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the *DON* JONES INDEX…
	GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 1/8/26… 15,030.37 1/1/26… 15,691.07 6/27/13... 15,000.00
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LESSON for JANUARY 8th, 2026 – “2026: and I SAY HELLO...!”

And the headline nobody else is paying attention to… the White House has declared that piracy is no longer a crime.

Yo ho! Ho!

Our last lesson included the events of 2025 through New Years’ Day, culminating in the swearing-in of Islamist Democratic Socialist Zohran Mandami as Mayor New York – and to some, provoking another form of swearing! We, with many others termed it an apocalyptic development to partisans of all stripes and colors – his inaugural address... with “the wind of purpose at our backs”... was our one and only Attachment before the media vortex resumed resolutions, revolutions and developments and predictions from a variety of posters, prophets and prognosticators.

And what a beginning we had as the New Years’ weekend closed... the weather, to be sure, but trumping even the West Coast flooding and East Coast blizzards, the Operation Absolute Resolve on Venezuela snatched sleepy dictator Nicolas Maduro from his cradle in Caracas and brought him back to New York to stand trial... a development that engendered shock and awe, appreciation and concern – as noted in the supplment to The News of the Week (pushed forward a day to account for the oddities of the calendar). Being chuck-a-luck with both the forecast for 2026 and the outcasting of the dictator... and a few ongoing developing consequences such as an imminent move against Colombia’s petro (their dictator) more seizures of petro (the oil) tankers, including Russian seacraft that might provoke nuclear war and the further conflictation that World War III would find America without NATO and perhaps even fighting an alliance of Russia, France, Germany, Poland... maybe China and Iran, probably Denmark: all because of the ambitions of President Trump and Stephen Miller to conquer Greenland and maybe even nuke Nuuk... we’ll finish out the predictions (with notes on those already confirmed or denied), attach a few Maduro timelines (ATTACHMENTS “A”, “B”) as well as the withdrawal of America from the world anti-piracy police (ATTACHMENT “C”) and then see what 2026 brings to the table,

Oh, and by the way, it’s the fifth anniversary of the Capitol insurrections, the first of the wildfires that locusted Los Angeles and, on Wednesday, the ICE raids on Minnesota migrants turned lethal when a 36 year old white woman, stuck in the snows tried either to ram the ICEmen (according to DHS secretary Kristi Noem, who put on a cowboy hat to emphasize her press conference giving the raids – launched after a partisan part-time investigative blogger and influencer reported on Somali day care fraud) or was just trying to escape (according to Minneapolis officials like Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor (and failed Veep wannabe Tim Walz) who also took the opportunity to escape his re-election bid to prevent more partisan murders, mayhem and mucous.

Oh, and also, Team Trump has escalated its War on Crime by defunding day care in five more blue states, leading to a massive conundrum for mostly low and minwage working mothers... quit their jobs and stop feeding the children or stay on the job and let the li’l rascals run wild in the streets.

None of our 2026 soothsayers could have predicted all of this (or really any of this) in the first week of the New Year.

2026 PREDICTIONS: FOREIGN POLICY and PRINCIPALITIES...

With two of dozens pinning the tail on Maduro, nobody even remotely foresaw the developments as would occur in just the first week of the New Year. Perhaps the Amazing Kreskin might have anticipated the developments, but he had fallen off a chair and died a year earlier and none of his contemporaries even came close to the truth (although bits and pieces of it were insinuated, as we not below).

Being that, while influential and titled Americans still insist that the capture of Maduro was a simple matter of criminal justice, reasonable minds may come to the conclusion that it was an outgrowth of American foreign policy – variously expressed against various entities since the dawn of Trump 2.0.

GOODBYE, NIKKI:

As noted in our lettered ATTACHMENTS (parsing and verifications to come next Lesson), dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife were dragged from their peaceful slumbering when a contingent of Yankees (enacting Operation Absolute Resolve under a Wolf Supermoon... the first and last of the year) ...in what even irritated liberals and Democrats had to admit was a well planned and meticulous kidnapping (they still maintained) or the simple apprehension of a dope dealer, according to SecState Marco, Speaker Mike and Kowgirl Kristi; an act of international civilian law and order, not an Act of War.

HELLO, NEW YEAR:

Mystic statistics show that two seers, so far, have already nailed the nabbing of Maduro and wife (but not the multiciplicity of cronies, thugs and drug sublords still operating and maybe considering a deal with the dons of the DonRoe doctrine – as Trump’s New World Order for the Americas has been dubbed).

If there could be such thing as a Psychic World Cup, the winners for 2026 were determined in the blink of an eyelash – and knocking down the wooden ducks of Venezuela were the British gambling oddsmakers Kalshi, over there in London, and, in Peru, the psychedelic shamaness Ana María Simeón. The DJI extends its congratulations.

In the final days of the Old Year, Peruvian shamans gathered in the capital Lima and made predictions for the coming year. The Associated Press, accordingly, dispatched reporters Cesar Barreto and India Grant expecting a nice multicultural human interest story but also scooped the world on what was going to happen a year thereafter. (ATTACHMENT ONE, Dec. 19, 2025)

Gathering by the sea in the Miraflores district of Peru’s capital, Lima, the shamans predicted that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be removed from office, and added that global conflicts, like the war in Ukraine will continue.

“We have asked for Maduro to leave, to retire, for President Donald Trump of the United States to be able to remove him, and we have visualized that next year this will happen,” said shaman Ana María Simeón.

Noting that the group had a “mixed record” in past predictions (guessing correctly that “former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who had been imprisoned for human rights abuses, would perish within twelve months” but whiffing on the prospect of nuclear war between Israel (which has a few of the birdies) and Gaza (which doesn’t).

“Before Monday’s ceremony, the shamans met to drink hallucinogenic concoctions derived from native plants — including Ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus — which are believed to give them the power to predict the future.

“During the ceremony, they placed blankets with yellow flowers, coca leaves, swords and other objects on La Herradura beach, asking for positive energy for the new year.

“After dancing in circles and playing ancestral instruments, the shamans asked for peace in the Middle East, an end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the fall of President Maduro.”

The Peruvian prophecy echoed... sort of... a contention by Dave Karpf in Substack (Dec. 21^st, ATTACHMENT TWO) who, forecasting that while 2025 was awful (and yes, they’re liberals) “I think we've made it past rock bottom.”

Among others, Karpf and Substack ventured the contention that: “We start a war with Venezuela or some other country Trump gets mad at.” No outcome, no aftermath, but... depending upon a definition of “war” as means beyond the blowing up of offshore boats and people accused of smuggling drugs to American hedonists... a peanut from the Substack Gallery contended that “the administration is focused on rebooting Duck Soup as a gritty war movie with Venezuela in the role of Sylvania. Critics say Trump is nailing the Rufus T. Firefly role,” and that... since the President and his people “believe we have entered the End Times”, all bets for the future are off.

Tom Standage of the Economist’s “ten trends to watch in 2016” centered, of course, upon economics but did, also, touch upon tech, culture and... relative to, but not specifying, Venezuela... geopolitics... whose “contours” will become clearer. (URLs to many other prediction are salted and seeded into the prospective world of 2026. ATTACHMENT THREE)

Another primarily financial journal, Forbes, cited “bookmakers on online betting markets” for their outlook on the year to come... for example, predicting that Democrats will take back control of the House (78%), while Republicans retain control of the Senate (68%). (Dec. 26^th, ATTACHMENT FOUR)

As to Venezuela, Bettors on Polymarket believe the odds of a military confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela are rising, suggesting a 39% chance by the end of January and a coin-flip 52% chance by the end of March.

In a related bet, bettors also believe Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro’s grip on power is weakening, with Polymarket predicting that there is a 56% chance he’s out by the end of 2026, while Kalshi bookmakers predict there is a 56% chance he could be out by May.

So those early birds who laid their money down back in the Old Years won big.

The Jewish Mishpacha cited “Six Big Bold Predictions” (ATTACHMENT FIVE, 12/23/25) which said that, while President Trump lost the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado “while Trump received the newly created (and somewhat less influential) FIFA World Cup Peace Prize. The import of this Attachment rests in the suspicion... backed up by others... that the President’s dismissal of Machado as unwanted by Venezuelans, despite her 70% electoral victory... may be motivated by simple jealousy.

Politico (ATTACHMENT SIX) polled Americans whose Number One concern, unsurprisingly, was “affordability”. Foreign affairs were specifically related to old standbys Gaza and Ukraine, but did take note of attacks upon Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria that may have presaged the attack on Caracas.

And a despairing USA Today reporter said he was turning off all his devices after polling various colleagues – one Larry Jaquish calling the American President “a vile, despicable human, only able to spew hatred and vitriol at anyone who does not bow down to him” and Joann Santizo claiming: “I do not want to see us wage war in Venezuela, but it seems we are headed in that direction for no other reason than oil. I hope the news media will continue to call out and investigate the atrocities occurring each and every day!” (ATTACHMENT SEVEN)

If morality fails, then just follow the money.

Writing for MSN, Markets Insider Reporter Jennifer Sor said that banks may or may not have supported the Maduro deposition, but bullish forecasts are predicted due to robust earnings growth, AI-driven gains and investment and potential Fed rate cuts.

“Despite some recent volatility in the tech sector, stocks are still firmly in bull market territory after back-to-back years of double-digit gains. The S&P 500 is up 17% year-to-date, and has gained 79% since the end of 2022.” The Dow (see our Index) has also bounced around, but closed at a near record high.

See Business Insider’s rundown of forecasts and price targets from the big banks HERE and more pertinent references and URLs from MSN in our ATTACHMENT EIGHT, below. Even more short takes and takeaways are listed as ATTACHMENT NINE covering the gamut from games to governments with predictions of a “crash” and, for some AI firms, doubled profits. Even a deep dive into Tom Brady’s wealth!

DOMESTIC PREDICTIONS

WHAT THEY SAID in 1926

Three days before the end of 2025, the Akron Beacon Journal, slightly prematurely, dug up a collection of prophesies from a conclave of seers forecasting the future in 1926, and trying and scrying what the world would look like a hundred years hence... in other words, now.

Some, the B-J noted, proved accurate... others did not.

“Some experts foresaw a dystopian future with overpopulation and starvation, while others envisioned a utopia with new power sources and longer lifespans.”

And some advanced both. (ATTACHMENT TEN)

Some of the predictions echoed current political and sociological crises of the present.

Science writer David Dietz (1897-1984), a future Pulitzer Prize winner from Cleveland, believed there were two possible paths for mankind.

One was good. The other was awful.

“If science wins, the future will see a well-fed happy world,” he wrote – presumably considering vaccinations (then coming into fashion) a no-brainer. But: “If science loses, the future will see an overcrowded, underfed, unhappy world.”

Further...

“Immigration will be prohibited by every nation of the world, since every nation will have the largest population which it can support.”

But...

“Food will be provided in factories. Such farms as do remain will be maintained by people who desire them as hobbies.”

And a prophecy in progress... maybe...

“There will be no need for mines or oil fields as mankind will have new power sources.

“The vast amount of energy sent by the sun will be caught and utilized.”

To solve the food shortage, a Maryland professor Arthur G. McCall predicted a worldwide imposition of vegetarianism (but not veganism, Americans would still be allowed to drink milk). But denied the pleasure of a triple cheese with fries, Cleveland’s Alice Williamson predicted a polymorphous perversity in which husbands and wives would enjoy outside affairs as would strengthen the marital bonds... in contract to New York’s first female judge, Jean Norris who warned that the same would result in promiscuous relations ‘without book or ring’. Children would be taken in by the government.

And Rosita Forbes, in London, predicted that sex and marriage would fall under the thumb of... yes... lawyers.

Some Jazz Age scientists forecast a lifespan that would reach, and then exceed 100. And “instead of being wrinkled and crippled, they will still be in their vigorous prime,” said sociology professor Hornell Hart.

Jazz itself would be on the cutting block if Russian émigré musicologist Ivan Narodny was given authority by some government as, of course, rap and rock and roll and soul and all other things modern, would be criminalized. Still a patriotic Russian, he blamed the Germans... specifically Strauss and Wagner for the “death of song and the end of melody” a decade before commencement of World War Two.

“The people no longer sing: They snort and grunt,” Narodny complained.

Journalist and clergyman Frank Crane predicted schoolteachers would get more respect; Cyril Bretherton warned that crime would continue while some of the prophets without honor included suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt, who predicted world peace by 2026, Boston University President Daniel Marsh, who called Prohibition “the greatest economic and social advancement of the present age,” and E. A. Hungerford, who predicted that millionaires would be the rule, not the exception.

What would these rich people do with all their wealth? The B-J dug up the British scientist Archibald M. Low, who believed that scientific apparatuses “would eventually take care of personal needs.”

Robot servants would shave the humans, blacken their boots; nourishment would consist of two ounces of a liquid compound (of the sort that would make Jane Fonda, as “Barbarella” cringe at the taste of the stuff a few decades later, a few decades ago). Mr. Low redicted television, but warned that media would cause the atrophy of human arms and legs.

The B-J, looking at culture, cited the silent movie “What’s the World Coming To,” a sci-fi comedy from Hal Roach Studios which imagined “a 2026 in which men stayed at home and women worked. Moviegoers laughed as cross-dressing actors portrayed the reversal of traditional roles.”

The cynical Toledo Blade wondered what that city will be like in the year 2026. “Well, she’s no worse than Sodom, or Gomorrah, probably no worse than Babylon, and everybody knows what happened to them.” On the other hand, Colonel George M. Bailey of the Houston Post-Dispatch wrote that “the outstanding sensation 100 years from now will be the discovery of a politician who is utterly on the level,” drawing contempt from complainers who believed the colonel was “entirely too optimistic.”

POLITICS

In the wake of the off-year elections, wrote Lisa Lerer of the New York Times, Democrats are trying to rebrand themselves as “disrupters – eager to challenge a government that many Americans believe has failed to improve their lives.”

Singling out “Seven Things for Your Radar” in the days before Christmas (ATTACHMENT ELEVEN), Ms. Lerer proceeded to identify the keys to donkey delight in November as...

WAR AND PEACE in Ukraine – including more meetings with President Zelenskyy to firm up a deal for a DMZ in the Donbas (which Bad Vlad Putin has already nyetted). Still, a good political ploy... as is scrutiny of Trump’s next meeting(s) with Israeli PM Netanyahu.

MORE U.S. STRIKES – which, at the time of the Times piece meant attacks on Islamic State militants in Nigeria. What effect the after-publication capture of Maduro will have remains debateable and by November, a massive Republican positive might pivot if the President’s imposed deal blows up,

BRAVE NEW WORLD – also relevant as of a few days ago when a woman protester was shot dead in Minneapolis... unease has been creeping upwards regarding creeping spies and surveillance tools that may rub undecideds and even some Republicans the wrong way

BILL OF HEALTH – now that Obamacare has been terminated and insurance premiums are seeking higher ground, childcare cut (in Democratic states) and HHS Sec. Bobby Junior has doubled down on anti-vaxxing and proclaimed a New Pyramid as advises Americans to eat more meat and butter and to ban the bread, voters ranging from doctors lower income parents and seniors are getting angry at the Empire.

OFF THE HILL – the Times quoting CNN’s Annie Grayer who interviewed some of the Republicans quitting Congress (whether to run for other office, seek better paying jobs with the donor classes or just lock themselves in room and cry). One lawmaker told her that the Congress “suck(s) a lot of the life out of you sometimes.”

ON HOUSING – citing the Times’ Jason DeParle, partisan rasslin’ is in play over whether the “Housing First” program really helps the homeless or just wastes money... and, finally...

IMMIGRATION – compelling Afghans to present their documents over the holidays at a ‘scheduled report check-in,’ with one ICICLE “requesting such a meeting on Christmas Day and another asking for one on New Year’s Day.”

And that didn’t even begin to catch up with the 2026 fireworks in Venezuela, Minneapolis or... in the dreams of Stephen Miller, a conquest of Greenland that may well invite not only dissolution of NATO, but a shooting war between American troops and Denmark, abetted by the armies of France, Germany, and all the way down to Slovakia.

@get an A12

In the wake of the Big Beautiful Bill with its Big Beautiful Tariffs, the Federal government finds itself sitting on a puddle of money from the latter (while the people pay higher prices for anything imported) and the disbursement of this surplus has raised almost as much cane as the tariffs themselves.

Lawmakers in many states must decide whether to adopt new federal tax breaks pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration. These changes would cut taxes on tips, overtime, vehicle loans, and business equipment but, according to the Miami Herald, (ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN) only a few states would automatically adopt the changes.

The Treasury Department has, therefore, accused several Democrat-led states of “robbing” their citizens by refusing to align their state tax codes with Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) Act.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “By denying their residents access to these important tax cuts, these governors and legislators are forcing hardworking Americans to shoulder higher state tax burdens, robbing them of the relief they deserve and exacerbating the financial squeeze on low- and middle-income households.”

Just as Republicans are in a tizzy over VenuZizzy, immigration and now Greenland, Politico (December 26^th, ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN) said that Democrats are “trying to plot a path out of the wilderness through the midterms.”

The conventional wisdom that a center or center-left attitude will land the “blue wave, 2018 style” was upset by the off year results that saw welcome asses kicking ass, but also creating a dilemma in the success of far-left Zohran Mandabi in New York.

A Third Way, center-left think tank, polled 2,000 registered voters and concluded... “(y)ou guessed it: It’s still the economy, stupid.”

“84 percent say they’re experiencing high inflation, 60 percent believe the economy isn’t growing and 66 percent think unemployment is increasing. The survey finds Republicans and Democrats tied at 38 percent on which party is most trusted to handle the economy. Democrats are up by 11 points on handling cost-of-living concerns, up 6 points on energy costs and tariffs, up 20 points on health care”… and the Republican pain continues (see the numbers here).

Putting it all together: A hyper-focus on the cost of groceries combined with a health care message could be the double whammy that Democratic candidates ride to victories in the midterms, Third Way argues. It all aligns with the word of the moment: affordability Politico stated, and “(i)f you’re already tired of hearing it, tough luck.”

In the Hill of nearly a month ago (ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN)... December 13 seems so long ago... Marc Short, a former a former aide to ex-vice president Mike Pence, predicted earlier this week that Democrats’ recent election victories could be a harbinger ahead of the 2026 midterms, suggesting Americans prefer divided government.

“I think it’s going to be a really steep climb, Dasha. The reality is that Americans like divided government. They don’t want one party in control,” Short, chair of the conservative group Advancing American Freedom, told Politico’s Dasha Burns during an interview on C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire.”

Pence’s former chief of staff acknowledged in the C-SPAN interview that Democrats may not be able to swing the same number of seats the GOP picked up in 2010 and 2018 — two elections that saw Republicans take control of the House.

“I remember being, to date myself, the [Capitol Hill] staffer in 2010 when, after the Obamacare passage, there was 63 seats the Republicans picked up,” he said. “I think it’s hard to think you’re gonna have that kind of a swing, or even 40 in the 2018 midterms.”

“But I still think that the margins, as tight as they are, of potentially one or two seats by that point, that you got to favor the Democrats in the midterms,” Short added.

Recent polling also shows a significant majority of U.S. voters say they would rather elect a Democrat than a Republican to represent them in 2026, with many citing affordability concerns.

ECONOMICS

Speaking of which, MSN’s “Market Insider” (ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN) forecasts promised happiness and wealth. “The bull market turned three this year, and Wall Street thinks you should be gearing up to celebrate another big run in 2026.”

Analysts at top banks rolled out their predictions back in November and agree, essentially, that the rich will continue to get richer. The analyses have been updated here. See Attachment for more pertinent referenced URLs.

CBS also polled the pros who said investors “largely tuned out concerns about the Trump administration's sharply higher tariffs and shrugged off fears of a financial market bubble among artificial intelligence companies. (ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN) The tech-heavy NASDAQ outperformed the Dow, up 18% for 2025 compared to only 13% for the blue chippers.

And, above all, precious metals like gold and silver soared and even the value lowly penny outperformed stocks, bonds and wages – even as it was being exterminated because the copper cost more than the cent was worth. (USA Today, ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN)

Certain groups of Americans – lower-income households, and those over 55 – still use plenty of cash, the Fed found, along with people who prefer to shop in person.

See a few coin collector tips at the attachment.

The Motley Fool (ATTACHMENT NINETEEN) has chosen a pair of AI stocks as being of most potential potentiality to investors.

UiPath has a lot of upside if it can become a leader in AI agent orchestration.

SentinelOne has the potential to take additional share in endpoint security and security analytics.

Both stocks trade at cheap valuations.

And Fortune, publishing an opinionator and predicticator by Sridhar Ramaswami, CEO of the AI Data Cloud “Snowflake”, cited a “next stage” that has the potential to deliver dramatic gains, “driven by shifts already underway in how AI models are built and deployed” in an environment where the robots are, step by step, taking over from the people (ATTACHMENT TWENTY) with programs and language as dense as the dark stars at the galactic center.

Mr. Ramaswamy’s seven footsteps to Satan (or to wealth undreamt of in the sheeple’s woolly dreams) are...

1 – Big Tech’s Grip on AI Models Will Loosen

“Companies are now taking open-source foundation models and customizing them with their own data, creating a faster, cheaper route to competitive AI. This democratization means far more organizations will create their own tailored models instead of relying solely on OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic.”

2 – AI Will Have Its ‘HTTP’ Moment With a New Protocol for Agent Collaboration

“Much as HTTP allows websites to connect freely across the internet, a dominant AI protocol will emerge next year that will allow agents to work together across different systems and platforms.”

3 – Teams That Resist ‘AI Slop’ Will Dominate the Creative Landscape

In 2026, a divide will emerge between those who use AI to amplify their own creativity and those who use it as a crutch. churning out generic content that floods the market but doesn’t resonate with customers. Organizations that take the former approach will dominate their industries.

4 – The Best AI Products Will Learn From Every User Interaction

In 2026, the most successful AI products will build in continuous learning from user behavior. AI systems that capture feedback loops — like coding copilots do now when users accept or reject suggestions — will improve far faster than static models.

5 – Enterprises Will Demand Quantified Reliability Before Scaling AI Agents

Business-critical AI applications require precise, measurable accuracy, not probabilistic answers. Establishing these domain-specific testing standards will be essential for taking agentic AI from pilot projects to core business operations.

6 – Ideas, Not Execution, Will Become the AI Bottleneck

7 – Shadow AI Will Drive Enterprise Adoption from the Bottom Up

Rather than waiting for IT departments to sanction approved products, workers are using ChatGPT, Claude, and other consumer AI tools for their daily work, forcing organizations to catch up with formal policies and infrastructure. Smart enterprises will recognize this grassroots adoption as a signal of what works and build their AI strategies around employee-proven use cases.

Tip Rank’s Vince Condarcuri, finally, joined the hallelujah chorus for Wall Street, 2026... citing five-star analyst, Colin Sebastian, who calls Meta an “opportunistic buy.” (ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE) Investors are closely watching upcoming Q1 guidance and margin comments, particularly for clarity on spending tied to AI and the metaverse.

In addition, improvements in ad ranking, the growing monetization on WhatsApp and Threads, and the wider adoption of automated ad tools like Advantage+ continue to support the core advertising business.

Overall, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 37 Buys, six Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months.

HOUSING/AFFORDABILITY

Not a strong buy... that ol’ debbil Housing Affordability, according to Chen Zhao and Daryl Fairweather at Redfin (December 2, 2025, ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO) which calls their projection of average incomes (factoring in the billionaire boys’ boost) outpacing home-price growth the Great Housing Reset.

“It won’t be enough to make homebuying affordable in the short run for Gen Zers and young families,” but... hey... it’ll make the parasites and speculators (like those reportedly lowballing L.A. fire victims) giddy with get up and gumption.

Chao and Fairweather offered up eleven housing market predictions for your consideration... making the predictions that...

PREDICTION 1: MORTGAGE RATES WILL DIP TO LOW-6% RANGE, ONE FACTOR IMPROVING AFFORDABILITY (Also noted: “a weaker labor market” and “lingering inflation”)

PREDICTION 2: HOMEBUYING AFFORDABILITY WILL IMPROVE AS WAGES GROW FASTER THAN PRICES (Prices will tick up only marginally because still-high mortgage rates and prices, along with a weaker economy, will curb demand.)

PREDICTION 3: HOME SALES WILL RISE 3% (but many house hunters will remain priced out and/or limited by a stalled labor market, “including some Americans who have lost their job–or fear losing their job–as AI takes a toll on the white-collar workforce - See Economics above)

PREDICTION 4: RENTS WILL RISE AS DEMAND FOR APARTMENTS RISES AND SUPPLY FALLS (The good news: “tightened immigration enforcement is likely to put a lid on rental-demand growth.”)

PREDICTION 5: HIGH HOUSING COSTS WILL RESHAPE HOUSEHOLDS, WITH MORE ROOMMATES AND FEWER BABIES (Gen Z and millennial homeownership rates flatlined last year, and we expect that trend to continue. Household makeup will shift further away from the nuclear family, with more adult children living with their parents and vice versa. That’ll make for fun!)

PREDICTION 6: AFFORDABILITY CRISIS WILL UNITE POLICYMAKERS ACROSS PARTY LINES Redfin contends that the YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement will pick up more supporters across party lines, opening the door for initiatives that increase housing supply... but the only thing that will make homes more affordable is time. “Housing costs soared much faster than earnings during the pandemic, and while wages will start outpacing home prices next year (except to those replaced by AI), we expect it to take about five years for the housing market to return to a semblance of normal.”

PREDICTION 7: MORE AMERICANS WILL REFI AND REMODEL “We also anticipate more homeowners tapping home equity to fund renovations. Strong home-value appreciation over the last several years means many homeowners have sizable equity; the typical mortgaged homeowner had $181,000 in untapped equity as of mid-2025.”

PREDICTION 8: NYC OUTSKIRTS, GREAT LAKES REGION WILL BE HOT … ZOOM TOWNS LIKE NASHVILLE AND AUSTIN WILL NOT “Small and mid-sized cities are luring recent graduates with affordable rents and opportunities to build stable careers in blue-collar fields, as AI replaces some entry-level white-collar jobs.” Hot housing markets include Cleveland and always-contentious Minneapolis (see Attachment for more)...so long as home winter heating costs don’t turn the hot markets ICE cold

PREDICTION 9: CLIMATE MIGRATION WILL GO HYPERLOCAL “Many people are also shying away from building, buying, and hanging onto homes in climate-risky neighborhoods because insurance costs are sky-high... (t)his local climate migration could exacerbate inequality. People who can’t afford to leave a vulnerable place like Altadena will be left behind, with a lower local tax base for making climate-resilient investments in the future.”

PREDICTION 10: NAR WILL LET LOCAL MLSS CALL THE SHOTS, SPARKING CONSOLIDATION Putting local MLSs in the driver’s seat will accelerate consolidation with many smaller branches joining bigger networks.

PREDICTION 11: AI WILL BECOME A REAL ESTATE MATCHMAKER “Generative AI will increasingly help people decide where to move, identifying cities, towns, neighborhoods and homes that fit users’ budgets and lifestyle criteria.” Say “hi!” to the scamblers.

PREDICTION 12 (from DJI, not REDFIN): TIRED OF WAITING FOR “TIME” (above) THE SKYROCKETING POPULATION OF DISPLACED AND HOMELESS WATCHING THEIR CHILDREN FREEZE TO DEATH AT CHRISTMAS WILL RESORT TO VIOLENT CRIME AND INSURRECTIONS, FURTHER DETERIORATING THE STATUS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

The proof of the pudding... if one can still afford desserts... may well be that American venture capitalist Bradley Tusk “has warned that growing inequality in the United States could lead to a revolution,” according to Alia Shoaib in MSN/Newsweek (ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE).

“Right now, if we don’t do anything, it seems to me you could have a world with Elon [Musk] and 25 other trillionaires and 19 percent unemployment. And to me, that just means the French Revolution is coming,” Tusk told British radio station LBC on Thursday, adding that the election of Zohran Mamdani in New York might bring “some youth, some enthusiasm, some new ideas,” to the alternately moribund, alternately infighting Democrats.

See charts, graphs and numbers on all of the above here

CULTURE (and its partisan WARS)

USA Today’s predictions for culture, sports, the high and low arts and events in 2026 begin, of course, with the bazillion dollar bash celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the official formation of the United States as a country.

“This will be marked by a yearlong celebration coordinated by the bipartisan America250 Commission, created by Congress in 2016, and the White House’s Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, established in 2025. (December 30, 2025, ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR) and including military parades and fireworks, a national prayer event and a UFC exhibition at the White House.

Presumably not featuring three armed and Kevlar’d ICEmen versus one middle aged housewife in a RV.

Other likely high points of the New Year will be Super Bowl LX on February 8^th, including its Bad Bunny halftime show; the artist being “a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and ICE, angering some conservative figures. Others have challenged Bad Bunny's American identity, though Puerto Rico is a territory of America.”

The sports sport on at the Winter Olympics in Milan between February 6^th and 22^nd, the FIFA World Cup... being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico this year in June and July and the Award Shows (beginning with Sunday’s Golden Globes, then moving on to the Grammys, Emmys, Tonys and, on March 15^th, the Oscars.

And... among all the other news of the New Year... USAT chose the proposed November 19^th release of Grand Theft Auto VI, the December 18^th premiere of Dune Three (actually Dune Four... they chose to omit the admittedly floppo David Lynch venture), and more sequels... ('Hunger Games,' 'Avengers,' 'Star Wars'). The Attachment also includes chronologic listings of all of the above.

SCIENCE/ TECH/MEDICINE

Predictions for Science and Medicine by the Mass. General Brigham facility (12/23/25 ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE) include prospects for developments ranging “from groundbreaking discoveries in AI to transformative innovations in cancer and cardiovascular disease” organized by discipline including...

· Artificial intelligence (AI)

· Cancer

· Cardiology

· Neurology and neuroscience

Medical AI at MGB “will move from the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ to the early ‘Slope of Enlightenment’ on the Gartner Hype Cycle—a sign that hype is giving way to reality,” according to Hugo Aerts, PhD. “As real-world evidence grows, many AI tools will fall short of expectations, exposing issues like bias and workflow fit. This reckoning will be healthy, separating hype from substance and accelerating clinically validated, trustworthy AI systems."

"We’ll see major progress in understanding the links between aging and cancer—why aging is the main risk factor,” according to Peter van Galen, PhD (the DJI notes that not aging is symptomatic of an even more serious problem: death), why “younger and older patients respond differently to treatment, and how cell biology can improve responses across age groups."

Heart health, as forecast by Emily Lau, MD, will improve “biological precision” on women’s cardiovascular risk, based on research that “can lay the groundwork for more tailored prevention strategies in women’s heart health." (Men... you’re on your own.)

And “human cellular models” will become the backbone of precision neurology according to Tracy Young Pearse, PhD, with new standards on genetics “fundamentally transforming how we assess efficacy, stratify patients, and reduce risks in the clinical translation of new therapeutics."

Other researchers probing other topics included takeaways on “epigenetic clocks”, cellular mapping, “de novo protein design” that produce “enzymes with functions that do not exist in nature, designed from scratch to perform tasks evolution never created” and a “surge of ingenuity and creativity across science and medicine.”

Wired (ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX) evaluates the battle between Google and OpenAI; looks back to the biggest stories of 2025 (DOGE, Palantir and “dark money”). Jessica Billingsley of Rolling Stone (12/23/25 ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN) delineated “the contrast between what is emerging and what is being left behind.”

Congratulating Herself for an accuracy rate of 85% over five years... 90% in 2025... Ms. Billingsley (no relation to Beaver Cleaver’s mother) cited personal digital IDs. AI law, Bitcoin miners and “data center deals” to bolster infrastructure.

For 2026, Billingsley’s predictions included a pre-emptive market “correction” to forestall the “AI bubble”; “agentic AI”, quantum theory applicable to “the cloud”, defense tech and... on the human end, upskilling becoming “the cheapest and fastest way to keep your team from feeling like technology is sprinting past them.”

The Stoners predict glory for “leaders who experiment, upgrade and bring their teams along for the ride. Everything else — market cycles, new tech, surprise breakthroughs — is just weather.”

“Fortune differs from luck. Luck is random. Fortune implies a confluence of luck, hard work and acting at the opportune moment. Therefore,” Ms. Billingsley concludes: “I wish you all good fortune in 2026.”

Speaking of Fortune – that publication’s guest reportage from the Snowflake CEO (Attachment Twenty, above) – let’s sample what the original fortune tellers fortold.

The King of Fortunes Past, Nostradamus foretold an overflowing of blood in the Ticino River, which is in Switzerland. It was fire, not blood that roared thereabouts last week, but call it close enough.

More recently, occultists have followed the sirens’ songs of Baba Vanga, the late Bulgarian mystic whose show-stopper is that E.T. will finally come to earth in November amidst a “dangerous hinge” that may or may not lead to World War Three. (Sky News, ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT) Other Vanga-isms include disruptive AI (an easy one), economic instability (keep an eye out), synthetic organs (no go, so far but there have been pig to human kidney transplants and bio-printed living-tissue implants like the 3D-printed ear).

And if you don’t trust the psychics, what about polls. The IPSOS 2026 predictions are out – the majority said 2025 was a bad year (the most pessimistic were the French), but 2026 will be better. However, more respondents predicted more public unrest in Great Britain, Japan and the U.S. while 78% believe that climate change is making life harder.

Only 21% believe President Trump will ever receive his Nobel Peace Prize.

	IN the NEWS: JANUARY 1^ST, 2026 to JANUARY 8^TH, 2026
Thursday, January 1, 2026 Dow closed for New Years’ Day	See last week’s lesson. Dow closed out the year at 48,063.29.
Friday, January 2, 2026 Dow: 48,382.39	2025 begins a 2025 ended: floodings in the West from San Diego to San Fran.; 6 ½” in some places – most in 40 years. Rose Parade drenched and 50 mph. winds north of SF roll in the tide over fabled Marin County. New York is dry, tho’ freezing, for the swearing-in of Zohran Mandamai as AOC, the Bern and the leftist media look on in appreciation. Obamacare subsidies expire, allowing insurance companies to raise premium – sometimes four to six hunded percent. Parents of sick children call it murder, Dems say Congressional Republicans lied about a deal as they enjoy their vacations as will last another week. President Trump, touting the health benefits of his daily aspirin, serves up another T.A.C.O. (this time a pivot on pasta). A teenage terrorist wannabee is busted by the FBI agents he thought were mentoring him while plotting ramming and stabbing attacks against random civilians in Charlotte. He’d called for Jihad in his sub-literte manifesto. In the real MidEast war, Israel denies its attacks on civilians negate the peace deal while Russian bombs and drones keep falling on Kiev and more Venezuelan drug boats are sunk. Also overseas, Swiss investigators are investigating the New Years bar fire, believed to have been caused by sparklers atop bottles of champagne. Six student protesters shouting “Death to the Dictator!” are gunned down by the government in Iran, a 6.5 earthquake rattles Acapulco, but without fatalities and then...
Saturday, January 3, 2026 Dow: Closed	Under a Wolf Supermoon shining down in the dead of night, the American “Absolute Resolution” troops invade Caracas drag Dictator Maduro and his wife our of bed and carry them off to waiting transport back to the U.S.A. to stand trial for dope dealing on the 36^th anniversary of our last seizure of an unpleasant foreign dictator – Manuel Noriega. (See above) A few soldiers, sailors and chopper pilots are injured in the strike, but there are no deaths on our side; 40 hostiles are killed (32 of whom are Cuban mercenaries). The usual partisan divide begins immediately, escalates on tomorrow’s talkshows and inspires mixed reactions among Republicans, some of whom are asking what’s next. Many call it a Trump pivot from his campaign against Joe Biden’s involvement in useless foreign wars; revolted renegade Sen. Thomas Massie (R-Ky) accusing the President of serial mendacity of saying the Operation was about fighting drugs instead of regime change and then regime change instead of confiscating Venezuela’s oil reserves. Elsewhere, the Saudis do a lookatme raid on Yemen and Myanmar repleases hundreds of prisoners, An Arizona copter crash kills four, but a parachutist survies crashing through power lines. Retailer Saks and Muskmelon Tesla see falling sales, actress Evangeline Lilly (AntMan) falls and suffers a severe brain injury.
Sunday, January 4, 2026 Dow: Closed	It’s Talkshow Sunday and there’s plenty to talk about (above). While President Trump hangs back in Mar-a-Lago and dreams of oily fortunes to befall his BFFs in the “drill, baby, drill” realm, sober economists and politicians (some Republicans included) and even some of the big oil companies tabbed to cash in on the coup (Chevron and Conoco, for example) are disturbed by the “decrepit” state of the Venezuelan extraction infrastructure and believe it will take far more time and even more money to get back into a productive state. The good news is that... while American drivers won’t enjoy dollar-a-gallon gas for years, if at all... the Russians, Chinese and Iranians won’t be enjoying it either. There’s enough domestic output in Moscow and Tehran to get by and maybe even make a few more roubles and dinars selling to hypocritical Euros, but China could be in trouble. Real trouble. The Man of the Moment is Marco – Rubio appearing on the ABC “Week” to insist that Congressional approval, or even notification, was not required because the invasion and seizure was a law enforcement, not military matter and on CBS’ “Face the Nation” saying that, while he has “tremendous admiration” for exiled opposition leader Maria Cortez Machado, he agrees with Trump’s decision not to recognize her as President, nor even to hold elections for, perhaps, years, while America manages Venezuelan affairs under what is not being called the “Don Roe Doctrine”, Critics and cynics say he’s still jealous that she stole his Nobel Prize out from under him.
Monday, January 5, 2026 Dow: 48,977.18	Amid the cheers and condemnations worldwide over Maduro’s capture, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene retires and delineates some of the reasons that Trump now considers her a traitor... the Epstein files, precipitating the split (wherin she came down in favor of the female victims) but now, sounding more like a Bernie rock donkey than a Trump sock monkey, she insinuates that Djonald UnLubricated’s deals with oilies will result in more pain for Venezuelans, less affordability for Americans and more corruption in realms of politics and economics. Sunday’s post-midnight “Meet the Press” panel debates whether the coup will result in a net out-migration of worried Venezuelans taking advantage of the disarray among military and police charged with preventing their leaving (a new problem for ICE) or a re-inmigration among those now feeling safer. For his part, the President doubles down on threats to Mexico and Colombia and retrieves his invasion of and seizure of Greenland, causing Denmark to appeal to NATO, the EU and UN to, if necessary, declare war (these are very legalistic people) and then invade... oh... Boston or Berkeley (a deal Trump might just consider, so long as the NorthEast weather moderates and Mad Vlad doesn’t take advantage of the American chaos to recapture Alaska or California). In a violent American weekend, a 15 year old carjacks a Uber and kills the driver in Georgia; a 14 year old is off life spport after being shot in the head on Christmas; home invader)s?) kill teacher while on the phone to 911 in N. Carolina and an Ohio vandal vandalizes veep Vance’s vestibule.
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 Dow: 49,462.08	On the fifth anniversary of the One Six insurrection, Maduro cronies like VP Rodriguez still in office and rounding up and killing pro-American traitors... she says she’d win 90% of the vote over Nobel-ist Maria Machado. Speaker denies having boots in the ground in Caracas and Stephen Miller insists we need Greenland to counter Russia, Iran and Cuba. TV talksters tackle a declining economy – Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of “1929” says that the Great Depression resulted from bungled tariff policies which he compares to a soap opera DefSec Pete Hegseth strips Sen. Kelly of his rank and pension and promises that a jury will imprison, if not hang him, for treason. He responds that he was citing the Code of Military Justice under which: “I have the right to say what I think.” After the last weekend of scheduled NFL games, the suits go on a coach firing binge, firing the Raiders, Browns, Indians, Cardinals, Giants and... after he misses the playoffs due to a muffed field goal in his 18^th season... the Ravens’ iconic Coach Harbaugh.
Wednesday, January 7, 2026 Dow: 48,996.08	While Maduro partisans riot in Caracas and confiscate people’s phones – looking for indictable or killable tweets – President Trump confiscates millions of barrels of oil while spokesthings say that the dictatator and his wife’s beat-up faces were the result of their “running into a wall.” Then, we seize a Russian flag tanker causing Sad Vlad to threaten WW3. Miller rages that nobody is taking his war on Greenland seriously; the cowards at NATO say the big island is still Danish. Does this mean that, in addition to Russia, we’ll go to war with France and Germany... or Slovakia? President Trump agrees that war with Denmark is “on the table” and even Republicans like Thom Tillis (R-NC) call the threats “amateur hour”. Rep. Doug Lamalea dies, further narrowing the Republican Congressional majority even as DHS Kristi Noem puts on a cowboy hat and commandeers TV time to double down on the contention that Renee Good, the woman shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis was a domestic terrorist (not a confused mother stuck in traffic).aiming to kill ICE and DHS agents while they were rounding up Somalis believed to have been defrauding America on daycare subsidies. Governor (and failed Veep) Tim Walz drops his re-election bid, nobly declaring that he is doing so to stop more gumment murders. It’s not only Minneapolis that’s experience war in the streets... Iran’s dictator are gunning down regime opponents; killing dozens and earning a strange warning from Trump that America will go to war to save street protesters!
The Dow was up substantially, based on optimism over the economy, AI and Venezuela… the Don had its best week in years, primarily due to the ginormous decrease in the balance of trade deficit. By this standard, America and the American President are winning, Winning big. Of course there are negatives – murdering peaceful protesters is not good for democracy and seizing Russian ships might have side effects (like World War Three). But, for now, it’s time to celebrate.

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a further explanation of categories HERE

ECONOMIC INDICES		(60%)
CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS by PERCENTAGE			SCORE		OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	6/17/13 revised 1/1/22	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	LAST WEEK	THIS WEEK	THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS...
Wages (hrly. Per cap)	9%	1350 points	12/11/25	+5.97%	1/26	1,963.90	1,963.90	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/average-hourly-earnings 38.86 nc Average hourly earnings for all employees on US private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 5 cents, or 0.1%, over a month to $36.86 in November 2025, following a 0.4% rise in October and below market forecasts of 0.3%. This was the smalleth increase in wages since August 2023. This category will be reformatted next week
Median Inc. (yearly)	4%	600	1/1/26	+0.07%	1/16/26	1,134.02	1,134.83	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 52,420 444 1,511 548
Unempl. (BLS – in mi)	4%	600	1/1/26	+4.55%	1/26*	507.20	530.25	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/ 4.6 nc 4.4
Official (DC – in mi)	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.23%	1/16/26	198.64	198.19	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,756 767 896 914
Unofficl. (DC – in mi)	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.33%	1/16/26	235.66	234.89	*http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 14,152 170 592 640*
Workforce Participation Number Percent	2%	300	1/1/26	-0.100% +0.097%	1/16/26	297.93	298.22	*http://www.usdebtclock.org/ In 164,048 077 3,876 4.040* Out 103,547 587 257 303 Total: 267,595 664 334 343 61.3046 61.2996 61.3001 .359
WP % (ycharts)*	1%	150	1/1/26	+0.16%	1/26*	151.19	150.95	https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 62.50 .40
OUTGO	(15%)							2293
Total Inflation	7%	1050	1/1/26	+0.4%	10/25*	927.45	927.45	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3 NC NC *
Food	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.5%	10/25*	262.59	262.59	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.2
Gasoline	2%	300	1/1/26	+1.9%	10/25*	255.11	255.11	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +4.1
Medical Costs	2%	300	1/1/26	-0.1%	10/25*	274.20	274.20	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3
Shelter	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.4%	10/25*	250.63	250.63	http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.2
WEALTH								An official website of the United States government census.gov Notification: Due to the lapse of federal funding, portions of this website are not being updated. Any inquiries submitted via www.census.gov will not be answered until appropriations are enacted. * Partial results were recorded forDec. 2025, including gas at the pump, but most remained uncompiled
*Dow* Jones Index	2%	300	1/1/26	+1.94%	1/16/26	370.77	377.97	https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 47,885.97 48,442.41 48,063.29 48,996.08
Home (Sales) (Valuation)	1% 1%	150 150	1/1/26	+1.073% -1.445%	1/16/26	126.69 268.76	126.69 268.76	https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics Sales (M): 4.10 4.13 Valuations (K): 415.2 409.2
Millionaires (New Category)	1%	150	1/1/26	+0.067%	1/16/26	134.87	134.96	*http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 23,905 914 958 974**
Paupers (New Category)	1%	150	1/1/26	+0.036%	1/16/26	135.54	135.49	*http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 37,214 208 6,657 670**
								*Due to the lapse of federal funding, portions of this website were not being updated for two months. New levels represented, consequently, show the effects of several months’ holdovers. Data will return to Debt Clock weekly findings – unless the government shuts down again.
GOVERNMENT	(10%)
Revenue (trilns.)	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.15%	1/16/26	464.63	465.33	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 5,274 277 329 337
Expenditures (tr.)	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.06%	1/16/26	294.21	294.04	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,040 042 058 062
National Debt tr.)	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.09%	1/16/26	351.16	350.86	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 38,492 516 554 558 591
Aggregate Debt (tr.)	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.07%	1/16/26	375.31	375.03	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 105,818 898 6,019 057 136

TRADE	(5%)
Foreign Debt (tr.)	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.13%	1/16/26	259.86	259.53	http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 9,435 442 339 351
Exports (in billions)	1%	150	1/1/26	+4.39%	1/26*	180.05	187.95	`https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html` 289.3 302.0*
Imports (in billions))	1%	150	1/1/26	+3.23%	1/26*	150.81	155.68	`https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html` 342.1 331.4*
Trade Surplus/Deficit (blns.)	1%	150	1/1/26	-79.59%	1/26*	286.58	482.34	`https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html` 52.8 29.4*

SOCIAL INDICES		(40%)						23815
ACTS of MAN	(12%)
World Affairs	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.1%	1/16/26	469.61	470.08	Swiss investigators investigate Swiss bar fire: Authorities promise that “Lessons will be learned.” More American adventures to the south will be enforced under the “Donroe Doctrine”. Saudis open world’s largest roller coaster, embarrassing America.
War and terrorism	2%	300	1/1/26	+0.3%	1/16/26	285.73	286.02	Teen terrorist foiled by FBI to preent stabbing spree in Charlotte, NC. Unidntified leftist claims credit for arson on Berlin power grid. Saudiis strike Yemen; Myanmar releases hundreds of prisoners.
Politics	3%	450	1/1/26	-0.3%	1/16/26	460.68	459.30	Obamacare subsidies officially expire, leading to insurance premiums doubled or worse – Republicans promise a review “next year”. Trump halts daycare funding for five blue states, Elon Musk condemned for allowing AI revenge porn to be posted on his Grok host.
Economics	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.2%	1/16/26	429.21	430.50	Partisans argue Venezuela, ICE and... Greenland? Tariff TACOs on furniture and pasta. Mangia! Chuck Schumer on ABC talkshoe calls Trump a hypocrite for his former diatribes against “endless wars” under Old Goneaway Joe.
Crime	1%	150	1/1/26	-0.1%	1/16/26	208.09	207.88	Machete man kills three in Jersey; parking rager kills space thief at Savannah Target. Will Smith sued for violence against violinist.
ACTS of GOD	(6%)
Environment/Weather	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.2%	1/16/26	281.11	281.67	It’s still winter, but severe climate moderates considerably after freezing East and flooding West.
Disasters	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.1%	1/16/26	461.72	462.18	Earthquakes in Japan and Acapulco. Kid rescued in freezing pond has sage advice for peers: “Don’t walk on the ice.” Parachutist survives crash but Arizona copter crash kills four.
LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX		(15%)
Science, Tech, Education	4%	600	1/1/26	+0.1%	1/16/26	613.07	613.68	Humanoid robots rock and roll at Vegas tech expo.
Equality (econ/social)	4%	600	1/1/26	nc	1/16/26	675.08	675.08	Hilton Hotel refuses to rent rooms to ICE agents
Health	4%	600	1/1/26	-0.1%	1/16/26	417.14	416.72	It’s Dry January. Teetotaler President Trump says his superhuman health and strength are due to taking an aspirin a day. Flu season racks up 11M cases, 5K deaths. Shrinks issuing therapy donkeys to the disturbed.
Freedom and Justice	3%	450	1/1/26	nc	1/16/26	482.57	482.57	Cartoons Betty Boop and Blondie enter public domain. Maduro arraigned in NY court, no bail granted. Nick Reiner’s attorney resigns from murder trial; TV-lawyers consider a mental health defense. Wyoming (!) court bans abortion bans, and Mangion trial set for this year – or next
CULTURAL and MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS			(6%)
Cultural incidents	3%	450	1/1/26	+0.1%	1/16/26	576.29	576.87	NFL advances to playoffs as coach purge begins. Venus Willians ousted from Australian Open. Callum Turner rumored to be the next Bond, perhaps starring with real life squeeze Dua Lipa. “Avatar 3” tops a billion. “One Battle After Another” wins Critics’ Choice, upcoming are Emmys. Emma Stone to star in Miss Piggy movie. New quarters to be minted celebrate the Mayflower. RIP: The Penny. Russian spy Aldrich Ames in prison. Michael Reagan, son of Ron. First female Kentucky Derby jockey Diane Crump.
Miscellaneous incidents	4%	450	1/1/26	+0.1%	1/16/26	545.58	546.16	Memesters say “6-7” is falling out of favor – a new buzzword awaits flowering. Greenful Dead promoting “natural burials” (aka composting), AI suggests police officer turned into a frog.

