Samuel Monroe Jr., known for ‘90s cult classic films “Menace II Society” and “Tales from the Hood,” is fighting for his life after doctors misdiagnosed a meningitis infection.

Monroe’s wife, Shawna Stewart, confirmed the news with Complex, telling the outlet that the star contracted meningitis 18 months ago while filming in Las Vegas.

“He went to several different hospitals, where his condition was repeatedly misdiagnosed and because of this negligence, the meningitis went untreated for eight months,” Stewart told the outlet.

She said that by the time doctors properly diagnosed the actor, the infection had already spread “not only to his spine but also to his brain.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, meningitis is an infection and swelling of the fluid and membranes around the brain and spinal cord. The inflammation from meningitis typically triggers symptoms such as headache, fever and a stiff neck. While viral infections are the most common cause in the United States, bacteria, parasites and fungi can also cause the condition.

The family launched a GoFundMe on Monday, sharing that the financial strain has been “immense” and that over the last nine months, Monroe has been in multiple hospitals and two rehabilitation centers. According to the fundraiser, the actor will require around-the-clock care if he regains consciousness and is removed from life support.

“As the whole family and friends do not want to think negative in the event that Samuel is taken home by God,” Tayonna Stewart wrote on the GoFundMe. “Any funds raise would be put towards a proper and respectful celebration of life for his family, friends and fans to attend.”

The actor’s mom, Joyce Patton, also shared the news on Facebook and asked for prayers for her son.

“Please pray for Samuel Monroe Jr. my son who is now on life support,” she wrote on Saturday. “God don’t make no mistakes but he is gracious and I am humbly asking for his mercy and grace for Sam. I love you son … to the moon and back 100 times.”

At present, the GoFundMe has raised 7% of its $50,000 goal, with “Big Boy’s Neighborhood” radio host Kurt Alexander contributing $1,000.

Monroe, who has gone by the stage name “Caffeine” and “Caffamilliano,” landed his first acting gig in 1993, opposite Patti LaBelle on the hit TV series “Out All Night.” The same year, he splashed onto the big screen, portraying Ilena’s cousin in “Menace II Society.”

He’s also acted in films “Tales from the Hood,” “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood,” “What Goes Around Comes Around,” “Set It Off” and “The Players Club.”

Most recently, he acted in 2023 films “Packz” and “Payment Received.”

Neil Robertson established a narrow 5-3 lead over John Higgins in a fiercely contested opening to their quarter-final.

Higgins compiled breaks of 61 and 56 to take the first frame and the fourth to draw level at 2-2.

However, the emotional and physical toll of defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-12 in an all-time Crucible classic on Monday appeared to weigh on the 50-year-old Scot at times.

The four-time champion made six unforced errors before reaching the mid-session interval and was far from his best in a scrappy affair.

Australia’s Robertson, who won the world title in 2010, also failed to hit the heights despite enjoying runs of 77 and 70 and, at one point, he even had to have his chair repaired, adding to the protracted nature of their contest.

While he took the final two frames of the session, his pragmatic approach and an unfortunate run of the balls contributed to a drawn-out eighth frame that lasted almost 52 minutes and delayed the start of the evening session.

Robertson and Higgins get back under way on Wednesday at 10:00 BST.

In contrast, Hossein Vafaei and Wu Yize are level at 4-4 after an entertaining start to their best-of-25 encounter.

With both players seemingly focused on attacking snooker, Iran’s Vafaei knocked in a break of 66 to lead 2-1 before Wu underlined his status as one of the game’s burgeoning talents with runs of 90, 56 and 56 to pull 4-2 ahead.

Vafaei, who had to win two qualifiers before advancing past Si Jiahui and then world number one Judd Trump in a final-frame thriller, responded with a break of 71.

And he drew level when Wu failed to knock in a presentable long black to the top left corner, clearing the table up to, and including, the pink.

They return for the second session of their best-of-25 encounter on Wednesday at 14:30 BST.

In a 3-0 ruling, court says Trump administration misread a decades-old immigration law to justify mandatory detention.

A United States federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s practice of subjecting most people arrested in its immigration crackdown to mandatory detention without the opportunity to seek release on bond.

In a 3-0 ruling on Tuesday, a panel of the New York-based US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the administration relied on a novel but incorrect interpretation of a decades-old immigration law to justify the policy.

Writing for the panel, US Circuit Judge Joseph F Bianco, a Trump appointee, warned that the government’s reading “would send a seismic shock through our immigration detention system and society”, straining already overcrowded facilities, separating families and disrupting communities.

Lawyers for the Trump administration say the mandatory detention policy is legal under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, passed in 1996.

But Bianco said the government had made “an attempt to muddy” the law’s “textually clear waters”, arguing that the administration’s interpretation “defies the statute’s context, structure, history, and purpose” and contradicts “longstanding executive branch practice”.

Under the Trump administration policy, the Department of Homeland Security last year took the position that non-citizens already living in the US, not just those arriving at the border, qualify as “applicants for admission” and are subject to mandatory detention.

Under federal immigration law, “applicants for admission” to the US are detained while their cases proceed in immigration courts and are ineligible for bond hearings.

The Department of Homeland Security has been denying bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country, including those who have been living in the US for years without any criminal history, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.

That is a departure from the practice under previous US administrations, when most non-citizens with no criminal record who were arrested away from the border were given the opportunity to request a bond while their cases moved through immigration court, according to AP.

In such cases, bonds were often granted to people who were deemed not to be flight risks, and mandatory detention was limited to those who had just entered the country.

Amy Belsher, director of immigrants rights’ litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the appeals court ruling affirmed “that the Trump administration’s policy of detaining immigrants without any process is unlawful and cannot stand”.

“The government cannot mandatorily detain millions of noncitizens, many of whom have lived here for decades, without an opportunity to seek release. It defies the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and basic human decency,” Belsher said in a statement.

Conflicting rulings set stage for Supreme Court review

The New York court’s decision comes after two other appeals courts ruled in favour of the Trump administration’s policy.

