By Kathleen Magramo, Kocha Olarn, CNN

(CNN) — Months-long backpacking trips to Thailand might have just got a lot harder to arrange.

The Southeast Asian nation is ending a 60-day visa-free entry program for travelers from 93 countries and territories, the Thai Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Visitors from countries including Australia, the UK and the US will instead receive 30-day visa-free stays, while some nationalities will have to obtain visas on arrival.

The move is a major backtrack after the Thai government eased visa restrictions in 2024 to entice foreign visitors back after the coronavirus pandemic devastated the kingdom’s tourism industry, a vital part of its economy.

With majestic limestone islands, white sandy beaches and lush mountains, Thailand is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, attracting nearly 33 million foreign visitors in 2025.

While the increasing numbers have been welcomed, authorities have expressed concern that the 60-day visa-free policy was being abused by foreign nationals seeking to work illegally or engage in crime.

The Thai Foreign Ministry said the new restrictions were partly taken due to national security concerns.

In recent years, incidents of tourists behaving badly, including vandalizing temples and engaging in drunken bar fights, have gone viral on social media. Authorities have also made multiple arrests of foreign nationals for drug and human trafficking offences.

The demographic of foreign visitors to Thailand is shifting, with Russian tourists now making up the fourth largest group of visitors to Thailand last year, behind India, China and Malaysia.

Thailand’s popularity with Russian tourists has boomed as the Southeast Asian nation kept its borders open to Russian passport holders following Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine in contrast to some European countries, which implemented new restrictions on Russian visitors.

But Thai law enforcement agencies have repeatedly warned Russian nationals against over-staying their visas.

Separately, the Embassy of Israel in Thailand warned its nationals in vacation hotspot Phuket to follow local laws and regulations, according to a statement on its Facebook page earlier this month, noting that serious breaches could lead local officials to revoke visas.

CNN has reached out to the embassies of Russia and Israel in Thailand.

The rollback is reminiscent of Thailand’s move to decriminalize cannabis in 2022, when it became the first country in Asia to do so.

But following that, recreational use boomed across the kingdom, with regulation failing to keep up. Last year the government imposed new rules designed to rein in the “green rush” and recriminalize non-medical use.

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Por Stephanie Yang, John Liu y Chris Isidore, CNN

China anunció el miércoles que comprará 200 aviones Boeing y que colaborará con Estados Unidos para reducir los aranceles, confirmando algunos detalles del resultado de la visita del presidente Donald Trump a Beijing la semana pasada.

El acuerdo, que pondría fin a una congelación virtual de las ventas de aviones Boeing a China que duró casi una década, fue anunciado el miércoles por el Ministerio de Comercio chino.

También indicó que Estados Unidos y China están negociando una prórroga de la tregua comercial que expira en noviembre, y que debatirán un marco para la reducción recíproca de aranceles sobre bienes por un valor aproximado de US$ 30.000 millones.

El comunicado del Ministerio de Comercio se hizo eco de las expectativas expresadas por funcionarios de la administración Trump el viernes pasado, al término de una cumbre de dos días en Beijing entre Trump y el líder de China, Xi Jinping.

China también afirmó que colaborará con Estados Unidos para ampliar el comercio bilateral de productos agrícolas y garantizar la estabilidad del suministro de tierras raras en las cadenas de suministro mundiales, aunque no especificó cómo.

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By Samantha Delouya, CNN

(CNN) — On Wednesday, hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of home listings in the Midwest were slated to begin disappearing from Zillow amid a mounting legal fight between some of the biggest players in the real estate industry.

Midwest Real Estate Data, or MRED, said it would cut off Zillow’s access to its regional home-listing database serving Chicago and its surrounding areas at midnight Central Time.

The move by MRED, which has accused Zillow of violating its licensing rules, marks an escalation in the fight over so-called private listings — homes marketed to select buyers before appearing on public home-search websites. Now, the messy dispute is directly affecting what homes buyers and sellers can see online.

Why is this happening?

Last year, Zillow announced a new rule for agents and brokerages: A home listing marketed to any consumers must be published on Zillow within one day, or the listing would be banned. The company said the rules were in the interest of transparency and fairness as private listing networks grow.