The Don Jones Index for the week of January 1^st through January 8^th, 2025 was UP 239.30 points

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action againth parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

ATTACHMENT – FROM

ATTACHMENT ONE – FROM THE AP

IN THE FINAL DAYS OF 2025 PERUVIAN SHAMANS GATHERED IN THE CAPITAL LIMA AND MADE PREDICTIONS FOR THE COMING YEAR.

Images (see website)

Shamans hold photos of U.S. President Donald Trump and Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro during their annual ritual to predict political and social issues for the new year in Lima, Peru, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.

Shamans perform a personalized blessing for a man during their annual ritual to predict political and social issues for the new year, on the coast of Lima, Peru, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Shamans hold a photo of U.S. President Donald Trump during an annual ritual to predict political and social issues for the new year in Lima, Peru, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Shamans perform an annual ritual to predict political and social issues for the new year in Lima, Peru, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. The sign reads in Spanish “Welcome 2026.” (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Shamans perform an annual ritual to predict political and social issues for the new year in Lima, Peru, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

By CESAR BARRETO and INDIA GRANT Updated 5:10 PM EST, December 29, 2025

Leer en español

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A group of shamans gathered Monday by the sea in the Miraflores district of Peru’s capital, Lima, to carry out an annual ritual in which they make predictions for the upcoming year.

Dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, the group performed a ceremony, and made predictions about the course of international relations, ongoing conflicts and the fate of world leaders.

In this year’s event, the shamans said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be removed from office, and added that global conflicts, like the war in Ukraine will continue.

The group has a mixed record with its annual predictions.

Last year, they warned a “nuclear war” would break out between Israel and Gaza, where a ceasefire is currently in place.

But in December 2023, the group correctly predicted that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who had been imprisoned for human rights abuses, would perish within twelve months.

Former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo sentenced for conspiracy

Peru sentences former President Vizcarra to 14 years in prison for corruption

Rubio is hopeful about Russia-Ukraine and Gaza peace efforts but clear about the challenges

Fujimori died from cancer in September 2024 at the age of 86.

Before Monday’s ceremony, the shamans met to drink hallucinogenic concoctions derived from native plants — including Ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus — which are believed to give them the power to predict the future.

During the ceremony, they placed blankets with yellow flowers, coca leaves, swords and other objects on La Herradura beach, asking for positive energy for the new year.

After dancing in circles and playing ancestral instruments, the shamans asked for peace in the Middle East, an end to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the fall of President Maduro.

The prayers to the gods, performed amid flowers and incense, as well as dances, are intended to encourage leaders to make good decisions.

The shamans also predicted natural disasters, such as earthquakes and climatic phenomena.

ATTACHMENT TWO – FROM SUBSTACK

THE FUTURE, NOW AND THEN

Some 2026 Predictions... I think we've made it past rock bottom?

By Dave Karpf Dec 21, 2025

We have nearly made it through 2025. (0/10, would not recommend). This year has been awful. It will take decades to repair all the damage.

I think 2026 is shaping up to be... better? Not good, mind you. But certainly less-bad. Here are my hunches about the year ahead:

BY LATE SPRING/EARLY SUMMER, TRUMP’S GOVERNING COALITION WILL BE CONSUMED BY INFIGHTING.

This won’t lead to anything dramatic like impeachment proceedings or invoking the 25th Amendment. But one of the critical differences between Trump’s first and second administrations is his ability to quell any intra-party opposition. Basically no one within the party network has been capable to stand up to him this time around.¹ They have purged the ranks of the DOJ and the FBI and the military. The sole governing value that unites the Republican Party of 2025 is we agree with President Trump. The ability to maintain that party unity is one of his few relative strengths.

But, as Henry Farrell has argued, this sort of party unity is brittle. Absolute power can be a terrible weakness.

Here’s how it looks to me, right now: Trump’s approval rating currently hovers around 40%. The macroeconomic situation is dicey. Neither will improve in 2026. And, as we draw closer to election day, Republican leaders are going to panic and start blaming each other. Trump’s team will not deal well with dissension in the ranks, so things are likely to get out of hand.

That infighting will be a blessing, because the more time they spend fighting each other, the less bandwidth they have for attacking the rest of us.

This doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet. Russ Vought and Stephen Miller are going to treat this year like a clearance sale on consolidating their fascist power grab. The Supreme Court majority will be even more brazen in trying to lock in election-proof permanent majority status for the Trump regime.

Still, assuming relatively normal elections in November, this could produce narrow Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.

The internal fight among Democrats this year will be between the popularist “just say bland poll-tested shit and prepare to do nothing-at-all with your governing majority” wing and the twin left-populist/take-elite-corruption-seriously caucuses. The popularists will have a massive warchest supplied by wealthy donors, so their SuperPACs will dominate television advertising. But they’ll sound massively out-of-touch in ways that leave them falling flat everywhere else.

(OUR popularist contingent will be represented by figures like David Shor and Matt Yglesias. They’ll sound a lot like Bret Stephens. I will spend mid-2026 engaged in far too many arguments with those guys.)

THE AI BUBBLE WON’T BURST QUITE YET, BUT IT WILL BECOME IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY THAT WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A ONE.

I expect AI coding assistants will continue to make incremental improvements. I keep hearing that coders are blown away by the stuff. But that doesn’t mean generative AI is some magical general purpose technology. It might just be quite good for a few narrow sets of tasks.

AI slop is going to be everywhere in 2026, and everyone will fucking hate all of it. The cultural backlash will be in full swing next year. It has the makings of the biggest mass social rejection of a technology since Google Glass.

The AI finance bubble won’t quite burst, but only because the Trump administration (at the direction of David Sacks) props it up through a serious of absurd, obvious gimmicks. The government will supply public money to backstop huge Silicon Valley bets, recognizing that if the bubble were to pop before the November election, it would prompt a 2008-scale financial crisis. They’ll choose to prop up their VC buddies in the near-term rather than brace for the fallout.

But my hunch is that doesn’t save crypto. I think we slip into another crypto winter in 2026, as some of the big investors get scared about the AI bubble and reduce their exposure to other overinflated asset classes. There are still zero non-speculative, non-crime use cases for cryptocurrency. Once the big money get scared, all the valuations will go into freefall.

MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE OF ELECTORAL POLITICS AND AI…

-Billionaires buy 2-3 more major media outlets, consolidating their control of mass communication channels.

-Substack’s core newsletter product gets worse, as the company chases an endless series of growth hacks to keep their VC investors happy. Eventually they have another self-inflicted comms crisis that results in another wave of writers leaving for other platforms. I’ll be among them.

-We start a war with Venezuela or some other country Trump gets mad at.

-The mass mortality rates from preventable diseases ticks up, but it’s hard to conclusively prove the connection because the government doesn’t publish reliable data anymore.

-More carbon is pumped into the atmosphere than ever before, even though renewable energy keeps getting cheaper.

-A natural disaster strikes, and FEMA is woefully unprepared. The billionaire-owned major media outlets politely agree to barely cover it, and the algorithmic social media platforms suppress discussion as well.

-If there is a public health emergency, the government will just insist “no, there isn’t.”

I’ll end the predictions there, since this was meant to be an optimistic outlook and now I’m speculating on mass-death scenarios. (I am no fun at parties.)

Still, the bottom-line takeaway is that, if 2025 was defined by things falling apart faster than expected, my hunch is that 2026 will be defined by the bill coming due, and the Trump coalition fracturing as they are unable to pay it.

From there, the long road to recovery begins. It won’t be easy. But there is, I think, some light at the end of this tunnel.

PEANUT GALLERY

Marjorie Taylor Greene stood up to him, so now she’s resigning from Congress. What an absurd year it has been, that such a sentence can be written as fact.

Sadly, I think we're a long way from rock bottom. We haven't even started bombing cartels in Mexico yet, but only because the administration is focused on rebooting Duck Soup as a gritty war movie with Venezuela in the role of Sylvania. Critics say Trump is nailing the Rufus T. Firefly role with his delivery of the iconic "who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes" line.

I'd say the defining feature of 2025 is the firehose of aggression from the administration. Every end-of-year list I've seen only scratches the surface, there are simply too many vectors of destruction to track them all in 1 list shorter than a Russian novel. This is what an unleashed idealism unconcerned with human suffering looks like, sort of an American Dr. Zhivago. But we're not even close to any climax. If 2026 ends the way most expect it to, and the Republican party and Trump stay true to form, they will believe we have entered the End Times and triple down on Unitary Executive authority. Then our troubles begin.

Geoff Anderson

On your Substack prediction, I would also add that they will likely begin to insert display ads within posts (non-consentual for free or low paid subscriber stacks) and continue to drive the Notes algorithms to enhance the engagement.

I laugh when people tell me that they have left all social media, and that they post that on Notes.

Uh, Notes is increasingly following the script of enshittification that Facebook/Snapchat/Tiktok/Twitter*/insta etc on a speed run.

—

1 - I will deadname it as Twitter until I die…

ATTACHMENT THREE – FROM THE ECONOMIST

THE WORLD AHEAD 2026

Future-gazing analysis, predictions and speculation

Tom Standage’s ten trends to watch in 2026

A letter from the editor of The World Ahead

Geopolitics in 2026

The contours of 21st-century geopolitics will become clearer in 2026

United States in 2026

An optimistic guide to the coming year in America

There is an alternative to the gloom

China in 2026

China will be tempted to shift, geopolitically, from defence to offence

But Xi Jinping should resist the temptation

Russia in 2026

Vladimir Putin has no plan for winning in Ukraine

Fighting will continue, but a reckoning is coming

Middle East in 2026

The Middle East will not be all progress or all disaster in 2026

The most likely scenario will be somewhere in between

Economics in 2026

Expect mediocre growth and, in America, too much inflation in the year ahead

More blows will land on the world economy

AI’s true impact will become apparent in the coming year

Homer’s “Odyssey” offers lessons for navigating 2026

The year ahead

The World Ahead 2026

Our selection of events around the world

Superforecasters in 2026

What the “superforecasters” predict for major events in 2026

The experts at Good Judgment weigh in on the coming year

Britain in 2026

Global forces are pushing Britain and Europe closer together

The meaning of Brexit is evolving

Britain in 2026

In British politics, it will be the insurgents’ year

Fringe parties will run rampant

Britain in 2026

British parties will engage in bouts of regicide in the coming year

The leaders of almost every major party face a challenge

Britain in 2026

The British economy will pick up, a little

But don’t expect miracles

Britain in 2026

Why it’s game over for the Commonwealth Games

The coming year will signal the imminent demise of the ailing sports jamboree

Europe

Europe in 2026

In Europe, the coming year hinges on guns, growth and greenery

Three big challenges facing the Old Continent

Europe in 2026

Can Germany’s AfD breach the electoral firewall?

A crucial election in Saxony-Anhalt looms in September

Europe in 2026

Bogged down in Ukraine, Russia is meddling elsewhere

Its “grey-zone” provocations in northern Europe will intensify in the coming year

Europe in 2026

Hungary’s election could change Europe

All eyes are on whether Viktor Orban can be defeated

Europe in 2026

Europe’s growth will pick up a bit, but deficits loom

Post-covid recovery and a revitalised defence industry are helping

Europe in 2026

Emmanuel Macron faces a very difficult year

Pressure will mount on him to leave office

Europe needs to adapt to a rougher world, argues Kaja Kallas

United States

United States in 2026

A divided America celebrates its 250th birthday

The past, like everything else, has become a partisan battleground

United States in 2026

Donald Trump counts the wins of unpredictability. The losses will come

America will need allies when a crisis strikes. What then?

United States in 2026

What’s next for the Democrats?

Success in the midterms will not solve their problems

United States in 2026

America is going through a big economic experiment

In 2026, results will start to come in thick and fast

United States in 2026

President Trump’s mass deportation campaign is just getting started

Will it go too far for the watching public, and for American business?

By Invitation: United States in 2026

Donald Trump might challenge election results in 2026, say two leading lawyers

Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer highlight the potential risks

The Trump administration is undermining American soft power

America’s Supreme Court will continue to bless Donald Trump’s agenda

Will visitors and local Hispanic fans avoid the men’s World Cup?

Tougher immigration policies could be an own goal

The Gilded Age holds lessons for today, says Richard White

The professor of American history at Stanford University considers what might come next

The Americas

The Americas in 2026

A year discussing football and free trade in North America

It could be a tough time for leaders tackling both

The Americas in 2026

The next year could be a good one for Javier Milei

But he needs to strike deals with Congress

The Americas in 2026

Could Brazil’s mega-election herald the end of polarisation?

Brazilians are tiring of both Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

The Americas in 2026

Haiti is likely to stay mired in chaos

Security may improve slightly over the coming year, but little else will

The Americas in 2026

Nayib Bukele consolidates his dictatorship in El Salvador

With the help of Donald Trump

The Americas in 2026

The culture of Latin America will continue its global rise

Everything from music to books, and from films to podcasts

The world is in a new age of variable geometry, says Mark Carney

Asia

Asia in 2026

Trust us, not America, China tells Asia

Compared with Donald Trump, Xi Jinping looks like a more reliable trade partner

Asia in 2026

Will Bangladesh’s revolution bear fruit?

The country hopes finally to hold free and fair elections

Asia in 2026

India’s census will be consequential—and controversial

The country’s politics will be reshaped along the lines of caste, gender and geography

Asia in 2026

The world’s first climate refugees will arrive in Australia in 2026

Tuvalu tests the future of sovereignty

Asia in 2026

Japan is finally debating what a family can be

A quiet revolution is building

Asia in 2026

Vietnam is rushing ahead with ambitious domestic reforms

But deeper questions remain unanswered

AI will change India, and India will change AI, says the chairman of Infosys

China

China in 2026

American isolationism is a golden opportunity for China

Chinese leaders are playing a canny game

China in 2026

China’s next five-year plan will be green, fertile and high-tech

The plan will play an important role in shaping the country’s policies

China in 2026

The Chinese economy will slow in the year ahead

And it looks like the trade war will rumble on

China in 2026

China’s cultural exports are boosting its soft power

Labubu is just the beginning

China in 2026

Stand-up comedy is providing an outlet for Chinese people’s gripes

It’s a coping mechanism that is increasingly lucrative

China in 2026

China will run a different AI race in the coming year

It is focusing more on adoption than development

There are many ways, short of actual invasion, that China can harass Taiwan

Middle East & Africa

Middle East in 2026

The tensions between stasis and change in the Middle East will increase

America’s role will continue to be crucial

Middle East in 2026

What now for the Palestinians?

The outlook for Gaza and a future Palestinian state

Middle East in 2026

Israel’s focus will shift to domestic politics

This will happen whether war breaks out again or not

Middle East in 2026

Syria’s new leader needs to start delivering

The time for handshakes is over

Africa in 2026

A quick, dirty, Trump-backed ceasefire is possible in Sudan

But the country’s war economy may be too lucrative

Africa in 2026

Another year of cynical election theatre beckons in Africa

Ethiopia will organise the continent’s most farcical poll

Aid cuts mean a new era in international development

As the West turns inward, Africa looks eastward to China

International

International in 2026

The Arctic will become more connected to the global economy

How fast it opens up depends on global warming and the new cold war

International in 2026

The world will fail to meet the Paris agreement’s ambitious climate target

Say goodbye to 1.5

International in 2026

Seven conflicts to watch in the coming year

Some are potential, others are already hot

International in 2026

The end of nuclear arms control looms

How will Donald Trump deal with the demise of New START?

International in 2026

Military competition in space will intensify

Five areas to watch in the coming year

How we did in 2025

A look back at last year’s predictions

What we got right, and wrong, in The World Ahead 2025

A look back over the first 40 years of The World Ahead

Industries

The World Ahead 2026

Ten business trends for 2026, and forecasts for 16 industries

A global round-up from The Economist Intelligence Unit

The world in numbers: Countries

Mapping

Mapping 2026

Eight trends to watch, explained with maps

From urbanisation in China to the flow of gold from Sudan

Business

Business in 2026

Will the bottom rung of the career ladder disappear?

Concerns are growing about the impact of AI on graduate employment

Business in 2026

China’s chip industry will surprise the world

In chip design and manufacturing, the country is innovating around restrictions

Business in 2026

Tariff uncertainty is throwing Chinese manufacturing into chaos

Foreign and Chinese firms are waiting to see what comes next

Business in 2026

The rare-earth industry needs more than Trumpian deals

Big Western firms are realising they will have to invest, too

Business in 2026

Companies will struggle to stay on top of tariff chaos

Expect price hikes, belt-tightening and more rejigging of supply chains

Business in 2026

Will superfast, super-expensive electric vehicles catch on?

This could be the make-or-break year

European governments are fuelling a rearmament boom

America is now the biggest market for international football

The luxury industry will bounce back

Sensible prices, integrated supply chains and fresh designs will help

Geothermal energy looks set to go from niche to necessary

Competition between startups is hotting up

Finance & economics

Finance & economics in 2026

Interest rates will fall in 2026. But will bond yields fall, too?

The world’s public finances look ever more perilous

Finance & economics in 2025

Commodity prices could hit new lows in 2026

Individual commodities will fall into one of three buckets

Finance & economics in 2026

Global trade will continue, but will become more complex

The liberal order will endure, but without a leader

Finance & economics in 2026

The battle over stablecoins will reach fever pitch

After the best year ever for issuers, the counter-revolution is trying to find its feet

Finance & economics in 2026

The dollar’s dominance is being challenged more and more

But not so much as to knock its position as the world’s reserve currency

Finance & economics in 2026

India’s economy will become the world’s fourth-largest

But the country falls short on many other measures

Global uncertainty is here to stay, says the head of the IMF

Science & technology

Science & technology in 2026

A second helping of weight-loss drugs is coming

New versions are easier to take, more effective and longer lasting

Science & technology in 2026

Weight-loss drugs will go global

The expiry of some patents will help

Science & technology in 2026

The sports tournament where drugs are allowed

The Enhanced Games will take place in Las Vegas in May 2026

Science & technology in 2026

Humans may return to the Moon in the coming year

A possible fly-by is just one of many space missions to watch

Science & technology in 2026

The battle to build humanoid robots will intensify

Several rival firms believe they are the shape of things to come

Well informed

How to avoid a hangover

Do tricks that claim to help actually work?

The outlook for vaccines is stormy, argues Heidi Larson

Culture

Culture in 2026

The world has hit “peak wine”

Consumption is in secular decline, thanks to demographic and cultural shifts

Culture in 2026

Lots of new museums are opening soon

They will show off coins, comic books and plenty more besides

Culture in 2026

As spending stalls, the video-gaming industry is searching for growth

“Grand Theft Auto VI” and an industry playing on hard mode

Culture in 2026

Podcasting is being added to the Golden Globes

The new “best podcast” category reflects the format’s growing cultural significance

Culture in 2026

There are lots of cinematic remakes to watch out for

And they will not all tell the same old story

Culture in 2026

Tracking the world’s most popular music genres

Expect more K-pop, AI-generated music and…dark country?

ATTACHMENT FOUR – FROM FORBES

MIDTERM ELECTIONS, POSSIBLE VENEZUELA CRASH, SUPER BOWL PICKS: WHAT BETTING MARKETS PREDICT FOR 2026

By Siladitya Ray,

Dec 26, 2025, 06:30am ESTDec 26, 2025, 09:30am EST

Bookmakers on key online betting platforms have poured millions into bets on the key events in 2026, including the midterm elections, potential U.S. military engagement in Venezuela, the appointment of the next Fed chair and the winners of the 2026 Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup.

Bookmakers on online betting markets are staking millions on some major predictions for 2026.

Mid-Term Elections: Bookmakers on the crypto betting platform Polymarket believe the Democrats have a 78% chance of taking back control of the House after the 2026 midterms, while bettors on Kalshi give them a similar 74% odds of winning.

The bettors, however, still believe that the Republicans remain favorites to retain control of the U.S. Senate, with their Polymarket odds at 66% and Kalshi odds at 68%.

Another Government Shutdown: Odds of another government shutdown at the end of January appear slim on the betting markets, with Polymarket bookmakers giving it only a 28% chance—down from 38% earlier in December.

Fed Chair: Bets on who will be appointed as the next Federal Reserve chair have hit more than $80 million in trading volume across both Kalshi and Polymarket, with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett emerging as the bookmakers’ favorite with 56% and 53% odds, respectively.

Military Action in Venezuela: Bettors on Polymarket believe the odds of a military confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela are rising, suggesting a 39% chance by the end of January and a coin-flip 52% chance by the end of March.

What Are Some Of The Big Sports Related Bets For 2026?

On Polymarket, the Los Angeles Rams are tipped as the favorite to win the Super Bowl, with bookmakers placing their winning odds at 16%, ahead of the Seattle Seahawks’s 13%. The trading volume on bets on the winner of the 2026 Super Bowl—including resolved bets for teams that have failed to make the playoffs—has topped more than $620 million on the crypto betting site. The Rams (18%) and Seahawks (16%) are also the top two bettors' picks on Kalshi’s market, where trading volume has topped $50 million. For the FIFA World Cup, which is set to be hosted in North America next year, Spain has emerged as the slight favorite on Polymarket, with bettors giving them a 15% chance of winning, followed by England and France both at 13%. Spain also tops Kalshi’s list with bettors giving it a 17% chance of winning, followed by England and France at 14% and 13% respectively.

What About Oscar Betting Odds?

Bettors on both Kalshi and Polymarket believe that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is a firm favorite to win the Best Picture Prize at the Oscars next year. On Polymarket, bookmakers predict the Leonardo DiCaprio-led film has a 78% chance of winning the Academy Award, followed by “Marty Supreme” at 8% and “Hamnet” at 6%. The film has similar winning odds of 77% on Kalshi, followed very distantly by “Marty Supreme” (10%) and “Sinners” (9%). Trading volumes for the best picture prize have crossed $7 million on Polymarket and $4.2 million on Kalshi.

Tangent

The video game Grand Theft Auto 6 is one of the most anticipated upcoming entertainment product releases in years, and it is scheduled to come out on November 6, 2026, after being delayed from its original May 2026 release date. The last Grand Theft Auto game, GTA 5, came out in 2013, and GTA 6’s repeated delays have triggered internet memes about all the unprecedented things that could happen or are happening before the game’s release. Bets on various events occurring before GTA 6’s official release have garnered a cumulative trading volume of more than $12 million on Polymarket. Bookmakers are betting that a Russia-Ukraine Ceasefire (64%), a Chinese invasion of Taiwan (52%), and even Trump's exit from the White House (51%) are slightly more likely to happen before the game’s actual release.

Betting Odds Favor Democrats In Most Key Elections Tuesday (Forbes)

ATTACHMENT FIVE – FROM MISHPACHA (JEWISH)

BIG, BOLD 2026 PREDICTIONS

By Maury Litwack | December 23, 2025

How many individuals get involved with moving policy, shaping politics, or running presidential elections? It’s tough, arduous work. But anyone can take a stab at predictions. This column has made it a year-end tradition. Here are my: 6 Big, Bold Predictions for 2026

1) The Democratic Party Flips the House

I don’t see a scenario where the Democrats don’t retake the House. History is on their side. The midterms are typically catastrophic for the party in power. This year, that’s the Republicans, who won’t have Trump on the ballot. Adding to this are a slew of Republican House retirements. You have a perfect storm. I predict that the Democrats ride this storm to victory with a 12-seat majority that allows future Speaker Hakeem Jeffries to firmly control the House.

Additionally, I believe that deep-red states Texas and Florida will also see several of their Republican seats flip blue, despite Texas redistricting. Yes, I believe the wave will be that big.

2) Rise of the Democratic Governors

What do Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore, and J.B. Pritzker all have in common? They are Democratic governors running for reelection in 2026, in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Illinois, respectively, and are all considered in the mix for 2028. All three will win their reelections.

The country also will have a half-dozen new Democratic governors, including those recently elected in New Jersey and Virginia. Out of this crop of state chief executives will come the Democrats’ next leader. Face it, the Obama-Biden era is over, and so is the Bill-Hillary era. A new leader for the Democratic Party will emerge from one of these 2026 gubernatorial winners. The Democrats know they can’t win in 2028 with a warmed-over version of a previous ticket; they will seek an entirely new name.

3) Trump Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

December saw two peace prizes given out, one to President Trump and one to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Machado received the highly coveted Nobel Peace Prize while Trump received the newly created FIFA World Cup Peace Prize. A soccer organization giving the prize to Trump isn’t as prestigious as the famous Nobel Committee, but it’s the beginning of a drumbeat.

Trump has been credited with achieving peace in the Middle East, and he is inching closer to a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, which would help him lay claim to the Nobel prize. I would expect a full-court press by Trump and his world allies to secure this prize.

4) Supreme Court Justice Retirement

It’s just a hunch, but I think we’ll see a Supreme Court retirement this year. I am doubtful it will be a liberal justice, due to the risk that President Trump would fill the seat with a conservative. Next year Clarence Thomas will be 78 next year and Samuel Alito will be 76. If their calculation is that a Democrat may win in 2028, it would be give them even more reason for them to retire and ensure that their seats are passed to new conservatives.

5) Noem and Hegseth First to Leave Cabinet

Early exits by cabinet officials are common in every administration, but I believe Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth are going to be the first to leave. They are the faces of immigration, drug enforcement, and homeland security. These are grueling 24-hour news-cycle positions, and they have garnered the highest level of media attention of any Cabinet members. This scrutiny will only ramp up if the Democratic Party looks poised to take the House. I believe Hegseth and Noem leave before the end of 2026, allowing them to reemerge as talking heads and position themselves for future political ambitions.

6) The Coronation of J.D. Vance

“If J.D. Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.” This was what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said when he was asked about the prospects of Vice President Vance running for the Oval Office. I expect 2026 to be the year that the Republican Party coronates Vance.

Other contenders will interpret this Rubio line to mean they should defer to Vance. Vance continues to be in good standing with the president and party leaders. I predict next year he will take the presumptive 2028 front-runner status to the next level.

My 2025 Predictions Scorecard

Whiffs

Dysfunction in the GOP-Held House

Count me as a skeptic that was proved wrong. I doubted the Republican majority in Congress could stay unified, and I was a cynic when it came to the belief that the tax bill would be as large as it ultimately was. Not only did it tackle tax relief, but it also included energy incentives, SALT cap deductions, and major education reform legislation. The Republicans remained unified and Trump deftly used his early political capital to get this across the finish line.

Closing the Department of Education

I was equally skeptical that Trump would close the Department of Education. Forgive me for this pick, but 20 years ago I was part of original congressional discussions around this issue, and they went nowhere. I couldn’t imagine that President Trump would be able to pull this off, but he did — more evidence that when it comes to President Trump, all bets are off.

Wins

Elon Musk Leaving Washington

I correctly predicted that Elon Musk would get bored with Washington and prove unable to navigate the massive bureaucracy. This came true early in Trump’s second administration, and Musk himself has since admitted that he wouldn’t do DOGE again. Could you blame him? He’s trying to become the first trillionaire, and I’ve never heard that word paired with “bureaucrat.” This was a marriage that was never going to work.

The Rise of Gavin Newsom

You know what marriage did work? Gavin Newsom and social media. Newsom’s rise to relevancy and dominance of 2028 Democratic presidential polls has a lot to do with his mastery of social media. Longtime readers of this column know how nervous I was about Newsom’s up and down 2025, but then it stabilized once he began dominating the leading medium of our time. Newsom isn’t going away, and his star will continue to rise in 2026.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1092)

ATTACHMENT SIX – FROM POLITICO

HOW DEMS BREAK THROUGH IN 2026

By Ali Bianco 12/26/25

With less than a week left until the new year, Democrats are trying to plot a path out of the wilderness through the midterms. It’s been more than 365 days of infighting and big picture soul-searching for the party completely locked out of power following a shellacking in 2024.

As the chapter closes on 2025, the discourse over where the Democratic Party goes next year remains top of mind — and the moderate set is laying out its argument to land a blue wave, 2018 style.

First in Playbook — Third Way, the center-left think tank, is releasing its latest slate of polling today capturing the mood after the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term — and making the case for the kind of messaging it believes Democrats need to deploy to break through. The poll’s main takeaway? You guessed it: It’s still the economy, stupid.

The numbers: Of the 2,000 registered voters surveyed in the poll, shared exclusively with Playbook, 84 percent say they’re experiencing high inflation, 60 percent believe the economy isn’t growing and 66 percent think unemployment is increasing. The survey finds Republicans and Democrats tied at 38 percent on which party is most trusted to handle the economy. Democrats are up by 11 points on handling cost-of-living concerns, up 6 points on energy costs and tariffs, up 20 points on health care … and the list continues. See the full results

“Democrats really never dominated on trust on the economy, what we’ve been able to do is fight it to a draw in periods that have been very good for us electorally,” Matt Bennett, Third Way’s EVP of public affairs, told Playbook. “What we need to do is at least keep it close, and I think that’s where we are.”

Among the most intriguing points is the issue that broke through the most with voters: food assistance. Following the government shutdown when millions were facing a lapse in food stamps through SNAP, coupled with concerns over grocery prices, food ranked as the most salient issue for voters among the 14 that Third Way tested.

If you’re already tired of hearing it, tough luck. The year-in-review stories and big-picture looks at 2025 that are already rolling out will all no doubt tab the economy as one of the year’s biggest throughlines. Third Way’s data is just the latest in a growing pool of polls telling a similar story — there are charts on charts on charts (compiled helpfully by WaPo and CNBC) illustrating concerns over inflation and the cooling labor market. And as NYT’s Lisa Lerer and Jonah Smith laid out in this must-read, the use of the word “affordability” exploded in the second half of this year.

“We’re starting to get some things right,” Bennett told Playbook. “I think that the fact that Democrats were able to hang together around the shutdown, keep the focus on health care, really hammer affordability in the ’25 off-year races — all of that’s very good news. But there is a lot of work left to be done.”

Naturally, the answers to some of the party’s bigger problems remain elusive — with no clear leader, factional divides ever-present on the Hill and a potentially prickly primary season not too far ahead. This is all compounded by the fact that the DNC has opted against releasing its 2024 autopsy — a decision that has drawn considerable pushback from within the party, while Chair Ken Martin argues that it could serve as a negative “distraction.”

The to-be-improved: Third Way’s polling notably illustrates the party’s biggest weaknesses as clearly as it does the emerging strengths. Despite some souring public opinions on Trump, Republicans hold a higher favorability rating: 42 percent compared to Democrats’ 40 percent. Republicans are also running away with the trust numbers on border and national security with 30- and 17-point margins, respectively. That trend plays out on immigration and crime, as well. Democrats need to shore up support in these areas to flip more voters, Third Way says.

There’s also the reality that defining the party’s rallying cry some months before the midterms creates plenty of time for the GOP to pack its own punch in response. While Democrats welcome Trump calling affordability a “hoax,” as he has done on multiple occasions recently, the White House seems intent on pushing him in a different direction. They’re touting his tax cuts and promising relief in early 2026, as WaPo’s Theodoric Meyer and Riley Beggin write. NEC Director Kevin Hassett teased a big housing proposal to come from the administration next year as well, per Fox News.

One thing is clear: The affordability message isn’t going anywhere in 2026. And Democrats may find a renewed momentum as the cost of health care becomes even more important. Another milestone moment looms on the horizon as the Affordable Care Act subsidies expire in less than a week.

THE NEXT LEFT: “Can Democrats Reinvent Themselves as Washington Disrupters?” by NYT’s Lisa Lerer: “As they try to repair their political brand before the midterm elections, Democrats are rushing to redefine themselves as Washington disrupters, eager to challenge a government that many Americans believe has failed to improve their lives.”

7 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR

1. WAR AND PEACE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said today that he will soon try to meet with Trump again. Zelenskyy said there was agreement on a meeting, NYT’s Cassandra Vinograd reports, which could be as early as this Sunday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, per Axios. That comes after Zelenskyy’s Christmas Day phone call with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, where they “discussed certain substantive details of the ongoing work” to end the war, Bloomberg’s David Pan reports. Zelenskyy has increasingly shown room to bend, including on the Donbas region, agreeing to retreating troops for a potential demilitarized zone, per AP.

On the ground in Ukraine: NYT’s Kim Barker and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn have a harrowing dispatch from Odesa, the largest port city in Ukraine that has been under near-constant attack over the last two weeks by Russian strikes. “The toll on older people and those with disabilities is especially severe as Moscow’s forces repeatedly attack the port city’s infrastructure.”

The moving pieces in Gaza: A Ukraine peace push isn’t the only international issue on Trump’s agenda. The president is also set to meet with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida next week. That meeting could be crucial for the future rollout of the Gaza peace plan, as the White House worries Netanyahu is slow-walking it, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports. The White House wants to get Gaza’s international security force up and running ASAP — but they’ll need Netanyahu’s support to move forward.

2. MORE U.S. STRIKES: “US says it struck Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria,” by Reuters’ Trevor Hunnicutt and colleagues: “The United States carried out a strike against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria at the request of Nigeria’s government, President Donald Trump and the U.S. military said on Thursday, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region. … The U.S. military’s Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto state in coordination with the Nigerian authorities and killed multiple ISIS militants.”

3. THE BRAVE NEW WORLD: “ICE taps new surveillance tech as Trump cuts down privacy protections,” by POLITICO’s Alfred Ng: “The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is buying millions of dollars’ worth of new surveillance tools at the same time President Donald Trump has scaled back protections for use of civilian data — a combination that could lead to a vast expansion of domestic surveillance that goes far beyond immigrants. Federal records show that ICE has increased its spending on surveillance technology, looking to spend more than $300 million under Trump for social-media monitoring tools, facial recognition software, license plate readers and services to find where people live and work.”

4. BILL OF HEALTH: The push against rising costs is seeping into the ultraprocessed food sector, which after a year of struggling to counter HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA agenda, may have landed on a message, POLITICO’s Amanda Chu reports. Food manufacturers are hitting back and arguing that Kennedy’s push to stop using some food ingredients will make groceries more expensive.

Vax not: Kennedy’s plans to have the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule mirror Denmark’s are also getting pushback from critics who argue that the U.S. doesn’t have European levels of health care access and has different levels of disease, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner and colleagues write. “Public health experts and others critical of the move say slimmer European vaccine schedules are a cost-saving measure and a privilege afforded to healthier societies, not a tactic to protect kids from vaccine injuries.”

5. OFF THE HILL: “More House Republicans are leaving Congress to run for governor than in decades amid frustration over ‘toxic environment,’” by CNN’s Annie Grayer and colleagues: “Congressional Republicans have yet to break the record for most retirements in a single year, but some say it’s only a matter of time before widespread frustration with the current state of Washington leads to a tipping point … The 10 House Republicans seeking gubernatorial offices in their states this election cycle is the most who have run from either party in the available data compiled by CNN dating back to 1974.” One lawmaker told CNN: “It’s historic to be there. It’s an amazing honor. But boy, they suck a lot of the life out of you sometimes.”

6. ON HOUSING: The Trump administration’s plans to strip billions in aid from the “Housing First” program punctuates a back-and-forth debate over how effective a model it has been to help homeless people, NYT’s Jason DeParle writes. The program offers subsidized housing and offers but doesn’t require mental health treatment. Supporters laud it as an “evidence based” approach that has housed large numbers of people, especially veterans. “At the same time, Housing First programs have not consistently improved clients’ mental or physical health … And while Housing First is sometimes called lifesaving, the evidence does not clearly show it lowers mortality rates.”

7. IMMIGRATION FILES: “US Tells Afghan Migrants to Report on Christmas, New Year’s Day,” by Bloomberg’s Hadriana Lowenkron: “US Immigration and Customs Enforcement summoned Afghans residing in the US to present their documents during the holiday season, marking the latest effort by the Trump administration to crack down on migrants from the Asian nation. … ICE is seeking appointments for a ‘scheduled report check-in,’ with one requesting such a meeting on Christmas Day and another asking for one on New Year’s Day.”

refs:

1. Kennedy Center criticizes musician who canceled performance after Trump name added to building

2. Trump to POLITICO: Zelenskyy ‘doesn’t have anything until I approve it’

3. Embattled top Hegseth aide wins promotion

4. ICE’s interest in high-tech gear raises new questions: ‘What is it for?’

5. The ultraprocessed food makers have an answer for RFK Jr.

Playbook - POLITICO Archive

· Saturday, 12/27/25

· Friday, 12/26/25

· Thursday, 1/1/26

· Wednesday, 12/24/25

· View the Full Playbook Archives »

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – FROM USA TODAY
I'M TURNING OFF THE NEWS IN 2026. I CAN'T DESPAIR ANOTHER YEAR. | Your Turn

'For the sake of my mental health, I have to disengage from the news. ... I can't spend another year in despair.'

Opinion Forum

USA TODAY

Dec. 29, 2025, 6:05 a.m. ET

Our columnists make their living prognosticating and attempting to predict what the news will bring. Sometimes they're right, and sometimes their crystal balls lead them astray. This year, we wanted you to give us your predictions, hopes, fears and resolutions for 2026.

From classic resolutions like weight loss to more modern takes on mental health and self-care, your hopes and predictions shared one theme: a heavy heart and a lot of wariness when it comes to what politics will bring in 2026.

Read a collection of these responses below, or send in your own to us at forum@usatoday.com with the subject line "Forum New Year."

I'm turning off the news in 2026. I can't spend another year in despair.

My resolution for 2025 was to work more on finishing my novel. I didn't finish, but I got to 45,000 words, so I'm satisfied! In all, 2025 was great for me, personally. It was my first full year of retirement.

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!

But for the sake of my mental health, I have to disengage from the news. I'm blocking any mention of any politician's name from all of my social media, and I will avoid the news websites; I've already stopped watching TV news. I can't spend another year in despair.

The most surprising thing that happened in 2025 is how few people, groups or institutions lifted a finger to stop or even protest what was happening in the Oval Office. No one with any power did anything. The least surprising thing was how surprised everyone was that the president did the things he promised to do: mass deportations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, tariffs, etc.

My only concern for 2026 is finishing my novel and finding a literary agent. Yes, I think it will happen; I will give it my best effort. Whatever else happens in the world is just going to have to happen.

The only thing I don't want to see, but I know it will, is all political stuff, and I no longer discuss politics. I'm disengaging from the news in 2026.

— James Moore, North Carolina

In 2026 more than ever, I hope to focus on self-care

My 2025 resolution was to do better self-care. I kind of kept it, but it’s in my nature to go, go, go! For 2026? Try self-care again.

The year was actually worse than I could have ever imagined. The direction our country is headed is astounding, and the fact that no one seems willing or able to stand up to this monster in the White House is unfathomable. I have never in my 65 years on this earth been truly scared for our future.

The complete disregard for our Constitution and the rights of our citizens has been the most surprising thing. The least surprising is the narcissistic craziness of the president. This is who he has always been, and it shouldn't surprise anyone.

I would love to see the people, especially elected officials, stand up and do the right thing for once in 2026. I would love to see the Epstein files destroy President Donald Trump. I’m hopeful, but I believe he is being very well protected by the Department of Justice.

I do not want to see us wage war in Venezuela, but it seems we are headed in that direction for no other reason than oil. I hope the news media will continue to call out and investigate the atrocities occurring each and every day! I would also like to see male colleagues of the women journalists being insulted and called heinous names to speak out at that moment.

— Joann Santizo, New York

Trump exceeded my expectations in the worst way

In 2025, I expected Trump to take the low road, but he has exceeded expectations, going lower than any human in history. Trump is a vile, despicable human, only able to spew hatred and vitriol at anyone who does not bow down to him. He constantly displays all the worst that humans have inside them, stating publicly on TV that he hates his enemies and wants what is worst for them.

The most surprising thing has been the U.S. Supreme Court bowing down and worshiping Trump and giving him anything he asks for. What happened to the court being an independent branch of government?

I wouldn't trust RFK Jr. with a Band-Aid. Don't let him change vaccines. | Your TurnWe have different views, but I won't ruin the holidays with Trump talk | Your Turn I don't regret voting against the toxic candidate in 2024 | Your Turn Trump's troop deployments are a tool to incite an insurrection | Your Turn I'm a public school teacher. Vouchers may finally get parents involved. | Your Turn

At the 2026 midterm elections, I want Democrats and independents to win control of the House and Senate, then to impeach, try, convict and remove Trump from office.

I don't want to see Trump get away with the crimes against humanity he is committing; he must be held accountable.

I want the media to hold Trump accountable in real time for his lies and abuse of people. You must fact-check as he lies to the American people. When he denigrates female reporters, all other reporters must shout it out and demand better of Trump. He must be called out in the headlines for his corruption.

— Larry Jaquish, Washington

I see very little God and a troubled country in 2026

1. I guarantee, with absolute certainty, there will be no clear, convincing, incontrovertible evidence brought forth confirming the existence of God, miracles, divinity, heaven or hell in 2026.

2. I'm 100% positive that Trump and his cabal will continue pursuing scorched-earth retaliation tactics against all who disagree with them in 2026.

3. I predict with unwavering certitude that Trump and his cronies will advance further toward the fulfillment of the desires of White, ultraconservative evangelicals at the expense of all others in 2026.

4. For my last prognostication, I submit that Trump supporters will continue violating every biblical morality expressed by Jesus in such obvious ways that it will put an exclamation point on the truth as to what hateful, racist, hypocritical frauds they are. As the deceased conservative activist Charlie Kirk would have said, "Prove me wrong!"

I'd wish you all a happy 2026, but given the above, that will be virtually impossible for a majority of you.

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – FROM MSN.COM
MARKETS INSIDER

By Jennifer Sor

· Wall Street's top banks are lining up to deliver their year-ahead outlooks.

· Bullish forecasts cite robust earnings growth, AI-driven gains, and potential Fed rate cuts

· Banks expect continued US economic growth and expanding AI investments.

The bull market turned three this year, and Wall Street thinks you should be gearing up to celebrate another big run in 2026.

Analysts at top banks have rolled out their predictions for where they think the market is headed in the coming year. Their forecasts are looking strong across the board, with most expecting US stocks to punch higher as the Fed cuts interest rates, earnings grow, and the US economy continues to chug along.

Despite some recent volatility in the tech sector, stocks are still firmly in bull market territory after back-to-back years of double-digit gains. The S&P 500 is up 17% year-to-date, and has gained 79% since the end of 2022.

Those returns have largely been fueled by the hype for artificial intelligence — a frenzy that's sparked concerns of a stock market bubble and has shown more cracks in recent weeks as investors survey high valuations and seemingly endless AI spending among top tech firms.

Even so, the market has room to grind higher, according to the top analysts.

Here's the rundown of forecasts and price targets from the big banks.

Read the original article HERE

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ATTACHMENT TEN – FROM THE AKRON BEACON-JOURNAL

FROM PROMISCUITY TO VEGETARIANISM, 100-YEAR-OLD PREDICTIONS ABOUT 2026

By Mark J. Price

Akron Beacon Journal

Dec. 29, 2025, 6:04 a.m. ET

· In 1926, futurists made a wide range of predictions about life in 2026, some of which proved accurate while others did not.

· Predictions included technological advancements like food from nozzles, the end of big cities, and news appearing on tiny screens.

· Some experts foresaw a dystopian future with overpopulation and starvation, while others envisioned a utopia with new power sources and longer lifespans.

We’ve waited a century for this!

Nearly 100 years ago, a group of futurists dared to imagine what life would be like in 2026. Some of their prognostications turned out to be completely wrong while others proved to be eerily true.

Let’s see what the experts predicted in 1926.

Diverging paths

Science writer David Dietz (1897-1984), a future Pulitzer Prize winner from Cleveland, believed there were two possible paths for mankind.

One was good. The other was awful.

“If science wins, the future will see a well-fed happy world,” he wrote. “If science loses, the future will see an overcrowded, underfed, unhappy world.”

At the time, the world population was around 2 billion. Dietz expected it to swell to 5 billion by 2026 (in actuality, it's more than 8 billion today).

Without improvements in farming, mining and manufacturing, the planet faced catastrophe, he reasoned. Dietz made dueling sets of predictions that depended on the outcome of research in “the great scientific laboratories of the world.”

A NEGATIVE VIEW OF 2026

The year 2026 will see the “Standing Room Only” sign become the flag of all nations.

Every available piece of land that can be cultivated will be under cultivation.

Reindeer herds will be raised in the arctic.

Civilization will have pushed as far into the tropics as the hazards of tropical disease and the discomforts of climate permit.

Immigration will be prohibited by every nation of the world, since every nation will have the largest population which it can support.

Living will be far harder. Competition will be keener, prices higher and luxuries fewer.

Poor crops will mean more than high prices. They will mean actual starvation.

A POSITIVE VIEW OF 2026

The world of 2026 will present a strange appearance if science succeeds.

Food will be provided in factories. Such farms as do remain will be maintained by people who desire them as hobbies.

There will be no need for mines or oil fields as mankind will have new power sources.

The vast amount of energy sent by the sun will be caught and utilized.

The gold standard will probably be superseded by an arbitrary standard agreed upon internationally.

Travel will be chiefly by air.

Big cities will be a thing of the past in 2026. People will spread out more evenly in great numbers of smaller cities.

Food from nozzles

British scientist Archibald M. Low (1888-1956) believed that scientific apparatuses would eventually take care of personal needs.

