NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-03-2026 8PM EST

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hervst. Venezuela's ousted President Nicholas Maduro is apparently in New York, according to a video from CNN, after U.S. forces captured him and his wife in Caracas overnight. They face drug trafficking and weapon charges in New York, NPR's Ryan Lucas reports. A new indictment unsealed in New York charges Nicolas Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and other charges. His wife, Celia Flores, is also charged. The indictment says that Maduro presided over a vast conspiracy over the past 25 years to flood the U.S. with cocaine. Maduro and senior Venezuelan officials allegedly partnered with drug cartels, providing law enforcement cover and logistical support to ship tons of cocaine to the United States. Prosecutors say the alleged scheme enriched Maduro and his co-conspirators

while thoroughly corrupting Venezuela's public institutions. This follows in earlier indictment against Maduro, that was announced by the Justice Department during President Trump's first term in office. Ryan Lucas and P.R. News, Washington. U.S. officials ran war games on what a post-Maduro Venezuela would look like in the first Trump administration.

And peers Frank Langford has more. Douglas Fara, a national security consultant, worked on the war games, which looked at several scenarios. The conclusion of everyone was that unless you had some sort of managed transition from the regime to a Democratic, or some semi-functional democratic system, you would have absolute chaos for a long period of time. Farris said that's because there's a risk of a power vacuum that various armed groups would swiftly move to fill.

President Trump says the U.S. will run Venezuela for now and seem to dismiss Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Carina Machado is a future leader, saying she doesn't have the support or respect of her country. Frank Langford NPR News, Washington. There's mixed reaction from around the world to the U.S. strike on Venezuela. As NPR's Jackie Northam reports, many nations expressed concerns about the action, but didn't outwardly condemn President Trump. The U.N. Security Council is holding a meeting Monday, called for by Venezuela, China, Russia, and Colombia. There was muted reaction in Europe to the situation in Venezuela.

German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz said Berlin was assessing the complex legalities surrounding the U.S. intervention. so too with British Prime Minister Kirstarmer. France's foreign minister said the U.S. operation violated international law. But later, President Emmanuel Macron, applauded Maduro's capture. Mexican President Claudio Scheinbaum strongly condemned the military intervention, as did Honduran President Siamada Castro. China slammed what it called the brazen use of force,

and Russia, a strategic ally of Venezuela, also harshly criticized the strike and the capture of Maduro. Jackie Northam, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The World Health Organization says Brazil has eliminated mother-to-child HIV transmission. WHO certified 19 countries and territories where almost every child is born HIV-free, even if the mothers have the virus. Brazil is the first country of more than 100 million people to achieve that milestone. Their success is in large part due to the country's universal and free health care.

In the U.S., HIV-to-mother child transmission rates are less than 1% of kids born to HIV-positive mothers, but it has yet to receive the WHO certification. A new study finds the number of movies directed by women has been dropping over the past few years. NPR's NETA Ulabi has more. In 2025, the number of movies directed by women represented only 8% of the top 100 films at the box office. The most financially successful in 2025 was a horror movie, Five Nights at Freddy's Two.

Directed by Emma Tami, it made more than $200 million worldwide. But the number of movies made by women has decreased over the past few years. That's according to numbers from the University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The best year for women directors on record was 2020, when films by women represented 15%. of the top 100 films at the box office.

Netta Ulippi, NPR News. Stocks lost ground this holiday-shortened trading week, but still notched double-digit gains for 2025. For the week, the Dow was down two-thirds of a percent, the NASDAQ down one and a half percent. This is NPR News.