Business Sentiment
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Mixed 46-54
Positive > 56
Lawmakers urge an emergency War Powers vote as Trump threatens more illegal attacks and US control of Venezuela.
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Members of the U.S. Congress on Saturday demanded emergency legislative action to prevent the Trump administration from taking further military action in Venezuela after the president threatened a “second wave” of attacks and said the U.S. will control the South American country's government indefinitely.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), said that “Congress should vote immediately on a War Powers Resolution to stop” President Donald Trump, whose administration has for months unlawfully bombed boats in international waters and threatened a direct military assault on Venezuela without lawmakers' approval.
“Trump has no right to take us to war with Venezuela. This is reckless and illegal,” said Casar. “My entire life, politicians have been sending other people's kids to die in reckless regime change wars. Enough. No new wars.”
Another prominent CPC member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), said in response to the bombing of Venezuela and capture of its president that “these are the actions of a rogue state.”
“Trump's illegal and unprovoked bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president are grave violations of international law and the U.S. Constitution,” Tlaib wrote on social media. “The American people do not want another regime change war abroad.”
Progressives weren't alone in criticizing the administration's unauthorized military action in Venezuela. Establishment Democrats, including Sen. Adam Schiff of California and others, also called for urgent congressional action in the face of Trump's latest unlawful bombing campaign.
“Without congressional approval or the buy-in of the public, Trump risks plunging a hemisphere into chaos and has broken his promise to end wars instead of starting them,” Schiff said in a statement. “Congress must bring up a new War Powers Resolution and reassert its power to authorize force or to refuse to do so. We must speak for the American people who profoundly reject being dragged into new wars.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he will force a Senate vote next week on a bipartisan War Powers Resolution to block additional U.S. military action in Venezuela.
“Where will this go next?” Kaine asked in a statement. “Will the president deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza? To battle terrorists in Nigeria? To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies? Trump has threatened to do all this and more and sees no need to seek legal authorization from people's elected legislature before putting servicemembers at risk.”
“It is long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy, and trade,” Kaine added. “My bipartisan resolution stipulating that we should not be at war with Venezuela absent a clear congressional authorization will come up for a vote next week.”
The lawmakers' push for legislative action came as Trump clearly indicated that his administration isn't done intervening in Venezuela's internal politics — and plans to exploit the country's vast oil reserves.
During a press conference on Saturday, Trump said that the U.S. “is going to run” Venezuela, signaling the possibility of a troop deployment.
“We're not afraid of boots on the ground,” the president said in response to a reporter's question, adding vaguely that his administration is “designating various people” to run the government.
Whether the GOP-controlled Congress acts to constrain the Trump administration will depend on support from Republicans, who have largely applauded the U.S. attack on Venezuela and capture of Maduro. In separate statements, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) described the operation as “decisive” and justified.
Ahead of Saturday's assault, the Republican-controlled Congress rejected War Powers Resolutions aimed at preventing Trump from launching a war on Venezuela without lawmakers' approval.
One Republican lawmaker who had raised constitutional concerns about Saturday's actions, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, appeared to drop them after a phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
But Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) noted in a statement that both Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “looked every senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change.”
“I didn't trust them then, and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” said Kim. “Trump rejected our constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”
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The GOP-led North Carolina legislature has siphoned off some of the powers that traditionally belonged to the governor.
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North Carolina voters have chosen Democrats in three straight elections for governor; the state's Republican-led legislature has countered by siphoning off some of the powers that traditionally came with the job.
These power grabs have had a profound effect on both democracy in the state and on the everyday lives of North Carolina residents, Democrats argue.
The changes are “weakening environmental protections, raising energy costs, and politicizing election administration,” Josh Stein, North Carolina's governor, said in a text message responding to questions from ProPublica.
Republican leaders in the General Assembly did not respond to requests for comment or emailed questions about the power shifts. In the past, they have defended these actions as reflecting the will of voters, with the senate president describing one key bill as balancing “appointment power between the legislative and executive branches.”
Former state Sen. Bob Rucho, a Republican picked to sit on the state elections board after lawmakers shifted control from Stein to the Republican state auditor, said the changes would fix problems created by Democrats.
“Republicans are very proud of what's been accomplished,” Rucho said. Shifting authority over the elections board, he argued, would “reestablish a level of confidence in the electoral process” that Democrats had lost.
ProPublica recently chronicled the nearly 10-year push to take over the board, which sets rules and settles disputes in elections in the closely divided swing state. Decisions made by the board's new leadership — particularly on the locations and numbers of early voting sites — could affect outcomes in the 2026 midterms.
Below, we examine how other power transfers driven by North Carolina's Republican legislature are reshaping everything from the regulations that protect residents' drinking water to the rates they pay for electricity to the culture of their state university system.
What it is: The Environmental Management Commission adopts rules that protect the state's air and water, such as those that regulate industries discharging potentially carcinogenic chemicals in rivers.
Power transfer: In October 2023, Republican legislators passed a law shifting the power to appoint the majority of the commission's members from the governor to themselves and the state's commissioner of agriculture, who is a Republican.
What's happened since: The new Republican-led commission has stymied several efforts by the state's Department of Environmental Quality to regulate a potentially harmful chemical, 1,4-dioxane, in drinking water.
Advocates for businesses, including the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, had criticized some regulations and urged the commission to intervene. “Clean water is worth the cost, but regulators should not arbitrarily establish a level that is low for the sake of being low,” the chamber said in a press release.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which has pressed the state to regulate the chemical, has said the commission's rulings are “crippling the state's ability to protect its waterways, drinking water sources, and communities from harmful pollution.”
What it is: The North Carolina Utilities Commission regulates the rates and services of the state's public utilities, which include providers of electricity, natural gas, water and telephone service. The commission also oversees movers, brokers, ferryboats and wastewater.
Power transfer: In June 2025, a trial court sided with the General Assembly in allowing a law passed in 2024 to take effect, removing the governor's power to appoint a majority of the commission's members and transferring that power to legislative leaders and the state treasurer, who is a Republican.
What's happened since: The state's primary utility, Duke Energy, has backed off from some plans to rely more on clean energy and retire coal-fired power plants. In November, the company said it would seek the commission's approval to raise rates by 15%.
In response to a new resource plan the company filed in October, the executive director of NC WARN, a climate and environmental justice nonprofit, said in a statement that Duke's actions would cause “power bills to double or triple over time” and increase carbon emissions. The state's governor and attorney general, both Democrats, have said they oppose the rate hike.
Garrett Poorman, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, said that the company is “focused on keeping costs as low as possible while meeting growing energy needs across our footprint” and that the company had recently lowered its forecasted costs.
The commission will decide whether to approve the proposed rate hikes in 2026.
What it is: The University of North Carolina System encompasses 17 institutions and more than 250,000 students, including at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, considered one of best in the nation.
Power transfer: Though the legislature has traditionally appointed the majority of the trustees for individual schools, the governor also made a share of these appointments.
In 2016, the legislature passed a law that eliminated the governor's ability to make university trustee appointments.
In 2023, changes inserted into the state budget bill gave the legislature power to appoint all of the members of the state board that oversees community colleges and most of those colleges' trustees. The governor had previously chosen some board members and trustees.
What's happened since: The system has created a center for conservative thought, repealed racial equity initiatives, suspended a left-leaning professor, gutted a civil rights center led by a professor long critical of Republican lawmakers and appointed politically connected Republicans to the boards.
Republicans say the moves are reversing the system's long-term leftward drift.
“Ultimately, the board stays in for a while, and you change administrators, and then start to moderate the culture of the UNC schools,” said David Lewis, a former Republican House member who helped drive the changes to the university system.
Democrats, including former Gov. Roy Cooper, have criticized the board changes as partisan meddling.
“These actions will ultimately hurt our state's economy and reputation,” Cooper said in a 2023 press release.
Mollie Simon contributed research.
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Doug Bock Clark is a reporter in ProPublica's South unit. He investigates threats to democracy and abuses of power throughout the region.
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More than 64,000 children in Gaza have reportedly been killed or maimed since 2023. Many who survived are now orphans.
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Israel's genocidal war has destroyed families and livelihoods across Gaza, leaving more than 39,000 children orphaned, while the widespread destruction has deprived over 80 percent of the workforce of their sources of income. Amid deepening poverty and the absence of alternatives, an increasing number of children have been forced into the streets, resorting to begging as their only means of survival.
Some estimates indicate that hundreds of children in Gaza currently engage in street begging, a direct reflection of economic collapse, the loss of breadwinners, and weak social protection networks, amid the ongoing war and the destruction it has wreaked on families and the economic infrastructure alike.
In Al-Maghazi refugee camp I met 11-year-old Ahmed, who lost his home in northern Gaza after it was completely bombed. The house was part of the land seized by the occupation, preventing his family from erecting their tent in the original location of their home, forcing them to move to the southern part of the territory.
Ahmed has now become the sole provider for his small family after his father was killed in July while going to collect U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. He stood in one of the camp's streets on the day I met him, begging passersby as rain fell and his feet remained bare. When asked why he was on the street, he quietly told me: “I need three shekels to buy a loaf of bread.”
His sad gaze and young age reflect a harsh reality in which children are forced to beg to meet their families' basic needs after losing their breadwinner and witnessing most of their families' sources of income destroyed by the war.
During our conversation, Ahmed showed visible frustration when asked why he was on the street. He said, in a childlike tone of anger: “Why do I have to go out asking for shekels when I'm supposed to be studying and playing like other kids?” This candid response reflects his sense of frustration and anger at the situation imposed on his small life — a feeling shared by many children in the camps who have had to shoulder responsibilities for which they are far too young.
At the bus stop, my attention was drawn to 8-year-old Noor, whose sadness was immediately apparent. She lost her parents in an Israeli airstrike that destroyed their home, and after their death and the loss of her siblings, Noor now lives with her uncle under extremely difficult circumstances.
Amid deepening poverty and the absence of alternatives, an increasing number of children have been forced into the streets, resorting to begging as their only means of survival.
Her clothes were tattered, and she wasn't wearing a jacket despite the rainy weather. Noor explains that any funds she receives are saved to invest in small projects, such as selling water bottles to passersby, to help her uncle and provide for the family — a clear example of child labor prompted by war and poverty.
Noor's uncle, a married man with a family of seven, lost his source of income during the war and now lives with his entire family in a small tent within the camp. Despite his own family's hardships, he took on the responsibility of caring for 8-year-old Noor after her parents and siblings were killed in the bombing.
He described daily life for the family: “We live on aid, but it's never enough to cover our basic needs. My seven children need food and clothing, and Noor needs care, and I can't provide everything.”
He added about Noor's role: “Any money she earns from begging or selling small items is saved to help the family. Sometimes she sells water bottles or anything small she can manage. This is the only way we can survive.”
He continued: “Noor is very young, yet she has become the family's small provider. Every day brings new challenges — rain, a cramped tent, limited hope — but she tries to contribute in any way she can.”
This testimony illustrates the daily suffering of children who have lost their caregivers and the role of relatives who attempt to fill the gap, despite their own difficult circumstances. It also highlights how children like Noor are forced to take on responsibilities far beyond their age due the destruction of Gaza's economy and the mass murder of their guardians.
“Many of these children don't know what it means to play or study. Their lives are focused solely on survival.”
Children like Ahmed and Noor were supposed to be in school, attending lessons in a safe and stable environment. Before the war, Gaza had approximately 625,000 students with over 22,000 teachers, achieving high rates of 95 percent enrollment in primary education and 90 percent enrollment in secondary education, and a literacy rate of 97 percent, which is among the highest globally.
Amid the genocide, many schools were damaged or used as temporary shelters for displaced families, leading to a halt in regular education. Thousands of children lost access to schooling, directly affecting their academic achievement and daily routines. For Ahmed, being out of school means he is forced to beg to provide for his family, while missing even the most basic lessons, such as learning letters and numbers.
The damage that this unprecedented education loss has caused the children of Gaza is not limited to schooling; it also has long-term implications for their future and their ability to escape poverty.
Amid the narrow tents and muddy streets, the daily reality of children in the camps comes into focus. In every corner, children stand waiting for passersby, wearing tattered clothes and mostly barefoot, trying to obtain a small amount of money for food or other basic needs.
Samia, a resident of the camp who has witnessed the children begging, told me, “Many of these children don't know what it means to play or study. Their lives are focused solely on survival. Even the simplest things, like buying a loaf of bread or a bottle of water, have become a daily struggle.”
These recurring scenes in the camps reflect the scale of the crisis facing children in Gaza, where so many have lost their families, their homes, and their basic means of survival. For some, the streets have become a temporary solution to meet daily needs, robbing them of their childhoods.
The impact of begging is not limited to the loss of childhood; it also exposes children to exploitation, harsh labor, illiteracy, and psychological trauma that can have long-lasting effects. As the number of children forced into street begging increases, their opportunities for a normal and secure life diminish. Homes and infrastructure can be rebuilt, but a generation deprived of education and hope for the future cannot be restored as easily.
The international community has been aware of what has been happening in Gaza over the past two years, but has consistently failed to act to protect Palestinians. Human rights organizations stress the urgent need to intervene and ensure children's rights in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right to food and water, health care, education, a safe environment, and protection from violence and abuse. Immediate action is required to reduce the daily risks faced by Gaza's children. Global inaction allows their suffering to continue.
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Eman Abu Zayed is a writer and journalist from Gaza who believes in the power of words to change reality.
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An analyst says Venezuelans inside the country and across the diaspora are divided. While many oppose Maduro's rule, lingering distrust of U.S. intervention and fears of instability generate a mixed response.
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Live Updates
• Venezuela attack: President Donald Trump said the US will indefinitely “run the country” of Venezuela after capturing President Nicolás Maduro in a large-scale military operation today. Trump claimed the US would do so until a “proper and judicious transition” occurs, but he did not provide further details. The US embargo on Venezuelan oil will remain in place, Trump said.
• Maduro will face charges: Trump posted a photo of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima after his capture. The Venezuelan authoritarian leader is expected to arrive today in New York, where he will face drugs and weapons charges.
• About the operation: Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were dragged from their bedroom by elite US forces during the raid, sources told CNN. Trump said no US service members were killed, though some were injured when a helicopter was hit during the attack.
• What happens next: Venezuela's opposition leader María Corina Machado has called for the country's opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia to be installed, while Venezuela's foreign minister insists Maduro remains the country's leader.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was given “multiple very, very, very generous offers” to leave power, but “chose instead to act like a wild man” and “play around.”
Speaking to the press Saturday after a US military operation that apprehended Maduro, Rubio said the Venezuelan leader had “multiple opportunities to find his way somewhere else.”
“Instead, he wanted to play big boy,” Rubio said.
President Donald Trump told Fox News Saturday that Maduro “wanted to negotiate at the end” and was “trying hard to make a deal.”
“I didn't want to negotiate. I said, ‘Nope, we got to do it,'” Trump said.
Rubio reiterated Saturday that Maduro was “a fugitive of American justice” and an illegitimate leader with a $50 million bounty.
“I guess we saved $50 million,” he quipped, turning to Trump, who responded, “we should make sure.”
“Don't let anybody claim it, nobody deserves it but us,” Trump added.
US President Donald Trump said he did not talk about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a recent phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“We never spoke about Maduro,” Trump told reporters at a news conference today.
Trump added that he is “not thrilled with Putin” at the moment, saying, “He's killing too many people.”
Remember: Russia has remained a key ally of the Maduro regime in the face of Trump's campaign against the Venezuelan government.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued the US military mission that saw strikes in Venezuela and the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro was “not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on.”
“It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for number of days. So it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, ‘Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days,'” Rubio told reporters in Florida on Saturday.
“It's just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission,” he said. He also said it was “largely a law enforcement function.”
President Donald Trump added that “Congress has a tendency to leak.”
CNN reported, according to numerous sources, that the administration notified congressional leadership and key committees about the operation after the fact.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in a previous interview that US strikes inside Venezuela would require congressional approval.
During the operation in Venezuela early Saturday morning, “a handful of troops sustained bullet and shrapnel wounds, but none are life-threatening,” a source briefed on the matter told CNN.
President Donald Trump told Fox News on Saturday that “a couple of guys were hit. But they came back and they're supposed to be in pretty good shape.”
President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States military could have killed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro during its overnight operation if necessary.
“It could have happened,” Trump told reporters at a news conference at his Florida estate. “He was trying to get into a safe place. You know, the safe place's all steel, and he wasn't able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast.”
Trump reiterated how the US military “went through the opposition so fast,” while also noting that “there was a lot of opposition.”
“People were wondering, do we get them by surprise? Sort of surprised, but they were waiting for something. It was a lot of opposition. There was a lot of gunfire,” he said.
Maduro is aboard the USS Iwo Jima ship, and Trump posted an image of him in US custody shortly before the news conference began.
President Donald Trump offered some more details on who is in charge in Venezuela after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, saying that top US officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would work with a “team” to help run the country.
“It's largely going to be, for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it. We're going to be bringing it back,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago club.
The president was standing in front of Rubio, Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
He later clarified that Rubio and Hegseth would be a “team that's working with the people of Venezuela to make sure that we have Venezuela right,” raising the possibility of a power vacuum in the US' absence.
Trump did not rule out the possibility of US military involvement, saying, “We're not afraid of boots in the ground.”
He also said there are plans to “rebuild the oil infrastructure,” which he said would be “paid for by the oil companies directly.” Venezuela has massive reserves of crude oil.
Trump did not provide a specific timeline but suggested the US would remain on site until the country is “put back on track.”
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine on Saturday described the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as an extensive meticulously planned operation that took months to prepare for and hours to carry out on the ground.
Speaking at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Caine described the mission as a collaboration involving all branches of the military and intelligence agencies that requires months of preparation.
That included tracking Maduro to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore,” Caine said.
CNN previously reported that the CIA had installed a small team inside Venezeula over the summer to keep close watch on Maduro's activities.
Late on Friday night, Caine added, more than 150 aircraft launched from 20 different bases on land and sea across the Western Hemisphere. Among them were helicopters carrying an extraction force that began their flight into Venezuela at just 100 feet above the water.
The helicopters, safeguarded by a series of strikes carried out in the area, arrived at Maduro's compound around 1 a.m. ET. The effort to capture Maduro and his wife required multiple “self defense engagements” as the forces came under fire, Caine said, before flying out of Venezuela around 3:29 ET.
Maduro and his wife were subsequently transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, where they're now on their way to New York to stand trial.
“Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission, and failure is never an option for America's joint force,” Caine said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said Saturday that one US aircraft was struck during the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela but remained operational throughout the mission.
“One of our aircraft was hit, but remained flyable, and as the president said earlier today, all of our aircraft came home, and that aircraft remained flyable during the rest of the mission, as the operation unfolded at the compound,” Caine said, speaking at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago alongside President Donald Trump.
Caine also highlighted the role of intelligence teams in supporting the mission in real time.
“Our air and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force, ensuring those forces could safely navigate the complex environment without unnecessary risk.”
He added that US forces encountered resistance as they exited the country.
“There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela,” Caine said.
US forces will remain in the region following large-scale strikes on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro overnight, said Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“As we stand here this morning, our forces remain in the region at a high state of readiness, prepared to project power, defend themselves and our interests in the region,” he said at a news conference at President Donald Trump's Florida estate.
Caine called the US operation a “testament to the dedication and unwavering commitment to justice and our resolve to hold accountable those who threaten peace and stability,” thanking those who carried out the mission.
President Donald Trump said his administration has “superseded” the principles laid out in the Monroe Doctrine, which he said is sometimes referred to as the “Donroe Document.”
“For decades, other administrations have neglected or even contributed to these growing security threats in the Western Hemisphere. Under the Trump administration, we are reasserting American power in a very powerful way in our home region,” Trump said.
Trump also offered justification for the United States intervening, stating that Venezuela was “increasingly hosting foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten US interests and lives.” He added that Venezuela used those weapons last night.
“All of these actions were in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries,” Trump said. “Not anymore.”
Demonstrations are planned in cities across the US today against military action in Venezuela, after the US conducted a large-scale strike on the city of Caracas and captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“We need to take to the streets and say no to another endless war! The people of this country do not want another war! A U.S. war would cause death and destruction for the people of Venezuela,” the Answer Coalition, one group organizing the protests, wrote in a news release.
Demonstrations are planned for Chicago, New York's Times Square, outside the White House in Washington, DC, along with city halls and statehouses across the country this afternoon.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is expected to arrive in New York today and is likely to be taken to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a source tells CNN.
The earliest he would be presented in court at the Southern District of New York in Manhattan is Monday, the source said.
Maduro was indicted in SDNY in 2020, and a superseding indictment there was unveiled Saturday.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the US embargo on Venezuelan oil remains in place following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, while delivering a sharp warning to other political and military figures tied to the regime.
Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that the United States is maintaining economic and military pressure on Venezuela as it assesses next steps.
“Very importantly, the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect. The American armada remains poised in position, and the United States retains all military options until United States' demands have been fully met and fully satisfied,” the president said.
Trump also issued a direct warning to leaders associated with Maduro.
“All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them, and it will happen to them if they aren't just fair, even to their people,” he said.
Trump said Maduro's removal marked a turning point for the country.
“The dictator and terrorist, Maduro, is finally gone in Venezuela. People are free. They're free again. It's been a long time for them, but they're free,” he said.
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who is aboard the USS Iwo Jima headed to New York, is expected to briefly stop at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, before being transferred to New York, two sources familiar with the plans tell CNN.
Part of the consideration is that this allows the transfer to made more quickly, according to a source. By putting him on plane there, officials can take him directly to New York instead of having to first present him at another court.
The base, sometimes referred to as “Gitmo,” is located in southeastern Cuba, on the coast of Guantánamo Bay.
The overnight mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said on Saturday.
“The operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreet, precise and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2, and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal — an operation that frankly only the United States military could undertake,” he said.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States was prepared to mount a second attack on Venezuela if need be — though he suggested it was no longer necessary after military personnel were able to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid.
“We were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to do so — we actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it's probably not,” Trump said in remarks from Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday as he recounted the operation.
“The first wave, if you'd like to call it that, the first attack was so successful, we probably don't have to do a second, but we're prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave, actually,” he continued.
The president reiterated comments that the operation conducted in the early hours of Saturday morning, which saw elite US forces drag Maduro and his wife from their bedroom, was as “pinpoint” operation.
And he added that subsequent military operations in Venezuela were in the planning phase but that the administration “probably won't have to do” them.
President Donald Trump on Saturday praised the US operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, calling it a success and emphasizing that no American service members were killed and no US military equipment was lost.
Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago club in South Florida, Trump described the operation as highly effective and said it involved extensive US military assets.
“If you would have seen what I saw last night, you would have been very impressed. I'm not sure that you'll ever get to see it, but it was an incredible thing to see not a single American service member was killed and not a single piece of American equipment was lost,” he said.
“We had many helicopters, many planes, many, many people involved in that fight,” the president added.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the lights in Caracas were shut off as the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was captured overnight, praising those involved for executing the mission.
“No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday, or frankly, in just a short period of time, all Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military, working with us, law enforcement, successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said in a news conference moments ago.
“It was dark and it was deadly,” Trump added.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that the US is “going to run” Venezuela indefinitely in the aftermath of the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said during a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “We don't want to be involved with having someone else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country.”
Trump added that he determined the US should take charge of Venezuela to ensure that the eventual next leader has the “good of the Venezuelan people in mind. But he offered no timeline for how long such a transition of power was expected to take.
“We're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place,” he said.
Trump also said he planned to authorize US oil companies to take over Venezuela's energy infrastructure, asserting that the corporations would “spend billions of dollars” on the project.
“We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.
An elite unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigations assisted with capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, sources familiar with the operation told CNN.
The agency's Hostage Rescue Team embedded with the United States military as part of the special operation, a source told CNN.
The Hostage Rescue Team, often referred to as HRT, is a specialized unit that deploys in a range of situations, including “high-risk arrests, undercover operations, and surveillance operations,” according to the FBI.
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Legal experts called for Trump's impeachment as world leaders condemned the action as a violation of international law.
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This article has been updated to include new statements from Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump announced early January 3 that the U.S. has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro after a series of late night airstrikes on Caracas, Venezuela's capital, carried out by the U.S. military.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump boasted that the U.S. has “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” and said that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been “captured and flown out of the country.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Maduro has been charged with “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy,” among other charges, in the Southern District of New York. She posted a copy of the indictment on social media.
On Saturday morning, in his first speech after the invasion, Trump said, “We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” He offered few details and no timeline regarding the American occupation of the country, but later said he was “not afraid of boots on the ground.” When asked by reporters about the potential cost of occupying Venezuela for an undefined period of time, Trump said, “It won't cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial.”
Throughout his comments, Trump repeatedly referenced Venezuela's vast oil reserves and said that U.S. oil interests would be heavily involved in the country's future. “We're going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
Trump's comments were a sharp turn from the administration's reasoning for its months-long boat strike campaign that has killed over 100 civilians. Comparatively, he also spoke very little about the indictment, despite administration officials touting its charges against Maduro as the reasoning for Saturday morning's operation.
The reported kidnapping comes after the U.S. carried out late night airstrikes across Caracas, striking fear among the residents of the densely populated city. Reports say the strikes lasted about 30 minutes, and it's unclear whether there were casualties.
In a speech aired on state television, Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said the government has demanded proof of life from the U.S. Venezuelan officials have said that they aren't aware of Maduro's whereabouts.
The Associated Press reports that, according to Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández, Maduro and his wife were captured from their home in the Fuerte Tiuna military installation, which was bombed in the wave of airstrikes.
“There, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country,” said Fernández.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in a post on X that Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims the strikes were carried out to “protect” those carrying out the arrest, reported to be U.S. special operations forces. Lee said that the military 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” — a framing that experts and lawmakers have said is a farce, as there is no evidence of an “imminent” threat from Venezuela.
Lee added that Rubio told him he anticipates no further actions against Venezuela with Maduro in U.S. custody.
In an interview on Fox News on Saturday morning, however, Trump suggested that the U.S. may carry out more strikes if Venezuelan officials continue to side with Maduro. “If they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them,” he said.
The U.S. has a long history of capturing world leaders in relation to drug charges, but not quite in this manner. Just last month, Trump condemned President Joe Biden's arrest of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who was out of office when he was extradited to the U.S., on drug charges in 2022, saying: “If somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn't mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life.” The statement came as Trump pardoned Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Commentators noted that the capture most echoes the U.S. invasion of Panama, which began in December of 1989. Under President George H.W. Bush, U.S. forces captured the country's leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, exactly 36 years ago on January 3. Noriega had been indicted for drug charges by a grand jury in the U.S. in 1988.
World leaders, legal experts, and U.S. lawmakers have widely condemned the strikes and reported kidnapping as a violation of international law, coming as an escalation after a series of boat strikes and oil tanker seizures that experts have already long deemed illegal.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo condemned the action in a statement and suggested that the U.S. has violated its obligations under the UN Charter to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.”
Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said that the U.S.'s actions crossed a line. “Attacking countries, in flagrant violation of international law, is the first step toward a world of violence, chaos, and instability, where the law of the strongest prevails over multilateralism,” he said.
Other countries, including Cuba, Iran, and Russia have similarly condemned the strikes and reported kidnapping.
By contrast, the response out of Europe has been relatively muted. Kaja Kallas, the EU's top foreign affairs official, said that the EU is “closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela” but emphasized that the “EU has repeatedly stated that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy.” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a similar statement, and urged restraint in accordance with international law. “We stand by the people of Venezuela and support a peaceful and democratic transition,” she wrote.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer merely said that the U.K. was not involved in the action and declined to condemn the strikes when asked by reporters on Saturday.
While some Republican lawmakers celebrated the action, other members of Congress decried the bombardment and reported kidnapping.
“Secretaries Rubio and [Pete] Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” said Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) in a post on social media.
Kim warned of potential blowback. “This strike doesn't represent strength. It's not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the U.S. government,” he said.
CNN reports that the Senate Armed Services Committee wasn't notified of the strikes or Maduro's reported kidnapping ahead of time. Some lawmakers have tried, in recent months, to assert Congress's war power authority to prevent further military actions against Venezuela, but these attempts have failed in the Republican-controlled chambers. The campaign has otherwise been marked by an unusual level of secrecy from the administration, members of Congress have said.
Legal experts have condemned the strikes as illegal under domestic and international law.
“I condemn the U.S.'s illegal aggression against Venezuela & the illegal abduction of its leader & his wife,” said Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism. “Every Venezuelan life lost is a violation of the right to life. President Trump should be impeached & investigated for the alleged killings.”
“Donald Trump has launched an illegal and reckless regime change operation in Venezuela,” said Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, in a statement. He called on Congress to take action against further strikes and hostilities.
“Trump was elected on a promise to end wars, not start them,” Duss went on. “His illegal aggression against Venezuela once again breaks that promise, and threatens to repeat some of the worst moral and strategic failures of past U.S. military adventurism, for which the American people and communities around the world have paid enormous costs.”
The morning of the raid, the White House announced Trump would hold an address at 11 a.m. at Mar-a-Lago. However, he was more than half an hour to make his first public address, instead posting a video of footage that appeared to be from the military strikes set to Creedence Clearwater Revival's “Fortunate Son,” as well as a supposed picture of Maduro onboard the USS Iwo Jima, on Truth Social.
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Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific Standard, The New Republic, and more. She has a master's degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky.
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US president made comments after US military special forces captured Venezuelan president and wife
Donald Trump has said the US will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela's oil industry after launching a military attack that swept the country's authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power.
The president gave a phone interview to the conservative Fox News channel hours after a dramatic pre-dawn assault on Caracas and the surrounding region ended in the capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Asked about the future of Venezuela's oil industry, Trump replied: “We're gonna be very strongly involved in it. That's all. What can I say? We have the greatest oil companies in the world – the biggest, the greatest, and we're going to be very much involved in it.”
Maduro, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chávez to succeed him in 2013, has accused the US of seeking to take control of his nation's oil reserves, the biggest in the world.
At around 2am on Saturday, explosions rocked Caracas with blasts, aircraft and black smoke seen for about 90 minutes. The Venezuelan government said the attacks also took place in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
Trump took a victory lap in his Fox News interview, remarking: “I've never seen anything like this. I was able to watch it in real time and I watched every aspect of it.”
Describing the moment that Maduro was captured, the president said: “He was in a house that was more like a fortress than a house. It had steel doors, it had what they call a safety space where it's solid steel … He was trying to get into it, but he got bumrushed so fast that he didn't.”
The raid had been planned for several days earlier but repeatedly delayed because of weather, Trump said. Some US forces were injured but he believes “we had nobody killed”.
“We were prepared to do a second wave. We were all set – and this was so lethal, this was so powerful, that we didn't have to … We were out there with an armada like nobody's ever seen before.”
Trump said Maduro and his wife had been whisked by helicopters to the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship in the Caribbean, ahead of their transfer to New York. “They're on a ship, and they'll be heading into New York … They went by helicopter on a nice flight. I'm sure they loved it.”
In the run-up to the attack, Trump had sought a blockade of Venezuelan oil and expanded sanctions against the Maduro government, and staged more than two dozen strikes on vessels the US alleges were involved in trafficking drugs, killing more than 110 people.
Describing his discussions with Maduro in recent weeks, Trump recalled: “I said, ‘You have to give up. You have to surrender' – and he was close, but in the end, we had to do something that was really much more surgical, much more powerful … This was a very important symbol.”
It was unclear if the US would now stand back while other senior figures in Venezuela's ruling party – such as the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez – fill the void or if there would be pressure for their removal as well.
Asked what is next for the Venezuelan people, Trump replied: “We're making that decision now. We can't take a chance on letting somebody else run it and just take over where he left off … We'll be involved in it very much. And we want to do liberty for the people.”
Maduro was indicted in US federal court in 2020 on narco-terrorism and other charges for running what prosecutors called a scheme to send tonnes of cocaine to the US through an alleged Cartel de los Soles. He has always denied the allegations.
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, wrote on X about Maduro and his wife. “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
The US has not made such a direct intervention in its back-yard region since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago to depose the military leader Manuel Noriega over similar allegations.
Venezuela's ruling “Chavismo” movement, named for Maduro's revered predecessor Hugo Chávez, said civilians and military personnel died in Saturday's strikes but did not give figures.
The opposition, headed by recent Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado, had no immediate comment but has said for 18 months that it won the 2024 election and has a democratic right to take power.
Venezuelan allies Russia, Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the strikes as a violation of sovereignty. Iran urged the UN security council to stop the “unlawful aggression”. Argentina's president, Javier Milei, lauded Venezuela's new “freedom”, while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said it crossed “an unacceptable line”.
Maduro was captured by a team that included elite US special forces, including the US army's Delta Force, a US official told the Reuters news agency.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, posted on the X social media platform: “The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says. Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.”
Republican Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said: “Today's military action in Venezuela was a decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives.”
But Democrats roundly condemned the intervention for illegally bypassing Congress. Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate select committee on ontelligence, said: “If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan's leadership?
“What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine's president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.”
Republicans cheer capture of Venezuelan leader, but Democrats say it ‘risks pulling our nation into another war'
Reaction to the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, by US forces on Saturday has been starkly polarized along political lines, with administration officials and Republicans celebrating the enforcement of a 2020 US narco-trafficking indictment against Maduro and Democrats decrying what they see as a violation of Venezuela's right to self-determination.
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been indicted in the southern district of New York on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a statement: “Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government. Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization that has taken control of the country. And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States.”
Many specialists are skeptical of the narco-terror description when it comes to Cartel de los Soles. Venezuela has a distinctly different landscape from Mexico when it comes to cartels.
But JD Vance, the US vice-president, said in a statement: “The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says. Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation.”
Reaction from Democrats criticized the administration for transforming what had been an anti-narcotics trafficking operation in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which included strikes against alleged drug boats, into a regime-change action.
US senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who serves as vice-chair of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said the US constitution “places the gravest decisions about the use of military force in the hands of Congress for a reason. Using military force to enact regime change demands the closest scrutiny, precisely because the consequences do not end with the initial strike.”
He added: “If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan's leadership? What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine's president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.”
The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, forcefully pushed back against the actions.
Hochul wrote on X that the strikes were “a flagrant abuse of power by acting without congressional approval”.
“New York is home to a vibrant Venezuelan community, and I stand with families here and abroad in their hopes for a better, more stable future,” Hochul added.
Ocasio-Cortez suggested that illegal drug trafficking was not the real motive for the attack. “It's not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn't have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month,” she wrote on X. “It's about oil and regime change.
“And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn't. Especially to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing healthcare costs,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Congressman Gregory Meeks, a Democratic member of the House foreign affairs committee, said that Maduro was “an illegitimate leader” but “using the US military to attempt regime change in a sovereign foreign nation, without approval from Congress, without a defined objective or plan for the day after, and without support from our allies, risks entangling the United States in an open-ended conflict in Venezuela that could destabilize the entire region”.
The New Hampshire senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said Maduro was “a tyrant who repressed Venezuelans and aligned with our adversaries” but “today's drastic military operation by President Trump on Venezuelan soil is entirely inconsistent with what [Trump's] cabinet repeatedly briefed to Congress and goes against the expressed wishes of the American people”.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is retiring from Congress next week, said on X she was “100% for strong safe secure borders and stopping narco terrorists and cartels from trafficking deadly drugs and human trafficking into America” but “if US military action and regime change in Venezuela was really about saving American lives from deadly drugs then why hasn't the Trump admin taken action against Mexican cartels?”
Greene pointed to the Trump-issued pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez as an example of a contradiction of the US president's policies, adding: “Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going.”
New Jersey senator Andy Kim posted on X that Rubio and the US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, “looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress.”
Kim accused Trump of rejecting a “constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war”.
Kim, a former state department employee during the Obama administration, said the overnight attack in Venezuela “doesn't represent strength. It's not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the US government.”
California Democrat Ro Khanna accused Trump of betraying his Maga base by “launching a war of choice to bring regime change in Venezuela. We keep voting against dumb wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, & Libya. But our Presidents bow to a foreign policy blob committed to militarism.”
Khanna said the administration was getting the US “entangled in conflicts abroad, while ignoring the lack of good jobs and high costs for Americans at home. What will we say now if [Chinese president] Xi Jinping wants to capture [President] Lai [Ching-te] of Taiwan or Putin tries to capture Zelensky in Ukraine?”
He called “for a movement of the American people to stand against bloated defense budgets and warmongering. We need statesmen who will heed the advice of Washington and our founders and invest in jobs, healthcare, childcare & education for our people.”
Tiziano Breda, an analyst for Latin America at the global conflict monitor ACLED, said the US strikes targeting military facilities in Caracas, as well as sites in La Guaira, Aragua and Miranda, “stands out as the largest US military operation in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama”:
“The timing is not a coincidence – it appears to be aimed at undercutting the anniversary of Maduro's most recent term in office,” Breda said via email, warning that what happens next hinges on the response of Venezuela's government and armed forces.
“So far, they've avoided direct confrontation with US forces, but deployments on the streets point to efforts to contain unrest. A smooth transition remains unlikely, and the risk of resistance from pro-regime armed groups – including elements within the military and Colombian rebel networks active in the country – remains high.”
MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/. The US military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of its leader Nicolas Maduro has generally caused condemnation from the international community.
In the statements of the leaders and foreign ministries of several countries, Washington's action is characterized as aggression and an attempt to change power in the country, which are fraught with unpredictable consequences for the whole world.
TASS has compiled the key international reactions to the incident.
The situation in Venezuela has shown that "any state needs to strengthen its armed forces as much as possible, not allowing various rich scoundrels to easily change the constitutional system in search of oil or something else," Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, told reporters.
Medvedev referred to "a tough military operation in an independent country that did not threaten the United States in any way" and "the capture of a legally elected president and his wife by special forces."
The act of armed aggression by the United States against Venezuela causes deep concern and condemnation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "The pretexts used to justify such actions are untenable. Ideologized hostility prevailed over business pragmatism, willingness to build relationships of trust and predictability."
The ministry said it was "extremely alarmed by the reports that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were forcibly removed from the country during today's aggressive actions by the United States."
"Such actions, if they actually took place, constitute an unacceptable encroachment on the sovereignty of an independent state, respect for which is a key principle of international law."
The US strikes on Venezuela are "direct military aggression with an attempted coup with external interference," said Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Leader of Just Russia Sergey Mironov also condemned the US strikes on Venezuela and called them "treacherous aggression."
The leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said that the situation "raises serious concern in the region and may have consequences for neighboring countries."
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticized the US strikes, calling the events crossing a "red line" and "an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community."
Chilean President Gabriel Boric said his country condemns the US strikes and called for a "peaceful solution to the serious crisis engulfing the country."
The Mexican government condemned the military actions taken by the United States, saying that this "is a clear violation of Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations."
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel demanded an urgent response from the international community in response to the "criminal attack" by the United States on Venezuela, calling it "state terrorism against the brave Venezuelan people and against our America."
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry condemned the aggression against Venezuela and spoke out in support of the legitimate government of the Latin American country.
Spokesperson of the President of Belarus Natalia Eismont said that the country's leader Alexander Lukashenko categorically condemns the act of American aggression against Venezuela.
Belarusian Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov supported the government of the Latin American country talking to his Venezuelan counterpart Ivan Gill Pinto over the phone.
The South Ossetian Foreign Ministry called the attacks on civilian and military facilities in Venezuela a gross violation of the UN Charter, calling on international organizations to take steps to prevent escalation and resolve the situation diplomatically as soon as possible.
The European Union calls for restraint in the situation around Venezuela and believes that Maduro "did not have sufficient legitimacy," head of the European Diplomacy Kaja Kallas said on X after a conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen joined the support for a "peaceful transfer of power in Venezuela" allegedly on the basis of international norms after Maduro's abduction.
Switzerland called on the US administration "to de-escalate, exercise restraint and comply with international law, including the prohibition on the use of force and the principle of respect for territorial integrity."
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for de-escalation and responsible behavior.
Austrian Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler condemned the US attack on Venezuela, calling it "a serious violation of the prohibition on the use of violence enshrined in the UN Charter.".
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro speaks during a ceremony to swear in new community-based organizations on Dec. 1, 2025.Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
Nicolás Maduro ruled Venezuela with a heavy hand for more than 12 years, presiding over deep economic and social crises and resisting pressure from domestic opponents and foreign governments for political change. His rule abruptly ended on Saturday when President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces had captured him and flown him out of the country.
U.S. strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country
A 63-year-old socialist and the handpicked successor of the late Hugo Chavez, Maduro was long accused by critics both at home and abroad of being a dictator who jailed or persecuted political opponents and repeatedly staged sham elections. Maduro, a salsa aficionado with a flair for theatrics, often called opposition politicians “fascist demons” and took pride in resisting U.S. pressure against him, even having his invocation to Trump of “yes peace, not war” remixed into an electronica song. He was sworn in for a third term in January 2025 following a 2024 election that was widely condemned as fraudulent by international observers and the opposition. Thousands of people who protested against the government's declaration of victory were jailed.
Venezuela's opposition, the United States and many other Western countries also considered Maduro's election win in 2018 to be a sham. His government's repressive measures were highlighted by the awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
After Trump announced last October that he was authorizing CIA operations in the country, Maduro blasted “those demonic powers that aim to sink their claws into Venezuela to steal our oil.” Maduro has long denied U.S. accusations of connections to drug smuggling and corruption.
In August, Washington doubled its reward for Maduro's arrest to $50-million over allegations of drug trafficking and links to criminal groups.
Trump ratcheted up the pressure in recent months with a huge build-up of the U.S. military in the southern Caribbean, more than two dozen strikes on vessels allegedly involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and a ramping up of sanctions.
MADURO DENIED ACCUSATIONS OF RIGHTS ABUSES
A U.N. Fact-Finding Mission found last month that the country's Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) committed serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity over more than a decade in targeting political opponents.
Maduro long denied abusing political and human rights, instead describing his government as being at odds with what he views as a decades-long imperialist campaign to topple Chavez's socialist movement and take Venezuela's oil.
World leaders respond to U.S. strikes on Venezuela
He and his government called sanctions by the U.S. and others illegitimate measures that amounted to an “economic war” designed to cripple the country. His supporters hailed him as a hero who stood up to Washington in the tradition of Cuba's Fidel Castro.
Protesters led months of demonstrations in 2017 against Maduro's government, a period marked by accusations of torture, arbitrary arrests and abuse by security forces. Those protests left 125 people dead. Dozens more died during protests after Maduro's inauguration to his second term in 2019. After the 2024 election, the U.N. found that Maduro's government escalated repressive tactics to crush peaceful protests, with over two dozen dead and 2,400 arrests.
Maduro's rule was marked by an extended economic collapse in the once relatively affluent nation that prompted an exodus of some 7.7 million migrants.
Almost 82% of Venezuelans live in poverty, with 53% in extreme poverty, unable to buy even basic foodstuffs, a U.N. special rapporteur said in 2024 after visiting the country.
BUS DRIVER'S RISE TO POWER
Maduro was born into a working-class family on November 23, 1962, son of a trade union leader. He worked as a bus driver during the time army officer Chavez led a failed coup attempt in 1992.
He agitated for Chavez to be released from prison and backed his fervent leftist agenda in an era when socialism was well out of favor.
After Chavez's 1998 election, Maduro won a seat in the legislature and spent years championing his mentor's self-styled revolution against U.S. intervention in Latin America.
Adversaries took swipes at Maduro's working-class roots and portrayed him as a buffoonish cretin who did little more than slavishly repeat Chavez's bombast.
President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters during a rally marking the anniversary of the Battle of Santa Ines, which took place during Venezuela's 19th-century Federal War, in Caracas, Dec. 10, 2025.Ariana Cubillos/The Associated Press
But the criticism made little dent in his meteoric rise: he became president of the National Assembly and later foreign minister. In that role he crisscrossed the globe to help build alliances with other developing countries through oil-financed assistance programs.
Maduro was narrowly elected president after Chavez died from cancer in 2013. But there was a gaping chasm between his own appeal and the legendary charisma of his predecessor.
His rule was quickly plagued by bread lines and product shortages that smacked of Soviet-era collapse, largely due to his unwillingness to unwind lavish Chavez-era subsidies that were unsustainable after the oil boom came to an end.
As inflation soared in 2013, Maduro sent troops to occupy shops that sold home appliances and forced them to sell off their wares at fire-sale prices, helping fuel his popularity in the run-up to a nationwide election for mayors.
In 2018, militants attempted to assassinate him by sending explosives-laden drones over the top of a rally he was addressing on a Caracas avenue, leading him to reduce his spontaneous public appearances and limit live broadcasts of public events.
Throughout his career, Maduro was often flanked by his wife, Cilia Flores, who held numerous high-ranking positions, including attorney general and chief of parliament, and was often seen as a power broker with as much influence as her spouse.
Trump said on Saturday Flores was also captured and flown out of the country.
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MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/. An act of armed aggression by the United States against Venezuela prompts deep concern and condemnation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Earlier today, the United States carried out an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This has prompted deep concern and condemnation," the ministry said. "The pretexts cited to justify such actions are untenable. Ideologized hostility has prevailed over pragmatic considerations, as well as over a willingness to build relations based on trust and predictability," the statement said.
The ministry emphasized that, under the current circumstances, "it is crucial, above all, to prevent further escalation and to focus on finding a way out of the situation through dialogue." "We proceed from the assumption that all partners who may have claims against one another should seek ways to resolve their problems through dialogue-based solutions. We are ready to support them in this," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own fate without any destructive external interference, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "Latin America must remain a zone of peace, as it proclaimed itself in 2014. Venezuela, in turn, must be guaranteed the right to independently determine its own fate, free from any destructive — let alone military — interference from outside," the Foreign Ministry emphasized.
"We reaffirm our solidarity with the Venezuelan people and our support for the course of its Bolivarian leadership, aimed at protecting the country's national interests and sovereignty," the ministry said.
Russia is maintaining constant contact with the Venezuelan authorities, the ministry said. "The Russian Embassy in Caracas <…> is maintaining constant contact with the Venezuelan authorities," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"The Russian Embassy in Caracas is operating as normal, taking into account the current situation," the ministry added.
On January 3, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto said that the United States had attacked civilian and military facilities in Caracas, describing Washington's actions as military aggression. A state of emergency has been imposed in Venezuela. US President Donald Trump confirmed that the United States had carried out large-scale strikes on Venezuela. According to him, the country's leader, Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife, was captured and taken out of the country.
European national security advisors arrived in Kyiv early on Jan. 3 to take part in a high-level meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing.
The visit follows a Dec. 30 statement by President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he announced a number of meetings set for early January, among them an advisor-level meeting in Kyiv and a leader-level gathering in France.
"A busy working day lies ahead: security and economic issues, work on framework documents, coordination of further steps with partners," National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov said.
Umerov said representatives from Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway, as well as NATO, the European Council, and the European Commission, will take part in the meetings.
The meetings come as Kyiv and its partners continue work on a draft peace plan aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine.
On Dec. 28, Zelensky met with U.S. President Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
The leaders discussed a draft agreement outlining security guarantees for Ukraine, as well as a 20-point plan for ending the war. The original U.S.-proposed 28-point plan had effectively pressured Kyiv to capitulate, reinforcing Russia's maximalist demands.
During a joint press conference with Zelensky on Dec. 28, Trump said the peace talks were in their "final stages," without providing further details.
The meetings did not produce a breakthrough. After his conversation with Trump, Zelensky held a joint call with European leaders. Trump, in turn, also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
News Editor
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
"The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country," Donald Trump said on Truth Social.
"We held consultations with Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and I count on lawmakers' support," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 3.
"A busy working day lies ahead: security and economic issues, work on framework documents, coordination of further steps with partners," National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov said.
Russia launched 95 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Air Force said.
The bodies of a 3-year-old boy and a woman, likely his mother, were found in the rubble of an apartment building following Russian strikes. Search and rescue operations are still active at 3 a.m. local time, according to governor Syniehubov.
The number includes 750 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day, the General Staff said.
The news comes a few hours after Zelensky announced he would appoint Kyrylo Budanov, head of the military intelligence, to take charge of the President's Office.
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko will soon give the president a list of possible candidates to replace Serhii Deineko as head of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service.
