Nick Edser
Business reporter

With the focus on Venezuela’s oil industry following theevents of the weekend, oil prices fell on Monday with analysts saying that anydisruption to Venezuelan oil exports would be easily covered by supplies fromelsewhere in the world.

However, the price of precious metals such as gold andsilver has risen, as investors moved money into so-called “safe haven”assets.

Gold rose by nearly 2% to $4,408 an ounce, while the priceof silver was up 3.5%.

Shares in defence firms rose in early trade in London withBAE Systems and Babcock International among the top gainers on the FTSE 100.

Precious metals miners Endeavour and Fresnillo were alsohigher following the jump in gold prices.

The world is now governed by the idea of “might isright”, the former head of MI6 Sir Alex Younger tells the BBC.

He defines this as “strong men presiding over spheresof influences, tolerating each other’s activities within that sphere butdominating their own backyard.”

Donald Trump embodies that, he tells the BBC’s Todayprogramme.

Sir Alex says the UK should focus on “rebuilding”its hard power, “so that we get a vote in these circumstances”.

As for the current activities in Venezuela, he sees littlebenefit in the UK taking a “forward position” in this and says weneed to focus on “our capabilities at home”.

We’re still hearing plenty of reaction to the US’sdramatic action in Venezuela over the weekend.

Over on BBC Radio 5 Live, Nicky Campbell is hosting a phone-inasking the question, Venezuela: was Trump right?

To follow along, watch the programme live atthe top of the page.

Davide Ghiglione
Reporting from Rome

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she spoke byphone with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Sunday.

Both agreed that the exit of President Nicolas Maduro wouldcreate prospects for a peaceful and democratic transition.

“During the phone call, it was agreed that Maduro’s exitopens a new chapter of hope for the people of Venezuela, who will be able toonce again enjoy the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law,”Meloni’s office said in a statement.

A member of the first Trump administration says he has not seen “any plans as to how we expect to manage the next few days”.

Robert Wilkie, who served as under secretary of defence for readiness, tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the operation to seize Maduro was “flawless” in military terms, but his concern in such missions is “What is the next day?”

He cites Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan as examples of “American overreach”.

“Once you launch that, what happens next? We don’t have a very good track record when it comes to those things.”

But he also says he believes US authorities have discussed plans for a stabilisation force in Venezuela with its military.

Wilkie stresses the operation was “certainly” legal under American law “because [Maduro] is an illegitimate leader”.

“The indictment… gives the president incredible leeway to conduct operations, to remove a criminal and international threat to the people of the US.”

“Being a Venezuelan at the moment is very hard andstrange,” one Venezuelan living in the UK tells BBC Radio 5 Live.

Sofia (not her real name) says she feels “happy,excited, scared, emotional and angry” since Maduro was seized – butfeels like people in the country can’t “freely voice our feelings aboutwhat has happened.”

She frequently returns to the country on business or tovisit family and says the people in Venezuela are “very quiet”because they are scared.

For Sofia, she doesn’t want America to rule over hercountry, but she thinks the US took a “corrupt person in a country thathas no democracy.”

Tom Bennett
Live reporter

When US forces conducted a night raid on the Venezuelan capital Caracas, they didn’t just drag President Nicolás Maduro from his compound and put him on a flight to New York – they took his wife too.

Cilia Flores, 69, has long been seen as one of the most powerful figures in Venezuela, a political operator in her own right who for decades has shaped the country’s fortunes.

After years leading Venezuela’s National Assembly, she helped consolidate her husband’s grip on power after his 2013 presidential election victory.

As First Lady, she was dubbed “First Warrior” by Maduro. But in that role she publicly took a backseat – presenting a more family-oriented face to what critics say was a brutal regime.

She hosted a TV show, Con Cilia en Familia, and made occasional appearances on state television to dance salsa with her husband. But behind-the-scenes, she is thought to have been one of Maduro’s key advisers, and an architect of his political survival.

Flores has faced allegations of corruption and nepotism, and in recent years her family members have been found guilty in US courts of cocaine smuggling.

She will now face drug trafficking and weapons charges in a New York court, along with her husband.

You can read more on Cilia Flores in our profile.

Will Grant
Latin America correspondent

Cuba has confirmed 32 of its citizens were killed during theUS operation to seize Nicolás Maduro.

The communist-run country – which relies on Venezuelan oil -had supplied much of Maduro’s security detail and has personnel throughout theVenezuelan military.

