Josh Hawley

Force in Play

Flipped vote after Rubio letter

Congress last declared war in 1942. Since then, presidents have ordered military strikes 212 times without formal declarations—but never quite like this. On January 3, 2026, U.S. special forces raided the Venezuelan capital, captured President Nicolás Maduro in his residence, and flew him to New York to face narcoterrorism charges. Eleven days later, Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding vote to kill a Senate resolution that would have required congressional authorization for further military action. Now, over a month after the raid, the operation faces mounting legal challenges: Maduro's defense team filed motions on February 4 questioning the federal court's jurisdiction over the extraordinary rendition case, while the International Court of Justice and UN human rights bodies have issued statements characterizing the operation as a violation of international law.

Updated Feb 6

Money Moves

Expressing alarm over Netflix–WBD merger's antitrust implications

In late 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) put itself in play, triggering a rare open bidding war over a century-old Hollywood studio and one of the world's most valuable content libraries. After months of private and public offers from Netflix, Paramount Skydance and Comcast, WBD's board agreed on December 5, 2025 to sell its studios and streaming arm—including HBO, DC, and the Warner Bros. film and TV operations—to Netflix in a $72 billion cash‑and‑stock deal, leaving its cable networks such as CNN outside the transaction.

Updated Jan 6