Fringe festival sees highestattendance since 2019

Experienced imperialists understand that you can’t just take over a country and expect it to run itself. It takes time and work to turn it into an obedient and profitable colony and two months is not enough. Donald Trump moved on to his next target too soon and given how Iran’s been working out for him, he probably hasn’t thought of Venezuela in months.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who acts as Trump’s viceroy for Venezuela, hasn’t been there since the U.S. kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in January. (In fact, he may never have been there at all — I can find no evidence of it.) But he does think about Venezuela. In fact, he controls the country very tightly from his Washington office.

He and Trump’s choice for interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, talk online every day, we are told. (She was the vice-president under Maduro, so she was the obvious choice if Trump wanted a local collaborator with supporters in the army and the secret police.) Rubio collects the government’s income and he tells her what she can spend her share on.

It’s an awkward arrangement, because the cabinet is still the core Chavista leaders, minus only Maduro himself. Trump thinks Rodríguez is a “terrific person” and doesn’t worry about elections: Venezuelans “wouldn’t even know how to have an election right now.” But Rubio understands that they really do expect an election to be part of the “transition.”

The U.S. State Department has announced plans to close five overseas diplomatic posts approved by Congress: Douala, Cameroon (a branch office); St. George’s, Grenada (an embassy); Nagoya, Japan (a consulate); Medan, Indonesia (a consulate); and Winnipeg, Canada (a consulate).

All are located in countries that are partners or allies of the United States.

It is unusual for the United States to reduce its diplomatic footprint. With the exception of some retrenchment efforts during the Trump administration, Washington has generally viewed diplomacy as a force multiplier. Diplomacy is not simply a matter of authority and leverage. It requires sustained local engagement, relationships and presence.

Consulates and branch offices are not the same as embassies. They are smaller missions, headed by consuls or consuls general rather than ambassadors and often provide a more limited range of services. Yet they play a vital political, economic and cultural role, supporting both local populations and American citizens abroad.

He’s busted ghosts, wailed on a harmonica in sunglasses, created a vodka brand sold in a skull-shaped bottle and dabbled in the Niagara Peninsula wine industry. And now Ottawa-born actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd is trying his hand in a new field — writing fiction.

Aykroyd’s literary debut Soulhider lands in bookstores Oct. 27 via HarperCollins, falling squarely into the paranormal/science fiction genre, while bringing the Ghostbusters and Saturday Night Live star’s inevitable touch of humour.

The novel follows an insurance adjustor in New York State recruited by aliens to hide human souls they’ve harvested — and invariably getting caught up between warring alien factions.

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