After Venezuela, Who’s Next?

Welcome back to World Brief, the first edition of 2026! Today, we’re looking at threats of U.S. intervention around the world, South Korea’s budding friendship with China, and a series of cyberbullying convictions in France.

The Donroe Doctrine

In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump often touted his “no new wars” mantra as evidence for why he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Within days of the start of 2026, though, Trump took a hard right turn: capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, threatening military action against Colombia, warning of the fall of Cuba, suggesting U.S. intervention in Iran, cautioning the administration in Mexico, and vowing to annex Greenland.

Pursuing what has been coined the “Donroe Doctrine,” after the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, Trump kicked off the new year with an eye on U.S. intervention in resource-rich nations—a policy that he has prioritized in his National Security Strategy.

Here’s what you need to know about Trump’s current (and potentially future) targets:

Venezuela

Maduro appeared in a New York court on Monday for the first time since his dramatic seizure by U.S. forces early Saturday morning. He has pleaded not guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges and demanded that he be returned to Caracas, where he maintains that he is the rightful leader. (Independent vote monitors say opposition figure Edmundo González rightfully won Venezuela’s disputed presidential election in 2024.)

Trump has since said that the United States will “run the country,” with some suggesting that either Secretary of State Marco Rubio or presidential advisor Stephen Miller will oversee post-Maduro operations. It is unclear what U.S. involvement will look like, though the White House has said that it aims to take control of Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Experts suggest that the United States’ monthslong pressure campaign against alleged narcoterrorists in Latin America was a thinly veiled smoke screen for its regime-change ambitions. While the White House maintains that its actions against Maduro were legal, United Nations chief António Guterres warned on Saturday that they set a “dangerous precedent,” and several members of the U.N. Security Council argued in an emergency session on Monday that the U.S. operation in Venezuela violated international law.

Colombia

Trump threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Sunday with U.S. military action, saying: “Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.” Asked if the United States would launch an operation against Bogotá, Trump replied with, “It sounds good to me.”

The U.S. president has not provided specifics as to what such an operation might look like. But Petro has warned of armed resistance if U.S. forces turn their attention on Colombia. “Do not threaten our sovereignty, because you will awaken the Jaguar,” Petro posted on X last month. “Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war, do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.”

Cuba

Following Maduro’s capture, Trump suggested that Cuba’s regime could similarly collapse in the near future. “I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now,” Trump said on Saturday, with Rubio adding, “If I lived in Havana, and I was in the government, I’d be concerned—at least a little bit.”

However, Trump has since walked back some of these comments, telling reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that “I think it’s just going to fall. I don’t think we need any action.”

Iran

A day before the U.S. operation in Venezuela, Trump appeared to consider U.S. intervention in Iran in support of anti-regime protesters. “If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” he posted on Truth Social. In response, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that “all American centers and forces across the entire region will be legitimate targets for us in response to any potential adventurism.”

U.S. forces struck three Iranian nuclear sites in a brazen operation last June during the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict, and Trump has previously threatened Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian regime under President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Mexico

When it comes to tackling drug cartels, Mexico is one of Trump’s top targets. “Mexico has to get their act together, because they’re [drugs are] pouring through Mexico, and we’re going to have to do something,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Sunday after sharing a similar sentiment on Fox & Friends.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned Trump’s most recent threats on Monday. “We categorically reject intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” she said. “The history of Latin America is clear and compelling: Intervention has never brought democracy, never generated well-being, nor lasting stability.”

Greenland

Throughout 2025, the Trump administration expressed interest in acquiring Greenland, a resource-rich, strategically located territory of Denmark. Despite Copenhagen being a NATO ally, Trump has not ruled out using military force or economic coercion to achieve this goal. “We do need Greenland, absolutely,” Trump told the Atlantic on Sunday. “We need it for defense.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urged European powers on Monday to take Trump’s threats seriously, adding that “if the United States attacks another NATO country, everything stops.”

Today’s Most Read

The World This Week

Tuesday, Jan. 6: The Organization of American States’ Permanent Council meets to discuss the situation in Venezuela.

Wednesday, Jan. 7: Pope Leo begins an extraordinary two-day consistory of cardinals.

Thursday, Jan. 8: Amman hosts the European Union-Jordan summit.

Sunday, Jan. 11: Benin holds parliamentary elections.

Myanmar holds the second phase of its general election.

Monday, Jan. 12: Hong Kong’s High Court holds a presentencing hearing for pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai.

The International Court of Justice holds hearings on genocide allegations against Myanmar.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki begins a two-day visit to the United Kingdom.

What We’re Following

A burgeoning friendship. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung signaled a “new phase” in Seoul’s relationship with Beijing on Monday during a four-day state visit to China, adding that 2026 will be the first year of a “full-scale restoration of Korea-China relations.” The summit, during which Lee met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, signals both countries’ efforts to bolster their alliances in the face of regional adversaries.

For Beijing, that opposition comes from Tokyo. Since the inauguration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in October 2025, differences in policy over Taiwan have sparked a major diplomatic blowout between China and Japan as well as threats of military action. Xi has since emphasized China’s shared history with South Korea during World War II, when both countries fought Japan, to curry favor with Seoul.

As for South Korea, one of the summit’s priorities is to counter Pyongyang. Just hours before Lee arrived in China, North Korea launched several ballistic missiles, including what it claimed to be hypersonic missiles, into the sea. This was its first such launch since November. South Korea’s Defense Ministry called the tests a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and urged Pyongyang to respond to its push to restart peace talks.

Guilty of cyberbullying. A Paris court convicted 10 people on Monday for cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron. The defendants, eight men and two women whose ages range from 41 to 65, were found guilty of spreading false online claims about Macron’s gender, including that she was transgender, and equating the 24-year age gap between her and her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, to pedophilia.

These comments were “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious,” the court ruled, pointing to the “cumulative harmful effects” that they had on the first lady. The 10 defendants were sentenced to jointly pay a fine of $11,675 for moral damage and are required to attend cyberbullying awareness training. Other sentences were determined based on the severity of each individual’s online posts, with the harshest receiving a six-month jail term.

Critical infrastructure attacks. Overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Kyiv region early Monday marked what appears to be the war’s first fatalities of 2026. At least two people were killed, and several homes and critical infrastructure were damaged, including a working medical facility in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi district. According to Kyiv Oblast Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk, pockets of the region were left without power.

Over the course of Russia’s nearly four-year war against Ukraine, Moscow has routinely targeted the country’s energy sector in an effort to freeze Ukraine into submission. That includes attacks on its communications grid and oil refineries during the most recent brutal winter. The West has previously responded by imposing sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil—to devastating effect. But such pressure has so far failed to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

Kyiv’s Western allies will convene in Paris on Tuesday for a session of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of more than 30 nations committed to Ukraine’s defense, during which they plan on discussing postwar security guarantees for Kyiv.

Odds and Ends

Get ready for some expensive sushi. The operator of popular Japanese restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai bid $3.24 million on Monday for a single bluefin tuna. Weighing 535 pounds, the cost of the prized catch was the highest-ever price paid at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market’s annual start-of-year auction—superseding the previous record of $2.1 million paid in 2019. “I haven’t sampled it yet, but it’s got to be delicious,” the company’s owner, Kiyoshi Kimura, said. “But when I see a good-looking tuna, I cannot resist.”