Por Kara Scannell, CNN

Estados Unidos aceptó permitir que el Gobierno de Venezuela financie la defensa del presidente derrocado Nicolás Maduro, lo que pone fin a un enfrentamiento legal.

En una carta presentada a última hora del viernes por la noche, los fiscales federales informaron al juez que supervisa el caso que el Departamento del Tesoro aceptó modificar una licencia para permitir los pagos a los abogados de Maduro y su esposa, quien también enfrenta cargos penales, sin violar las leyes de sanciones de Estados Unidos. Maduro y su esposa se han declarado inocentes.

“Las licencias modificadas autorizan a los abogados defensores recibir pagos del Gobierno de Venezuela bajo ciertas condiciones”, explicaron los fiscales al juez, de modo que los pagos se realicen con fondos “de los que disponga el Gobierno de Venezuela a partir del 5 de marzo de 2026”.

Tanto los Maduro como el Gobierno venezolano están sujetos a sanciones por parte de EE.UU., por lo que cualquiera que desee recibir un pago de ellos debe obtener una licencia de la Oficina de Control de Activos Extranjeros (OFAC, por sus siglas en inglés) del Departamento del Tesoro para evitar infringir las leyes de sanciones estadounidenses.

A finales del mes pasado, el abogado de Nicolás Maduro, Barry Pollack, afirmó que la OFAC había concedido y posteriormente revocado una licencia que permitía al Gobierno de Venezuela pagar sus honorarios legales.

Los fiscales afirmaron que se trataba de un “error administrativo” y que los Maduro podían acceder a sus fondos personales en Venezuela para cubrir sus gastos legales, pero Pollack argumentó que la revocación violaba el derecho constitucional de Maduro a defenderse de los cargos. Según Pollack, los Maduro habían declarado que no disponían de fondos propios para pagar los honorarios legales.

Los abogados de los Maduro solicitaron previamente al juez que desestimara la acusación, alegando que el Gobierno de EE.UU. estaba obstaculizando su capacidad para defenderse de los cargos penales relacionados con una trama de conspiración de narcoterrorismo.

Durante una audiencia realizada el mes pasado, los fiscales acusaron a los Maduro de “saquear la riqueza de Venezuela” y afirmaron que el Gobierno debería tener la capacidad de “utilizar las sanciones para influir en la política exterior”.

“Ese es el propósito de las sanciones y una razón justificable para limitar el acceso a los fondos”, afirmó el fiscal. “Como su señoría sabe, ese propósito es anterior a la presente causa penal”.

El juez Alvin Hellerstein se mostró escéptico ante la postura del Gobierno, afirmando que Maduro y su esposa se encontraban bajo custodia federal y que no creía que representaran ninguna amenaza.

Los fiscales indicaron que los abogados de los Maduro retiraron su recurso judicial.

Los Maduro se encuentran bajo custodia federal en el Centro de Detención Metropolitano de Brooklyn.

Pollack señaló que impugnará la legalidad de la detención de Maduro y alega que goza de inmunidad judicial porque la supuesta conducta ilegal tuvo lugar mientras era presidente.

Maduro fue elegido presidente de Venezuela por primera vez en 2013. Sin embargo, el Gobierno de Estados Unidos, junto con docenas de otros países, no lo ha reconocido como líder legítimo de Venezuela desde 2019.

En marzo, el Gobierno de Donald Trump reconoció a Delcy Rodríguez como líder de Venezuela.

Esta es una noticia de última hora y será actualizada con información adicional.

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The post EE.UU. acepta que el Gobierno de Venezuela pague por la defensa de Maduro, lo que p

By Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — The US has agreed to allow the Venezuelan government to fund the defense of ousted President Nicolás Maduro, ending a legal standoff that has clouded the case for weeks.

Federal prosecutors and attorneys for the Maduros informed the judge overseeing the case in a joint letter filed late Friday night that the Treasury Department agreed to amend a license allowing for payments to attorneys for Maduro and his wife, who is also facing criminal charges, without violating US sanctions laws. Maduro and his wife have pleaded not guilty to drug and weapons charges.

