Officials

• The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on April 5, 2026, against three Venezuelan oil executives accused of funding electoral fraud that displaced 200,000 migrants toward the US border. • Targets include PDVSA Vice President Carlos Vargas, with assets frozen and US travel bans; Secretary Blinken noted, 'These actions undermine democracy and fuel instability.' • Measures aim to pressure Maduro regime amid humanitarian crisis, where 8 million Venezuelans have fled since 2015, straining US border resources.

Elections seem top-of-mind for the Maha movement as key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liabilityUS health officials appear to be shying away from voicing negative views of vaccines in public as November’s midterm elections loom and key polling indicates anti-vaccine views are a liability.Health officials have made unprecedented changes to routine vaccine recommendations in the past year – slashing one-third of the US childhood schedule, including the recommendation for hepatitis B immunization at birth. But even before a federal judge essentially invalidated these moves, officials haven’t championed their dramatic changes after Donald Trump’s pollsters recommended veering away from anti-vaccine ideology ahead of the midterms. Continue reading...

US National Park Service lawyers cite materials that will be installed to make ‘heavily fortified’ facilityDonald Trump’s administration is arguing that a judge’s order to halt construction of a $400m White House ballroom creates a security risk for the US president as his team asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling.In a motion filed on Friday, US National Park Service (NPS) lawyers say that the federal judge’s order to suspend construction of the new facility is “threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the president’s staff”. Continue reading...

Carasses wash ashore Guemes Island in ‘creepy mystery’, with authorities saying canines appear to be the same sizeOfficials are investigating after nearly two dozen dead canines washed ashore on a Washington state island, in what one local has compared to “the start of a horror movie”.The Skagit county sheriff’s office said 21 canines had been found on the shoreline of Guemes Island, about 80 miles north of Seattle, between 26 March and Friday. Continue reading...

State department says it is working to ensure release of freelancer ‘as soon as possible’ after abduction in BaghdadAn American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, has been kidnapped in Baghdad by a suspected Iranian-backed Iraqi armed group, the US said, as regional security deteriorates after the US-Israeli attack on Iran.Kittleson is a longtime freelancer in the region, reporting extensively from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Continue reading...

Chad Bianco, running for governor, previously confiscated 650,000 ballots for baseless voter fraud investigationSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA Republican sheriff in California has confiscated additional ballot materials from a special election, escalating his conflict with state lawmakers who say he is conducting a baseless investigation into claims of voter fraud.On Tuesday, Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff who is running for governor, was already at the center of a legal controversy after seizing 650,000 ballots from last year’s special election. Earlier this week he ordered his office to seize 426 additional boxes of ballot materials as part of the alleged criminal investigation, prompting criticism from lawmakers including Rob Bonta, California’s Democratic attorney general. Continue reading...

Removal of Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez after arrest during green-card appointment decried as ‘flagrant violation’ of legal rightsA federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) to the United States, ruling that her deportation to Mexico last month was a “flagrant violation” of the legal protections afforded to immigrants who arrived in the country as children.Judge Dena Coggins said in her Monday ruling the administration must return Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez, a Daca recipient, to the United States within seven days. She was arrested on 18 February in Sacramento during her green-card appointment, and was deported to Mexico the next day. Continue reading...

• Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) and Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) introduced the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading Act on March 25, 2026, prohibiting members of Congress, the president, vice president, spouses, dependents, and senior executive branch employees from trading in prediction markets on political events or policy decisions. • The bill imposes civil penalties of 10% of the violating transaction's value plus full disgorgement of profits to the U.S. Treasury, amid rising bipartisan concerns over platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. • 'The American people are tired of politicians using their influence for personal gain, and the rise of prediction markets has made those concerns even more relevant,' Budzinski stated.

Cargo plane carrying between 80 and 110 soldiers crashes shortly after takeoff in southern Amazon regionScores of Colombian soldiers are feared dead after military transport plane crashed on takeoff in the south of the country.The defense minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the accident happened as the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region on the border with Peru, as it transported troops from the armed forces.More details soon … Continue reading...

Nasa confirms meteor after residents reported hearing thunder-like noises about the time the fireball was visibleA suspected meteorite crashed into a home in suburban Houston on Saturday night, according to local residents and officials.Speaking to the local news outlet KHOU11 over the weekend, Spring area resident Sherrie James recalled the incident, saying: “My grandson went to check and said there was a hole in the ceiling … then I saw the rock, and I thought, ‘That looks like a meteor.’” Continue reading...