By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN

(CNN) — Jason Salesberry had never set foot on Italian soil before moving there in October 2017. Today, he owns a house in a hilltop town and is planning the harvest from his two-acre grove of olive trees.

In the nine years since his family arrived in Naples sight unseen, their life has transformed into a whirlwind of European adventure — from paragliding in Switzerland and scuba diving in Greece to days enjoying the local beach and Neapolitan gelato.

“Living in the heart of Europe has unlocked a world of adventure for our family,” Jason tells CNN Travel today.

It is a life the US Navy veteran, who grew up in San Diego, California, and was previously stationed in Puerto Rico and Japan, had never predicted. But he had long been fascinated by Italian culture and dreamed of one day experiencing it firsthand.

After meeting his wife Sherry, a fellow US Navy veteran originally from Trinidad and Tobago, and settling down to start a family, that dream became an active plan.

A leap into the unknown

“I never imagined my life’s path would lead to a hilltop town in southern Italy,” Jason says.

“It really was just an adventure. We wanted to try something new.”

There were practical motivations, too. Jason says he had grown increasingly concerned about violent crimes in Chesapeake, Virginia, where the family had been living since 2009. He wanted a safer, more stable environment for his young daughter.

“When I compared European crime rates to those in the US, the decision became clear,” he says. He applied for a position at a military base near Naples and was hired shortly after.

But while Jason was eager to leap into the unknown, Sherry required some serious convincing.

“I pretty much protested on coming here,” Sherry admits. She eventually agreed to the move on one strict condition: they would stay for only three years. “I’m an only child, and my mom did not want me to come.”

Because they viewed the relocation as a temporary assignment, they kept their three–bedroom home in Virginia rather than sell it. They packed light, unsure of what to expect from Italian housing.

In October 2017, they arrived in Naples with their daughter and their dog. They were anxious about the move in the beginning and couldn’t help but wonder if they’d made the right decision. Jason vividly recalls their first night in the country when the “sheer weight of unfamiliarity” left Sherry in tears.

They eventually found a rental home on the US Navy complex in Pozzuoli, an historic town situated directly on a volcanic caldera. It offered fabulous views, but also isolated them from local life “in an American bubble.”

Learning to slow down

As they settled in, the family fell in love with the local food scene and the slower pace of life in Naples.

“Back home in the US, everyone’s busy,” says Sherry. “You have your nine to five, then you have to prepare to go to school and work the next day. It’s not like that here.”

She jokes that they had to learn to adapt to a local culture where a dinner can last two or three hours.

“We had to learn the art of slowing down,” adds Jason. “Yet, the benefits have far outweighed the adjustments.”

As the birthplace of pizza, Naples offered plenty of culinary exploration. The family loved trying out the city’s mom and pop restaurants, marveling at how every kitchen had its own spin on classic pasta and pizza.

But local schedules brought some culture shock.

Restaurants rarely opened for dinner before 7.p.m. — a time when the family was typically winding down. Adding to the challenge, Jason and Sherry, who works for bank, often maintained US office hours.

Then there was the traffic. The “intense” driving style in Naples left Sherry so terrified

Por Sol Amaya, CNN en Español

En la fachada de un restaurante de sushi, en un coqueto barrio de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, dos pececitos se movían como podían dentro de una pequeña pecera rectangular. Expuestos al sol y a los ruidos de la calle, para los transeúntes pasaban casi desapercibidos, como parte del decorado. Los pocos que se percataban de ellos eran los niños que, al salir de las escuelas cercanas, corrían a golpear con sus manos el vidrio del habitáculo. Hasta que alguien se detuvo a mirar con más atención y el destino de Magui y Fede, dos peces carassius auratus (más conocidos como peces dorados), cambió para siempre.

Matías Trufero, abogado de la ONG Jaulas Vacías, un santuario antiespecista que alberga a más de 200 animales rescatados, fue el principal promotor de este viraje que hizo que los peces en cuestión dejaran de funcionar como ornamentos de un restaurante.

