Republican congressman absent over ‘personal health matter’, Johnson says

• The White House is ramping up pressure on Cuba for political change following Operation Absolute Resolve, which successfully extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. • US military presence is expanding across Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on combating drug-trafficking by transnational criminal organizations like Mexican Cartels, MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and Haitian gangs, topping the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment. • Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa seeks stronger US military ties after a failed 2025 referendum on foreign bases, while Paraguay ratified a State of Forces Agreement allowing temporary US troop deployments for training.

Hisham Abugharbeih, 26, taken into custody after remains of Zamil Limon found, as search for Nahida Bristy continuesThe body of one of two Bangladeshi doctoral students missing from the University of South Florida (USF) was found on a bridge over Tampa Bay, and his roommate has been taken into custody, law enforcement authorities said Friday.Zamil Limon’s remains were found on the Howard Frankland Bridge on Friday morning, but Nahida Bristy is still missing, Hillsborough county sheriff’s office chief deputy Joseph Maurer said. Continue reading...

The three boys and one of the men were charged with rape while the other man was charged with aiding and abetting a rapeThree boys and two men have been charged over the rape of a teenage girl in Kent, police said.Kent police received reports on Tuesday that a girl had been raped at a private property on Salisbury Road in Gravesend between 25 March and 19 April. Continue reading...

Janet Mills says moratorium would’ve been ‘appropriate’ if it didn’t interfere with ongoing datacenter project in MaineThe Democratic governor of Maine on Friday vetoed a bill that would have made it the first US state to impose a moratorium on large new datacenters, even as local opposition to the electricity-hungry facilities grows.The decision reflects the difficult trade-off facing political leaders, who must weigh the impact of datacenters on the environment and household energy bills against the millions of dollars in investment and tax revenue they can bring. Continue reading...

Home secretary indicates Whitehall talks about returns programme, a move that would shock humanitarian groupsShabana Mahmood has refused to rule out sending rejected Afghan asylum seekers back to the Taliban-controlled country.The home secretary said she is “monitoring very closely” talks between Kabul and EU countries about a returns programme for refused claimants. She also indicated that “additional conversations” about Afghan returns were happening inside Whitehall. Continue reading...

Four men face murder charges in case of 16-year-old Roxanne Sharp, whose body was found in a wooded areaFour people have been arrested in connection to the 1982 killing of a Louisiana teenager, investigators announced on Friday.State police troopers said tips generated by a true-crime podcast they were involved in making – along with improvements in investigative technologies – helped them make arrests in the killing of Roxanne Sharp, 16, about 44 years earlier. Continue reading...

Jake Reiner calls parents ‘center’ of his life and says brother being at ‘center’ of loss is ‘almost too impossible to process’Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe elder son of beloved director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, eulogized his parents, who were “the center” of his life, in a Substack essay published Friday, four months after the pair were found stabbed to death in their Los Angeles home.Nick Reiner, the couple’s younger son, who long struggled with drug addiction and mental illness, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection to their deaths, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Continue reading...

Wendy Duffy died at Pegasos clinic in Basel as assisted dying bill in England and Wales fails to passA grieving mother has ended her life at a clinic in Switzerland four years after the death of her only child.Wendy Duffy, 56, a physically healthy woman, died at the Pegasos clinic in Basel after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, Marcus. Continue reading...

Martha Odom, 16, died from a gunshot wound to the chest according to the local coroner’s statementA high school senior has been identified as the person killed in a mass shooting that also wounded five others when two groups exchanged gunfire inside the food court at a mall in Louisiana’s capital city on Thursday afternoon, according to officials.Martha Odom, 16, died from a gunshot wound to the chest, according to a statement issued Friday by the local coroner’s office. Continue reading...

Mark Young battled dehydration and killed a rattlesnake while his children and others looked for him for daysA Vietnam war veteran says he is a living “miracle” after getting lost in Arizona’s wilderness for four days with precious few supplies – and ultimately being rescued by his own son.“I’ve never felt so loved,” Mark Young said in an interview aired on Phoenix’s KNXV news station about the moment he realized it was his son who had delivered him from his plight. “My gratitude is inexpressible.” Continue reading...

US judge orders release of a woman and her five children who were family of the 2025 Colorado fire attack suspectA woman and her five children, whose immigration detention of more than 10 months marked the longest family detention under Donald Trump’s second administration, were released on Thursday hours after a judge’s order, their lawyer said.US district judge Fred Biery of the western district of Texas ordered the family’s release. Continue reading...