Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

FOX News [1/4/2026 9:41 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem discusses the U.S. military’s operation in Venezuela, the capture of Nicolás Maduro and its global ramifications on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [1/4/2026 1:01 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday praised the U.S. capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro and said the Trump administration will keep deporting criminals and pursuing others named in a federal indictment tied to drug trafficking. "We have been building a case against Maduro for years," Noem said in a televised interview, crediting Homeland Security Investigations and other agencies with tracking Maduro’s crimes. Bringing Maduro to justice, she added, "is incredibly satisfying for those families that have to live without their loved ones today because of the crimes that he’s committed for decades.” Noem’s comments came as the administration framed Maduro’s arrest as a major development in its broader push against transnational gangs and narcotics networks. She pointed to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, saying "thousands and thousands" of members entered the United States and carried out crimes. Noem added that the administration has arrested and removed gang members from the country. "We have to bring him to justice, and then absolutely he will face the consequences for his crimes," Noem said about Maduro, while rejecting suggestions that keeping him in U.S. custody could heighten security risks. She also criticized those she said were defending Maduro, calling him "not a credible elected leader in Venezuela.” Her interview followed reports of a bomb threat at Venezuela’s embassy in Washington after news of Maduro’s alleged capture, and concerns voiced by New York officials about security in the city where Maduro was said to be held. Pressed on whether Maduro could eventually be deported to another country after U.S. proceedings, Noem said the administration would let the legal process unfold but left open the possibility of transferring him if a legitimate government seeks custody. "I think we need to see and let the process play out," she said. "If there is a legitimate government in another country that wants them to come and pay for their crimes in their country, we will work with them. Right now we don’t have that in Venezuela.” Noem said DHS is implementing decisions made with the White House and the State Department, and emphasized that affected Venezuelans can seek other forms of relief. "Every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will go forward," she said. "But we need to make sure that our programs actually mean something and that we are following the law.”

FOX News [1/4/2026 12:24 PM, Taylor Penley, 40621K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says President Trump’s message to Venezuela’s vice president is clear: "You can lead, or you can get out of the way.” "President Trump is done negotiating. He proved that a couple of days ago, that he is a man of action, that when someone is threatening the United States, he will defend it with every resource that we have, and he’ll continue to do that," Noem told "Fox News Sunday.” "His conversations now with the vice president in Venezuela are very matter-of-fact and very clear: ‘You can lead, or you can get out of the way because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert our American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.’". Noem’s remarks came on the heels of the Trump administration’s successful operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, a measure that garnered mixed reactions as Democrats and Republicans debated legality concerns and what the future might hold for the South American country.

Axios [1/4/2026 4:34 PM, Andrew Pantazi, 12972K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday defended the administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, despite concerns about chaos unfolding in their home country following Nicolás Maduro’s capture. Roughly 600,000 Venezuelans living legally in the U.S. under TPS face potential deportation to a nation whose future government remains deeply uncertain. Asked on "Fox News Sunday" if Venezuelans should remain in the U.S. given the instability, Noem argued that Venezuela is "more free today than it was yesterday" and insisted TPS holders can apply for refugee status instead. "We need to make sure that our programs actually mean something and that we’re following the law," Noem said when pressed about forced returns during political upheaval. The Trump administration terminated TPS for Venezuelans earlier this year. The Supreme Court allowed the termination to proceed while litigation continues. President Trump also halted asylum applications from 19 countries, including Venezuela, after a shooting incident in D.C. Newly elected Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins called the TPS termination "reckless, dangerous and wrong" on Saturday, urging Trump to reinstate the program.

The Hill [1/4/2026 3:06 PM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that Venezuelans in the U.S. who were previously under temporary protective status (TPS) can apply for asylum. "Every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will go forward," Noem told host Gillian Turner on "Fox News Sunday.” Noem ended TPS earlier this year for roughly 600,000 Venezuelan migrants who received protected status from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the Biden administration. After the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, early Saturday morning, Venezuelan migrants in South Florida took to the streets to celebrate. The long-term future for their country, though, is unclear. President Trump told reporters Saturday that the U.S. "will run until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," adding that American oil companies will "fix" the South American nation’s petroleum infrastructure. Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world.

Telemundo [1/4/2026 7:01 PM, Staff, 2218K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contradicted the agency’s own secretary, Kristi Noem, on Sunday, denying her claims that Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) could apply for asylum in the United States following the capture of Nicolás Maduro. When asked in an interview on Fox News whether the Trump administration would force Venezuelans with TPS—some 600,000 people—to return to Venezuela just as their government is in a state of instability, Noem said that this group of people could apply for asylum in the United States. “All people who were protected by TPS have the opportunity to apply for refugee status, and that evaluation will take place, but we must make sure that our programs are truly effective and that we are complying with the law,” Noem said Sunday morning . But hours later, after the press reported the official’s statements, the DHS backtracked and denied Noem’s comments, asserting that Venezuelans with TPS must return to their country. “This is not what Secretary Noem said,” the DHS stated on social media . “Secretary Noem ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans, who can now return to their country, which they love.”

New York Times [1/4/2026 5:55 PM, Jazmine Ulloa, 153395K] reports 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. 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.

Washington Post [1/4/2026 3:15 PM, Teo Armus, et al., 24149K] reports Samir Luzardo’s life as an asylum seeker in the United States has been in limbo since President Donald Trump took office again last year. He lost the temporary protected status shielding him from deportation in September. And he has watched with growing unease as the administration deports thousands back to the country he’d fled. Now after Trump ousted Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro on Saturday and declared the U.S. will “run” the South American country temporarily, Luzardo and other Venezuelans are pondering a different scenario: whether things might actually improve enough to return, or deepen the uncertainty around the future of their families. “Millions of us who fled Venezuela want to return. We’d want to return tomorrow if we could,” said Luzardo, an independent journalist who has been living in South Florida for nearly a decade. “But we know it’ll be a process that is going to take time.” Trump has made deporting recently arrived Venezuelans a priority in his second administration, and at a news conference Saturday said that many of the nearly 1 million Venezuelan immigrants in the United States “want to go back to their country.” But whether Maduro’s ouster helps or harms Trump’s quest to deport large numbers of Venezuelan migrants is far from certain. In the short-term, many are unlikely to return while Maduro’s allies remain in power and the nation’s economy in shambles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will likely need to pause deportations to Venezuela to protect officers while the country remains unstable. Longer-term, some might return if they see genuine change in Venezuela. But if the country descends into deeper calamity, immigration experts warn it could also spark a new exodus. Neighboring Colombia immediately moved to fortify its border with Venezuela after the U.S. military action. “This could just be the beginning of a round of violence and conflict and turmoil that could result in people not returning — at least not voluntarily — or turning right around and fleeing all over again,” said Bill Frelick, who oversees the migrant and refugee rights division at Human Rights Watch, a New York based nonprofit that investigates abuses worldwide. Humanitarian crises elsewhere offer clues of what might happen next. Massive numbers of people fled brutal conflict in Kosovo and political repression in Syria but returned when armed forces withdrew and a regime was toppled, respectively, in hopes of rebuilding their homelands. In countries like Afghanistan and Somalia, however, sudden political and military shifts only created new reasons for people there to flee. The most obvious parallel to Venezuela so far appeared to be Iraq, Frelick said. Trump’s plan is to send U.S. energy giants to Venezuela and use the wealth generated from reviving the nation’s dismal oil industry to stabilize the country. The U.S. had similar ambitions in Iraq. But the U.S.-led invasion and takeover, and eventual capture of Saddam Hussein, only prompted another exodus.

FOX News [1/4/2026 7:35 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports DHS public affairs assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin discusses the capture of Nicolas Maduro and the Trump administration’s continuing crackdown on illegal immigration on ‘The Big Weekend Show.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [1/4/2026 9:09 AM, Staff, 36480K] Video: HERE reports Nicolas Maduro was seen walking down a hallway at the headquarters of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Saturday (January 3), after U.S. forces captured the Venezuelan president in an audacious raid and whisked him to New York to face drug-trafficking charges.

CBS News [1/4/2026 7:19 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports Maduro and his wife landed in New York on Saturday night and are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. They face federal charges related to drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organizations, which Maduro has denied. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The AP [1/5/2026 2:59 AM, Michael R. Sisak, Larry Neumeister and John Hanna, 2416K] reports deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York. Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S. The couple will be brought from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse just around the corner from the one where President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records. As a criminal defendant in the U.S. legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime — including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique. Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state. Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegaunsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection. Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the U.S. return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking — although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and “respectful relations” with the U.S. Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources. The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing " oil quarantine.” Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the western hemisphere. Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.” He called on Venezuela’s Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences. A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted. It wasn’t clear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a U.S. lawyer yet. He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department. While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community’s 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government. Reuters [1/5/2026 2:10 AM, Jack Queen, 36480K] reports that the U.S. has deemed Maduro an illegitimate dictator since he declared victory in a 2018 election marred by allegations of massive irregularities. His capture marks Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago. Prosecutors say Maduro is the kingpin of a cartel of Venezuelan political and military officials who have conspired for decades with drug trafficking groups and U.S.-designated terrorist organizations to flood the U.S. with thousands of tons of cocaine. Maduro was first indicted in 2020 as part of a long-running narcotics trafficking case against current and former Venezuelan officials and Colombian guerrillas. In a new indictment unsealed Saturday, prosecutors allege that Maduro personally oversaw a state-sponsored cocaine trafficking network that partnered with some of the world’s most violent and prolific drug trafficking groups, including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, the Colombian paramilitary group FARC and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. "As Venezuela’s President and now de-facto ruler, Maduro 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," according to the indictment filed by prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. He faces decades to life in prison on each count if convicted. Prosecutors say Maduro has been involved in drug trafficking from the time of his election to Venezuela’s National Assembly in 2000 to his tenure as foreign minister from 2006 to 2013 and ever since his selection as the late president Hugo Chavez’s successor in 2013. The indictment says that while serving as foreign minister, Maduro sold diplomatic passports to known drug traffickers and personally arranged diplomatic cover for flights transporting drug proceeds from Mexico to Venezuela. From 2004 to 2015, prosecutors say Maduro and his wife used state-sponsored criminal gangs to traffic cocaine that had been seized by Venezuelan authorities and ordered kidnappings, beatings and murders to protect their operations and collect debts. Prosecutors say that as president, Maduro directed cocaine trafficking routes, used the military to protect shipments, sheltered violent trafficking groups and used presidential facilities to move drugs. The indictment cites an example from months after Maduro’s swearing in April 2013, when he allegedly directed top co-conspirators to find a new smuggling route to replace one uncovered by French authorities. Maduro also authorized the arrests of low-level military officials to deflect blame, prosecutors say. Legal experts said prosecutors will need to show evidence of Maduro’s direct involvement in drug trafficking to secure a conviction, which could prove difficult if he insulated himself from decision making.

New York Times [1/4/2026 4:13 PM, Ali Watkins, 153395K] reports Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president captured by the United States on Saturday, is being held in a notorious Brooklyn jail complex that has been plagued by scandal and accusations of mismanagement. The Metropolitan Detention Center is a hulking facility in Brooklyn that, for decades, has held some of the United States’ most infamous accused criminals as they await trial. Known as the M.D.C., the jail is one of the largest federal lockups in the country, housing around 1,600 inmates at any given time. While some face serious charges like international drug trafficking or terrorism, a vast majority face lesser crimes. The jail center is a sort of way station for the detainees before a trial or sentencing. It is also deeply troubled. In recent years, it has been the scene of stabbings and killings. It became New York City’s only federal jail center in 2021, when the Justice Department shut down the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan, at least temporarily, because of deteriorating conditions. In 2019, the Brooklyn complex was plunged into a weeklong blackout when the jail’s heating and electricity shut down during a polar vortex, with temperatures in the city dipping into the single digits. A Justice Department report found that officials had gravely mishandled the crisis. Mr. Maduro, who was taken to the jail on Saturday, will join the ranks of high-profile detainees who have passed through the M.D.C. Luigi Mangione, who faces state and federal charges in the December 2024 killing of the UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, is being held there while he awaits trial.

ABC News [1/4/2026 1:51 PM, Luke Barr, 30493K] reports the operation to capture and bring Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to the U.S. took months of planning with the Department of Defense, according to a joint statement from the agency and the Justice Department, FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Agency. "Specialized FBI and DEA personnel, including tactical and transport teams, worked alongside DOW and our DOJ attorneys and other DOJ components to ensure the secure movement, control, and transfer of 2 high-risk defendants," the statement says, in part. "All personnel involved acted professionally, decisively, and in strict accordance with U.S. law and established protocols." The statement further says the United States "pursued every lawful option to resolve this matter peacefully. Those opportunities were repeatedly rejected. The responsibility for this outcome rests solely with those who chose to continue criminal conduct rather than disengage." "The mission was conducted to support an ongoing criminal prosecution tied to large-scale narcotics trafficking and related offenses that have fueled violence, destabilized the region, and contributed directly to the drug crisis claiming American lives," according to the statement.

Reuters [1/4/2026 11:19 AM, Staff, 36480K] reports a large part of erstwhile President Nicolas Maduro’s security team was killed in the U.S. raid that led to the leader’s Saturday capture, Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrino said in a televised statement on Sunday morning. Padrino did not give an exact figure of casualties, but backed the declaration of Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as interim president and said the armed forces have been activated across the country to guarantee sovereignty.

Breitbart [1/5/2026 2:51 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports thirty-two Cubans were killed in the U.S. military operation in Venezuela on Saturday, according to Havana. A late Sunday statement from the office of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez announced the death toll from Saturday’s U.S. attack on Venezuela that resulted in the arrest of its authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro. "Faithful to their responsibilities for security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombardment of facilities," Bermudez’ office said. The families of the deceased have been informed and were offered the "heartfelt condolences" of Army General Raul Castro Ruz, Cuba’s former president. "I share the pain and indignation of our people, and especially of the loved ones of our valiant comrades," Bermudez said in a statement. "As I embrace their families and friends in this dire hour, I reiterate my great affection, admiration and pride in them and in their heroic conduct.” Those killed were in Venezuela carrying out missions on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior. They were there at the request of Caracas, Cuba said. The announcement is the first official casualty count made public following the United States’ early Saturday attack on Venezuela, which included the bombing of the capital. The United States has framed the military action as a law enforcement operation to detain Maduro as he has been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges. The operation has raised questions over its legality under international law and drawn criticism, including from allies France and Colombia. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One that "a lot of Cubans" were killed in the attack, but did not know how many. "No death on our side, but there was a lot of death on the other side, unfortunately," he said. It was unclear how many Venezuelans were killed and injured in the Saturday attack.

FOX News [1/4/2026 5:01 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports ‘Fox News Live’ panelists discuss the operation conducted by the U.S. to capture Nicolas Maduro and what it means for national security. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/5/2026 4:33 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. Trump said he wanted Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, to provide “total access” to the country. He also commented on the 32 Cuban security officers killed in Venezuela. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Caller [1/4/2026 7:39 PM, Mark Tanos, 835K] reports Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro boasted about his country’s defensive capabilities just days before U.S. forces captured him in a dramatic overnight raid. Maduro reportedly claimed that air-defense systems his government received from Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would protect Venezuela from any attack, according to a post on X by Ahmed Quraishi, a journalist covering national security in the Middle East and North Africa who previously served as a war correspondent in Lebanon, Iraq, and the Gulf region. Maduro touted Venezuela’s military readiness. "The national defensive system that combines the Popular Force, military, and police has guaranteed and continues to guarantee territorial integrity, the peace of the country, and the use and enjoyment of all our territories," Maduro said. "And our people are safe and at peace." In the interview that aired on Venezuelan state television, Maduro sat behind the wheel of a car with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet in the passenger seat. The Venezuelan leader said his government stood ready to negotiate a drug trafficking agreement with the United States. "The U.S. government knows, because we’ve told many of their spokespeople, that if they want to seriously discuss an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we’re ready," Maduro said during the interview. "If they want oil, Venezuela is ready for U.S. investment, like with Chevron, whenever they want it, wherever they want it and however they want it." Maduro called on both countries to "start talking seriously, with data in hand."