Two days of national morning have been declared with Cuba’s PresidentMiguel Diaz-Canel saying he honoured “the brave Cuban combatants who felltaking on the terrorists in imperial uniforms who kidnapped and illegallyremoved the Venezuelan president and his wife from their country.”

Asked about wider military action, Donald Trump said itwouldn’t be needed against Cuba as it was likely to fall on its own.

But he didn’t rule out intervention in Colombia, describingits left-wing president Gustavo Petro as a drug trafficker and a “sickman”.

Petro has denied the accusations, warning Trump not toslander him.

US spies had been monitoring Venezuelan President NicolásMaduro’s every move for months – observing where he slept, what he ate, andwhat he wore – before the mission to seize him was finalised in earlyDecember.

It became a two-hour-and-twenty-minute mission by air, landand sea stunned many in Washington and around the world on Saturday. Here’s howit unfolded:

• 22:46 EST on Friday (03:46 GMT): Trump orders that “Operation Absolute Resolve” begin
• 02:01 local time (06:01 GMT): Loud explosions are heard in Caracas and plumes of smoke are seen rising over the city
• Meanwhile, heavily armed US forces are making their way into the capital – they carry a blowtorch in case they have to cut through the metal doors of Maduro’s safe house
• Theyarrive at Maduro’s location shortly after the US strikes begin and take fire
• According to Trump, Maduro attempts to flee to a safe room. “He made it to the door. He was unable to close it,” Trump said. “He got bum rushed so fast that he didn’t get into that [room]”
• By 04:20: Helicopters leave Venezuelan territory with Maduro and his wife on board, in custody of the US Department of Justice and en route to New York, where they are later charged with various drugs and weapons offences

For full details, read our breakdown here.

Venezuela has been left with “the leftovers of theMaduro regime,” a former political prisoner tells the BBC.

Freddy Guevara, who was an opposition politician in thecountry, tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he felt the US would ensure a”democratic transition.”

He says there are many “critiques” of the US, but”it’s a country with democratic institutions and a long tradition offreedom, and I quite frankly can’t imagine a United States governmentsupporting a dictatorship in Latin America”.

He adds that Maduro’s regime had only been sustained”by force and fear” and relied upon international support.

Delcy Rodríguez is due to be sworn in later as Venezuela’s president, hours after Donald Trump warned her she could pay a “very big price” if she “doesn’t do what’s right”.

In comments to the Atlantic on Sunday, the US president said: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

He added that for Venezuela: “Regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse”.

Trump has vowed the US will run the country until “a safe and proper and judicious transition” is possible. He also promised US oil companies will move into the country to fix infrastructure “and start making money for the country”.

We’ll bring you live images of Rodríguez’s swearing in as and when we receive them.

• For context: Venezuela’s Supreme Court officially designated Rodríguez as interim president over the weekend, but today she will appear before the National Assembly where she will be officially sworn in.

Nicolás Maduro has been charged with “Narco-TerrorismConspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns andDestructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and DestructiveDevices against the United States”.

President Trump has described the charges brought against Maduro as responding to his “campaign of deadlynarco-terrorism” against the US and its citizens.

But this notion is built on “very flimsy ground,”says Julia Buxton, professor of justice studies at Liverpool John MooresUniversity.

She tells BBC Breakfast that Venezuela is “not a majorexporter of cocaine”.

“The bulk of cocaine going into the US comes throughthe Pacific Coast, up through Mexico and Colombia.

“There’s no fentanyl coming out of Venezuela. What thetrump administration has had to do is kind of invent this notion of Maduro as anarco-terrorist in order to carry out policies of regime change.”

She says that Trump would like to see American oil companiesmove into Venezuela, but this isn’t a particularly attractive prospect forthose companies.

“There’s a glut of oil on global markets, and to tryand turn around Venezuela’s oil industry is going to take billions and billionsof dollars in investment,” she adds.

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

Nicolas Maduro is being held in the Metropolitan DetentionCenter in Brooklyn, a notoriously overcrowded and unsanitary facility known fora history of violent incidents.

From there, he will be taken to federal court along with hiswife Cilia Flores to be told of the charges they face – a 25-page indictmentdetails allegations the couple enriched themselves from a violent crime ringsmuggling tons of cocaine to the US.

Maduro has long rejected that as simply a pretext to forcehim from power.

