Marxist network launches ‘war’ against US within hours of Maduro capture

As the U.S. military carried out a daring operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, a second front opened up within minutes in the United States  an information warfare, psychological and propaganda operation run by a hardened cell of self-described Marxist, socialist and communist leaders.

For years, this cell has fomented anti-American hate in the U.S. under the cover of “anti-war” protests, rallying activists after the 9/11 attacks to condemn the U.S. response, appropriating “anti-racism” protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd, marching with Antifa agitators, organizing antisemitic campus encampments after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and activating “working-class Americans” to support Maduro and his regime in a war against “U.S. imperialism.”

A Fox News Digital analysis of their minute-by-minute moves overnight reveals how this network activated a coordinated ideological and information warfare campaign, moving through digital social media channels with quickly produced posters to mobilize foot soldiers to the streets for an “EMERGENCY DAY OF ACTION” in New York City; Washington, D.C.; and an estimated 100 other cities, moving with the speed and discipline of an organized military operation.

At 1:35 a.m., as U.S. special forces teams had just landed in Venezuela, BreakThrough News, a socialist propaganda arm of the network, published some of the first video from the U.S. military strikes, blasting the Trump administration for waging an “illegal bombing campaign of Caracas,” the capital of Venezuela. It was a talking point that was going to stick.

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Ten minutes later, at 1:45 a.m., one of the key leaders of this network, Manolo De Los Santos, executive director at The People’s Forum, a proudly socialist 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in New York City, echoed the narrative on social media of an “illegal bombing.” 

Less than an hour later, at 2:29 a.m., the ANSWER Coalition, a nonprofit co-founded by a proud Marxist, Brian Becker, published a red siren alert on the social media platform X with a slick new poster, calling supporters to the streets in Times Square for a protest Saturday to support Maduro.

“NO WAR ON VENEZUELA! STOP THE BOMBINGS,” the poster screamed, on brand.

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Minutes later, at 2:34 a.m., The People’s Forum shared the call-to-action, screaming: “EMERGENCY PROTEST”

Soon after, at 2:43 a.m., the Party for Socialism and Liberation shared the poster on X, saying, “Stop the bombings…!” 

Congressional lawmakers are already investigating this socialist network for its ties to Neville Roy Singham, a United States-born technology executive who relocated to Shanghai after selling his software firm and starting work that critics say is aligned closely with interests of the Chinese Communist Party. Singham didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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By 3:21 a.m., Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a research institute chaired by Singham that examines issues through the lens of “national liberation Marxism,” posted a message, denouncing the military action, declaring, “Down with US imperialism.”

Within a few hours, at 6:09 a.m., CodePink, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, condemned the “terrorist United States…”

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From a military intelligence perspective, experts say the overnight sequence bears the hallmarks of a pre-positioned influence network executing a rapid-response operation. The synchronization of messaging, the staggered release of content across aligned platforms and the immediate transition from online agitation to physical mobilization point to an ecosystem designed not for spontaneous protest, but for ideological warfare.

In this framework, experts say, the nonprofit leaders are foot soldiers in Maduro’s war on the United States, acting as civilian operatives advancing the strategic interests of a foreign ideological project. Their role is not to fight with weapons, but to contest legitimacy, shape public perception, apply internal pressure on U.S. decision-making during moments of external conflict and further the cause of communism, experts say.

At the center of this domestic front is an international coordination structure known as the International Peoples’ Assembly, which functions as an umbrella organization and political command-and-control hub linking communist parties, socialist movements, activist organizations and state-aligned media outlets worldwide. 

One of its media arms, the People’s Dispatch, has explicitly framed its mission as mobilizing global resistance against “American imperialism,” including repeated calls to action on behalf of Venezuela. It lists Singham’s Tricontinental as one of its “partners.” The North America members of its “coordinating committee” include CodePink; the Popular Education Project, an initiative of The People’s Forum; and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Its Venezuelan member is a group called Francisco de Miranda Front, which works closely with its U.S. allies.

At 7:49 a.m., the International People’s Assembly shared the poster for the “EMERGENCY DAY OF ACTION.”

It quickly published a statement condemning the U.S. military action as reflective of the country’s “increasingly militaristic and hyper-imperialist orientation” and calling on members to “resist this pursuit of hegemony by any means necessary.”

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The assembly operates in close alignment with Tricontinental, the SIngham organization that functions as an ideological production center, generating narratives, research and messaging disseminated through aligned media platforms and activated through street-level organizations. Singham’s wife, Evans, sits on the International People’s Assembly, tightening the operational loop between messaging, mobilization and leadership.

Experts say the ideological doctrine guiding this network is shaped in part by Prashad, who also serves as editor of People’s Dispatch. 

