U.S. charge d’affaires Laura Dogu has arrived in Caracas to reopen the American diplomatic mission in Venezuela after seven years of severed ties. The move follows the removal of Nicolás Maduro from office by a U.S.-ordered military action. On Saturday, Dogu expressed readiness to work in a message posted by the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela's account on X. Venezuela and the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations in February 2019. Venezuela's foreign minister says Dogu's arrival is part of efforts to resolve differences through diplomatic dialogue. Dogu arrived one day after Venezuela's interim president announced an amnesty bill to release political prisoners.

President Donald Trump plans to pardon former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, a White House official said. The official who confirmed the planned pardon on Friday wasn’t authorized to reveal the news by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Vázquez pleaded guilty last August to a campaign finance violation in a federal case that authorities say also involved a former FBI agent and a Venezuelan banker. Her sentencing was set for later this month. Federal prosecutors had been seeking one year behind bars. Vázquez was the U.S. territory’s first former governor to plead guilty to a crime, specifically accepting a donation from a foreigner for her 2020 political campaign.

Five years after the Capitol riot, some of the police officers who fought off the rioters that day say they're still struggling with what happened. And that's especially the case since Donald Trump was elected to a second term last year and pardoned about 1,500 people who'd been convicted for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Several police officers who fought the rioters said in Associated Press interviews that the hardest thing to deal with has been that many people are playing down the violence from that day, or they're ignoring it or claiming it didn’t happen. That's despite a massive collection of video and photographic evidence documenting the violence.