🎉 Happy New Year! The holidays delivered major headlines: the US captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and brought him to New York for trial, New York City swore in a new mayor, a fast‑spreading flu strain is sweeping the globe, and China’s BYD has officially overtaken Tesla as the world’s top EV maker. Welcome to 2026.

Venezuela's Maduro Taken Out: Trump Snatches Maduro But Leaves His Regime in Charge for Now (Bloomberg)
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Hours after President Donald Trump stunned the world by saying the US plans to “run” Venezuela, uncertainty over what that means and who is in charge loomed over the South American nation.

Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president of Venezuela, asked the US to work with her country, striking a more conciliatory tone toward the Trump administration after her initial outrage at the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro will appear in a New York courthouse today charged with drug-trafficking and weapons offenses. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores will be hauled before 92-year-old Judge Alvin Hellerstein at 12 PM ET for the start of an epic, likely years-long prosecution through the US federal court system, according to Politico Playbook.

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Trump’s resistance to keeping American boots on the ground and his dismissal of Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as a “nice woman” not ready to take power suggest he decided on giving Rodríguez and other Maduro loyalists a second chance over full-blown regime change. 

For now, there’s no plan spelled out to have American troops or administrators in Venezuela. But Trump signaled he’s keenly focused on the country’s petroleum, saying the US would have a “presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil.” That could mean a greater role for Chevron Corp., which still operates in Venezuela under waivers from sanctions, as well as for other major American oil companies.

Regional Shock: Maduro Ouster Leaves Cuba’s Wobbling Regime Without a Benefactor (Bloomberg)
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Hours after the US military whisked Nicolás Maduro away from Caracas, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said his people should be prepared to “give their blood, even their lives” to defend Venezuela and the Cuban revolution. But even that might not be enough.

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For decades, Venezuela provided the communist-run island with the bulk of its fuel and financing in exchange for Cuban doctors, teachers and security personnel. Without those programs, the island’s already devastating energy woes will worsen and its shortages of food, medicine and basic goods will become even more pronounced.

Editorial: Toppling Maduro Doesn’t Ensure Victory in Venezuela

(Bloomberg Opinion - Editorial Board)

Unless the administration has a plan it hasn’t yet revealed, this operation is unlikely to lead to the democratic transition, economic recovery and restoration of stability that would truly improve the lives of Venezuelans and strengthen US security. Even if the successor regime, for the moment led by Maduro’s former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, is willing to work with the US, such cooperation may entrench the political status quo rather than lead to a democratic revival.

Erasing the Verdict: The Ongoing Shock of Trump’s Cocaine Kingpin Pardon (Bloomberg Businessweek)

President Trump’s pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, toppled the capstone of one of the most ambitious narcotics investigations in the history of the US Department of Justice. 

Much of the strongest evidence used against Hernández at trial had been collected during Trump’s first term, investigators pointed out, and high-level members of Trump’s administration had signed off on those operations.

The ongoing military action against suspected drug-smuggling boats from Venezuela added another layer of irony to the pardon. The DEA and DOJ for years had pursued a strategy of going after high-level targets, including foreign officials, with the power to control enormous quantities of narcotics. In court documents, the prosecutors tried to quantify Hernández’s crimes, saying he “facilitated the importation of at least 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, causing untold damage in this country and leaving unimaginable suffering in its wake.” But the boats the US military had now begun bombing seemed the equivalent of going after street-level dealers.

NYC's New Mayor

Mamdani Lays Out Agenda of ‘Affordability and Abundance’ on First Day in Office (New York Times)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani gave an inaugural address on Thursday in front of thousands of New Yorkers and political luminaries including Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, laying out what he called audacious plans to govern the city with a focus on working-class New Yorkers.
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The ascension of Mamdani, a 34-year-old Democratic socialist, to New York City’s top job marked a number of firsts. He is the first Muslim and South Asian person to serve as mayor, the first to use a Quran at his swearing-in and the youngest mayor in over a century.

Now the countdown begins as he sets out to fulfill his lofty promises to “deliver an agenda of safety, affordability and abundance — where government looks and lives like the people it represents.” As Mamdani noted, those goals will not be easily achieved.

Watch his full inauguration speech here. 

Looking Back: Mike Bloomberg’s Excellent 12 Years as NYC Mayor (Daily News Opinion - John Avlon)
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Mamdani's oath marks 12 years since Mike Bloomberg was mayor. Bloomberg has been out of City Hall for as long as he was in it — and his accomplishments should be clearer to any unbiased eye, John Avlon writes in the Daily News. 

