The Venezuelan government on Tuesday claimed that 66 Venezuelan children are being illegally held in the United States after being separated from their parents during deportation, as the White House cracks down on immigration.Caracas is demanding the children be handed over to Venezuelan authorities so they can be repatriated.”We have 66 children kidnapped in the United States. It’s a number that grows each day… a cruel and inhumane policy,” said Camila Fabri, president of the government’s Return to the Homeland program that advocates for the voluntary return of people who left the country.She spoke at a gathering at which women read out letters to US First Lady Melania Trump asking her to intercede on behalf of the children, who they said had been placed in foster care.More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2014, the largest population exodus in Latin America’s recent history, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. It blamed “rampant violence, inflation, gang-warfare, soaring crime rates as well as shortages of food, medicine and essential services.”In recent years Venezuelans in the United States had been granted temporary protected immigration status, allowing them to live and work there for a designated time period. But President Donald Trump’s administration revoked that protection as part of his aggressive campaign to deport millions of undocumented migrants from the United States.The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment on the claim by Caracas.To date, 21 stranded children have been returned to Venezuela, including a daughter of one of the 252 Venezuelans detained in Trump’s immigration crackdown in March, who was accused without evidence of gang activity and deported to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.   The men were freed in a prisoner swap in July and flown home to Venezuela, where four of them told AFP they suffered beatings, abuse and deprivation.Fabri said that 10,631 Venezuelans have returned in 2025, both those deported frm the United States and others stranded in Mexico.The White House has also squared off against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who faces federal drug trafficking charges, with the US placing a $50 million bounty on him. Washington, which does not recognize Maduro’s past two election victories, accuses the South American country’s leader of leading a cocaine trafficking gang, and has launched anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.On Monday Maduro said he would deploy millions of militia members in the country in response to the US “threats.”

Donald Trump said Tuesday that a Ukraine peace deal could boost his chances of getting to heaven — joking that his odds of making it through the pearly gates are currently low.The 79-year-old US president has previously said he wants to end Russia’s war in Ukraine as part of his bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize.But a day after hosting the leaders of Ukraine and several European nations at the White House, Trump said his motivations were not all earthly.”I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” Trump told Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends.””I hear I’m not doing well — I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole! But if I can get to heaven this will be one of the reasons.”By traditional yardsticks the three-times-married, twice-impeached Trump is no saint.The billionaire Republican has been embroiled in a number of scandals over the years and is the first president to have a criminal conviction, in his instance a hush money case involving payouts to a porn star.But Trump has taken on an increasingly religious tone since surviving an assassination attempt last year. He said at his inauguration in January that he had been “saved by God to make America great again.”Boasting strong support from America’s religious right, Trump has embraced the trappings of faith far more strongly in his second term in the White House.He has notably appointed an official spiritual adviser, Paula White, who has led a number of prayer gatherings that have seen attendees lay their hands on Trump at White House events.Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday she believed “the president was serious” about his Ukraine comments.”I think the president wants to get to heaven, as I hope we all do in this room,” the 27-year-old Leavitt — who herself holds prayer sessions before her briefings — told reporters.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending US troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit.In a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending the war, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.But while Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, those promises have been met with extreme caution by Kyiv and Western capitals, and many details remain vague.Putin proposed holding the summit with Zelensky in Moscow, three sources familiar with the Trump call told AFP. One source said Zelensky immediately said no to meeting in the capital of his country’s invader.Trump, long a fierce critic of the billions of dollars in US support to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, said that European nations were “willing to put people on the ground” to secure any settlement.”France and Germany, a couple of them, UK, they want to have boots on the ground,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. “We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air.”Asked what assurances Trump had that US boots would not be on the ground, he replied: “Well, you have my assurance and I’m president.”- Allies discuss next steps -The White House later doubled down on Trump’s statements — but gave few new details on either the summit or the security guarantees.Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump “has definitively stated US boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine” and that the use of US air power was “option and a possibility.” Leavitt insisted that Putin had promised Trump he would meet Zelensky, and said top US officials were “coordinating” with Russia on a summit.Trump had dramatically interrupted his meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans at the White House on Monday to call the Russian leader.Allies have expressed doubts that Putin will go through with the meeting.The Europeans are however seizing on the possibility of a peace deal following the Trump talks.French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought together around 30 of Ukraine’s allies known as the “Coalition of the Willing” for virtual consultations.Starmer told them coalition teams and US officials would meet in the coming days to “prepare for the deployment of a reassurance force if the hostilities ended,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.The military chiefs of staff of all 32 nations in the NATO military alliance will meet by video Wednesday to discuss Ukraine, officials said.- Geneva, Budapest floated for summits -Russia has warned that any solution must also protect its own “security interests” and has ruled out Ukraine joining NATO.Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added that any meeting between the leaders “must be prepared very thoroughly.”Lavrov’s comments, and Putin’s offer of Moscow as a summit venue, reinforced European fears that Russia was once again stalling. Macron said he wanted the summit to take place in Geneva, a historic venue for peace talks.Switzerland said it was ready to offer immunity to Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over the war.Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have both said the summit could take place in two weeks.The White House declined to comment on a Politico report that it was eying Hungary’s capital Budapest as a venue for a follow-up three-way summit including Trump.On the streets of Kyiv, there was skepticism about whether the latest talks can end the grinding conflict.”The main problem is Putin himself doesn’t want it,” said Anton, 32, who works in a warehouse.But in Moscow, some people were more optimistic. “I hope we can agree on mutually beneficial terms,” said Vyacheslav, 23, who works for the government. burs-dk/st