How much so?

Inexplicably using the past tense to describe future events, Low imagined the morning routine of a gentleman waking up in 2026:

Getting dressed: “A pressure from a button at his bedside whisked his clothes from the wardrobe and brought them to his bed. A mechanical valet shaved him with a touch as delicate as a woman’s hand; an electrical bootblack delivered his boots polished like a mirror.”

Having breakfast: “To get his breakfast he took down a tube like a piece of hosepiping from the wall, inserted the nozzle in his mouth, and imbibed two fluid ounces of concentrated food. This done, he turned to the news of the day.”

Getting the news: “Click! Upon a tiny screen let into the wall appeared figures running. He was watching an American baseball match. Another click, and he was gazing horrified at another earthquake in Japan. In 10 minutes, he had ranged from London to Baghdad and from Wigan to Wisconsin.”

Some day in the distant future, Low worried that humans would lose the use of their arms and legs, and become “immense brains” directing the mechanical forces at their command.

Sounds about right.

Where’s the beef?

Arthur G. McCall (1874-1954), a professor of geology and soils at the University of Maryland, predicted that everyone would be a vegetarian by 2026.

Not by choice. By necessity.

With the U.S. population expected to increase to unsustainable levels, the normal diet would probably consist of milk, vegetables and fruits, he said.

“Practically all the available agricultural land in the United States today has been taken up,” McCall told an audience at Ohio State University. “In order to feed the 190 million persons the United States will have in the year 2026, we must increase our acre yield rather than the number of acres cultivated.

“This increase in yield can be brought either by new crops such as the soybean or by using more fertilizer.”

As it turns out, the U.S. population is more than 340 million today. About 5% are vegetarian and another 3% reportedly are vegan, depending on the survey.

Together but apart

Cleveland-born author Alice M. Williamson (1858-1933) envisioned that married couples of 2026 would enjoy a “dignified separateness” by living in adjoining houses.

There would be a door leading from one house to the other on each floor, but couples would own the homes separately.

He would have poker parties and other bachelor fun in his quarters while a man servant waited on him. She would take care of the children with the aid of a nurse and host social functions.

They would visit each other’s homes by invitation.

With a decent distance between them, Williamson predicted, couples would never be in a bad mood when they got together and would “keep for one another the charm of early lovemaking days.”

Shacking up in 2026

Jean H. Norris (1877-1955), the first woman magistrate in New York City, predicted dire consequences by 2026 if the U.S. populace continued to regard marriage in a “casual, trifling manner.”

“Ceremonious marriages will have been discarded by the majority,” she warned. “Promiscuous relations ‘without book or ring’ will be the mode. Children born of these relations will be placed in the custody of the state shortly after birth and the parents divested of all rights and responsibilities in regard to their upbringing.

“There will be places of temporary abode, of necessity, but few real homes. Men and women will be economically independent of each other and their relations will begin and end at will.”

The business of marriage

English travel writer and explorer Rosita Forbes (1890-1967), speaking at a London symposium, predicted that weddings of the future would be corporate mergers.

“Marriage will be a business, not an experiment or an adventure, and as such will be regarded more seriously,” she said. “A wedding will be like promoting a new company.

“Instead of a sermon, there will be a formal legal contract attended by lawyers and if the company is unsuccessful it will go into liquidation. The assets will be equally divided between the stockholders — the husband and wife.”

To love and to cherish

Dutch American historian and author Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944) believed that marriages would undergo major modifications by 2026. His predictions:

∎ There will be much less “obeying” and “honoring” and much more “cherishing.”

∎ Marriage will cease to last until “death,” but it will be dissolved by “the death of love.”

∎ People will continue to live together as long as they love each other and not a day longer.

Young at 100 years old

Hornell Hart (1888-1967), a professor of sociology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, expected medical breakthroughs to push the limits of longevity.

Scientific discoveries would practically eliminate disease and old age, he told a gathering of the American Sociological Association at Columbia University in New York.

By 2026, the average lifespan would be around 100 years old, nearly doubling that of 1926, he said. In fact, 100 would no longer be considered old. Many people would live much longer.

“Unless we wreck our civilization in the next 75 years, which is unlikely, many a baby will be born with 200 years of life before it, and men and women 100 years of age will be the normal thing, but instead of being wrinkled and crippled, they will still be in their vigorous prime,” Hart said.

Discordant notes

Remember music? Such an archaic form of art.

Russian emigre Ivan Narodny (1870-1953), a sociologist and musicologist, predicted the death of song and the end of melody by 2026.

He blamed two German composers: Richard Wagner (1813-1888) for hastening the decline and Richard Strauss (1864-1949) for finishing it off.

“The people no longer sing: They snort and grunt,” Narodny complained. “If we continue our boasted ‘progress’ in the way of the present order of development, there will be only a memory of melody, say, 100 years from now. As mechanization is exterminating nature, it is also exterminating its melodic voices and substituting life with noises.”

Teachers will be rich

Syndicated columnist Frank Crane (1861-1928), an American clergyman from Illinois, made these bold predictions about 2026:

∎ Women will do most of the governing.

∎ Men will be producers.

∎ War will be unthinkable as slavery and dueling now are.

∎ Physicians will be public officers.

∎ Hospitals and sanitariums will replace prisons.

∎ Cities will decrease in population and the countryside increase.

∎ Cooperation will rule in the business field.

∎ Every child will be kept in school until the age of 21.

∎ There will be no untrained citizens.

∎ The school teacher will be the most highly paid and respected member of the community.

Business over politics

Cyril H. Bretherton (1879-1939), an English-born author and journalist who served as a correspondent for U.S. newspapers, imagined what Rip Van Winkle might discover in the United States if he awakened after 100 years.

∎ Americans will have become dyspepsia-proof.

∎ The motor car will be the universal method of transportation.

∎ Every American will have three generations of American-born ancestors behind him or her on both sides.

∎ The total absence of servants will drive all but the artisan class into flats and apartment houses.

∎ The politician will be abolished by the businessman.

∎ The criminal will continue to defy the law with increasing impunity and incur decreasing disapproval from his fellow.

Did they get it right?

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947), former U.S. suffrage leader: “How I would love to peek in on the world 100 years hence. Then world peace will be a fact.”

Daniel L. Marsh (1880-1968), president of Boston University: “The prohibition of liquor in the United States will be looked on 100 years from now as the greatest economic and social advancement of the present age. Prohibition is here to stay and our descendants will be thankful that we had the courage to inaugurate it.”

John Carlyle (1881-1956), syndicated columnist: “Certain it is that the American of 2026 will find life much more socialized than it is today. Dressmaking, cooking and many other occupations which the housewife does for herself today will be done for her by specialists serving the whole community in the future.”

E.A. Hungerford (1875-1948), author and journalist: “It is January, in the year of our Lord, 2026. The family that is not wealthy, at least worth a million dollars, is such a novelty it becomes the subject of a feature story in the newspapers.”

The Rev. Charles L. White (1863-1941), president of the Home Missions Council: “In 2026, the president of the United States may have a name ending with ‘vitch’ or ‘ski,’ be an elder in the Presbyterian church and have the blood of 20 nations flowing in his veins.”

Frederick Smith (1874-1946), evangelist and author: “Neither money nor pride will make the greatness of America 100 years from now. But lasting power must rest upon ideals and relations with other countries.”

Knee-slappers from 1926

∎ The silent movie “What’s the World Coming To,” a sci-fi comedy from Hal Roach Studios, imagined a 2026 in which men stayed at home and women worked. Moviegoers laughed as cross-dressing actors portrayed the reversal of traditional roles.

∎ The Clyde Enterprise (Ohio): “The Toledo Blade wonders what that city will be like in the year 2026. Well, she’s no worse than Sodom, or Gomorrah, probably no worse than Babylon, and everybody knows what happened to them.”

∎ The Cimarron Valley Clipper (Oklahoma): “Astronomers announce that Ensor’s comet will not come again until the year 2026. Few persons now present will wait up for it.”

∎ The Charlotte News: “The feminine styles for spring will change the locality of the waistline, the dictators tell us. Fortunately, however, for the men, they know fairly well where theirs will be this time a century from now.”

∎ The Milwaukee Journal: “Colonel George M. Bailey of the Houston Post-Dispatch thinks that the outstanding sensation 100 years from now will be the discovery of a politician who is utterly on the level. The colonel is entirely too optimistic.”

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE NEXT LEFT: “CAN DEMOCRATS REINVENT THEMSELVES AS WASHINGTON DISRUPTERS?”

by Lisa Lerer

“As they try to repair their political brand before the midterm elections, Democrats are rushing to redefine themselves as Washington disrupters, eager to challenge a government that many Americans believe has failed to improve their lives.”

7 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR

12X02 DUPE FROM THE ECONOMIST

@ get replacement or renumber

ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN – FROM MIAMI HERALD

'ROBBING THEM': TREASURY SLAMS STATES OVER TRUMP TAX CUTS

By Grace Hall

Lawmakers in many states must decide whether to adopt new federal tax breaks pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration. These changes would cut taxes on tips, overtime, vehicle loans, and business equipment. Only a few states would automatically adopt the changes.

The Treasury Department accused several Democrat-led states of “robbing” their citizens by refusing to align their state tax codes with Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) Act.

Analysts say the deductions may be temporary or affect groups unevenly. They say lawmakers should weigh potential revenue losses against the relief the cuts could provide.

ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN – FROM POLITICO

HOW DEMS BREAK THROUGH IN 2026

By Ali Bianco 12/26/25

As the chapter closes on 2025, the discourse over where the Democratic Party goes next year remains top of mind — and the moderate set is laying out its argument to land a blue wave, 2018 style.

7 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR

refs:

Kennedy Center criticizes musician who canceled performance after Trump name added to building

Trump to POLITICO: Zelenskyy ‘doesn’t have anything until I approve it’

Embattled top Hegseth aide wins promotion

ICE’s interest in high-tech gear raises new questions: ‘What is it for?’

The ultraprocessed food makers have an answer for RFK Jr.

Playbook - POLITICO Archive

· Saturday, 12/27/25

· Friday, 12/26/25

· Thursday, 1/1/26

· Wednesday, 12/24/25

· View the Full Playbook Archives »

ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN – FROM THE HILL

FORMER PENCE AIDE PREDICTS 2026 MIDTERMS WILL ‘FAVOR THE DEMOCRATS’

by Steff Danielle Thomas - 12/13/25 1:14 PM ET

Marc Short, a former aide to ex-vice president Mike Pence, predicted earlier this week that Democrats’ recent election victories could be a harbinger ahead of the 2026 midterms, suggesting Americans prefer divided government.

“Each time there’s been one party in control, there’s been backlash,” he said. “So, just like in the 2018 midterms, when Republicans had control. Democrats had a big year. In 2022 when Democrats controlled everything, Republicans had a big year.”

“So, I think you’re going to see likely a Democrat year in the midterms,” the former Pence aide continued, adding “the question is, how do you mitigate that? And the reality is that so many of our House districts are drawn today with gerrymandering for each side. There is fewer, really, districts, really that are competitive.”

Democrats racked up a series of key wins in the 2025 elections — from gubernatorial to mayoral races — and are expanding their target lists ahead of next year’s races. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, among others, has tied some of the victories to the party’s focus on affordability concerns.

The GOP in particular has likely been spooked by recent losses and underperformances. Many Republican lawmakers said the off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia and other parts of the country served as a wake-up call.

President Trump and allies have cast blame on the record-long government shutdown and the Senate’s filibuster rules. Under pressure amid falling poll numbers over the economy, Trump is expected to be a constant presence on the campaign trail as Republicans strive to keep their razor-thin majority.

Though, Short suggested recently that it may not make a “dramatic difference.”

“You’d rather have him there than not, but I don’t think it’s a big game changer,” he said.

“But I still think that the margins, as tight as they are, of potentially one or two seats by that point, that you got to favor the Democrats in the midterms,” Short added.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned Thursday that the GOP is “in real trouble” if the economy does not “recover.”

Recent polling also shows a significant majority of U.S. voters say they would rather elect a Democrat than a Republican to represent them in 2026, with many citing affordability concerns. Despite rising inflation and prices, the president has rated his economy “A-plus plus.”

Redistricting battles across the U.S. have also thrown a wrench into the mix.

ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN – FROM MSN.COM
MARKETS INSIDER

By Jennifer Sor

· Wall Street's top banks are lining up to deliver their year-ahead outlooks.

· Bullish forecasts cite robust earnings growth, AI-driven gains, and potential Fed rate cuts

· Banks expect continued US economic growth and expanding AI investments.

The bull market turned three this year, and Wall Street thinks you should be gearing up to celebrate another big run in 2026.

Even so, the market has room to grind higher, according to the top analysts.

Here's the rundown of forecasts and price targets from the big banks.

Read the original article HERE

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ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN – FROM CBS NEWS

HOW WILL THE STOCK MARKET PERFORM IN 2026? WALL STREET PROS WEIGH IN.

By Mary Cunningham

The U.S. stock market scaled new heights in 2025, as investors largely tuned out concerns about the Trump administration's sharply higher tariffs and shrugged off fears of a financial market bubble among artificial intelligence companies.

The S&P 500 stock index is up roughly 15% this year through Dec. 17— a strong performance, although lower than the heady 23% jump posted by the broad-based index in 2024. The S&P 500 has climbed an average of 13% per year over the last decade, according to Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at wealth management firm Janney Montgomery Scott.

The Nasdaq Composite, which includes tech heavy-hitters such as Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia, has climbed more than 18% this year, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 13%.

The key question: Will such investor exuberance spill over into 2026, especially as concerns about an AI bubble percolate?

ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN – FROM USA TODAY

WITH THE PENNY GOING AWAY, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WITH THE ONES IN YOUR COIN JAR?

By Daniel de Visé and Mike Snider

Learn to love your coins.

That’s the message from Kevin McColly, CEO of Coinstar, the company behind those coin-cashing machines you see in supermarkets.

American consumers made only 16% of their payments in cash in 2023, according to the Federal Reserve. A 2022 Pew survey found that two-fifths of consumers never use cash at all.

More: Last newly circulating pennies will be auctioned in December. How much could they fetch?

Treasurer of the United States Brandon Beach holds the last penny stamped at the US Mint on November 12, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Beach pressed the final pennies at an event held at the facility. The pennies pressed bear a special 'Omega' and will not be put in circulation, but will be auctioned off.

By now, most Americans know the U.S. Mint won't be making any more pennies. Some businesses began reporting shortages of the coins even before the last pennies were stamped.

President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury to stop minting pennies because their production cost exceeds their value. (Intriguingly, the same is true of nickels.)

Most of us don’t realize how much our coins are worth. Thus, a trip to a coin-exchange kiosk (or a bank, or credit union) can yield a pleasant surprise.

“People underestimate the value of their jar by about half,” McColly said, speaking to USA TODAY earlier this year. “It’s a wonderfully pleasurable experience. People have this sensation of found money.”

Certain groups of Americans – lower-income households, and those over 55 – still use plenty of cash, the Fed found, along with people who prefer to shop in person.

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ATTACHMENT NINETEEN – FROM THE MOTLEY FOOL

2 AI STOCKS THAT COULD TURN $100,000 INTO $1 MILLION EVEN BEFORE 2036

By Geoffrey Seiler

Key Points

· UiPath has a lot of upside if it can become a leader in AI agent orchestration.

· SentinelOne has the potential to take additional share in endpoint security and security analytics.

· Both stocks trade at cheap valuations.

· From power grids to data centers: The overlooked winners in the AI gold rush

· Is AbbVie a buy, sell, or hold in 2026?

· 2 genius stocks Nvidia owns that you should buy for 2026

ATTACHMENT TWENTY – FROM FORTUNE

BY SRIDHAR RAMASWAMY, CEO OF SNOWFLAKE, THE AI DATA CLOUD COMPANY.

Over the past year, AI has begun reshaping work in tangible ways, with coding assistants that speed software development and chatbots that handle routine customer inquiries. But 2026 will be the year organizations move beyond these initial use cases to deploy systems that can reason, plan, and act autonomously across core operations.

This next stage has the potential to deliver dramatic gains, driven by shifts already underway in how AI models are built and deployed. The following predictions outline how the landscape will evolve in 2026 — from wider access to competitive models to new standards for measuring AI reliability — and how successful organizations will differentiate themselves to capitalize on these changes.

1 – Big Tech’s Grip on AI Models Will Loosen

For years, conventional wisdom held that only a handful of tech giants could afford to build competitive AI models. In 2026, that will change. New approaches to training like those developed by DeepSeek have shown that building the biggest, most expensive models isn’t the only path to strong performance. Companies are now taking open-source foundation models and customizing them with their own data, creating a faster, cheaper route to competitive AI. This democratization means far more organizations will create their own tailored models instead of relying solely on OpenAI, Google, or Anthropic.

2 – AI Will Have Its ‘HTTP’ Moment With a New Protocol for Agent Collaboration

Much as HTTP allows websites to connect freely across the internet, a dominant AI protocol will emerge next year that will allow agents to work together across different systems and platforms. This move towards standardization will unlock the true potential of agentic AI by allowing specialized agents from different providers to communicate and collaborate without vendor lock-in. Organizations will finally be able to build interconnected AI ecosystems rather than siloed applications tied to single providers. The age of the proprietary AI walled garden is ending.

3 – Teams That Resist ‘AI Slop’ Will Dominate the Creative Landscape

In 2026, a divide will emerge between those who use AI to amplify their own creativity and those who use it as a crutch. One group will leverage AI to expand their creativity and push their own ideas further and faster. The other will take the easy route, churning out generic content that floods the market but doesn’t resonate with customers. Organizations that take the former approach — empowering people to think strategically and use AI to enhance, rather than replace, their own creativity — will dominate their industries.

4 – The Best AI Products Will Learn From Every User Interaction

In 2026, the most successful AI products will build in continuous learning from user behavior. Much as Google’s search algorithm improved itself by learning which websites users actually clicked on, AI systems that capture feedback loops — like coding copilots do now when users accept or reject suggestions — will improve far faster than static models. Embedding these feedback loops into products will make increasingly complex use cases possible. Companies that take advantage of this continuous learning will gain compounding advantages.

5 – Enterprises Will Demand Quantified Reliability Before Scaling AI Agents

Business-critical AI applications require precise, measurable accuracy, not probabilistic answers. While consumer AI can afford to occasionally get things wrong, enterprise systems need exact answers to questions like “How much revenue did we generate yesterday?” In 2026, organizations will insist on systematic methods to measure the accuracy of agents before deploying them at scale, which will drive rapid innovation in sophisticated evaluation frameworks. Establishing these domain-specific testing standards will be essential for taking agentic AI from pilot projects to core business operations.

6 – Ideas, Not Execution, Will Become the AI Bottleneck

As AI agents handle more of the actual work of building and implementing projects, organizations will be limited by the quality of their ideas more than their ability to execute on them. This shift will be both liberating and daunting. It allows teams to rapidly prototype and deploy solutions that once took months, but success depends on asking the right questions and setting the right direction. In 2026, as execution becomes commoditized, strategic thinking and vision will separate high-performing organizations from the rest.

7 – Shadow AI Will Drive Enterprise Adoption from the Bottom Up

Employees who select their own free AI tools will remain the primary driver of enterprise AI adoption in 2026. Rather than waiting for IT departments to sanction approved products, workers are using ChatGPT, Claude, and other consumer AI tools for their daily work, forcing organizations to catch up with formal policies and infrastructure. Smart enterprises will recognize this grassroots adoption as a signal of what works and build their AI strategies around employee-proven use cases. The future of enterprise AI is being written by individual contributors, not by mandates from the top.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE – FROM FROM TIP RANK

BLOOMBERG ALSO PREDICTS UPTICK

META Stock Forecast: Why Analysts Predict Strong Upside Potential in 2026

By Vince Condarcuri Dec 29, 2025, 01:36 PM

Social media giant Meta Platforms is once again attracting positive attention from Wall Street despite ongoing regulatory and execution risks.

META Stock Forecast: Why Analysts Predict Strong Upside Potential in 2026

Social media giant Meta Platforms META -0.69% ▼ is once again attracting positive attention from Wall Street despite ongoing regulatory and execution risks. In fact, analysts at several firms argue that the stock still offers attractive upside.

Meta Is an ‘Opportunistic Buy’

For example, Robert W. Baird’s five-star analyst, Colin Sebastian, calls Meta an “opportunistic buy.” Therefore, he has a Buy rating while only slightly lowering his price target to $815 from $820. Interestingly, his valuation uses a 30x multiple on 2026 earnings and a 15x multiple on 2026 EV/EBITDA, which he believes are reasonable given Meta’s scale, margins, and diversified revenue base.

At the same time, five-star Citi C -1.90% ▼ analyst Ronald Josey reiterated a Buy rating with a higher $850 price target, while Bank of America BAC -1.46% ▼ also reaffirmed its Buy rating with a target of $810. Together, these calls show that Wall Street is confident that Meta’s long-term fundamentals can outweigh near-term concerns. Even with regulatory scrutiny and heavy investment spending, analysts see Meta’s financial strength and market position as key supports for the stock.

Several Potential Catalysts Could Drive Meta Shares

Looking ahead, several potential catalysts could drive Meta shares into 2026. Investors are closely watching upcoming Q1 guidance and margin comments, particularly for clarity on spending tied to AI and the metaverse. In addition, improvements in ad ranking, the growing monetization on WhatsApp and Threads, and the wider adoption of automated ad tools like Advantage+ continue to support the core advertising business.

What Is the Price Target for Meta?

Overall, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 37 Buys, six Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average META price target of $828.71 per share implies 26.3% upside potential.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO – FROM REDFIN

REDFIN’S 2026 PREDICTIONS: WELCOME TO THE GREAT HOUSING RESET

Published on December 2nd, 2025 by Chen Zhao and Daryl Fairweather

U.S. homebuyers will start to get some relief in 2026, with affordability improving as income growth outpaces home-price growth. Next year will mark the beginning of a long, slow recovery for the housing market.

The Great Housing Reset will take shape in 2026. It won’t be a quick price correction, and it won’t be a recession. Instead, the Great Housing Reset will be a yearslong period of gradual increases in home sales and normalization of prices as affordability gradually improves. It will start next year, with incomes rising faster than home prices for a prolonged period for the first time since the Great Recession era.

It won’t be enough to make homebuying affordable in the short run for Gen Zers and young families, who will be forced to make tradeoffs, from moving in with roommates or their parents to delaying having children. Politicians on both sides of the aisle will respond to the widespread housing affordability crisis, introducing policies to lower costs, from YIMBY measures to expanded manufactured housing. Some of those proposals will chip away at affordability, but they won’t be an instant fix.

PREDICTION 1: MORTGAGE RATES WILL DIP TO LOW-6% RANGE, ONE FACTOR IMPROVING AFFORDABILITY

Mortgage rates will continue their slow slide but remain high relative to the pandemic era.

The 30-year fixed rate will average 6.3% for the entire year, down from its 2025 average of 6.6%.

Mortgage Rates Will Continue Gradual Decline in 2026

See charts, graphs and numbers here

A weaker labor market will lead the Fed to cut interest rates in 2026 and bring monetary policy to a more neutral place, which should keep mortgage rates in the low-6% range. But lingering inflation risk and the likelihood that we’ll avoid a recession will keep the Fed from cutting more than the markets have already priced in. That’s why rates may dip below 6% occasionally, but not for any meaningful period. The Fed will change leadership in 2026, but that is also unlikely to bring significantly lower mortgage rates, as long term rates–like mortgage rates–are set by bond markets.

PREDICTION 2: HOMEBUYING AFFORDABILITY WILL IMPROVE AS WAGES GROW FASTER THAN PRICES

We expect the median U.S. home-sale price to rise 1% year over year in 2026. Prices will tick up only marginally because still-high mortgage rates and prices, along with a weaker economy, will curb demand.

Homebuying will become more affordable because home prices will grow slower than wages for a sustained period for the first time since the aftermath of the financial crisis. The small price increase combined with mortgage rates dipping lower than they were in 2025 means monthly housing payments will grow slower than wages, too.

WAGES WILL GROW FASTER THAN HOME PRICES IN 2026

Year-over-year change in median sale price of existing homes, and year-over-year change in wages for American workers. 2026 is a projected estimate.

See charts, graphs and numbers here

Slow demand has historically caused prices to fall. We don’t expect that to happen in 2026 because sellers will pull back, too. That’s largely because many would-be home sellers have enough equity to avoid falling behind on their mortgage payments. Mortgage-delinquency rates are low, and most homeowners will be able to wait until the housing market further recovers to list their home. In the past, the same economic forces limiting homebuying demand also forced many homeowners into distressed sales, but today’s homeowners tend to have good credit, a lot of equity and low rates, putting less pressure on potential sellers than on buyers.

The improvement in affordability will be significant enough to lure back some house hunters, but homebuying will remain out of reach for a lot of sidelined buyers. Gen Zers and young families will feel the pinch of still-high costs, with many of them opting for nontraditional living situations to afford housing.

PREDICTION 3: HOME SALES WILL RISE 3%

We predict that sales of existing homes will end 2026 up 3% from 2025, with sales coming in at an annualized rate of 4.2 million.

HOME SALES WILL INCH UP IN 2026

Number of existing homes sold, seasonally adjusted annualized rate. 2026 is a a projected estimate.

See charts, graphs and numbers here

We expect a stronger spring homebuying season in 2026 because mortgage rates were sitting around 6.8% during the spring of 2025, meaningfully higher than the 6.3% rates we’re predicting this year.

Sales will increase only slightly because affordability will improve just enough to lure some on-the-fence buyers. Many house hunters will remain priced out and/or limited by a stalled labor market, including some Americans who have lost their job–or fear losing their job–as AI takes a toll on the white-collar workforce.

PREDICTION 4: RENTS WILL RISE AS DEMAND FOR APARTMENTS RISES AND SUPPLY FALLS

Demand for apartments will rise as supply falls in 2026, leading to rising rents in many metro areas. Nationwide, we expect rents to rise about 2% to 3% year over year by the end of 2026, roughly the pace of inflation.

Apartment construction has slowed from its 2021-2022 surge and is expected to continue slowing, meaning fewer apartments are hitting the market and there’s more competition for each one. At the same time, many Americans are renting instead of buying because down payments and monthly mortgage payments are expensive. However, in some areas like South Florida and Southern California, tightened immigration enforcement is likely to put a lid on rental-demand growth.

PREDICTION 5: HIGH HOUSING COSTS WILL RESHAPE HOUSEHOLDS, WITH MORE ROOMMATES AND FEWER BABIES

The improvement in affordability won’t be enough to immediately boost homeownership for young families. Gen Z and millennial homeownership rates flatlined last year, and we expect that trend to continue. Household makeup will shift further away from the nuclear family, with more adult children living with their parents and vice versa. We also expect more friends to pool resources to buy homes together, often with prenup-style agreements. The portion of young adults living with their parents is down from its pandemic peak, but historically high. Roughly 6% of Americans who struggled to afford housing as of mid-2025 moved in with their parents, and another 6% moved in with roommates; we expect those shares to increase next year.

We also expect high homebuying costs to make families smaller. The fertility rate has been gradually declining for years, and it’s expected to continue falling.

More families will renovate their homes to comfortably accommodate multiple generations. In a November Thumbtack survey of more than 100 home renovation professionals, multigenerational features, like separate suites for extended family, were the most commonly cited response when asked to predict the most popular design trend of 2026. Picture a garage that’s converted into a second primary suite for adult children moving back in with their parents. Redfin agents in places like Los Angeles and Nashville say more homeowners are planning to tailor their homes to share with extended family.

PREDICTION 6: AFFORDABILITY CRISIS WILL UNITE POLICYMAKERS ACROSS PARTY LINES

Voters in the November election–especially young ones–made it clear that lowering housing costs is their top priority. Not only are sale prices and mortgage rates high, but the total cost of homeownership is rising due to skyrocketing insurance premiums and the likelihood that utility costs will surge due to large scale AI-driven data centers.

President Trump may declare a national housing emergency to help more Americans afford homes, and other politicians on both sides of the aisle will introduce more policies to help alleviate the housing affordability crisis. The YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) movement will pick up more supporters across party lines, opening the door for initiatives that increase housing supply: A bipartisan congressional caucus has already proposed legislation including the Yes in My Backyard Act, and the Build More Housing Near Transit Act is making its way through the government.

Other housing proposals will include zoning changes to make it easier to build ADUs and home additions. We also expect more states to tackle the housing crisis plaguing their rural residents; some will mirror New York’s focus on building manufactured and modular homes in rural parts of the state.

Sensible policies may start to chip away at the housing affordability crisis, and quixotic proposals like the 50-year mortgage may capture attention of politicians who want a quick housing fix. But the only thing that will make homes more affordable is time. Housing costs soared much faster than earnings during the pandemic, and while wages will start outpacing home prices next year, we expect it to take about five years for the housing market to return to a semblance of normal.

PREDICTION 7: MORE AMERICANS WILL REFI AND REMODEL

We expect U.S. mortgage refinance volume to increase more than 30% annually in 2026, ending the year at a total of $670 billion. More Americans will refinance largely because 20% of mortgaged homeowners have a rate above 6%, and those who bought recently with an elevated rate are chomping at the bit to bring their monthly payments down.

We also anticipate more homeowners tapping home equity to fund renovations. Strong home-value appreciation over the last several years means many homeowners have sizable equity; the typical mortgaged homeowner had $181,000 in untapped equity as of mid-2025. That allows homeowners to take out a HELOC or do a cash-out refinance to fund remodels. For many people, renovating their current home is more appealing and less costly than moving.

PREDICTION 8: NYC OUTSKIRTS, GREAT LAKES REGION WILL BE HOT … ZOOM TOWNS LIKE NASHVILLE AND AUSTIN WILL NOT

Areas close to New York City will attract people who need to commute to the office. The Midwest and Great Lakes regions have wide appeal because they’re fairly affordable and provide relatively safe havens against climate-related events like wildfires and floods. Small and mid-sized cities are luring recent graduates with affordable rents and opportunities to build stable careers in blue-collar fields, as AI replaces some entry-level white-collar jobs.

Housing markets most likely to heat up in 2026:

· NYC suburbs, including Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Northern NJ, and Fairfield County, CT

· Syracuse, NY

· Cleveland, OH

· St. Louis, MO

· Minneapolis, MN

· Madison, WI

On the flip side, homes will languish on the market in coastal Florida, along with Texas, due partly to natural disasters and surging insurance costs and partly to pandemic-era remote workers moving back to where their office is located. People who need to sell may be forced to take a loss.

Housing markets most likely to cool down in 2026:

· Nashville, TN

· San Antonio, TX

· Austin, TX

· Fort Lauderdale, FL

· West Palm Beach, FL

· Miami, FL

PREDICTION 9: CLIMATE MIGRATION WILL GO HYPERLOCAL

As climate-driven events like hurricanes and wildfires become more frequent and intense, climate will become a more popular reason to move. But people won’t necessarily make big moves, like from coastal Florida to the Midwest.

Instead, we expect some people living in especially vulnerable neighborhoods to move to less vulnerable parts of the same metro area. For example, Los Angeles Redfin agents say some people plan to leave places like the hills surrounding Malibu or the Pacific Palisades (or not return to places like the Palisades and Altadena after the 2025 wildfires) in favor of flat coastal neighborhoods like Santa Monica or Long Beach. That way, they can keep their job and lifestyle but live in a less vulnerable home. Many people are also shying away from building, buying, and hanging onto homes in climate-risky neighborhoods because insurance costs are sky-high.

This local climate migration could exacerbate inequality. People who can’t afford to leave a vulnerable place like Altadena will be left behind, with a lower local tax base for making climate-resilient investments in the future.

PREDICTION 10: NAR WILL LET LOCAL MLSS CALL THE SHOTS, SPARKING CONSOLIDATION

It’s time-consuming, confusing and inconsistent for the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to write rules for 500 local multiple listing services (MLSs). NAR will step out of the role of industry rule maker and let local branches create rules about how homes are listed in their markets, something that has already started happening. NAR, for its part, will focus on advocacy. Putting local MLSs in the driver’s seat will accelerate consolidation with many smaller branches joining bigger networks. This creation of larger, regional MLSs will bring clearer rules, faster innovation, cleaner data, and better experiences for real estate brokers, home sellers and buyers.

PREDICTION 11: AI WILL BECOME A REAL ESTATE MATCHMAKER

Generative AI will increasingly help people decide where to move, identifying cities, towns, neighborhoods and homes that fit users’ budgets and lifestyle criteria. Instead of a typical geographic search, homebuyers will search for precisely what they want and have a back-and-forth conversation with search sites, giving feedback to tailor their search results.

These tools will allow house hunters to find homes with niche features. For instance, Redfin agents expect wellness features to become a defining feature of next year’s high-end housing market; generative AI will help luxury house hunters find homes equipped with advanced air-filtration systems, whole-house water purification, and amenities like meditation rooms and cold-plunge pools.

AI will transform the real estate profession, too, by powering tools that help real estate agents pinpoint the right moment to connect with a customer–and the perfect home to recommend based on the buyer’s preferences.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE – FROM MSN/NEWSWEEK

MILLIONAIRE CEO WARNS US ECONOMIC SITUATION COULD LEAD TO REVOLUTION

Alia Shoaib

American venture capitalist Bradley Tusk has warned that growing inequality in the United States could lead to a revolution.

“If you don’t want a society where people are struggling to put food on the table, struggling to make rent, struggling to pay the utilities—and we shouldn’t have that here because this is the richest, most abundant country in the history of the world—then we should be in a position to make sure that people at least have the basics,” he said.

The venture capitalist praised the self-described Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, who has said that he believes billionaires shouldn’t exist.

Tusk said that while he didn’t agree with all of Mamdani’s ideas, he liked his “positive vision for New York” and said of the Democratic Party: “We could use some youth, some enthusiasm, some new ideas.”

What People Are Saying

Venture capitalist Bradley Tusk told LBC: “If Elon Musk says he needs a trillion dollars because he’s going to solve global hunger or something like that, great, have at it. But I don’t know what you could possibly buy with a trillion dollars that you couldn’t buy with a hundred billion, or probably even $10 billion.”

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR – FROM USA TODAY

WHAT DOES 2026 HOLD? BIG SPORTS EVENTS, BIGGER TRIALS AND MOVIES GALORE

After a jam-packed 2025, what will we be talking about come 2026? It looks like there will be plenty. Mary Walrath-Holdridge

Updated Dec. 30, 2025, 1:20 p.m. ET

How is the 250th anniversary celebrated in 2026?

What is the 2026 World Cup schedule in the US?

Who will perform at 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend?

As a new year dawns, many Americans are reflecting on 2025, a year marked by historic events including the inauguration of a president, the appointment of the first American pope, and major pop culture moments like the release of "Wicked: For Good" and Taylor Swift's engagement − but there is plenty more to come in 2026.

The calendar begins with the kickoff of a yearlong celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary, followed by the Winter Olympics in Italy and a highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show in the San Francisco Bay Area in February.

In pop culture, Hollywood hosts the Oscars in March, then the Emmys in September. Major movie releases will include a star-studded "Dune: Part Three," a "Devil Wears Prada" sequel and a new installment in the "Hunger Games" series.

The year will also see major criminal trials, including those of Luigi Mangione and Tyler Robinson, as well as a possible political shakeup when the midterms roll around.

Here's some of what you can expect in 2026.

AMERICA'S 250TH ANNIVERSARY

July 4, 2026, will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the official formation of the United States as a country.

This will be marked by a yearlong celebration coordinated by the bipartisan America250 Commission, created by Congress in 2016, and the White House’s Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, established in 2025.

Events include statewide “America’s Field Trip” student contests, oral history initiatives, volunteer service campaigns, traveling tech expos under “America Innovates,” and communal celebrations known as America Waves.

In Washington, the iconic National Mall will host major events on July Fourth, including a full military parade, exhibits from all 50 states, fireworks and national pageantry. Separately, the Freedom 250 initiative will orchestrate high-profile events such as the “Great American State Fair” across the country, youth Patriot Games, a UFC exhibition at the White House, a national prayer event, and construction of a National Garden of American Heroes.

SUPER BOWL LX AND BAD BUNNY HALFTIME SHOW

Chatter has surrounded Super Bowl LX since September, when it was announced that Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny would headline the halftime show. The three-time Grammy Award winner is one of the most-streamed artists in the world and has largely shrugged off backlash surrounding his planned performance.

The artist has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and ICE, angering some conservative figures. Others have challenged Bad Bunny's American identity, though Puerto Rico is a territory of America.

Even so, the NFL has defended the decisions and promised a good show.

"I'm not sure we've ever selected an artist where we didn't have some blowback or criticism. It's pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told The Associated Press. "He's one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Super Bowl LX is set for Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The teams have not yet been determined. Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles took home the crown by beating the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.

GRAND THEFT AUTO VI

After 13 years of waiting ... and waiting again ... and again .... Rockstar Games announced what fans hope will be the final, true release date for Grand Theft Auto VI. Originally set for release in 2025, it was delayed to May 2026 and then again to November 2026. The newest installment of the cult classic game is set to drop Nov. 19, 2026.

It promises a whole new cast of characters making their way in Vice City in Leonida state, based in Miami. The game's development has spurred speculation, frustrations and memes over the years, with a major leak in 2022 added fuel to the fire.

Here's hoping Nov. 19 is finally the day.

'DUNE: PART THREE,' AKA 'DUNE: MESSIAH'

The next installment of the sci-fi epic "Dune" will drop in 2026 − though fans will still have to wait quite a while for its premiere Dec. 18.

Based on Frank Herbert's classic science fiction series, the "Dune" franchise follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his family, the House of Atreides, as they relocate from the planet Caladan to the desert planet of Arrakis to oversee the mining of Spice, a precious space resource.

The first "Dune" film, released in 2021, starred Chalamet alongside a star-studded cast that included Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa. The movie grossed $402.1 million worldwide and snagged six Academy Awards, including best achievement in cinematography.

"Dune: Part Two" added Oscar darlings Austin Butler and Florence Pugh to the mix for its release in March 2024. The film blasted off at the box office, exceeding its predecessor with a global haul of $714.8 million.

Now, the third installment will add another recognizable name: Robert Pattinson as the antagonist Scytale. If the movie follows the storyline of the 1969 novel "Dune: Messiah," it will focus on Emperor Paul Atreides as he picks up the pieces left behind by the holy war called Fremen Jihad, which resulted in billions of deaths. As Paul grapples with the weight of leadership, Mua d'dib will continue his mission to fulfill an ancient scheme.

More movie releases: 'Hunger Games,' 'Avengers,' 'Star Wars'

There is no shortage of media releases to anticipate in 2026, from revamps of classic shows to long-awaited new seasons and big-screen premieres.

· Jan. 16: "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple"

· Feb. 13: "Wuthering Heights"

· Feb. 20: "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert"

· Feb. 27: "Scream 7"

· April 3: "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie"

· April 24: "Michael"

· May 1: "The Devil Wears Prada 2"

· May 15: "Mortal Kombat II"

· May 22: "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu"

· June 12: "Scary Movie 6"

· June 19: "Toy Story 5"

· June 26: "Supergirl"

· July 1: "Minions 3: Mega Minions"

· July 10: "Moana"

· July 17: "The Odyssey"

· July 31: "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"

· Oct. 9: "The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender"

· Oct. 16: "Street Fighter"

· Nov. 20: "The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping"

· Dec. 11: "Jumanji 3"

· Dec. 18: "Avengers: Doomsday"

TV releases: 'Game of Thrones,' 'Euphoria,' 'Bridgerton'

More than one "Game of Thrones" spinoff, a second set of episodes for the smash hit "The Pitt," and a new season of "Bridgerton" are among the highly anticipated TV releases of the year.

· Jan. 8: "The Pitt" Season 2

· Jan. 18: "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms"

· Jan. 29 & Feb. 26: "Bridgerton" Season 4

· March 6: "Outlander" Season 8

· March 22: "The Bachelorette" Season 22

· April 8: "The Boys" Season 5

· TBD: "Euphoria" Season 3, "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair," "House of the Dragon" Season 3, "Lanterns," "X-Men '97" Season 2, "The Gilded Age" Season 4, "Dune: Prophecy" Season 2.

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WINTER OLYMPICS 2026

The Winter Olympics, this time titled Milano Cortina 2026, will return Feb. 6 to Feb. 22, 2026.

This time around, the Winter Games will take place in Italy, cohosted by the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The site was selected in 2019, when the bidding results ended with the two Italian cities earning the Olympics over Stockholm and Åre in Sweden.

It will mark the fourth time the Olympics have been held in Italy, after the 1956 Winter Olympics (Cortina d'Ampezzo), 1960 Summer Olympics (Rome) and 2006 Winter Olympics (Turin). Cortina d'Ampezzo was also selected to host the 1944 Winter Olympics, which were canceled because of World War II.

Major Winter Olympics events include hockey, skiing, figure skating, speed skating, snowboarding, bobsleighing and curling. The Paralympics will take place March 6 to March 15.

The last Winter Olympics took place in Beijing, the lone city to host both the Winter and Summer Olympics (it also hosted the 2008 Summer Games).

FIFA WORLD CUP

The United States will welcome athletes from around the world this year for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off on June 11, 2026, and runs through July 19.

For the first time in history, the tournament will be cohosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Matches will be held in 16 host cities across the three nations before culminating in the final game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The event marks the debut of an expanded 48-team format featuring 12 groups of four, followed by a knockout stage that includes the top two teams from each group plus the eight best third-place finishers, totaling 104 matches. This edition also introduces new traditions like a halftime show at the final and themed mascots representing each host country.

The United States has been criticized for saying it plans to send ICE agents "suited and booted" to the games, and Vice President JD Vance said the agency could detain visitors.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS

In the world of politics, midterm elections will be one of the hottest events of 2026.

Primaries will take place earlier in the year, and midterm elections are set for Tuesday, Nov. 3, to determining control of Congress.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be up for grabs, and the Senate will see 35 contests, including two special elections in Florida and Ohio. With Republicans now holding a slim majority, key Senate races to watch include competitive contests in Georgia, Ohio, Florida and Maine, and open seats in North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Voters will weigh in on significant ballot measures, including proposals to impose citizenship requirements for voting in Alaska, and measures in Arizona and Arkansas addressing marijuana laws, health care pay limits and environmental protections.

CRIMINAL TRIALS: MANGIONE, KIRK, REINER

Luigi Mangione, 26, accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to death on Dec 4, 2024, faces criminal trial in 2026. Mangione has been charged in federal court, Pennsylvania state court and New York state court.

Though Mangione has appeared in hearings in 2025, his official prosecution has yet to begin as lawyers prepare the case. Mangione appeared in New York state court on Dec. 1, where his lawyers sought to get evidence police recovered in Mangione's backpack at the time of his arrest thrown out.

The trial of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, is also expected in 2026, though it probably will last beyond the end of the year. Robinson made his first appearance for a hearing on Dec. 11, and his next is scheduled Jan. 1.

Court proceedings are also expected in the case of filmmaker Rob Reiner and wife, Michele Singer Reiner, who died of suspected homicide in December. Nick Reiner, their son, remains behind bars without bail after his arrest on charges of first-degree murder. Reiner is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 7.

AWARD SHOWS

One spectacle we know we can look forward to every year without fail: awards season. This year's shows will play out on the following schedule:

· Sunday, Jan. 11: 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards

· Sunday, Feb. 1: 68th Grammy Awards

· Saturday, Feb. 7: 78th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards

· Saturday, Feb. 28: 37th Annual Producers Guild of America Awards

· Sunday, Feb. 22: 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards

· Sunday, March 1: 32nd Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards

· Sunday, March 15: 98th Academy Awards (Oscars)

· Sunday, June 7: 79th Annual Tony Awards

· Monday, Sept. 14: 78th Primetime Emmy Awards

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE – FROM MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM

LOOKING AHEAD: PREDICTIONS FOR SCIENCE AND MEDICINE IN 2026

Dec 23, 2025

As we turn the page on 2025 and step into a new year of possibilities, we asked leading researchers at Mass General Brigham to share their insights on what the future might hold for science and medicine.

From groundbreaking discoveries in AI to transformative innovations in cancer and cardiovascular disease, these experts highlight the scientific advancements that could shape healthcare in 2026. Below are their top predictions for scientific breakthroughs and trends expected to make an impact in the coming year.

View predictions from other research areas:

· Artificial intelligence (AI)

· Cancer

· Cardiology

· Neurology and neuroscience

"In 2026, medical AI will move from the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ to the early ‘Slope of Enlightenment’ on the Gartner Hype Cycle—a sign that hype is giving way to reality. As real-world evidence grows, many AI tools will fall short of expectations, exposing issues like bias and workflow fit. This reckoning will be healthy, separating hype from substance and accelerating clinically validated, trustworthy AI systems."

Hugo Aerts, PhD

"Human cellular models will become the backbone of precision neurology. Advances now allow us to study how genetic background influences disease and to measure therapeutic response in human-relevant systems, fundamentally transforming how we assess efficacy, stratify patients, and reduce risks in the clinical translation of new therapeutics."

Tracy Young Pearse, PhD

"In 2026, larger clinical trials will test how epigenetic clocks and other aging biomarkers respond to interventions. These studies will reveal whether observed changes reflect true biological improvement, guiding strategies to promote healthy aging." 

Jesse Poganik, PhD

"We’ll see major progress in understanding the links between aging and cancer—why aging is the main risk factor, why younger and older patients respond differently to treatment, and how cell biology can improve responses across age groups."

Peter van Galen, PhD

"By 2026, I predict that we will be able to characterize women’s cardiovascular risk with more biological precision, particularly around how adverse pregnancy outcomes and the menopause transition alter vascular biology and cardiometabolic pathways. I hope to see early trials and cohort studies that explicitly incorporate reproductive history, menopause status, and a focused panel of biomarkers into risk stratification, moving beyond traditional 'one-size-fits-all' algorithms. Together, these advances can lay the groundwork for more tailored prevention strategies in women’s heart health."

Emily Lau, MD
Heart and Vascular Institute

"Next-generation spatial technologies will map every cell in human tissue with unprecedented detail, revealing how cellular neighborhoods influence function. Applying AI to these maps will unlock hidden patterns and pathways, transforming our understanding of tissue organization in health and disease."

David Ting, MD, PhD
Scientific Director
Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute

"As datasets expand to include sociodemographic, environmental, clinical, imaging, and molecular features, new data science methods will model these complex interconnections—deepening our understanding of cardiovascular disease and guiding strategies to maximize wellbeing and health span."

Pradeep Natarajan, MD, PhD
Physician Investigator
Heart and Vascular Institute

"2026 will bring a surge of ingenuity and creativity across science and medicine. The challenges and uncertainties of 2025 will spark bold solutions and transformative breakthroughs. Next year offers a unique opportunity to demonstrate resilience and advance discoveries that make a lasting impact on population health."

Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD

"Advances in de novo protein design are opening the door to entirely new possibilities. In the coming year, we expect to see enzymes with functions that do not exist in nature, designed from scratch to perform tasks evolution never created. These innovations could lead to breakthroughs in sustainable chemistry, medicine, and materials science, showing how biology can be engineered to solve problems in completely new ways."