“The amended licenses authorize defense counsel to receive payments from the Government of Venezuela under certain conditions,” prosecutors and lawyers for the defense told the judge, so that the payments are made with money “available to the Government of Venezuela after March 5, 2026.”

The Maduros and Venezuelan government are both sanctioned by the US, so anybody seeking payment from them needs to obtain a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to avoid violating US sanctions laws.

Late last month, Nicolás Maduro’s attorney, Barry Pollack, said the OFAC granted and then revoked a license allowing the Venezuelan government to pay his legal fees.

Prosecutors said it was an “administrative error” and the Maduros could access their personal funds in Venezuela to cover their legal expenses, but Pollack argued the reversal violated Maduro’s constitutional right to defend against the charges. The Maduros had testified they do not have their own funds available to pay the legal fees, per Pollack.

Lawyers for the Maduros previously asked the judge to dismiss the indictment, saying the US government was hindering their ability to defense against criminal charges related to a narco-terrorism conspiracy scheme.

During a hearing last month, prosecutors accused the Maduros of “plundering the wealth of Venezuela” and said the government should have the ability to “use sanctions to influence foreign policy.”

“That is the purpose of the sanctions and a justifiable reason for limiting access to funds,” the attorney said. “As your honor knows, that purpose predated the criminal case here.”

Judge Alvin Hellerstein was skeptical of the government’s position, saying Maduro and his wife were in federal custody and he didn’t believe they posed any threat.

Prosecutors said the Maduros’ attorneys have dropped their legal challenge.

The Maduros are being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Pollack has signaled that he will challenge the legality of Maduro’s arrest and argues he is immune from prosecution because the alleged illegal conduct occurred while he was president.

Maduro was first elected president of Venezuela in 2013. But the US government, along with dozens of other countries, has not recognized him as the legitimate leader of Venezuela since 2019.

In March, the Trump administration recognized Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy, as the leader of Venezuela.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with additional information.

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By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN

(CNN) — After deciding to cancel her June trip with friends to Dubai when the emirate became the target of Iranian strikes, Lorna Davis was determined to find a new summer vacation elsewhere for the group.

Davis, who lives in London, began looking into fares for alternative breaks in destinations such as the Maldives, Mauritius and Bali. But she was stunned when she saw how expensive the flights were.

“Prices have gone up…” Davis tells CNN Travel. “At this moment, prices are so high.”

Undeterred, she reasoned that options closer to home would be cheaper, and researched vacations to Greece, but Davis found that even here, the prices were higher than usual, and continuing to go up.

“I’ve been looking all day to try to book something before they hike again.”

As summer gets closer, Davis says that fares keep getting higher and she’s running out of feasible options.

“I’m not sure what is going to happen now,” she adds, stressing that she’s “still trying” but getting increasingly disheartened.

Nearly two months after the United States and Israel began their attacks on Iran, the conflict is having a significant impact on the travel industry, and millions of travelers like Davis are facing uncertainty about the summer escape they’ve been looking forward to all year.

Air ticket prices have been rising as the war causes disruption to fuel supplies and forces up airline running costs. Many carriers are now canceling services no longer deemed profitable.

The rising costs and uncertainty are forcing some to forgo long-haul trips in favor of closer and more affordable destinations. Even those planning self-drive vacations are having to rethink their summer as pump prices also continue to soar.

Soaring travel costs

“There’ll be higher fares, less capacity and less people traveling this summer than expected,” said Dan Akins, an economist from aviation consulting firm Flightpath Economics. “So, none of it is good for the travel industry.”

It’s no mystery why costs are increasing. With the Strait of Hormuz, the main conduit for about 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas, closed to commercial traffic, supplies of jet fuel and gasoline have become disrupted.