On the operational side, De Los Santos, executive director at The People’s Forum, has emerged as a visible field organizer. He is listed as a researcher at Tricontinental and has repeatedly appeared at regime-aligned events in Venezuela, functioning as a liaison between the ideological center and street-level mobilization abroad and at home.

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In 2003, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez backed a new group in Venezuela, the Francisco de Miranda Front, laying the groundwork for an international solidarity apparatus that joined the International People’s Assembly, working with U.S. groups. That infrastructure matured over time into a durable support system for Maduro when he was elected president in 2013.

By March 2019, that relationship was well-entrenched when De Los Santos organized a pro-Maduro protest outside Venezuela’s consulate in New York, physically denying opposition figures access to the building.

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That month, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Claudia De la Cruz jetted to Venezuela for a four-day conference of the International Peoples’ Assembly in Caracas, urging socialists to “collectivize” their efforts to fight the “capitalist crisis” in the world, according to a video shared from the meeting with the hashtag #HandsOffVenezuela..

“Venezuela is the epicenter,” she declared. “Venezuela is the personification of the anti-imperialist struggle.”

The next month, The People’s Forum hosted Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza during a talk in which he demanded the U.S. end sanctions on the country, according to an article in “Fight Back! News,” a publication by members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “The evening concluded with Arreaza thanking the crowd and urging people to keep fighting and protesting,” the article noted. “Manolo de los Santos, the executive director of The People’s Forum, took up Arreaza on his request and called the crowd to action.”

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In May 2019, when a coup attempt failed, De Los Santos appeared on teleSUR, the state-funded TV network in Caracas, saying he’d organized a press conference with religious leaders in New York City to “engage in the battle of ideas” against “imperialist aggression.”

Two years later, in November 2021, Prashad and De Los Santos shared a photo with Maduro, all of them flashing a thumbs-up, with Prashad writing, “Elections in Venezuela today!” He noted that he stood with De Los Santos and Maduro, supporting “sovereignty against imperialism.” 

The next month, De Los Santos participated in a Caracas conference livestreamed on Maduro’s X account, speaking at the 59-minute mark and holding up a manifesto, “Plan para salvar la humanidad,” or “Plan to save humanity.”

He returned to Caracas in April 2022 for the International Anti-Fascist Summit, posting a photo with Eugene Puryear, a senior figure in the Party for Socialism and Liberation, further reinforcing the operational linkage between U.S.-based activists and foreign political structures.

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The pattern intensified the next year when De Los Santos and De la Cruz attended a conference sponsored by the Maduro government to explicitly preserve the ideological legacy of “Comandante Chávez,” their term of reverence for Chávez.

In late April 2024, Maduro even recognized De Los Santos as he thanked attendees of a conference of the “Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America,” established by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 to unite communist economic interests.

This past fall, a wide network that included the Communist Party USA, the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party and the Struggle for Socialism Party supported an “urgent call for a week of coordinated protests” to support Maduro. Last month, the network took action again, organizing “NO WAR ON VENEZUELA” protests.

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The newest overnight campaign to support Maduro will likely send foot soldiers into the streets to support Maduro and his wife during any trials they face, not just as an expression of protest but as a continued campaign of information warfare on the domestic front. 

Experts say the network that spent decades legitimizing and defending communist regimes abroad and now functions as a rapid-response influence force inside the United States is a new threat matrix that amounts to something the FBI and intelligence agencies investigate as malign foreign influence.

Its members operate as ideological foot soldiers, advancing a foreign-aligned narrative during moments of conflict, seeking to fracture public consensus, delegitimize U.S. action and apply pressure from within.

SEE PICS: VENEZUELANS WORLDWIDE CELEBRATE AS EXILES REACT TO MADURO’S CAPTURE

By daylight Saturday morning, at 8:49 a.m., CodePink invoked a slogan used last year as a theme in anti-Trump protests, declaring, “HANDS OFF VENEZUELA,” and issuing a statement dismissing criminal proceedings against Maduro as a “sham” prosecution. 

By 8:57 a.m., the Democratic Socialists of America, which just saw its star politician, Zohran Mamdani, inaugurated as mayor of New York City, shared a message from U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the organization, condemning the U.S. strike as “illegal.” 

At 10:29 a.m., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another member of the Democratic Socialists of America, chimed in, saying, “It’s about oil and regime change.”

On cue, at 1:06 p.m, Mamdani repeated the refrain established overnight by the socialist network that brought him to the mayor’s office in New York City, blasting the U.S. for the “military capture” of Maduro, calling it an “act of war” and “blatant pursuit of regime change.” 

The talking points of politicians, activist groups and foot soldiers in the socialist, communist and Marxist network in the U.S. echoed the statements that the two strongest communist powers in the world expressed about their ally, Maduro. China issued a statement saying it opposed the “blatant use of force” by the U.S. in Venezuela. Russia called the news an “act of aggression” against Venezuela.