Acknowledging the opposing rulings, Judge Bianco said the panel was parting ways with them and instead aligning with more than 370 lower-court judges nationwide who have rejected the administration’s position as a misreading of the law.

The split among the courts increases the likelihood that the US Supreme Court will weigh in.

The latest ruling also upheld an order by a New York judge that led to the release of Brazilian national Ricardo Aparecido Barbosa da Cunha, who was arrested by immigration officials last year while driving to work after living in the US for more than 20 years.

“The court was right to conclude the Trump administration can’t just ⁠reinterpret the law at its own whim,” Michael Tan, a lawyer for Barbosa at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

The Department of Justice, which is defending the mandatory detention policy in court, did not respond to a request for comment.

On the same day that the Chief of Naval Operations answered our question about the future of the F/A-XX sixth-generation naval fighter program, stating a final selection between the offerings from Boeing and Northrop Grumman will be coming in August, the latter of the two firms has released a new teaser video. Previously, we only had one rendering of Northrop’s notional F/A-XX concept. Now we have a more detailed panning video and a new head-on perspective view.

The video clip, posted on Northrop Grumman’s X account this evening, as seen below, states: “We’re bringing tomorrow’s horizon into focus, faster, stronger, and ready when the warfighter needs it.”

What we see in the clip is the same general design we saw in the still image earlier, but much more of it. This includes a head-on shot, showing the aircraft’s stealthy and efficient tailless design and rear-set dorsal inlets, as well as its very broad nose and canopy.

The aircraft in the new stylized video clip has some interesting proportions. The size of the landing gear and especially the canopy give it something of a smaller overall appearance than what one would expect from a heavy sixth-generation naval fighter that will be stuffed with fuel and weapons. Of course, this could be due to the somewhat ‘cartoonish’ nature of this new glitzy clip, and how accurate this rendering is to the actual Northrop Grumman F/A-XX is still unknown. At the very least, some of the aircraft’s features (such as its inlets) will have been significantly changed for security issues pertaining to its sensitive design elements.

We also see the wings, which look like they have a bit of camber on the outer sections and possibly a bit of ‘crank’ too. We also see the wings folded in the first part of the clip.

What could be a weapons bay with its doors open is also visible in some of the angles seen in the clip. At first glance, this appeared to be for the jet’s very stout-looking landing gear, but they are curved inward. There are additional doors on the centerline, as well, pointing to two separate bays.

Overall, because of the size of the canopy, it is hard to tell if this is a single-seat or a two-crew aircraft. The canopy is so large in these renders that a side-by-side crew arrangement may even be possible, although that seems unlikely.

Once again, we don’t know how close this computer-generated model is to the real thing, but considering this aircraft will have to carry a sizable weapons load and have something approaching a combat radius of 1,000-miles, while still fitting well within the confines of a supercarrier, it should be firmly in the heavy fighter class.

Maybe Northrop Grumman will share more on its F/A-XX at the annual Sea-Air-Space convention in Washington this week, and we will be ready to report it from the scene if they do.

We have reached out to Northrop Grumman with questions, and we will update this post if we hear back.

Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com

JURASSIC Park star Sam Neill has revealed he’s cancer-free after having pioneering treatment to fight the disease.

The 78-year-old was diagnosed with stage three blood cancer in 2022 while promoting Jurassic World Dominion.

In a new interview, he said he was “on the way out” when his chemotherapy stopped working.

“I was at a loss, and it looked like I was on the way out, which wasn’t ideal obviously,” he explained.

But thanks to pioneering Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, the cost of which, on average, is £280,000 per patient in the UK , there is no longer any trace of the disease in his body.

Sam told 7 News in his native Australia: “I’ve just had a scan just now and there is no cancer in my body, that’s an extraordinary thing. I’m very, very excited that this can happen.”

He first revealed he was having the immunotherapy in September 2023 and had been in remission for 12 months.

The treatment is personalised to the patient and genetically modifies their own T-cells to fight and destroy cancer cells.

The actor said he is now looking forward to returning to the big screen.

Stoic Sam previously said he wasn’t afraid of dying after being diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma — a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“I’m not in any way frightened of dying,” he told Australian Story. “That doesn’t worry me. It’s never worried me from the beginning, but I would be annoyed.”

Sam announced his cancer battle in the first chapter of his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?

He wrote: “The thing is, I’m crook. Possibly dying.”

The acting stalwart, who was born in Northern Ireland but grew up in New Zealand, is best known for playing Dr Alan Grant in the dinosaur franchise, beginning in 1993.

His successful movie and television career spans five decades and includes varied roles from The Piano, to The Zookeeper and even Peaky Blinders.

He has two biological children — Tim and Elena — from his marriage to makeup artist Noriko Watanabe.

The couple were married for nearly 30 years, before divorcing in 2017.

The tone was set for a dazzling European encounter when both sets of fans unfurled giant tifos before kick-off – PSG’s was emblazoned with the words ‘the conquest of Europe’, while the visitors’ banner urged their side to ‘give everything’.

In a chaotic opening 45 minutes at the Parc des Princes, both sides did just that.

It was fitting the two top-scoring sides in the Champions League this season put five goals on the scoreboard in a mesmerising, end-to-end opening period.

Harry Kane’s penalty was cancelled out by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s clinical finish, before Joao Neves’ glancing header and Michael Olise’s moment of individual brilliance left the sides level.

Many will suggest the PSG penalty, awarded after Bayern defender Alphonso Davies was deemed to have handled an Ousmane Dembele cross in the box, was harsh. Dembele calmly converted to give PSG a 3-2 lead at the break.

But the controversial incident was ultimately overshadowed by what pundits called one of the greatest halves of football they had ever witnessed.

Former England captain Alan Shearer said on Amazon Prime: “I can’t stop smiling at how open and bonkers this game is.

“It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever been to. Two teams that believe in their own ability to outscore their opponent.”