Airlines in Europe and Asia, which are more dependent on jet fuel imports, have been hit particularly hard. And while the US is a leading exporter of jet fuel, it’s still at the mercy of price fluctuations. It’s a situation unlikely to ease quickly even if a deal is reached to reopen the Strait.

“Exposure to the largest energy disruption in history is going to mostly be conveyed in the US through pricing,” said Akins.

US carriers, he added, no longer protect themselves from market volatility by locking in prices months in advance. Many international airlines still do, but this offers no protection against shortages.

The situation is now so dire that on April 16, the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, declared that Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel.

Airspace closures around conflict zones are also having an effect with airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways rerouting flights and subsequently burning more fuel. Many direct routes from Europe to Asia are being forced through a narrow corridor over Georgia and Azerbaijan or onto longer southern paths.

Those travelers flying out for vacations on “lower priced, no-frills kinds of tickets” will be hit the hardest, says Akins, as the unanticipated extra costs to airlines get passed on to passengers.

Added charges

Virgin Atlantic has increased some ticket prices by nearly $500, as well as adding extra fuel surcharges to economy-class tickets. Australian flag carrier Qantas is cutting 5% of its domestic flights, and Cathay Pacific and Uni

By Scottie Andrew, CNN

(CNN) — Last week, the “looksmaxxing” livestreamer Clavicular collapsed as thousands watched.

The 20-year-old self-styled master of looking good was live on camera in a Miami mall when he slumped and started to slur his words. Taking shelter from fans he’d been taking selfies with, he stumbled into a booth at an empty restaurant, closed his eyes and let his head flop onto the shoulder of the streamer seated next to him. He stopped responding after that. His camera crew cut the stream when they realized he was ill, but bystanders caught his team carrying his limp body out of the mall.

Miami Fire officials later said they’d responded to a suspected overdose. Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, hasn’t specified what substance he took before his collapse, though he hinted in a recent stream on Kick, his preferred platform, that the substance’s abbreviation is three letters.

A couple of days prior to the suspected overdose, “60 Minutes Australia” released an interview that the influencer had walked out of after a few half-hearted attempts to insult his interviewer. Earlier this month, he appeared to start convulsing after encouraging another streamer, who calls himself “the Cuban Tarzan,” to choke him. And less than 24 hours after his suspected overdose, at the opening of a club that’s open three nights a week for five hours a night, he spent most of the time standing by himself on an elevated surface, scrolling on his phone while young women danced a few feet away.

Is this what self-improvement looks like? Clavicular has presented himself as a short-term case study in the benefits of “looksmaxxing,” the art of modifying one’s physical appearance to attract women, wealth and fame. Starting at age 14, by his account, through exercise, sometimes by a hammer to the face, and with the help of a regimen of off-label or illicit drugs, he says he’s made himself into something new: a 6-foot-2 Chad with a 31-inch waist and pointy clavicles that span 19.5 inches (his own measurements, provided to the New York Times).

The result is an uncannily childlike face stuck onto a slim frame with swollen arms and a sharply tapering torso. (He rarely shows his legs.) His skin is always pallid, his expression pursed, his eyes vacant. He’s almost always wearing, or removing, shirts that are too tight, so he can flaunt the broadness of his shoulders. He’s been profiled in GQ and walked in New York Fashion Week; after spending a day with him, the Times declared, borrowing from looksmaxxing argot, that he’d “ascended” — in looksmaxxing vernacular — successfully became more attractive and widely known.

But collapsing in public and appearing to lose control of his own body doesn’t match the image of a giga-Chad. Clavicular’s project isn’t playing out like an inspiring story of human potential or a replicable health fad, even as he says “looksmaxxing is just another form of self-improvement that’s a little bit more holistic” than working out.

“I’d say I’ve pretty much tried it all,” he told “60 Minutes Australia” of his own looksmaxxing methods. “I haven’t had plastic surgery, but just about everything else in terms of biohacking. So you can really do a lot for your looks with simple pharmaceutical intervention.”