By afternoon, within 12 hours of first hearing about the military operation in Caracas, the pro-Maduro network started churning out fast clips of its information war on the Trump administration.

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At 1:34 p.m., the social media team at the ANSWER Coalition posted a closely cropped video of protesters, holding the ANSWER Coalition’s distinctive yellow-and-black signs and chanting in front of the White House, “Stop the war machine!” The Party for Socialism and Liberation immediately shared the video.

A little over an hour later, at 2:42 p.m., The People’s Forum shared a video of Becker, the co-founder of the ANSWER Coalition, from Times Square in New York City, a camera filming him from behind, as he declared, “This is a capitalist war! It’s a rich man’s war! The kidnapping of Maduro is an imperialist war for a capitalist class!”

MS Now, the new name for MSNBC, reported from the Times Square protest and its reporter only shared a throwaway line about the ANSWER Coalition having a “speakers’ program going on behind us,” without cluing viewers into the group’s proud Marxist politics. 

Online, at 3 p.m., wearing a black-and-white checkered collared shirt, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Puryear hosted a YouTube livestream, joined by Tricontinental’s Prashad and others. BreakThrough News promoted the livestream with a new piece of graphic propaganda, showing Trump with a mouth gaping open and Maduro with his chin high, appearing stoic and regal.

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At 3:02 p.m., The People’s Forum shared a video clip on its X account of De Los Santos at the Times Square protest, a microphone in his hand as he scanned the crowd and railed against the U.S., calling the Trump administration a “criminal enterprise” for “kidnapping” Maduro.

“Shame!” the crowd responded, in a typical refrain for the group’s protests.

Back on the BreakThrough News livestream, Puryear asked Becker about the “quick turnaround” on organizing the protests.

NYC MAYOR STRONGLY CONDEMNS TRUMP’S CAPTURE OF VENEZUELAN LEADER MADURO AS ‘ACT OF WAR’

Becker spoke about the night before like a field marshal. 

“A few of us stood up all night last night when we heard the news, conferring with each other, conferring with other organizers and, by 3:30, 4 o’clock this morning, we put out the call for demonstrations to happen today, Saturday, Jan. 3,” he said. 

Between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., he said, leaders of anti-Trump groups, including 50501, which organized “HandsOff” and “TakedownTesla” protests, reached out to the pro-Maduro organizers to join their protests, and the protest numbers swelled with the “entrance” of the groups more closely aligned with the Democratic Party.

Now, he bragged, the results were protests in “100-plus cities.”

As the jet with Maduro and his wife touched down in the U.S. at Stewart Airport in New Windsor, New York, agents with “DEA” across their jackets boarding the plane, the caption on the livestream said proudly: “ANTI-WAR PROTESTS SWEEP U.S.”

“We should be raging!” Becker declared, stoking the “working class” to join the “class war, global war, anti-imperialist war.” 

The protests today, he warned, “are a harbinger of what’s coming.”

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Zelenskyy reacts to US operation capturing Maduro, wife Cilia Flores

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy weighed in Saturday on the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, telling reporters that Washington “knows what to do next.”

Zelenskyy was speaking to reporters in Kyiv after meeting with national security advisors from member states of the Coalition of the Willing when he was asked about the stunning U.S. military operation that unfolded in the early morning hours in Caracas.

“Regarding Venezuela? How should we respond to this?” Zelenskyy asked in Ukrainian. “Well, what can I say is, if you can do that with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next,” he said with a smile.

U.S. forces took Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their compound, where they were boarded onto the USS Iwo Jima and flown to New York to face federal charges.

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Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the capture of Maduro and his wife, urging the Trump administration to release the “legitimately elected president of a sovereign country and his spouse.”

In a superseding indictment released Saturday by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Maduro is charged with leading a narco-terrorism conspiracy tied to large-scale cocaine trafficking into the United States, along with related drug importation and weapons offenses.

Flores is also charged in the same indictment with participating in a decades-long cocaine trafficking conspiracy and related firearms offenses.

The charges build on prior indictments from 2020.

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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine said the mission, dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve,” involved more than 150 aircraft and a coordinated effort by the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and law enforcement to apprehend the duo.

“This operation is a testament to the dedication and unwavering commitment to justice and our resolve to hold accountable those who threaten peace and stability,” he said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference alongside President Donald Trump and Cabinet officials.

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Trump told reporters he never spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Maduro. 

“I’m not thrilled with Putin. He’s killing too many people,” the president said when asked whether he was upset at the Russian leader.

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Moscow has continued pounding Kyiv with large-scale drone and missile attacks as the Trump administration works to secure a potential peace agreement to end the nearly four-year war.

