NEW YORK — Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told a federal court Thursday that newly unsealed allegations accusing him and his wife of torture were “false accusations.”

Maduro and Cilia Flores appeared in court with shackles around their ankles as prosecutors presented a rewritten indictment. The case now goes beyond the original drug-trafficking charges, alleging that the couple directed a state-backed campaign of repression involving the torture of dozens of people, including three Americans.

Maduro twice declined to enter a plea when asked by the judge, instead denouncing the allegations through a courtroom interpreter as “false accusations and false testimony.” Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein then entered a not-guilty plea for him, saying, “a plea of not guilty will be entered on behalf of Mr. Maduro.”

Flores took a different approach. After confirming that she had reviewed a Spanish-language version of the amended indictment, she told the judge through the interpreter, “I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.”

U.S. military personnel seized the couple from their home in Caracas during a nighttime raid in January. Under a schedule approved Thursday, their trial is set to begin June 14, 2027—two weeks later than originally planned.

As in earlier hearings, Maduro and Flores followed the proceedings through headphones connected to a courtroom translator. Maduro, wearing glasses, periodically reviewed documents in front of him.

Maduro waved toward the gallery as he entered and shook hands with attorney Barry Pollack. Flores greeted another lawyer, Mark Donnelly, with a kiss on the cheek.

Pollack said last week that Maduro, 63, rejects the charges and “looks forward to his day in court.”

Pollack supported the government’s request to postpone the trial until June 14. He described the timetable as “very aggressive” in light of the expanded allegations but said the defense hoped to meet it.

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The revised indictment portrays Maduro as the overseer of a violent torture network that allegedly beat victims, suffocated them and subjected them to electric shocks. Prosecutors say he personally suggested torture techniques, received reports about the treatment of individual detainees and threatened to kill one prisoner’s child as psychological punishment.

Flores, 70, who previously served as Venezuela’s attorney general, allegedly helped build the system of repression and ordered the torture of specific individuals, according to the indictment.

Maduro led Venezuela from 2013 until his capture in January. The International Criminal Court has investigated him for years over alleged crimes against humanity connected to his crackdown on political opponents. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Torture is prohibited under international law and may be prosecuted outside the country where it occurred, regardless of the victims’ nationalities. Still, cases against foreign officials in the United States are exceptionally uncommon. Previous prosecutions have included the son of Liberian President Charles Taylor, Russians accused of war crimes in Ukraine and a former prison warden from Bashar Assad’s Syria.

Earlier this year, Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty to the U.S. drug charges, which allege that they conspired to send large quantities of cocaine into the country. Their lawyers argue that the case should be dismissed because of immunity tied to their former positions as Venezuela’s president and first lady.

The amended indictment extends the torture allegations back to 2013, when Maduro succeeded his political mentor, Hugo Chávez, who died of cancer that year.

Maduro and Flores are scheduled to return to court for another pretrial hearing on Dec. 17.

The Justice Department on Thursday highlighted hundreds of arrests made during Operation Show Me Justice, a major federal crackdown in St. Louis, Missouri.

Launched in August, the initiative brought together the U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration and St. Louis Police Department to intensify enforcement against firearms offenses, drug trafficking and other criminal activity.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., announced the end of the months-long operation during a news conference.

McCotter said the operation resulted in 435 arrests connected to drug offenses, gun crimes and other violations. Of those, 412 involved people wanted on outstanding warrants, many of whom were facing more than one warrant, he told reporters.

Authorities also confiscated 80 kilograms of drugs, 166 firearms, six machine-gun conversion devices and more than $1 million in cash, according to McCotter.

The acting deputy attorney general encouraged mayors, city council members and state leaders nationwide to work with federal agencies on comparable public-safety efforts.

McCotter said the operation was built around the idea that communities should not view violent crime as unavoidable or simply accept it as part of daily life.

“To the mayors, city councils, governors and police chiefs watching: Violence is not inevitable,” he said. “We want to partner with you, work alongside you and provide help.”

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Federal officials have already joined forces with state and local agencies in Washington, D.C., and Memphis for similar crime-fighting initiatives.

The St. Louis announcement came about a week after federal and California authorities launched a large-scale enforcement effort in Los Angeles’ notorious Skid Row district.

Known as Operation Save Skid Row, the campaign involved 28 arrest warrants and 44 search warrants as authorities sought to disrupt drug distribution operations in the area.

More than 100 law enforcement vehicles took part in the Los Angeles operation. Those arrested included alleged members of several gangs, among them the Main Street Crips, Grape Street/Raymond Avenue Crips and Pueblo Bishop Bloods.

