News
Lawmakers split over Maduro’s seizure. And, CDC cuts childhood vaccine schedule
Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.
Today’s top stories
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty yesterday to federal charges, which include narco-terrorism. U.S. military forces seized them both from their country over the weekend. Yesterday marked their first appearance in a federal court in New York.
Protesters express their anger toward ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and fly the Venezuelan flag outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in New York City on Monday.
José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR
- 🎧 Before sitting down in court, Maduro made eye contact with reporters and wished them a “Happy New Year,” NPR’s Jasmine Garsd, who was in the courtroom, tells Up First. Flores walked in behind him and appeared to have a swollen eye and a bandaged forehead, which her lawyers explained came from her getting hurt during her capture. Outside the courthouse were heated exchanges between two groups of protesters: those who were against America’s intervention in Venezuela and Venezuelans celebrating Maduro’s capture. A man named Izzy McCabe says the capture is a ploy to take oil and foreign resources from Venezuela. Another protester, Maria Seu, said many countries have been living off Venezuela’s resources for years.
President Trump is set to meet with House Republicans at the Kennedy Center today as lawmakers call for more information on the operation in Venezuela and the U.S. role there moving forward. The meeting comes a day after top administration officials briefed Capitol Hill leaders on Maduro’s capture, leaving a largely partisan divide on the operation. Lawmakers questioned Trump’s decision not to inform Congress before carrying out the weekend seizure. Democrats say the action, which the White House is calling a law enforcement operation, is an act of war. Meanwhile, Republicans have largely aligned with the president’s stance on the situation.
- 🎧 Democrats say the operation is just the latest example of the White House circumventing Congress, NPR’s Barbara Sprunt says. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Trump has the authority to deploy military forces to address threats to the U.S. When the president has joined meetings like the one he is expected to attend today in the past, it has become almost like a rally. Sprunt says she expects the same again today. The party is gearing up for the midterm elections, which means Venezuela will likely not be the only topic discussed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reducing its number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11. The agency’s new schedule, which includes vaccines that had previously been recommended for all children — such as those for rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, meningitis and seasonal flu — is now more restrictive. The agency made these changes in response to a memo Trump issued in December directing health officials to align the U.S. schedule with those in “peer, developed countries” such as Germany and Japan.
- 🎧 The new restrictions will lead to fewer children getting vaccinated, with consequences that could be seen for years down the line, Dr. Sean O’Leary, with the American Academy of Pediatrics, tells NPR’s Pien Huang. The agency implemented these changes without any new scientific developments behind them, Huang notes. The agency sidestepped its own advisory committee and didn’t consult vaccine makers.
Today’s listen
Does the lack of winter sunlight drain your energy, or do you struggle to keep up with life’s demands during this season? If so, you may be experiencing seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. In this episode of It’s Been A Minute, host Brittany Luse shares the morning routine she developed for herself to combat this type of depression. She is also joined by Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, a psychiatrist and scientist who first described seasonal affective disorder in the 1980s, to receive feedback on her SAD routine and learn about how we can all think differently about the rough winter months.
Special series
Trump has tried to bury the truth of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. NPR built a visual archive of the attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. In “Chapter 2: Stop the Steal,” we look at how false claims of a stolen election mobilized Trump supporters.
On election night in 2020, Trump claimed victory and said the election was being stolen long before officials declared a winner. He and his allies launched the “Stop the Steal” movement almost immediately, even as U.S. courts rejected the widespread claims of election fraud. Trump campaign officials also admitted they found no evidence that could have changed the outcome of the election. Right-wing activists such as Infowars host Alex Jones and the white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes mobilized the movement. On the day that Congress was set to meet to certify the election, Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence and Republicans in Congress to try to reject Biden’s victory. These videos highlight the movement that led to Jan. 6, 2021.
To learn more, explore NPR’s database of federal criminal cases from Jan. 6. You can also see more of NPR’s reporting on the topic, including an Instagram post debunking myths about looting.
3 things to know before you go
A pill form of Wegovy, the popular obesity drug previously available only by injection, is now being stocked by pharmacies.
Novo Nordisk
hide caption
toggle caption
Novo Nordisk
- Pharmacies across the U.S. began stocking the pill version of the popular obesity drug Wegovy yesterday, offering patients an alternative to the injectable form.
- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ended his bid for a third term yesterday, saying that he wants to dedicate his final year in office to combating fraud in state programs rather than campaigning. (via MPR)
- Wegmans says it is using facial recognition technology in a handful of stores across multiple states to help identify people “previously flagged for misconduct.” (via WXXI)
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
The maker of Canvas, the software used by thousands of schools and universities around the world, said on Monday that it had reached a deal with the hackers that recently breached its systems for the return of stolen data and the destruction of any copies.
ShinyHunters, a hacking group, had claimed responsibility for the attack on Instructure, the Salt Lake City-based company that provides Canvas to about half of all colleges and universities in North America.
The hackers said they had accessed the data of more than 275 million users at nearly 9,000 schools worldwide, including private conversations between students and teachers as well as personal identifying information such as names and email addresses. Canvas was shut down for hours after the cyberattack on Thursday.
The agreement, Instructure said in a statement, involved the return of the stolen data and confirmation that the data had been destroyed at the hackers’ end. Instructure added that it had been informed that none of its customers would face extortion as a result of the theft.
“While there is never complete certainty when dealing with cybercriminals, we believe it was important to take every step within our control to give customers additional peace of mind, to the extent possible,” the company said.
Instructure did not say what it had given the hackers in exchange for the return of the data. The company did not immediately respond to questions about the deal.
Canvas has more than 30 million active users around the world, according to Instructure. The platform is used by teachers and students for coursework management and communications. Instructure said the data compromised in the hack included usernames, email addresses, course names, enrollment information and messages.
ShinyHunters on Thursday claimed the attack in a message that appeared on students’ Canvas pages and was obtained by The New York Times. The group warned that it would leak an unspecified amount of data on May 12 if it did not receive a response from Instructure. In its May 3 ransom note, the group had threatened to leak “several billions of private messages among students and teachers.”
Not much is known about ShinyHunters, which is believed to have been formed around 2020. Its goal appears to be to obtain personal records and sell them. One of its high-profile attacks was against Ticketmaster in 2024, when the hackers said they had stolen the user information of more than 500 million customers.
Instructure said it first detected unauthorized activity in Canvas on Apr. 29, and again on May 7. The company said it took Canvas offline to investigate the breach, and also informed the F.B.I., the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other international law enforcement partners.
Instructure did not immediately respond to questions about whether any law enforcement agencies were involved in its dealings with the hackers. The F.B.I. advises against paying ransom to hackers, saying it does not guarantee data security and encourages attackers to target more victims.
The National Quarantine Center is located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Nebraska Medicine
hide caption
toggle caption
Nebraska Medicine
Sixteen of the 18 passengers transferred to the U.S. from a cruise ship where there was an outbreak of hantavirus arrived in Omaha, Neb., on Monday for evaluation after disembarking the vessel in Spain’s Canary Islands over the weekend.
Of the 15 U.S. citizens and one dual U.S.-British citizen who arrived in Nebraska, all but one are currently being housed in the National Quarantine Unit. That patient tested positive for the virus and was being housed in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, officials said at a Monday news conference. The 15 people in the quarantine unit will continue to be monitored for signs of the illness.
Passengers carry their belongings in plastic bags after being evacuated from the MV Hondius after docking in the Granadilla Port on Sunday in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Nebraska may seem an unlikely location to process these individuals, but it is home to the National Quarantine Unit — the only federally funded quarantine unit in the U.S. — and the separate Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. They are highly specialized facilities located at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and widely considered among the best in the world.
The $1 million, five-room biocontainment unit was dedicated in 2005. It was a joint project with Nebraska Health and Human Services and the UNMC. It is set up to safely provide medical care for patients with highly hazardous and infectious diseases and was used in 2014 to treat two doctors infected with Ebola. The National Quarantine Unit was completed in late 2019. It cost nearly $20 million, according to the Associated Press. Both facilities were used during the COVID-19 epidemic.
“We are prepared for situations exactly like this,” Dr. Michael Ash, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, said in a statement. “Our teams have trained for decades alongside federal and state partners to make sure we can safely provide care while protecting our staff and the broader community. We are proud to support this national effort.”
Two additional U.S. passengers on the cruise ship — a couple, with one showing symptoms of hantavirus — were transferred for monitoring to Emory University Hospital, where another advanced biocontainment facility is located.