CBS News [1/4/2026 1:06 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports Venezuela’s military said it recognizes Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as the country’s acting leader after Nicolas Maduro was extracted from Caracas by U.S. forces on Saturday. Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez issued a statement endorsing a Supreme Court ruling that appointed Rodriguez as acting president for 90 days. Rodriguez, who is next in the presidential line of succession, served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy as well as its feared intelligence service. On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president. President Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. had been in touch with Rodriguez and that "she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” Rodriguez faced U.S. sanctions during Mr. Trump’s first administration for her role in undermining Venezuelan democracy. On Saturday night, Rodriguez called Maduro’s capture during a daring overnight U.S. military operation "barbaric" and an "illegal and illegitimate kidnapping." In a speech broadcast on state TV, she said the U.S. actions were an attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty and demanded the "immediate release" of Maduro and his wife. Rodriguez left open the door for dialogue with the U.S., while seeking to calm ruling party supporters. "Here, we have a government with clarity, and I repeat and repeat again … we are willing to have respectful relations," she said, referring to the Trump administration. "It is the only thing we will accept for a type of relationship after having attacked (Venezuela).” Mr. Trump issued an apparent threat against Rodriguez, telling The Atlantic in an article published Sunday that "if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”

The Washington Times [1/4/2026 10:14 AM, Seth McLaughlin, 852K] reports President Trump has delivered a blunt message to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez after the U.S. capture of President Nicolás Maduro: work with Washington or the U.S. will find someone else who will. That’s how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the situation during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” She said Mr. Trump’s talks with Ms. Rodríguez have been “very matter‑of‑fact and very clear.” “You can lead, or you can get out of the way,” she said. Ms Noem said the Trump administration won’t tolerate Venezuelan officials who “subvert our American influence” and prop up dictators who have fueled crimes and drug trafficking. Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured Saturday in a dramatic U.S. military operation in Caracas and flown to New York City to face drug‑trafficking and terrorism‑related charges. Mr. Maduro denies the allegations. Mr. Trump has said the U.S. will temporarily “run” Venezuela and begin selling its oil reserves to other countries. One of the most significant questions about what happens next revolves around who will lead Venezuela as it transitions from Mr. Maduro’s tenure. FOX News [1/4/2026 3:17 PM, Amanda Macias, 40621K] reports that in an interview with The Atlantic, Trump said Delcy Rodríguez would "pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro" if she fails to "do what’s right," adding that his administration would not tolerate what he described as her defiant rejection of the U.S. intervention. Defending that approach, Trump said, "Rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse," he added. Trump’s remarks followed a stunning predawn announcement Saturday that U.S. operators had carried out a mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Speaking at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said a U.S.-appointed team would "run Venezuela" until the country’s political leadership was stabilized. He also pledged a return of U.S. energy investment to the cash-strapped Latin American country which sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves. Trump framed his foreign policy approach, according to The Atlantic, through what he described as a modernized version of the Monroe Doctrine, the 19th-century policy opposing European colonial influence in the Western Hemisphere.

USA Today [1/4/2026 4:05 PM, Lauren Villagran, 67103K] reports Venezuela’s new president Delcy Eloina Rodríguez Gómez has a long political memory that stretches back to her Marxist father, who died in detention during a democratic government before a leftist movement rose in its wake. Now, President Donald Trump is watching her every move. The 56-year-old, newly sworn-in president assumed Venezuela’s most powerful office after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3. Rodríguez, who served as vice president, continues to insist Maduro remains Venezuela’s legitimate leader. She denounced the U.S. strike as a "brutal attack," called Maduro’s ouster a "kidnapping" and at one point demanded the United States "show proof of life" following the dramatic strike. Amid her firebrand talk, Trump issued a direct warning to Rodríguez. "If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro," Trump told The Atlantic a day after Maduro’s capture. But U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Venezuela’s new leadership would work with the Trump administration on issues important to U.S. national security. "We expect to see more compliance and cooperation than we were previously receiving," Rubio told NBC’s Meet the Press on Jan. 4. "With Nicolás Maduro, you could not make a deal or an arrangement.” While Rodríguez has deep roots in the country’s hard-core leftist politics, she’s also seen by the Trump administration as someone willing to negotiate with the United States and its interests in the region, which distinguishes her from Maduro. Also, unlike Maduro, Rodríguez doesn’t face U.S. drug trafficking charges. She has appeared on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned individuals for at least a decade, dating back to the Obama administration, according to the Congressional Research Service.

FOX News [1/4/2026 10:08 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump said the U.S. is now in control of Venezuela following the arrest of longtime leader Nicolás Maduro, outlining a plan to run the country, rebuild its economy and delay elections until what he described as a recovery is underway. Trump made the remarks during a gaggle with reporters as questions mounted about who is governing Venezuela after a U.S. military operation led to Maduro’s arrest early Saturday. "Don’t ask me who’s in charge because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial," Trump told a reporter. He was then asked to clarify, to which Trump replied, "It means we’re in charge.” Trump was also asked whether he had spoken directly with Venezuela’s newly sworn-in Vice President Delcy Rodríguez amid uncertainty about how the new government is functioning and what role the U.S. is playing. While Trump said he has not personally spoken with Rodríguez, he suggested coordination is already underway between U.S. officials and the new leadership. During the gaggle, Trump repeatedly portrayed Venezuela as a failed state that cannot immediately transition to democratic rule, arguing the country’s infrastructure and economy had been devastated by years of mismanagement. He compared Venezuela’s collapse to what he claimed would have happened to the U.S. had he lost the election, using the comparison to underscore his argument for intervention. "We have to do one thing in Venezuela. Bring it back. It’s a dead country right now," Trump said. "It’s a country that, frankly, we would have been if I had lost the election. We would have been Venezuela on steroids.” Trump said rebuilding Venezuela will center on restoring its oil industry, which he said had been stripped from the U.S. under previous governments, leaving infrastructure decayed and production crippled. He stressed that American oil companies – not U.S. taxpayers – will finance the reconstruction, while the U.S. oversees the broader recovery. "The oil companies are going to go in and rebuild this system. They’re going to spend billions of dollars, and they’re going to take the oil out of the ground, and we’re taking back what they sell," Trump said. "Remember, they stole our property. It was the greatest theft in the history of America. Nobody has ever stolen our property like they have. They took our oil away from us. They took the infrastructure away. And all that infrastructure is rotted and decayed.” Trump said elections will not take place until the country is stabilized, arguing that rushing a vote in a collapsed state would repeat past failures. He said the U.S. will manage Venezuela’s recovery process, including addressing inflation, revenue loss and infrastructure collapse. "We’re going to run everything," Trump said. "We’re going to run it, fix it. We’ll have elections at the right time." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Times [1/4/2026 10:50 AM, Edward Wong, 153395K] reports President Trump on Sunday night asserted again that the United States was “in charge” of Venezuela, hours after his top diplomat had pivoted away from such earlier suggestions of direct control to say that the administration would instead coerce cooperation from the new leadership in Caracas. “We’re dealing with the people that just got sworn in,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from Florida. “And don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial.” “What does that mean?” a reporter asked. “It means we’re in charge,” the president said. Mr. Trump did not provide details, but he appeared to be referring to control over the Venezuelan government, whose top officials made defiant statements after the U.S. military entered the country early Saturday and seized Nicolás Maduro, the autocratic leader. The acting leader of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, a vice president under Mr. Maduro, struck a more diplomatic tone on Sunday night, saying, “Our people and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.” When asked what he needed from Ms. Rodríguez, Mr. Trump said: “We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country.” On Sunday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to recast Mr. Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the United States would “run” Venezuela, saying instead that the administration would keep a military “quarantine” in place on the country’s oil exports to exert leverage on the new leadership there. When asked how the United States planned to govern Venezuela, Mr. Rubio did not lay out a plan for a U.S. occupation authority, like the one that the George W. Bush administration put in place in Baghdad during the Iraq War, but spoke of leverage over a Venezuelan government run by allies of Mr. Maduro, now jailed in Brooklyn, to force policy changes. Reuters [1/5/2026 3:25 AM, Staff, 36480K] reports that in a statement posted on social media, Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said her government was prioritizing a move towards respectful relations with the United States, having earlier criticized the raid on Saturday as an illegal grab for the country’s national resources. "We invite the US government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence," Rodriguez said. "President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war." Rodriguez, who also serves as oil minister, has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle and Trump had said she was willing to work with the U.S.. Publicly, however, she and other officials had called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping and said Maduro remains the nation’s legitimate leader. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he could order another strike if Venezuela does not cooperate with U.S. efforts to open up its oil industry and stop drug trafficking. Trump also threatened military action in Colombia and Mexico and said Cuba’s communist regime "looks like it’s ready to fall" on its own. The Colombian and Mexican embassies in Washington did not immediately return requests for comment. Rodriguez’s statement came on the eve of Maduro’s scheduled appearance on Monday before a federal judge in New York. Trump administration officials have portrayed his seizure as a law-enforcement action to hold Maduro accountable for criminal charges filed in 2020 that accuse him of narco-terrorism conspiracy. But Trump has also said other factors were at play, saying the raid was prompted in part by an influx of Venezuelan immigrants to the United States and the country’s decision to nationalize U.S. oil interests decades ago. "We’re taking back what they stole," he said aboard Air Force One as he returned on Sunday to Washington from Florida. "We’re in charge." Oil companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the country’s petroleum industry, Trump said. "They’re going to spend billions of dollars and they’re going to take the oil out of the ground," he said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Washington Examiner [1/4/2026 10:10 PM, Zach LaChance, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump said on Sunday night that the United States is “in charge” of Venezuela after its mission that resulted in the arrest of Nicolas Maduro and the fall of his regime. Initially hesitant to answer a question about who is running the country after Maduro’s ouster, saying it would be a “controversial” answer, Trump ultimately said, “We’re in charge.” "We’re gonna run it. Fix it. We’ll have elections at the right time," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed back to the White House from Mar-a-Lago. The president’s comments are similar to ones he made on Saturday immediately after Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. military’s mission that included strikes on Caracas and the arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia. Then, he said the U.S. will temporarily "run" the country until there is a "safe" transition to new leadership. Members of his Cabinet have clarified that Trump is referring to Venezuelan "policy," not the nation itself. But Trump’s teasing of a future election to determine the president of Venezuela suggests the U.S. will have a heavy hand in the transition. Currently, Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, is serving as the de facto leader of the country in accordance with Venezuela’s constitution. But Rodriguez, a holdover from the Maduro regime, may not have much time left. Trump has suggested he wants the entire regime gone, all but forcing her to capitulate. "We’re not going to just do this with Maduro then leave like everybody else — leave and say, you know, let it go to hell. If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back. We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally," Trump said on Saturday. He later issued a direct threat to Rodriguez, saying she would pay a "bigger" price than Maduro if she resisted U.S. demands. Rodriguez has since called for "cooperation" between the two countries after her initial condemnation of the U.S. attack and insistence that Maduro is still the president of Venezuela. Trump also maintained she is "cooperating" with his administration while on Air Force One despite acknowledging he hasn’t personally spoken to her.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [1/4/2026 10:05 PM, Kathryn Palmer, 67103K]

New York Times [1/4/2026 8:43 PM, Simon Romero, Isayen Herrera and María Victoria Fermín, 135475K] reports that, as the death toll climbs from the U.S. military raid to capture Nicolás Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s new leader, faces an immense challenge. As she tries to solidify control over her own government, she must also field the demands of President Trump. Much of Venezuela appeared to be in a state of shock on Sunday following the U.S. military action. The streets of major cities were largely quiet as people tried to absorb what the United States had done and the sudden absence of Mr. Maduro, who as the country’s authoritarian leader for over a decade had been an inescapable part of their lives. Some people combed through the debris at the sites of American airstrikes. In Caracas, the capital, families quietly gathered at the Bello Monte morgue to identify loved ones killed by the U.S. military. Some waited patiently for authorization to see the corpses. Others departed for Miraflores Palace, the office of the Venezuelan president, to collect the victims’ belongings. Ms. Rodríguez’s top military official, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, declared on state television that U.S. forces had killed a “large part” of Mr. Maduro’s security detail during the raid to seize him. Altogether, the death count is at least 80, a combination of civilians and military personnel, and could climb higher, according to a senior Venezuelan official. Cuban state media reported that 32 Cubans, among them members of the armed forces on a mission at the request of Venezuela, were also killed in the attacks. Mr. Padrino López rejected any notion that the United States would now run Venezuela, as Mr. Trump has claimed, reflecting the pushback that is already building within Venezuela’s government to the idea that the country could turn into a U.S. client state. The tensions in Venezuela over the capture of its head of state lay bare the struggle Ms. Rodríguez, who was Mr. Maduro’s vice president, faces. She inherits the leadership of a revolution whose mission-critical belief amounts to opposing American imperialism. At the same time, U.S. warships remain in the Caribbean prepared, as the Trump administration has made clear, to coerce her into bending to Mr. Trump’s will. Echoing the gunboat diplomacy common a century ago, Mr. Trump threatened on Sunday that Ms. Rodríguez could “pay a very big price, probably bigger than” that of her captured predecessor, if she continued to refuse to cooperate, The Atlantic reported. And later in the day, asked by reporters on Air Force One who was in charge of Venezuela, he said, “Don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial.” Pressed on what that meant, he said: “We’re in charge.”

Washington Examiner [1/4/2026 11:59 AM, Brady Knox, 1394K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified President Donald Trump’s statement that the United States would "run" Venezuela, saying that this would take place through influencing "policy" rather than direct rule. In an appearance on NBC News’s Meet the Press, Rubio gave his first one-on-one interview since the daring U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Trump raised concerns on Saturday when he said the U.S. would "run" Venezuela "until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition," but Rubio clarified on Sunday that he meant indirectly. "Well, it’s not running. … It’s running policy, the policy," he answered when asked who specifically was running the country in light of Trump’s comments. "With regards to this, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it’s good for the people of Venezuela, it’s in our national interest, it either touches on something that’s a threat to our national security, or touches on something that’s either beneficial or harmful.” "So this is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country, but it is running this policy, and the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States, first and foremost, because that’s who we work for, but also we believe beneficial for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously," Rubio added. When asked why the U.S. wasn’t supporting opposition leader María Corina Machado’s claim to governance, Rubio expressed his admiration for her but said it wasn’t realistic. "Unfortunately, the vast majority of the opposition is no longer present inside of Venezuela. We have short-term things that have to be addressed right away," he said.

Los Angeles Times [1/4/2026 3:25 PM, Michael Wilner, 14862K] reports top officials in the Trump administration clarified their position on "running" Venezuela after seizing its president, Nicolás Maduro, over the weekend, pressuring the government that remains in power there Sunday to acquiesce to U.S. demands on oil access and drug enforcement, or else face further military action. Their goal appears to be the establishment of a pliant vassal state in Caracas that keeps the current government — led by Maduro for more than a decade — largely in place, but finally defers to the whims of Washington after turning away from the United States for a quarter-century. It leaves little room for the ascendance of Venezuela’s democratic opposition, which won the country’s last national election, according to the State Department, European capitals and international monitoring bodies. President Trump and his top aides said they would try to work with Maduro’s handpicked vice president and current interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, to run the country and its oil sector "until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," offering no time frame for proposed elections. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem underscored the strategy in a series of interviews Sunday morning. "If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro," Trump told the Atlantic magazine, referring to Rodríguez. "Rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse.” Rubio said that a U.S. naval quarantine of Venezuelan oil tankers would continue unless and until Rodríguez begins cooperating with the U.S. administration, referring to the blockade — and the lingering threat of additional military action from the fleet off Venezuela’s coast — as "leverage" over the remnants of Maduro’s government. "That’s the sort of control the president is pointing to when he says that," Rubio told CBS News. "We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes — not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking.”

CNN [1/4/2026 12:42 PM, Kevin Liptak, Kristen Holmes and Jennifer Hansler, 606K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration is working quickly to establish a pliant interim government in Venezuela following the dramatic capture of Nicolás Maduro, according to US officials, prioritizing administrative stability and repairing the country’s oil infrastructure over an immediate turn to democracy. Officials described a multifold effort using American military and economic leverage to influence the remnants of Maduro’s regime left inside Venezuela. In particular, US officials have focused squarely on the country’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who Trump advisers identified weeks ago as a viable, if nonpermanent, alternative to Maduro. Senior-level US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, top aide Stephen Miller and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have been working to develop a structure for Venezuela’s government in the wake of Maduro’s ouster, according to a senior US official. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright have been tasked with convincing American energy companies to return to Venezuela and its aging oil infrastructure. The clearer picture that began emerging Sunday of what Trump meant when he claimed during an extraordinary news conference the United States would "run" Venezuela was essentially one in which the US relies on the massive armada floating offshore to ensure whoever is in charge does what the Trump administration wants. Many questions remained about how, precisely, the US plans to establish what amounts to a temporary protectorate in a country of 31 million people that is roughly twice the size of California. There has been no official American presence in Venezuela since the US Embassy closed in Caracas in 2019.

