A ‘limited number’ of U.S. personnel are operating in Caracas as Washington looks to resume diplomatic relations with Venezuela after the historic capture of Nicolás Maduro, Fox News has learned.

A senior State Department official told Fox News that the Trump administration plan to resume official diplomacy with Venezuela is under way. This is the first time a State Department official has commented on reporting about the diplomatic team on the ground.

‘A limited number of U.S. diplomatic and technical personnel are in Caracas conducting initial assessments for a potential phased resumption of operations,’ the official said.

The official did not specify exactly what ‘a limited number’ meant, and it is not immediately clear exactly how many people are on the ground. The phased resumption of operations would include the re-opening of the U.S. Embassy and consulate offices in Venezuela.

Since Maduro was captured, the Trump administration has been cautious in its approach to Venezuela. President Donald Trump initially said that the U.S. would ‘run’ the country for an undetermined period of time. 

Since then, Trump has met with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who he said he doubts has the support necessary to take over the country.

After her meeting with Trump, Machado spoke at a news conference hosted by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, in Washington, D.C. She said that Venezuela would hold ‘free and fair’ elections ‘eventually.’ However, she did not offer a timeline for how long the current interim government would be allowed to rule, only that elections would happen ‘as soon as possible.’

Machado also attempted to downplay the appearance of competition between herself and Maduro’s successor, interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, for Trump’s support.

‘This has nothing to do with a tension or decision between Delcy Rodríguez and myself,’ Machado said when asked about Trump’s openness to working with the interim government. ‘This is about a criminal structure that is a regime and the mandate of the Venezuelan people.’

On Jan. 15, Rodriguez, who was sworn-in as Venezuela’s interim president following the capture of Maduro, met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe. A U.S. official told CBS News that the purpose of the meeting was to ‘deliver the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship.’

Rodriguez’s meeting with Ratcliffe took place one day after she had a phone call with Trump, who said the conversation was ‘very good.’

‘We are making tremendous progress, as we help Venezuela stabilize and recover. Many topics were discussed, including oil, minerals, trade and, of course, national security,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL. Venezuela will soon be great and prosperous again, perhaps more so than ever before!’

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Nigerian authorities have admitted that more than 160 Christians were kidnapped during worship services Sunday after initially denying the simultaneous attacks on three churches.

‘Subsequent verification from operational units and intelligence sources has confirmed that the incident did occur,’ Benjamin Hundeyin, the police spokesperson for the unit in northwestern Kaduna, Nigeria, state, said in a statement.

A state lawmaker, Usman Danlami Stingo, had told The Associated Press that 177 people were abducted during simultaneous in northwestern Kaduna, Nigeria, Sunday. Eleven reportedly escaped, while 168 are still missing, according to Stingo. The attacks reportedly took place at the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), at another church belonging to the denomination Cherubim and Seraphim, and at a Catholic church. 

Kaduna, Nigeria, State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu initially described news reports of the attacks Monday as rumors, saying the police visited one of the three churches in the district of Kajuru and ‘there was no evidence of the attack.’

Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Northern Christian Association of Nigeria, claimed on Nigerian broadcast network Africa Independent that the issue had become ‘politicized.’

‘I don’t know the politics being played by the deniers, but this is quite sad. Whoever is asking for a list, we have shown them the list, let them tell us the list does not exist.’

‘This incident happened,’ he said. ‘All we want is for the security services to do is to go after them.’ 

The Chikun/Kajuru Active Citizens Congress (CKACC), a local advocacy group, published a list of hostages that has not been verified. 

Rights group Amnesty International condemned the ‘desperate denial’ of the attack by the police and government.

‘The latest mass abduction clearly shows President Bola Tinubu and his government have no effective plan for ending years of atrocities by armed groups and gunmen that killed thousands of people,’ the group said in a statement.

In response to the recent kidnappings, a senior Trump administration official told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump made his position clear. Nigeria is facing a complex array of threats from terrorist groups and violent extremist organizations that is affecting wide portions of the country. We hope that the Nigerian government will work to take swift and immediate action in collaboration with the United States to address the violence that is affecting Christians, as well as countless other innocent civilians across Nigeria.’

Two Christian groups, Northern Christian Association of Nigeria and Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria (CSWN), said they sent representatives to the region to investigate, but they were turned away by military and local government officials. 

A local resident allegedly told CSWN that bandits had rounded up congregants and ‘forced them into a bush,’ later releasing elderly women and children. 

Kaduna State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu said Monday police visited one of the three churches and ‘there was no evidence of the attack.’

He said the ‘rumors’ were ‘sponsored by people who are not happy with the relative peace that Kajuru has been enjoying since the coming of this administration.’

The kidnapping reports come just weeks after the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Islamist targets in northern Nigeria.

