By Brad Lendon, CNN

(CNN) — A US fighter jet disabled two Iran-flagged tankers on Friday by firing precision munitions into their funnels, the US military said, demonstrating the precision of the weapons in use.

US Central Command, which oversees Middle East military operations, released a video it says shows the tankers – the Sea Star III and the Sevda – being hit by a US Navy F/A-18. It said the vessels were violating the US blockage of Iranian ports.

The video shows slight puffs of smoke from the Sea Star’s smokestack, and then darker smoke rising from it after the strike.

In the Sevda clip, a burst of flame is followed immediately by plumes of heavy black smoke.

No damage beyond the funnel, or smokestack, area is evident in the videos provided by CENTCOM. The release did not mention any casualties on the tankers.

Military experts told CNN the Navy fighter jet likely used 500-pound laser-guided bombs to hit the tankers with such precision.

Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Royal Australian Air Force officer, described how the F/A-18 may have carried out the dual attacks.

“If you fly at say 5,000 feet straight toward the ship, use the aircraft’s infrared imaging targeting pod, put the laser spot on the smokestack and then drop as you approach, it should work,” he said.

The US aircraft likely aimed for the smokestack as a whole rather than dropping a bomb down the exhaust vent directly, he said.

“It’s a laser spot, the bomb needs to see the spot for at least the last 10 seconds. If the spot vanishes down the smokestack as you fly overhead, then it will be imprecise,” Layton said.

Maritime shipping expert Sal Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University in North Carolina, said his examination of the video showed the munitions hitting the ships in the lower portion or base of their smokestacks.

CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a retired US Air Force colonel, said it’s possible the Navy jet fired inert munitions at the tankers, enough to disable but not sink them.

Use of inert bombs – or bombs with a small yield – could explain the lack of a large explosions or secondary blasts that an explosive warhead could cause, analysts said.

The twin-engine F/A-18 flies off US aircraft carriers, in this case the USS George H. W. Bush, according to CENTCOM.

It can carry a range of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, including several varieties of the laser-guided bombs analysts say were likely used in the latest attacks.

The tankers were unladen and heading to an Iranian port in the Gulf of Oman trying to evade a US blockade, CENTCOM said.

They were the second and third Iranian ships hit by a US F/A-18 in the past three days.

On May 6, a Navy jet fired several rounds from its 20mm cannon to disable the rudder of a tanker.

“All three vessels are no longer transiting to Iran,” CENTCOM said, adding that multiple vessels have been disabled by the US as they try to evade a blockade of Iranian ports.

“And more than 50 have been redirected by CENTCOM forces to ensure compliance,” it said.

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The post US fighter jet’s attack on Iranian tankers explained appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. (KEYT) - The Gauchos overcame a rare shaky start from ace pitcher Jackson Flora and beat Cal State Northridge 8-4 to move into a first place tie in the Big West.

UCSB's fifth straight win coupled with Cal Poly losing at Fullerton 4-3 leaves the Gauchos and Mustangs tied on top of the Big West standings at 17-8 with five league games remaining.

San Marcos High School alum Chase Hoover entered the game in the bottom of the fifth inning with the game tied at 4.

Hoover shutdown CSUN by pitching 4.1 innings of one-hit shutout ball to pick up the victory.

The Gauchos offensive star was Rowan Kelly who had three hits with 3 RBI including the go-ahead run-scoring single in the seventh inning. He also added an RBI single as part of a 3-run eighth inning for UCSB who improved to 32-15 overall.

Flora entered the game with a 9-0 record and an ERA of under 1.00. But he allowed 4 earned runs in four innings of work throwing 96 pitches.

But for a change it was the team picking up Flora instead of the ace leading the way to a win.

The post Hoover stars in relief as UCSB pulls into a tie for first place in Big West appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Jeremy Diamond and Abeer Salman

Jenin, West Bank (CNN) — Ali al-Samoudi gingerly walks down the steps toward his home.