FOX News [1/4/2026 4:11 PM, Lindsay Kornick Fox, 40621K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio sparred with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Sunday as the "This Week" host repeatedly pressed Rubio over whether the U.S. was going to run Venezuela. After extracting Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on Saturday, President Donald Trump said during a press conference that the U.S. was now "going to run the country" until there can be a safe transition of power. Stephanopoulos asked Rubio what authority the U.S. had to run Venezuela. "Well, first of all, what’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil," Rubio said. "That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met. And that’s what we intend to do. So, that leverage remains. That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it’s going to lead to results here.” Rubio added that the goal was to ensure Venezuela would no longer be "a narco-trafficking paradise" that aids U.S. adversaries and to give Venezuelans a better future. "Let me ask the question again," Stephanopoulos repeated. "What is the legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela?". "Well, I explained to you what our goals are and how we’re going to use the leverage to make it happen," Rubio said. "As far as what our legal authority is on the quarantine, very simple. We have court orders. These are sanctioned boats and we get orders from courts to go after and seize these sanctions. So, I don’t know, is a court not a legal authority?". Stephanopoulos then asked if the U.S. was currently running Venezuela. "Well, I’ve explained once again. I’ll do it one more time," Rubio said. "What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is we have leverage. This leverage we are using, and we intend to use. We started using already.”

New York Times [1/4/2026 9:35 PM, Edward Wong, 135475K] reports President Trump on Sunday night asserted again that the United States was “in charge” of Venezuela, hours after his top diplomat had pivoted away from such earlier suggestions of direct control to say that the administration would instead coerce cooperation from the new leadership in Caracas. “We’re dealing with the people that just got sworn in,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from Florida. “And don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial.” “What does that mean?” a reporter asked. “It means we’re in charge,” the president said. Mr. Trump did not provide details, but he appeared to be referring to control over the Venezuelan government, whose top officials made defiant statements after the U.S. military entered the country early Saturday and seized Nicolás Maduro, the autocratic leader. The acting leader of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, a vice president under Mr. Maduro, struck a more diplomatic tone on Sunday night, saying, “Our people and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war.” When asked what he needed from Ms. Rodríguez, Mr. Trump said: “We need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in their country that allow us to rebuild their country.” On Sunday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to recast Mr. Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the United States would “run” Venezuela, saying instead that the administration would keep a military “quarantine” in place on the country’s oil exports to exert leverage on the new leadership there. When asked how the United States planned to govern Venezuela, Mr. Rubio did not lay out a plan for a U.S. occupation authority, like the one that the George W. Bush administration put in place in Baghdad during the Iraq War, but spoke of leverage over a Venezuelan government run by allies of Mr. Maduro, now jailed in Brooklyn, to force policy changes. U.S. forces will continue to prevent oil tankers on a U.S. sanctions list from entering and leaving the country until the government opens up the state-controlled oil industry to foreign investment — presumably giving priority to American companies — and makes other changes, he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS News. “That remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes, not just to further the national interest of the United States, which is No. 1, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela,” he said.

The Hill [1/4/2026 12:08 PM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the multiple U.S. agencies, including the State Department, Pentagon, and Department of Justice (DOJ), will be involved in running Venezuela for the time being. "This is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country. But it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States first and foremost," Rubio told host Kristen Welker on NBC’s "Meet the Press.” After U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Trump told reporters Saturday that his administration will "run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," adding that American oil companies will "fix" Venezuela’s petroleum infrastructure. The South American country has the largest oil reserves in the world. Rubio told NBC that in the short term, the U.S. will address issues such as the flow of drugs and transport of sanctioned oil from Venezuela. Elections will be held in the South American country once those concerns are alleviated, he noted.

ABC News [1/4/2026 10:22 AM, Nicholas Kerr, 30493K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday the U.S. was in charge of the direction of the situation in Venezuela after U.S. forces arrested and deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday morning. "President Trump was pretty clear yesterday. He said the United States is going to run Venezuela. Under what legal authority?" ABC News’ "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos asked. "Well, first of all, what’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met," Rubio said. But pressed on whether the U.S. was in charge of the country right now, Rubio said that what the U.S. was "running" was the direction of the situation. "What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is we have leverage," Rubio said. "The leverage that we have here is the leverage of the quarantine. So that is a Department of War operation conducting, in some cases, law enforcement functions with the Coast Guard on the seizure of these boats," Rubio said. Rubio added that Maduro was someone the U.S. "simply couldn’t work with," and said that the administration was not recognizing Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as the current legitimate leader. "We don’t believe that this regime in place is legitimate via an election," Rubio said. "Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period of transition and real elections, which they have not had," he added. Rubio noted that the administration was keeping "all the options we had before this raid" on the table. "If you are a sanctioned boat and you are headed towards Venezuela, you will be seized either on the way in or on the way out with a court order that we get from judges in the United States," he said.

DailySignal [1/4/2026 3:11 PM, Harold Hutchison, 549K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that Venezuelan cooperation would be judged by the ruling party’s actions after the arrest of the country’s president. American military forces, reportedly including the United States Army’s elite Delta Force, spearheaded the protection of a law enforcement operation which arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas, Trump announced in a Saturday morning post on Truth Social. Stephanopoulos questioned Rubio about what would occur next and what Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told the secretary of state. "We’re not going to judge moving forward based simply on what’s said in press conferences. We want to see action here at the end of the day. Rhetoric is one thing; you see rhetoric for a lot of different reasons," Rubio said. "There’s a lot of different reasons why people go on TV and say certain things in these countries — especially 15 or 12 hours after the person who used to be in charge of the regime is now in handcuffs and on his way to New York.” "We’re not gonna be reactive to statements at press conferences and what people say in certain interviews or some media post somewhere. What we’re going to react to is very simple: what do you do? Not what you’re saying publicly, what happens? What happens next? Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made? Is Iran expelled? Is Hezbollah … and Iran no longer able to operate against our interests from Venezuela?" Rubio continued. "Does the migration patterns stop? Do the drug trafficking boats end? Do you deal with the ELN and the FARC, two narco-terrorist organizations who control territory and operate with impunity from the territory of Venezuela against the interests of Colombia and the United States? These are the things we want addressed. If they’re addressed that’s how we’ll judge it.” Congressional Democrats decried the operation as an illegal war, with some prominent critics, including podcasters Keith Olbermann and Dean Obeidallah, taking to BlueSky to demand Trump’s impeachment. Rubio said the United States was not ruling out further action.

Breitbart [1/4/2026 5:07 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in interviews on Sunday that it is "premature" to discuss elections in Venezuela because higher priorities, including reinvigorating the country’s oil industry, must be addressed first. In interviews with ABC, CBS and NBC, Rubio said that the United States will continue to strike drug boats and detain oil tankers as the Trump administration moves to stabilize and "run" Venezuela after the apprehension of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday. The Trump administration plans to keep its "quarantine" of Venezuelan oil in place as it pressures the remainders of Maduro’s government to end their cooperation with South American drug gangs, as well as stop selling oil to the United States’ adversaries, Rubio said. "As we move forward here, we’ll set the conditions so that we no longer have in our hemisphere a Venezuela that’s the crossroads for many of our adversaries around the world, including Iran and Hezbollah," Rubio said on ABC News’ "This Week.” Rubio added that Venezuela would also no longer be "a narcotrafficking paradise for all those drugs coming out of Colombia … and toward the United States.” In a press conference on Saturday, Trump told reporters that there was a second strike planned in the case that Venezuelan forces responded to Maduro’s capture or the plan was not successful, but U.S. military commanders decided against launching it. Trump noted Saturday, and Rubio reiterated on Sunday, that the roughly 15,000 troops offshore of Venezuela spread across more than a dozen warships would remain in the Caribbean. Their objectives, he told CBS’ "Face The Nation," are striking drug trafficking boats, apprehending tankers suspected to be carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil and using the armada, as Trump has referred to it, of U.S. military ships offshore to encourage the remaining members of Maduro’s administration to comply with U.S. demands. "What’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil," Rubio said. "That the means that their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and of the Venezuelan people are met.” "So, that leverage remains," he added. "That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it’s going to lead to results here.”

Bloomberg Law [1/4/2026 10:21 AM, Jen Judson, 91K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US will use leverage over oil to force further change in Venezuela as he seizes a long-awaited chance to try to shape Latin America in Washington’s favor. Rubio, 54, emerged Sunday as the administration’s chief public voice on Venezuela, laying out hints of strategy after the US swooped into Caracas to remove President Nicolas Maduro and fly him to New York for trial.

FOX News [1/4/2026 12:39 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports the day after elite U.S. forces captured wanted narco-terrorist and former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah will no longer have operations in the South American state. The Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is responsible for both the bombing of the U.S. embassy, which killed 63 people, and the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983, when 241 U.S. military personnel were killed. Speaking on CBS’ "Face the Nation," Rubio said, "It’s very simple, OK? In the 21st century, under the Trump administration, we are not going to have a country like Venezuela in our own hemisphere, in the sphere of control and the crossroads for Hezbollah, for Iran and for every other malign influence in the world. That’s just not gonna exist." He also told NBC’s "Meet the Press" that, in regard to Venezuela, that meant, "No more Iran/Hezbollah presence there.” Walid Phares, who has advised U.S. presidential candidates and is a leading expert on Hezbollah, told Fox News Digital, "Hezbollah has a long history in Venezuela and has emerged as a significant security concern in Latin America, particularly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The origins of Hezbollah’s presence in Venezuela date back to the mid-1980s, when the organization began recruiting members from segments of the local Lebanese diaspora.” He noted that Hezbollah gained greater traction following the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s consolidation of power in 2002. "During this period, Hezbollah’s presence became more visible, with reports indicating that some of its members gained access to Venezuelan state institutions, including security agencies, often through the acquisition of Venezuelan passports and legal documentation. These developments facilitated the expansion of Hezbollah-linked networks throughout Latin America, extending into Brazil, Argentina and Chile, and reportedly reaching as far as the U.S.–Mexico border.” Phares said, "Hezbollah is believed to maintain a substantial presence across Venezuela, including command-and-control elements in Caracas. Margarita Island has been frequently cited in open-source reporting as a logistical hub used for activities ranging from financial operations to intelligence gathering and alleged narcotics trafficking. Additional public reporting has suggested Venezuelan cooperation with Iranian and Hezbollah-linked operations targeting Iranian dissidents abroad, including attempted kidnappings and intimidation campaigns in the Western Hemisphere.”

NBC News [1/4/2026 11:03 AM, Alexandra Marquez, 34509K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the goal of the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday was primarily to halt drug trafficking into the U.S. and that holding elections in Venezuela would be "premature at this point.” "We care about elections, we care about democracy, we care about all of that, but the No. 1 thing we care about is the safety, security, well-being and prosperity of the United States. And that’s what we’re going to focus on first and foremost here," Rubio told NBC News’ "Meet the Press" about the Saturday operation. He made the comments a day after President Donald Trump announced that U.S. military forces had captured the nation’s leader and his wife. Rubio said that "there’s not a war" between the U.S. and Venezuela. "I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela," the secretary of state added. His comments mirrored those he made alongside the president and other Trump administration officials at Saturday’s press conference, maintaining that the strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Maduro were simply a law enforcement action and not the start of a war. Still, Trump on Saturday told reporters, "We’re not afraid of boots on the ground," but that for now, there were no members of the U.S. military in Venezuela. In Congress, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle feared that the action would start a costly new war, while Democrats lambasted the Trump administration for not notifying Congress or seeking an authorization for the use of force ahead of time. On Sunday, Rubio categorically denied that Congress needed to approve this military action ahead of time, telling "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker, "We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval ... and this is not an operation that required congressional approval.” Rubio added that Saturday’s mission was "akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted.” "The difference is that when it’s Donald Trump, you know, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers," the secretary of state said. NPR [1/4/2026 4:55 PM, Luke Garrett, 28013K] reports "We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it’s good for the people of Venezuela, it’s in our national interest," Rubio said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. Rubio, who is also President Trump’s interim national security adviser, said the U.S. will enforce its influence through an existing "oil quarantine" imposed by U.S. naval vessels near the coast of Venezuela. "Our military is helping the Coast Guard conduct a law enforcement function, which is not just the capture of Maduro, but the enforcement of our sanctions," Rubio said on the program. "And we think that’s just tremendous leverage, incredible crippling leverage, which we intend to continue to use until we see the changes that we need to see.” Since September, U.S. forces have struck at least 35 alleged drug boats, killed at least 115 people on board and seized oil tankers near Venezuela. The comments offer the first glimpse of what U.S. policy toward Venezuela will look like following the weekend raid that captured the country’s leader, and Trump’s remarks that the U.S. will "run" Venezuela. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, R-Ark., echoed Rubio in calling for a pressure campaign against Maduro’s allies who still control the country. Cotton specifically named interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who previously served as vice president under Maduro. "They have control of the military and security services," Cotton told CNN. "We have to deal with that fact.” During a Sunday interview with The Atlantic magazine, Trump said Rodriguez would "pay a very big price" if she didn’t cooperate, a day after he claimed that she was on board with the U.S. plans.

The Hill [1/4/2026 4:20 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the U.S. military activity in Venezuela this weekend did not require congressional approval because it was a law enforcement operation, not a prolonged invasion of a foreign country. In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” Rubio defended the operation against claims that it was illegal. “It wasn’t necessary because this is not an invasion. We didn’t occupy a country,” Rubio told George Stephanopoulos, when asked why congressional authorization wasn’t necessary. “This was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation. He was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights and removed from the country,” Rubio continued. U.S. forces carried out a stunning operation overnight into Saturday morning to capture and arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and bring them back to New York to face charges related to drug trafficking, terrorism and firearms. Maduro is in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The covert operation, had been in the works since late summer, followed months of threats and dozens of boat strikes on suspected “narco-terrorists.” Rubio said the arrest required assistance from the Pentagon because “obviously, this was not a friendly territory.”

USA Today [1/4/2026 8:18 PM, Francesca Chambers and Michael Collins, 67103K] reports the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife during a daring nighttime raid by U.S. troops on his compound in Caracas marked the realization of a longtime political goal for President Donald Trump. But it was a personal victory for a key member of Trump’s administration: Secretary of State Marco Rubio. "Nicolás Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this," Rubio said, standing alongside Trump at a post-raid news conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "He was provided multiple, very, very, very generous offers, and chose instead to act like a wild man, chose to play around. And the result is what we saw tonight.” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has been one of the primary architects of the Trump administration’s Venezuela policy, which shifted the United States away from decades-long diplomatic negotiations on human rights and other issues to the use of military force to remove a de facto leader from office. After all, Rubio cut his political teeth thanks to powerful Cuban exiles who became top players in the GOP at the height of President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War. The political godson of hardline mentors from a local king-making county commissioner to then U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the late Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Rubio inherited a worldview ensconced in hawkish stances when it came to Cuba and Venezuela, or any country that dared to embrace the table scraps of a socialist agenda in Latin America. Rubio has been advocating for the removal of Maduro (and his predecessor, President Hugo Chávez) for years, arguing he is not the legitimate president of the Caribbean nation of more than 28 million people. Rubio’s personal history and his close ties to the Cuban and Venezuelan diasporas in the United States not only provided him with invaluable clout on the issue inside the Trump administration, but they also have landed him a direct role in shaping Venezuela’s future. With Maduro gone, Trump said the United States would run Venezuela until there can be "a safe, proper and judicious transition." He signaled Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would be in charge, alongside Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as president on Jan. 4.