Jonathan Strecker, PhD

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – FROM WIRED

by Paresh Dave

When OpenAI declared a “code red” this month to refocus its teams on competing with Google, I couldn’t help but think back to December three years ago when the companies’ roles were reversed. Google was the one blasting the sirens to catch up to OpenAI. What followed the next month, in January 2023, were the first sweeping layoffs in Google’s history. “A difficult decision to set us up for the future,” as the company described it at the time.

WIRED’s Biggest Stories in 2025

· In your inbox: Maxwell Zeff's dispatch from the world of AI

· What does Palantir actually do?

· Big Story: An oral history of DOGE

· The dark money group secretly funding high-profile influencers

· Livestream: What businesses need to know about agentic AI

· Expired/Tired/WIRED: The Greatest Successes and Worst Flameouts of 2025

Paresh Dave is a senior writer for WIRED, covering the inner workings of Big Tech companies. He writes about how apps and gadgets are built and about their impacts while giving voice to the stories of the underappreciated and disadvantaged.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN – FROM ROLLING STONE

2026 TECH PREDICTIONS: WHAT’S COMING, WHAT’S CHANGING, WHAT’S NEXT

We have never lived through a moment when technology has evolved faster, or when the contrast between what is emerging and what is being left behind has been so stark.

By Jessica Billingsley December 23, 2025

Hold on to your hats for this wild ride. I believe 2026 will be defined by a dizzying mix of “the future is here today” breakthroughs and the legacy systems, processes, products and companies that still shape the landscape even as they’re being surpassed. We have never lived through a moment when technology has evolved faster, or when the contrast between what is emerging and what is being left behind has been so stark.

Last Year’s Predictions and Track Record of Success

I’ve been doing tech predictions for five years now and have at least an average accuracy rate of 85 percent historically. It’s important to stay honest, so I’m only claiming 90 percent accuracy on last year’s predictions, giving myself only half credit for my prediction that Europe and emerging markets would redefine venture capital opportunities: The U.S. still commands the largest pool of capital, but some of the most interesting structures, scaling stories and regulatory tailwinds are now coming out of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

My remaining predictions landed cleanly. Personal digital IDs moved from concept to implementation, with tokenized credentials gaining traction in real-world verification and anti-counterfeit use cases. AI kept transforming human support functions, with mainstream business press now explicitly describing generative AI as a “personal assistant” automating scheduling, email triage and routine admin work. Regulation became a defining theme as the EU adopted the world’s first comprehensive AI law, setting the template for AI, data and model accountability frameworks globally. And Bitcoin miners began their evolution into broader compute-power providers, with listed miners publicly exploring or signing major AI and data-center deals, validating the shift from single-purpose mining to high-performance compute infrastructure.

2026 Predictions: For Everyone Trying to Keep Up (Good Luck)

In 2026, disruption won’t come in waves; it will come in overlapping weather systems. Some companies will surf them. Others will insist it’s “just a little cloudy” until the tide takes out their entire product roadmap. These predictions break down where the smartest bets lie — and where the storm surge is headed next.

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1. A 10 Percent to 20 Percent Market Correction Followed by a Recovery before the End of the Year

In 2026, I expect a 10 percent to 20 percent correction in the public markets as “AI bubble” concerns hit a fever pitch. The irony is that this pullback will likely arrive just as commentators begin insisting that there is no bubble at all—that the current valuation environment is simply the new normal. I expect this correction will reset expectations, flush out excess and ultimately strengthen conviction in the companies generating real, durable value from AI. The recovery that follows will be real but gradual, driven not by sentiment but by fundamentals.

As I argued in Rolling Stone earlier this year, the meaningful metric in an AI-driven economy isn’t jobs—it’s compute and how effectively companies convert it into productivity. Markets will begin rewarding exactly that. Companies generating tangible output gains from AI will stabilize first, while those surviving on AI halo narratives alone will reset.

2. Agentic AI Begins Replacing and Displacing

In 2026, agentic AI becomes the clearest competitive divider. The shift will be quiet but obvious. In 2026, investors and operators should watch for one thing above all: Is the AI doing the work, or is it just answering questions?

3. Quantum Quietly Becomes an Infrastructure Advantage, NOT Esoteric Theory

In 2026, quantum begins plugging into classical compute as a hybrid co-processor. Leaders should ask themselves, “If our cloud provider turned on quantum access tomorrow, which workflows could we send to it?”

Read more about Predictions

What does Baba Vanga predict for 2025?

Baba Vanga’s track record (at least as the legend tells it)

Over the years, Baba Vanga’s name has been attached to a grab-bag of headline events. The Chernobyl disaster, Princess Diana’s death, the 9/11 attacks and the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president. Some maintain the paper trail behind these attributions is thin and often second-hand. Others are diehard believers in the soothsaying powers of Baba Vanga. Either way, these types of success stories have become part of the lore surrounding her name.

Baba Vanga prophecies are fun. Facts are even better. Join the Sky HISTORY newsletter for carefully sourced features, expert insights and myth-busting you can trust.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE – FROM IPSOS

IPSOS HAS RELEASED ITS GLOBAL 30-COUNTRY SURVEY ON WHAT THE PUBLIC PREDICTS ABOUT THE WORLD IN 2026.

Key findings at a glance

66%-+

say 2025 was a bad year for their country

50%

say it was a bad year for them and their family

71%

predict 2026 will be a better year than 2025

49%

predict the global economy will be better next year than this year

59%

think there will be protests against the way their country is being run

82%

plan to spend more time with family and friends in 2026

2025: How it went

Two in three (66% on average globally) think it was a bad year for their country. And after a year filled with political turmoil, 90% in France say it was a bad year for their country, the highest across 30 countries.

One in two feel this year was a bad one for them and their family, while the other half (50%) said it was good. Argentinians are the most likely to say it was a bad year personally for them (67%) in the wake of dramatic political and economic shifts in Argentina in recent years.

People are feeling much better about things than they were in 2020 when a whopping 90% (on average globally) said it was a bad year for their country and 70% said it was a bad year for them personally when we did polling amid the first year of the pandemic.

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2026: How it might go

Close to three-quarters (71%) are optimistic 2026 will be better than 2025, while 29% don’t think next year be better than this year. The French (41%) are the least likely out of 30 countries to think next year will be better.

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Meanwhile, there continues to be muted hope that the war in Ukraine will end with a mere 29% thinking the full-scale invasion will end next year.

Just under half (49%) predict the global economy will be better in 2026 than in 2025, while a similar proportion (51%) think the economy will be worse. In a year marked by U.S. President Donald Trump’s worldwide tariff war economic sentiment dropped or stayed the same in 19 of 30 countries as some countries saw big swings in either direction.

Optimism that the future will be better than the present dropped 9 percentage points to 65% at the end of 2022 (a year marked by inflation, a global pandemic and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine) and has yet to fully recover. And belief that the global economy would be better dropped 15 pp to 46% in 2022 and remains muted.

Possible dangers loom around the corner

Slightly more than one-quarter (29% on average globally) think a major terrorist attack will be carried out in their country in 2026, while a slim majority (51%) don’t think this will be the case.

People are split on whether local public safety will get better, with 46% predicting the area where they live will be less safe in 2026 than it was in 2025.

Close to three in five (59%) think there will be a large-scale public unrest (such as protests or riots) in their country to protest against the way the country is run. The last time we asked this question in late 2019 56% thought public unrest was likely.

Since 2019, three of the G7 countries – Great Britain, Japan (both +11 pp) and the U.S. (+10 pp) – have seen a double-digit increase in the proportion that think there will be large-scale public unrest.

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Almost eight in 10 (78%) expect average global temperatures will increase in 2026, with a majority in all 30 countries thinking this.

And just over two-thirds (69%) think there will be more extreme weather events in their country next year than there were this year.

Hope that public officials will take action to fight climate change is relatively stable. Almost half (48%) now predict that the government in one’s country will introduce more demanding targets to reduce carbon emissions more quickly, down slightly from the 52% who thought this was likely this time last year.

Economy, job worries hover

Almost half (48% on average globally) predict their country will be in recession in 2026, while one-third (33%) don’t think this is likely.

Meanwhile, people are split on whether their disposable income (what one can spend after paying bills for living expenses) will be higher in 2026 than it was in 2025; with almost half (47%) thinking this is likely and 43% disagreeing they’ll have more money to spend next year.

Close to two in five (38%) think major stock markets around the world will crash in 2026, while 39% don’t think this is likely. The last time we asked this question in late 2021, a similar proportion (35% globally) thought there would be a major crash in the year ahead.

Two-thirds (67%) predict artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to many new jobs being lost in their country, up slightly from last year (64%). Meanwhile, just over two in five (43%) predict AI will lead to many new jobs being created, staying steady with last year (42%). Over the past year worry that AI will cost jobs rose in 21 of 30 countries.

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Strengthening borders, shrinking populations

Just over three in five (62% on average globally) think the level of immigration into their country will increase, down from 67% who said the same last year. Americans are now the least likely to think this (29%, down from 56% last year) amid Trump’s sweeping immigration reforms since taking office earlier this year. And while Trump has said he wants a Nobel Peace Prize, only 21% currently think this is likely.

Two in five (40%) think the total population size of their country will fall, staying steady from the 41% who said the same last year.

Best laid plans

A strong majority (75% on average globally) say they plan to exercise more in 2026 than they did in 2025, with Gen Z women (81%) the most likely cohort to say this and Baby Boomer men (65%) the least likely to say they’ll be breaking a sweat more in the new year.

And 60% of all respondents say they’ll spend more time on their appearance in 2026. Gen Z men and women (both at 72%) are the most likely cohorts and Boomer men (36%) the least likely to be planning a glow up.

Meanwhile, 82% plan to spend more time with family and friends in 2026, with about eight in 10 across ages and stages planning to do so.

One in three (37%) say they will use social media less, while 53% think this is unlikely. Baby Boomer and Millennial men (both at 41%) are the most likely to claim they’ll be doing less posting and scrolling next year and Gen Z women (32%) are the least likely to think this.

Almost three in five (59%) plan to watch the 2026 football/soccer World Cup, with Gen Z men (71%) saying they’ll be tuning in while Boomer women (39%) are the least likely to say this.

TIMELINES and TAKEAWAY ATTACHMENTS from the CAPTURE of NICOLAS MADURO

ATTACHMENT “A” – FROM the NEW YORK TIMES

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:24 a.m. ET

Explosions Are Reported in Venezuela’s Capital

It was not immediately clear what caused the blasts. The United States has been building pressure on Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian president, for months.

Maduro Arrives in N.Y.; Trump Says U.S. Will ‘Run’ Venezuela

Nicolás Maduro, the ousted president of Venezuela, arrived in Brooklyn and will be held on drugs and weapons charges. The country’s interim leader demanded his return.

Published Jan. 3, 2026Updated Jan. 5, 2026, 3:56 p.m. ET

Follow the latest updates on the U.S. military action in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Tyler Pager

Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, was taken to New York City on Saturday to face federal drug charges, hours after the U.S. military seized him and his wife in a swift and overwhelming strike on Caracas, the culmination of a campaign by President Trump and his aides to oust him from power.

Late Saturday, Mr. Maduro arrived in Brooklyn and will be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of Maduro’s movements but who was not authorized to speak about the matter.

At least 40 people, including civilians and soldiers, were killed in the attack in Venezuela, according to a senior Venezuelan official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports. More than 150 U.S. aircraft were dispatched to knock out air defenses, so that military helicopters could deliver the Special Operations forces who assaulted Mr. Maduro’s compound at 2 a.m. local time, U.S. officials said. The whole operation took two hours and 20 minutes.

Hours after the raid, Mr. Trump said at a news conference the United States would “run the country” until a “safe, proper and judicious transition” of power could be arranged, raising the prospect of an open-ended military commitment. He did not say whether U.S. forces would occupy the country, although he added he was not afraid of “boots on the ground.”

Mr. Maduro’s aides appeared to still be in power after the attack. There were no obvious signs of a U.S. military presence in Venezuela on Saturday afternoon, and Venezuela’s top officials and state news media projected a message of defiance.

Mr. Maduro, a self-described socialist, had led Venezuela since 2013, when the country’s previous authoritarian leader, Hugo Chávez, died. The Biden administration accused Mr. Maduro of stealing the election that kept him in power last year.

Mr. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president at a secret ceremony in Caracas, said in a national address that Washington had invaded her country under false pretenses and that Mr. Maduro was still Venezuela’s head of state.

“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros,” said Ms. Rodríguez, appearing with her defense minister and other officials.

The main opposition leader, María Corina Machado, posted a statement urging that her political ally, Edmundo González, be recognized as Venezuela’s president immediately. Though Mr. Maduro claims he defeated Mr. González in the last election, the United States and other international observers say the election was marred by fraud. “Today we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power,” said Ms. Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

Mr. Trump avoided fully embracing either Ms. Rodriguez or Ms. Machado. He said his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had spoken to Ms. Rodriguez and “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” He also said Ms. Machado didn’t have the support or respect to lead the country.

One thing Mr. Trump made clear was his desire to open up Venezuela’s vast state-controlled oil reserves to American oil companies. He spoke at length at the news conference about American oil companies rebuilding the country’s energy infrastructure and, presumably, regaining rights they once held to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

“We are going to run the country right,″ Mr. Trump said. “It’s going to make a lot of money.” Past Venezuelan governments, he said, “stole our oil” — an apparent reference to the country’s nationalization of its oil industry.

Here is what else to know:

· Anti-American protests: Hours after Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by U.S. forces, Venezuela’s state-run television was broadcasting rallies and protests taking place across several cities, including the capital, Caracas. Mr. Maduro’s supporters vowed to defend their country from what they described as an illegal attack and the kidnapping of their “legitimate” leader. ›

· C.I.A. involvement: American special operations forces captured Mr. Maduro with the help of a C.I.A. source within the Venezuelan government who had monitored his location in recent days, according to people briefed on the operation. Mr. Trump posted an image of Mr. Maduro in custody aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, one of the American warships that have been prowling the Caribbean, and said he and his wife would be taken to New York.

· Cartel accusations: A new indictment was unsealed by a federal judge in New York City, charging Mr. Maduro, his wife and four others with four counts, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of machine guns. The indictment was similar to the one unveiled in March 2020.

· Military buildup: Before the strikes on Saturday, the Pentagon had amassed troops, aircraft and warships in the Caribbean. The U.S. military has attacked many small vessels that U.S. officials maintained were smuggling drugs, killing at least 115 people. And the C.I.A. conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela last month, according to people briefed on the operation. The United States has also carried out a campaign against tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, throwing the country’s oil industry into disarray and jeopardizing the government’s main source of revenue.

Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Bogotà, Colombia, and Annie Correal from Mexico City.

Jan. 4, 2026, 12:14 a.m. ETJan. 4, 2026

Anatoly KurmanaevTyler Pager Simon Romero and Julie Turkewitz

Anatoly Kurmanaev reported from Venezuela, and Tyler Pager from Palm Beach, Fla.

How Trump fixed on a Maduro loyalist as Venezuela’s new leader.

Image

Vice President Delcy Rodríguez of Venezuela, now the country’s interim leader, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2019.Credit...Brittainy Newman for The New York Times

It was one dance move too many for Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.

Mr. Maduro in late December rejected an ultimatum from President Trump to leave office and go into a gilded exile in Turkey, according to several Americans and Venezuelans involved in transition talks.

This week he was back onstage, brushing off the latest U.S. escalation — a strike on a dock that the United States said was used for drug trafficking — by bouncing to an electronic beat on state television while his recorded voice repeated in English, “No crazy war.”

Mr. Maduro’s regular public dancing and other displays of nonchalance in recent weeks helped persuade some on the Trump team that the Venezuelan president was mocking them and trying to call what he believed to be a bluff, according to two of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the confidential discussions.

So the White House decided to follow through on its military threats.

On Saturday, an elite U.S. military team swooped into Caracas, the capital, in a pre-dawn raid and whisked Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

Weeks earlier, U.S. officials had already settled on an acceptable candidate to replace Mr. Maduro, at least for the time being: Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who had impressed Trump officials with her management of Venezuela’s crucial oil industry.

The people involved in the discussions said intermediaries persuaded the administration that she would protect and champion future American energy investments in the country.

“I’ve been watching her career for a long time, so I have some sense of who she is and what she’s about,” said one senior U.S. official, referring to Ms. Rodríguez.

“I’m not claiming that she’s the permanent solution to the country’s problems, but she’s certainly someone we think we can work at a much more professional level than we were able to do with him,” the official added, referring to Mr. Maduro.

It was an easy choice, the people said. Mr. Trump had never warmed up to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who had organized a winning presidential campaign in 2024, earning her the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Since Mr. Trump’s re-election, Ms. Machado has gone out of her way to please him, calling him a “champion of freedom,” mimicking his talking points on election fraud in the United States and even dedicating her Peace Prize to him.

It was in vain. On Saturday, Mr. Trump said he would accept Ms. Rodríguez, saying that Ms. Machado lacked the “respect” needed to govern Venezuela.

U.S. officials say that their relationship with Ms. Rodríguez’s interim government will be based on her ability to play by their rules, adding that they reserve the right to take additional military action if she fails to respect America’s interests. Despite Ms. Rodríguez’s public condemnation of the attack, a senior U.S. official said that it was too soon to draw conclusions about what her approach would be and that the administration remained optimistic that they could work with her.

Mr. Trump declared on Saturday that the United States intended to “run” Venezuela for an unspecified period and reclaim U.S. oil interests, an extraordinary assertion of unilateral, expansionist power after more narrow, and also contested, arguments about stopping the flow of drugs.

In Ms. Rodríguez, the Trump administration would be engaging a leader of a government that it had routinely labeled illegitimate, while abandoning Ms. Machado, whose movement won a presidential election last year in a victory widely recognized as stolen by Mr. Maduro.

And it was not immediately clear if Ms. Rodriguez would even play along. In a televised address, she accused the United States of making an illegal invasion and asserted that Mr. Maduro remained Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

To retain leverage, senior U.S. officials said, restrictions on Venezuelan oil exports would remain in place for now.

But others involved in the talks expressed hope that the administration would stop detaining Venezuelan oil tankers and issue more permits for U.S. companies to work in Venezuela in order to revive the economy and give Ms. Rodríguez a shot at political success.

Ms. Rodríguez, 56, arrives at the job of Venezuela’s interim leader with credentials of an economic troubleshooter who orchestrated the country’s shift from corrupt socialism to similarly corrupt laissez-faire capitalism.

She is the daughter of a Marxist guerrilla who won fame for kidnapping an American businessman. She was educated partly in France, where she specialized in labor law.

She held middling government posts in the government of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, before being promoted to bigger roles with the help of her older brother Jorge Rodríguez, who eventually became Mr. Maduro’s chief political strategist.

Ms. Rodríguez managed to stabilize the Venezuelan economy after years of crisis and slowly but steadily grow the country’s oil production amid tightening U.S. sanctions, a feat that earned her even the grudging respect of some American officials.

As Ms. Rodríguez consolidated control over economic policy and eliminated rivals, she built bridges with Venezuela’s economic elites, foreign investors and diplomats, to whom she presented herself as a soft-spoken technocrat and a contrast to the burly security officials forming most of the rest of Mr. Maduro’s inner circle.

Those alliances have borne fruit in recent months, earning her powerful champions that helped to cement her rise to power. On Saturday, her assumption of power was greeted with cautious optimism by some of Venezuela’s captains of industry, who said in private that she had the skills to create growth, if she could persuade the United States to relax its chokehold on the country’s economy.

For all her technocratic leanings, Ms. Rodríguez has never denounced the brutal repression and corruption sustaining Mr. Maduro’s rule, once calling her decision to join the government an act of “personal revenge” for her father’s death in prison in 1976, after being interrogated by intelligence agents from pro-U.S. governments.

Ms. Rodríguez’s capacity for negotiating across Venezuela’s ideological chasm could prove useful in easing tensions. Juan Francisco García, a former ruling party lawmaker who has since broken with the government, said he had some apprehensions about her ability to govern but gave her the benefit of the doubt.

“History is full of sectors and figures linked to dictators who have, at some point, served as a bridge to stabilize the country and transition to a democratic scenario,” Mr. García said.

The contradictions enveloping Ms. Rodríguez were on display on Saturday when she addressed the nation.

While Mr. Trump said that Ms. Rodríguez had been sworn in as Venezuela’s new president, it was clear that Mr. Maduro’s supporters — including Ms. Rodríguez herself if her remarks are taken at face value — still see him as Venezuela’s leader.

Spotlighting the potential challenges ahead, even the text on Venezuelan state television labeled her as vice president. People close to the government said those displays of loyalty were a necessary public relations strategy to pacify the ruling party loyalists, including in the armed forces and paramilitary groups, who were reeling from the military humiliation inflicted by the United States on their country and the destruction and death caused by the attack. At least 40 Venezuelans died, both civilians and soldiers, according to a senior Venezuelan official.

U.S. forces managed to descend into the capital largely unopposed, destroy at least three military bases and grab the country’s president from a heavily guarded compound, without any loss of American life.

Still, the Trump administration has chosen to give Mr. Maduro’s vice president a chance and to pass over Ms. Machado, who won the Nobel Prize and had

Ms. Machado, a conservative former member of the National Assembly from an affluent Venezuelan family, boasts decades-long ties to Washington.

She has spent the last year courting Mr. Trump’s support and trying to enlist his help in ousting Mr. Maduro. She has openly supported his military campaign in the Caribbean and mostly refrained from commenting on his policies toward Venezuelan migrants.

On Saturday, after Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. military had captured Mr. Maduro, she released a statement saying that she was ready to lead. “Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and seize power,” she wrote in a message she posted on X.

But roughly two hours later, Mr. Trump said they had not spoken. It would be “very tough” for Ms. Machado to take control of her country, Mr. Trump said, adding in his televised speech that she was a “very nice woman” but “doesn’t have the support” in Venezuela to lead.

A spokeswoman for Ms. Machado declined to comment.

“For Trump, democracy is not a concern — it is about money, power, and protecting the homeland from drugs and criminals,” said Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, a research institute in Washington.

In his speech to the nation, Mr. Trump also made no mention of Edmundo González, the retired diplomat who became Ms. Machado’s political surrogate after she was barred from running. Mr. González, who is in self-imposed exile in Spain, is considered the legitimate winner, by a wide margin, of the 2024 election, even though Venezuelan authorities handed the victory to Mr. Maduro.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington, and María Victoria Fermín, Mariana Martínez and Isayen Herrera from Caracas, Venezuela.

Venezuela

Sources: Verified videos and photos (strike locations); Venezuela’s communications ministry (states where attacks occurred)

By Agnes Chang, Christiaan Triebert and Pablo Robles/The New York Times

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:13 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Yan Zhuang

Restrictions on U.S.-controlled airspace over the Caribbean that took effect as the U.S. military intervened in Venezuela will expire at midnight, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said on social media. The restrictions forced airlines to adjust schedules and cancel flights to and from destinations like Puerto Rico, St. Lucia and Barbados.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:35 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Miles G. Cohen

Reporting from Brooklyn

A police officer who provided security outside of Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of Maduro’s arrival told demonstrators over a loudspeaker that the ousted president had been ushered inside the facility. The crowd cheered and began to sing and wave Venezuelan flags.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:23 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maria Abi-Habib and Frances Robles

Maria Abi-Habib is based in Mexico City, and Frances Robles reported from Florida.

‘What will happen tomorrow?’ Venezuelans fear chaos after U.S. attack.

How Venezuelans Worldwide Reacted to Overthrow of Maduro

2:14

For Venezuelans living abroad, news of the U.S. military intervention and President Nicolás Maduro’s capture triggered a wide spectrum of emotions, ranging from joy to anger and uncertainty.

Like many Venezuelans, José, an entrepreneur based in Mexico City, voted against Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela’s election in 2024. He was dismayed when Mr. Maduro clung to power, amid accusations of widespread fraud and nationwide opposition protests. But when he awoke Saturday to the news that Mr. Maduro had been ousted in a U.S. military operation, he felt only dread.

“It is bittersweet,” said José, 35, who withheld his last name fearing reprisal against his family in Venezuela from the government. He was worried the majority of his family, who has always voted against Mr. Maduro, will experience further political and economic instability, upending his own plans to return to Venezuela.

“The first thing on my mind isn’t, ‘We are free and I’m so happy,’” he said. “It is, ‘What will happen tomorrow?’ Maduro is just one part of a much bigger machine.”

Mr. Maduro was a deeply unpopular leader and was accused of stealing the election in 2024. An independent exit poll and a tally of votes by the opposition appeared to show that he lost decisively, 66 percent to 31 percent.

“Nobody wants an invasion,” said Beatrice Rangel, who was the chief of staff for Venezuela’s former president Carlos Andrés Pérez. “No one wants a foreign power in their country. I have always been against such interventions.”

Ms. Rangel said that in that posting she had tried to convince Panama’s president, Manuel Noriega, to resign. Her government was opposed to the U.S. coup that ultimately overthrew him.

But with Venezuela today, she said, “There was no other way to remove Maduro without the U.S.”

Still, the Trump administration’s incursion into Venezuela recalled the many U.S.-backed coups that have destabilized Latin America in recent decades.

“This has been my fear from Day 1, that Trump thought this was going to be easy, that once Maduro goes there will be pixie dust, rainbows and everyone is happy,” said Brian Naranjo, who served as the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas from 2014 to 2018.

José and many other Venezuelans have wanted Mr. Maduro out, but they worry that the United States has no plan for a peaceful transition of power and that the South American nation could descend into chaos — with a collection of regional guerrilla groups biting off territory and rival government factions fighting for power.

Many Venezuelans who oppose Mr. Maduro are also wary of Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president who Mr. Trump said had been sworn in as interim president on Saturday, but who appeared loyal to Mr. Maduro in her remarks the same day.

And the fact that the U.S. intervention left Maduro’s inner circle in office fueled concern that his government would not go without a fight.

One teacher in the city of Maracaibo, whose brother was killed by pro-government paramilitary forces, said she had cried with joy when she heard Mr. Maduro had been ousted. But her delight was short-lived, ending when she learned that Ms. Rodríguez would remain at the helm.

Indeed, Mr. Trump has barely spoken about democracy since U.S. forces captured Mr. Maduro in an early morning raid on Saturday, nor has he laid out a detailed transition plan. He was, however, adamant that the administration will receive a more lucrative deal on Venezuelan oil.

That added to the fury among supporters of Mr. Maduro’s government on Saturday.

“Anyone who celebrates an invasion of the gringos is a traitor,” said Alberto González, 42, a government worker in Sucre, a state on the northeast coast of Venezuela.

“They’re going to steal everything from us and humiliate us,” he said. “The country is independent, and we cannot accept Donald Trump coming here to tell us what to do and kidnapping the president.”

To many Venezuelans and analysts, Mr. Trump’s focus on oil reserves draws similarities to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Then President George W. Bush declared “mission accomplished” just six weeks after the invasion — only for Iraq to descend into a brutal civil war that killed thousands of Iraqis and U.S. troops.

On Saturday while addressing reporters, Mr. Trump said that the United States will “run” Venezuela, but the country is roughly twice as large as California in square miles and filled with mountains and dense forests. Analysts say that the United States does not have sufficient forces in the Caribbean to prop up a Venezuelan government of Washington’s choosing, despite Mr. Trump’s threats to do so.

And compared to the jubilation that greeted U.S. troops on the streets of Baghdad after Saddam Hussein’s fall in 2003, the roads of Caracas were chillingly silent on Saturday, save for a few small demonstrations organized by the government to protest Mr. Maduro’s ouster.

José Villalobos, a security guard who was a strong supporter of Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, who had led the country’s socialist-inspired “Bolivarian revolution,” said that he had cried when he heard of Mr. Maduro’s arrest.

“I’m afraid the revolution will end and that the rich won’t want to help the poor anymore,” he said of the movement spearheaded by Mr. Chávez.

Mr. Villalobos has been receiving financial support from the Venezuelan government and from a community council, he said, and he is worried about rising food prices.

“I know food is expensive and that we’re struggling,” he said, “but I’m a revolutionary, and as Commander Chávez said, nobody here surrenders.”

Many Venezuelans inside the country may be too afraid to publicly cheer Mr. Maduro’s capture given the uncertainty of what happens next. On Saturday, Ms. Rodríguez gave a speech defiant of the Trump administration, saying that Mr. Maduro remained the “only president” of Venezuela.

Regional threats also loom. A prominent Colombian rebel group is active in the border region of Venezuela and could destabilize the country if there is a power vacuum in Caracas, according to former U.S. diplomats and analysts.

“What is the plan? Key regime people are still in place,” Mr. Naranjo said, adding, “this lack of certainty favors the regime that has been opposed to democracy, not the opposition that has embraced democracy.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:05 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Miles G. Cohen

Reporting from Brooklyn

As the ousted Venezeulan leader arrived in Brooklyn, law enforcement officers sprinted to a parking lot behind the Metropolitan Detention Center where he will be held. Nearby, about 100 demonstrators, many draped in Venezuelan flags, cheered from behind police barricades. Among them was Jaky Coronado, 45, who arrived in the United States more than a year ago. She waited for four hours to catch a glimpse of Maduro. “He must pay for all the crimes against humanity that he has committed against the Venezuelan people,” she said.

Image

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:46 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Chelsia Rose Marcius

A helicopter carrying Nicolás Maduro has landed in Brooklyn near the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he will be held, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of Maduro’s movements but who was not authorized to speak about the matter

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:43 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Reporting from Mexico City

Maduro’s final plea: ‘No war. Yes peace.’

Two nights before his capture, Nicolás Maduro was driving around Caracas, making a plea to the American public.

“The American people should know that here they have a friend — a friendly, peaceful nation — and a friendly government, too,” he said, looking into the camera during a New Year’s Eve interview with a Spanish journalist, conducted as Mr. Maduro gave a tour by car of his nation’s capital.

“Our message is very clear: ‘No war. Yes peace,’” he added, offering a slogan in English that he had been repeating for weeks. He then handed the journalist, Ignacio Ramonet, a red hat in the style of the Make America Great Again cap with those same words.

The hourlong drive on New Year’s Eve was Mr. Maduro’s last known interview, broadcast on Venezuelan state television just hours before American forces swooped into Caracas and captured him, and it provided a final glimpse into the mind of the Venezuelan autocrat as the U.S. military was pressing in.

As he steered a silver Toyota S.U.V. with his wife, Cilia Flores, in the back seat, Mr. Maduro boasted about his success running Venezuela and accused President Trump of devising pretexts to invade his nation. Most of all, he made clear that he had no interest in a fight.

“For Venezuela to be great, we don’t have to hurt anyone,” he said. “Just like the United States. They want to be ‘great again.’ Well, let them be great through hard work, effort, and a commitment to peace — not through threats and war. Enough is enough.”

The line echoed Mr. Maduro’s effort to cast himself as a peace-and-love president of sorts in recent months. In rallies across Venezuela, he sang “Imagine” by John Lennon, danced to a techno beat paired with his peace slogan, and mimicked Bobby McFerrin in his famous tune encouraging listeners to relax.

In other words, if Winston Churchill had “Keep Calm and Carry On” in the face of a foreign threat, Mr. Maduro was trying “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Mr. Maduro has also frequently been defiant, however, saying that Venezuela would defend its homeland against what he called imperial forces.

But in his New Year’s Eve interview, even as the U.S. military had him in their sights, Mr. Maduro said he was eager to make a deal.

“The U.S. government knows this because we’ve told many of their officials,” he said. “If they want to have a serious conversation about an antidrug agreement, we’re ready. If they want Venezuelan oil, Venezuela is ready for U.S. investment — like with Chevron — whenever, wherever, and however they want. People in the U.S. should know that if they want comprehensive economic development agreements, Venezuela is right here.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio questioned whether Mr. Maduro had actually been interested in a deal. “Nicolás Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this,” he said in a news conference on Saturday. “He was provided multiple very, very, very generous offers, and chose instead to act like a wild man, chose instead to play around.”

Mr. Trump has repeatedly called Mr. Maduro a cartel leader, and federal prosecutors on Saturday charged the Venezuelan politician and his wife, Ms. Flores, with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.

In his interview with Mr. Ramonet, Mr. Maduro rejected those accusations, instead saying that his government had fought cartels from Colombia — with lethal force, just like Mr. Trump. He said that Venezuelan forces had downed 431 aircraft trafficking drugs over its territory, though it was not clear over what period of time he was referring to.

“Our model is effective, exemplary and highly efficient,” he said. “Everything else you hear is just a narrative that even people in the United States don’t believe.”

He said that the U.S. government had invented the accusation that Mr. Maduro was a cartel leader to justify invading Venezuela. “They can’t accuse me or Venezuela of having weapons of mass destruction, or nuclear missiles, or chemical weapons, so they invented an accusation that the U.S. government knows is just as false as the W.M.D. claims that led them into an eternal war,” he said. “They know it’s a lie. I believe we need to set all that aside and start talking seriously.”

Mr. Trump on Saturday said that he had spoken to Mr. Maduro “a couple of times,” including last week. Mr. Maduro denied reports of a more recent conversation, saying in the Wednesday interview that he spoke with Mr. Trump once, on Nov. 21, in a 10-minute, “very respectful” call.

“It was actually quite a pleasant conversation, though the developments following that call have not been pleasant,” he said. “We shall see. I leave everything in God’s hands.”

While the U.S. government was already planning his capture, Mr. Maduro was pointing out attractions in Caracas to Mr. Ramonet, a Spanish author who wrote authorized biographies of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, the dual leftist icons of Cuba and Venezuela. There was the plaza where Mr. Castro had held a large rally in 1959, the avenue that Mr. Chávez had filled during his campaign in 2012, and the statue holding aloft a Soviet flag.

Mr. Ramonet said this was the 10th consecutive year that he had interviewed Mr. Maduro, and that he had shown the successes of Mr. Maduro’s government that the international media sought to hide.

“For the Western media, direct democracy doesn’t exist” in Venezuela, Mr. Maduro replied. “I challenge them to debate in any neighborhood in Caracas they want, with our people, not with me. Let them debate the people, so they can see how a new democracy is being built.”

Mr. Maduro’s government has for years suppressed and censored journalists in Venezuela and helped control state-media broadcasts.

As Mr. Maduro drove, he also reminisced about his travels in the United States. “New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Queens, Manhattan, Washington,” he said. “I’ve driven there quite a bit. I told the U.S. President that: I know it well.”

On Saturday, Mr. Trump brought Mr. Maduro back to New York. He was expected to be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Mr. Maduro had something very different in mind for 2026. He said in the final hours of 2025 that this year would be about an important struggle.

“For 2026 — the year I’ve called the Year of the Great Challenge — we will overcome the turmoil and difficulties, and continue strengthening Venezuela as a country at peace,” he said.

“I surrender it all to God,” he added. “God knows what he’s doing.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:39 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Robert ChiaritoAdam Sella and Raúl Vilchis

Protests and celebrations in U.S. cities follow Maduro’s capture.

Americans took to the streets of Chicago and Washington on Saturday to protest the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, even as Venezuelan migrants in New York gathered to celebrate the removal of Nicolás Maduro from power.

Holding signs that read “No Blood for Oil,” “No U.S. War on Venezuela” and “Hands Off Latin America,” a crowd of several hundred people gathered in Federal Plaza in Chicago as night fell. They called the operation to remove Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan leader, an act of imperialism that Americans did not vote for, carried out without required Congressional approval.

“I’m 37 and grew up with the Iraq wars,” said Katrina Denny. “This morning, I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re doing it again.’”

She said she thought that protests would grow if the Trump administration continued to use military force in Venezuela. “They filled half the plaza tonight on short notice, but this is only the beginning,” she said. “If this continues, I’m sure there will be many more events and larger ones.”

Many protesters expressed suspicion of the White House’s motives. “If Maduro wasn’t legally elected, that’s not for us to say,” said Adela Cruz, 51. “It just seems like a ploy to get oil.”

Jonny Bishop, 28, said he was worried for the men and women in the military. “As someone who teaches high school, my kids are the ones who may have to go to war,” he said, adding that with all of the other problems facing Americans, “going to war is the last thing we need.”

After the rally in Federal Plaza, the Chicago police allowed protesters to march up Dearborn Street to Wacker Drive, near Trump Tower Chicago.

In Washington, people on both sides of the issue gathered for separate afternoon rallies near the White House.

At one of them, dozens of opponents of the intervention chanted anti-Trump slogans. One of the organizers, Morgan Artyukhina, 38, said their message was “that this is a war that is being waged by the Trump administration, not just in contravention of U.S. law and international law, but also, falsely in the name of the American people.”

A few blocks away, a smaller group celebrated the capture of Mr. Maduro by U.S. troops.

Draped in a Venezuelan flag, Leonardo Angulo, 35, danced near a statue of Simón Bolivar, who helped free Venezuela from Spanish imperial rule. Mr. Angulo, who has lived in the United States for eight years, said he and his family came out “to celebrate, and gather with my people, because we share this feeling, this feeling of joy, of happiness, of hope most of all.”

Still, there was an undercurrent of anxiety, which one person in the crowd attributed to concerns that federal agents would appear and detain the Venezuelans present at the rally.

In New York, Venezuelan migrants described a mix of euphoria, relief and guarded hope after years of exile.

Beatriz Hernández danced in Times Square as a group of 100 gathered in Midtown, waving flags and calling family members back home.

Ms. Hernández, 60, said the moment felt transformative for the Venezuelan diaspora forced to emigrate because of poverty and lack of freedom during Maduro’s administration.

“It’s a great joy, the news we received,” said Ms. Hernández, who is originally from Maracaibo, Venezuela. “We haven’t slept since 3 a.m. It’s almost 6 p.m. and I don’t think we’ll be sleeping anytime soon because of the adrenaline.”

Ms. Hernández arrived in New York four years ago after a long journey that she said included crossing the Darién Gap on foot before reaching the U.S. border, where she requested asylum.

“The news is a hope of being able to return safely to our country,” she said. “I think that now I will be able to see my daughters who stayed there, and that in the not-too-distant future I will be able to return to my country and hug my sister.”

Lucia Coronel, 30, who is originally from Maracay, left Venezuela nine years ago and first emigrated to Colombia. She arrived in New York, where she requested asylum, three years ago.

“Now I don’t care about asylum,” Coronel said. “I feel a relief that opens up the possibility of returning to our homes voluntarily and safely. We didn’t emigrate by choice, we emigrated out of necessity.”

Other Venezuelans were more measured.

“We’ve gone through sadness and joy,” said Kimberly Castillo, 32, who is also from Maracay. “Sadness because nobody wants to see their country being bombed by another country. We are sad about the people who were caught in the middle, but are joyous knowing now there is the possibility for better times for my country.”

Robert Chiarito reported from Chicago and Adam Sella from Washington, D.C.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:10 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jazmine Ulloa

Venezuelan asylum seekers worry about what comes next.

Alejandro Marcano Santelli fled his home country in 2009 after receiving death threats. He had worked for a news outlet that opposed the Venezuelan government and its eventual leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by the United States and brought to New York on Saturday to face drug charges.

Mr. Marcano Santelli, 57, who now lives in Miami, said a feeling of immense joy washed over him when he heard the news of Mr. Maduro’s removal from Venezuela.

More than 15 years ago, he and his family obtained asylum in the U.S. within days and, then, eventually, citizenship. With Mr. Maduro in power, however, Mr. Marcano Santelli had not been able to return to Venezuela, as his mother had lost her memory and died. He has not seen his brother in nearly two decades.

Still, he realized that the reaction in the community around him had been much more mixed, as the immigration status of many Venezuelans, a majority of whom have entered the United States in the past decade, has become increasingly tenuous.

“There is pain and happiness, but above all, worry,” Mr. Marcano Santelli said.

Nearly eight million Venezuelans have fled their troubled country, the largest exodus in Latin America’s modern history and one of the largest crises of forced displacement in the world. As of June 2025, about 1.1 million had come to live in United States, including about 600,000 immigrants through a humanitarian program known as Temporary Protected Status.

Many Americans did not begin paying attention to the plight of Venezuelans until migration levels reached record heights under the Biden administration. As local and state officials struggled to shelter and assist migrants in major cities and in overcrowded shelters along the southern border, President Trump campaigned on the promise of carrying out mass deportations of migrants.

Soon after taking office, Trump administration officials moved to end T.P.S. protection for Venezuelans, a decision the Supreme Court has allowed to stand for now as litigation continues. After the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., the administration halted all asylum petitions and immigration applications filed for immigrants from 19 countries. The affected countries were those whose citizens it had restricted from travel to the United States earlier in the year, including Venezuela.

Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary, made clear in a statement to The New York Times on Sunday, that the administration had no intention of restoring the T.P.S. program, saying it had for decades “been abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program.”

Ms. McLaughlin added that Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, “will use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans.”

Speaking to Fox News Sunday, Ms. Noem said every Venezuelan T.P.S. holder “has the opportunity to apply for refugee status” and that an evaluation would follow. But the Trump administration last year set the refugee admission cap for fiscal year 2026 to a historic low of no more than 7,500 refugees. The previous ceiling, set by the Biden administration, was 125,000.

Trump administration officials have framed the measures as efforts to combat fraud and abuse in the national immigration system and to enhance national security. Immigration lawyers and Venezuelan American leaders have countered that the moves have been tainted with racial animus and sought to falsely cast a broad swath of the Venezuelan diaspora as criminals and terrorists.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump repeated familiar talking points, conflating immigration with crime and drug trafficking, as he denounced gangs and criminal organizations that he said had inflicted crime and terror in American cities.

“As I’ve said many times, the Maduro regime emptied out their prisons, sent their worst and most violent monsters into the United States to steal American lives,” Mr. Trump said. At the same time, he added, among the most significant beneficiaries of the U.S. operation would be those who “got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States.”

“Some want to stay, and some probably want to go back,” he said.

Adelys Ferro, a founder of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, a grass-roots group representing Venezuelan interests in the United States, said that, as some Venezuelans were taking to the streets to celebrate, some others were staying inside, worried about immigration raids.

Despite entering the country under humanitarian programs once considered safe and legal, their lives have been thrust into uncertainty, Ms. Ferro said.

“We are victims of the Nicolás Maduro regime, but we are also victims of the Trump administration policies,” she said.

In a statement on Saturday, Eileen Higgins, the newly elected mayor of Miami, called on the Trump administration to reinstate the T.P.S. program, describing the decision to end it as “dangerous, reckless and wrong.”

Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether the administration would raise the refugee cap as it evaluates petitions from Venezuelan T.P.S. holders or whether T.P.S. holders will be able to apply for the status from within the United States. Under U.S. law, a person must apply from outside the country to be admitted as a refugee.

Legal challenges to the Trump administration’s efforts to rescind the T.P.S. program have been led by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the U.C.L.A. School of Law. Ahilan T. Arulanantham, a lawyer with the center, said the instability in Venezuela underscored why T.P.S. holders should be allowed to remain in the United States.

Declarations entered in the case say that Venezuelan T.P.S. holders pay taxes and contribute to Social Security, and that they tend to hold jobs and to obtain higher education at greater rates than the broader American population.

In Manhattan, José, a cook from Venezuela, said that he had applied for asylum and T.P.S. as soon as he arrived in the United States in 2022. His T.P.S. has expired, and his asylum case has been pending in bogged-down immigration courts.

Since his last hearing in December, he has had to wear an ankle monitor.

On Saturday, he said he was feeling overjoyed that Mr. Maduro had been toppled, but that he was concerned about what would come next in Venezuela. Mr. Maduro’s reign, for Venezuelans inside and outside the country, elicits memories of food shortages, poor public services and economic decline.

“We still don’t know what is going to happen,” said José, who asked that only his first name be used for fear of retaliation from immigration authorities. “I want to wait it out here.”

At a cafe in Queens on Saturday, Rose Ramírez, 28, of Guárico, Venezuela, said she had been experiencing indescribable emotions since videos of the bombing in her native country began circulating overnight.

“If I had to choose one word to describe this moment, I would say it’s one of great joy and hope that we will have a more prosperous country,” said Ms. Ramírez, while caring for her 4-month-old son, who was in a stroller.

But Ms. Ramírez, who arrived in New York a little over a year ago and was still seeking asylum, also said a new period of uncertainty was now beginning.

“I think we will continue to be in limbo,” she said. “I would like to think that there will now be better cooperation and a better understanding of our legal situation here, but the truth is that it will take time for order to be restored.”

Raúl Vilchis contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:44 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Rylee Kirk

Speaking to CBS News, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Americans will benefit from the capture of Nicolás Maduro. “We can ensure that we have access to additional wealth and resources, enabling a country to unleash that, without having to spend American blood,” he said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:37 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Patricia Mazzei

Reporting from Doral, Fla.

Three Republican members of Congress from South Florida, where many Venezuelans live, held a news conference on Saturday praising the Trump administration’s capture of Nicolás Maduro. Representative Maria Elvira Salazar said the United States was restoring democracy in Venezuela and elsewhere. “We’re not an occupying power — we are a liberating power,” she said. Representative Carlos A. Gimenez said the United States has been ignoring the region for “far too long.” “Protecting American lives,” he said. “Protecting American interests.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:20 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Chelsia Rose Marcius

Nicolás Maduro, the ousted president of Venezuela, arrived in New York City by helicopter just before 7 p.m. on Saturday, according to a law enforcement official briefed on on Maduro’s movements but not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The helicopter touched down at a heliport along the Hudson River near 31st Street, on the west side of Manhattan.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:26 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tim Balk

After the helicopter arrived, a procession of vehicles flashing emergency lights headed downtown on the West Side Highway, which had been closed to southbound traffic.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:17 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Frances Robles

In wake of U.S. strike, Venezuelan paramilitaries barely hit the street.

Groups of armed civilians known as colectivos have long been known to support the leftist Venezuelan government — often with violence — but it was unclear on Saturday what role the paramilitaries would take to support the ousted president.

In the early hours of Saturday, groups of armed men in civilian clothes had begun to appear on the streets in Caracas, but not in large numbers.

Several men in civilian clothes were seen just after daybreak guarding the Gen. Francisco de Miranda air base outside of Caracas when the airstrikes hit. The men did not allow photographers to work in the area.

Later, Venezuelan soldiers, who allowed photographs, guarded the post.

Two pickup trucks filled with men wearing vests and civilian clothes, carrying gas cans as well as long weapons and handguns, were seen unloading outside the Centro Ciudad Comercial Tamanaco, a shopping mall near the air base that had been hit hours earlier. And in Cumaná, Sucre, a state about 250 miles east of Caracas, one resident reported seeing a caravan of colectivo members drive by, which sowed fear in the community.

Experts said it was notable that the thousands of armed men dispersed throughout the country seemed to be keeping a relatively low profile. However, the colectivos are often used to repress protests, and very few Venezuelans left their homes in the wake of the airstrikes Saturday.

Government officials who are still in power are probably eager to show the Trump administration that they can maintain order, and do not want images of chaos in the streets, said Alejandro Velasco, a Latin America historian at New York University, who is Venezuelan. Their only bargaining chip to stay in power is the ability to keep the peace, he said.

“I have to imagine colectivos have been given the order to lay low,” Mr. Velasco said.

Venezuela has long used the armed civilians to fight back against protesters. They have been known to work alongside police or military forces with no consequences for the excessive or even fatal force often used.

