US-Venezuela: Trump strikes, captures the President and says the US will take over
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the United States dropped bombs on Venezuela and captured its president, before Donald Trump announced that the US will “run” the country until “safe transition can take place”.
He also said US oil companies will fix Venezuela's "broken infrastructure" and "start making money for the country".
Chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet joins Laura and Paddy to talk through how and why Trump took the action. They also discuss what could happen next, and what it means for the rest of the world.
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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenters were Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell. The weekend series producer is Chris Flynn. The social producer was Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The technical producer was Dafydd Evans. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | Late last night and early today, at my direction, the United States Armed Forces, |
| 0:16.4 | conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela. |
| 0:22.6 | Patty, that was not in my diary for the 3rd of January 2026. Was it in yours? |
| 0:26.6 | No, I woke up to the news like the whole world this morning. It's about 6 o'clock at our time that the report started coming through. |
| 0:33.6 | That Donald Trump had ordered strikes on the Venezuelan capital, not just ordering strikes on the Venezuelan capital. |
| 0:39.7 | We know he'd been cranking up the pressure on that country for some time, but also it emerged then America, |
| 0:44.6 | captured its leader, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife. |
| 0:47.9 | And then as the day wore on, a news conference in which Donald Trump said two things, more we can discuss, |
| 0:53.6 | we are going to run Venezuela and we are going to pump its oil. |
| 0:57.1 | Welcome to the first Saturday newscast of 2026. |
| 1:01.5 | Newscast. |
| 1:02.1 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 1:03.8 | Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. |
| 1:06.7 | I was the tattletail in the class. |
| 1:08.1 | Can I have an apology, please. |
| 1:09.4 | I trust almost nobody. |
| 1:29.2 | That daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. It's Laura in the studio. It's Patty in the studio. And I'm delighted to say what this today is. Leees in the studio. And I woke up this morning already to talk about President Trump's threats to intervene militarily in Iran, only to find out |
| 1:36.5 | that he'd already intervened militarily in Venezuela. So what do we know then, Lee's in terms, |
| 1:42.4 | it's been a very fast-moving story. So if people are listening to this and it's coming into their ears late on Saturday or they can't sleep in the middle of the night and they haven't really been watching the news. So what can we tell people as we record at 5.30 UK time? For months, there has been a military build-up, US military build-up in the Caribbean and parts of the Pacific around off the coast of Venezuela, |
| 2:03.6 | with attacks on what are said to be the vessels used by Venezuelan narco-traffickers, |
| 2:10.6 | even seizing of some oil vessels. Then a few days ago there was an attack that President Trump |
... |
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