“Russia has not shown a genuine willingness to pursue peace. Instead, it continues its aggressive war, violence and destabilization, using negotiations as a tactic to buy time,” Zelenskyy said during the Coalition of the Willing meeting, according to a statement from his office. “It employs provocations and manipulations to derail progress in the peace process,”

JONATHAN TURLEY: Trump’s own remarks could undermine Maduro prosecution

It can fairly be said that the most precarious jobs in the world are those of a golf ball collector at a driving range, a mascot at a Chuck E. Cheese and a Trump administration lawyer.

That was evident at the press conference yesterday as President Donald Trump blew apart the carefully constructed narrative presented earlier for the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Some of us had written that Trump had a winning legal argument by focusing on the operation as the seizure of two indicted individuals in reliance on past judicial rulings, including the decisions in the case of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stayed on script and reinforced this narrative. Both repeatedly noted that this was an operation intended to bring two individuals to justice and that law enforcement personnel were part of the extraction team to place them in legal custody. Rubio was, again, particularly effective in emphasizing that Maduro was not the head of state but a criminal dictator who took control after losing democratic elections.

However, while noting the purpose of the capture, Trump proceeded to declare that the United States would engage in nation-building to achieve lasting regime change. He stated that they would be running Venezuela to ensure a friendly government and the repayment of seized U.S. property dating back to the government of Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

This city is full of self-proclaimed Trump whisperers who rarely score above random selection in their predictions. However, there are certain pronounced elements in Trump’s approach to such matters. First, he is the most transparent president in my lifetime, with prolonged (at times excruciatingly long) press conferences and a brutal frankness about his motivations. Second, he is unabashedly and undeniably transactional in most of his dealings. He is not ashamed to state what he wants the country to get out of the deal.

In Venezuela, he wants a stable partner, and he wants oil.

Chávez and Maduro had implemented moronic socialist policies that reduced one of the most prosperous nations to an economic basket case. They brought in Cuban security thugs to help keep the population under repressive conditions, as a third fled to the United States and other countries.

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After an extraordinary operation to capture Maduro, Trump was faced with socialist Maduro allies on every level of the government. He is not willing to allow those same regressive elements to reassert themselves.

The problem is that, if the purpose was regime change, this attack was an act of war, which is why Rubio struggled to bring the presser back to the law enforcement purpose. I have long criticized the erosion of the war declaration powers of Congress, including my representation of members of Congress in opposition to Obama’s Libyan war effort.

The fact, however, is that we lost that case. Trump knows that. Courts have routinely dismissed challenges to undeclared military offensives against other nations. In fairness to Trump, most Democrats were as quiet as church mice when Obama and Hillary Clinton attacked Libya’s capital and military sites to achieve regime change without any authorization from Congress. They were also silent when Obama vaporized an American under this “kill list” policy without even a criminal charge. So please spare me the outrage now.

JONATHAN TURLEY: WHY CAPTURE OF MADURO DIDN’T REQUIRE APPROVAL FROM CONGRESS

My strong preferences for congressional authorization and consultation are immaterial. The question I am asked as a legal analyst is whether this operation would be viewed as lawful. The answer remains yes.

The courts have previously upheld the authority of presidents to seize individuals abroad, including the purported heads of state. This case is actually stronger in many respects than the one involving Noriega. Maduro will now make the same failed arguments that Noriega raised. He should lose those challenges under existing precedent. If courts apply the same standards to Trump (which is often an uncertain proposition), Trump will win on the right to seize Maduro and bring him to justice.

But then, how about the other rationales rattled off at Mar-a-Lago? In my view, it will not matter. Here is why:

SEE PICS: VENEZUELANS WORLDWIDE CELEBRATE AS EXILES REACT TO MADURO’S CAPTURE

The immediate purpose and result of the operation was to capture Maduro and to bring him to face his indictment in New York. That is Noriega 2.0. The administration put him into custody at the time of extraction with law enforcement personnel and handed him over to the Justice Department for prosecution.

The Trump administration can then argue that it had to deal with the aftermath of that operation and would not simply leave the country without a leader or stable government. Trump emphasized, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”

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I still do not like the import of those statements. Venezuelans must be in charge of their own country and our role, if any, must be to help them establish a democratic and stable government. Trump added, “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

The devil is in the details. Venezuelans must decide who has their best interests in mind, not the United States.

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However, returning to the legal elements, I do not see how a court could free Maduro simply because it disapproves of nation-building. Presidents have engaged in such policies for years. The aftermath of the operation is distinct from its immediate purpose. Trump can argue that, absent countervailing action from Congress, he has the authority under Article II of the Constitution to lay the foundation for a constitutional and economic revival in Venezuela.

He will leave it to his lawyers to make that case. It is not the case that some of us preferred, but it is the case that he wants to be made. He is not someone who can be scripted. It is his script and he is still likely to prevail in holding Maduro and his wife for trial.

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Dan Bongino returns to private life after briefly serving as FBI deputy director

Dan Bongino returned to private life on Sunday after serving as deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for less than a year.

Bongino said on X that Saturday was his last day on the job before he would return to “civilian life.”

