Evening Update: New Venezuelan President's Invitation to Trump, Mamdani Takes on Big Landlords and More
Good evening to you all, and thank you for being here. We have a packed evening update for you today, as Zohran Mamdani is making a big move against large landlords in New York, we have much more fallout from the USA’s illegal assault on Venezuela, strange activity from the USA in relation to the Middle East, and a look atIsrael’s collective punishment against the city of Ramallah earlier today.
Given how much we have to get through, and how late we are in the day, it’s best to just get straight to it.
New Venezuelan President welcomes Trump’s help
Venezuela’s newly installed interim president Delcy Rodríguez has publicly signaled openness to working with the United States following the removal of Nicolás Maduro, stating that cooperation with Washington could help stabilise the country and ease ongoing economic and political pressure. This is the exact opposite of the rhetoric shared by the former Vice President of Venezuela just a day ago, and raises some serious questions that we will only be able to answer in hindsight at a later date.
Senior figures within the Trump regime, and indeed Trump himself, strongly hinted yesterday that this cooperation may not have begun after Maduro’s removal, but rather before it. U.S. officials suggested that elements of the new Venezuelan leadership were willing to work with the USA on the future of the South American country.
The presence of this claim a day before Delcy Rodríguez confirmed this was her position forces us to ask serious questions about the legitimacy of the transition and whether the invasion was facilitated in any way by Rodríguez and go. As noted, this is not something we can confirm at this point in time, but the suspicious nature of this move must be noted.
Mamdani takes on large landlords in New York
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has moved quickly to confront large landlords, launching a series of early actions aimed at curbing abusive rental practices and strengthening tenant protections. Mamdani revived and expanded the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and announced citywide “Rental Ripoff” hearings, designed to publicly document systemic landlord abuse and guide enforcement priorities.
Beyond hearings and appointments, Mamdani’s administration has also intervened in high-profile landlord cases, including developments tied to major property owners with extensive housing violations, indicating a willingness to use legal and administrative power to pressure large landlords directly. Mamdani is showing that he is not wanting to waste time in fulfilling the promises laid out in his election campaign.
Denmark asks US to stop Greenland threats
Denmark pushed back against the United States today after renewed rhetoric from President Trump regarding Greenland, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen publicly urging Washington to stop what she described as threatening language toward Danish territory. Frederiksen reiterated that Greenland is not for sale and that any suggestion of U.S. control or annexation is unacceptable between NATO allies, a position echoed by Greenlandic leaders who called the comments disrespectful to the island’s self-governing population. The rebuke follows Trump’s repeated assertions that the U.S. “needs” Greenland for security reasons, reigniting a long-running diplomatic dispute that Copenhagen has made clear it considers closed.
The USA threatens Cuba and Colombia
President Trump escalated tensions with Colombia yesterday and again today, openly threatening possible U.S. military action while attacking President Gustavo Petro’s government. Speaking to reporters, Trump described Colombia as “very sick” and said a U.S. military operation against the country “sounds good to me,” framing the remarks around drug trafficking and regional security. The deranged comments follow the U.S. operation in Venezuela.
That posture was reinforced today by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who turned his attention toward Cuba, describing the Cuban government as “a huge problem” and suggesting it could soon face increased U.S. pressure. While Rubio stopped short of explicitly threatening military action, he declined to rule it out and made sure it was understood that Cuba is a part of a broader regional network now under their direct scrutiny.
Israel punishes all of Ramallah
Israeli forces have encircled the Palestinian city of Ramallah, sealing roads and restricting all movement in and out of the city following a reported security incident, a development we covered in detail earlier today. According to reporting from the ground, Israeli troops established checkpoints around Ramallah and nearby areas while conducting searches, effectively punishing the entire civilian population for an alleged attack. The move fits a familiar pattern of collective restriction in the occupied West Bank and comes amid a broader regional escalation, further tightening conditions for Palestinians as tensions continue to rise.
Strange things are happening around the Middle East
Over the past 24 hours, there has been a clear and measurable increase in U.S. military mobility activity tied to the Middle East. Open-source flight tracking confirms a surge of U.S. Air Mobility Command C-17 aircraft transiting through the United Kingdom, particularly RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall, bases historically used for forward staging into CENTCOM’s area of responsibility. The event that warrented the inclusion of this news in this update, however, was the high altitude surveillance around Iran by an American Triton drone.
Separately, at least one U.S. C-17 operating under the callsign RCH855 was tracked moving eastward through southern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, with its arrival reported in Qatar. While the exact cargo and mission tasking remain undisclosed, the pattern fits a broader posture of logistical reinforcement and option-setting rather than routine rotation.
Alongside this, U.S. aerial refueling assets have been repositioned and are operating across the broader Persian Gulf region. While precise real-time locations are not publicly visible due to military tracking restrictions, independent reporting confirms tanker deployments tied to contingency planning, a necessary prerequisite for sustained air operations. These movements do not indicate an imminent strike, but there is some largescale military repositioning underway.
Israel had heightened their alert level two days ago, and reports from Iran indicate that the threat level in Iran has been similarly risen today, however this has not been confirmed by the government of Iran. In the Islamic Republic, there are reports and sightings of missile exercises, air-defense activity, and localized GPS and internet disruptions which are consistent with defensive drills during periods of heightened alert, but may also be tied to the ongoing protests in the country.
Iranian protesters killed, Ayatollah may have backup plan
At least 16 people have been killed during a week of widespread protests across Iran as demonstrators continue to take to the streets over soaring inflation, economic hardship, and discontent with the ruling clerical leadership. Rights groups report that clashes between protesters and security forces have turned increasingly violent, with hundreds more arrested as unrest spreads from Tehran to cities and provincial towns in multiple regions. Iranian state media and officials acknowledge unrest and arrests, and while numbers vary, the death toll highlights the most significant domestic challenge to the regime in years, coming at a time of mounting external pressures and economic turmoil.
The Trump regime had promised to attack Iran, should any protesters be killed by the government forces in Iran, however no attack has developed at this stage.
There is a lot of talk about possible foreign meddling behind the protests in Iran, and that cannot be ruled out, realistically, it’s likely that there is some presence of foreign interference in the protests that have gripped Iran. Whether or not this is true, it is undeniably true that there is a real anger behind the protests, and any foreign interference is simply jockeying on the back of genuine anger over the state of the economy in the Islamic Republic.
Amid this turmoil, a Western intelligence assessment reported in The Times suggests that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have a contingency plan to flee Tehran for Moscow with a small group of close aides and family if security forces begin to desert or fail to contain the unrest. While this report cannot be independently verified and stems from anonymous intelligence sources, it reflects concerns among some analysts about the regime’s stability if protests intensify and internal cohesion weakens.
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Mamdani needs to go after Black Rock. Please, for the love of god, hold wallstreet accountable for destroying this country.
Thank you Dom for everything you do. Please make sure you are taking care of yourself 🥺❤️