The top photos of the day by AP's photojournalists

From front-page news to powerful moments you may have missed, this gallery showcases today’s top photos chosen by Associated Press photo editors.

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Youngsters play with a ball at the sea shore as the sun sets in Conil de la Frontera beach, southern Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

President Javier Milei leads a campaign rally ahead of legislative provincial elections, in Moreno, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Firefighters carrying the body of a person on a stretcher at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A Palestinian boy looks at a street vendor cooking corn near the beachfront at a tent camp for displaced people in the Gaza City port, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli soldiers drive a tank inside the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters before boarding his plane at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Fla., en route to Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Protesters rally at a news conference calling for Congress to release all of the Jeffrey Epstein files, outside the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Children wait to walk down the aisle at their kindergarten graduation, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, in Kampala, Uganda. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Chinese President Xi Jinping takes a drink at a reception following a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar)

Leandro Bojko and Micaela Garcia compete in the stage category finals of the World Tango Championship, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

People hold Palestinian flags as they try to disrupt the eleventh stage of the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, from Bilbao to Bilbao, Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Miguel Oses)

An image of a football is projected onto the city hall building in downtown São Paulo to promote the NFL season opener between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Italy's Benedetta Maria Sartori, center, spikes the ball against Poland's Paulina Damaske during the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship 2025 quarter final match between Italy and Poland at Indoor stadium Huamark in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Supporters of the People's National Party wait in line in the rain outside a polling station to vote during general elections in Kingston, Jamaica, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)

Afghans injured during a powerful earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan Sunday, are treated at Nangarhar Regional hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.(AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

Storks take off from a field in Buettelborn near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

President Donald Trump and Polish President Karol Nawrocki watch a military aircraft flyover at the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington. The Washington Monument stands in the distance. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.

In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was expecting a positive discussion during the lunchtime meeting and called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela.

The White House said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.

Leavitt said Trump is committed to seeing Venezuela hold elections “one day,” but wouldn’t say when that might happen.

Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate later Thursday. Trump has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.

Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.

The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.

Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.

Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.

“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”

Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.

Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.

A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.

Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)