HUR has published video footage of Kapustin's staged "death," which the agency used to collect a $500,000 bounty. The video shows a drone strike on a minibus shortly after Kapustin is seen entering the vehicle.
Along the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, the front line has remained largely static, but fighting continues every day. The Kyiv Independent's Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko embedded with Ukraine's forces in Kherson Oblast, following FPV drone and night bomber teams tasked with defending river islands.
The poll also revealed that 69% of Ukrainians support a peace plan that would freeze the war with security guarantees, as long as Ukraine is not forced to officially recognize Russian-occupied territories as part of Russia, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology said.
Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service warned on Jan. 2 that Russia may be preparing a provocation as part of its efforts to disrupt the U.S.-mediated peace talks.
US President Donald Trump has published a photo of Nicolas Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed on board a US warship. The Venezuelan leader is currently being shipped to New York together with his wife to face charges of a “narco-terrorism conspiracy.”
Trump had previously confirmed that US forces carried out large-scale overnight airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and taken Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores captive. Both will “soon face the full wrath of American justice,” according to US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello Rondon has told the country's troops to “trust the leadership,” while Foreign Minister Yvan Gil has accused Washington of seeking to gain control of the Latin American nation's natural resources.
Numerous videos have emerged of a series of heavy explosions across Caracas. Footage showing attacks in two other parts of the country has also been geolocated. One clip features the outline of several US Chinook military helicopters swooping across the city at low altitude.
In a statement, Moscow has condemned the US “aggression,” called for “immediate clarification” on Maduro's whereabouts and lamented that “ideological hostility has triumphed over businesslike pragmatism.”
American Senator Mike Lee announced on his personal X account that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told him that Washington does not foresee any further military operations at this time and that the Venezuelan president will stand trial in the US.
Multiple Western countries have expressed “concern” and claimed they are monitoring developments with their diplomatic teams in the Venezuelan capital.
03 January 2026
The press conference is over now, but we will continue to recap some of Trump's key quotes.
Trump says he and his administration have not spoken with exiled Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado since the capture of Maduro.
“I think it would be very difficult for her [to return to lead Venezuela],” the US president claimed.
“She does not have the support in Venezuela; she is a very nice woman, but she does not have the support.”
“We're going to have our very large US oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so. So we were prepared to do a second wave,” Trump has said.
❗️ ‘US Ready to Stage Second & Much Larger Attack on Venezuela if Needed' – Trump ‘We assumed a second wave would be necessary but now it is probably not.' https://t.co/lNuLPMJ2FOpic.twitter.com/SG07jpOK7x
“The US is the curse upon all of Latin America,” former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik has told RT, condemning the capture of Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro.
He described the US government as “entirely rogue” and becoming “more and more desperate,” arguing its true aims are to control the Western hemisphere's resources and push out rival powers like Russia and China.
Trump has claimed Maduro was trying to “get into a safe place” during the US capture operation. “You know, the safe place is all steel. And he wasn't able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast. They went through the opposition so fast, and there was a lot of opposition,” he added.
The capture of Nicolas Maduro is “clear kidnapping” and a “criminal and terrorist act” which violates international law, the UN Charter, as well as the US's own internal laws, the Venezuelan ambassador to South Africa, Carlos Feo Acevedo, has told RT.
Acevedo confirmed that the Venezuelan authorities have no information about the whereabouts of President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and has demanded “proof of life” from Washington.
Trump has made a comment on Colombian President Gustavo Petro's reaction to Maduro's capture, saying that the latter is “making cocaine,” which is being sent to the US, so Petro “does have to watch his ass.”
.@POTUS on Colombian President Gustavo Petro: "He's making cocaine. They're sending it into the United States — so he does have to watch his ass." https://t.co/mRqOsouW8Vpic.twitter.com/aJeFDbuylk
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is working on ‘dealing' with the vice president of Venezuela, Trump has said. “I understand she was just sworn in, but she was jsut picked by Maduro, So Marco [US Secretary of State Rubio] is working on that directly. He's just had a conversation with her and we think she's ready to do what we think is necessary to essentially make Venezuela great again,” he added.
Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, however, is “willing to do what's necessary.”
When asked about US presence in Venezuela and what he means by “running the country,” Trump said he was “designating people” and “talking to people” about it.
Trump is back at the podium, answering questions.
03 January 2026
Venezuela condemns the “serious military aggression” perpetrated against it by the US, the Latin American nation's foreign minister, Yvan Gil, has said in a statement.
The American strikes targeted civilian and military areas in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, he said.
These actions violate the UN charter, infringe upon Venezuela's sovereignty, endanger millions of people and threaten stability in the region, Gil stressed.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has imposed a state of emergency over the US attack, the Latin American nation's foreign minister, Yvan Gil, has said in a statement. “The entire country must activate to defeat this imperialist aggression,” he said.
"The objective of this attack is none other than to seize the strategic resources of Venezuela, particularly its oil and minerals... They will not succeed,” Gil insisted.
The US Embassy in Caracas has issued a Level 4 notice to American citizens, saying: “Do not travel to Venezuela for any reason.”
US President Donald Trump held a national security meeting at Mar-a-Lago before striking Venezuela, The New York Times has reported.
The White House hasn't yet confirmed it ordered the strikes.
BREAKING: Reports of explosions in Caracas, Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/sH3Ce1uH9h
The US has hit the Venezuelan parliament building, according to Colombian President Gustavo Petro. At least 11 sites in the country were attacked, he said.
Footage from Caracas has captured an explosion rocking the Cuartel de la Montana, the resting place of Hugo Chavez, who served as president of Venezuela between 2002 and his death in 2013.
🇻🇪 | URGENTE: Imágenes de ataques contra el Cuartel de la Montaña que dominan la capital de Venezuela, Caracas, y que alberga un mausoleo con los restos de Hugo Chávez. pic.twitter.com/OLOicmDzbN
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez has labeled the US attack on Venezuela “state terrorism” and demanded an urgent response from the international community to the “criminal” act. “Our Zone Of Peace is being brutally assaulted,” he wrote on X.
A US official has told the Wall Street Journal that the White House will release an official statement on the attack against Venezuela after American forces leave the country's airspace.
🚨 BREAKING: Reports of U.S. Army CH-67G Chinook Special Operations helicopters seen flying over Caracas, Venezuela during suspected U.S. airstrikesAt least TWELVE explosions appear to have occurred throughout the capital city.These Chinooks are believed to be from the Army's… pic.twitter.com/K3qwNejK2q
The US Senate Armed Services Committee had not been notified by the White House about any military action against Venezuela, CNN has reported, citing an informed source.
Speaking to RT from Caracas, Jesus Rodriguez-Espinoza, a former Venezuelan diplomat and editor of the Orinoco Tribune, said that he believed the ultimate target of the strikes was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
He added that while the US has the world's most powerful military, it would struggle to maintain a presence in Venezuela or impose a puppet government, which he said Washington had been attempting to do for decades.
”We have been preparing for this, and we are ready to defend Venezuela from any gringos that try to put boots on the ground,” he said.
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MOSCOW, January 3. /TASS/. The United States is undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait by selling arms to Taiwan, Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui stated in an interview with TASS.
"The American side publicly announced plans to sell a large consignment of modern weapons to Taiwan, which grossly violates the one-China principle and the provisions of the three joint Sino-American communiques, seriously damages China's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, significantly undermines peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and sends a profoundly false signal to separatist forces advocating for 'Taiwan independence,'" he said.
The diplomat stressed that "the Chinese side strongly objects to and condemns these actions" and has already "made a serious protest to the American side."
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told TASS that Western countries "would not be averse to profiting" from Taiwanese money and technology. The minister stressed that "expensive American weapons are sold to Taipei at market prices," and the demand to relocate semiconductor production to the United States could be viewed as "coercion to redistribute income, a peculiar form of business expropriation.".
A divided federal appeals court on Jan. 2 struck down California's ban on open carry of firearms in most parts of the state, finding it violates the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2–1 in favor of a gun owner, finding the state prohibition on open carry of guns in counties that have more than 200,000 residents violates the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military carried out a "large-scale strike" in Venezuela early Saturday morning and took Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife into custody.
Covered by: Rachel Wolf, Michael Sinkewicz, Lucas Tomlinson , Michael Dorgan, Elizabeth Elkind, Alex Miller, Amanda Macias and Jasmine Baehr
President Donald Trump
announced that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife have been captured and flown out of the country after the U.S. carried out a "large scale strike." Trump is expected to address the nation at 11 a.m. ET from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.
The U.S. military has carried out a series of strikes on suspected drug vessels allegedly tied to the Venezuelan regime in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific. The CIA carried out a strike in late December against a dock area inside Venezuela that U.S. officials said was used by drug cartels to load narcotics onto boats.
The U.S. government had offered a
$50 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro. After Saturday's early-morning operation, Venezuela's vice president has demanded proof of life.
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incoming update…
President Donald Trump released photos Saturday afternoon showing himself and senior members of his cabinet monitoring the early-morning U.S. military operation in Venezuela from Mar-a-Lago.
The images, posted to Trump's Truth Social account, show Trump seated at a long table alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, with aides and security personnel standing nearby. Computer screens and communications equipment appear visible in several shots.
The photos were taken in the early hours of Saturday morning as U.S. forces carried out what he described as a “large-scale strike” in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
The images offer a rare behind-the-scenes look at Trump and his national security team tracking the operation in real time from Florida.
As Americans awoke to the news of U.S. military strikes on Venezuela, and the capture and extraction of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, questions are being asked if Maduro was betrayed by someone from his secretive inner circle.
That inner circle includes Diosdado Cabello, who currently holds the role of minister of interior, justice, and peace, is widely believed to be as powerful as Maduro.
Another member of that inner circle is Vladimir Padrino, the longstanding head of the nation's Armed Forces, who wields enormous power. Both Cabello and Padrino quickly condemned U.S. actions, but their responses so far have rung hollow.
Cabello now stands as the undisputed heir to the Chavista movement, with Padrino and the nation's military muscle seemingly in lockstep, yet the Venezuelan Armed Forces seemingly put up no resistance of any kind to the operation.
In an early morning video shared on X, Padrino lambasted the "criminal military aggression by the government of the United States…coming to strike with their missiles and rockets fired from combat helicopters in Fuerte Tuna, Caracas, and the states of Mirana, Aragua, and La Guaira.
"He repeated decades-old Hugo Chavez talking points, stating, "Venezuela rejects with all its strength the presence of these foreign troops which have only brought death, pain and destruction. This invasion represents the greatest tragedy that the country has suffered, which is motivated by an insatiable greed for our strategic resources."
With a $50 million bounty on Maduro's head, considerable domestic unpopularity, and the disputed 2024 election which the international community widely discredited as stolen, the writing appeared on the wall for Nicolas Maduro for years.
Now, Maduro and Flores are reportedly guests of the United States government on the warship Iwo Jima, bound for New York to face what is likely to be the trial of the decade. Maduro is facing weapons and drug charges.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital's David Unsworth.
Chevron has operated in Venezuela for roughly a century (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Chevron, the only remaining U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela
, said it continues to run its limited operations in “full compliance” with all applicable laws following the predawn capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
“We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” a Chevron spokesperson wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The company emphasized that its priority remains the safety and wellbeing of its employees and the integrity of its assets, declining to comment on the broader security environment in Venezuela as the political situation rapidly evolves.
Chevron has maintained a constrained presence in the country through joint ventures with the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), after other U.S. energy firms exited amid nationalization efforts, sanctions and political instability.
President Donald Trump said U.S. energy companies could play a central role in rebuilding the country's oil sector. He added that the United States continues to enforce its embargo on Venezuelan oil.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. would run Venezuela should cause alarm among Americans.
Trump during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago told reporters that following strikes on Venezuela's capital Caracas, and the subsequent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on Saturday that the U.S. would be running the country.
“We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said. “So, we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”
But Schumer noted that moving ahead with the strikes and “without a credible plan for what comes next is reckless.”
“The administration has assured me three separate times that it was not pursuing regime change or taking military action in Venezuela,” Schumer said. “Clearly, they are not being straight with Americans.”
“The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans,” he continued. “The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump both weighed in on why Congress wasn't notified of the strikes — Rubio warned it could have endangered Operation Absolute Resolve while Trump charged that lawmakers leak information.
Schumer demanded that the administration brief lawmakers on its objective in Venezuela immediately, and what plan Trump had to prevent a humanitarian and geopolitical disaster “that plunges us into another endless war or one that trades one corrupt dictator for another."
Colombian President Gustavo Petro needs to watch his backside, according to President Donald Trump.
A reporter asked Trump whether Petro should be worried following the U.S. operation in Venezuela in which dictator Nicolás Maduro was captured.
"Well, he has cocaine mills. He has, factories where he makes cocaine, and. Yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He's making cocaine. They're sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his a--," Trump said.
Petro posted a lengthy condemnation of the U.S. operation in Venezuela, claiming it was carried out in violation of the United Nations charter, an argument made by other foreign leaders.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio
President Donald Trump offered a simple answer as to why lawmakers weren't notified ahead of Operation Absolute Resolve: Congress leaks.
Several lawmakers are furious that they were not notified ahead of the surprise strikes, and subsequent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on Saturday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago told reporters that lawmakers weren't notified ahead of time out of concern that it could endanger the operation, but were called right after. He noted that “this is not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on; it was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night.”
“We watched and monitored that for a number of days,” Rubio said. “So, it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, ‘hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.'”
Trump interjected with a simpler explanation.
“Congress has a tendency to leak,” Trump said.
“This would not be good if they leaked, General, I think it would have been maybe a very different result,” he continued. “But I have to say they knew we were coming at some point, you know, we had a lot of ships out there, they sort of knew what we were. But Congress, Congress will leak and we don't want to leakers."
Despite the historic U.S. operation leading to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the embargo on Venezuelan oil has not been lifted, President Donald Trump
announced on Saturday.
"The embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect. The American armada remains poised in position, and the United States retains all military options until the United States demands have been fully met and fully satisfied," the president said. "All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them."
Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. had "overwhelming evidence" against Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
"Maduro and his wife were soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil... But we have people where the overwhelming evidence of their crimes will be presented in a court of law. And I've seen it. I've seen what we have. It's both horrible and breathtaking that something like this could have been allowed to take place."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused the Trump administration of running a smokescreen to hide the real reason that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured Saturday.
“It's not about drugs,” Ocasio-Cortez said on X. “If it was, Trump wouldn't have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month.”
President Donald Trump's pardon last year of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández of a drug trafficking conviction was already a sticking point for several congressional Democrats and some Republicans, but Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues have since argued that it's a point of hypocrisy by the administration in the wake of Maduro's extraction.
Trump and top officials have long accused Maduro of drug trafficking and working with cartels and gangs that have been designated as terrorist organizations. Over the last year, the administration has carried out several strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean in an effort to stymie the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But Ocasio-Cortez argued that the Trump administration's motives were more sinister, and geared toward shifting the balance of power in Venezuela, along with pointing attention elsewhere from key issues in the U.S.
“It's about oil and regime change,” she continued. “And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn't. Especially to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing healthcare costs.”
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that U.S. oil companies would spend "billions" to fix the oil infrastructure in Venezuela.
"As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust. A total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place," Trump said.
"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go and spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country."
Alex Brandon/AP Photo
President Donald Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago that the United States will temporarily run Venezuela after the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said from his Palm Beach, Fla., residence. "So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about. We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It's their homeland."
President Donald Trump/Truth Social
President Donald Trump shared an image of Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima.
The dictator appeared in a gray sweatsuit and was seemingly blindfolded and restrained. He was also holding a plastic water bottle.
Overnight, the U.S. carried out strikes in Venezuela and captured Maduro and his wife. The duo are on their way to New York where they will stand trial for criminal charges.
Screenshot of Johnson's statement
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., backed President Donald Trump's decision to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife amid partisan praise and backlash for the early Saturday operation.
“Today's military action in Venezuela was a decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives,” Johnson said in a statement on X.
“Nicolas Maduro is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans after years of trafficking illegal drugs and violent cartel members into our country — crimes for which he's been properly indicted in U.S. courts and an arrest warrant duly issued — and today he learned what accountability looks like,” he continued.
Trump confirmed that Maduro and his wife were captured after strikes and taken from the country after strikes in Venezuela's capital Caracas. He's expected to address the nation on the operation at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Meanwhile, the strikes have driven yet another partisan wedge between the aisles in Washington, D.C. Johnson and congressional Republicans have largely come to bat for Trump and the administration. The speaker said the president's move “will no longer allow criminal regimes to profit from wreaking havoc and destruction on our country.”
And the speaker noted that lawmakers would soon be clued in on what happened over the weekend.“The Trump Administration is working to schedule briefings for Members as Congress returns to Washington next week,” Johnson said. “Our brave military personnel who executed a precise, successful operation deserve our gratitude and congratulations.”
Henry Romero/Reuters
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned U.S. action in Venezuela, saying that it was carried out in violation of the United Nations Charter.
The Mexican president posted on X verbatim Article 2, Section 4 of the U.N. Charter, which reads "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."
In a statement, the Mexican government called for "respect for international law" after the U.S. carried out strikes on Venezuela overnight and captured its leader Nicolás Maduro.
Chalinee Thirasupa/Pool/Reuters
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was "deeply alarmed" after the U.S. carried out strikes in Venezuela and captured its leader Nicolás Maduro, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said in a statement to Fox News.
"Independently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent. The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect - by all - of international law, including the UN Charter. He's deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected," Dujarric said. "The Secretary-General calls on all actors in Venezuela to engage in inclusive dialogue, in full respect of human rights and the rule of law."
The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) could possibly hold an emergency meeting on Saturday following the U.S. actions in Venezuela, Fox News has learned. Reports indicate that Venezuela could have demanded the meeting. Additionally, Russia, which condemned the U.S. strikes, publicly called for an "immediate meeting" of the UNSC.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
President Donald Trump told "Fox & Friends Weekend" that Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife were taken by helicopter to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. The two were captured during an operation on Saturday morning in Caracas.
Fox News host Griff Jenkins asked Trump
, "Before we let you go, though, can you tell us where Maduro and his wife are right this second?"
Well, they'll be heading to New York," Trump said. Griffin interjected, "were they taken to a ship first?"
"Yes, the Iwo Jima," Trump said. "They'll be heading into New York. The helicopters took them out, and they went by helicopter on a nice flight. I'm sure they loved it, but they've killed a lot of people."
"Even people in their own country. They killed a lot of people to maintain power. He's a very vicious person."
Earlier on Saturday, Trump confirmed on Truth Social that the U.S. carried out strikes in Caracas and captured both Maduro and his wife.
Fox News has learned that Maduro could make an appearance in federal court in New York, where he was indicted years ago, as soon as Monday.
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) condemned
U.S. strikes on Venezuela, saying that the U.S. carried out "an act of armed aggression" that "gives rise to deep concern [and] warrants condemnation."
"The pretexts used to justify these actions are untenable," the Russian MFA wrote in a post on X. "Russia reaffirms its solidarity with the Venezuelan people."
In a longer statement, Russia's MFA called for the prevention of further escalation and urged the U.S. and Venezuela "to focus on finding a solution through dialogue." The Kremlin added that "Latin America must remain a zone of peace, as it proclaimed itself in 2014."
This comes as the Trump administration has been attempting to negotiate peace in the nearly four-year-long Ukraine-Russia war. Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 during the Biden administration.
Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump spoke with "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Saturday morning just hours after the U.S. hit Venezuela and captured its leader Nicolás Maduro.
The president said that he watched the operation from Mar-a-Lago.
"It's just it was an amazing thing, the amazing job that these people did. There's nobody else could have done anything like it," Trump said of the historic operation.
When asked about critics who have emerged in the hours since the strikes, Trump brushed it off, saying that they were "weak, stupid people."
Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro could make an initial appearance in federal court in Manhattan as soon as this coming Monday, Fox News is told.
The timing could change at this stage, but his appearance will happen "likely Monday," Fox News learned.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. carried out a strike on Venezuela early Saturday and captured Maduro and his wife, who have been flown out of the country. Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated that Maduro and his wife had already been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
Vice President JD Vance stood by President Donald Trump's decision to carry out strikes in Venezuela and to capture dictator Nicolás Maduro.
"The president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States. Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says," Vance wrote on X.
"Kudos to our brave special operators who pulled off a truly impressive operation," he added.
The strikes on Venezuela and capture of Maduro have been praised and condemned across the globe. While some countries expressed concern that the move would lead to chaos in the region, others cheered on the U.S.
World leaders were sharply divided Saturday after the United States launched a large-scale strike on Venezuela and President Donald Trump announced that the country's leader, Nicolás Maduro, had been captured and flown out of the country.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez condemned what he called a "criminal attack," writing on X that, "Our zone of peace is being brutally assaulted." Communist Cuba is a supporter of the Maduro government and has been a longtime adversary of the United States.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said his government viewed the reports coming out of Venezuela "with deep concern," and he warned against further escalation, claiming the U.S. strikes risked destabilizing the region.
"The Colombian Government rejects any unilateral military action that could aggravate the situation or put the civilian population at risk," Petro wrote on X.
Meanwhile, President Javier Milei of Argentina, a close ally of Trump, praised the news by sharing a previous video of him denouncing Maduro's "narco-terrorist" regime as a regional threat and urging Latin American leaders to back U.S. pressure to end it.
"Long live freedom, dammit!" Milei wrote, using his signature pro-freedom chant.
Miraflores Palace/Handout via Reuters
Days before he was captured by U.S. forces, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that his government was open to negotiating an agreement with the U.S. aimed at fighting drug trafficking.
The pre-taped interview was staged with Maduro seated behind the wheel of a car and driving with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet in the passenger seat while they discussed a potential deal. In the clip that aired on state TV, Maduro said Venezuela is "ready" to discuss a drug-trafficking deal with the U.S. He called on the countries to "start talking seriously, with data in hand."
"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," he said. "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."
Chevron Corp. is the only major U.S. oil company currently exporting Venezuelan crude to the United States.
Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who was born in Cuba and serves on the House Armed Services Committee, praised the Trump administration for striking Venezuela and capturing Nicolás Maduro.
"President Trump has changed the course of history in our hemisphere. Our country and the world are safer for it," Gimenez wrote on X. "Today's decisive action is this hemisphere's equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall."
"It's a big day in Florida, where the majority of Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan exiles reside. This is the community I represent & we are overwhelmed with emotion and hope," Gimenez added.
Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed Saturday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores will face the "full wrath of American justice" following their capture by U.S. forces in Venezuela and extraction from the country.
In an X post, Bondi reiterated that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
"Nicholas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States. They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," Bondi wrote.
"On behalf of the entire U.S. DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers," she added.
According to the State Department's website, Maduro was charged in the Southern District of New York in 2020 for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also reiterated on X that Maduro "was indicted in U.S. court nearly six years ago for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism."
"Nicolas Maduro wasn't just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation," Cotton wrote.
The senator added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Maduro would "face justice for his crimes against our citizens."
Carlos Jasso/File Photo/Reuters
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reportedly made a statement on television and radio condemning the U.S.'s "grave military aggression" against his country.
Maduro reportedly said the U.S. strikes were carried out in violation of the United Nations Charter and that Washington put peace and stability at risk across Latin America and the Caribbean, according to The Miami Herald.
“This is an attack against the sovereignty of Venezuela,” Maduro reportedly said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio reposted a reminder that he long asserted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was not the legitimate president of the country.
"Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of a country. And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States," Rubio wrote in a post on X in July that he reposted following Maduro's capture.
President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. carried out overnight strikes in Venezuela and that Maduro had been "captured and flown out of the country."
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez demanded in audio played on state TV that the U.S. provide "proof of life" for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
"We demand that President Donald Trump's government provide immediate proof of life for President Maduro and the First Lady," Rodriguez said, according to Reuters.
In August, the U.S. announced a $50 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro.
President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 3 that the U.S. carried out overnight strikes in Venezuela and "captured" Maduro and his wife.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on Saturday that he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. carried out A major strike inside Venezuela.
Lee said Rubio told him the actions carried out in Venezuela were to protect U.S. personnel executing an arrest warrant for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The senator added that Rubio said Maduro is expected to stand trial in the U.S. on criminal charges.
"He anticipates no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody," Lee added in a subsequent post on X.
The Republican lawmaker announced his conversation with Rubio after questioning the legality of the strikes in a previous post. However, after speaking with Rubio, Lee said he believed 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."
AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. military carried out a "large-scale strike" in Venezuela early Saturday morning and took Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife into custody, President Donald Trump confirmed.
The president wrote on Truth Social that the operation was successful and Maduro and his wife were "captured and flown out of the country." Trump said the operation was conducted with U.S. law enforcement and added that a news conference will take place at Mar-a-Lago at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
At least seven explosions could be heard in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas early Saturday morning, according to The Associated Press, and low-flying aircraft were seen flying over Caracas at about 2 a.m. local time.
The Venezuelan government said in a statement that "the civilian and military localities of the city of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira" were impacted by the attack.
Live Coverage begins here
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Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time on Saturday in the capital, Caracas.
At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in Venezuela's capital, Caracas. Venezuela's government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Smoke rises from Fort Tiuna, the main military garrison in Caracas, Venezuela, after multiple explosions were heard and aircraft swept through the area, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Destroyed containers lay at La Guaira port after explosions were heard in Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
National Guard armored vehicles block an avenue leading to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
▶ Follow live updates on the capture of Nicolás Maduro
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in an extraordinary military operation early Saturday that plucked a sitting leader from office. President Donald Trump insisted the U.S. government would run the country at least temporarily and would tap Venezuelan's vast oil reserves to sell “large amounts” to other countries.
The action marked the culmination of an escalating Trump administration pressure campaign on the South American country that consisted of months of strikes on boats officials said were smuggling drugs to the U.S. Behind the scenes, U.S. officials tracked Maduro's behavioral habits, including what he ate and where he slept, in preparing to execute an operation that resulted in one of the more stunning regime changes in modern history.
Maduro and his wife, seized overnight from their home on a military base, were aboard a U.S. warship on their way to New York, where they were to face criminal charges in connection with a Justice Department indictment accusing them of a role in narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Trump said the U.S. planned to run Venezuela until a transition of power can take place. He claimed the American presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs the U.S. was running the country. Venezuelan state TV continued to air pro-Maduro propaganda, broadcasting live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.
“We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference where he boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”
The legal authority for the attack, which echoed the 1990 U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of leader Manuel Antonio Noriega, was not immediately clear. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro, who last appeared on state television Friday while meeting with a delegation of Chinese officials in Caracas.
Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges, but the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores that described the regime as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine.
Trump posted on his Truth Social account a photo that he said showed Maduro in custody, including blindfolded and in a sweatsuit.
Smoke raises at La Carlota airport after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Early Saturday, multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through the Venezuelan capital. Maduro's government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets.
The attack lasted less than 30 minutes and the explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they'd seen and heard. Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, without giving a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured in Venezuela but none were killed.
Destroyed containers lay at La Guaira port after explosions were heard in Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again, and again. not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong,” said Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Video obtained from Caracas and an unidentified coastal city showed tracers and smoke clouding the landscape as repeated muted explosions illuminated the night sky. Other footage showed cars passing on a highway as blasts illuminated the hills behind them. The videos were verified by The Associated Press.
Smoke was seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas, while another military installation in the capital was without power.
STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP pic.twitter.com/nHDqtsqRFh
Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and Flores were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation when they were captured.
“That's where they bombed,” he said. “And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country.”
Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. There was no confirmation that had happened, though she did issue a statement after the strike, demanding proof of life for Maduro and his wife.
The strike followed a months-long Trump administration pressure campaign on the Venezuelan leader, including a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America and attacks on boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean accused of carrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes in September.
As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes was 35 and the number of people killed at least 115, according to the Trump administration. Trump said that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and has justified the boat strikes as a necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S.
Maduro has decried the U.S. military operations as a thinly veiled effort to oust him from power.
Venezuela's ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chávez took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.
Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
In a demonstration of how polarizing a figure Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to deplore his capture and celebrate it.
Pro-government armed civilians patrol in La Guaira, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro's return.
“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. “We are here Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!”
Earlier, armed people and uniformed members of a civilian militia took to the streets of a Caracas neighborhood long considered a stronghold of the ruling party.
In other parts of the city, the streets remained empty hours after the attack, as residents absorbed events. Some areas remained without power, but vehicles moved freely.
“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking down at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared, many families couldn't sleep.”
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, people waved Venezuelan flags and banging pots and pans as vehicles passed by honking at them.
In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”
The Armed Services committees in both houses of Congress, which have jurisdiction over military matters, have not been notified by the administration of any actions, according to a person familiar with the matter and granted anonymity to discuss it.
Lawmakers from both political parties in Congress have raised deep reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast and Congress has not specifically approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on “its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”
Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said the military action and seizure of Maduro marks “a new dawn for Venezuela,” saying that “the tyrant is gone.” He posted on X hours after the strike. His boss, Rubio, reposted a post from July that said Maduro “is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.”
Cuba, a supporter of the Maduro government and a longtime adversary of the United States, called for the international community to respond to what President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called “the criminal attack.”
“Our zone of peace is being brutally assaulted,” he said on X. Iran's Foreign Ministry also condemned the strikes.
___
Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, and Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, contributed.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado called Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro the head of a 'criminal structure' on 'Fox & Friends Weekend' in November 2025.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado issued an open call for a transfer of power Saturday, urging the military to abandon Nicolás Maduro's government and recognize opposition-backed candidate Edmundo González as president after the U.S. said Maduro had been captured.
Machado's statement came hours after President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had captured Maduro following what he described as "large-scale" military strikes targeting the Venezuelan government. Trump said Maduro and his wife were flown out of the country, a move that would mark the most direct U.S. military action against a Latin American head of state in decades.
"The hour of freedom has arrived," wrote in a post on X. "This is the hour of the citizens. Those of us who risked everything for democracy on July 28th. Those of us who elected Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate President of Venezuela, who must immediately assume his constitutional mandate and be recognized as Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces by all the officers and soldiers who comprise it."
It remained unclear Saturday whether senior commanders have shifted allegiance or whether the opposition has secured control of state institutions.
TRUMP CASTS MADURO'S OUSTER AS ‘SMART' MOVE AS RUSSIA, CHINA ENTER THE FRAY
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado issued an open call for a transfer of power Saturday, urging the military to abandon Nicolás Maduro's government and recognize opposition-backed candidate Edmundo González as president after the U.S. said Maduro had been captured. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
Machado also called on Venezuelans inside the country to remain "vigilant, active and organized," signaling that further instructions would be communicated through official opposition channels. To Venezuelans abroad, she urged immediate mobilization to pressure foreign governments to recognize a new leadership in Caracas.
The U.S. conducted strikes on Caracas early Saturday morning and took Maduro and his wife into custody and flew them to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
Machado and González have repeatedly argued that the July 28 presidential election was stolen, pointing to an opposition-run parallel vote count that they say shows González won by a wide margin.
Machado called on Venezuela's opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia to be recognized as the president. (ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)
FROM BUS DRIVER TO DICTATOR: NICOLÁS MADURO'S RISE AND FALL IN VENEZUELA
Venezuela's electoral authorities, which are controlled by Maduro allies, declared him the winner with just under 52% of the vote, compared with roughly 43% for González. The government has rejected allegations of fraud.
The opposition, however, says it collected and published tally sheets from polling stations nationwide showing González received about two-thirds of the vote, compared with roughly 30% for Maduro — a claim cited by several foreign governments that declined to recognize the official results.
Machado's statement came hours after President Donald Trump announced that U.S. forces had captured Maduro following what he described as "large-scale" military strikes targeting the Venezuelan government. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Maduro's government has refused to release detailed precinct-level data to independently verify the outcome, further fueling accusations that the election did not reflect the will of voters.
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While González is the opposition-backed presidential candidate, Machado has remained the dominant figure in Venezuela's opposition movement. Machado won the opposition's primary by a landslide before being barred from running by Maduro's government, forcing the coalition to rally behind González as a substitute candidate.
Throughout the campaign, González publicly acknowledged Machado as the movement's leader, with Machado continuing to direct strategy, messaging and voter mobilization efforts. Machado has remained the public face of the opposition, while González has largely played a formal, constitutional role tied to the presidency.
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Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the increase in sports betting and the concerns around betting scandals on ‘Special Report.'
Former MLB All-Star Lenny Dykstra faces drug charges following a traffic stop by Pennsylvania State Police on New Year's Day.
Pennsylvania troopers found Dykstra, 62, with drugs and paraphernalia in his possession while a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over in Pike County.
Pike County is about 25 miles east of Scranton, where Dykstra lives.
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Former MLB player Lenny Dykstra, charged with threats against an Uber driver, rejects a plea offer before Union County Superior Court Judge Joseph Donahue. Lawyer Michael Brucki stands next to him. (IMAGN)
Police noted that charges were filed against Dykstra, though there was no specification on what drugs were allegedly found.
Dykstra's lawyer, Matthew Blit, said in a statement to The Associated Press that he believes these charges will be "swiftly absolved" as the vehicle did not belong to the ex-ballplayer.
Dykstra was also not accused of being under the influence of a substance at the scene, per Blit.
FORMER MLB STAR LENNY DYKSTRA PLEADS GUILTY TO DISORDERLY CONDUCT; HAS DRUG, TERRORISTIC THREAT CHARGES DROPPED
"To the extent charges are brought against him, they will be swiftly absolved," the statement read.
Dykstra has had legal woes in the past, including serving prison time in California for bankruptcy fraud. He was sentenced to more than six months after being found guilty of hiding baseball gloves and other items from his days in MLB.
Dykstra also served a three-year sentence for pleading no contest to Grand Theft Auto and providing a false financial statement, claiming he owed more than $31 million while only having $50,000 in assets. His prison sentences ran concurrent with each other.
Lenny Dykstra #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies looks on from the dugout against the San Francisco Giants during an Major League Baseball game circa 1993 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. Dykstra played for the Phillies from 1989-96. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Then, in April 2012, he pleaded no contest to exposing himself to women he met through Craiglist.
Finally, in 2019, Dykstra dealt with numerous legal problems, including pleading guilty on behalf of his company, Titan Equity Group, to illegally renting out rooms in a New Jersey home he owned. He agreed to pay around $3,000 in fines.
In the same year, Dykstra had drug and terrorist threat charges dropped following an altercation with an Uber driver. Police said at the time they found cocaine, MDMA and marijuana among Dykstra's belongings, though his lawyer claimed the incident to be "overblown."
Dykstra was a three-time All-Star during his 12-year MLB career, which began with the New York Mets and ended with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Lenny Dykstra attends the 69th Annual Artists and Writers Softball Game at Herrick Park on Aug. 19, 2017 in East Hampton, New York. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images)
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All three of Dykstra's All-Star seasons came in Philadelphia, where he was traded to from New York during the 1989 season.
Dykstra finished second in MVP voting during the 1993 season after leading the National League with 194 hits, 143 runs and 129 walks while slashing .305/.420/.382 with 44 doubles and 66 RBI.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.
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Fox News contributor Hugh Hewitt discusses the legality of U.S. forces' capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and what lies ahead for the Venezuelan people.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reportedly made a statement on television and radio early Saturday as the U.S. strikes against his country unfolded, describing them as an "attack against the sovereignty of Venezuela."
The remarks came before President Donald Trump announced that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were "captured and flown out of the country" following a "large scale strike" carried out by the U.S. military. Attorney General Pam Bondi later said Maduro and Flores were indicted on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy.
In comments aired on state television and radio, Maduro alleged that U.S. forces attacked civilian and military sites in Venezuela's capital of Caracas, as well as the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, according to The Miami Herald.
"This is an attack against the sovereignty of Venezuela," Maduro reportedly said as he stood alongside military and government officials. "It is an attempt to impose a colonial war and force political change by violence."
LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP CONFIRMS OVERNIGHT STRIKES IN VENEZUELA, SAYS US HAS ‘CAPTURED' MADURO
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, right, meets with Qi Xiaoqi, Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping, in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 2, 2026. (Presidency of Venezuela/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Maduro also described the U.S. actions as a "grave military aggression" and violation of the United Nations charter, adding that it threatened peace across Latin America and the Caribbean, The Miami Herald reported.
The U.S. has been carrying out a military campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in recent months.
MARIA CORINA MACHADO EMERGES AS TOP POTENTIAL SUCCESSOR AFTER MADURO'S FALL
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro addresses supporters during a rally marking the anniversary of the 19th-century Battle of Santa Ines in Caracas, Venezuela, on Dec. 10, 2025. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images))
Maduro's government cast the U.S. strikes on Saturday as part of a larger American effort to seize Venezuela's oil and mineral reserves, according to The Miami Herald.
The newspaper reported that state TV broadcasted images of Venezuelan soldiers deploying to strategic infrastructure and officials holding emergency meetings.
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro addresses members of the armed forces, Bolivarian Militia, police, and civilians during a rally against a possible escalation of U.S. actions toward the country, at Fort Tiuna military base in Caracas, Venezuela, on Nov. 25, 2025. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)
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As part of Maduro's response, he also signed a decree that declared a nationwide state of "external disturbance," which gives his government sweeping powers during emergencies, including mobilizing security forces and limiting certain civil liberties, The Miami Herald added.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
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Republican lawmakers are praising President Donald Trump for his capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, while Democrats are raising questions about the legality of the U.S. special forces operation on foreign soil.
Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), underscored the importance of the moment for the Venezuelan people, describing Maduro as “an evil, narcoterrorist dictator.”
“It is in America's interest to bring justice to Maduro, an illegitimate narcoterrorist dictator with American blood on his hands,” Graham wrote Saturday on social media. “To President Trump and his team, you should take great pride in setting in motion the liberation of Venezuela.”
TRUMP FIRST YEAR REPORT CARD: A- PROMISE KEEPER OR ‘NIGHTMARE' FAILURE
As we celebrate this amazing achievement by our military commanded by @POTUS, we must remember the consequences of what has happened. An evil, narcoterrorist dictator has fallen, creating a path for freedom for the wonderful, highly intelligent, hard working people of Venezuela.…
Graham's message was amplified by the likes of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who emphasized how he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and reminded the public that Maduro was indicted in the U.S. almost six years ago for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.
“I just spoke to @SecRubio, who confirmed that Maduro is in U.S. custody and will face justice for his crimes against our citizens,” Cotton wrote.
Nicolas Maduro wasn't just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation. That's why he was indicted in U.S. court nearly six years ago for drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. I just spoke to @SecRubio, who confirmed that Maduro is in U.S. custody and…
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) similarly shared his own conversation with Rubio, adding the secretary told him “the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.”
TRUMP WARNS OF JANUARY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN OVER OBAMACARE
“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,” Lee wrote.
Just got off the phone with @SecRubioHe informed me that Nicolás Maduro has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant… https://t.co/lXCxhPoKSZ
Regardless, Democratic reaction has focused on the legality of the operation, conducted overnight in Caracas by Delta Force, the Army's most elite unit, and confirmed by Trump on social media.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who was also taken in the raid, were indicted in the Southern District of New York in 2020, with Maduro charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the U.S.
TRUMP ADVISES THAT ANYONE BURNING AMERICAN FLAG WILL BE IMPRISONED FOR A YEAR
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) reiterated that Trump had “no authority to strike Venezuela, no strategy for a democratic transition, and no credibility that he won't just pardon the criminal Maduro like he did the Honduran president.”
“After voting No in December, Republicans in Congress must now join Democrats to grab hold the steering wheel of Venezuela policy to prevent this capture from spiraling into a blood for oil war,” Auchincloss wrote.
I commanded Marines in Latin America – they deserve a commander in chief operating lawfully and strategically. The president has no authority to strike Venezuela, no strategy for a democratic transition, and no credibility that he won't just pardon the criminal Maduro like he did…
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) added that Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told senators that Trump was not pursuing regime change in Venezuela.
“I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” Kim wrote. “Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”
Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress. Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict… https://t.co/wdXm21gHnA
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who represents many Venezuelan ex-patriots in South Florida, conceded Maduro's capture is “welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule.”
MADURO ‘CAPTURED' AND TAKEN OUT OF VENEZUELA AFTER US MILITARY OPERATION IN CARACAS: TRUMP
But Wasserman Schultz warned that “cutting off the head of a snake is fruitless if it just regrows” before encouraging Venezuelans “to seat their true, democratically elected president, Edmundo González.”
“I'll demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort,” she wrote. “The absence of congressional involvement prior to this action risks the continuation of the illegitimate Venezuelan regime.”
Rep. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Florida Democrat, with an interesting statement:“The capture of the brutal, illegitimate ruler of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who oppressed Venezuela's people is welcome news for my friends and neighbors who fled his violent, lawless, and…
The flames of Le Constellation touched far too many young people on New Year's Eve.
Even so, the scars of that night already run much wider than the bar.
In the days since the blaze, locals told CNN they were lost in the what ifs of that night: last-minute changes of plans, choosing to celebrate outside the crowded bar or with family instead of friends.
“It should've been us”; “I was supposed to go too”; “My siblings were there the night before,” locals told us in the days after the fire.
Now, those who were texting with presumed victims just hours before the disaster are glued to their phones: locked in a desperate wait for any information about friends who simply don't reply any more.
On Saturday, Swiss police announced they had opened an investigation into the managers of the bar for negligent manslaughter, negligent bodily harm and negligent arson.
Swiss police also identified four of the victims including two young women, aged 21 and 16, and two young men, 18 and 16.
In a bar popular with teenagers, there's a growing realisation realization in Crans-Montana that many of the dead are some of the youngest in this community of locals and holidaymakers.
For their friends – children themselves – the events of that night, beamed around social networks via horrifying videos of fiery panic, are all they talk about.
“We ask what we would have done in their place,” 17-year-old Leonor Marques told CNN. “We only speak of that.”
“I feel like even if we want to turn the page it's impossible,” she said, “The subject comes around and around.”
Friday morning, as journalists and mourners gathered before Le Constellation, one scene captured the raw emotion still coursing through this small community.
A father, his face soaked with tears, crumpled to his knees as he neared the bar.
After a desperate scrabble for information, through two dark nights and a difficult day, he still didn't know if his son's body may lie in Le Constellation, his brother told CNN.
According to Swiss officials, a handful of patients in hospital from the fire have still not yet been identified.
Amid the unbearable wait for information, the days swing between hope and despair, the teenage cousin of one young man still missing since the fire said.
“I mean, there's probably no chance” he's alive, she told CNN after nearly two full days of no news of his fate. She asked to remain anonymous out of respect for her family.
For Leonor Marques, 17, who is still waiting on news of two friends she knew were at Le Constellation on Wednesday night, not knowing their fate is the most difficult.
“I feel useless like I can do nothing,” she told CNN from Crans-Montana, “I don't know if they're alive dead, doing well or badly. I can't do anything. I can do absolutely nothing.”
Amid the tragedy, she said she had to take took some comfort in knowing that two of her friends were in medically induced comas in a Lausanne hospital.
“That's something,” she said.
Surgical resident Amandine Chavanon, 25, holidaying in Crans-Montana was woken by her mother after her teenage brother called them from outside Le Constellation.
Rushing to the scene to help, she spent hours triaging badly burned victims, offering life-saving aid alongside first responders and passersby.
Focused on treating patients on the floor of the bank where she was inserting IV drips and calming burned survivors, identifying them wasn't their priority.
“Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate” was what we were thinking, she told CNN, even as some of the first responders tried to keep track of the names of the dozens of wounded teenagers.
Stumbling out of the bar, she said many of the young revellers, “didn't really know what's happening.”
“I had a girl. I remember she was – the whole face was burnt, and she saw me, and she said, ‘I'm going home.' I just took her, and I said, ‘You're not going home.'”
Working a New Year's Eve nightshift at a nearby hospital, doctor friends recounted to Chavanon having to turn away distraught parents looking for their children as they struggled to deal with the influx of patients.
“It was just saving, saving, saving,” she said.
As pictures emerged from the last moments in Le Constellation before the fire took hold, revellers can be seen dancing beneath a shower of sparks, flying out of champagne bottles lifted inches from the ceiling, coated in insulation foam.
In video shot likely moments later, young people dance, laugh and film the flames as a young man bats in vain at the flames with a towel.
With authorities directing their ongoing investigation at the role of the sparklers, testimony from survivors and those that rushed to help is beginning to fill in the picture of that fateful night.
Paolo Campolo, a local resident being hailed for pulling revellers out of the burning bar, said that he had to force a rear door of the bar to free people trapped inside.
Multiple teenagers CNN spoke to following the fire, who said they had visited Le Constellation many times, said and that a rear exit to the bar was usually locked.
The French co-owner of the bar told Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève Friday that the establishment had been inspected “three times in 10 years.”
“Everything was done according to the rules,” Jacques Moretti he said.
CNN previously reached out to both Moretti and co-owner Jessica Anne Jeanne Moretti through their businesses.
In Crans-Montana, news of the living and the dead feels like the priority for many.
Processing this disaster is not yet on people's minds.
On Thursday evening, a father walked past the shrouded fences that now mark Le Constellation, his toddler perched on his shoulders.
“What happened there?” she asked him, his face contorting as he searched for his reply, the weight of the tragedy too much to distil.
“An accident, my dear,” he answered.
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President Donald Trump is addressing the United States's overnight strikes on Venezuela during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The press briefing is set to begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning.
MADURO ‘CAPTURED' AND TAKEN OUT OF VENEZUELA AFTER US MILITARY OPERATION IN CARACAS: TRUMP
The U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife during the special operation, according to Trump, who said in his first television interview following the strikes that the U.S. would be “making the decision” about who should lead the country next.
“We'll be involved in it very much. And we want to do liberty for the people. We want to, you know, have a great relationship. I think the people of Venezuela are very, very happy because they love the United States. You know, they were run by, essentially, a dictatorship,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox and Friends.
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The ability to actually change your life is a very modern kind of progress. Here how to make it real in 2026.
It's January 3. The gyms are suddenly crowded; the freshly bought journals are pristine; and suddenly, everyone you know is trying to learn Italian like they're about to become a deep-cover spy in Tuscany. It's the new year, new you, new everything.
A weekly dose of stories chronicling progress around the world.
Or, at least, it is for a few days. January 9, the second Friday of the month this year, is colloquially known as “Quitter's Day,” because it's the date nearly half of all people abandon their New Year's resolutions.
It's enough to make you wonder why we bother in the first place. But the New Year is one of the few moments when our culture collectively agrees that it's normal to try to change. Behavioral scientists even have a name for it: the “fresh start effect,” the idea that temporal landmarks — a new year, a birthday, a Monday — can make people feel like they're opening a new chapter, which can translate into change.
The opportunity to change — whether it's a change of habits, change of skills, or change of communities, or even far bigger changes like changing careers or religion — is really a modern privilege. Even today, not everyone has that freedom, and no one has it equally, but for a huge slice of the people reading this story, our range of plausible life trajectories is far wider than it was for the vast bulk of human history, when life paths were far more limited and largely fixed at birth.
So, this New Year's, let's ignore the cynics and embrace the freedom to change. To help you along, I've gathered five evidence-based tactics designed to help your resolutions survive contact with real life and to help you take advantage of your historically unusual ability to chart your own life.
Why do most resolutions fail? Because they're vibes, not actual behavior. “Get in shape.” “Be healthier.” “Write more.” Those aren't actions; they're umbrella identities with disputed borders, which means every day trying to live up to them in all their vague glory becomes an enervating negotiation. How much “more” counts as “writing more”? Exactly what shape are you trying to get into, and how many edges can it have?
So, instead, make the goal so small — but so specific — that it can't be argued. Ten minutes of meditation, two pages of journaling, one lap around the park, one email to that friend you haven't seen in too long. The aim here is not to transform overnight; it's to get you repeating a behavior.
Here's a quick test: If you can't describe your habit in one sentence that includes the all-important words when and where, it's not ready yet. If this feels like lowering your standards, that's okay. What you're trying to do is lower the threshold for action, so you can build up from a solid foundation.