The chaos continued after the break with PSG building a three-goal cushion, again through Kvaratskhelia and Dembele, leaving some to wonder if the outcome had been settled.

But Bayern were unwilling to let the chance of a first Champions League title since 2020 get away from them as they fought back in fearsome fashion.

Goals from Dayot Upamecano and Diaz were met with stunned silence from the home fans and no further response from the PSG players as the hosts finished with a slim advantage.

“I have been managing for more than 15 years, and I have to say it was the most exciting [match],” added Luis Enrique.

“It is important to show that that is the way to try to play football. OK, we are not happy as a coach when you concede four goals, but I’m happy because we won.”

It was the first time in any major European semi-final that both sides had scored at least four goals, and just the second time in a Champions League knockout match after Chelsea and Liverpool drew 4-4 in the 2008-09 quarter-final.

With PSG netting 43 goals and Bayern 42, it was also the first time two teams have each scored more than 40 times in a Champions League campaign.

April 28 (UPI) — A former aide to Anthony Fauci faces charges for allegedly concealing emails that involve the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

David M. Morens, 78, worked with Fauci from 2006 to 2022. Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president from 2021 to 2022, is not accused of any wrongdoing in the case. Congressional Republicans have been investigating the U.S. coronavirus response, which started during President Donald Trump‘s first administration.

The indictment charges Morens with conspiracy against the United States and destruction and concealment of records in a federal investigation. Prosecutors say that he purposefully concealed emails he’d exchanged with the president of a nonprofit group. This group had worked with a Chinese lab that’s faced scrutiny over a perceived connection to the coronavirus, the Washington Post reported.

The indictment does not name the president or the group, but previous records have shown the former to be Peter Daszak, former president of EcoHealth Alliance, the Post reported. The group received a grant in 2014 to study bat coronaviruses.

Morens was released on his own recognizance after appearing Monday in federal court in Maryland. He has said he tried to keep some records off his government email in part to keep coronavirus misinformation from spreading and to discourage conspiracy theories.

Controversy over the origins of the virus has existed for as long as it’s been known. While many scientists say it jumped naturally from bats to humans through another animal, Trump and his administration have promoted other theories, including that the virus came from a Chinese lab.

Some Republicans hailed the charges against Morens as validation, including Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

“I applaud the Trump Justice Department for taking action to hold his public official accountable for hiding information from the American people,” Comer said Tuesday.

Under Trump’s second administration, the White House’s covid.gov website has been changed to a site that promotes the “lab leak” theory, replacing information about vaccines, testing and health issues related to the virus.

US president says Iran has reached out and asked Washington to lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

Sky’s action thriller is led by Golden Globe nominee Tahar Rahim and Scottish BAFTA winner Izuka Hoyle

The Sky drama series is a must-watch for adrenaline junkies.

One of the stars of Sky’s upcoming action thriller Prisoner has opened up about the challenges of working on the six-part series.

French actor Tahar Rahim revealed how he and his co-star Izuka Hoyle were handcuffed together during filming for four months.

Speaking about the challenges of filming while attached to his co-star, The Serpent actor explained: “Being handcuffed to someone for four months filming could easily be a nightmare, but Izuka is a beautiful soul.

“We got on incredibly well and became real friends. She’s my partner in crime. It was a pleasure.”

The pair star as highly valued prisoner and mafia informant Tibor Stone (Rahim) and prison transport officer Amber Todd (Hoyle) respectively.

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Sky is giving away free subscriptions to Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Hayu and discovery+ to customers on the Ultimate TV bundle. This also includes 135 channels such as Sky Atlantic and Sky One.

After their prison convoy is attacked by the organised crime group that Stone is testifying against, Todd makes the split-second decision to handcuff herself to him and ensure he makes it to court for the trial in four days’ time.

However, Tibor isn’t just any informant; he’s a trained assassin and can take out many of the people sent to eliminate him before he can reveal all.

This required both Rahim and Hoyle to jointly perform stunts while their characters were handcuffed.

Addressing these challenges, the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee explained: “Being handcuffed during big stunt sequences made things more complex.

“Our stunt team was brilliant and inventive, open to ideas and incredibly collaborative.

“Izuka and I had to constantly adapt and choreograph every movement together.

“Izuka has great instincts and she’s strong, which made everything easier. I decided to just flow with her and to treat it like a dance.

“For me, acting with a partner is a kind of dance: you listen, you feel, you respond.”

Meanwhile, Big Boys and Scottish BAFTA winner Hoyle explained: “Having them on made us realise just how close we were going to be to each other for such a long period of time, and that took some getting used to.

“Tahar is incredible. He’s physically fit, so in terms of us pushing each other, it was great.

“Our competitive streaks would come out… ‘We can go faster than that. We can do better than that. We can push harder than that.’ And we did. Everyone around us would be like, ‘F****g hell’.”

Prisoner will be released on Sky as a boxset on Thursday, April 30

BILLINGS, Mont. — President Trump is withdrawing his nomination of a hospitality company executive to lead the National Park Service, the White House announced Monday.

The withdrawal of nominee Scott Socha comes as the park service has been shaken by widespread firings as part of the Trump administration’s pledge to sharply reduce its size.

Socha said in a statement that he was dropping out of consideration for the post for personal reasons.

The park service is currently overseen by an acting director, agency comptroller Jessica Bowron. It did not have a Senate-confirmed director during Trump’s first term, when it was led by a series of acting directors.

Socha is president for parks and resorts at Buffalo, N.Y.-based Delaware North, which has service contracts with numerous parks and describes itself as one of the world’s largest privately owned entertainment and hospitality companies. A White House spokesperson had said when he was nominated in February that Socha was “totally qualified” to execute Trump’s plans for the park system.

But some conservation groups had questioned whether Socha’s private sector work provided the experience he would need to oversee hundreds of national parks and monuments that range from the Statue of Liberty and other cultural sites to remote sites in the Utah desert.

The Associated Press sent email messages to the White House and the Interior Department seeking comment on Socha’s withdrawal.

Thousands of employees have been fired or otherwise left the park service since Trump took office.