AP [1/4/2026 8:15 PM, Joshua Goodman and Eric Tucker, 31753K] reports when deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro makes his first appearance in a New York courtroom Monday to face U.S. drug charges, he will likely follow the path taken by another Latin American strongman toppled by U.S. forces: Panama’s Manuel Noriega. Maduro was captured Saturday, 36 years to the day after Noriega was removed by American forces. And as was the case with the Panamanian leader, lawyers for Maduro are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of foreign state, which is a bedrock principle of international and U.S. law. It’s an argument that is unlikely to succeed and was largely settled as a matter of law in Noriega’s trial, legal experts said. Although Trump’s ordering of the operation in Venezuela raises constitutional concerns because it wasn’t authorized by Congress, now that Maduro is in the U.S., courts will likely bless his prosecution because, like Noriega, the U.S. doesn’t recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. "There’s no claim to sovereign immunity if we don’t recognize him as head of state," said Dick Gregorie, a retired federal prosecutor who indicted Noriega and later went on to investigate corruption inside Maduro’s government. "Several U.S. administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have called his election fraudulent and withheld U.S. recognition. Sadly, for Maduro, it means he’s stuck with it.” Noriega died in 2017 after nearly three decades in prison, first in the U.S., then France and finally Panama. In his first trial, his lawyers argued that his arrest as a result of a U.S. invasion was so "shocking to the conscience" that it rendered the government’s case an illegal violation of his due process rights. In ordering Noriega’s removal, the White House relied on a 1989 legal opinion by then-Assistant Attorney General Bill Barr, issued six months before the invasion. That opinion said the U.N. Charter’s prohibition on the use of force in international relations does not bar the U.S. from carrying out "forcible abductions" abroad to enforce domestic laws. Supreme Court decisions dating to the 1800s also have upheld America’s jurisdiction to prosecute foreigners regardless of whether their presence in the United States was lawfully secured.

Washington Examiner [1/4/2026 11:48 AM, Asher Notheis, 1394K] reports Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) expressed some openness to the U.S. military having a presence in Venezuela following the ouster of its former president, saying there are "many American interests" in the South American country. President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States will "run" Venezuela following the capture of former President Nicolas Maduro, saying this will be done until "we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition." Cotton interpreted Trump’s statement as the president saying Venezuela’s new leaders "need to meet our demands" and for Venezuela to stop trafficking drugs and weapons and "return to the civilized world.” Cotton also said the U.S. military being in Venezuela is "always an option," saying there are U.S. citizens and "American interests" in Venezuela. "We have many U.S. citizens and many American interests, and again, Venezuela owes many billions of dollars to American companies for their past seizure of American property in that country," Cotton said on CNN’s State of the Union.

DailySignal [1/4/2026 3:09 PM, George Caldwell, 549K] reports the successful capture of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the early hours of Jan. 3 has sparked a debate in Congress over the legality of the executive branch’s use of military force, especially in the Western Hemisphere. So far, most Republicans in Congress have expressed public support for "Operation Absolute Resolve," which involved the targeted deployment of aircraft, ground forces, and naval vessels in Venezuela to capture and extradite the dictator to the U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has long advocated for military action against America’s foreign adversaries, applauded the action Saturday on X, and also called for America to "help the Venezuelan people create a new future full of peace and prosperity.” Graham added in a separate post, "I believe the liberation of Cuba from communist, America-hating, narcoterrorist dictators is near.” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, initially expressed concerns about the operation on X on Saturday, stating he wanted to know "what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.” However, later that day on X, Lee added that he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio who explained the use of force was to "protect and defend those executing an arrest warrant." Lee stated that "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.” Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate also cheered on the administration’s actions in Venezuela, albeit without explicit calls for a wider pressure campaign in the region.

FOX News [1/4/2026 3:30 PM, Taylor Penley Fox, 40621K] Video: HERE reports U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz defended the United States’ indictment of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro ahead of Monday’s U.N. Security Council meeting, while outlining what to expect from the proceedings. "You’re going to hear a lot of hand-wringing on Article 2 of the U.N. Charter, which deals with sovereignty, and I will remind everyone of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which is a nation’s inherent right to self-defense," Waltz said on "Sunday Morning Futures.” "In this case, you have a drug kingpin, an illegitimate leader indicted in the United States coordinating with the likes of China, Russia, Iran, terrorist groups like Hezbollah, pumping drugs, thugs, and weapons into the United States of America, threatening to invade its neighbors… "Was President Trump just going to let that status quo continue? Absolutely not. He gave diplomacy a chance. He gave Maduro a chance, but he took decisive action in the interests of the United States," he added. Waltz’s remarks came on the heels of the Trump administration’s successful operation to capture Maduro on Saturday, a move that drew mixed reactions as Democrats and Republicans debated legality concerns and the South American country’s political future. The operation followed months-long crackdowns against alleged narcoterrorism schemes tied to the country, including strikes on suspected drug boats in Caribbean waters. The emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, requested by Venezuela and neighboring Colombia, is scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. ET, Fox News national correspondent CB Cotton reported Saturday.

The Hill [1/4/2026 3:58 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday labeled the recent U.S. operation in Venezuela an “imperial adventure.” “Look, this is a long pattern and a particularly egregious example of a pattern of this administration not giving a hoot about the United States Congress, which, by the way, Jim Jordan just sort of gave the game away,” Himes told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” referencing an interview with the Ohio Republican that came right before his. “I hope you can play that interview over and over and over again, because he gave the game away, right? He said over and over again, ‘I trust the president.’ … Now, he’s being asked to explain an imperial adventure — I mean, you did a pretty good job — an imperial adventure from the guy who was going to be ‘America First’ and not get into stupid wars,” he added. On Saturday, President Trump announced that the U.S. had gone through with a “large-scale strike” on the Venezuelan capital of Caracas. U.S. forces also captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump said that the U.S. would “run” the South American country up until a transition after Maduro’s capture. The recent American operation in Venezuela has resulted in comparisons to the war in Iraq, considered by many in recent years to have been a mistake and unjustified.

Daily Caller [1/4/2026 7:26 PM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday he would introduce a War Powers Act resolution to prevent further military operations against Venezuela. President Donald Trump announced in a Saturday post on Truth Social that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested in Caracas by a law enforcement operation protected by American military forces. Schumer called the operation "lawlessness," Congress needed to act. "The American people this morning, George, are scratching their heads in wonderment and in fear of what the president’s proposed," Schumer claimed. "The United States will run Venezuela. We have learned though the years, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price, in both blood and in dollars.” Schumer also claimed the Trump administration didn’t have the authority to carry out the mission. Trump declared during a Saturday press conference on the operation which captured Maduro that the United States was "running" Venezuela, saying senior administration officials, including Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, would be in charge. "They did not just do ships off the water," Schumer said. "They went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places, and it’s a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress.” Some prominent critics, including podcasters Keith Olbermann and Dean Obeidallah, took to BlueSky to demand Trump’s impeachment over the operation. Congressional Democrats decried the operation as an illegal war in the wake of the operation, with Schumer accusing Trump administration officials of misleading the American people and Congress.

Los Angeles Times [1/4/2026 1:45 PM, Michael Wilner, 14862K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had yet to weigh in on the U.S. operation to remove Nicolás Maduro from power in Caracas as of Saturday night, more than 24 hours since President Trump approved the audacious mission that captured the Venezuelan leader. Her silence on the operation surprised some in the U.S. intelligence community, which laid the groundwork for the mission over several months, and which had assets in harm’s way on the ground in Venezuela as the operation unfolded. CIA Director John Ratcliffe, by contrast, accompanied Trump in Mar-a-Lago throughout the night as the extraction was underway, and stood beside the president as he conducted a news conference announcing the results. "Teamwork at its finest," Ratcliffe wrote on social media, posted alongside photos of him with the president’s team in the temporary situation room set up at Trump’s Florida estate. Gabbard, a native of Hawaii who, according to her X account, spent the holidays in her home state, made a name for herself as a member of Congress campaigning against "regime change wars," particularly the U.S. war in Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein.

NewsMax [1/4/2026 7:13 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports U.S. acceptance of Nicolás Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, as a legitimate successor in Venezuela is a mistake, former U.S. special representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams told Newsmax on Sunday, saying the move ignores the reality of who actually controls the country’s security apparatus and political machinery. Speaking during an appearance on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," Abrams said Rodríguez "is not running the country — the thugs are.” The U.S. risks repeating past mistakes by supporting the wrong figures in the post-Maduro transition, Abrams said. He added that Rodríguez, now elevated in the wake of Maduro’s removal, lacks both democratic legitimacy and real authority, serving instead as a political façade for powerful figures inside Venezuela’s military and security services. "If Maduro was illegal and illegitimate, how can his vice president suddenly be legitimate?" Abrams asked. "She’s an old crony of Maduro’s, and Venezuelans know it.” According to Abrams, the true centers of power remain with the minister of defense and the minister of security, including Diosdado Cabello, whom he described as the strongman overseeing intelligence services, police forces, and internal repression. "These are the people who actually run the country," Abrams said. "They control the guns, the money, and the fear.” Abrams warned that continuing to back figures tied to the old regime risks undermining any credible democratic transition and could further alienate Venezuelans who have endured years of economic collapse, corruption, and political persecution.

Reuters [1/4/2026 3:09 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports the principles of international law must be upheld in Venezuela and the will of the country’s people must be respected, the European Union said on Sunday, in a statement supported by all members of the bloc except for Hungary. The U.S. attacked Venezuela on Saturday and deposed its long-serving President Nicolas Maduro in an overnight operation, in Washington’s most direct intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama. "The EU recalls that, under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the U.N. Charter must be upheld. Members of the United Nations Security Council have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles, as a pillar of the international security architecture," the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a statement supported by 26 of the 27 EU nations. The joint statement called for restraint from all sides to ensure a peaceful solution. The EU has said Maduro lacked democratic legitimacy, and called for a transition to democracy determined by the will of the Venezuelan people. "Respecting the will of the Venezuelan people remains the only way for Venezuela to restore democracy and resolve the current crisis," the statement said. It added that the EU shared the priority of combatting organised crime and drug trafficking. Such challenges must be addressed "through sustained cooperation in full respect of international law and the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty," the statement said.

AP [1/4/2026 9:36 AM, Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, 4829K] reports the Brooklyn jail holding Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled, some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean "Diddy" Combs. Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates. It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes. A throng of Venezuelan expatriates, many draped in flags, gathered on the sidewalks outside the jail Saturday night to celebrate Maduro’s capture. The crowd cheered as the law enforcement motorcade believed to be carrying the deposed leader and his wife arrived at the jail. Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there. Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison, Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.

Breitbart [1/4/2026 8:29 AM, Simon Kent, 2416K] reports Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro made his first public comment since capture during a handcuffed perp walk Saturday night inside New York City’s DEA headquarters before he and his wife were roundly jeered as they were locked up. The NY Post reports his comments were short, to the point and directed at agents escorting him, confidently wishing them a "Happy New Year," according to video and snaps. The toppled Venezuelan tyrant was handcuffed and sported black sweats and a black hat as he clutched a water bottle while being escorted through the Chelsea facility before being hastened to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The ousted dictator can be heard saying "Good Night, Happy New Year," to surrounding agents, according to a footage released by the White House in a post on X they labeled "Perp walked.” The same outlet later reported hundreds of revelers chanted and celebrated outside a Brooklyn lockup as Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were hauled inside to face federal narco-terrorism charges. The ousted couple were greeted at the Brooklyn Detention Center with the boisterous crowd triumphantly applauding, jeering, and chanting "down with the dictator," "shame on you," and "dirty scumbag!". Venezuelan national Ronny Chirinos was reportedly one of more than 200 opponents who eagerly waited outside the prison for more than an hour in the bitter cold for the ousted dictator to arrive in cuffs.

CNN [1/4/2026 2:56 PM, Kameryn Griesser, 18595K] reports US troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday along with his wife and top adviser, Cilia Flores. CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen reveals some details of her indictment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [1/4/2026 6:55 PM, Kevin Liptak, 606K] reports hours after declaring from underneath the tented ceiling of Mar-a-Lago’s Tea Room that Venezuela’s leader was in American custody and the US was running the country on Saturday, President Donald Trump emerged victorious onto his club’s crowded patio as dinner-goers cheered the audacious mission he’d ordered from a few yards away. By now, it’s become a regular occurrence. Mar-a-Lago — the gilded Italianate pile in Palm Beach where Trump spent the last 15 days — has become a familiar crucible of high-stakes, top-secret activity that results in leaders deposed, generals assassinated and rebel groups battered with missiles. As Trump was preparing to deliver his monumental announcement on Nicolás Maduro’s capture, the scene around Mar-a-Lago was comparatively breezy. Guests in tennis whites arrived to the club as usual, driving BMWs and Tesla Cybertrucks through security. The yellow-and-white umbrellas of the beach club fluttered in the wind, the azure Atlantic glinting as a Coast Guard vessel floated past. Inside at least a few of the estate’s 114 rooms, the mood was a little more serious. Black drapes had been erected to create a secure viewing area for the president to monitor as Army Delta Forces stormed into Maduro’s home and dragged him into custody as he tried to get to his safe room. Secure internet lines, a sophisticated telephone system and several monitors, one showing a live feed of posts on X, ensured the president’s access to real-time information. "We had a room … it and we watched every aspect of it. We were surrounded by lots of people, including generals. And they knew everything that was happening," Trump marveled afterward in a phone call to Fox News. The setup was constructed in a discreet of the club, away from guests, according to one person familiar with the matter. The potential intersection of paying club members with the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets has long given intelligence officials agita. The Secret Service screens guests before they enter but doesn’t determine who can access the club. That has occasionally made for some jarring scenes. Early in his first term, Trump huddled over iceberg wedge salads on the patio with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after a North Korean missile launch. Guests watched on, listening as the men discussed how to respond and posting photos of the episode on social media. Trump and his aides have since enacted tighter rules for guests taking photographs. And the club’s classified communication apparatus has been expanded and fortified, in part through repeated use. The list of highly classified operations green-lit from Mar-a-Lago is now a long one.

AP [1/5/2026 1:02 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports President Donald Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday that he’s offered to send U.S. troops to Mexico because “the cartels are running Mexico.” He also said he doesn’t think the U.S. will take action in Cuba because “the country is going down.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/5/2026 12:56 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports President Donald Trump threatened military action against Colombia’s government and said Cuba was on the precipice of falling on Sunday, a day after arresting Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump called Colombia, a U.S. ally, "very sick" and run by "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.” Relations between Washington and Bogota have plummeted during the second Trump administration, beginning in January when both sides threatened one another with tit-for-tat tariffs after Colombian President Gustavo Petro barred the United States from sending military planes carrying migrants from landing in the country. Trump has steadily increased the rhetoric targeting the socialist leader, going so far as to lob unfounded allegations of drug crimes at Petro, who has repeatedly denied them while pursuing domestic anti-narcotics efforts. Petro has also accused Trump of murder for killing at least one Colombian fisherman in September in a military strike on boats in international waters the United States alleges were involved in drug trafficking. On the plane Sunday, Trump reiterated the unfounded drug allegations against Petro and said, "He’s not going to be doing it for very long.” When asked whether there would be a U.S. military operation involving Colombia, Trump said, "Sounds good to me. You know why? Because they kill a lot of people.” Trump also said that Cuba was being financially supported by Venezuela, and now with Maduro detained "they won’t have that money coming.” "Cuba is ready to fall. Cuba looks ready to fall. I don’t know if they’re going to hold out," he said. "And you have a lot of great Cubans that are going to be very happy about this.” Following the United States’ detention of Maduro in a military operation on Saturday, Petro has been among the most vocal critics saying the operation violated international law. In a statement on Sunday, Petro accused Trump of "kidnapping" Maduro and his wife, calling the military operation one without legal basis. "I know perfectly well that what Donald Trump has done is abhorrent," he said. "They have destroyed the rule of law at a global level. They have bloodily desecrated the sacred sovereignty of all of Latin America and the Caribbean.” Earlier Sunday, Petro demanded that Trump stop slandering him, saying the judiciary of Colombia is independent and is largely run by his opposition and that his name does not appear in any judicial files connected to alleged drug crimes. "This is not how one threatens a Latin American president who emerged from armed struggle and later from the people of Colombia’s struggle for peace," he said. FOX News [1/4/2026 11:51 PM, Bradford Betz, 40621K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuban operatives effectively ran Venezuela’s internal intelligence and security operations – including personally guarding Maduro and monitoring loyalty inside his government. "It was Cubans that guarded Maduro," Rubio said. "He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” Cuba’s government acknowledged Sunday that 32 Cuban military and police officers were killed during the American operation in Venezuela, marking the first official death toll released by Havana. Cuban state media said the officers had been deployed at the request of Caracas and announced two days of national mourning. Trump confirmed Cuban casualties while traveling back to Washington. "A lot of Cubans were killed yesterday," he said. "There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side.” Trump also took aim at neighboring Colombia, accusing its leadership of fueling drug trafficking into the U.S. "Colombia is very sick, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States," Trump said, adding that the country, "is not going to be doing it for a very long time.”