A resolution powered by motivation is basically a weather-dependent infrastructure plan. Sometimes that's literal (“it's too cold to get that run in”) and sometimes it's psychological (“I'm too down to get that run in”). If you're waiting to feel motivated, you're betting your habit on the one ingredient you control the least — whereas you can almost always increase “ability” by shrinking the task (see tip No. 1), and you can engineer the “prompt” by tying it to a stable cue.
So try this format:
After I [existing routine], I will [tiny habit].
Pick an anchor that's mechanical and reliable — coffee brewing, shower ending, laptop opening — not something fuzzy like “after dinner,” which changes shape depending on how chaotic your day is. The key is to contextualize your habits.
What's the biggest difference between disciplined and undisciplined people? Undisciplined people count on discipline; disciplined people count on plans.
What psychologists call implementation intentions — “If X happens, then I will do Y” — can help reinforce habits because they essentially act as pre-decisions. Instead of relying on non-renewable willpower (see tip No. 2), you decide in advance what you'll do when a reliable cue appears — or just as important, if a reliable problem pops up.
Write two if-then plans in advance:
The point here is to limit the pressure you're putting on your future self — who, after all, is the poor guy who has to fulfill all these resolutions — by planning ahead for what could go wrong.
A goal that lives only in your head is easy to renegotiate at 11:47 pm. Two simple ways to resist that temptation are feedback and accountability.
Self-monitoring shows up again and again as a core component of successful behavior change programs, with research demonstrating that more frequent tracking is consistently associated with better outcomes. This does not mean you have to become a quantified-self maximalist, though admittedly, I'm writing as someone who gets three separate sleep scores each night. But you do need a way to make the desired behavior visible.
Pick one metric you can record in under 30 seconds:
But, the real secret sauce of accountability is when you add in additional eyes. So enlist a witness:
“Hey — I'm doing X for January. Can I text you a ✅ when I do it? No need to respond.” (Just don't send this text at 11:47 pm.)
This is the modern, low-touch version of a very old technology to encourage good habits: regular meetings and structured belonging.
Let's end by going to the other side of the resolution spectrum: the big stuff — new career direction, a move to a different city, a spiritual shift. The common mistake is treating such massive changes as a binary, irreversible decision, which can cause you to freeze under the uncertainty.
Instead of thinking you have no choice but to stay or go, run a pilot — a time-boxed, reversible experiment that lets you try the change at a smaller scale before you reorganize your whole life around it. The point isn't to “prove” you'll succeed; it's to collect real information. What does this path actually feel like on a Tuesday? What obstacles show up? Do you get energy from it, or do you mostly dread it? Does it create momentum, or does it drain you?
Break it into four parts:
The point of all this is to make change less moralistic and more mechanical. You design a better default, then practice it until it feels like you.
If you're lucky enough to have some real freedom — the ability to choose new habits, new skills, maybe even a new path — that is itself a kind of progress worth recognizing. This New Year can just be the one where you cash in that psychological coupon gifted by many centuries of progress and build the kind of change that lasts through Quitter's Day and well beyond.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson provides details on President Donald Trump's announcement that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of the country during what Trump described as a 'large-scale strike.'
The Venezuelan dictator captured by the Trump administration worked as a bus driver and union organizer before his ascent through the South American country's political system, where he ultimately became a wanted man by the U.S. with a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Nicolás Maduro was "captured and flown out of the country" early Saturday following a "large-scale strike" by the U.S. military, according to President Donald Trump.
The actions mark a stunning fall for Maduro, who was serving his third term as president of Venezuela. He led an administration that grappled with economic challenges, mass protests, disputed election results and allegations of narco-trafficking.
Maduro was born in Venezuela's capital of Caracas on Nov. 23, 1962. As a young man, he was sent to communist Cuba in 1986 for a year of ideological instruction — his only studies after high school.
LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP CONFIRMS OVERNIGHT STRIKES IN VENEZUELA, SAYS US HAS ‘CAPTURED' MADURO
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro addresses members of the armed forces, Bolivarian Militia, police, and civilians during a rally against a possible escalation of U.S. actions toward the country, at Fort Tiuna military base in Caracas, Venezuela, on Nov. 25, 2025. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)
Upon returning home, Maduro found work as a bus driver and union organizer. He embraced the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez after the then-army paratrooper in 1992 staged a failed coup against an unpopular austerity government. Around the same time, he met his longtime partner, Cilia Flores, a lawyer for the jailed leader.
After Chávez was freed and elected president in 1998, Maduro, a young lawmaker, helped push his agenda of redistributing the OPEC nation's oil wealth and political power.
In 2000, Maduro was elected to Venezuela's National Assembly. He later became the president of the National Assembly in 2005.
Then in 2006, Chávez appointed Maduro as Venezuela's foreign minister. Six years later, Maduro was appointed as Venezuela's vice president.
When Maduro took power in 2013 following his mentor's death from cancer, he struggled to bring order to the grief-stricken nation. Without "El Comandante" in charge, the economy entered a death spiral — shrinking 71% from 2012 to 2020, with inflation topping 130,000% — and opponents and rivals inside the government saw an opportunity.
Less than a year into Maduro's presidency, hardliner opponents launched demonstrations demanding his exit.
VENEZUELA ARRESTS MORE AMERICANS AS TRUMP RAMPS UP PRESSURE ON MADURO: REPORT
Government supporters display posters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, right, and former President Hugo Chávez in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (Matias Delacroix/AP)
Leaning heavily on Venezuela's security forces, Maduro crushed the protests. However, with supermarket shelves empty amid widespread shortages, they resumed with more intensity three years later, leaving more than 100 people dead. In 2018, the International Criminal Court initiated a criminal investigation into possible crimes against humanity.
The crackdown continued into the 2018 presidential race, which the opposition boycotted when several of its leaders were barred from running. Dozens of countries led by the U.S. condemned Maduro's first re-election as illegitimate and recognized Juan Guaidó, the head of the National Assembly, as Venezuela's elected leader.
"Since 2019, more than 50 countries, including the United States, have refused to recognize Maduro as Venezuela's head of state," the State Department said in a profile of Maduro on its website.
"Maduro helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. As he gained power in Venezuela, Maduro participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," it added.
TREASURY TARGETS OIL TRADERS, TANKERS ACCUSED OF HELPING MADURO EVADE US SANCTIONS
Demonstrators confront police as they protest against the government of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, on Feb. 22, 2014. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)
"Maduro negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine; directed the Cartel of the Suns to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC; coordinated with narcotics traffickers in Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking; and solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Cartel of the Suns," the State Department continued.
"In March 2020, Maduro was charged in the Southern District of New York for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices," it also said.
Maduro was re-elected again in 2024 in another disputed election.
"Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela's July 28 presidential election," then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time.
TRUMP SUGGESTS US HIT ‘BIG FACILITY' IN VENEZUELA DRUG FIGHT
Acting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro waves to supporters as he leaves after voting for the successor to the late President Hugo Chavez, in Caracas on April 14, 2013. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)
Maduro then delivered a fiery inauguration speech in January 2025, likening himself to a biblical David fighting Goliath and accusing his opponents and their supporters in the U.S. of trying to turn his inauguration into a "world war."
He said his enemies' failure to block his inauguration to a third six-year term was "a great victory" for Venezuela's peace and national sovereignty.
"I have not been made president by the government of the United States, nor by the pro-imperialist governments of Latin America," he said, after being draped with a sash in the red, yellow and blue of Venezuela's flag. "I come from the people, I am of the people, and my power emanates from history and from the people. And to the people, I owe my whole life, body and soul."
Months later, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro's arrest.
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"Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like TdA (Tren de Aragua), Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns (Cartel de Soles) to bring deadly violence to our country," Bondi said in a video message in August 2025. "He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security."
Fox News' Michael Sinkewicz, Lucas Y. Tomlinson, Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
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On a Saturday morning in October, Park Jihyun woke up at 5:30 a.m. to go raving in Seoul.
And much about her prep routine was counterintuitive.
Instead of shimmying into a miniskirt, the 29-year-old pulled on a pair of running tights. Instead of slipping her feet into a set of precarious heels, she slipped into running shoes. And in lieu of hailing a cab to the party, she ran from her apartment to the venue in Yongsan-gu, arriving after an hour-long, 5-mile jog, ready to hit the dance floor.
“It's just random people who meet for the first time. But as we start dancing together, it becomes crazier as time flies,” Park says.
Since launching in May, the Seoul Morning Coffee Club's Coffee Rave has become a viral success, drawing hundreds of like-minded Seoulites from the comfort of their beds to dance at daybreak.
Attendees, who have paid 20,000 won (about $14) for their ticket, start trickling in at 7 a.m., and line up for their drink of choice, often an iced Americano or a matcha. By 8 a.m., the DJ is pumping out hypnotic bass beats for an enthusiastic crowd of revelers who are jumping in unison in the clear, bright light of day, with nothing but caffeine to fuel their booze-free rave.
“It's a fresh start to the day,” founder Park Jae-hyun (no relation to Park Jihyun) tells CNN. “Even though it's very early in the morning, everyone looks excited and happy, even without alcohol.”
The concept of sober raves is not new. New York-based outfit Daybreaker and Morning Gloryville in London have been throwing these kinds of raves for more than a decade.
But in recent years, the latest sub-genre of booze-free events has moved into community spaces like coffee shops and bakeries in major cities around the world, flipping the script on the traditional clubbing scene.
From Brisbane to Mumbai, and Paris to Toronto, the movement has quickly gained traction among a segment of Gen Z-ers and younger Millennials who are drinking less and prioritizing sleep, health and wellness in their lives.
Interestingly, however, one of the pioneers of the concept in France says this wasn't his goal when he launched his first bakery rave in Paris back in 2019.
While living and working in cities like Miami and Los Angeles as a French DJ and music producer, Alexis Duvivier, better known as Aazar, said one of the things he missed most about home was French boulangeries, or bakeries.
“It was such a big part of my culture in my everyday life here in France,” Duvivier said during an interview at a coffee shop in Paris. “It was the first thing I wanted to do when I went back or when I was there. I was always on the lookout for the best baguette or the best pain au chocolat. It's always been my personal little quest.”
So when it came time to celebrate the release of his single “Diva” in 2019, Duvivier, 36, wanted to create a free event for his fans, merging his two passions — music and baked goods. He hosted his first early evening rave at The French Bastards in the 11th arrondissement, which had opened a year earlier and quickly distinguished itself from other bakeries for its irreverent and innovative menu.
As Aazar spun for the crowds against a backdrop of baguettes, trays of free pastries were distributed to the revelers, making for fun, unusual visuals on social media.
This year, clips of DJs Bob Sinclair and Peggy Gou playing for excited crowds also went viral, making The French Bastards one of the most unlikely rave hot spots in the French capital.
But Duvivier says the concept was highly personal and was never intended to become a gimmicky social media trend.
“I didn't choose a bakery because I was looking for an unusual location, but because for me it represents France and represents what I love,” said Duvivier, who also hosts events across Europe as Bakery Session.
However, in the years since, the movement has grown bigger than Duvivier's initial intent, circling the globe and gaining momentum, as it reflects shifting global trends and responds to a set of unmet needs.
“In Korea, there's a lot of competition and mental illness in society,” says Park, the Seoul Morning Coffee Club (SMCC) founder. “I want to help Koreans have a freer life … tell them to calm down, relax, take it easy and that everything is going to be fine.”
While South Korea is not unique in dealing with the issue of deteriorating mental health, burnout and a loneliness epidemic in this fragmented, digital age, suffering is particularly acute in this country.
The suicide rate in South Korea is highest among the countries tracked by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) at 23 suicides per 100,000 people in 2023 – more than double the OECD average. And it's a troubling title the country has held for more than a decade.
In a country notorious for its hyper-competitive, status-centered social structure, work-life balance in South Korea can be difficult to manage, with long work hours and a cutthroat job market.
But in recent years, younger generations have been increasingly rejecting the status quo, prioritizing their wellness and seeking community in offline events like those organized by the Seoul Morning Coffee Club (the group also hosts morning runs, book clubs and coffee chats) that allow them to blow off steam and boost their mental health.
“Compared to other countries, a lot of Korean people are very self-conscious,” says Park Jihyun, who also volunteers as a coffee chat host. “But the coffee rave lets you be yourself and helps introverts and those who are self-conscious grow out of their shell.”
While Seoul is known for its thrumming nightlife, the raves also cater to an underserved demographic in the city: morning people. And within this group, many tend to lead healthy, booze-free lifestyles, which can be isolating in a drinking culture where professional and personal relationships are often forged over a night of heavy drinking.
For British content creator Freya Hawksley, 23, who has been living in Seoul for the past five years, the event is a win-win, both as a morning person and non-drinker.
“When you're partying and drinking, your energy levels start really high and then deplete throughout the night,” Hawksley says. “But when you go to these morning parties, you actually gain energy. So you turn up to these raves at 7 a.m., you finish at 10 a.m., and you feel completely energized and ready for the day.”
Seoul raves are also safe spaces: wholesome, family-friendly and multi-generational raves with babies and tots bopping to EDM alongside older adults.
“As a woman, I feel so much safer,” she added.
Hawksley was invited to the launch event as a friend of the organizers but has since returned on her own.
It's a similar story in London, where DJs Manpal Bhullar (Mezz B), 32, and Vishal Kamle (Chndra), 31, brought sober, daytime raves to coffee shops earlier this year.
“I'm at that age where I don't want to be out until the early morning, drinking and clubbing,” Kamle says. “It's built around us in a way, reflecting our era.”
It's a surprising admission for the duo, who are used to playing late-night clubs as Lost in Kaydnce. But the founders of Coffee Gen say that London nightlife has changed over the years, becoming too commercialized, impersonal and prohibitively expensive.
That disillusionment is shared by many young Britons. According to a 2025 consumer report from Night Time Industries Association UK published in February, 61% of the 2,000 respondents aged 18-30 reported going out less frequently in the last year, citing financial pressures, safety concerns and transportation barriers.
The group has also warned that 40% of the UK's nightlife businesses faced closures without government intervention.
Matthew Campoli, co-founder of The Coffee Party in Toronto, also points out that the new genre of sober raves has succeeded in shaking up a stale and stagnant nightlife scene that lost part of its luster after the pandemic.
“I think there's a need for genuine connection again. Since the pandemic, there's been a gap. Social anxieties have developed and routines were crushed, and a lot of people started to prioritize themselves during that time which is why interests have shifted.”
For Franklin Vaz, 33, the arrival of sober coffee raves in Toronto earlier this year aligned with his own lifestyle changes, as he had decided to quit alcohol altogether.
But he still loved music. When one of his DJ friends who was spinning at a Coffee Party event told him about the gathering, Vaz jumped at the idea of joining like-minded people. He had no expectations, he says, and went to support his friend.
While waiting to get his drink, however, Vaz became instantly smitten by the “radiant” face of a woman who was also waiting in line and struck up conversation. Turned out that both were avid runners and led clean lifestyles: two days later, they went on their first date where they ran the distance of a half marathon, 13 miles, together.
“The conversation just flowed, so it was very exciting and very organic,” he says of meeting his now girlfriend.
After attending the events as a guest, Vaz now works as an event helper at The Coffee Party.
“The events are very motivating,” he adds. “The people there want to be the best versions of themselves. So it's pushed me to be the best version of myself too.”
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President Donald Trump wants to tamp down on public debates about his health.
The oldest president to assume office has been dogged by questions about recent doctors' visits, bruises on his hands and whether he's fallen asleep during public events.
Trump dismissed these concerns in an apparently impromptu interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, in which he blamed the visible bruises on a high daily dose of aspirin — more than his doctors recommend — and said he has plenty of energy.
The president, who for years criticized former President Joe Biden's age and cognitive health, followed up Friday with a Truth Social post saying he had aced his “third straight” cognitive test.
But the disclosures have done little to quell reemerging scrutiny of his health.
In fact, here are five questions his most recent health disclosures have raised.
The physician overseeing Trump's care and the recent pronouncement of exceptional health is Dr. Sean Barbabella, a Navy captain who was named to the role in March. Barbabella specialized in combat trauma and emergency care while in the military. He has defended Trump's recent advance medical imaging and a semiannual physical this year as routine screening and care.
He is the latest in a line of personal physicians who have praised Trump's physical health and cognition.
When Trump entered his first term, he kept on Dr. Ronny Jackson, who had served as President Barack Obama's personal physician and grew to be one of Trump's close personal advisers after a glowing news conference about the then-45th president's “incredible genes.”
Jackson stepped down from his White House role in March 2018 when Trump nominated him to lead the Veterans Affairs Department. But he withdrew his nomination a month later amid allegations about his professional conduct while in the White House. He now serves in the House of Representatives as a Republican from Texas.
Jackson was followed by Dr. Sean Conley, a Navy emergency physician who in 2019 said that Trump was “in very good health” and that he expected the president “will remain so for the duration of his Presidency, and beyond.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Conley prescribed hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that had gained popularity among conservatives as an alternative — though unproven— therapy to aid against infection from the virus, as a preventive measure for Trump. In October 2020, when Trump contracted Covid-19, Conley oversaw his treatment.
The White House physicians were preceded by Dr. Harold Bornstein, Trump's longtime personal physician in New York City. During his first presidential campaign, Bornstein proclaimed in an effusive letter that Trump “will be healthiest individual ever elected” president.
Bornstein later claimed that Trump dictated that letter to him over the phone. After the election, he said Trump officials raided his office for the president's personal medical records, an account disputed by administration officials who said it was a routine handover of his private records.
Bornstein told The New York Times at the time that the encounter took place two days after a February 2017 interview in which he told NBC News that the president takes Propecia, a prostate drug often prescribed for hair loss.
The president said he takes a higher dose of aspirin than recommended by his doctors because “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart.” He blamed that high dose for the visible bruises on his hands in recent months.
Aspirin used to be widely prescribed as a preventative for cardiovascular disease, but that has shifted. In 2019, medical experts advised against routine aspirin use unless a person has a heart condition or other health risks, citing the heightened risk of internal bleeding.
When they do recommend preventive aspirin, doctors typically advise an 81 milligram dose, said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. Trump told the Journal that he takes 325 milligram daily – about four times as much – and Barbabella said he is using it for cardiac prevention.
“Low-dose aspirin is 81 milligrams once a day, and full-dose is 325 milligrams once a day,” said Dr. Fahmi Farah, an invasive cardiologist and medical director and CEO of Bentley Heart in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Typically speaking, we do not recommend the full-dose aspirin. The full-dose aspirin has a lot more risk factors associated with it, and for the most part, those are GI risk factors. People who take full-dose aspirin are more prone to having GI bleeding, especially if they have ulcers and things like that,” Farah said. “The people we usually reserve the full-dose aspirin for are those who have serious conditions, like they have heart disease, or they have diagnosed atrial fibrillation, and they cannot be on a stronger blood thinner.”
The White House has said the president has chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that can cause blood to pool in the veins, inducing swelling and aches in the lower legs. It is a common condition, particularly as people age, and can be worsened by lack of physical activity. In some cases, aspirin may also be used to help treat the condition.
Freeman and the other doctors who spoke to CNN have not treated the president and do not have direct insight into his health.
But “many cardiologists would question” a long-term high-dose regimen, “given increased bleeding risk,” said Dr. Vivek Cherian, a Chicago-based internal medicine physician.
In a statement to CNN, Barbabella asserted that “President Trump's medical evaluations and laboratory results continue to show excellent metabolic health, and have revealed his cardiovascular health puts him 14 years younger than his age.”
“Overall, the President remains in exceptional health and perfectly suited to execute his duties as Commander in Chief,” he said.
Trump's interview with the Journal shed some more light on what the White House has called the “advanced imaging” he underwent in October. The president had told reporters that it was an MRI — a lengthier, more intensive scan focused on soft tissue — and was part of his routine physical. However, Trump told the Journal that he had a CT scan.
Barbabella told CNN that both options, an MRI and a CT scan, were on the table “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.” A CT scan was done, he said, and “was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”
A cardiovascular CT scan is typically used to estimate long-term heart attack risk or rule out significant blockages, said Cherian, the Chicago-based internal medicine physician.
“Bottom line, CT scans don't ‘prove' your heart is safe, but they can refine risk, guide prevention, reassure when normal and escalate care when abnormal,” Cherian told CNN in an email.
In the new interview, Trump expressed regret about disclosing the scan in the first place. “In retrospect, it's too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,” he told the Journal.
Trump has been adamant for years that presidential and vice presidential candidates should undergo “cognitive assessments.” The president renewed this call Friday in a Truth Social post declaring that he had scored “100%” on his third cognitive test.
“I strongly believe that anyone running for President, or Vice President, should be mandatorily forced to take a strong, meaningful, and proven Cognitive Examination,” he wrote.
It is not clear what test he was referring to in his post, and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment. But in 2018, Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a 10-minute screening test used to detect mild cognitive impairment and early dementia.
He took the test again in April 2025, reportedly scoring 30 out of 30.
According to Cherian, “a normal or high score means no obvious cognitive impairment was detected,” he said. “It's important to note that the MoCA is not an IQ test and does not measure intelligence, judgment, decision-making, or overall cognitive fitness.”
That Trump took to social media even after speaking to the Journal reflects his longtime defensiveness about his cognitive health – a point on which he often attacked his predecessor on the 2024 campaign trail.
Trump “has nothing to hide, unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, who hid from the press and lied about his clear physical and mental decline,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The president also told the Journal that he gets little sleep, finds most exercise boring and has not made changes to his diet, which has favored fast food such as McDonald's burgers and Filet-O-Fish.
Farah, the invasive cardiologist in Fort Worth, found the details about sleep “alarming.”
“It could be something as simple as sleep deprivation, but it could be something more serious,” she said. “It can have a lot of other effects on your overall health, especially your cardiovascular health. It can increase the risk of heart attack, arrhythmia, stroke, all of those things.”
Trump attributes his health to “very good genetics.” But experts say this is just one piece of the puzzle, particularly as people age.
“Your genes are part of the equation, for sure, but it's the environment you put them in,” including diet and exercise, said Freeman. “If we were honest and open about this in a more explicit way, we might actually be able to solve the problem of the American health crisis.”
That message is the crux of the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda spearheaded by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Freeman pointed out.
Kennedy “is trying his best to move the needle on nutrition, but it seems like the president doesn't seem to resonate with any of those things,” Freeman said. “It's a very interesting time where politics and health are crossing in ways that you never anticipate.”
CNN's Alayna Treene contributed to this report.
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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, joins 'America's Newsroom' to weigh in on Jack Smith's deposition over secret subpoenas for lawmakers' phone records and looming Capitol Hill battles over Obamacare subsidies and healthcare.
Former special counsel Jack Smith used a closed-door deposition with House Republicans last month to defend his investigations into Donald Trump's alleged effort to subvert the 2020 presidential election and his alleged retention of certain classified documents, using the hours-long testimony to forcefully dispute the notion that his team had acted politically, and citing what he described as ample evidence to support the indictments that had been levied against Trump.
"I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election," Smith told members of the House Judiciary Committee in the Dec. 17 interview.
The interview was Smith's first time appearing before Congress since he left his role as special counsel in 2024. And while much of the information was not new, the exchange was punctuated by sharp exchanges with Republicans on the panel, both on the strength of the case and on his own actions taken during the course of the probe — most recently, on the tolling records his team sought from a handful of Republican lawmakers over the course of the investigation. Republicans have assailed the records as being at odds with the speech or debate clause of the Constitution.
"I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump's political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election," Smith told the committee. "We took actions based on what the facts, and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor."
Republicans on the panel ultimately opted to publish the redacted transcript on New Year's Eve, a decision that may have helped dull the impact of any news the 255-page document may have generated amid the broader hustle and bustle of the holiday season.
Here are some of the biggest moments and notable exchanges from the eight-hour hearing.
TRUMP STRIPS SECURITY CLEARANCES FROM LAW FIRM TIED TO JACK SMITH CASES
Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives to make remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Smith was tapped by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump's keeping of allegedly classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach after leaving office in 2020. Smith had brought charges against Trump in both cases.
The charges were dropped after Trump's election, in keeping with a longstanding Justice Department policy that discourages investigating sitting presidents for federal criminal charges, and Smith resigned from his role shortly afterward.
If nothing else, Smith's Dec. 17 testimony underscored just how much has changed since Trump's reelection in 2024.
Trump, for his part, has used his first year back in office to follow through on his promises to go after his perceived political "enemies," including by revoking security clearances of many individuals, including employees of a D.C.-based law firm that represents Smith, and taking other punitive measures to punish or fire FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, investigation.
During his testimony last month, Smith fiercely disputed the notion that Trump's remarks about the 2020 election results would be protected by the First Amendment.
"Absololutely not," he said in response to a lawyer for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.
The lawyer then ticked through a "long list of disputed elections" in U.S. history and former presidents who have spoken out about "what they believed to be fraud," or other issues regarding election integrity. "I think you would agree that those types of statements are sort of at the core of the First Amendment rights of a presidential candidate, right?"
"There is no historical analog for what President Trump did in this case," Smith said immediately.
JACK SMITH SUBPOENAED FOR DEPOSITION WITH HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Former President Donald Trump and attorney Todd Blanche return from a lunch break in Trump's trial at Manhattan court in New York on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
Smith told members that the special counsel ultimately gathered evidence against Trump that was, in his view, sufficient to secure a conviction.
"He made false statements to state legislatures, to his supporters in all sorts of contexts and was aware in the days leading up to Jan. 6th that his supporters were angry when he invited them, and then he directed them to the Capitol," Smith said of Trump' actions in the run-up to Jan. 6.
"Now, once they were at the Capitol and once the attack on the Capitol happened, he refused to stop it. He instead issued a tweet that, without question in my mind, endangered the life of his own vice president," Smith added. "And when the violence was going on, he had to be pushed repeatedly by his staff members to do anything to quell it."
Other possible co-conspirators had not been charged, as Smith noted at one point during the interview.
But Smith said in the testimony that his team had developed "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that Trump had "engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power."
They'd also developed what he described as "powerful evidence" that Trump had willfully retained highly classified documents after leaving office in January 2021 at his private Mar-a-Lago residence, and had been obstructing the government's efforts to recover the records.
Smith said that, when the special counsel wound down in the wake of the 2024 elections, his team had not determined whether to charge the key Trump allies who may or may not have acted as co-conspirators, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and John Eastman.
"As we stated in the final report, we analyzed the evidence against different co-conspirators," Smith said. Smith reiterated his allegation that Trump was "the most culpable" and "most responsible" person for the alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election results.
He said the special counsel had "determined that we did have evidence to charge people at a certain point in time."
But at the time the investigation was wound down, they had not made "final determinations about that at the time that President Trump won reelection, meaning that our office was going to be closed down."
FBI OUSTS FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, AGENT INVOLVED IN J6 PROSECUTIONS, WITH MORE EXPECTED
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith enters a room in the Rayburn House Office Building to give his deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Smith used his opening remarks to lament the ousting of FBI agents and Justice Department officials involved in the Jan. 6 investigations.
"I am both saddened and angered that President Trump has sought revenge against career prosecutors, FBI agents, and support staff simply for doing their jobs and for having worked on those cases," Smith said.
His remarks came after the FBI in recent months ousted a handful of personnel involved in the Jan. 6 investigations, an effort individuals familiar with the action described to Fox News at the time as an act of "retaliation."
Thousands of FBI personnel in February were forced to fill out a sprawling questionnaire asking employees detailed questions about any role they may have played in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots — ranging from whether they had testified in any criminal trials to when they last participated in investigation-related activity.
FBI AGENTS SUE TRUMP DOJ TO BLOCK ANY PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES WHO WORKED ON JAN. 6 INVESTIGATIONS
Smith was grilled during the deposition about the highly scrutinized subpoenas his team issued to phone companies for data belonging to House and Senate lawmakers as part of his investigation, saying they aligned with the Justice Department's policy at the time.
Smith said the Public Integrity Section had signed off on the subpoenas, a point corroborated by records previously released by Grassley's office.
Those records also showed that the Public Integrity Section told prosecutors to be wary of concerns lawmakers could raise about the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which gives Congress members added protections.
The subpoenas to the phone companies were accompanied by gag orders blocking the lawmakers from learning about the existence of the subpoenas for at least one year. Smith said the D.C. federal court, which authorized the gag orders, would not have been aware that they applied to Congress members." I don't think we identified that, because I don't think that was Department policy at the time," Smith said.
Asked during the deposition about who should be held accountable for lawmakers who felt that the seizure of a narrow set of their phone data was a constitutional violation, Smith said Trump should be held accountable.
"These records are people, in the case of the Senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings," Smith said.
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"He chose to do that. If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic Senators. So responsibility for why these records, why we collected them, that's — that lies with Donald Trump," he said.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI and other national news. She previously covered national politics at the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post, with additional bylines in Politico Magazine, the Colorado Gazette and others. You can send tips to Breanne at Breanne.Deppisch@fox.com, or follow her on X at @breanne_dep.
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The U.S. military “captured” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after a special forces military operation in Caracas, President Donald Trump announced.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
The operation is unprecedented in modern history, and marks the first time a head of state has been taken captive by a rival nation in an opening special forces operation.
Officials told CBS that Delta Force, the Army's most elite unit, was the one that carried out the operation.
The Venezuelan government hasn't yet acknowledged the alleged abduction of its head of state. It's unclear who is in charge of the country in Maduro's absence.
According to Venezuela's constitution, power should pass to Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez. Rodríguez will face even worse legitimacy issues than Maduro, however, and pressure from the democratic opposition is sure to increase. Venezuela's opposition holds that the exiled Edmundo Gonzalez is the rightful president of the country.
In a national address, Gen. Vladimir Padrino Lopez, denounced the U.S. operation as an “invasion” that “represents the most blatant outrage suffered by the country.”
Lopez's address marked the first public appearance of a Venezuelan official since the operation. He didn't address the apparent abduction of Maduro.
Trump provided further details of the operation in a brief phone interview with the New York Times.
“A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” Trump said. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”
He said he would address concerns, such as whether he had sought congressional approval and what's next for Venezuela, at his 11 a.m. news conference at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump began ratcheting up pressure against Maduro shortly after taking office, putting a $50 million bounty on his head. Maduro was charged with widespread corruption, running a narcoterrorist group, and drug trafficking. Trump and his officials had gone so far as to repeatedly publicly threaten his life.
Maduro's fate in the U.S. is another matter. He may face charges in a U.S. court of law, given the allegations against him. His arrest is guaranteed to draw widespread outrage not just from Maduro's allies, including Russia, Iran, and China, but from other countries concerned with diplomatic norms as well.
In December, there were reports about a deal that would have Maduro step down, in exchange for him being allowed to live freely in Russia.
Videos of explosions hitting major military and government targets were posted across social media beginning at around 2 a.m. local time on Saturday. Simultaneously, videos showed helicopters of various types hovering over the city. Among these were reported sightings of CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters hovering over the city, apparently, the helicopters containing the special forces that took Maduro captive.
VENEZUELA DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER US OPERATION IN CARACAS
The operation lasted around one hour, with explosions reported from around 2 a.m. local time to 3 a.m. local time. No further strikes have been reported.
The U.S. attempted a similar operation in 1989 to capture Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega as part of Operation Just Cause. U.S. special operations soldiers, including Delta Force, raided several hideouts hoping to capture the drug trafficker, but came up empty-handed. Noriega later had to be coaxed out of the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See with heavy metal music, weeks after the invasion.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
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The U.S. military carried out strikes in Venezuela early Saturday morning, U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News. Multiple explosions could be seen in the capital of Caracas and in nearby areas. (CREDIT: The Associated Press)
The U.S. military carried out a "large-scale strike" in Venezuela early Saturday morning and took Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife into custody, President Donald Trump confirmed.
The president wrote on Truth Social that the operation was successful and Maduro and his wife were "captured and flown out of the country." Trump said the operation was conducted with U.S. law enforcement and added that a news conference will take place at Mar-a-Lago at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
At least seven explosions could be heard in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas early Saturday morning, according to The Associated Press, and low-flying aircraft were seen flying over Caracas at about 2 a.m. local time.
The helicopters seen flying over Caracas were part of the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the "Night Stalkers."
NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT PREDICTS VENEZUELAN LEADER MADURO IS 'GOING TO BE GONE' UNDER TRUMP PRESSURE
Fire at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela's largest military complex, after a series of explosions in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026. (Luis Jaimes/AFP via Getty Images)
The Venezuelan government said in a statement that "the civilian and military localities of the city of Caracas, capital of the Republic, and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira" were impacted by the attack.
The statement also accused the U.S. of committing a "very serious military aggression" against Venezuela and carrying out "imperialist aggression."
"The objective of this attack is none other than to seize Venezuela's strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, attempting to break the Nation's political independence by force," the Government of Venezuela said in a statement. "They will not succeed. After more than two hundred years of independence, the people and their legitimate Government remain steadfast in defense of sovereignty and the inalienable right to decide their own destiny."
The statement also said the "attempt to impose a colonial war to destroy the republican form of government and force a ‘regime change,' in alliance with the fascist oligarchy, will fail just like all previous attempts."
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau reacted to Trump's announcement, describing it as a "new dawn for Venezuela."
"The tyrant is gone," Landau posted on X. "He will now — finally —face justice for his crimes."
MADURO SAYS VENEZUELA IS 'READY' TO MAKE DEAL WITH US ON DRUGS AND OIL AFTER MILITARY STRIKES
The attack comes amid the U.S. military's targeting of alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, questioned the justification for the strike in a post on X early Saturday, writing, "I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force."
Maduro said Thursday that his government was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States after months of American military pressure targeting drug trafficking networks tied to his government.
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro looks on during a meeting at the National Assembly in Caracas, Aug. 22, 2025. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)
In a pre-taped interview with Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet that aired on state television, Maduro said Venezuela is "ready" to discuss a drug-trafficking deal with the U.S. He called on the countries to "start talking seriously, with data in hand."
"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," he said. "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."
The U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, warned U.S. citizens on Saturday not to travel to Venezuela and advised those in the country to shelter in place.
Fire at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela's largest military complex, is seen from a distance after a series of explosions in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
A Travel Advisory from Dec. 3 states that all U.S. citizens in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately. The Department of State withdrew all diplomatic personnel from U.S. Embassy Caracas and suspended operations in March 2019.
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The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Notice to Airmen at 1 a.m. EST on Saturday prohibiting all U.S. aircraft from operating "at all altitudes within Venezuelan airspace."
The Associated Press Contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
Michael Sinkewicz is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to michael.sinkewicz@fox.com
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A couple stands on a jetty as the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean in Bal Harbour, Fla., Sept. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
Dog walker Kathleen Chirico strolls with a pack of dogs during a warm day along the Hudson River, May 2, 2018, in Hoboken, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
It turns out, love may benefit from a little less labor.
Couples who spend money on time-saving services — like getting takeout, hiring a housecleaner or calling a dog walker — report greater relationship satisfaction, especially during stressful periods, says Ashley Whillans, a behavioral scientist and professor at Harvard Business School.
Whillans studies the “tradeoffs people make between time and money.”
“When you spend money to save time — hiring an accountant, a babysitter, a cleaner — you feel more control over your life,” she said. “That sense of autonomy boosts well-being.”
Not everyone can afford to outsource bigger household chores. But Whillans says even a little bit can help. She advises couples to take a “time audit” — examining how they spend their hours and what small changes could reclaim even a few moments.
“People underestimate how much these choices matter,” she said. “It's not about luxury — it's about freeing up time to connect.”
Whillans' team tracked busy, dual-income couples — partners working full-time who often report feeling time-starved — and found consistent patterns. In one six-week diary study, couples who made “time-saving purchases” on a given day were happier and more satisfied with their relationships.
Simply outsourcing chores isn't a magic fix, however.
“It's about being intentional with the time you get back — using it to spend quality time together, to reconnect,” Whillans said.
“Think of that half hour not as an opportunity to send more emails, but as a chance to spend time with your partner.”
Targol Hasankhani, a Chicago-based marriage and family therapist, stressed that while outsourcing domestic labor can ease daily stress, it doesn't replace communication. Juggling careers and kids takes a toll on families, and housework is often freighted with resentments over who is doing it.
“If conflict around chores is rooted in something deeper — like inequity or not feeling heard — hiring a cleaner won't solve that,” she said.
Couples must dig deeper to address problems with many layers.
“It opens up time and space, but couples still have to know how to show up for each other in that space,” Hasankhani said.
Casey Mulligan Walsh, 71, a former speech pathologist and author in upstate New York, said the best part about hiring a housecleaner once a week was that it freed up time for her and her husband to spend together.
“My favorite day of the week was coming home to a clean house,” she said. “We'd go get coffee together instead of arguing about who should vacuum.”
Getting started on delegating household tasks isn't easy for some couples, Whillans said. Besides the cost, “it takes time to find someone and coordinate — but the long-term payoff is real.”
And making such decisions together can deepen trust and a sense of teamwork.
For one Colorado couple, outsourcing started as an act of love.
“When I started dating, my now-husband noticed how hard I was working — at my job, at home and as a single mom,” said Melissa Jones, a 45-year-old teacher in Pueblo.
His Valentine's Day gift? A deep housecleaning.
“It was truly amazing,” Jones said. “After that, I kept it up on my own for years. When my husband and I moved in together, we decided to continue.”
“We're able to make memories with each other, our kids and our families instead of spending weekends scrubbing floors,” she said.
In Miami, Elizabeth Willard, 59, runs The Pickled Beet, a culinary service preparing customized meals.
“Most of the people I cook for are trying to invest in their health but don't have the time,” she said, noting that families often juggle mixed dietary needs. “Sometimes the husband's a carnivore and the wife's vegetarian, one child's celiac. They're exhausted trying to make everyone happy.”
Her clients, often families with children and two working parents, are “not fighting over what's for dinner. It's one less daily decision.”
Whether ordering a pizza, paying a teenager to mow the lawn, or calling a car service to save 20 minutes, the outcome can be the same: Buying back time can buy peace.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Mike Petak of Spring City gestures while speaking to East Vincent Township supervisors in opposition to a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds, Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
People opposed to a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds talk during a break in an East Vincent Township supervisors meeting, Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
People sign in and head into an East Vincent Township supervisors meeting where an agenda item involved a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds, Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
People opposed to a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds attend an East Vincent Township supervisors meeting, Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
Mike Petak of Spring City gestures while speaking to East Vincent Township supervisors in opposition to a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds, Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
People listen during an East Vincent Township supervisors meeting where an agenda item involved a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds, Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
SPRING CITY, Pa. (AP) — Tech companies and developers looking to plunge billions of dollars into ever-bigger data centers to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing are increasingly losing fights in communities where people don't want to live next to them, or even near them.
Communities across the United States are reading about — and learning from — each other's battles against data center proposals that are fast multiplying in number and size to meet steep demand as developers branch out in search of faster connections to power sources.
In many cases, municipal boards are trying to figure out whether energy- and water-hungry data centers fit into their zoning framework. Some have entertained waivers or tried to write new ordinances. Some don't have zoning.
But as more people hear about a data center coming to their community, once-sleepy municipal board meetings in farming towns and growing suburbs now feature crowded rooms of angry residents pressuring local officials to reject the requests.
“Would you want this built in your backyard?” Larry Shank asked supervisors last month in Pennsylvania's East Vincent Township. “Because that's where it's literally going, is in my backyard.”
A growing number of proposals are going down in defeat, sounding alarms across the data center constellation of Big Tech firms, real estate developers, electric utilities, labor unions and more.
Andy Cvengros, who helps lead the data center practice at commercial real estate giant JLL, counted seven or eight deals he'd worked on in recent months that saw opponents going door-to-door, handing out shirts or putting signs in people's yards.
“It's becoming a huge problem,” Cvengros said.
Data Center Watch, a project of 10a Labs, an AI security consultancy, said it is seeing a sharp escalation in community, political and regulatory disruptions to data center development.
Between April and June alone, its latest reporting period, it counted 20 proposals valued at $98 billion in 11 states that were blocked or delayed amid local opposition and state-level pushback. That amounts to two-thirds of the projects it was tracking.
Some environmental and consumer advocacy groups say they're fielding calls every day, and are working to educate communities on how to protect themselves.
“I've been doing this work for 16 years, worked on hundreds of campaigns I'd guess, and this by far is the biggest kind of local pushback I've ever seen here in Indiana,” said Bryce Gustafson of the Indianapolis-based Citizens Action Coalition.
In Indiana alone, Gustafson counted more than a dozen projects that lost rezoning petitions.
For some people angry over steep increases in electric bills, their patience is thin for data centers that could bring still-higher increases.
Losing open space, farmland, forest or rural character is a big concern. So is the damage to quality of life, property values or health by on-site diesel generators kicking on or the constant hum of servers. Others worry that wells and aquifers could run dry.
Lawsuits are flying — both ways — over whether local governments violated their own rules.
Big Tech firms Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook — which are collectively spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers across the globe — didn't answer Associated Press questions about the effect of community pushback.
Microsoft, however, has acknowledged the difficulties. In an October securities filing, it listed its operational risks as including “community opposition, local moratoriums, and hyper-local dissent that may impede or delay infrastructure development.”
Even with high-level support from state and federal governments, the pushback is having an impact.
Maxx Kossof, vice president of investment at Chicago-based developer The Missner Group, said developers worried about losing a zoning fight are considering selling properties once they secure a power source — a highly sought-after commodity that makes a proposal far more viable and valuable.
“You might as well take chips off the table,” Kossof said. “The thing is you could have power to a site and it's futile because you might not get the zoning. You might not get the community support.”
Some in the industry are frustrated, saying opponents are spreading falsehoods about data centers — such as polluting water and air — and are difficult to overcome.
Still, data center allies say they are urging developers to engage with the public earlier in the process, emphasize economic benefits, sow good will by supporting community initiatives and talk up efforts to conserve water and power and protect ratepayers.
“It's definitely a discussion that the industry is having internally about, ‘Hey, how do we do a better job of community engagement?'” said Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition, a trade association that includes Big Tech firms and developers.
Winning over local officials, however, hasn't translated to winning over residents.
Developers pulled a project off an October agenda in the Charlotte suburb of Matthews, North Carolina, after Mayor John Higdon said he informed them it faced unanimous defeat.
The project would have funded half the city's budget and developers promised environmentally friendly features. But town meetings overflowed, and emails, texts and phone calls were overwhelmingly opposed, “999 to one against,” Higdon said.
Had council approved it, “every person that voted for it would no longer be in office,” the mayor said. “That's for sure.”
In Hermantown, a suburb of Duluth, Minnesota, a proposed data center campus several times larger than the Mall of America is on hold amid challenges over whether the city's environmental review was adequate.
Residents found each other through social media and, from there, learned to organize, protest, door-knock and get their message out.
They say they felt betrayed and lied to when they discovered that state, county, city and utility officials knew about the proposal for an entire year before the city — responding to a public records request filed by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy — released internal emails that confirmed it.
“It's the secrecy. The secrecy just drives people crazy,” said Jonathan Thornton, a realtor who lives across a road from the site.
Documents revealing the extent of the project emerged days before a city rezoning vote in October. Mortenson, which is developing it for a Fortune 50 company that it hasn't named, says it is considering changes based on public feedback and that “more engagement with the community is appropriate.”
Rebecca Gramdorf found out about it from a Duluth newspaper article, and immediately worried that it would spell the end of her six-acre vegetable farm.
She found other opponents online, ordered 100 yard signs and prepared for a struggle.
“I don't think this fight is over at all,” Gramdorf said.
___
Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
“Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz says he will not appear at the Kennedy Center after its board voted to attach President Donald Trump's name to the venue — becoming the latest artist to push back against the president's takeover of Washington's most iconic performing arts center.
The Oscar and Grammy-award winning composer said in a statement, “The Kennedy Center was founded to be an apolitical home for artists of all nationalities and all ideologies. It is no longer apolitical, and appearing there has become an ideological statement. As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there.”
The center's website had listed Schwartz as appearing in a gala with the Washington National Opera in May, and included a link to buy tickets to the performance, but it was removed from the website Friday afternoon.
In spite of the website listing the upcoming appearance by Schwartz, Richard Grenell, the president of the center's board, denied that he had ever been signed to appear.
“He was never signed and I've never had a single conversation on him since arriving,” Grenell said in a post on X, calling reports of Schwartz's cancelation “totally bogus.”
“He himself said last February he hadn't heard anything on it,” Grenell said.
A spokesman for Schwartz said the composer and a person associated with the Washington National Opera had been in communication about his “possible participation” in a May gala, and they had last spoken in February 2025.
“Having not heard anything further after that point, he assumed—incorrectly, as it turns out—that the event was no longer moving forward,” the spokesman, Michael Cole, said in an email to CNN. Cole added that Schwartz had only learned Thursday night that the event was still scheduled.
The Kennedy Center opened in 1971, designated by Congress as a living memorial to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Schwartz attended the center's opening.
But a stream of artists have canceled their appearances since Trump purged the center's existing board and installed a slate of loyalists to oversee the center last year. Since then, the center has cut staff and reevaluated its programming.
More artists canceled after the new board voted last month to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
The New York City-based dance company Doug Varone and Dancers is among those who cancelled their upcoming performances. The company's director, Doug Varone, appearing on CNN's “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Friday said the decision to cancel was unanimous — despite the financial hit from lost revenue.
“Everyone in our organization from our board to our dancers to our staff all supported this decision,” he said. “I can't imagine any artist wanting to step through those doors right now with his name on that building.”
The decision by artists to bow out of scheduled appearances prompted threats of legal action from the Kennedy Center against some of the artists.
The move to add Trump's name to the center quickly raised legal concerns as to whether the board had the legal authority to rename the arts institution. But it's unclear whether anybody looking to challenge the renaming would have legal standing to do so, experts previously told CNN.
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Casey Dawson, of Park City, Utah, right, and Ethan Cepuran, of Glen Ellyn, lllinois, left, compete in the men's 5,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials for long track speed skating at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Howard Fendrich)
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Four years after showing up late for the Beijing Olympics and missing one of his races because of a case of COVID-19, U.S. long track speedskater Casey Dawson is enjoying what he jokingly terms his “villain arc,” peaking at the right time ahead of the Milan Cortina Games.
Dawson secured a spot for next month in the men's 5,000 meters — an event he was forced to skip in 2022 while sick — by winning at that distance at the U.S. Olympic trials in 6 minutes, 12.857 seconds on Friday night.
“I actually got COVID two or three weeks before going to the competition. Tested positive for 50 straight tests,” said Dawson, a 25-year-old from Park City, Utah. “Couldn't go over to the Games. I missed the opening ceremonies. Missed the 5,000 meters. Showed up 12 hours before my 1,500 meters. So I kind of got a little screwed over from that point of view. But this time around, I'm just looking forward to getting there smoothly and just getting a little bit of redemption.”
And then, with a chuckle, Dawson added: “It's kind of fun to have, like, my villain arc, I would call it. Just coming back and having some fun.”
Ethan Cepuran was about 6 1/2 seconds back Friday, finishing next in 6:19.335.
The last American man to medal in the 5,000 at an Olympics was Chad Hedrick at the 2006 Turin Games.
Dawson already had secured the lone U.S. place for Milan in the men's 10,000 — a race not being contested at these trials — and also will be part of the trio for men's team pursuit at the Olympics.
Dawson, Cepuran and Emery Lehman took the bronze in that event in Beijing four years ago, set the world record in 2024 and claimed gold in the team pursuit at the world championships in March.
In the other race Friday, the women's 3,000, Greta Myers won in 4:06.799. As of now, the United States does not have a berth in Milan for that distance, but one of its athletes could end up in the field if another country relinquishes an opening.
“It's hard to wait,” said Myers, a 21-year-old from Lino Lakes, Minnesota. “But I'm very hopeful. I think it's at least a 50-50 chance that it'll happen.”
The U.S. Olympic roster for long track won't become official until the four-day trials at the Pettit National Ice Center wrap up on Monday. One element that could come into play is that the Americans are allowed to bring a maximum of eight men and six women to these Winter Games.
The biggest star of the team — and the sport — is scheduled to make his trials debut Saturday in the men's 1,000 meters: Jordan Stolz. The 21-year-old from Kewaskum, a town about 40 miles north of Milwaukee, is not just competing at home this week; he's racing at the same rink where he first began taking lessons as a kid.