Emily Douce with the National Parks Conservation Assn., an advocacy group, said Monday that the next director for the service needs to “undo the damage.”

“It’s very unfortunate that our parks have gone more than a year without a permanent director at a time when they need strong, steady leadership the most,” Douce said.

The Republican administration’s proposed budget for next year would reduce staffing to 9,200 employees. That’s down almost 30% compared to 2025 levels.

The park service’s operating budget would be cut by more than $1 billion, to $2.2 billion, for the 2027 fiscal year that starts in October.

Similar cuts proposed for 2026 were blocked by lawmakers in Congress after park supporters and former employees warned the administration’s proposal would have effectively gutted the agency.

The administration also has faced blowback for the removal or planned removal of national park exhibits about slavery, climate change and the destruction of Native American culture. In February, a federal judge said an exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at Washington’s former home in Philadelphia after the Trump administration had taken it down.

Administration officials have said they are removing “disparaging” messages under an order last year from Trump. Critics accuse it of trying to whitewash the nation’s history.

Under Trump’s interior secretary, Doug Burgum, the park service has started charging millions of international tourists who visit U.S. parks each year $100 each to visit sites including Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. The service also has put Trump’s image onto its annual passes for U.S. citizens, drawing a lawsuit from environmentalists who said the move was illegal.

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

Theories abound, but one is fun: Mickey Mouse had hunger pangs and strayed from Disneyland to nearby Angel Stadium where he discreetly raided a forlorn concession stand in a nosebleed section adjacent to the right-field foul pole.

That concession stand — high up in View Level Section 42 — was the only one out of about 160 at Angel Stadium to be flagged by Orange County health inspectors Wednesday for “rodent infestation.”

Not a bad batting average, but with apologies to Mickey, no exceptions are allowed when it comes to rodent infestation and food.

The Angels have been on a road trip all week but a team spokesman said Tuesday that the stand has been cleaned and will be reinspected ahead of a homestand that begins Friday against the New York Mets.

“After receiving guidance from the health department, we acted promptly with our concession partner to resolve the issues at the single stand and expect it to pass inspection and reopen in time for the upcoming homestand,” the Angels said in a statement.

The Orange County Register publishes a weekly list of restaurants and other food vendors ordered to close and allowed to reopen by county health inspectors. Eleven establishments were closed from April 16 to 23, nine for rodent or cockroach infestations, one for insufficient hot water and one for unapproved remodeling. Angel Stadium concessions were on the list.

The team spokesman said rodent activity was not found in any food preparation areas, that it occurred underneath a storage rack and next to a water heater.

The county health services inspection report said that for the stand to reopen, rodent activity must be eliminated and equipment surfaces, food containers, shelves and floors must be cleaned and sanitized. Also, crevices larger than a quarter-inch must be sealed “to prevent vermin harborage.”

The offending stand had most recently passed inspection in June. Rodent issues at Angel Stadium had ceased since a 2007 report in The Times that the stadium had been cited 118 times for vermin violations in the previous two years. Major citations were issued in 33 instances in which rodents or other pests were detected where food was stored, prepared or served.

The Angels blamed the presence of vermin on the stadium’s open-air design and proximity to the Santa Ana River. They said that in 2005 heavy rains drove rats into the stadium and contributed to a high number of citations.

The Angels went to bat against the rats, announcing that cleaning crews would get to work an hour after each game instead of waiting until the next morning.

“The garbage had been sitting in the seating bowl area after games, and that problem is going to be eliminated as of tonight,” said Tim Mead, the Angels spokesman at the time.

By 2009, the team had eliminated the problem.

Until last week, that is.

“The Angels take great pride in delivering a high-quality fan experience at Angel Stadium,” the team said in the statement Tuesday, “including maintaining the cleanliness of our nearly 160 concession locations.”

WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) — Supreme Court justices appeared divided Tuesday morning about whether a U.S. tech company can be held liable for aiding the Chinese government’s alleged torture of a spiritual minority.

The case is centers on whether practitioners in China of the Falun Gong religion — also called Falun Dafa — can sue California-based tech company Cisco Systems for aiding and abetting violations of the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act, which was enacted in 1992.

Cisco attorney Kannon Shanmugam called for barring aiding and abetting liability. He argued that allowing liability to be implied would harm the government’s separation of power.

Much of Tuesday’s debate hinged on whether the statute’s 200-year-old “law of nations” wording was applicable to the relatively more modern concept of human rights abuses, as well as whether the first Congress meant for the victim protection act to include second liability for aiding and abetting torture.

The case marks the latest attempt to define the scope of the statue, which for over two centuries has allowed foreigners to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts for serious violations of international law.

More than 20 years ago, Cisco developed and sold to the Chinese government a surveillance system, which the government used to find, interrogate and allegedly torture Falun Gong practitioners.

During arguments for Cisco Systems Inc. vs. Doe I, some justices emphasized Cisco’s awareness of their technology’s role in persecution, while others said that including liability for aiding torture in the alien tort statue contradicted with historical precedent and had foreign policy risks.

But no clear majority converged around either position in the conservative majority court.

“We’ve maybe misled Congress into thinking, ‘Oh, we don’t need to do anything about these human rights things, the courts are taking care of it,'” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

“I’m concerned at a separation of powers level that we’re not really allowing suits to go forward, but Congress thinks we are because of a lack of clarity in our case law.”

Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sotomayor appeared more supportive of those who brought forward the original lawsuit — several Chinese nationals and one U.S. citizen.

Addressing the wording of the Torture Victim Protection Act, Sotomayor told Shanmugam: “I’m not sure how you get to your position that ‘subjects to’ can’t mean aiding and abetting because command liability doesn’t necessarily require subjecting someone to the torture.”

“It makes someone who’s in a command position who knows of the torture and permits it to happen … aiding and abetting. We’ve defined aiding and abetting as an active step in permitting and encouraging the substantive act.”

