Four Cuban American members of Congress on Friday wrote to President Trump calling for the indictment of Cuba's de facto dictator, Raul Castro, for allegedly ordering the 1996 downing of a plane that was dropping supplies to people who were fleeing to the U.S. on rafts.
Four members of an aid group were killed in the incident.
Why it matters: If Trump's Justice Department acts on the request and secures an indictment, it would be the latest move by his administration aimed at pressuring Cuba's struggling government to change its communist leadership.
President Trump ordered the Pentagon to send the USS Gerald R.Ford aircraft carrier and its strike group to the Middle East to boost U.S. forces in the region amid tensions with Iran, two U.S. officials confirmed.
Why it matters: The move will increase the pressure on Tehran during the nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration, making the U.S. military threat even more menacing.
Chinese AI models that are gaining adoption around the world are spreading Beijing-friendly narratives, two reports out this week suggest.
The big picture: Models from firms like DeepSeek and Alibaba are making inroads globally, in part because they're cheaper than U.S. rivals while also highly capable.
Goldman Sachs' top lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler resigned Thursday night after her name appeared in Epstein files documents the Department of Justice recently released.
The big picture: The ex-White House counsel to former President Obama and co-chair of Goldman's reputational risk committee is the latest high-profile figure to resign or be ousted following the DOJ's Jan. 30 release of 3 million documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A Trump-appointed federal judge said immigration enforcement agencies "violated noncitizen detainees' constitutional" rights at a Minnesota facility in a scathing ruling on Thursday.
Why it matters: U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel's ruling that "policies and practices" at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building "all but extinguish a detainee's access to counsel" marked the 45th time that a judge nominated by President Trump had ruled against his mass detention agenda, per a Politico review.
A partial government shutdown is looming as a Department of Homeland Security congressional funding fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement reforms shows no signs of abating by the Friday night deadline.
The big picture: Democratic leaders are demanding reforms to ICE, but the agency is set to be among the least affected by a potential DHS partial shutdown that would disrupt air travel, disaster response and cyber monitoring.
The counter-drone weapon that caused a shutdown of El Paso's airspace on Wednesday was AeroVironment's LOCUST, a 20-kilowatt laser system, Axios has confirmed.
Why it matters: The Army sees the cutting-edge weapon as a way to combat drones without firing expensive interceptors. But the Federal Aviation Administration was so concerned about its use that it shut down the airspace around a major city for nearly eight hours.
Bad Bunny's streaming catalogue soared after his multicultural halftime show on Sunday, jumping 175% Monday when compared to the previous Monday, according to multipleoutlets.
Why it matters: The Puerto Rican artist's surge comes despite backlash from some MAGA figures who call him anti-American and anti-ICE.
President Trump harshly attacked Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday for not giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon.
Why it matters: Trump's criticism of Herzog — the latest in a string of interventions in Israeli domestic affairs over Netanyahu's corruption trial — came a day after he met Netanyahu for three hours in the White House.
The International Olympic Committee's protest guidelines are reigniting debate over how far Olympians can go in making political statements at the Games after a Ukrainian athlete was disqualified for wearing a helmet honoring athletes killed in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Why it matters: The IOC's decision underscores the balancing act the organization must strike between enforcing political neutrality and navigating athletes' freedom of expression about global conflicts and politics.
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday disqualified a Ukrainian skeleton athlete who insisted on competing while wearing a helmet bearing photos of athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia.
Why it matters: Ukrainian Vladyslav Heraskevych's removal from the competition comes amid an increasingly politicized environment at the Olympics. Other athletes and leaders expressed frustration with the committee's decision.
President Trump was awarded the "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal" trophy during a White House event on his latest fossil fuel drive Wednesday.
The big picture: The award that Peabody Energy executive Jim Grech gave Trump at the event celebrating Trump's signing of an order directing the Pentagon to procure electricity from coal-fired power plants is the latest in a series of prizes bestowed on the president during his second term.
