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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Nicolas Maduro of imitating his dancing, among other crimes, as he celebrated the capture of the Venezuelan leader in a freewheeling speech to Republican lawmakers.Trump’s comments come after a New York Times report that Maduro’s regular public dancing in defiance of US threats convinced White House officials that it was time to act.”He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit,” Trump told lawmakers at the Kennedy arts center in Washington — which was recently renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center by his handpicked board.”But he’s a violent guy, and he’s killed millions of people. He’s tortured. They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they’re closing up.” Trump did not give further details about the alleged torture chamber, or elaborate on his so-far vague plans for the United States to “run” oil-rich Venezuela following the fall of Maduro.Leftist Maduro regularly appeared on stage dancing to a techno remix of his mantra “No War, Yes Peace” as US forces massed in the Caribbean in late 2025. Trump is known for dancing to the disco song “Y.M.C.A.” at his rallies.But while Trump hailed the “brilliant” US special forces raid that seized Maduro and his wife on Saturday, most of the speech was about firing the starting gun on the crucial 2026 US midterms.The 79-year-old returned to the theme of his dancing, and other moves, as he ran through a list of his policy priorities ahead of November’s crucial election to decide who holds Congress.- ‘So unpresidential’ – While discussing his administration’s banning of transgender women from women’s and girls’ sports, Trump performed an exaggerated imitation of what he said was a trans weightlifter.”My wife hates when I do this,” Trump said. “She said, ‘it’s so unpresidential.'”Trump added that “she hates it when I dance,” adding: “Could you imagine FDR dancing?”President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was in office from 1933 until 1945, was paralyzed from the waist down by polio in 1921.Trump also referred to the fact that his speech was on the fifth anniversary of the US Capitol attack by supporters irate at what he still falsely calls his “rigged” election loss to Joe Biden in 2020.He was impeached for the second time over the riot — and warned Republicans that the same thing could happen if they do not win this year’s midterm elections.”You got to win the midterms, because if we don’t win… I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” he said, referring to rival Democrats.Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 January 6 rioters on his first day back in office on January 20, 2025.With the parties of incumbent presidents often taking a beating in midterms, Trump urged Republicans to focus on issues like healthcare and the cost of living.Polls have shown US voters are still concerned about the affordability of basic goods, despite Trump’s claims that the economy is doing well.”I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public. Because we have the right policy,” Trump told the Republican lawmakers.

US forces killed 55 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel during their stunning raid to capture Nicolas Maduro, tolls published by Caracas and Havana showed Tuesday.In the first confirmation of its losses, Venezuela’s military said 23 of its service members died in Saturday’s attacks by the United States, which led to the ouster of Maduro as the country’s leader. Caracas has yet to give an official figure for civilian casualties.Cuba, which had already announced that 32 members of its armed forces and interior ministry security personnel assigned to duties in Caracas were killed in the raids, also listed its dead.They ranged in age from 26 to 67 and included two colonels and one lieutenant colonel.Many of the dead Cubans are believed to have been members of Maduro’s security detail, which was largely wiped out in the attacks, according to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.The assault began with bombing raids on military targets and culminated with US special forces swooping in by helicopter to seize Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from a compound.They were later taken to New York, where they appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday called on the United States to ensure Maduro receives a “fair trial.”- Interim president’s challenges -Hours after their court appearance, Maduro’s former deputy Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president.US President Donald Trump said he is willing to work with her, as long as she submits to his demands on providing US companies access to Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.Rodriguez faces a delicate balancing act in trying to respond to those demands while keeping Maduro loyalists on her side.She has sought to project unity with the hardliners in Maduro’s administration, who control the security forces and powerful paramilitaries that have patrolled the streets in the days since the deposed leader’s capture.In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 14 journalists and media workers, most of them representing foreign media, were detained while covering the presidential inauguration at parliament on Monday, a journalists’ union said.Two other journalists for foreign media were detained near the Colombian border.All were later released.- Opposition lashes out -Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been given no role by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, said in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”Trump has so far backed Rodriguez, but warned she would pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.So far she has made no changes to the cabinet, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Padrino Lopez, widely seen as wielding the real power in Venezuela, retaining their posts.- ‘We will win’ -A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners. Trump on Tuesday called Maduro a “violent guy” who “killed millions of people” and whose government engaged in torture.”They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they are closing up,” he claimed.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent, elections must then be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News that “in free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it.”She vowed to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas”; “dismantle all these criminal structures” and “bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home.”She also offered to give her Nobel prize — an award Trump has long publicly coveted — to the US president.Machado said, however, that she had not spoken to Trump since October 10.