He made his Olympic debut at age 17 in Beijing four years ago, finishing 13th in the 500 and 14th in the 1,000.
At both the 2023 and 2024 world championships, Stolz earned titles in each of the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters.
He's already pre-qualified for the Olympics based on performances at those three distances. All he really needs to do to lock down berths on the squad for the Feb. 6-22 Milan Cortina Games is show up at the starting line this week.
The 500 and 1,500 are slated for Sunday, and the mass start is Monday.
___
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
President Donald Trump on Saturday said U.S. oil companies will invest billions of dollars in Venezuela's energy sector after the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro.
"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure," Trump said in a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
"Let's start making money for the country," Trump said.
U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a large-scale attack on the South American nation overnight. They have been indicted on drug-trafficking charges in the Southern District of New York.
Trump said the U.S. will "run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition." The president said the U.S. will temporarily run Venezuela "with a group," without providing details.
The overthrow of Maduro comes after a months-long U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean. Trump said the embargo he imposed on Venezuelan oil "remains in full effect."
The president said oil companies will pay directly for the cost of rebuilding Venezuela's crude infrastructure. "They will be reimbursed for what they're doing," Trump said.
"We're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be," he said. "We'll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now, but I would say many more will come," he said.
Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, sits on the largest oil reserves in the world. It nationalized the industry in 1976, seizing assets from Exxon Mobil, Shell and Chevron, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
Venezuela's production peaked at 3.5 million barrels per day in the late 1990s, but has declined significantly since then, said Matt Smith, oil analyst at Kpler. The country's current production stands at around 800,000 barrels per day, according to Kpler data. For the week of Dec. 26, the U.S. produced around 13.8 million barrels per day.
China and Russia have a presence in Venezuela's oil sector, Lipow said. The Maduro regime in November approved a 15-year extension of joint ventures with Russian-linked companies operating fields in Venezuela, the analyst said.
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President Donald Trump said the U.S. is going to temporarily take over governing Venezuela after launching a large-scale surprise attack on the country overnight.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said in a press conference Saturday morning from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Venezuela operation "was one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military," Trump said.
"Not a single American service member was killed, and not a single piece of American equipment was lost, many helicopters, many planes, many people involved in that fight," Trump also said.
U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The couple have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug-trafficking charges.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said the mission involved "more than 150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere in political coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas, while maintaining the element of tactical surprise."
Trump said the U.S. would be in charge of Venezuela until there is a safe transition of leadership. He also said the U.S. would be running the country "with a group" and "designating various people," without providing details.
According to Trump, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as president and had been in contact with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
"She's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again," Trump said. Rubio added that Congress was not briefed ahead of the operation.
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President Donald Trump spoke Saturday morning at a press conference along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, following a stunning, large-scale attack on Venezuela overnight.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, were captured in the operation by U.S. forces and have been indicted in New York on drug-trafficking charges.
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A federal indictment charging Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, his wife and four other people with narco-terrorism conspiracy and other charges was unsealed and posted online by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday morning after the couple's dramatic capture by American forces in their own country.
"For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States," the indictment alleges.
The indictment was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. In addition to Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, the indictment also charges Maduro's son, Nicolas Ernesto Maduoro Guerra, Diosado Cabello Rondon, Ramon Rodriguez Chachin, and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores. Read the indictment here.
"Nicolas Maduro Moros, the defendant, now sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking," the indictment said.
"That drug trafficking has enriched and entrenched Venezuela's political and military elite, including Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace Diosado Cabello Rondon, the defendant, and former Minister of the Interior and Justice Ramon Rodriguez Chachin, the defendant."
Guerrero was identified as the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
In addition to the narco-terrorism conspiracy charge, the indictment alleges four other criminal counts: cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machine guns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, blasted the attack on Venezuela and its rationale
"If this action were constitutionally sound, the Attorney General wouldn't be tweeting that they've arrested the President of a sovereign country and his wife for possessing guns in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm law," Massie wrote in a post on the social media site X.
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In this article
(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.)
Warren Buffett told CNBC's Becky Quick he would rather have new Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel handle his money "than any of the top investment advisers or any of the top CEOs in the United States."
Buffett's shares in the company are currently valued at $147.5 billion, so by managing Berkshire, Abel will, in effect, also be managing almost all of Buffett's enormous net worth.
Quick interviewed Buffett in May, just a few days after he announced he planned to step down as CEO at year-end. Wednesday was his last day on the job, although he will remain chairman of the board and still plans to come to the office every day.
CNBC aired short excerpts on Friday from that conversation to help promote a special program later this month that will feature the entire interview.
In the clips, Buffett promised Abel will be "the decider," and will be able to get more done in a week than he himself can accomplish in a month.
He praised Abel for not being a "distorted individual," saying he "lives what would look like a normal life" even though he will run a company with 400 thousand employees that "has a better chance ... of being here a hundred years from now than any company I can think of."
And while Buffett won't be on stage at this May's annual meeting, he suggested to Becky that "maybe you'll interview me" during CNBC's coverage of the event.
Here's video of Becky's report on the interview from Friday's "Squawk Box," along with the text of Buffett's interview excerpts.
WARREN BUFFETT: Everything will be the same. You know, I will come in.
I won't — I won't be up there speaking at the annual meeting, but I'll be in the directors' section.
Maybe you'll interview me at — (laughs) — at half-time or something of the sort, who knows?
But Greg will be the decider. [I] can't imagine how much more he can get accomplished in a week than I can [in] a month. I mean, he just —
And at the same time, he's not a distorted individual. You know, I mean, he — he likes to play ice hockey with his kids.
And ... he lives what would look like a normal life. And my guess is if the neighbors didn't know who know who he was, they wouldn't have any idea that — that on — on January 1st, he's going to be the decider on a company that — that employs close to 400 thousand people and has got plans around — to be around fifty or a hundred years from now.
And who knows what'll happen? But it has a better chance, I think, of being here a hundred years from now than any company I can think of.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARREN BUFFETT: And Greg's operated more than I have when you get right down to it.
I mean, he's gone over to England to run something. He went to — you know — we — he came to Omaha one time to run a business for a few years.
And it — he knows — there's no secret formula that — that — only CEOs have or anything of the sort.
So, I'd rather have Greg handling my money than any of the top investment advisors or any of the top CEOs in the United States.
BECKY QUICK: That is a huge endorsement.
WARREN BUFFETT: It is a huge endorsement, but it's an endorsement we've made. (Laughs)
And — and I am going to have him handling the money of the, you know, in effect, I —
He knows business.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later in the day on "Money Matters," a section of the interview was replayed, followed by CNBC's Senior Markets Commentator Michael Santoli's thoughts on Berkshire's well-telegraphed transition to a new CEO.
The entire interview will be featured on a special program, "Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy," scheduled to air on CNBC on Tuesday, January 13 at 7 pm ET.
Both classes of Berkshire Hathaway stock moved somewhat lower on the first trading day with Greg Abel as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
The A shares closed Friday with a 1.4% drop while the B shares did slightly better, falling almost 1.2%.
The benchmark S&P 500 index, on the other hand, moved higher during 2026's first Wall Street session, but it ended with just a small gain of 0.2%.
That gives the S&P an extremely early lead of 1.60 percentage points over BRKA year-to-date.
With S&P dividends included, the metric Berkshire uses for comparisons in its annual reports, the lead is 1.62 percentage points.
For 2025, the S&P with dividends outperformed Berkshire's A shares by 7.0 percentage points.
Some links may require a subscription:
Four weeks
Twelve months
BRK.A stock price: $744,120.00
BRK.B stock price: $496.85
BRK.B P/E (TTM): 15.89
Berkshire market capitalization: $1,071,267,887,262
Berkshire Cash as of September 30: $381.7 billion (Up 10.9% from June 30)
Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $354.3 billion (Up 4.3% from June 30)
No Berkshire stock repurchases since May 2024.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise indicated)
Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on November 14, 2025, except for:
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)
If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.
Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.
-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
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Airlines canceled flights throughout the Caribbean on Saturday following U.S. strikes on Venezuela after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered commercial aircraft to avoid airspace in parts of the region.
President Donald Trump said Saturday the U.S. strikes resulted in the capture and removal of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
U.S. airlines canceled hundreds of flights to airports in Puerto Rico and Aruba, according to flight tallies from FlightAware and carriers' sites. The canceled flights included close to 300 flights to and from San Juan, Puerto Rico's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, more than 40% of the day's schedule, according to FlightAware.
"American Airlines is aware of the airspace closures in the Eastern Caribbean that were issued in the middle of the night and is closely monitoring the situation with the FAA," the carrier said in a statement. "We are making schedule adjustments as necessary with the safety and security of our customers and team members top of mind."
Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways also showed cancellations in the Caribbean.
JetBlue, which has a large operation in the Caribbean, said it canceled about 215 flights "due to airspace closures across the Caribbean related to military activity." The airline noted that flights to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica were not affected by government restrictions.
It wasn't immediately clear how long the disruptions would last, though such broad restrictions are often temporary.
Airlines said they would waive change fees and fare differences for customers affected by the airspace closures who could fly later in the month.
Major U.S. airlines haven't served Venezuela directly for years. American was the last of the major U.S. carriers to stop flying to the country in 2019 amid unrest there.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Inside Anthropic headquarters, President and co-founder Daniela Amodei keeps coming back to a phrase that's become a sort of governing principle for the artificial intelligence startup's entire strategy: Do more with less.
It's a direct challenge to the prevailing mood across Silicon Valley, where the biggest labs and their backers are treating scale as destiny.
Firms are raising record sums, locking up chips years in advance, and pouring concrete across the American heartland for data centers in the belief that the company that builds the largest intelligence factory will win.
OpenAI has become the clearest example of that approach.
The company has made roughly $1.4 trillion in headline compute and infrastructure commitments as it works with partners to stand up massive data center campuses and secure next-generation chips at a pace the industry has never seen.
Anthropic's pitch is that there's another way through the race, one where disciplined spending, algorithmic efficiency, and smarter deployment can keep you at the frontier without trying to outbuild everyone else.
"I think what we have always aimed to do at Anthropic is be as judicious with the resources that we have while still operating in this space where it's just a lot of compute," Amodei told CNBC. "Anthropic has always had a fraction of what our competitors have had in terms of compute and capital, and yet, pretty consistently, we've had the most powerful, most performant models for the majority of the past several years."
Daniela Amodei and her brother, Dario Amodei, who is Anthropic's CEO and a Baidu and Google alumni, helped build the very worldview they're now betting against.
Dario Amodei was among the researchers who helped popularize the scaling paradigm that has guided the modern model race. It is the strategy that increasing compute, data, model size, and capabilities tends to improve the model in a predictable way.
That pattern has effectively become the financial bedrock of the AI arms race.
It underwrites hyperscaler capital spending, justifies towering chip valuations, and keeps private markets willing to assign enormous prices to companies that are still spending heavily to reach profitability.
But even as Anthropic has benefited from that logic, the company is trying to prove that the next phase of competition won't be decided only by who can afford the largest pre-training runs.
Its strategy leans into higher-quality training data, post-training techniques that improve reasoning, and product choices designed to make models cheaper to run and easier to adopt at scale — the part of the AI business where the compute bill never stops.
To be clear, Anthropic isn't operating on a shoestring. The company has roughly $100 billion in compute commitments, and expects those requirements to keep rising if it wants to stay at the frontier.
"The compute requirements for the future are very large," Daniela Amodei said. "So our expectation is, yes, we will need more compute to be able to just stay at the frontier as we get bigger."
Still, the company argues that the headline numbers flying around the sector are often not directly comparable — and that the industry's collective certainty about the "right" amount to spend is less solid than it sounds.
"A lot of the numbers that are thrown around are sort of not exactly apples to apples, because of just how the structure of some of these deals are kind of set up," she said, describing an environment where players feel pressure to commit early to secure hardware years down the line.
The bigger truth, she added, is that even insiders who helped shape the scaling thesis have been surprised by how consistently performance and business growth have compounded.
"We have continued to be surprised, even as the people who pioneered this belief in scaling laws," Daniela Amodei said. "Something that I hear from my colleagues a lot is, the exponential continues until it doesn't. And every year we've been like, 'Well, this can't possibly be the case that things will continue on the exponential' — and then every year it has."
That line captures both the optimism and the anxiety of today's buildout.
If the exponential keeps holding, then the companies that lock up power, chips and sites early may look prescient. If it breaks — or if adoption lags behind the pace of capability — then the players that overcommitted could be left carrying years of fixed costs and long-lead-time infrastructure built for demand that never arrives.
Daniela Amodei drew a distinction between the technology curve and the economic curve, an important nuance that tends to get conflated in the public debate.
From a technological perspective, she said Anthropic doesn't see progress slowing down, based on what the company has observed so far. The more complicated question is how quickly businesses and consumers can integrate those capabilities into real workflows where procurement, change management, and human friction can slow even the best tool.
"Regardless of how good the technology is, it takes time for that to be used in a business or sort of personal context," she said. "The real question to me is: How quickly can businesses in particular, but also individuals, leverage the technology?"
That enterprise emphasis is central to why Anthropic has become such a closely watched bellwether for the broader generative AI trade.
The company has positioned itself as an enterprise-first model provider, with much of its revenue tied to other companies paying to plug Claude into workflows, products, and internal systems — usage that can be stickier than a consumer app, where churn can rise once the novelty fades.
Anthropic said revenue has grown tenfold year over year for three straight years. And it has built a distribution footprint that's unusual in a market defined by fierce rivalry. The Claude model is available across the major cloud platforms, including through partners that are also building and selling competing models.
Daniela Amodei framed that presence less as détente and more as a reflection of customer pull, with large enterprises wanting optionality across clouds, and cloud providers wanting to offer what their biggest customers are asking to buy.
In practice, that multicloud posture is also a way to compete without making a single infrastructure bet.
If OpenAI is attempting to anchor a vast buildout around bespoke campuses and dedicated capacity, Anthropic is trying to remain flexible, shifting where it runs based on cost, availability, and customer demand, while focusing internal energy on improving model efficiency and performance per unit of compute.
As 2026 begins, the divide matters for another reason: Both companies are being pushed toward the discipline of public-market readiness while still operating in a private-market world where compute needs are growing faster than certainty.
Anthropic and OpenAI have not announced IPO timelines, but both are making moves that look like preparation, adding finance, governance, forecasting, and an operating cadence that can withstand public scrutiny.
At the same time, both are still raising fresh capital and striking ever-larger compute arrangements to fund the next leg of model development.
That sets up a real test of strategy rather than rhetoric.
If the market keeps funding scale, OpenAI's approach may remain the industry standard. If investors start demanding greater efficiency, Anthropic's "do more with less" posture could put them at an advantage.
In that sense, Anthropic's contrarian bet isn't that scaling doesn't work. It's that scaling isn't the only lever that matters, and that the winner of the next phase may be the lab that can keep improving while spending in a way the real economy can sustain.
"The exponential continues until it doesn't," Daniela Amodei said. The question for 2026 is what happens to the AI arms race — and to the companies building it — if the industry's favorite curve finally stops behaving.
WATCH: Anthropic, OpenAI rivalry goes global
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Russia and Iran broadly condemned the U.S. attack on Venezuela early Saturday, while elsewhere, world leaders called for an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council.
The Russian foreign ministry called Saturday's strikes on Venezuela "an act of armed aggression" that is "deeply concerning and condemnable."
"The pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded ...In the current situation, it is important, first and foremost, to prevent further escalation and to focus on finding a way out of the situation through dialogue."
"Latin America must remain a zone of peace, as it declared itself to be in 2014. And Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, interference from outside."
The ministry said it was joining Venezuelan authorities and leaders of Latin American countries in calling for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned the U.S. military attack on its neighbor, Venezuela, and said the capture of his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro, crossed "an unacceptable line."
"These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela's sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community," Lula said in a post on X.
Lula also called for a "vigorous" response from the United Nations, adding that Brazil remains open to promoting dialogue and cooperation.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said the U.S. is "arrogantly trying to impose something on the country, on the officials, on the government, and on the nation" of Venezuela.
"We will not yield to the enemy," he said.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in a social media post on X, called for a meeting of the UN Security Council, saying the U.S. attack is an "aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America."
Petro said Colombia also said it is deploying forces to the border "in case of a massive influx of refugees."
Kaja Kallas, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a post on X that the European Union is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela.
"I have spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and our Ambassador in Caracas... The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition," she said.
"Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint. The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority," Kallas added.
The United States' military operation runs counter to the principles of international law, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.
"The military operation that led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro violates the principle of not resorting to force, that underpins international law. France reiterates that no lasting political solution can be imposed from the outside and that only sovereign people themselves can decide their future," wrote Barrot on X.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said international law must be respected.
"Dramatic development in Venezuela, which we are following closely. We need to get back on track toward de-escalation and dialogue," Rasmussen wrote on X.
In Germany, Roderich Kiesewetter, a prominent member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, called the U.S. attack a "coup."
"With President [Donald] Trump, the U.S. are abandoning the rules-based order that has shaped us since 1945," he said. "The coup in Venezuela marks a return to the old U.S. doctrine from before 1940: a mindset of thinking in terms of spheres of influence, where the law of force rules, not international law."
Kiesewetter added: "Trump is destroying what was left of any trust in the U.S."
Maxime Prevot, Belgium's deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, said the safety of its citizens in Venezuels is the European country's top priority.
"Our embassy in Bogotá, which is responsible for Venezuela, and our services in Brussels are fully mobilized. The situation is being closely monitored, in coordination with our European partners."
The Spanish foreign ministry urged the U.S. to de-escalate hostilities.
"In this regard, Spain is willing to offer its good offices to achieve a peaceful and negotiated solution to the current crisis," it said in a statement.
Giuseppe Conte, a former prime minister and current opposition party leader in Italy, said the U.S. operation "has no legal basis."
"We are facing a blatant violation of international law, which certifies the dominance of the strongest and best equipped militarily... I hope that the entire international community will make its voice heard and that everyone will understand that if rules only apply to enemies and not to friends, no one can feel safe anymore. Nor can the illiberal nature of a government's rule justify an attack to a sovereign state."
Yvonne Mewengkang, spokesperson for Indonesia's foreign ministry, said it is monitoring developments to ensure the safety of its citizens in Venezuela.
"Indonesia also calls on all relevant parties to prioritize peaceful resolution through de-escalation and dialogue, while prioritizing the protection of civilians."
"Indonesia emphasizes the importance of respecting international law and the principles of the UN Charter."
In Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Kamala Persad-Bissessar made clear that the country is not participating in U.S. military operations in Venezuela.
"Trinidad and Tobago continues to maintain peaceful relations with the people of Venezuela," Persad-Bissessar said.
— CNBC contributed to this report.
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Russia and Iran broadly condemned the U.S. attack on Venezuela early Saturday, while elsewhere, world leaders called for an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is deeply alarmed by U.S. action in Venezuela that sets "a dangerous precedent," his spokesperson said in a statement.
"The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect — by all — of international law, including the UN Charter. He's deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
The Russian foreign ministry called Saturday's strikes on Venezuela "an act of armed aggression" that is "deeply concerning and condemnable."
"The pretexts used to justify such actions are unfounded ...In the current situation, it is important, first and foremost, to prevent further escalation and to focus on finding a way out of the situation through dialogue."
"Latin America must remain a zone of peace, as it declared itself to be in 2014. And Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, interference from outside."
The ministry said it was joining Venezuelan authorities and leaders of Latin American countries in calling for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned the U.S. military attack on its neighbor, Venezuela, and said the capture of his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro, crossed "an unacceptable line."
"These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela's sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community," Lula said in a post on X.
Lula also called for a "vigorous" response from the United Nations, adding that Brazil remains open to promoting dialogue and cooperation.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said the U.S. is "arrogantly trying to impose something on the country, on the officials, on the government, and on the nation" of Venezuela.
"We will not yield to the enemy," he said.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in a social media post on X, called for a meeting of the UN Security Council, saying the U.S. attack is an "aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America."
Petro said Colombia also said it is deploying forces to the border "in case of a massive influx of refugees."
Kaja Kallas, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a post on X that the European Union is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela.
"I have spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and our Ambassador in Caracas... The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition," she said.
"Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint. The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority," Kallas added.
The United States' military operation runs counter to the principles of international law, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.
"The military operation that led to the capture of Nicolas Maduro violates the principle of not resorting to force, that underpins international law. France reiterates that no lasting political solution can be imposed from the outside and that only sovereign people themselves can decide their future," wrote Barrot on X.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said international law must be respected.
"Dramatic development in Venezuela, which we are following closely. We need to get back on track toward de-escalation and dialogue," Rasmussen wrote on X.
In Germany, Roderich Kiesewetter, a prominent member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, called the U.S. attack a "coup."
"With President [Donald] Trump, the U.S. are abandoning the rules-based order that has shaped us since 1945," he said. "The coup in Venezuela marks a return to the old U.S. doctrine from before 1940: a mindset of thinking in terms of spheres of influence, where the law of force rules, not international law."
Kiesewetter added: "Trump is destroying what was left of any trust in the U.S."
Maxime Prevot, Belgium's deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, said the safety of its citizens in Venezuels is the European country's top priority.
"Our embassy in Bogotá, which is responsible for Venezuela, and our services in Brussels are fully mobilized. The situation is being closely monitored, in coordination with our European partners."
The Spanish foreign ministry urged the U.S. to de-escalate hostilities.
"In this regard, Spain is willing to offer its good offices to achieve a peaceful and negotiated solution to the current crisis," it said in a statement.
Giuseppe Conte, a former prime minister and current opposition party leader in Italy, said the U.S. operation "has no legal basis."
"We are facing a blatant violation of international law, which certifies the dominance of the strongest and best equipped militarily... I hope that the entire international community will make its voice heard and that everyone will understand that if rules only apply to enemies and not to friends, no one can feel safe anymore. Nor can the illiberal nature of a government's rule justify an attack to a sovereign state."
Yvonne Mewengkang, spokesperson for Indonesia's foreign ministry, said it is monitoring developments to ensure the safety of its citizens in Venezuela.
"Indonesia also calls on all relevant parties to prioritize peaceful resolution through de-escalation and dialogue, while prioritizing the protection of civilians."
"Indonesia emphasizes the importance of respecting international law and the principles of the UN Charter."
In Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Kamala Persad-Bissessar made clear that the country is not participating in U.S. military operations in Venezuela.
"Trinidad and Tobago continues to maintain peaceful relations with the people of Venezuela," Persad-Bissessar said.
— CNBC contributed to this report.
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U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife during a stunning, large-scale attack on their nation overnight. American authorities said Saturday morning that the couple had been indicted in New York on drug-trafficking charges.
The U.S. military operation was conducted in coordination with American law enforcement authorities, U.S. President Donald Trump said in an early morning post on Truth Social.
"The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement," Trump said.
Trump is expected to discuss the attack on Venezuela in a press conference at 11 a.m. ET. Prior to the start of the press conference, the president apparently posted a video of the operation on Truth Social.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
The Maduros have been charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of weapons and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the U.S., according to Bondi's post.
"They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts," she wrote.
CBS News reported that the U.S. Army's elite Delta Force unit was involved in the capture of Maduro.
In an interview with "Fox and Friends Weekend" on Saturday, Trump said the U.S. suffered a few injuries but no deaths in the operation, and that U.S. forces waited four days to launch the attack due to weather conditions.
Trump also said Maduro and his wife were flown to the USS Iwo Jima following their capture and will head to New York to face the narco-terrorism charges.
"They'll be heading to New York...They're on a ship, and they'll be heading into New York. The helicopter took them out," the president said.
The Pentagon declined to answer CNBC's queries and referred questions to the White House. The White House, which reposted Trump's Truth Social statement on its X account, didn't immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who had earlier questioned whether the U.S. attack was constitutional, said in a X post on Saturday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him the U.S. operation "was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant."
"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," Lee added.
Rubio, meanwhile, responded to the operation on social media by reposting a statement he made in July 2025, stating: "Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government. Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of a country. And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States."
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a post on X that Maduro would "finally face justice for his crimes."
There was no immediate confirmation from the Venezuelan government.
Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's vice president, demanded that the U.S. provide proof that Maduro and his wife are alive, in an interview on state television station Venezolana de Televisión.
Maduro's official Facebook page posted a video stating that attacks occurred in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, according to a Google translation of the Spanish-language statement.
The statement in the video added that the U.S. would fail in its goal of possessing Venezuela's oil and minerals, and that Maduro had declared a national emergency and mobilized defense forces.
The official spokesperson for Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, who leads the Venezuelan opposition, said in a post on X that it had no comment on the operation.
Trump told The New York Times that the operation was a result of "a lot of good planning."
"It was a brilliant operation, actually," Trump told the Times.
Explosions were reported in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, at about 2 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), according to images circulating on social media that could not be independently verified.
Venezuelan state-run energy company PDVSA's oil production and refining were normal, and its key facilities had suffered no damage, according to an initial assessment, two sources with knowledge of the company's operations told Reuters.
The port of La Guaira near Caracas, one of the country's largest but is not used for oil operations, was reported to have suffered severe damage, Reuters reported.
Trump has repeatedly threatened action against Maduro. On Dec. 23, 2025, he said it would be "smart" for Maduro to leave power.
Trump last month announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters, saying the country was "completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America."
The strategy to pressure Maduro comes as the U.S. and Venezuela's opposition say Maduro rigged an election last year to stay in power. Trump has also accused Maduro of running a "narco-state."
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a post on X that Caracas was under attack and urged an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States and the United Nations.
Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez in 2013, has said Washington is seeking control of its oil reserves, the largest in the world.
— CNBC's Terri Cullen contributed to this report.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
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Warren Buffett has officially retired as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO after six decades in charge. Close watchers say Greg Abel, who took the reins on New Year's Day, faces three key challenges.
Abel's biggest hurdle will be "finding a way to intelligently allocate" Berkshire's vast and growing cash pile, Alex Morris, the author of "Buffett and Munger Unscripted" and the founder of investment research service TSOH, told Business Insider.
Berkshire's trove of cash, Treasury bills, and other liquid assets recently breached $350 billion — a figure that exceeds the market values of Home Depot, Procter & Gamble, and General Electric.
Read more about the leadership transition underway at Berkshire Hathaway:
Abel could use Berkshire's war chest to fund stock buybacks, acquire other businesses, or pay dividends to shareholders, Morris said.
Yet Buffett hasn't found any of those to be fruitful avenues in recent years. Berkshire hasn't repurchased shares in its past five reported quarters, only paid a dividend on one occasion under Buffett, in 1967, and has made few material acquisitions in the past 15 years.
As a business icon and legendary investor, Buffett was given "more of a pass" by Wall Street and Berkshire shareholders for hoarding cash than Abel is likely to receive, Morris said.
"Finding a solution here is challenging," he continued, before suggesting Abel might consider a one-off special dividend.
Prior to becoming CEO, Abel headed up Berkshire's non-insurance businesses, including Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the BNSF Railway.
Abel is recognized as a world-class operator, but that's "fundamentally different from identifying accretive acquisitions in the public and private markets," Luke Rahbari, the CEO of Equity Armor Investments, told Business Insider.
Buffett and his late business partner, Charlie Munger, designed Berkshire as a web of decentralized, autonomous subsidiaries, freeing them to spend much of their days reading corporate filings and searching for compelling investments.
"Greg Abel will not have the time to do this," David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland, told Business Insider.
Kass said the new boss will have a "full plate" overseeing Berkshire's subsidiaries, including insurers such as Geico for the first time, managing its roughly $300 billion stock portfolio, and making major allocation decisions outside of the company including acquisitions and other deals.
Buffett and Munger built Berkshire's culture around core values such as trust, honesty, patience, discipline, and long-term thinking.
They delegated "almost to the point of abdication," they told shareholders in their Owner's Manual. The company had nearly 400,000 employees at the end of 2024, but only 27 worked in its Omaha headquarters, per its latest annual report.
Abel is expected to be a more hands-on manager than Buffett. He's already announced several leadership changes, including the appointment of Berkshire's first general counsel and a new divisional president.
"The challenge will be institutionalizing the culture while professionalizing a headquarters that has historically been intentionally lean," Rahbari said.
He added that Abel doesn't have Buffett's track record and will have to earn the trust awarded to his predecessor.
"Abel will have to navigate complex relationships with subsidiary management teams where the 'loyalty discount' previously given to Buffett may no longer apply," he said.
Jump to
A company controlled by a Chinese national was ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday to unwind a $2.9 million acquisition of chip assets from a U.S. manufacturer, citing national security concerns.
The White House said in an executive order that HieFo Corporation, incorporated in Delaware, was "controlled by a citizen of the People's Republic of China."
HieFo acquired the digital chips and related wafer design, fabrication, and processing businesses of New Jersey-based Emcore on April 30, 2024, which included a semiconductor manufacturing facility, the Treasury Department said in a separate statement.
The potential diversion of the supply of indium phosphide chips manufactured by Emcore's digital chips business away from the U.S. was also identified as a national security risk, the Treasury Department added.
HieFo and Emcore did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.
The Global Times, a Chinese government mouthpiece, citing an expert, said the divestment order "reflects Washington's anxiety over technology competition with China" as it was made without a convincing rationale.
The Treasury Department said the deal was not notified to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, prompting a review by its non-notified transactions team.
"CFIUS identified a national security risk arising from the transaction relating to potential access to EMCORE's intellectual property, proprietary know-how, and expertise," the Treasury Department said.
HieFo was ordered to divest all acquired assets within 180 days and to immediately restrict access to Emcore's technical information.
In a statement dated Sept. 2, 2024, HieFo said the deal would allow operations to continue at Emcore's facility in Alhambra, California, and that it had "successfully engaged" nearly all key scientists, engineers and operational staff.
HieFo was founded by Genzao Zhang and Harry Moore through a management buyout of wafer fabrication and chip-related assets from Emcore. Both founders list their start dates at HieFo as May 2024 on LinkedIn, when the acquisition closed.
The company claimed it had inherited more than 40 years of optoelectronic innovation in indium phosphide chip manufacturing.
Emcore manufactures navigation equipment such as gyroscopes and sensors used in commercial, industrial and defense applications, including autonomous navigation and weapons systems, according to its website.
The company was delisted from Nasdaq in early 2025 following its merger with aerospace manufacturing holding company Velocity One LP in November 2024.
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Canada's transport regulator has asked Air India to investigate an incident of a pilot who was removed from a plane before it was due to take off and found to be under the influence of alcohol, a person familiar with the matter said.
Two breathalyser tests conducted by Canadian police at Vancouver International Airport showed the pilot was unfit for duty, the person said on Friday. The incident was labelled as a "serious matter" by Transport Canada in a letter to Air India and authorities are likely to pursue enforcement action, the person added.
The person requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. In a statement on Saturday, Transport Canada said it would engage with Air India and India's aviation regulator to ensure "appropriate follow-up actions" are taken.
In a statement, Air India said the flight from Vancouver to Delhi on December 23 experienced a last-minute delay due to the incident, adding that an alternate pilot was brought in to operate the flight. The airline said Canadian authorities raised concerns about the pilot's fitness for duty but did not provide details.
"The pilot has been taken off flying duties during the process of enquiry. Air India maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards any violation of applicable rules and regulations," Air India said.
"Pending the outcome of the investigation, any confirmed violation will attract strict disciplinary action in line with company policy."
The aircraft was a Boeing 777, a model that can seat up to 344 passengers, according to the websites of Flightradar24 and Air India.
The letter from Transport Canada official Ajit Oommen has asked Air India to provide its findings and details of steps taken to prevent future occurrences by January 26, the person familiar with the matter said.
Air India has been under intense scrutiny since the June 12 crash of a Boeing Dreamliner killed 260 people. India's aviation regulator has flagged multiple safety lapses at the airline, which was previously owned by the government until 2022.
Pilots at Air India, owned by Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, have also come under scrutiny. This week, India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) sent warning notices to four Air India pilots, flagging "serious safety concerns" related to regulatory compliance and flight crew decision-making.
The DGCA said the pilots accepted an aircraft for operation last year despite prior knowledge of "repeated snags" and "existing systems degradations," according to warning notices dated December 29 seen by Reuters. The aircraft is a Boeing 787 used for long-haul flights, according to Flightradar24.
The DGCA has proposed tightened rules on alcohol testing for crew members, including one that would have a pilot lose their license permanently after three positive tests. Current rules require post-flight breath-analyzer examinations for each trip to be carried out at the first port of landing in India.
Canadian rules state that a pilot cannot operate an aircraft within 12 hours of consuming an alcoholic beverage. Violation of those rules can lead to judicial or administrative enforcement actions, including fines.
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NFT supply has hit 1.34B as sales plunge. Digital art fades, while gaming NFTs thrive through real utility and play-to-own adoption.
The NFT space is currently facing a harsh reality check. A new year has begun, and the total number of NFTs minted across all blockchains has surged to a staggering 1.34 billion.
However, investors are jumping ship and sales revenue has been down. Is this the end of the NFT space?
This decline in NFT sales revenue is a 25% increase from the previous year.
It also shows that creators are still pumping out content at an incredible pace despite the lack of demand from buyers.
While the supply is at an all-time high, the actual sales revenue for the past year dropped to just $5.63 billion. This is a heavy decline from the $8.9 billion recorded in 2024.
LATEST: ⚡️ The NFT market expanded to over 1.34 billion tokens in 2025 while total sales fell 37% to $5.6 billion, with average prices dropping to $96 from $124 year-over-year, according to CryptoSlam. pic.twitter.com/RLUuzrsJQG
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) January 1, 2026
Even worse, the average price of an NFT has also tumbled from $124 to roughly $96.
This data now shows the NFT market as one that is “oversupplied and under-demanded”, and gone are the days when Bored Ape NFTs sold for millions of dollars.
Yet while all of this is happening, the lights are still on, and the volume is actually growing.
One of the biggest reasons for the “no buyers”problem is the collapse of the Profile Picture (PFP) and digital art segments.
In 2021 and 2022, projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks dominated the headlines. Today, the floor prices for many of these “blue chip” collections have dropped by as much as 75%.
Investors who once bought these assets for their rarity are now finding it nearly impossible to find a secondary buyer.
The market has so far moved away from the “culture coin” era.
People are no longer willing to pay high premiums for static images that offer no functional use, and according to data from CryptoSlam, the number of unique purchasers per month has remained low for most of the past year.
This is a clear sign that the “hype” buyers have left the building, and are leaving behind a mountain of 1.34 billion unsold tokens.
While digital art is gathering dust, NFTs in the gaming space are moving faster than ever.
The global NFT gaming market was valued at roughly $6.1 billion last year. This happened because, unlike a piece of digital art, a gaming NFT has a specific job, whether it be a sword, a skin or a piece of virtual land.
GM Gamers
Although I don't play @GunzillaGames for long periods, I play occasionally in my spare time
I play to pass the time because I enjoy the game. While passing time, I earn Hexes and Items
I accumulate $GUNZ by selling Items. The market isn't very active, but sales… pic.twitter.com/zBriqEedSx
— Coinisan (@Coinisan) January 3, 2026
This “utility” (or use case) is what keeps the market alive. Gamers are not buying these items to “flip” them to the next person, even though that is still possible.
They are buying them to use, and this creates a cycle of demand that does not rely on purely speculative hype.
Major platforms like OpenSea and Magic Eden have also recognised this trend and are moving away from being “art galleries” to “gaming hubs”.
Related Reading: NFT Market Outlook: Why Utility May Shape The Next Growth Phase
The focus used to be on Play to Earn games in the early days of Blockchain gaming.
Games like Axie Infinity allowed players to make a living, but these models collapsed when token prices fell. This year, the industry has so far moved toward “Play-to-Own” (P2O).
In this model, the focus is on fun first, and the NFTs are a reward for engagement, rather than a financial obligation.
This simple change has brought back the players and companies like Mythical Inc. and Splinterlands have built massive communities of tech-savvy gamers who value digital ownership.
In North America, roughly 30% of NFT gamers now view blockchain titles as their main form of entertainment.
They are not looking for a quick profit, and are looking for a deeper connection to the games they love.
By Natalie Scott
Key Takeaways:
India's central bank has issued a firm warning to policymakers: central bank digital currencies should take precedence over stablecoins as countries modernize their payment systems.
In its December Financial Stability Report, the Reserve Bank of India framed CBDCs as the only digital money capable of preserving the “singleness of money” – a principle it views as foundational to trust, settlement finality, and financial stability.
The message is unambiguous. While stablecoins may offer speed and programmability, the RBI believes they introduce new systemic risks that could surface sharply during periods of market turmoil.
According to the report, privately issued stablecoins can create parallel monetary systems that operate outside direct sovereign control. In stressed market conditions, these instruments could accelerate capital flight, liquidity mismatches, or confidence shocks – particularly in emerging economies.
The RBI cautioned that jurisdictions must carefully evaluate how stablecoins interact with their domestic financial systems before allowing them to scale. Unlike central bank money, stablecoins depend on issuer credibility, reserve management, and legal clarity – variables that may fracture under pressure.
By contrast, CBDCs are positioned as the ultimate settlement asset, backed directly by the central bank and designed to anchor trust in the monetary system.
India's government has signaled openness to exploring stablecoin regulation in its Economic Survey for 2025–2026. However, the RBI remains the more conservative voice in the room, consistently advocating restraint when it comes to crypto-linked instruments.
As the country's monetary authority, the RBI is expected to play a decisive role in shaping how digital assets are treated – particularly where they intersect with payments, capital flows, and monetary policy transmission.
The divergence highlights a familiar global tension: governments weigh innovation and competitiveness, while central banks prioritize stability and control.
More News: Japan's SBI and Startale Team Up to Build a Fully Compliant Yen Stablecoin for Global Use
Despite years of discussion, CBDC deployment remains limited. Data from the Atlantic Council shows that only Nigeria, the Bahamas, and Jamaica currently operate live CBDCs.
Dozens of other countries remain in pilot or research phases, underscoring how complex and politically sensitive CBDC implementation can be.
Meanwhile, stablecoins continue to gain traction. According to DeFiLlama, total stablecoin market capitalization climbed sharply through 2025, reflecting growing use in cross-border payments and on-chain finance – even as regulators debate their long-term role.
For more information on stablecoin adoption and blockchain innovation globally, keep checking Castlecrypto News.
Natalie Scott
Natalie Scott began her career in technology journalism and financial market reporting, where she gained experience covering fast-moving global industries. She now works as a Crypto News Writer at Castle Crypto, specializing in breaking developments across blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Web3 innovation. Natalie focuses on regulatory changes, major project launches, and market trends, consistently delivering accurate and timely updates. She is recognized for her concise and insightful writing style, which enables readers to grasp the significance of complex events quickly. By combining speed with clarity, Natalie helps Castle Crypto's audience stay informed, engaged, and prepared for the opportunities and challenges of the evolving crypto landscape.
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Real estate guru Grant Cardone has framed Bitcoin as a generation-defining innovation.
Cardone in a Sunday X post compared Bitcoin to the printing press, automobiles, telephone and the internet, innovations that shaped generations and moved civilization forward. He said these innovations had taken decades to be widely adopted, adding that he expected the same with Bitcoin.
“Bitcoin is a technological invention to advance money,” he said. “Change takes a moment – time validates great innovations.”
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Cardone's remarks come as 2025 has challenged Bitcoin's “digital gold” and bull market thesis.
While Bitcoin did surge to a new record price of $126,000 this year, it has since shed most of those gains to most recently trade around $88,000, down 11% in 2025 on the back of tariff panic and jitters around tech stocks.
Cardone turned pro-Bitcoin over the past year, touting the digital asset as a store of value. And he has launched several funds that combine it with real estate, allowing real estate investors to capture its volatility and liquidity.
Cardone said he intends to launch 10 of these funds in total, combining 10,000 BTC with 15,000 apartment units.
Trending: Wall Street's $12B Real Estate Manager Is Opening Its Doors to Individual Investors — Without the Crowdfunding Middlemen
Cardone Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Benzinga.
So far, Cardone has launched only three of his planned Bitcoin and real estate funds: the 10X Space Coast Bitcoin Fund, the 10X Miami River Fund, and the 10X Boca Raton Bitcoin Fund.
The 10X Space Coast Bitcoin Fund and the 10X Miami River Fund, launched in December 2024 and May, respectively, have both been oversubscribed. The 10X Space Coast Bitcoin Fund combined 300 apartment units in Melbourne, Florida with $15 million worth of Bitcoin, while the 10X Miami River Fund combined 346 apartments on the Miami River in South Florida with $300 million worth of the asset.
See Also: Missed the AI Boom's Biggest IPOs? This Platform Lets Everyday Investors Access Private Tech Early
The 10X Boca Raton Bitcoin Fund intends to combine $100 million with 366 apartment units.
Cardone has continued to accumulate Bitcoin amid its recent price struggles, welcoming the opportunity to pick up the asset for cheap with limited orders.
Last month, Cardone disclosed that he had emblazoned the Bitcoin logo on the belly of his private jet as a sign of his commitment.
“I'm not bullish on Real Estate & BTC, I'm committed,” he said at the time.
Read Next: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it?
Image: Shutterstock
This article Grant Cardone Compares Bitcoin To Printing Press, Telephone, Internet, Says It Advances Money originally appeared on Benzinga.com
© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
© 2025 THE COOL DOWN COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Do not sell or share my personal information. Reach us at hello@thecooldown.com.
"There is essentially no legitimate use for crypto."
Photo Credit: TikTok
Viewers of a TikTok clip about cryptocurrency are locked in a heated debate after a famous economist claimed no one is using crypto for anything legitimate. Aside from contentions on the legality and practicality of use, some viewers have also raised concerns about its environmental impact.
In the video, TikTok creator Hasan Minhaj (@hasanminhaj) shared a segment of his interview with Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman — who offered a blunt assessment of digital currencies: "There is essentially no legitimate use for crypto, and nobody is using it for anything legitimate."
Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman thinks crypto is a cult
In Krugman's opinion, crypto is either a speculative asset or a vehicle for crime. He further supposes that angry rebuttals to his statement would likely be because the crypto community is a cult.
Crypto users were quick to dispute Krugman's claims. They argued that crypto has legitimate uses in countries with unstable banking systems and is useful for global transfers. They've also countered that fiat currency is used more for crime than crypto.
Still, more people are wary of crypto, even comparing it to MLM or Ponzi schemes. And, beyond the issue of real-world usefulness, its environmental impact is harder to ignore.
An analysis by the International Energy Agency showed that crypto mining, along with data centers and AI, used almost 2% of the world's electricity in 2022. As the demand for these technologies increases, the IEA forecasts this energy consumption to double by 2026 — requiring enough extra electricity to power an entire country.
Kelvin is the Apple of space heaters, designed for energy efficiency and maximum comfort. It's completely silent and intelligently controlled, with setup taking just 5 minutes.
Built from premium materials like aluminum and glass, Kelvin works beautifully as a full-home heating system or as the perfect solution for that one room that never feels warm enough.
On the flip side, new technologies and more sustainable energy sources are helping minimize the crypto impact. Newer proof-of-stake blockchains, for instance, can be powered by clean electricity, use far less energy, and produce less air pollution, as shown in the CCRI Crypto Sustainability Metrics.
As crypto technology evolves, there may still be a path toward a future where it serves clear and practical purposes without putting such a heavy strain on the grid. For now, there are still alternatives for investors to consider, like clean economy stocks and cleaner banks.
The posted video is less about settling the crypto question and more about revealing just how divided people are over what this technology is really for and what it's costing the planet.
"And it's bad for the environment," one viewer commented.
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"Horrifically bad. And prone to hacking, which makes you need more computing power, making it even worse of an energy suck," commented another.
What do you think the future of cryptocurrency is?
It is the future of currency 😎
It will become more mainstream 🤑
It will never be mainstream 😒
It will fade away completely 🙅
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Tom Lee's BitMine has locked up nearly $1.6 billion of its Ethereum treasury in staking contracts in just one week, positioning the firm as a major network validator.
The move further shifts BitMine from a passive ETH holder as it prepares for a major expansion of its authorized share count.
The corporate holder deposited an additional 82,560 ETH into staking protocols on January 2, according to blockchain data tracked by Lookonchain.
https://twitter.com/lookonchain/status/2007288618604450262?s=46
This latest tranche brings its total staked inventory to approximately 544,064 ETH—roughly 13% of its 4.07 million ETH stockpile.
By committing these assets to the consensus layer, BitMine aims to generate yield on its holdings. The move effectively turns its balance sheet into a productive instrument rather than a static store of value.
However, the maneuver coincides with a sweeping proposal to restructure the company's capital base to fund what management describes as an Ethereum "supercycle."
In a January 2 post on X, BitMine Chairman Tom Lee requested approval to increase the company's authorized shares from 500 million to 50 billion.
While Lee framed the hundredfold increase as a mechanism to facilitate future stock splits and keep the share price near $25, the sheer scale of the authorization suggests broader ambitions.
He notes that a 50 billion share ceiling provides BitMine with an enormous runway to conduct At-The-Market (ATM) equity offerings.
This structure would allow BitMine to sell new stock to fund additional Ethereum purchases aggressively.
He argued that BitMine could take advantage of the NAV premium, or the gap between the share price and the value of its underlying assets.
However, it could also dilute existing shareholders.
Nonetheless, Lee outlined scenarios in which ETH could reach $250,000, driven by Wall Street's tokenization trends.
"We believe Ethereum is the future of finance. A supercycle drive by Wall Street re-engineering on the blockchain. Major Wall Street leaders agree. BlackRock's Larry Fink said tokenization is the next evolution of global markets. And the vast majority of tokenization is happening on Ethereum," Lee said.
At those valuations, BitMine argues its implied share price could reach $5,000, necessitating splits of up to 100-for-1 to maintain retail accessibility.
Read original story BitMine Doubles Down on Ethereum Staking With Additional $260 Million Staked by Oluwapelumi Adejumo at beincrypto.com
The U.S. carried out a "large scale" strike against Venezuela and its President Nicolas Maduro, Donald Trump announced early Saturday morning. Maduro and his wife, Trump continued, were captured and flown out of the country.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi later announced that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had each been indicted in the Southern District of New York over various drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Crypto prices took a modest hit around 2 a.m. ET on reports of military operations in Venezuela, with bitcoin BTC$90,003.34 dipping about 0.5% to $89,300. At press time, just shy of 9 a.m. ET, BTC had returned to just below $90,000.
President Trump has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. ET.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
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What next for Ripple-linked XRP as price zooms above $2
Traders are watching if XRP can maintain above $2.00, with $1.96 as a critical support level to avoid a return to previous trading ranges.
What to know:
Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.
The U.S. carried out a "large scale" strike against Venezuela and its President Nicolas Maduro, Donald Trump announced early Saturday morning. Maduro and his wife, Trump continued, were captured and flown out of the country.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi later announced that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had each been indicted in the Southern District of New York over various drug trafficking and weapons charges.
Crypto prices took a modest hit around 2 a.m. ET on reports of military operations in Venezuela, with bitcoin BTC$89,493.41 dipping about 0.5% to $89,300. At press time, just shy of 9 a.m. ET, BTC had returned to just below $90,000.
President Trump has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. ET.
More For You
KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
More For You
What next for Ripple-linked XRP as price zooms above $2
Traders are watching if XRP can maintain above $2.00, with $1.96 as a critical support level to avoid a return to previous trading ranges.
What to know:
Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.
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Amid a tidal wave of hype and scams, they soared like Icarus — then crashed like the Hindenburg. But why did it happen, and could they ever make a comeback? Io Dodds remembers the rise and fall of the Covid era's answer to Beanie Babies
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In December 2021, a digital record linked to a computer-generated picture of a robot samurai sold at auction for an amount of cryptocurrency then worth over $1.8 million.
These were the heady final months of the worldwide craze for "non-fungible tokens" — or NFTs to you and me. NFTs, on its most basic level, is the ownership of a digital piece of work, such as art or music. They could include memes or even actual pieces of art. Advocates promised that they would revolutionize art patronage while making millions of ordinary people filthy rich in a matter of months.
