U.S. Special Forces Capture Venezuelan President Maduro
After a months-long pressure campaign against Maduro’s regime, President Trump confirmed that the Venezuelan dictator had been captured by U.S. Special Forces on Friday night and extradited to the U.S., where he will be tried on charges related to narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapons offenses.
Maduro was hand-picked in 2013 by Hugo Chavez to succeed him when Chavez died of cancer. He has ruled Venezuela like a banana republic, barring the opposition from running and refusing to step down after credibly he lost the 2024 election.
Just before the arrest on Friday, Maduro had been meeting in Caracas with a delegation from the Chinese government. The military used various strikes and explosions throughout Caracas as cover for the special forces who were sent to capture Maduro. Over 150 aircraft were involved in the mission, and all forces returned safely. Maduro was flown by helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima and taken to New York.
President Trump said that for the time being, the United States will run Venezuela, and U.S. companies will go in and rebuild oil-producing infrastructure that has deteriorated over the last three decades. This means that the U.S. will effectively control ~23% of the world’s oil reserves (for reference, Saudi Arabia holds ~17%), worth up to $17 trillion at current prices.
YouTuber's Minnesota Daycare Fraud Exposé Breaks X
Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTube journalist, made a viral video alleging massive fraud in Minnesota's government-funded childcare programs. His 42-minute report showed daycare centers with no children still receiving public funds, and prompted FBI Director Kash Patel to announce the bureau had "surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes." Vice President JD Vance praised Shirley's work, saying he "has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes."
The video hit 135 million views on X, with Shirley saying that in one day he’d uncovered $100 million in fraud. Most of the alleged fraud is in Somalian-run daycare centers. The centerpiece of the investigation, “Quality Learing Center,” was previously called the Salama Child Care Center and was raided by the FBI in 2015 for allegedly defrauding a state program.
As startling as $100 million in alleged fraud is, federal prosecutors alleged a couple of weeks ago that over $9 billion of Medicaid services billed from Minnesota since 2018 may have been fraudulent.
The Trump administration has now frozen federal childcare funding to Minnesota in response to the allegations, giving the state a January 9 deadline to submit paperwork for the audit. Homeland Security officials traveled to Minneapolis on Monday to conduct fraud investigations, but Governor Tim Walz's office maintains he “has worked for years to crack down on fraud” and strengthen oversight.
🗽 Mamdani Sworn In as NYC Mayor: Zohran Mamdani, 34, became New York City's mayor just after midnight on January 1, taking the oath with his hand on a 19th-century Quran, at a decommissioned subway station. The democratic socialist was elected on a promise of "transformative change," including free childcare, free buses, and rent freezes for about 1 million households.
"We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” — Zohran Mamdani, Inauguration Speech, January 1, 2026.
📈 S&P 500 Ends Year Triple Its 2017 Level: The S&P 500 closed the year roughly triple where it stood when President Trump first took office in 2017, with the market rebounding to new highs after an April plunge following sweeping tariff announcements, driven by investments into companies involved in AI.
🪙 Silver Surpasses Oil in Historic Market Shift: An ounce of silver is now worth more than a barrel of oil in futures markets for the first time since crude futures began trading in 1983 (aside from brief COVID moments in 2020). 2025 ended with silver futures up over 160% from the beginning of the year, gold up over 70%, while crude oil was down over 20%.
🪖 Trump Drops National Guard Deployment Push: After suffering a set of judicial rulings unfavorable to the administration’s effort to deploy the National Guard in major U.S. cities, President Trump says he's abandoning his efforts to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, saying crime has been "greatly reduced," though he warned the administration may "come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again."
🇨🇭 Swiss Ski Resort Fire Kills 40 on New Year's Eve: A fire at Le Constellation Bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, killed around 40 people and injured more than 100 others during New Year's Eve celebrations, with the number of severe burn victims exceeding Switzerland's burn unit capacity. Swiss investigators say the blaze was likely caused by sparkling candles atop champagne bottles that ignited the ceiling.