Reported similarly:
Reuters [1/4/2026 8:17 PM, Gram Slattery and Trevor Hunnicutt, 36480K

NBC News [1/4/2026 12:53 PM, Alexandra Marquez, 34509K] reports just one day after the U.S. conducted a military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated a warning to Cuba, telling NBC News’ "Meet the Press" that he thinks "they’re in a lot of trouble.” "I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard," Rubio said. "But I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.” Rubio’s latest remarks come after he and President Donald Trump signaled at a news conference Saturday that the administration could begin targeting Cuba’s government next, with the secretary of state issuing a stern warning to Cuban officials: "If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.” Trump on Saturday compared Cuba’s situation to that of Venezuela, telling reporters, "I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people.” The president added, "It’s very similar [to Venezuela] in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and are living in this country.” Rubio added on Sunday that Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture. "It was Cubans that guarded Maduro," the secretary of state told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker. "He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” Rubio added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of "internal intelligence" in Maduro’s government, including "who spies on who inside to make sure there are no traitors.” "Those are all Cubans," the secretary of state said.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/4/2026 1:09 PM, Asher Notheis, 1394K]

CNN [1/4/2026 9:27 PM, Patrick Oppmann, 606K] reports that, for months as the US military prepared to strike Venezuela, many Cubans have asked me a simple, if disconcerting, question: "Are we next?". Following the devastating attacks on Venezuelan military bases and surgical apprehension of leader Nicolás Maduro by US Special Forces, Cuba seems very much in the Trump administration’s sights. Maduro’s capture is a seismic reversal of fortune for Cuba’s communist-run government, which for decades has relied on massive aid packages from its oil-rich South American ally for the island’s very survival. At a protest Saturday in front of the US Embassy in Havana, a defiant Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel promised not to let the Cuba-Venezuela alliance go down without a fight. "For Venezuela, of course for Cuba, we are willing to give even our own life, but at a heavy cost," Diaz-Canel proclaimed. But if anything, the Cubans I have spoken with since the strikes seemed shocked by how easy it seemed for the US military to snatch Maduro without any loss of US personnel. "For decades, first (former Venezuelan leader Hugo) Chavez and then Maduro warned of a US intervention," said one Havana resident, who did not want their name used. "But when it finally happened, no one was ready for it. The Venezuelans had billions of dollars to equip their military. We don’t.” The attack on Venezuela appears to have already come at a heavy cost for Cuba, as President Donald Trump told the New York Post on Saturday, "You know, many Cubans lost their lives last night. … They were protecting Maduro. That was not a good move.” The Cuban government, in a post on Facebook on Sunday, said 32 of its citizens were killed during the operation "in combat actions, performing missions on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, at the request of counterparts of the South American country." The government declared two days of mourning. It would appear to be the first time in decades the former Cold War-era foes engaged in combat. And it seems to confirm what has long been suspected: Maduro’s inner circle of bodyguards were Cuban. Foreign diplomats stationed in Caracas reported to me for years that Maduro’s personal security spoke Spanish in Cuban accents and that Maduro, who studied in Havana in his youth, often trusted Cuban advisers over his own people. Now, Maduro’s capture puts at risk a decadeslong alliance that saved Cuba from total economic ruin following the collapse of its former economic patron, the Soviet Union.

NBC News [1/4/2026 7:08 PM, Staff, 34509K] Video: HERE reports tensions are rising along Venezuela’s border with Colombia. NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports from a border crossing where some families are experiencing tearful goodbyes, and security is ramping up.

CNN [1/4/2026 12:18 PM, David Culver, 18595K] Video: HERE reports after US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, Colombia has deployed a heavy military presence to the border of Colombia and Venezuela. CNN’s David Culver reports from Cúcuta, Colombia.

NewsMax [1/4/2026 12:50 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports one day after a U.S. operation removed Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Cuba’s communist leaders are "in a lot of trouble.” Rubio’s comments Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press" underscored what the Trump administration is signaling as a new reality in the Western Hemisphere: Regimes that export instability, harbor America’s adversaries, and enable narco-trafficking will face direct consequences — and Cuba, Rubio suggested, may be next in line for maximum pressure. Asked whether the Cuban government is the administration’s next target, Rubio didn’t mince words. "I think they’re in a lot of trouble, yes," he said, while declining to outline future steps. Rubio argued that Cuba has been "propping up Maduro" for years and claimed Havana effectively controlled the Venezuelan dictator’s internal security structure. "His entire internal security force … is entirely controlled by Cubans," Rubio said, adding that Maduro was guarded by Cuban bodyguards and that Cuban operatives ran intelligence operations designed to detect "traitors," inside the regime. Rubio also defended the legality and scope of the Maduro operation, dismissing Democrats’ complaints about Congress not being consulted. He said the mission did not require congressional approval, calling it "akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted.” The difference, Rubio argued, is political: "When it’s Donald Trump, all these Democrats go bonkers.” The response from Havana was swift and furious. In a sweeping statement, Cuba’s government condemned the U.S. action as "military aggression" and demanded the immediate release of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Cuba accused Washington of "state terrorism," claimed the operation violated international law, and framed it as an imperial attempt to seize Venezuela’s resources under a revived Monroe Doctrine. The statement also endorsed remarks from Venezuela’s interim leadership and warned the entire region should remain "alert" to what it called U.S. escalation.

AP [1/4/2026 11:04 PM, Aamer Madhani, 31753K] reports a day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests and threatened military action on Colombia for facilitating the global sale of cocaine, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.” The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere. With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who’s next? “It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.” Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”

NBC News [1/4/2026 9:30 AM, Freddie Clayton, 34509K] reports by capturing Venezuela’s president, Washington sent shockwaves felt far beyond Caracas. The United States stunned the world on Saturday by launching military strikes in Venezuela and seizing President Nicolás Maduro, swiftly ending his 13-year rule in an operation the Trump administration framed as a demonstration of American power, as President Donald Trump boasted that the U.S. possessed "capabilities and skills our enemies can scarcely imagine.” America’s adversaries heard him loudest. Russia and China swiftly condemned the strikes and called for the release of Maduro, who has been brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges. Iran and Cuba denounced what they called a violation of international law, their objections carrying an edge of unease that they, too, could find themselves in Washington’s sights. Even major European allies, more cautious and measured in tone, carefully signaled concern about the operation’s legality while largely aligning with the U.S. on policy. Taken together, these responses suggest the revival of old fears of American interventionism, prompting allies and adversaries alike to ponder where Washington might act next. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is fulfilling his campaign promise to "demolish foreign drug cartels" by going after Maduro. She said on X that the operation would "keep our citizens safe" in keeping with Trump’s "America First" agenda. For Tehran, the fall of a close ally comes as it grapples with internal unrest of its own, just a day after Trump warned Iran it could face U.S. action if protesters were harmed. "The American military attack on Venezuela is a clear violation of the basic principles of the United Nations Charter and the fundamental rules of international law," it said in a statement published by Iran’s semiofficial news agency Tasnim on Telegram.

New York Times [1/5/2026 4:01 AM, Yan Zhuang, 153395K] reports President Trump suggested on Sunday that the United States could take action against other countries after its attack on Venezuela. He threatened Colombia and its president, described Cuba as “ready to fall” and reasserted his desire to take control of Greenland. Mr. Trump has been facing questions about his plans for Venezuela since a U.S. raid in Caracas captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and brought him to New York City to face federal drug trafficking and weapons charges. As Mr. Trump took questions about that on Sunday, he spoke of other countries in Latin America and beyond. On Air Force One, Mr. Trump told reporters that Colombia was being “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.” “He’s not going to be doing it for very long,” he said of Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, who has frequently criticized Mr. Trump. “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories.” Mr. Trump and Mr. Petro have been locked in an escalating dispute over the United States’ series of boat strikes in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, which have ratcheted up pressure on Colombia, a nexus of the region’s drug trade. Asked whether his administration would carry out an operation targeting Colombia, Mr. Trump replied, “It sounds good to me.” Mr. Trump also suggested that the United States could take action against a number of other countries, including Mexico and Iran, over a range of issues.

New York Times [1/5/2026 3:17 AM, Max Bearak, 330K] reports the dream of returning had grown distant for millions of Venezuelans who had fled their government’s crushing of dissent and an economy in free fall. “If I speak from my heart, I had utterly lost hope,” said Jorge Colmenares, 50, who left seven years ago. For him, selling caramel candy at red lights on the streets of a Colombian border city was a step up from living out of cardboard boxes on the streets of his own homeland with his wife and young children. But even if he knew the road to returning remained uncertain after an American attack deposed Venezuela’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro — whom he called “the head of the gang of our torturers” — Mr. Colmenares wept Saturday night. So did many other Venezuelans in exile. Their tears were brought on both by hope that going home might be close at hand and by the pain from the years of privation and tragedy that had befallen them. “When I think of my land, the beaches,” Mr. Colmenares said, before he broke down in sobs as he spoke in Cúcuta, along Colombia’s border with Venezuela. “My parents who died and I couldn’t see them, my brothers and my son who crossed the Darién.” In recent years, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have crossed the Darién Gap, a treacherous, roadless zone between Colombia and Panama, on their way north to Central America and the United States. One of Mr. Colmenares’s sons is in detention in the United States, he said. Three million Venezuelans have settled in Colombia over the past decade. Nearly five million more have scattered across South America. Since the U.S. attack on Saturday, few have returned. The border crossing in Cúcuta, which accounts for 70 percent of traffic between the two countries, was quiet over the weekend, except for the presence of three armored vehicles belonging to the Colombian military. The United Nations and the Colombian government said the flow of people in both directions remained normal, and reflected mostly the daily back-and-forth of commerce between cities on either side of the border. On Sunday morning, it was mostly Venezuelans crossing into Colombia. Some were on Venezuelan-made Bera motorcycles emblazoned with decals saying “socialista.” Others were in ancient Chevrolet Caprices, sipping coffee out of plastic cups in between gear shifts. The night before, hundreds of jubilant Venezuelans had gathered on a central promenade in Cúcuta to light fireworks, give speeches and sing their national anthem.

Wall Street Journal [1/4/2026 5:30 AM, Deborah Acosta, Theo Francis, and Ryan Dubé, 646K] reports in Peru, Venezuelan migrants celebrated in the streets, waving flags and wearing their dark, red national soccer jersey. In Brazil, they sprayed each other with beer, in scenes reminiscent of carnival. In Florida, 90 minutes south of Mar-a-Lago, a jubilant crowd gathered outside an arepa restaurant, honking horns, cheering and waving Venezuelan and American flags. “I’m trembling with emotion. I haven’t slept since learning the news from friends in Caracas who called at 2 a.m.,” said Nancy Martinez, who moved to the U.S. a year ago, and joined hundreds of others who took to the streets in celebration. The sprawling Venezuelan diaspora celebrated the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro, cheering on President Trump’s actions and wondering: What now? In Doral, Fla., known as Little Venezuela for its large population of Venezuelan immigrants, hundreds crammed around and into El Arepazo all day and into the evening. The restaurant is a gathering place for Venezuelans inside a gas station branded Chevron, the oil company that has operated in Venezuela for more than a century. “This is a huge moment for us,” said Daniel Tirado, a 30-year-old political researcher. Little is likely to change immediately, said Tirado, who came to the U.S. in mid-2021 after he said he was targeted by the Maduro regime for political and student activism. He sees the first priority as persuading reluctant members of the U.S. Congress to work with the Trump administration on stabilizing the country. “We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in the next days,” Tirado said. “We have to try to convince our congress members that this is the correct path.” Much remains uncertain for Venezuelans in the U.S. The Trump administration’s immigration policy and enforcement crackdown prompted consternation among Venezuelans in the U.S., many of whom fled Maduro’s repressive government and the country’s economic collapse. The Trump administration has moved to revoke temporary legal status for 600,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S., meaning they could face deportation. Around eight million Venezuelans live in exile. At a press conference announcing the U.S. incursion and the arrest of Maduro, Trump said that the U.S. would “make Venezuela great again,” and suggested that exiles would want to return to their home country.

Breitbart [1/4/2026 6:45 PM, Joshua Klein, 2416K] reports Pro-Palestinian activist organizations are fuming after Washington announced military action in Venezuela and the capture of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, framing the operation as “imperialist aggression,” denouncing what they term a “genocidal US-Israel axis,” and urging resistance, protests, and “direct action” in the United States and abroad. On Saturday, U.S. officials confirmed strikes on strategic sites in and around Caracas, followed by the detention and removal of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as a federal grand jury unsealed indictments charging them with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine trafficking, and weapons offenses tied to the long-running authoritarian regime. U.S.-based pro-Palestinian activist groups quickly aligned themselves with Venezuela’s socialist regime rather than Washington, with campus organizations among the first to respond and little public attention given to Maduro’s record of repression, economic collapse, or mass emigration. Within Our Lifetime, known for radical anti-Israel demonstrations in major U.S. cities, described the Venezuela operation as part of a global system of “imperial” domination. Noting that Venezuela’s leadership has long “stood in solidarity with Palestine,” the group argued that U.S. intervention abroad “destabilizes peoples fighting for self-governance,” linking Caracas and Gaza as part of the same “inseparable” struggle. The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society leading the global BDS movement, condemned the U.S. strike while pairing criticism of Washington with attacks on Israel, describing both as part of a “genocidal US-Israel axis.” Slamming “US imperialist aggression,” the group condemned the “criminal and colonial military aggression of the United States against Venezuela, a violation of its sovereignty, the right to self-determination of the Venezuelan people, and international law.” “To free Palestine, then, is to free all of the peoples of the world,” their statement concluded.

CBS New York [1/4/2026 11:38 PM, Kristie Keleshian and Jenna DeAngelis, 39474K] reports Protesters opposed to the U.S. military strikes against Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he is being held, on Sunday, calling for his release and denouncing President Trump’s actions as illegal. Demonstrators barricaded a portion of the sidewalk across from where Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being held on narcoterrorism charges since arriving in New York on Saturday night. "As people of the United States, we have to oppose this action because what’s stopping Trump from doing this to other countries?" said Zoe Alexandra of ANSWER Coalition, an anti-war and anti-racism protest group formed after 9/11. The group criticized Mr. Trump and the military operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, saying it was motivated by Venezuela’s oil reserves and control of the country, not by the drug charges Maduro has been wanted for since 2020. "If it really cares about prosecuting drug traffickers, then why did they release [former Honduras President] Juan Orlando Hernandez, who is convicted in the same court that they’re trying Maduro now?" Alexandra said. Those who spoke out against Sunday’s demonstration said they believe if Maduro had not been captured, change wouldn’t have come for the Venezuelan people for a number of years. Esteban Chacin, who fled the South American nation nine years ago, and other Venezuelans said the life they left was unsustainable under Maduro’s authoritarian rule and that the strikes and his capture, although audacious, were necessary. "And not just because of the U.S. or the sanctions. The government that was there has been corrupt enough to earn their own blame or fault," Chacin said.

Breitbart.com [1/4/2026 12:33 PM, Randy Clark, 2416K] reports while Venezuelan expatriates across the country cheered the U.S. capture of socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro, a small group of San Antonio socialists took to the streets Saturday to denounce the operation as "illegal" and "a war crime.” Several dozen members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) gathered in the Alamo City to protest the U.S. military action in Venezuela that led to the capture of Venezuela’s socialist dictator. The predominantly White and Hispanic crowd of protesters voiced their anger at the action taken by President Donald Trump. In contrast, thousands of Venezuelan expatriates across the United States celebrated Maduro’s arrest and removal. The PSL members and attendees chanted slogans, beat drums, and marched around the intersection of San Pedro and Basse Avenues for several hours late Saturday afternoon. The group chose the exact location where they staged an earlier protest against a law enforcement raid that led to the arrest of 51 members of the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang at an illegal nightclub nearby. As reported by Breitbart Texas, the San Antonio Party for Socialism and Liberation has shifted the focus of its activities from pro-Hamas protests at the height of the Gaza War to protesting enforcement actions by federal law enforcement agencies targeting the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and protests that support the now captured socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. In recent weeks, the PSL has also offered statements critical of the U.S. military actions against narco-terrorists in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean, calling the effort to stem the flow of narcotics and cut funding to cartels operating along maritime smuggling routes as acts of "open piracy.”

