The dramatic arrest of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 2026, seized by U.S. forces in Caracas and brought to New York to face narcotics and narco-terrorism charges, has shocked the hemisphere and intensified debate over U.S.–Latin America relations. From the Monroe Doctrine’s 1823 assertion that European powers should stay out of the Americas, the U.S. has long justified interventions as protecting its interests and security. U.S. policies in Central America during the 20th century, through support for coups and anti-communist regimes, deepened regional resentment. Modern engagements, exemplified by Venezuela, and and policy rhetoric such as the so-called Trump Corollary, reflect a complex legacy of power, sovereignty, and geopolitics between the United States and its southern neighbours.

Alejandro Velasco teaches Latin American history at New York University, where he is Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty. He is the author of Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela, and a frequent contributor in media with op-eds and commentary in The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, the BBC, the CBC, Al Jazeera, and NACLA, among others.

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The Crusades are often imagined as a simple clash between Christians and Muslims, but this view oversimplifies a far more complex reality. Religious belief certainly mattered, yet crusaders were motivated by many factors beyond faith, including political ambition, economic opportunity, social advancement, and personal survival. Neither side was unified. Christian forces frequently fought among themselves, and Muslim rulers were deeply divided by regional rivalries and dynastic conflicts. These divisions meant that alliances sometimes crossed religious boundaries, with Christian and Muslim leaders cooperating against shared enemies. Over time, the nature of the Crusades also changed: campaigns originally framed as pilgrimages evolved into wars of conquest, political struggles, and even attacks on other Christian cities, such as the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Local populations further complicate the picture, as Eastern Christians, Muslims, and Jews often navigated the conflict pragmatically rather than ideologically. Taken together, the Crusades were not a simple binary struggle, but a tangled web of competing interests and shifting loyalties. To dive deep into this history we have brought on historian Niall Christie.

Niall Christie received his PhD in Islamic history from the University of St Andrews in 2000, with a thesis focusing on representations of Europeans in Middle Eastern texts during the early crusading period. Currently, he teaches the history of medieval and early modern Europe, the history of the Muslim world, and world history at Langara College. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Program of Medieval Studies at the University of Victoria.

Niall's research continues to focus on interactions between the Middle East and Europe in the Middle Ages, about which he has published a number of articles and books, including The Book of the Jihad of 'Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami (d. 1106): Text, Translation and Commentary (published in 2015); and Muslims and Crusaders: Christianity's Wars in the Middle East, 1095-1382, from the Islamic Sources, which is currently in its 2nd edition (published in 2020).

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Few historical figures have been discussed and debated as much as Adolf Hitler. There is an abundance of primary source material available about his life: personal correspondence, political directives and military orders, recordings and transcripts of his countless speeches, eyewitness accounts, photographs and film footage. It is not hyperbolic to say he is one of the most studied humans in history. Now, 80 years after his death, Turi King and Alex J Kay have married genetics with history to study a sample of DNA from Adolf Hitler – and, as they reveal, their research has thrown up some extraordinary insights into the Nazi dictator’s private life. These findings are made public in Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator, a groundbreaking documentary produced by Blink Films and currently airing globally. This program has unlocked a new source by presenting the results of this first time analysis of a sample of Hitler’s DNA. The DNA was taken from the blood on a small piece of fabric cut from the sofa on which Hitler died after shooting himself in his Berlin bunker on 30 April 1945.

Turi Emma King is a professor and Director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath. She was previously Professor of Public Engagement and Genetics at the University of Leicester. In 2012, King led the DNA verification during the exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England

Alex J. Kay is a British historian who specialises in Nazi Germany. He is best known for his publications on the Hunger Plan and the genocide of Soviet Jewry. He is the Reader in modern History at the Chair of War Studies, at the University of Potsdam where he has taught since 2017.

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