A US aircraft carrier strike group arrived in Latin America on Tuesday, escalating a military buildup that Venezuela has warned could trigger a full-blown conflict as it announced its own deployment.

The USS Gerald R Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, entered the US Naval Forces Southern Command’s area of responsibility, which encompasses Latin America and the Caribbean, the command said in a statement.

The vessel’s deployment was ordered nearly three weeks ago to help counter drug trafficking in the region.

Its presence “will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

President Donald Trump’s administration is conducting a military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, deploying naval and air forces for an anti-drugs offensive.

Caracas fears the deployment, which also includes F-35 stealth warplanes deployed to Puerto Rico and six US Navy ships in the Caribbean, is a regime change plot in disguise.

President Nicolas Maduro, whose last two reelections were dismissed as fraudulent by Washington and dozens of other countries, has accused the Trump administration of “fabricating a war.”

On November 2, Trump played down the prospect of going to war with Venezuela but said Maduro’s days were numbered.

US forces have carried out strikes on at least 20 vessels in international waters in the region since early September, killing at least 76 people, according to US figures.

The Trump administration has said in a notice to Congress that the United States is engaged in “armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, describing them as terrorist groups.

Washington has not provided any evidence that the vessels were used to smuggle drugs, and human rights experts say the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target traffickers.

‘Unacceptable’

Venezuela announced on Tuesday what it called a major, nationwide military deployment to counter the US naval presence off its coast.

The defence ministry in Caracas spoke in a statement of a “massive deployment” of land, sea, air, river and missile forces as well as civilian militia to counter “imperial threats.”

VTV, the state TV channel, broadcast footage of military leaders giving speeches in several states.

Such announcements are common in Venezuela these days, but have not always led to visible military deployments.

Experts have told AFP that Venezuela would be at a serious disadvantage in a military standoff with the United States, with an ill-disciplined fighting force and outdated arsenal.

On Tuesday, Russia denounced US strikes on boats from Venezuela — an ally of Moscow — as illegal and “unacceptable”.

“This is how, in general, lawless countries act, as well as those who consider themselves above the law,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised remarks, questioning what he described as a “pretext of fighting drugs”.

Maduro relies heavily on the Kremlin for political and economic support.

US-Russia relations have soured in recent weeks as Trump has voiced frustration with Moscow over the lack of a resolution to the Ukraine war.

The United Kingdom, meanwhile, would not comment Tuesday on a CNN report that it had stopped sharing intelligence with the United States about suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean as it did not want to be complicit in any strikes.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters in London: “We don’t comment on security or intelligence matters.”

He underlined that “the US is our closest partner on defence, security, intelligence,” and would not be drawn on UK concerns about the US strikes.

“Decisions on this are a matter for the US,” the spokesman said.

DUBAI: Traffic congestion in Dubai may soon be a thing of the past, as the city successfully completed the first test flight of its flying taxi, marking a major step towards futuristic urban transport.

The electric-powered aircraft, developed in collaboration with US-based Joby Aviation, flew from Margham, an industrial and logistics hub on the outskirts of Dubai, to Dubai World Central (Al Maktoum Airport) ahead of the Dubai Airshow 2025.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) briefed Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on the progress of the project, which aims to introduce air taxis as part of an integrated, smart, and sustainable transport system.

The air taxi is eco-friendly and ultra-quiet, capable of flying at speeds up to 320 km/h with a capacity of four passengers.

According to Dubai officials, the next phase will involve trial flights in urban areas before the service is made available to the public in 2026.

Skyports Infrastructure is building the first air taxi vertiport near Dubai International Airport, featuring two landing pads and modern passenger facilities, designed to support the city’s vision for seamless and sustainable mobility.

• Lavrov denies Moscow conducted underground nuclear detonations.
• Russia says US can verify claims through seismic monitoring system.
• No clarification received from Washington on allegations: Kremlin.

Russia on Tuesday offered to discuss with the United States allegations from Washington that it had carried out secret underground nuclear tests, in a bid to ease tensions between the world’s top two nuclear superpowers.

Russia has tested its nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable weapons systems in recent weeks, but rejects the accusation by US President Donald Trump that it had secretly detonated a nuclear device.

Trump caused concern and confusion last month when he said he was ordering the United States to test its atomic weapons in retaliation for drills carried out by Russia and China — accusations rejected by both Moscow and Beijing.

None of the three countries has publicly tested a nuclear warhead since the 1990s, and all three have signed — but not ratified — the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) that bans all atomic test blasts, whether for military or civilian purposes.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered on Tuesday to speak to Washington about its concerns.

“We are ready to discuss the suspicions raised by our American colleagues regarding the possibility that we might be secretly doing something deep underground,” he told state media in a televised interview.

Trump had levelled the accusations that both Russia and China had secretly tested nuclear weapons in an interview with US broadcaster CBS News earlier this month, after abruptly shelving a proposed summit with Putin on Ukraine.

Like all armed states, Russia regularly tests its delivery systems, but has rejected the accusation it has carried out unannounced weapons tests.

Lavrov said the United States could check whether Russia had tested a nuclear warhead via the global seismic monitoring system.

“Other tests, both subcritical, or those without a chain nuclear reaction, and carrier tests, have never been prohibited,” Lavrov added.

Russia said it had not received any clarification from Washington as to the specifics of its allegations.

“So far, no explanations have been provided by our American counterparts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, during a telephone briefing.

Russia and the United States hold a combined 8,000 deployed and stored warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) — around 85% of the world’s total.

Spat with Putin?

Lavrov’s interview was his first televised appearance in almost two weeks, with his absence prompting media speculation that he might have fallen out with Putin, something that the Kremlin repeatedly denied.

Press reports suggested that a planned summit between Putin and Trump in Budapest was cancelled after Lavrov had a tense phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

He addressed those claims directly, saying: “We spoke well, politely, without any breakdown.”

Since the pair spoke, Lavrov said, there had been “no further steps from the Americans”, who he said had initially proposed the summit.

Trump shelved the plans and slapped Moscow with new sanctions after saying Putin was not serious about ending the conflict in Ukraine.

Lavrov said the recent nuclear tensions had nothing to do with the cancelled summit.

“I would not mix the topic of nuclear tests with the topic of the Budapest summit,” he said.

He said Moscow was still open to a possible meeting between Putin and Trump.