Onscreen, his is a performance predicated on extremity and shock, played out on his own body. Hundreds of thousands of people are watching.

Clavicular is less idealize

Análisis de Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

Una ley posterior a la guerra de Vietnam impone un plazo de 60 días para el uso de la fuerza militar sin autorización del Congreso.

La guerra en Irán, para la cual la administración Trump no solicitó aprobación, cumple ese plazo de 60 días el 1 de mayo, según el texto de la ley, la Resolución de Poderes de Guerra, pero no está nada claro qué sucederá cuando ese día llegue.

La ley establece un cronograma para las guerras no declaradas:

Primero, 48 horas. El presidente debe notificar al Congreso dentro de las 48 horas posteriores al despliegue de las fuerzas armadas y explicar el alcance, la justificación y la probable duración de la operación.

En su notificación al Congreso sobre Irán, Trump, al igual que otros presidentes, afirmó que comprometió tropas en virtud de la autoridad inherente al presidente, según la Constitución, para “conducir las relaciones exteriores de Estados Unidos”.

Segundo, 60 días. El Congreso debe autorizar el uso de la fuerza dentro de los 60 días posteriores a la recepción de dicha notificación o, según la ley, el presidente debe dar por terminada la acción militar.

En tercer lugar, existe la posibilidad de una prórroga de 30 días. Trump puede extender el plazo de 60 días por otros 30 días si argumenta que la acción militar continua es necesaria para garantizar la seguridad de los militares durante la retirada de la guerra. Trump ha declarado que no se dejará presionar para llegar a un mal acuerdo que ponga fin a la guerra.

Existe cierta confusión en el Congreso sobre la fecha exacta del plazo de 60 días fijado por la Casa Blanca, ya que los abogados de ambos partidos argumentan que existen diversas interpretaciones de la ley federal.

Algunos creen que el plazo de 60 días comenzó a contar desde la fecha de inicio de las hostilidades (lo que situaría la fecha límite el 29 de abril), mientras que otros citan el texto de la ley para argumentar que son 60 días naturales a partir de la fecha en que la Casa Blanca notificó oficialmente al Congreso (lo que situaría la fecha límite el 1 de mayo).

Pero muchos legisladores republicanos creen que el período de alto el fuego no cuenta para el plazo de 60 días. Incluso algunos demócratas dijeron que el alto el fuego podría complicar el cronograma.

“No se pueden castigar los altos el fuego. Queremos que se sienten a dialogar”, dijo el representante republicano Brian Fitzpatrick a CNN.

Fitzpatrick dijo estar listo para forzar una votación sobre la Ley de Poderes de Guerra si el alto el fuego termina.

Los legisladores pueden revocar los poderes de guerra de un presidente en cualquier momento, pero los intentos demócratas de hacerlo en esta ocasión han fracasado hasta ahora. La senadora republicana Lisa Murkowski, quien ha criticado la forma en que Trump ha manejado la guerra, ha hablado de impulsar una autorización para establecer límites a la forma en que se lleva a cabo la guerra, pero aún no lo ha hecho.

Varios presidentes, incluido Trump, han argumentado que la ley en sí es inconstitucional. Richard Nixon vetó la legislación cuando se aprobó por primera vez, argumentando que limitaba la capacidad de los presidentes para proteger al país. El Congreso anuló su veto.

Una resolución para limitar el poder de Trump en Venezuela fue rechazada en el Senado únicamente por el voto decisivo del vicepresidente J. D. Vance. Sin embargo, Vance declaró en enero, antes de la guerra con Irán, que la Resolución sobre los Poderes de Guerra no afectaría la forma en que Trump gobernaba el país.

“La Ley de Poderes de Guerra es fundamentalmente una ley falsa e inconstitucional”, afirmó Vance. “No va a cambiar en absoluto nuestra política exterior en las próximas semanas ni en los próximos meses. Y seguiremos actuando de la misma manera”.

A pesar de qu