While I was on vacation doing absolutely nothing productive, New York City decided to enter a brand-new mayoral era, set a cabinet in motion, declare a snow day a “baby-making day” on live television, and remind us all that New Year’s resolutions are a work of fiction written entirely in pencil. In this Update Journal, we catch up on the first few days of the Mamdani era, including cabinet picks that did not take a holiday, a comment that absolutely did not need to be said out loud (but was), and the annual tradition of pretending this is the year we’ll go to the gym, save money, and “drink more water.” I was off. The city was not. The nonsense was fully staffed.

In the headlines on #TheUpdate this Monday, when deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro makes his first appearance in a New York courtroom today to face U.S. drug charges, he will likely follow the path taken by another Latin American strongman toppled by U.S. forces: Panama’s Manuel Noriega.

It’s just not fare! The MTA’s latest rate hike went into effect Sunday — and exasperated penny-pinching straphangers forced to fork over even the 10 more cents per ride were shaking their heads at the extra expense.

And in Washington, Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell was one of the officers who defended the central West Front entrance to the Capitol that day as Congress was certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and hundreds of Trump’s supporters broke into the building, echoing his false claims of a stolen election. Five years since the siege, Gonell and some of the other police officers who fought off the rioters are still coming to terms with what happened, especially after Trump was decisively elected to a second term last year and granted those pardons.