Maduro to make first court appearance, Trump says Ukraine didn’t target Putin’s residence and North Korea tests hypersonic missiles.
1. Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York. Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S. The couple will be brought from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse just around the corner from the one where President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.As a criminal defendant in the U.S. legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime — including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.
2. President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters that U.S. officials have determined that Ukraine did not target a residence belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack last week, disputing Kremlin claims that Trump had initially greeted with deep concern. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week said Ukraine launched a wave of drones at Putin’s state residence in the northwestern Novgorod region that the Russian defense systems were able to defeat. Lavrov also criticized Kyiv for launching the attack at a moment of intensive negotiations to end the war. The allegation came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had traveled to Florida for talks with Trump on the U.S. administration’s still-evolving 20-point plan aimed at ending the war. Zelenskyy quickly denied the Kremlin allegation.
3. North Korea said Monday that leader Kim Jong Un observed test-flights of hypersonic missiles and underscored the need to bolster the country’s nuclear war deterrent, as the country dials up weapons displays ahead of its major political conference. North Korea reported on the drill a day after its neighbors said they detected multiple ballistic missile launches and accused the North of carrying out provocations. The tests came just hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed for China for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday’s drill involving a hypersonic weapon system was meant to examine its readiness, enhance missile troops’ firepower operational skills and evaluate operational capabilities of the country’s war deterrent.
4. Chinese coast guard vessels sailed near the Senkaku Islands 357 times last year, setting a record for the fourth year in a row amid increased tension between Beijing and Tokyo. In 2024, China’s coast guard was spotted 355 times in the contiguous zone around the uninhabited island group, which is administered by Japan, a spokeswoman for Japan’s coast guard said by phone Monday. That year in turn broke 2023’s record of 352 sightings. The contiguous zone is a 24-mile-wide band beyond the 12-mile territorial limit. Countries may exercise limited control in their contiguous zones, according to the United Nations. The Senkakus, also claimed by China and Taiwan, include five islets and three reefs 105 miles east of Taiwan and 254 miles west of Okinawa.
5. The defense agency that accounts for the nation’s missing warfighters identified the remains of 231 service members in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, far exceeding its tally in recent years. “Fiscal year 2025 was a record year for us, really a tremendous result,” Capt. Meghan Bodnar, deputy director for operations for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said Tuesday at the agency’s lab at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. New DNA techniques, maturing projects and higher funding in prior years are factors in the agency’s record-breaking year, according to Bodnar. The agency in recent years has failed to reach its annual target of 200 identifications. It accounted for 172 service members in fiscal year 2024. It identified 158 in 2023 and 166 in 2022.
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