Hello, everyone. Today at WPR, we’re covering the impact of Nicolas Maduro’s ouster on China’s influence in the Caribbean, and the myriad challenges facing Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum as she tries to stay on a good footing with the U.S. | But first, here’s our take on today’s top story: |  | Bad Bunny performs at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 8, 2026 (AP photo by Mark J. Terrill). |
| The grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show opened in an unlikely place: In the middle of a sugar cane field, with a man holding a guitar who pronounces, “qué rico es ser latino!”—“how wonderful to be Latino!” | That set the tone for the entire 13-minute performance, which was an unabashed celebration of Latin culture and the contributions of Hispanic immigrants to the United States. During the first few minutes, we see the star of the show—introduced in the credits with his birth name, Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio —holding a football while making his way through a set that included a miniature nail salon, a construction lot, a folding table where men played dominos, and a piragua stand. Bad Bunny ditches the football, freeing his hands to grab one of the Puerto Rican shaved ice treats. | It was the first halftime show to be conducted entirely in Spanish, coming on the heels of Bad Bunny’s grammy award for best album for “Debà Tirar Más Fotos”—the first Spanish-language release to win the American music world’s biggest prize. | As most viewers would have been aware, the halftime show was a sore topic … Purchase a subscription now to read the rest and get the full top story in your Daily Review email every day. |
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| | The seizure and rendition of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from the Miraflores Palace by U.S. forces on Jan. 3 ended more than a decade of diplomatic stalemate over the regime in Caracas. It also punctured a working assumption embedded in China’s overseas investment strategy, particularly in the Caribbean: that by building deep commercial and infrastructure dependencies, Beijing could carve out a sphere of influence robust enough to challenge U.S. primacy, writes Jared Ward. |  | Maduro’s Ouster Tests China’s Caribbean Foothold | The U.S. attack on Venezuela on Jan. 3 punctured the narrative that Beijing could carve out its own sphere of influence in the region. | www.worldpoliticsreview.com/venezuela-maduro-china-caribbean |
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| | Throughout 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was called a “Trump whisperer” for her ability to soothe tensions between her country and the United States whenever they risked worsening due to demands or threats issued by President Donald Trump. Yet just a month into 2026, this year is proving to be even more challenging than the last, James Bosworth writes in his weekly column. | | | Nicaragua: Nicaragua will no longer allow Cubans to enter the country without a visa, the government announced in a statement. The visa-free entry s had long been criticized by Washington, which claimed Nicaragua was serving as a transit country for illegal migration to the United States. The cancellation of the policy comes in the wake of increased U.S. pressure on strongman President Daniel Ortega’s government to meet various U.S. demands. In early January, for example, Nicaragua announced that it had freed dozens of political prisoners in response to U.S. pressure. | As Robert Looney explained in WPR in September 2024, Cuba was just one of about 90 countries whose citizens have been allowed to enter Nicaragua without a visa since 2021. Looney argued the policy “weaponized” the mass migration of those people, as the visa-free entry policy served as “a bargaining tool with the U.S., allowing it to exert influence or gain concessions by controlling or threatening to control migration flows.” | “Encouraging the emigration of Nicaraguans has also helped the Ortega administration ease some of the domestic pressures within Nicaragua, such as high unemployment and poverty, by reducing the number of people seeking jobs and resources,” Looney added. | | United States, Africa: The Trump administration is pursuing deals in Zambia, Guinea the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries to secure supplies of critical minerals including copper and cobalt. Instead of having U.S. firms directly invest in these countries, the deals are structured around “offtake” arrangements, whereby a country or company receives a percentage of a mine’s output in exchange for financing or other support, Reuters reports. | China is the main competitor for such mineral rights, and has been active in the African market for years, giving it a head start in the global competition for critical minerals. However, as Ben Kallas and Glenn Chafetz wrote in WPR in August 2024, China has some significant vulnerabilities in Africa that the United States and others can exploit, including a negative reputation for its treatment of workers and a questionable environmental record. “China’s success in the region is not as coordinated or effective as claimed, and can be contested,” Kallas and Chafetz argued. | | The paid edition of today’s newsletter includes additional On Our Radar items on Portugal, Japan and Thailand. | Purchase your all-access subscription now to make sure you don’t miss important news and analysis. | If you believe you are already a paid subscriber and are receiving this free edition by mistake, please reply to this email and we’ll make sure you receive the paid edition going forward. | |
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.