VENEZUELA: Acting leader Delcy Rodriguez is to meet US President Donald Trump in New York next week.

It will be their first encounter since the US military raid on Caracas in January in which President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were kidnapped and taken to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

The two countries announced an agreement last month giving the US a stake in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

NORTH KOREA: The military launched two short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea yesterday, days after the North had threatened to bolster its nuclear deterrent capabilities.

Launched from the eastern coastal area of Wonsana, the first missile flew about 280 miles and the second one flew more than 370 miles, with both ending up in the North’s eastern waters, South Korea’s military said.

UNITED STATES: Donald Trump said on social media yesterday that the massive arch he wants to build between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery would become a “top grade military complex” able to host drones and snipers while storing ammunition.

He has already claimed that his planned new White House ballroom would be a “military complex” that is needed for national security purposes.

UNITED STATES: Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to the White House at the weekend after Donald Trump said he was barring the media organisations for publishing “fake news.”

The actions were a clear escalation of the president’s long-running efforts to restrict news coverage by journalists he finds objectionable. All three news outlets hinted at legal action.