On Dec. 25, 2025, U.S. Africa Command confirmed it conducted precision strikes targeting Islamic State-linked militants in Sokoto State, a Muslim-majority region in northwest Nigeria. The Pentagon said the operation was carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities and was intended to degrade ISIS-West Africa Province capabilities. 

Officials said multiple militants were killed. 

The Christmas Day strikes marked one of the most significant U.S. military actions in Nigeria in recent years and came amid warnings from U.S. officials that ISIS affiliates were exploiting Nigeria’s vast ungoverned spaces, porous borders and limited security presence in rural areas.

In recent months, armed groups have abducted hundreds of schoolgirls and students from multiple northern Nigerian schools, incidents that reignited U.S. political debate over whether the violence constitutes religious persecution or criminal banditry — and whether Nigeria’s government is capable of protecting vulnerable populations. Religious freedom advocates and some U.S. lawmakers have urged stronger diplomatic and security engagement, arguing that repeated attacks on Christian communities are being minimized by Nigerian authorities.

Nigeria’s government has consistently rejected claims of a coordinated campaign against Christians, insisting the violence is driven primarily by criminal groups seeking ransom rather than ideology. Security officials have warned that misinformation surrounding attacks risks inflaming tensions in already volatile regions.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh voiced concern during oral arguments on Wednesday that a Supreme Court case involving Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook could erode the central bank’s independence if the justices were to side with President Donald Trump in it.

Kavanaugh asked Solicitor General John Sauer, who argued on behalf of the administration, about his position that Trump alone can decide what ’cause’ means when firing a Federal Reserve governor.

‘That’s your position, no judicial review, no process required, no remedy available,’ Kavanaugh said, describing it as a ‘very low bar for cause that the president alone determines.’

Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, added that that would ‘weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve.’

Sauer said he disagreed and that the law requiring a Federal Reserve governor to be fired for cause was, in fact, a ‘high bar.’

‘It’s our very strong protection because it does protect them from the one thing that Congress was apparently most worried about, which is a removal for policy disagreement,’ Sauer said. 

The high-stakes case stems from Cook, who was represented during oral arguments by renowned conservative attorney Paul Clement, suing over Trump removing her from the Federal Reserve’s powerful seven-member board of governors.

Cook was appointed by former President Joe Biden. Board members serve 14-year terms, and no president has ever fired a single one.

The justices are weighing whether to keep in place a lower court injunction that has allowed Cook to remain in her post while her lawsuit proceeds.

Trump has argued he has broad authority to fire Cook, alleging she committed private mortgage fraud. Cook has denied those claims and said she has received no due process. She has not been charged with any crime.

While the conservative justices appeared largely sympathetic during a separate case examining Trump’s stance that he could fire members of independent agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the justices appeared to view the Federal Reserve as more insulated during Wednesday’s arguments.

The Federal Reserve, created in 1913, moderates interest rates and, unlike other independent agencies, it is not funded by Congress and its policy decisions do not need presidential or legislative approval.

Trump has repeatedly blasted Chairman Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve for lowering benchmark interest rates at a slower pace than the president wants. The president’s feud with the Federal Reserve recently expanded after Powell revealed that the Department of Justice was investigating him over an allegation he lied to Congress, which Powell denies.

Kavanaugh also raised a bigger picture question, asking Sauer what the implications of deciding in favor of Trump would mean for future administrations.

‘Let’s talk about the real-world, downstream effects of this, because if this were set as a precedent, it seems to me, just thinking big picture, what goes around, comes around,’ Kavanaugh said. ‘All the current president’s appointees would likely be removed for cause on Jan. 20, 2029, if there’s a Democratic president or Jan. 20, 2033. And then, we’re really at at-will removal.’

Justices across the ideological spectrum voiced skepticism about Trump’s ability to fire Cook. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama appointee, said she found the whole case unusual, noting that Trump first raised Cook’s termination through social media.

‘This whole case is irregular, starting with a Truth Social notice, or thinking of it as notice at all, certainly didn’t invite an opportunity to be heard. But that’s where we are,’ Sotomayor said.

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump took a shot at Somalia and claimed that the investigations Minnesota faces alleged fraud schemes is a reminder that the West cannot allow mass migration from ‘failed’ societies. 

Minnesota has encountered heightened scrutiny in recent months as the state faces investigations into multiple alleged fraud schemes plaguing the state’s social services system. 

The majority of those charged are part of Minnesota’s Somali population, and Trump unveiled plans in November 2025 to end the temporary protected status for Somali migrants in Minnesota that offers protections against deportation.

‘The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the West cannot mass import foreign cultures, which have failed to ever build a successful society of their own,’ Trump said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ‘I mean, we’re taking people from Somalia, and Somalia is a failed — it’s not a nation — got no government, got no police … got no nothing.’