“Open-air drug markets will no longer be tolerated in the United States, and certainly not on Skid Row,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference. He attributed many residents’ mental health crises and reluctance to seek treatment to dealers who, he said, keep people addicted and take their public assistance funds to finance drug purchases.

The Duchess of Sussex stepped out without the engagement ring Prince Harry gave her for the couple’s first joint public appearance in the UK since their return.

Meghan, 45, has not been photographed wearing the ring for almost nine months. However, many expected her to bring out the diamond sparkler for the couple’s royal-style appearance in Nottingham today.

The city holds particular significance for the Sussexes, as it was where they carried out their first royal walkabout together after announcing their engagement in 2017.

Meghan paired her outfit with a £1,500 cashmere coat and burgundy heels by London-based designer Jennifer Chamandi, valued at £650. She kept the rest of her jewellery understated.

The duchess was last seen wearing the engagement ring in February 2026, when she attended an NBA game in California.

Instead, Meghan accessorised her autumnal look — featuring a burgundy coat and matching knit jumper, both from Joseph — with her wedding band and the bedazzled fitness tracker she is now rarely seen without.

Alongside the Oura ring, which is concealed inside a custom diamond-encrusted gold ‘sleeve’ by Logan Hollowell, she wore a new and unidentified gold band on her right hand.

She also wore Princess Diana’s Cartier Tank Française watch, valued at £17,800 ($24,020), which was given to her after her marriage to the Duke of Sussex.

Harry proposed to Meghan in 2017, commissioning the late Queen Elizabeth II’s regular jeweller, Cleave & Company, to create a one-of-a-kind engagement ring for his future bride. 

The prince reportedly took a ring from Meghan’s jewellery box so the designers could determine her size. In a touching tribute to his late mother, he also asked them to ‘harvest’ diamonds from one of Diana’s bracelets.

Since the proposal at Nottingham Cottage — the couple’s former home in the grounds of Kensington Palace — the ring is believed to have been altered four times. Meghan was spotted wearing it with a thinner band than the original design at Trooping the Colour in June 2019.

Small diamonds were also added along the sides of the ring. The changes were valued at around £126,000 ($150,000), with jewellery expert Arabel Lebrusan suggesting the redesign reflected a more American style.

Royal biographer Omid Scobie wrote in Finding Freedom that the decision to resize and reset Meghan’s engagement ring with a new diamond band in 2019 was Harry’s idea.

In the biography, celebrity jeweller Lorraine Schwartz reportedly described the prince as: ‘The loveliest person ever. So romantic, so thoughtful.’

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The authors added: ‘So much so that Harry also thought to have Lorraine resize and reset Meghan’s engagement ring with a new diamond band.’

Further speculation about changes to Meghan’s engagement ring emerged in 2022, when she attended the Invictus Games in The Hague, Netherlands. The setting appeared to feature additional diamonds surrounding the central stone.

The ring was notably absent during several of Meghan’s appearances in 2023, when a loose stone was reportedly being repaired – in what some believed was a third alteration.

In 2025, eagle-eyed royal fans noted that the ring’s central diamond looked more like an emerald cut than the original cushion cut when it was seen in a trailer for Meghan’s since-axed Netflix series.

During their appearance in Nottingham, a crowd of 100 fans gathered to greet Harry and Meghan. 

The duchess accepted bouquets and balloons from well-wishers as she told them ‘it’s great to be back’. Harry repeatedly placed a protective arm around her as they posed for selfies and chatted with members of the public. 

At one point, Meghan appeared to show someone in the crowd her jewellery.

Their last official public appearance together in Britain was at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in 2022.

There is a ‘really nice synergy’ in their return to Nottingham nine years on, a source said, while adding that things have changed since they were last there.

‘Her public appearances will be relatively rare. She is reading a lot of scripts at the moment. If she has time left after all of that, she will do some charity work,’ the Sussex source continued.

‘But she’s not a working royal. Her day isn’t organised around a programme pulled together by a private secretary. She’s a full-time mum and entrepreneur, and that alone takes up a lot of time and work.’

Harry is focused on his charity work, especially Invictus, while Meghan is more focused on her brand As Ever and her potential return to acting.

‘They have different professional priorities,’ one source told the Telegraph. ‘Prince Harry’s is his philanthropic work and public service. Her focus is on her family and children, followed by her business, followed by rebooting her acting career.’

Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday faulted both the Biden and Trump administrations for not applying enough American pressure to restrain Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. She said Washington should have used its leverage “sooner and more forcefully.”