The 59-year-old Palestinian journalist is gaunt, with closely cropped gray hair and a matching beard. Each cautious step he takes reveals the physical toll of all he has endured that has aged him beyond his years.

We’ve worked with Samoudi for years, and this is the first time we’ve seen him in person in over a year. We can barely recognize him.

Samoudi was released last week from Israeli prison, where he was held for a year. He was never charged with a crime, held instead under administrative detention orders, which allow the Israeli military to imprison Palestinians without trial for up to six months at a time. The orders can be renewed indefinitely.

“It was a real hell. Prison today is hell in every sense of the word,” Samoudi said in an interview at his home in Jenin. “Everything they practiced with us was punishment and revenge.”

He is one of 105 Palestinian journalists who have been detained and imprisoned since October 7, 2023, the majority also held without charge, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The startling scale of detentions made Israel the third-worst jailer of journalists for 2025, behind only China and Myanmar, according to CPJ. Thirty-three Palestinian journalists are still imprisoned in Israel, the organization said.

Samoudi is a well-known journalist who has worked as a local producer and fixer for CNN, among other international outlets. He was at Shireen Abu Akleh’s side when the Palestinian American journalist was fatally shot by Israeli troops in 2022. He was also shot in the shoulder in the same incident.

Despite his four decades of reporting experience, Samoudi said he was shocked by the conditions in Israeli prisons, where he says he endured physical and psychological abuse that sometimes left him wondering whether he would make it out of prison alive. Israel’s Prison Service did not respond to CNN’s request for comment about Samoudi’s detention.

Samoudi lost 60 kilos (132 pounds), or about half his body weight, during his year in prison.

“They basically gave us food only to keep us alive,” Samoudi said. “Breakfast consists of one spoon of labneh, a quarter spoon of jam. For lunch: four spoons of rice in addition to two slices of cucumber or two slices of tomato or two slices of sweet pepper.”

He described dinner as a “deluxe” meal: two spoonfuls of hummus, a spoonful of tahini and an egg. Saturdays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays the prison service would add a small piece of chicken or meat, he said.

Dozens of other Palestinian prisoners have also emerged from Israeli prisons emaciated. Israel’s supreme court ordered improvement in prison conditions after it ruled in September that the state was failing to meet prisoners’ basic nutritional needs. But Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister who oversees the prisons, has doubled down on his draconian approach, boasting about the poor quality of food in prison and the “bare minimum of bare minimum” being provided.

Books, pens and paper were all banned, Samoudi said. The dollop of shampoo he received each week was labeled as being for dogs, he said. And every move within or between prisons brought with it physical abuse.

Trips to detention hearings brought beatings. So did those to the clinic.

“One time after I returned from a visit with the lawyer, they threw us on the ground, on our faces and they started hitting us,” Samoudi said. “An Israeli officer stood and stepped on my head like this and pressed my face into the ground for four minutes until I suffocated.”

But it’s what he witnessed others endure that is most difficult for Samoudi to recount:, like the young man in his cell who was refused medical treatment.

Samoudi says one of his

By Anabella Gonzalez, Gonzalo Zegarra, Caitlin Danaher, CNN

(CNN) — Hantavirus cases in Argentina have almost doubled in the past year, with the country recording 32 deaths alongside its highest number of infections since 2018.

The rise comes as Argentine authorities race to trace the footsteps of a couple who traveled extensively in the country and later died amid an outbreak of the virus on the cruise ship MV Hondius, which left port in Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on April 1 and is currently on its way to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Experts blame climate change and habitat destruction for the rise in cases of the disease, which is usually caused by exposure to the urine or feces of infected rodents.

The current season, which started in June 2025, has already seen 101 confirmed hantavirus cases, Argentina’s health ministry said – compared with just 57 during the same period last season.

Not only did the country record an unusually large number of cases this year, but it also recorded one of the highest lethality rates of recent years, with the number of deaths marking an increase of 10 percentage points compared to the previous year.