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent announced in December 2025 that his agency was launching an investigation evaluating whether Minnesota’s funds were potentially diverted to al-Shabab, a terrorist organization based in Somalia. 

Lawmakers also initiated probes into Minnesota’s alleged ‘Feeding Our Future’ $250 million fraud scheme that allegedly targeted a children’s nutrition program the Department of Agriculture funded and that Minnesota oversaw during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At least 77 people have been charged in that scheme, which took advantage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to waive certain Federal Child Nutrition Program requirements.

Likewise, another alleged fraud scheme in the state stems from the Housing Stability Services Program, which allegedly offered Medicaid coverage for housing stabilization services in an attempt to help those with disabilities, mental illnesses and substance-use disorders receive housing.

The Justice Department so far has charged less than a dozen people for allegedly defrauding the program that runs through Minnesota’s Medicaid service, but more charges are expected.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has claimed that he believes that reports indicating the fraud could total over $9 billion are exaggerated and ‘sensationalized,’ but he’s also promised to address the issue. 

‘I am accountable for this, and more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,’ Walz told reporters in December 2025.

Europe should be happy President Donald Trump was elected — despite his threats to take Greenland — because without him, it would never have stepped up for its own defense, according to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. 

‘I’m not popular with you now because I’m defending Donald Trump, but I really believe you can be happy that he is there because he has forced us in Europe to step up, to face the consequences that we have to take care of more of our own defense,’ Rutte said Wednesday in remarks at Davos, Switzerland.

‘No way, without Donald Trump, this would never have happened. They’re all on 2% now,’ he went on during a panel at the World Economic Forum. 

In 2014, NATO allies agreed to spend 2% of GDP on defense, but many fell short until recent years. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s threats not to defend NATO countries, most allies are meeting or exceeding the benchmark. 

They’ve now agreed to spend 5% GDP on defense and national security infrastructure.

‘I’m absolutely convinced without Donald Trump you would not have taken those decisions, and they are crucial, particularly for the European and the Canadian side of NATO to really grow up in the post-Cold War world.’

U.S. lawmakers previously criticized Rutte for his own country’s underspending on defense. Rutte was prime minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024. 

Rutte argued the U.S. is still committed to Europe’s defense, and the nuclear umbrella is the ultimate defense guarantee.

‘The Americans still have over 80,000 soldiers in Europe … including in Poland and Germany, and so they are still heavily invested in European defense. And yes, they have to pivot more towards Asia. So it is only logical for them to expect us, Europe, to step up over time,’ he said.

He also added Greenland is not the ‘main issue’ and Europe should not let it distract from Ukraine’s defense. 

‘The risk here is that we focus, of course, on Greenland, because we have to make sure that issue gets solved in an amicable way,’ he said. ‘But the main issue is not Greenland. Now, the main issue is Ukraine. I’m also a little bit worried that we might drop the ball focusing so much on these other issues.’

‘This focus on Ukraine should be our top priority,’ he said. ‘Ukraine has to come first because it is crucial to our European and American security.’

Rutte repeatedly has praised Trump, in June calling him ‘daddy’ of the NATO alliance. 

‘Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop,’ he said in reference to fighting between Israel and Iran.

Other European leaders have expressed more concern about Trump’s Greenland ambitions. On Wednesday Trump, for the first time, ruled out taking Greenland by force. 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said a U.S. takeover of Greenland would mean the ‘end of NATO,’ the nearly 80-year-old defense alliance. 

Trump spoke at the Davos, Switzerland, conference Wednesday after threatening Europe with tariffs over the Greenland dispute.

This week the president told Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in a text message he ‘no longer thinks purely of peace’ in his desire to own Greenland.

Trump wrote: ‘Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.’

‘I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States,’ Trump wrote. ‘The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.’

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has time and again pushed to rein in President Donald Trump’s war authorities, but he has rarely gone to the same lengths for his own party’s presidents.

Kaine’s argument has stayed fairly consistent over the years that Congress should reassert its constitutional authority and decision-making in the run-up to a military conflict. And he has either led or joined several pushes over Trump’s non-consecutive terms in office to corral his war powers.

But he never pulled the same kind of move under former Presidents Barack Obama or Joe Biden, causing Republicans to question whether his desires are politically motivated or genuine.

There was not a single war powers resolution filed in the Senate during Obama’s time in office, but Kaine did push back on his expansive use of drones in the Middle East.

‘I have been as consistent as I can be, because I really got in the way of President Obama when he wanted to use military action in Syria without congressional authorization,’ Kaine said. ‘And I told him, you know, ‘You’re like my friend. But this is, you know, a basic principle for me.’’

His latest push to curb future military action in Venezuela without congressional approval nearly succeeded in the Senate but ultimately was killed through a rare procedural move coupled with an intense pressure campaign from Trump, his administration and Senate Republican leaders.

