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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - 24-year old Julian Araujo of Lompoc was left of the 26-man World Cup final roster for Mexico.

Araujo suffered a quadriceps injury in March while playing internationally in Scotland for Celtic FC which ended his season there.

He has dual U.S./Mexico citizenship and he played youth soccer with the Santa Barbara Soccer Club.

Mexico has the first match at this year's World Cup, June 11th at home against South Africa.

The post Lompoc’s Julian Araujo will miss World Cup for Mexico appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Brad Lendon, Gawon Bae, Will Ripley, CNN

(CNN) — Kim Jong Un inspected a new plant that makes weapons-grade nuclear material on Wednesday and said Pyongyang plans to “beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” according to a report from state-run media.

The North Korean leader said that his country has more than doubled its capacity to produce weapons-grade nuclear material in the past five years and that the new plant will help strengthen its nuclear war deterrent, according to the report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim instituted the push for more nuclear weapons under a five-year plan that was implemented after denuclearization talks with the United States, including three meetings with US President Donald Trump during his first term, ended in failure.

News of the new North Korean nuclear plant comes as Washington is trying to strike a deal to end the months-old US-Israeli war with Iran and get Tehran to give up nuclear materials that it could develop into nuclear weapons.

North Korea already has enough nuclear material for up to 90 warheads and is believed to have assembled around 50, according to a Congressional Research Service report from March.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in March that North Korea has at least two active nuclear enrichment plants, one in Yongbyon and another in Kangson.

The agency said it was monitoring the construction of a new building at Yongbyon “which has dimensions and infrastructure, including power supply and cooling capacity, similar to the Kangson enrichment facility.”

“The new building is externally complete and internal fitting is likely underway,” the IAEA report said.

In April testimony to the US House Armed Services Committee, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. James Adams, said Pyongyang was “building a probable additional uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon.”

Whether the facility Kim toured on Wednesday is that new Yongbyon facility or another previously unknown plant could not be determined. The KCNA report did not give a location.

This is at least the third time since September 2024 that state media has published photos of Kim inspecting a uranium enrichment or nuclear material production facility.

Thursday’s KCNA report said the new nuclear plant employed “more sophisticated technology,” and images provided by North Korea showed Kim walking among rows of centrifuges.

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told CNN the new facility reveals a maturation and scaling of North Korea’s nuclear program.

The report “gives the impression that the center of the gravity has shifted from ‘research and production’ to ‘mass production and munitions’” as officials from the munitions industry and the Nuclear Weapons Institute accompanied Kim, Hong said.

Also, by publishing various photos showing the control room, processing pipes and module zone, North Korea “is intentionally highlighting the aspect of a completed factory in operation,” he said.

Highlighting production facilities over more flashy weapons tests or grand military parades shows North Korea is now projecting it has the infrastructure to make good on its plans to field a robust nuclear deterrent.

Along with building its nuclear enrichment capacity, North Korea has been testing a range of missiles over the past years, and it has successfully tested Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) capable of striking anywhere in the United States, according to the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment fro

By Jacob Lev, CNN

(CNN) — Game 1 of the NBA Finals lived up to all the hype with the New York Knicks outlasting the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 at the Frost Bank Center on Wednesday.

The victory extends the Knicks’ playoff win streak to 12 games, the second longest in NBA history.

But it certainly wasn’t an easy road to the win for the Knicks.

Offense was the name of the game to start with both teams trading buckets.

After New York jumped out to a 12-7 lead, rookie phenom Dylan Harper Jr. came off the bench for the Spurs and helped orchestrate a 20-5 run to end the quarter.

Concern grew on the Knicks sideline as star guard Jalen Brunson hobbled off the court after San Antonio forward Harrison Barnes fell into the three-time All-Star’s right knee as a result of a foul.

The 29-year-old checked out of the game and was seen limping back to the locker room as the first quarter came to an end.

As the offensive tug-of-war continued into the second quarter and New York cut the lead down to three, Brunson finally appeared back on the bench and checked back into the game as Knicks fans breathed a sigh of relief.

But the injury bug came back to rear its ugly head as Brunson yet again appeared to be in discomfort after Spurs center Luke Kornet stepped on his ankle. Despite the apparent pain, Brunson got up, yelled at the refs and continued playing.

What followed was eight straight points for the Knicks captain, but the Spurs took a seven-point advantage into halftime.

All the back-and-forth came to an ice-cold end to start the second half as the Knicks only mustered two points through the first five minutes of the third quarter as the Spurs lead grew to as many as 14.

Victor Wembanyama, who had an unusually quiet night up to that point, headed to the bench limping a bit and that’s when the Knicks took advantage.

New York cut the lead down to three points behind Karl-Anthony Towns with just under two minutes to play in the quarter.

