NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-04-2026 6PM EST

Episode Date: January 4, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. Venezuela's defense minister says the country is taking action to guarantee its sovereignty. And Fierrechaundalise Duster has more. Venezuelan defense minister Vladimir Padino Lopez says the country's armed forces have been activated to, in his words, guarantee sovereignty. He also says both citizens and a large part of Maduro's security team were killed during the United States military operation. The Venezuelan government says military targets in several states were hit by U.S. strikes. NPR has reached out to the State Department for comment but has not received a response.

President Trump has said some U.S. service members were injured during the operation, but there were no deaths. He also said the U.S. was prepared with a second wave of troops that was ultimately not needed. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. does not currently have forces on the ground. Shandalee's Duster, NPR News. And Maduro and his wife are set to be arraigned in Manhattan tomorrow on multiple felony charges. Trump's decision to oust Maduro came after he pardoned other high-level drug traffickers. And peers Brian Mann has more. Trump has accused Maduro of leading a campaign of deadly narco-terrorism against the United States and its citizens.

But Jeffrey Singer, a drug policy expert at the Libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, says Trump has pardoned or freed other major drug traffickers. If this is what's motivating him, if it's stopping drug trafficking, then why is he pardoning the Honduran president who was convicted of cocaine trafficking? Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted last year of helping drug cartels smuggle more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. But Trump freed him in December. During Trump's first term, his administration also freed a senior Mexican general accused of aiding the drug cartels. Brian Mann, NPR News. China, one of Venezuela's biggest oil customers, is watching the situation closely. And here's Emily Fang reports it still has significant oil assets in the South American country.

China still gets most of its oil and gas imports elsewhere. But one of China's major state-owned energy companies has built oil fields in Venezuela, and a private Chinese company had been exploring an expansion. But with President Trump saying the U.S. will run Venezuela for now, those investments are in question. And Clayton Siegel, a senior fellow analyzing energy security issues at the think tank CSIS in Washington, says Beijing is likely worried about whether the U.S. could move to cut off its other energy inputs. It's what this means for the future of China's energy security and affordability that will concern decision makers in Beijing. In addition to Russia, China gets significant oil imports from the Middle East and Iran. Emily Fang and Pierre News.

And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. New data shows a surge in flu cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there have been 7.5 million flu cases so far this season. That's up some 4 million cases reported in the previous weeks. A week, rather. NPR's Gabriela Emmanuel has more. One big factor driving the surge is a new strain called subclose. K. It's caused huge numbers of cases from Australia to Japan to the UK.

Florian Kramer of the Ikin School of Medicine at Mount Sinai says genetic changes in the strain mean the flu vaccine isn't great at recognizing the virus. Because it changed, there's less immunity to it, and that's allowing the virus to spread very quickly and extensively. However, early data from the UK suggests that the vaccine is still quite effective at keeping people from getting so sick they end up in the hospital. And the new strain doesn't seem to be more severe or dangerous. And researchers say current treatments still work against it. Gabriela Emmanuel and PR News. At the weekend box office, Disney's Avatar, Fire and Ash, the third chapter in James Cameron's

epic, took the top spot with an estimated $40 million in ticket sales. So far, globally, the film has made more than one billion dollars. In second place, Zootopia 2 with 19 million. So far, Disney's animated sequel has made more than one and a half billion dollars in six weeks. That makes Zootopia 2, Disney's second highest grossing animated movie ever. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News, in Washington.