Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer praises the performance of Aston Villa’s Nicolas Jackson, saying Tottenham’s centre-halves “couldn’t keep up” with the 25-year-old striker.
MATCH REPORT: Premier League – Tottenham Hotspur 2-3 Aston Villa
Available to UK users only.
Venezuela’s former first lady, Cilia Flores de Maduro, has asked a judge to release her from federal detention in the United States, citing a worsening heart condition.
In an application for pre-trial release on Wednesday, her legal team asked for the court to allow Flores to await trial under home confinement in Manhattan.
list of 3 itemsend of list
It described her declining health since US military operation on January 3 that resulted in her abduction from Caracas and imprisonment in New York, as well as that of her husband, former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“Prior to the United States’ military invasion of Venezuela, Ms. Flores de Maduro was physically healthy and took no ongoing medication, other than a monthly injection to help control her mitral valve prolapse,” the legal filing said.
“Now she is prescribed four medications, maintains nitroglycerin by her side in the event of a potential heart attack, and grapples with the continued medical advice suggesting coronary exploration and surgery.”
Flores was a prominent figure in her husband’s government, serving as first lady since his inauguration in 2013.
Prior to Maduro’s first inauguration, she was also a leading member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the country’s dominant political movement, leading the National Assembly for more than four years.
But Maduro had long clashed with the administration of US President Donald Trump, who accused Venezuela of sending drug-traffickers into the US. Both Maduro and Flores have also faced allegations of participating in human rights abuses, including the violent suppression of political dissent.
After launching a one-day military operation to abduct Maduro and Flores, the Trump administration charged them both with drug- and weapons-related charges. They are currently awaiting trial in New York City.
But Flores’s health has been in doubt since her forced removal from Venezuela, according to her legal team.
After consulting outside medical experts, Flores’s lawyers said they believe she may have suffered a minor heart attack on July 29 while in US custody.
They also questioned whether she was receiving the appropriate medical care for her mitral valve prolapse, a condition affecting one of the heart’s valves.
Since her imprisonment, her lawyers said Flores has not received the monthly injection she needs to manage the condition.
Instead, she has reportedly been prescribed baby aspirin, a statin, diltiazem and nitroglycerin to use when she experiences chest pain.
Doctors have recommended that she undergo a cardiac procedure, which could result in additional heart operations. If she undergoes such treatment, Flores “will need adequate time to recover from any procedures in a setting conducive to restoring her health”, her lawyers said.
Thursday’s filing acknowledges that Flores does not “dispute that she has received excellent care” from medical professionals. But it argues that “a detention centre lacks the conditions needed for such a recovery”.
Her lawyers proposed moving Flores from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to a residence within the Manhattan federal court district, where she and Maduro are due to go on trial next June.
Under home detention, Flores would be subject to round-the-clock armed monitoring, with visits restricted to people approved by the court and federal prosecutors. Her home would also be monitored by video and her phone calls recorded, according to the filing.
Judge Alvin K Hellerstein has yet to rule on the application.
Flores, 69, and Maduro, 63, have been held in US custody since the January raid on their home in Caracas. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges of participating in a conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the US.
Published On 3 Sep 20263 Sep 2026
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has urged a United States judge to dismiss the criminal drug trafficking charges against him, arguing he should be immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign country.
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, made the appeal in a Manhattan district court on Wednesday.
list of 3 itemsend of list
His legal team has petitioned District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the case, which will test the willingness of US courts to apply international law to criminal cases.
Maduro was abducted and imprisoned on January 3, after US President Donald Trump authorised a military raid in Caracas. The former Venezuelan leader, who has been held in a Brooklyn federal jail, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial on June 1, 2027, if his effort to dismiss the case is unsuccessful.
The principle that sitting heads of state are immune from prosecution abroad is a longstanding tenet of international law, seen as fundamental to diplomacy.
Judge Hellerstein had given Pollack a Wednesday deadline to file his motion to dismiss the case.
Pollack has argued that Hellerstein lacks jurisdiction, both because sovereign heads of state enjoy complete immunity and because the acts that Maduro is accused of would have been part of his official duties.
“This unprecedented prosecution violates the absolute immunity from criminal jurisdiction to which heads of state and foreign officials acting in their official capacities have been entitled for hundreds of years,” Pollack wrote.
Pollack added that Maduro was falsely accused and “vehemently denies” the allegations.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan US Attorney’s office, which brought the charges, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Legal experts have told the Reuters news agency that Maduro faces an uphill battle.
Washington has not recognised Maduro as Venezuela’s president for years, due to disputed elections. Courts tend to defer to the US president and his cabinet in disputes over who is recognised as a foreign country’s leader.
US criminal cases involving heads of foreign states are extremely rare, but precedent offers little encouragement for Maduro. In 1990, a federal judge in Miami rejected former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega’s attempt to assert head-of-state immunity, in part because he never officially held the title of president.