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When Mayor Mike left office, New York was strong, safe, growing and prosperous. But his data-driven centrist leadership and personal fortune made him a pariah to many progressive activists — and many citizens took the gains of his years for granted. The failures of the last two administrations ought to make hearts grow fonder — and create a baseline to judge the great expectations that surround Mamdani.

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Bloomberg's economic record is enviable: nearly half a million new private-sector jobs were generated during his time in office, while Lower Manhattan was rebuilt bigger and better than before, with families and businesses returning, Avlon writes. New neighborhoods were developed through rezoning, from Long Island City in Queens to Greenport and the Brooklyn waterfront. The population and tax base of New York grew and the city prospered.

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Bloomberg showed that the most effective mayors are non-ideological problem solvers. As we begin this new era and wish Mamdani success, Avlon writes, a look back at the Bloomberg record should remind us all that New Yorkers have a right to expect a city that is run efficiently and effectively, where crime is falling, quality of life is rising and the economy is growing.

Moynihan's Blueprint

To Understand Today's Left, Remember Daniel Patrick Moynihan (The Atlantic)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who died in 2003, might be remembered most for his erudition. During his 24 years in the Senate, Moynihan often turned the legislative chamber into a lecture hall.

Moynihan’s bitter criticisms of the party don’t provide a model for Democrats today. But his critiques prefigured, and helped explain, some of the greatest challenges his party now faces. Moynihan chronicled the exodus of working-class voters from the left as it began. Today, as Democrats debate how to win them back, they would do well to remember what he saw and, no less important, what he didn’t, The Atlantic writes. 

In the age of MAGA, Moynihan has been described as an avatar of a bygone era. The New York Times dubbed him “the anti-Trump of American politics” in 2018. Somewhat more recently, The New Yorker argued that Moynihan was “above all, a public-policy intellectual” whose “addiction to complexity” would make him out of place today. But these analyses present a blinkered view of both Moynihan and American history.

Moynihan does not belong to some distant past. America is still experiencing the effects of the liberation movements that began in the 1960s, and the battle that he chronicled between the regulars and reformers within his party has never entirely ended.

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As in Moynihan’s time, some Democrats now argue that their party should pivot back to the working class. Others want to pursue a more expansive progressivism, unconstrained by concerns about the political center. Both sides seem to think that their only hope of defeating Trumpism is to decide the debate once and for all. If Moynihan’s career is any indication, they shouldn’t expect that to happen anytime soon, according to The Atlantic. 

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What I'm Reading

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EV Shake-Up: Tesla Surrenders Electric Vehicle Crown to BYD After 8.6% Annual Sales Decline (Bloomberg)
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Tesla Inc. ceded the title of world’s top seller of electric cars to China’s BYD Co., squandering a lead that the Elon Musk-led company built as it popularized plug-in vehicles over the past decade.
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The US automaker reported a 16% decline in fourth-quarter deliveries, trailing analyst estimates. For the year, Tesla sales slid almost 9%, its second consecutive annual drop.
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BYD, by contrast, increased battery-electric vehicle sales both for the quarter and the full year, delivering almost 2.26 million EVs in 2025 to Tesla’s 1.64 million.

Today in Beijing: Xi and Lee Reaffirm China-Korea Ties at Second Summit in Two Months (Bloomberg)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung reaffirmed bilateral ties at their second meeting in two months, signaling efforts by both sides to stabilize relations as geopolitical tensions mount.

Lee became the first sitting South Korean president to visit China since 2019, arriving in Beijing on Sunday for a four-day trip that will also include a stop in Shanghai.

Today in Paris: Israel-Syria Talks Planned in France with US Mediation (Axios)

Senior Syrian and Israeli officials will meet today in Paris to resume negotiations on a new security agreement, according to an Israeli official.

The Trump administration is pressing both Israel and Syria for a deal that would stabilize the security situation on their border and potentially be the first step toward future diplomatic normalization.

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The goal is a security pact that includes the demilitarization of southern Syria and Israeli withdrawal from the parts of Syria it occupied after the collapse of the Assad regime.

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Switzerland Tragedy: New Year's Day Fire in Swiss Alps Kills Dozens and Injures Over 100 Victims (New York Times)

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Swiss investigators are working to identify the victims of a fire on New Year’s Day that killed at least 40 people, many of them teenagers, and injured 119 others in a bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana, about 120 miles east of Geneva.
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The fire at the bar, Le Constellation, was probably caused by sparklers on champagne bottles in the downstairs area, Béatrice Pilloud, the regional prosecutor general, has told reporters. The sparks appear to have ignited the ceiling, interviews with witnesses and video footage suggest. Survivors said they struggled to escape up a narrow basement staircase, the New York Times reports. 
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The authorities have placed the two managers of the bar under investigation on suspicion of criminal negligence.