Sotheby's and Christies sold NFTs for millions of dollars apiece. Jimmy Fallon hyped ‘Bored Apes' on The Tonight Show. Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Louis Vuitton, YouTube, and the University of California-Berkeley all got stuck in. Exactly what NFTs were, or how they worked, was often lost in the mania.
Yet within a year, the NFT market had dramatically collapsed, taking many people's money and hopes with it. Estimated trading volumes dropped from $4 billion to around $800 million, and research suggests that 95 percent of NFTs are now worthless.
Today, the highest price anyone has offered for that $1.8 million robot samurai NFT in the past 12 months is just 0.0554 Ether, equivalent to $2,852 as of December 17.
Even after all that, however, some advocates insist that the underlying technology still has important uses, and dream that it may yet rise from the ashes.
So what the hell happened to NFTs? And could they ever make a comeback?
On March 11, 2021, the venerable British auction house Christies announced that it had sold its first ever NFT for a staggering $69 million.
The associated artwork was titled Everydays: the First 5000 Days, by the online artist known as Beeple (aka Michael Winkelmann). In theory, he was now one of the three most valuable living artists on Earth.
You'll notice, though, that I didn't say anything about Beeple actually selling an artwork. That's because he didn't. And this distinction is key to understanding why NFTs went so wrong.
For centuries, the art world has struggled to maintain reliable records of ownership in the face of war, disaster and forgery. And in May 2014, two men at a New York City hackathon — artist Kevin McCoy and tech entrepreneur Anil Dash — attempted to make their own modest contribution by harnessing a nascent digital technology called blockchains.
A blockchain is basically a way to create and maintain permanent transaction logs without relying on centralized institutions. Each new entry is verified by a network of computers that check each other's work, wielding unbreakable encryption to resist tampering.
That's how cryptocurrencies, such as Ether and Bitcoin, can operate without any input from banks or governments. It's also how NFTs were meant to help verify art ownership.
"The idea behind NFTs was, and is, profound," wrote Anil Dash in 2021. "Technology should be enabling artists to exercise control over their work, to more easily sell it, to more strongly protect against others appropriating it without permission.
The idea was to create a unique digital certificate of art ownership that could always be traced back all the way to its original creator. Selling these certificates could give digital artists a new way to fund their art, and collectors a new way to buy in.
Others quickly expanded the idea, coining the term "non-fungible token" in 2017 to distinguish these certificates from, say, a Bitcoin (which is interchangeable with any other Bitcoin).
But the new NFT industry — which Dash was not part of, and has repeatedly denounced — never solved some basic problems with the concept.
Who owns the Mona Lisa? Back in 2018, the blockchain start-up Verisart briefly listed the answer as a British coder named Terence Eden.
Eden's stunt was simple and easy to fix. Still, it raised the question: how do you know that the original seller of an NFT was actually representing the real artist? Wouldn't you need some kind of trusted institution to make and maintain that link?
As Eden pointed out at the time: “There's no way to permanently attach a digital certificate to a physical work of art... it's almost as if we can't just throw technology at the social problem of trust.”
Another question: Does buying an NFT actually come with any rights over the artwork itself? If not, what is the buyer even getting? Also, who's going to police fraud and impersonation? Who will protect consumers from account hacks, given that blockchain transactions (unlike bank transfers) are irreversible?
As money and enthusiasm began to pour into NFTs in the wake of Covid-19, major marketplaces largely just shrugged and fell back on "buyer beware." Artist verification remained weak; many NFTs conferred no rights; and all too many NFT advocates chose relentless hype over caution.
Digital trading cards! Merchandise and collectibles! Rapidly rising art prices! You too could ride this rocket to the moon if only you get in right now!
The result was an unprecedented wave of scams, fraud and outright cyber-theft, affecting both artists and buyers. Many NFTs never even contained a copy of the artwork they were meant to be tied to. They just had hyperlinks, which often went dead within a year or two.
All too often, the art itself was also dire, replicating the modern “AI slop” aesthetic years or months before the release of ChatGPT.
"Nothing went the way it was supposed to," wrote Dash in 2021, likening the whole affair to an exploitative "gold rush."
Meanwhile, famed (and famously expensive) British conceptual artist Damien Hirst created NFTs for thousands of his paintings, then burned the originals. “I'm not burning my art,” he declared. “I'm transforming it into NFTs.”
In 2022, as predicted by so many critics, the NFT market began to crash.
In April, an NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's first ever tweet — which had fetched $2.9 million the previous March — went on sale again, but the highest bid was $280. By July, daily NFT sales had plummeted by more than 90 percent.
Among the biggest losers were celebrities who had bought in late in the hype cycle. Justin Bieber's 'Bored Ape' NFT cost around $1.3 millions in Ether; Eminem's version cost just under $460,000. As of Dec. 17, 2025, the highest recent offer for either is around $2,800.
Then there's Logan Paul, who promised that his forthcoming NFT-based video game CryptoZoo would let you earn money just by playing it. That never happened, leading to a class action lawsuit and Paul offering to partially refund customers.
Most victims were less famous. "I still hold the vast majority of [my NFTs] – I couldn't sell most even if I wanted to," collector Joseph Skewes told Vice News in 2023. "From the peak, the loss is upwards of $50,000."
Another collector in Florida, who asked to be anonymous, said he'd come out of the first crash unscathed but then managed to lose up to $400,000 trying to recapture the magic afterwards.
Some of the biggest NFT "whales" — often crypto entrepreneurs — seem to be doing fine, as are those that merely rode the dragon while it was in flight.
"We were very much about getting in and getting out within 24 hours," prolific NFT trader Collin Li told The Australian Financial Review in July.
In September, Christies admitted defeat and closed its digital art department. Bitcoin prices have rebounded since the crash of '22, and Ether prices partially rebounded; NFTs never did.
As for Anil Dash, he never took a financial stake in NFTs, but the mess still follows him. “My son mockingly calls me ‘NFT guy' because he knows it's the most horrible epithet I could ever be saddled with,” he said on Bluesky in 2023:
Even so, there are people who still carry a torch. Jane Rolls and G.T. Sewell of Melbourne, Australia, told the Review that they remain about $250,000 down, but continue to make and buy NFTs because they believe the long-term future is bright.
According to Fast Company, while many NFT companies perished, other firms continue to find ways to integrate NFTs, including Louis Vuitton and various video game developers. Disney's official tie-in NFTs sell at respectable prices, as do the NBA's.
Notably, many of the ongoing projects rely on the heft of a big institution to guarantee authenticity. That suggests NFTs can have their uses, as long as someone is actually policing them — although it's a fair cry from the futuristic vision of “decentralized” digital items free from corporate control that some NFT boosters promised.
"I think everything's working out the right way,” longtime NFT magnate Roham Gharegozlou told Fast Company. "There were speculative excesses within the industry, but I think that also was a stress test for everything to come."
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Ripple is leading the future of stablecoins with RLUSD, delivering national bank-grade oversight and unmatched compliance.
According to Wormhole, a leading interoperability platform bridging traditional finance and the internet economy, the future of stablecoins lies in national bank-grade oversight. Ripple is turning that vision into reality with its RLUSD stablecoin, setting a new benchmark for compliance, trust, and innovation in the digital asset space.
RLUSD exemplifies what the next generation of stablecoins should be: fully aligned with regulatory standards while delivering the speed, efficiency, and versatility that the crypto ecosystem demands.
Backed by oversight from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and operating under conditional approval from the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), RLUSD meets rigorous compliance criteria that few stablecoins can claim.
Therefore, this dual-layer regulatory alignment provides institutional and retail participants with unprecedented confidence, ensuring that RLUSD is not only reliable but also legally robust.
Well, Ripple is redefining the stablecoin market. While many digital assets navigate regulatory gray areas, RLUSD proves that innovation can coexist with bank-grade security and compliance, offering a blueprint for stablecoins to seamlessly bridge traditional finance and the evolving blockchain ecosystem.
As a result, RLUSD is now going multichain with Wormhole NTT, enabling seamless interoperability across blockchains while maintaining full regulatory compliance. This expansion unlocks a stable, liquid, and secure digital currency for businesses and investors, supporting cross-border payments, DeFi, and next-generation Web3 applications at scale.
As digital assets evolve, regulated, resilient, and interoperable stablecoins are essential. RLUSD positions Ripple at the forefront of this transformation. With NYDFS oversight, conditional federal approval, and multichain functionality, RLUSD delivers unmatched compliance while enabling seamless value transfer across the digital economy.
RLUSD embodies the next generation of stablecoins: secure, compliant, and universally connected. Ripple's vision proves that regulatory rigor and technological innovation can advance together.
RLUSD isn't just a stablecoin, it's the blueprint for the future of digital finance. Backed by national bank-grade oversight, conditional federal approval, and multichain interoperability, it delivers a secure, compliant, and versatile asset for the next era of global finance.
By uniting regulatory rigor with blockchain innovation, RLUSD sets a new standard for trust, transparency, and seamless cross-chain value transfer, empowering a truly connected digital economy.
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Bitcoin BTCUSD dropped below $90,000 on Saturday as crypto markets reacted to the US military action in Venezuela.
Key points:
Bitcoin attempts to hold recent gains as the US mounts an attack on Venezuela's capital, Caracas.
Traders remain optimistic about the outlook for BTC price action if certain levels hold.
Gold starts to flag on low timeframes as Bitcoin's gains tap 5% since Christmas.
Bitcoin faces “geopolitical pressure” at $90,000
Data from TradingView showed BTC price action reversing after highs near $90,940 on Bitstamp.
News that the US had launched airstrikes in the Venezuelan capital Caracas were followed by an announcement from President Donald Trump on Truth Social in which he said that Venezuela's President had been captured and “flown out of the country.”
With traditional markets closed, BTCUSD attempted to preserve some early-year gains ahead of futures returning Sunday.
“We're seeing some short-term selling pressure due to the ongoing US action against Venezuela, but I remain bullish in the near term,” analytics account @Wealthmanager reacted in a post on X.
Wealthmanager noted that CME Group's Bitcoin futures market had closed the week above $90,000, potentially providing a new “gap” and corresponding price target to the upside.
Crypto analyst Lennaert Snyder agreed that much hinged on the return of TradFi next week.
“There's a lot of geopolitical tension and next week the big players will return. So we'll probably see more volatility on Bitcoin after the weekend,” he told X followers.
Crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe, meanwhile, described Bitcoin's latest move as a “classic” Venezuela reaction, maintaining a bullish outlook.
“The direction is clear for January: up we go, as long as Bitcoin remains above the 21-Day MA,” he concluded, referring to the 21-day simple moving average at $87,850.
BTC price begins to avenge gold bull run
Bulls also looked to Bitcoin's relatively strong performance against gold over the New Year period.
After reaching new all-time highs of $4,551 per ounce on Dec. 26, XAU/USD fell by up to 6% before steadying. At the same time, BTCUSD gained up to 5%.
“An important thing to remember is that the last time Bitcoin started its parabolic rally was after Gold made the top,” trading and analytics resource Bull Theory commented on the topic.
As Cointelegraph reported, gold finished 2025 as the year's best-performing major asset, with Bitcoin conversely bringing up the rear despite its own all-time highs in October.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
Select market data provided by ICE Data Services. Select reference data provided by FactSet. Copyright © 2026 FactSet Research Systems Inc.Copyright © 2026, American Bankers Association. CUSIP Database provided by FactSet Research Systems Inc. All rights reserved. SEC fillings and other documents provided by Quartr.© 2026 TradingView, Inc.
The stock market is off to a promising start in 2025. The , climbing by a small but steady margin right out of the gate. This early positive move sends a clear signal to investors: optimism is in the air. When major indexes like the S&P 500 gain ground, it often sparks interest in higher-risk, higher-reward sectors. Right now, that's blockchain and crypto-related stocks.
Blockchain stocks bridge the gap between old-school finance and cutting-edge digital tech. They include crypto exchanges, bitcoin mining companies, and firms stacked with digital assets. What makes them stand out? High trading volume. Stocks with massive daily share trades show strong buyer and seller interest. This liquidity means you can jump in or out without wild price jumps. With the S&P 500's bullish kickoff, smart money is flowing into these high-volume blockchain stocks, hunting for big growth.
In this guide, we spotlight 7 high-volume blockchain stocks ready to ride the wave. Each one boasts millions of shares traded daily, deep blockchain ties, solid recent performance, and huge upside potential. Whether you're a crypto fan or tech stock chaser, these picks could supercharge your portfolio in 2025.
The S&P 500's strong open isn't happening in a vacuum. Lower interest rates, robust corporate earnings, and cooling inflation are fueling the rally. Crypto markets are syncing up too. Bitcoin smashed records in late 2024 and shows no signs of slowing. Ethereum's latest upgrades are drawing fresh hype. Blockchain companies cash in on this momentum.
Key drivers include:
We focused on stocks with average daily volume over 5 million shares. This ensures smooth trading and real market demand. Let's dive into the top 7.
Coinbase leads the pack as America's biggest crypto exchange. It offers hundreds of coins, easy trading tools, and secure wallets. Revenue pours in from trading fees, which spike during bull runs.
Volume spotlight: Often 10+ million shares daily.
Why surge now? Bitcoin ETFs rely on Coinbase for custody. User numbers are exploding. Last quarter's earnings crushed expectations. With S&P tailwinds, analysts eye 50%+ gains in 2025. Regulation risks exist, but recent approvals pave the way forward.
MicroStrategy isn't just software—it's a bitcoin powerhouse. CEO Michael Saylor has loaded up over 250,000 BTC. The stock moves like supercharged bitcoin.
Volume spotlight: Spikes to 20+ million shares on hot days.
Why surge now? They use debt wisely to buy more BTC. If bitcoin hits $100K, MSTR could double fast. It trades at a premium to its holdings, but long-term holders win big. S&P strength boosts risk-on plays like this.
MARA is all about bitcoin mining. They deploy massive rigs and chase top hashrate. Cheap Texas energy keeps costs low and profits high.
Volume spotlight: 40-50 million shares daily—insanely liquid.
Why surge now? Efficient post-halving ops give them an edge. Rapid expansion plans. Bitcoin rallies lift miners hard. Owns its own sites, cutting hosting risks. Expect volatility, but rewards match.
RIOT builds huge facilities for bitcoin mining. Texas location slashes energy bills. Hashrate doubled in 2024.
Volume spotlight: 30+ million shares average.
Why surge now? Targets 100 EH/s by mid-2025. Direct bitcoin price link. S&P inflows favor miners. Bonus: Plans to pivot into AI computing for extra revenue streams.
CleanSpark mines with renewables like solar and hydro. ESG fans flock here. Stock rocketed 300% in 2024.
Volume spotlight: 15-20 million shares daily.
Why surge now? Snaps up cheap distressed miners. Momentum rolls into 2025. Carbon credits could add new income. S&P positivity amplifies the upside.
IREN runs efficient miners in Canada using hydro power. Zero debt, plenty of cash for growth.
Volume spotlight: Around 10 million shares, trending up.
Why surge now? Stock doubled lately. Aims for 20 EH/s. Clean balance sheet shines in tough times. Blockchain bull market fuels it higher.
Bitfarms spans Canada, U.S., and South America. Smart site choices avoid energy spikes. Fresh leadership focuses on efficiency.
Volume spotlight: 8-12 million shares daily.
Why surge now? Push to 21 EH/s soon. Bitcoin surges benefit all miners, but flexible ops give Bitfarms an edge. High volume signals building interest.
These stocks pack punch, but swings are real. Bitcoin dips crush miners. Regs could tighten. Still, high volume reduces some liquidity risks. Monitor daily volume—rising trades mean momentum builds.
The <7 High-Volume Blockchain Stocks> are primed as the S&P 500 sets a bullish tone. From Coinbase's exchange dominance to miners like MARA and RIOT chasing bitcoin glory, these picks blend liquidity, growth, and crypto exposure. Track bitcoin prices, ETF flows, and volume spikes. Do your homework, pick your favorites, and ride the 2025 surge.
Stay ahead in crypto—follow market moves and invest smart.
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Table of Contents
Canton Network has positioned itself as the primary blockchain infrastructure for traditional finance institutions.
The platform processes over $280 billion daily through major financial players. Wall Street's adoption of blockchain technology appears to be materializing through private, institutional-grade networks rather than public alternatives.
Broadridge Financial Solutions operates as a critical backbone for global financial markets. The $26 billion company handles approximately $10 trillion in daily transactions.
The firm deployed its Distributed Ledger Repo platform on Canton Network in 2023. This platform now processes over $280 billion in daily repo market volumes.
The DLR platform enables instantaneous settlement of financial collateral between banking institutions. Banks can track lending activities, bond ownership, and cash settlements in real time. Traditional settlement processes often require multiple days to complete transactions. Canton's infrastructure reduces this timeline to seconds through atomic capabilities.
Broadridge serves 19 of the 24 major players in the repo market. The company continues migrating legacy operations to the blockchain-based system.
Industry observers note that tokenized assets represent legally binding economic claims. These digital representations mirror traditional financial instruments in economic value.
Canton's architecture employs DAML programming language for enhanced privacy features. Bank A and Bank B can transact while keeping operations invisible to others.
This privacy-focused design addresses regulatory requirements and competitive concerns. Public blockchains cannot offer the confidentiality that traditional finance demands.
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation received SEC approval to tokenize US Treasuries. DTCC manages over $100 trillion in assets under custody. Approximately $30 trillion of these assets consist of US Treasury securities. This regulatory clearance enables tokenization of Depository Trust Company assets.
Goldman Sachs built its bond tokenization platform GS DAP on Canton Network. Nasdaq integrated its Calypso platform with Canton for collateral management.
The Calypso system serves over 95 percent of major banking institutions. Banks now manage tokenized collateral within existing risk management software.
Additional participants include Bank of America, Santander, Tradeweb, DRW, and Citadel. These institutions utilize Canton for real-time collateral operations and 24/7 market access.
The network facilitates settlement of tokenized treasuries against stablecoin instruments. Traditional settlement systems cannot match this operational efficiency and speed.
Digital Asset Holdings raised over $450 million to develop Canton Network. Strategic investors include Nasdaq, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, and Citadel.
Circle and other blockchain firms also participated in funding rounds. These investors actively use the network rather than functioning as passive providers.
Canton succeeded where previous attempts failed by offering neutral infrastructure. Competing institutions avoided proprietary systems controlled by rivals.
The platform coordinates major players through shared private blockchain infrastructure. Analysts suggest 2026 could mark institutional blockchain adoption reaching critical mass.
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XRP rose above $2 on Friday for the first time since mid-December, extending a strong start to 2026 as traders pointed to steady spot ETF inflows and improving U.S. regulatory sentiment.
Data cited by SoSoValue showed U.S. spot XRP ETFs took in $13.59 million on Jan. 2, pushing total inflows since launch to $1.18 billion. The steady demand has helped tilt near-term supply and demand dynamics in XRP's favor, even as broader crypto benchmarks remain rangebound.
The move also comes as traders reassess the regulatory backdrop after SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw's departure, which some market participants viewed as clearing the way for a more crypto-friendly policy stance.
Crenshaw had been among the most vocal skeptics of crypto spot ETFs and had opposed the SEC dropping its appeal in the Ripple case, according to market commentary.
Speculation around upcoming legislation added to the momentum. Traders pointed to a possible Market Structure Bill markup on Jan. 15, which has kept policy expectations elevated into the first quarter and contributed to the token's outperformance.
XRP's strength stood out against mixed flows in other major crypto ETFs.
The same data set cited by analysts showed weaker demand for bitcoin funds over the period, reinforcing the view that XRP's rally is being driven more by token-specific catalysts than a broad risk-on move.
XRP was last trading just over $2, up around 8%, while bitcoin hovered just over $90,000 and ether traded around $3,000, both only modestly higher on the day.
More For You
KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
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Bitcoin dips, but quickly recovers as U.S. captures Venezuela's Maduro
The U.S. overnight launched a military strike against Venezuela, capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and extracting them from the country.
What to know:
Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.
How burned artifacts offer a window into the dismantling of a dynasty.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:
Archaeologists discovered clues to a fire in Guatemala from between 733 and 881 AD that they say represents a key turning point in Maya rule—a very public turning point.
The discovery at the Maya site of Ucanal in Guatemala “marked a public dismantling of an old regime”—a rather pivotal moment in the collapse of rulers and key point in political power that isn't often shown so clearly from an archeological find, the authors write in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
The event in question occurred at the capital of the K'anwitznal kingdom near a burial site. The bodies and their ornaments—items include a jewel-adorned stone mask, fragments of a greenstone diadem, and jade ornaments—were moved from a tomb to a public burning site, where fire engulfed some of the centuries-old items for all to see.
“This event marked a moment of change in the kingdom and in the lowlands,” the authors write. “Rather than examine this fire-burning event as a bookend to Maya history, we view it as a pivot point around which the K'anwitznal polity reinvented itself and the city of Ucanal went on to a flourishing of activities.”
The new leadership regime welcomed a non-royal leader called Papmalil, and there is little in the written record indicating how he came to power. “Papmalil's rule was not only seminal because of his possible foreign origins—perhaps breaking the succession of ruling dynasts at the site—but also because his rule shifted political dynamics in the southern Maya lowlands.”
The study's authors, led by Christina Halperin at the University of Montreal, state that Papmalil appears to have ushered in an era of prosperity. Substantial construction occurred in both the civic-ceremonial core and outer residential zones of the city following the power shift.
That new era may have had a dramatic beginning.
The team discovered the fire event during 2022 excavations in the construction fill of a temple-pyramid situated in a public plaza, and the evidence shows that there was no effort to protect the burial deposit. The team believes that at least four adults were part of the burn remains, and that the fire reached a temperature of over 800°C. Included with the bodies were 1,470 fragments of greenstone pendants, beads, plaques, and mosaics, along with large blades—all representing a “single burning event.” The quantity and quality of the burnt and broken ornaments indicate they came from a royal tomb, likely belonging to multiple individuals.
The team said evidence indicates that the human bone and ornaments had once been part of the contents of a Late Classic royal tomb, and the deposit was part of a fire-entering rite that “marked the symbolic and literal destruction of an earlier K'anwitznal dynastic line.”
The authors state that the event “appears to have bene an act of desecration: it was dumped at the edge of a crude wall used as a construction pen and no effort was made to protect the fragmented bones and ornaments from the tomb blocks deposited on top of them as construction fill.” It all likely made for a “dramatic public affair” meant to be charged with emotion. “It could dramatically mark,” they wrote, “the dismantling of an ancient regime.”
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A new study from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE) and Charité -- Universitätsmedizin Berlin challenges a widely held belief about intermittent fasting. The research shows that time-restricted eating does not lead to measurable improvements in metabolic or cardiovascular health when calorie intake remains unchanged. However, the timing of meals did affect the body's internal clocks. These findings come from the ChronoFast study led by Prof. Olga Ramich and were published in Science Translational Medicine.
Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a form of intermittent fasting that limits daily food intake to a window of no more than ten hours, followed by a fasting period of at least 14 hours. The approach has become popular as a simple strategy to support weight management and metabolic health. Animal studies show that TRE can protect rodents from diet-related obesity and metabolic problems. In humans, earlier studies have reported benefits such as improved insulin sensitivity, healthier blood sugar and cholesterol levels, and modest reductions in body weight and body fat. As a result, TRE has been widely viewed as a promising tool for preventing insulin resistance and diabetes.
Conflicting Evidence From Earlier Studies
Despite its popularity, past research on TRE has produced mixed results. Many studies have not been able to determine whether observed health improvements came from shorter eating windows, unintentional calorie reduction, or a combination of both. In addition, most earlier trials did not carefully track calorie intake or control for other factors that could influence metabolic outcomes.
To address these gaps, Prof. Olga Ramich, Head of the Department of Molecular Metabolism and Precision Nutrition at the DIfE and Professor at the Charité -- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, designed the ChronoFast trial. The goal was to test whether an eight-hour eating window could improve insulin sensitivity and other metabolic markers when calorie intake was kept constant.
How the ChronoFast Study Was Conducted
The study used a randomized crossover design and included 31 women with overweight or obesity. Each participant followed two different eating schedules for two weeks at a time. One schedule involved early time-restricted eating between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.(eTRE). The other followed a later schedule from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. (lTRE). Throughout both phases, participants ate nearly identical meals with the same calorie and nutrient content (isocaloric).
Researchers collected blood samples during four clinic visits and performed oral glucose tolerance tests to assess glucose and fat metabolism. Continuous glucose monitoring tracked blood sugar levels over 24 hours while food intake was recorded in detail. Physical activity was monitored using a motion sensor. In collaboration with Prof. Achim Kramer from the Charité -- Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the team also examined changes in the body's internal clock using isolated blood cells.
Measuring the Body's Internal Clock
Human biology follows internally generated rhythms that roughly align with the length of a day, which is why they are known as circadian clocks (Latin: circa and dia). These rhythms help regulate nearly every physiological process, including sleep and metabolism. Almost all cells in the body contain their own internal clock, which can be influenced by light, physical activity, and food timing.
To measure individual circadian phases, Prof. Dr. Achim Kramer developed the BodyTime assay. This test requires only a single blood sample and provides an objective snapshot of a person's internal timing. The ChronoFast study used this method and confirmed that eating schedules can shift internal clocks in humans.
No Metabolic Improvements Found
Despite expectations based on earlier research, the ChronoFast study found no clinically meaningful changes in insulin sensitivity, blood sugar, blood fats, or inflammatory markers after the two-week interventions. "Our results suggest that the health benefits observed in earlier studies were likely due to unintended calorie reduction, rather than the shortened eating period itself," explains Ramich.
While metabolic measures remained largely unchanged, the timing of meals did affect circadian rhythms. Analysis of blood cells showed that the internal clock shifted by an average of 40 minutes during the late eating schedule compared to the early schedule. Participants following the later eating window also went to bed and woke up later. "The timing of food intake acts as a cue for our biological rhythms -- similar to light," says first author Beeke Peters.
Calories and Individual Timing May Matter Most
The findings highlight the importance of calorie balance in achieving health benefits from intermittent fasting. "Those who want to lose weight or improve their metabolism should pay attention not only to the clock, but also to their energy balance," Ramich concludes.
Future research will need to explore whether combining time-restricted eating with reduced calorie intake produces stronger benefits. Scientists also aim to better understand how individual factors, including chronotype and genetics, may influence how people respond to different eating schedules.
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Researchers are testing a new oral medication called zoliflodacin that could offer a simpler way to treat gonorrhea, especially strains that no longer respond well to existing antibiotics. In a late-stage phase 3 clinical trial published in The Lancet, scientists found that a single dose of this pill worked just as well as the current standard treatment used today.
Phase 3 trials are the final and largest testing stage before a drug can be approved. They are designed to confirm how well a treatment works and to closely monitor safety in large groups of people. In this case, the results suggest zoliflodacin may be ready to become a real-world option.
Why Gonorrhea Is Becoming Harder to Treat
Gonorrhea is one of the most widespread sexually transmitted infections in the world, with more than 82 million new cases each year. It is caused by a bacterium that infects the reproductive tract and can also affect the throat and rectum. If left untreated, it can lead to serious health problems, including infertility.
One of the biggest challenges in treating gonorrhea is antibiotic resistance. Over time, bacteria can adapt and survive drugs that once killed them. As a result, doctors have fewer effective treatment options. The current recommended therapy relies on two antibiotics: an injection of ceftriaxone followed by an oral dose of azithromycin. This approach works, but it requires access to injections and careful medical supervision.
How the New Treatment Performed in Trials
The new study included more than 900 participants across five countries (USA, South Africa, Thailand, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either zoliflodacin or the standard two-drug treatment.
The results were encouraging. More than 90 percent of genital infections were cured with the single-dose pill. Researchers also found that the drug was generally well tolerated. Side effects were similar to those already seen with existing gonorrhea treatments, and no serious safety concerns were reported during the trial.
What FDA Review Could Mean Going Forward
Zoliflodacin is now under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency responsible for evaluating the safety and effectiveness of new medications in the United States. Approval would allow the drug to be prescribed more widely.
According to the study authors, access to a one-dose oral treatment could make a major difference worldwide. It could simplify care, support community-led treatment programs, reduce reliance on injections, and help slow the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhea. If approved, the medication could play an important role in protecting reproductive health for millions of people around the globe.
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The positive effect of exercise on the immune system is widely acknowledged, but the molecular response of immune cells to exercise remains largely unknown. Here, we perform mass-spectrometry-based proteomic analysis on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) at a depth of >6000 proteins. Comparing high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE), matched for time and workload, we identify versatile changes in the proteomic makeup of PBMCs and reveal profound alterations, related to effector function and immune cell activation pathways within one hour following exercise. These changes are more pronounced after HIIE compared to MICE and occur despite identical immune cell mobilization patterns between the two exercise conditions. We further identify an immunoproteomic signature that effectively predicts cardiorespiratory fitness, thus allowing insights into potential exercise-triggered adaptations and immunological health benefits that are mediated by exercise. This study provides a reliable data resource that expands our knowledge on how exercise modulates the immune system, and delivers biological evidence supporting the WHO 2020 guidelines, which highlight exercise intensity as a relevant factor to maintain health.
All data associated with this article can be explored via our interactive web application at https://sportsmedicine-dortmund.shinyapps.io/beat. Raw data files of all samples processed in the proteomics analysis are hosted on the PRoteomics IDEntifications Database (PRIDE) under the following URL: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/archive/projects/PXD058573. Raw data files of all samples processed in the flow cytometry analysis are hosted on https://figshare.com under the following URL: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30543317. To ensure reproducibility of our analysis, allocation of raw data files to study participants is provided in Supplementary Data S1. All figures were created from the provided raw data using the indicated software, R or python packages.
No custom code was generated for this analysis. All applied analysis tools are specified in the methods section of the article.
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We want to thank Lars Donath and Ludwig Rappelt for their help in conducting the trial. We thank the team of the Proteomics Core Facility of the DKFZ, particularly Adrian Stoegbauer and Alina Ertl for sample preparation and LC-MS/MS measurement. We also want to thank the German Sport University Cologne for supplying internal funds to A.J.M. Schematic figures were created with https://BioRender.com.
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
These authors contributed equally: David Walzik, Niklas Joisten.
Sports Medicine Research Group, Institute for Sport and Sport Science, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
David Walzik, Niklas Joisten, Sebastian Proschinger, Alexander Schenk, Charlotte Wenzel & Philipp Zimmer
Department of Molecular and Cellular Sports Medicine, Institute of Cardiovascular Research and Sports Medicine, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Alan J. Metcalfe
Chest Unit, Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences (CHAPS), Denmark Hill Campus, King's College Hospital, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
Alan J. Metcalfe
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Division of Metabolic Crosstalk in Cancer and the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), DKFZ Core Center Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Alessa L. Henneberg & Christiane A. Opitz
Proteomics Core Facility, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Martin Schneider & Dominic Helm
Division of Biostatistics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany
Silvia Calderazzo
Department of Statistics, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
Andreas Groll
Leibniz Research Center for Working Environment and Human Factors at TU Dortmund (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany
Carsten Watzl
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Conceptualization, N.J., A.J.M., and P.Z.; Methodology, N.J., A.J.M., A.S., and P.Z.; Software, D.W., C.We., M.S., and S.C.; Formal Analysis, D.W., S.P., C.We., M.S., and S.C.; Investigation, A.J.M., S.P., A.S., M.S., and D.H.; Resources, C.Wa., C.A.O., D.H., and P.Z.; Writing – Original Draft, D.W., N.J., S.P., C.We., M.S., and S.C.; Writing – Review & Editing, A.J.M., S.P., A.S., C.We., A.L.H., M.S., S.C., A.G, C.Wa., C.A.O., D.H., and P.Z.; Visualization, D.W. and C.We.; Supervision, P.Z., A.G., and D.H., Project Administration, P.Z.; Funding Acquisition, A.J.M.
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Gigabyte is capitalizing on the resurgence in demand for AM4.
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Gigabyte is capitalizing on the ongoing resurgence in demand for AM4 motherboards as DDR5 RAM prices continue to rise. Spotted by TechPowerUp, the board maker has released four brand new boards, two on the A520 chipset and two on the B550 chipset, featuring a mix of Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX variants.
Most of the four boards are new iterations of existing models sporting minor upgrades to make them more modern, such as the addition of ARGB lighting or WiFi support. The Aorus B550I Pro AX 1.4 is the most premium board of the bunch, featuring a Mini-ITX form factor and, as the name implies, onboard Wi-Fi 6E. The board also comes with an 8-phase VRM power delivery system, PCIe 4.0 support, dual NVMe PCIe 4.0 slots, 2.5Gb Ethernet, dual HDMI ports, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 support. This variant is a revision upgrade over the Aorus B550I Pro AX 1.3 with no changes according to the spec sheet.
The B550M H ARGB is a new Micro-ATX variant based on the Ultra Durable series, featuring ARGB lighting compatibility, which the outgoing B550M H and B550M S2H models lack. The ARGB trim also features some other modifications, including the removal of the DVI port in favor of a DisplayPort connector. The graphics on the motherboard are also slightly different. The board features two DDR4 slots and PCIe 4.0 support via a single M.2 connector.
The A520I AC rev 1.5 is yet another revision update, just like the Aorus model above. But unlike that board, this A520 board does come with one change over its older counterparts. Gigabyte changed the Wi-Fi card from an Intel AC 3168 Wi-Fi 5 card to a Realtek AW-CB304NF Wi-Fi 5 card. Other than that, the two boards are seemingly identical. The A520I AC sports a mini-ITX form factor with a six-phase VRM power delivery setup, six USB ports in the rear, and a single PCIe 3.0 M.2 slot.
The A520M H ARGB is likely the cheapest board of the bunch, and also has a noteworthy amount of changes from the vanilla A520M H. The rear I/O removes a DVI port in favor of a DisplayPort connector, new headers are added for ARGB support, and the board removes a single PCIe x1 slot at the bottom, leaving just a single PCIe x16 and one PCIe x1 slot. The board features six USB ports in the rear, two DDR4 slots, and a single M.2 slot running at PCIe 3.0 speeds.
Gigabyte's focus back on AM4 is more evidence that buyers are flocking back to AMD's almost 10-year-old socket to build new systems as everyone weathers the storm of skyrocketing DDR5 consumer memory prices. AM4 is the only AMD socket that supports DDR4 memory. Despite DDR4 memory production having mostly ceased already, DDR5 memory prices have shot up so quickly that they have overtaken average DDR4 pricing, even at DDR4's elevated prices (from lack of production). You can still buy a 2x8GB (16GB) kit of DDR4 memory for just under $100 and a 2x16GB (32GB) kit for around $160-$180.
We really started to see consumers shift their focus to AM4 in mid-December, when Ryzen 7 5800X3D prices on eBay skyrocketed above Ryzen 7 9800X3D prices. Even now, Amazon's best-sellers list is dominated by AM4-based Ryzen 5000 CPUs, with the Ryzen 7 5800XT ranking 4th. Even AMD's old Zen 2-based Ryzen 5 3600 is in the list, ranking as Amazon's 6th most popular CPU sold.
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At around 2 am local time in Caracas, Venezuela, US helicopters flew overhead while explosions resounded below. A few hours later, US president Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been “captured and flown out of the Country.” US attorney general Pam Bondi followed with a post on X that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York and would “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
It has been a stunning series of events, with unknown repercussions for the global world order. If you asked ChatGPT about it this morning, it told you that you're making it up.
WIRED asked leading chatbots ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini the same question a little before 9 am ET. In all cases, we used the free, default version of the service, since that's what the majority of users experience. We also asked AI search platform Perplexity, which advertises “accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question.” (While Perplexity Pro users have access to a wide range of third-party AI models, the default, free search experience routes users to different models based on a variety of factors.)
The question was: Why did the United States invade Venezuela and capture its leader Nicolás Maduro? The responses were decidedly mixed.
Credit to Anthropic and Google, whose respective Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Gemini 3 models gave timely responses. Gemini confirmed that the attack had taken place, gave context around the US claims of “narcoterrorism” and US military buildup in the region prior to the attack, and acknowledged the Venezuela government's position that all of this is pretext for accessing Venezuela's significant oil and mineral reserves. It cited 15 sources along the way, ranging from Wikipedia to The Guardian to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Claude initially balked. “I don't have any information about the United States invading Venezuela or capturing Nicolás Maduro. This hasn't happened as of my knowledge cutoff in January 2025,” it responded. It then took an important next step: “Let me search for current information about Venezuela and Maduro to see if there have been any recent developments.”
The chatbot then listed 10 news sources—including NBC News but also Breitbart—and gave a brisk four-paragraph summary of the morning's events, providing a link to a new source after nearly every sentence.
ChatGPT did not course-correct. Instead, it emphatically refuted that Maduro had been captured at all. “That didn't happen,” it wrote. “The United States has not invaded Venezuela, and Nicolás Maduro has not been captured.” It then rationalized:
"What's likely going on is a mix-up with real events that are often described in dramatic or misleading ways online. Here's what actually has happened:
❌ No U.S. military invasion of Venezuela
❌ No arrest or capture of Nicolás Maduro
❌ No overthrow of the Venezuelan government by U.S. forces
Maduro is still in power in Venezuela."
It went on to detail recent tensions between the US and Venezuela and explained that “confusion” can happen because of “sensational headlines,” “social media misinformation,” and “confusing sanctions, charges, or rhetoric with actual military action.”
Perplexity was similarly scolding. “The premise of your question is not supported by credible reporting or official records: there has been no invasion of Venezuela by the United States that resulted in capturing Nicolás Maduro,” it responded. “In fact, the U.S. has not successfully invaded or apprehended Maduro, and he remains the Venezuelan president as of late 2025. If you're seeing sensational claims, they likely originate from misinformation or hypothetical scenarios rather than factual events.”
“Perplexity never claims to be 100 percent accurate, but we do claim to be the only AI company focused on building more accurate AI,” says Perplexity spokesperson Beejoli Shah. OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
To be clear, this is expected behavior. ChatGPT 5.1's “knowledge cutoff”—the point at which it no longer has new training data to draw from—is September 30, 2024. (Its more advanced model, ChatGPT 5.2, extends that cutoff to August 31, 2025.) Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a “reliable knowledge cutoff” of January 2025, though its training data is recent to July of last year. It was able to answer the Maduro question because it also has a web search tool for tapping into real-time content. Gemini 3 models have a knowledge cutoff of January 2025 as well but unsurprisingly tap into Google search for queries requiring more up-to-date information. And Perplexity is only as good as the model it's tapping into—although it's again unclear which one that was in this case.
“Pure LLMs are inevitably stuck in the past, tied to when they are trained, and deeply limited in their inherent abilities to reason, search the web, ‘think' critically, etc.,” says Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and author of Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us. While human intervention can fix glaring problems like the Maduro response, Marcus says, that doesn't address the underlying problem. “The unreliability of LLMs in the face of novelty is one of the core reasons why businesses shouldn't trust LLMs.”
The good news, at least, is that people don't seem to be relying on AI as a primary news source quite yet. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center released in October, 9 percent of Americans say they get their news sometimes or often from AI chatbots, and 75 percent said they never get news that way. It also seems unlikely that many people would take ChatGPT's word over the entirety of the news media, the Trump administration, and objective reality itself.
But as chatbots become more ingrained in people's lives, remembering that they're likely to be stuck in the past will be paramount to navigating interactions with them. And it's always worth noting how confidently wrong a chatbot can be—a trait that's not limited to breaking news.
Updated 1/3/26 11:52 am ET: This story has been updated to include comment from Perplexity.
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After the initial image + data pulls, it runs fully offline (no external map/routing/geocoding API calls).Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
Hosted demo (no install): https://demo.corviont.com/Self-host (Docker Compose repo): https://github.com/corviont/monaco-demoDocs: https://www.corviont.com/docsWhat's inside: - Vector tiles served locally (PMTiles)
- Routing served locally (Valhalla)
- Offline geocoding/search + reverse (SQLite Nominatim-based index)
- MapLibre UI wired to the local endpoints
After the initial image + data pulls, it runs fully offline (no external map/routing/geocoding API calls).Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
Self-host (Docker Compose repo): https://github.com/corviont/monaco-demoDocs: https://www.corviont.com/docsWhat's inside: - Vector tiles served locally (PMTiles)
- Routing served locally (Valhalla)
- Offline geocoding/search + reverse (SQLite Nominatim-based index)
- MapLibre UI wired to the local endpoints
After the initial image + data pulls, it runs fully offline (no external map/routing/geocoding API calls).Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
Docs: https://www.corviont.com/docsWhat's inside: - Vector tiles served locally (PMTiles)
- Routing served locally (Valhalla)
- Offline geocoding/search + reverse (SQLite Nominatim-based index)
- MapLibre UI wired to the local endpoints
After the initial image + data pulls, it runs fully offline (no external map/routing/geocoding API calls).Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
What's inside: - Vector tiles served locally (PMTiles)
- Routing served locally (Valhalla)
- Offline geocoding/search + reverse (SQLite Nominatim-based index)
- MapLibre UI wired to the local endpoints
After the initial image + data pulls, it runs fully offline (no external map/routing/geocoding API calls).Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
- Vector tiles served locally (PMTiles)
- Routing served locally (Valhalla)
- Offline geocoding/search + reverse (SQLite Nominatim-based index)
- MapLibre UI wired to the local endpoints
After the initial image + data pulls, it runs fully offline (no external map/routing/geocoding API calls).Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
Next (if people need it): a signed on-device updater for regional datasets (verify → atomic swap → reload).I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
I'd love feedback: where offline maps/routing/search matters for you, and what constraints bite (hardware, fleet size, update windows, regions, deployment style).
A PR nightmare that could've easily been avoided.
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A couple of days ago, Corsair's webstore listed a 48GB kit of Dominator Titanium DDR5 RAM for just $239.99 — a price too reasonable to be true given the worldwide shortage. Naturally, many people swept up this deal, but instead of receiving a confirmation, they got a different message after checkout. Corsair cancelled all the orders, citing a listing error while apologizing for the inconvenience via email.
The post below is Corsair's official statement on the matter, posted on Reddit and X. The company says the SKU was priced incorrectly, and that it was never in stock to begin with, despite showing a pre-order button to buyers. Moreover, Corsair clarifies that it doesn't sell memory based on pre-orders at the moment, so this was entirely an oversight.
Customers affected by this will be fully refunded and issued a compensatory coupon on top. According to reports online, that was initially a 15% storewide discount that was (mistakenly, again) set to expire on October 31, 2025, so Corsair later added a blanket 40% off for future RAM orders as well. Unfortunately, by then, the damage had already been done.
NOTICE: DRAM Cancellations - Webstore Pricing ErrorOn January 1, our webstore mistakenly listed an out-of-stock memory kit - DOMINATOR TITANIUM RGB 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5 6400MT/s CL36 (SKU: CMP48GX5M2B6400C36) at an incorrect price. Due to an internal systems error, the item…January 2, 2026
Complaints started popping up on Corsair's official subreddit, where the mods made matters worse by turning off comments and deleting certain posts. Over on the r/pcmasterrace subreddit, one customer reeling from the cancellation has already amassed over 16,000 upvotes, where the OP claims the same RAM kit is now price-hiked to $500+, though we couldn't confirm that since it's actually marked out-of-stock now.
While the community backlash has been scathing, there have been some divisive comments, wondering how this is unfair, so it's important to highlight what actually went wrong. Let's be real: that $240 ask for such a premium DDR5 RAM kit was already a bit of a stretch even without the DRAM shortage; with that in place, it was definitely impossible.
However, the onus is on Corsair, since it still listed the kit at that price, mistake or not, which means the company had to honor the sale once the product was in the customer's cart and had passed checkout. You'll find anecdotes in the comment threads saying that stores like Micro Center will simply let you keep the incorrectly-priced item, since it was never your mistake.
Instead, by cancelling those orders, Corsair created a PR nightmare for itself. The funny bit is that just a few hours before this fiasco unfolded, the company had cancelled an order for a prebuilt PC worth $3,500, only to raise its price by $800 afterward. The community, therefore, was already on high alert, so for Corsair to pull off something like this was quite brave, for lack of a better term.
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Some of you might still point to rising DRAM prices, and while that's a fair assumption, the issue isn't jacking up prices after these orders; it's that the brand outright cancelled them all. Corsair doesn't sell memory to AI data centers; its entire business is consumer-facing, so it lives and dies on reputation, which has now been tainted.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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Corsair made things right for the disappointed gamer.
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A Redditor posted on the r/Corsair subreddit, complaining that the company cancelled their $3,499 pre-built PC order on New Year's Day, only to discover that the unit had been raised to $4,299 the following day. Senior_Ball_9068 said on the post, “I believe that they cancelled my order exactly because they raised the price.” This is a massive $700 price hike, especially at a time when memory prices are hitting record highs, leading to significant disappointment for users.
Thankfully, a Community Captain took notice and messaged the user to get their order number and get to the bottom of things. According to u/CorsairLucky, “The order was flagged by our fraud detection system and was canceled as a result. On January 1st, our Holiday Deals promo pricing ended, and the normal pricing was reinstated. But we'll be getting OP taken care of!”
It seems that Corsair sent a coupon to u/Senior_Ball_9068, allowing them to repurchase their order at the sale price. More than that, they'll also monitor the order, ensuring it reaches the Redditor so they can enjoy the new year with a brand-new gaming rig.
This is a commendable move by Corsair, especially given that the OP wasn't at fault. And while we're unsure whether they reached out to Corsair customer service to fix the issue, it seems their Reddit post gained a lot of traction, catching the company's attention. The Redditor ordered the Corsair Vengeance a5100 gaming PC, which comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, 32GB (2x16GB) of DDR5-6400, and a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD. The original $4,299 is indeed too much for a build like this, but the $3,499 sale price seems reasonable.
We looked at the specifications for the gaming PC and built something close using PCPartPicker. The total price of the custom build should be around $3,120. While many enthusiasts will not pay the $380 premium that Corsair charges for its pre-built PC, the Redditor said that they prefer that because they “never had the experience of building a PC myself” and that they did not want to “break…something up in the process.”
And even though others say that it's easy to learn building one from scratch, it's probably something that the OP doesn't want to risk, and that they're willing to pay extra for the privilege of not having to think which parts to order, worry about putting it together, and the peace of mind of warranty coverage for the entire PC.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He's been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he's been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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This cooler operates on electrohydrodynamics
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Deep-tech giant YPlasma is preparing to announce a new solid-state cooling solution for laptops at CES 2026. According to a blog post the company published, the new cooler design can cool laptop devices at an "ultra-quiet" 17 dBA using the world's first DBD plasma actuators for consumer electronics. The company also announced that this same cooling design will be used to address the cooling needs of power-hungry AI-focused servers.
This new cooler design uses "Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma actuators" to generate airflow without any moving components. According to YPlasma's literature review of the technology: "Wind is generated by ionizing a thin layer of ambient gas adjacent to a dielectric surface..." YPlasma's coolers are taking advantage of corona discharge, an electrohydrodynamic phenomenon, to generate wind using electricity.
The solid-state nature of this cooler design also enabled YPlasma to make it incredibly tinny. The cooler's actuators can measure as thin as 200 microns, making it allegedly well-suited for integration directly onto heat sinks or internal components.
What makes YPlasma's design different from Frore System's AirJet solid-state coolers is the integration of plasma into the cooling solution. YPlasma claims that others have explored ionic cooling using corona discharge, but it has made strides in making it safe for consumer use. A big part of this is the use of a dielectric barrier to limit harmful ozone byproducts from being exposed to the surrounding environment.
If this cooling design sounds at all familiar, Frore Systems developed the world's first solid-state cooler a few years back and has since seen its cooler designs implemented in small-form-factor PCs and laptops. Solid-state cooling is a new, growing category of cooler designs that can cool electronics without any moving parts, providing super-quiet operation and low energy consumption in incredibly small form factors. But instead of using plasma, the AirJet uses ultrasonic frequencies to generate airflow.
YPlasma has not released any precise statistics on the cooling capabilities of its new solid-state laptop cooler, but it's likely to be as competitive as Frore System's solid-state AirJet coolers, based on YPlasma's claim that its cooling tech will be an effective solution for power-hungry AI servers. The company will have a live demo of the device at CES 2026 starting at 4 PM on January 7th.
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If old sci-fi shows are anything to go by, we're all using our computers wrong. We're still typing with our fingers, like cave people, instead of talking out loud the way the future was supposed to be. Have you ever seen Picard touch a keyboard? Of course not.