The 22-year-old French superstar checked back in, showing no signs of any discomfort but all the momentum was with the Knicks as the quarter ended with the score knotted up at 76-76.

Both teams continued trading shot-after-shot in the early moments of the final quarter, but Brunson put the team on his back to grow New York’s lead to six at the halfway point.

Just as the Spurs appeared to show some life, New York just responded right back to steal the momentum away from the Spurs and put the clamps on in crunchtime.

New York closed the game on a 11-0 run to stun the rowdy San Antonio crowd which featured Knicks superfans Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller and Tracy Morgan.

Brunson finished with a game-high 30 points despite the poor shooting night, finishing 12 for 31 from the field.

After the game, Brunson was asked about the injuries which he quickly responded he will “be all right.”

“We just got to go back and watch the things we can do better,” Brunson told the ABC broadcast.

“It’s a long journey but there’s a lot of things we can do better.”

Odd moment plagues fourth quarter

As the Knicks held on to their fairly sizable lead, a fan ran onto the court, tried to take a selfie with Wembanyama but was quickly apprehended by security.

Game officials weren’t able to determine who had possession at the time of the interruption, so a jump ball ensued.

CNN has reached out to the league for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Game 2 in the series will take place at 8:30 p.m. ET on Friday in San Antonio.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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Por Federico Leiva, CNN en Español

La cuenta regresiva rumbo al Mundial 2026 no se detiene, y las selecciones continúan con su propia preparación, poniendo un ojo en la casa propia y otro en sus próximos rivales. Y este miércoles, tanto Colombia como Argentina tuvieron oportunidad de ver a un par de selecciones que se van a cruzar en su camino.

No fue la versión que se esperaba de una de las selecciones asiáticas más poderosas, pero al menos Corea del Sur evitó las sorpresas y cumplió al ganarle por la mínima diferencia a El Salvador, una selección que estuvo muy lejos de cumplir su sueño de jugar el Mundial 2026.

Los surcoreanos reservaron algunos nombres. El central del Bayern Munich Kim Min-Jae fue titular, pero Heung-Min Son, Kang-in Lee, Hyeon-Gyu, otras las figuras del equipo, apenas jugaron media hora.

Corea del Sur, que integra el Grupo A junto a México, no les dio opciones a los centroamericanos, que prácticamente no contaron con ninguna posibilidad concreta de gol. Por el contrario, los dirigidos por Hong Myung-Bo tuvieron al menos media decena, además de un control absoluto del balón, aunque no siempre se tradujo en voracidad ofensiva.

Argelia llega a la Copa del Mundo de Norteamérica tras un destacado paso por las eliminatorias africanas, pero seguro que nadie apostó a que en esta jornada iba a sacar un resultado positivo ante una potencia como Países Bajos. Sin embargo, lo hizo, aunque son esas victorias que, si se ven con un ojo crítico, dejan poco para rescatar.

Países Bajos fue ampliamente superior. Los primeros 25 minutos fueron un monólogo del equipo naranja, que llegó una y otra vez hasta el portero africano, ya sea con pases cortos por el medio o también con velocidad por los costados. No obstante, entre la falta de eficacia propia y los buenos reflejos de Zidane, los neerlandeses se fueron en cero.

Argelia ofreció muy poco en ataque. Pareció en todo momento más preocupada por armar una línea de cuatro o cinco defensores que por robar el balón en las transiciones. Aun así, tuvo su chance y no la desperdició. Anis Hadj Moussa, que ingresó en la segunda etapa, controló la pelota por la banda derecha, fue hacia adentro y sacó un remate inatajable, en lo que acabó siendo una oda a la efectividad.

Para Argelia, de todas maneras, es una victoria estimulante, teniendo en cuenta que se acerca el debut en la Copa del Mundo ante Argentina.

La República Democrática del Congo (RDC), que enfrentará a Colombia en la segunda fecha del Grupo K, protagonizó un lindo duelo ante Dinamarca, que terminó 0-0 únicamente por la impericia de los africanos a la hora de definir y los palos que aparecieron una y otra vez para negarle a los europeos la ventaja. Tres veces dio en los postes el balón, una a disparo de Maehle, otra de Eriksen y una última de Hojbjerg.

Dinamarca fue mejor equipo, es cierto, desbordando una y otra vez por el carril izquierdo de la defensa africana, pero los leopardos también tuvieron sus posibilidades. Bakambu desperdició un par de situaciones claras, incluido un mano a mano ante el arquero, y tanto Sadiki como Banza también una cada uno.

La RDC mostró falta de recuperación en líneas generales, pero en las pocas que recuperan del medio hacia delante, son peligrosos porque salen en velocidad. Eso sí, tendrán que afinar la puntería, porque en el debut en el Mundial, ante Portugal, no podrán fallar.

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