“Cualquiera que pasara por el lugar y se detuviera a observar podía darse cuenta de que no era el adecuado para los peces”, dijo Trufero a CNN. Por eso, desde Jaulas Vacías decidieron presentar la denuncia ante la justicia, argumentando una violación a la ley 14.346, que penaliza el maltrato animal en Argentina.

CNN contactó al local de comidas para obtener comentarios y está a la espera de una respuesta. Trufero dijo que no hubo ningún tipo de objeción por parte de la gente del local ante la decisión de llevarse a los animales.

Con la ayuda de especialistas armaron el caso y lo primero que lograron, casi de inmediato, fue el allanamiento para retirar a los peces de la vidriera y trasladarlos a un lugar más adecuado.

Tener a dos peces en una vidriera es “más o menos lo mismo que poner dos osos polares en una jaula dentro de un sauna”, dijo a CNN Carlos José Aga, uno de los especialistas que ayudó al rescate y se ofreció como adoptante.

Magui y Fede dejaron la pecera de 40 litros para pasar a una de 2.500 litros en la casa de Aga. El fallo determinó que los peces quedaran al cuidado del adoptante, por lo que este es ahora su hogar definitivo.

“Los peces son como los astronautas, viajan en su propio ambiente con cuidado sobre todos sus parámetros vitales y cuando llegan el lugar debe reproducir esas condiciones con gran exactitud para evitar desequilibrios que puedan derivar en descenso de su inmunidad”, explicó Aga sobre cómo fue el traslado de Magui y Fede.

“Ahora están muy bien. Se nota que se trata de una hembra (la de mayor tamaño y color dorado naranja) y un macho (el más claro y más pequeño)”, describió.

Pero el rescate de los peces fue solo una parte del proceso.

“En el inicio del expediente solicitamos que, además de retirar a los peces para llevarlos a un lugar seguro y acorde, se los declarara sujetos de derecho”, o “seres sintientes”, explicó Trufero. Es decir, que para la ley dejaran de ser “objetos” para convertirse en seres con derechos.

Esto no es solo importante para Magui y Fede sino que sienta, a su vez, un precedente para otros animales de este tipo que se encuentren en condiciones inadecuadas para llevar una vida digna.

Tal vez algunos se pregunten: “¿Entonces es ilegal tener a mi pececito dorado en casa?”. La respuesta es: depende. “No está prohibido per se tener un pez en una pecera. Sí mantenerlo en condiciones que le generen maltrato o crueldad, por ejemplo, el espacio inadecuado, no alimentarlos en cantidad y calidad y el resto de los actos penados según la ley”, explicó Trufero sobre la legislación en Argentina. “Por otra parte, si se trata de una especie exótica podría estar prohibido tenerla si encuadra en la ley de fauna” local, normativa que existe también en muchos otros países.

El primer caso de un habeas corpus presentado a favor de un animal no humano se dio en 2005 para Suiza, una chimpancé en Brasil. Lamentablemente, Suiza falleció antes de

By Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

(CNN) — Richard Gudenkauf walked his daughter down the aisle in September 1996 with a frown on his face.

The bride, Bernadette, was a vision in her white dress and matching pearls, big doe eyes peering out from behind her veil. Her mother, Laura Gudenkauf, watched her daughter glowing, happy to finally be marrying the man she had met years earlier during a theater production at church.

From the start, Richard had a bad feeling about the groom, David Vander Meer. He wasn’t happy about David marrying his daughter, a vibrant young performer, rooted in her faith, engaged in her community.

Bernadette had always been a star in Richard’s eyes. But it was at a crowded nightclub one night that he realized just how bright her light could shine. There was a karaoke stage in the corner, where a small audience listened to amateur singers crooning above the din of the larger crowd.

