January 5, 2026
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 05.01.2026, 13:55
Venezuela. US President Donald Trump again asserted on Sunday evening that the United States is now “in charge” in Venezuela, following the capture of that country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, the France Presse news agency says. Following a spectacular operation, US troops on Saturday captured the country’s president, who is already in prison in New York and is due to appear before the US justice on charges of “narcoterrorism”. He has always denied any criminal act. This was the most direct US intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama in 1989, Reuters recalls. The principles of international law must be upheld in Venezuela and the will of the Venezuelan people must be respected, the European Union said on Sunday in a statement supported by all EU member states with the exception of Hungary. The statement calls for restraint from all parties to ensure a peaceful solution. The EU has stated that Maduro lacks democratic legitimacy and called for a transition to democracy as decided by the will of the Venezuelan people.
Foreign affairs. The Romanian foreign ministry is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela, in close coordination with Romania’s partners in the European Union. The ministry said Venezuela is home to a community of people with Romanian roots and that Romania’s diplomatic and consular missions in Latin America and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are ready to provide them with assistance in case of need, with the support of the EU Permanent Delegation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls for restraint and responsibility on the part of the authorities there. It supports steps as soon as possible for the return to democracy, a constant wish by Venezuelan citizens. The EU has established, also with Romania’s agreement, successive sanctions regimes against the undemocratic regime in Caracas, including after the deeply flawed presidential elections in July 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest also said in a statement.
Electricity. A winter energy command is meeting again in Bucharest today to assess the interventions carried out and the urgent actions still to be taken following the strong winds and heavy snowfalls reported across the country in recent days. More than 17,000 households are still without electricity, out of the 95,000 that were initially affected by blackouts, the energy ministry said. Emergency teams have been deployed to the sites affected, but the freezing rain expected may make their work at high altitudes more difficult. More on this later in the newsreel.
Summit. Romanian President Nicușor Dan will attend a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris on Tuesday, the president’s office has announced. The meeting of heads of state and government from countries supporting Ukraine will be hosted by the president’s headquarters. Ahead of this meeting, officials from 15 states, allies of Ukraine, met in Kyiv on Saturday to analyse the details of a possible peace plan and in particular the security guarantees. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that if Russia continues to block peace efforts, Ukraine will have no choice but to defend itself.
Magistrates. The Bucharest Court of Appeal has postponed until 16th January a lawyer’s request to suspend the decrees on the appointment of two of the Constitutional Court judges. The lawyer, a member of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (a populist, ultranationalist party in opposition), argues that the two judges do not meet the requirement of having 18 years of judicial experience as required by the Constitution. These developments come against the backdrop of a deadlock over magistrates’ pensions, the Bucharest press notes. If the two judges were to be replaced, there would be a new postponement with regard to magistrates’ pensions, in the context in which the new law has been postponed three times since it was first discussed by the Constitutional Court. The next deadline is also set for January 16. (CM)
