Hi everyone, I'm Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Economist's editor-in-chief.
Welcome back to The Insider, and happy New Year.
And what a start to the new year we have had.
Not even a week into 2026 and Donald Trump has shocked the world,
upended foreign policy with an extraordinary assertion of American power.
We're talking of course about Venezuela.
And with me in an emergency extra Insider show to discuss that
is as always my partner in crime Ed Carr, very nice to see you.
Hal Hodson, our Americas editor makes his Insider debut, Hal very nice to see you too.
You look remarkably awake for a man who's been working pretty much all weekend.
And Shashank Joshi, our defense editor joins us.
And from Latin America, from his home in Uruguay is Kinley Salmon, our Latin America correspondent.
Kinley, thank you for joining us.
Let me just try and give a very quick summary of the last extraordinary 72 hours.
So the United States in an amazing operation captured Nicolas Maduro,
Venezuela's dictator, flew him to the Iwo Jima and then to New York
where as we speak, and I need to tell you that we're recording this at 2:30
in the afternoon Monday London time because this is such a fast moving story
things may have happened by the time you watch it,
but as of our time of recording he was about to appear in New York in court.