World
US critics and allies condemn Maduro’s abduction at UN Security Council
Denmark and Mexico, also threatened by US President Donald Trump, warn that the US violated international law.
Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including key US allies, have warned that the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by US special forces could be a precedent-setting event for international law.
The 15-member bloc met for an emergency meeting on Monday in New York City, where the Venezuelan pair were also due to face drug trafficking charges in a US federal court.
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Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, condemned the US operation as “an illegitimate armed attack lacking any legal justification”, in remarks echoed by Cuba, Colombia and permanent UNSC members Russia and China.
“[The US] imposes the application of its laws outside its own territory and far from its coasts, where it has no jurisdiction, using assaults and the appropriation of assets,” Cuba’s ambassador, Ernesto Soberon Guzman, said, adding that such measures negatively affected Cuba.
Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the US cannot “proclaim itself as some kind of a supreme judge, which alone bears the right to invade any country, to label culprits, to hand down and to enforce punishments irrespective of notions of international law, sovereignty and non-intervention”.
Notable critics at the emergency session included traditional US allies, Mexico and Denmark, both of whom Trump has separately threatened with military action over the past year.
Mexico’s ambassador, Hector Vasconcelos, said that the council had an “obligation to act decisively and without double standards” towards the US, and it was for “sovereign peoples to decide their destinies,” according to a UN readout.
His remarks come just days after Trump told reporters that “something will have to be done about Mexico” and its drug cartels, following Maduro’s abduction.
Denmark, a longstanding US security ally, said that “no state should seek to influence political outcomes in Venezuela through the use of threat of force or through other means inconsistent with international law.”
“The inviolability of borders is not up for negotiation,” Denmark’s ambassador, Christina Markus Lassen, told the council in an oblique reference to Trump’s threat that the US would annex Greenland, a self-governed Danish territory.
France, another permanent member of the UNSC, also criticised the US, marking a shift in tone from French President Emmanuel Macron’s initial remarks that Venezuelans “can only rejoice” following Maduro’s abduction.
“The military operation that has led to the capture of Maduro runs counter to the principle of peaceful dispute resolution and runs counter to the principle of non-use of force,” said the French deputy ambassador, Jay Dharmadhikari.
Representatives from Latvia and the United Kingdom, another permanent UNSC member, focused on the conditions in Venezuela created by Maduro’s government.
Latvia’s ambassador, Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes, said that Maduro’s conditions in Venezuela posed “a grave threat to the security of the region and the world”, citing mass repression, corruption, organised crime and drug trafficking.
The UK ambassador, James Kariuki, said that “Maduro’s claim to power was fraudulent”.
The US ambassador, Mike Waltz, characterised the abduction of Maduro and his wife as a “surgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the US military against two indicted fugitives of American justice”.
The White House defended its wave of air strikes on Venezuela, and in the waters near it, and Maduro’s abduction as necessary to protect US national security, amid unproven claims that Maduro backed “narcoterrorist” drug cartels.
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Video captured a large emergency response after a small plane crashed into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper on Friday, prompting an immediate information blackout from Chinese authorities, The Associated Press reported.
Video and photos shared on social media appear to show the aircraft plummeting to the ground after smashing a large hole in the 108-story CITIC Tower, located in the Chinese capital’s business district.
Police, fire and EMS workers were spotted at the scene preventing witnesses from taking photos and attempting to clear the area.
People gather near the CITIC Tower in Beijing on June 26, 2026, after an eyewitness reported plane debris at the base of Beijing’s tallest building. Video footage taken from a nearby building by the witness showed fire trucks blasting water at smoke billowing from the 528-metre (1,732-foot) CITIC Tower, while the wreck of a plane lay on the ground beside the building. (Adek Berry/AFP via Getty Images)
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A person working inside the high-rise said the plane crash triggered the building’s fire alarms.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 indicated the aircraft was a Sunward SA 60L Aurora, which took off about 30 miles east of the city and crashed shortly before 6 p.m. local time.
ADS-B data for the flight only includes a partial flight path and stops prior to the crash, according to air traffic data.
A hole is seen (R) on the side of the CITIC Tower in Beijing on June 26, 2026, after a reported plane crash. (Peter Catterall/AFP via Getty Images)
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The AP reported that photos and videos of the incident escaped the country’s “great firewall” and were circulated on social media platform X, though Chinese censors have removed content about the crash from the country’s restricted internet.
No information has been released by government officials or state-run media, as of Friday afternoon.
Police personnel block the road near the CITIC Tower in Beijing on June 26, 2026. (Adek Berry/AFP via Getty Images)
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The cause of the crash, identity of the pilot, and the number of casualties remain unclear.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The military government, in power since a coup in 2022, accused France of having ‘neo-colonial ambitions’.
Published On 26 Jun 2026
Burkina Faso has broken off diplomatic relations with France, further widening the rift with its former colonial ruler.
“The government of Burkina Faso hereby informs the national and international community that it has decided to sever diplomatic relations with France with effect from today, June 26, 2026,” said Friday’s statement read out on national television.
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The military government led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, in power since a coup in September 2022, is pursuing a policy against critical voices and Western countries, especially France.
In the TV announcement, the government accused France of persistently acting against its interests.
“The essential conditions for promoting relations based on mutual respect, reciprocal trust, respect for the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and national sovereignty are not in place,” said Communications Minister, Gilbert Ouedraogo.
He said the decision followed a review of relations with Paris. He accused France of having “neo-colonial ambitions, made evident by its active support for subversive networks and the terrorists who are plunging our country and the Sahel into mourning”.
In January, political parties in Burkina Faso were formally dissolved by the military government, which has also seized all their assets in a move analysts say is a major blow for democracy in the West African nation.
Landlocked Burkina Faso is grappling with several armed groups which have seized control of land in the country’s north, south and west. These include the al-Qaeda-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which also operate in neighbouring Mali and Niger.
Burkina Faso’s military has been accused of committing atrocities, including the ethnic cleansing of Fulani civilians, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch found last April.
According to the government statement released on Friday, the decision to cut ties with France “exclusively concerns diplomatic relations between the two states” and “does not call into question the historical, human, cultural and social ties between the people of Burkina Faso and France”.
It added that French nationals in Burkina Faso will continue to be protected in accordance with the law.
Once a significant power in northern, central and western Africa, France has seen its influence shrink in recent years, especially as many of its former African colonies, particularly in the Sahel, have distanced themselves and become more closely aligned with Russia and China.
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