The Alien Tort Statute grants federal district courts original jurisdiction over any civil action in which an alien sues for a tort “committed in violation of the law of nations or of a treaty of the United States.”

“What’s the point of previous [Supreme Court] decisions that determined U.S. corporations could be defendants?” said Sophia Cope, senior staff attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation, who helped write an amicus brief in support of the Falun Gong members.

“Excluding second liability from the ATS would be a huge loophole for companies to sell services which are used for human rights violations.”

By rejecting judicially created aiding and abetting liability, the court would close the last major loophole that the plaintiffs’ lawyers have “exploited” to keep cases with such claims under the ATS and TVPA alive, said Cory Andrews, vice-president of litigation at the Washington Legal Foundation. The foundation submitted a brief in support of Cisco in February.

“It would reaffirm that the ATS is a narrow 1789 statute, not a modern vehicle for global human-rights enforcement,” Andrews said.

The case had its origins 15 years ago. In 2011, the plaintiffs — 13 Chinese nationals and one U.S. citizen — filed the original suit in the District Court for the Northern District of California, claiming they were targeted using Cisco’s technology and then detained and tortured.

The district court dismissed the claims, but it was brought to the Supreme Court after a panel of federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed in 2023 that the plaintiffs had met a legal threshold to continue with the lawsuit.

A decision is expected by the end of June.

Mérida, April 28, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The US government has authorized the use of Venezuelan state assets to cover the legal defense fees of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. 

According to reports, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a waiver to its existing sanctions against the Caribbean country.

The resolution, formalized in an April 24 letter from the US Justice Department to New York District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, removes an early hurdle in the high-profile case against Maduro and Flores. The pair was kidnapped by US Special Forces on January 3 and is facing charges including drug trafficking conspiracy.

The joint letter, signed by US Attorney Jay Clayton and several assistant prosecutors, clarifies that the amended OFAC licenses allow defense counsel to receive payments under strict parameters. 

“The amended licenses authorize defense counsel to receive payments from the government of Venezuela with funds made available after March 5, 2026,” the document read. US prosecutors further clarified that the defense cannot be funded with Venezuelan oil revenues that are currently controlled by the US Treasury, as well as Venezuelan state assets that have been frozen for years.

The issue of access to legal funding had previously been a central flashpoint in the case. Barry Pollack, Maduro’s defense attorney, had filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the US government was effectively denying the defendants their constitutional right to a fair trial by blocking their ability to pay for attorneys of their choice.

At the latest hearing on March 26, Judge Hellerstein ruled out dismissing the charges but challenged the US prosecutors’ justifications for blocking Caracas’ ability to fund Maduro and Flores’ defense.

Following the issuance of the OFAC licenses, the defense has reportedly withdrawn its motions to dismiss the case, though it retains the right to refile should similar financial obstacles arise in the future. The Venezuelan government has yet to comment on this latest development in the case.

At present, no date has been scheduled for either a hearing or the commencement of the trial. The parties have submitted a request to the court for a status conference to be scheduled in approximately 60 days. The case has progressed slowly, with the prosecution pointing to the complexity of the discovery process.

At their January 5 arraignment, Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty to charges. Despite repeated “narcoterrorism” accusations over the years, US officials have not publicly provided evidence tying Venezuelan leaders to narcotics activities. In addition, reports from specialized agencies including the US’ DEA have consistently found Venezuela to play a marginal role in global drug trafficking.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.

Two months after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in South Texas, the Mariachi Brothers will serve as the opening act for country star Kacey Musgraves during a string of shows in the Lone Star State.

Musgraves announced the surprise collaboration with the Gámez-Cuéllar brothers — Antonio, 18, Caleb, 15, and Joshua, 12 — in a Tuesday morning Instagram post. They will open for the “Space Cowboy” singer at the famed Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, on May 3, 4 and 5.

The brothers were members of McAllen High School’s prestigious Mariachi Oro band, which is one of the most decorated youth mariachi groups in the country. The band has performed in such illustrious venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Capitol.

The Gámez-Cuéllar family first made news when the brothers and their parents were detained by ICE on Feb. 25 after a routine immigration check-in. The eldest brother was sent to a detention center in Raymondville, Texas, while the rest of the family was sent to Texas’s notorious Dilley Immigration Processing Center.

Department of Homeland Security officials told the Associated Press at the time of the detainment that only their parents, Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar Lopez and Luis Antonio Gámez Martinez, were meant to go into detention — but that they “chose” to take their children with them. DHS also claimed they had illegally entered the U.S. near Brownsville, Texas, in 2023.

In an interview with the New York Times, the family’s patriarch refuted the DHS claim, maintaining that the family had entered the country legally through an asylum claim.

After the family was detained, Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio posted a video on Instagram denouncing ICE’s actions.

“Donald Trump said he was going after criminals,” Castro said in the social media clip. “[These kids] were safe enough to tour the White House. And yet, the Trump administration has them sitting in a prison.”

Outrage also came from the other side of the political aisle, with Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Texas Republican, condemning the family’s situation.

“The Gámez-Cuéllar family’s story breaks my heart. South Texans know better than anyone that we can secure our border and still treat people with dignity — these are not competing values,” De La Cruz said in a statement. “I have repeatedly urged that enforcement target those who actually threaten our communities, not good, law-abiding, talented people who are working through the legal process.”

On March 9, all members of the family were released from detention after the mounting public press campaign.

Following their release, Musgraves — a longtime fan of the many musical stylings of Mexico — reposted an article about the brothers being freed with the caption: “Great so come on the road with me.”

BOISE, Idaho — Former Idaho Gov. and U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has died at age 74, his family said in a written statement Saturday.

Kempthorne died Friday evening in Boise, the statement said. No cause was given. He had been diagnosed with colon cancer last year.

“Beyond his public service, he was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather whose greatest joy came from time spent with family and the people he met along the way,” his family said. “He had a rare gift for truly seeing others — remembering names, stories, and the small details that made each person feel known and valued.”