The lawyer defending deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is a veteran trial attorney who previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.Barry Pollack, 61, appeared beside Maduro during his arraignment in a New York courtroom on Monday on drug trafficking and other charges.Maduro pleaded not guilty and it will be up to Pollack to try to convince a federal jury to render that verdict when the case eventually goes to trial.The next hearing has been set for March 17.A graduate of Georgetown University law school, Pollack is a partner in Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, a boutique New York law firm, and a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.Law firm research guide Chambers USA describes him as a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials, and has such a natural way in front of juries.”In 2024, Pollack secured the release of Assange from a British prison after negotiating a plea deal with the US Justice Department that saw the Australian plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act by unlawfully disclosing national defense material.In another high-profile case, Pollack obtained the acquittal of a former Enron accountant who was facing criminal fraud charges stemming from the collapse of the energy giant.Another prominent case involved a New York man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering his parents when he was a teenager and spent 17 years in prison.Pollack managed to get the charges dismissed and secured his freedom.Pollack gave a hint of his defense strategy during Monday’s brief arraignment of Maduro before District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, questioning the “legality of his abduction” by the US military.

Nigeria’s air force will take the lead from the United States after Washington’s Christmas Day strikes on jihadists, making use of US reconnaissance flights to aid its own strikes, a Nigerian official told AFP Tuesday.On the evening of Christmas Day, the United States struck sites in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto state against what it said were targets linked to the Islamic State group.Though Nigeria remains open to further American strikes, the Americans’ primary role will now be providing intel, the source familiar with the new security arrangement with Washington said, asking for anonymity because of its sensitivity.Africa’s most populous country has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009, mostly concentrated in its northeast, while armed “bandit” gangs have taken hold across swathes of the country’s rural northwest and north-central regions.The strikes came after a diplomatic offensive starting in October in which President Donald Trump alleged that violence from armed groups in Nigeria amounted to “persecution” and “genocide” of Christians — accusations denied by Abuja and independent analysts.Days before the strikes, Nigeria’s information minister said the “spat” had been resolved, “culminating in a strengthened partnership between America and Nigeria”.For weeks ahead of the strikes, analysts had been tracking increased US reconnaissance flights over Nigeria.The recon flights have continued since.The New York Times, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, recently reported that the US strikes were a “one time event”.Though they came after Nigeria and the United States at least partially buried the hatchet, the strikes caused headaches in Abuja when Trump took unilateral credit for them. In response, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar went on a media offensive, insisting that they were part of a joint operation.Adding to the complications, Washington officials were largely unreachable until the days leading up to the strike, before finally calling their Nigerian counterparts with their plans, the source said.According to Abuja, the strikes targeted Islamic State militants, who were in the country to work with the Lakurawa jihadist group and “bandit” gangs.All three groups were targeted, presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala said. Both countries said there were an unspecified number of militants killed.A hotel manager in Offa, Kwara state, told AFP three of his staff were hospitalised after munitions debris fell on his building.Some researchers have recently linked some members of Lakurawa — the main jihadist group located in Sokoto state — to Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is active in neighbouring Niger near the Nigerian border.Other analysts have disputed those links.

