The Headlines - U.S. Faces Uproar Over Venezuela Attack, and Kennedy Scales Back Childhood Vaccine Recommendations

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Plus, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s last day. Here’s what we’re covering:At the U.N., Even Allies Condemn U.S. Action in Venezuela by Farnaz FassihiVenezuela’s Legislators Offer Scorn as Trump Demands Obedience by Simon Romero, María Victoria Fermín and Annie CorrealMaduro Says He Is a Prisoner of War, Not a Defendant. The Words Matter by Hurubie MekoCongress Is Divided Over Maduro Raid After First Briefing by Robert Jimison and Megan MineiroStephen Miller Asserts U.S. Has Right to Take Greenland by Chris CameronKennedy Scales Back the Number of Vaccines Recommended for Children by Apoorva MandavilliTrump’s Harshest Republican Critics? Lawmakers Headed for the Exits by Kellen BrowningEva Schloss, Anne Frank’s Stepsister and Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 96 by Jenny GrossTune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

From the New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, January 5th. Here's what we're covering. The continuing uproar over the U.S.'s attack on Venezuela and its capture of Nicholas Maduro played out in four key moments yesterday. First, at an emergency meeting of the United Nations. This is the Western. hemisphere. This is where we live. And we're not going to allow the western hemisphere to be used as a base of operation for our nation's adversaries. There, the U.S. defended its actions in Venezuela,

but faced a wave of criticism from some of its staunch allies, including Brazil, Mexico, and France. They said the military operation to seize Maduro was a violation of international law. And a top French diplomat said the U.S. had chipped away at the quote, very foundation of international order. Next, in Venezuela. There was a fiery meeting of the country's National Assembly, where lawmakers, including Maduro's son, called for his release. And Delci Rodriguez, the interim president of the country, blasted what she called

an illegitimate military aggression, taking a hostile tone toward the U.S., even as she is called for peaceful coexistence. The defiant tone of the meeting underscored the fact that even with Maduro in detention in the U.S., his loyalists still have a tight grip on power in Venezuela. Then, at almost exactly the same time, in a courthouse in Manhattan, Maduro himself made his first appearance in front of a judge, entering a plea of not guilty to not. narco-terrorism and other charges, and saying that he had been kidnapped by the American government. He said he was a prisoner of war, not a common criminal defendant, though throughout the preliminary hearing, the judge interrupted Maduro's speeches about the legality of his

capture, telling him, quote, there will be time and place to get into all of this. Outside the courthouse, crowds gathered both to protest the U.S.'s actions with chance of no blood for oil, hands off Venezuelan soil, but also to celebrate Maduro's capture. The Times spoke with Venezuelan dissidents in the crowd, who said they'd been persecuted by the Maduro regime, and others who said that they hoped his removal would be a new beginning for Venezuela. I understand that so many people doesn't agree, because it looks crazy what happened. But for us, that's been suffering in so many years, I just tell you, you never even know, what we already live with this situation.

And lastly, in Washington. We have the United States military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions. We have a complete embargo on all of their oil and their ability to do commerce. So the United States is in charge. United States is running the country during this transition period. The administration has been doubling down on its insistence that it now controls Venezuela. Stephen Miller, one of President Trump's top policy advisors, went on CNN to explain their approach,

but was quickly met with sharp criticism by Senator Bernie Sanders. Mr. Miller gave a very good definition of imperialism, and that's not new. I mean, England did it, France, did it, the United States has done it. We are powerful. We have the strongest military on earth. We can run any country we want. Is that really the kind of America that, you know, that, you know, our people want. I don't think so. I think they would rather...

The Senate is expected to hold a vote later this week on a resolution that would force President Trump to get Congress's permission to continue any military operations in Venezuela. So far, Republican lawmakers have largely backed the administration, while some Democrats have questioned whether the raid to capture Maduro was legal. Now, two more quick updates on the Trump administration. The United States should have... Greenland as part of the United States. In his interview on CNN, Stephen Miller also declared that Greenland rightfully belongs to the U.S.

And that the Trump administration could seize it from Denmark if it wanted to. We live in a world, in the real world that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. The comments reflect Miller's vision for a world order in which the U.S. can overthrow governments and take territory. if it's in the national interest. Taking Greenland by force would essentially rip NATO apart. Denmark and the U.S. are both founding members of the military alliance, where countries pledged to defend each other against attack. Denmark's prime minister said yesterday that Trump's threats to seize Greenland

should be taken seriously. And in one of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s most significant changes yet, The CDC's list of recommended vaccines for children has been drastically scaled back. There were 17 routine shots recommended for kids. Now there are 11. Federal officials announced yesterday that they no longer suggest all children get immunized against hepatitis A&B, the flu, or RSV, which is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the U.S.

Kennedy, who's been a longtime vaccine skeptic, said the move, quote, protects children, respects families and rebuilds trust in public health. The updated guidance isn't expected to immediately affect families' access to the shots, but public health experts expressed outrage, saying federal officials did not present evidence to support the changes or incorporate input from vaccine experts. It's been an honor and a privilege to serve Georgia's 14th District as their representative in the United States House of Representatives. Effective midnight last night, the hard-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Green has resigned

from office. She abruptly announced that she was leaving late last year after publicly breaking with President Trump. The two went from close allies to repeatedly clashing over the last year, most notably over her push to get the Epstein files released. Trump branded her, Marjorie Trader Green. As she leaves Washington, swearing that she's done with politics. My colleague Robert Draper says her legacy in Congress isn't a legislative one. It's not about any bills she championed. It's about how she used the political spotlight.

I think your fake eyelashes are messing up with you read. She really more than almost any legislator before her understood that in Congress all the world's a stage and that you could seize people's attention, you could increase your, Your own audience, you could amass online donations by doing outrageous things on camera. Are your feelings her words down? Both in committee hearings and, for that matter, at the state of the union address, where in 2022 she famously heckled President Biden. I'll give you a copy of the proposal.

I spoke to Green at length, and in a nutshell, her reason for leaving Congress broke down into two categories. first, that Congress had become even more of a do-nothing branch of government than it had in the past. And secondly, because she felt that the leader of her party, President Trump, had strayed from the America first principles that brought her to Congress to begin with. I think that, among other things, it shows that there is a real fracture developing slowly but surely in the MAGA movement, where a few, not many, but a few leaders of that movement are calling into question its godfather. And finally, Ava Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and the stepsister of Anne Frank, has died at 96.

Growing up, her family fled Vienna, then Brussels, ahead of the Nazis, before they landed in Amsterdam, where they became neighbors with the Franks. When both Ava and Anne were barely teenagers, their families went into hiding. Anne famously detailed that time in her diary. After roughly two years of staying hidden away, both families were discovered by the Gestapo. Anne died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Eva was later freed from Auschwitz. And Anne's father, who was the only surviving member of the Frank family, went on to marry Ava's mother. For more than 40 years, Ava didn't talk about the horrors that she'd endured during the war. When her grandkids asked her about the tattoo on her arm, she told them it was a phone number.

I was a very shy person, never spoken about my experience, and suddenly there were 200 people looking at me. But at the opening of an exhibit about Anne's life in the 1980s, Ava began to tell her own story publicly. And eventually, the flood gates open and I couldn't stop anymore. She went on to travel all across the world to speak about the dangers of injustice, particularly to young people. In 2019, when she heard about a group of students in California who'd been photographed giving a Nazi salute, she went to meet with them personally, saying afterwards, I think they really didn't think about the consequences, but I think they have learned a lesson for life. Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily, a look at why President Trump picked a member of Maduro's government to lead Venezuela and what Venezuelans think of it.

You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.