Kempthorne, a moderate Republican, was elected mayor of Boise in 1985 at age 34, and he was credited with revitalizing the downtown by securing an agreement to build a convention center and promoting other development. He served seven years before winning the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Sen. Steve Symms in 1992.

During his time in Washington, he authored legislation — signed by Democratic President Clinton — to end unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments.

Rather than run for reelection in 1998, he entered an open election for governor, trouncing his Democratic opponent by garnering more than two-thirds of the vote.

President George W. Bush appointed him Interior secretary in 2006, a position he held until the end of Bush’s presidency — and during which he lived on a houseboat docked in the Potomac River.

“Dirk was one of the finest public servants I ever knew because he was one of the finest men,” former President George W. Bush said in a written statement Saturday. “He was considerate, smart, and capable. Dirk loved our lands and waters, and as Secretary of the Interior, he was an effective steward of our natural resources.”

He protected polar bears

Environmentalists often found Kempthorne too accommodating to industry, citing his efforts to push oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska. More than 100 conservation groups opposed his nomination as Interior secretary, saying that as a senator he had voted to eliminate federal money for recovery of the endangered wolf, to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, and to sell off federal public lands.

Yet in 2008, he bucked other advisers in the White House by insisting that the polar bear should be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because of the loss of sea ice in the Arctic. He was prepared to resign over it when Bush decided to back him.

“As Governor, Dirk left an enduring mark on our state,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little said in a written statement. With the partnership of his wife, Patricia, Kempthorne “championed children and families, strengthened public education, and led transformational investments in our transportation system that will benefit Idahoans for generations.”

After leaving the federal government, he became the chief executive of a trade association of life insurance companies.

He helped Afghan refugees

In a 2023 question-and-answer session with the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Kempthorne recalled helping evacuate nearly 400 U.S. citizens and Afghan allies from Afghanistan two years earlier, as many were being sought by the Taliban following the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal. Kempthorne and others worked frantically for months to raise money and garner the support of diplomatic channels to charter buses and an Airbus A340 to help resettle the evacuees in the U.S. and Canada.

At one point, with the flight fully booked, the organizers received a list of more people who needed to leave urgently.

“That night, at a total loss for answers, alone, I knelt in prayer,” Kempthorne recalled. “I said, ‘Dear God, we cannot leave these people behind, please give a path forward.’”

He said he then had a vision of Mother Mary holding the infant Jesus. It gave him an idea: The babies on the flight didn’t need their own seats, as their parents could hold them. The organizers confirmed that with the airline and were able to add an additional 50 people to the flight, Kempthorne said.

Kempthorne was born in San Diego and grew up in Spokane, Wash. His father was a regional representative for Maytag, the appliance company. His mother, a homemaker, once worked as a secretary for the Legislature in Nebraska, her home state.

Kempthorne attended San Bernardino Valley College in California before transferring to the University of Idaho, where he served as student body president and met Patricia, his future wife. After graduation he worked as executive assistant to the director of the Idaho Department of Lands before joining the Idaho Home Builders Assn. as the executive vice president.

Kempthorne is survived by his wife, as well as their children Heather and Jeff and their families.

Johnson writes for the Associated Press. Johnson reported from Seattle.

Audacy’s Los Angeles news radio station KNX is ending its simulcast on 97.1 FM, which will move to a sports talk format on May 11.

The New York-based audio company announced Tuesday that the frequency will be re-branded as the Fan, becoming the first all-sports FM station in the Los Angeles market.

Sports talk listeners are currently served by KLAC, an AM station co-owned by iHeartRadio and the Dodgers, ESPN LA 710, and KLAA at 830 AM, owned by the Los Angeles Angels.

KNX will continue its all-news format on its AM frequency 1070. The station will also be heard on 97.1 HD2, mostly available in vehicles equipped with digital radios.

Chris Oliviero, chief business officer for Audacy, said the moves are aimed at providing more local content to listeners in the Los Angeles market. The Fan will be stocked with on-air talent well-versed in the area’s teams.

“We’re going to be providing twice as much original local L.A. content than we were previously,” Oliviero said. “We are taking these two broadcast frequencies, and getting more out of them.”

KNX’s news format benefited from the FM simulcast, with its share of the audience up more than 25% since it began in December 2021. Oliviero said Audacy remains committed to the format, which has a significant number of listeners through the station’s app and other streaming platforms.

Audacy has a proven track record in sports talk radio, which is attractive to advertisers. Los Angeles was the only top 10 market where the company did not have a station carrying the format.

Oliviero noted that the upcoming sports calendar that includes the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will likely drive up listener appetite for the station.

The Fan will launch without any live play-by-play of Los Angeles teams. KLAC has the audio rights to the Dodgers, the Clippers of the NBA, the Chargers of the NFL and UCLA football.

Oliviero said Audacy will look at acquiring audio rights to Los Angeles teams as they become available. He noted that the Fan will carry local hosts during daytime hours when KLAC offers syndicated hosts Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd. KLAC has a popular local team, Petros and Money, in the afternoon, and a Dodgers-focused talk show in the evening.

In addition to KNX, Audacy owns classic hits station KRTH-FM (101.1), rhythmic hits outlet KTWV-FM (94.7), adult hits station KCBS-FM (93.1) and KROQ-FM (106.7), which has an alternative rock format. The stations broadcast out of studios on the Miracle Mile.

Audacy has owned KNX since 2017, when it merged with the radio division of CBS Corp. The company was known as Entercom at the time of the transaction.

April 28 (UPI) — Average gas prices in the United States hit $4.18 on Tuesday, their highest level since the Iran conflict started, as peace talks between the country and Iran stalled again over proposals on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The price jump of 1.6% over Monday’s price was the highest increase in more than a month, The New York Times reported. AAA numbers show that the average price for a gallon of regular gas marks an increase from $4.11 on Monday and $3.98 a month ago.

The price is the highest since April 2022, soon after the Russia-Ukraine conflict started, and about a 40% increase for drivers since the Iran conflict began. Diesel prices are at $5.46, up about 45% in that time.

