Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Tuesday.
Trump pushes VenezuelaNine days ago, the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept a ship, Bella 1, in the Caribbean as it sailed toward Venezuela to pick up oil. U.S. forces chased the ship, which is under American sections for transporting Iranian oil. Officials said they had obtained a seizure warrant. Now the crew has painted a Russian flag on the side of the vessel, in an apparent attempt to claim Russian protection, two American officials said. The Bella 1 is part of a so-called ghost fleet of tankers that move oil from Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
Federal officials say they are planning to seize more tankers involved in Venezuela’s oil trade. The Treasury Department also announced sanctions today against 10 individuals and entities, based in Venezuela and Iran, for their involvement in producing and selling drones. The actions come days after the C.I.A. bombed a port in Venezuela amid efforts to pressure the government of Nicolás Maduro. Last night, people briefed on the operation confirmed the drone strike to The Times, the first known American operation inside Venezuela.
How the relationship between Ukraine and the U.S. unraveledNearly a year into President Trump’s second term, his views on the war between Russia and Ukraine remain unclear. But at the moment, analysts told The Times, Russia holds the advantage in shaping his perceptions. Drawing on more than 300 interviews with national security officials, military and intelligence officers and diplomats, Times reporters documented how Trump presided over the end of the U.S. alliance with Ukraine. His view was often shaped by the last person he spoke to, by how much respect he felt the Ukrainian and Russian leaders had shown him, by what caught his eye on Fox News. Trump held no ideological commitment to Ukraine, empowering its skeptics led by the vice president, JD Vance. A “de facto anti-Ukraine policy” swept through the Pentagon, where specialists were afraid to utter the word “Ukraine.” In 10 parts, this is how the two countries arrived at a breaking point.
Trump shrank the government. Officials said it came at a cost.In February, Trump pledged to make the federal government “smaller, more efficient, more effective and a lot less expensive.” He achieved his first goal: The number of civilian federal employees declined this year by about 249,000, a cut of about 10 percent. But there are indications that the president’s other goals have not yet been achieved. Current and former officials, as well as people who routinely interact with the federal government, told The Times that the government had become far less efficient and dependable. Wes Gillingham, the president of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, said that cuts to the Agriculture Department have made it difficult to get routine support. “We’re just going to see a huge amount of farms going out of business this year because of the mayhem,” he said. Related: The Upshot picked 11 memorable data points from 2025. First up: the I.R.S.’s record-low audit rate going back to 1950.
Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in tomorrow. Here’s what’s next.As hundreds of thousands of people amass in Times Square for the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop, Zohran Mamdani will be sworn in as New York City’s mayor in a private ceremony at the long-abandoned City Hall subway station — a location he chose to resonate with his visions for working New Yorkers. On Jan. 1, he’ll hold a public swearing-in alongside a block party for 40,000 along Broadway. One of his visions is free child care for every child from 6 weeks to 5 years old. It’s an expensive plan that could take years to roll out. But Mamdani has the support of Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, who wants the program to be statewide. Here’s how it’s intended to work — and how similar plans have worked elsewhere. More top news
A mystical musicalIn “The Testament of Ann Lee,” the actress Amanda Seyfried, the director Mona Fastvold and the choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall have created a new kind of musical — and a godly 18th-century rave. Seyfried plays Ann Lee, the feminist leader of the Shakers, the 18th-century religious sect named for the shaking and ecstatic dancing that characterized their worship. “Mamma Mia!” showed that Seyfried can sing and dance, but “Ann Lee” is something very different. “My ultimate fear was that the dance would feel like a snappy number,” Fastvold said.
This year in the business of booksThanks to sex, God and magic, book sales are solid and bookstores are generally flourishing. Americans bought 707 million books through mid-December, only three million less than the pandemic peak in 2021, and 57 million copies more than in 2019. Genre novels — like Rebecca Yarros’s best-selling romantasy series about dragon riders — thrived, as did genre bookstores. They helped lift the year’s nationwide total of 422 new bookstores, nearly a hundred more than in 2024. Dinner table topics
Cook: Mix up an Auld Lang for New Year’s Eve. Listen: These nine podcasts made us tune in this year. Watch: Check out these five operas you can stream. Read: Natasha Stagg’s “Grand Rapids” is a sharp coming-of-age novel set in the Michigan city. Learn: The hosts of The Times’s “Hard Fork” podcast gave tips on smarter ways to use A.I. Navigate: A visitor used the in-ear translation feature of Apple’s AirPods on a visit to Tokyo. Here’s how it went. Detox: Hotels are wooing travelers with booze-free attractions for Dry January. Play: Today’s Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. For more, find all our games here. |