MRED handles roughly 250,000 listings annually, primarily across Illinois and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana, and recently announced a partnership with Compass, the world’s largest real estate brokerage, to create a nationwide private-listing network. MRED has argued that Zillow’s private listing ban breaks its rules because it disproportionately targets one brokerage: Compass.

Last week, Zillow sued MRED and Compass in federal court, accusing them of conspiring to cut off Zillow’s access to MRED’s listings.

Zillow has argued that MRED is effectively controlled by Compass, noting that the brokerage holds three seats on MRED’s board (there are 17 total board seats). Zillow claimed MRED is acting on Compass’s behalf to expand private listings and undermine Zillow’s rules.

“Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening: By threatening Zillow users’ access to every listing in Chicagoland, MRED is using its monopoly over Chicago as a weapon to control how Zillow handles listings in places like California and Florida — markets thousands of miles outside Chicago that MRED has never operated in — all to give the largest brokerage in the country a leg up,” a Zillow spokesperson said.

What’s the deal with private listings?

Compass and its CEO Robert Reffkin have long been vocal supporters of private listings.

Traditional listings typically show a home’s price history and how long it has been on the market — information pulled from the multiple listing service (MLS) databases like MRED that real estate agents use to share properties for sale.

Reffkin has called that information a “killer of value,” arguing that private listings are in the best interest of sellers, who should be able to choose how they market their homes.

Critics say the system could unfairly push home sellers to make deals with buyers represented by other Compass agents, resulting in the brokerage collecting commission from both sides of the transaction. Compass denies that claim.

In January, Compass acquired Anywhere Real Estate, creating the nation’s largest real estate brokerage and cementing Reffkin as one of the industry’s most influential players. Since then, more brokerages have embraced private and “coming soon” listings that keep a home’s pricing history and days on market hidden from the public.

Last year, Compass sued Zillow after it announced its rule curbing private listings, accusing the company of engaging in an anticompetitive conspiracy to maintain its dominance over digit

By Simone McCarthy, CNN

Beijing (CNN) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed ties with Russia as a force of “calm amid chaos” during a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Wednesday, days after Xi hosted US President Donald Trump.

Xi alluded to an increasingly fractious international situation – and took a veiled jab at the US – as he sat down with Putin in the Great Hall of the People for meetings kicking off the Russian leader’s roughly 24-hour state visit in the Chinese capital.

“The international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and transformation, while unilateral hegemonic currents are running rampant,” Xi said, using Beijing’s typical language to criticize what it sees as American foreign policy overreach.

In the face of this, China and Russia should enhance their “comprehensive strategic coordination,” Xi said, according to Chinese state media.

The Chinese leader directly addressed the US-Israeli war against Iran, saying that its “early end” will help reduce disruption to energy supplies, supply chains and trade.

“A comprehensive cessation of war brooks no delay, restarting hostilities is even less desirable, and persisting with negotiations is particularly important,” Xi said.

Putin – who continues to wage war in Ukraine – is making his 25th official visit to China during his quarter-century as Russia’s leader, a period in which Moscow and Beijing have significantly tightened coordination across trade, diplomacy and security.

A day of meetings between Putin and Xi is expected to focus on further expanding their “no limits” partnership – while also giving the two an opportunity to discuss Trump’s visit and the wars in Ukraine and Iran.

For Xi, hosting leaders of both the US and Russia – two nations both mired in conflict – in the space of a few days is a boon as he aims to cement China’s reputation as a global powerbroker.

Putin’s welcome outside the monumental Great Hall on Wednesday morning had all the trappings of the typical state-visit welcome, which Beijing also bestowed on Trump last week.

Xi and a line-up of his top officials shook hands with the Russian president, before Putin and Xi, looking relaxed, stood shoulder to shoulder during a gun salute, while a military band played and Russian and Chinese flags fluttered in the background.

Children also waved flags and flowers as the leaders walked by – a feature of last week’s ceremony that visibly amused Trump.

Those optics appeared geared to underscore China and Russia’s enduring and ever-deepening alignment, even as both governments shift their relationship with the US.

The two sides are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 2001 “Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation,” which resolved long-standing border frictions and ushered in a new period of cooperation.

That cooperation has only been deepened by Xi and Putin, two leaders who have met more than 40 times, and are known for their close personal rapport.

Putin alluded to this in his opening remarks to Xi, in which he referenced a Chinese idiom that translates to “One day apart feels like three autumns,” used to emphasize the sadness of being separated.