Meanwhile, officials from the United States and Iran appear at an impasse over reopening the strait and an Iranian proposal to postpone discussion of that country’s nuclear program, something that President Donald Trump has said he will not agree to, USA Today reported. The conflict, as of midday Tuesday, is in a ceasefire, but both countries continue to limit shipping in the region and face off over the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump on Tuesday posted on Truth Social in an apparent response to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s comments Monday criticizing the conflict. Merz said in comments to students that he hopes the conflict ends soon and that United States is being “humiliated” by Iranian leaders, USA Today reported.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Trump wrote. “If Iran had a Nuclear Weapon, the whole World would be held hostage. I am doing something with Iran, right now, that other Nations, or Presidents, should have done long ago.”

Bell has put forward a new concept for a next-generation tiltrotor aircraft armed with anti-ship cruise missiles and other munitions for the U.S. Marine Corps. The design is based on what has been newly named the MV-75A Cheyenne II, which is in development for the U.S. Army. This comes as the Corps has said “everything is on the table” as it starts to formulate a new vision for what will succeed its AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom helicopters.

A model of the new armed MV-75 concept for the Marines is currently on display at the annual Modern Day Marine conference in Washington, D.C., at which TWZ is in attendance. It is painted in the markings of Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267 (HMLA-267), a unit currently equipped with AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters, which perform attack and armed utility mission sets, respectively.

The model’s most immediately eye-catching details are its armament. This includes two stub wings, each with a single pylon, mounted on either side of the top of the forward fuselage, situated between the main wing and the cockpit. A Naval Strike Missile (NSM), a stealthy anti-ship cruise missile with secondary land capability, is loaded on the left side. The Marine Corps is already fielding NSM in a ground-launched configuration. The missile is also in U.S. Navy service as a sea-launched weapon, as it was originally designed.

On the right side of the model, there is a pair of missiles, which are intended to reflect the Marine Corps’ forthcoming Precision Attack Strike Munition (PASM) capability. PASM is a version of L3Harris’ Red Wolf, a small, lower-cost cruise missile that you can read more about here.

It is interesting to note that the missiles on the model also look similar in broad strokes to Lockheed Martin’s Common Multi-Mission Trucks (CMMT, pronounced ‘comet’). Red Wolf and CMMT are just a few examples of a growing field of missile-shaped ‘air vehicles,’ many of which can be readily reconfigurable to perform a host of different tasks, including acting as a kinetic munition, an expendable electronic warfare system, or a decoy. Designs in this general category increasingly blur the line between uncrewed aerial systems, especially longer-range kamikaze drones, and traditional cruise missiles.

The stub wings could be used to carry other stores, such as AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) laser-guided rockets, per Bell.

Two additional launchers are attached to the sides of each of the main landing gear sponsons. These are intended to depict launch tubes for the ALTIUS-700M loitering munition or something similar, according to Bell. This is a general category of uncrewed systems now commonly referred to as launched effects. There are also five apertures on either side of the fuselage through which additional munitions or drones could be fired via Common Launch Tube (CLT).

“There are some restrictions of [sic] where you can place them [launchers and/or pylons for munitions and other stores], because anything that’s forward firing would need to have the clearance to get past the [rotor] tip path plane and [have] it fit inside the fuselage,” Bill Hendricks, Senior Strategy Manager at Bell, told our Eric Tegler on the show floor at Modern Day Marine. “Our assumption is that, should the Marine Corps pursue something like this, they would want to be able to employ ordnance while in airplane mode with the nacelles forward. So the weapons that we have currently on that conceptual model would be something that you could fire in airplane mode.”

The design also has a three-barrel Gatling-type cannon or machine gun in a turret under the nose. What is depicted is in line with the M197 20mm Gatling-type cannon found on Marine AH-1Zs today. An improved, lightweight evolution of that cannon, the XM915, was also expected to arm the Army’s now-canceled Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA).

The video below shows a live-fire flight test of the XM915 mounted on a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

XM915 20mm firing

The model of MV-75 derivative for the Marines also has a sensor turret in the nose with a pair of large apertures in front, which typically reflect electro-optical and/or infrared video cameras inside. It has a retractable in-flight refueling probe, as well. The Army’s plans for in-flight refueling capability for the Cheyenne II are evolving. This is also a feature expected to be found on a special operations version of the MV-75.

Compared to the AH-1Z and UH-1Y, with this tiltrotor design, “now you have additional range, you have additional speed, more operational flexibility, you can cover more area with one platform,” Bell’s Hendricks highlighted at the Modern Day Marine show.

“If that was something that we were asked to look at, then we can certainly explore that,” he added when asked about the possibility of extra fuel carried externally for even greater reach. “That’s not something that we’ve looked at with that conceptual design, because an MV-75 variant in that configuration with internal fuel would still have a range, after a short takeoff or a running takeoff, in excess of 1,000 nautical miles.”

As a single replacement for the AH-1Z and UH-1Y, an armed MV-75 derivative would come in a larger and more expensive package, which would present additional tradeoffs for the Marines to consider. As an aside, the service is also now in the process of charting a separate course to a replacement for the MV-22 Osprey.

As noted, the Marine Corps has now begun to lay out a new vision for what will succeed its AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters. The service has previously told TWZ that this effort, currently known as Future Attack Strike (FASt), will also help fill certain capability gaps created by the retirement of the AV-8B Harrier jump jet and legacy F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters. The Marines have long said the main replacements for the AV-8Bs and F/A-18C/Ds will be variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

“So, right now, for FASt, everything is on the table. Manned, unmanned, optionally-piloted, I think, are good avenues to take a look at. Conventional rotary-wing, tiltrotor. Maybe there’s something else out there,” Col. Scott Shadforth said in response to a question, also from Eric Tegler, while speaking today at Modern Day Marine. “There is no steadfast, solid response to that.”

Shadforth is currently Director of the Expeditionary Maritime Aviation-Advanced Development Team (XMA-ADT) within Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). XMA-ADT focused on rapid prototyping and experimentation to help refine future Marine Corps aviation requirements in cooperation with the Navy.

