By EMMA BURROWS

Russian officials indicated in 2019 that the Kremlin would be willing to back off from its support for Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in exchange for a free hand in Ukraine, according to Fiona Hill, an adviser to President Donald Trump at the time.

The Russians repeatedly floated the idea of a “very strange swap arrangement between Venezuela and Ukraine,” Hill said during a congressional hearing in 2019. Her comments surfaced again this week and were shared on social media after the U.S. stealth operation to capture Maduro.

Hill said Russia pushed the idea through articles in Russian media that referenced the Monroe Doctrine — a 19th century principle in which the U.S. opposed European meddling in the Western Hemisphere and in return agreed to stay out of European affairs. It was invoked by Trump to justify the U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

Even though Russian officials never made a formal offer, Moscow’s then-ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, hinted many times to her that Russia was willing to allow the United States to act as it wished in Venezuela if the U.S. did the same for Russia in Europe, Hill told The Associated Press this week.

FILE – Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the United States, departs the U.S. State Department in Washington, March 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

“Before there was a ‘hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink, how about doing a deal?’ But nobody (in the U.S.) was interested then,” Hill said.

Trump dispatched Hill — then his senior adviser on Russia and Europe — to Moscow in April 2019 to deliver that message. She said she told Russian officials “Ukraine and Venezuela are not related to each other.”

At that time, she said, the White House was aligned with allies in recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.

But fast forward seven years and the situation is different.

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After ousting Maduro, the U.S. has said it will now “run” Venezuela policy. Trump also has renewed his threat to take over Greenland — a self-governing territory of Denmark and part of the NATO military alliance — and threatened to take military action against Colombia for facilitating the global sale of cocaine.

The Kremlin will be “thrilled” with the idea that large countries — such as Russia, the United States and China — get spheres of influence because it proves “might makes right,” Hill said.

Trump’s actions in Venezuela make it harder for Kyiv’s allies to condemn Russia’s designs on Ukraine as “illegitimate” because “we’ve just had a situation where the U.S. has taken over — or at least decapitated the government of another country — using fiction,” Hill told AP.

Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

The Trump administration has described its raid in Venezuela as a law enforcement operation and has insisted that capturing Maduro was legal.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hill’s account.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the military operation to oust Maduro but the Foreign Ministry issued statements condemning U.S. “aggression.”

President Donald Trump spread some confusion about childhood vaccinations in social media posts about changes to U.S. vaccine recommendations.

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Trump’s administration on Monday took the unprecedented step of cutting the number of vaccines the government has long routinely recommended for all children. On that list are vaccines against 11 diseases. Additional vaccines that were once broadly recommended now are separately categorized for at-risk children or as available through “shared decision-making” with their doctor.

Leading medical groups are sticking with prior vaccine recommendations, saying there’s no new science to warrant a change — and they worry the conflicting advice will leave more children vulnerable to preventable illness or death.

On social media, Trump wrote that “America will no longer require 72 ‘jabs’” for children, and shared a misleading graphic comparing the U.S. to a “European country” that administered 11 “injections.”

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: In a social media post about changes to federal childhood vaccination recommendations, Trump shared a misleading graphic about vaccinations abroad and misstated vaccine requirements in the U.S.

THE FACTS: A year ago, the government’s childhood vaccination schedule recommended routine protection against 18 diseases. Doses were spread across different ages, based on carefully vetted scientific research about disease risk and vaccine protection.

How many separate injections that added up to between birth and age 18 varied. It depended on things like the brand used, the availability of combination shots and the child’s starting age. But unless you counted once-a-year flu vaccines (which some kids can get as a nasal spray) or COVID-19 shots, the number of injections was closer to three dozen.

That would drop to about 23 injections if children received only the recommended-for-all vaccinations on the administration’s new schedule. They include vaccines against diseases such as measles, whooping cough, polio, chickenpox and HPV, or the human papilloma virus.

Contrary to Trump’s claim, 72 injections were never “required,” as families could opt out. States do require children to get certain vaccines before enrolling in school. But the state lists’ of school shots were narrower than the prior U.S. vaccine schedule, and many states offer different types of exemptions.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday answered questions from reporters for the first time since announcing the suspension of his reelection campaign earlier this week, offering a look into what he called his “personal” decision to drop out of the race.

