Former US vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz announced Monday he was ending his bid for a third term as Minnesota governor, bowing out amid mounting political headwinds and renewed scrutiny over fraud in state programs.Walz, a Democrat who rose to national prominence as Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024, made the call just months after launching his reelection campaign.In a statement, Walz said the storm over fraud allegations — and the partisan fights they have fueled — made it impossible to campaign effectively while governing.”Every minute I spend defending my own political interests 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 prey on our differences,” he said.”So I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.”The governor has faced intensified Republican attacks tied to probes into a scandal around the misuse of pandemic-era aid programs, including a sprawling federal case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. As of late December, 92 people were charged in connection with the scandal, out of which 62 have been convicted.  Many defendants in those ongoing cases are of Somali descent — a detail that President Donald Trump seized upon to launch verbal attacks against Minnesota’s Somali community.Trump accused Walz of being “corrupt” and alleged baselessly that he had stolen billions of dollars of public funds, in a Truth Social post on Monday that grossly mischaracterized the facts of the case.”I feel certain the facts will come out, and they will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of ‘SLIMEBALLS,'” he said.State officials say many claims have been exaggerated or debunked, but the controversy has weighed on Walz’s approval ratings and rattled Democrats heading into the 2026 midterm elections.Minnesota has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006, and party leaders remain bullish about holding the governorship. Still, Walz’s vulnerabilities had drawn a growing field of potential Republican challengers and prompted quiet calls among Democrats for a reset.His exit clears the way for a crowded Democratic contest. US Senator Amy Klobuchar is widely viewed as a possible contender, alongside state Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota’s Secretary of State Steve Simon, though none has formally declared.For Walz, a former teacher, National Guard veteran and union ally, the decision caps a meteoric rise from state politics to the national stage — and leaves Minnesota Democrats to chart their next chapter without one of their most recognizable figures.

Nicolas Maduro walked into a packed New York courtroom Monday with his shoulders back, scanning the public gallery and offering a few Spanish greetings, before declaring: “I am innocent.”The deposed Venezuelan president, wearing a dark shirt over orange prison fatigues, was defiant as he went on to say US forces had kidnapped him and called himself a prisoner of war. “I’m a decent man. I am still president of my country,” Maduro said in the 30-minute hearing in which he pleaded not guilty to drugs and weapons charges.Lawyers, law enforcement officers and journalists filled the wood-paneled, blue-carpeted room on the top floor of a Manhattan courthouse.Maduro seemed to understand he had the world’s ears and eyes on him as he used the court to condemn the US military raid on him and his wife in Venezuela.On one occasion, the judge cut him off as Maduro went well beyond a request that he simply confirm his identity for the court. “I’m here kidnapped since January 3, Saturday. I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela,” the 63-year-old said. “There will be time and place to get into all of this,” Judge Alvin Hellerstein replied. One of the most dramatic moments came at the end of the hearing when Maduro had a heated exchange with a man in the public gallery who shouted that he would pay for his crimes. “I am a prisoner of war,” Maduro responded before being led out of the court.He spoke only in Spanish and listened to the proceedings translated through headphones. His remarks were relayed to the court through an interpreter. Using a pen and paper, Maduro took notes throughout and rarely looked up from his desk.- Heavily-armed police -His wife Cilia Flores, wearing a similar outfit with tied up blonde hair, sat beside Maduro with one of three lawyers in between them. Two US marshals stood behind the pair but no weapons were on display in the courtroom.That was in stark contrast to the dramatic images that showed heavily-armed police escorting them in an armored vehicle from a Brooklyn jail to court in the morning.Outside, scores of police officers had been patrolling since early morning and metal barriers served as a perimeter around the building.Several dozen protesters also gathered to both celebrate and criticize Maduro’s arrest, occasionally arguing with each other as they were separated by law enforcement.One group held Venezuelan flags and signs saying “USA hands of Venezuela” and chanted “Viva viva Maduro.””We say no to US intervention. It’s not in our benefit,” said Sydney Loving, 31, who traveled from Minneapolis for the demonstration. On the other side of a barrier, people were thrilled to see Maduro in US custody. “Today is my birthday, and this is the best gift I ever received in my whole lifetime,” said Angel Montero, 36, a Venezuelan living in the US.”I am so happy that this is happening today. I’m happy that everybody is here supporting justice.”

A conservation group sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday over its failure to act on protecting American horseshoe crabs, which are increasingly threatened by the harvesting of their blood for drug safety testing.Sometimes called “living fossils,” horseshoe crabs have patrolled the world’s shallow coastal waters for more than 450 million years, outlasting the dinosaurs.But their population has cratered more than 70 percent since 2000 as a result of over-harvesting and habitat loss.Their bright blue blood is used for testing the safety of biomedical products, despite synthetic alternatives now approved and widely used in Europe and Asia.”Harvesting horseshoe crabs for blood is now the number one threat to horseshoe crabs,” Will Harlan, a scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which brought the legal case against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), told AFP. “We think because horseshoe crabs are so depleted overseas — the other three species of horseshoe crabs are all even more endangered than the American horseshoe crab — and so demand globally has shifted to the United States,” he added, with biomedical harvests doubling over the past seven years.The Center for Biological Diversity, along with 25 other organizations, petitioned the federal government in February 2024 — when former president Joe Biden was in office — to list the American horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) as threatened or endangered, and to designate areas as critical habitats.Under the Endangered Species Act, such a petition triggers a 90-day deadline to issue an initial finding. While the law allows some flexibility, it requires that a scientifically justified decision be reached within a year. Rejection can pave the way for appeal.”Unfortunately, under both administrations, we’ve been waiting for a decision that, by law, was supposed to come much sooner,” said Harlan. “But these horseshoe crabs can’t wait any longer.”Since the 1970s, horseshoe crabs have been caught, bled alive, and returned to the sea to harvest a protein called “Factor C,” which detects endotoxins that can contaminate drugs.Some companies, including Eli Lilly — known for its weight-loss drugs — have earned praise for converting most of their operations to synthetic alternatives.With helmet-like shells, spike-like tails and five pairs of legs connected to their mouths, horseshoe crabs crawl ashore along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts each spring to lay their eggs on beaches in massive spawning events.As their numbers have declined, so too have the species that depend on them, including sea turtles, fish and birds.The Trump administration has sought to weaken the landmark Endangered Species Act — proposing, for example, to allow economic considerations to factor into what were previously science-based decisions.