By Curt Devine, John Miller, Evan Perez, Allison Gordon, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, CNN

(CNN) — Saying the “evidence now points in a different direction,” law enforcement officials late Sunday released a man they had detained in connection with the Brown University shooting, which left two dead and nine injured.

“This is what these investigations look like,” said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha at a news conference. “Sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another and that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so.”

Neronha said “there was a quantum of evidence which justified detaining this person as a person of interest.”

“That evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed,” Neronha said. “That evidence now points in a different direction. So what that means is that this person of interest needs to be and should be released.”

Law enforcement sources had earlier Sunday identified Benjamin Erickson as a person of interest. Erickson is a decorated soldier who served in a position at Arlington National Cemetery, according to his LinkedIn profile. Officials never publicly identified the man they detained.

Erickson, a 24-year-old Wisconsin native, served as an infantry soldier in the US Army, where he passed sniper training, had experience with firearms instruction and had served as a rifleman between 2021 and 2024, according to the profile.

Erickson also received a good conduct medal, participated in “security duties” near the president and assisted with funeral ceremonies at Arlington, the profile stated.

The LinkedIn page stated he planned to continue his college education at Brown University in the fall 2025 semester.

A spokesperson for the US Army said Erickson had no deployments and left last year with the rank of specialist. Brown University did not immediately respond to questions about Erickson’s record.

Authorities said the person of interest was not a current student at Brown, but law enforcement sources indicated to CNN that he might have been recently enrolled.

Erickson took online classes with a focus on psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after graduating from high school in July 2020, and then transferred to Brown for this fall semester after his military service ended, according to the profile, which noted a variety of interests including animal welfare, veteran support and helping the poor.

The profile further noted that he had interned as a carpenter and helped out at a horse rescue center.

A staff member at the rescue, the Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue in Maryland, told CNN that Erickson was part of an Army unit that learned horse handling techniques at the rescue center between 2023 and 2024. Erickson was training with the Caisson Detachment of the US Army’s 3d US Infantry Regiment, the staff member said – a unit that provides escorts for military and state funerals.

A high school yearbook included a photo of Erickson on his school’s wrestling team. A profile on X that appeared to belong to Erickson posted in 2016 and 2017 about wrestling, music and political satire.

One of Erickson’s former high school classmates, Bryce Jankowski, sai

CNN

By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — Donald Trump’s return to the White House set off a gold rush on Wall Street and in the crypto world.

Companies and crypto projects linked to Trump and his family exploded in value as traders bet they would benefit from the president’s return to power.

A year later, some of those Trump-related bets have paid off. But many others have imploded, costing investors who rushed in during the initial boom dearly.

The crash back to earth for many of these assets reflects the fact that many of these bets were hard to make sense of in the first place.

“Sometimes irrational exuberance meets the brick wall of logic,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

Trump Media

Exhibit A is Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, whose ticker symbol is DJT, the president’s initials.

Trump Media became a proxy for Trump’s election fortunes. Traders who sniffed out Trump’s looming victory gobbled up the stock, which tripled in value in the five weeks leading up to late October 2024.

Even though Trump Media had never made money and generated little revenue, the company was valued on Wall Street at a staggering $11 billion just days before the election.

Flash forward to today: Trump Media plunged below $11 a share on Friday, leaving it down roughly 80% from the pre-election peak and worth less than $3 billion.

Despite the fact that Trump uses Truth Social as his preferred platform for presidential communications, the social media network hasn’t become the go-to platform traders suspected it might be. Truth Social drew just 1.5 million monthly active US users on iOS and Android in November, a far cry from X’s 54.2 million and Reddit’s 59.8 million, according to Similarweb data shared with CNN.

Even Bluesky is more popular, with 2.4 million monthly active users.

Trump Media has pivoted this year to expand into financial services, crypto and artificial intelligence, but it’s too early to say if those moves will pay off.

Melania meme coin crashed 99%

Some other Trump-related bets have fared even worse than Trump Media.

For instance, the official Trump meme coin launched just days before he was sworn in, much to the dismay of ethics experts.

The Trump coin rapidly spiked to as high as $45.57 on January 19, giving it a $9 billion value, according to Coinmarketcap.

The gains padded Trump’s net worth, at least on paper, because 80% of the supply was held by Trump Organization-affiliates.

But today, the Trump meme coin is trading at around $5.60, or just $1.1 billion. It has lost 88% of its value from the peak.

First Lady Melania Trump’s meme coin suffered even steeper losses.

Melania coin peaked at $8.48 on January 19, giving it a market

By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — Donald Trump’s return to the White House set off a gold rush on Wall Street and in the crypto world.

Companies and crypto projects linked to Trump and his family exploded in value as traders bet they would benefit from the president’s return to power.

A year later, some of those Trump-related bets have paid off. But many others have imploded, costing investors who rushed in during the initial boom dearly.

The crash back to earth for many of these assets reflects the fact that many of these bets were hard to make sense of in the first place.

“Sometimes irrational exuberance meets the brick wall of logic,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

Trump Media

Exhibit A is Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, whose ticker symbol is DJT, the president’s initials.

Trump Media became a proxy for Trump’s election fortunes. Traders who sniffed out Trump’s looming victory gobbled up the stock, which tripled in value in the five weeks leading up to late October 2024.

Even though Trump Media had never made money and generated little revenue, the company was valued on Wall Street at a staggering $11 billion just days before the election.

Flash forward to today: Trump Media plunged below $11 a share on Friday, leaving it down roughly 80% from the pre-election peak and worth less than $3 billion.

