After Washington offered a reward for his arrest and launched new antidrug operations in the Caribbean, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has pledged to mobilize more than four million militia fighters in response to new “threats” from the United States.
In a televised address on Monday, Maduro stated that “I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory – militias that are prepared, activated, and armed.”
Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez established the militia, which is officially said to have about five million members, despite some analysts’ predictions that the figure is lower. There are about 30 million people in total in this nation.
Maduro denounced Washington’s “extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish threats.” His remarks came after US President Donald Trump’s administration increased the reward for his arrest by $50 million. He is accused of being the leader of the Cartel de los Soles, a cocaine-smuggling organization.
Maduro’s administration and the alleged cartel are currently subject to new sanctions from the US government, which refuses to acknowledge his last two election victories. There is no conclusive evidence linking Maduro to drug cartels in the US.
As part of a larger operation against Latin American drug cartels, the US military has also sent three guided missile destroyers to the southern Caribbean.
According to officials who were given details about the plan, the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson are scheduled to dock off Venezuela’s coast in days. The deployment will include approximately 4, 000 Marines and sailors.
“We are also deployed throughout the Caribbean,” said Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who spoke on the phone from his ship.
Maduro promised to use “rifles and missiles” to bolster his political base in order to support the country’s sovereignty and encourage the development of worker and peasant militias.
The Venezuelan leader criticized Washington’s rhetoric as a “rotten refrain” in spite of the mounting pressure and expressed gratitude for international voices who have criticized the US position.
At least 360 people have been killed in northern Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir since Friday, and at least 100 have been missing in the state.
The northwest’s mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where entire villages were wiped away as swollen rivers, mudslides, and collapsing homes left families buried beneath debris, is where the majority of the victims were. Authorities have urged local authorities to remain on the lookout for more deluges and potential landslides.
More than 200 people are killed by floods in Buner.
At least 207 people have died in Buner, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over the course of two days as landslides and floods swept through villages and destroyed homes.
After a storm in Bayshonai Kalay, Buner district, on August 17, 2025, heavy rain and flooding caused bodies to be discovered in the debris of damaged homes.
Slight slopes that lead to narrow valleys dominate Buner. Landslides and flash floods are a possible result of the district’s loose, erosion-prone soil and deforestation.
After the floods, the mountains and nearby villages, including Pir Baba, were covered in mud and debris.
A cloudburst: what is it?
A cloudburst, a rare event that produces more than 100mm (4 inches) of rain in a small area in an hour, was reported by officials in Buner. More than 150mm (6 inches) of rain fell in Buner on Friday morning in just one hour.
When the weather conditions cause sudden, localized downpours that cause landslides, cloudbursts typically occur in mountainous areas during the monsoon season.
Thunder, lightning, and occasionally hail are frequently accompanied by cloudbursts, which typically occur over a small area of 20 to 30 km (7. 7 to 11.6 km).
(Al Jazeera)
A Buner schoolteacher, Aziz Ahmed, claimed the thunderous rumblings from the recent torrential rains made him believe the “end of the world had come.”
After flash floods in the Buner district on August 17, 2025, houses in the area are partially submerged in sludge along a riverbed.
Search efforts focused on areas where homes were shattered by massive boulders that smashed into homes like explosions as they were carried away by torrents of water that had fallen from the mountains.
Ahmed cited a house where only one family member was still living, “You can say that those who survived have gone mad.”
Pakistan’s destructive monsoon season
The monsoon season in Pakistan typically lasts from July to September, with August’s peak rainfall being the norm.
More than 650 people have died and nearly 1, 000 have been injured in Pakistan as a result of torrential monsoon rains that have rolled in since late June, according to officials.
At a press conference in Islamabad, National Disaster Management Authority Chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik claimed that climate change was causing Pakistan to change its weather patterns.
According to Haider, “this year’s monsoon has an intensity of about 50% to 60% more than last year.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 425 deaths have been reported, followed by 164 in Punjab, is the province with the worst cases.
About a third of the fatalities were caused by house collapses, while more than half were caused by flash floods.
The extent of destruction to housing and infrastructure is also being highlighted by reports of 719 homes damaged or destroyed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 941 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 2, 707 homes have been damaged overall.
Early warning system
Buner officials allegedly failed to warn residents to leave the area. Mosque loudspeakers, a common method in remote areas, did not provide any warning broadcast.
