WSJ What’s News - Trump’s Bet on Reviving Venezuela’s Broken Oil Industry

A.M. Edition for Jan. 05. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is slated to appear in a federal court Monday, facing charges related to cocaine trafficking. This as President Trump reiterates that the U.S. is calling the shots in Venezuela as a new landscape of power players in the country emerges. That said, any profits stemming from Venezuelan oil are likely years away, according to Energy Aspect founder Amrita Sen. And we look at a potential market-first diabetes treatment for children as young as one. Luke Vargas hosts.


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The Daily - From President to Defendant: The Legal Case Against Maduro

 Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela was brought to New York with his wife over the weekend to face criminal charges.

Charlie Savage, who covers national security and legal policy, discusses the legality of Mr. Maduro’s capture and whether the operation could undermine the legal case against him.

Guest: Charlie Savage, who covers national security and legal policy for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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.

CrowdScience - Did I inherit my laugh?

CrowdScience listener Limbikani in Zambia is always being told he has his Dad’s laugh, so he set us the challenge of trying to find out whether a laugh can be passed down in our genes or if it’s something we learn from our environment.

Presenter Caroline Steel steps into the world of one of the world’s greatest laughter experts, Professor Sophie Scott, neuroscientist at University College London. In her office stuffed with memorabilia of a life filled with fun, they discuss how the shape of our bodies could play a role in how we laugh.

Also joining the fun is Dr Gil Greengross, evolutionary psychologist at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK. Gil tells us how Charles Darwin was the first person to question how laughter evolved.

Caroline also speaks to Dr Nancy Segal, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Director of the Twin Studies Center at California State University, Fullerton. Nancy is an expert in studies that demonstrate the role of nature vs nurture in how who we are and how we behave. She tells the story of the ‘Giggle Twins’, who were separated at birth but found they laughed identically when they met three decades later.

So does that mean that we really do inherit our laughs from our parents?

Presenter: Caroline Steel

Producer: Tom Bonnett

Editor: Ben Motley

Credit: The sound of rats laughing (slowed down so that our ears can detect the ultrasound) is courtesy of Dr. Jaak Panksepp

(Photo: Father and son on yellow background- stock photo Credit: Georgijevic via Getty Images)

The Daily Detail - The Daily Detail for 1.5.26

Alabama

  • GOP Congressmen praise Trump for capture of Venezuelan dictator
  • Sen. Tuberville says "enemy is inside the gates" re: NYC Mayor Mamdani
  • Former judge out on bond from prison, Gil Self to appeal his conviction 
  • Body of missing 4 year old Walker County boy found 2 miles from home
  • Albertville resident faces federal charges for human smuggling

National

  • Nicolas Maduro to be in court today in NYC after extradition from Venezuela
  • SoS Rubio talks about Venezuelan oil and securing Western Hemisphere 
  • Flashback to Sidney Powell blaming Venezuela for 2020 US election fraud
  • 9th Circuit court says CA ban on open carry is unconstitutional
  • Milwaukee circuit judge resigns after jury convicts her of obstructing justice in helping an illegal alien flee courthouse

Opening Arguments - The Dumbroe Doctrine

OA1222 - Actual sane coverage of Trump's kidnapping of a foreign leader PART 1

OA NYC correspondent Liz Skeen joins Thomas and Matt for this emergency episode recorded the day after the US bombed Caracas in a truly unprecedented military operation to kidnap Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife and transport them to Brooklyn to stand trial on federal narco-terrorism charges. We field dozens of patron questions as we try to understand how any of this could possibly be legal. How does this situation compare to the charges against former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, and how is Trump’s record on narcotrafficking these days anyway? What is in this indictment, and what kinds of defenses might Maduro have? Is the federal government going to let this defendant pay his lawyer? Should a federal court be able to consider that this defendant was illegally abducted from his country by the US military while acting as the head of state of a sovereign nation?  What kinds of consequences could there be for Venezuelans in the U.S.?  And what can we--and the world--do to stop Trump from doing anything like this again? 

