Daily News Article - October 20, 2025
NOTE to Students: Before answering the questions, read the "Background" and watch the video under "Resources" below.
1. a) What do the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment "Night Stalkers" do?
b) Where were they seen training earlier this month?
2. a) What were the Night Stalkers most likely doing, according to defense expert Mark Cancian?
b) How did he know the aircraft training were the Night Stalkers?
3. What are the Night Stalkers able to do?
4. Why doesn't Mr. Cancian expect the 160th to go into Venezuela?
5. What is most likely the purpose of the Night Stalkers' training missions within 90 miles of the Venezuelan coast?
6. What other maneuvers did the U.S. military engage in on Thursday near Venezuela?
7. Scare quotes are quotation marks that writers place around a word or phrase to express skepticism (doubt as to the truth of something).
Scare quotes signal the writer’s disapproval or skepticism towards the enclosed term, which is an opinion not appropriate for a news report aiming to inform objectively.
a) Why do you think the reporter uses scare quotes around the term "illegitimate" in paragraph 18?
b) How do you know he should not have used scare quotes around the word illegitimate?
8. a) What action has President Trump authorized in Venezuela?
b) Why has he done so?
9. Consider what we know about President Maduro's involvement in narcoterrorism. Watch the BBC News video with President Trump under "Resources" below. He says the way we have done it for 30 years has not stopped the drug trade. And the president has said multiple times that he wants to save American lives. Do you support the actions the Trump is overseeing to destroy the drug trade/cartels bringing illegal drugs into the U.S.? Explain your answer.