The government claimed that a sudden downpour in Buner occurred before residents could be notified, despite the early warning system being in place.
Pakistan is prone to natural disasters.
Pakistan is one of the most environmentally-vulnerable nations on earth and experiences increasingly severe weather.
The nation experiences frequent heatwaves, heavy rains, glacial lake outburst floods, and sudden cloudbursts that can devastate communities within hours, even though it produces less than 1% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The monsoon season is frequently marked by flash floods and landslides, particularly in the rugged northwest, where villages are situated on steep slopes and riverbanks.
More than 1,700 people died and estimated $40 billion in damage was caused by Pakistan’s worst monsoon season ever recorded in 2022. According to official data, more than 1,700 people died and at least 20 million were affected by similar floods 12 years earlier.
Can justice ever truly reach the people who are most in need in a place so remote?
Pitcairn Island was once perceived as untouched paradise far off the coast of the Pacific. But beneath the covert of caution, police discovered years of agonizing abuse involving girls and women that no one knew about.
When the truth finally emerged, it exploded into a global scandal that shattered lives and exposed a legacy of silence and betrayal. Can justice ever truly reach the people who are most in need in a place so remote?
With a 7-5, 6-4 defeat of Jasmine Paolini, Iga Swiatek won the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open for the first time, adding to her long-awaited career tennis puzzle.
The Polish champion converted on six of her break opportunities while Paolini struggled to make the most of her break opportunities. The final, which lasted less than two hours, featured 16 break-point chances.
With her 11th career victory at the WTA 1000 level, the six-time Grand Slam champion is only a short of Serena Williams’ 13-time winning streak. Without conceding a set, Skiatek won the Cincinnati.
After her first victory in Cincinnati, Swiatek remarked to the Tennis Channel, “It’s always tough in Cincy.”
“This gives me a confidence boost,” I said. We’ve been doing a good job, and I’m pleased with it. I had to be persuaded to play in a different way by the team. After the match, everything feels even better, and I’m happy with that process. I’m pleased that my sets were straight.
The 24-year-old backed up her first Wimbledon title with the Midwest honors, and now heads to the US Open with a significant confidence boost following her 24th career title.
Beginning on Tuesday, Swiatek will compete against Norway’s Casper Ruud in the revamped mixed doubles competition.
READ MORE: [Iga Swiatek] From Wimbledon Champion to Queen of Clay.
On Flushing Meadows’ slower courts, the Pole claimed she enjoyed the challenge. I play well. She said, “I can play on any  surface.
“They , are slowing down the courts , kind of, so I’m not sure how it is now , there. But tennis is all about “adjusting,” not “but”.
Swiatek also surpassed Aryna Sabalenka, the current WTA number one, by 500 points, with the top spot likely to be in play at Sunday’s Open.
Swiatek has only the Canadian tournament, where she hasn’t made the final at a 1000 event, after she had failed twice in the semi-finals of her previous two competitions.
We were both tight on both ends, but that happens in finals, Swiatek said. “Today was tough. In the end, I was pleased to close things out. Although not everything was perfect, I still had the best of my tennis skills. We engaged in a lot of mental exercise. I had a very composed and consistent approach to my game.
Swiatek started badly when she lost her serve and lost the game 0-3. The former number one immediately began her turnaround, though the situation was only temporary.
At the Mason, Ohio, August 18, 2025, Jasmine Paolini of Italy poses with her Rookwood Cup following her match against Iga Swiatek of Poland in the women’s final of the Cincinnati Open. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Getty Images via AFP)
With two breakups of serve, the Pole took a 5-3 lead.
In the tenth game, Paolini saved a Swiatek set point to square the final at five-all before taking a break of sorts.
Paolini dropped serve for 5-6, giving her opponent the chance to turn a love game into a 7-5 victory after just under an hour of action on the court.
The pair twice exchanged break points before Swiatek saved a pair of break points to take the lead 5-3 before handing the match winner away two games later.
Dates: August 24 through September 7 in Flushing Meadows, New York
Jodie Burrage, Dan Evans’ compatriot, successfully opened her qualifying campaign with a strong victory, but Dan Evans missed out on a spot in the US Open main draw.
In the opening round of qualifying in New York, Burrage, 26, defeated Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig 6-4, 6-0.
However, South Africa’s world number 353 Lloyd Harris defeated British number five Evans 6-4, 33-6, 7-5 in the opening round of qualifying, which leaves them without a Grand Slam main draw for the first time since 2018.
