New Delhi, Jan. 10 -- Climate Change and You is a fortnightly newsletter written by Bibek Bhattacharya and Sayantan Bera. Subscribe to the newsletter to get it directly in your inbox.

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year! 2026 is barely a week old, and already, there is no end to all the excitement, is there? If the change from 31 December to 1 January is supposed to signify a new beginning, well, we're still where we were in 2025, still in a world in the grips of a polycrisis supercharged by fossil fuels.

The latest in this is, of course, the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, by the US. The ostensible reason for this outrageous midnight 'extraction' is Maduro's alleged involvement in drug smuggling, but as Trump has let s...