It’s Monday, January 5. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Iran’s revolutionary moment. An interview with New York City’s most controversial city council member. Coleman Hughes interviews anthropologist Anna Machin on the science of modern love. And more.
But first: The capture of Nicolás Maduro, and the future of Venezuela.
Barely 48 hours have passed since the audacious U.S. operation to grab Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. The mission was a stunning success, with no loss of American life. By Saturday night, Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were in jail cells in New York City.
What will happen next to Maduro and Flores seems to be one of the few things about this extraordinary story that can be predicted with any certainty. They will, as Pam Bondi put it over the weekend, face the “full wrath of American justice.”
But what happens next to Venezuela—and a people finally rid of a tyrant?
That is a lot less clear.
Donald Trump said on Saturday morning that America would “run” Venezuela. But subsequent statements from the president and his administration suggest a different arrangement, with the decapitated regime allowed to remain in place if it complies with Washington’s demands. Exactly what that means—or for how long it will be possible—is not at all certain.
Today in our pages, we’re bringing you reporting and analysis to help make sense of what just happened—and where things might be going.
We start with Trump’s decision to grab Maduro—and the most serious charge leveled by his critics: that it was illegal. For clarity on the law on that move, as well as what the legality of what the U.S. might do next, we turned to our legal columnist Jed Rubenfeld. Read his verdict here:
The law is one thing, but what about the merits of getting involved in Venezuela? Elliott Abrams, who served as Special Representative for Venezuela in Trump’s first term, fears the president might be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by trying to do business with what remains of the Maduro regime. If Maduro’s thugs stay in office, Abrams argues, “Trump will have sold our souls for a small amount of oil production.” Read his view on what the administration must do to deliver freedom to the Venezuelan people:
Free Press contributing writer Elliot Ackerman sees things differently. A Marine veteran who served in Iraq, Elliot worries he hears the echo of George W. Bush’s infamous declaration of “Mission Accomplished” in Trump’s triumph this weekend. Read Elliot on the shadow of Iraq that looms over Venezuela:
Historian and Free Press columnist Niall Ferguson says one needs to reach back a lot further than Bush in 2003 for the right historical analogy. He retraces history’s steps to 1900 and explains why the Caracas raid is an example of how the issues of our time are the issues our great-grandfathers debated 120 years ago. Read Niall on why—from interventions in Latin America to socialism, vaccines, and antisemitism—we’re going back to the future:
No one is watching more closely for clues as to what happens next than those who suffered under Maduro—and fought for democracy in Venezuela. Nelson Merino is one such person. After Maduro fraudulently claimed victory, Nelson, who worked as an electoral coordinator, was detained and sent to Tocorón prison, where he was tortured. Eventually he was released, and had to flee his homeland in fear for his life. Read his chilling account of how he lived through the “greatest horrors” in Maduro’s torture state—and what he now hopes the future holds for Venezuela:
The Venezuelans Joe Nocera met in a Miami suburb this weekend were just as hopeful. He reports from Doral and talks to the jubilant crowds who want Trump to help them Make Venezuela Great Again:
What about the city where Maduro is being held? New York’s new mayor Zohran Mamdani invoked the town’s Venezuelan population in his condemnation of the capture. So Olivia Reingold went to talk to Venezuelan Americans there about how they felt about the news. Let’s just say they don’t quite see eye to eye with their mayor.
We have more on this story on our website, including Eli Lake on how Trump took out Maduro, our livestream reaction to the news, and Quico Toro on whether the regime will collapse. And we’ll have more in the coming days. But for now, on to the rest of the news.
—The Editors
With Maduro gone, is Iran’s ayatollah starting to sweat? As Venezuelans pour into the streets to celebrate the fall of the dictator who drove their country to the brink of starvation, cities and towns across Iran are filling with anti-regime protesters animated by the same hope for a democratic future. Iran expert Behnam Ben Taleblu explains what makes this uprising different from previous ones.
Zohran Mamdani may be in his honeymoon period, but one person ready to hold his feet to the fire is Vickie Paladino, the most prominent Republican on New York’s city council. Will Rahn sat down with the Queens firebrand to talk about the viral confrontation with then-mayor Bill de Blasio that birthed her political career, how she stays on good terms with Democratic colleagues who condemn her, and her plans for the Mamdani era.
Conversations with Coleman: Is There a Science to Finding Love?
Every January, men and women everywhere resolve to fix their love lives—only to stumble over the ever-changing rules and labels of modern dating. Today, Coleman talks to Oxford evolutionary anthropologist Anna Machin to discuss polyamory, attachment theory, and why ideas like love at first sight and human pheromones stick in the popular imagination.
The first trial in Mississippi’s largest welfare fraud case begins Tuesday. Prosecutors allege that $77 million intended to support low-income families was instead used for personal expenses, including a home down payment, new cars, speeding tickets, and a stint in luxury drug rehab.
At least 30 people in Nigeria were killed and several others kidnapped when gunmen on motorcycles attacked a village market. “Women and children were not spared,” one eyewitness told Reuters. Security forces are having trouble fending off such attacks in central and northwestern Nigeria.
An attack by a far-left extremist group likely caused the large fire in Berlin that cut power to tens of thousands of residents, German officials said. The suspected arson could leave as many as 35,000 households without electricity through Thursday.
The Wisconsin judge convicted of obstructing federal agents who were trying to make an immigration arrest outside her courtroom resigned on Saturday. The judge, Hannah Dugan, is appealing her conviction. In her resignation letter, she wrote that she “is pursuing this fight for myself and for our independent judiciary.”
Betty Boop and Blondie entered the public domain on January 1. That means the earliest images of the cartoon and comic characters can be used and adapted without permission or licensing fees, since those images reached the end of the 95-year maximum U.S. copyright term.
Intense rainfall and unusually high tides slammed the California coast over the weekend, causing flooding and mudslides that disrupted land and air travel. Record-breaking water levels were caused in part by “king tides,” which happen when the sun, moon, and earth align to trigger a stronger gravitational pull.
The Las Vegas Raiders clinched the first pick in this year’s NFL draft after the New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys. With three wins and 14 losses, the Raiders are certain to end the season with the worst record.
This feels like a strange statement when reports indicate that 80 Venezuelans were killed in the mission: “The mission was a stunning success, with no loss of American life”. It’s as if non-American life doesn’t matter in the calculus of mission success.
The guy who says he will arrest the PM of Israel tells us it's bad to arrest foreign dictators.