The New York Times-The Morning Newsletter

"Our man in Caracas, Davos, Spain, and Valentino."

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January 20, 2026

	By Sam Sifton

Good morning. President Trump’s demands to take over Greenland are the talk of this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump will be there tomorrow, along with dozens of world leaders. “There can be no going back,” he wrote on social media about Greenland early this morning.

We have more news below. I’d like to start today, though, by talking to Anatoly Kurmanaev, who is reporting from inside Venezuela for The Times. You ought to get to know him.

Damage from U.S. airstrikes in Venezuela. The New York Times

Our man in Caracas

Sam: Anatoly, for the past three years you’ve been a reporter in our Moscow bureau. In recent months, though, you’ve shifted your focus to the confrontation between the United States and Venezuela. How did that come to happen?

Anatoly: I have covered President Nicolás Maduro’s government, mostly from Caracas, ever since he came to power in 2013, and I thought that my experience and contacts could be useful at this historic moment. So, I asked my editors if I could shift topics — and received unequivocal support. I spent a few weeks in Caracas in October, reporting on the escalating tensions and Maduro’s attempts to negotiate his way out. Then I came back to the country just a few days before the U.S. attack.

Anatoly Kurmanaev Andrew Testa for The New York Times

You grew up in Siberia and went to college in Britain. How did you end up so deeply sourced and fluent in Latin American affairs?

I minored in Spanish in university and spent a year in Chile on a student exchange. I fell in love with Latin America: its diversity, its spontaneity and drama. I moved there in 2010 with a backpack and my beat-up ’90s bicycle; I started writing without pay for expat papers, and gradually built a career.

The Times hasn’t had a bureau in Venezuela for many years, and it’s been hard for reporters to gain access to the country. What are journalists allowed to do in Venezuela? Are there restrictions on your work or travel?

Venezuela for years had one of the world’s highest homicide rates, and criminality was rampant. The danger for journalists today comes primarily from security forces. The risks are particularly elevated now because there are still questions about how much control Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, exercises over the multitude of different security agencies, police forces and paramilitary groups. The country is full of security checkpoints, and the men with guns are jumpy. This means there’s little room for error. But we don’t censor ourselves. We have written many high-impact stories about sensitive topics in Venezuela in recent years, and we will continue doing so.

How do you report on the Maduro administration and just generally find out what’s going on? Where do you find and cultivate sources?

Ha. A good journalist never talks about their sources! It’s a fairly small country, and I have been here, on and off, for 13 years. I have reported from 22 of the country’s 23 states. I still speak to people I’ve met along the way. These are relationships built on trust. I would like to think that I have built a certain reputation for fairness, even among people who broadly dislike our coverage. If I don’t know someone directly, I can usually secure an introduction or find an intermediary.

What are Venezuelans saying about the prospect that the government will accommodate U.S. demands?

This country has lived through one of the longest economic crises in modern history, and more than anything people crave stability and an improvement in their standard of living. In the short term, most people seem willing to tolerate some loss of sovereignty and lack of democratic legitimacy to meet their immediate economic needs. They want to breathe after years of daily struggle for survival. But I suspect that as the economy stabilizes and the most pressing problem of runaway inflation is solved, more people will start to question the current arrangement. I expect that Venezuelans’ nationalistic and democratic streaks will eventually come to the fore, whether in months or years.

Can you tell us a little bit about Caracas right now? What do the streets and stores and restaurants look like? I guess this is a question about the mood there.

The city has more or less returned to normal by now, since the American attack on Jan. 3. On Thursday I walked past the La Carlota military air base in the city, and servicemen and office workers there were casually strolling in and out on their lunch break, cracking jokes and making chitchat. It was hard to imagine that only two weeks ago the base was bombed, the first time that the capital had come under a foreign military attack in more than a century. I have always been amazed at how daily routine asserts itself even in the most extraordinary circumstances.

In Los Teques, Venezuela, last week. The New York Times

And the people? Are some quietly rejoicing and others continuing to assert the political ideology of Hugo Chávez — Chavismo? You said the other day that there was a sense of “cautious optimism” in the nation. Who are those who feel that way, and why?

I think people are still trying to make sense of what happened and where the country is heading politically. But there’s also hope, even euphoria for some, about the economic opportunities that a thaw with the U.S. is expected to bring. The first dollars from the U.S.-brokered sale of Venezuelan oil are entering the country this week, and this is halting the collapse of the national currency. A desire for economic stability and opportunity unites both Chavistas and opposition supporters. Maduro and his fate are very quickly fading into the background.

You first arrived in Venezuela as a journalist in 2013, as Maduro came to power, and wrote about the first eight years of his rule. Do you feel you’re now covering his fall, or does his administration continue under Rodríguez?

It certainly feels like a new chapter. It is the same government, practically the same cast. But the script has changed. The U.S. military went from attacking Caracas and killing 100 people to helping Rodríguez bring back wayward tankers. American policymakers went from strangling the Venezuelan economy to rushing funds there. The White House went from calling a Venezuelan leader a narco-terrorist to calling another one “terrific.” All this happened in two weeks. Imagine what it will look like in two years.

THE LATEST NEWS

Greenland

In a text to Norway’s prime minister, Trump linked his desire to acquire Greenland with being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize. See their conversation. He also targeted European leaders in social media posts early this morning as they gather in Switzerland, reiterating his desire to acquire Greenland.