Before the first vote, which saw five Republicans peel from their colleagues to advance the resolution, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., contended that Kaine’s latest push ‘does not reassert Congress’ powers.’

‘There are Democrats in this chamber who are using the arrest of Nicolás Maduro not to advance American interests, but to attack President Trump,’ Barrasso said.

And building off Barrasso’s sentiment was a broader argument from several Republicans, and top officials like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who charged that Kaine’s push was moot given that there were no boots on the ground in Venezuela and that the administration has no future plans for military action.

Republicans who may have been on the verge of supporting Kaine’s push argued that without a plan to beat an almost guaranteed veto from Trump, it was nothing more than a messaging tactic.

‘It’s a messaging exercise, and I think that you’d have more credibility if, at least, you had some elements, like boots on the ground to justify it,’ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.

‘I mean, if somebody’s serious about getting something done, if you sit down with me and say, ‘I can get the 67 votes, so I have a veto-proof majority, and this is how I’m going to do it,’ that impresses me,’ he continued.

Dating back to Trump’s first term in office, Kaine has either introduced or supported seven war powers resolutions. Each of those pushes — four of which he led — were all directed toward reining in Trump’s military authority and reasserting Congress’ oversight role.

However, he rejected two of three Republican-led war powers pushes during Biden’s presidency, and notably, voted for the same procedural move used to kill his own Venezuela resolution to nix another from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2024.

Cruz’s war powers resolution sought to curb Biden’s war authority as he pushed for the creation of a temporary pier on the coast of Gaza to deliver aid to the country.

Kaine argued there was a stark difference between humanitarian missions and military action in explaining his vote against Cruz’s resolution.

‘That was because building a humanitarian pier is not hostilities, right? If that’s hostilities, the U.S. going to do tsunami relief is hostilities,’ Kaine said.

‘But you know what we’re doing in Venezuela is hostilities,’ he continued. ‘It’s not building a pier for humanitarian aid. So, that was why I said the definition of hostility should not apply to humanitarian acts, OK? And I firmly believe that, and I’d vote for that under presidents of either party.’

Still, Republicans countered that Kaine’s own war powers resolution was similarly void because there were no active or planned hostilities in the region.

‘It’s pretty clear, war powers only applies if you’ve got boots on the ground,’ Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital. ‘We don’t have boots on the ground in those locations that he’s talking about. And so I’m not sure what the reasoning is, but it appears to me to be unnecessary, and it certainly does not deserve to be privileged.’

Kaine has no intention of relenting on his war powers pursuit while Trump is in office and noted last week that he would file resolution after resolution to take a hammer to the cracks forming in the GOP’s mostly unified resistance against questioning the president’s war authorities.

That decision has not surprised many Republicans.

‘I mean, he’s a Democrat, so he’s going to try and do messaging,’ Tillis said. ‘I understand that — we do the same stuff.’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lashed out at California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, calling him ‘economically illiterate’ and accusing him of prioritizing elite global gatherings over the state’s mounting fiscal, housing, and homelessness crises.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bessent used the high-profile meeting to deliver a blistering critique of Newsom’s economic record and leadership.

‘I was told he was asked to give a speech on his signature policies, but he’s not speaking because what have his economic policies brought? Outward migration from California, a gigantic budget deficit, the largest homeless population in America, and the poor folks in the Palisades who had their homes burned down,’ the Treasury secretary said.

‘He is here hobnobbing with the global elite while his California citizens are still homeless. Shame on him. He’s too smug, too self-absorbed, and too economically illiterate to know anything.’

Bessent also responded to Newsom’s characterization of him as a ‘smug man,’ saying the governor ‘strikes me as Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken,’ referring to the fictional serial killer from ‘American Psycho’ and the flamboyant doll character from ‘Barbie.’

‘[He] may be the only Californian who knows less about economics than Kamala Harris. He’s here this week with his billionaire sugar daddy, Alex Soros, and Davos is the perfect place for a man who, when everyone else was on lockdown, when he was having people arrested for going to church, he was having $1,000 a night meals at the French Laundry,’ he added. ‘And I’m sure the California people won’t forget that.’

The Cabinet official said the administration would also move to address what he called ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ in the state.

Newsom, who is in Switzerland attending the Davos summit, struck back at the White House on Tuesday by directing his criticism at President Donald Trump and his remarks about acquiring Greenland.

‘America’s allies and business leaders need to understand this: There’s no diplomacy with Donald Trump. Get off your knees and grow a spine,’ he wrote on X.

He told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting later that Trump is a ‘T. rex.’ ‘You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other,’ Newsom said.

‘It’s time to stand tall and firm. Have a backbone. I can’t take this complicity — people rolling over,’ he added. ‘From an American perspective, it’s embarrassing.’