Bernadette got up to perform, and she was only four or five notes in when a hush fell over the entire club. They were captivated.

That’s when Richard knew, she’s really good.

Bernadette did what she could to get her voice out there, performing in character as Betty Boop and recording demo CDs with covers from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Christina Aguilera and Patti LaBelle. She had the pipes to keep up.

Now, Bernadette was excited to continue pursuing her dreams alongside David in the Las Vegas area.

Despite Richard’s reservations, the wedding was beautiful.

A crowded home

About 10 years later, Laura Gudenkauf was separated from Richard and living with Bernadette and David, along with Bernadette’s sister, Vanessa, who had special needs.

There were always teenagers hanging out at the house, members of the youth group David led, Laura noticed. Bernadette noticed it, too. And there was one girl – her initials were SH – who seemed to be growing particularly close to David. She would often call the house.

The dazzling smile Laura had seen on her daughter’s wedding day had turned. Bernadette was feeling lonely and dissatisfied, married to a man who wouldn’t publicly express his love to her, who treated her like nothing special, she wrote in letters investigators would find years later. He paid more attention to the teenagers in his youth group, she told Laura.

Once, Laura saw Bernadette come home from a night shift waitressing at a casino, where she played the piano and sang for guests on her breaks, and her tips went straight to David. Bernadette was angry with her husband, her mom saw, and slammed the bedroom door behind her.

When Bernadette told David she wanted a divorce, the youth pastor told her to consider the optics.

“What would people think?” he asked his wife, Laura would tell investigators.

The couple stayed together. As their 10th anniversary approached, they planned a trip to Zion National Park in Washington County, Utah. Bernadette, an experienced hiker with a taste for adventure, was glad to finally get some time alone, in nature, with her husband, her mother knew.

Before the trip, Bernadette discussed her and David’s life insurance plans with Laura. They had recently raised their policies’ death benefits from about $150,000 to $600,000 each – money David ensured Bernadette would help support Laura and Vanessa if anything ever happened to the couple.

Explaining their decision, Bernadette sat down at a computer to pull up a document for her mother. She typed in a password. It didn’t work, so she tried again. It didn’t work.

She turned and looked at Laura: “David changed the password.”

The hike to Angel’s Landing

With headlamps lighting their way through the predawn darkness, David and Bernadette set out around 4:20 a.m. on August 22, 2006, to hike in Zion National Park, David would soon

By Davis Winkie, CNN

(CNN) — Key US weapons stockpiles remain significantly depleted and will come under even more intense pressure if strikes against Iran continue at the current rate, as President Donald Trump reiterated Friday that the ceasefire in the conflict is “over.”

The situation with armaments could impact the American military’s ability to fight a potential future war with China or even North Korea, experts told CNN.

“If the war continues at the rate it’s been going for the last [five] days … it would reduce stockpiles enough that there would be a new, higher level of risk … with the Indo-Pacific,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

The early phase of the Iran conflict, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, saw the US military expend thousands of key missiles used for long-range precision strikes and to defend against enemy air and missile attacks, according to analysts and previous CNN reporting.

Michael O’Hanlon, who leads foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution think tank, said there’s “no doubt” that stockpiles are “lower than we would prefer.”

By the time full-scale fighting between the US and Iran stopped in April, the Pentagon had fired at least half of its THAAD ballistic missile interceptors, nearly half of its Patriot air defense interceptors, and around 30% of its Tomahawk land-attack missiles, according to a CSIS analysis. CNN previously confirmed the accuracy of the analysis through three people familiar with internal Defense Department stockpile estimates.

The ceasefire offered a respite for the US stockpile as the low-intensity tit-for-tat strikes in subsequent months required fewer US missiles.

But replenishment rates are low for key missiles, Cancian said — according to current fiscal year delivery schedules, the Pentagon is receiving roughly 15 new Tomahawks and 20 new Patriot missiles per month. There are no THAAD deliveries forecast in 2026. CSIS estimated it would take three or more years to rebuild those inventories to pre-Iran war levels.