New York Times [1/5/2026 3:34 AM, Christiaan Triebert and Anatoly Kurmanaev, 135475K] reports at least 16 oil tankers hit by U.S. sanctions appear to have made an attempt to evade a major American naval blockade on Venezuela’s energy exports over the last two days, in part by disguising their true locations or turning off their transmission signals. For weeks, the ships had been spotted on satellite imagery docked in Venezuelan ports, according to an analysis by New York Times. But by Saturday, in the wake of President Nicholas Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces, all were gone from those locations. Four have been tracked by satellite sailing east 30 miles from shore, using fake ship names and misrepresenting their positions, a deceptive tactic known as “spoofing.” These four have left port without the interim government’s authorization, according to internal communications from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company and two people in the Venezuelan oil industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. The departures could be seen as an early act of defiance of interim President Delcy Rodríguez’s control. The other 12 are not broadcasting any signals and have not been located in new imagery. President Trump unilaterally imposed a “complete blockade” on sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers on Dec. 16, an effort that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday was one of the largest “quarantines” in modern history, and was successfully “paralyzing” the regime’s ability to generate revenue. The blockade has notably exempted oil shipped by American company Chevron to the U.S. Gulf Coast. So far, U.S. forces have confronted three tankers trying to trade Venezuelan oil. One, called Skipper, was halted and seized by the Coast Guard on Dec. 10, on its way to China. A second, the Centuries, was halted and boarded, but not seized, on Dec. 20, and a third, then called the Bella 1, now Marinera, is still being pursued by U.S. forces. In response to questions from The Times, a U.S. official on Sunday said that “the quarantine is in effect focusing on sanctioned shadow vessels transporting sanctioned” Venezuelan oil. The tankers’ evasion strategies appear to be relying on deception, but also saturation. At least three of the ships were in proximity as they left Venezuelan waters in the same direction, suggesting at least some coordination. “The only real way for oil-laden tankers to break through a naval blockade is to overwhelm it with outbound vessels,” said Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, a website that monitors shipping and identified several of the vessels in satellite imagery. The location and intent of the 12 tankers that have stopped broadcasting signals and left port since Saturday are open questions. But Venezuela is under pressure to move its crude. Since the blockage, storage facilities have been nearing capacity, and shutting down production risks damaging oil reservoirs and infrastructure. The ships that have left without authorization were contracted by the oil traders Alex Saab and Ramón Carretero, according to internal data for the state-owned oil company, and to the two oil-industry sources. Both of the traders are under U.S. sanctions for being business partners of Mr. Maduro’s family. Mr. Saab was jailed in the United States in 2021, but was traded in 2023 by the Biden administration for Americans detained in Venezuela. Fifteen of the 16 ships that were on the move on Saturday were under U.S. sanctions for hauling Iranian and Russian oil.

CNN [1/5/2026 1:03 AM, Zoe Sottile, 18595K] reports it was the viral video seen ‘round the world. The 43-minute video, posted to YouTube the day after Christmas by a 23-year-old conservative content creator, claimed with little evidence Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota were fraudulently taking funding meant to provide child care for low-income families. The video, boosted by Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk, quickly racked up millions of views. The impact was swift: DHS and the FBI ramped up their presence in the state, and federal funding for child care in the entire state was frozen. But a week later, state officials said the child care centers accused of fraud in the video were all operating as expected when visited by investigators. The state’s initial findings cast doubt on the claims of fraud articulated in the viral video. Still, investigations into alleged wrongdoing are ongoing. Minnesota officials have until January 9 to provide the Trump administration with information about providers and parents who receive federal funds for child care, according to a bulletin sent Friday by the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families to child care providers and shared with CNN. The Trump administration’s demands are the latest step in a yearslong saga that started with investigations into theft of government funds in Minnesota under the Biden administration. On December 30, Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced the agency was freezing all child care payments to Minnesota. The state typically receives about $185 million annually in federal child care funding, supporting care for 19,000 children. Along with HHS, DHS has dispatched Homeland Security Investigations and ICE officers to the state, posting videos of agents visiting what they call potential fraud sites. “Right now in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Investigations are on the ground conducting a large scale investigation on fraudulent daycare and healthcare centers, as well as other rampant fraud,” read a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. It is unclear if any arrests have been made for fraud or other crimes in DHS’ latest crackdown, which comes after an ICE operation targeting Somalis in the Twin Cities was announced in December. CNN has asked DHS for more information.

Blaze [1/5/2026 4:00 AM, Josh Findlay, 1442K] reports fraud investigations are closing in on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), but the scandal reaches beyond any single official. Minnesota’s election system itself now stands exposed, revealing vulnerabilities that undermine transparency and public confidence. Recent reporting has drawn renewed attention to just how permissive Minnesota’s election framework has become. The state allows voters to "vouch" for up to eight other individuals at the polls. That practice requires no voter identification and relies entirely on personal attestation. Even on its own, that policy raises serious concerns. Combined with broader governance failures and ongoing fraud investigations, it becomes a glaring liability. Minnesota’s approach to immigration and identification compounds the problem. In 2023, Walz signed legislation allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses. In most states, such a policy would trigger heightened election safeguards to prevent misuse. Minnesota has no voter ID requirement at all, leaving a dangerous gap between immigration policy and election administration. Supporters frame these policies as efforts to expand access and remove barriers to voting. But access without accountability produces disorder. Confidence in elections depends on clear rules governing eligibility, verification, and identification. Remove those guardrails, and public trust erodes. Those vulnerabilities came into sharp focus during an October hearing of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee. On a recent episode of my "Election Protection Project Podcast," I spoke with state Rep. Patti Anderson (R), the committee’s vice chairman, about her exchange with state Elections Director Paul Linnell. Anderson repeatedly asked a basic question: Could illegal aliens use driver’s licenses issued under the Walz-signed law to vote? Linnell refused to give a clear answer. That exchange exposed Minnesota’s core problem. Election officials cannot plainly explain how the system blocks ineligible voting, and voters have every reason to doubt it. A system without basic safeguards can’t be trusted. Moments like this expose the weakness of claims that voter ID is "unnecessary." In 2023, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) opposed a bill requiring photo identification at the polls, arguing that identity is already verified during registration and that ID requirements could suppress turnout. Minnesota’s experience shows why that argument fails. Loose rules invite confusion, abuse, and doubt. Safeguards such as voter ID protect confidence rather than diminish it. Americans understand this instinctively. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 81% of U.S. adults support requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification, reflecting broad bipartisan support for common-sense safeguards. These measures help ensure that election outcomes remain credible. Minnesota’s lack of safeguards is especially troubling as the state heads into a critical election year. Voters deserve assurance that their elections will be administered competently and that only eligible citizens can cast ballots. Election integrity should never be treated as a partisan issue. It forms the foundation of self-government. Without clear rules, accountability, and transparency, the democratic process itself suffers. Minnesota still has the opportunity to restore trust by implementing voter ID and reinforcing citizenship requirements before voters return to the polls.

NewsMax [1/4/2026 11:03 PM, Eric Mack, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump suggested a potentially higher figure for alleged Somali fraud in Minnesota, saying the total could reach $50 billion because the real amount is often greater than what investigators uncover. "Somalians are ripping off our country to the tune of, it looks like, $19 billion — but that’s only what they can find," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the trek back to Washington, D.C., after the Christmas and New Year’s Eve break at Mar-a-Lago. "Usually when you’re looking at 19, that means it could be 50. "But the numbers are astronomical.” Those complicit in fraud should be deported, Trump continued. "They’re stealing from the American taxpayer," Trump said. "And every one of them should be forced to leave this country, including Ilhan Omar, who’s a total crook and she’s one of the leaders of it. Not the only, because she’s not that smart.” Trump added that the gravy train is over. "We’re not going to pay it anymore," he concluded. "We’re not going to pay them, and we’re not going to pay California, and we’re not going to pay Illinois with that big slob of a governor that they have.”

New York Post [1/5/2026 2:55 AM, Richard Pollina, 42219K] reports embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to bow out of the 2026 re-election race as he faces mounting national criticism over a massive Somali fraud scandal engulfing his state. "He’s likely to drop out of the 2026 #mngov race," Minnesota political analyst Blois Olson posted on X Sunday night. The news comes as Walz’s office has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. Monday. His office did not comment on what the failed vice presidential candidate plans to address, KARE 11 reported. The Post has reached out to Walz’s office for comment. Walz has come under national scrutiny — including from President Trump — over his handling of alleged Medicaid and day care fraud in Minnesota, with losses that could reach into the multi-billions. The scrutiny intensified after independent journalist Nick Shirley released viral footage last month showing taxpayer-funded day care centers in Minnesota that appeared largely empty. Federal authorities have since launched an operation in the Land of 10,000 Lakes aimed at "identifying, arresting, and removing criminals who are defrauding the American people," according to the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans are blasting Minnesota Democrats over the fraud scandal, accusing them of failing to prevent billions in taxpayer losses, as a Florida lawmaker compared the alleged scheme to "organized crime.” The Trump administration has said it plans to freeze certain federal child care funds until states provide additional verification for the programs. President Donald Trump himself suggested the alleged fraud in Minnesota could be even larger than investigators believe while speaking to a crowd at a New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago. "Can you imagine, they stole $18 billion," Trump said. State Rep. Kristin Robbins (R–Maple Grove), chairwoman of the Minnesota Fraud Committee and a GOP gubernatorial candidate, told The Post she alerted the Walz administration to her concerns after holding a hearing on day care fraud in February 2024 — but said her warnings were ignored. "I gave the Department of Human Services a list of day care providers getting over $1 million in the previous year from the state who had numerous violations, and this day care was one of them on the list," Robbins said outside the Quality Learning Center facility. "They can’t say they didn’t know. We had a hearing on it. We gave them a list, and nothing has happened," she added. "I find it shocking that this is still happening when we flagged something over and over again.” The House Oversight Committee is expected to hold multiple hearings on the alleged scandal in the coming weeks. Olson told Fox 9 that Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whom he said Walz met with Sunday, is a likely contender to replace the governor in the race.

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/4/2026 11:56 AM, Staff, 5025K] reports President Trump said that the United States will run the country and that Venezuela will be largely run by him and some of the other cabinet members when he spoke to the public yesterday. Trump said, the U.S. retains all military options, including boots on the ground until U.S. demands have been fully met. Secretary Of State Marco Rubio comments, "I think the important thing to point out is that the key to what that regime relies on and is the economy fueled by oil. And right now, it is an oil industry that is backwards and really needs a lot of help and work in terms of, not only that, but it doesn’t help the people. None of the money from the oil gets to the people. It’s all stolen by the people that are on the top there, and so that’s why we have a quarantine. There’s a quarantine right now in which sanctioned oil shipments, there’s a boat, and that boat is under US sanctions, we go get a court order, we will seize it. That remains in place, and that’s a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela."

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/4/2026 11:56 AM, Staff, 5025K] reports Rubio says that the regime isn’t the only thing being addressed. They are addressing factors that are a threat to the national interest of the United States. Rubio spoke with Delcy Rodríguez and according to President Trump was sworn in as the President of Venezuela. Did Delcy promise that she’d be expelling all the American adversaries from Venezuelan territory? What did she agree to when Rubio and her spoke? "When it comes to how Venezuela impacts the national interest of the United States have not changed, and we want those addressed. We want drug trafficking to stop. We want no more gang members to come our way. We don’t want to see the Iranian and, by the way, Cuban presence in the past. We want the oil industry in that country not to go to the benefit of pirates and adversaries of the United States, but for the benefit of the people." Rubio states. Rubio says that Maduro was not someone that could be worked with. When asked if Maduros number two would be someone who could be worked with, Rubio had this to say "we’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim, not what you know some what they’ve done in the past in many cases, but what they do moving forward."

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/4/2026 11:56 AM, Staff, 1824K] reports President Trump was loud and clear yesterday when he said the United States was going to run Venezuela. But what did he mean by that and under what authority? Rubio says, " What’s going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met. And that’s what we intend to do." This answer was not good enough for Host Stephanopoulos, so he asks Secretary Rubio, legal authority for the United States to be running Venezuela? "What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward. And that is we have leverage. This leverage we are using and we intend to use. We started using already. You can see where they are running out of storage capacity. In a few weeks, they’re going to have to start pumping oil unless they make changes. And that leverage that we have with the armada of boats that are currently positioned allow us to seize any sanctioned boats coming into or out of Venezuela loaded with oil or on its way in to pick up oil. And we can pick and choose which ones we go after. We have court orders for each one. That will continue to be in place until the people who have control over the levers of power in that country make changes that are not just in the interest of the people of Venezuela but are in the interest of the United States and the things that we care about." Rubio states.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/4/2026 11:56 AM, Staff, 1824K] reports the President said that Rubio spoke with the Vice President Rodriguez and that she promised to do whatever the United States needs. But in her televised statement, she was pretty defiant, saying that Maduro is still president, and that the Venezuelan people will no longer be slaves or the colony of an empire. That’s a quote. "Well, we’re not going to judge moving forward based simply on what’s said in press conferences. We want to see action here at the end of the day. Rhetoric is one thing. You see rhetoric for a lot of different reasons. There’s a lot of different reasons why people go on TV and say certain things in these countries, especially 15 hours or 12 hours after the person who used to be in charge of the regime is now in handcuffs and on his way to New York. So, what I will say is, moving forward, it’s very simple, we’re not going to be reactive here to statements at press conferences or what people say in a certain interview or what some media posts -- some media post somewhere. What we are going to react to is very simple, what do you do? Not what you’re saying publicly. What happens? What happens next? Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made?" Rubio states.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [1/4/2026 11:56 AM, Staff, 1824K] reports Senator Chuck Schumer says your don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. "The United States will run Venezuela. We have learned through the years when America tries to do regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and in dollars." Schumer states. Secretary Rubio says the United States has the authority to do what they’re doing right now. Schumer says they do not have the legal authority to go inside Venezuela, bomb civilians and military bases. What can the Congress do about it is the next question. "The next question is very simple, and that is that we have the War Powers Act. That’s a privilege resolution, which means the Republicans can’t block it. Tim Kaine and I and Rand Paul are sponsors of it. It’s going to come to the floor this week. And if it is voted for, if it’s voted positively in both houses, then the president can’t do another thing in Venezuela without the OK of Congress. We have to pass it." Schumer states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/4/2026 12:35 PM, Staff] reports the big question folks are asking since the seizure of Venezuelan President Maduro, is the United States now at war with Venezuela? "There’s not a war. I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela. We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions. We have sanctioned entities. We go to court. We get a warrant. We seize those boats with oil. And that will continue. And we will continue to reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs towards the United States that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations including the Cartel de los Soles. Of course their leader, the leader of that cartel, is now in U.S. custody and facing U.S. justice in the Southern District of New York. And that’s Nicolás Maduro. So we made a big progress in that regard." Rubio states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/4/2026 12:35 PM, Staff] reports President Trump told the New York Post there won’t be troops in Venezuela as long as Delcy Rodríguez, "does what we want." She’s already, demanding the release of Nicolás Maduro. She’s insisting that her country never become a colony. What exactly does Rodríguez need to do to keep U.S. troops out of Venezuela? "Forget about the U.S. troops portion of it. What needs to happen for any of this to change for our relations with Venezuela and our whole approach with the change, those things we have talked about are the ones I’ve highlighted already. You can’t flood this country with gang members. You can’t flood this country with drugs that are coming out of Colombia through Venezuela with the cooperation of elements of your security forces. You can’t turn Venezuela into the operating hub for Iran, for Russia, for Hezbollah, for China, for the Cuban intelligence agents that control that country. That cannot continue. Those things cannot continue to be in place. You cannot continue to have the largest oil reserves, you know, in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States not benefiting the people of Venezuela and stolen by a handful of oligarchs around the world including inside of Venezuela, but not benefiting the people of that country." Rubio states.