Their precise numbers are impossible to ascertain, but there are at least thousands of them throughout the country, Mr. Velasco said. They are funded by the government and often maintain public-sector jobs, although their true missions are as enforcers.

When protesters hit the streets in large numbers last summer after the Maduro administration announced that it had won the elections — contrary to what poll watchers had tallied — colectivos were unleashed throughout the country to repress protesters.

They originated as pro-government community organizations that have long been a part of the landscape of leftist Venezuelan politics. Experts say the civilians are essentially state-sanctioned paramilitaries, often used to fight back against protests, whether by students, labor unions or others.

The groups date back to the early days of President Hugo Chávez, who conceived them as social organizations to advance his vision of a socialist revolution to transform Venezuela’s poor neighborhoods.

About 300 colectivo members gathered Saturday afternoon at a pro-government rally a few blocks from Miraflores, the presidential palace. Several speakers went up on a stage to denounce the attack.

By early afternoon, they had yet to come out in large numbers throughout the city — particularly since no Venezuelans were in the streets to support the U.S. attack.

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has low approval ratings, and it was unlikely that he had enough support outside the colectivos to show force on the streets, as Mr. Chávez did when he was briefly ousted in 2002, according to a leading human rights activist who spoke anonymously to avoid reprisals.

On Saturday, the colectivos appeared to have been deployed only at the organized rallies that government supporters held in several locations, he said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:13 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky and Annie Correal

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia, and Mexico City

The U.S. has indicted Maduro on charges of cocaine smuggling. Experts say Venezuela’s role in that trade is modest.

The United States unsealed an indictment on Saturday against Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, that charges him with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.

The four-count indictment also charges Mr. Maduro’s wife, his son, two high-ranking Venezuelan officials and an alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua group, a gang that the Trump administration designated as a terrorist organization last year. President Trump has said that Tren de Aragua operates in conjunction with Mr. Maduro’s government, a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have contradicted.

The indictment states that Mr. Maduro and his allies worked for decades with major drug trafficking groups to move large quantities of cocaine to the United States.

It follows months of a steadily escalating pressure campaign against Mr. Maduro, which culminated in his capture by the U.S. military in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. He arrived in New York on Saturday afternoon and will be flown in a helicopter to Manhattan for prosecution.

The pressure campaign began in September with lethal attacks by U.S. forces on small vessels that the Trump administration has said were carrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States. The administration has justified the attacks by saying the United States was in an armed conflict with drug cartels and vowed to destroy trafficking networks. Many experts say these strikes are illegal.

President Trump has asserted that the campaign is targeting drugs killing Americans, but most U.S. overdoses involve fentanyl, which doesn’t come from South America, experts say.

Fentanyl, which causes tens of thousands of overdoses per year, is almost entirely produced in Mexico using chemicals from China, according to U.S. authorities, and Venezuela plays no known role in its trade, nor does any other South American country.

The indictment unsealed Saturday focuses almost entirely on Venezuela’s decades-long role in the cocaine trade. It accuses Mr. Maduro and co-conspirators of working closely with some of the region’s largest drug trafficking groups, in Colombia and in Mexico. They include groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, and the Sinaloa Cartel, which are also designated by the United States as terrorist organizations.

Experts, however, have said Venezuela is not a major drug producer and have described it as a minor cocaine transit country, with most of the cocaine flowing through Venezuela heading to Europe, not the United States.

The majority of the cocaine bound for the United States is believed to move not through the Caribbean but through the Pacific, according to data from Colombia, the United States and the United Nations. Venezuela does not have a Pacific Coast.

While the indictment states that Venezuela was shipping 200 to 250 metric tons of cocaine a year by around 2020, that represents only about 10 percent to 13 percent of the global cocaine trade. Other countries play a much larger role. In 2018, 1,400 metric tons passed through Guatemala, according to U.S. data.

There is evidence that Mr. Maduro has benefited from the drug trade to stay in power. Both the indictment and experts say he also used profits from drug trafficking to secure the loyalty of military officials and leaders in his party.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:02 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

The New York Times

A senior Venezuelan official says at least 40 people, including military personnel and civilians, were killed in the U.S. attack.

At least 40 people were killed in the U.S. attack on Venezuela early Saturday, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports.

President Trump, speaking on Fox News on Saturday, said that no American troops had been killed. He suggested, however, that some service members had been injured. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said later in the day at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago with Mr. Trump that U.S. helicopters moving to extract President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had come under fire. He said that one helicopter had been hit but “remained flyable,” and that all U.S. aircraft “came home.”

About half a dozen soldiers were injured in the overall operation to capture Mr. Maduro, according to two U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the immediate aftermath of the U.S. attack, details began to emerge of the death of a Venezuelan civilian in Catia La Mar, a low-income coastal area just west of the Caracas airport. There, an airstrike hit a three-story civilian apartment complex and knocked out an exterior wall early Saturday as U.S. forces assaulted the city.

The strike killed Rosa González, 80, her family said, and seriously wounded a second person.

In the afternoon, a government investigator was present in the area of the strike, interviewing witnesses and picking up projectiles.

Wilman González, Ms. Gonzalez’s nephew, said he ducked when heard the strike at about 2 a.m. but nearly lost an eye. He had three stitches on the side of his face.

Mr. González, who appeared numb hours later, showed journalists where the U.S. ordnance had hit. Asked where he would go now that he lost his home, he said simply, “I don’t know.” He spoke little as he bent down and searched for whatever valuables he could salvage. He picked up an old umbrella and carried a set of drawers.

The strike left the interior of an apartment exposed to the public. Among the wreckage was a portrait of Venezuelan independence hero Simón Bolívar that looked like it had been riddled with shrapnel.

One neighbor, a 70-year-old man named Jorge who declined to give his last name, said he lost everything in the airstrike.

Several people were gathered outside on Saturday afternoon while others searched what remained of their apartments. Most were barely speaking.

Some of the residents outside were praying. Others were angry.

One man, who gave his name as Javier, blamed greed for the attack on Venezuela, an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s stated desire to let American companies take control of Venezuelan oil fields. The lives of people like him, he said, meant nothing.

The residents said that four men had tried to rescue Ms. González after the airstrike. They carried her onto a motorbike and took her to a hospital, but she was declared dead on arrival.

Another woman was also taken to the hospital; residents were later told that she had survived, but was in critical condition.

Frances Robles and Mariana Martínez contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:39 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Sarah Nir

Reporting from Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York

A small group of protesters gathered at the edge of the Stewart Air National Guard Base. One boy had a Venezuelan flag draped around his shoulders as the group watched for any sign of ousted President Nicolás Maduro, who had arrived earlier. Alexander Silva, 36, a warehouse worker from Newburgh, N.Y., who fled Venezuela in 2022, brought his family to witness history. “I wanted them to see that this really had happened,” Silva said in Spanish, “that the dictatorship had been demolished.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:36 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonah E. Bromwich

A pardon and a prosecution in New York show Trump’s personal geopolitics.

Two Latin American strongmen were charged in Manhattan with corrupting their governments, using state power to import hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.

One, the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, was abruptly pardoned by President Trump last month.

The other, President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, was captured on Saturday in a military raid that Secretary of State Marco Rubio characterized as a law enforcement operation. Mr. Maduro was brought to the United States to face fresh allegations of narco-terrorism.

The divergent fates of the two men accused of similar crimes by the same prosecutor’s office underscore the way President Trump and his aides are using the federal justice system to conduct a highly personalized geopolitics.

Mr. Trump, when asked on Saturday about his December pardon of Mr. Hernández in light of the operation against Mr. Maduro, made no attempt to disguise his feelings about Mr. Hernández: He saw himself in the imprisoned president.

“The man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. He was the head of the country.”

The contradiction prompted an outcry from the president’s political opponents. “You cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand invasion in one case, while issuing a pardon in another,” Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, said in a statement on Saturday.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has long been the most prominent federal prosecutor’s office in the country and for years was known for its independence from Washington. It took on Wall Street, prosecuted high-ranking political officials from both parties and, in 2022, charged the ex-president of Honduras in what authorities would later characterize as “one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world.”

Two years later, prosecutors asked a judge to ensure that Mr. Hernández died in prison, saying that he had abused his power, had connections to violent traffickers and was responsible for the “unfathomable destruction” cocaine had caused in the United States. Mr. Trump pardoned him nonetheless.

“Trump thinks he can use federal criminal prosecutions for any purpose, which is to say to promote his foreign policy views, to promote his vendettas, to promote his self-interest and to promote his perceived political interests,” said Bruce Green, a former federal prosecutor who teaches legal ethics at Fordham Law School in New York.

Mr. Rubio, asked about the contradiction on ABC News on Sunday, referred questions to the White House, given that he was not involved in the pardon of Mr. Hernández.

“The president outlined yesterday that he felt that in that particular case there was unfairness,” Mr. Rubio said.

Pushed by the anchor, George Stephanopoulos, who emphasized Mr. Hernández’s conviction by a jury, Mr. Rubio appeared to grow frustrated. He said again he was not involved. When Mr. Stephanopoulos asked whether he supported the pardon, Mr. Rubio declined to comment, again citing his lack of familiarity with the specifics of the case.

Both the Hernández and Maduro cases began as Drug Enforcement Administration investigations around 2010, were investigated by the same D.E.A. unit and were handled by the same investigative unit in the Southern District.

Each prosecution was led at various stages by Emil Bove III, who eventually rose to lead the office’s terrorism and international narcotics unit. After leaving the office, Mr. Bove became a criminal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump and then a top Justice Department official. He is now a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The factual similarities in the cases are striking. It is not just that the charges resemble one another; prosecutors also accused both men of overseeing key way stations in the same hemispheric trade.

Taken together, the indictments provide a bird’s-eye view of the supply chain that for years has brought processed cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela to shipment points in Honduras and, ultimately, to the United States.

Mr. Hernández was charged in 2022 with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and using machine guns as part of that conspiracy. The charges unveiled against Mr. Maduro on Saturday also include a cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns as part of it. The combination of the trafficking and gun charges makes the potential penalties in such prosecutions more severe.

In 2020, Mr. Maduro was one of six defendants charged with participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy, with prosecutors accusing him of leading a drug-trafficking organization known as Cártel de los Soles. Venezuelans have used the phrase for years, a reference to a sun insignia that high-ranking Venezuelan military personnel wear on their uniforms.

Mr. Maduro, that indictment said, “coordinated foreign affairs with Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug-trafficking.” The newly unsealed indictment was even more specific, saying that the shipment points in Honduras — as well as in Guatemala and Mexico — relied on a “culture of corruption,” in which traffickers paid off politicians for protection and help.

One of those politicians, prosecutors persuaded a jury, was Mr. Hernández. Jurors in 2024 convicted him of having received millions from drug-trafficking organizations throughout the region.

When Mr. Hernández was extradited, Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, erupted in celebration, and, after his conviction, expatriates rejoiced outside the Manhattan courthouse. But after pardoning Mr. Hernández last month, Mr. Trump defended the decision, saying it was the will of Hondurans.

“The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing,” he said.

Mr. Hernández’s wife has said he would not immediately return to Honduras, where authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest.

David Smilde, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans who has studied Venezuela for decades and lived in the country part-time until last year, said that the prosecution of Mr. Maduro might be perceived differently by the eight million Venezuelans who live outside the country, compared with the roughly 30 million who are still there.

The diaspora, he said, might thrill to the prosecution, viewing Mr. Maduro as a Saddam Hussein-like figure whose capture could bring an end to the Venezuelan regime.

People who live in the country, Mr. Smilde said, were likely to be less moved, given that several Venezuelans were prosecuted in recent years, only to be returned to their home countries by the Biden administration. They include two nephews of Mr. Maduro’s wife who were convicted on drug charges in 2015 but released in exchange for Americans.

“With the U.S. justice system and its inconsistency in recent years, it’s not as big a deal as it used to be,” Mr. Smilde said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:32 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Carol Rosenberg

National Security reporter

Ousted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were transferred to the United States on Saturday via the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where the F.B.I. had a government plane waiting to take them to Stewart Air National Guard Base north of New York City, according to a U.S. official familiar with the operation who was not authorized by the White House to speak publicly.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:23 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger

White House reporter

In toppling Maduro, Trump risks blowback from his ‘America First’ base.

For months, a significant segment of President Trump’s political base has been complaining that he has spent far too much time on foreign policy — seeking a Ukraine deal and addressing a long list of other conflicts he claims to have settled — and too little on America’s economic anxieties.

His announcement on Saturday that the United States had captured Venezuela’s leader and would “run” the country for an indefinite period is adding fuel to that fire. As the scope of the operation was becoming clear on Saturday, critics said Mr. Trump risked getting the United States into the kind of open-ended conflict that he had railed against for years.

“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally turned critic, posted on social media. “Boy were we wrong.”

Mr. Trump, who has pledged to cease “endless wars” and reduce the number of American troops overseas, left open the prospect of deployment to Venezuela — something that he has spoken of only vaguely in the past. Speaking to reporters, he said the United States was “not afraid of boots on the ground,” adding that the administration planned to have a military presence in the nation “as it pertains to oil.”

“We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure,” Mr. Trump said in comments that stunned some Republicans who questioned how the vague plans squared with a commitment to refrain from military intervention and regime change. “We’re going to run it properly and make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of.”

Mr. Trump in the past has risked alienating his base over military action, particularly in the run-up to his Iran strikes in June. Yet the targets in Iran were three underground nuclear sites, enabling Mr. Trump to launch a high-risk bombing raid from the other side of the world, bury the stockpiles of uranium and return home. The uproar died down.

What happened in Caracas, however, was different.

Mr. Trump decapitated the Venezuelan government and made no secret of the fact that the United States planned to pull the strings.

“We’re going to run the country right,” Mr. Trump said on Saturday. “It’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. It’s going to make a lot of money.”

With those words, Mr. Trump adopted a version of what former Secretary of State Colin Powell used to call the “Pottery Barn rule,” which boils down to you-break-it-you-bought-it. That did not necessarily mean a standing U.S. military force in Venezuela, similar to what the United States kept in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it did suggest continuing political intervention, with at least the threat of a military backup.

Mr. Trump said on Saturday that his administration was “prepared to do a second wave” after the first attack in Venezuela, but for now it was not necessary.

Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former State Department official under Mr. Trump, said the plan to run Venezuela was “just jaw dropping.”

“That is not something that the president has laid out, certainly during the campaign and even during the last few months,” Mr. Bartlett said.

Ultimately, the extent of any backlash may depend on what happens next.

“This is the difficult part,” said Dave Carney, a Republican strategist who ran Preserve America, a pro-Trump super PAC. “Nobody wants a quagmire. Nobody wants, you know, body bags coming back to Dover of American solders who are being sniped at from, you know, a rebellious minority in Venezuela.”

“If it goes on for three years, it will be negative,” Mr. Carney said. But if the presence in Venezuela lasts months, Mr. Trump “will be celebrated.”

In Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, many did in fact respond to the capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, by celebrating in the streets. And many Republicans appeared ready to stand by Mr. Trump, including Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who initially seemed critical of the operation.

Mr. Lee later said in a social media post that after speaking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio he believed the military action “we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant” of Mr. Maduro.

The operation in Venezuela was also met with support from the foreign policy hawks that have long been a target of the MAGA movement.

“I’m grateful to the U.S. personnel who carried out orders in harm’s way,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. “A free, democratic and stable Venezuela, led by Venezuelans, is in America’s national security interests.”

Mr. Trump’s aides have said that military action against Venezuela is aligned with his campaign promises by arguing that Mr. Maduro fueled domestic crises in the United States, including gang violence and a surge of drug overdoses caused by fentanyl.

The fentanyl that fueled America’s overdose crisis is, however, manufactured in Mexican labs using chemicals from China. The U.S. intelligence community also earlier this year undercut Mr. Trump’s claim that Mr. Maduro sent members of the Tren de Aragua gang to the United States, saying that the gang was not controlled by the Venezuelan leader.

Laura Loomer, the far-right activist and Trump ally who supported the Iran attack, joined Tucker Carlson and others in opposing the operation in Venezuela, maintaining that Americans will ultimately pay the price.

“Maybe soon we will see an invasion of Venezuela so that” Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025, “can assume power in a country she will never be able to run without U.S. assistance.” The result, Ms. Loomer said, would be to pave the way for China, among others, to gain a deeper foothold.

Such views get to a central argument: Who owns the definition of America First?

Mr. Trump, who first played with the term in a New York Times interview in 2016, has said that he invented it — he didn’t — and therefore he gets to define it. Some of his MAGA faithful clearly believe otherwise.

But at the core of the dispute is the fact that Mr. Trump is no isolationist, even if many of his backers are.

The person who could face future political ramifications of a prolonged military presence in Venezuela is Vice President JD Vance, who is widely thought to be Mr. Trump’s heir to the MAGA movement. He was not present at Mr. Trump’s news conference on Saturday.

Mr. Vance, who monitored the operation in Venezuela by video conference, has in the past pushed for military restraint.

“No more undefined missions; no more open-ended conflicts,” Mr. Vance told a graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy earlier this year.

On Saturday, Mr. Vance expressed support for the military intervention.

“The president offered multiple off-ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: The drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States,” Mr. Vance said on social media. “Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.”

Whether all of Mr. Trump’s supporters agree may be another matter.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:05 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser

Maduro is expected to make his first court appearance in Manhattan.

The cases of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, and his wife will move on Monday from the secretive realm of military special operations into the mundane world of Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan, where at noon they are to stand before a judge and face charges of drug-trafficking conspiracy and other crimes.

Their appearance will be the first step in what undoubtedly will be a yearslong prosecution, after a stunning change of scene from Mr. Maduro’s presidential palace in Caracas to the grim and grimy reality of pretrial detention in a Brooklyn federal jail.

Because of the extraordinary nature of the case, what happens next will be predictable in some ways, and perhaps far less so in others.

The arraignment on Monday will occur before the presiding judge in the case, Alvin K. Hellerstein, and Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are expected to enter pleas of not guilty. The judge will almost certainly order them detained. And it could be well over a year before a jury is seated to weigh the evidence against them.

But the prosecution of a leader of a sovereign nation snatched from his country in a highly choreographed military operation will most likely lead to arguments seldom heard in an American courtroom. Mr. Maduro’s lawyers might challenge, for example, the legality of his arrest and removal to the United States. They also could argue that as Venezuela’s leader, he is immune from prosecution.

What to Expect

Such initial hearings are often brief. Although the proceedings can vary, the judge will advise Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores of their rights and ask how they plead.

The indictment released on Saturday charges Mr. Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine, among other counts. Ms. Flores is charged in the cocaine conspiracy. The charges carry stiff sentences if the defendants are convicted.

At the hearing, a prosecutor typically summarizes the evidence, such as recordings, documents and other materials seized in searches. There may be discussion of what kinds of motions the defense will file to challenge the government’s case.

The judge is likely to address the issue of pretrial detention, and under the circumstances, almost certainly will order that the defendants be held without bond pending trial. The defense can also raise concerns about conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a troubled lockup that has held other high-profile detainees.

And the judge will ask the prosecutors and the defense lawyers how much time they will need to prepare for trial.

The Setting

The case will play out in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Court House, an imposing 27-story tower of granite, marble and oak on the edge of Chinatown. Security is always tight in and around the building, and Mr. Maduro’s presence there will doubtless bring a marked increase.

The court is part of the Southern District of New York, which has been the site of trials of accused terrorists, Mafia figures and corrupt politicians. A former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, was extradited to New York in 2022 and tried and convicted two years later in the courthouse. (Mr. Hernández was pardoned recently by President Trump.)

The Players

Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District, led by Jay Clayton, will handle the case of Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores. It is being prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys assigned to the office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit. The charges stemmed from a lengthy and extensive investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Defense lawyers play a pivotal role in any criminal case. But because the Maduro prosecution is sure to raise difficult and complex issues — from the legality of his arrest to sovereign immunity to disputes over the possible role of classified evidence — his choice of lawyers and the strategy they chart will be crucial.

It is unclear who will represent Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores. .

Judge Hellerstein, 92, was appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by President Bill Clinton and recently presided over President Trump’s attempts to move his Manhattan criminal conviction into federal court, a matter that is still pending.

The Stakes

For the government, the stakes of the prosecution of Mr. Maduro could hardly be higher. The Trump administration has made it clear that it went to extraordinary lengths to capture him in Caracas and bring him to New York to face trial, unleashing the full might of the U.S. military.

And the case is interwoven with aspects of President Trump’s domestic and foreign policies — which, like the attack Saturday morning, have come under harsh criticism.

His focus on immigration has leaned heavily into a narrative that frequently cites the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — which Mr. Trump has tied to Mr. Maduro — as one of the reasons to pursue mass deportations. At the same time, the administration has pointed to the gang to justify its campaign of deadly military strikes on small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that it says are hauling drugs linked to Venezuela. The administration has designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.

While Mr. Trump has said that Tren de Aragua operates in conjunction with Mr. Maduro’s government, it is a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have contradicted.

At stake for Mr. Maduro is his freedom. If convicted, he could face between 30 years and life in prison.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:48 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Who is Cilia Flores, the power broker first lady captured alongside Maduro?

When news broke that the United States had captured and indicted Venezuela’s longtime authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, another name appeared alongside his that left some observers puzzled: his wife’s, Cilia Flores.

Far more than a first lady, Ms. Flores is one of Venezuela’s most powerful political figures. She built extraordinary influence over decades while largely operating from the shadows. Ms. Flores shaped a judicial system in which nearly every major decision ran through her and embedded state institutions with relatives and loyalists, according to journalists, analysts and former officials. At the same time, they noted, her family amassed vast, unexplained wealth.

A lawyer from a lower middle class background, Ms. Flores began her political rise in the 1990s, becoming close to Hugo Chávez — the former president who was Mr. Maduro’s mentor and predecessor — while he was imprisoned after a failed coup attempt in 1992. She steadily climbed the ranks of Chávez’s socialist movement, known as chavismo, becoming a central figure in Venezuela’s legislature.

Ms. Flores and Mr. Maduro have been partners since at least the late 1990s, when both were lawmakers. They married in 2013, the year he became president. After Mr. Chávez’s death, she was widely seen as critical to consolidating and sustaining Mr. Maduro’s hold on power, bringing a loyal political base and deep institutional influence.

Within chavismo, she commands both respect and fear, said Roberto Deniz, a Venezuelan investigative journalist who has reported extensively on the Flores family.

“She is a fundamental figure in corruption in Venezuela — absolutely fundamental — and especially in the structure of power,” said Zair Mundaray, who worked a senior prosecutor under both Mr. Chávez and Mr. Maduro. “Many people consider her far more astute and shrewd than Maduro himself.”

In an interview published in the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia in 2013, Ms. Flores called herself a “combatant” and defended hiring relatives.

“My family got in based on their own merits,” she said. “I am proud of them, and I will defend their work as many times as necessary.”

Though she stopped holding formal government posts after 2013, Ms. Flores retained immense behind-the-scenes authority. She is often described as a key architect of Mr. Maduro’s political survival.

“Within chavismo itself, they know the real power that Cilia Flores has, more so than perhaps the general public,” Mr. Deniz said.

Ms. Flores is also widely believed to wield decisive influence over Venezuela’s justice system. Many judges and senior officials are thought to be loyal to her or have been placed through her networks. The judiciary is considered thoroughly politicized, having failed to issue a single ruling against the state in more than two decades.

“It is a completely politicized, flawed, corrupt judicial system, and Cilia Flores bears a great deal of responsibility for what the Venezuelan judicial system has become,” Mr. Deniz said.

Investigative journalists have documented extensive corruption involving the Maduro-Flores family, including misuse of public funds and business links with sanctioned foreign businessmen. One investigation showed the family effectively taking over an entire street of luxury homes in Caracas, the country’s capital.

A federal indictment unsealed on Saturday charged Ms. Flores, along with her husband and son, with collaborating with drug traffickers.

“She has been basically co-governing the country since he came to power, and in many ways is the strategy or power behind the throne,” said Risa Grais-Targow, the Latin America director for Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. “She’s been key to his staying power, but also now his downfall as well.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:33 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Mariana Martinez

Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela

At least 40 people were killed in Saturday’s attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:15 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Kellen Browning

How Democrats are hitting Trump over his ouster of Maduro.

Prominent Democrats both in and outside of Congress were quick to criticize President Trump’s attack on Venezuela on Saturday.

Out of power and lacking a clear leader, some of the most influential Democrats are among those considered a loose group of potential 2028 presidential contenders, a half dozen of whom had weighed in on Mr. Trump’s actions on social media and in television interviews within hours of his move to capture Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president.

Most tied Mr. Trump’s overseas intervention with his domestic woes, suggesting the president was seeking to distract from crises at home.

“It’s not about drugs,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote on social media, adding, “It’s about oil and regime change. And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing health care costs.”

Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 presidential candidate and the transportation secretary in the Biden administration, wrote that Mr. Trump was following an “old and obvious pattern. An unpopular president — failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home — decides to launch a war for regime change abroad.”

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut centered their criticisms on affordability, a word that Democrats have seized upon to hammer Mr. Trump as the cost of living remains a top issue heading into this year’s midterm elections.

“Donald Trump’s unconstitutional military action in Venezuela is putting our troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy,” Mr. Pritzker wrote. “The American people deserve a president focused on making their lives more affordable.”

Mr. Murphy wrote that the boost in military spending included in Mr. Trump’s domestic policy bill last summer was “so he could invade and run Venezuela.” The president paid for it, Mr. Murphy charged, “by throwing millions of actual Americans off their health care and taking food assistance from millions of hungry kids” — a reference to the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps included in the bill.

Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, both military veterans with national profiles, also weighed in. Mr. Kelly, a combat pilot in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, called Mr. Maduro a “brutal, illegitimate dictator,” but warned that “if we learned anything from the Iraq war, it’s that dropping bombs or toppling a leader doesn’t guarantee democracy, stability or make Americans safer.”

Mr. Gallego referenced his time fighting in the Iraq War as a Marine, writing that this was the “second unjustified war in my lifetime.”

“The American people have been very clear: They do not want to be occupiers again and they do not want to be the world police,” he said in an interview on Fox News.

Representative Ro Khanna of California sent a fund-raising message off the news, blasting Mr. Trump in an email calling for “no more dumb wars” and asking recipients to share their contact information in a petition rejecting war with Venezuela.

On social media, he wrote that the “times call for a movement of the American people to stand against bloated defense budgets and warmongering.”

Hours later, Mr. Khanna threw a dagger at prominent Democrats who had not spoken out: “The silence from many media-hyped 2028 contenders today is shocking. If you cannot oppose this regime change war for oil, you don’t have the moral clarity or guts to lead our party or nation.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:12 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Sarah Nir

Reporting from Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York

A plane slowly taxied down the runway at Stewart Air National Guard Base outside New York City in the fading light Saturday. News crews filmed the arrival from the side of a snow covered airfield. After it stopped, people wearing jackets emblazoned with the F.B.I surrounded a staircase leading to one of the plane’s exits.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:03 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Chelsia Rose Marcius

The ousted Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife will be flown in a helicopter to Manhattan, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the security plan to bring Maduro to the United States. From there, Maduro will be driven to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York City headquarters in Manhattan. Then he will be taken by helicopter to Brooklyn and driven to the Metropolitan Detention Center. He is expected to be held there.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William Rashbaum

The plane carrying the ousted president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, has landed in the United States, two law enforcement officials said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:50 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Sheyla Urdaneta and Frances Robles

With the president gone, Venezuelans flock to supermarkets.

Venezuelans began lining up at supermarkets throughout the country on Saturday to stock up on supplies as they woke to the news that the United States had launched airstrikes on the capital and seized the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

While many stores in Caracas, the capital, were closed, some that opened found dozens of people already waiting outside.

People filled their carts with water, toilet paper and other goods.

Few cars were on the streets, and there were no signs of public transportation. Areas near a military base that had been attacked lacked electricity.

Users of a private internet company, Vnet, reported service outages.

In Caracas’s Plaza Venezuela neighborhood, Alondra, a 32-year-old woman who did not want her last name published because of fears for her safety, said she had just returned to the capital after the December holidays and had no food at home.

“I’m not happy,” she said as she shopped. “I understand how delicate the situation is, and I’m afraid things will get worse in the country.”

Tensions mounted because some people were cutting the line, which was not budging.

“We’ve suffered so much,” she added. “I’m feeling hopeless, thinking that everything could get worse and that we won’t be able to hold out.”

Videos from La Candelaria, in downtown Caracas, showed dozens of people standing in line for food.

At a shop in a public housing complex in the city, about 10 people were lined up to fill water jugs.

In La Guaira, an area near where the strikes took place, residents sent videos showing damage to what appeared to be an apartment building. A local journalist said government supporters had taken control of the block and were prohibiting access.

In Valencia, a city two hours west of Caracas, supermarkets opened early.

Panic buying caused some people to bring two cars to transport all the goods they bought.

“We don’t know what is going on — nobody knows,” said Cecilia Martínez, 47. “But we are five people in my house and my parents are older than 80, so I can’t sit and wait until they say whether there is a curfew or not. That’s why I came here and spent all I had.”

José López, 29, at another store in Valencia, said he had bought two dozen eggs. “There’s a lot of anxiety and uncertainty,” he said.

In Zulia and Táchira, the states on Venezuela’s border with Colombia, 400 miles west of Caracas, people who lined up at supermarkets said their biggest fear was running out of food.

“Thank God we’re far from Caracas, but we’re afraid that bombings might come to Maracaibo, too,” said Martha Rangel, a 63-year-old woman who lives in that city. “I don’t have much money, but I’ll buy some cheese and flour to make arepas and have some at home.”

The governor of the state of Sucre, about 325 miles east of Caracas, appeared at a town square on Saturday morning and called for supporters of the ruling party to gather there later in the day.

“We demand that the entire world speak out against the threat and chaos they have tried to sow in our homeland,” said the governor, Jhoanna Carrillo.

People in Sucre had lined up for gasoline, although many pumps were closed.

Armed civilians who support the government had begun to gather in caravans in Cumaná, the capital city in Sucre, and many people were frightened.

“Everyone knows what that means,” said Alejandro Barreto, 26. “The only thing that matters now is buying food.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:37 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Farnaz Fassihi

United Nations bureau chief

The United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting on Monday morning to discuss U.S. strikes in Venezuela. Russia, China and Colombia asked for the meeting after Venezuela’s mission to the U.N. wrote a letter to the Council president requesting the meeting to condemn and stop American strikes on the country. Secretary General António Guterres is expected to address the Council on Monday. He said in a statement earlier that all sides must uphold international law and the U.N. charter.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:36 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Nicholas Fandos and Maia Coleman

Mamdani called Trump to criticize the Venezuela strikes.

Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, called President Trump on Saturday to personally object to strikes the United States had conducted in Venezuela and to the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

“I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act,” Mr. Mamdani said at an unrelated news conference on Saturday, adding that he told Mr. Trump that he was “opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal and international law.”

The mayor declined to characterize the president’s response when pressed by reporters. His aides said that Mr. Mamdani had initiated the call earlier on Saturday afternoon and that it was “brief.”

“I registered my opposition, I made it clear and we left it at that,” Mr. Mamdani said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the call.

The remarks — and an earlier written statement — were the first time the mayor, a left-leaning Democrat, had clashed with Mr. Trump since taking office on Thursday. But it raised the possibility of more conflict in the days ahead after Mr. Maduro arrives in New York to face federal drug and weapons charges in Manhattan.

Mr. Mamdani has profound differences with the president, and has called him a “fascist.” But after the men had an unexpectedly cordial meeting at the White House in November, Mr. Mamdani had been careful not to directly stoke Mr. Trump’s ire — including in his inaugural address this week.

Mr. Mamdani sought on Saturday to play down how the call might affect that relationship.

“The president and I have always been honest and direct with each other about places of disagreement,” he said. “New Yorkers have elected me to be honest and direct and always to do so with the understanding that my job is to deliver for the people who call this city home.”

Mr. Mamdani will likely have little influence over what happens to Mr. Maduro in federal custody, even if the leader and a potential trial are being held within the city limits of New York. The mayor seemingly acknowledged these limits when speaking with reporters.

“It is my responsibility that whatever actions the federal government takes, that they have a minimal impact on the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers,” he said.

Mr. Mamdani has been an outspoken critic of American support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, but before his comments on Saturday, he had not had much to say about Venezuela or U.S. policy in Latin America. Both Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Maduro describe themselves as socialists, though the policies Mr. Maduro presided over in Venezuela differ starkly from those Mr. Mamdani has vowed to pursue.

In a podcast interview last fall, Mr. Mamdani said Mr. Maduro had “done many a horrible thing.”

“Maduro’s government is one of repression, there is no question about it,” he said.

In labeling the American action unlawful, Mr. Mamdani echoed numerous other Democrats. But where other leaders in his party called Mr. Maduro an “illegitimate dictator,” Mr. Mamdani did not comment on his record or standing in Venezuela.

“This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home,” the mayor said in his written statement.

“My focus is their safety and the safety of every New Yorker,” he added, “and my administration will continue to monitor the situation and issue relevant guidance.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:07 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Rylee Kirk

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican from Kentucky, said in a statement on X that the president “has broad constitutional authority and long historical precedent for the limited use of military force.” McConnell called Nicolás Maduro a thug and said he expected Congress to be briefed soon. “A free, democratic, and stable Venezuela, led by Venezuelans, is in America’s national security interests,” he wrote.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:52 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Simon Romero

Reporting from São Paulo, Brazil

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s new leader, boasts leftist credentials.

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s new interim leader, arrives at the job with impeccable leftist credentials.

She is the daughter of a Marxist guerrilla who won fame for kidnapping an American businessman, was educated partly in France, where she specialized in labor law and rose to meteoric heights in the government of Nicolás Maduro, whom she is succeeding.

But Ms. Rodríguez, 56, is also known for building bridges with Venezuela’s economic elites, foreign investors and diplomats, presenting herself as a cosmopolitan technocrat in a militaristic and male-dominated government.

After Venezuela’s economy endured a harrowing crash from 2013 to 2021, she spearheaded a market-friendly overhaul which had provided a semblance of economic stability before the U.S. military campaign targeting Mr. Maduro.

Her privatization of state assets and relatively conservative fiscal policy had left Venezuela somewhat better prepared to resist the Trump administration’s blockade of sanctioned tankers carrying oil, the country’s economic lifeblood.

The contradictions enveloping Ms. Rodríguez were on display on Saturday when she addressed the nation on state television. While President Trump said that Ms. Rodríguez had been sworn in as Venezuela’s new president, it was clear that Mr. Maduro’s supporters — including her — still see him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.

Ms. Rodríguez repeatedly said that Mr. Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president,” and even the text on Venezuelan state television labeled her as vice president. When she ended, the state broadcaster immediately said that Ms. Rodríguez, as the vice president, had just made clear that Mr. Maduro remained Venezuela’s president.

Ms. Rodríguez rose to prominence after Mr. Maduro became president in 2013, following the death of Hugo Chávez, the founder of Venezuela’s Bolivarian political movement, which blends left-wing and nationalist ideals.

Mr. Maduro appointed her as communications minister, before naming her foreign affairs minister, the first woman to hold that post in Venezuela.

Shuttling between Latin American capitals, she often seemed to revel in feuding with conservative leaders.

In 2018, Ms. Rodríguez was promoted again, this time to the vice presidency, and the head of SEBIN, a Venezuelan intelligence agency. She took on additional duties in 2020 as economy minister and proceeded to extend an olive branch to business elites in Venezuela.

But she has also been targeted by sanctions from the United States, Canada and the European Union for her role in supporting and helping to oversee crackdowns on dissent in Venezuela.

Her entry into Venezuelan politics seemed natural as the daughter of Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, a Marxist leader who led the kidnapping in Venezuela of William Niehous, an American businessman who was held for three years in a jungle hide-out and rescued in 1979.

Her father was arrested and charged for his role in the kidnapping and died in 1976, at the age of 34, after being interrogated by intelligence agents.

Politics and leftist activism run in the family. Ms. Rodríguez’s older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, is another member of Mr. Maduro’s inner circle. He is the president of the National Assembly and was Mr. Maduro’s chief political strategist.

Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed reporting from Venezuela.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:50 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julie Turkewitz and Genevieve Glatsky

Trump administration declines to back Venezuela’s opposition leader.

President Trump said on Saturday that it would be “very tough” for Venezuela’s leading opposition figure, María Corina Machado, to take control of her country, claiming in his televised speech that she was a “very nice woman” but “doesn’t have the support” in Venezuela to lead.

It was a dramatic shift from the Trump administration’s assessment of Ms. Machado’s movement in recent months, in which Washington officials have asserted that her surrogate, Edmundo González, is the country’s rightful president, after his election victory in 2024. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called Ms. Machado “the personification of resilience, tenacity and patriotism.”

Ms. Machado has spent the last year courting Mr. Trump’s support and trying to enlist his help in ousting Mr. Maduro. She has openly supported his military operation in the Caribbean and refrained from criticizing his policies toward Venezuelan migrants. In October, she dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to him, in honor of what she called his “decisive support.”

On Saturday, after Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. military had captured Mr. Maduro, she released a statement celebrating the move and asserting that she was ready to lead.

“Today we are prepared to assert our mandate and seize power,” she wrote in a message she posted on X.

But roughly two hours later, when asked by a reporter about Ms. Machado after addressing the nation, Mr. Trump said they had not spoken. He never mentioned Mr. González.

Instead, he said that his government was in conversation with Mr. Maduro’s No. 2, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

“Are you going to work with the vice president of Venezuela?” a reporter asked.

“Marco is working on that directly,” Mr. Trump responded, referring to Mr. Rubio. “He just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

A spokeswoman for Ms. Machado and Mr. González said in a text message that the pair was not offering immediate comment on the speech.

Ms. Machado is a conservative former legislator from an affluent Venezuelan family whose ties to Washington go back two decades. She galvanized millions of Venezuelans to vote in favor of Mr. González in 2024.

Mr. Maduro lost the election, according to an independent monitor, but ignored the results and stayed in power. Mr. González eventually fled to Spain, and Ms. Machado went into hiding.

In recent months, speaking via video, Ms. Machado has backed Mr. Trump’s claims that Mr. Maduro is the head of two drug cartels and helped rig U.S. elections.

Ms. Machado resurfaced in public in early December in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. One of her top aides, Pedro Urruchurtu, wrote on X on Dec. 17 that she was no longer in Oslo and was “attending medical appointments with a specialist as part of her prompt and full recovery.” Ms. Machado said that she had suffered a fractured vertebra during her departure from Venezuela.

Her current whereabouts is unknown.

Mr. González was also in Oslo to celebrate her prize. Two weeks ago he made an appearance at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Mr. González, who is 76, was briefly hospitalized in May for a sudden drop in blood pressure.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:48 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonathan Wolfe

Before Nicolás Maduro, there was Manuel Noriega.

The last time the United States deposed a Latin American leader was in 1989, when U.S. forces captured Gen. Manuel Noriega in Panama. That episode holds some striking parallels to the capture of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Saturday, with some major differences.

In December 1989, President George H.W. Bush sent U.S. troops into Panama with the goal of capturing Mr. Noriega, who had been the country’s military dictator for about six years. Mr. Noriega went into hiding in the Vatican’s Embassy in Panama City, where he was eventually captured, taken to the United States, tried and imprisoned.

Mr. Noriega, like Mr. Maduro, had been indicted on federal drug-trafficking charges. He was accused by U.S. officials at the time of taking millions of dollars in bribes from drug traffickers and turning Panama into a capital of international cocaine smuggling.

Months before both leaders were captured, the United States built up its military presence around their countries.

In Panama, President Bush sent nearly 2,000 soldiers and Marines to reinforce the 10,300 service members already there. The troops also began conducting military exercises, which U.S. officials said was part of their rights under previous treaties. But many saw it as an attempt to put pressure on Mr. Noriega.

As part of the pressure campaign on Venezuela, Mr. Trump has been building up forces in the Caribbean for months, and authorizing strikes on boats that the administration has said are run by drug traffickers. Many legal experts say these strikes are illegal and amount to extrajudicial killings of civilians.

The two Latin American leaders, however, had very different responses to the U.S. pressure campaigns.

In Panama, the National Assembly, under the control of Mr. Noriega, declared the country at war with the United States shortly before U.S. troops invaded. As the assault to capture him began, he fled with his mistress in an unmarked Hyundai and went into hiding, briefly emerging at a Dairy Queen before taking refuge at the embassy of the Holy See.

He was captured after a standoff that went on for days with U.S. troops, who surrounded the building and used speakers to blast heavy metal from bands like Black Sabbath and Guns N’ Roses until he surrendered.

Mr. Maduro, however, told a Spanish journalist as late as this week that he was eager to work with the United States to avoid conflict, including on drug policy and oil agreements.

Mr. Trump said during an interview on Fox News that Mr. Maduro wanted to negotiate in the final days before U.S. forces captured him — an offer that Mr. Trump said he rejected.

“I didn’t want to negotiate,” Mr. Trump said. “I said, ‘Nope, we got to do it.’”

Mr. Trump said that the military repeatedly rehearsed the operation using a replica of Mr. Maduro’s safe house. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the operation benefited from detailed information about his whereabouts collected during months of intelligence gathering.

Around 27,000 troops participated in the operation in Panama, and 23 U.S. troops were killed, along with an estimated 314 Panamanian soldiers and 202 civilians.

U.S. officials said the operation in Venezuela involved 150 aircraft. Since November, the United States has had around 15,000 military personnel in the Caribbean.

It’s unclear how many casualties were involved in the operation on Saturday, but Mr. Trump, speaking on Fox News, said no American troops were killed. He suggested, however, that some service members were injured.

Michael Crowley contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:36 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

In an interview with The New York Times, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said he was reserving judgment on Delcy Rodríguez’s comments, in which she denied she planned to work with the United States.

“We’re going to make decisions based on their actions and their deeds in the days and weeks to come,” he said, referring to officials in the interim Venezuelan government. “We think they’re going to have some unique and historic opportunities to do a great service for the country, and we hope that they’ll accept that opportunity.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:36 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Mark Walker

Airlines are canceling flights after the U.S. closes Caribbean airspace.

U.S. airlines canceled flights and air travel was disrupted on Saturday after federal aviation authorities shut down American-controlled airspace over the Caribbean in response to a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of the country’s president.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice to airmen early on Saturday, known as a NOTAM, banning U.S. civil aircraft from operating, as the United States took action against the South American country, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

The F.A.A. cited “safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity” as the reason for the closure. The agency did not specify the nature of the military operations in its notice but said that the action was taken in response to the developments involving Venezuela.

Those developments became clearer later on Saturday, when President Trump announced the U.S. military operation. Mr. Maduro’s capture followed months of U.S. military pressure, including deadly strikes on vessels, described by U.S. officials as drug-carrying boats; the seizure of a tanker transporting Venezuelan oil; and a growing U.S. military presence in the Caribbean.

Airlines adjusted schedules and canceled flights into and out of Caribbean destinations like Puerto Rico, St. Lucia and Barbados as the order took effect. Passengers were advised to check with carriers for updated travel information.

In a post on social media on Saturday afternoon, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the F.A.A. had ordered the closures to “ensure the SAFETY of the flying public.”

“When appropriate, these airspace restrictions will be lifted. Please work with your airlines directly if your flight has been impacted,” he wrote.

Jessica Ramos, 24, a second grade teacher from Harrisburg, Pa., took a cruise with her mother this week to celebrate the New Year. Their cruise docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday morning, and they planned to fly to Philadelphia early Sunday morning. Around 10:30 a.m., as they disembarked their cruise ship, Ms. Ramos said she received a notification that their flight had been canceled.

“It was a little bit chaotic,” Ms. Ramos said in a phone interview on Saturday. “Everybody stormed into basically one hotel.”

Ms. Ramos and her mother began frantically searching for a place to stay, refreshing hotel websites all around the island. They ended up at a Holiday Inn with a one-night stay for $900, she said.

The next flight Ms. Ramos could book was on Jan. 10.

The airspace closure is the latest in a series of aviation restrictions imposed by the F.A.A. in response to tensions in the region, with officials saying they are intended to reduce the risk to civilian aircraft near military activity.

Delta, American and Southwest were among the airlines that had canceled flights on Saturday.

“Delta teams continue to monitor the situation closely, as the safety and security of our customers and people comes before all else,” the airline said in a statement.

Delta, United and JetBlue added that they had issued travel waivers for customers heading to and from the affected airports.

As of 3:07 p.m., the website FlightAware was reporting 724 delays and 49 cancellations, most of which were at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida.

On Saturday morning, the main international airport in Puerto Rico said on social media that most commercial flights operated by U.S. airlines were “suspended or may be temporarily canceled” because of the F.A.A. notice, but that foreign airlines were not included in the restrictions. The overwhelming majority of commercial flights to and from the island were canceled on Saturday, according to the website Flightradar24, which also showed two U.S. Navy aircraft flying nearby.

Caribbean Airlines, which serves U.S. cities including New York and Orlando, said on its website that its operations continued as scheduled on Saturday.

Gabe Castro-Root and Claire Fahy contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:24 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maia Coleman

Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City said he called President Trump on Saturday and spoke with him directly to register his opposition to the strikes.

Speaking at an unrelated news conference in Brooklyn, Mamdani said he made clear during the call that he was opposed to “the pursuit of regime change” and “the violation of federal and international law.”

“The president and I have always been honest and direct with each other about places of disagreement,” he said. “I was honest and direct in the Oval Office. I will be honest and direct in the phone conversations we have, and New Yorkers have elected me to be honest and direct.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:21 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Venezuela’s interim leader defies Trump and calls Maduro the ‘only president.’

resident Trump said Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president and would act as a partner in letting the United States run the country.

“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” he said.

Less than two hours later, Ms. Rodríguez — who was Nicolás Maduro’s vice president — delivered a televised address to Venezuela that made clear she viewed the United States as an illegal invader that must be rejected.

“We are determined to be free,” she said. “What is being done to Venezuela is a barbarity.”

Her swift defiance of Mr. Trump made clear that his plans to swoop into the South American nation and run it as his own faced many more hurdles than he suggested in his Saturday news conference declaring victory in Venezuela.

“We had already warned that an aggression was underway under false excuses and false pretenses, and that the masks had fallen off, revealing only one objective: regime change in Venezuela,” she said. “This regime change would also allow for the seizure of our energy, mineral and natural resources. This is the true objective, and the world and the international community must know it.”

Significantly, Ms. Rodríguez delivered her address alongside what she called Venezuela’s National Defense Council, which included the nation’s defense minister, attorney general and the heads of the country’s legislature and judiciary. That unified front directly contradicted Mr. Trump’s claim that the United States would run Venezuela, especially given that White House and Pentagon officials had said that U.S. aircraft and extraction forces had returned to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima.

Venezuela’s defense minister and attorney general also both publicly criticized Mr. Trump and the U.S. military action on Saturday.

In his news conference, Mr. Trump said that Venezuelan leaders must comply with the United States or else. “All political and military figures must realize that what happened to Maduro can happen to them,” he said.

Ms. Rodríguez’s speech also made clear that Mr. Maduro’s supporters — including her — still see him as the nation’s legitimate leader.