“So, as we look at unmanned, manned-unmanned teaming, air-launched effects, all the capabilities to help extend the range of various assault support or attack type platforms, all of those are on the table for consideration by the Marine Corps at this time,” he added.

In the meantime, the Marines are notably working to integrate a standoff strike capability onto the AH-1Z through the aforementioned PASM, which will open up significant new operational possibilities. The service has also been looking at ways to expand the roles and missions of the UH-1Y, to include anti-submarine warfare capability and acting as an airborne drone controller.

It is important to note that this is not the first time Bell has shown models and renderings of armed variations of this design, originally branded as the V-280 Valor, that could perform sea control and other maritime mission sets. This has included versions with internal bays, as well as pylons under the wings and ones mounted on the sides of the rear end of the fuselage.

Previous navalized concepts have also included folding main wings and rotors, similar in form and function to those features on the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, to help reduce the aircraft’s physical footprint when operating from ships. Bell has said previously that the ‘stowed’ configuration of the V-280 could be small enough to fit inside the hangars on Arleigh Burke class destroyers, as well as those on larger naval vessels.

Bell has also pitched navalized V-280/MV-75 designs in the past, paired together with its uncrewed V-247 Vigilant tiltrotor drone. This has included previous proposals specifically aimed at meeting future Marine Corps aviation requirements, which have evolved significantly in recent years.

“I can see conceptually, where the Navy could, if this is what they wanted, adopt like this to [meet] their sea control, or ASW [anti-submarine warfare], or ASuW [anti-surface warfare] mission set [sic], because of the additional range that it gives you,” Bell’s Hendricks said when asked about whether this concept could also be relevant to that service’s needs. “It would outperform the speed and range of an H-60, and so that would give them more operational reach.”

In recent years, the Navy has been exploring options for replacements for its MH-60R and MH-60S Seahawk helicopters, as well as its MQ-8C Fire Scout drone helicopters. However, at least in the near term, the service seems to be leaning more toward a major evolution of the Seahawk platform rather than an entirely new platform.

The Marine Corps has made clear that all options are currently on the table, including a tiltrotor like Bell’s MV-75 or a derivative thereof, as the service works to firm up requirements for a replacement for its AH-1Z and UH-1Y helicopters.

Eric Tegler and Phil Hladky contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

NICOLA Roberts has revealed she underwent secret surgery at 22 weeks into her pregnancy.

The Girls Aloud singer, 40, is currently expecting her first child with fiancé Mitch Hahn and is set to give birth in the coming months.

In a new post, Nicola shared a myriad of pictures from the last week, and revealed she had actually recovering after undergoing a medical procedure.

Sharing that she had surgery to “keep the baby in” at 22 weeks, Nicola didn’t expand on what had gone on, but did say she was in recovery mode.

The singer wrote to her page: “Some pics I took this week.. Hasn’t it been so nice to really feel spring..

“I’ve been under instruction not to do much since I had the surgery at 22 weeks to help keep baby in.

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“Hitting that 34 week mark was a big relief. I now only have a few weeks left. Safe to say, this last bit is not the easiest is it?!

“In one breath, it will be nice to feel more comfortable again but I will also really miss my bump and having this tiny little thing in there”.

In her carousel of pictures, Nicola snapped a selfie in bed with a hot drink as she displayed her blossoming bump.

Whilst another showed the Moses basket she has prepared ahead of the little one’s arrival, with other snaps giving a glimpse into the pregnant star’s relaxed week at home.

Nicola didn’t reveal which surgery she had undergone or why, but there are several procedures which can be carried out mid-pregnancy to prevent problems further down the line.

The singer revealed on Christmas Day that she was set to become a mum for the first time.

At the time, she said in a sweet post: “Mitch and I have had the most magical Christmas Day sharing the most precious news with our families.

“We’ve been keeping a secret. We are five months pregnant!

“We can’t wait to meet our little one in the spring.”

She has been dating businessman and semi-professional footballer Mitch since 2022, with the pair getting engaged two years later.

In April, she reunited with her Girls Aloud co-stars and a number of famous pals for a Bridgerton themed baby shower.

She will have no doubt been getting some parenting advice from her fellow bandmates, who are all doting parents themselves.

WASHINGTON — A former senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci was indicted on federal charges alleging he conspired to hide his communications related to COVID-19 research as the pandemic raged across the country, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Dr. David Morens, 78, is accused of using his private email account to intentionally circumvent public records laws while employed at the National Institutes of Health. The Justice Department alleges that he concealed or destroyed records of discussions related to COVID-19 research grants, including an effort to revive a controversial coronavirus grant.

“These allegations represent a profound abuse of trust at a time when the American people needed it most — during the height of a global pandemic,” acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said in a statement Tuesday. “Government officials have a solemn duty to provide honest, well-grounded facts and advice in service of the public interest — not to advance their own personal or ideological agendas.”

Morens faces charges of conspiracy against the United States; destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations; concealment, removal or mutilation of records; and aiding and abetting, according to a Justice Department news release. If convicted, he could face decades in prison. An attorney for Morens declined to comment.

The indictment reflects Republicans’ long-held belief that the federal government covered up key information about COVID-19 as the pandemic unfolded. Despite numerous probes, the origins of COVID have never been proven. Scientists are unsure whether the virus jumped from an animal, as many other viruses have, or came from a laboratory accident. A U.S. intelligence analysis released in 2023 said there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory.

Blanche said Morens’ alleged conduct was part of an effort to “suppress alternative theories” about COVID-19’s origins. The Justice Department also accused Morens of having an improper relationship with a collaborator, including allegedly accepting a gift of wine and discussing COVID-19 research and potential publications in a prominent medical journal.

The indictment follows a probe by House Republicans into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that scrutinized Morens’ email communications and accused him of intentionally concealing records. In congressional testimony, Morens denied attempting to evade federal transparency laws by using his personal email.