AP PHOTOS: Top young spellers compete in 100th Scripps National Spelling Bee

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The best young spellers in the English language competed at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, holds up the trophy after winning the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md., as E.W. Scripps Company president and CEO Adam Symson watches. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Brian Liu, 13, of Great Neck, N.Y., is congratulated by Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, as he competes in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Oliver Halkett, 13, of Los Angeles, reacts after spelling his word incorrectly in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Chilaka Timothy Ugobi, 13, of Bismarck, N.D., competes in the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Audience members watch as spellers compete in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Natalie Mae Linthicum, 13, of St. Joseph, Mo., gestures as she spells her word during the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Harini Murali, 13, of Edison, N.J., competes in the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Holden Connor Good, 13, left, reacts after spelling a word correctly as Aishwarya Kallakuri, 14, of Charlotte, N.C., right, looks on during the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, falls to the stage after winning the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, reacts as he wins the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, lays on the stage as confetti drops around him after he won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

NEW YORK (AP) — Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.

Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.

The couple were transported under armed guard early Monday from the Brooklyn jail where they've been detained to a Manhattan courthouse.

The trip was swift. A motorcade carrying Maduro left jail around 7:15 a.m. and made its way to a nearby athletic field, where Maduro slowly made his way to a waiting helicopter. The chopper flew across New York harbor and landed at a Manhattan heliport, where Maduro, limping, was loaded into an armored vehicle.

A few minutes later, the law enforcement caravan was inside a garage at the courthouse complex, just around the corner from the one where Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.

As a criminal defendant in the U.S. legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime — including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he'll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.

Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.

Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegaunsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.

Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the U.S. return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking — although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with President Trump and “respectful relations” with the U.S.

Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.

The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing " oil quarantine."

Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the western hemisphere.

Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, "a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”

He called on Venezuela's Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences.

A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.

It was unclear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a U.S. lawyer yet.

He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.

While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community's 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.

Maduro, his wife and his son — who remains free — are charged along with Venezuela's interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.

Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included a local drug boss' killing in Caracas, the indictment said.

Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro's wife, according to the indictment.

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

An armored vehicle carrying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrives at Manhattan Federal Court, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

An armored vehicle carrying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrives at Manhattan Federal Court, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Reward posters are passed out at a gathering celebrating the deposing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Katy, Texas. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro places his hand over his hear while talking to high-ranking officers during a military ceremony on his inauguration day for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)