But behind the pomp and circumstance, Putin is also facing Xi in a much weaker position than during his last visit to Beijing in September.

Days before his arrival, Ukraine launched what Russian media said was the largest attack on Moscow in over a year, targeting the capital city with more than 500 drones. Russia has also been losing ground to Ukraine, last month suffering what analysts say was the first net loss of territory since August 2024.

Xi may use the

Por Evan Perez, CNN

Los cargos penales que el Departamento de Justicia prevé presentar contra el expresidente de Cuba Raúl Castro son el resultado de un proceso judicial que lleva gestándose más de 30 años, y en el que los fiscales federales de Miami redactaron por primera vez una acusación formal en su contra en la década de 1990.

Tras tres décadas, las acusaciones penales que se espera que se anuncien este miércoles en un acto en Miami se centran en el papel de Castro, de 94 años —años antes de su presidencia— como ministro de Defensa y su presunta participación en la orden de derribo en 1996 de dos aviones civiles pertenecientes al grupo cubanoamericano Hermanos al Rescate, según personas informadas sobre el asunto.

Cuatro personas, tres de ellas estadounidenses, murieron en el ataque perpetrado por dos cazas MiG cubanos en espacio aéreo internacional.

Se espera que el secretario de Justicia interino, Todd Blanche, asista a una ceremonia en honor a las víctimas del derribo, coincidiendo con el día en que los exiliados cubanos celebran la independencia de Cuba, según fuentes cercanas a la organización.

Sin embargo, el borrador original de la acusación se basó en el impulso del exitoso procesamiento de Manuel Noriega, el líder panameño condenado en 1992 por crimen organizado y narcotráfico.

“Tras el caso Noriega, redoblamos francamente nuestros esfuerzos para que este caso avanzara”, declaró Guy Lewis, exfiscal federal de Miami, refiriéndose a los primeros esfuerzos en una entrevista telefónica.

Años después, Lewis redactó un memorándum de siete páginas en el que exponía un posible caso contra Castro, el cual, en los últimos meses, llegó a manos de altos funcionarios de la administración Trump, incluido el secretario de Estado Marco Rubio.

El memorándum se elaboró ​​originalmente en 2016 y posteriormente se envió al entonces fiscal general Jeff Sessions. Sin embargo, no se concretó ningún caso, hasta ahora.

George Fowler, cuya familia huyó de Cuba cuando él tenía 9 años y que es un abogado con una larga trayectoria que representa al grupo de presión Fundación Nacional Cubanoamericana, dice que le escribió al presidente Donald Trump e incluyó el memorándum de Lewis para argumentar a favor de tomar medidas contra Castro.

“Llevo intentando que los Castro sean procesados ​​desde que tenía 9 años”, señaló Fowler en una entrevista con CNN.

Lewis, quien ayudó a procesar a Noriega, afirma que parte de la investigación para preparar el juicio contra Noriega ayudó a reunir pruebas de que Castro, hermano del entonces líder cubano Fidel Castro, y otros miembros del Gobierno cubano recibieron millones en pagos de líderes de cárteles colombianos para proteger sus cargamentos.

Esos esfuerzos por presentar cargos se detuvieron después de que el Miami Herald informara sobre el borrador de la acusación, recuerda Lewis de aquel entonces.

Tras el derribo del avión de Hermanos al Rescate, surgió una nueva iniciativa: el FBI intensificó su investigación sobre la red de espionaje de la inteligencia cubana, que se extendía desde instalaciones militares en Miami y Tampa hasta infiltraciones en el grupo Hermanos al Rescate e incluso en las oficinas de miembros del Congreso.

La red de espionaje conocida como La Red Avispa había infiltrado a agentes de inteligencia cubanos en la comunidad cubana anticastrista de Miami, incluyendo a los Hermanos al Rescate, que comenzaron como un grupo de observadores aéreos que identificaban a refugiados cubanos que necesitaban ser rescatados en el mar.

En un juicio celebrado en el año 2000, cinco miembros de la red de espionaje cubana, incluido su líder Gerardo Hernández, fueron declarados culpables de espionaje y otros cargos.

Una acusación formal independiente presentada por Estados Unidos incluyó cargos de asesinato y otros delitos contra los pilotos cubanos de MiG y un