Donald Trump consigned the remnants of the rules-based international order to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea as US forces extracted Nicolás Maduro to face trial in the US. With allies and adversaries of Washington still adjusting to last weekend’s audacious assault on Caracas, Trump and his inner circle are thinking about their next steps to secure US interests in what they regard as “our hemisphere”.
Our reporting team, led by Latin American correspondent Tom Phillips, gauges the reaction to Maduro’s abduction on the ground in Caracas and among Venezuela’s closest neighbours, while Dan Sabbagh explains how the US military had planned and executed the operation.
Since the start of the US military buildup and blockade of Venezuela, Trump had claimed that Maduro needed to be “brought to justice” for his alleged role in drug trafficking, which Trump claimed had caused thousands of deaths in the US. But, as international commentators Julian Borger and Nesrine Malik explain, that has proved the thinnest of justifications and already by last Saturday it was clear that Venezuela’s huge oil reserves were uppermost on his mind.
The year has begun with a seismic geopolitical shift, the implications of which will take time for the world to adjust to, and that will undoubtedly dominate the Guardian Weekly news and analysis agenda, but here are other some other highlights from the forthcoming edition.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight | Iran in turmoil
An ailing economy and plummeting exchange rate have prompted the biggest street protests in many years, report Deepa Parent and William Christou
Science | Is de-extinction really possible?
Bringing woolly mammoths and dire wolves back to life captured the public’s imagination last year but, Patrick Greenfield reports, there are questions around what can actually be achieved
Feature | The power and purpose of guilt
Psychologist Chris Moore saw first-hand how powerful and complex an emotion it is, as he explains to Emine Saner
Opinion | Adieu to the French art of lunch
Paul Taylor mourns the demise of a convivial lunch at a bistro serving freshly prepared food and the end of an unpretentious part of working culture
Culture | Is the crisis in masculinty just a joke?
It’s a ridiculous time to be male – and that’s good news for a new genre of social media comedy poking fun at the manosphere, finds Matthew Cantor
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What else we’ve been reading
I stumbled across this remarkable story of Ingrid LeFebour, who journeyed with a group of “surf-explorers” to the remote island of Nias in search of the perfect wave, and woke up in a morgue. Neil Willis, production editor
Molly Parkin was an artist and fashion journalist who died this week at the age of 93. Her Guardian obituary recalls a life well and truly lived, from a humble background in Wales to epitomising the bohemian spirit of the 1960s and 70s. Anthony Naughton, assistant editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Crude appeal: why Trump wants Venezuela’s oil – podcast
• Video | Experience Sydney’s new GreenWay trail on its grand opening in this immersive 360 capture
• Gallery | ‘A front row seat to witness history’: Ed Kashi’s astonishing global images
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