Today’s Headlines: Trump’s Venezuela operation keeps getting weirder. Nicolás Maduro and his wife pled not guilty in Manhattan court and Maduro insists he’s “still president” — despite currently living at the detention center. Trump walked back his claim that Marco Rubio would “run Venezuela,” and is now elevating Stephen Miller to help oversee things with interim leader Delcy Rodriguez — while warning he’ll launch more strikes if she doesn’t cooperate. Meanwhile, Trump allies say opposition leader María Corina Machado blew her shot at power by… not giving Trump her Nobel Prize. To make things…more chaotic, Trump has started floating similar threats toward Cuba, Mexico, Colombia — and Greenland — prompting Greenland’s prime minister to remind him that their country is “not an object of superpower rhetoric.” Congress only got briefed on the Venezuela strikes after the fact, because Trump says lawmakers “leak,” though somehow oil companies heard before and after. Also suspicious: someone made $400k on Polymarket betting Maduro would be deposed in January. Abroad, protests in Iran continue, and a British intel report says Ayatollah Khamenei has a “Plan B” escape route to Moscow if things collapse. In other news, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth censured Sen. Mark Kelly in the first step toward possible rank demotion — all because Kelly appeared in a video noting it’s legal to refuse illegal military orders. The administration also slashed the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11 — a move that could reshape insurance coverage and access next year and Arizona’s Supreme Court building was evacuated after a suspicious package containing homemade explosive material was found. Lastly, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he won’t seek a third term following months of harassment fueled by Trump and right-wing trolls resurfacing an old Somali daycare fraud case.

Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode:

NBC News: Live updates: Maduro arrives at New York courthouse for first court appearance since capture in Venezuela

The New Republic: Trump Wants Stephen Miller to Have a Terrifying New Role in Venezuela

WaPo: U.S. plan to ‘run’ Venezuela clouded in confusion and uncertainty

Newsweek: Cuba’s ‘Days Are Numbered’—Lindsey Graham

Yahoo: Greenland's Prime Minister Just Delivered A Brutal Reality Check To Donald Trump

The Independent: Gunfire heard near Venezuelan presidential palace

The Times: Ayatollah Khamenei plans to flee to Moscow if Iran unrest intensifies

AP News: Hegseth censures Sen. Kelly after Democrats' video urging troops to resist unlawful orders

PBS: Trump administration cuts number of vaccines it recommends for every child

The Guardian: Arizona supreme court evacuated after package tests positive for explosives

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

Morning Announcements is produced by Sami Sage and edited by Grace Hernandez-Johnson


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