Tariffs

Trump threatened to impose 200 percent tariffs on French wine and Champagne if Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, refused an invitation to join his board to oversee the cease-fire in Gaza. He calls it a “Board of Peace,” and he’s charging a billion dollars in cash for permanent membership. The Supreme Court could release rulings today, including a highly anticipated decision on Trump’s tariffs.

Immigration

The Trump administration is deporting Cubans in Florida in record numbers. The administration told a judge it would appeal limits on the tactics immigration agents can use against protesters in Minnesota.

Trump’s First Year

Trump has used the Oval Office as a stage to flex his power, holding meetings there with more than 40 world leaders. The president has cited falsehoods and baseless claims to justify significant policy changes during his second term.

More on Politics

Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

Three top-ranking Roman Catholic cardinals in the U.S. issued a statement criticizing the Trump administration’s foreign policy. An Indiana judge and his wife were shot and injured in their suburban home. The incident has raised concerns that public officials aren’t safe. Trump issued a proclamation for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday last night after civil rights groups criticized him for not doing so. Travel restrictions and visa costs are leading some musicians and theater companies to cancel plans for U.S. performances.

Train Crash

In Spain yesterday. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

The Spanish authorities are investigating the cause of a crash between two high-speed trains yesterday that killed at least 41 people. A journalist traveling on one of the trains said the crash felt “like an earthquake.” A Spanish railway union warned last year that there were problems with the rail line where the crash occurred.

International

In Guatemala, uprisings in three prisons have killed 10 police officers. Dozens of beaches in eastern Australia were closed after four shark attacks occurred in 48 hours. China’s birthrate hit its lowest level since 1949 despite government efforts encouraging people to have more babies.

OPINIONS

Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Nathan Howard/Reuters

Trump has poured his energy into exploiting the presidency for profit. It’s earned him more than $1.4 billion, the Times editorial board calculates.

Democrats should focus on unifying issues instead of race to resist Republicans’ white identity politics, Zaid Jilani writes.

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MORNING READS

In Vermont last month. Lily Landes for The New York Times

Losing business: A Vermont destination for cheese enthusiasts has seen its share of tourists drop dramatically since Trump threatened tariffs on Canada.

Construction jobs: Immigrants make up much of the roofing industry. So where did all the American-born roofers go?

Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a derogatory term for liberal white women.

TODAY’S NUMBER

$45 million

— That was the price of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison’s recently sold modernist home in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Ellison bought it more than three decades ago, reportedly for about $4 million.

SPORTS

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

College football: The Indiana Hoosiers defeated the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 in the College Football Playoff championship, earning the undefeated Hoosiers their first national title. The Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza’s fourth-down touchdown run secured the win.

N.B.A.: LeBron James was not named an All-Star Game starter for the first time since his rookie season.

RECIPE OF THE DAY

Con Poulos for The New York Times

I do most of the cooking where I stay, but the other night my wife knocked out a Kay Chun classic — sheet-pan chicken with potatoes, scallions and capers — and as we devoured it, in candlelight, with the family, I thought: I could get used to this. For those who enjoy labor in the kitchen, it’s worth recalling that there can be something incredibly joyful about not laboring, but experiencing the fruits of someone else’s labor instead, and being well and truly grateful for the deliciousness they’ve shared with you. Get someone to cook for you one of these days. And give thanks when they do.

VALENTINO, DEAD AT 93

Photographs by Guy Marineau/Penske Media, via Getty Images; The New York Times; Stephane Cardinale/Sygma, via Getty Images; Franco Vitale/Reporters Associati & Archivi, via Getty Images; Toni Anne Barson/WireImage

Valentino Garavani, the last of the great 20th-century couturiers, a dresser of grandees who became one himself, died yesterday at his home in Rome. He was 93.

Our fashion critic Vanessa Friedman has a glittering obituary. Valentino was, she wrote, “a designer who defined the image of royalty in a republican age for all manner of princesses — crowned, deposed, Hollywood and society.”

Take a look at his life in photographs, too, including a lovely image of him with Brooke Shields closing a show in Rome in 1981.

More on culture

It’s not quite a return to the world of the Filofax, but for some young women, this season’s must-have accessory is a small, leather-bound journal from a little Paris boutique. They’re made to order, and quite expensive. Which is part of the appeal for A-listers and celebrities — “a more personalized, like, white-glove-service experience,” in the words of one customer. The movies are showing us a lot of hapless men these days, writes Diego Hadis in The New York Times Magazine, and a lot of hypercompetent women beside them. You might expect that to say something about modern gender relations, he argues, “but it may really have more to do with politics.” Click. Late night hosts mocked Trump’s “secondhand” Nobel Peace Prize.

THE MORNING RECOMMENDS

Read “Call Me Ishmaelle,” by Xiaolu Guo, an audacious retelling of “Moby-Dick.” The novel has a “tenor of enchantment,” our reviewer wrote, “a subtle register of near fairy tale that lets you know you’re in the hands of a genuine storyteller.”

Upgrade your dribbly old shower head with a new, high-performing model, with help from the hardworking plumbers at Wirecutter.

Add olive oil to your diet for long-term health benefits.

GAMES

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was workload.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam

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