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In the past three weeks, President Trump has bombed Syria, hosted his first state dinner, signaled that he’s open to brokering a new deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear weapons program and explored rejoining a trade deal with Pacific Rim countries that he pulled out of last year. He has praised North Korea’s leader as “very honorable” for considering negotiations, and he appeared to take some credit Friday for the “historic meeting” between the leaders of North and South Korea.

As part of The Washington Post’s Of America series, we dispatched seven reporters across the country to ask what “America first” really means — and what role the United States should play in the world.

“I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but as dumb as he sounds sometimes — when he goes up there and acts like a 12-year-old bully — I think at the end of the day, he has good intentions,” said Jones, 45, a stay-at-home mother of two from Syracuse, N.Y., as she wrapped up a recent visit to the National Museum of American History on the Mall in Washington with her college-age son. “If you want someone to keep you safe, I think he’s the guy that’s going to keep you safe.”

Thousands of Venezuelans are pouring out of their crippled nation in one of the biggest migration crises in Latin American history, causing growing alarm in the region and prompting neighboring countries to rush thousands of soldiers to the border.

In Venezuela, children are dying. People are starving and being persecuted. What they’re getting from us is a door in the face.

Nowhere is the crisis more acute than here in Colombia, where 3,000 troops are fanning out across the 1,400-mile border to contain an influx of Venezuelans fleeing a collapsing economy and an increasingly repressive socialist regime.

In the face of a truly global crisis, the world’s highest deliberative body, the UN security council, has been paralysed by squabbling among the major powers.The 15-member council has not even been able to muster a joint statement on combating the spread of the coronavirus – in part because of US insistence that it should stress the Chinese origins of the pathogen, which was unacceptable to other states, not least China.

The US has also ignored Guterres’ calls for sanctions to be suspended on vulnerable countries. Over the past week, Washington has intensified punitive action against Iran and Venezuela. At the same time, Russia has blocked an attempt to hold virtual security council sessions by video conference.

“In the current circumstances, it is important to show to the rest of the world that UN and its security council are functioning,” the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, wrote to his Chinese counterpart, who had proposed video conferences.

Seven years into an economic crisis, mothers and fathers have been forced to go abroad in search of work, leaving hundreds of thousands of children in the hands of relatives, friends — and sometimes, one another.

Seven years into an economic collapse, Venezuela’s migrant crisis has grown into one of the largest in the world. Millions have already left. By the end of 2020, an estimated 6.5 million people will have fled, according to the United Nations refugee agency — a number rarely, if ever, seen outside of war.But hidden inside that data is a startling phenomenon. Venezuela’s mothers and fathers, determined to find work, food and medicine, are leaving hundreds of thousands of children in the care of grandparents, aunts, uncles and even siblings who have barely passed puberty themselves.

Many parents do not want to put their children through the grueling and sometimes very dangerous upheaval of displacement. Others simply cannot afford to take them along.

President Joe Biden has made his intentions to return to the failed foreign policies of the past very clear. This includes the Biden administration’s intent for the United States to "re-engage immediately and robustly" with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) without receiving any commitments for much needed institutional reforms. 

More than 60 years later, the basic rights of the Cuban people remain nonexistent. Shamefully, Cuba is a current member of the UNHCR, where they are given a platform to speak on human rights. This is an absolute slap in the face to the Cuban people.  

In a matter of years, Maduro transformed Venezuela from one of the wealthiest countries in South America into an economic catastrophe, where Venezuelans cannot access basic essentials. The illegitimate regime has killed and tortured dissidents, independent reporters, university students and civilians. This is the same regime that was found to have committed crimes against humanity by the U.N. Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela. 

Flights to nine destinations in Cuba, not including Havana, will be suspended by the Department of Transportation.The department issued a notice on Friday suspending US commercial flights from flying to the Cuban destinations.

The announcement is another step in the Trump administration's attempt to tighten the relationship between the US and Cuba in a direct reversal of President Barack Obama's Cuba policy.

"to further the Administration's policy of strengthening the economic consequences to the Cuban regime for its ongoing repression of the Cuban people and its support for Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela."

the NGO scores countries from 0 to 100 based on perceptions of corruption in the public sector, with 100 indicating a squeaky clean record. In the latest ranking, released on January 25th, almost 70% of countries score below 50.

Some high-scoring democracies showed “significant deterioration” over the past year too—so much so that America dropped out of the 25 least corrupt countries for the first time.