She repeatedly said that Mr. Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president” and even the text on Venezuelan state television labeled her as vice president. When she ended, the state broadcaster said that Ms. Rodríguez was the vice president who had just stated that Mr. Maduro was Venezuela’s president.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:13 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Aric Toler

A video shows three U.S. military helicopters flying over Caracas and headed westward toward Fuerte Tiuna, the largest military site in Venezuela. At the end of the video, at least one of the helicopters turns southward, and descends toward the military site.

The man filming the video gives a time of 1:58 a.m. Saturday. According to General Dan Caine in the news conference held at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday, helicopters touched down to capture President Maduro in Caracas at 2:01 a.m.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:12 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Adam Sella

Protesters are dispersing after a nearly two hour protest outside the White House against the Trump administration’s capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The protesters, which numbered a couple hundred at its peak, held signs saying “U.S. out of the Caribbean” and “No Blood for oil.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:07 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee expressed shock and anger at President Trump’s decision to capture Nicolás Maduro and have the U.S. run Venezuela for the foreseeable future. “Trump clearly has no idea what comes next,” Representative Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington, said in a telephone interview. “How are we going to run Venezuela when we have no presence in the country. Where does this go?”

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:00 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ashley Ahn

Trump shares an image of Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed.

President Trump posted a photograph on social media on Saturday that he said was of the captured Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, on board a U.S. warship hours after the United States seized him in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

The picture showed a man in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, blindfolded and handcuffed with a bottle of water in his right hand.

“Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima,” Mr. Trump captioned the photo, minutes before he addressed the nation from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, and announced that America was “going to run” Venezuela.

The U.S.S. Iwo Jima is an amphibious assault ship and one of the American warships that have been prowling the Caribbean in recent weeks; it brought aboard survivors of an American boat strike in October.

Mr. Trump made the post on Truth Social on Saturday before a news conference in which he discussed the American strikes that led to Mr. Maduro’s capture.

Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken from Caracas, the capital, by helicopter to the Iwo Jima, the president said in an interview with “Fox and Friends.”

“A nice flight,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m sure they loved it. But they’ve killed a lot of people.”

Mr. Maduro and his wife were en route Saturday to New York, where they will face indictments charging them with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.

The photo of what appears to be Mr. Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed was striking as it was the first photo of the captured leader made public after the attack. It came hours after Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Mr. Maduro’s vice president, demanded the United States provide proof that Mr. Maduro and his wife were still alive.

Mr. Trump said he and his team had watched the raid on video feeds as it occurred, subsequently posting what appeared to be photos of himself and other senior cabinet members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, watching the attack in real time.

Iconic photos documenting key moments in American military operations have often come from the Situation Room in the White House, where former President Barack Obama and his national security team observed the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, and Mr. Trump and his team monitored the operation that eliminated Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of the Islamic State, during his first term. Photos of those targets, who were both killed, were not released to the public.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:44 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Aimee OrtizHannah Ziegler and Yan Zhuang

Here’s what we know about the U.S. operation in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s ousted president, Nicolás Maduro, appeared before a judge in New York on Monday to face drug and weapons charges, two days after he was captured in a U.S. military raid on Caracas.

“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I am a decent man,” Mr. Maduro said in court through an interpreter. He added, “I am still president of my country.”

The fallout for Venezuela is still far from clear. The acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, raised the prospect of dialogue with the United States on Sunday — an apparent shift from the defiance that top Venezuelan officials had shown in the face of President Trump’s claim that the United States would “run” the country for the foreseeable future and reclaim American oil interests there.

The U.S. raid followed a monthslong campaign by the Trump administration to oust Mr. Maduro, an authoritarian leader.

Here’s what we know:

What happened?

The United States carried out “a large scale strike against Venezuela” in which Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured, Mr. Trump said.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference that Mr. Trump ordered the operation late Friday. The mission involved 150 aircraft that worked to dismantle Venezuelan air defenses so military helicopters could deliver troops to Caracas, the country’s capital, he said.

The mission took about two hours 20 minutes and continued into early Saturday, when Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores “gave up,” General Caine said.

U.S. forces encountered significant resistance, Mr. Trump said. At least 80 people were killed, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports. Cuban state media reported that 32 Cubans were killed in the U.S. attack. President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba said they were from Cuba’s armed forces or its interior ministry.

No Americans were killed, Mr. Trump said. Two U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said that about half a dozen soldiers were injured in the operation. Nearly 200 Special Operations forces took part in the raid, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Did Trump have the authority to capture Maduro?

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a news conference on Saturday that it would not have been possible to inform U.S. lawmakers in advance of the strike. He and Mr. Trump described the mission as a law enforcement operation rather than a military action, which would have required greater congressional oversight.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting to discuss the attack. António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned” that the United States had not respected the rule of international law. Trump administration officials also plan to brief leaders in Congress, after Democrats called on the administration to explain its legal justification for the raid and its plan for the region.

Mr. Maduro, a self-described socialist, had led Venezuela since 2013. The Biden administration accused him of stealing the 2024 election that kept him in power.

Who is in charge of Venezuela now?

The country’s new leader is Ms. Rodríguez. She was Mr. Maduro’s vice president, known as an economic troubleshooter.

Mr. Trump said on Saturday that the United States intended to “run the country” until a transition of power could take place. He said Ms. Rodríguez was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”

On Sunday, Mr. Rubio said the U.S. military would maintain a “quarantine” around Venezuela to prevent the entry and exit of oil tankers under American sanctions and to maintain “leverage” over the country.

Ms. Rodríguez, who has vacillated in her criticism of the Trump administration after the raid in Caracas, was formally sworn in on Monday. During the ceremony, she maintained that Mr. Maduro was the president and said she was pained by the “illegitimate military aggression” of Venezuela by the United States. Ms. Rodríguez described Mr. Maduro and his wife as hostages.

Separately, Venezuela’s main opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has asked that her political ally, Edmundo González, be recognized as Venezuela’s president immediately.

In his own video statement on Sunday, Mr. González referred to himself as the president of Venezuela and called for political prisoners to be released.

What will happen to Maduro?

Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores were brought to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Monday. An unsealed indictment charged him with narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracies and possession of machine guns — charges that would carry lengthy prison sentences if he were convicted. Ms. Flores is also charged in the cocaine conspiracy.

Mr. Maduro, speaking in Spanish, told the court that he had been “kidnapped,” and pleaded not guilty to all four counts against him. The next hearing is scheduled for March 17, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said.

His court appearance drew dozens of demonstrators — both critics and supporters of Mr. Maduro’s capture — who were separated by a metal barrier outside the courthouse.

The indictment appears similar to a 2020 indictment against Mr. Maduro that accused him of overseeing a violent drug organization known as Cartel de los Soles.

Analysts have said that Cartel de los Soles does not exist as a literal organization, and that the term has been used more broadly to describe the alleged involvement of high-ranking Venezuelan military officers in the drug trade. However, no evidence has been publicly disclosed showing Mr. Maduro directing the effort.

When the 2020 indictment was issued, the Trump administration set a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Maduro. The Biden administration increased the bounty to $25 million in January 2025. The Trump administration then increased the reward in August to $50 million.

Amanda Holpuch, Alexandra E. Petri and Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:40 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

Reporting from Mexico City

Venezuela broadcasts messages of resistance from Maduro loyalists after the U.S. attack.

Hours after President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured by U.S. forces, Venezuela’s state-run television was broadcasting rallies and protests taking place across several cities, including the capital, Caracas. Mr. Maduro’s supporters vowed to defend their country from what they described as an illegal attack and the kidnapping of their “legitimate” leader.

In interviews, residents and people close to Mr. Maduro’s government demanded the Trump administration to return him and the country’s first lady, Cilia Flores, safely to Venezuela.

The messages were broadcast entirely on state-run media programs. A free press does not exist in Venezuela because of years of government suppression and censorship.

Some people condemned the U.S. airstrikes that accompanied the capture of Mr. Maduro as a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter. Others were taking more direct action. In neighborhoods across Caracas and other cities, Venezuelans were seen in bulletproof vests activating local defense committees — groups essentially designed to turn every citizen into a soldier and every city block into a fortress.

“Everybody knows what they have to do,” said Pedro Infante, a high-ranking Venezuelan politician, as he was surrounded by supporters in a district of Miranda, one of the states hit overnight. “Prepare ourselves to defend our homeland and our sovereignty.”

Mr. Infante, who has been a central figure in both the legislative and executive branches under the governments of Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, accused the United States of wanting to steal Venezuela’s resources — specifically the country’s oil.

“Their fundamental interest is to gain control over our energy and resources” and “to have all the puppet governments on their knees,” he added.

Mr. Trump has said on several occasions that Venezuela stole oil and land belonging to the United States — referring to the nationalization of oil fields during which U.S. giants like ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips lost assets.

In a rally near the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Jorge Luis Márquez, a local resident, told a state-run television program that he was startled in the early morning by the explosions, which he called a “criminal bombing” orchestrated by President Trump.

“The people here are outraged and demand that the world speak out against this crime committed by Donald Trump’s dirty, rotten boot, which trampled on sacred ground,” Mr. Márquez said.

By Saturday morning, Venezuelan authorities were claiming that some of the bombs had struck civilian buildings.

In a televised address from La Guaira, the capital city of a coastal state hit overnight by the U.S. airstrikes, Gov. José Alejandro Terán condemned what he called a “terrorist action by the United States government,” adding that civilians had been targeted. He did not mention any deaths but said that several people, including women and children, had been sent to the region’s hospitals and clinics.

Mr. Terán also said that the city’s historic center had been attacked and that “more than 10 missiles” had destroyed several warehouses at the port — arguably Venezuela’s most strategically vital maritime hub — where, he claimed, important medicines for patients with renal failure were stored.

“There is nothing left to prove to the entire world,” Mr. Terán said. “There has been a systematic attack to the civilian population.”

In a live broadcast from Caracas, Erika Farías, a political organizer and a member of Mr. Maduro’s party, warned both the United States and the Venezuelan opposition that she and many others would not give in despite the attack on Saturday.

“To the empire, we say: Venezuela’s oil is ours, and return Nicolás Maduro to us,” Ms. Farías said. “And to the stateless traitors, we say: Prepare yourselves, because the people have just moved from unarmed struggle to armed struggle — and we are going to defend our freedom, our independence and our sovereignty in the streets.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:32 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maia Coleman

The family of James Luckey-Lange, a 28-year-old from Staten Island, N.Y., who is among the Americans who have been recently imprisoned in Venezuela, said they had not received any information about his whereabouts or been contacted by U.S. officials since the strikes on the country this morning.

“I remain hopeful and confident that the administration will prioritize the safety of the Americans over there,” Abbie Luckey, his aunt, said in a brief phone interview. Of the likelihood that the capture of President Maduro would hasten his return, she said: “I am more hopeful than I was 24 hours ago.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:32 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee lambasted President Trump’s plan to run Venezuela. “This is ludicrous,” said Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island. “No serious plan has been presented for how such an extraordinary undertaking would work or what it will cost the American people. History offers no shortage of warnings about the costs — human, strategic, and moral — of assuming we can govern another nation by force.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:28 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Stanley Reed

Reporting from London

Here’s what to know about the Venezuelan oil industry Trump says he will revive.

Venezuela

303 billion barrels

Saudi Arabia

267 billion barrels

Nearly half of the world’s proven oil reserves are in 12 countries in the Middle East.

Canada

159 billion barrels

United States

81 billion barrels

Russia

80 billion barrels

Libya

48 billion barrels

Nigeria

38 billion barrels

Note: Data shows estimates of proven oil reserves for 2025.

Source: Oil & Gas Journal.

Venezuela’s oil industry would “make a lot of money” with the United States behind it, President Trump said Saturday in a news conference to confirm the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who is facing federal drugs and weapons charges.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Mr. Trump said.

He said the Venezuelan oil industry had been “a total bust,” for a long time, adding, “They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping.”

Mr. Trump appears to be counting heavily on U.S. intervention in the oil industry to help transform Venezuela, a proposition that could prove to be complicated and expensive.

How much oil does Venezuela produce?

Venezuela claims to have more than 300 billion barrels in the ground, the largest reserves of oil of any country. But it struggles to produce about one million barrels a day, or around 1 percent of global production.

In addition, much of Venezuela’s oil is extra heavy, making it polluting and expensive to process.

Venezuela’s yearly oil production

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The New York Times

What is the state of the oil industry in Venezuela?

The industry has seen some recovery in recent years, but output is well below the more than two million barrels a day that Venezuela was producing in the early 2010s.

The national oil company, known as PDVSA, lacks the capital and expertise to increase production. The country’s oil fields are run down and suffer from “years of insufficient drilling, dilapidated infrastructure, frequent power cuts and equipment theft,” according to a recent study by Energy Aspects, a research firm. The United States has placed sanctions on Venezuelan oil, which is now exported primarily to China.

Are any Western oil companies involved there?

Chevron is the main Western oil company still operating in the country and produces about a quarter of Venezuela’s oil. Early in this century, when other companies were forced out, Chevron stayed, figuring that conditions might eventually improve.

Roughly half of Chevron’s production is exported to the United States.

On Saturday, Chevron said it was trying to ensure the safety of its employees and its operations in the country after Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested and removed in the U.S. military action.

The oil giant, based in Houston, has conducted operations in Venezuela since 1923 and has maintained five onshore and offshore production projects there.

“With more than a century in Venezuela, we support a peaceful, lawful transition that promotes stability and economic recovery,” said Kevin Slagle, a Chevron spokesman. “We’re prepared to work constructively with the U.S. government during this period, leveraging our experience and presence to strengthen U.S. energy security.”

Later on Saturday, Chevron said it had given an incorrect statement and issued a new one that removed mention of the U.S. government, saying: “We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.”

What would U.S. control of the country’s oil production mean?

In theory, if U.S. oil companies were given greater access in Venezuela, they could help gradually turn the industry around. “But it’s not going to be a straightforward proposition,” said Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics at Energy Aspects.

Analysts say increasing Venezuelan production will not be cheap. Energy Aspects estimated that adding another half a million barrels a day of production would cost $10 billion and take about two years.

Major increases might require “tens of billions of dollars over multiple years,” the firm said.

The overthrow of the Venezuelan government may offer opportunities for American oil companies, but they could also find themselves dragged into a messy situation, industry analysts say.

Pressure from Mr. Trump could “force them to play a quasi-governmental role on the capacity building and development front,” Helima Croft, head of commodities at the investment bank RBC Capital Markets, wrote on Saturday in an investment note.

She added that reducing military influence over the oil industry and the broader economy “could prove challenging.”

How will this affect oil prices?

Mr. Trump’s intervention in Venezuela is bound to send jitters through the oil markets, but analysts say that a major price jump is unlikely.

Venezuela is a relatively small producer and many analysts calculate that the oil market is currently oversupplied. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at $60.80 a barrel on Friday, near its lows for the year.

After Washington conducted its operation to remove Mr. Maduro, Third Bridge, a research firm, said in a note that it “did not see these events immediately impacting the price of crude oil or the cost of gasoline drivers see at the pump.”

Rebecca Elliott, Ivan Penn and Lazaro Gamio contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:28 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s new president on Saturday, but it was clear that Nicolás Maduro’s supporters — including her — still see him as the nation’s legitimate leader. She repeatedly said that Maduro was Venezuela’s “only president” and even the text on Venezuelan state television labeled her as vice president. When she ended, the state broadcaster immediately said that Rodríguez was the vice president who had just made clear that Maduro was Venezuela’s president.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:24 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

“There is only one president in this country, and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros,” Rodríguez said to thundering applause.

She added that Venezuela was open to having a respectful relationship with the Trump administration, but only within the framework of international and Venezuelan law. “That is the only type of relationship I will accept, after they have attacked and militarily assaulted our beloved nation,” she said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:17 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maria Abi-Habib

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, put on a display of force and unity in a live address to the nation, sitting with powerful military officials and other key government leaders as she denounced the United States. As she introduced each figure on live television, they nodded toward her in a show of deference as she demanded that Maduro was the rightful president of Venezuela. The display of force and unity undermined President Trump’s earlier comments that Washington would work with Rodríguez to run Venezuela.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:17 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president, was defiant as she spoke on live television.“If there is one thing that the Venezuelan people and this country are clear about,” she said, “it is that we will never again be slaves, that we will never again be a colony of any empire, whatever its nature.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:16 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, speaking in an address to the the nation, said Washington “launched an unprecedented military aggression” that “constitutes a terrible stain on the development of bilateral relations.” She said that with the invasion, “the masks had fallen off, revealing only one objective: regime change in Venezuela. This regime change would also allow for the seizure of our energy, mineral and natural resources. This is the true objective, and the world and the international community must know it.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:13 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s interim president, is delivering an address to the nation and taking a much more defiant tone than President Trump suggested. Trump said she had agreed to help the United States run Venezuela. She said the United States invaded Venezuela under false pretenses and that President Maduro is Venezuela’s “only president.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:10 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ivan Penn

Chevron, one of the leading private oil companies in Venezuela, said it was working to ensure the safety and security of its people and operation in the country after the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The oil company, based in Houston, has conducted operations in Venezuela since 1923 and has maintained five onshore and offshore production projects in the country. “With more than a century in Venezuela, we support a peaceful, lawful transition that promotes stability and economic recovery,” said Kevin Slagle, a Chevron spokesman. “We’re prepared to work constructively with the U.S. government during this period, leveraging our experience and presence to strengthen U.S. energy security.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:08 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

The New York Times

In Catia la Mar, a city just west of the Caracas airport, the air strikes hit a three-story civilian apartment complex, knocking out an exterior wall and killing at least one older woman, the victim’s family said.

The woman, Rosa González, died in the strike and a second person was seriously wounded, the family said. One woman in the building said she was hit and nearly lost her eye. Another person, a 70-year-old man named Jorge who declined to give his last name, said he “lost everything” when the bomb exploded.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:41 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, just days before she is expected to resign from Congress, accused President Trump of walking away from his promise to end overseas wars. “Americans’ disgust with our own government’s never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it, and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going,” Greene, a one-time Trump ally, posted on social media. “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:37 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maia Coleman

In his first public break with President Trump since taking office two days ago, Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City condemned the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, calling it “an act of war” and “violation of federal and international law.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:29 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William Rashbaum

With President Nicolás Maduro and his wife en route to New York, the next step in their case will come in federal court in Manhattan. They are expected to appear before a U.S. District Court judge in New York City on the four-count narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking indictment unsealed on Saturday morning. In similar cases, the defendants have been flown to Stewart Air National Guard Base, about 72 miles north of the city, and brought to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. While it is unclear when they will arrive, security will undoubtedly be tight. It is also unclear whether the Venezuelan leader and his wife are yet represented by defense lawyers.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:25 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

Even though General Caine did not identify the helicopter unit involved in the operation in Caracas, U.S. officials said it was the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which flies modified MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters. The 160th, nicknamed the Night Stalkers, specializes in high-risk, low-level, and nighttime missions like insertions, extractions and raids. The unit has conducted what the Pentagon calls training missions near the coast of Venezuela in recent months.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:24 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Stephen Hiltner

Several U.S. airlines, including Delta, American and Southwest, began cancelling flights to the Caribbean on Saturday morning, in compliance with airspace closures from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:22 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Glenn Thrush

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the extraction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from Venezuela was a “law enforcement” operation, yet the attorney general, Pam Bondi, who has not shied away from the spotlight, was a notable no-show at the news conference announcing what is, arguably, the most significant prosecution of her tenure.

Bondi spent the night and early morning hours watching live feeds inside a secure facility at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, not far from her home, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of her whereabouts who requested anonymity because of a lack of authorization to discuss the matter publicly. It is not clear if Bondi, who has access to government aircraft, would have had time to fly to New York, which takes around three hours.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:20 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Vice President JD Vance briefly met with President Trump at the president’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., during the day on Friday to discuss the impending strikes, but did not go to Mar-a-Lago that night, a spokesman said. The reason was the national security team worried a late-night motorcade movement by the vice president might tip off the Venezuelans.” Instead the vice president joined a secure video conference through the night to monitor the operation. He traveled to Cincinnati after the operation concluded and was not at Trump’s news conference.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:11 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Megan Mineiro

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the capture of Maduro was “entirely inconsistent” with what top officials told top lawmakers in closed-door briefings in recent weeks.

“Because the president and his cabinet repeatedly denied any intention of conducting regime change in Venezuela when briefing Congress, we are left with no understanding of how the Administration is preparing to mitigate risks to the U.S. and we have no information regarding a long-term strategy following today’s extraordinary escalation,” she said in statement.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:08 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jazmine Ulloa

Adelys Ferro, co-founder of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, a grassroots group representing Venezuelans in the United States, said asylum petitions and immigration proceedings for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans remain suspended. For them, the situation is particularly fraught. They have tried to prove that they have been targets of the Maduro regime in U.S. immigration courts, she said, but at the same time, the Trump administration has cast them as criminals and lawbreakers who should be deported.

“We are victims of the Nicolás Maduro regime, but we are also victims of the Trump administration policies,” she said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:01 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Delcy Rodríguez has been sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president in a secret ceremony in Caracas on Saturday, according to two people close to the government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears for their safety. Rodríguez is President Nicolás Maduro’s vice president.

Jan. 3, 2026, 1:00 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Steven Erlanger

Steven Erlanger covers diplomacy in Europe and beyond and wrote from Berlin.

Foreign leaders reacted with shock and skepticism to the U.S. capture of Maduro.

Despite the long American military buildup around Venezuela, the American raid on Caracas to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife produced initial reactions of shock, outrage and skepticism from international leaders, many of them troubled by an exercise of American gunboat diplomacy.

The reactions were particularly angry from Latin America and from leaders who are more on the left and who have struggled with President Trump and his trade, tariff and other policies in the region. Allies of Mr. Maduro, including Cuba and Russia, predictably condemned the American intervention, despite Russia’s own invasion of sovereign Ukraine nearly four years ago. And some, like a senior Mexican official, said that Mr. Trump was simply after Venezuela’s large oil deposits.

Shortly after President Trump announced that the United States would “run the country," European leaders appeared to largely support the end to Mr. Maduro’s rule and were more cautious to criticize Mr. Trump’s intervention.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany wrote on social media that “Maduro has led his country into ruin” and that the U.S. intervention was “complex” and required “careful consideration,” without going into further detail. “The objective” now, he added, “is an orderly transition to an elected government.”

President Emmanuel Macron of France wrote on X that the Venezuelan people could “only rejoice” at the end of Mr. Maduro’s dictatorship, and did not address the U.S. approach. Before Mr. Trump’s announcement, however, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, wrote on social media that the military operation “violates the principle of non-resort to force that underpins international law.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil was particularly scathing. He condemned the U.S. action and said it recalled “the worst moments of interference in the politics” of the region.

“The bombings on Venezuelan territory and the capture of its president cross an unacceptable line,” Mr. Lula wrote on social media. “These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia wrote on X that he rejected “the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.” He added that he was deploying forces to Colombia’s border with Venezuela, with additional support “in the event of a massive influx of refugees.”

And President Gabriel Boric of Chile, a leftist whose term is coming to an end, also condemned the intervention. “We express our concern and condemnation of the military actions by the United States taking place in Venezuela, and we call for seeking a peaceful solution to the serious crisis affecting the country,” he said on social media. Like many, he called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, a Maduro ally, denounced “a criminal attack” by the United States and called for “urgent reaction” from the world.

The reaction of Russia, another ally of Mr. Maduro, was strongly worded and apparently without irony. Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago and is still at war there, condemned the U.S. military action as “an act of armed aggression against Venezuela.” The Russian foreign ministry, in a statement, called the American attack “deeply concerning and condemnable,” adding: “Ideological hostility has triumphed over businesslike pragmatism.”

Russia said that it supported the leadership of Venezuela and called for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the American intervention.

Iran, which has also been threatened in the last few days by Mr. Trump, issued a statement on Saturday condemning the U.S. attack and accusing the United States of violating the United Nations Charter.

But Mr. Trump had supporters in the region, too. President Javier Milei of Argentina celebrated the capture of Mr. Maduro. “Liberty advances,” he wrote on X.

And Prime Minister Kamla Susheila Persad-Bissessar of neighboring Trinidad and Tobago, who drew criticism for her support of Mr. Trump’s military buildup against Mr. Maduro in the name of combating drug trafficking, emphasized that her country played no role in the American operation and maintains peaceful relations with Venezuela.

The Venezuela intervention in the name of countering drug smuggling recalled to many the invasion of Panama in 1989. Back then, American forces captured Manuel Antonio Noriega, the ruler of Panama, and brought him to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking. He was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, ultimately serving 17 years after a reduction in his sentence for good behavior. He died in Panamanian custody in 2017.

The Mexican government “condemned energetically” Washington’s unilateral military action in Venezuela, warned of regional instability and urged dialogue, according to a statement from the country’s foreign ministry. “Mexico makes an urgent call to respect international law, as well as the principles and purposes of the U.N. Charter, and to cease any act of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people,” read the statement, which was posted on X by President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico.

Gerardo Fernández Noroña, the former president of Mexico’s Senate and an influential leader of the country’s governing Morena party, said the U.S. actions were aimed at taking control of Venezuela’s oil. “President Maduro has not been captured; he was deprived of his liberty through a military intervention by the United States government,” Mr. Fernández Noroña said on social media. “He is a prisoner of war. They seek through this to subdue the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in order to seize its natural resources.”

Canada, which like Mexico has a tense relationship with the Trump administration and faces a difficult year of trade negotiations ahead, stopped short of condemning the U.S. actions in Venezuela.

“Canada has long supported a peaceful, negotiated, and Venezuelan-led transition process that respects the democratic will of the Venezuelan people,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said in a statement, adding, “In keeping with our longstanding commitment to upholding the rule of law, sovereignty, and human rights, Canada calls on all parties to respect international law.”

The Europeans were similarly circumspect. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said she had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about events in Venezuela. “The EU is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela,” she wrote in a social media post. “The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint. The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority.”

The president of the European Council, António Costa, said on Saturday that the European Union wants de-escalation in Venezuela. Mr. Costa wrote on X that the E.U. “would continue to support a peaceful, democratic, and inclusive solution in Venezuela.”

Spain, with its close ties to Latin America, offered to mediate in the crisis in an attempt to broker a negotiated and peaceful solution. “Spain calls for de-escalation and restraint,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was prepared to support a “democratic, negotiated, and peaceful solution.”

As news emerged of the U.S. intervention, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain was also cautious to take an outright position, saying “I will want to talk to the president” and to allies to “establish the facts.” After Mr. Trump’s announcement, he wrote on X that the U.K. shed “no tears” about the end of Mr. Maduro’s regime and would “discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts” in hopes of a peaceful transition.

The Europeans have been mostly consumed with Ukraine and helping President Volodymyr Zelensky refine a peace proposal that would satisfy Mr. Trump and then be presented to Russia, which has already made it clear that it is unacceptable in current form. On Saturday, the national security advisers of the main European countries were in Kyiv on that matter, which is of more strategic importance to the Europeans than the fate of Mr. Maduro.

Ukraine itself largely supported the actions of Mr. Trump. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha argued that Ukraine defended “the right of nations to live freely, free of dictatorship, oppression and human rights violations.” He accused Mr. Maduro’s government of having “violated all such principles in every respect.”

Perhaps the most interesting criticism of Mr. Trump came from Jordan Bardella, the likely presidential candidate of France’s far right National Rally party, which has received support from Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

“No one will miss” the Maduro regime, Mr. Bardella said on social media. “That said, respect for international law and the sovereignty of states cannot be applied selectively,” he added. “The forcible overthrow of a government from the outside cannot constitute an acceptable response, only exacerbating the geopolitical instability of our time.”

In the face of such intervention, he added, France must “rearm our nation, to strengthen our industrial and military capabilities,” in order to “make its independent voice heard on the international stage, one that respects sovereignties.”

Reporting was contributed by Ana Ionova, Annie Correal, Simon Romero, Genevieve Glatsky, Emma Bubola, Maria Abi-Habib, Jason Horowitz, Lizzie Dearden, Jeanna Smialek, Leily Nikounazar, Matina Stevis-Gridneffand Pranav Baskar.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:50 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Trump’s news conference raises many questions. Who exactly will be running Venezuela, as he stated the United States would do for a period of time? Trump indicated there will be a U.S. military presence in Venezuela “as it pertains to oil.” What will that look like and how many U.S. troops could be deployed?

Amid all the questions, Trump did make clear one thing: This military operation was not just about ousting a leader accused of drug trafficking, but also about expanding U.S. access to Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:49 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

That was one of the most consequential news conferences of Trump’s two presidential terms, but it remains unclear what will follow.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:46 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump’s news conference has concluded. The biggest takeaway, of course, is Trump’s announcement that the United States would “run” Venezuela, and the lack of details about how that will work. But it’s also striking how much the president focused on oil and how central that will be to how the United States runs the country.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:38 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

Asked about the potential presence of U.S. forces in Venezuela, Trump said that there would be a “presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:34 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Trump has made various comments during this news conference showing that this military operation was at least in part about gaining more access to oil in Venezuela.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:33 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

When asked how running Venezuela follows Trump’s long-stated goal of putting “America First,” the president said, “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:32 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

When asked how much running Venezuela, potentially for years, will cost, Trump said: “It won’t cost us anything.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:31 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Trump says that Rubio has spoken to the newly sworn-in Venezuelan president and she has said she would support what they are doing.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:30 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Trump’s suggestion that Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, would help the United States run the country was stunning because it came just as Venezuelan state television was playing a clip of her denouncing the U.S. military operation.

“Faced with this brutal situation and this brutal attack, we do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores,” Rodríguez said, according to a clip played by Venezuelan state television on Saturday. “We demand immediate proof of life for President Maduro and the first lady from the government of President Donald Trump.”

But Trump just told reporters that Marco Rubio had spoken with her with a different result. “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” Trump said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:29 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Asked why running a country elsewhere in the Americas is “America First,” Trump said, “I think it is,” citing the need for oil and energy. It’s worth recalling his quote to The Atlantic in which he said that America First is whatever he says it is.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:29 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Trump says Rubio and Hegseth will be a “team” working with the people of Venezuela to run Venezuela for this uncertain period of time. It’s unclear who those Venezuelans will be.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:28 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Trump has long had an interest in procuring the oil of other countries, including during his first term.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:28 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

Asked how long the United States would occupy Venezuela, Trump said, “I’d like to do it quickly, but it takes a period of time.” He said that the United States would be selling Venezuelan oil to China and other nations.

“We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries,” Trump says.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:26 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump is demonstrating how much this effort is about securing access to oil. When asked about the timeline for the U.S. involvement in the country, he immediately turned to rebuilding oil assets.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:26 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maria Abi-Habib

President Trump indicated that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez had been sworn in as president of Venezuela. But earlier on Saturday, Rodríguez denounced Washington’s military actions and Maduro’s capture.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:25 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

Asked about the mixed results of U.S. intervention and sponsorship of coups in Latin America, Trump said, “Not with me.”

“We have a perfect record of winning,” he added.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:24 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Pressed by reporters on who would be running Venezuela, Trump points to his advisers standing behind him and says that for a “period of time” the “people that are standing right behind me, we’re going to be running it.”

Some of the advisers standing behind him include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Trump said the United States would be a part of an unspecified “group” running Venezuela without providing details.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:22 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Rubio said this was not the kind of mission for which you could give Congress notice in advance. He said it was “largely a law-enforcement” operation.

But Trump quickly stepped in. “Congress has a tendency to leak,” Trump said, before adding that “they knew we were coming.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:19 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have” them, Trump said. This is the opposite of what his administration has repeatedly said its posture is.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:19 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

“We are going to run the country right,″ Trump said as he turned to oil. “It’s going to make a lot of money.” Then he added, about past Venezuelan governments, “they stole our oil.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:18 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Asked who’s running Venezuela, Trump said “a group” and immediately turned to the oil industry. He said oil companies would be paying to rebuild the infrastructure.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:17 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said that Nicolás Maduro could have left Venezuela and been living in another country, but “he wanted to play big boy.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:17 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

Trump’s statement that “we are going to run the country,” is remarkable for a president who led a political campaign largely opposed to prolonged overseas conflicts and regime changes.

The statement has prompted many operational questions over how exactly the United States will assert control over Venezuela. Who exactly will be running the nation and for how long?

The statement alone also raises political questions over whether this operation undercuts a campaign promise central to his political identity and support.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:14 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

While Trump said the United States would run Venezuela, some of Maduro’s top deputies were still on Venezuelan state television on Saturday slamming the United States.

Venezuela’s defense minister and attorney general, as well as several governors, all gave defiant statements, calling for an international rejection of the U.S. military operation and saying they still ran the country. State TV has also shown numerous small pro-Maduro rallies from around the country.

Trump said Venezuelan leaders must comply with the United States or else. “All political and military figures must realize that what happened to Maduro can happen to them,” he said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:12 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

General Caine said another team of helicopters was called in to extract Maduro and his wife, and took fire along the way. He said the whole operation happened over about two hours and 20 minutes.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:11 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

General Caine said that U.S. warplanes dismantled Venezuelan air defenses so that American military helicopters could go into Caracas. “One of our aircraft was hit but remained flyable,” Caine said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:09 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

General Caine says the youngest crewmember was 20, the oldest 49, and the military force was followed by an “extraction force” to get Maduro.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:07 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the mission drew on decades of experience fighting terrorists in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Africa.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:06 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Caine said this operation involved 150 aircraft launching across the hemisphere, in some of the most detailed description the U.S. government has given so far.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:05 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

John Ismay

Pentagon reporter

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military mission in Venezuela was launched as part of a request from the Justice Department. He said the operation was named “Absolute Resolve.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:03 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonah Bromwich

The indictment charging Maduro in Manhattan does not reflect the accusations that Trump just lobbed at the Veneuzuelan president about his ties to Tren de Aragua. Though the leader of the gang, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, is one of the defendants, the indictment does not appear to explicitly tie him to Maduro, instead accusing him more generally of working with members of the Venezuelan government.

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:01 p.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

In declaring that the U.S. will be “running” Venezuela, the president has raised a host of questions: Will the United States have an occupying military force? Will it install a pliant government for some number of years? Will it run the courts, and determine who pumps the oil? All of this, of course, could enmesh the United States in the kind of “forever wars” Trump’s MAGA base has rejected.

Trump did talk at some length about bringing in American oil companies to remake the energy infrastucture and, presumably, regain rights it once held to exploit the oil reserves.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:58 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

There are no signs of U.S. military presence in the country and the United States closed the embassy in Caracas in 2019, so it is unclear how the Trump administration would run Venezuela, as the president claims.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:56 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

White House reporter

As he justifies the military operation in Venezuela, Trump argued that Maduro sent members of Tren de Aragua to the United States to terrorize American communities. Trump’s own intelligence community earlier this year undercut that claim, finding that the gang was not controlled by the Venezuelan government.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:55 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Trump has offered no details about what the United States running Venezuela looks like. Will there be an American official placed there in a leadership position?

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:53 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Trump has segued from talking about the Venezuela operation to talking about crime in Washington, falsely claiming there have been no murders in Washington, D.C., in the last seven months (and the National Guard has only been there since mid-August).

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:52 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

For all the rationales the Trump administration gave about trying to curtail illegal drug trafficking, this effort to knock Maduro out of power amounted to regime change, a fact that Trump is not masking in this news conference.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:48 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

Trump referred to a “partnership” between Venezuela and the United States, which he said would make Venezuelans “rich, independent and safe.” Of course, this was a partnership accomplished by a government overthrow.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:48 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

“We were prepared to do a second wave” after the first attack, Trump said but ultimately it was not necessary because of the success of the first. He added that the United States was ready to do so in the future if needed.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:47 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

Trump put no time limit on the American occupation. It would be up to the United States to decide when to return the country to Venezuelan control. And then he turned to oil, saying that American companies would fix the infrastructure, “and start making money for the country.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:46 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

“We are going to run the country until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said, suggesting an occupation. The United States has done this before, in Germany, in Japan, and of course Iraq. But the history is checkered.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:45 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

What comes next in terms of Venezuelan leadership is unclear, Trump said, the United States would be in charge until there is a clear safe transition. He emphasized it three times.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:44 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

“We are going to run the country,” Trump said of Venezuela. He said he did not want the Maduro regime to continue with another leader.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:43 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

“They knew we were coming,″ Trump said, arguing the Venezuelan military was quickly overwhelmed. “Not a single American service member was killed,″ he said, though earlier he suggested there were casualties.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:42 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

Trump suggested the United States turned off the power in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. He didn’t say how, but either a direct physical attack on the grid, or a cyberattack, would be the most likely method.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:42 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

David E. Sanger

White House reporter

Trump opens by saying “overwhelming American military power” was used, from “air, land and sea” to seize Maduro, and he also compared it to other operations he ordered, including the attack in June on Iran’s nuclear sites. He contends that “no other nation” could pull off this kind of operation.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:41 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Maggie Haberman

White House reporter

Trump began his Mar-a-Lago news conference saying the Venezuela operation was a force the likes of which hadn’t been seen since World War II. Trump, who has been awake virtually all night, looks and sounds fatigued.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:40 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump is surrounded by a number of his national security officials: Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Dan Caine, John Ratcliffe and Stephen Miller. Steve Witkoff and Kash Patel are also on the room but standing off to the side.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:37 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee praised Maduro’s capture. “This arrest was the culmination of a monthslong effort by the Trump administration to degrade the narco-terrorist organizations that Maduro oversaw,” said Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of MIssissippi. He called on the administration for a briefing as soon as possible to hear from senior military and law enforcement leaders about the operation.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:32 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump just posted a photo on Truth Social that he said is of Maduro aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. The picture shows Maduro in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants. He is blindfolded and handcuffed and has large headphones on.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:27 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

As President Trump prepares to speak about the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, there is quite a split screen with Venezuelan state television. The main government channel is broadcasting a pro-Venezuela rally in Cuba, where speakers are denouncing Trump as a dictator, with an all-caps chyron that says: “The empire kidnapped them. We want them back.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:18 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julian E. Barnes, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt

Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt reported from Washington. Tyler Pager reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Trump says he watched the capture of Maduro in real time.

In August, a clandestine team of C.I.A. officers slipped into Venezuela with a plan to collect information on Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president, whom the Trump administration had labeled a narco-terrorist.

The C.I.A. team moved about Caracas, remaining undetected for months while it was in the country. The intelligence gathered about the Venezuelan leader’s daily movements — combined with a human source close to Mr. Maduro and a fleet of stealth drones flying secretly above — enabled the agency to map out minute details about his routines.

It was a highly dangerous mission. With the U.S. embassy closed, the C.I.A. officers could not operate under the cloak of diplomatic cover. But it was highly successful. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference that because of the intelligence gathered by the team, the United States knew where Mr. Maduro moved, what he ate and even what pets he kept.

That information was critical to the ensuing military operation, a pre-dawn raid Saturday by elite Army Delta Force commandos, the riskiest U.S. military operation of its kind since members of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 killed Osama bin Laden in a safe house in Pakistan in 2011.

The result was a tactically precise and swiftly executed operation that extracted Mr. Maduro from his country with no loss of American life, a result heralded by President Trump amid larger questions about the legality and rationale for the U.S. actions in Venezuela.

Mr. Trump has justified what was named Operation Absolute Resolve as a strike against drug trafficking. But Venezuela is hardly as big a player in the international drug trade as other countries. Officials had previously told congressional leaders that their objective in Venezuela was not regime change. And Mr. Trump has long said he opposes U.S. foreign occupations.

Yet on Saturday, the president proclaimed that American officials were in charge of Venezuela, and that the United States would rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure.

In contrast to messy U.S. interventions of the past — by the military in Panama or the C.I.A. in Cuba — the operation to grab Mr. Maduro was virtually flawless, according to multiple officials familiar with the details, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the plans.

In the run-up, Delta Force commandos rehearsed the extraction inside a full-scale model of Mr. Maduro’s compound that the Joint Special Operations Command had built in Kentucky. They practiced blowing through steel doors at ever-faster paces.

The military had been readying for days to execute the mission, waiting for good weather conditions and a time when the risk of civilian casualties would be minimized.

Amid the heightened tensions, Mr. Maduro had been rotating between six and eight locations, and the United States did not always learn where he intended to stay until late in the evenings. To execute the operation, the U.S. military needed confirmation that Mr. Maduro was at the compound they had trained to attack.

In the days leading up to the raid, the United States deployed increasing numbers of Special Operations aircraft, specialized electronic warfare planes, armed Reaper drones, search-and-rescue helicopters and fighter jets to the region — last-minute reinforcements that analysts said indicated the only question was when military action would happen, not if.

The United States had made other moves intended to ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Maduro and prepare for the raid to capture him. A week earlier, the C.I.A. had carried out a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela. And for months, the U.S. military has conducted a legally disputed campaign that has destroyed dozens of boats and killed at least 115 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

In recent days, Mr. Maduro tried to head off an American raid, offering the United States access to Venezuelan oil, Mr. Trump said Saturday. A U.S. official said the deal, offered on Dec. 23, would have had Mr. Maduro leave the country for Turkey. But Mr. Maduro angrily rejected that plan, the official said. It was clear, the official added, that Mr. Maduro was not serious.

The collapse of the talks set the stage for the capture mission, which culminated with Mr. Maduro flown to the United States and jailed in Brooklyn to face federal drug trafficking charges.

There was likely little doubt in the Venezuelan government that the United States was coming. But the military took pains to maintain so-called tactical surprise, like it did with its operation over the summer to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Mr. Trump had authorized the U.S. military to go ahead as early as Dec. 25, but left the precise timing to Pentagon officials and Special Operations planners to ensure that the attacking force was ready, and that conditions on the ground were optimal.

The U.S. military wanted to conduct the operation during the holiday period because many government officials were on vacation and because significant numbers of Venezuelan military personnel were on leave, according to a U.S. official.

Unseasonably bad weather pushed the operation off by several days. Earlier in the week, however, the weather cleared, and military commanders looked at a “rolling window” of targeting opportunities in the days ahead. Mr. Trump gave the final go order at 10:46 p.m. Friday.

Had the weather not cleared, the mission could have been pushed off until mid-January, one official said.

The operation officially got underway around 4:30 p.m. on Friday, when U.S. officials gave the first set of approvals to launch certain assets into the air. But that did not mean the full mission would be authorized. For the next six hours, officials continued to monitor the conditions on the ground, including the weather and Mr. Maduro’s whereabouts.

Mr. Trump spent the evening on the patio at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club, where he had dinner with aides and cabinet secretaries. The president’s aides told him that they would be calling him later that evening, around 10:30 p.m., for the final approval. Mr. Trump did so by phone, then joined his senior national security officials in a secure location on the property.

Inside Venezuela, the effort began with a cyberoperation that cut power to large swaths of Caracas, shrouding the city in darkness to allow the planes, drones and helicopters to approach undetected.

More than 150 military aircraft, including drones, fighter planes and bombers, took part in the mission, taking off from 20 different military bases and Navy ships.

As the aircraft advanced on Caracas, military and intelligence agencies determined that they had maintained tactical surprise: Mr. Maduro had not been warned that the operation was coming.

Early Saturday morning, thunderous explosions boomed across Caracas as U.S. warplanes struck at radar and air defense batteries. While some of the explosions posted on social media looked dramatic, a U.S. official said that they were mostly radar installations and radio transmission towers being taken out.

Later, General Caine told reporters that the fighter planes, bombers and drones came into Venezuela to find and destroy the country’s air defenses, to clear a safe pathway for the helicopters carrying Special Operations forces.

Even though Venezuelan air defenses were suppressed, the U.S. helicopters came under fire as they moved in on Mr. Maduro’s compound at about 2:01 a.m. local time. General Caine said the helicopters responded with “overwhelming force.”

One of the helicopters was hit. Two U.S. officials said that about half a dozen soldiers were injured in the overall operation.

The Delta Force operators assigned to capture Mr. Maduro were whisked to their target — on Venezuela’s most fortified military base — by an elite Army Special Operations aviation unit, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which flies modified MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters.

The 160th, nicknamed the Night Stalkers, specializes in high-risk, low-level and nighttime missions like insertions, extractions and raids. The unit conducted what the Pentagon called training missions near the coast of Venezuela in recent months.

Once on the ground, Delta Force moved quickly through the building to find Mr. Maduro. About 1,300 miles away, in a room inside Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump and key aides watched the raid play out in real time, courtesy of a camera positioned on an aircraft overhead.

As General Caine narrated the events on the screen, the president peppered him with questions about how the operation was unfolding.

“I watched it literally like I was watching a television show,” Mr. Trump said on Fox News Saturday morning.

As the president monitored the raid from Florida, the Delta Force operators used an explosive to enter the building.

The U.S. official said that the Special Operations forces took three minutes after blowing open the door to move through the building to Mr. Maduro’s location.

Mr. Trump said that once the Special Operations forces made it through the compound to Mr. Maduro’s room, the Venezuelan leader and his wife tried to escape into a steel-reinforced room, but were stopped by the U.S. forces.

“He was trying to get to a safe place,” Mr. Trump said during the news conference with General Caine, adding: “It was a very thick door, a very heavy door. But he was unable to get to that door. He made it to the door, he was unable to close it.”

About five minutes after entering the building, Delta Force reported that they had Mr. Maduro in custody.

The military was accompanied by an F.B.I. hostage negotiator in case Mr. Maduro had locked himself in a safe room or refused to surrender.

Those negotiations, however, proved unnecessary. The Delta operatives swiftly loaded the couple into the helicopters, which had returned to the compound. By 4:29 a.m. Caracas time, Mr. Maduro and his wife were transferred to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, a U.S. warship in the Caribbean stationed about 100 miles off the coast of Venezuela during the operation.

The couple was transferred from the Iwo Jima to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, where the F.B.I. had a 757 government plane waiting to bring him to a military-controlled airport north of Manhattan.

Mr. Trump watched until the Special Operations forces were out of Venezuela, flying over the ocean, an official said.

Mr. Trump said that the United States was prepared to conduct a second wave of attacks against Venezuela, but that he did not think it would be necessary. He issued a warning to other Venezuelan leaders: He would be willing to come after them, as well.

Reporting was contributed by Anatoly Kurmanaev and Mariana Martínez from Venezuela, Riley Mellen from New York and Carol Rosenberg from Miami.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:18 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ruth Igielnik

Before this operation, Americans largely did not support the idea of U.S. military activity in Venezuela. Just 25 percent of voters nationally — and about half of Republicans — supported military action in Venezuela, according to a December poll from Quinnipiac University.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:17 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Isabela Espadas Barros Leal and Genevieve Glatsky

A timeline of the rising tension between the U.S. and Venezuela.

President Trump on Saturday announced the capture of the authoritarian leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in a U.S. military operation that appeared to be the culmination of a campaign against Mr. Maduro by the president and other top American officials.

Mr. Maduro’s capture came after months of deadly U.S. strikes on supposed drug-carrying boats, the seizure of two tankers carrying Venezuelan oil and a U.S. military buildup off the South American country’s shores.

Here are some of the events that led to the breakdown in relations between the United States and Venezuela, and the effort to force Mr. Maduro from power.

March 2020: During Mr. Trump’s first term, the Justice Department indicted Mr. Maduro in a narco-terrorism and cocaine-trafficking conspiracy in which, prosecutors said, he helped lead a violent drug cartel that lasted for decades. Mr. Maduro condemned the charges, denying any involvement with drug trafficking.

