Donald Trump has announced that US forces 'captured' the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, and have flown them out of the country. The US has carried out an overnight strike across the region with explosions rocking the capital, Caracas, before dawn

• US strikes on Venezuela – live updates

Suspected offences include homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence

The two managers of a bar where a blaze on New Year’s Day killed at least 40 people have been placed under criminal investigation, Swiss prosecutors have said.

French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti owned and managed the Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, which was crammed with young new year’s revellers when a blaze began at about 1.30am local time (12.30am GMT) on Thursday, killing about 40 people and injuring more than 100.

Donald Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela as Nicolás Maduro and wife Cilia Flores are flown to New York

• US strikes on Venezuela – live updates

The US president, Donald Trump, has said the US will ‘run’ Venezuela after its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and taken to New York, hours after a “large-scale” pre-dawn assault on Caracas and the surrounding region. Here is what we know so far:

Donald Trump said “We’re going to run the country [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” during a press conference about the attack on Venezuela. He has not given details.

A plane carrying Maduro and Flores landed in New York on Saturday evening and they were expected to be transported to appear in Manhattan federal court, possibly as soon as Monday.

The US is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the military operation, Trump said. He said: “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”

Trump posted a photograph of Maduro on his Truth Social platform. It appeared to show the captured Venezuelan president in handcuffs, wrap-around sun goggles and headphones.

The UN security council is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday.

Trump said his administration had not spoken to Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado. He said he did not think she would be able to return to lead Venezuela, saying: “She does not have the support in Venezuela. She is a very nice woman but she does not have the support.”

The constitutional chamber of Venezuela’s supreme court has ordered vice president Delcy Rodríguez to assume the role of acting president in Maduro’s absence.

Trump was asked about Cuba during the press conference on Venezuela. He said “Cuba, as you know, is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years and I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now.”

The US Department of Justice released a new indictment against Nicolás Maduro, including his wife, Celia Flores, his son and others.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, hailed what he called a “truly impressive operation”. Resharing Trump’s post about the action, Vance wrote: “The president offered multiple off-ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States.”

In a statement on X, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Maduro was “under indictment for pushing drugs in the United States”. The Republican senator Mike Lee said on Saturday that Rubio had told him he “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in US custody”.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is deeply alarmed by US military action in Venezuela, his spokesperson has said, and considered the US intervention “a dangerous precedent”.

Karyshma, 27, a financial data analyst, meets Arun, 36, a radiographer

What were you hoping for?
A memorable evening, good company and to meet someone I wouldn’t have crossed paths with. I’m a romantic, so I like the idea of letting the universe (or the Guardian) do some matchmaking instead of the Hinge monotony.

Russian army captured more Ukrainian territory in 2025 than previous two years combined; Zelenskyy names new top aide. What we know on day 1,410

Russia’s battlefield gains in Ukraine last year were the highest since 2022, an analysis showed, as Kyiv prepared to host security advisers from allied states despite Moscow’s unrelenting strikes. The Russian army captured more than 5,600 square kilometres, or nearly 1%, of Ukrainian territory in 2025, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. The land captured is more than in the previous two years combined, though far short of the more than 60,000 sq km Russia took in 2022.

As Russia pressed its advantage against outgunned Ukrainian troops, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said about 15 countries would attend security talks in Kyiv on Saturday, the latest in a flurry of efforts to end the nearly four-year war. The meeting will include representatives from the EU and Nato, while a US delegation would join via video link.

Zelenskyy named military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov as his new top aide on Friday, after the president’s previous chief of staff resigned in November over a corruption scandal. Budanov has built up a strong reputation in Ukraine, credited with a series of daring operations against Russia. When formally appointed, he will succeed Andriy Yermak, who resigned in November after investigators raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe.

“Kyrylo has specialised experience in these areas and sufficient strength to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said. Budanov, 39, said on Telegram his new position was “both an honour and a responsibility – at a historic time for Ukraine – to focus on the critically important issues of the state’s strategic security”.

Zelenskyy also said he wanted to replace defence minister Denys Shymhal, who was appointed only six months ago, with 34-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov, who is now minister of digital transformation. “Mykhailo is deeply involved in issues related to drones and is very effective in the digitalisation of state services and processes,” the president added.

Moscow kept up its aerial barrage of Ukraine overnight, with the latest strike on a residential area of the city of Kharkiv reducing parts of multi-storey buildings to smouldering rubble. At least two people were killed in the attack, including a three-year-old child, and about 25 more were injured, officials said.

Zelenskyy described the attack as “heinous”. “Unfortunately, this is how the Russians treat life and people – they continue killing, despite all efforts by the world, and especially by the United States, in the diplomatic process,” he said on social media. Russia denied the attack had taken place, suggesting that an explosion at the site was caused by Ukrainian ammunition.

Ukrainian officials on Friday ordered the evacuation of more than 3,000 children and their parents from 44 frontline settlements in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, where Russian troops have been advancing. More than 150,000 people have been evacuated from frontline areas since 1 June, said Ukraine’s restoration minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

Southern Transitional Council wants to form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry has called for Yemen’s southern factions to attend a “dialogue” in Riyadh, after a surprise independence bid and the United Arab Emirates declaring it had withdrawn all troops from Yemen.

In a statement on Saturday, the Saudi ministry urged “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”. Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.

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