“It’s been an incredible year thanks to the leadership and decisiveness of President Trump. It was the honor of a lifetime to work with Director Patel, and to serve you, the American people. See you on the other side,” he wrote.

The former FBI deputy director announced in mid-December that he would be leaving his role at the bureau at the start of the new year.

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President Donald Trump previously praised Bongino, who assumed office in March, for his work at the FBI.

“Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show,” Trump told reporters.

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Bongino spoke publicly about the personal toll of the job during a May appearance on “Fox & Friends,” saying he had sacrificed a lot to take the role.

“I gave up everything for this,” he said, citing the long hours both he and FBI Director Kash Patel work.

“I stare at these four walls all day in D.C., by myself, divorced from my wife — not divorced, but I mean separated — and it’s hard. I mean, we love each other, and it’s hard to be apart,” he added.

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Bongino’s departure leaves Andrew Bailey, who was appointed co-deputy director in September 2025, as the bureau’s other deputy director.

Republican blasts Democrats for ‘egg on their face’ after Trump’s Maduro operation

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., pushed back Saturday against Democratic criticism of President Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, arguing the administration carefully weighed risks before acting.

“Democrats have total egg on their face[s] from previous operations saying we’re going to be in these protracted long-war operations that did not take place,” Mast said on “The Big Weekend Show.”

“President Trump is not the protracted war president. He is the person that is going in there with any operations, saying… what is the mission that has to be accomplished?” 

Mast contrasted Trump’s approach with past administrations, pointing to limited strikes in Syria during Trump’s first term and efforts to lay the groundwork for a conditions-based withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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He also cited a recent targeted operation against Iran, which he said neutralized threats without triggering a broader conflict or violating U.S. war powers.

As Democrats questioned the legality of the operation, other Republican lawmakers defended it Saturday, including Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.

“The legality is very well established,” Crenshaw said, citing the first Bush administration’s capture of former Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and the Obama administration’s actions against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi as precedent.

TRUMP REVEALS VENEZUELA’S MADURO WAS CAPTURED IN ‘FORTRESS’-LIKE HOUSE: ‘HE GOT BUM RUSHED SO FAST’

“You’re going after a person who’s indicted in U.S. courts, and you’re going after someone who we’ve established as an imminent danger to U.S. national security,” Crenshaw added.

Cotton echoed that argument, saying Congress does not need to be notified when the executive branch carries out arrests of indicted individuals.

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“Congress isn’t notified when the FBI is going to arrest a drug trafficker or a cybercriminal here in the United States, nor should Congress be notified when the executive branch is executing arrests on indicted persons,” he said Saturday on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

“That’s really what you can make the analogy to here. In fact, the FBI was part of this operation, part of the arrest of Maduro and his wife, who were indicted here in the United States, so Congress doesn’t need to be notified every time the executive branch is making an arrest.”

Tennis legend rips Venezuela intervention, calls for sanctions on US oil firms

Women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova took to social media on Saturday to share her thoughts on the U.S. intervention in Venezuela, supporting the idea of criminal sanctions on American companies that try to take oil from the country. 

Navratilova praised a post on X suggesting the sanctions, writing “love it” in response to journalist Lauren Windsor’s post that read, “Any American oil company that expropriates oil from Venezuela should be sanctioned by the International Criminal Court.”

Navratilova later shared further thoughts about the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with President Donald Trump saying that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela until a transition of power is complete. 

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“Holding a country hostage while pillaging its natural resources. Next stop- either Greenland or Nigeria,” Navratilova wrote in response to a thread that included a report about Wall Street firm officials in the finance, energy and defense sectors visiting Venezuela after the recent strikes. 

Roughly twice the size of California, Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves. At an estimated 300 billion barrels, about 20% of the global total and nearly four times U.S. reserves, that endowment dwarfs that of any other nation.

Venezuela’s stockpile, now larger than those of energy titans like Saudi Arabia, has become a central flashpoint in the geopolitical struggle surrounding the country’s future.

‘WE BUILT VENEZUELA’S OIL INDUSTRY:’ TRUMP VOWS US ENERGY RETURN AFTER MADURO CAPTURE

Venezuela’s reserves are dominated by heavy and extra-heavy crude that requires specialized equipment, constant maintenance and advanced refining capacity, much of which has deteriorated after years of underinvestment and skilled labor losses.

During his address on Saturday, Trump accused Venezuela’s socialist government of seizing American energy assets and dismantling an industry built with U.S. investment.

“Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said. “They took all of our property.”

“We built Venezuela’s oil industry with American talent, drive and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us,” he added. 

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Trump added that U.S. energy companies would play a key role in rebuilding the Latin American country’s oil sector.

“We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country,” he said.