July 2024: After a vote riddled with irregularities, Mr. Maduro was declared the winner of Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election. Independent monitors said the election was marred by fraud and that an opposition leader, Edmundo González, was its legitimate winner.

January 2025: The Biden administration recognized Mr. González, who had fled Venezuela after the election and was living in exile in Spain, as the legitimate leader of Venezuela as part of an effort to further isolate Mr. Maduro.

July: The Trump administration added Cartel de los Soles, which it described as a “Venezuela-based criminal group,” to a list of global terrorist groups and declared that Mr. Maduro was its leader. The Treasury Department said that Cartel de los Soles “provided material support” to Tren de Aragua, another cartel linked to Venezuela that the administration had designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

The administration treats Cartel de los Soles as an organized group, but some experts on Latin American crime characterize it as a network of corruption in Venezuela’s military and government.

Also in July, Mr. Trump signed a secret order directing the American military to use force against Latin American drug cartels that his administration identified as terrorist organizations.

August: The Pentagon began dispatching warships, fighter jets and thousands of troops into the Caribbean near Venezuela, increasing tensions in the region.

Aug. 7: Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the United States government had increased its reward for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Maduro to $50 million.

Sept. 2: Mr. Trump ordered a deadly strike on a Venezuelan boat that he claimed was carrying “terrorists” who were members of Tren de Aragua over international waters. Mr. Maduro later called the strike, which killed 11 people, a “heinous crime” and said the United States should have captured those onboard if they were believed to have been transporting drugs.

The American military struck two other small vessels in September, killing six more people, including one who was said to be a Colombian citizen. The strikes have been widely criticized as illegal.

Sept. 4: Two Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over American warships in the Caribbean in a show of force after the first deadly boat strike, a move the Pentagon described as “highly provocative.”

Sept. 6: Mr. Maduro sent a letter to Mr. Trump insisting that his country did not export drugs. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, later said that the White House had seen the letter but that it did not change the administration’s position on Venezuela.

Oct. 2: Mr. Trump instructed Richard Grenell, who is a special presidential envoy and the president of the Kennedy Center, to stop all diplomatic outreach to Venezuela. Mr. Grenell had been trying to negotiate a deal with Mr. Maduro that would have secured U.S. companies’ access to Venezuelan oil.

Oct. 8: Republicans in the Senate rejected a resolution to bar Mr. Trump from using military force against boats in the Caribbean Sea.

Oct. 15: Mr. Trump acknowledged that he had authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, telling reporters that the administration was “certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control.” The Venezuelan government said it would raise the matter with the United Nations Security Council.

Oct. 16: The U.S. military carried out a strike on a semisubmersible vessel in the Caribbean Sea, killing two men on board. Two other men were rescued by the U.S. military and repatriated within days to Colombia and Ecuador.

Oct. 17: The U.S. military said it killed three men and destroyed another boat it suspected of running drugs in the Caribbean Sea, this one alleged to have been affiliated with a Colombian insurgency group. It was the seventh boat known to have been attacked since early September.

Oct. 21: The United States struck a vessel that American officials suspected of carrying drugs in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia, expanding the Trump administration’s campaign past the Caribbean Sea. The strike killed two or three people, a U.S. official said. A second Pacific strike announced a day later killed three more people.

Oct. 23: Mr. Trump said at a news conference that he would not seek congressional approval for military strikes against drug cartels. “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?”

Oct. 24: The Pentagon announced that the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford and its accompanying warships and attack planes would be deployed to waters near Latin America. It came one day after two Air Force B-1 bombers flew near Venezuela.

Oct. 27: Another round of strikes on vessels in the Pacific killed 15 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth initially said one person had survived, but he was presumed dead after Mexican officials failed to find anyone in the water.

Oct. 31: María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s de facto opposition leader — who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October — told Bloomberg News that she had “no doubt that Nicolás Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez and many others are the masterminds of a system that has rigged elections in many countries, including the U.S.” The comments, which have been widely debunked, were criticized by former diplomats as well as critics of Mr. Maduro for seeming to provide justification for a potential invasion by the United States.

Nov. 2: Mr. Trump said in an interview on CBS News’s “60 Minutes” that he doubted the United States would go to war with Venezuela but would not fully rule out the possibility of land strikes. He accused Venezuela of treating the United States “very badly” and, when asked if Mr. Maduro’s days in office were numbered, said, “I would say yeah.”

Nov. 6: The United States struck a boat in the Caribbean, killing three people. That strike came after two others on the first week of November, one in the Caribbean and one in the Pacific, that killed five people.

Nov. 12: The United States carried out its 20th strike against the purported drug cartels. The strike killed four people and brought the total known death toll to 80.

Nov. 28: The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump and Mr. Maduro had spoken late the previous week, in a phone call that also included Mr. Rubio. The leaders discussed a possible meeting in the United States, though no plans were announced.

Nov. 29: Mr. Trump said on social media that the airspace “above and surrounding Venezuela” should be considered “closed in its entirety.” The president has no authority over Venezuelan airspace, but his post was expected to deter airlines from flying to the country.

Dec. 2: Mr. Hegseth addressed mounting concerns about the legality of the first strike on a Caribbean vessel, citing “the fog of war” in response to questions about whether the U.S. military committed a war crime when it killed two survivors of that attack in a second strike. Mr. Hegseth said he did not personally see survivors of the first strike and that Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of the operation, ordered the second strike.

Dec. 4: A strike in the Eastern Pacific killed four people at a moment of heightened scrutiny over the legality of the U.S. military’s campaign, and nearly two weeks since the previous boat attack.

Dec. 10: Mr. Trump announced that the U.S. had seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. U.S. officials said they expected additional seizures in the coming weeks, asserting that they were part of the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken Mr. Maduro’s government by undermining its oil market. One of the officials said that though the ship was carrying Venezuelan oil, it was seized because of its past links to smuggling illicit Iranian oil.

Dec. 11: Ms. Machado appeared in Oslo hours after missing the ceremony that awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize. Her emergence after more than a year in hiding thrust the opposition back onto the global stage at a volatile moment in U.S.-Venezuela relations. That same day the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and on relatives of Mr. Maduro while moving to block tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil aboard the seized oil tanker.

Dec. 15: The U.S. military struck three boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing eight people, in one of the deadliest days of the campaign. The military said the boats were traveling along a known narco-trafficking route.

Dec. 16: Mr. Trump ordered a “complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. In a social media post, Mr. Trump said Venezuela was “completely surrounded” by a growing U.S. naval presence, sharply escalating his efforts to disrupt the country’s oil exports. The move prompted Mr. Maduro to dispatch naval escorts for oil shipments sailing toward Asia.

Dec. 17: An attack in the Eastern Pacific killed four people in a strike the military said was carried out at the direction of Mr. Hegseth. The House rejected two resolutions that would have required Mr. Trump to seek congressional approval before attacking Venezuela and continuing the strikes.

Dec. 18: The military carried out two more strikes on boats in the Eastern Pacific, killing five people.

Dec. 19: Mr. Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Francis L. Donovan, a marine with extensive special operations and Middle East experience, to lead the U.S. Southern Command after the abrupt retirement of Adm. Alvin Holsey, who reportedly objected to the administration’s lethal boat strikes.

Dec. 20: The U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept the Bella 1, a stateless tanker under U.S. sanctions, for past Iranian oil shipments. Personnel on the ship did not allow it to be boarded and the vessel fled northeast into the Atlantic while broadcasting distress signals.

The Coast Guard also stopped and detained the Centuries, a Panamanian-flagged vessel carrying Venezuelan oil for a China-based trader. It was unclear how long the United States intended to detain the Centuries, as American authorities did not have a warrant to take possession of it.

Dec. 22: The U.S. military said a strike in the eastern Pacific targeted a boat that had been transporting drugs along known trafficking routes. One person was killed.

Dec. 23: Over several days, the U.S. military intensified operations in the Caribbean, sending multiple C-17 transport flights from bases across the country and Japan to Puerto Rico.

Late December: In the first known U.S. operation inside Venezuela, the C.I.A. carried out a drone strike on a port facility sometime during the fourth week of December, likely on Dec. 24. The strike hit a dock purportedly used for shipping narcotics and it did not kill anyone, people briefed on the operation said. News of the strike first came to light on Dec. 26, when Mr. Trump said in a radio interview that the U.S. had destroyed “a big facility” as part of its campaign against Venezuela.

Dec. 29: A strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific killed two people, according to the U.S. Southern Command. The command said on social media that the boat was engaged in “narco-trafficking operations.”

Dec. 30: Three people were killed aboard one boat during strikes on three boats traveling in a chain, according to the U.S. Southern Command, which announced the operation a day later.

Dec. 31: The U.S. military killed five people in a strike on two boats, the Southern Command said. The command did not provide further information about the boats’ location.

As of Dec. 31, at least 115 people had been killed in 35 boat strikes since Sept. 2.

Jan. 2: President Trump announced on social media that the United States had captured Mr. Maduro and was flying him out of Venezuela. Mr. Trump’s announcement came hours after the start of coordinated U.S. strikes on Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and other parts of the country. The strikes killed at least 80 people, according to a senior Venezuelan official.

Jan. 3: Mr. Maduro arrived in New York, where he and his wife were indicted on federal drug trafficking and weapons charges and held in a Brooklyn jail. Mr. Trump said in a news conference shortly after the announcement of Mr. Maduro’s capture that the United States would “run” Venezuela, though Mr. Maduro’s aides appeared to still be in power after the attack.

Jan. 4: After top Venezuelan officials fiercely condemned the U.S. attack, the country’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, struck a more conciliatory tone, asserting Venezuela’s right to sovereignty but offering to work on a “cooperative agenda” with the United States. Still, Mr. Trump reiterated his claim to have direct control over the country, saying the United States was “in charge” of Venezuela.

Jan. 5: Mr. Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other federal charges during their arraignment at a federal courthouse in Manhattan. Mr. Maduro told the judge he had been kidnapped. “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I am a decent man,” he said through an interpreter. He added, “I am still president of my country.”

Anushka Patil contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:10 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William Rashbaum

The new indictment tracks President Nicolás Maduro’s rise through the ranks of the Venezuelan government, accusing him of committing the crimes charged in the indictment every step of the way. “Since his early days in Venezuelan government, Maduro Moros has tarnished every public office he has held,” the indictment charged, using Maduro’s full Spanish surname. “As a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Maduro Moros moved loads of cocaine under the protection of Venezuelan law enforcement.”

The indictment continues: “As Venezuela’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maduro Moros provided Venezuelan diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and facilitated diplomatic cover for planes used by money launderers to repatriate drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela. As Venezuela’s President and now-de facto ruler, Maduro Moros allows cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:03 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

We are inside the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago awaiting the president’s news conference.

Jan. 3, 2026, 11:01 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Adam Sella

Reporting from Washington

Vice President JD Vance justifies Maduro’s capture as bringing him to justice.

Vice President JD Vance justified the U.S. operation that captured Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, as legal and necessary, praising it in a social media post on Saturday.

“PSA for everyone saying this was ‘illegal’: Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas,” he said, referring to the Venezuelan capital.

Mr. Maduro, Venezuela’s leader since 2013, has denied U.S. accusations that he controls drug trafficking groups.

Mr. Vance added that “the president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States.”

The “stolen oil” referred to a view within the administration that Venezuela illegally took American oil fields through nationalization.

The U.S. operation inside Venezuela to capture the country’s leader is the latest in a series of escalations. The United States has bombed suspected drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, has declared a blockade on some oil tankers coming to and from Venezuelan ports, and has seized or pursued several tankers.

While Mr. Vance has not been as vocal in the administration’s campaign against Venezuela as Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who have played key roles in it. Still, the vice president has regularly proved to be a stalwart defender of the administration.

In early September after the U.S. first struck a boat the administration said was trafficking narcotics, killing 11, Mr. Vance said on social media that “killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:54 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Farnaz Fassihi

United Nations bureau chief

Venezuela’s mission to the U.N. has requested an emergency Security Council meeting and has asked the Council to condemn the U.S. military strikes against the country.

Venezuela’s ambassador, Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta, said in a letter to the Council’s president: “The United States of America always uses lies to fabricate wars. It is an international tyranny imposed with the propaganda of death: the recent past confirms this.” Russia and China, allies of Venezuela and permanent members of the Council, have requested the Council convene an emergency meeting this weekend.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, posted a statement on social media, calling for national unity following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.

“Given his refusal to accept a negotiated exit, the government of the United States has fulfilled its promise to enforce the law,” she wrote. “We have struggled for years, we have given it our all, and it has been worth it. What had to happen is happening.”

Machado added that Edmundo González, who the U.S. has recognized as Venezuela’s President-elect, must “immediately” take office and be recognized as the country’s commander of the armed forces.

“Today we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power,” Machado said. “We are going to restore order, release the political prisoners, build an exceptional country, and bring our children back home.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:47 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William Rashbaum

A judge in the Southern District of New York has unsealed the new indictment against President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, which opens by saying that for 25 years the leaders of Venezuela have “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States.” The charges are the same as in the 2020 indictment, though there is more political rhetoric.

There are four counts in both indictments, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of machine guns, which, when combined with drug trafficking charges, carries a potentially lengthy prison sentence. Both indictments name six defendants, but the new one includes Maduro’s wife and son. It also names the minister of the interior, Diosado Cabello Rondon, who was charged before. It also adds two new defendants, while dropping three others who had been charged in 2020.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:46 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Annie Karni

Reporting from Washington

Trump didn’t seek congressional authorization to capture Maduro, and some lawmakers are concerned.

Republicans in Congress on Saturday cheered the Trump administration’s dramatic military action to capture President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, but top Democrats sounded alarms about the legality of the operation and said they would seek a quick vote to halt hostilities without express authorization.

The surprise nighttime operation — and President Trump’s declaration on Saturday that he planned to “run” Venezuela and use the U.S. military to guard its oil resources — all but guaranteed that lawmakers returning to Washington next week would instantly confront an intense debate about the situation.

That promised the latest test of whether the Republican-controlled House and Senate, which have deferred constantly to the president, would try to reassert any of their power in an election year.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said he would push for a vote next week on a war powers resolution to limit Mr. Trump’s ability to take further military action without explicit authorization by Congress.

Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had “blatantly” lied to Congress in recent briefings when they said the administration’s objective in Venezuela was not regime change.

Mr. Kim, a former national security official in the Obama administration, called the move to oust Mr. Maduro “disastrous,” arguing that it would further isolate the United States on the global stage.

“Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war,” he wrote on social media.

At a morning news conference in Palm Beach, Fla., the president indicated that he had purposefully skipped informing members of Congress before taking action in Venezuela because he did not trust lawmakers to keep his plans confidential.

“Congress has a tendency to leak,” Mr. Trump said.

And after Mr. Trump said at the same news conference that the United States would now “run” Venezuela, Mr. Schumer warned that such an idea “should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans.”

He called on the administration to immediately brief Congress on its plan “to prevent a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster that plunges us into another endless war or one that trades one corrupt dictator for another.”

Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, also called for a briefing, demanding that the Trump administration immediately present to Congress “compelling evidence to explain and justify this unauthorized use of military force.”

The House and the Senate are set to return to Washington next week after a long holiday break.

But Mr. Schumer said on Saturday afternoon that the administration had not responded to any request from congressional leaders for an immediate briefing.

“They have not given us any details and have not gotten back to us,” Mr. Schumer said during a conference call with reporters. “They kept everyone in the total dark.”

Most congressional Republicans rallied around the president’s action, in keeping with the extraordinary deference they have shown to Mr. Trump even as he has trampled over congressional prerogatives and contradicted his promises to extricate the United States from foreign conflicts.

Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said Mr. Maduro’s capture was “an important first step to bring him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States.” He called the operation a “decisive action” by Mr. Trump.

Speaker Mike Johnson called the operation “decisive and justified,” and said in a statement that the Trump administration was “working to schedule briefings for members as Congress returns to Washington.”

But even some Republicans gently pressed for more answers from the Trump administration.

“I look forward to hearing more about the Administration’s plans for a positive transition in the days ahead,” Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, said online, while also praising the military personnel who carried out the capture of Mr. Maduro.

And others said the operation ran counter to Mr. Trump’s “America First” promises.

“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the right-wing Republican from Georgia who is set to vacate her position as lawmakers return to Washington, wrote in a lengthy social media post. “Boy were we wrong.”

Many Democrats called Mr. Maduro’s apprehension good news, but said the way in which it was done raised serious questions.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who represents a district in which Venezuelan immigrants cheered the news, said that Mr. Maduro’s capture was “welcome.” But she added: “I’ll demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort. The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime.”

At least one Democratic candidate running for office in this year’s midterm elections was quick to condemn Republicans in Congress for having failed to stand up to Mr. Trump when they could have, helping to set the stage for what they called an unauthorized large-scale strike on Venezuela.

Graham Platner, a veteran and a progressive Democrat running for Senate in Maine, noted that Senator Susan Collins, the Republican he is challenging, voted with most members of her party against a Senate resolution to block the president from invading Venezuela without congressional authorization. “From Iraq to Venezuela, you can count on Susan Collins to enable illegal foreign wars,” he wrote online.

And the top Democrats on the national security, intelligence and armed services committees all condemned the action even as they denounced Mr. Maduro.

“Last night, President Trump waged war on a foreign nation without authorization, without notification, and without any explanation to the American people,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “Whatever comes next, President Trump will own the consequences.”

At least one Republican expressed concern early Saturday about the operation, but later said he was satisfied with the explanation that Mr. Rubio had given him in a phone call. In an initial post on Saturday morning, Mr. Lee said he wanted to know “what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action” in the absence of congressional authorization for military force.

But in a second post hours later, Mr. Lee wrote that Mr. Rubio had told him that Mr. Maduro had been “arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.” He added: “This action likely falls within the president’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack.”

Mr. Lee also said that Mr. Rubio “anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”

That post came hours before Mr. Trump told reporters that the United States would effectively be running Venezuela and that a U.S. military presence would remain there “as it pertains to oil.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:39 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julian E. Barnes

The C.I.A. had a group of officers on the ground in Venezuela working clandestinely beginning in August, according to a person familiar with the agency’s work. The officers gathered information about Maduro’s “pattern of life” and movements that was important as the U.S. developed intelligence about his whereabouts and movements.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:31 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez is in Caracas, according to three people close to her. Rodríguez is next in line to assume power, according to Venezuelan constitution. She remains the ruling party’s choice to succeed Maduro, said a fourth person, a senior Venezuelan official. The United States has called Mr. Maduro’s government illegitimate, and it’s unclear if the White House would accept Rodríguez as president.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:30 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega

When asked on Fox News if the attack in Venezuela were intended as a warning to President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, Trump seemed to signal they might. “Well, it wasn’t meant to be,” he replied. “We’re very friendly with her, she’s a good woman. But the cartels are running Mexico — she’s not running Mexico.”

Trump said Sheinbaum had repeatedly declined his offers to intervene against the cartels. “I’ve asked her numerous times, ‘Would you like us to take out the cartels?’” he said, adding that “something is going to have to be done with Mexico.”

His comments came even after his own officials have lauded Mexico for an unprecedented surge in cooperation, citing a record number of cartel arrests and successful fentanyl seizures.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:28 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

In an interview with Venezuelan state television, Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, called on Venezuelans to take to the streets against the U.S. military action in the country. “We are going to show the world what we are made of,” he said. State television has been broadcasting footage of small pro-Maduro rallies on Saturday.

Saab also demanded the United States produce proof that Maduro is alive, and he called on international organizations to denounce Maduro’s capture. “Before the world, I ask the United Nations at this moment to speak out. Where are the international human rights organizations?” he said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:26 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonah Bromwich

U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi has posted the unsealed indictment of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. At first glance, it appears quite similar to the 2020 indictment of the Venezuelan leader, charging him with narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracies. The charges also include possession of machine guns. When combined with drug trafficking charges, those gun charges carry strong prison sentences upon conviction.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:10 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Christopher Buckley

The Chinese foreign ministry said in response to the U.S. capture of Nicolás Maduro that it is “deeply shocked and strongly condemns the U.S. for recklessly using force against a sovereign state and targeting its president.” The ministry also said that the U.S. actions “seriously violate international law, violate Venezuela’s sovereignty, and threaten the peace and security of Latin America and the Caribbean.” A Chinese delegation visited with Maduro hours before his capture, according to photos posted on social media by the Venezuelan president.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:09 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Simon Romero and Anatoly Kurmanaev

Simon Romero reported from São Paulo, Brazil, and Anatoly Kurmanaev reported from Venezuela.

Maduro’s inner circle appeared to survive the U.S. strikes on Venezuela.

The United States captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. But Mr. Maduro’s inner circle appeared on Saturday morning to have survived the U.S. strikes on the country, though it was not immediately clear who was in power.

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is next in the presidential line of succession, figured among the Venezuelan officials issuing pronouncements or making public appearances after U.S. strikes on targets in the country.

While reports circulated that Ms. Rodríguez was in Russia at the time of the attacks, Ms. Rodríguez is in Caracas, according to three people close to her. Russian state media also denied reports that she was in Moscow.

Other top Maduro allies who appeared to survive the attacks included Vladimir Padrino López, the defense minister and Venezuela’s top ranking military officer; and Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister and one of Mr. Maduro’s top enforcers.

The survival of these officials suggests that Venezuela’s government remains functioning, at least shakily, in the hours after Mr. Maduro and the first lady were seized and extracted from the country.

If Mr. Maduro’s inner circle does remain intact and at the helm of Venezuela’s institutions, that also raises questions as to what happens next.

A war game run during President Trump’s first term assessed what may follow if Mr. Maduro were ousted, forecasting chaotic power struggles as military units, rival political factions and guerrilla groups vie for control of the country.

It is unclear how the intervention will influence the Venezuelan opposition’s ambitions to exercise power. Edmundo González, a retired diplomat, is considered the legitimate winner, by a wide margin, of a presidential election in 2024.

Unable to take office after the vote, Mr. González fled to Spain, ceding the spotlight to María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who had been barred from running and who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Trump appeared hesitant to throw his support behind Ms. Machado.

“Well, we have to look at it right now,” he said on Fox News on Saturday morning when asked if he would support her. “They have a vice president, as you know. I mean, I don’t know about what kind of an election that was, but, you know, the election of Maduro was a disgrace.”

Mr. Trump also suggested that his administration would continue to target Venezuelan government officials if they side with Mr. Maduro.

“If they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them,” he said.

Speaking by telephone on state television, Ms. Rodríguez, the vice president, invoked what she described as Mr. Maduro’s “instructions,” and called on the people and the armed forces to defend Venezuela.

Ms. Rodríguez also asked Mr. Trump to provide proof that Mr. Maduro is alive and condemned the U.S. intervention as an act of “military aggression” that violated the country’s sovereignty.

Educated partly in France, Ms. Rodríguez spearheaded a market-friendly overhaul which had provided, before the U.S. military campaign targeting Mr. Maduro, a semblance of stability in Venezuela’s economy after a prolonged collapse.

Her older brother, Jorge Rodríguez, another member of the inner circle who is the president of the National Assembly and Mr. Maduro’s chief political strategist, shared a statement on Telegram from Ms. Rodríguez calling the intervention a plot to seize Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Separately, Mr. Cabello, the interior minister, appeared on state television and urged Venezuelans to support Mr. Maduro’s government. While allied with Mr. Maduro, Mr. Cabello is also viewed as an internal rival in Venezuela’s power structures.

Mr. Cabello, a retired military figure, is at the helm of Venezuela’s repression apparatus. As a hard-liner with a caustic political style, his public profile had been on the rise as the U.S. intensified its campaign against Venezuela in recent weeks.

The defense minister, Mr. Padrino López, also appeared on state television after the U.S. attacks, calling them an act of “criminal military aggression.” He is known as a survivor of political upheaval in Venezuela, holding his role for the last 11 years.

Genevieve Glatsky contributed from Bogotá, Colombia, and Jack Nicas from Mexico City.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:07 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, appeared to endorse the capture of Nicolás Maduro, writing on X that “all the narco chavista criminals, your time is coming,” and voicing support for Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:07 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Robert Jimison

Reporting on Congress

Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, said the mission to capture Maduro was “great for the future of Venezuelans and the region,” but he warned that it could hand authoritarian powers a justification for aggression elsewhere. “My main concern is now Russia will use this to justify their illegal and barbaric military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan,” he wrote in a social media post.

Jan. 3, 2026, 10:03 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Megan Mineiro

Senator John Thune, the Republican majority leader, said the U.S. capture of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, was “an important first step to bring him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States.” He called the operation a “decisive action” by President Trump.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:57 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Valerie Hopkins

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said he had spoken to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez by telephone. Lavrov “expressed firm solidarity with the people of Venezuela in the face of armed aggression” and said Moscow would “continue to support” the government, according to a summary of the conversation published by the ministry.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:56 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Farnaz Fassihi

United Nations bureau chief

United Nations secretary general António Guterres said in a statement that he was alarmed by the events in Venezuela on Saturday and warned that the U.S. military action there would have wider implications for the region. “Independently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent,” he said, calling for international law to be respected.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:40 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Trump suggested on Fox News that his administration would continue to target Venezuelan government officials if they side with Maduro. “If they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them,” he said. “I’d say most of them have converted.” Several top Venezuelan officials criticized the U.S. action on Venezuelan state television on Saturday.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:39 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julian E. Barnes

President Trump said to an interviewer on Fox News that he and his team had watched the raid on video feeds as it went down. He said he saw the U.S. military team break through steel doors in “a matter of seconds.” “I’ve never seen anything like it actually,” he said. He added no American troops were killed but then suggested some were injured when their helicopter was hit.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:34 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julian E. Barnes

Trump said on Fox News that Maduro and his wife had been taken to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, one of the American warships that have been prowling the Caribbean. Survivors of one of the boat strikes were also taken to the Iwo Jima.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:32 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

Speaking to Fox News, President Trump declined to throw his support behind Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Well, we have to look at it right now,” he said on Fox News when asked if he will support her. “They have a vice president, as you know. I mean, I don’t know about what kind of an election that was, but, you know, the election of Maduro was a disgrace.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:30 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

Trump brushed off concerns about the legality of the U.S. operation in Venezuela. When asked about criticism from Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, the president said Democrats were “weak, stupid people.”

“They should say great job,” he said in an interview on Fox News. “They shouldn’t say ‘Oh, gee, maybe it’s not constitutional.’ You know the same old stuff that we’ve been hearing for years and years and years.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:29 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Patricia Mazzei

Reporting from Doral, Fla.

In South Florida, Venezuelans were partying to celebrate Maduro’s capture.

The party broke out before sunrise in the heavily Venezuelan city of Doral, Fla., west of Miami. Venezuelans and Venezuelan Americans blared music, honked car horns and danced to celebrate the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader.

“Viva Venezuela libre!” one man waving a Venezuelan flag yelled as he drove by El Arepazo, a Venezuelan arepa shop in a gas station where Venezuelans often gather for political or sporting events.

South Florida is home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States — about 40 percent of Doral’s residents are of Venezuelan origin — and a vast majority of them are opposed to Mr. Maduro. Millions of people have left Venezuela in recent years because of economic chaos and political repression in the country.

Some of Doral’s Venezuelan residents immigrated more than two decades ago. Others are more recent arrivals. Many of them watched anxiously over the last few months as President Trump escalated his threats and boat strikes against Venezuela, and they wondered how it would all turn out.

“I can’t believe it,” said Mariannys Milano, 45, as she wiped away tears outside El Arepazo early on Saturday morning. She had hardly slept, she said, after calling and texting relatives in eastern Venezuela all night. “I have so many emotions. I feel like throwing up. I feel joy.”

Several people said they were anxious about what would follow with Mr. Maduro out of power, though they all said they were optimistic. No one wanted any member of Mr. Maduro’s government to remain in office, though his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as interim president on Saturday.

“The good thing is that they took out Maduro,” said Abner Márquez, 27, of Lake Worth. “Now we have to see who in the government is going to take power, and what they are going to do.”

Many in Doral said they preferred that the U.S. lead a transition that would result in turning the government over to Edmundo González, the diplomat who outpolled Mr. Maduro in a presidential election in 2024 by a margin of more than 2 to 1, according to the Venezuelan opposition’s vote count, but was not allowed to take power.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Tibisay Mejía, 51, who immigrated to the United States in 2015. “But this is the beginning.”

Jesús Naranjo, 57, said that although he does not like Mr. Trump generally, he enthusiastically approved of his administration’s removal of Mr. Maduro.

“I support his actions toward Venezuela,” said Mr. Naranjo, who left Venezuela in 1998, the same year that Mr. Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, was elected president. Mr. Trump, he said, “had the courage to do what had to be done.”

“If the United States lends a hand,” Mr. Naranjo added, “things should work democratically.”

Revelers in Doral said they had deep faith in María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October. They said they expected her to work closely with the Trump administration to lead a transition.

“She’s not just winging it,” said Yajaira Molina, 52. “I believe in Maria Corina Machado as much as I do in the American government’s strategy.”

In nearby Key Biscayne, a wealthy community with many longtime Venezuelan immigrants, people gathered at the Golden Hog, an upscale deli and market, to celebrate.

“We’re better off than we were yesterday,” María Carolina Jaso said at a church market a few blocks away. “It was either in the hands of criminals or in the hands of unpredictable Trump.”

Some 1,200 miles north in the New York City borough of Queens, people gathered at the Budare Café in Jackson Heights. Among them was Sebastián Sánchez, 26, who had a Venezuelan flag tied around his neck like a cape as he ate a pabellón arepa and sipped black coffee.

“Today this food is for celebrating,” he said. “It’s typical Venezuelan food and it’s a very special day. Living here in the United States, I am very privileged, but my family came here looking for that freedom that we didn’t have in our country, so seeing that there is a new future in Venezuela makes me very happy.”

The celebratory mood in Doral persisted for most of the day. At one point, a couple of hundred people stood in the middle of the gas station, which was closed for business and guarded by police officers, to sing traditional Venezuelan songs and the Venezuelan and American national anthems. Some people ducked into a neighboring convenience store to pick up coffee or the occasional celebratory beer. So many people crowded outside later that the arepa shop and the store had to lock their doors and admit people only one at a time.

“We’ve been waiting for this for so many years,” said Alejandra Arrieta, 55, of Doral.

People held video calls with Venezuelan relatives and live-streamed the celebration, wishing one another a happy new year with a feeling that sounded different from what it might have been on Jan. 1.

Councilman Rafael Pineyro of Doral, a Venezuelan American who immigrated to Miami when he was 15, said he was visiting relatives in Orlando when he heard the Maduro news at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. He scrambled back to Doral, where the city had spent several weeks, Mr. Pineyro said, preparing for the possibility of residents’ spilling into the streets if the United States took military action in Venezuela.

Mr. Pineyro, a Republican, said that Venezuela “needs help from the U.S. government, 100 percent,” to move on after Mr. Maduro’s removal.

What a transition in power might look like, or how it would take place, remains in question, he said, but he added that the remaining members of Mr. Maduro’s government would be wise to “come to the right side of history.”

José Anka, 57, said that Ms. Rodríguez, the interim president, “is going to have to do what the U.S. wants.”

As the day went on, more people arrived at the gas station, often with their entire families and dogs in tow. Several brought Trump signs or wore “Make America Great Again” hats.

Florida Republicans began seriously courting Venezuelan American voters after Mr. Trump’s first presidential election in 2016. Miami’s influential Cuban American politicians, in particular, embraced Venezuelan Americans, seeing them as ideologically aligned because both groups had fled from left-wing regimes. Republicans had already won over many Venezuelan Americans with hard-line rhetoric and actions against Mr. Maduro, even before his capture on Saturday.

Some people in Doral waved Cuban flags and said that they hoped Cuba’s communist regime would be the next to fall, now that Mr. Maduro was gone and his government could no longer help prop up Cuba’s flailing economy.

“I feel this as if it were my own country,” Yasier Hernández, 40, who is from Cuba, said as he wept at the sight of Venezuelans celebrating. “Tomorrow, it will be our turn.”

When Mr. Trump began speaking at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach, some 75 miles to the north, a hush fell over the crowd in Doral. Small groups gathered in twos and threes and strained to listen on their phones. A few people knelt around a loudspeaker. Some people listened to a Spanish translation of Mr. Trump’s remarks.

Some in the crowd tuned him out before he was done. But the street party kept going, a parade of honking cars filling Doral well into the afternoon.

David C. Adams contributed reporting from Key Biscayne, Fla., and Raúl Vilchis from New York.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:28 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William Rashbaum

An earlier indictment in 2020 had charged that President Nicolás Maduro and several Venezuelan officials “participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy between the Cartel de Los Soles and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia,” the armed Columbian group known as FARC.

At the time, the U.S. attorney general, William Barr, said that the Venezuelan regime was “plagued by criminality and corruption” and that “Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues” had conspired with the FARC to smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States. Others charged in the 2020 indictment included Venezuela’s Minister of Defense, its chief Supreme Court justice and two FARC leaders.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:20 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

The New York Times

At La Carlota Air Base in Caracas, burned husks of military vehicles could be seen hours after the United States struck the military installation along with other targets across the country.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:17 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

In an interview on Fox News, Trump said that Maduro wanted to negotiate in the final days before U.S. forces captured him but the American president said he rejected that offer. “I didn’t want to negotiate,” he said. “I said, ‘Nope, we got to do it.’”

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:14 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Robert Jimison

Reporting on Congress

A number of Republican lawmakers who represent districts in Southern Florida with large Venezuelan-American constituencies were celebrating the capture of Presdient Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. “Today’s decisive action is this hemisphere’s equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall,” Representative Carlos Gimenez said in a social media post. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart praised President Trump’s “decisive leadership,” and Representative Maria Salazar said it was time for “the rightful leaders of Venezuela to restore freedom and rebuild the nation.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:09 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt

The C.I.A. had a source inside Maduro’s government to help track him.

A C.I.A. source within the Venezuelan government monitored the location of Nicolás Maduro in both the days and moments before his capture by American special operation forces, according to people briefed on the operation.

The American spy agency, the people said, produced the intelligence that led to the capture of Mr. Maduro, monitoring his position and movements with a fleet of stealth drones that provided near constant monitoring over Venezuela, in addition to the information provided by its Venezuelan sources.

It is not clear how the C.I.A. recruited the Venezuelan source who informed the Americans of Mr. Maduro’s location. But former officials said the agency was clearly aided by the $50 million reward the U.S. government offered for information leading to Mr. Maduro’s capture.

In his confirmation hearing last year, John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, promised he would lead a more aggressive agency, one willing to conduct covert operations to both collect information and advance American policy. President Trump authorized the C.I.A. to take more aggressive action last fall, and then in November approved planning and preparation for a series of operations in Venezuela.

In late December, the C.I.A. used an armed drone to conduct a strike on a dock that U.S. officials believed was being used by a Venezuelan gang to load drugs on to boats.

One of the people briefed on Mr. Maduro’s capture said it was the product of a deep partnership between the agency and the military and involved “months of meticulous planning.” A senior U.S. official said that the C.I.A. and special operations analysts had Mr. Maduro “wired” — meaning precisely located — from early on in the planning of the operation.

While the C.I.A. played a critical role in planning and carrying it out, the mission was a law enforcement operation by the U.S. military’s special operation forces, rather than operation carried out under the agency’s authority.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:03 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

The New York Times

The governor of Sucre, about 325 miles east of Caracas, called for party militants to gather in the town square later in the day. The governor, Jhoanna Carrillo, appeared at the rally along with mayor Pedro Figueroa to show their loyalty to the president. “We demand that the entire world speak out against the threat and chaos they have tried to sow in our homeland,” Carrillo said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 9:01 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonah E. BromwichWilliam K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser

Bondi says Maduro and his wife to face a fresh indictment in Manhattan.

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela captured in a military raid on Caracas, faces charges in the Southern District of New York, where prosecutors have targeted him for years.

The U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, posted the new indictment on social media on Saturday. It charges Mr. Maduro with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, among other charges. His wife, Cilia Flores, is also charged in the cocaine conspiracy.

Mr. Maduro, the indictment said, “allows cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime and for the benefit of his family members.”

“The defendant now sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking,” it continued. “That drug trafficking has enriched and entrenched Venezuela’s political and military elite.”

In an earlier post, Ms. Bondi said that Mr. Maduro and his wife would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.” President Trump said that the couple was being brought to New York.

INDICTMENT

Read the Indictment Against Nicolás Maduro

The Venezuelan president was accused of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, among other charges. His wife, Cilia Flores, was also charged.

Read Document 25 pages

Though the charges against Ms. Flores are new, Mr. Maduro was previously indicted in Manhattan in 2020 on similar allegations. With those charges pending, Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to Mr. Maduro last year as a “fugitive of American justice.”

The 2020 indictment said that Mr. Maduro had come to lead a drug trafficking organization, the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, as he gained power in Venezuela. Cartel de los Soles has been an ironic nickname for the Maduro administration’s military officers, who wear suns on their epaulets.

The earlier indictment named six defendants. The one unsealed on Saturday also names six, but they are almost entirely different, including only two men from the earlier charges. They are Mr. Maduro and Diosdado Cabello Rondón, who is the minister of interior, justice and peace, a member of the armed forces and vice president of the ruling party.

The others charged include Mr. Maduro’s son, Nicolas Maduro, known as Nicolasito; a former minister of the interior and justice, Ramón Rodriguez Chacín; and Héctor Guerrero Flores, who prosecutors said was the leader of Tren de Aragua, a gang that the Trump administration designated last year as a foreign terrorist organization.

The inclusion of Mr. Guerrero Flores, who was indicted in a separate case last month, would appear to reflect the White House’s repeated assertion that Mr. Maduro worked with narco-terrorists, including Tren de Aragua. American intelligence agencies have disputed that conclusion.

The charges against Mr. Guerrero Flores do not tie him directly to Mr. Maduro, but rather to “members of the Venezuelan regime” and “an individual he understood to be working with” it.

Southern District prosecutors had long targeted Mr. Maduro, and the investigation that led to his 2020 indictment was overseen by Emil Bove III, a prosecutor who years later became one of Mr. Trump’s criminal defense lawyers and whom the president this year appointed to the federal bench. One of the other prosecutors was Amanda Houle, who now leads the office’s criminal division.

The indictment says Mr. Maduro’s wife, Ms. Flores, along with her husband and other defendants, “partnered with narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorist groups” that were sending cocaine from Venezuela to the United States through countries like Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

It also says Ms. Flores attended a meeting in 2007 where she “accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s national antidrug office, Néstor Reverol Torres.”

The trafficker later arranged to pay monthly bribes to the antidrug official, in addition to about $100,000 to ensure safe passage for each flight transporting cocaine — a portion was then paid to Ms. Flores, the indictment says.

Though the circumstances of Mr. Maduro’s capture in a military raid were extraordinary, the American legal system has experience in arresting South American leaders and putting them on trial. Manhattan prosecutors have a saying — “you can’t suppress the body” — meaning that once a person is in custody, a case tends to move forward regardless of the circumstances of the arrest.

In 1989, the United States invaded Panama and compelled the surrender of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, Panama’s military leader, who was taken to Florida and arrested by agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Three years after his surrender, Mr. Noriega was tried, convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

In 2022, the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, was arrested by law enforcement officials from his own country in connection with a U.S. extradition request. He, too, was brought to the United States, where he was tried, convicted and sentenced.

Late last year, Mr. Trump abruptly pardoned Mr. Hernández, saying that the case against him — which had also been overseen by Mr. Bove and had been built over several presidential administrations — “was a Biden administration setup.”

The case against Mr. Hernández and the 2020 charges against Mr. Maduro bear a significant resemblance. Both leaders were accused of using their governments as vehicles for the exporting of cocaine into the United States. And both were charged with conspiring to possess machine guns, which, combined with drug trafficking charges, carries potentially lengthy prison sentences.

Mr. Maduro’s 2020 indictment has been pending in the Manhattan federal court before Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a veteran of nearly three decades on the Southern District bench.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998, the judge is best known for overseeing the many lawsuits filed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, by families of the dead and workers at ground zero.

More recently, Judge Hellerstein, 92, has presided over Mr. Trump’s attempts to move his Manhattan criminal conviction into federal court, a matter that is pending.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:59 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

In his first comments since Maduro was captured, Vice President JD Vance applauded the success of the mission and defended its legality.

“Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism,” he wrote on social media. “You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas.”

Vance added that Trump had offered “multiple off ramps” to Maduro. Trump had been adamant that “the drug trafficking must stop” and that “the stolen oil” had to be returned to the United States, Vance said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:58 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Julian E. Barnes

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Saturday that while Maduro was an “illegitimate ruler” there was no evidence he posed a threat that justified military intervention. “Secretary Rubio repeatedly denied to Congress that the Administration intended to force regime change in Venezuela,” Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut said. “The Administration must immediately brief Congress on its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:56 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Frances Robles

Groups of armed apparent civilians have begun to hit the streets in Caracas, according to a journalist who saw them.

Several men in civilian clothes were seen just after daybreak guarding the Gen. Francisco de Miranda airbase outside of Caracas when the airstrikes hit.

Two pickup trucks filled with men wearing vests and civilian clothes carrying gas cans as well as both long weapons and handguns were seen unloading outside the Centro Comercial Ciudad Tamanaco, a shopping mall near the airbase.

Venezuela’s government has long used armed civilians, known as colectivos, to fight back against protesters.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:55 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Rebecca F. Elliott

Chevron, the largest private oil producer in Venezuela, declined to comment Saturday morning on the status of its operations in the country. “Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets,” a spokesman said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:54 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ben Weiser

It is not uncommon for federal prosecutors to return what is known as a superseding indictment to add additional defendants or charges to an existing indictment. In this case, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s post on X suggests that a new indictment would add Maduro’s wife as a new defendant. The original indictment against Maduro made public in 2020 named him and other current and former Venezuelan officials as defendants.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:54 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonathan Wolfe

How tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela escalated.

The raid in Venezuela Saturday morning in which President Trump said the United States had captured Nicolás Maduro, the country’s leader, capped off months of threats and accusations.

The Trump administration accused Mr. Maduro of drug smuggling, and the State Department has labeled him the head of a “narco-terrorist” state.

U.S. officials have said Mr. Maduro, a self-described socialist who has led Venezuela since 2013, is an illegitimate leader and have accused him of controlling criminal groups tied to drug trafficking — charges he denies.

The pressure campaign against Mr. Maduro has been building for years, through a series of indictments, sanctions and, recently, military actions.

In 2020, during the first Trump administration, Mr. Maduro was indicted in the United States on corruption, drug trafficking and other charges. Last year, the United States raised the reward for information leading to Mr. Maduro’s capture to $50 million.

In recent months, top aides to Mr. Trump intensified a push to remove Mr. Maduro from power, as the Trump administration tried to recast the domestic war on drugs as an international terrorist threat.

Since late August, the Pentagon has amassed a dozen ships in the Caribbean Sea. With more than 15,000 military personnel in the region, the U.S. buildup is the largest in the region since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

The commando raid on Saturday, the riskiest known U.S. military operation of its kind since members of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 killed Osama bin Laden in a safe house in Pakistan in 2011, comes amid a legally dubious military campaign in the waters around Latin America in an effort to raise pressure on Mr. Maduro.

That campaign has been marked by 35 known U.S. strikes that have killed at least 115 people on boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. Many legal experts say the strikes are illegal and that the military is killing civilians.

While some, possibly most, of the suspected drug runners are believed to be Venezuelan citizens, the targeted boats also carried some people from Colombia, Ecuador and Trinidad.

Unlike traditional counternarcotics operations that have targeted senior cartel leaders, the boat strikes were aimed at low-level operatives in illicit drug trafficking. In seizing Mr. Maduro, the administration will probably contend that it has captured the mastermind behind the alleged drug trafficking.

In reality, Venezuela is not a major source of drugs in the United States. The country does not produce fentanyl ,and the cocaine that passes through Venezuela is grown and produced in Colombia, and then moves on to Europe.

Mr. Trump has also repeatedly threatened to carry out land strikes in Venezuela. Last week, the C.I.A. conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela which the United States believed was housing narcotics from a Venezuelan gang, according to people briefed on the operation.

The raid to capture Mr. Maduro also constituted Mr. Trump’s latest unilateral exercise of power. He had no explicit authorization from Congress, where a bipartisan group in the Senate has been promoting legislation to try to rein in his authority to engage in hostilities inside Venezuela.

On Saturday, Senator Mike Lee of Utah said on social media that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him in a phone call that Mr. Maduro was “arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.”

In a social media post after Mr. Trump announced the capture, Mr. Rubio reposted a message he wrote last July, in what appeared to be an attempt to push back against concerns, including from Republican lawmakers, about the legality of the strikes and capture.

“Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government,” Mr. Rubio wrote.

Mr. Lee said Mr. Rubio did not anticipate further action in Venezuela now that Mr. Maduro was in custody.

The Trump administration’s approach to Venezuela has been driven by three separate policy goals: crippling Mr. Maduro, using military force against drug cartels and securing access to the country’s vast oil reserves for U.S. companies.

The goal to oust Mr. Maduro as the leader of Venezuela was an initiative that Mr. Rubio has championed.

On July 25, Mr. Trump signed a secret order for military action against the cartels, calling for maritime strikes. Administration officials referred to the boat attacks as “Phase One,” with SEAL Team 6 taking the lead.

Policymakers at the time also discussed a vague “Phase Two,” with Army Delta Force units possibly carrying out land operations.

In October, Mr. Trump called off efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement with Mr. Maduro, after the Venezuelan leader refused to accede to U.S. demands to give up power voluntarily and as officials continued to insist that they had no part in drug trafficking.

As the strikes against boats continued throughout the fall, Mr. Trump, Mr. Rubio and Stephen Miller, a top White House aide overseeing immigration policy, moved on to the next stage of the campaign against Mr. Maduro: seizing oil tankers to deprive Venezuela of revenue.

They insisted that Mr. Maduro must return oil and other assets “stolen” from the United States before they lift what Mr. Trump has referred to as a blockade.

In its first weeks, the tactic shook Venezuela’s economy by paralyzing its oil industry. Critics called it gunboat diplomacy or, as Mr. Maduro put it, “a warmongering and colonialist pretense.”

Eric Schmitt, Tyler Pager and Carol Rosenberg contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:53 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ben Weiser

The 2020 indictment against Maduro said he had helped to manage and to eventually lead a drug trafficking organization as he gained power in Venezuela. Under his leadership, the indictment charged, the organization sought not only to enrich its members and enhance their power, but also to “flood” the U.S. with cocaine and use it as “a weapon against America.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:51 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Steven Erlanger

Spain, with its close ties to Latin America, offered to mediate and called for “de-escalation and restraint” in a statement from the foreign ministry. It said it was “ready to help in the search for a democratic, negotiated, and peaceful solution for the country.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:48 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ben Weiser

With the original 2020 charges pending in the Southern District against Maduro, the U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had referred to Maduro as a “fugitive from American justice,” which appeared to bolster the U.S. government’s efforts to oust Maduro and seize him as it would any criminal on the run from the law.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:47 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jonah Bromwich

Prosecutors in the Southern District had targeted Nicolás Maduro for years. The investigation into him was overseen by a former criminal defense lawyer to President Trump, Emil Bove III. One of the prosecutors on the 2020 case was Amanda Houle, who now leads the office’s criminal division.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:45 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jack Nicas

Mexico City bureau chief

Two nights before his capture, Nicolás Maduro made a plea for peace in an interview with a Spanish journalist, Ignacio Ramonet, “The American people should know they have a friendly, peaceful people here, and a friendly government as well,” he said, looking at the camera. “They should know that our message is very clear: ‘Not War. Yes Peace,’” he added, saying his peace slogan in English. He then handed the journalist a red hat in the style of the Make America Great Again cap with the words: “No War. Yes Peace.”

