I often hear the joke, “I’m in the wrong timeline,”used to describe the bizarre nature of the news these days. This past week, I’ve found myself saying it quite a bit.
I first thought about it when I woke up at 4 a.m. on Jan. 3. I’d gotten a text message from a dear friend in Venezuela: It seemed the capital city of Caracas was under attack. The U.S. military hadentered the country, and the now deposed President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been taken into custody.
By that evening, Maduro and his wife were a few miles away from my house, at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. I rushed to cover the news. “Girl, I don’t know what alternate timeline we’re in,” my friend in Caracas told what now feels like an old joke.
John Lamparski / AFP via Getty Images
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were to be indicted in federal court in southern Manhattan. I’ve worked there before, covering President Trump’s indictment and the Ghislaine Maxwell case. In many ways, this was a run-of-the-mill assignment: Get to the court as early as possible. Hand over your electronics. Stand in line. Rush into the courtroom. Wait for the judge, plaintiffs and defendants to come in. Look over the shoulder of a sketch artist sitting in front of you. Reflect on how you may have a phone addiction as you keep jonesing to look at yours.
But the minute Maduro walked into the courtroom, normalcy was out the window. He is an imposingly tall man. He strolled in confidently, wearing a prison uniform, looked reporters in the eye, and, several times in English, said “Happy New Year.” Looking Nicolás Maduro in the eye as he wished me a happy new year was not on my list of ways 2026 might start. I searched my pocket, remembered I had no phone, and made a mental note to tell my friend in Caracas: "Now I, too, am in your alternate timeline."
Covering courts is nothing like in the movies. There are long bureaucratic back and forths, and there’s something about the dark wood and velvety carpets of the courthouses that I find dangerously nap-inducing. This brief, 30-minute session, however, was electrifying. Maduro described himself as the current president of Venezuela and a prisoner of war kidnapped by the U.S. military. As he spoke, a heckler in the audience quipped something. We were all subjected to a stern lecture from the court officer.
Sitting at the same table as Maduro was his wife. Her right eye seemed bruised, and her forehead was bandaged. Her lawyers requested medical attention for what they said might be bruised or broken ribs, sustained, they alleged, during the U.S. military operation.
As the proceedings came to an end and Maduro was escorted out, the heckler stood up and told him: “You will pay for what you’ve done to the people of Venezuela.”
Maduro turned back and responded: “I am a man of God.”
He reiterated that he was a political prisoner who had been kidnapped.
“What just happened?” two reporters who didn’t speak Spanish asked me.
I sprinted out of the court to go live on NPR. It was freezing, and I had to elbow through a sizable and agitated crowd that had gathered out in front of the court.
The crowd was like a microcosm of the feelings and opinions swirling around this issue. There were protesters against the American attack on Venezuela, and Venezuelans celebrating the downfall of Maduro. As I pushed my way through, I heard words I myself grew up around as a South American give or take the name of the country and the U.S. foreign policy name. There was rage at American intervention, which has a long and troubling history, and anguish of a people who have spent generations under the boot of a dictator. It dawned on me as I pushed through that this is not an alternate timeline, not at all: We’ve been here many, many times before.
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➡️ Ever suspected your dog is a secret genius? Well, you might be right. A new study in the journal Science suggests some dogs have the ability to learn the names of dozens of toys and even pick up words by overhearing people talk, similar to how toddlers learn.
Thanks for tuning in last week to the Sources & Methods episode, “Undercover for the holidays: Some of our favorite spy novels.” In it, host Mary Louise Kelly, national security correspondent Greg Myre and books and culture reporter Andrew Limbong discuss some of their favorite espionage fiction books and authors. NPR listener Betty Nigoff says she is now listening to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold thanks to the podcast’s recommendation. “I have been listening to historical fiction as of late, and this is a good divergence,” Nigoff said.
Love podcasts? For handpicked episode recommendations every week, check out Pod Club — a newsletter written FOR podcast fans BY podcast fans. Subscribe here!
And on The Sunday Story from Up First, NPR’s Frank Langfitt sits down with host Ayesha Rascoe to discuss what’s driving more liberals, people of color and LGBTQ folks to exercise their Second Amendment right to own guns.
Pet theory
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