Elaine McCusker, an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow who previously served as the Pentagon’s deputy and acting comptroller, told CNN that the “timeline for replenishment of munitions for the most part will be measured in years — two-to-five for most.”

Defense acquisition expert John Ferrari, a retired Army two-star general also affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, highlighted that “not a single dollar has been appropriated by the Congress to replace a single missile” since the war began, leaving just the “normal, slow yearly peacetime process.”

In recent weeks, the White House formally requested supplemental funding from lawmakers to cover the costs of the Iran conflict (and some unrelated programs), but the measure faces a tough road through Congress.

A Pentagon official told CNN that the department is “committed to rapidly expanding the defense industrial base.” Trump invoked the Defense Production Act in June to remove regulatory red tape and speed missile production, and the Defense Department has inked deals with manufacturers to expand their production lines.

“The Department is aggressively pursuing and integrating the best of American innovation, wherever it resides, to deliver production at scale and drive resiliency across supply chains,” said the Pentagon official.

The Defense Production Act invocation is “helpful,” Cancian said, but “the impact will be small.” And expanding production capacity takes time.

Licensing agreements to allow other countries such as Germany and Ukraine to domestically pr

By David Wright, Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump marked the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding on July Fourth with a speech touting a roaring stock market, urging election reforms, and hailing military interventions in Venezuela and Iran.

But another anniversary went conspicuously unmarked: the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by Trump exactly one year earlier.

At its ceremonious signing, the act seemed poised to be a defining legislative achievement for Republicans to run on in November.

But 12 months later, the law’s cutbacks to key safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps have fueled a chorus of criticism, challenging the effort to promote its populist and business-friendly tax cuts.

While the president and his party have sought to play up the law’s most popular provisions, even attempting to recast it as a “Working Families Tax Cut Bill,” Democrats have seized on negative polling and the Republican rebrand as evidence of its failures.

Today, it looks increasingly uncertain which party will benefit from the law’s passage, as the landmark policy package has become a major factor in competitive battleground races that could decide control of the House of Representatives.

“We know that it’s going to be a robust campaign,” said Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican seeking reelection in Michigan’s 7th District. “I represent one of the top targeted districts in the entire country, and it’s on me to go out and sell the merits of this.”

Healthcare fallout

Historic reductions to federal Medicaid spending and changes to eligibility requirements quickly emerged as the most politically fraught component of the legislation.

The law, known as OBBBA, is projected to slash roughly $1.2 trillion from the key public health insurance program for lower-income Americans through 2035, leaving 7.5 million more people without coverage by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The most notable provision adds a federal work requirement to Medicaid, a longtime GOP goal.

Democrats across the country have ripped into the GOP over the sweeping changes.

In California’s battleground 22nd District, for example, Democrat Randy Villegas has made fallout from the Medicaid cuts a centerpiece of his campaign against incumbent GOP Rep. David Valadao.

“We’re the most impacted in the entire country, where two out of every three of our constituents rely on Medicaid,” Villegas told CNN.

“Almost 70,000 people stand to lose healthcare in our district,” he said, adding that local clinics he’s spoken to are “worried about the possibility of shutting down and not being able to provide services to our community.”

Valadao has said that OBBBA will preserve Medicaid long term.

“One of my goals representing the Central Valley is to protect Medicaid for those who truly need it the most: seniors, vulnerable children, and disabled Americans,” he said in a statement to CNN last month.

In Iowa’s competitive US Senate race, Democrat Josh Turek has hammered Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson over her vote for the legislation and its reforms, which have stressed healthcare providers. Turek — who uses a wheelchair because of his spina bifida, attributed to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War — references his own experience navigating the healthcare system to underscore his opposition to the changes.

“I certainly know firsthand the importance of access to quality healthcare,” he has Read more