Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service.
We are coming to you live from our studios in London.
I'm Lise Doucette.
Today,
most of our programme will focus on the dramatic developments of the past day and the urgent questions about what's called the day after.
What happens now in Venezuela after the U.S.'s extraordinary rendition of Nicolas Maduro and his wife?
We'll ask who rules in Caracas now after President Trump's stunning announcement that the U.S.
would, in his words, run Venezuela until there was a safe, proper and judicious transition.
And we'll also ask the question many are asking, is it all legal?
Let's start with Mr.
Maduro himself,
the authoritarian ruler who came to power in 2013 and insisted on staying in power even after he clearly lost,
by a wide margin, the elections in 2024.
The man indicted in the US
for running what was called a corrupt illegitimate government and an alleged drug trafficking network,
flooding the US with narcotics, charges denies.
But the U.S.
released this image of him in New York in handcuffs flanked by guards doing what's called the perpetrator's walk,
a walk of shame.
Happy New Year, he grudgingly says, and what a year it already is,