Read the warning Bryan Kohberger’s sister sent him just after Idaho murders

Bryan Kohberger’s younger sister says she warned her brother that a “psycho killer” was on the loose after four University of Idaho students were killed, unaware she was speaking to the man later convicted of the brutal murders.

Mel Kohberger, Bryan’s sister, recalled the conversation with her brother during a recent interview with The New York Times, saying she felt a sense of alarm after hearing about the murders in Moscow, Idaho. Kohberger pleaded guilty to murdering Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves, who were killed Nov. 13, 2022.

“Bryan, you are running outside, and this psycho killer is on the loose,” she remembers telling her brother. “Be careful.”

Bryan thanked her for checking in and assured Mel that he would be safe. Mel said Bryan was the kind of person who would go on late-night jogs and leave his door unlocked, prompting her to check in.

BRYAN KOHBERGER’S PROFESSOR CALLED OUT HIS ‘ASSUMPTION’ ABOUT LOCAL COPS BEFORE IDAHO STUDENT MURDERS

Mel recalled how Bryan was constantly bullied as a teenager. Friends previously said he was overweight and had a standoffish personality. In online posts while Bryan was a teenager, according to the outlet, he said that he had no emotion, little remorse and felt like he was “an organic sack of meat with no self-worth.”

Bryan, who was addicted to heroin as a teenager, once stole Mel’s phone and sold it at a mall so he could buy more drugs, the sister said. Mel said her family was worried Bryan was on a pathway to an early death, something that happened to one of his friends. However, Mel said Bryan received treatment and was doing better.

“We were all so proud of him because he had overcome so much,” Mel said.

BRYAN KOHBERGER TRYING TO BUDDY UP WITH SERIAL KILLERS FROM BEHIND BARS, SOURCE SAYS

After treatment, while Bryan remained socially awkward and abrasive at times, Mel never saw him as a violent person, she said.

Bryan did not discuss the Idaho murders while staying at his parents’ Pennsylvania home in the days before the FBI raid, but Mel recalled him mentioning the case once, noting investigators were still searching for a suspect.

When Bryan was arrested Dec. 30, 2022, Mel recalled getting a phone call from her older sister, Amanda.

THE ‘CHANCE ENCOUNTER’ AND UNBROKEN PROMISE THAT CHANGED THE COURSE OF THE IDAHO STUDENT MURDERS CASE

“She was like, ‘I’m with the FBI. Bryan’s been arrested,’” Mel said. “I was like, ‘For what?’”

“The Idaho murders,” Amanda responded. 

Mel initially thought her sister might have been pranking her before becoming nauseous at the thought that her own brother was behind the murders of four college students.

Overnight, Mel said her world was flipped upside down. Bryan’s sister said she was training to start her new job as a mental health counselor in New Jersey but agreed to step down after the new employer became inundated with inquiries.

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Mel said she became angry after seeing online posts from people who speculated that her family may have known that Bryan had killed the four University of Idaho students.

“I have always been a person who has spoken up for what was right,” Mel said. “If I ever had a reason to believe my brother did anything, I would have turned him in.”

Deadly ‘superbug’ is spreading across US as drug resistance grows, researchers warn

A deadly, drug-resistant fungus already spreading rapidly through U.S. hospitals is becoming even more threatening worldwide, though there may be hope for new treatments, according to a new scientific review.

Candida auris (C. auris), often described as a “superbug fungus,” is spreading globally and increasingly resisting human immune systems, Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) researchers said in a review published in early December.

The findings reinforce prior CDC warnings that have labeled C. auris an “urgent antimicrobial threat” — the first fungal pathogen to receive that designation — as U.S. cases have surged, particularly in hospitals and long-term care centers.

DANGEROUS SPIKE IN SUPERBUG INFECTIONS SURGES ACROSS US AS EXPERTS SHARE CAUTIONS

Approximately 7,000 cases were identified across dozens of U.S. states in 2025, according to the CDC, and it has reportedly been identified in at least 60 countries.

The review, published in Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, helps explain why the pathogen is so difficult to contain and warns that outdated diagnostics and limited treatments lag behind. It was conducted by Dr. Neeraj Chauhan of the Hackensack Meridian CDI in New Jersey, Dr. Anuradha Chowdhary of the University of Delhi’s Medical Mycology Unit and Dr. Michail Lionakis, chief of the clinical mycology program at the National Institutes of Health.

Their findings stress the need to develop “novel antifungal agents with broad-spectrum activity against human fungal pathogens, to improve diagnostic tests and to develop immune- and vaccine-based adjunct modalities for the treatment of high-risk patients,” the researchers said in a statement.

GROWING ANTIBIOTIC CRISIS COULD TURN BACTERIAL INFECTIONS DEADLY, EXPERTS WARN

“In addition, future efforts should focus on raising awareness about fungal disease through developing better surveillance mechanisms, especially in resource-poor countries,” they added. “All these developments should help improve the outcomes and prognosis of patients afflicted by opportunistic fungal infections.”