When the biocontainment unit was first dedicated more than 20 years ago, the biggest concerns were anthrax attacks and severe acute respiratory syndrome, more commonly known as SARS, Dr. Phil Smith, who spearheaded the efforts at Nebraska Medical Center to create the biocontainment unit, told the AP in 2020. Smith died last year.
A hallway leading to rooms at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Nebraska Medicine
hide caption
toggle caption
Nebraska Medicine
The quarantine unit features 20 negative-pressure rooms designed to keep potentially harmful particles from escaping by maintaining lower air pressure inside than outside the rooms. The single-occupancy rooms provide patients with attached bathrooms, exercise equipment and Wi-Fi, according to the medical center.
“We have protocols in the quarantine unit that provide for safe care of these of these persons, including just all the activities of daily living so that they can … have a comfortable stay but also have it in an area that’s protected and limits spread of the pathogen,” Dr. Michael Wadman, the medical director of the National Quarantine Unit, said at a Friday news conference.
The biocontainment unit, by contrast, is a patient-care space where people are able to receive medical treatment, Dr. Angela Hewlett, medical director of the biocontainment unit, told reporters Monday.
She emphasized that the facility — which has a 10-bed capacity — operates independently from the quarantine unit and has its own dedicated air-handling system. “We don’t share [it] with any of the rest of the facility,” she said, noting that the unit uses rooftop HEPA filtration and is designed “very differently” from what most people typically imagine in a hospital setting.
One of the rooms in the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.
Nebraska Medicine
hide caption
toggle caption
Nebraska Medicine
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, speaking at Monday’s news conference, welcomed the recently arrived patients, who are among nearly 150 people from 23 different countries who were aboard the MV Hondius when the illness most commonly transmitted to humans through contact with infected rodents broke out. As of Monday, the World Health Organization has reported at least nine cases of hantavirus, including three deaths.
“We’re glad that you’re here,” Pillen said. “We’re going to ensure that you have the best world-class care possible.”
Pillen also sought to reassure Nebraskans that the facilities are safe and secure: “We’re working diligently to ensure no one leaves the security in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time,” he said. “No one poses a risk to public health, just walking out the front door of the streets of Omaha.”
The hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship has been identified as the Andes strain of the illness, one that can be spread, though rarely, from person-to-person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause severe respiratory disease, with early flu-like symptoms.
“The Andes variant of this virus does not spread easily, and it requires prolonged, close contact with someone who is already symptomatic,” according to Adm. Brian Christine, the assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke at Monday’s news conference. “Even so, we have taken this situation very seriously from the very start.”
“The risk of hantavirus to the general public remains very, very low,” he said.
The full quarantine period for hantavirus is 42 days, Christine said, but he added that the patients would be allowed to go home if they remained asymptomatic.
“Right now, the passengers that are all in the assessment phase — they’re going to be here for at least a few days while we do assessments and the coordination on what happens next,” he said, adding that they had the option to remain in the quarantine facility for the full period, for “the safest and most effective option for them.”
new video loaded: Americans Exposed to Hantavirus on Cruise Ship Arrive in United States
transcript
transcript
Americans Exposed to Hantavirus on Cruise Ship Arrive in United States
Eighteen passengers who were aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship with a deadly hantavirus outbreak, landed in Omaha on a U.S. government medical flight. The passengers were being monitored at medical facilities in Nebraska and Georgia.
-
We’re working diligently to ensure no one leaves the security in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time. No one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door of the streets of Omaha or beyond.
By Axel Boada
May 11, 2026
-
Vermont6 minutes ago
VT Lottery Powerball, Gimme 5 results for May 11, 2026
-
Virginia12 minutes agoVirginia governor signs paid leave law, first in the South – WTOP News
-
Washington18 minutes ago
Washington Lottery Powerball, Cash Pop results for May 11, 2026
-
Wisconsin24 minutes agoWisconsin launches anti-human trafficking awareness poster contest
-
West Virginia30 minutes agoMonths of mudslinging is almost over – WV MetroNews
-
Wyoming36 minutes ago2 dead, 1 injured after vehicle goes airborne, strikes pole in Fremont County
-
Crypto42 minutes agoTrio charged in Bay Area cryptocurrency robbery spree
-
Finance48 minutes agoNorway faces dilemma on openness in wealth fund ethical divestments, finance minister says