And those numbers exclude the outbreak on the cruise-ship MV Hondius, the origins of which remain unknown.

While no cases of the hantavirus have been recorded in Ushuaia in recent decades, according to the ministry, the virus is endemic in some other areas of Argentina.

Argentine authorities believe the couple visited various regions of the country as they crossed back and forth over the border with neighboring Chile on several occasions, and into Uruguay, before joining the cruise.

Four geographic regions of Argentina are historically high-risk areas for contagion: Northwest (in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, and Tucumán), Northeast (Misiones, Formosa, and Chaco), Center (Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Entre Ríos), and South (Neuquén, Río Negro, and Chubut).

The Dutch couple who died amid the outbreak on the ship are thought to have visited both Misiones and Neuquén on their travels.

For many years, hantavirus had been associated with Patagonia in Argentina’s southern tip, after a deadly outbreak in 2018 killed 11 people and resulted in dozens of infections.

This season, however, most cases have been found in the country’s central region, with the province of Buenos Aires topping the highest number of cases with 42.

The outbreak on the ship has been linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare but potentially severe form of the virus that in some cases can spread between humans through close contact.

Climate to blame?

Hantavirus in Argentina usually develops in rural and peri-urban areas, in the presence of crops, tall weeds, humidity, or a subtropical climate.

But experts believe environmental degradation caused by climate change and human activity is contributing to its spread by allowing the rodents that transmit the virus to thrive in new areas.

“Increasing human interaction with wild environments, habitat destruction, the establishment of small urbanizations in rural areas, and the effects of climate change contribute to the appearance of cases outside historically endemic areas,” the ministry said.

Extreme weather phenomena, such as droughts and episodes of intense rainfall in recent years, are also fueling the trend, according to experts.

Temperature rises generate changes in the ecosystem that affect the presence of the long-tailed mouse, the main carrier of the vir

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - We're getting a chance to hear about some of the strangest things collected from Santa Cruz Island during a recent cleanup effort.

Laura Sanchez, Communications Director for Santa Barbara Channelkeeper shared details about the collaborative, daylong excursion.

"This event is part of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s larger effort to remove marine debris
from five different marine sanctuaries across California, Washington, and the Gulf of Mexico a project
supported by a 2023 award from the NOAA Marine Debris Program."

"I found a syringe, a football and, a lot of salsa containers," said Helen Perez, with a laugh.

Perez was one of 18 volunteers from seven group who trekked out to the Channel Islands that day. Sanchez said together they collected about 775 pounds of trash. 

Photographer Matt Dayka documented the event with beautiful photographs; Intern Ella Engel took video testimonials, asking the volunteers about the crazy, weird things they found.

"What's the most interesting thing you found out here today?" Engel asked. "We found a huge, rusted piece of a ship's engine buried in the rocks," said Alex Negrila, a student from Pepperdine.

"The craziest thing I found was so much Starbucks. So many lids, so many plastic cups," said Niki Mazaroli with Open Water.

Emma Beaver with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation said the strangest thing she plucked from the rocky shore was an irrigation line tangled up in seaweed and sticks.

Rich Powell said he found something useful.

"I found a green hat and it came in handy cuz I wore it the rest of the afternoon out here cleaning."

The volunteers also collected mylar balloons, lots of plastic bottles, rusty metal traps, even shoes.

"They ferried the trash from shore using kayaks and a skiff and loaded it onto boats that brought it back to the mainland for proper disposal," Sanchez shared in a press release.

“These annual cleanups provide a valuable opportunity to bring our partners and volunteers together for a productive and meaningful day of service in a very special place,” says Channelkeeper’s science and
program manager Molly Troup. “We hope that these events inspire community members to continue to
elevate the plastic crisis and push for meaningful change.”

Michaela Miller, Sr. Conservation Manager for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, said,
"Removing marine debris from the shorelines of Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary is important to the local community, and this debris removal effort is the
result of expert