FOX News Sunday [1/4/2026 12:35 PM, Staff] reports Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., discusses the U.S. strikes in Venezuela, the capture of Nicolás Maduro and more on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

FOX News Sunday [1/4/2026 12:35 PM, Staff] reports Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., joins ‘Fox News Sunday’ to discuss the worldwide impact of Nicolás Maduro’s capture and President Donald Trump’s plan to ‘run’ Venezuela.

Wall Street Journal [1/4/2026 9:00 PM, Michelle Hackman, Arian Campo-Flores, and Hannah Critchfield, 646K] reports until recently, arresting an immigrant suspected of being in the country illegally took time. Immigration agents needed to run the suspect’s various forms of ID through different systems, and if the results were inconclusive, book the person into custody for further investigation. But during President Trump’s second term, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been handed a powerful new tool to speed up arrests: mobile facial-recognition technology. Officers can simply point their phones at a suspect’s face, snap a picture and turn up the person’s identity—and often their immigration status. The app, called Mobile Fortify, has in the past few months become a routine feature of ICE arrests, according to current and former government officials. Agency officials say the technology has made arrests both faster and more accurate, leading to fewer occasions when officers must detain someone only to learn, hours later, that they have legal status or are even a U.S. citizen. With an unprecedented $75 billion infusion from Congress this summer on top of its normal budget, ICE has become the most well-funded law-enforcement agency in the federal government. It has been using that money in part to experiment with new technologies to supercharge Trump’s promised mass deportation. In recent months, the agency has greenlighted a contract for a tool that can scan subjects’ irises and recruited several artificial-intelligence-fueled companies to locate immigrants. “President Trump’s core promise to the American people was to remove criminal and public-safety threats in large numbers, and these technologies provide federal law enforcement tools to make that challenge more manageable,” said Chad Wolf, chairman of homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute and a former acting Homeland Security secretary during Trump’s first term. ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is investing more money than ever in facial-recognition technology to power programs including touchless scans at airport-security checkpoints and an entry-exit program to track everyone leaving the country on flights, alarming civil-rights advocates. The government’s spending on certain companies known to provide surveillance technologies has jumped significantly in the past decade, with over $30 million in contracts awarded this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal contracting data. “Mobile Fortify is a lawful law-enforcement tool developed under the Trump Administration to support accurate identity and immigration-status verification during enforcement operations,” a DHS spokeswoman said in a statement.

CBS News [1/4/2026 4:15 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports in a partial legal victory for the Trump administration, a federal judge ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can now tap into Medicaid participant information to help try to track down undocumented immigrants.

Reported similarly:
NPR [1/5/2026 4:53 AM, Jasmine Garsd, 28013K]

CBS News [1/4/2026 2:06 PM, Daniel Wilkerson, 39474K] reports a longtime Atlanta journalist who was deported last year says he is still reporting on Georgia communities — even from outside the United States. Mario Guevara spent over 20 years covering the Latino community in Metro Atlanta. Last summer, he was arrested by Doraville police at a "No Kings" rally in DeKalb County and later turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. Guevara spent more than 100 days in ICE custody before being deported to El Salvador. Now, three months later, he says he is still receiving tips and questions from people across Metro Atlanta. "Every day I receive tips from the community," Guevara said. "When people contact me, they want to know what is going on in their area.” One of the biggest questions right now centers on Social Circle, a small city of about 5,000 people located roughly 45 miles east of Atlanta. Local leaders say they were surprised after The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration is considering turning large warehouses in several cities into holding centers for detained immigrants. The draft proposal reportedly includes facilities that could hold between 5,000 and 10,000 people each. David Keener said the city did not receive any notice from the federal government before the report came out. "We do not have the water and sewer capacity," Keener said. "That’s probably the biggest reason. And most people in town are opposed to this facility locating here.” City officials say only one building in Social Circle might even be large enough to handle something like this.

The Texas Insider [1/4/2026 4:25 PM, Larrison Manygoats] reports on November 12, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Sumith Gunasekera at his home in Detroit. He claimed to be an associate professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. He’s actually a criminal illegal alien with a documented history of sexual crimes against minors. His criminal record spans nearly three decades and crosses international borders. And he was given access to college students. “It’s sickening that a sex offender was working as a professor on an American college campus and was given access to vulnerable students to potentially victimize them,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Whether Ferris State knew about his criminal history is unclear from this statement. But the fact is: a man convicted of sexual crimes against minors was in a position of authority over students.

Los Angeles Times [1/4/2026 11:48 PM, Christopher Buchanan, 14862K] reports a tearful candlelight vigil was held in Northridge for a man shot to death on New Year’s Eve by an off-duty immigration officer. Sunday evening, a crowd of about 50 gathered on wet asphalt outside the Village Pointe apartment complex in Northridge to grieve Keith Porter Jr. The group included activists, family members and Porter’s co-workers from Home Depot. The Compton man was shot at the complex on Dec. 31 by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, according to authorities. Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles — of which Porter was a member — said in a news release that the vigil was organized to memorialize the 33-year-old father and call for an independent investigation into his death. "We want to recognize that one of the worst imaginable injustices has been committed, and there will be time for us to protest," Melina Abdullah, a co-director of Black Lives Matter Grassroots, said during the vigil. "This is a time for grief. … We are not going to be quiet.” In a statement after the incident, Homeland Security officials said the agent was "forced to defensively use his weapon" and opened fire "to protect his life and that of others." Officials said Porter was an "active shooter" threat. According to a statement from the civil rights organization Project Islamic Hope, Porter was celebrating the new year by firing a rifle into the air when an "overzealous" off-duty agent shot him. Firing guns into the air, which poses the risk of people being injured or killed, is a felony. The fatal shooting of Porter is under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, officials said. The FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations also are handling the case because a federal agent was involved. On Sunday evening, mourners crouched around a makeshift memorial and wrote heartfelt messages to Porter and his family on a small board above his photo. Porter is survived by a 9-year-old daughter. Bishop Jack Wilson, a friend of Porter’s mother, was on hand for the gathering. The Solid Rock Mission Church official said he remembered Porter as a child, when he was always smiling and had the manners of an old Southern gentleman. "He was full of life, and always smiling," Wilson said. "It hurts me that he didn’t take his last breath, but his last breath was taken from him.”

DailySignal [1/4/2026 10:00 AM, Lora Ries, 549K] reports young American college graduates are getting a raw deal. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates, aged 20 to 24 years, reached 9.3% in August 2025, according to Forbes. For comparison, older college graduates, aged 25 to 34, had an unemployment rate of 3.6%, and high school graduates had a rate of 4.3%. Why? Business analysts point to "structural issues" in the economy or to artificial intelligence (AI) taking over jobs. But they don’t mention the competition American college students and recent graduates face from foreign students and graduates in America. This foreign competition is enabled by a creation of the administrative state known as Optional Practical Training (OPT). It is past time for Congress to end this program. OPT was created in 1992 by an administrative rule. It originally allowed a foreign student to work for one year after graduation from a U.S. college in the student’s major area of study. But like all immigration benefits, OPT was eventually expanded and extended to nearly four years, moves again made by the administrative state. Foreign students with an "F" visa can receive up to 12 months of OPT employment authorization before or after completing their academic studies. If a foreign student earns a degree in over 220 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study, he can also apply for a 24-month extension of his OPT employment authorization, for a total of three years. This long list of degrees includes questionable "STEM" entries, however. Examples include archaeology; quality control technology/technician; welding engineering technology/technician; automotive engineering technology/technician; engineering-related fields/other; management science; and business statistics. Many of these fields of study are vague, broad, and include business, liberal arts, and trade studies rather than STEM. Our universities produce plenty of American graduates in business and liberal arts, so why are foreign students in so many categories of studies allowed to work in the U.S. following graduation? Two reasons: employers get a tax break for foreign OPT grads, and OPT acts as an immigration bridge that allows aliens to stay in the U.S. between college and obtaining employment-based visas. In other words, OPT benefits employers and aliens, not American college students, graduates, or employees.

NPR [1/4/2026 6:33 PM, Chandelis Duster, 28013K] reports Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins is calling for the Trump administration to reinstate temporary protected status, also known as TPS, for Venezuelans after the U.S. military operation capturing the country’s president. Higgins on Saturday said the Trump administration ending TPS for Venezuelans in early 2025 was "reckless, dangerous, and wrong." She also called for President Trump to "immediately" reinstate TPS for Venezuelans. Miami has a large population of Venezuelan expats. Higgins was sworn in as mayor last month, becoming the first Democrat to lead the city in about three decades. "The instability unfolding in Venezuela today makes it even clearer that the country remains unsafe for people to return. No one should be forced back into chaos and uncertainty," Higgins wrote in a statement. "They have built lives here, contributed to our community, and deserve the security to remain while their homeland regains stability. This is not just a matter of policy — it is a matter of basic human dignity and safety.” The U.S. Supreme Court in May allowed the Trump administration to temporarily strip legal protections from more than 350,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. under TPS, which protects against deportations and provides work permits to people impacted by war, natural disasters and other circumstances. Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem on Sunday, when asked about Higgins’ statement, defended the administration ending the program, saying that decisions are made in collaboration with the State Department and White House. "Every individual that was under TPS has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will go forward, but we need to make sure that our programs actually mean something and that we are following the law," Noem said during an interview with Fox News. The Department of Homeland Security also said in a social media post later on Sunday: "Secretary Noem ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 500,000 Venezuelans and now they can go home to a country that they love.”

Breitbart [1/4/2026 9:17 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is defying Trump Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy by allowing 17,000 migrant commercial truckers to keep driving on American highways. The state DMV has ruled that migrants who lost their licenses thanks to Duffy’s pro-American regulations can drive for another 60 days and retake the state driver’s test to renew their license. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced last week that it would be delaying the cancellation of the licenses for some 17,000 migrants allowed CDLs in the state, setting up another showdown with federal authorities determined to take dangerous illegal aliens who cannot read English off the streets. "Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy — our supply chains don’t move, and our communities don’t stay connected without them," said DMV Director Steve Gordon in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted the far-left state and warned that the federal government will cut the $160 million in federal funding if California does not cancel the licenses by January 5. "California does NOT have an ‘extension’ to keep breaking the law and putting Americans at risk on the roads," Duffy wrote in a message on X. Illegal aliens with DCLs have launched a lawsuit against the federal government in California to stop the Trump administration from canceling their trucker licenses. Sec. Duffy has already removed more than 7,000 migrants from America’s roads, but he revealed that Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California had handed out 17,000 licenses to migrants. California has become the number-one hub for illegal aliens getting CDLs (Commercial Driver’s Licenses). Another report said last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 101 illegal alien truckers in California during Operation Highway Sentinel. Those arrested were from India, Mexico, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Russia, Georgia, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Honduras.

New York Times [1/5/2026 3:17 AM, Brad Plumer, Lisa Friedman, Maxine Joselow and Scott Dance, 330K] reports that, in his first year back in office, President Trump has rapidly reshaped America’s climate and energy landscape. His administration dismantled a wide range of climate and pollution regulations, began to overhaul how the federal government responds to disasters and gave a boost to fossil fuel production and nuclear power while attempting to curtail the growth of wind and solar energy. The changes have reverberated far beyond the United States, as the administration has pressured other countries to abandon their own efforts to tackle global warming. Over the past year, the Environmental Protection Agency has moved to delay, ease or eliminate more than a dozen regulations governing air pollution, water contamination and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, a New York Times analysis found. The Times analysis, based on research from Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School and other sources, counted four proposed rollbacks of air pollution rules. In June, for instance, the E.P.A. moved to repeal a Biden-era regulation that required coal-burning power plants to cut emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. Five proposed rollbacks involved water-quality regulations. Last month, the E.P.A. said it would strip federal protections from millions of acres of wetlands and streams, a move made easier by a recent Supreme Court ruling. The agency also intends to give utilities an additional year to begin cleaning up coal ash landfills, which can leach toxic metals into nearby waterways. On his first day back in office, Mr. Trump promised to unleash U.S. energy production and lower prices by promoting fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal, while throttling renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. His administration has followed through with dizzying speed. More than one billion acres of federal lands and waters have been offered for oil and gas drilling. The E.P.A. has revoked regulations that would have made it more difficult to build natural gas-fired power plants. The Energy Department has intervened to stop aging coal plants from retiring. Nuclear safety regulators have been ordered to more quickly approve reactors. At the same time, Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress have repealed subsidies for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles, while agencies have slowed or stopped federal approvals for new wind and solar projects. The administration has also repealed or blocked vehicle efficiency standards that would have forced automakers to shift away from gasoline-burning cars. “The view was that with low-cost oil and gas available domestically, they would be able to increase supply and production quickly, and as a result, keep prices under check,” said Prakash Sharma, vice president for scenarios and technologies at Wood Mackenzie, an energy consulting firm. The result has been a transformation of the nation’s energy sector. Since January, the Trump administration has closed the independent research arm of the E.P.A. and tasked remaining employees with approving the use of new chemicals. It has proposed to erase money for climate science in next year’s budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, while eliminating climate laboratories and severe storm research.

CBS News [1/4/2026 9:24 AM, Jonathan Vigliotti, 39474K] Video: HERE reports metallic grinding sounds mark the start of the day, as contractors report to work in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, California. One year after the fires, construction has begun on just about 500 of the more than 16,000 structures lost, with only a few homes fully rebuilt. Karen Martinez is one of the lucky ones. Navigating the complex web of permits, insurance payouts and rising construction costs, she started rebuilding her home in Malibu in October. Asked if it was an easy decision for her to break ground and rebuild, Martinez replied, "There were some moments in the very beginning where I was thinking about just selling the lot and moving on. I finally thought, ‘Okay, I gotta do this. I have to educate all my neighbors on how to rebuild, and how to build back better.’". For Martinez, that means using fire-resistant materials – a concrete composite that’s cheaper than wood. "I know there are going to be fires here," she said. "To me, if I can live in a home that’s not going to burn, it’s paradise!". She says the surrounding construction noise is the sound of progress. "Yeah, love that sound!" she laughed. Despite the sights and sounds of a comeback, 80% of fire survivors remain displaced, including chef Tyler Wells. The night of the fires, he was tending a different kind of flame – the hearth at his Altadena restaurant – when he realized he had lost his home. "To look back on it and think about what that moment was like is so surreal," he said, "because it just doesn’t seem possible. But we were still here cooking for people and taking care of people.” His restaurant sustained only minor damage. Neighboring buildings were destroyed.

AP [1/4/2026 4:52 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports crews cleared mud from key California highways as forecasters warned Sunday that more thunderstorms were on the way after downpours and high tides caused flooding, road closures and rescues of people trapped in cars. Five northern counties remained under a flood watch, with up to three inches (7.6 cm) of rain possible through Monday night in areas that have been drenched off and on since around Christmas, said the National Weather Service office in Eureka. At least a foot (.3 meters) of snow was likely in the mountains. To the south near the San Francisco Bay Area, waters were slowly receding after roadways from Sausalito to San Rafael were flooded during heavy rain that coincided with record-breaking " King Tides." Such tides occur when the moon is in its closest position to the Earth, creating a stronger gravitational pull. Some people kayaked along swamped streets, while others waded through water above their knees. Authorities were called to assist when cars got stuck in water as high as 3 and 4 feet (1.1 and 1.2 meters), Marin County Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Dobbins said Saturday.

NewsMax [1/4/2026 8:50 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports the Secret Service reportedly aims to hire an unprecedented number of agents and officers ahead of the 2028 Olympics and that year’s presidential election. The agency has launched one of the most aggressive hiring campaigns in its history, seeking to add roughly 4,000 new employees by 2028, The Washington Post reported Sunday. That’s a dramatic expansion meant to relieve a workforce strained by nonstop protective demands, rising threats, and years of attrition. The plan would grow the agency by about 20%, pushing total staffing past 10,000 for the first time. Deputy Director Matthew Quinn is spearheading the effort, with Secret Service Director Sean Curran backing the push. Curran previously led President Donald Trump’s protective detail, and the leadership team is making recruiting "second only to protection," according to the report. The Post noted the goal is to raise the number of special agents from about 3,500 to 5,000 and increase the Uniformed Division to roughly 2,000 officers, alongside hundreds of additional support staff. The hiring surge underscores the reality that the protective mission is expanding while the federal bureaucracy struggles to keep up. "The protective mission has expanded," Quinn told the Post. "Our numbers are low to meet those needs. We have to achieve what we said we were going to do 10 years ago. We’ve got to achieve it now.” Threats against national leaders have risen, travel demands are relentless, and major events such as the 2028 presidential election and the Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics will test security planning on a scale not seen since the post-9/11 era. "No matter what, I don’t care how successful we are," Quinn said, "it’s still going to be a rough summer.” The Secret Service is also still working to recover public confidence after last year’s shocking security failure at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the president survived an assassination attempt. The Post reported that poor coordination with other law enforcement agencies contributed to the breakdown — a warning sign as the nation heads toward another high-stakes election season.

