Last Saturday I woke to the news that the US military had mounted a raid on Caracas and snatched the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their heavily guarded compound to put on trial in the US. Hours later I watched as the US president, Donald Trump, gave a press conference to announce the success of what has been dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve”. In what can only be described as an amazing hour or so, Trump and his senior defence and national security aides veered from boasting of the US military’s undoubted expertise to making vague threats to other countries in the region, including Columbia and Cuba, as part of what he has referred to as his “Donroe doctrine”.

He has since also threatened Mexico, while in Nicaragua – which has also been mentioned as a transit point for drugs – they are deeply concerned that they too are in the US president’s sights. As our expert, Nicols Forsans of the University of Essex writes: “Trump appears to be turning longstanding US concerns – drugs, migration and interference by other major powers – into a flexible toolbox for coercion in Latin America.”

While we were still reeling from the kidnapping of Maduro, however, the narrative of US foreign policy adventurism had shifted to Greenland, which Trump and his senior advisers insist the US needs for national security reasons (and definitely not because of the island’s mineral wealth). No matter that Greenland is part of Denmark, a Nato ally. You can be forgiven for being confused at the speed at which decades of US foreign policy which hitherto aimed at ensuring stability and security – particularly in Europe – have apparently been trashed. Here are four ways of looking at this tectonic shift in the world order.

Greenland is hugely environmentally important, both as a huge landmass covered in ice but also as a hub for climate research. It’s replete with rare minerals. And it sits in one of the world’s most sensitive regions, the Arctic, which is coveted by the big three powers: the US, China and Russia. The potential for great power conflict is real and extremely serious.

Closer to home, you might have been affected this week by Storm Goretti, which left thousands isolated or without power. So you might be refreshed, I hope, to read that storms can occasionally have a positive impact too. This fascinating and enjoyable piece tells of the hurricane of 1839 which hit with “the deafening roar of a thousand pieces of artillery” but which, in an intriguing twist, was instrumental in helping the people of Ireland to get their British pensions.

And if you are looking for something good to watch, our expert critic recommended the sensuous new film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell’s Hamnet, a novel of which I am inordinately fond. If lovers of the book are nervous about seeing what the filmmakers do, then they should know they’re part of a grand tradition. People have been disappointed in interpretations of novels ever since they were first published with illustrations.

Finally, as a student in Yorkshire I had a friend who kept pigeons (he kept ferrets as well, but that’s another story). His captive birds may have yearned to be free – they certainly would have done had they known about the peripatetic lives of their wild cousins, the rock doves. Here you can find out what one researcher discovered from years of studying the birds.

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