  1. 2020 SDNY indictment of Nicolas Maduro et al

  2. 2026 superseding indictment 

  3. United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 504 U.S. 655 (1992)

  4. “Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation To Override International Law In Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities,” Assistant Attorney General William P. Barr, Office of Legal Counsel (June 21, 1989)

Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!

More or Less - The Stats of the Nation: The Economy

What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a series of five special programmes.

In the first episode, we’re starting the week by asking some interesting questions about the economy:

Is the cost-of-living crisis over?

The economy is expected to have grown by 1.5% in 2025. Is that a big number?

When taxes are at record highs, why does it feel as if everything is such hard work for public services?

Do the majority of people in Scotland pay less tax than they would in the rest of the UK?

Does the UK have a more progressive tax system than Scandinavian countries?

Get in touch if you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at: moreorless@bbc.co.uk

Contributors:

Ruth Curtice, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation Helen Miller, Director of Institute for Fiscal Studies Mairi Spowage, Professor and Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde John Burn-Murdoch, chief data reporter for the Financial Times

Credits:

Presenter: Tim Harford Quiz contestant: Lizzy McNeill Producers: Nathan Gower, Katie Solleveld and Charlotte McDonald Series producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound mix: Sarah Hockley and James Beard Editor: Richard Vadon

What A Day - Trump Extracts Oil — And The Venezuelan President

Late Friday evening, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. After his capture, Maduro was taken by warship to the United States and then flown to New York, where he will face federal drug trafficking and weapons charges. There are a ton of questions around how this operation happened and what, if any, legal authority the United States had to capture Maduro in the first place. But most importantly: what happens to Venezuela now? To talk more about Venezuela, the prosecution of Maduro, and what the hell is going to happen now, we spoke to Juan Sebastian Gonzalez, former National Security Council Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere under the Biden administration.

 

And in headlines, most Republicans are defending Trump's decision to topple Maduro, Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to criticize the president on her way out of Congress, and world leaders are meeting in Paris to discuss the Russia-Ukraine peace process.

 

Show Notes:

Call Congress – 202-224-3121

Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8

What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast

Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/

For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday


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Strict Scrutiny - Can America Pull Back From the Brink of Autocracy?

Leah kicks off the episode with repeat guest Rebecca Ingber of Cardozo Law to discuss the wild illegality–both domestic and international–of Trump’s regime change operation in Venezuela. Then, Kate, Melissa, and Leah welcome Princeton professor and expert on the rise of modern autocracies, Kim Lane Scheppele to break down how Trump is consolidating power over the executive branch and the courts. Leah next catches up with president and CEO of Democracy Forward Skye Perryman on some of the legal developments over the holidays, including challenges to Department of Education funding cuts, the freezing of childcare payments to Minnesota, and a near-total abortion ban for veterans. Finally, the hosts speak with Demand Justice's Josh Orton about the worrying trends his organization is seeing among Trump 2.0’s judicial nominees.

Kim’s favorite things: An “Almost Sacred Responsibility”: The Rule of Law in Times of Peril, Gerald J. Postema (Judicature); Judge Harvey Wilkinson’s opinion in Abrego Garcia v. Noem; Judge William G. Young’s opinion in AAUP vs. Rubio; Sara L. Ellis’s opinion in Chicago Headline Club v. Noem; The Dual State, Ernst Fraenkel; The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt 

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The Indicator from Planet Money - Why China pulled the plug on Japan

Japan’s new prime minister Sanae Takaichi made waves last fall after saying her country might intervene if China invaded Taiwan. In response, China launched state-organized boycotts against Japan — canceling concerts, restricting seafood imports, and even recalling pandas. Today on the show, what does it look like for a state to organize a boycott, and does it work? 

Related episodes:
How Japan’s new prime minister is jolting markets
When do boycotts work? 
Forging Taiwan's Silicon Shield 

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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