And it's odd because our computers are all capable of turning speech into text by default. The problem? It just doesn't work very well. Or, at least, it didn't. In recent years AI models like Nvidia's Parakeet and OpenAI's Whisper, both open source, have made great strides in turning human voices into text. Both excel at correctly adding things like punctuation and capitalization, and you can run them right on your computer. Using these models is the closest I've felt to recording a captain's log—it just works.
The problem? They're both a little complicated to set up. That's where Handy comes in. This is a dead-simple, totally free application that can set up either of these models on your computer and give you a keyboard shortcut to use it. It was created by CJ Pais after he broke his finger, rendering him unable to type. He wanted a totally free, and radically simple, way to use existing AI speech-to-text tools.
To get started simply download Handy—there are versions offered for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Run the application and you'll be asked which model you want to use.
The default, Parakeet V3, is a great place to start—I didn't feel the need to try out other models after using it.
It will take a bit for the model to download, but when it does you can start using the application by pressing and holding the keyboard shortcut. By default it's Control-Space on Windows and Linux or Option-Space on macOS. You'll see an overlay at the bottom of the screen, letting you know that you're being recorded and transcribed. Holding the keyboard shortcut you can talk for as long as you like—when you're done the text will show up in whatever text box is currently active.
I've been using this to write the article today, and an impressive thing is I don't even have to turn my music off—the models are good at filtering it out. I don't know if that would work in all environments, granted, but my music was pretty loud, and it worked well. I even tried speaking a few sentences in French and Spanish—it worked (and, I imagine, would work even better if my pronunciation weren't horrible).
Honestly, for most people, this is all you need to do—download the application, choose a model, and use it whenever you'd otherwise be typing something. But you can customize things a little.
You can pick a custom keyboard shortcut, and you can decide to simply press that shortcut instead of pressing and holding it. You can also choose which microphone you want to use and whether there should be audio feedback at the beginning and end of recording.
The advanced settings let you refine things a little further, starting the software when your computer boots up and changing how long the models stay open on your computer. You can also add custom words, useful if you regularly say a name or word the model seems to constantly mis-transcribe.
Most people, though, won't need to think about any of this—and that's what's great about this software. It does the job and otherwise stays out of the way. And, because it's completely free, it also doesn't bother you about things like upgrading, which is a nice change of pace in the world of AI-based technology.
If you're at all curious about talking instead of typing, I can't recommend Handy enough. Give it a shot. Personally, I'll probably keep using my keyboard to write articles—I type faster than I can think. But if I ever hurt my hand in any way, I'm going to be very thankful this tool exists.
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The end of text fringing on QD-OLED?
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Samsung's QD-OLED technology has gone head-to-head against LG's WOLED with one distinct advantage: better color volume. By using a blue emitter and quantum dots, the company turns an otherwise reductive filtering process into an additive outcome. As a side effect, they employ unconventional subpixel layouts, which make QD-OLEDs suffer from inferior text clarity. Fortunately, Samsung Display is finally addressing this at CES 2026.
The company has just announced mass production of the "world's first 360Hz V-Stripe QD-OLED," with a new 34-inch ultrawide panel. The V-Stripe refers to the subpixels being arranged vertically, like on a typical LCD, which Windows' font engine is most comfortable with. For years, QD-OLEDs have relied on triangular subpixel arrangements, leading to poor text clarity and fringing visible at the edges.
Samsung's "V-Stripe" naming convention is a bit confusing because it may imply a V-shaped layout. However, TFT Central confirmed that it refers to red, green, and blue subpixels arranged vertically next to each other, like upright pillars. Then, whole pixels are aligned horizontally next to each other. This should significantly reduce text fringing and improve clarity at even lower resolutions.
The Reddit post above sheds more light on this new panel, courtesy of a hands-on article from para.de that's since been deleted. The red subpixel is the largest here because it carries a disproportionate share of perceived brightness — especially important in QD-OLED — while the blue subpixel is kept smallest because it's inefficient, ages fastest, and has to be almost babied to protect the panel's lifetime.
Samsung is not out to fundamentally change panel physics; rather, it's an attempt to make the subpixel spacing even again. Even before this, the issue had been greatly alleviated by brute-forcing pixel density. Higher resolutions on the same-sized panels have increased the PPI to the point where it masks inconsistencies in the subpixel layout.
Still, the problem was never truly eliminated from the root, and Samsung's 34-inch ultrawide panels, in particular, had been stuck on older tech that lacked these improvements. They're not 4K or 5K-class panels like some other QD-OLED displays, so the upgrade matters most here.
"By leveraging QD-OLED's top emission structure, which offers brightness advantages, along with improvements in organic material efficiency and design optimization, we were able to mass-produce a high-performance monitor display that integrates four key features: the 'V-Stripe' pixel structure, an ultra-wide aspect ratio, a high refresh rate, and enhanced brightness." — Samsung Display spokesperson
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Speaking of which, the other specs of this new panel are nothing to scoff at either. We're looking at a 34-inch ultrawide panel with a 1800R curvature and a fast 360 Hz refresh rate. Samsung Display has also achieved 1,300 nits of peak brightness for the first time on a QD-OLED panel, and monitors using it will be certified for HDR True Black 500, meaning 500 nits of peak brightness across 100% of the panel.
This new panel will debut at CES with options from a range of brands, including Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI, who've been supplied these panels since December 2025. That puts a retail launch at least a few months away, and even then, this will be one expensive monitor. No word on pricing yet, but we should learn more very soon.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he's not working, you'll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46474859
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My honest guess? Cuba.(If I were in charge from this minute on, I'd offer Maduro a pardon, asylum and a mountain of cash to (a) assist with a regime change and (b) tell us all of Cuba, Iran, Russia and China's nasty business.)
(If I were in charge from this minute on, I'd offer Maduro a pardon, asylum and a mountain of cash to (a) assist with a regime change and (b) tell us all of Cuba, Iran, Russia and China's nasty business.)
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Without might makes right (US puppet) or some recognition of legitimacy, any leader is little more than a loudspeaker in a pretty house.
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Delcy Rodríguez is president now. Presumably their military is treating her as the president.
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Maybe the Venezuelan government remains intact, and now we have the embarrassing situation of a sovereign country asking for its head of state back.
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Unitary executive theory = plenary powers, e.g., they're a king in all but name surrounded by political loyalists with their hands on every lever of power that matters.
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Rubios reasons are:1. He is a Cuban American and his base is the Cuban exile community. They have been wanting to overthrow the Communist regime since JFK. As Cuba is utterly dependent on Venezuelan oil, this might be what finally does it.2. He is setting himself to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. Despite the isolationist tendencies of MAGA, there are still many Republican voters for whom kicking foreign commie ass is an impressive resume item.3. Maduro is really horrible. All the “No Kings” types wringing their hands about Fascism should be happy that an actual authoritarian dictator has met his end.But mostly the first two.
1. He is a Cuban American and his base is the Cuban exile community. They have been wanting to overthrow the Communist regime since JFK. As Cuba is utterly dependent on Venezuelan oil, this might be what finally does it.2. He is setting himself to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. Despite the isolationist tendencies of MAGA, there are still many Republican voters for whom kicking foreign commie ass is an impressive resume item.3. Maduro is really horrible. All the “No Kings” types wringing their hands about Fascism should be happy that an actual authoritarian dictator has met his end.But mostly the first two.
2. He is setting himself to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. Despite the isolationist tendencies of MAGA, there are still many Republican voters for whom kicking foreign commie ass is an impressive resume item.3. Maduro is really horrible. All the “No Kings” types wringing their hands about Fascism should be happy that an actual authoritarian dictator has met his end.But mostly the first two.
3. Maduro is really horrible. All the “No Kings” types wringing their hands about Fascism should be happy that an actual authoritarian dictator has met his end.But mostly the first two.
But mostly the first two.
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The caveat is what happens next. If a stable government emerges, that's okay. If a stable government emerges that holds free and fair elections, that's brilliant. If, on the other hand, the power vacuum prompts a civil war and refugee crisis because nobody–again–planned for what happens after regime decapitation, well fuck.(We really need to repeal the War Powers Act [1].)[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution
(We really need to repeal the War Powers Act [1].)[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution
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At this moment in time, the President has bombed Caracas (presumably under the War Powers Act [1]) and claims to have captured Maduro.From here, there are paths that wind up marginally good and many that end up somewhat catastrophically. Few wind up great. Few wind up as total shitshows (the risk in this being a Venezuelan civil war).Seeing that there are positive possible outcomes isn't an expression of naive hope. It's identifying possible futures. I have no clue, personally, how to prevent a civil war in Venezuela–I'm neither hopeful nor on the edge of my seat.And again, none of this justifies the actions. A gambler may win big betting his house. That doesn't make it a good call, even if we can recognise that the outcome wound up favourably.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution#Provisio...
From here, there are paths that wind up marginally good and many that end up somewhat catastrophically. Few wind up great. Few wind up as total shitshows (the risk in this being a Venezuelan civil war).Seeing that there are positive possible outcomes isn't an expression of naive hope. It's identifying possible futures. I have no clue, personally, how to prevent a civil war in Venezuela–I'm neither hopeful nor on the edge of my seat.And again, none of this justifies the actions. A gambler may win big betting his house. That doesn't make it a good call, even if we can recognise that the outcome wound up favourably.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution#Provisio...
Seeing that there are positive possible outcomes isn't an expression of naive hope. It's identifying possible futures. I have no clue, personally, how to prevent a civil war in Venezuela–I'm neither hopeful nor on the edge of my seat.And again, none of this justifies the actions. A gambler may win big betting his house. That doesn't make it a good call, even if we can recognise that the outcome wound up favourably.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution#Provisio...
And again, none of this justifies the actions. A gambler may win big betting his house. That doesn't make it a good call, even if we can recognise that the outcome wound up favourably.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution#Provisio...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution#Provisio...
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Never said that. I said this could wind up being net good if that's the outcome. Doesn't make the way we would have gotten there okay. And it doesn't mean that was a primary or even proximate goal for the people who called the shots.
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American living in America who knows Venzeulans in America, most of whom didn't want this.But. All of whom would want their country to democratise. Whether blowing up the capital and kidnapping their dictator causes that to happen is questionable. But Venezuela has cultural memory of democracy. (On the other hand, there seems to be zero effort–again!–towards an after-the-bombs plan. I'll also note that this administration isn't exactly a fan, itself, of free and fair elections.)
But. All of whom would want their country to democratise. Whether blowing up the capital and kidnapping their dictator causes that to happen is questionable. But Venezuela has cultural memory of democracy. (On the other hand, there seems to be zero effort–again!–towards an after-the-bombs plan. I'll also note that this administration isn't exactly a fan, itself, of free and fair elections.)
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Should have stopped there...
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Where are you getting your information?
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Honestly, I was hoping for an actual war against the drug gangs. Had he gone to war and won, he would have taken care of a huge problem for us. I for one would have been extremely grateful. Now it looks like he's going to get his oil without any fighting whatsoever.
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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46474353
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They can't have free and fair elections when the US is literally holding their president hostage. And dictatorships like Saudi Arabia are just fine apparently.
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You are ok with Trump invading a neighbour country, kidnapping a person while accepting some civilian casualties?I wonder what you would think if Canada would invade the USA and kidnapping Trump and other criminals.This strike was not sanctioned by Venezuela. They are sovereign and they have the right to deal with their affairs in their own way. The USA -- as so often in history -- are playing judge, jury and executioner in foreign countries. They violated international law. The fact that you want to celebrate this says a lot about your attitude towards sovereignty , due process and human life.
I wonder what you would think if Canada would invade the USA and kidnapping Trump and other criminals.This strike was not sanctioned by Venezuela. They are sovereign and they have the right to deal with their affairs in their own way. The USA -- as so often in history -- are playing judge, jury and executioner in foreign countries. They violated international law. The fact that you want to celebrate this says a lot about your attitude towards sovereignty , due process and human life.
This strike was not sanctioned by Venezuela. They are sovereign and they have the right to deal with their affairs in their own way. The USA -- as so often in history -- are playing judge, jury and executioner in foreign countries. They violated international law. The fact that you want to celebrate this says a lot about your attitude towards sovereignty , due process and human life.
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Nope. But I'm saying this could potentially turn out okay.Probably not. We probably get a civil war or like Cuba moonshotting for nukes. But there are avenues from this point on where it could wind up okay. (I would not have expected we'd have nabbed Maduro so quickly twelve hours ago.)> They violated international lawI mean, this is dead. China, Russia and America have explicitly called it dead. Iran, Israel, India and France, too. It's basically Brussels and Brazil still respecting it, and neither is a military power.
Probably not. We probably get a civil war or like Cuba moonshotting for nukes. But there are avenues from this point on where it could wind up okay. (I would not have expected we'd have nabbed Maduro so quickly twelve hours ago.)> They violated international lawI mean, this is dead. China, Russia and America have explicitly called it dead. Iran, Israel, India and France, too. It's basically Brussels and Brazil still respecting it, and neither is a military power.
> They violated international lawI mean, this is dead. China, Russia and America have explicitly called it dead. Iran, Israel, India and France, too. It's basically Brussels and Brazil still respecting it, and neither is a military power.
I mean, this is dead. China, Russia and America have explicitly called it dead. Iran, Israel, India and France, too. It's basically Brussels and Brazil still respecting it, and neither is a military power.
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This is definitely out of my comfort zone. I've never programmed DSP before. But I was able to use Claude code and have it help me build this using CMajor.I just wanted to show you guys because I'm super proud of it. It's a 100% faithful recreation based off of the schematics, patents, and ROMs that were found online.So please watch the video and tell me what you thinkhttps://youtu.be/auOlZXI1VxAThe reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me.I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for better or worse!Thanks!
I just wanted to show you guys because I'm super proud of it. It's a 100% faithful recreation based off of the schematics, patents, and ROMs that were found online.So please watch the video and tell me what you thinkhttps://youtu.be/auOlZXI1VxAThe reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me.I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for better or worse!Thanks!
So please watch the video and tell me what you thinkhttps://youtu.be/auOlZXI1VxAThe reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me.I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for better or worse!Thanks!
https://youtu.be/auOlZXI1VxAThe reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me.I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for better or worse!Thanks!
The reason why I think this is relevant is because I've been a programmer for 25 years and AI scares the shit out of me.I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for better or worse!Thanks!
I'm not a programmer anymore. I'm something else now. I don't know what it is but it's multi-disciplinary, and it doesn't involve writing code myself--for better or worse!Thanks!
Thanks!
reply
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ATLANTA – U.S. Under-17 Women's National Team head coach Ciara Crinion has named 20 players for a training camp and two matches in Spain, with the trip running from Jan. 6-15.
The USA will face the Germany U-17 WNT on Jan. 11 in Albir, Spain before taking on the Denmark U-17 WNT on Jan. 14 at Camilo Cano Stadium in La Nucia, Spain.
Seventeen of players named were born in 2009, the birth year cut-off for players to be eligible for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, which will be staged in Morocco. Midfielder Loradana Paletta was born in 2011 with midfielder Gigi Zuniga and goalkeeper Avellina Saunders born in 2010.
Seven players on the roster for the Spain trip helped the USA win the 2024 Concacaf Girls' U-15 Championship: forwards Carolina Reyna, Maddie DiMaria, Amari Manning and Deus Stanislaus, midfielders Mia Corona and Paletta, and goalkeeper Ella McNeal. That team was coached by Crinion.
Five players on the roster come from California, three hail from Missouri, one from Kansas, and three from New Jersey.
The camp is part of the Federation's continued focus on the U.S. Way philosophy, which emphasizes increased programming for Youth National Teams to create more opportunities for young players to advance through the pathway to the senior National Team with the goal of representing their country at a world championship.
International Training Camp and Matches – Spain
Goalkeepers (2): Ella McNeal (St. Louis Scott Gallagher; Manchester, Mo.), Avellina Saunders (Utah Royals FC Arizona; Phoenix, Ariz.)
Defenders (7): Sophia Ahrens (St. Louis Scott Gallagher, Fenton, Mo.), Kendra Hansen (Pateadores SC; Tustin, Calif.), Madeline Maves (Crossfire Premier SC; Seattle, Wash.), Venina Moodie (De Anza Force SC, Oakland, Calif.), Sam Ogden (Kansas City Athletics; Overland Park, Kan.), Anaiah Williams (Eclipse Select SC; Glendale Heights, Ill.), Gigi Zuniga (Mountain View Los Altos SC; Watsonville, Calif.)
Midfielders (5): Mia Corona (Legends FC; Cypress, Calif.), Jordyn Heathcock (FC Dallas; Edmond, Okla.), Bridget Kopmeyer (Michigan Tigers; Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), Grace Murray (Beach FC; Redondo Beach, Calif.), Loradana Paletta (New York City FC; Syosset, N.Y.)
Forwards (6): Maddie DiMaria (St. Louis Scott Gallagher; Fenton, Mo.), Gianna Hanf (Match Fit Academy; Chesterfield, N.J.), Amari Manning (Players Development Academy; Flemington, N.J.), Carolina Reyna (Sting Austin; Austin, Texas), Deus Stanislaus (Players Development Academy; Fort Washington, Pa.), Jordyn Sullivan (Match Fit Academy; Rumson, N.J.)
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Twenty players have been called up.
The Spartans have added a trio of transfers.
Brewer is one of the nation's top prospects.
Awards for youth, high school and college soccer.
Thompson has signed a guaranteed contract.
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Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso has revealed Endrick's ambition was behind the decision to allow him to join Lyon on loan for the remainder of the season. The Brazil star has been frustrated at his lack of playing time at the Bernabeu and has been granted his wish to leave in a bid to secure a place in the squad for this year's World Cup in North America, Canada and Mexico.
Endrick signed for Real Madrid in the summer of 2024 from Palmeiras after an impressive spell in Brazil where he won back-to-back league titles. In his debut season with Los Blancos, he made 37 appearances across all competitions, including 22 in La Liga, scoring seven goals. However, the current season has seen a dramatic reduction in playing time under Alonso. Since recovering from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for several months, Endrick featured just three times across all competitions for a total of just over 100 minutes in La Liga and Champions League, without scoring.
The fierce competition for places with star forwards Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr. has meant opportunities were scarce, with the manager often preferring Gonzalo Garcia as a back-up striker. This lack of involvement caused visible frustration for the young star, who ultimately made the decision to seek a loan move for the sake of his development, something his boss understands.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Alonso said: "Endrick, at this stage of his career, after coming from Brazil to Europe, needs playing time, and I understand why he made that decision and why the club wanted to invest in his development and experience in a competitive league like the French one, at a club where he'll get more minutes. If that allows him to grow as a player... Real Madrid does a great job with players who develop at other clubs and then perform well for the first team. We've seen it, and if that happens, I understand why Bobby and the club made that decision, and we'll be following him very closely, eager for him to progress and improve.
"We shouldn't just focus on the short term, but also look at the medium term and when the talks are taking place. The decision has been made and there's no going back. Endrick is there, we're following him very closely, and we'll approach the Super Cup with great confidence in the players we have."
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Endrick has earned 14 caps and scored three goals for the senior Brazil national team, but recently expressed a genuine "fear" of missing out on the tournament if he remained on the bench at Real. In an interview with Brazil legend Romario, the 19-year-old sensation said: "To be honest, what goes through my head a lot is that I'm afraid I won't be in the 2026 World Cup. Of course it's difficult, being in the biggest club in the world, with the best players and not having the opportunity to always play. But whenever I play, I can show a bit of my game to be in the national team. I hope that next year I can be in the national team and, God willing, we will win the World Cup."
Endrick's move to Lyon, where he is expected to play a prominent role, is designed to be a temporary but vital chapter in his career. He has reportedly told everyone at Real Madrid that he will return and succeed at the club, viewing his story in Spain as far from over.
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Endrick has made an immediate off-field impact since joining, breaking the club's social media records for his announcement video. Coach Paulo Fonseca has confirmed his new signing is adapting well in training and is highly motivated, though his debut was delayed due to a registration issue and wasn't named in the squad to face Monaco, and is now expected against Lille in the French Cup on January 11.
Fonseca explained: "I think he is very good. He started training this week, the adaptation is going very well. He is a player we need, he is different. The whole group welcomed him. I spoke with him, he is very satisfied and we are also pleased to have him with us, with his quality. He is in good physical shape, he worked in Madrid but he is not ready to play 90 minutes. He has had a good training session, he is motivated."
Brighton CEO Paul Barber has sent out a strong message to Manchester United over the future of Carlos Baleba, as he insists the midfielder is "not for sale" in either the January transfer window or the summer. Ruben Amorim's side are reported to be interested in signing the midfielder this month, but the Seagulls are not minded to allow him to leave.
United, per Sky Sports, are trying to sign Baleba in the January transfer window. The club are said to have sounded the midfielder out over a move, having also attempted to sign him in the summer. Fabrizio Romano claimed in December that United have "not stopped discussing" the idea of signing the midfielder, who had an asking price in excess of £100 million ($135m), ahead of the window. In January, though, United are said to understand that a deal is incredibly difficult and is not expected to progress before the summer window.
Now, Barber has claimed that he and the Brighton hierarchy have no desire to let Baleba leave, either in the January window or in the summer, even if he does accept that he will likely have interested parties given his talent.
Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: "No call from Old Trafford. No call from anyone connected to Manchester United. We have no plans or desire to sell Carlos in this window, or in any future window, but we know he's a talented player and he's got a lot of options ahead of him in the future. For us right now, he's an important player in the second half of the season and we're looking forward to getting him back from AFCON."
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Speaking about the speculation over his move to United in the summer, he said: "I don't think it affected me negatively, but I had a lot of pressure on me. When I started this season, I wanted to show the same performances as last season. Every day I try to work hard and get back to my level. Did I put too much pressure on myself? Yes, I think so, but I think it's good. It's good for me, because now I have to get through this slightly stressful period, get back on the horse, and continue working hard."
Ruben Amorim, United's manager, has said that the club will only enter the market for the "perfect" player in January.
He said: “The only thing that we will try to bring now – and in the end of the season – are players that are perfect for our future,” Amorim said ahead of United's trip to Aston Villa on Sunday.
“It's not going to be to save something in this moment, to cope with the losses of three players for AFCON. It's not going to be like that. Even if we try to bring one player, maybe it's not the position that we need more. So I don't know what is going to happen, but it's possible that we can do something.
“I'm just focused on the next game. Let's go step by step. We have a big match. We need to win. We need to try to find different ways of playing, especially without Amad and Bryan. We lost some characteristics that are hard to find.”
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United are likely to continue scouting Baleba throughout the remainder of the season.
In the summer, owner Tony Bloom confirmed United's interest, but said they did not ever come close to matching their valuation.
He said: “There was interest from Manchester United, and we said that he wasn't available this summer and they went away. So we've had many bigger sagas in the past. But Carlos Baleba, his improvement has been immense. Massively important player to this football club, and just delighted that he's with us for this season.”
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The action heats up as the NHL showdown pits the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Detroit Red Wings at 12:00 AM ET, followed by the NBA clash between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks at 7:30 PM ET.
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The Philadelphia 76ers head to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks, with the Knicks expected to be modest home favorites.
New York has been strong at home behind Jalen Brunson's steady scoring and late-game control, while the 76ers continue to lean heavily on Tyrese Maxey's shot creation and pace, especially if Joel Embiid's status is managed or limited. From a betting angle, Brunson over 28.5 points is a popular prop against a Philly defense that can struggle at the point of attack, while Maxey over 26.5 points and over 6.5 assists draw interest given his expanded role.
On the glass, Josh Hart over 8.5 rebounds is worth a look due to his minutes and hustle, while Embiid (if active) over 10.5 rebounds would be firmly in play. The Knicks' consistency and depth make them a lean on the spread and moneyline, but if Philadelphia pushes tempo, the over 229.5 offers value in what profiles as a high-scoring Eastern Conference showdown.
The line opened with Seattle as a slight favorite with the moneyline near Seahawks -120 / 49ers to +110 and the spread around Seahawks -1.5 to 49ers +1.5, indicating a tight divisional battle with massive playoff seeding implications.
Key player props to consider include Jaxon Smith‑Njigba Over receiving yards given his elite recent form and favorable matchups, and Brock Purdy Over 1.5 passing touchdowns if weapons like Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle suit up; conversely, Sam Darnold Under 1.5 passing TDs is plausible given Seattle's defense and conservative offensive scripts.
Trend angles: Seattle's strong road success and stout defense make them a playable spread lean, while San Francisco's home field and offensive balance give value on the home moneyline or plus‑spread, and the total around 49.5 offers a spot to choose under in a physical NFC West tilt.
Pittsburgh enters with a capable offense and one of the league's top power plays, but they've been inconsistent and have split recent results, whereas Detroit has been strong in recent form and has beaten Pittsburgh in previous meetings.
For props, consider total goals Over 6.5 if you're expecting a back‑and‑forth game; these teams combine for over that mark on plenty of occasions.
On the moneyline and spread, Detroit +1.5 offers value if you think the home club keeps this tight, while the Penguins ML is best if you trust Pittsburgh's attack to outscore Detroit outright.
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By ANGUS COULSON
Published: 09:00 EST, 3 January 2026 | Updated: 09:00 EST, 3 January 2026
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When a footballer retires, many fans wonder about the next step in their career. For most, finding a new job within the game seems to be the most natural route – so it is no surprise when a player goes on to try their hand at management.
However, not all stars follow the path of coaching top clubs or one of their former sides. Some take the road less travelled, venturing into areas far removed from the glitz and glamour of Europe's biggest leagues.
Some appear where you least expect but with the biggest World Cup ever this summer you may well recognise a few faces you haven't seen for a while.
Here are some of the best examples of ex-players in unexpected roles as head coach....
Fabio Cannavaro is widely regarded as one of the greatest centre backs of all time. The Italian defender captained Italy to World Cup glory in 2006 and is one of just three defenders to have won the Ballon d'Or trophy.
Cannavaro enjoyed stints at some of Europe's biggest clubs, including Juventus and Real Madrid. However, in retirement, he chose a path few would have predicted – taking charge of Uzbekistan for their first ever World Cup.
Cannavaro's appointment came despite the fact that Uzbek-born Timur Kapadze led the nation to qualify for its first ever World Cup tournament.
Signing a two-year-contract for the White Wolves, Cannavaro will be hoping that his bold move results in success for the Central Asian country.
Fabio Cannavaro won the World Cup in 2006 and will now take Uzbekistan to the tournament
Nolberto Solano - better known as Nobby - is considered a cult hero by Newcastle United fans, who remember him for his impressive left foot and love of playing the trumpet.
However, since retiring, Solano has hung up the boots and placed the trumpet to one side to try his hand in management. Having taken charge of several clubs since retiring in 2012, Solano's most recent step into the managerial role of Pakistan has surprised many.
Pakistan, who are ranked 199th in the FIFA world rankings at the time of writing, aspire to qualify for the 2030 World Cup, but are also focused on establishing professional domestic leagues for both men and women in the meantime.
Solano's first task was to lead Pakistan's Under 23 side into the U23 Asian Cup, however, following an 8-1 defeat to Iraq, and subsequent defeats to Cambodia and Oman, it is clear that a big task lies ahead for the Peruvian.
Nobby Solano was popular at Newcastle and here, performs with his salsa band in 2005
Benni McCarthy's playing career was decorated with high-profile achievements, including winning the Champions League with Porto, a league title with Ajax, and successful spells in the Premier League with Blackburn and West Ham. Following his retirement in 2013, McCarthy took on a number of coaching roles, including the position of a first-team striker's coach at Manchester United from 2022-2024.
Since March 2025, McCarthy has been the head coach of Kenya, a team with a history consisting of suspensions from international football in 2004 and 2006 and from the African Cup of Nations in 2023.
Currently sitting 113th in the FIFA world rankings and having never qualified for the World Cup, Kenya will be hoping that the experienced McCarthy can lead them to success on the international stage at some point.
Benni McCarthy was forwards coach at Old Trafford between 2002 and 2024
Dwight Yorke is mainly remembered as a Manchester United treble winner, for his deadly partnership with Andy Cole and his off-the-pitch partying which earned him the nickname ‘all-night Dwight'.
However, Yorke's post-playing career has seen him demonstrate his professionalism, taking on the head coach role of his home nation Trinidad and Tobago.
As a player Yorke was part of an exciting Trinidad and Tobago team that qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Following his transition into a manager, Yorke has returned home to take charge of the side, bringing his world-class experience with him.
Despite the relative obscurity of Caribbean football on the global stage, Yorke is determined to make an impact. His Premier League pedigree and experience on the international stage allows him to instill ambition and optimism in his squad.
Dwight Yorke formed a fine United partnership with Andy Cole, and is now boss of Trinidad
Fellow Trinidad and Tobago legend Stern John was once one of the most prolific strikers in Major League Soccer and enjoyed stints in England with several clubs, including Nottingham Forrest and Crystal Palace.
John is currently the manager of Caribbean Island country St. Lucia's national team. Despite being a member of CONCACAF – the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean, since 1986, the team has never qualified for the Gold Cup.
Having guided the club to a six-place rise in the FIFA rankings, John- who appeared at the 2006 World Cup with Trinidad & Tobago - will be looking to elevate the small Caribbean island on the international stage.
Stern John represented Trinidad as a player but is now boss of Caribbean rival St Lucia
Sylvinho, the former Brazilian international - who played for European giants Arsenal, Barcelona, and Inter Milan - is the current head coach of Albania.
Known for his defensive intelligence and attacking full-back runs as a player, he is now bringing his tactical acumen to a national side eager to punch above its weight in Europe.
Adding extra firepower to Sylvinho's setup is former Premier League winner Pablo Zabaleta, who is part of his coaching staff. Zabaleta brings crucial insight to the Albania players, thanks to his experience playing at the highest level.
Having guided Albania to the group stage of the 2024 Euro Championship, Sylvinho will be looking to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, with a crucial qualifying match taking place against Poland next March.
Sylvinho joined Barcelona in 2004 after leaving Celtic, and is now manager of Albania
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Sunderland stalwart Luke O'Nien has brutally trolled Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma following their heated post-match clash at the Stadium of Light. The Mackems defender didn't play in the goalless Premier League draw but still found time to wind up the Italian stopper, while manager Pep Guardiola appeared to play the role of peacemaker after the game.
Despite racking up an expected goals tally of 2.25, their highest in a Premier League game in which they failed to score since March 2022, City were unable to break down a Sunderland side who claimed a hard-fought point. The result saw Guardiola's team slip four points behind league leaders Arsenal, something the manager was not best pleased about.
He said after the contest: "It is a tough place to come. The amount of chances we missed in the six-yard box, not difficult ones... We didn't do what we talked about in the first half but in general it was a really good game. It was better second half, the guys did everything. They are a bit heads down, but we have to be heads up because in three days we have a difficult game against Chelsea. We created enough chances and we played well second half. The commitment and the desire in the first half was different. We created enough - the two chances from Savinho in the second half, Jeremy [Doku], Josko [Gvardiol], Phil [Foden] and Erling [Haaland]. We had a lot but, unfortunately, we could not do it."
City were, naturally, frustrated at failing to pick up all three points on New Year's Day and it was evident that their frustrations got the better of them when Italy international Donnarumma squared up to unused substitute O'Nien at full-time, having been irked by some timewasting on the touchline. The former Paris Saint-Germain man lost his cool, at a time when manager Guardiola tried to diffuse the situation, as Sunderland fans mocked the big Italian.
And now, the Mackems hero has gone viral for his cheeky comments aimed at Donnarumma on Instagram. He wrote on Friday: "Nice of their big man to run the length of the pitch to wish me a happy new year. Top man @donnarumma."
Few fancied Sunderland to stay up this season after all three promoted sides have been relegated for two campaigns in a row. But Regis Le Bris has got the north east outfit flying high in the Premier League, and much of that has been down to their excellent home form. The seventh-placed Black Cats are unbeaten in their own backyard this term, winning five and drawing five of their fixtures. That has included draws with Arsenal, City, Aston Villa, and more, something Le Bris is proud of.
He said: "It was a good game against a really strong opponent who are one of the best in Europe. It was important to defend properly. We showed we can defend high and when they came a bit higher with their quality we had to manage the ball in the final third. They created many chances but the character was good. Even when we were on the edge we had one foot, one head, something to protect the ball. It was important to escape their counter-press. They were excellent a few weeks ago at the Etihad and it was impossible to escape their counter-press. We did well with that. We are growing and learning from different experiences. It's a question of experience as the standards in our team are high. They want to get better. If you stay at the same level, the league is going so fast that you'll be finished. They are still ambitious. They're [the home crowd] really important, especially in defensive moments. They push us, it's important for our game."
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Second-placed City will hope to bounce back from this disappointing result when they host Chelsea at the Etihad on Sunday, whereas Sunderland travel to Tottenham on the same day. If results go their way, the Black Cats could climb to fifth in the table, while City can cut the gap to Arsenal to one point if they win and the Gunners lose.
After Napoli beat Bologna on December 22 to win the Supercoppa Italiana, Rasmus Hojlund posted a picture of him holding the trophy, accompanied by the words, "What a great decision looks like." Unsurprisingly, some Manchester United fans didn't react well to the perceived slight on their club. One comment on Hojlund's Instagram photo with more than 14,000 likes sarcastically congratulated the Dane for finding his 'level' before adding, "[The] Premier League is too difficult for amateurs."
The idea that it's easier for strikers to score goals in Serie A is obviously debatable but the online trolls were perfectly entitled to point out that leaving United hadn't really been Hojlund's "decision". Throughout the summer, he was very vocal about his desire to stay and "fight for his spot" - only to be forced out of Old Trafford by manager Ruben Amorim following the £74 million ($99.5m) acquisition of Benjamin Sesko.
However, even if Hojlund ultimately had little say in his United exit, what's already abundantly clear is that moving to Napoli was the best thing he could have done. "There were more storied clubs interested" in his services, according to the Partenopei's sporting director Giovanni Manna. But Hojlund felt a move to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona was "exactly what I need right now in my career" - and it's already proven an inspired choice.
Indeed, a permanent £38m ($51m) move, which is dependent upon Champions League qualification is pretty much "a formality" in Manna's eyes - because while Sesko is now struggling even more than the Dane ever did under Amorim, Hojlund has been reborn in Italy thanks to Antonio Conte...
When Hojlund scored on his Napoli debut, Antonio Conte quipped that he had been hoping all along that signing the forward would bring his team the same good fortune as another Old Trafford outcast, Scott McTominay, who had played a starring role in the Partenopei's surprise title triumph in his first season at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Luck had had nothing to do with it, though. Conte may be a divisive figure in football but he's also an astute judge of a player's (sometimes hidden) attributes, as well as a magnificent man-manager. McTominay has openly admitted that he felt he had been "misprofiled" in Manchester, repeatedly used as a defensive midfielder - and even a centre-back on occasion. Conte, though, could see that the Scot had "goals in his DNA" and he couldn't have been more correct, with McTominay scoring 13 times during last season's Scudetto success.
Of course, Conte also has previous when it comes to revitalising a No.9 that has flopped at Old Trafford.
When the Italian finally got the chance to work with Romelu Lukaku at Inter after three previous attempts to sign the striker during his time in charge of Juventus and Chelsea, he transformed the big Belgian into one of the most effective forwards in world football by improving his play with his back to goal.
Crucially, Conte is just as confident that he can do something similar with Hojlund.
"He's a 22-year-old who was on the sidelines at Manchester United," the Napoli boss enthused after Hojlund's winner against Genoa on October 5. "He has significant room for improvement. He needs to work because he has the potential to become a star, and he's proving it."
There's no denying that Hojlund underwhelmed during his two-year spell at United. At one point during his second season, he went 21 games without a goal - during which time his first touch deserted him and his hold-up play fell apart. Rio Ferdinand was among those that felt Hojlund had also become far too concerned with trying to outmuscle opponents.
"I get frustrated watching because he's always trying to fight the defender and have contact," the former United centre-back told TNT Sports. "Sometimes [you should] release yourself from contact so when you have someone against you, it's easier to take the ball and get into areas where you'll affect the game, in between the posts and in the box."
It hadn't always been like that, though. There were flashes of the potential star United thought they were buying from Atalanta during a debut campaign in which he became the youngest player in Premier League history to score in six consecutive games.
Furthermore, despite looking utterly bereft of confidence by the tail end of last season, Hojlund remained steadfast in his belief that he could "deliver goals" on a consistent basis for United.
"I feel like I've matured a lot, and I feel like I'm ready for what's coming," he told reporters in July. "I'm still very young. People forget that sometimes. Not every striker is scoring 100 goals at the age of 22.
"But I've learned a lot, I think you can see in my game. I'm starting to develop and become even better at the basics."
There's certainly been a noticeable improvement in his link-up play at Napoli, with David Neres having already scored three times from Hojlund assists so far this season.
"Conte gives him confidence and is making him grow," Luca Nigriello, a scout and member of the Sport Entertainment Group agency that represents the Denmark international, told TuttoNapoli. "Rasmus plays, makes mistakes, and learns. He has become hungrier, more consistent. He is a chameleon who adapts to what the team asks and he is also learning new things. He has always been a striker of depth, as seen at Atalanta. Now he is adding movements that are more typical of the penalty area, more like a central reference point, almost like Lukaku."
Unsurprisingly, Conte is thrilled with the way in which Hojlund is learning how to better lead the line by bringing others into the game at every opportunity - not least because his beloved Lukaku has missed the majority of the season so far through injury.
"Since Hojlund first joined us, he has already progressed to become a dominant player in that role," Conte explained, "because he's starting to understand the right positions to take, how to defend the ball, when to come towards it or back off."
Of course, all No.9s are judged by their strike-rate and, as Hojlund pointed out in a slightly strange ketchup analogy, the goals are starting to flow again for him.
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Hojlund's overall tally of nine goals is hardly remarkable - even if does mean he's already just one away from matching his entire 2024-25 tally for United - but what is noteworthy is that Sunday's decisive double at Cremonese means he's now netted five times in his last five appearances in all competitions.
Consequently, the past comparisons with Erling Haaland no longer seem quite so farcical, with even Kevin De Bruyne stating Hojlund is "quite similar" to his fellow Scandinavian striker.
"Both are left-footed and like to attack space," the former Manchester City attacking midfielder said, "and I think that Rasmus has a lot of quality."
It's obviously a shame that De Bruyne picked up a potential season-ending injury while converting a penalty against Inter two months ago, breaking up a surprisingly promising partnership.
As Hojlund himself wrote after the October 1 win over Sporting CP at the Maradona, "'Hojlund scores twice in the Champions League after two assists from Kevin de Bruyne' was not on my 2025 bingo card!"
However, Hojlund has continued to thrive without De Bruyne's through-balls and that's clearly down to the "fact that he is now on a well-functioning team", as Denmark coach Brian Riemer put it, while Sesko is being starved of service at Amorim's United.
"I honestly believe Hojlund could have been a 25-goal-a-season striker for Manchester United," Old Trafford icon Peter Schmeichel told Sky Bet. "The problem wasn't him – it was the way the team played. The system didn't suit him.
"When players like [Alejandro] Garnacho or [Marcus] Rashford got the ball, they looked only to shoot. The ball into the number nine never came, even though Rasmus was making really good runs.
"The fans saw it. They loved him because he fought, he ran, he gave everything, and he had to play every game because there were no other strikers.
"Of course, when you don't score as a striker, people point to it again and again. But what more could he do without service? I've seen what he can do when he's on form and gets the right service."
He's certainly getting that at Napoli, and now making the very most of the opportunities coming his way.
Christian Vieri is adamant that Hojlund has it in him to become "one of the best five strikers in the world". "He can score goals, but he knows how to attack deep and wear down defences," the ex-Italy striker told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "He has a strong left foot and is great with his head and his physicality."
Giampaolo Pazzini, meanwhile, says Hojlund is, thanks to Conte, the "strongest striker in Serie A alongside Lautaro Martinez".
"He has undergone an incredible transformation since his arrival," the former Inter and AC Milan striker told Sport Mediaset. "He has always been a good player, but with great instinct, great power, he was something of a wild horse.
"But Conte took him, educated him and raised him. Now he's a fantastic striker because he plays for the team, he doesn't make a single mistake, he never gets anticipated, he plays short, he plays long, he's vicious in front of goal.
"Now he's decisive throughout the match and you also find him helping out in the defensive phase."
Hojlund certainly has an impressive work ethic - which is unsurprising for someone that idolises Cristiano Ronaldo. Compatriot Christian Eriksen has argued that Hojlund deserves his current good run of form not only because of everything "he went through at United" but also all of the effort he's put in on and off the pitch.
It was also telling that when he opened his Napoli account, a number of his former United team-mates, including Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire, were quick to congratulate him on an Instagram post entitled "First day at the new job didn't disappoint".
There have been ups and downs since then but when Hojlund says joining Conte's Napoli was exactly what he needed at this particular point in his career, it's impossible to disagree. Leaving United may not have been his decision but it's unquestionably proven a blessing in disguise.
After Sebastian Baez upset Taylor Fritz to pull Argentina level, Coco Gauff led the United States to a 2–1 win by defeating Solana Sierra in singles and then partnering Christian Harrison to secure the decisive mixed-doubles point.
PERTH, Australia -- World No. 3 Coco Gauff went straight to business in her 2026 season debut at the United Cup, helping the defending champion United States earn a 2-1 win over Argentina in Group A on Saturday.
Argentina struck first when Sebastian Baez delivered one of the best performances of his career, upsetting World No. 6 Taylor Fritz 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to open the night session and give Argentina a 1-0 lead.
Gauff responded by defeating rising star and No. 66 Solana Sierra 6-1, 6-1 in 57 minutes to level the tie at 1-1. That result sent the tie to a deciding mixed-doubles match.
United Cup: Scores | Standings
Gauff then teamed with Christian Harrison to close out the match, earning a 6-4, 6-1 win over Maria Lourdes Carle and Guido Andreozzi. They controlled the match from the baseline, were assertive at the net and wrapped up the victory in 63 minutes, giving the United States a 2-1 win. The U.S. is now 1-0 in Group A and will next face Spain.
"It was fun, I've watched Coco play so much and I'm such a big fan," said Harrison, who said he was playing for his country for the first time. "It's just fun to share a match like that with these guys, some people that I look up to, and it's good to just get out there and enjoy playing hard."
Argentina's quarterfinal fate will be determined by its showdown against Spain. Gauff is scheduled to face Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Jan. 5.
It was the first encounter between Gauff and Sierra on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, and Sierra's first career Top 10 matchup.
“I feel like I can play even better, too, which is even more exciting,” Gauff said on court after the match. “It's always tough starting the first match of the season, especially against an opponent like her and someone who played yesterday. I'm really happy with how I managed all those emotions.”
Gauff raced to a 5-0 lead behind a pair of breaks and three strong service holds, saving two break points along the way. Sierra earned a loud response from the Perth crowd when she held in the sixth game, before Gauff closed the set in 30 minutes while limiting Sierra to just seven points on serve.
The second set followed the same pattern. Gauff, who went undefeated in singles at last year's United Cup, closed out another 6-1 set to complete the win.
"I definitely think there's things I can do better from being hyper critical, but it's a straightforward win," Gauff said to reporters. "I think as the more the season goes, I feel like that stuff will settle in even more."
Baez, meanwhile, earned his second career Top 10 victory and his first win over Fritz after five previous losses. The No. 45 player in the PIF ATP Live Rankings rallied from a set and a break down and saved a break point while serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set before sealing victory with a volley into the open court.
"I am so happy right now," Baez said on court. "We have been searching for this feeling for many years, and I am happy to give this point to Argentina. Thank you to the crowd. I felt very comfortable today."
Baez had defeated Spain's Jaume Munar in his opening match Friday. Argentina defeated Spain 3-0 in its first Group A tie.
After Sebastian Baez upset Taylor Fritz to pull Argentina level, Coco Gauff led the United States to a 2–1 win by defeating Solana Sierra in singles and then partnering Christian Harrison to secure the decisive mixed-doubles point.
Storm Hunter defeated Malene Helgo and Casper Ruud defeated local favourite Alex de Minaur won the singles matches in the Australia-Norway tie, but the Aussie duo of John-Patrick Smith and Hunter won the deciding mixed doubles match to take the Group D tie.
Australia and Norway were tied 1-1 after the singles matches in their opening United Cup tie in Sydney on Saturday, with Storm Hunter and Casper Ruud each earning straight-sets victories for their countries.
But the Aussie duo of John-Patrick Smith and Hunter rallied past Norway's Viktor Durasovic and Ulrikke Eikeri 4-6, 6-1, [10-4] in a deciding mixed doubles to secure Australia's 2-1 triumph against Norway.
“I'll tell you what, Storm set it up big time there… I was just on the court, I was participating,” Smith said. “She was returning well, she was moving well. She had really good control on all her shots. It was a great win and a great comeback as well. It's never easy playing against a good team."
United Cup: Scores | Standings
Hunter, 31, returned to competition last season after missing nearly a year between March 2024 and March 2025 because of an Achilles tendon injury that required surgery. In the women's singles, she stepped in as a last-minute replacement on Saturday for Australia No. 1 Maya Joint, who was sidelined because of illness.
The experienced left-hander made a fast start against the 26-year-old Helgo, who is competing in the United Cup for the fourth time. Hunter broke serve twice in the opening set to take it 6-2.
Helgo, ranked No. 532 and seeking her first WTA Tour-level victory, raced to a 4-1 lead in the second set before Hunter — a former world No. 1 doubles player and a Grand Slam mixed doubles champion — rallied to level the set at 5-5.
🎙️ "Team Australia are up and running!" 💪#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/ZdOXfKRF7V
Helgo saved three break points in a crucial 11th game to hold for a 6-5 lead, but Hunter held serve to force a tiebreak. The Australian then dominated the tiebreak to seal a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) victory and give Australia a 1-0 lead.
"This is pretty emotional for me," Hunter said during her postmatch interview. "It's been a tough two years, rupturing my Achilles and finding my way back, relearning everything. I never thought I'd be back on this court in a singles match playing for Australia.
"Obviously, this was Maya's moment. Maya has had an incredible year. Such a shame she couldn't come out tonight. I know she's so excited to come and play in front of everyone. Hopefully she gets an opportunity on Tuesday. But I'm just glad I could get the win for the team."
In the second singles match, Ruud produced a solid performance to defeat home favorite Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour, 34 minutes, leveling the tie at 1-1.
“I'm happy to get a great start," Ruud told ATP No. 1 Club member Jim Courier in his on-court interview. "To beat Alex here in Australia is one of the toughest challenges we have in tennis, so I'm super happy to have that on my resume now.”
Ruud played aggressively and decisively, preventing De Minaur from finding any rhythm. The former world No. 2 saved all five break points he faced and consistently put pressure on the Australian's serve, earning 10 break chances and converting three.
"It's a great start a new season," Ruud said. "I think we've all seen Alex in better shape than he was today. He was doing a few unforced errors that typically he doesn't, so I got some free points here and there. You saw in the beginning he was struggling with his serve, so I got a free break and just built from there."
Storm Hunter defeated Malene Helgo and Casper Ruud defeated local favourite Alex de Minaur won the singles matches in the Australia-Norway tie, but the Aussie duo of John-Patrick Smith and Hunter won the deciding mixed doubles match to take the Group D tie.
The Argentine rallied from a set and a break down Saturday to put the defending champions on notice in Group E.ByTENNIS.comPublished Jan 03, 2026 copy_link
Published Jan 03, 2026
© 2026 Getty Images
“I'm so happy right now!” Sebastian Baez exclaimed as his beaming face lit up RAC Arena on Saturday evening.It was an understandable feeling.Coming into the 2026 season, Baez was just 1-18 against Top 10 opponents. But that went out the window in Perth, as he delivered a notable upset to put the defending United Cup champions on notice.Trailing Taylor Fritz by a set and a break, Baez battled back to topple the 2024 US Open finalist with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory. The 25-year-old put history in the past, having dropped his previous five meetings with the American.