Asked if he had made his decision not to seek a third term because of pressure from fellow Democrats, Walz said it was a choice “made with my family,” and took aim at the administration of President Donald Trump, calling recent immigration enforcement actions and suspension of federal aid due to suspected welfare fraud a “war that’s being waged against Minnesota.”

“I think it’s a personal decision,” Walz said during a news conference on paid family and medical leave in Minneapolis. “It’s effectiveness. I never took this job to be governor. I took the job to pass things like paid family medical leave. I took this job to get our children food. I took this job, and what I will continue to do for a year … (to) protect every single person in this state.”

Minnesota has attracted significant attention from the Trump administration in recent months after long-standing issues with government fraud gained national media attention. Federal officials have cut off day care funding to Minnesota and threatened to pause Medicaid funding unless the state demonstrates further actions to boost the integrity of its federally funded programs.

Walz: ‘It’s the best decision for Minnesota’

Federal prosecutors estimate the state lost billions of federal dollars in recent years to Medicaid theft schemes, though Walz officials have disputed that figure and have painted recent actions by Trump officials as a weaponization of the federal government.

“This is a concerted effort to try and destroy the president’s opponents, to destroy the rule of law,” Walz said. “And it became apparent to me that he was going to do that with me being there. I just feel, along with my family, that it’s the best decision for Minnesota. I feel very confident in that.”

Walz announced he wouldn’t seek another term on Monday amid mounting scrutiny on his handling of large-scale fraud in state welfare programs in recent years. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor’s final decision on a third term reportedly came after a weekend meeting with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is now considering running for governor in 2026.

Asked if he recommended Klobuchar run, Walz said he spoke with “all” of the Democratic Congressional delegation and “let them know” of his plans.

“I spoke with a lot of key allies. I spoke with my family. And just let them know that this is what we were going to do,” he said. “Sen. Klobuchar was one of those conversations.”

A central issue in state politics

While the governor described his decision as personal, it comes as fraud has become an unavoidable, central issue in state politics.

Walz had initially pushed against criticisms that his administration had not been proactive enough in stopping fraud. But in recent months, he directed his administration to take greater action amid a wave of new federal prosecutions and pressure from Republican opponents.

Federal fraud indictments continue to emerge in housing and autism programs after a federal investigation first became public in the summer of 2025. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson recently described Minnesota as having an “industrial-scale” fraud problem.

In December, Thompson announced new fraud charges in two Medicaid-funded programs and told reporters that the state could have lost $9 billion or more to fraud in 14 “high-risk” Medicaid-funded programs since 2018. Walz and other state officials have disputed that estimate.

Walz said Thompson “would have been let go by any other administration” for “speculating about things with no factual information.”

“That’s defamation,” Walz said. “And that’s coming from the U.S. attorney. We are under assault like no other time in our state’s history because of a petty, vile administration that doesn’t care about the well-being of Minnesotans.”

Not resigning

Walz was first elected in 2018 and won a second term in 2022. No governor has served three consecutive terms in Minnesota history.

Asked about Republican calls for his resignation, Walz told reporters: “You can make all your requests for me to resign over my dead body.”

The governor said dropping out of the race would allow him to focus on addressing fraud in state programs during his final year in office.

“I’m accountable for this, and because of that accountability, I’m not running for office again,” he said Tuesday. “But I have a year to continue to improve on a record that I think will stand up against anybody’s.”

A Forest Lake man who authorities say posed as a teenager and cyberstalked North Branch High School students has been indicted for production of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Damien William Quinn, also known as Ryan William Shattuck, 34, of Forest Lake, was arraigned Tuesday on an indictment charging him with four counts of production of child pornography, two counts of attempted production of child pornography, one count of receipt of child pornography and five counts of cyberstalking, U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen’s office said in a press release.

He was ordered into custody until his trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office gave the following details about the indictment:

Quinn, who had multiple fake Snapchat and Instagram accounts, pretended to be a teenager to his minor victims and asked for sexually explicit photos and videos. He used those accounts to cyberstalk victims at North Branch High School, saying he had nude photos of them. He also shared nude photos of one victim, authorities allege.

The indictment alleges that he modified at least one photo to make the girl seem nude.

Authorities say they have identified 11 victims — six minors and five adults — but that there may be more. They ask anyone who attended the high school and had any suspicious online interactions with someone to call the FBI Tip Line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

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