First identified in 2009 from a patient’s ear sample in Japan, C. auris has since spread to dozens of countries, including the U.S., where outbreaks have forced some hospital intensive care units to shut down, according to the researchers.

The fungus poses the greatest risk to people who are already critically ill, particularly those on ventilators or with weakened immune systems. Once infected, about half of patients may die, according to some estimates.

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Unlike many other fungi, C. auris can survive on human skin and cling to hospital surfaces and medical equipment, allowing it to spread easily in healthcare settings.

“It is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, and it tends to spread in hospital settings, including on equipment being used on immunocompromised and semi-immunocompromised patients, such as ventilators and catheters,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone, previously told Fox News Digital.

It is also frequently misdiagnosed, delaying treatment and infection control measures.

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“Unfortunately, symptoms such as fever, chills and aches may be ubiquitous, and it can be mistaken for other infections,” Siegel said.

In September, he said intense research was ongoing to develop new treatments.

Only four major classes of antifungal drugs are currently available, and C. auris has already shown resistance to many of them. While three new antifungal drugs have been approved or are in late-stage trials, researchers warn that drug development has struggled to keep pace with the fungus’s evolution.

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Despite the sobering findings, there is still room for cautious optimism.

In separate research published in December, scientists at the University of Exeter in England discovered a potential weakness in C. auris while studying the fungus in a living-host model. 

The team found that, during infection, the fungus activates specific genes to scavenge iron, a nutrient it needs to survive, according to their paper, published in the Nature portfolio journal Communications Biology in December.

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Because iron is essential for the pathogen, researchers believe drugs that block this process could eventually stop infections or even allow existing medications to be repurposed.

“We think our research may have revealed an Achilles’ heel in this lethal pathogen during active infection,” Dr. Hugh Gifford, a clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

As researchers race to better understand the fungus, officials warn that strict infection control, rapid detection and continued investment in new treatments remain critical.

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Health experts emphasize that C. auris is not a threat to healthy people.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the CDI researchers and additional experts for comment.

Ben and Erin Napier share how they knew they’d marry after just six days of dating

HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier reflected on how they realized very early on in their romance that they wanted to marry each other.

The couple met in December 2004 while they were students at Jones County Junior College in Mississippi when Erin, now 40, interviewed Ben, now 42, for a story in the school yearbook. 

Ben and Erin have previously said that just six days after the interview, they decided they were meant to be together and would marry.

During an interview with Fox News Digital, Erin and Ben, who are starring in the upcoming 10th season of their show “Home Town,” recalled how they instantly connected and were quickly on the same page about the seriousness of their relationship.

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“I feel really lucky that we both knew,” Erin said. “I think people don’t take enough risks anymore as far as just saying it. Saying what you really think.”

“What if you’re like just lukewarm dating someone forever and they have no intention of being with you forever?” she continued. “What are we doing? What is the point? What are we doing?”

After falling in love, the duo both transferred to the University of Mississippi in Oxford. In 2007, Ben proposed to Erin and the pair tied the knot in November 2008 at the Paris–Yates Chapel on the Ole Miss campus. The couple welcomed daughter Helen in 2018 and daughter Mae in 2021.

The new season of “Home Town” premieres Sunday, Jan. 4, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV.

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While speaking with Fox News Digital, Erin and Ben emphasized the importance of honesty in relationships, even when the truth might hurt.

WATCH: HGTV STARS BEN AND ERIN NAPIER REVEAL BIGGEST CHALLENGES OF WORKING TOGETHER AS A MARRIED COUPLE

“I think it’s a lot better to say the truth even if it gets you like…” Erin said.

“… Even if it breaks your heart,” Ben interjected.

“Yeah, at least you know,” Erin pointed out.

“At least you know you’re not wasting your time,” Ben added.

Erin told Fox News Digital that she encourages people she knows to be forthcoming about their true feelings and clear about their intentions.

“I know young people in their 20s who are trying to date. And they’re like, ‘I don’t know if he likes me. I just can’t tell,'” Erin said. “And I’m like, just say, ‘What do you think about me? Do you like me? Do you want to marry me?’”

“‘Where do you see this going?'” Ben added.

The couple went on to share an anecdote about how the romance between a member of their crew and his future wife played out when they were transparent with each other from the start.

“He got married last year and it’s a friend of mine from elementary school,” Ben said. “He already has two kids; she already had a kid.”

“First date they went, ‘This is how much money I make,'” Erin said with a laugh. 

“I think they waited until date number two,” Ben said.

“‘These are my assets. This is what I want,'” Erin continued.

‘”This is what I want for the next five years, the next 10 years. If you’re not open to any of this, then let’s just stop right now.’ And she was like, ‘Oh my God, I love you,'” Ben said. 

“I think we all need to be a little more transparent is the moral of the story,” Erin said.