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Tuesday got down to the business of running the country, under pressure from Washington to give access to Caracas’s oil while trying to keep supporters of ousted Nicolas Maduro on her side.Former deputy president Rodriguez, 56, was sworn in as acting leader Monday, as Maduro appeared in a New York court, where he pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and “narco-terrorism.”His wife, Cilia Flores, who was snatched with him by US special forces from a military base in Caracas on Saturday during a bombing raid, also pleaded not guilty.Rodriguez, whom US President Donald Trump has indicated he is willing to work with, faces a delicate balancing act.She has suggested that she will cooperate with Washington, which wants to tap Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.But she has also sought to project unity with the hardliners in Maduro’s administration, who control the security forces and powerful paramilitaries.Venezuela’s journalists’ union said Tuesday that 14 journalists and media workers, most of them representing foreign media, were detained while covering the presidential inauguration at parliament on Monday and later released. Two other journalists for foreign media were detained near the Colombian border and later released, it added.- Character questioned -Thousands of people marched through Caracas in support of Maduro on Monday and further demonstrations were planned on Tuesday.On Monday, Rodriguez told the opening of parliament she was “in pain over the kidnapping of our heroes, the hostages in the United States,” referring to Maduro and Flores. The session turned into an impromptu rally for “Chavismo” — the anti-US, socialist policies of late firebrand leader Hugo Chavez and his anointed heir Maduro.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been given no role by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, warned in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”The Nobel Peace Prize laureate vowed to return home “as soon as possible” from her current undisclosed location outside the country.Trump has so far backed Rodriguez, but warned she would pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda. So far she has made no changes to the cabinet, with Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, widely seen as wielding the real power in Venezuela, retaining their posts.”Delcy had better be sleeping with one eye open right now because right behind her are two men who would be more than happy to cut her throat and take control themselves,” Brian Naranjo, a former US diplomat who was previously stationed in Venezuela, told AFP.Venezuelan political analyst Mariano de Alba agreed that the new government was “unstable,” but said that Chavismo had understood that “only through apparent cohesion can they keep themselves in power.”- ‘We will win’ -A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners. She has been sworn in for a 90-day interim term that can be extended for another three months by parliament.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent, elections must be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News that “in free and fair elections, we will win by over 90 percent of the votes, I have no doubt about it.”She vowed to “turn Venezuela into the energy hub of the Americas” and “dismantle all these criminal structures” and “bring millions of Venezuelans that have been forced to flee our country back home.”She also offered to give her Nobel prize — an award Trump has long publicly coveted — to the US president.Machado said, however, that she had not spoken to Trump since October 10.

Key European allies of Ukraine and top US envoys met in Paris on Tuesday and were expected to announce Washington would lead ceasefire monitoring if a peace deal is reached to end Russia’s war against its neighbour.The summit of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” is focused on security guarantees Ukraine requires in the event of a ceasefire to deter further Russian aggression. A draft statement seen by AFP before the talks started said the United States would lead a “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” with European participation if a peace deal is agreed.Washington would commit to “support” a European-led multinational force — deployed in Ukraine after any ceasefire — “in case of” a new attack by Russia, the draft statement added. Representatives of 35 countries, including 27 heads of state or government — including the leaders of Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy — took part in the summit, which the French presidency said would demonstrate the “alignment” between Washington, Kyiv and European allies on security guarantees for Ukraine.US-led diplomatic efforts to reach a deal have ramped up in recent weeks. But this meeting is being held amid relentless fighting in Ukraine almost four years into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.  The capture by US forces of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, an ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has unsettled some European countries and added a potential new element of transatlantic uncertainty.US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner travelled to Paris for the meeting of the coalition, launched last year by France and Britain. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Elysee Palace for a one-to-one meeting before the summit.- ‘Align’ European and US positions -Some members of the coalition aim to send a multinational force to Ukraine to deter any future Russian attack if the war sparked by Russia’s February 2022 invasion ends.But Ukraine and Russia remain at odds over territory in a post-war settlement.Russia has also repeatedly opposed any NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine to monitor a halt in hostilities. European leaders have been at pains to not firmly condemn the US military operation to grab Maduro, while expressing discomfort at the implications for international law.Before leaving for Paris, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the aim of the meeting was to “align the European and American positions”.He said “only that kind of pressure has a chance of forcing the Russians to take the issue of a ceasefire, and then peace, seriously”. He warned, though, against expecting final decisions to be made in Paris.An adviser to Macron on Monday said the meeting was the culmination of efforts launched after Trump’s arrival at the White House to prevent “the United States from abandoning Ukraine”.To lay the groundwork, security advisers from 15 countries, including Britain, France and Germany as well as representatives from NATO and the European Union, gathered in Kyiv over the weekend, with Witkoff joining virtually.- ‘Difficult conditions’ -Kyiv said in recent days a deal was “90 percent” ready. But Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal.Kyiv has warned ceding ground will embolden Moscow and said it will not sign a peace deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again.Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday said diplomatic efforts were being waged “under difficult conditions”. “Russia is showing little willingness to negotiate, President Zelensky is struggling to maintain unity among Ukrainians, and transatlantic cooperation has changed profoundly,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers, a copy of which AFP obtained on Tuesday.”We want a ceasefire that preserves Ukraine’s sovereignty. We therefore want such a ceasefire… to be backed by security guarantees from the US and Europe.”burs-fff-sjw-sw/ah/tw

The US Department of Justice said Monday it is still reviewing more than two million documents potentially related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as it pushed more than two weeks past a deadline to release all files connected to him.The department began releasing documents from the decades-long investigation into the late disgraced financier last month, but failed to meet the December 19 deadline mandated under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.In a letter Monday to a federal judge, DOJ officials said more than two million documents remained “in various phases of review.” About 12,285 documents comprising more than 125,000 pages, the letter said, had already been publicly released in response to the law — less than one percent of the tranche currently in review.The DOJ said it identified on December 24 more than one million files not included in its initial review. Some of those documents appeared to be duplicates but would still need “processing and deduplication,” the letter noted. “Substantial work remains to be done,” said the letter, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and others involved.More than 400 DOJ attorneys will spend “the next few weeks” reviewing the documents, the officials said. At least 100 FBI employees trained in handling “sensitive victim information” will assist the effort.US President Donald Trump is facing strong pushback from Democrats for failing to release all files related to Epstein in a timely manner.The Trump administration has defended its handling of the documents, noting the need to protect sensitive information about victims.In Monday’s letter, the DOJ officials said they must “manually” review the documents for “victim identifying information.”