Last year, Evans won the longest match in US Open history, finishing the third round at Flushing Meadows in five hours, 35 minutes.
Arantxa Rus, the 18th seed, will face world number 149 Burrage next, who is bidding to win the US Open main draw for the second time.
Compatriots Billy Harris and Jay Clarke follow Burrage in the second round, but Harold Mayot, from France, defeated Johannus Monday 7-5, 6-3, in the final round.
James Kent Trotter from Japan defeated by Harris 6-1, 6-2, while Clarke defeated American Jack Satterfield 7-6 (7-5) 6-1.
To be eligible for the tournament’s main singles draw, which begins on Sunday, players must have won three matches in qualifying.
Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter, and Sonay Kartal join Jack Draper, Cameron Norrie, and Jacob Fearnley in the women’s singles.
After revealing that the pair haven’t been friends since Jest unexpectedly left the band in 2020, Perrie Edwards has spoken about former bandmate Jesy Nelson.
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Little Mix stars Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson are no longer friends(Image: Daily Record)
Perrie Edwards has made a rare comment about her former bandmate Jesy Nelson months after revealing she was “heartbroken” as the pair now “don’t talk – and haven’t for a long time”.
The Little Mix stars were once the best of pals, along with fellow bandmates Jade Thirlwall, 32, and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 33. But when Jesy, 34, quit the band in 2020 citing mental health reasons, sadly it also marked the end of her friendship with 32-year-old Perrie.
Jesy stated to the audience at the time, “The truth is that my mental health has really been affected by recent being in the band.” Being a girl group and living up to expectations are very difficult for me to endure.
She continued to discuss how she had always felt like the “out of this world” in the girl band and was unable to cope with being compared to her bandmates, leading to panic attacks on music video sets.
Perrie says no longer being friends with Jesy after she left he band felt ‘heartbreaking’(Image: Getty Images)
Jesy said at the time, “I didn’t look the way I wanted to, and I found it so difficult to just be happy and enjoy myself.” The other three were having the time of their lives when I saw them.
Because I want to feel that way and enjoy it because music is my passion, I become so envious. I was aware that having this dream and not enjoying it because of how I looked weren’t normal.
But in a new interview on Celebs Go Dating expert Paul C Brunson’s ‘We Need To Talk’ podcast, Perrie spoke out about Jesy and their friendship at the start of their Little Mix journey back in 2011 – and how it gave her confidence in her own singing and performing abilities.
Perrie pictured with Paul C Brunson on podcast(Image: PR)
Speaking about the power of female friendships, the mum-of-one – who shares son Axel (who turns four later this week) with footballer fiancé Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – shared: “I remember singing in front of Jesy for the first time, and she was like, ‘Oh my God, you are like Christina Aguilera.’
“And I thought, “Whoa! ” She said, “Listen to her sing.” Listen to her ‘sing!’ And she was yelling, “Sing, babe sing,” to the people around me. And I thought, “Oh my God. And she only gave me so much happiness.
Perrie and Perrie discussed their current relationship in an interview with Cosmopolitan last year. We don’t talk and haven’t spoken in a while, she said. It’s heartbreaking and extremely depressing. However, there are times when people decide they want to split up, which is perfectly acceptable. You can’t control how things turn, so I’d prefer it to change.
And Jesy has also experienced mental health issues, Perrie explained elsewhere in the new podcast how agoraphobia caused her to “could barely leave” her house by the end of 2024.
Perrie candidly opened up about her struggles over the last few years(Image: PR)
In September, she told host Paul, “I couldn’t leave the house. It was so intense. And I remember saying, “This is not what I want in life.” I’d like to marry. More children are desirable. A successful career is what I aspire to have. All of these things are important to me.
And I feel very limited in what I can do. My capacity was not large. Really nothing. I pondered whether it even worthwhile for me to do it because of my work and other obligations. Every time I leave the house and go to work, I don’t want to feel that way.
Perrie continued, “I have therapy every Friday. Sharing things is now better. We reached a point where I kept saying, “Sometimes when I’m feeling anxious and I’m in a car and I’m in traffic or I’m in some situations, I start to feel a little trapped.”
And we kind of realized that my entire childhood and upbringing were spent in dysfunctional bodies, which must have felt almost claustrophobic. But I was unable to stop it and escape it.
