We were supposed to be easing back into the new year, catching up on emails, moving a little slowly.

I was going to make some headway on my New Year's decluttering resolution and clean off my desk.

Instead, the news went totally off the rails.

In the first days of January, U.S. Special Forces launched an operation that killed more

than 100 people and captured Venezuela's president, Nikolaas Maduro, flying him to New

York, putting him in front of a judge, and reminding everyone very loudly that the holiday break was over.

For Europe, there was no warm-up period. What happened in Caracas didn't just reshape Venezuela's future.

Not only did it jolt Brussels straight back into crisis mode and reopened questions about American

power, but it made us ask if that power might someday be pointed directly against Europe.

Because this wasn't just about Venezuela, it reignited talk of spheres of influence,

this old idea that great powers decide what happens in quote-unquote their parts of the world.

It revived Donald Trump's fixation on Greenland, and it rattled European capitals already nervous about the war

in Ukraine. No rest for the wicked. So what do Trump's moves in Venezuela tell us about the world

he's shaping? And what does it mean for Europe? I'm Sarah Wheaton, host of EU Confidential, and we have a lot to catch up on.

So let's dive straight in.

I'm joined by Alison Hoffman, Politico's Transatlantic editor based in London.

Here in the studio with me are Nick Viniker, our chief foreign affairs correspondent,

Ava Hartog, who's been looking closely at how Moscow is reacting,

and Bartos Brzezinski, our Agriculture and Food Reporter.

Okay, let's start with a lightning round, where a week into 26, one word only, What does the global order feel like right now?

Eva, start with you. Oh, no. I'd say volatile? Bartosh, you're one word. Unravelling.

Unraveling. Nick, your one word. I would say historic, big change and kind of big of big, big, uh, tectonic shifts.

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