'Quite frightening': Malaysia's former leader Mahathir Mohamad turns 100 without slowing down

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad marked a historic milestone as he turned 100 on Thursday, calling the moment “quite frightening” without showing signs of slowing down.

A towering figure in Malaysian politics, Mahathir is known for his transformative and at times controversial leadership. First serving as the nation's fourth prime minister from 1981 to 2003, and then returning as its seventh from 2018 to 2020, Mahathir has been the country’s longest-serving and oldest-serving prime minister.

Despite the weight of the century mark, Mahathir remains remarkably active. After birthday wishes from his family, he turned up early for work at his Putrajaya office in his signature safari suit.

"I’d like to thank all those who sent cakes, flowers, letters and for turning up to wish me a happy 100th birthday. To be 100 is quite frightening,” he said in a special live podcast to mark the occasion.

During the podcast, Mahathir also reflected on key moments in Malaysia’s history, voiced solidarity with the Palestinian people and spoke about the rise of China.

Mahathir, who previously attributed his longevity to neither smoking nor overeating and exercising his brain, also offered personal insights on aging. Although he has a history of heart disease, including two bypass surgeries, Mahathir said staying mentally and physically active has kept him going.

“I have always been active. I cannot understand people wanting to rest. I mean, you take a holiday, you do something, you go on a holiday that is doing something. But some people retire, and they want to rest. What is the meaning of rest? You do nothing?” he said.

“So long as I can function, I want to function. I want to behave almost as if I am not getting old. I try to live the same life that I lived when I was younger. I work, I come to the office, I attend functions and all that. And I think being active is what keeps me alive,” he added.

Mahathir acknowledged he was fortunate not to have been struck by any fatal diseases.

“I didnt make an effort to live this long but I look after my health," he said, describing his milestone birthday as just a “normal day.”

During his first 22-year term, Malaysia transformed into a modern economy, but Mahathir used stifling political control to hold power and silence dissent. He came out of retirement to challenge his former party over a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal, forming an alliance with old foes that produced a 2018 election victory hailed as a triumph for democracy.

When he returned to power at age 92, he was hailed as a hero who ousted a corrupt government and led Malaysia’s first opposition victory since independence from Britain in 1957. But that aura wore off.

His government collapsed during infighting after just 22 months and in opposition Mahathir became a divisive voice advocating Malay supremacy, working with an Islamist party he had long denounced.

After his birthday podcast, Mahathir met more well-wishers at his office. While there was no grand celebration, staff brought out a small cake and sang a birthday song, his aide Sufi Yusoff said.

True to form, Mahathir ended the moment with his trademark discipline: “Ok, back to work!”

FILE - In this May 9, 2019, photo, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, speaks during a press conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)

FILE - Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, left, hands the keys to his wife Siti Hasmah as it is shown on the screen when he launched the first Proton car 35 years ago during the launch of Proton new SUV in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dec. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian,File)

FILE- Then Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, right, raises the hand of Malaysia's reform icon Anwar Ibrahim during a rally in Port Dickson, Malaysia on Oct. 8, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)

FILE - Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, left, and his wife Siti Hasmah smile as they attend at the general assembly during United Malays National Organization (UMNO) 58th anniversary celebration in Kuala Lumpur, Sept. 23, 2004. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian,File)

FILE - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks during the International Symposium on Currency Controls and Asian Monetary Cooperation in Kuala Lumpur, Sept. 2, 1999. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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 will be brought from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse just around the corner from the one where President 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 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 wasn't clear 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, Kansas. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

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)