From New York, this is Democracy Now.

The real danger, I think, is that the United States might succeed in decapitating the government,

might succeed in removing Maduro, causing the government to collapse, and then leave a power vacuum

because the country is full of armed groups that have a strong incentive to resist any form of regime change

and might sabotage an incoming government.

As the Trump administration ramps up military pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro,

classifying him as the leader of a terrorist organization, fear is growing a U.S. attack on Venezuela could be imminent.

The U.S. has already amassed over 15,000 troops in the Caribbean, but there are also reports Trump is open to holding talks with Maduro.

We'll get the latest.

Then, how the elite behave when no one's watching inside the Jeffrey Epstein emails.

At the heart of the Epstein story is a monstrous sexual predator, no doubt. But there's a lot of

powerful people in this country who would like it to remain a story of one monster. Jeffrey Epstein knew how to pick

friends, and he picked a bunch of people whose maybe superpower is disregarding pain.

We'll speak with writer Anan Giridharadas. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

The news website Axios is reporting, President Trump may be ready to hold talks with Venezuela's

leader Nicolas Maduro

as the U.S. ramps up military threats. The reports came on the same day that Trump administration

designated Maduro as the head of a foreign terrorist organization, fueling fear of a potential

U.S. invasion of Venezuela, which holds the world's largest known

reserves of oil. While the Trump administration claims its escalating attacks on boats in the Caribbean

are in response to drug trafficking, critics say this is just another attempt by the U.S.

...