NBC 5 Cincinnati [1/5/2026 5:31 AM, Fletcher Keel] reports Cincinnati police and Secret Service agents responded to the Cincinnati home of Vice President JD Vance overnight. WLWT’s cameras captured what appears to be damage to the windows of the home. Officers were on scene in the East Walnut Hills area for several hours, going in and out of the house. Police there could say only that they "have a suspect." It’s not clear if that person is in custody or what they’re charged with. WLWT has spoken with Secret Service agents who say a statement will likely be made later Monday morning. Vance was in Cincinnati for the last week. He left Sunday afternoon. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/5/2026 12:00 AM, Valerie Gonzalez, 31753K] reports one of the first police officers to respond to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, goes on trial Monday on charges that he failed to protect children during the attack, when authorities waited more than an hour to confront the gunman. Adrian Gonzales, a former Uvalde schools officer, faces 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in a rare prosecution of an officer accused of not doing more to stop a crime and protect lives. The teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary in one of deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Nearly 400 officers from state, local and federal law enforcement agencies responded to the school, but 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until a tactical team breached the classroom and killed the shooter, Salvador Ramos. An investigation later showed that Ramos was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the attack. Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo were among the first on the scene, and they are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the slow response. Arredondo’s trial has not yet been scheduled. The charges against Gonzales carry up to two years in prison if he is convicted. The trial, which is expected to last up to three weeks, begins with jury selection. Gonzales pleaded not guilty. His attorney has said Gonzales tried to save children that day. Police and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott initially said swift law enforcement action killed Ramos and saved lives. But that version quickly unraveled as families described begging police to go into the building and 911 calls emerged from students pleading for help. The indictment alleges Gonzales placed children in "imminent danger" of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his active shooter training. The allegations also say he did not advance toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told where the shooter was. State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.

Wall Street Journal [1/4/2026 10:00 PM, Michael R. Gordon and David S. Cloud, 646K] reports the U.S. raid that snatched Venezuela’s president capped a month of aggressive military action by President Trump that also included targeting alleged extremists in northern Nigeria, attacking Islamic State militants in Syria and threatening to restrike Iran. The flurry of military moves underscored Trump’s reliance on the surprise use of force during his second term—an emerging doctrine to strike and then coerce that is likely to be sorely tested as the White House seeks to press Venezuela and other countries he targets to comply with his demands. In returning to a form of “gunboat diplomacy” in Venezuela, Trump has largely spurned the usual veneer of armed interventions—acting without an Oval Office speech justifying the attack, congressional authorization, a promise of elections in a foreign land or even a detailed plan for its future. The operation in Caracas, which involved inserting U.S. Army Delta Force commandos and use of more than 150 warplanes, shared some of the features of Trump’s other operations this year, such as the B-2 bomber attack on Iran’s nuclear sites and its nearly two-month-long operation against the Houthis in Yemen. It disrupted the status quo but stopped short of a major commitment of ground forces that might give the White House more influence over Venezuela’s future while risking deeper involvement and more American lives. Trump has boasted that it was a model for future military action, telling Fox News on Saturday it was “an incredible thing” and insisting “we can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us.” Yet it is also a strategy that risks overstretching the Pentagon if Trump continues the intense pace of armed interventions abroad or gets bogged down in open-ended conflicts if his limited military moves don’t achieve his goals. The other major risk is it could leave the White House increasingly isolated internationally by alienating allies unwilling to support unilateral action.

USA Today [1/4/2026 2:10 PM, Karissa Waddick and Kinsey Crowley, 67103K] reports a day after the U.S. military toppled Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump appeared to have his eyes trained on the next target for American intervention: Greenland. Since taking office in 2025, Trump has repeatedly floated buying the ice-covered Arctic island from Denmark and has refused to rule out taking the resource-rich land through military force. Trump has argued that annexing Greenland is a national security necessity, noting its mass of critical minerals and strategic location. He renewed those calls Sunday, Jan. 4 as his administration took a victory lap for their ouster of Venezuela’s socialist dictator and as he promised to "run" the South American country until a democratic transition could occur. "We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense," Trump told The Atlantic in an interview published Jan. 4, describing the island as reportedly "surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.” The same day, Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted a photo of Greenland covered with the American flag. Above it, Miller wrote "SOON.” Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, Jesper Moeller Soerensen, responded, saying: "We expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has repeatedly rebuked Trump’s interest in colonizing Greenland. The "U.S. shall not take over Greenland," he said in stark terms in December.

CBS News [1/4/2026 9:08 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports the prime minister of Denmark on Sunday called on President Trump to "stop the threats" about taking over Greenland after the U.S. president reiterated his wish to take over the Danish territory. Since returning to White House a year ago, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that making Greenland part of the United States would serve U.S. national security interests, given its strategic location in the Arctic. Greenland is also rich in key critical minerals used in high-tech sectors. In an interview with The Atlantic magazine published Sunday, Mr. Trump reiterated his wish to take over Greenland. "We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense," he told the magazine. Later that night, Mr. Trump again told reporters aboard Air Force One, "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.” "We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months," Mr. Trump added. "Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.” His comments came a day after the U.S. military captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife during an overnight raid in Caracas. This raised concern in Denmark that the same could happen in Greenland, a Danish territory. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement on Sunday that it makes "absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland.” "The U.S. has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom," she said, adding: "I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people, who have very clearly said that they are not for sale.” In December, Mr. Trump named Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, drawing renewed criticism from Denmark and Greenland. Denmark reacts after Katie Miller’s social media post. And on Saturday, the wife of one of Mr. Trump’s most influential aides fanned the criticism when she posted a social media picture of Greenland painted in the colors of the United States flag. Katie Miller — wife of Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller — put the contentiously altered image of the Danish autonomous territory on her X feed late Saturday, hours after the U.S. military operation against Venezuela. Her post had a single word above it: "SOON.” In response, Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S., Jesper Moeller Soerensen, reacted on Sunday with his own post saying "we expect full respect for the territorial integrity" of Denmark, above a link to Katie Miller’s image. "We are close allies and should continue to work together as such," Soerensen said of Denmark’s relationship with the U.S. He added that both countries "work together to ensure security in the Arctic" and his "significantly boosted its Arctic security efforts" in 2025, an example of how it takes their "joint security seriously.”

Axios [1/4/2026 12:45 PM, Barak Ravid, 12972K] reports senior Syrian and Israeli officials will meet on Monday in Paris to resume negotiations on a new security agreement, according to an Israeli official and another source with knowledge. The Trump administration is pressing both Israel and Syria for a deal that would stabilize the security situation on their border and potentially be the first step toward future diplomatic normalization. That effort has been led by President Trump’s Syria envoy Tom Barrack, who will mediate the new round of negotiations. The talks are expected to take place over two days, with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani participating opposite a new group of Israeli negotiators. This will be the fifth round of talks, but the first in nearly two months. The talks were on hold due to the big gaps between the parties but also because of the resignation of Israel’s top negotiator, Ron Dermer. The goal is a security pact that includes the de-militarization of southern Syria and Israeli withdrawal from the parts of Syria it occupied after the collapse of the Assad regime.

Washington Post [1/5/2026 5:00 AM, Aaron Wiener, 24149K] reports German political leaders were incensed when they learned in 2013 that U.S. intelligence had been eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone calls. “Spying among friends, that just does not work,” Merkel said. At roughly the same time, however, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency was listening in on some of President Barack Obama’s calls on Air Force One, according to a new book about the relationship between Germany and the United States. The intelligence agency, called the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) discovered that some calls on Air Force One were unencrypted and it was able to tap into radio frequencies that were used for those calls, according to the book, “The Grown-Up Country: Germany Without America — A Historic Opportunity,” by Holger Stark, a German journalist. As a part of a reporting team for Der Spiegel, Stark revealed the eavesdropping on Merkel based on information leaked by CIA contractor Edward Snowden, who fled to Russia. In the new book, published Monday in German, Stark writes that transcripts of Obama’s intercepted calls were presented to the BND’s president in a secret folder. The book cites sources who told Stark that they saw the transcripts before the documents were shredded. A former senior German administration official confirmed to Washington Post that verbal reports of the Air Force One surveillance circulated in the chancellor’s office at the time. The intelligence gained was described as “incidental bycatch,” rather than a deliberate operation targeting the president, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Stark, who is now deputy editor of the newspaper Die Zeit and a former U.S. correspondent for the paper, writes in his book that encrypting calls aboard Air Force One was technically difficult, so in-flight calls were made on about a dozen frequencies. The BND monitored these frequencies, Stark writes: “not always all of them, and not around the clock — but systematically enough to intercept conversations of the U.S. president (and other American government and military officials) on several occasions.” “Eavesdropping on the president, even if only occasionally, had the potential to become a foreign policy scandal of considerable proportions,” Stark writes, noting that Merkel’s office was not initially informed of the intelligence-gathering. The existence of the secret folder became public during a German parliamentary inquiry committee into the BND in 2014 and 2015. But according to Stark, “the BND managed to keep its biggest and most politically sensitive target under wraps: Barack Obama.”

NBC News [1/4/2026 10:10 AM, Babak Dehghanpisheh, 34509K] reports widespread protests have rocked Iran for nearly a week and led to increasing violent clashes with security forces, prompting President Donald Trump to threaten intervention if a crackdown continues. The protests, which started with economic grievances by shopkeepers in Tehran and quickly spread to remote cities in provinces like Fars and Lorestan, where protesters chanted slogans against the ruling clerics, have raised pointed questions for the country’s leaders about how much support they really enjoy. Ali Larijani, who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged Friday without providing evidence that Israel and the U.S. were stoking the escalating demonstrations. And Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a post on X that Trump’s threat of intervention makes U.S. bases in the region "legitimate targets.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump had said that if Iran "violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue." He did not specify what this would mean. Iranian officials attempted to project a united front with ordinary citizens in June, when the Israeli military battered the country in a 12-day war, partly joined by the U.S. military. The war killed more than 1,000 people including top military leaders and nuclear scientists, according to state media, and wreaked havoc on its nuclear facilities. On Monday, after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump issued a fresh threat to "knock the hell out of" Iran if the Islamic Republic attempts to rebuild its nuclear program or expand its ballistic missile program. Saturday’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who enjoyed a warm relationship with Tehran, has also incensed Iran’s political elites, who have decried the U.S. operation as "a clear example of state terrorism." But as tensions with the U.S. escalate once again, Iran appears far from having the unity projected last year.

NewsMax [1/4/2026 3:27 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support on Sunday for anti-regime protests in Iran, telling his Cabinet that Jerusalem stands with Iranians seeking freedom amid the country’s widening unrest and that this may be a pivotal moment in their fight for change. "The government of Israel, the State of Israel, and my policy: We identify with the struggle of the Iranian people, with their aspirations for freedom, liberty and justice," the premier said. "It is very possible that we are standing at the moment when the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands.” Netanyahu recalled how his discussions with President Donald Trump during his recent visit to Florida took place at the "beginning of the developing, dramatic events" in Iran, briefly referencing Trump’s social media post on Jan. 2 in which he vowed that Washington would intervene if the Iranian regime violently suppresses the protests. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that if "Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters," Washington will "come to their rescue," adding that the U.S. is "locked and loaded and ready to go.” Netanyahu also addressed the coordination between Washington and Jerusalem over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in the context of his talks with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 29. "We reiterated our joint position of zero enrichment on one hand, and the need to remove the 400 kilograms of enriched material from Iran and oversee the sites with tight and genuine supervision," the prime minister stated. At least 16 people have been killed in a week of nationwide protests, rights groups said on Sunday.

NewsMax [1/4/2026 10:34 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump reiterated his warnings against the Iranian regime Sunday night, saying Iran would get "hit very hard" by the United States if more protesters are killed by Iran during demonstrations that have entered a second week. "We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from Mar-a-Lago. ​The new threat from Trump came just a few days after he wrote on his Truth Social platform that if Iran "violently kills peaceful protesters," the U.S. "will come to their rescue," adding that "we are locked and loaded and ready to go.” The threat on Truth Social came before the operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

Reuters [1/5/2026 3:47 AM, Manoj Kumar and Shivangi Acharya, 36480K] reports the United States could raise tariffs on India if New Delhi does not meet Washington’s demand to curb purchases of Russian oil, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, escalating pressure on the South Asian country as trade talks remain inconclusive. "(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi is a good guy. He knew I was not happy, and it was important to make me happy," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly," Trump said in response to a question on India’s Russian oil purchases. India’s commerce ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s comments follow months of trade negotiations after the U.S. doubled import tariffs on Indian goods to 50% last year as punishment for its heavy buying of Russian oil. Indian markets reacted on Monday, with the information technology stock index (.NIFTYIT) falling about 2.5% to its lowest in more than a month, as investors worried that strained trade relations could further delay a U.S.-India trade deal. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally travelling with him, said U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies and higher tariffs on India had helped curb Indian oil imports. Graham is backing legislation to impose tariffs of up to 500% on countries such as India that continue to buy Russian oil. "If you are buying cheap Russian oil, (you) keep Putin’s war machine going," he said, adding that "we are trying to give the President ability to make that a hard choice by tariffs." Trump’s actions were the main reasons India was now buying "substantially less Russian oil," Graham said. Trade experts warn, however, that New Delhi’s cautious approach risks weakening its position. Ajay Srivastava, founder of trade think tank Global Trade Research Initiative, said Indian exports already face a 50% U.S. tariff, with 25% linked to purchases of Russian crude. While Indian refiners have cut imports after sanctions, he said, buying has not stopped entirely, leaving India in a "strategic grey zone." "Ambiguity no longer works," Srivastava said, urging India to clearly state its stance on Russian oil. He warned that even a complete halt may not end U.S. pressure, which could shift to other trade demands, and that higher tariffs risk deeper export losses. Separately, India struck a cautious diplomatic stance after the United States captured Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, urging dialogue without explicitly naming Washington. Despite steep tariffs, India’s exports to the U.S. leapt in November, though shipments fell more than 20% between May and November 2025. As New Delhi seeks to clinch a trade deal with Washington, the government has asked refiners for weekly disclosures of Russian and U.S. oil purchases to address U.S. concerns. Modi has spoken to Trump at least three times since the tariffs were imposed. India’s commerce secretary met U.S. trade officials last month, but talks remain unresolved.

AP [1/4/2026 11:49 AM, Staff, 852K] reports two people were killed in Ukrainian drone strikes in Russian border regions, local officials said Sunday, ahead of peace talks to end the nearly 4-year-old war in Paris this week. Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said one person died and two others, including a young child, were wounded when a Ukrainian drone struck a car. Another person was killed in a drone strike on a village in the Kursk region, regional Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said Sunday. In Ukraine, three people were wounded in the Kharkiv region in drone strikes overnight into Sunday, the country’s State Emergency Service said. Meanwhile, the death toll from a Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv on Friday increased to five when body parts were found under the rubble of a building, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said Sunday. The latest attacks came after national security advisers from Europe and other allies visited Kyiv on Saturday to discuss security guarantees and economic support, as a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the war in Ukraine intensifies. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, preparing to travel to Paris for a meeting with partners, said Saturday that work on the peace proposals could now accelerate as Ukraine has shared all documents under discussion with the 18 national security advisers, including those on security guarantees.

Reuters [1/4/2026 8:41 PM, Gram Slattery and Lawrence Delevingne, 36480K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said he did not believe that an alleged Ukrainian strike on President Vladimir Putin’s residence took place as claimed by Russia. "I don’t believe that strike happened," Trump told reporters on Sunday aboard Air Force One en route back to Washington, D.C., from Florida. "There is something that happened fairly nearby, but had nothing to do with this." Moscow accused Kyiv on Monday of trying to strike a residence of Putin in Russia’s northern Novgorod region with 91 long-range attack drones, and said Russia would review its negotiating position in ongoing talks with the U.S. on ending the Ukraine war. Ukraine and Western countries have disputed Russia’s account of the alleged attempted strike.

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