Despite the fact that Trump uses Truth Social as his preferred platform for presidential communications, the social media network hasn’t become the go-to platform traders suspected it might be. Truth Social drew just 1.5 million monthly active US users on iOS and Android in November, a far cry from X’s 54.2 million and Reddit’s 59.8 million, according to Similarweb data shared with CNN.

Even Bluesky is more popular, with 2.4 million monthly active users.

Trump Media has pivoted this year to expand into financial services, crypto and artificial intelligence, but it’s too early to say if those moves will pay off.

Melania meme coin crashed 99%

Some other Trump-related bets have fared even worse than Trump Media.

For instance, the official Trump meme coin launched just days before he was sworn in, much to the dismay of ethics experts.

The Trump coin rapidly spiked to as high as $45.57 on January 19, giving it a $9 billion value, according to Coinmarketcap.

The gains padded Trump’s net worth, at least on paper, because 80% of the supply was held by Trump Organization-affiliates.

But today, the Trump meme coin is trading at around $5.60, or just $1.1 billion. It has lost 88% of its value from the peak.

First Lady Melania Trump’s meme coin suffered even steeper losses.

Melania coin peaked at $8.48 on January 19, giving it a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.

But by February the Melanie meme coin fell below $2, and today it’s worth just 11 cents, valued at barely $100 million. That means anyone who bought at the top and held on h

Por Sol Amaya y Michael Williams, CNN Español

La compañía estatal Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) denunció este lunes un “ataque cibernético dirigido a detener su operatividad”.

“Este intento de agresión se suma a la estrategia pública del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos de hacerse con el petróleo venezolano por vía de la fuerza y la piratería”, dice el comunicado.

PDVSA, la empresa más crítica para la economía venezolana, “rechaza categóricamente esta acción deleznable, orquestada por intereses extranjeros en complicidad con factores apátridas que buscan quebrantar el derecho del país a su desarrollo energético soberano”, añade el escrito. En tanto, sostiene que “no es la primera vez que el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos, aliado con sectores extremistas, intenta afectar la estabilidad nacional y robarle las navidades al pueblo venezolano”.

“Nada ni nadie detendrá la marcha victoriosa de PDVSA y de su clase trabajadora al servicio de todos los venezolanos y venezolanas”, concluye el comunicado.

CNN pidió comentarios sobre esta denuncia a la Agencia Nacional de Seguridad de Estados Unidos (NSA, por sus siglas en inglés) y aguarda respuesta.

La denuncia llega días después de que el Gobierno venezolano denunciara como “robo descarado” la incautación de un buque que transportaba cerca de dos millones de barriles de petróleo por parte de Estados Unidos frente a la costa del país. Esto se sumó a la creciente tensión por el despliegue militar de la administración de Donald Trump en el Caribe, que planea seguir con la confiscación de barcos.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post PDVSA denunció un “ataque cibernético” y lo adjudica a la estrategia de EE.UU. para “hacerse con el petróleo venezolano” appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Frank Nunns O’Connell, CNN

(CNN) — The theme of the 2025 NFL regular season has been one of extreme unpredictability: Super Bowl favorites performing below usual standards, unexpected comebacks and breakout teams taking the league by storm.

Those themes took center stage once again on Sunday as there were some thrilling matchups in the playoff hunt, as well as superstars suffering big injury blows.

Here’s everything you need to know from Sunday’s action in Week 15 of the 2025 season.

Mahomes tears ACL as Chiefs miss playoffs

Is this the end of an era? The Kansas City Chiefs were officially eliminated from playoff contention after a 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

That wasn’t even the worst news of the weekend for Kansas City, as superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes went down with a left knee injury in the fourth quarter, later confirmed to be a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

With the Chiefs down three late in the fourth quarter, Mahomes was sprinting towards the sideline and throwing the ball away when he was tackled by Chargers defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand, leaving the three-time Super Bowl winner clutching his left knee in pain.

“It didn’t look good,” said Chiefs head coach Andy Reid after the game.

Later, Kansas City released an update, saying: “An MRI has confirmed that Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes sustained a torn ACL in his left knee in today’s game. Patrick and the club are currently exploring surgical options.”

Mahomes posted his thoughts on X, saying: “Don’t know why this had to happen. And not going to lie it’s hurts.

“Thank you Chiefs kingdom for always supporting me and for everyone who has reached out and sent prayers. I Will be back.”

Gardner Minshew filled in under center for the remaining 1:53 and completed three straight passes, giving the Arrowhead Stadium faithful hope that their dwindling playoff chances could be resuscitated.

But with 20 seconds left, Minshew unloaded a pass at star tight end Travis Kelce which was underthrown and intercepted by Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. at the LA 18-yard line to effectively end the contest.

The pick put a wrap on the Chiefs’ playoff hopes, breaking a 10-year NFL postseason appearance streak for Kansas City – a time span that includes seven-straight AFC championship game appearances, five Super Bowl appearances in the last six seasons and three Vince Lombardi trophies.

But the overarching worry for the Chiefs will be the health of Mahomes moving forward, with ACL tears usually requiring a rehabilitation time of over six months.

“That dude puts so much into it,” Minshew said on the team’s franchise player postgame.

“I don’t think I’ve ever respected anyone I’ve played with more. I’ve never seen anyone I’ve played with give so much to the team.

“But I have more confidence in him, more than anyone, to come back and be better than ever.”

Parsons goes down in Packers loss

Sunday was also a double whammy for Micah Parsons and th