Maduro says 'I was captured' as he pleads not guilty to drug trafficking charges

NEW YORK (AP) — A defiant Nicolás Maduro declared himself "the president of my country” as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty Monday to federal drug trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power in Venezuela.

“I was captured,” Maduro said in Spanish as translated by a courtroom interpreter before being cut off by the judge. Asked later for his plea to the charges, he stated: "I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country.”

Maduro’s court appearance in Manhattan, his first since he and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized from their Caracas home Saturday in a stunning middle-of-the-night military operation, kicked off the U.S. government’s most consequential prosecution in decades of a foreign head of state. She also pleaded not guilty.

The criminal case is unfolding against a broader diplomatic backdrop of an audacious U.S.-engineered regime change that President Donald Trump has said will enable his administration to “run” the South American country.

Maduro, 63, was brought to court under heavy security early Monday — flown by helicopter to Manhattan from Brooklyn, where he is jailed, and then driven to the courthouse in an armored vehicle. He and Flores were led into court just before noon. Both were in leg shackles and jail-issued garb, and both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it was translated into Spanish.

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FACT FOCUS: Fabricated and misrepresented images shared widely online after US removal of Maduro

As deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a U.S. courtroom Monday, an array of misrepresented and fabricated images that began circulating soon after his capture over the weekend continued to multiply on social media.

President Donald Trump contributed to the deluge, sharing multiple videos he falsely claimed showed Venezuelans celebrating the operation. Meanwhile, fabricated images of Maduro being apprehended were shared widely across multiple platforms.

Here's a closer look at the facts.

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CLAIM: A video of a large crowd that starts running on a dark street shows Venezuelans celebrating after Maduro was captured.

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After Maduro capture, Trump's tough talk evokes a return to the days of American imperialism

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hasn't minced words about the larger message he's trying to send the world with the U.S. military raid to capture Nicolás Maduro and spirit the deposed Venezuelan leader and his wife to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges.

“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere," Trump declared following Maduro's capture, “will never be questioned again.”

In the days since the audacious raid, Trump and his team have doubled down on the notion that the new focus on American preeminence in the hemisphere is here to stay. He also held up Maduro's capture to make the case to neighbors to get in line or potentially face consequences.

Trump’s rhetoric harkens back to the muscular talk of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when American presidents deployed the military for territorial and resource conquests, including to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

“There’s been periods, Vietnam and Iraq, which have evoked questions about a return to American imperialism, but the U.S. leaders’ messages in those periods were cloaked in talk of democracy. The way Trump is talking about it is something we haven’t seen in a very long time.” said Edward Frantz, a historian at the University of Indianapolis.

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US cuts the number of vaccines recommended for every child, a move slammed by physicians

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. took the unprecedented step Monday of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child — a move that leading medical groups said would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases.

The change is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases. What's no longer broadly recommended is protection against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis or RSV. Instead, protections against those diseases are only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or when doctors recommend them in what's called “shared decision-making.”

Trump administration officials said the overhaul, a move long sought by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won't result in families who want the vaccines losing access to them, and said insurance will continue to pay. But medical experts said the decision creates confusion for parents and could increase preventable diseases.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

The change comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country.

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Here's what to know about the unprecedented changes to child vaccine recommendations

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials made broad changes to childhood vaccine recommendations Monday, alarming pediatricians and other medical experts who say they will sow confusion and undermine children's health.

The overhaul is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases, down from 18 a year ago.

The changes comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising.

Here’s what to know about the changes:

Once broadly recommended, the federal government now only recommends protection against these diseases for certain children at high risk or based on individual doctor advice in what’s called “shared decision-making.”

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At least 35 people have been killed and 1,200 detained in Iran's economic protests

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The death toll in violence surrounding protests in Iran has risen to at least 35 people, activists said Tuesday, as the demonstrations showed no signs of stopping.

The figure came from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which said more than 1,200 people have been detained in the protests, which have been ongoing for more than a week.

It said 29 protesters, four children and two members of Iran’s security forces have been killed. Demonstrations have reached over 250 locations in 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces,

The group, which relies on an activist network inside of Iran for its reporting, has been accurate in past unrest.

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, reported late Monday that some 250 police officers and 45 members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force have been hurt in the demonstrations.

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Walz, Democrats' 2024 VP pick, drops bid for third term as Minnesota governor; Klobuchar considers

ST PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democrats' 2024 candidate for vice president, is ending his bid for a third term amid President Donald Trump’s relentless focus on a fraud investigation into the state's child care programs and its Somali community.

Less than four months after announcing his reelection campaign, Walz said Monday that negative attention and Republican attacks have contributed to an “extraordinarily difficult year for our state," making it impossible for him to serve full time as governor while also being a candidate to keep his job.

“Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences," Walz said at the state capitol. "So I’ve decided to step out of this race, and I’ll let others worry about the election while I focus on the work that’s in front of me for the next year.”

Walz did not take questions from reporters after speaking for about seven minutes, much of which involved repeating his earlier written statement announcing his decision.

“Donald Trump and his allies — in Washington, in St. Paul, and online — want to make our state a colder, meaner place,” Walz said, referring to the Trump administration withholding funds for the programs and the Republican president's attacks on Somali immigrants in Minnesota.

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Jury seated in trial for ex-officer accused in police response to Uvalde school shooting

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge seated a jury Monday in the trial of a former school police officer in Uvalde who was part of the hesitant law enforcement response to one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history and has been charged with failing to protect children from the gunman.

Adrian Gonzales, one of the first officers to respond to the 2022 attack, is charged with 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment in a rare prosecution of an officer accused of not doing more to save lives. Authorities waited more than an hour to confront the teenage shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary.

Gonzales has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney has said the officer tried to save children that day.

The panel of 12 jurors and four alternates were seated Monday evening by Judge Sid Harle, after hundreds of prospective jurors were asked what they knew about the response and their impressions of what happened. The judge had said the court was not looking for jurors who knew nothing about the shooting but wanted those who could be impartial.

About 100 people were dismissed after saying they already formed opinions. One man said more officers should be on trial, while a teacher said she would throw herself in front of her students to protect them.

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This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It's nowhere to be found at the Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.

It’s not on display at the Capitol, as is required by law. Its whereabouts aren't publicly known, though it’s believed to be in storage.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss a police officers' lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The Architect of the Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining and displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.

Determined to preserve the nation's history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they've mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.

“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”

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Arizona holds No. 1 spot over Michigan by single point in one of the closest AP Top 25 races ever

Arizona held on to No. 1 by a single point over fast-closing Michigan in the AP Top 25 on Monday, making it one of the closest races for the top spot in the 78-year history of the men's college basketball poll.

The Wildcats received 32 of 61 first-place votes and had 1,494 points, while the Wolverines scooped up the other 29 first-place votes from the national media panel. The one-point difference kept the first poll of 2026 from becoming the second ever with a tie for No. 1; Oregon State and Virginia shared the top spot on on Jan. 26, 1981.

Arizona has been on top for the last five polls, but the Wolverines have been able to make up ground, thanks in part to becoming the first team in the poll era to win three consecutive games against ranked opponents by at least 30 points apiece. Michigan was 20 points behind Arizona in the last poll.

“All glory is fleeting, as you guys have heard me say,” Michigan coach Dusty May said after the most recent blowout, 96-66 over then-No. 24 USC, which also kept his team among the six unbeatens left in Division I men’s hoops.

The Wolverines have not been No. 1 since Jan. 28, 2013, and that stint lasted just one week.

News from © The Associated Press, 2026