Trump's Weak Job Market: Modest US Hiring to Cap a Sluggish Year for the Job Market (Bloomberg)

US job gains remained modest in December, wrapping up one of the weakest years for employment growth since 2009. The jobless rate eased to 4.5% in December from a four-year high, with payrolls up about 670,000 for 2025, far below the 2 million jobs added in 2024.

Banker Boom: Dimon’s $770 Million Windfall Shows How Banking Is Great Again (New York Times)
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The Trump administration is not just taking apart regulations but attacking whole regulatory agencies that date back to the 2008-9 financial crisis and were meant to keep banks from giving in to their worst impulses.

Regulators have also made it easier for banks to peddle in risky assets again, like cryptocurrency, and President Trump paused enforcement of foreign anti-bribery rules. The deregulatory bonanza alone makes it the best time in a generation to be a banker.

Public Health Alert: Flu Cases Spike to Record Levels as New Variant Drives Millions of Infections (Associated Press)

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Flu is rising rapidly across the US, driven by a new variant of the virus — and cases are expected to keep growing with holiday travel.

That variant, known as “subclade K,” led to early outbreaks in the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada. 

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The CDC estimated there have been at least 7.5 million illnesses, 81,000 hospitalizations and 3,100 deaths from flu so far this season. 

Some states are particularly hard-hit. New York’s health department said the week ending Dec. 20 marked the most flu cases the state had recorded in a single week since 2004: 71,000.

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🎧 Now Streaming! Tune in to the newest Daily Read Podcast—your AI-powered deep dive into today’s top stories. Go beyond the newsletter with added context, insights, and analysis you won’t want to miss. Listen today on Spotify or  Apple Podcasts. 

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Box Office Highs: ‘Avatar 3’ Flies Past $1B, Sleeper Hit ‘The Housemaid’ Delivers a Win (The Hollywood Reporter)
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Leading the pack, of course, is James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, which flew past the $1 billion mark at the global box office on Saturday. It’s another notch in Cameron’s belt, as he has already directed three of the four biggest movies of all time at the global box office, led by Avatar and followed by Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic.

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Several other titles are also holding in exceptionally well at the New Year’s weekend box office. Lionsgate and Paul Feig’s well-reviewed sleeper hit The Housemaid could fall just six percent to $14 million for a domestic tally nearing $75 million.

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A24’s high-profile period pic Marty Supreme — directed by Josh Safdie and starring Timothée Chalamet as a 1950s table tennis champion — is another holiday stand-out. It was the biggest surprise of Christmas weekend in placing second with $27.1 million. The pic’s Friday-Sunday haul of $17.5 million was the second-best showing in the history of A24.

Getaway Planner: The Best Travel Destinations in 2026, From Tanzania's Spice Islands to The Canadian Rockies (Bloomberg Pursuits)

Using Bloomberg Pursuits' 10^th annual travel guide for the year ahead, it's now easier than ever to cut through the noise. The following 25 destinations are a mix of reinvigorated classics and under-the-radar gems, each brimming with new luxuries and creative energy.

There are the Scottish islands you never considered, the big Asian food city that’s not in Japan or Thailand, and stunning national parks with plush new resorts. There are the Greek mountains instead of the Greek isles, the Argentine capital of land sailing and the Caribbean’s queen of quiet luxury.

Between what’s opening in 2026 and what’s brewing in the travel zeitgeist, all these places are on the verge of a deserved moment in the spotlight. Explore the full list here. 

Best of Late Night

"In sports news, Lindsey Vonn recently won the World Cup downhill at age 41 to start her Olympic season. Meanwhile, at 61, I recently tore a hamstring when I put on my socks too fast."
-- Stephen Colbert

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On Fox News' media coverage of President Trump:

"Good luck with your new strategy of yelling at voters for not being nicer to the president. You sound like an angry parent defending a birthday clown who showed up to the party drunk."
-- Seth Meyers

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On President Trump claiming that America is the world's "hottest country":

"If you need to tell people that America is the hottest country, that means it's not. If you're walking through Midtown and someone hands you a flyer that says 'the hottest club in Times Square,' do not go there."
-- Seth Meyers

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And from SNL: A couple (played by Mikey Day and Ariana Grande) revisits how they fell in love at a Love Is Blind reunion. Click the photo below to watch.
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