WATCH: HGTV STARS BEN AND ERIN NAPIER SHARE HOW THEY KNEW THEY’D MARRY AFTER JUST SIX DAYS OF DATING

The Napiers’ creative collaboration also began early in their relationship. Erin, who launched her career in graphic design, and Ben, who has a passion for woodworking, have previously said they started teaming up on projects shortly after meeting each other. 

After marrying, the pair moved to Erin’s hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, where they renovated their own home and then other houses in the community. The two later co-founded the American-made home goods store Laurel Mercantile.  

Their leap into television came when Erin’s blog and social media posts about their projects caught the attention of an HGTV producer. 

In 2016, their reality show “Home Town, which follows the couple as they work to restore historical homes with found materials and old textiles in Laurel, premiered on HGTV. 

Since then, the couple have also starred in spinoffs of “Home Town,” including “Home Town Takeover,” “Home Town: Ben’s Workshop” and the upcoming series “Home Town: Inn This Together.”

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While speaking with Fox News Digital, Ben and Erin shared their thoughts on the biggest challenges and rewards of working together as a married couple.

“The only challenge is trying to surprise each other with something,” Ben said. 

“It’s real hard,” Erin agreed. “We’re together 24/7 so we have, I will say, pretty much perfect communication with each other. We know everything. We have no secrets. ‘Cause you can’t have a secret when you are with someone constantly.” 

“There’s no like surprise, like, ‘Why weren’t you telling me about this?'” Ben added.

“Like if you’re acting weird today, I know it’s because your ankle’s bothering you,” Erin said. “Your workout was only 30 minutes. You’d like it to have been 45 minutes at least and you’re a little crabby about that.”

“We have TMI all the time,” she said. “And when you have TMI, you have no arguments.”

Ben explained that the couple’s greatest challenge in working together wasn’t a relationship issue.

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“It’s that when you’re on TV and you’re the face of it, you’re not allowed to have a bad day,” he said. 

“There’s this famous young philosopher named Taylor Swift said, ‘I can do it with a broken heart,'” Ben added as Erin laughed. 

“It is true,” Erin said. “We have to fake it till we make it. We have to smile when the red light comes on the camera, no matter how hard the day is, no matter what you’re going through.”

“There’s a there are a lot of days,” Ben admitted. “Luckily, we work with an incredible group of people who know that like, ‘Hey, today’s really tough. I’m gonna — I may have to take a minute before the red light comes on.’ Because when the red light comes on, you gotta be on.” 

“And on those days we have to rely on each other,” he said. “And I’d say that’s maybe the biggest challenge is we can’t both have a bad day because one of us has gotta pull the other one.” 

WATCH: HGTV STARS BEN AND ERIN NAPIER TALK MOST MEANINGFUL RENOVATION PROJECT IN NEW SEASON OF ‘HOME TOWN’

The upcoming 10th season of “Home Town,” which features 16 episodes, follows the Napiers as they continue to renovate homes and other properties in Laurel in addition to historic houses. 

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While speaking with Fox News Digital, Ben and Erin detailed how they tackled the renovation of the maternity ward and waiting room in South Central Regional Medical Center. 

Erin explained that the project held special meaning for her as it was the hospital where she was born, and also where the couple welcomed their two daughters. The reality star’s father Phil Rasberry, who is a physical therapist, was also a longtime employee of the hospital.

“My dad worked there for 44 years,” she said. “I was born there. My babies were born there. All my friends’ babies were born there. Nieces and nephews were born there. So we have a million special and important, huge moments in this maternity ward, especially when a new person joins your family in your world. And it always happened in this one room.”

“This was sacred ground for me,” Erin continued. “Imagine how scared you are having your first baby ever. And this is the place where it happens. And I felt so loved, so comforted. These nurses, these doctors are so incredible that I wanted to honor them and what we did.”

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“And the CEO of the hospital wanted it to feel like a five-star hotel experience. So I was just hugely honored and also had to, like, beg HGTV to let us do it because it’s not a house, it’s not a garden, but it was so important. And I cried twice in the episode. Isn’t that ridiculous? It was so ridiculous.”

“This is one of the last times my grandmother was lucid and she held my baby niece in that room,” she added. “I mean, it’s as important as a grandmother’s house. And so making it as awesome as possible was important.”

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The duo explained that getting the lighting right was an important aspect of the renovation.

“Having very glowy, ambient, warm lighting that emanates kind of around the ceiling and with sconces that feel residential,” Erin explained. “Lighted mirrors in the restrooms for the mom to feel beautiful, even if she’s just been through the ringer that day. Things like that. Lighting was key.”

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“We had an idea of what the family needs,” Ben added. “But then we talked to all of our friends about like, ‘What was it like when you had your first child or when you had a baby here?’ And then we worked really closely with the nursing staff and the doctors there. And you’ll see a lot of that.”