US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, says that Venezuela should hold elections soon, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called voting premature following the US’s toppling of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

WASHINGTON — Opposition candidate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado would win a free and fair Venezuelan election in a landslide, both her party and international observers say, but the odds of democracy playing out in Caracas are slim with dictator Nicolas Maduro’s deputy still at the helm.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said Venezuela will not hold new elections within the next 30 days and that the country must first be stabilised following the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Trump tells NBC News Venezuela won’t hold elections in 30 days after Maduro’s capture, as US weighs an oil-led rebuild overseen by Rubio.

Walz declined to take questions from reporters but in five minutes of remarks affirmed that he was “concerned about fraud in our state government.”

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives will mark the fifth anniversary of a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump with an unofficial hearing that will probe "ongoing threats" to elections and public safety.

Another year of action and uncertainty in America’s abortion care system is coming to a close, after states that weighed in on abortion rights in the 2024 election continue to grapple with the impact of those votes.

Mike Johnson, the top member of Trump's Republican Party in Congress, said the elections 'should happen' and 'will need to' happen 'so that their economy can remain stabilized and the country can remain stabilized.