It was an understandable feeling.Coming into the 2026 season, Baez was just 1-18 against Top 10 opponents. But that went out the window in Perth, as he delivered a notable upset to put the defending United Cup champions on notice.Trailing Taylor Fritz by a set and a break, Baez battled back to topple the 2024 US Open finalist with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory. The 25-year-old put history in the past, having dropped his previous five meetings with the American.
Coming into the 2026 season, Baez was just 1-18 against Top 10 opponents. But that went out the window in Perth, as he delivered a notable upset to put the defending United Cup champions on notice.Trailing Taylor Fritz by a set and a break, Baez battled back to topple the 2024 US Open finalist with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory. The 25-year-old put history in the past, having dropped his previous five meetings with the American.
Trailing Taylor Fritz by a set and a break, Baez battled back to topple the 2024 US Open finalist with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory. The 25-year-old put history in the past, having dropped his previous five meetings with the American.
Once he dug back into the contest midway through the second set, Baez emerged as the competitor delivering the bigger blows from the baseline. While Fritz served 23 aces, Baez broke him four times.The world No. 45 fought off a nervy final game to recover from 30-40 and put Argentina ahead 1-0 in the Group E showdown."I felt had my chances in the first set. More because on the game from my serve on the four or five, I played so bad because I was too nervous. So I changed that mindset, because I lost many, many matches against him with the same feeling," Baez said in a flash quote
The world No. 45 fought off a nervy final game to recover from 30-40 and put Argentina ahead 1-0 in the Group E showdown."I felt had my chances in the first set. More because on the game from my serve on the four or five, I played so bad because I was too nervous. So I changed that mindset, because I lost many, many matches against him with the same feeling," Baez said in a flash quote
"I felt had my chances in the first set. More because on the game from my serve on the four or five, I played so bad because I was too nervous. So I changed that mindset, because I lost many, many matches against him with the same feeling," Baez said in a flash quote
📲🖥️ Stream the 2026 United Cup on the Tennis Channel App!Before defeating the sixth-ranked Fritz, Baez's best career win by ranking came against Andrey Rublev—then the world No. 8—in the semifinals of 2022 Bastad. He added to a winning 2026 debut over Jaume Munar, which came a day earlier.Coco Gauff later bounced back for the top seeds to force a deciding mixed doubles match. The world No. 3 dispatched Solana Sierra, 6-1, 6-1.
Before defeating the sixth-ranked Fritz, Baez's best career win by ranking came against Andrey Rublev—then the world No. 8—in the semifinals of 2022 Bastad. He added to a winning 2026 debut over Jaume Munar, which came a day earlier.Coco Gauff later bounced back for the top seeds to force a deciding mixed doubles match. The world No. 3 dispatched Solana Sierra, 6-1, 6-1.
Coco Gauff later bounced back for the top seeds to force a deciding mixed doubles match. The world No. 3 dispatched Solana Sierra, 6-1, 6-1.
Two years is a long time in tennis, as Flavio Cobolli can testify.
At the 2024 Australian Open, the Italian arrived as an unheralded World No. 100 who was bidding to qualify for the main draw at a major for the first time. Cobolli did just that at Melbourne Park, before defeating Nicolas Jarry in a five-set epic to earn his maiden main draw Grand Slam triumph. It is a moment he returns to again and again.
“When I have time, I watch that match,” Cobolli told ATPTour.com in Perth, where he is preparing to compete on Australian soil once again, this time as the World No. 22 and a two-time ATP Tour champion at the United Cup. “I played great tennis in qualies, but I was new on the Tour. I played against Nico [Jarry] and there was a big crowd for him, not for me.
“It was tight. No one knew me there and I played like a new guy on the Tour, but when I remember that moment, I remember a guy that was happy on the court. Like I am now. So I'm trying to keep this feeling in the ‘new' part of my career also.”
The ‘new' part of his career that Cobolli refers to has seen him emerge as a consistent Top 30 player in the PIF ATP Rankings. The Italian even broke the Top 20 for a three-week stint last July and August after reaching his maiden major quarter-final at Wimbledon.
“It was only two years ago, but I feel I am now on the Tour like I wanted,” said Cobolli, comparing the video of him taking on Jarry in Melbourne to his current feeling. “When I look back, it's always great to remember these things and I don't want to forget where I've come from.
“When I watch [the video], I think what a kid I was. When I watch my matches now and I see where I am, I feel like I'm very different from two years ago.”
In 2025, Cobolli racked up a 34-27 record, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, and lifted his first two ATP Tour crowns (both on clay) in Bucharest and Hamburg, respectively. That return represented a significant turnaround for the Italian, who won his first two matches of the year at the United Cup but by late March was 2-8 at tour-level as he struggled for form and fitness.
“I know that 2025 was a great year, but it didn't start how I wanted because [after the United Cup] I didn't win a match until the first title in Bucharest,” said Cobolli, who this year will spearhead Team Italy's group-stage bid alongside WTA No. 8 Jasmine Paolini. “The goal for this year is to be ready to start the season like I want, because last year I was injured also. This year I'm ready and in shape. We have practised a lot, and we are ready to start.
“The goal for me is to be ready for the first match of the year. I love to play in this competition and play with Jas and the other players in the team. I think we can have a great competition here.”
Proof that Flavio's brother is Team Italy's designated hype man 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/L0fkpUlbIF— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) December 29, 2025
Cobolli and his team focused on several areas of his game in the offseason in the hope he can push past his career high of World No. 17 this year.
“We worked a lot on the return, because we haven't worked a lot on it as my return has always been very good,” explained the 23-year-old. “But with this level, with these guys that serve as they do, it's a thing you have to improve a lot. Also my serve and my volley game. These are the three things that I worked on a lot.
“The percentage of my serve [will be important] for sure, and my game when I attack. My volley is not the best shot that I have. The way I finish volleys is going to be a goal for this year.”
Cobolli hopes to use the relative stability he has found inside the Top 30 over the past seven months to play a lighter schedule with an emphasis on the Tour's biggest events. With improved results at the majors and the ATP Masters 1000s, he believes he can make it to his next rankings goal.
“The goal for this year is to improve and to play a little bit less than last year for sure,” he said ahead of his opening singles match against Stan Wawrinka in Perth. “To be part of the big stages as much as I can. The dream is to be Top 10, but it's tough and I know there are many players that are working for that also. So it's going to be tough, but when I think about myself and my team, we will see what happens. For sure it's going to be a great year.”
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Proof that Flavio's brother is Team Italy's designated hype man 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/L0fkpUlbIF— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) December 29, 2025
Cobolli and his team focused on several areas of his game in the offseason in the hope he can push past his career high of World No. 17 this year.
“We worked a lot on the return, because we haven't worked a lot on it as my return has always been very good,” explained the 23-year-old. “But with this level, with these guys that serve as they do, it's a thing you have to improve a lot. Also my serve and my volley game. These are the three things that I worked on a lot.
“The percentage of my serve [will be important] for sure, and my game when I attack. My volley is not the best shot that I have. The way I finish volleys is going to be a goal for this year.”
Cobolli hopes to use the relative stability he has found inside the Top 30 over the past seven months to play a lighter schedule with an emphasis on the Tour's biggest events. With improved results at the majors and the ATP Masters 1000s, he believes he can make it to his next rankings goal.
“The goal for this year is to improve and to play a little bit less than last year for sure,” he said ahead of his opening singles match against Stan Wawrinka in Perth. “To be part of the big stages as much as I can. The dream is to be Top 10, but it's tough and I know there are many players that are working for that also. So it's going to be tough, but when I think about myself and my team, we will see what happens. For sure it's going to be a great year.”
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Proof that Flavio's brother is Team Italy's designated hype man 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/L0fkpUlbIF
Cobolli and his team focused on several areas of his game in the offseason in the hope he can push past his career high of World No. 17 this year.
“We worked a lot on the return, because we haven't worked a lot on it as my return has always been very good,” explained the 23-year-old. “But with this level, with these guys that serve as they do, it's a thing you have to improve a lot. Also my serve and my volley game. These are the three things that I worked on a lot.
“The percentage of my serve [will be important] for sure, and my game when I attack. My volley is not the best shot that I have. The way I finish volleys is going to be a goal for this year.”
Cobolli hopes to use the relative stability he has found inside the Top 30 over the past seven months to play a lighter schedule with an emphasis on the Tour's biggest events. With improved results at the majors and the ATP Masters 1000s, he believes he can make it to his next rankings goal.
“The goal for this year is to improve and to play a little bit less than last year for sure,” he said ahead of his opening singles match against Stan Wawrinka in Perth. “To be part of the big stages as much as I can. The dream is to be Top 10, but it's tough and I know there are many players that are working for that also. So it's going to be tough, but when I think about myself and my team, we will see what happens. For sure it's going to be a great year.”
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The Swiss battled to a three-hour-plus victory at United Cup in Perth to kick off his final year on the tour.ByJohn BerkokPublished Jan 03, 2026 copy_link
Published Jan 03, 2026
© AFP or licensors
Stan Wawrinka made a winning start to his farewell season at United Cup in Perth on Saturday, grinding past Arthur Rinderknech, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), after three hours and 18 minutes on court.And it was a notable win for a few reasons.First of all, it clinched the tie for Switzerland over France, 2-0, after Belinda Bencic beat Leolia Jeanjean in the first match, 6-2, 6-4.But more personally for Wawrinka, he now adds his name to a very impressive list—he's now just the fifth man in the entire Open Era to win a tour-level match in 23 different seasons.MOST SEASONS WITH A TOUR-LEVEL WIN (men, Open Era):25: Jimmy Connors [1970-1989, 1991-1995]24: Roger Federer [1998-2021]24: Richard Gasquet [2002-2025]23: Rafael Nadal [2002-2024]23: Stan Wawrinka [2003, 2005-2026]Four more men are tied at 22, and two of them—Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils—would join the list with their first win of 2026. The other two, Guillermo Vilas and Feliciano Lopez, are retired.
And it was a notable win for a few reasons.First of all, it clinched the tie for Switzerland over France, 2-0, after Belinda Bencic beat Leolia Jeanjean in the first match, 6-2, 6-4.But more personally for Wawrinka, he now adds his name to a very impressive list—he's now just the fifth man in the entire Open Era to win a tour-level match in 23 different seasons.MOST SEASONS WITH A TOUR-LEVEL WIN (men, Open Era):25: Jimmy Connors [1970-1989, 1991-1995]24: Roger Federer [1998-2021]24: Richard Gasquet [2002-2025]23: Rafael Nadal [2002-2024]23: Stan Wawrinka [2003, 2005-2026]Four more men are tied at 22, and two of them—Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils—would join the list with their first win of 2026. The other two, Guillermo Vilas and Feliciano Lopez, are retired.
First of all, it clinched the tie for Switzerland over France, 2-0, after Belinda Bencic beat Leolia Jeanjean in the first match, 6-2, 6-4.But more personally for Wawrinka, he now adds his name to a very impressive list—he's now just the fifth man in the entire Open Era to win a tour-level match in 23 different seasons.MOST SEASONS WITH A TOUR-LEVEL WIN (men, Open Era):25: Jimmy Connors [1970-1989, 1991-1995]24: Roger Federer [1998-2021]24: Richard Gasquet [2002-2025]23: Rafael Nadal [2002-2024]23: Stan Wawrinka [2003, 2005-2026]Four more men are tied at 22, and two of them—Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils—would join the list with their first win of 2026. The other two, Guillermo Vilas and Feliciano Lopez, are retired.
But more personally for Wawrinka, he now adds his name to a very impressive list—he's now just the fifth man in the entire Open Era to win a tour-level match in 23 different seasons.MOST SEASONS WITH A TOUR-LEVEL WIN (men, Open Era):25: Jimmy Connors [1970-1989, 1991-1995]24: Roger Federer [1998-2021]24: Richard Gasquet [2002-2025]23: Rafael Nadal [2002-2024]23: Stan Wawrinka [2003, 2005-2026]Four more men are tied at 22, and two of them—Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils—would join the list with their first win of 2026. The other two, Guillermo Vilas and Feliciano Lopez, are retired.
MOST SEASONS WITH A TOUR-LEVEL WIN (men, Open Era):25: Jimmy Connors [1970-1989, 1991-1995]24: Roger Federer [1998-2021]24: Richard Gasquet [2002-2025]23: Rafael Nadal [2002-2024]23: Stan Wawrinka [2003, 2005-2026]Four more men are tied at 22, and two of them—Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils—would join the list with their first win of 2026. The other two, Guillermo Vilas and Feliciano Lopez, are retired.
Four more men are tied at 22, and two of them—Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils—would join the list with their first win of 2026. The other two, Guillermo Vilas and Feliciano Lopez, are retired.
Wawrinka uses his legendary backhand to set up the winner 🚀#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/pSbwal04dm
Wawrinka's victory over the No. 29-ranked Rinderknech was also his first Top 30 win in more than eight months, since beating a No. 26-ranked Alexei Popyrin at a Challenger event last May.And he had to survive several brushes with defeat to do it.In the second set, he not only served to stay in the match twice, at 4-5 and 5-6, but he was also two points away from losing at 5-all in the tie-break. Then in the third set, not only was he down an early break at 2-1, but after getting back on serve, he eventually found himself down 4-2 in the third set tie-break—he was even two points away from losing again at 5-all in the breaker.But one last mini-break on the next point is all it took to bring up his first match point, and he closed it out right then and there when one last Rinderknech forehand clipped the net.“Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play the same places and tournaments, so for me it's amazing to have this opportunity to play this year here in Perth for the first time,” he said afterwards.“It's amazing to play with a team tournament with the women, too. Today was tough but I'm really happy to start that way.”
And he had to survive several brushes with defeat to do it.In the second set, he not only served to stay in the match twice, at 4-5 and 5-6, but he was also two points away from losing at 5-all in the tie-break. Then in the third set, not only was he down an early break at 2-1, but after getting back on serve, he eventually found himself down 4-2 in the third set tie-break—he was even two points away from losing again at 5-all in the breaker.But one last mini-break on the next point is all it took to bring up his first match point, and he closed it out right then and there when one last Rinderknech forehand clipped the net.“Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play the same places and tournaments, so for me it's amazing to have this opportunity to play this year here in Perth for the first time,” he said afterwards.“It's amazing to play with a team tournament with the women, too. Today was tough but I'm really happy to start that way.”
In the second set, he not only served to stay in the match twice, at 4-5 and 5-6, but he was also two points away from losing at 5-all in the tie-break. Then in the third set, not only was he down an early break at 2-1, but after getting back on serve, he eventually found himself down 4-2 in the third set tie-break—he was even two points away from losing again at 5-all in the breaker.But one last mini-break on the next point is all it took to bring up his first match point, and he closed it out right then and there when one last Rinderknech forehand clipped the net.“Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play the same places and tournaments, so for me it's amazing to have this opportunity to play this year here in Perth for the first time,” he said afterwards.“It's amazing to play with a team tournament with the women, too. Today was tough but I'm really happy to start that way.”
But one last mini-break on the next point is all it took to bring up his first match point, and he closed it out right then and there when one last Rinderknech forehand clipped the net.“Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play the same places and tournaments, so for me it's amazing to have this opportunity to play this year here in Perth for the first time,” he said afterwards.“It's amazing to play with a team tournament with the women, too. Today was tough but I'm really happy to start that way.”
“Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play the same places and tournaments, so for me it's amazing to have this opportunity to play this year here in Perth for the first time,” he said afterwards.“It's amazing to play with a team tournament with the women, too. Today was tough but I'm really happy to start that way.”
“It's amazing to play with a team tournament with the women, too. Today was tough but I'm really happy to start that way.”
Never count out the Stanimal 💪 Wawrinka bests Rinderknech in a third set breaker to kick off his final season!#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/ZqlHVAF0nw
Switzerland ended up sweeping France, 3-0, after Bencic and Jakub Paul outdid Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the mixed doubles, 6-2, 5-7, 10-2.The Swiss team will be back on Sunday night to play the Italian team, led by Jasmine Paolini and Flavio Cobolli, with three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori waiting in the wings should it go to a decider.
The Swiss team will be back on Sunday night to play the Italian team, led by Jasmine Paolini and Flavio Cobolli, with three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori waiting in the wings should it go to a decider.
Stan Wawrinka made a winning start to his final year on the ATP Tour in dramatic circumstances on Saturday in Perth.
With his 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-6(5) victory against Arthur Rinderknech, Wawrinka sealed victory for Switzerland in its United Cup opener with France. Belinda Benic had earlier eased past Leolia Jeanjean 6-2, 6-4 to give her team the perfect start to the Group C encounter, and she later returned for a mixed doubles win alongside Jakub Paul to complete a 3-0 clean sweep for the Swiss.
"It's amazing to start the year like this for me," said Wawrinka, who announced in December that 2026 would be his final season as a pro, after his three-hour, 18-minute triumph at RAC Arena. "It's my first time in Perth. A lot of support today, so it was an amazing feeling to play such a difficult match A tough condition, of course. More than three hours, so doesn't help, but super happy with the fight, with the performance, and to help the Swiss team to get to 2-0 up."
Stan the man 😎 pic.twitter.com/V19qRFj28Z
Rinderknech and Wawrinka's maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting was hard-fought throughout. Rinderknech held serve from 0/40 at 4-4 before going on to clinch the opening set with a break in the 12th game, before Wawrinka stayed ice cool to take the second in a tie-break. The trademark backhand down-the-line winner he produced to seal the set had the Perth crowd on its feet as the match moved into a decider.
After an early exchange of breaks in the third set, Wawrinka claimed his first win against a Top 50 opponent on hard courts since 2024 by edging Rinderknech in a deciding tie-break.
The No. 29 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Rinderknech is aiming to build on a career-best 2025 season. He notched 27 tour-level victories, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, a tally which includes his run to the final at the Rolex Shanghai Masters. Yet he was unable to find the consistency in his big-serving game to overcome former World No. 3 Wawrinka, who has now recorded an ATP Tour win in 23 different seasons (2003, 2005-25).
Prior to Wawrinka's win, Switzerland couldn't have asked for a much better start to its United Cup campaign than the one Bencic delivered. The 28-year-old dropped the opening game against France's Leolia Jeanjean, but never trailed again, rolling to a 6-2, 6-4 win at RAC Arena in 1 hour and 31 minutes.
Bencic controlled the matchup from the outset in the pair's first meeting, dominating at the net, where she won 23 of 29 points, and reinforcing that edge with strong serving. She won 78 per cent of her first-serve points to stifle most of the pressure Jeanjean managed to generate, and sealed the victory with a backhand winner down the line.
“The last game was tricky with the Australian sun,” Bencic said after the match. “I think this is really one of the only places — to play in Australia — where you get into this situation. So I should have done better somehow. So I'm gonna find some solutions next time.”
Bencic is coming off a resurgent 2025 season in which she was named WTA Comeback Player of the Year, climbing from World No. 421 in January to No. 11 in the year-end rankings in her first full season after maternity leave.
“Last year, we didn't expect it to go so well,” Bencic said. “Of course, I don't think the work is done yet. I'm extremely happy to receive the Comeback Player of the Year award, and now it's time to do more work and try to get better.”
Bencic returned to court after Wawrinka's epic triumph to team with Paul for a 6-2, 5-7, 10-2 mixed doubles triumph against Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah and Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Switzerland will aim to back up its 3-0 opening win by downing Italy on Sunday in Perth.
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Triple Z earned double the wins to propel China past Belgium 2-1 Saturday at the United Cup.
After Zhang Zhizhen survived a thrilling singles match against Zizou Bergs, Zhang partnered Zhu Lin past Bergs and Elise Mertens 5-7, 7-6(5), 10-6 in the deciding mixed doubles inside Ken Rosewall Arena.
"In doubles we just needed to win a set plus a super tie-break ," Zhang said. "We just really [used] the first set to try to play more and to try more things in the service games and then to be prepared for the second set and hopefully the third set."
China let slip a 5-1 lead in the second set and Belgium was within two points of clinching the tie twice — at 6-5 30/30 in the second set and then at 5/5 in the second-set tie-break.
Zhang dominated play in many of the key moments, but in the critical 5/5 point, Zhu showed great defensive volleys to avoid giving Belgium match point. They then surged to the lead in the Match Tie-break and were able to close out the clash after captain Wu Di called timeout at 9/6 before Zhang's final serve.
"It was the first time we've played mixed doubles together and thank you to Triple Z, I got a good partner today," Lin said. "He just played a three-hour match and then continued to play mixed doubles with me. It wasn't easy. It was a great performance today and thank you for all the crowd and for the support, it really means a lot to us."
Zhang battled past Bergs 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 7-5 in two hours and 53 minutes to level the tie and keep his country's hopes alive.
“I think he was serving really well and then I didn't have a chance,” Zhang said in his on-court interview. “Second serves he was making 180 kilometres [an hour], which I couldn't react to that fast. But I'm super happy that I was surviving [for the] team until the end. I didn't give up and kept the same patience. We were both playing a really good match today.”
There was not a service break in the match until 5-5 in the deciding set, when Bergs missed an inside-out forehand to allow Zhang to serve out the match.
The Chinese star, who missed six months last season due to a shoulder injury, hit 12 aces and did not face a break point to survive Bergs' 18-ace barrage. Zhang, the former No. 31 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, earned 10 break points in the match and finally converted nearly three hours into the showdown.
Mertens got Belgium off to a strong start on the first day of play in Sydney by beating China's Zhu 6-2, 6-2 in Group B action.
The top-ranked player from her country on the WTA Tour, Mertens kicked off her 12th WTA tour-level season in style with a one-hour, 18-minute victory — her fourth in five career meetings with former World No. 31 Zhu.
The 31-year-old from China had a resurgent second half of 2025 after seeing her position in the PIF WTA Rankings plummet due to an elbow injury. Ranked No. 493 in August, she reached the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event in Montreal, and begins 2026 ranked No. 168. But, on the whole, Mertens proved too much for the Chinese No. 6 to handle.
She broke serve six times in victory, won five of the first six games, and four straight from 1-1 in the second set, even though she landed less than than 50 per cent of first serves in set two.
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Arthur Fils will not compete in January while he continues his recovery from a back injury.
The Frenchman confirmed on his YouTube channel that he has withdrawn from Hong Kong, Adelaide and the Australian Open. The stress fracture first forced him to withdraw from a tournament before his third-round match at Roland Garros last May.
Fils made an initial comeback in August at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto, but that proved to be his final event of the 2025 season after he felt ‘a warning sign' in his back in Canada.
A three-time ATP Tour titlist, the 21-year-old Fils is the current No. 39 in the PIF ATP Rankings. He reached his career high of No. 14 last April.
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From Iga Swiatek's personal mindset to high praise for 2025 breakout star Victoria Mboko and Barbora Krejcikova's pride to represent Czechia, here is all the latest news from the second Media Day at the United Cup in Sydney.
Iga Swiatek made it clear she isn't going to add any additional pressure on herself ahead of the 2026 season.
The Polish national sits No. 2 in the PIF WTA Rankings, behind World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. With four Roland Garros titles and one at both Wimbledon and the US Open, she just needs a win at the Australian Open to complete the career Slam.
However, chasing the No. 1 ranking and achieving the career Slam aren't immediate priorities for the 24-year-old.
"I'm just focusing on my own process," Swiatek said. "Both of these things are hard to achieve and are a big goal. There is a long way to get there. On a Grand Slam you have to really play great for two weeks, not have any bad days, be consistent.
"Achieving No. 1 also is tough, especially when Aryna has been playing great for last years. I'll just focus on myself honestly, because that's the only way to go. I don't need to choose which one is more important, which one is a priority. I'm still young. I have plenty of time to do different things and achieve different goals in my career."
The six-time Grand Slam champion with 25 WTA titles has learned the importance of focusing on the current tournament. She doesn't want to get too far ahead of herself, a lesson she said she learned in 2023.
"I think my mentality at the beginning of the year is usually pretty much the same," Swiatek said. "The only difference was maybe 2023 when I did the mistakes of thinking about the whole season already at the beginning. It totally didn't make sense.
"Now I'm really thinking about it as last year, as in 2024, just thinking about one swing, only tournaments in Australia. Then after I'm done with that, I'll think about the next one."
Swiatek's current focus is the United Cup, where she guided Poland to the final last season, before the team fell to the United States. It's a tournament she prefers nowadays as her tuneup into the Australian Open given the unique format, opposed to tournaments like Brisbane and Adelaide.
A post shared by United Cup (@unitedcuptennis)
"Playing United Cup, I will always want to because the atmosphere is so much different. We get so many, like, normal tournaments on tour that honestly it gets boring sometimes," said Swiatek, who will face Germany's Eva Lys and Netherlands' Suzan Lamens in Group F.
"Playing a team event and having the different energy, being able to have a team and talk to different people than we do on tour, I think it's great. It's really refreshing. I will always choose [the] United Cup."
Canada's Victoria Mboko will make her United Cup debut, and is in charge of women's singles responsibilities in her Group B matches against Belgium's Elise Mertens and China's Zhu Lin.
Mboko returns to the court after a breakout 2025 season that saw the teenager climbed from outside the top 300 to No. 18 in the world. The pinnacle of her season came in her own country, when she defeated Naomi Osaka at the National Bank Open final for her first WTA 1000 title.
She received high praise from her male counterpart, Felix Auger-Aliassime, who is ranked fifth in world in the ATP PIF Rankings. In Sydney, it'll potentially be the first time the Canadian stars share the court, if selected for the mixed-doubles match.
"Vicky had a breakthrough year last year. Amazing year. It was so much fun to watch," Auger-Aliassime said. "I think myself and teammates and all of Canada was really proud of her. I'm looking forward to it.
"It would be our first time being on the same team, playing together mixed. I've had my share of experience, so hopefully I can help a little bit. She's got all the qualities we need on the court to go all the way and win."
Mboko said she's excited about the possibility of playing alongside one of the world's best, who reached the semifinals in men's singles at the 2025 US Open. Furthermore, she has enjoyed competing Canada's Billie Jean King Cup team previously, which helped her decision to play at the United Cup.
"This is just a different format that I'm not really used to," Mboko said. "It's a great way to start the year playing round-robin matches and then maybe eventually advancing to the final group stages. The whole format of everything was drawing me to play this tournament. I'm happy with my decision."
Barbora Krejcikova is one of many players making their debut at the tournament, but to the Czechia native, the United Cup was an event she couldn't refuse.
Krejcikova, ranked No. 65, is ranked lower than compatriots such as Karolina Muchova and Marketa Vondrousova, but they elected to begin their years in Brisbane, paving the way for the two-time Grand Slam champion to represent her country.
"When I got this opportunity to be part of the team, to play this competition finally after a couple of years, I was really excited right away," Krejcikova said. "As I already said, I'm really happy that I can be here, that I can represent this team."
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Krejcikova is currently scheduled to face Australia's Maya Joint and Norway's Malene Helgo in Group D, though Joint has been battling an illness in recent days.
After returning from injury in the middle of the 2025 season, Krejcikova said she's feeling healthy heading into this season, and improved her ranking with a quarterfinal finish at the US Open. She's also an easy choice for mixed doubles, too, given her seven Grand Slam doubles titles.
"Regarding the mixed doubles, it's always been great to play mixed," Krejcikova said. "I always enjoyed it very much."
From Iga Swiatek's personal mindset to high praise for 2025 breakout star Victoria Mboko and Barbora Krejcikova's pride to represent Czechia, here is all the latest news from the second Media Day at the United Cup in Sydney.
A Chinese history maker is back at the United Cup.
The first Chinese man to crack the Top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Zhang Zhizhen, is again representing his country on the global stage at the United Cup. But this edition is different for the 29-year-old righty.
Zhang is No. 410 in the world after an injury-mired 2025 season during which he struggled with a shoulder injury, which dates back to when he was 15.
“I do believe sometimes during the years, a few days, I felt the shoulder was painful, but I thought the problem was gone,” Zhang told ATPTour.com. “It seemed like that last year, I felt maybe in two weeks the problem will be gone. But it was still there and we did an MRI with an injection to see the problem.”
The former World No. 31 began feeling pain in the front of his shoulder in February when he competed in Doha and Dubai. It began to subside and then became a bigger issue the following month when he traveled to the United States for the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
The imaging showed that his injury was actually inside the shoulder and closer to the back of it rather than in the front. He would not play a competitive match for more than six months.
The next two months, Zhang did not play tennis at all. Instead, the Chinese standout did fitness every day, played on his computer and spent time with family.
“But most of the time I was running,” Zhang said with a smile.
“In those moments sometimes I was missing a bit to play tennis. I knew when the tennis would start it would get a little bit easier. To do the fitness part, the exercises, only one session of the fitness part was really tough. So I wish I had some tennis, but I could not in that moment.”
The only time Zhang left Shanghai during the period was in late April to attend the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid. The bulk of his time was spent staying in shape, improving his conditioning and biding his time.
Zhang began playing tennis lightly in July and did not feel too comfortable on the court when he began.
“But at least I was moving all the time on the tennis court, so I didn't really forget about the court size,” Zhang said. “It was still okay. But to play rallies was a little bit different.”
What he was able to do was change his game. Zhang believes that his forehand swing path was what caused his injury, so the time away allowed him to totally alter his swing.
“This forehand, I wanted to change already. It was even a better moment to change completely,” Zhang said. “Without this shoulder injury, I think we wouldn't change that and make such a big difference. We would do smaller changes to help, but now we changed everything.
“Preparation, using the power, how to transfer the power and a little bit the motion of the swing, which is everything. To be more natural and more like everyone.”
Zhang, who returned for three tournaments in China in September, will try to show the progress he has made at the United Cup. China takes on Belgium Saturday in Sydney.
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By
Nikki McCann Ramirez
In the early hours of Saturday, President Donald Trump announced that American forces had carried out a “large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro,” capturing both him and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a not-so-covert operation that rained American munitions over Caracas, Venezuela's capital.
Trump's announcement was followed by a statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi that Maduro “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” on newly filed charges related to “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy.”
The United States has not deposed a foreign leader in such a direct manner in decades, and concerns were immediately raised about the legality of such a move against a sovereign nation. Details of the operation and its justification remain hazy, and the action is sure to have a dramatic impact on the region and the world. Here's everything we know so far.
Nicolás Maduro has been the president of Venezuela since 2013, after serving as vice president under Hugo Chavez. His tenure atop the oil-rich nation has been characterized by economic collapse, rights abuses, and illegitimate elections. The United States indicted him in 2020, under Trump's first administration, on charges related to corruption and narco-terrorism. The second Trump administration slapped additional charges on Maduro on Saturday, after U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and captured him.
In 2025, Maduro began a third six-year term as president of the country despite credible evidence that he lost the 2024 election by a significant margin to opposition candidate Edmundo González, a stand-in candidate for Maria Corina Machado, a popular opposition leader who had been barred from running against Maduro.
Following weeks of escalating military operations and deadly U.S. airstrikes against small vessels in the Caribbean that the Trump administration claims were running drugs, the U.S., including a Delta Force unit, attacked the Venezuelan capital on Saturday.
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A spokesperson for the Venezuelan government confirmed to multiple media outlets that at least four strategic Venezuelan targets had been hit by U.S. airstrikes, including Fort Tiuna, Caracas' primary military base, and La Guardia port.
In an interview on Sunday with Fox News, Trump — who watched the strikes for his Mar-a-Lago residence, where he was spending the holidays — said the Venezuelan first couple were captured in a “highly guarded” compound. “It was like a fortress, actually,” he added. The president revealed that the operation was originally scheduled to take place on Christmas, but was delayed due to poor weather.
According to sources who spoke to CNN, Maduro and his wife were sleeping when captured, and dragged from their bedroom by elite U.S. forces.
The president told Fox News that the couple were transferred by helicopter to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, which will transport them to New York, where the new charges against Maduro and his wife were filed.
Trump told Fox News that there were “a few injuries but no deaths on our side.”
“I think we had nobody killed, I have to say, because a couple of guys were hit. But they came back and they're supposed to be in pretty good shape,” he added. “We lost no aircraft. Everything came back. One of them was hit pretty hard, a helicopter, but we got it back.”
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In a televised appearance, Venezuela's attorney general, Tarek William Saab, stated that “innocent victims have been mortally wounded and others killed by this criminal terrorist attack,” but he did not provide casualty figures.
In a press conference on Saturday, Trump said that the attack had been “deadly.”
In 2020, under the first Trump administration, Maduro (along with over a dozen other Venezuelan officials associated with his government) was indicted on charges related to alleged involvement in “a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy between the Venezuelan Cartel de Los Soles and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (‘FARC').”
The charges against Maduro included narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices. On Saturday, Bondi made public a superseding indictment adding the Venezuelan first lady to the charges against her husband.
The capture of Maduro raised immediate concerns about its legality under international law. The Trump administration isn't the only government to desire Maduro's removal from power, but direct intervention to force his ouster by U.S. military operatives appears to be a direct violation of Venezuelan sovereignty.
Members of Congress have indicated that they were not informed of the operation ahead of time, and that the Trump administration did not seek constitutionally required congressional authorization for its now-months-long military campaign against Venezuela.
“Secretaries [Marco] Rubio and [Pete] Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn't about regime change. I didn't trust them then and we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) wrote on social media. “This strike doesn't represent strength. It's not sound foreign policy. It puts Americans at risk in Venezuela and the region, and it sends a horrible and disturbing signal to other powerful leaders across the globe that targeting a head of state is an acceptable policy for the U.S. government.”
In a statement released Saturday, the United Nations wrote that “independently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent. The Secretary-General continues to emphasize the importance of full respect — by all — of international law, including the UN Charter. He's deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.”
The United States has not recognized Maduro's government since 2019, when the first Trump administration endorsed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
On that basis, the Trump administration is arguing that their capture of Maduro does not constitute a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty as it is not a recognized government.
In response to the news, Secretary of State Marco Rubio re-shared a July post in which he wrote that “Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.”
“Maduro is the head of the Cartel de los Soles, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of the country, and he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States,” the post read.
The U.S. government has for months been using allegations of narco-terrorism as a justification for its escalating military actions in the region — with particular focus on the Tren de Aragua cartel. However, a 2025 National Intelligence Council report found that “the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” adding that “the small size of TDA's cells, its focus on low-skill criminal activities, and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling.”
Regardless of the on-the-ground reality, the Trump administration is poised to continue an interventionist policy throughout the Americas. According to the 2025 National Security Strategy, Trump's government intends to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” adding “Trump Corollary” to the influence principle.
“They now call it the ‘Don-roe Doctrine,' Trump said Saturday, “American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
It's not clear.
When asked on Fox News, Trump refused to outright endorse Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. “We're going to have to look at it,” the president said, adding that Venezuela has “a vice president, as you know, and I don't know about what kind of election that was.”
In a press conference late Saturday morning, Trump indicated that his administration intended to “run” Venezuela for the time being. “We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said, adding that he intended to “have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in.”
“We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” he warned.
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Corina Machado, who was barred from seeking office by the Maduro regime, was not the official candidate in the 2024 Venezuelan election. Instead, she ran as the shadow candidate behind former diplomat Edmundo González, who is currently living in exile in Spain after being targeted by the Maduro regime.
The majority of Maduro's inner circle and heads of government remain in power in Venezuela, and it's unclear if the political opposition will be able to gather the institutional support necessary to force a full dissolution of Maduro's government, or what role the U.S. will play.
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By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
Three years after it was announced, Mike Flanagan is closer than ever to bringing his series adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower to life.
The acclaimed horror filmmaker called the upcoming series an “oil tanker” as he shared an update on his and Trevor Macy's Intrepid Pictures take on King's series of books that were released from 1982 to 2012.
“It's moving,” Flanagan told Empire Magazine. “We've got a lot of scripts done for it. It's the first priority.”
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Following the 2017 Nikolaj Arcel-helmed feature adaptation, Flanagan said, “We can't let that be the final word. We really can't.” Starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, the film currently holds a 16% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In 2022, Flanagan told Deadline exclusively that he'd completed a pilot script for the adaptation, which he envisions as running for five seasons, followed by two stand-alone movies.
“You're the first person we're saying it to, but yes,” he said at the time. “Predating our deal with Amazon, we acquired the rights to The Dark Tower, which if you know anything about me, you know it has been my Holy Grail of a project for most of my life.”
Flanagan added, “We actually have those rights carved out of our Amazon deal, which doesn't mean that they can't or won't get behind it at some point — you don't know. But that's something we've been developing ourselves and are really passionate about finally getting it up on its feet at some point.”
Amazon Studios previously opted not to pick up a Dark Tower series from executive producer/showrunner Glen Mazzara and MRC in 2020.
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Why is Stephen King only fond of the meat-and-potatoes directors who adapt his work? See also: Mick Garris, Josh Boone
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Members of the series' writing, art and animation departments discuss expanding the ‘Dominion' universe, bringing that T. rex and raptor clash to life, and how the show's disability representation affects the legacy of Colin Trevorrow's trilogy.
By
Abbey White
Associate Editor & News Writer
[This story contains spoilers from Jurassic World: Chaos Theory series finale.]
Unlike other animated, kid-friendly franchise spinoffs, Jurassic World: Chaos Theory isn't a cute-but-unessential extension of its live-action blockbuster counterparts. The series, a follow-up to 2020's Camp Cretaceous, exists in the same universe as the Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall-produced trilogy, taking viewers to some of the same places even at the same time as the big screen adventures.
Both were true for Chaos Theory's final season, which dropped its leading group of teens directly into the timeline of Dominion. Their return to the small screen — which concluded on Nov. 20 with the release of season four on Netflix — allowed the series and its six young adult leads to go to corners of the Biosyn Valley audiences won't see in the third installment of Trevorrow's live-action films.
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“Then you have that whole velociraptor training,” says art director JP Balmet. “We really looked at the movie, at those hallways and how you get down to the locust area, and asked what other stuff could be in this place that we hadn't seen. What doors weren't open?”
It's not just the settings that expanded the Jurassic World sequel trilogy either. A plot twist tied to a character's faked death and reemergence with a limb difference produced something that wasn't possible even in the Chris Pratt-led films. “Colin told us after he saw it, ‘Wow, you did something that none of the features could do. You had one of our heroes sustain a serious injury,'” recalls Executive Producer Scott Kreamer.
For the fourth and final season, members of the Chaos Theory team spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about how they paid tribute to — and kept on expanding — their big screen universe.
When Kreamer was first developing his pitch for Chaos Theory, he knew two things: First, Brooklynn was never actually dead. Second, he expected her Camp Cretaceous voice actor, Jenna Ortega, to return. What he didn't know was how they'd bring Brooklynn back — or that Ortega was no longer available. “Silly me,” recalls the co-showrunner and EP. “I talked to head of casting Ania [O'Hare], and went, ‘Well, maybe.' She goes, ‘You turn on the TV and tell me how many times you see her.'”
Ortega's shot to global stardom thanks to a different Netflix series (Wednesday) led the team to recast Brooklynn's voice actor, paving the way for the hiring of Kiersten Kelly, a newcomer with congenital trans-radial absence. “If at all possible, we wanted to hire someone with a limb difference, but not at the expense of performance,” says Kreamer. “So we had castings with many people, some with limb differences, some without. There was a groundedness and an authenticity in Kiersten's performance.”
In addition to voice work, Kelly would assist the show's art and animation teams, providing video references and offering thoughts on Brooklynn's animatics that Kreamer put in front of her, “any chance we got,” he says. The writing and animation departments also turned to scribe Peter Lee, whose hiring was the result of a series of panels organized by Disability Belongs, featuring a small group of consultants with congenital or acquired limb differences. Over several conversations, they answered “questions about daily life with a limb difference and, more specifically, the physical and emotional process of recovering from traumatic limb loss,” says Lee. It would lead to tweaks in things like Brooklynn's injury scar, the addition of a zipper on her shoes, and the fit of her prosthetic.
The show also made adjustments to the kind of limb loss Brooklyn experienced, initially imagined as above the elbow for animation reasons. But to have a whole arm replacement and its respective prosthesis, Brooklynn needed to wear a weighty harness, restricting quick movement and certain kinds of action. “We had this idea that she gets this bionic arm,” Balmet recalls. “Someone spoke up and said this was something they didn't like. [Limb loss is] something you have to adapt to, and becomes a major part of your life. You give them this bionic arm, and it's like an easy solve.”
A consultant showed the team their below-the-elbow prosthetic, highlighting increased mobility. “She can be an action star with that kind of limb difference,” the art director recalls being told. “Another thing that came from those meetings was that a lot of this prosthetic stuff is for other people. People with limb differences while in the house don't need or use it. We had to get people comfortable with the idea of Brooklynn without her prosthetic. Some weren't used to it, weren't sure what to do with the exposed limb. But we ended up leaning into it because we realized that was our problem, that wasn't the problem of someone with a limb difference.”
“In TV or film, you never really get an inkling of how people's prosthetics, chairs or whatever their device is become a part of who they are, and you don't understand that those things are a tool that they use to get through the day,” Lee says. “So to see her without her prosthetic, and struggling to understand what it means to wear or not wear it — to accept it — those were super important things to show.”
Lee would be part of all those panel discussions, and while the Chaos Theory team didn't initially know he was a writer, Disability Belongs facilitated the submission of a spec script, with his panel contributions serving as his unintentional pitch for Brooklynn's arc. He was hired through the show's freelance budget, and wrote three episodes total, with Story Editor Bethany Armstrong Johnson noting “if we had had a bigger budget, we would have loved to have had him on full-time.”
“We very easily included him in meetings, story breaks — just the whole creative process from the writing side, but also from the art side,” the head writer recalls. “It is weird because there can be a perceived difficulty or cost [of bringing on a disabled writer], but there's a cost in anything anybody does. People will make these adjustments in their time or space for other things. This felt like a necessity, so we were going to figure out how to do it.”
Initially assigned season two's flashback heavy “C13v3rGr186,” Lee sped through the two animated series to “dictate how Brooklyn would organically respond” to the dinosaur attack — a plot development that came from Supervising Producer Zesung Kang. “Not only did it make sense within the story, not only did it raise the stakes, but then we had an opportunity to showcase a character from a community that's about 25% of the actual population,” Kreamer tells THR.
“Her acquired limb difference informs her character, but it doesn't define her character,” he continues. “Her journey sees a lot of questionable decision-making, which we wanted to have set in motion before the limb difference, so it wasn't like, ‘Now she's evil because she's got a limb difference,' or ‘Now she's superpowered.' We didn't want to ‘how brave to overcome' her.”
Kreamer also points to an initial uncomfortable interaction between Brooklyn and fellow “Nublar Six” member Ben (Sean Giambrone) after he discovers both she's alive and experienced Brooklyn's limb loss as another way they team wanted “to tell that truth” through Brooklyn's story.
“I shared my personal experiences with those things, and that informed part of how we handled that in the show. After I lost my arm, strangers just thought that's who I was, as opposed to me having to explain myself [to people I knew before], and having to navigate their emotional journey on top of whatever else I was doing,” Lee says. “The kind of loss that she experiences, the relationship dynamics that she has to navigate, her coming to a new understanding of who she is, and meandering off the right path for a while, all those things were things that I talked about from my own personal experiences. But they are universal experiences, too. We all go through losses and changes.”
Added Lee; “We never tried to take the easy way out; to say, ‘Let's not deal with that because this is an animated show, and, ostensibly, for kids. She found her way to this place of maturation and becoming who she is. It's a coming of age story and I love that for her.”
Across four seasons, Brooklyn was part of how the Chaos Theory team pushed the boundaries of storytelling within the Jurassic World universe. But they also delivered their own spin on the sense of awe, wonder — and horror — of the franchise's biggest stars: the dinosaurs. To do that, Balmet and Lighting & Compositing Supervisor Eric Hawkins turned to cinematographers from the original Jurassic Park films, their libraries, and Dominion as references, with John Carpenter, as well as Terrence Malick's Badlands and The Tree of Life, inspiring the animated series visuals.
“When Ben sees [ankylosaurus] Bumpy for the first time, and it's that pretty sunset, that's the stuff that we were looking at to try to get an emotional response. A big sunset makes you feel like the world is worth living in,” Balmet explains. “In the hallways of the underground lab in Senegal, when the blind Baryonyx was running around, it was a little bit more Silent Hill or Jacob's Ladder. This place is where bad things happen. We wanted you to really feel like they were in danger, so we put in that lighting, that texture.”
In the final season of the DreamWorks Animation Television installment, the team continued that approach to animating the theratinosaurus and the quetzalcoatlus — “the two biggest rigs and designs we've ever had,” says Kreamer. The show received materials from Industry Light & Magic, who worked on the live-action films, and among multiple departments, made slight adaptations to Dominion's existing dinosaur designs for their animated medium, while trying to remain “accurate to what they had already put on screen,” says Balmet.
“[Visual Development Artist] Chris Sears, in particular, was really smart about the way that he sculpted the body [of the quetzalcoatlus], so it feels furrier than it is. We didn't have to put as much simulated fur, and we could focus on its cool Mohawk,” he explains of the furry, winged dinosaur that was the size of a car.
The therizinosaurus would deliver one of the season's most memorable scares, in a sequence that sees the creature tracking the Camp Crew to a Biosyn Valley veterinary clinic as they attempt to escape a raging fire. Kreamer credits Hawkins, Armstrong Johnson, Kang, the show's directors, artists, and composer Leo Birenberg's score for helping “put the audience in the same headspace as these kids who are fighting for their lives,” he tells THR.
“The therizinosaurus claw that swipes across the window was a conscious choice,” adds Balmet, while pointing to Hawkins' work. “We wanted to have this flickering firelight in the background that's there, so you feel like it's closing in. And we were thinking, if you can see outside, why wouldn't you see the shadow of it lurking nearby? Then someone had the idea of putting the claw in. That was something that we hadn't seen in the movie.”
Yet season four's most captivating moment arguably came from what CG Animation Director Ryan Donoghue calls the grand farewell to Chaos Theory's dinosaur ensemble — a battle staged outside that clinic featuring three tyrannosaurus rexes and five junior velociraptors. ‘
He and the show's overseas animation studio CGCG were particular about depicting the dinosaurs, particularly their weight, throughout the clash, because “if they move too fast or they don't have the right step, then the action doesn't hold up” in terms of believability, he tells THR. “When the main Rexy is down, and then the two juvenile Rexes run up, they're kind of emotional. You see them bounding up and kind of into each other. They're not predatory and in control. In that moment, they're a wild, almost herd — an unstoppable force.”
In the sequence, both groups of dinos essentially form up into lines, but Donoghue notes that it “was a tricky moment because… at first it looked like West Side Story.” To avoid the dinosaurs “acting” like a football team's offensive line and thus anthropomorphizing them (versus portraying them as instinctual, “unpredictable” creatures), the CG animation director changed the raptors' positions so they naturally stopped in the middle of something.
“The way we slow [the T. rexes] in is that they start to assess the situation. The story isn't about them running up, going ‘We're going to fight.' They're like, ‘What are you doing here? What are you doing to our friend?'” Donoghue says. “Because the raptors are taken by surprise, they just kind of wait, confused for a second, and that's what gives time for our main Rexy to stand up slowly and ominously, get back on her feet, and start to dominate the scene. And that's when all hell breaks loose.”
It's a sequence made even more dynamic thanks to Hawkins. “When you have that rain-lit night with the fire, and you get the bounce light off of the dinosaurs with the warm light that's coming in from an outside source, it's so scary and so dramatic,” Donoghue says. “When you think about CG series, TV can be hard to get real atmosphere, where you feel like you're in a place, and Eric, with how he adds that emotional depth to the shots, through how he lights, it gives us all this atmosphere. It's the secret sauce that really helps tie everything together.”
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Alix Earle and Tom Brady got along swimmingly during their recent St. Bart's outing.
“Alix and Tom were together the entire night on New Year's Eve partying at a party hosted by Palm Tree Crew in St. Barts,” an insider told Us Weekly on Friday.
“They met through mutual friends who were also in St. Barths and had an instant connection. There was a lot of chemistry between them.”
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However, while the source claimed the influencer, 25, was “really into hanging out with” the former NFL star, 48, Earle allegedly isn't looking for “anything serious” after her split from Houston Texans player Braxton Berrios.
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“It's nothing serious between her and Tom, but they were together laughing, dancing and partying, enjoying themselves,” the source shared.
According to the insider, Earle jetted off to the celebrity hotspot island for a “needed” post-breakup getaway, as she is now “in a phase of saying yes to fun experiences and not overthinking anything.”