Speaking at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, South Korea, Harris said the United States had failed to respond adequately to what she described as the Israeli government’s “horrific conduct” during the Gaza war. She criticized the current administration for giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “blank check,” while also saying her own administration should have taken stronger action earlier.

The Republican Jewish Coalition said Harris’s comments were “unsurprising,” pointing to her decision not to attend Netanyahu’s 2024 address to Congress and her opposition to legislation aimed at the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

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The group also took aim at Harris’s call for Israel to halt its military operations in Rafah, where the Israel Defense Forces later located and rescued hostages. It further criticized her for agreeing with a student in 2021 who accused Israel of committing “ethnic genocide.”

Warren Kinsella, an attorney and author who worked on Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign, said after her remarks that he was “ashamed to have worked with her.”

In his first televised interview since Lindsay Clancy’s mistrial last month, Michael Desronvil said he remains confident in his decision to stand apart from the other 11 jurors, who favored finding Clancy not criminally responsible for strangling her three children. Speaking with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany, Desronvil said he would not compromise his position.

Desronvil said he had never heard of the case before being selected for the jury and did not anticipate the national attention it would draw. He also shared his favorite Bible passage, Psalm 1, which he said may have helped prepare him for the difficult experience. Throughout the interview, he urged the public to keep its attention on the children rather than other elements of the case.

“I call them the Three Angels,” he said of the victims.

Desronvil said 3-year-old Dawson dreamed of becoming a firefighter. Cora, 5, reminded him of his own daughter because both girls shared purple as their favorite color and were the same age. Callan, the youngest child, was just 8 months old.

Holdout says he only used his phone during breaks, but everyone had them

Clancy’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has asked Judge William Sullivan to preserve records involving all 12 jurors and six alternates. The request includes juror questionnaires, surveillance footage from the courthouse hallway outside the deliberation room and cellphone sign-in sheets. However, Reddington has specifically sought an examination of Desronvil’s phone.

Reddington is seeking Desronvil’s phone records from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on each day the jury deliberated.

“Everybody had their cellphones and our cell phone was used when we had a break,” the holdout juror said. “So not during deliberation.”

Holdout juror accuses journalists of going through his mail, peering into windows

Desronvil told McEnany that journalists had appeared outside his home the day after the trial ended. He said some went further, allegedly looking through his mail.

“We have surveillance cameras, and then we have actual footage of them going through our mail, and then going through the back door, the front door, peeking through the windows,” he said. “So we have proof of that.”

Desronvil said the situation became serious enough that police escorted his fiancée to and from their home. Even so, he said he had not received any “physical threats.”

“Of course, [I’ve] been scared, been fortunate that the town that I live in, there’s a bunch of great people that live there, great people and business owners and church folks and police department and fire department that have been tremendously helpful for me, my fiancee and my daughter throughout this period,” he said. “For sure.”

Desronvil denies lying under oath

Before the mistrial was declared, Reddington accused Desronvil in court of lying under oath. Desronvil strongly rejected the allegation.

“I answered everything truthfully,” he said.

Reddington has since filed a motion requesting an investigation into Desronvil, including his past domestic violence allegations, probation records and juror questionnaire. The defense attorney has also publicly referred to the holdout juror as “the obstructionist.”

Desronvil said he answered the questionnaire truthfully and that a 2021 altercation with his wife had been “blown out of proportion.”

“There was no physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse of any sorts,” he said. Charges were later dropped.

Despite his experience, he says he’d serve on a jury again if he had to

When asked if he would want to serve on a jury again after his ordeal as the only one among 12 who voted to convict, he said it would be tough but that he’d do it for a higher purpose.

“With the kind of scrutiny that happened to me, it’s tough…to serve on a jury pool again, but I do serve a higher power so I can’t be a coward,” he said. “If I have to, I will.”

‘Surreal’ 911 call played for jurors behind closed doors

While the public hasn’t heard Patrick Clancy’s 911 call, placed moments after he returned home to find his three children dead and his then-wife seriously injured from a failed suicide attempt, it left an impact on Desronvil, he said.

“Hearing the pain in his voice, hearing the desperation from that clip — it was surreal,” he said.

That was one of the strongest pieces of evidence. However, he said, the prosecution’s case convinced him that Clancy had methodically and logically planned the “execution” of her children, rejecting defense arguments that she was not criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis.

“That was really big for me, you know, from watching the video and also listening in the courtroom,” he said. “The thought process that goes behind… to fulfill the commitment of doing that.” 

Catch the full interview again on “Outnumbered” at noon ET.