The US stopped recognising Maduro in 2019, when he was inaugurated for a second time after a 2018 election that critics say was rigged. Washington also called his 2024 re-election fraudulent.
Maduro says both votes were fair and has long accused the US of seeking his ouster to gain control of the South American country’s oil wealth.
Pollack, however, wrote that Washington’s assessment that Maduro lacked legitimacy was not relevant.
“Unlike in Noriega, the Executive Branch does not dispute that Mr Maduro was Venezuela’s head of state, but instead merely claims that, after 2019, he did not occupy that position legitimately,” Pollack wrote.
Since Maduro’s abduction, his former vice president and socialist ally, Delcy Rodriguez, has run Venezuela as its interim leader.
She has also increased cooperation with the Trump administration. Last month, the two countries reached an unprecedented deal that would see the US take over about one-fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Pollack wrote that it was “incongruous” for the US to recognise Rodriguez, who was appointed by Maduro, and not Maduro himself. He pointed to statements by Rodriguez and officials in her government, made in January and February, indicating that they still considered Maduro Venezuela’s legitimate head of state.
Rodriguez’s government has since gone silent on the matter. Some murals of Maduro in Caracas have been painted over in recent months.
Prosecutors have until October 2 to respond to Maduro’s motion to dismiss the indictment, and Hellerstein will hold a hearing on the dismissal effort on November 17.
On the surface, Jackson’s numbers at Bayern Munich last season compare favourably with those of Watkins at Villa.
The Senegal forward scored 11 goals and provided three assists in 1,320 minutes across all competitions, averaging 1.0 goal involvements per 90 minutes. Watkins recorded 21 goals and five assists in 3,837 minutes, an average of 0.6 per 90.
Jackson also generated more attacking opportunities. He averaged 3.8 shots per 90 compared with Watkins’ 2.6, and 2.2 shots on target to 1.2.
His expected-goals (xG) figure was also higher, at 0.7 per 90 compared with 0.5, while he averaged 8.5 touches in the opposition box to Watkins’ 5.6.
That fits a pattern which predates his spell in Germany. Among players with at least 5,000 Premier League minutes since January 2020, only Erling Haaland has registered a higher non-penalty xG figure per 90 than Jackson’s 0.55.
Getting into scoring positions has rarely been Jackson’s main problem – it is his ability to finish chances which has attracted scrutiny.
During his two Premier League seasons with Chelsea, he scored 14 goals from 18.7 xG in 2023-24 and 10 from 12.3 xG the following campaign.
Jackson has converted 18 of 61 big chances in England so far, although Watkins has also missed plenty of high-value opportunities (scoring 24 of 73 since joining Villa in 2020).
Interestingly, last season’s numbers suggest the gap between them was negligible. Jackson converted 19.6% of his shots and 40.9% of his big chances, compared with 18.9% and 43.2% respectively for Watkins.
There is, however, an important caveat.
Watkins started 43 matches and played almost three times as many minutes. Jackson started only 15 of his 34 appearances, and Opta says his relatively limited, substitute-heavy sample could make some of his per-90 figures look stronger than they might over a full season.
Aston Villa are close to an agreement to sign striker Nicolas Jackson from Chelsea in a deal worth up to £65m.
There is a broad agreement between the clubs over the terms of a move for the 25-year-old, with Chelsea set to achieve their asking price with an initial sum of £47.5m with £17.5m in add-ons.
And if the Senegal international agrees personal terms and completes the switch to Villa his arrival is likely to trigger England international Ollie Watkins’ move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal.
The deal remains subject to personal terms being agreed, but negotiations are at an advanced stage, with Jackson expected to reunite with Unai Emery having played under the Villa boss at Spanish club Villarreal.
Jackson would become the latest player in Villa’s summer rebuild following the arrivals of record buy Johan Manzambi, midfielder Joao Gomes, goalkeeper Zion Suzuki and defender Matteo Ruggeri.
However, there has also been significant movement out of the club and Watkins leaving would mean they had sold five of the starting XI who won the Europa League in May.
Morgan Rogers, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa have already left with goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez expected to depart too.
Chelsea are weighing up a move for the Argentine, who is now deemed surplus to requirements after Suzuki joined from Parma.
In signing Jackson, Villa would be getting a forward who joined Chelsea from Villarreal for £35m in 2023 and scored 30 goals in 81 appearances.
His most recent appearance for the Blues came against Fluminense in the Club World Cup in 2025, while he also won the Europa Conference League with the club.
He spent last season on loan to Bayern Munich, scoring 11 times in 34 games and helping Bayern win the Bundesliga.
Chelsea banked a £14.3m loan fee from the move, though an obligation to buy for £56.2m was not triggered after Jackson failed to make 40 appearances of 45 minutes or more.
Fellow forward Liam Delap is also likely to leave the Blues, with a £50m fee agreed with Nottingham Forest for the striker.
Meanwhile, the club have also been holding talks with Atalanta’s Honest Ahanor, 18, over a potential move to Stamford Bridge. The defender is valued at £34.3m by the Italian club.