can Labour really end homelessness?

<p>For quite trivial sums, millions of lives can be shielded from individual misery, and whole societies in poorer countries saved from collapse</p>
Voices

We are winning the fight against Aids. Now is not the time to retreat

<p>Kat Brown and her dog Sybil, adopted from Serbia’s Forgotten Paws at Christmas in 2020</p>
Voices

I know a dog is for life, but both my pets arrived at Christmas

<p>‘Algorithms may feed us hundreds of happy faces a day, but who are we actually engaging with, in a real and breathing sense?’</p>
Voices

So what if we didn’t see each other before Christmas?

<p>Crowds will be out on Friday to watch the Boxing Day meets</p>
Home News

‘Enough is enough’: Readers welcome move to ban trail hunting

<p>Vladmir Putin during his address to Russia on Friday</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine is showing fighting spirit, and its allies must respond

<p>Strike action is giving health secretary Wes Streeting a difficult end to his year</p>
The Independent View

There is still work to do to fix the NHS

<p>This woman, a 42-year-old mother of four, was raped in the Bulengo displacement camp, where she had fled war in eastern Congo</p>
Voices

In the Congo, sexual violence is not incidental but a weapon of war

Voices

In the Congo, sexual violence is not incidental but a weapon of war

Mwenyechake Zindula Wilhermine
<p>This woman, a 42-year-old mother of four, was raped in the Bulengo displacement camp, where she had fled war in eastern Congo</p>
<p>Katie White, right, in Bristol with a student volunteer for her non-profit rape-prevention company Enough</p>
Voices

What the national emergency of rape means for students

<p>Gavin Barwell, who has said it is ‘insane’ for Tory MPs to indicate that they would do a deal with Reform in a hung parliament</p>
Voices

The anti-Farage Tories who want Labour to win

<p>The future of Syria lies in education, not roads and buildings, says a Syrian teacher</p>
Voices

Rebuilding Syria after Assad must start with schools, not concrete

<p>The Labour government has confirmed the UK will rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange scheme (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
Voices

After Erasmus, the other steps the UK could take for closer EU ties

<p>The Labour government has confirmed the UK will rejoin EU’s Erasmus student exchange scheme (Stefan Rousseau/PA)</p>
Voices

After Erasmus, the other steps the UK could take for closer EU ties

<p>White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles confirmed that President Donald Trump is in the Epstein files, telling Vanity Fair that the late sex offender and Trump were ‘sort of young, single playboys together’</p>
Voices

What Susie Wiles was really trying to tell us about Trump

<p>‘Amber, with her brilliant musical theatre career, has simply not passed the smell test for what makes a good Strictly star’</p>
Voices

Please, no more crying on Strictly

<p>Removing yourself from the most high-pressure day of the year might be the kindest thing you could do </p>
Lifestyle

Skipping family gatherings can be the best Christmas gift, say readers

<p>Keir Starmer spoke with Donald Trump over the phone on Thursday night, Downing Street said</p>
Voices

Starmer is trying hard to big up the economy – but 2025 has been a dud

President Donald Trump announced the first-ever 'Patriot Games,' which many social media users likened to the fictional Hunger Games
Voices

The BBC has no choice but to teach Trump a lesson about free speech

<p>If Europe acted immediately to protect Ukrainian infrastructure, for example, and fill the space with drones, then the war might more easily be won</p>
Voices

The EU’s €90bn won’t win the war – but Ukraine won’t lose (for now)

<p>Analysts in the West have argued that Vladimir Putin appears to be actively preparing for conflict with Europe</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine cannot continue to survive on Europe’s starvation rations

<p>Downing Street has scrapped its daily afternoon lobby briefing in a move that journalists warn could damage scrutiny of Keir Starmer’s administration</p>
Voices

It’s beginning to look a lot like Labour is afraid of scrutiny

<p>If Europe acted immediately to protect Ukrainian infrastructure, for example, and fill the space with drones, then the war might more easily be won</p>
Voices

The EU’s €90bn won’t win the war – but Ukraine won’t lose (for now)

<p>Analysts in the West have argued that Vladimir Putin appears to be actively preparing for conflict with Europe</p>
The Independent View

Ukraine cannot continue to survive on Europe’s starvation rations

<p>Downing Street has scrapped its daily afternoon lobby briefing in a move that journalists warn could damage scrutiny of Keir Starmer’s administration</p>
Voices

It’s beginning to look a lot like Labour is afraid of scrutiny

<p>Line for non-EU citizens at Prague airport</p>
News & Advice

‘The UK got what it wanted’: Readers on long waits at EU borders

<p>Family photographs, including unseen pictures of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, from Frieda Hughes’s personal album</p>
Voices

A poem in memory of my mother, Sylvia Plath

<p>It is, to date, France’s most shocking mass rape case</p>
Voices

A year on from Gisèle Pelicot, do men know how women feel about them?

<p>‘There is a view that Russia could sue in the courts – which it is threatening to do – and win, leaving the EU and its banks to pick up the enormous tab’</p>
Voices

The chilling impact of Putin’s frozen assets on the Western alliance

<p>Wes Streeting with Keir Starmer on a hospital walkabout</p>
Voices

My new Mental Health Act will consign outdated treatment to history

<p>‘Jess Phillips and her colleagues appear determined to treat the challenge with the same seriousness and techniques that have been deployed, with some success, against terrorism’</p>
The Independent View

Misogynistic abuse is a ‘national emergency’ – and it starts online

<p>Soon we will be treated to another choreographed display of life in the inner sanctums of the Trump cult – the Amazon documentary on Melania, mother and first lady</p>
Voices

Just when you thought Trump couldn’t go any lower…

<p>I was on 24/7 oxygen in the hospital, and even weeks later, I couldn’t get out of bed. I was being washed in bed because I had no energy. I thought: this could really kill me</p>
Voices

Flu left me on permanent oxygen and needing a double lung transplant

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