U.S Successfully Arrests Venezuelan President Maduro in Two-Hour Military Operation
+ Catholic Speed Dating event, ICE Shooting in Minneapolis, Governor Walz Drops out
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Newsbites
Venezuela military operation: The U.S. ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ to capture Maduro was extremely clandestine and carefully planned. A cyber-attack cut power to instrumental areas of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Then, 150 American planes, drones, and helicopters bombed radar and air-defense sites in order to drop off Delta Force commandos at Venezuela’s most heavily guarded military base. Maduro was captured and extracted minutes later. The whole operation took little more than 2 hours. Shortly after, President Trump posted a photo of Maduro in custody. Watch a clip of the attack here. (more below in main story)
An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman, Renee Nicole Good, in Minneapolis on Wednesday amid deportation operations. According to eyewitnesses, Good was blocking ICE agents in protest of their operations. Kristi Noem, head of the Department of Homeland Security, defended her agent and described the protester as having committed an “act of domestic terrorism.” The Trump Administration and many Republicans support this narrative, claiming that the woman weaponized her vehicle against ICE agents, who then responded in self-defense. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Police Chief Brian O’Hara, Governor Walz, and many Democrats argue that the shooting was an unnecessary escalation of violence and a murder. Watch two different angles of the incident here.
More: Minneapolis Public Schools cancelled school for the remainder of the week due to rising protests in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Catholic Speed Dating: More than 2,500 Catholic college students participated in a speed dating event while at a conference this week, breaking the Guinness World Record books. The particular event was hosted by Candid Dating, a platform designed to help Catholics find their future spouse. “Events like this help you realize dating isn’t as intimidating as it’s made out to be,” Joseph Striggle, a participant, said. “It’s just having a normal conversation with another person.” (video)
Gov. Walz drops out: On Monday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced he will not run for re-election amid the rampant fraud scandal. “Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota,” Walz said. The news came shortly after Nick Shirley posted a video online that received hundreds of millions of views online exposing daycare fraud in Minnesota.
More: Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is expected to throw her hat in the race for governor. There are currently 11 Republicans running for Governor in 2026.
The scale of MN fraud: Officially, the tally from convicted fraudsters exceeds $250 million in stolen funds, but that number could reach as high as $9B in the future. In a recent press conference, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson announced new indictments in the ongoing fraud investigation. “This is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud.” According to Thompson, 14 Medicaid services currently undergoing audit cost MN $18 billion dollars since 2018. Thompson predicts that a significant amount of the money “on the order of half or more” was fraudulently billed across the programs.
More: JD Vance held a fiery press conference on Thursday addressing the fraud in Minnesota.
U.S Successfully Arrests Venezuelan President Maduro in Two-Hour Military Operation
What’s going on?
On January 3, the U.S. captured and extracted Venezuelan President-Dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Currently, they are both detained in New York and face prosecution from the United States Department of Justice on narcoterrorist charges. Maduro pleads not guilty and claims he is a “kidnapped” prisoner of war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified after the strike that “we are at war against drug trafficking organizations. It’s not a war against Venezuela.”
Read the official indictments against Maduro here.
“America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people or drive us…out of our own hemisphere,” Trump said following the attack and kidnapping. “The future will be determined by the ability to protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security.”
How it went down
The U.S. ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ to capture Maduro was extremely clandestine and carefully planned. A cyber-attack cut power to instrumental areas of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Then, 150 American planes, drones, and helicopters bombed radar and air-defense sites in order to drop off Delta Force commandos at Venezuela’s most heavily guarded military base. Maduro was captured and extracted minutes later. The whole operation took little more than 2 hours.
Some context: how did this all start?
President Maduro first came to power in Venezuela in 2013. Since 2014, over 8 million Venezuelans (approximately a quarter of the population) left the country due to critical economic instability, which has been recognized as a humanitarian crisis. Maduro received much of the blame for this crisis amid accusations and reports of abuse. After a fraudulent 2019 election, the U.S. and many other nations refused to recognize Maduro as a legitimate president.
Here’s a brief timeline leading to his capture
In 2020, Maduro was indicted in a narco-terrorism and cocaine-trafficking conspiracy.
In 2024, he won what is largely recognized as another illegitimate election riddled with fraud.
In 2025, U.S. pressure on Maduro grew. The Trump Administration designated the Venezuelan-based Cartel de los Soles, as a foreign terrorist organization and declared Maduro as its ring-leader.
Afterwards, the largest U.S. military build up in the Caribbean since the Cuban Missile Crisis began to amass.
Since September of 2025, the U.S. launched 35 known strikes against alleged narcoterrorist boats.
Simultaneously, covert CIA operations began to monitor Maduro in preparation for his capture.
In December, tensions escalated with a U.S. barricade of sanctioned oil tankers off the Venezuelan coast and culminated with the surprise operation last week.
The Controversy
Both allies and adversaries of the U.S. voiced their opposition to the military operation that ousted Maduro. Critics claim it broke international law by disregarding Venezuela’s sovereignty and accuse the Trump Administration of reverting to force and imperialism for the sake of oil access as Venezuela contains the largest oil reserves in the world. Others see justice served to Maduro and argue the operation was a crucial law enforcement function for the good of the U.S. and the Venezuelan people.
At an emergency meeting of the U.N Security Council, the Ambassador of Venezuela and the Ambassador of the U.S. summed up their positions as follows.
“If the kidnapping of a head of state, the bombing of a sovereign country and the open threat of further armed action are tolerated or downplayed, the message sent to the world is a devastating one: namely that the law is optional, and that force is the true arbiter of international relations.” - Ambassador of Venezuela to the U.N.
“If the United Nations in this body confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist with the same treatment in this charter of a democratically elected president or head of state, what kind of organization is this?” - Ambassador of the U.S. to the U.N.
In the U.S. and around the world, protests and celebrations of Maduro’s capture have taken to the streets. Watch this video to see examples of both.
Will the U.S. now run Venezuela?
Delcy Rodriguez, former vice president and confidant to Maduro, was sworn in as interim president. President Trump, in his national address after Operation Absolute Resolve, declared “we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
He also expressed plans to allow American oil companies to access the oil reserves and revitalize the badly degraded oil infrastructure. In an interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described further U.S. involvement in Venezuela as a continued enforcement of an oil quarantine to leverage necessary change. Currently, an occupation of Venezuela has not taken place although President Trump indicated that he is “not afraid of boots on the ground.”
Trump reiterated his interest in Greenland and Cuba as key resources and strategic positions in the Western Hemisphere. The State Department posted on X, “This is OUR Hemisphere.”