“She's just having fun right now and letting loose,” the insider added. “She has been in great spirits while on vacation and seems happy and ready to have fun again.”
The source told Us Weekly that Brady was “hesitant” about being seen with Earle in public, “but didn't want to leave her side.”
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Reps for Earle and Brady did not immediately respond to Page Six's request for comment.
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The Sports Illustrated swimsuit model was linked to the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback earlier this week after a source exclusively told Page Six that the pair were looking cozy “at a yacht party” in St. Barts over the holidays.
While they originally partied with their individual groups, at one point, the two stars were said to have “broke[n] off from the larger group, talking for a lot of the night” inside a private cabin.
A video of Earle and Brady looking “super close” was also published by TMZ shortly after.
Following the scene, the seven-time Super Bowl champ shared a cryptic message about “beautiful” people to his Instagram Stories.
“People are not beautiful for how they look or speak,” the quote read. “They're beautiful for how they love, care and treat others.”
By
Daniel Kreps
Billy Joel returned to the stage for the first time since revealing his brain disorder diagnosis, performing a surprise two-song set alongside a Billy Joel cover band at a Florida village amphitheater.
The Piano Man was on hand as the town of Wellington, Florida — near where Joel owns property — celebrated its 30th anniversary Friday. The Joel cover band Turnstiles was booked to perform at the celebration, and Joel himself joined them onstage to perform “We Didn't Start the Fire” and “Big Shot.”
“I wasn't planning on working tonight,” Joel quipped, the Palm Beach Post reports. As Joel played the piano alongside Turnstiles, his daughters Della and Remy danced next to him onstage.
The surprise performance marked Joel's first time back on stage since May 2025, when the singer revealed a diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus and subsequently canceled all of his upcoming concerts; Joel's last concert was on February 22, 2025.
“This condition has been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance,” Joel's team said in a statement at the time. “Under his doctor's instructions, Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during this recovery period. Billy is thankful for the excellent care he is receiving and is fully committed to prioritizing his health.”
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Despite the stark-sounding disorder, Joel insisted that he's “not dying.” “I feel good,” Joel later told Bill Maher in a July 2025 interview. “They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I'm feeling… “They keep referring to what I have as a brain disorder, so it sounds a lot worse than what I'm feeling.”
Joel added that while his condition was not yet “fixed,” it was “being worked on.” It's unclear whether Friday's surprise performance signals Joel is ready to return to the live stage.
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By Ted Johnson
Political Editor
UPDATED: Networks provided early morning special reports on Saturday as explosions were heard in Caracas, Venezuela, what President Donald Trump later confirmed was a “large scale strike” in the country and that it's leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of the country.
Trump, in Mar-a-Lago for the holiday break, posted at 4:21 a.m. ET, “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
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NBC News' Peter Alexander anchored an NBC News special report from 4 a.m. ET to 6:45 a.m. ET, before anchoring Saturday Today with Laura Jarrett. Tom Llamas will anchor NBC Nightly News on Saturday evening from Miami.
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ABC News' Alison Kosik provided special reports at 3:56 a.m. ET and 4:29 a.m. ET. She noted that “there have been scenes of multiple explosions and low-flying aircraft,” starting about 2 a.m. local time.
CBS News provided special reports at 2:42 a.m. ET and 4:42 a.m. ET. The network's Jennifer Jacobs reported that Maduro was captured by Delta Force, the elite special mission unit.
Fox News' Chanley Painter anchored coverage starting in the 1 a.m. ET hour, along with Eric Shawn through the early morning. Griff Jenkins took over coverage at 5 a.m. ET, leading up to Fox & Friends Weekend at 6 a.m. ET. Trump later talked on the phone to the network. “I watched it literally like I was watching a TV show,” Trump said of the U.S. operation. “The speed, the violence … it was an amazing thing. It was amazing job that these people did.”
Trump said that the U.S. would be involved in establishing new leadership in the country. “We can't take a chance in letting someone just run and take over where he left, or left off,” Trump said.
On CNN, anchor Elex Michaelson, who hosts a nightly show from Los Angeles, reported at about 1:42 a.m. on the explosions heard in Caracas. He eported that CNN's own teams “personally witnessed explosions” starting at around 1:15 a.m. in the morning local time. He then went to a phone interview with journalist Mary Mena.
MS NOW featured coverage throughout the morning, with Rachel Maddow appearing and Ali Velshi anchoring.
The strikes may have been a surprise in timing, but not that they were carried out, as media attention has focused on the increased U.S. military pressure campaign against Maduro. But it also raises questions of Trump's authority to carry out the strikes without congressional authorization.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote on X, “I look forward to learning what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.” He later wrote that he had a conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “He informed me that Nicolás Maduro has been arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant. 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.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement, “If the United States asserts the right to use military force to invade and capture foreign leaders it accuses of criminal conduct, what prevents China from claiming the same authority over Taiwan's leadership? What stops Vladimir Putin from asserting similar justification to abduct Ukraine's president? Once this line is crossed, the rules that restrain global chaos begin to collapse, and authoritarian regimes will be the first to exploit it.
“None of this absolves Maduro. He is a corrupt authoritarian who has repressed his people, stolen elections, imprisoned political opponents, and presided over a humanitarian catastrophe that has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee. The Venezuelan people deserve democratic leadership, and the United States and the international community should have done far more, years ago, to press for a peaceful transition after Maduro lost a vote of his own citizens. But recognizing Maduro's crimes does not give any president the authority to ignore the Constitution.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi later noted that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been indicted on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote.
Trump is scheduled to have a news conference at 11 a.m. ET.
More to come.
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Better take back that peace medal
Committing more crimes to distract coverage of the Epstein files and Jack Smith's testimony. SMH
Congress must impeach Trump and he must be arrested for waging warfare along with Hegseth. Military commanders must be removed from command and arrested for illegal warfare. Congress must act, other military branches must act to secure American democracy and uphold their oaths to the Constitution.
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By
Charisma Madarang
Chevy Chase‘s abrupt departure from Community in 2012 has resurfaced following the debut of the new CNN documentary, I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not.
In a joint interview with The New York Times published upon the film's release on Jan. 1, Chase and director Marina Zenovich discussed his firing from the NBC series by creator Dan Harmon after 83 episodes for reportedly using a racial slur on set.
When asked how he felt about his role ending, in which he played the crotchety Pierce Hawthorne, Chase replied, “It was too great a misunderstanding of what I was saying and not saying. I thought that there was at least one person — and another who, for some ungodly reason, didn't get me, didn't know who I was, or didn't realize for one second I'm not racist.” He added, “They were too young to be aware of my work. Instead, there was some sort of visceral reaction from them.”
According to The Times, the documentary covers allegations that Chase, who had become frustrated with his character's escalating bigotry and a scene in which the character uses a hand puppet wearing blackface, said a racial slur when asking whether his character would be made to say it next.
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In the CNN documentary, Community director Jay Chandrasekhar mentioned co-star Yvette Nicole Brown when recalling the incident. Brown appeared to address the film in a recent Instagram post, writing, “These are things I've never spoken of publicly and perhaps never will. Anyone currently speaking FOR or ABOUT me with perceived authority is speaking without EVER speaking to me about the things they claim to know about.”
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She added, “In East Cleveland speak: Keep my name out your mouth.” In the caption, Brown wrote, “And when someone chooses to sully or defile themselves, I let them — BIG age or not. And they need to fully own what they alone have done without placing blame or looking for scapegoats. Don't smear any of that mess over here for clout or reputation rehabilitation. This side of the street remains clean.”
In 2018, The New Yorker profiled Chase's Community co-star, Donald Glover, and reported that Chase would attempt to disrupt Glover's scenes and made racial jokes on set. “I just saw Chevy as fighting time—a true artist has to be O.K. with his reign being over,” said Glover. “I can't help him if he's thrashing in the water. But I know there's a human in there somewhere—he's almost too human.”
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The reimagined track marks the first time the Pumpkins have appeared on another artist's recording.
By
Jessica Lynch
Yungblud has kicked off 2026 with a high-profile collaboration, unveiling a new version of his song “Zombie” featuring The Smashing Pumpkins.
The reimagined track marks the first time the Pumpkins have appeared on another artist's recording, a notable moment in the band's three-decade career.
Originally released as part of Yungblud's fourth studio album Idols, “Zombie” has become the British rocker's fastest-streaming solo single to date, surpassing 100 million global streams. The song is nominated for best rock song at the 2026 Grammy Awards, while Idols is also nominated for best rock album.
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The updated version retains the emotional core of the original recording while leaning into a darker, heavier sound. Yungblud opens the track with the familiar first verse and chorus before Billy Corgan enters on the second verse,.
The new arrangement features denser guitar layers and a more foreboding atmosphere, amplifying the song's themes of trauma, grief and emotional isolation.
In a recent interview with interview with Loudwire, Yungblud revealed that Siamese Dream was a key reference point while writing “Zombie.” “When I was making ‘Zombie,' I was really channeling Siamese Dream,” he said.
“It was really the sadness and the melancholic emotion mixed with the aggression of Billy's guitars.”
He added that the original demo for “Zombie” was initially heavier, but he scaled it back out of concern that it leaned too closely toward the Pumpkins' sound.
“I always imagined another take,” Yungblud said, describing the new version as a way to finally “scratch that itch.”
That idea became reality after Yungblud reached out directly to Corgan.
Within days, the singer flew to Chicago — the Pumpkins' hometown — to record the new version and its accompanying music video. The visual, directed by Charlie Sarsfield, features both artists and was released alongside the track.
The collaboration follows a landmark year for Yungblud.
In addition to his Grammy nominations, Idols topped the U.K. Albums Chart and reached No. 15 on Billboard's Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart. He also earned a Top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 with One More Time, his collaborative EP with Aerosmith.
The EP's single “My Only Angel” debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.
Looking ahead, Yungblud is set to head to Australia for a string of shows as part of his Idols tour, as well as a sold-out U.K. arena tour beginning April 11, with additional international dates expected later in the year.
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Andrew Walker is bringing the Christmas spirit with him into 2026. The longtime Hallmark star has been “blown away” by the response to a giveaway he's hosting to help raise funds for the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Up for grabs? A “Three Wisest Men” t-shirt signed by himself and his co-stars, Tyler Hynes and Paul Campbell. By the morning of January 2, Walker shared in his Instagram Stories that three days' worth of donations had already raised $6,000 for a cause extremely close to his heart, given that his mom suffered from Alzheimer's for years before her passing in 2023.
Each donation made via Walker's fundraising page by 11 p.m. Eastern time on January 2, 2026, counts as an entry for the giveaway. The contest is open to fans in the U.S. and Canada who are 18 and older.
Walker and his team will randomly select a name from those who've donated to the fundraiser since December 30. The “She's Making a List” star said that on January 3, he'll announce via his Instagram account who won the prize and how much was raised in total.
On the morning of January 2, Walker posted in his Instagram Stories, “Absolutely blown away by your generosity. 💜 We've already raised $6,000 for the @alzheimercanada. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
Walker also shared a bit of sweet encouragement in his Instagram Story update, telling his followers, “If you're starting the year in a tougher place, I'm holding you in my thoughts, may the days get kinder and brighter.”
The actor is no stranger to tough times, having lost his beloved mom — Joyce Francis Crossley Walker — in March 2023 after years of decline due to Alzheimer's. In 2024, Walker told EntertainmentNow that his mom was known in their family for having an amazing memory, even recalling “phone numbers and songs and soliloquies of plays that she learned when she was younger.”
But as Walker's star was rising at Hallmark, he and his family — dad Bruce and sister JenniMay — began noticing significant changes in Joyce's memory, enough so that in 2013, they insisted she be evaluated at a renowned memory clinic in Montréal, where they lived.
“We took her kicking and screaming,” Walker admitted. “It was not pretty, but we just needed to know what our options were to help slow the process.”
The “Curious Caterer” star told EntertainmentNow that Joyce's condition rapidly declined during the COVID pandemic, between the progression of Alzheimer's and signs of Parkinson's, a closely-linked neurological disorder. Since her death, Walker has helped his Hallmark friends Nikki DeLoach and Ashley Williams — who also lost parents to forms of the disease — with their fundraising efforts for the Alzheimer's Association in the U.S.
Walker also said he thinks his mom would be proud of his efforts to help fund research and build awareness around the disease that stole so much from her, telling EntertainmentNow, “She was my creative muse. She was the one that got me into acting. So here she is now, you know, looking down from above and seeing what we're doing.”
My husband and my dad both suffered from Alzheimer's and passed away. Thank you for doing this fund raiser. Unfortunately, I didn't see it in time to donate for the t-shirt, but I will donate to the Alzheimer's Association. Their support group got me through some very difficult times, and I am still friends with a lot of the people I met in the group. I would tell anyone out there taking care of or knows someone with this horrible disease to reach out to the Alzheimer's support groups. God bless you and have a happy, safe, and healthy 2026.
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Andy Cohen shut down speculation that he got plastic surgery ahead of hosting CNN's “New Year's Eve Live.”
“Did the smallest amount of Botox and lost 20 pounds ! And had a lot of makeup on,” Cohen wrote via Threads on Thursday.
The comment came in response to fan Thread reading, “I just saw the new clips of Andy Cohen on NYE and WTF did he do to his face?!? Is he trying to find a new husband at Mar-a-Lago?”
The “Watch What Happens Live” host appeared alongside Anderson Cooper for the fan-favorite New Year's Eve broadcast from Times Square on Wednesday evening.
Many fans sounded off on the Bravo mogul's appearance with supportive comments.
“He looked like he always has … rested and refreshed no doubt. Handsome man. As well as Anderson too ❤️👏🏼” one person wrote, while another added, “Don't pick on Andy ! He's perfect 😍”
A third noted that Cohen is “obviously entirely entitled to do whatever makes him continue to feel fabulous!”
“Darling, you looked marvelous,” a fourth gushed.
Cohen, 57, confessed earlier this year to having used Botox to achieve a more youthful appearance.
“I just got it for the first time in my life,” he told Dr. Contessa Metcalfe during the “Married to Medicine” Season 11 reunion in March.
When asked “how long ago,” Cohen replied, “About a month ago. They gave me a little.”
In January, the TV personality — who frequently questions “Real Housewives” cast members on what plastic surgeries they've undergone — responded to fan backlash over the tactic.
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“The millions of women who watch these franchises are tired of you asking women ‘what work they had done,'” a critic wrote on X at the time.
“This isn't 2009 anymore and women can do whatever they want to their face/bodies,” they continued. “It's time to retire this question. It's rude and does 0 for the viewers.”
Cohen responded, “‘What work have you done' remains at the top of the list of viewer questions every season, every franchise.”
“The HW have unabashedly let us into their beauty regimes since day one; It's a big part of the series DNA.”
Prior to the social media exchange, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member Erika Jayne slammed Cohen for the line of questioning during a 2019 reunion episode.
“I hate it when people say ‘What work have you had done?' What work have you had done? I think she should answer it, but at the same time it's kind of rude,” Jayne interrupted Cohen as he relayed a fan question to Dorit Kemsley.
At the time, Cohen gently explained that there was “no judgment” in the question.
“I think since the ‘Housewives' has begun, one of the tropes I think that is common among every city and every franchise is women chasing the fountain of youth and trying to look better and look great,” he said.
By
Charisma Madarang
The family of Victoria Jones, the daughter of actor Tommy Lee Jones, has released a statement following her tragic death at the age of 34 on New Year's Day.
“We appreciate all of the kind words, thoughts, and prayers. Please respect our privacy during this difficult time,” said the family in a statement to Rolling Stone on Friday.
Jones was reportedly found unresponsive at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on Jan. 1. A cause of death has not yet been given, though in police dispatch audio obtained by People, the call for the incident was classified as “code three,” suggesting a possible drug overdose.
The San Francisco Fire Department confirmed in a statement shared with Rolling Stone that it responded to a “report of a medical emergency” at the hotel around 2:52 a.m. on New Year's Day. “Upon arrival, paramedics from the fire department performed an assessment,” the statement read. “The person was declared deceased.”
Victoria was one of two children Jones had with his second wife, Kimberlea Cloughley. The couple were married from 1981 to 1996 and also had a son, Austin, who is 43. Victoria appeared alongside her father in several of his films, including a cameo in Men in Black II and appeared in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which Jones directed.
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During a 2006 interview with The New Yorker, Jones praised his daughter, who played a young Mexican girl in his film and was 14 at the time. “She's a good actress, has her SAG card, speaks impeccable Spanish,” he said. “When she was a baby, I told Leticia, her nurse, to speak to her in Spanish.”
He also recalled firing Victoria at the time, after she had trouble with the early morning set times as a kid. “She had to get up at 5 A.M. for her part. One morning, she wouldn't get out of bed. I said, ‘Honey, this is work.' But she wouldn't budge. So I fired her,” he said. “Then, without telling me, the production staff went over and woke her and rushed her out to the set just in time.”
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Follow Taylor Swift live updates from Page Six for peeks into her relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce, the latest on her upcoming docuseries, “The End of an Era,” and new album, “The Life of a Showgirl” — plus news, fan theories and more.
By Glenn Garner
Associate Editor
As he reprises his role in HBO‘s upcoming Harry Potter series, Warwick Davis recently teased how the show differs from the films.
The BAFTA honoree, who returns as Professor Flitwick after originating the role in the films, explained that the episodes are “very faithful adaptations” of the J.K. Rowling fantasy book series.
“I'm working on it at the moment, but I can't really tell you anything other than we're retelling those wonderful stories but with more depth and detail than has been seen before,” he told Times Radio. “They're very faithful adaptations of the book.”
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Davis added, “We're obviously telling the same story so there are similar moments that we're experiencing as actors on the set. But it's weird being back in the same studios again, doing it all again, because Leavesden is where we shot the films.”
After pulling triple duty as Prof. Flitwick, a goblin bank teller and the voice of Griphook in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Davis appeared in all eight of the film adaptations. While he reprises his role as Flitwick in the series, Leigh Gill will play Griphook.
The series adaptation as Rowling faces continued fallout over her anti-transgender views from fans and peers alike, including stars of the franchise and director Christopher Columbus.
Rowling previously celebrated UK‘s Supreme Court ruling that prohibits trans women from being legally recognized as women. More than 400 people signed a letter urging the country's film and television industry to take action on trans rights, including Paapa Essiedu, who has been cast in the Harry Potter series as Professor Snape.
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Months after accusing UMG of artificially inflating Kendrick Lamar's Spotify streams, Canadian humiliation artist Drake has been named in a federal class-action RICO suit, claiming he artificially inflated streams to “manufacture popularity” and used the online casino Stake.us to transfer money for the scheme. Per NBC News, in a complaint filed in Virginia on December 31, Drake and—yup, this is about to get worse—Adin Ross, the manosphere-adjacent streamer who recently tricked NFL star Puka Nacua into doing an antisemitic meme, are accused of using Stake.us to transfer money via the site's tipping feature. The third accused co-conspirator is an “Australian national” named George Nguyen, who “served as a facilitator and operational broker—alternately converting Stake-based cryptocurrency to cash, or receiving cash from Stake transferred cryptocurrency proceeds.” Drake is a brand ambassador for Stake.us and its parent company, Sweepstakes Limited. In 2022, he reportedly signed a promotional contract with the company worth more than $100 million.
“At the heart of the scheme, Drake—acting directly and through willing and knowledgeable co-conspirators—has deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, such as Spotify,” the complaint reads.
Stake.us rose from the ashes of Stake.com after the latter was banned from operating in the U.S. The site allows users to use funny money in the form of Stake Cash and Gold Coins instead of actual currency. Drake and his fellow plaintiffs allegedly used the site's money transfer capabilities as “an unlimited and wholly unregulated money transmitter that appears to exist outside the oversight of any financial regulator.” The suit claims that the three used their profits from Stake to “create fraudulent streams of Drake's music; fabricate popularity; disparage competitors and music label executives; distort recommendation algorithms; and distribute financing for all of the foregoing, while concealing the flow of funds.” The class-action suit in Virginia seeks residents who lost one or more wagers using Stake Cash in the last three years.
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Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly), Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine), Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere), Mark Hamill (The Life of Chuck), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent) join THR in our Actor Roundtable.
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Cue a likely new version of the opening credits song for The White Lotus, because Season 4 is in the works, though it doesn't look like the song will sound the same as that of Season 3.
After three seasons of the HBO drama, set in Hawaii, Italy and Thailand, respectively, the fourth season will head back to Europe with some cast already assembled.
For everything we know about The White Lotus Season 4, read on.
When will The White Lotus Season 4 come out?
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A release date won't be available for some time, as the full cast has not yet been assembled nor has Season 4 begun production.
Where will Season 4 of The White Lotus take place?
Deadline first reported that the luxurious hotel chain series that features wealthy guests has opened up a location in France for the fourth season.
RELATED: Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer Reacts To Winning Emmy For His Third & Final Season Of ‘The White Lotus' Following Contentious Exit
Who will be in the cast of The White Lotus Season 4?
So far, Helena Bonham Carter has been in talks to join the fourth season. Following Deadline's report of that news, Alexander Ludwig and AJ Michalka joined the new season.
Who will be the connecting character for The White Lotus Season 4?
No word yet on who is set to recur as a character who has already appeared in a previous season of the series, which is a trend that the second and third installments have followed. Jennifer Coolidge bridged Seasons 1 and 2, and Natasha Rothwell appeared in Seasons 1 and 3. Jon Gries appeared in all three seasons. Charlotte Le Bon is a strong contender for Season 4's connecting character because she speaks French, and she is Jon Gries' character Greg's new girlfriend.
Who else is behind The White Lotus Season 4?
Season 4 is created, written, and directed by Mike White. Executive producers include White, David Bernad, and Mark Kamine.
RELATED: Jason Isaacs On His Golden Globes Nomination For ‘The White Lotus': “I've Been Lucky To Be Around Brilliant Writing”
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By
Mankaprr Conteh
Several Change.org petitions to deport Nicki Minaj to her native Trinidad and Tobago have amassed more than 120,000 signatures combined. The most popular petition — garnering over 83,000 signatures — started on July 9, 2025, and lists Minaj's “harrass[ment]” of “the Carters” as one of the inciting issues (Minaj had been incessantly lambasting Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter on X at the time). There are also at least three other petitions created between Dec. 21 and 28, 2025, that coincide with Minaj's controversial Dec. 21 appearance alongside conservative activist Erika Kirk at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest, where the rapper praised President Donald Trump's administration.
One of the recent petitions began on Dec. 27 by a 16 year-old in Chicago named Tristan Hamilton, per the website, and has gained the most ground, with over 41,000 signatures at the time of writing. Using a photo of Minaj high-fiving Kirk as the petition's lead image, Hamilton wrote that Minaj has left her LGBTQ fans “feeling deeply betrayed,” pointing to Minaj's AmericaFest comments, “Boys, be boys…There's nothing wrong with being a boy.” Some have seen Minaj's appearance at the event as the rapper aligning with Turning Point's historically anti-trans and queerphobic leadership. “Deporting Nicki Minaj back to Trinidad would serve as a reminder that public figures need to be accountable for their words and the broader impact they have on diverse communities,” wrote Hamilton. “It's not just about one person's fall from grace; it's about holding everyone to a standard of compassion and consistency, especially when they possess significant influence.” Representatives for Hamilton and Nicki Minaj did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone's requests for comment.
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Minaj's AmericaFest appearance also came in the midst of the Trump administration's virulent campaign against immigration as well as against several Black, Asian, Arab, and Latin territories around the world, including in the Caribbean. ProPublica reports that amid the U.S.'s recent mass deportations, over 170 U.S. citizens have also been held by immigration agents.
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It's not immediately clear whether there would be any legal basis for deporting Minaj, who reportedly wrote in 2018 that she came to the U.S. “as an illegal immigrant at 5 years old.” At the time, she had shared an Instagram post advocating against the separation of migrant children from their parents in Trump's first administration. “I can't imagine the horror of being in a strange place & having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5,” she reportedly continued. “This is so scary to me. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now? Not knowing if their parents are dead or alive, if they'll ever see them again.”
Minaj's current citizenship status is also unclear, though in 2024, she said, “I'm not a citizen of America. Isn't that crazy?” during a TikTok Live stream. “You would think that with the millions of dollars that I've paid in taxes to this country that I would have been given an honorary citizenship many, many, many thousands of years ago.”
While comments appear to be disabled on the largest petition calling for Minaj's deportation, under Hamilton's, self-proclaimed former fans wrote messages like, “It's hard to reconcile the ‘Black Barbies' rapper—who once spoke out about the terror of immigration policies—with this version of Nicki who cozy up to Erika Kirk, a woman whose platform is built on ideologies that have historically marginalized Black and trans voice [sic].” Using the name Charlie, the commenter continued, “It's not just about a ‘difference of opinion'—it's about watching someone you admired lend their immense cultural capital to people who haven't shown that same love back to our community.”
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Some TikTok users have attributed the petition to what they see as Minaj's implicit support of anti-immigration sentiments coming back to bite her. Without endorsing the petition, @nsddahmmy said, “Its even crazier from Nicki Minaj, because as quick as they can send her to the [United Nations] to advocate for us committing more war crimes in Nigeria or to high five Erika Kirk while she disparages the demographics that make up what's left of her fanbase, is as quick as they could have sent ICE with a one way ticket back to Trinidad.”
Other users have seemingly defended Minaj and mocked the petition with short videos merely looking into the camera with variants of captions like, “Wait a second, I thought liberals were against deportations and ICE,” positing that the petitions are hypocritical (and claiming that all “liberals” are in fact against deportations). The full scope of the petitioners' politics is unknown.
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The Oscar winner drew on relationships from 30 years in the entertainment industry and the experience she'd amassed in front of the camera for her star-studded Netflix film 'Goodbye June.'
By
Hilary Lewis
Deputy Editor, East Coast
For her directorial debut, Kate Winslet made a star-studded family drama, in which she was one of the actors, over just seven weeks, securing star Helen Mirren for only 16 days.
The schedule and Winslet's dual roles were just some of the many challenges she faced helming Goodbye June.
“We were constantly trying to make sure that we were all making our days. I never wanted to drop anything, and I didn't. I was very proud of that,” Winslet recently told The Hollywood Reporter at a special screening of the Netflix movie in New York, speaking of the shortened filming schedule. “We had seven children in the film as well as all of our adult actors, so just the constant juggle of that and being in front of the camera as well as behind it, just the juggle of it all we had to adapt to very quickly.”
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Still, she “loved” the experience, she said, unprovoked, adding, when asked if she wants to direct again, “I really hope I do. I would love to direct again.”
And Winslet's extensive acting career, including the bonds she'd developed with others in the industry through her 30 years in front of the camera, was key to this endeavor.
“Being able to really lean on great relationships that I've developed over the years, that was very meaningful, because we needed to have that sense of goodwill around us,” Winslet said, adding that it was imperative to have people who were “good humored, really willing and supportive of one another.”
For the role of June's (Mirren) husband Bernie, Winslet approached Timothy Spall, with whom she'd worked 30 years before on a production of Hamlet, and it was this past experience as well as the strength of the script, written by Winslet's son, Joe Anders, that convinced Spall to board the project.
“I knew that she was a very special person and a very special actress,” Spall told THR of Winslet at the Goodbye June screening. “When I read the script, I said I wouldn't be able to do it because I was working too hard. But I read it the following day and told her I wanted to do it because it's so fantastic. And she, I knew, would be all over it because of the way she spoke about it. It was so close to her and such a sense of what it was going to be about. Given her brilliance as an actress and what she's experienced as an actress, I knew she'd be absolutely perfect. It was time for her to direct.”
And as a director, Winslet lived up to Spall's expectations, with him calling her “one of the best directors I've ever worked with” and praising her for doing “a massive amount of preparation” but making the process “feel completely natural.”
“She did all the work, all the amazing work it takes. She covered every department; she cast it so well; she chose the people to be behind the camera and in front of the camera,” Spall explained. “She was so brilliant about being in charge of things and making you feel as though it's all happening at the same time. That takes a bit of genius. That takes a very good heart, massive intelligence, a lot of confidence and a lot of openness, and she's got all of those things. It's not an easy thing to direct a movie because it's like being the president or the prime minister. You've got a lot of things to take into consideration.”
Co-star Toni Collette, who plays one of Winslet's character's sisters and June's daughter, echoed this praise of the low-key set.
“It was just easy. It was like a totally natural progression for her, having worked in film for 30 years and worked with so many wonderful directors,” Collette told THR. “She creates an incredible atmosphere of freedom. It just felt very grounded, very accepting, very relaxed and free.”
The Wayward star also spoke about how Winslet's experience as an actress helped her behind the camera.
“The one thing I think we have on our side as actors is we get to work with a lot of different directors. Directors don't get to do that,” Collette told THR. “So they get to see how other people work. She could obviously have her own intelligence and intuition but also take from all of the wonderful people she'd worked with.”
And for Collette personally, working with Winslet was the fulfillment of a decades-long desire to collaborate.
“I have wanted to work with Kate for decades. I have been a fan. There's so much in her that I admire as a person, her work, her career, everything, what she stands for, what she fights for,” Collette said. “I got a call out of the blue saying she wanted to talk to me about a project. Then I heard that she was directing. I mean, I would have been happy acting, but when someone chooses you to be in their directorial debut, it's such an honor. I spoke to her within 48 hours. She took me through the story. I was like, sign me up.”
She continued, “When I read [the script], it was completely heartbreaking and also made my heart soar in the best possible way because it's such a realistic, gorgeous story about this average, dysfunctional family going through something really, really challenging. I just think it's a really special story. And she just put the most incredible group of people together on and offscreen. It was such a magical experience, one of the best.”
Goodbye June is now streaming on Netflix.
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Label a film a “zombie movie” and our genre-trained brains zip right to the question of whether it will feature fast-moving or slow-moving iterations of the undead. With that trope so embedded into the modern DNA of this particular horror subgenre, it's refreshing when a filmmaker puts it on the backburner and explores something more interior, which is what writer-director Zak Hilditch (1922) does with We Bury The Dead.
The Australian filmmaker uses the sparseness of his home country as a haunting backdrop for this intimate examination of a woman on a journey to understand her humanity. Ava Newman (Daisy Ridley) is an American, compelled to travel to Tasmania in the wake of an accidental American detonation of “something” off the coast of the remote island. More than 300,000 are now dead, and that may include Ava's husband Mitch (Matt Whelan), who was attending a corporate retreat on the island and hasn't touched base since all communications went dead.
Adrift in a fugue state, Ava arrives on the island to volunteer, assigned to one of many body retrieval teams organized by the Australian military. Their mission is to go into all of the rural communities that are furthest away from the impact zone to remove bodies from residences so they can be buried. Ava's seemingly selfless call to action actually masks her true intention to eventually branch out on her own to find out if her husband is alive or dead. Only after she lands does she find out that there could be a third option: A by-product of this modern catastrophe is that some victims are waking up, then quickly culled by the military.
Hilditch does a fine job laying out the necessary specifics of the event, the repercussions, and the unexpected undead twist which begins more as a mystery than an overt threat. More importantly, all of the setup is used in service of Ava's physical and mental journey into this foreign reality. As she engages in the bleak, voyeuristic work of intruding into these abandoned homes to recover the dead, Ava is forced to knock on her own doors, confronting and acknowledging the unresolved complexities of her marriage. It's through a series of flashbacks framed as Ava's remembrances that the audience gets a more truthful taste of who she and Mitch were together before. A once blissful marriage is increasingly laid bare as desperately complicated and damaged by years of infertility issues, blame, and guilt.
Initially, Ridley conveys much of Ava's numbness and interior conflict through her amply expressive face, with little dialogue and to great success. The opening third of We Bury The Dead provides her a rich succession of scenes that are allowed to breathe as she finds her moorings in this disturbing wasteland of lost futures and abrupt endings. Ridley's work is supported by rich sound design which provides space for Ava's solitude while also gently building an aural tapestry for this island—which includes the spine-chilling noises associated with the “waking,” including their signature teeth-grinding. It's sparse in execution but intensely effective in conjuring immediate tension whenever they appear.
Hilditch and his editor Merlin Eden set an unhurried pace for Ava's journey that might seem antithetical to modern horror, but it facilitates the way this place changes her—slowly, but thoroughly, so she'll be ready to face the answers awaiting her. The inclusion of two challenging male characters also allows us to see how Ava holds herself when placed under the eyes of others. With fellow body retriever Clay (Brenton Thwaites), she develops an unconventional bond as he is bracingly candid and seemingly apathetic about the death around them. His lack of social niceties allows Ava to shed the less attractive parts of her own nature. And with Riley (Mark Coles Smith), a soldier who is also mourning the loss of a spouse, comes a disturbing encounter that grounds the story in the realities of a woman traversing any landscape alone. It's the most terrifying horror sequence of the film.
As for those awoken by this disaster, Hilditch takes the existential path. That means there are plenty of unanswered questions, but questions which bolster Ava's quest to determine what she wants out of life now that she may be alone. She's remarkably unafraid of those who now straddle the living and the dead and more intrigued by what she can still recognize in an ambling corpse, or a newly woken father that bestows one last act of love to his dead family. If these recently dead can still hold onto the best of themselves, what keeps the living from doing the same? For those looking to delve into more philosophical horror, We Bury The Dead is a thoughtful trek into the unknown. As Ava moves towards her own discovery, she ends up finding more truth in what remains unresolved—by experiencing what grief dredges up in the living.
Director: Zak Hilditch
Writers: Zak Hilditch
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Mark Coles Smith, Brenton Thwaites, Matt Whelan
Release Date: January 2, 2025
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A newly invented cipher may shed light on how the mysterious Voynich manuscript was made in medieval times.
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A unique cipher that uses playing cards and dice to turn languages into glyphs produces text eerily similar to the glyphs in the Voynich manuscript, a new study shows. The finding suggests that an equivalent cipher could have been used to create the mysterious medieval manuscript.
The new cipher — called "Naibbe," from the name of a 14th-century Italian card game — does not decode the medieval Voynich manuscript, but it offers an idea for how the manuscript was made.
The Voynich manuscript, which has been radiocarbon-dated to the 15th century, contains roughly 38,000 words written in glyphs that have never been translated. Despite more than a century of intense scrutiny, the manuscript has not been explained conclusively. However, it continues to intrigue people, with its bizarre and inexplicable illustrations of plants, astrology and alchemy, including supposedly "biological" depictions of bathing naked women.
In the new study, published Nov. 26 in the journal Cryptologia, science journalist Michael Greshko investigated one way the manuscript may have come together. He told Live Science that he got the idea for the Naibbe cipher while researching stories about the Voynich manuscript. "It is this fascinatingly mysterious medieval artifact," he said.
Naibbe first uses the number from the throw of a die to break a block of Italian or Latin into single and double letters — so "gatto" (Italian for "cat") could become "g","at" and "to." The cipher then uses the draw of a playing card to determine which of six different tables is used to encrypt the letters into "Voynichese" — the strange and undeciphered glyphs that are apparently grouped into words in the manuscript. The tables are "weighted" by the corresponding number of cards so that the statistical occurrence of the mock-Voynichese glyphs is the same as seen in the manuscript itself.
Greshko's effort is among the leading attempts to explain how the manuscript was made. But it still only approximated Voynichese text, rather than fully replicating it, he said.
The Voynich manuscript is named after the Polish, British and American book collector Wilfrid Voynich, who acquired it in 1912 from a collection compiled by a Jesuit college near Rome. It is now housed at Yale University.
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The manuscript now lies at a nexus of attempts to understand lost languages, yet experts are not entirely sure if Voynichese is even real.
One theory, taken seriously, is that the manuscript is a medieval hoax, illustrated with suitably mysterious and salacious drawings, and that the text of Voynichese glyphs is completely meaningless.
The hoax theory has grown stronger in recent years as more attempts to decipher Voynichese — some of which have used machine learning and other computerized artificial intelligence methods — have failed to crack the code, if there is a code.
But theories that Voynichese is based on a real language and can be deciphered are still prominent, and Greshko's Naibbe cipher is one of the closest attempts yet.
The mock-Voynichese output of the Naibbe cipher has several important similarities to true Voynichese, including the statistical frequencies of glyphs, the length of Voynichese "words," and certain rules of the manuscript's mysterious grammar.
Those commonalities suggested that a similar method was used to create the original Voynich manuscript, Greshko said. "The Naibbe cipher is almost certainly not the way that the manuscript was constructed," he said. "But what it does provide is a fully documented way to reliably go between Latin and something that behaves kind of like the Voynich manuscript."
Dice and playing cards were chosen as sources of randomness because it was essential for the cipher to be "hand-doable" with the technology of the time, Greshko said. At one point, he thought of taking tokens from a bag — a bit like a bingo caller — but he realized that playing cards were known in Europe at that time.
And while the Naibbe cipher does not faithfully replicate all features of Voynichese — such as the exact incidence of Voynichese words and where they appear in a line or paragraph — the discrepancies could be analyzed for potential relevance, he said.
"My hope is that this becomes adopted as a computational benchmark," Greshko said. "The points of difference between the cipher and the manuscript may point the way to how the text was actually created."
Former satellite engineer René Zandbergen, a renowned expert on the Voynich manuscript who was not directly involved in Greshko's study, said he appreciated Greshko's efforts to create an encoding method to approximate Voynichese.
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But Greshko "also makes it clear that he is not suggesting that this is how the manuscript text was generated," Zandbergen said in an email. "He just demonstrates that such a method can be found, and we may assume that there may be others."
Zandbergen added that he is "essentially undecided" about whether the Voynichese text is meaningful or a hoax.
"Some people argue that 'nobody would do that,' but I think that argument is too simplistic," he said. "A more problematic point is that I find it very hard to imagine how it could have been done."
Tom Metcalfe is a freelance journalist and regular Live Science contributor who is based in London in the United Kingdom. Tom writes mainly about science, space, archaeology, the Earth and the oceans. He has also written for the BBC, NBC News, National Geographic, Scientific American, Air & Space, and many others.
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Eric Neff's tenure at the Los Angeles County district attorney's office ended after he was placed on administrative leave in 2022 over accusations of misconduct in the prosecution of the CEO of Konnech, a software company that election conspiracy theorists said was in the thrall of the Chinese government.
Now, three years later, Neff is serving as one of the Trump administration's top election watchdogs.
Late last year , his name began appearing on lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, listed as “acting chief” of the voting section.
Neff's appointment, first reported by Mother Jones, has prompted renewed scrutiny of his work at the L.A. County district attorney's office.
The Times interviewed several of Neff's former colleagues, who revealed new details about claims of misconduct that emerged from the Konnech case, and said they were alarmed that someone with almost no background in federal election law was named to a senior position.
Neff led the 2022 investigation of Konnech, a tiny Michigan company whose software is used by election officials in several major cities. In a criminal complaint, Neff accused the company's CEO, Eugene Yu, of fraud and embezzlement, alleging the company stored poll worker information on a server based in China, a violation of its contract with the L.A. County registrar's office.
Six weeks after a complaint was filed, prosecutors dropped the case and launched an investigation into “irregularities” and bias in the way evidence was presented against Konnech, the D.A.'s office said in a 2022 statement.
The county paid Konnech $5 million and joined a motion to find Yu factually innocent as part of a legal settlement.
The internal probe was focused on accusations that Neff misled supervisors at the district attorney's office about the role of election deniers in his investigation, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the case who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Neff also allegedly withheld information about potential biases in the case from a grand jury, according to the two officials.
In a civil lawsuit filed last year, Neff said the internal review by the D.A.'s office cleared him of wrongdoing. The two officials familiar with the probe who spoke on the condition of anonymity disputed Neff's characterization of the findings.
A spokesman for Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman declined to comment or provide the results of the investigation into Neff, which the officials said was conducted by an outside law firm that generated a report on the case. Neff's attorney also did not provide a copy of the report.
A Department of Justice spokesman declined to comment.
Neff's attorney, Tom Yu — no relation to the Konnech CEO — said his client had no obligation to provide background information about the origins of the case to the grand jury.
Neff's appointment comes as President Trump continues to remake the DOJ in his own image by appointing political loyalists with no criminal law background as U.S. attorneys in New Jersey and Virginia and seeking prosecutions of his political enemies, such as former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump has never recanted his false claim that he won the 2020 election.
When then-L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón announced the charges against Konnech in 2020, Trump said the progressive prosecutor would become a “National hero on the Right if he got to the bottom of this aspect of the Voting Fraud.”
The Konnech case was centered on contract fraud, not voter fraud or ballot rigging. Six weeks after the charges were filed, the case disintegrated.
The D.A.'s office cited Neff's over-reliance on evidence provided by True the Vote, the group that pushed the unfounded Chinese government conspiracies about Konnech and also appeared in a film that spread claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Gascón initially denied that True the Vote was involved in the case, but weeks later, a D.A.'s office spokesman said a report from the group's co-founder, Gregg Phillips, sparked the prosecution. Phillips testified in court in July 2022 that it was Neff who first contacted him about Konnech.
The two officials who spoke to The Times said that Neff withheld True the Vote's role from high-level D.A.'s office staff, including Gascón, when presenting the case.
Gascón declined an interview request, noting he is named in Neff's pending lawsuit, which is slated for trial in early 2026.
Neff's attorney insisted the case against Konnech was solid.
“He was let go because Trump tweeted a statement of ‘Go George Go',” the attorney said. “That's why Eugene Yu was let go. Because Gascón was so scared he was going to lose votes.”
Calls and emails to an attorney who previously represented Eugene Yu were not returned.
In his lawsuit, Neff claimed he had evidence that “Konnech used third-party contractors based in China and failed to abide by security procedures” to protect L.A. County poll worker data. The evidence was not attached as an exhibit in the lawsuit.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to describe Neff's job duties. His name appears on a number of lawsuits filed in recent months against states that have refused to turn over voter registration lists to the Trump administration.
Neff is also involved in a suit filed against the Fulton County clerk's office in Georgia seeking records related to the 2020 election, records show.
“We will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws,” Asst. Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, the California conservative who now leads the civil rights division, said in a recent statement. “If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”
Dhillon declined to comment through a DOJ spokesman.
The voting section “enforces the civil provisions of the federal laws that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act,” according to the DOJ's website.
It does not appear that Neff has any background working on cases related to federal election law. He first became an L.A. County prosecutor in 2013 and spent years handling local crime cases out of the Pomona courthouse. He was promoted and reassigned to the Public Integrity Division, which investigates corruption issues, in 2020, according to his lawsuit.
While there, he handled only two prosecutions related to elections. One was the Konnech case. The other involved allegations of election rigging against a Compton city council member.
In August 2021, Isaac Galvan, a Democrat, was charged with conspiring to commit election fraud after he allegedly worked to direct voters from outside his council district to cast ballots for him. Galvan won the race by just one vote, but was booted from office when a judge determined at least four improper ballots had been cast.
Galvan's criminal case is still pending; he recently pleaded guilty to charges in a separate corruption and bribery case in federal court. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said there was no overlap between the D.A.'s election rigging case and the bribery case against Galvan. Federal prosecutors are not reviewing the Konnech case, the spokesman said.
Court filings show Neff was involved in Galvan's L.A. County case, but the prosecution was led by a more senior attorney.
Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School who served in the civil rights division during the Obama administration, said section chiefs normally have decades of experience in the area of law they're meant to supervise.
“The biggest problem with somebody with Neff's history is the giant screaming red flag that involves filing a prosecution based on unreliable evidence,” Levitt said. “That's not something any prosecutor should do.”
Neff's attorney, Yu, scoffed at the idea that his client was not experienced enough for his new role in the Trump administration, or that he was selected due to his involvement in the Konnech case.
“Eric got the job because he's qualified to get the job. He didn't get the job for any other reason. He got the job because he's an excellent advocate,” Yu said. “I think the Justice Department is very fortunate to have Eric.”
Times Staff Writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
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Home - Science - Forget flying saucers and friendly messages: the first alien civilization we detect could be “screaming” across the cosmos
When people imagine first contact with aliens, they often picture giant ships in the sky or wise beings sending peaceful messages. A new scientific idea suggests something very different. According to astrophysicist David Kipping of Columbia University, the first extraterrestrial civilization we detect is most likely to be an extreme, unstable and very “loud” one, possibly caught in a crisis at the end of its history rather than at its calm peak.
Kipping calls this idea the “Eschatian Hypothesis”. The name comes from “eschatos”, a Greek word for “last” or “final”. The basic claim is simple to state, even if the math behind it is more technical. The first alien technosignature we pick up is unlikely to come from a typical, steady society. Instead, it will probably come from a rare civilization that briefly becomes incredibly bright in some way, either by accident or by design.
To understand why, Kipping looks back at how astronomy usually works. Our first discoveries are often the oddballs, not the average cases. The very first confirmed exoplanets were found in the early 1990s orbiting pulsars, a type of dead, spinning star that behaves like a cosmic lighthouse. Today we know that exoplanets around pulsars are extremely uncommon, yet they showed up first because the timing signal was so sharp that tiny changes were easy to spot.
Something similar happened with so called hot Jupiters, giant planets hugging very close to their stars. Before the year 2000, a large fraction of known exoplanets fell into this category. Now we know hot Jupiters orbit less than one percent of Sun-like stars. They dominated early discoveries simply because they were easier to detect, not because they were normal.
The night sky teaches the same lesson. Roughly a third of the stars you can see with the naked eye are swollen giant stars, even though only a small fraction of all stars are in that brief, late phase of their lives. Supernovae are another example. A galaxy like the Milky Way only gets about two per century, yet modern surveys see thousands every year because they are so bright.
Kipping argues that technosignatures from alien civilizations will follow the same pattern. The loudest, strangest cases will stand out first. In his model, he splits civilizations into quiet and loud. Quiet societies radiate at a low, steady level for most of their lifetimes. Loud ones go through a short phase when their output in some detection channel spikes to extreme levels.
He then asks a simple question. If loud phases are rare and short, can they still dominate what we see? The answer is yes, if they are bright enough. Using a toy model, he shows that if a civilization is loud for only one-millionth of its lifetime, then that brief episode needs to be roughly ten thousand times brighter than its quiet state to be more likely to show up in our surveys.
In another example, if every society spends a tiny slice of its history in a loud phase, only about one percent of its total accessible energy budget has to be dumped into that window for such events to dominate detections.
What would make a civilization that loud? Here is where environmental science walks into the story. Kipping points out that technosignatures are, by definition, departures from natural equilibrium.
Other researchers have already suggested that human-driven climate change, ozone destroying chemicals and industrial air pollution could all act as technosignatures on a planetary scale. In other words, a world that is heating rapidly, with carbon levels and complex pollutants climbing in its atmosphere, might look very “loud” to a distant observer.
For our own species, Kipping notes that the brightest flash we could produce with current technology would likely be a global nuclear war, a completely unsustainable burst of energy. That kind of event would clearly be a terminal or near-terminal phase, not business as usual.
On the softer side, a planet wrapped in smog and greenhouse gases is also broadcasting a warning. From far away, it might be easier to notice the chemical scars of an overheating world than the quiet glow of a stable, low-impact society.
The “Eschatian Hypothesis” also changes how scientists think about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Instead of focusing only on narrow, long-term signals such as radio beacons, Kipping argues that we should lean into wide-field, high-cadence surveys that watch the sky continuously. Facilities like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, EvryScope and the Gaia alert stream are turning the sky into a time series, catching brief, odd flashes and unexplained transients.
Kipping suggests that search strategies should become more “agnostic”. In practice, that means looking for strange changes in brightness, spectrum or apparent motion that do not fit any known natural phenomenon, rather than chasing a single, predefined type of alien beacon. Efforts that hunt for anomalies of any kind could be our best route to spotting a civilization in its loud, unstable phase.
For readers used to thinking about energy bills, carbon footprints and planetary limits, the ecological twist is hard to ignore. If Kipping is right, the universe may be filled with mostly quiet worlds where civilizations either stayed sustainable or faded away quietly. The ones we notice first could be the unlucky few that push their planet into a dangerous state and light up the sky as they do it.
That raises an uncomfortable question. If someone out there is watching Earth right now, what kind of civilization do they think we are?
The study was published on the journal site Research Notes of the AAS.
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