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges at a defiant appearance in a New York court Monday, two days after being snatched by US forces in a stunning raid on his home in Caracas.Maduro, 63, told a federal judge in Manhattan “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty.”Smiling as he entered the courtroom and wearing an orange shirt with beige trousers, Maduro spoke softly.”I’m president of the Republic of Venezuela and I’m here kidnapped since January 3, Saturday,” Maduro told the court, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores likewise pleaded not guilty. The judge ordered both to remain behind bars and set a new hearing date of March 17.The presidential couple were forcibly taken by US commandos in the early hours of Saturday in airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment.Thousands of people marched through Caracas in support of Maduro as his former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as interim president.Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado slammed Rodriguez, saying she was “rejected” by the Venezeulan people and calling her “one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking.”Speaking from an undisclosed location to broadcaster Sean Hannity on Fox News in her first public comments since the weekend, Machado added that she plans to return to Venezuela “as soon as possible” after leaving under cover last month to accept her Nobel Peace Prize.After the raid, Trump declared that the United States was “in charge” in Venezuela and intends to take control of the country’s huge but decrepit oil industry.The 79-year-old president also dismissed the idea of Caracas having new elections in the next month.”We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told broadcaster NBC News in an interview aired Monday.However, US House Speaker and Trump ally Mike Johnson said he thinks an election “should happen in short order” in Venezuela.- ‘Access to oil’  -Maduro became president in 2013, taking over from his equally hardline socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez.The United States and European Union say he stayed in power by rigging elections — most recently in 2024 — and imprisoning opponents, while overseeing rampant corruption.The crisis after a quarter century of leftist rule now leaves Venezuela’s approximately 30 million people — and the world’s largest proven oil reserves — facing uncertainty.Trump has said he wants to work with Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro’s former team — provided that they submit to US demands on oil. And after an initially hostile response, Rodriguez said she is ready for “cooperation.”Brian Naranjo, a former US diplomat in Venezuela before he was expelled by Maduro in 2018, said that he has “not been so worried about the future of Venezuela, ever.” “There’s a very real possibility that things are going to get much, much worse in Venezuela before they get better,” he told AFP.The deputy head of the US mission to Caracas from 2014-2018 pointed at two men who could try and usurp power from Rodriguez: Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and her own brother, Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela’s legislature.”Delcy had better be sleeping with one eye open right now because right behind her are two men who would be more than happy to cut her throat and take control themselves,” Naranjo said.- Cuba, Greenland next? -Trump, who has shocked many Americans with his unprecedented moves to accumulate domestic power, also now appears increasingly emboldened in foreign policy.On Sunday, he said communist Cuba was “ready to fall” and he repeated that Greenland, which is part of US ally Denmark, should be controlled by the United States.Brian Finucane, of the International Crisis Group, told AFP that Trump “seems to be disregarding international law altogether” in Venezuela and added that US domestic law also appeared to have been broken.Details of the US operation in Caracas were still emerging Monday, with Havana saying 32 Cubans were killed in the attack. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that nearly 200 personnel went into Caracas on the surprise raid. Some injuries and no deaths were reported by US officials.burs-sms/jgc/sla

Alvin Hellerstein, the 92-year-old US judge handling the case against deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, has presided over a number of notable trials during his decades on the bench.Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, made their first appearance in Hellerstein’s Manhattan courtroom on Monday, pleading not guilty to narco-terrorism and other charges.Maduro was indicted in 2020 in a sprawling drug trafficking case that has been before Hellerstein for nearly 15 years and has already seen the conviction of Venezuela’s former intelligence chief, Hugo Armando Carvajal.A graduate of Columbia University law school, Hellerstein served as a lawyer in the US Army from 1957 to 1960 before entering private practice.He was nominated by former president Bill Clinton in 1998 to be a district court judge for the Southern District of New York.During his lengthy career, Hellerstein has presided over several civil cases stemming from the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.He has also tangled at times with Donald Trump, rejecting a request by the president to have his New York hush money case moved to federal court.Hellerstein also blocked the Trump administration last year from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without a court hearing.In September, he sentenced tech start-up highflier Charlie Javice to more than seven years in prison after she was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase on a $175 million deal.In another high-profile fraud case, Hellerstein sentenced Bill Hwang, the founder of US investment firm Archegos Capital Management, to 18 years in prison.He also presided over the trial last year in which a jury found French banking giant BNP Paribas’s work in Sudan had helped prop up the regime of former ruler Omar al-Bashir, awarding $20.75 million in damages to three plaintiffs from Sudan.In a noteworthy 2015 ruling, Hellerstein ordered the US government to release a trove of photos depicting abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Trump administration on Monday overhauled the United States’ pediatric vaccine schedule, upending years of scientifically backed recommendations that reduced disease with routine shots.The dramatic shift — announced by the US health department, which is led by long-time vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — means the country will no longer recommend that every child receive immunizations against several diseases including rotavirus and influenza.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instead will recommend that shots preventing those illnesses as well as hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal disease be administered for select groups of high-risk individuals or when parents and a child’s doctor deem them warranted, rather than as standard practice.The agency had already shifted to this recommendation model for Covid-19 shots in 2025.At the end of 2024, the CDC was recommending 17 pediatric immunizations for all individuals, the agency said. Now that number is 11.President Donald Trump praised the changes, noting that the “MAHA Moms” — a base of online influencers who ardently support Kennedy’s agenda — “have been praying for these common sense reforms for many years.”Trump’s message heralding the schedule overhaul followed a TruthSocial post rife with false statements about vaccine safety and recommendations that contradict scientific consensus.The decision follows Trump’s directive last month that health officials compare the US vaccine schedule to peer countries abroad.They were notably focused on Denmark. The new US recommendations now more closely resemble that country’s schedule.”After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the US childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement.But medical and public health experts slammed the overhaul.Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, said “the US child vaccine schedule is one of the most thoroughly researched tools we have to protect children from serious, sometimes deadly diseases.””It’s so important that any decision about the US childhood vaccination schedule should be grounded in evidence, transparency and established scientific processes, not comparisons that overlook critical differences between countries or health systems,” he told journalists.Experts at the Vaccine Integrity Project, an initiative out of the University of Minnesota, recently noted that the US had already been in line with global consensus.Denmark, project researchers said, represents more of an outlier among “peer countries” than a standard.”Denmark’s schedule reflects a set of choices made in a small, highly homogeneous country with a centralized health care system that guarantees universal access to care, low baseline disease prevalence, and strong social infrastructure,” the group wrote.”Those conditions do not apply to the United States, not even close.”- ‘More confusing for parents’ -Senator Bill Cassidy, whose deciding vote confirmed Kennedy’s controversial appointment as health chief last year, said that “changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors.”The Republican, himself a doctor, said doing so would “make America sicker.”States have the authority to mandate vaccinations, but generally CDC recommendations wield significant influence over state policies.US officials have said that access as well as insurance coverage of vaccines should remain in place, even for shots not broadly recommended by the federal government.”All vaccines currently recommended by CDC will remain covered by insurance without cost sharing,” said Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the federal health insurance programs. “No family will lose access. This framework empowers parents and physicians to make individualized decisions based on risk, while maintaining strong protection against serious disease.”But public health authorities warned that the changes would only sow doubt and confusion, especially as vaccine skepticism has mushroomed in the wake of the pandemic.O’Leary said the shift “just makes things more confusing for parents and clinicians.””Tragically, our federal government can no longer be trusted” to provide vaccine recommendations, he added.