The couple will enter their pleas with any bail requestunlikely to be granted. President Trump has doubled down on his assertion thatthe US will now run Venezuela; demanding what he called total access to its oilindustry.

There is no attempt by the White House to downplay the senseof coercion, with the US president again warning of a further military attackif Maduro’s remaining allies in power fail to do his bidding.

When asked to comment on their claim Maduro had beenkidnapped by the US, Trump said that wasn’t a bad term.

In the last 24 hours, Americans have appeared to support Trump’sactions in Venezuela, US political consultant and commentator Frank Luntz tellsthe BBC.

Luntz says that theAmerican public does not “like, accept or tolerate drugs coming into thecountry.”

“It’s more than just drug running and shipping… it’san issue of the role that Cuba’s playing, China, Russia, and even Iran areplaying,” he tells BBC Breakfast.

However, he emphasises that the Americans do not “wantboots on the ground” in Venezuela.

“So, there’s going to be a wait and see among theAmerican population,” he adds.

Delcy Rodríguez – now Venezuela’s acting president – is aloyal lieutenant of Maduro, often appearing at events side-by-side with thepresident and his wife.

A lawyer and diplomat, she has held various politicaloffices under Maduro.

As his vice-president, Rodriguez, 56, was part of his innercircle – describing him as the “only president” while demanding hisrelease.

On Saturday, Donald Trump said US Secretary of State MarcoRubio had been talking to Rodríguez, who had expressed her willingness to do”whatever the US asks”.

This was at odds with Rodríguez publiclyrefusing that Venezuela would become “a colony of an empire”.

But at her first cabinet meeting on Sunday she struck a more conciliatorytone, calling for the US to collaborate with Venezuela.

Venezuela’s acting president says her country is commited to peace and prioritises moving towards “balanced and respectful” relations with the US.

In a statement Delcy Rodriguez invites the US government to “collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation” within the framework of international law.

“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war,” she says before concluding: “Venezuela has the right to peace, development, sovereignty and a future.”

Trump’s action could set precedent for authoritarian leaderspublished at 06:38 GMT

Jeremy Bowen
International editor

The Maduro operation amounts to another serious blow to the idea that the best way to run the world is to follow an agreed set of rules, as laid out in international law.

The idea was tattered before Donald Trump took office, but he has already demonstrated repeatedly both in the US and internationally that he believes he can ignore laws he doesn’t like.

A few hours before Maduro and his wife were seized, he met Chinese diplomats at his palace in Caracas.

China condemned the US action. It said “hegemonic acts of the US seriously violate international law and Venezuela’s sovereignty and threaten peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean region”.

The US should “stop violating other countries’ sovereignty and security”.

Even so, China might see a precedent set by the US action.

It regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and has declared that returning it to control of Beijing is a national priority.

Donald Trump seems to believe that he makes the rules, and what applies to the US under his command does not mean others can expect the same privileges.

But that is not how the world of power works.

• Read the full article here.

On Sunday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi outlined thecharges brought against the Venezuelan President and his wife Cilia Flores.

Nicolás Maduro has been charged with “Narco-TerrorismConspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns andDestructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and DestructiveDevices against the United States”.

Later, President Trump summed these charges up as Maduro’s”campaign of deadly narco-terrorism” against the US and its citizens.

Maduro has previously denied being the leader of a drugcartel.

Trump also called Maduro an “illegitimatedictator”, adding that he had asked the Venezuelan leader to”surrender” a week before the strikes.

Bondi says that Maduro and his wife will “face the fullwrath of American justice on American soil in American courts”.

The pair are now in custody at a New York detention centre.Their court appearance could take place later today.

Maia Davies
Live reporter

It’s just over 48 hours since the US military stormedNicolás Maduro’s home in the early hours of Saturday, seizing the Venezuelanpresident and his wife.

The pair have since been flown to the US and could appear ina New York court as early as today on various drugs and weapons charges.

President Trump says the US will run Venezuela and take careof the country’s oil infrastructure, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio saysthe action doesn’t mean the US is at war with the country.

Venezuela’s new interim president – Maduro’s Vice PresidentDelcy Rodriguez – has invited the US government to “collaborate” with them andsays its people “deserve peace and dialogue, not war.”

The situation follows months of increasing pressure fromWashington on Venezuela, with Trump accusing Maduro of drug-trafficking andnarco-terrorism – accusations he denies.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest throughout the day.