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Nicholas Maduro appeared in court. Officials announced a major overhaul of childhood vaccines. And there's a hot new nutrient for you to obsess over in 2026. That's some of what we'll get to on the Seven. From the Washington Post, I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Tuesday, January 6th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories. Number one, deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made his first court appearance yesterday in New York. The hearing offered the first public opportunity for Maduro to speak since he and his wife Celia Flores were seized by U. S forces on Saturday. Maduro struck a defiant tone. He told the court that he was kidnapped by the U. S. Government, assailed the Trump administration for capturing him and he portrayed himself as his country's rightful leader. Outside the court, some demonstrators gathered to protest against the US Operation to capture Maduro. Here's Sydney Loving.
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What it's really about is oil. They want to topple a government that has since then refused to kneel and to open the door to the extraction of oil and resources from Venezuela. That doesn't benefit the American people either. It lines the pockets of the billionaires. So we're against US Intervention. It were against war on Venezuela.
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Others celebrated what they saw as justice being served. This is Rafael Escalante.
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They stole my dreams. I had to leave my country when I was 17. I was 11 when Maduro first got to power. I was 14 when my dad left to Chile because he lost everything, because his company went back bankrupt. So a lot of people are talking about oil. They're talking about resources. We care about our freedom and hopefully we'll get our oil back too, because right now we don't have it.
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Yesterday's hearing was the first step in what is likely to be a drawn out legal process. Maduro faces four counts including narco terrorism charges. He and his wife pleaded not guilty. Meanwhile, his capture has provoked confusion in Venezuela about the nation's leadership. The US Operation has also sparked fears that President Donald Trump could act on threats he has made to other countries, including Cuba, Colombia and Canada. The Trump administration overhauled the childhood vaccine schedule. That's number two. Since he was picked as president, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has promised to upend the nation's pediatric vaccine schedule. Yesterday he did so. Effective immediately, the CDC will no longer recommend every child be immunized for rotavirus virus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A. Instead, the agency will recommend smaller groups of children and babies should get those vaccines only if they are at high risk or if a doctor recommends it. Children can still receive vaccines that are no longer broadly recommended by the federal government, and health officials said that public and private insurers would still have to pay for them. Officials said they were aligning US Recommendations more closely with vaccine schedules. In other but some public health experts condemned the revisions, arguing they endanger children and are built on faulty assumptions. Number three Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth launched proceedings against Senator Mark Kelly back in November. Six Democratic lawmakers posted a video reminding U S Troops that they can disobey illegal orders. The video infuriated President Trump, and yesterday Hegseth moved to punish one of the Democrats, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Hegseth said he launched administrative proceedings against Kelly to consider whether to reduce his Navy rank in retirement. Hegseth said that as a retired Navy officer, Kelly is still accountable to military justice. Kelly called the actions against him outrageous and said he won't be intimidated by threats of demotion or prosecution. Officials have drafted plans to slash FEMA's workforce. That's number four Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she wants to reduce the staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency by half. Now emails seen by the Post reveal how that could happen. The documents obtained by the Post detail potential reductions to thousands of disaster response and recovery roles. Terminations are likely to come in waves, according to three people familiar with the plans. Internal agency emails suggest that Nome is spearheading the drastic reductions herself, which may impede FEMA's ability to fulfill its legal obligation to help the nation respond to disasters. Number five Users on the social media platform X are telling an AI chatbot to undress women and girls in photos. In recent days, people have noticed something disturbing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter before it was taken over by Elon Musk. The site's AI chatbot called Grok, has been generating non consensual sexualized images. People are taking existing images of women and asking Grok to remove their clothes and replace them with lingerie, bikinis or dental floss. High profile women such as Sweden's deputy prime minister and actress Millie Bobby Brown have been affected. Despite callouts from Victims, X hasn't stopped Grok from generating the explicit images. In allowing these undressed images on the site, X is not behaving like its competitors. For example, OpenAI and Google have relatively strict rules on what their chatbots will and won't generate. ADHD drugs don't work in the way experts thought. The stimulants, Ritalin and Adderall have been used to treat ADHD for decades. It had long been assumed that they worked by acting on the brain's attention circuitry. But according to a new study, it turns out that's not quite the case. The stimulants actually target the brain's reward and wakefulness centers. The study showed that the drugs helped children who weren't sleeping enough, not just those with adhd. That supports a growing body of research, which points to a lack of proper sleep as a contributor to adhd. And at number seven, you're probably not getting enough fiber. It turns out your grandma was right when she told you to eat more roughage. Only about 5% of us are getting enough fiber. The nutrient is important because it helps us eliminate waste and provides nourishment for our gut bacteria. But luckily for our gut bacteria, trendspotters are saying that fiber is the new protein for 2026. The good news is that if you're not getting enough of it, there are easy ways to increase your intake. Adding fruit to your breakfast or switching to whole grain bread, tortillas and cereals can help. You can find more simple tips in our newsletter today. That's in our Show Notes. But a word of advice for anyone considering fibermaxing in the new year don't up your intake too fast. Apparently, doing so can leave you very gassy. All right, you're all caught up. For your next listen, check out the latest episode of Post Reports. It dives deeper into the capture of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's future, and Washington's role in it. Find Post Reports wherever you listen to podcasts and don't forget to give the show a nice review or rating. I'm Hannah Jewell. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.
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