A rodent-borne illness is suspected of causing an outbreak aboard a cruise ship that has killed three people and sickened others. read more
A search and rescue operation is underway in southern Morocco after two U.S. service members were reported missing off the southern coast of the North African nation during annual training exercises. read more
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has awarded a contract to a private security company that has faced accusations of "torture" and "enforced disappearance" to assist in tracking down undocumented immigrant children who arrived in the US alone, a contracting document shows. ICE has stepped up its work so much in pursuing these minors in the US that it has contracted out some of its mission to a third party to put "boots on the ground" and locate immigrant children previously released from US government custody. The agency characterizes the work of tracing immigrant children who reached the US without authorization and were released into communities while they go through immigration court proceedings as "safety and wellness checks". ICE says it wants to confirm the children's location, school enrollment and overall wellness, including checking for signs of abuse or trafficking, according to the contracting document.
A fully closed Strait of Hormuz was long seen as unthinkable " and unmanageable if it happened " based on past modeling and interviews with energy experts. Why it matters: That conventional wisdom underscores just how unprecedented today's closure is " and how little playbook exists for what could come next. The intrigue: In at least two major exercises assessing potential oil disruptions " one in 2007 and another in 2022 " energy experts considered a full shutdown of the strait but ultimately didn't model it in their planning. In both cases, they judged it either too unlikely or too large in scale to meaningfully plan around. "The idea was laughed out of the room," said Sam Ori, who worked on the 2007 exercise at the nonprofit SAFE. "The view was that it just wasn't credible and would be seen as alarmist."
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is now bringing his wife to meetings with Pentagon staffers as his inner circle grows tighter, according to a report.
Is Vlad going to copy his brain dead orange butt slut and vaporize 175 Ukrainian schoolgirls?