In the same interview, Maduro said he was eager to work with the United States to avoid conflict. “If they want to have a serious conversation about an anti-drug agreement, we’re ready,” he said “If they want Venezuelan oil, Venezuela is ready for U.S. investment — like with Chevron — whenever, wherever, and however they want. People in the U.S. should know that if they want comprehensive economic development agreements, Venezuela is right here.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:37 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Attention is now turning to the Venezuelan military’s response to the U.S. attacks. U.S. forces did not appear to have encountered significant resistance from Venezuelan air defenses or land forces, despite claiming to have an arsenal capable of confronting, if not repelling, such an incursion.

Jan. 3, 2026, 8:26 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

William Rashbaum

It appears, based on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s social media post, that Nicolás Maduro has been charged in a new indictment. The existing charges filed in March 2020 do not include his wife, Cilia Flores. The earlier indictment, filed under seal, contained four counts, charging Maduro and five others with narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and conspiracy to possess machine guns.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:57 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Ben Weiser

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media on Saturday that both Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been indicted in the Southern District of New York. There has been no public indictment of her.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:55 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Edward Wong

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau confirmed in a social media post that Nicolás Maduro has been removed from power and will be put on trial or punished.

Jan. 3, 2026, 7:48 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Carol Rosenberg

National Security reporter

Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, would face “American justice on American soil in American courts.” She referenced his indictment in the Southern District of New York.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:53 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Venezuela’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, made televised remarks condemning the U.S. attacks. “Innocent victims have been mortally wounded and others killed by this criminal terrorist attack,” he said and called for people to take to the streets “with calm and vigilance.” Saab also repeated demands that other officials have made for proof that Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were alive.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:34 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jason Horowitz

Pedro Sánchez, the left-wing prime minister of Spain who has spoken out against the Trump administration’s previous military actions in Venezuela, struck a new wary note on Saturday. “We urge everyone to de-escalate the situation and act responsibly. International law and the principles of the U.N. Charter must be respected,” he wrote on social media.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:26 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

In one of his first social media posts since Trump announced Maduro’s capture, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted what he wrote in July of last year. It appears to be an attempt to push back against concerns, including from Republican lawmakers, about the legality of the strikes and capture. “Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government,” Rubio wrote in July 2025.

Jan. 3, 2026, 6:03 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of Venezuela, considered one of Nicolás Maduro’s top enforcers, called for calm in televised remarks and urged Venezuelans to trust the leadership. “Let no one fall into despair. Let no one make things easier for the invading enemy,” he said. Cabello also said, without providing evidence, that bombs had struck civilian buildings.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:57 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Carol Rosenberg

National Security reporter

Nicolás Maduro was indicted in the United States on corruption, drug trafficking and other charges in 2020, and the State Department had announced a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. In announcing the capture of Maduro, President Trump said it was done in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement. The indictment was sworn out in the Southern District of New York.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:48 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Carol Rosenberg

National Security reporter

Senator Mike Lee of Utah said on social media that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him in a phone call that Nicolás Maduro was “arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States.” Lee said Rubio does not anticipate further action in Venezuela now that Maduro was in custody.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:36 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, who has expressed strong support for U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela, said on social media that her country was not involved in the U.S. military operations and maintains peaceful relations with Venezuela.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:32 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

In a phone interview, Trump celebrated the capture of Maduro.

President Trump sounded tired.

It was just after 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning and 10 minutes after he announced on social media that the United States had captured Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela. I had called the president to try to better understand what happened and what comes next. He picked up after three rings and answered a few questions.

Mr. Trump first celebrated the mission’s success.

“A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” he told me. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”

I then asked if he had sought congressional authority before the U.S. military, along with law enforcement personnel, engaged in a “large scale strike,” as he described it on social media.

“We’ll discuss that,” he said. “We’re going to have a news conference.”

In his social media announcement, Mr. Trump said he would speak at 11 a.m. from Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence where he has spent the past two weeks.

I tried to ask what he envisions next for Venezuela and why the high-risk mission was worth it.

“You’re going to hear all about it 11 o’clock,” he said before hanging up.

The call had lasted 50 seconds.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:20 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

The U.S. attack has left an unspecified number of Venezuelans dead and injured, Venezuelan officials said in statements. The number of casualties is still being assessed, they said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:17 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Jiawei Wang

Video obtained by the Reuters news agency and verified by The Times shows smoke billowing near La Carlota Airport in Caracas, Venezuela, as explosions ring out.

Video

CreditCredit...Social media via Reuters

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:14 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Emma Bubola

President Javier Milei of Argentina celebrated the capture of Nicolás Maduro. “Liberty advances,” Milei wrote on social media.

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:12 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said on social media that his country’s forces were being deployed to the border with Venezuela, and that there would be additional support “in the event of a massive influx of refugees.”

Jan. 3, 2026, 5:09 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Annie Correal

Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, speaking on a state-run television station, says the whereabouts of Nicolás Maduro and his wife are unknown, and asks President Trump for proof of life.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:54 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

A U.S. official said there were no American casualties in the operation but would not comment on Venezuelan casualties.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:42 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

If President Trump’s claim is true, the Venezuelan constitution states that power would pass to Nicolás Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who runs economic policy. But we are in uncharted territory and it is unclear who would end up in charge. The United States has not recognized Maduro as a legitimate president, and Venezuela’s opposition says the rightful president is the exiled politician Edmundo Gonzalez.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:39 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

In a brief phone interview with The Times, President Trump celebrated the success of the mission to capture Maduro. “A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” Trump said. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”

When asked if he had sought congressional authority for the operation or what is next for Venezuela, Trump said he would address those matters during his news conference at Mar-a-Lago in the morning.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:25 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

President Trump says the United States carried out “a large scale strike against Venezuela.” He said in his social media post that he will host a news conference in Mar-a-Lago at 11 a.m.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:24 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

President Trump announces on social media that the United States has captured Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, and his wife and that they are being flown out of the country.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:23 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Venezuela’s defense minister, Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, in a national address, denounces what he called a U.S. attack. “This invasion represents the most blatant outrage suffered by the country,” he says. This is the first public appearance by a senior Venezuelan official since the start of the explosions. General Padrino Lopez is Venezuela’s top ranking officer and is seen as a crucial member of Maduro’s coalition.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:17 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

The New York Times

The U.S. has been building up forces off Venezuela for months.

Before President Trump announced on Saturday that the United States had captured President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, the U.S. military had launched one of the largest deployments of its forces to the Caribbean region in decades.

The United States Southern Command said that about 15,000 troops were in the region by December. President Trump described them as a “massive armada.” In August, he had secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against Latin American drug cartels that his administration had deemed terrorist organizations.

Since the signing, the United States had carried out 35 lethal strikes on boats that the administration said were carrying narcotics. The attacks have killed more than 100 people. Legal and military experts questioned the legality of the strikes. Congress has not authorized them, nor has it declared war on Venezuela.

Some Trump officials have said that the main goal of the increase in troops was to drive Mr. Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, from power. Hours before Mr. Trump announced the capture of Mr. Maduro and his wife, the Venezuelan government accused the U.S. military of carrying out attacks in the capital, Caracas, and other parts of the country.

In recent months, the U.S. military buildup has included transport and cargo planes. Flight-tracking data reviewed by The New York Times showed C-17 heavy-lift cargo planes — largely used for transporting military troops and equipment — conducted at least 16 flights to Puerto Rico from American military bases in one recent week. The C-17s flew to Puerto Rico from bases in New Mexico, Illinois, Vermont, Florida, Arizona, Utah, Washington State and Japan.

The United States has also recently moved special-operations aircraft to the Caribbean.

Since October, the U.S. forces have included a Navy expeditionary strike group consisting of amphibious warships carrying thousands of Marines, along with warplanes, attack helicopters and other aircraft.

The buildup also brought the arrival in November of a full aircraft carrier strike group, with the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford and several destroyers loitering roughly 100 nautical miles off the shores of Venezuela.

The Ford and its air wing, however, have not been used to attack vessels suspected of smuggling drugs. Those attacks have been launched by drones and AC-130 gunships controlled by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command.

The U.S. Coast Guard has also begun chasing, boarding and even seizing oil tankers that the White House says are violating sanctions on Caracas.

Christiaan Triebert, John Ismay and Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:03 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

No senior Venezuelan government official or military officer has made a public appearance since the start of the explosions. The government broadcast an address on all television and radio frequencies, in which a state television journalist read out a statement condemning the attack.

Jan. 3, 2026, 4:00 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Annie Correal

President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, in a social media post, denounced what he called a “criminal attack” by the United States against Venezuela, and demanded “urgent reaction” from the international community.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:54 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Kieran Corcoran

The U.S. embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, issued an alert to Americans in Venezuela, telling them to shelter in place, citing “reports of explosions in and around” the city. It did not give details. The United States suspended operations at its embassy in Caracas in 2019.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:37 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Eyewitnesses say the explosions in Caracas have eased up but there is still frequent noise from military planes over the city.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:17 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

We are unsure where Maduro is at the moment. But at least some people in his inner circle appeared safe, according to two people who have spoken to them.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:33 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Last month, we reported that Maduro had tightened his personal security amid escalating threats by the Trump administration. People close to the Venezuelan government said he was frequently changing sleeping locations and cellphones, and one said he had expanded the role of Cuban bodyguards in his personal security detail, to try to protect himself from a potential U.S. strike. Read the article here.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:15 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

President Trump is at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Many of his top national security advisers have spent significant time with him at the club, where the president has hosted foreign leaders in recent days. On Friday evening, Trump received a national security briefing, according to the White House.

Jan. 3, 2026, 3:09 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Qasim Nauman

The Federal Aviation Administration has barred American commercial planes from flying at any altitude over Venezuela, citing safety risks “associated with ongoing military activity.” Its notice, effective for 23 hours starting at 2 a.m. Saturday in Venezuela, did not say which military was involved.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:55 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of carrying out military attacks against Venezuela, in a statement released by Venezuela’s communications ministry. Venezuela “rejects, repudiates, and denounces” U.S. military aggression in the capital of Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira, it said.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:35 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Eyewitnesses report particularly heavy and ongoing sounds of explosions in Fuerte Tiuna, a sprawling military base in the center of Caracas that is home to Venezuela’s top brass and many senior government officials.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:31 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Tyler Pager

Reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.

The White House declined to comment on the reports of explosions in Caracas.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:30 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

A Pentagon spokesman referred all questions about the explosions to the White House.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:15 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Genevieve Glatsky

Reporting from Bogotá, Colombia

Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, a critic of the Trump administration, wrote on social media: “Right now they are bombing Caracas. Alert to the whole world, they have attacked Venezuela. They are bombing with missiles.” There has been no acknowledgement or evidence so far that these explosions were caused by military action.

JaN. 3, 2026, 2:10 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Eric Schmitt

Pentagon reporter

A spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Washington acknowledged the reports of explosions in Caracas but had no comment on any American role.

Jan. 3, 2026, 2:05 a.m. ETJan. 3, 2026

Anatoly Kurmanaev

Reporting from Venezuela

Witnesses report smoke coming out of major military installations in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, including La Carlota military airbase and the Fuerte Tiuna military base. They also describe the sounds of planes and helicopters over Caracas.

Jan. 2, 2026, 1:05 p.m. ETJan. 2, 2026

Christiaan Triebert and Nicholas Nehamas

An oil tanker initially bound for Venezuela is fleeing U.S. forces.

The oil tanker evading U.S. forces is broadcasting its location after more than two weeks of sailing dark, revealing that it is heading northeast in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The ship that had been known as Bella 1, which is still being tracked by the U.S. Coast Guard, is on a course that could take it between Iceland and Britain, according to data published by Pole Star Global, a ship-tracking company. From there, it is possible that the vessel could head around Scandinavia to Murmansk, Russia’s ice-free Arctic port.

The tanker recently claimed Russian protection. On Wednesday, the Russian government formally asked the United States to stop chasing the ship, which the Coast Guard tried to intercept last month as it traversed the Caribbean Sea on its way to pick up oil in Venezuela. The Bella 1 recently appeared in Russia’s official register of ships under a new name, the Marinera, with a home port of Sochi, on the Black Sea.

Ships like the Bella 1, part of a so-called shadow fleet that transports oil for Russia, Iran and Venezuela in violation of sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries, often turn off their transponders to hide their locations.

The pursuit of the tanker comes as President Trump intensifies his pressure campaign on the government of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Mr. Trump has instituted a quasi-blockade on some tankers transporting oil from the country, a longtime ally of Russia, and the United States has already boarded and taken possession of two other tankers in the Caribbean. American officials have said they plan to seize more ships.

The Bella 1 last broadcast its location on Dec. 17, showing it was in the Atlantic heading toward the Caribbean.

The Coast Guard stopped the ship on Dec. 20, saying it was not flying a valid national flag and that the United States had a seizure warrant. But the Bella 1 refused to be boarded and sailed back into the Atlantic.

The next day, the tanker began sending radio distress signals that showed it traveling northeast, more than 300 miles from Antigua and Barbuda.

As the slow-speed chase continued, the vessel claimed Russian protection, a diplomatic chess move that could complicate U.S. efforts to seize it. Boarding a moving vessel with a potentially hostile crew on the high seas is a dangerous mission that would require a specialized team of Coast Guard or Navy operators.

Last week, in a call between the foreign ministers of Russia and Venezuela, Moscow “reaffirmed its all-out support and solidarity with the leaders and people of Venezuela,” according to a summary of the call from Russia’s foreign ministry.

Tyler Pager and Edward Wong contributed reporting.

More on the U.S. Operation in Venezuela

On January 3, the U.S. military seized Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife in a strike on Caracas, the culmination of a campaign to oust Maduro from power.

· The View From Venezuelans’ Cellphones: Videos, filmed on cellphones by people mainly in Caracas and La Guaira, showed the exact moments in which the U.S. air and ground incursion played out in real time.

· Venezuelans in Colombia Rejoice: Even if the road to returning home remained uncertain after the removal of Nicolás Maduro, many Venezuelans in exile wept from both hope and pain , with a hope for change rising among some immigrants.

· What Latin America Thinks: President Trump has launched a new era of U.S. intervention in Latin America. Some regional leaders are celebrating, while many others are deeply concerned.

· Worries About Political Stability: Maduro was unpopular. But his abrupt removal has created deep uncertainty for Venezuelans, alarming even those who opposed him. People began lining up at supermarkets throughout the country as they anxiously waited for word on what would happen next.

· Can the U.S. Legally ‘Run’ Venezuela?: The operation revives disputes over the legality of the 1989 Panama intervention, enhanced by Trump’s vow to take over the country and also by Maduro’s formal status as Venezuela’s president. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to pivot away from Trump’s assertion that the United States would “run” Venezuela.

· Venezuela’s Oil: The White House had pointed to drug trafficking and migration as reasons to crack down on Maduro. But oil emerged as a central these. It will take years and billions in investment to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry, and energy producers will likely be cautious before stepping in. Here’s what to know about the Venezuelan oil industry.

ATTACHMENT “B” – FROM NEW YORK POST

NICOLAS MADURO NYC COURT APPEARANCE LIVE UPDATES: LAWYER HINTS AT DICTATOR’S POSSIBLE DEFENSE

By Ben Kochman, Kyle Schnitzer, Desheania Andrews, Kevin Sheehan, Kathleen Joyce, Joe Marino and Chris Nesi

Updated Jan. 5, 2026, 6:22 p.m. ET

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores made their first appearance in a US federal court Monday.

The fallen leader, 66, and his 69-year-old wife were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States in the Southern District of New York on Saturday. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The couple was indicted after they were captured at their heavily fortified compound in Caracas by US forces during a daring mission dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve” after President Trump gave the final directive for the US to attack the South American nation earlier Saturday.

The Trump administration has repeatedly called Maduro’s regime “illegitimate” and said he has remained in power due to rigged elections, including in 2024. Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is next in line for the presidency, according to its constitution.

Pro-Maduro thugs ordered to hunt down US collaborators as tension fills Venezuelan streets

Dems against Trump’s Maduro capture: Letters to the Editor — Jan. 6, 2026

An image collage containing 3 images, Image 1 shows Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya leaving the Security Council meeting, Image 2 shows China's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Sun Lei addressing the Security Council, Image 3 shows Illustration of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at their arraignment in New York, with defense lawyers and court officers

Russia, China ignore own aggressions to rip US over despot Maduro’s capture during emergency UN Security Council session

Maduro and Flores are in separate, solitary cells inside Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center — where heavily armed law enforcement members are on patrol outside. The lockup has also housed disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione.

5 hours ago

Maduro lawyer hints at possible defense

By Kyle Schnitzer

Top Nicolas Maduro lawyer Barry Pollack hinted at a possible defense in court Monday — suggesting the US government violated laws by nabbing the dictator in Caracas and hauling him off for trial.

“There are issues about the legality of his military abduction,” Pollack told the judge.

The Trump administration has claimed it was within its rights to capture Maduro because he is a drug trafficker attacking the US.

Critics have argued that President Trump grossly overstepped his legal bounds under both US and international law.

40 minutes ago

Pro-Maduro thugs ordered to hunt down US collaborators as tension fills Venezuelan streets

By Alex Oliveira

Pro-Maduro thugs were called to the streets to hunt down Venezuelans who supported the US attack to oust the despotic president, according to a state of emergency order issued across the South American Nation over the weekend.

Venezuelan police were ordered to “immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack by the United States,” according to the Saturday decree obtained by Reuters, which was published in full on Monday.

An armed pro-government demonstrator at a protest against the capture of Maduro in Caracas on Jan. 4, 2026.

It remains unclear whether police had begun following that order — or if the Maduro regime’s notorious paramilitary enforcers had been dispatched — but photos began emerging across social media Monday that appeared to show heavily armed and masked civilians patrolling city streets and highways.

3 hours ago

Gov. Hochul says Trump called her - and that she ripped him over Maduro capture

By Vaughn Golden

Gov. Kathy Hochul said she ripped President Trump for acting without Congressional approval in Venezuela after he called her on Monday.

The Democratic governor also bizarrely claimed credit for sparking the nationwide "No Kings" protest movement against the Trump administration, as she celebrated the one-year anniversary of congestion pricing.

Standing with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, MTA CEO Janno Lieber and transit activists, Hochul said she told Trump the scheme to charge drivers in Lower Manhattan was working.

But when Trump brought up his raid on Venezuela that led to the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, Hochul said she told him "I disagree."

“You’ve got to go to Congress. You’ve got to get authority. It’s kind of important to do things like that,” Hochul said.

“He’s a bad guy, but you’ve got to get authority,” Hochul said she told Trump about Maduro.

Hochul, trying to appeal to lefty activists who pushed for the phased-in $15 toll for motorists, also claimed that she triggered the "No Kings" protests after she held a pro-congestion pricing press conference in February 2024 where she held up a picture of a fake TIME magazine cover put out by the White House depicting Trump as a king.

“I was pissed. I said, as you heard. I’m still angry when I think about it," Hochul said Monday. "We’re not laboring under a king but it was that image, that day that I believe triggered the ‘No Kings’ rallies all across America."

4 hours ago

Venezuela’s VP Delcy Rodriguez sworn in as interim president after Maduro arrest

By Reuters

Venezuela’s vice president and oil minister Delcy Rodriguez was formally sworn in on Monday as the country’s interim president, as US-deposed President Nicolas Maduro appeared in a New York court on drug charges, after the Trump administration removed him from power in a dramatic weekend military action.

Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as the country's interim president on Jan. 5, 2025.

Rodriguez, a 56-year-old labor lawyer known for close connections to the private sector and her devotion to the ruling party, was sworn in by her brother Jorge, who is the head of the national assembly legislature.

5 hours ago

Maduro and wife seen in courtroom sketch at NYC arraignment

By Joseph Barberio

Ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were pictured in a courtroom sketch from their arraignment Monday at Manhattan federal court.

The couple wore matching prison jumpsuits and were flanked by their defense attorneys, Mark Donnelly (second from right, in bowtie) and Andres Sanchez. Flores also appeared to have several bandages on her face.

Venezuela's captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores attend their arraignment with defense lawyers Barry Pollack and Mark Donnelly to face U.S. federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others, at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 5, 2026 in this courtroom sketch.

5 hours ago

Bizarre courtroom moment as onlookers hear what they think is shout of, 'Hamas!'

By Kyle Schnitzer

One of the more bizarre moments in the Manhattan courtroom Monday occurred when Nicolas Maduro claimed he was “innocent” — and a Venezuelan detractor yelled from the gallery, “Jamas!’’

The Spanish word translates to “never’’ — but it is pronounced like “Hamas’’ in English, also the name of the Palestinian terror organization.

The sound jarred more than one court-goer, observers said.

6 hours ago

Former Venezuela spy chief could be star witness at trial against Nicolás Maduro: experts

By Priscilla DeGregory

The former spymaster of Venezuela could end up being a star prosecution witness at Nicolás Maduro's drug-trafficking trial, experts told The Post.

Hugo Carvajal -- the country's longtime spy chief, nicknamed "El Pollo" or "The Chicken" -- pleaded guilty in June to narco-terrorism, weapons and drug trafficking charges in the same case that Maduro was charged in.

And Carvajal -- who flipped allegiance and backed Maduro's opponent in 2019 -- has already expressed interest in cooperating with the feds as he faces the potential of life in prison at his sentencing, set for next month.

Former Venezuelan military spy chief, retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal, walks out of prison in Estremera on the outskirts of Madrid, on Sept. 15, 2019.

Hugo Carvajal, Venezuela's longtime spy chief who flipped allegiance and backed Maduro's opponent in 2019, has already expressed interest in cooperating with the feds.

In this courtroom sketch, retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal, center, a former Venezuelan spymaster close to the country's late leader Hugo Chavez, is flanked by defense attorney Tess Cohen, left, and defense attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma in federal court, Thursday, July 20, 2023, in New York. Carvajal was extradited to New York from Spain on Wednesday to face decade-old drug trafficking charges

Carvajal, center, flanked by defense attorneys in federal court in July 2023 in New York, is seen in a court sketch after he was extradited from Spain to face decade-old drug trafficking charges in the same case as Maduro.

"This is exactly the type of person that would be a witness in the case," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Post.

If he takes the witness stand and testifies truthfully, he would get a "significant reduction in his sentence," Rahmani said.

"The sentencing [in drug-trafficking] cases are so high, so you have to cooperate," the lawyer added.

"This is exactly the type of person that would be a witness in the case," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The Post.

Dick Gregorie -- a prosecutor who handled a US case against another foreign leader, Manuel Noriega, in 1988 -- agreed there is a "good possibility" that Carvajal will be a prosecution witness.

"I would assume if he had a deal that he made six months ago, that they have probably been preparing him for weeks, or months, maybe," Gregorie added.

Prosecutors will also have "a number of internal people from Venezuela and drug dealers who were involved in moving the drugs" as witnesses, he said.

6 hours ago

Maduro declares himself 'prisoner of war' and 'man of God' during spat with one of his political foes while leaving court

By Ben Kochman

Twisted dictator Nicolas Maduro claimed he is a “prisoner of war’’ and “man of God’’ when confronted Monday by a Venezuelan countryman who said he had been an imprisoned victim of the fallen despot’s regime.

A man who identified himself as Pedro Rojas stood up in a Manhattan federal courtroom after the accused narco-trafficker’s arraignment and shouted at Maduro that he had been the South American nation’s illegitimate president and would now face “real justice.’’

Maduro turned to him and said, “I am a man of God” -- and called himself a POW — during an exchange in Spanish with Rojas as he was led out of the courtroom.

Rojas, 33, later told reporters that he was a political prisoner in Venezuela in 2019 for four months.

6 hours ago

Maduro and his wife depart Manhattan court in an armored vehicle following not guilty pleas: photos

By Joseph Barberio

Ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was taken away from the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan in an armored vehicle following his arraignment Monday.

The former strongman and his wife, Cilia Flores, both pleaded not guilty to federal narco-terrorism charges.

The convoy will likely take the couple back to the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where they were being held in separate cells.

A convoy believed to be carrying ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro departs the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse after Maduro attended his arraignment hearing on January 5, 2026 in New York.

Maduro and his wife both pleaded not guilty to federal narco-terrorism charges.

6 hours ago

Maine-based company says it's being inundated with calls after shackled Maduro pictured wearing its blue hoodie

By Emily Crane

A Maine-based apparel company's phones have been ringing off the hook after a shackled Nicolás Maduro was snapped wearing one of its hoodies when he was hauled to the Big Apple, the company says.

The ousted Venezuelan dictator could be seen sporting the bright blue Origin attire in a now-infamous photo of him flashing two thumbs up while surrounded by scores of DEA agents after touching down in New York.

A Maine-based apparel company's phones have been ringing off the hook after a shackled Nicolás Maduro was snapped wearing one of its hoodies.

"Probably a DEA agent slipped this hoodie on him and said, 'You're gonna feel the fabric of freedom on American soil.' That's my assumption. I'm taking the liberty to assume," Origin founder Peter Roberts said in a video statement.

"He definitely gave two thumbs up, so I think he liked the fabric."

It wasn't clear exactly how the dictator ended up in the hoodie.

"What I believe happened is they landed in New York," Roberts speculated. "It was cold outside and they put a hoodie on him."

The CEO said his phone immediately "blew up" when people started noticing the company's logo.

6 hours ago

Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, suffered possible rib fracture, bruising during arrest: lawyer

By Emily Crane

Venezuela's ousted first lady Cilia Flores suffered "significant injuries" -- including a possible rib fracture and bruising -- when she was captured by US forces, her Texas-based lawyer told a judge Monday.

The private lawyer, Mark Donnelly, asked for his client to undergo a full X-ray to ensure her health while in federal custody.

He added that her injuries were visible in court.

DEA agents are seen early Monday morning, January 5, 2026, at the Wall Street Heliport as former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife are transferred under federal custody en route to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in Manhattan.

Maduro's wife Cilia Flores claims to have suffered broken ribs from the arrest.

Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post

6 hours ago

Maduro's lawyer says client won't seek immediate release, may request bail later

By Kyle Schnitzer

One of Nicolás Maduro's lawyers told Judge Alvin Hellerstein that his client is not seeking to be immediately released from custody but reserves his right to "put in a bail application at a further day.''

Maduro, who was scribbling on a white piece of paper during the proceedings, added at one point, "I would like to ask that my notes be respected and that I am entitled to keep them."

7 hours ago

Maduro's wife pleads not guilty: 'Completely innocent'

By Emily Crane

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, has pleaded not guilty.

"Not guilty. Completely innocent," Flores, 69, told a Manhattan federal judge when asked to enter her plea Monday.

Both Maduro and his alleged co-conspirator wife have been relying on an interpreter as the proceedings continue.

7 hours ago

Maduro proclaims his innocence to courtroom during first appearance: 'I am a decent man'

By Kyle Schnitzer

Nicolás Maduro vehemently proclaimed he was innocent of the charges leveled against him at his arraignment in Manhattan federal court Monday afternoon.

"I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country," Maduro insisted after Judge Alvin Hellerstein asked him if he understood he had the right to legal counsel.

"I did not know of these rights. Your honor is informing me of them now," Maduro said.

He then claimed he was seeing the indictment against him for the first time, and said he was pleading innocent.

"I am innocent. I am not guilty of anything that is mentioned here," he said.

7 hours ago

Venezuelan dictator Maduro claims he was 'kidnapped' in Manhattan federal court outburst

By Chris Nesi

Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro denounced his capture as a kidnapping in an outburst in Manhattan federal court that was swiftly cut off by District Judge Alvin Hellerstein as proceedings got under way Monday.

"I'm the president of the republic of Venezuela. ... I am here kidnapped. ... I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela," he said before Hellerstein stopped him.

Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed Federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan on January 5, 2026 in New York City

"I'm the president of the republic of Venezuela. ... I am here kidnapped. ... I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela," Maduro said in Manhattan federal court.

"Let me interfere,'' the judge said. "There will be a time and a place to go into all of this. Your counsel will be able to make motions. ... At this time, I just want to know one thing: Are you Nicolás Maduro Moros?"

"I am Nicholas Maduro Moros," the fallen dictator replied.

7 hours ago

Judge Hellerstein lays out charges against Maduro, including providing financial support for terrorism, terrorist activity

By Kyle Schnitzer and Chris Nesi

Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein exchanged brief pleasantries with the toppled Venezuelan dictator, saying, "Good morning, Mr. Maduro'' -- before reading out more than a quarter-century's worth of charges contained in the indictment against him.

"Mr. Maduro ... is charged in one count of narco-terrorism conspiracy, specifically from 1999 to 2025, he knowingly conspired with others ... and intentionally provided something of pecuniary value to a person or organization engaged in terrorism and terrorist activity," the 92-year-old jurist said from the bench.

As Hellerstein spoke, Maduro furiously scribbled notes on a white piece of paper.

7 hours ago

Maduro arrives in court shackled at the ankles, greets attorneys

By Kyle Schnitzer

Deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro entered Manhattan court Monday shackled at the ankles -- but not the wrists -- wearing prison-issued orange shoes, beige pants and an orange shirt with what appears to be a black v-neck underneath.

7 hours ago

Ex-US hostage urges Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez to free Americans as proof she's willing to work with Washington

By Caitlin Doornbos

An American once held hostage by Venezuela’s brutal regime on Monday called on the country’s de facto leader, Delcy Rodriguez, to immediately free the five US citizens still being held in Caracas — saying it would be the clearest sign yet that she’s willing to work with Washington.

“I’d like to call on interim President Delcy Rodriguez to release the five Americans immediately as a show of goodwill,” Marine Corps veteran Matthew Heath told The Post.

Heath, who was jailed during Nicolás Maduro’s rule on bogus charges and released in 2022, said Americans detained in Venezuela are routinely used as bargaining chips in political standoffs with the US.

“They don’t have a real justice system,” he said. “Judges do exactly what they’re told — or they end up in prison themselves.”

Maduro’s government detained more than 40 Americans during his time in power, according to the former prisoner, who said he was personally framed on fabricated charges and subjected to electric shocks and other torture inside Venezuela’s political prison system.

Now free and back in the US since 2022, the former detainee said seeing Maduro face prosecution in an American courtroom on Monday is deeply satisfying.

“He’s going to get a fair trial,” he said. “Something none of us were ever given.”

With Maduro gone, he said, Rodriguez has a rare opportunity to signal a break from the past — but warned that authoritarian regimes rarely give up hostages without extracting concessions.

“Hope springs eternal,” he said. “But history shows these regimes don’t release detainees unless they get something in return.”

Still, he said, freeing the Americans now could open the door to improved relations and help stabilize the country after years of repression and international isolation.

“If she wants to show she’s serious about moving Venezuela forward,” he said, “this is the moment.”

8 hours ago

Private lawyer who famously negotiated release of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange joins Maduro team

By Ben Kochman

Dictator Nicolas Maduro also will be repped by a top lawyer who once famously negotiated the prison release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Barry Pollack is a prominent private lawyer who is now part of the team defending the ousted Venezuelan president.

He brokered a bombshell June 2024 deal with the US government that allowed Assange, who was charged with breaching the Espionage Act by divulging state secrets, to return to his native Australia after pleading guilty to a single misdemeanor count.

Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, will be represented at Monday’s hearing by Mark Donnelly, a private lawyer from Texas who served as a federal prosecutor.

It’s unclear whether or how the private lawyers will be paid for the appearance.

Maduro also is being repped by court-appointed lawyer David Wikstrom — meaning taxpayers will foot at least that part of the bill.

8 hours ago

Chevron, energy stocks soar after US capture of Nicolás Maduro – but oil prices barely move

By Taylor Herzlich

Chevron and other energy stocks soared Monday morning, though oil prices barely budged, after the US captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and President Trump said American companies would tap into the nation’s rich oil reserves.

Shares in Chevron, which is the only major US oil company currently operating in Venezuela, jumped 4.8%.

Chevron and other energy stocks soared Monday morning after the US captured Maduro.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil – both of which left Venezuela nearly 20 years ago when Maduro’s socialist predecessor, Hugo Chávez, nationalized their assets – also rose 5.3% and 2.4%, respectively.

9 hours ago

Lefty protesters supporting Maduro ripped as 'a--holes' by Cuban, Venezuelan immigrants

By Emily Crane

Roughly a dozen protesters who showed up outside the Manhattan courthouse to denounce Nicolas Maduro's arrest were blasted as "a--holes" by those hailing the capture of the Venezuelan dictator.

Dario Blanzo, who was born in Cuba, came to the federal court to celebrate Maduro's detainment when he encountered a handful of protesters holding signs reading “Free President Maduro” and “No War for Venezuela Oil!”

“You’re an a--hole! You don’t even know where Venezuela is!” Blanzo shouted at one protester.

“In Venezuela and Cuba, nobody can do that. Nobody can do that. You go to jail if you do that."

Maria Su, who immigrated to the US from Caracas, decried them as "paid protesters."

“They are not Venezuelans. They are paid protesters. They don’t speak Spanish!” she raged as she waved a Venezuelan flag. “They don’t know anything because they are not Venezuelan."

9 hours ago

Maduro assigned court-appointed attorney -- meaning US will foot bill for dictator's Monday appearance

By Emily Crane

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro is expected to be repped by a court-appointed attorney for his initial hearing at Manhattan federal court later today -- meaning the US will at least initially be footing the bill for his defense.

Maduro will be represented by longtime Big Apple criminal defense attorney David Wikstrom, The Post confirmed.

It wasn't immediately clear if the court-appointed attorney would continue to rep the ousted leader at future court hearings.

10 hours ago

Clinton-nominated Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to oversee Maduro’s court appearance

By Emily Crane

Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein has been assigned to oversee ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's initial court appearance later Monday.

The 92-year-old veteran judge was nominated and confirmed by President Bill Clinton in 1998.

The born-and-bred New Yorker has presided over a slew of cases tied to the 9/11 terror attacks and others related to national security.

In more recent years, Hellerstein quashed President Trump’s bid to have Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “hush money” case against him heard in federal court.

Kyle Mazza-CNP/Shutterstock

11 hours ago

Nicolas Maduro could face death penalty if fallen Venezuelan dictator is convicted

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Fallen Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro could face the death penalty if convicted on federal drug-trafficking and other charges.

The strongman was nabbed at his Caracas palace in a daring US raid and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn pending his arraignment Monday on a four-count indictment.

If found guilty, Maduro is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars — or worse.

11 hours ago

Maduro arrives at Manhattan federal courthouse

By Emily Crane

The ousted Venezuelan president and his wife have arrived at the Manhattan federal court where they'll go before a judge later today on narco-terrorism charges.

The armored car carrying Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores reversed into a secured area at the courthouse just before 7:45 a.m.

Scores of heavily armed DEA officers and NYPD cops swarmed the streets as the transfer took place.

11 hours ago

Maduro touches down in Manhattan

By Emily Crane and Desheania Andrews

The chopper carrying fallen Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro arrived in downtown Manhattan at roughly 7:30 a.m.

He was quickly escorted from the helicopter by about eight heavily armed guards and put in an armored truck at the helipad.

The motorcade immediately set off for the courthouse.

12 hours ago

Shackled Maduro, wife escorted to helicopter

By Emily Crane

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been escorted in cuffs to a waiting helicopter.

The fallen leader, 66, and his 69-year-old wife were both in prison garb after leaving Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

12 hours ago

First look at Maduro ahead of court appearance

By Samuel Chamberlain

The motorcade has arrived at a helipad where Maduro will make the short flight across the East River to Manhattan for his court appearance.

Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport on January 5, 2026.

Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post

News choppers hovering overhead got a brief glimpse of the fallen left-wing authoritarian as he was transferred from the armored Bearcat to a police SUV.

Maduro is clad in what appears to be khakhi prison garb and red footwear, with his hands shackled in front of him.

12 hours ago

Maduro leaves Brooklyn jail, bound for Manhattan

By Samuel Chamberlain

An armored car believed to be carrying arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has left the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The 63-year-old is being escorted by unmarked white vans and a fleet of NYPD cop cars.

Maduro's first appearance is set for 12 p.m., after which he will be returned behind bars in Brooklyn.

20 hours ago

Welcome to ‘hell on Earth,’ Nicolas! Inside the notorious NYC lock-up where Maduro and his wife are being held

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who dined on steak and lived in a palace as his country starved, is now in “hell on Earth’’ in a Brooklyn jail — and machine-gun-toting authorities are making sure he stays there.

Maduro, 63, and his 69-year-old fellow-inmate wife Cilia were thrown into separate cells in solitary confinement away from the general population at the infamous federal Metropolitan Detention Center since their extraordinary capture by elite US forces in Caracas early Saturday.

“This is the least they deserve,” said Gabriel Bonilla, a Venezuelan comedian who fled to Argentina in 2017, to The Post on Sunday. “The worst prison in the United States is a mansion compared to the prisons and holes where people have been tortured for years in Venezuela.”

20 hours ago

Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro arrives in NYC by helicopter hours after capture by US

By Marie Pohl

Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, touched down in New York City Saturday night after being captured by US forces — and were greeted by jeers of “Down with the dictator.”

The pair — who landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Upstate Newburgh around 5 p.m. — arrived via helicopter at a Manhattan heliport just before 7 p.m. and were hauled away in a heavily armed tactical vehicle called a “Bearcat” surrounded by a small motorcade.

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, will first be transported to the Drug Enforcement Administration Headquarters in Chelsea, where he was processed before returning to the West 30th Street Heliport and choppered to Brooklyn, sources told The Post.

He took off after 8 p.m., and was seen on video being flown down the West Side of Manhattan and past the Statue of Liberty before heading to Brooklyn.

20 hours ago

Inside Operation Absolute Resolve: How US forces captured Venezuela’s Maduro — after months of secret planning

By Caitlin Doornbos and Samantha Olander

The U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro was a months-in-the-making mission rehearsed using replicas of Maduro’s fortified compound, showcasing military might, ingenuity — and good timing.

The Venezuelan dictator was stopped just steps from the steel doors of his fortified lair as elite Army Delta Force commandos closed in, President Trump said.

Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrive(d) at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, as he heads towards the Daniel Patrick Manhattan United States Courthouse for an initial appearance to face U.S. federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others in New York City, U.S., January 5, 2026.

The Venezuelan dictator was stopped just steps from the steel doors of his fortified lair as elite Army Delta Force commandos closed in, President Trump said.

“He was trying to get into a safe place … the safe place’s all steel, and he wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast,” Trump said.

The commandos closed in “in a matter of seconds,” Trump said on Fox News.

20 hours ago

Trump says Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, wife ‘captured’ after large-scale strikes

By Katherine Donlevy

The U.S. captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro early Saturday in an extraordinary military operation to end the repressive regime of the “fugitive” leader, and usher in a “new dawn” of freedom to the embattled nation.

Some 150 aircraft took part in Operation Absolute Resolve, which came after months of mounting pressure by the Trump administration and lasted just under two and a half hours.

Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrives at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, as he heads towards the Daniel Patrick Manhattan United States Courthouse for an initial appearance to face U.S. federal charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, money laundering and others in New York City, U.S., January 5, 2026.

Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, were seized just steps from the steel doors of his high-security Ft Tiuna military compound, which President Trump said US troops were able to blast through “a matter of seconds.”

ATTACHMENT “C” – FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

TRUMP WITHDRAWS US FROM 66 INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND TREATIES

Dinah Voyles Pulver

USA TODAY

Jan. 7, 2026 Updated Jan. 8, 2026, 11:40 a.m. ET

The United States will withdraw from more than five dozen international collaborations, including treaties and organizations with the United Nations on climate change and the oceans, President Donald Trump announced in a memo.

Among the organizations the United States will withdraw from are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The list also includes agreements and groups on renewable energy, oceans, piracy, counterterrorism and empowerment of women.

(c) Consistent with Executive Order 14199 and pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby direct all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to take immediate steps to effectuate the withdrawal of the United States from the organizations listed in section 2 of this memorandum as soon as possible. For United Nations entities, withdrawal means ceasing participation in or funding to those entities to the extent permitted by law.

(d) My review of further findings of the Secretary of State remains ongoing.

Sec. 2. Organizations from Which the United States Shall Withdraw. (a) Non-United Nations Organizations:

(xxx) Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combatting Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia;

Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia

Bottom of Form

Coordinates: 1.2923863°N 103.792483°E

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia - Information Sharing Centre
Logo of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia - Information Sharing Centre
Abbreviation	ReCAAP ISC
Formation	29 November 2006 (19 years ago)
Type	International organization
Purpose	Anti Piracy
Headquarters	Singapore
Coordinates	1.2923863°N 103.792483°E
Area served	Asia
Membership	21 Contracting Parties
Executive Director	Krishnaswamy Natarajan
Website	www.recaap.org

List of Countries In ReCAAP See map here

The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia, abbreviated as ReCAAP or RECAAP, is a multilateral agreement between 16 countries in Asia, concluded in November 2004 and includes the RECAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC), an initiative for facilitating the dissemination of piracy-related information.^[1]

To date, twenty one countries in various parts of the world have ratified the ReCAAP agreement.^[2]

ReCAAP History

The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) is the first regional government-to-government agreement to promote and enhance cooperation against piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia. ReCAAP ISC was proposed in 1999 as a result of shared concern specifically related to cases of piracy and armed robbery, and it came into force in November 2006 after further ratification by member states.^[3] To date, 21 States (14 Asian countries, 5 European countries, Australia, the USA) have become Contracting Parties to ReCAAP.

On January 2026, the USA withdrew from the Agreement.^[4]

The 20 Contracting Parties of ReCAAP:^[5] (As of January 2025)

Australia	Bangladesh	Brunei
Cambodia	China	Denmark
India	Japan	South Korea
Laos	Myanmar	Netherlands
Norway	Philippines	Singapore
Sri Lanka	Thailand	United Kingdom
Vietnam	Germany

The Structure of ReCAAP

ReCAAP was established as a decentralized security network, which included the formation of an Information Security Center (ISC) and a Governing Council. The ISC also serves as a platform for information exchange with the ReCAAP Focal Points via the Information Network System (IFN). The Governing Council consists of one representative from each contracting member and is tasked with overseeing a focal point and managing the ISC's procedures.^[6]

FROM TRADE WINDS

Trump dumps anti-piracy body on eve of major report

Administration is withdrawing from 66 organisations that are ‘contrary to US interests’

Regulation

ReCAAP executive director Vijay D Chafekar

Photo: Karen Ng

Paul Peachey

TradeWinds correspondent

London

Published 8 January 2026, 10:17

The Trump administration is pulling out of an anti-piracy organisation on the eve of it reporting the highest level of incidents at a notorious hotspot for nearly two decades.

The US said it will withdraw from 66 organisations, including the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP).

The list includes 31 United Nations bodies, among them UN Trade & Development, which produces an annual report on the state of the maritime industry and advocates for developing nations in global trade talks.

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Anti-piracy experts shrug off Trump team pullout

Asia security group says the US paid only a nominal sum every year

Regulation

ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre executive director Vijay D Chafekar.

Photo: Huaqing Ma

Paul Peachey

Huaqing Ma

London/Singapore

Published 9 January 2026, 07:49

The head of an anti-piracy group says its work will continue unaffected despite the administration of US President Donald Trump pulling its support.

The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) was one of 66 bodies identified by the White House this week as “contrary to the interests” of the US.

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FROM HAMSA

Shipping & Markets

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=ce2d80b8250f5643c5c5005bd5cc62afa9b8e120a4b186afe8f77d8cbf21231eJmltdHM9MTc2ODAwMzIwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=22207647-2718-6046-2146-609a266e61fe&psq=TRUMP+WITHDRAW+Regional+Cooperation+PIRACY&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9oYW5zYS5uZXdzL3RydW1wLXdpdGhkcmF3cy11c2EtZnJvbS1jb29wZXJhdGlvbi1hZ2FpbnN0LXBpcmFjeS8

Trump withdraws USA from cooperation against piracy

January 9, 2026

The US government’s drastic withdrawal from international cooperation now also has consequences for the fight against piracy: Donald Trump has ordered the US to quit from a total of 66 organizations, including the “Recaap”.

Around a year ago, Trump instructed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review all memberships in international organizations. Although this was also about saving costs, it was primarily about “which organizations, agreements and treaties run counter to the interests of the United States”.

Rubio has now submitted his report. And Trump is making good on his threat. “I have reviewed the Secretary of State’s report and, after consultation with my Cabinet, have determined that it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain, participate in, or otherwise support some organizations,” reads a statement from the White House.

In it, Trump instructs his followers to withdraw from a total of 66 organizations and cooperations “as soon as possible”.

After the US government exerted massive pressure on the deliberations at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) last autumn, ultimately torpedoing efforts to achieve the widely anticipated “Net Zero Framework”, the shipping industry is now also feeling the consequences of the latest initiative. The IMO is not on the list to be deleted. However, the fight against piracy in Asia is affected.

Germany is also a member

Among other things, Trump is calling to withdraw from the “Regional Cooperation Agreement to Combat Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia”, or Recaap for short. This is an intergovernmental cooperation between 21 countries that was founded in 2004. The members are not only Asian states. The USA, some European countries and, since 2021, Germany have also joined.

Recaap cooperation is primarily about sharing information on piracy cases, threats, strategic plans. In contrast to East Africa, where some of the states are very weak in terms of naval and coastal protection and Somalia was considered a “failed state”, better developed, sovereign states are involved here.

Strictly speaking, many cases in the region are “armed robbery” and not “piracy” because the vast majority of attacks take place in the territorial waters of the states. This circumstance has important consequences because it is the coastal states that have the right to pursue and intervene there first, and not the naval units of other countries that are on patrol duty and could intervene more quickly if necessary.

Even though pirates off East and West Africa have received much more attention in recent years and the military has recently sounded the alarm again, shipping in Southeast Asia is still struggling with attacks, thefts and boardings. Despite – or perhaps because of – its “low profile” cooperation, Recaap is considered a model for success, even if two important countries in the region, Malaysia and Indonesia, cannot bring themselves to join for fear of losing sovereignty.

“Blood, sweat and money”

Incidentally, the latest instructions do not necessarily mark the end of the list of deletions. “My review of further findings by the Secretary of State is not yet complete,” Trump continued.

Rubio himself also commented on the deletion list, describing the organizations in question as “redundant, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful and poorly run”. They would be “captured by the interests of actors pursuing their own agendas contrary to our interests, or pose a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms and overall prosperity”. Trump himself is quoted in the statement as saying that it is no longer acceptable to devote “the blood, sweat and money of the American people to these institutions without getting any meaningful results in return. The days of billions of taxpayer dollars flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.” These organizations are actively trying to limit American sovereignty, he said. “We reject inertia and ideology and instead embrace prudence and purpose. We seek cooperation where it serves our people and remain steadfast where it does not,” it says.

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