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Por Cindy Von Quednow, CNN

Habían estado separados durante 40 días, el período más largo que jamás habían estado separados.

Había abrazado a su hija incontables veces, pero tras semanas de separación forzada, su abrazo se sintió como la primera vez. Duró cinco minutos; madre e hija se abrazaron con fuerza, como si temieran separarse de nuevo si aflojaban el agarre.

“Lo lograste, mamá”, le dijo Damaris Bello, de 22 años, a su madre.

María de Jesús Estrada Juárez había logrado lo que parecía y cada vez era más imposible: regresó a Estados Unidos después de haber sido deportada por el Gobierno federal.

Estrada Juárez, quien llegó a Estados Unidos siendo adolescente y estuvo protegida por un programa de la era Obama durante unos 13 años, había sido deportada de Sacramento a México, país donde nació.

Ella se encuentra entre los cientos de miles de inmigrantes que viven en Estados Unidos bajo el programa de Acción Diferida para los Llegados en la Infancia (DACA, por sus siglas en inglés). Y es una de las decenas de beneficiarios de DACA que han sido deportados, a pesar de que se supone que están protegidos contra la expulsión.

Entre el 1 de enero y el 11 de noviembre de 2025, 261 beneficiarios de DACA fueron arrestados y 86 fueron deportados, según el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés). El DHS no le brindó a CNN las cifras actualizadas cuando se le solicitaron.

Con la ayuda de un abogado, Estrada Juárez demandó al Gobierno federal, y un juez le ordenó a las autoridades que facilitaran su regreso seguro al país que ha considerado su hogar durante casi 30 años.

“Hoy se hizo justicia”, le dijo Estrada Juárez, de 42 años, a CNN en Español tras regresar a Estados Unidos el mes pasado. “Si mi caso puede ayudar a otras personas que luchan por reunirse con sus familias, entonces el dolor habrá valido la pena”.

Estrada Juárez forjó una vida en Estados Unidos tras llegar de Puebla, México, a los 15 años. Llegó, como muchos inmigrantes, en busca de una vida mejor, y para ayudar a su madre y a sus hermanos, según contó. Su estatus DACA le brindó una sensación de seguridad y pertenencia, afirmó.

El programa DACA, que comenzó en 2012, protege a cerca de medio millón de inmigrantes indocumentados que llegaron a Estados Unidos siendo niños.

Este programa permite a los beneficiarios trabajar y estudiar legalmente en Estados Unidos. Si bien la Corte Suprema impidió que el presidente Donald Trump clausurara por completo el programa en 2020, este sigue enfrentando desafíos legales.

Sin embargo, el punto crítico es que DACA no otorga estatus legal, según el DHS. Aun así, Estrada Juárez quería convertirse en residente y había comenzado el proceso.

Cuando le programaron la entrevista para ajustar su estatus migratorio para el 18 de febrero, se puso nerviosa. Había oído hablar de personas que habían sido detenidas y deportadas en audiencias de inmigración.

Pero gozaba de un estatus de protección, pensó Estrada Juárez, aunque no fuera permanente. Y tenía un historial limpio, sin antecedentes penales.

“Si estoy haciendo lo correcto y estoy siguiendo el camino correcto, ¿po

By Meteorologist Chris Dolce, CNN

(CNN) — Drought in the continental United States has expanded to its record-highest level for spring, and it’s fueling wildfire and water shortage concerns as the summer’s drying heat fast approaches.

Varying levels of drought covered 62.78% of the country as April 21, with the worst of it centered on much of the South, West and Plains. Put another way, dryness in the Lower 48 states has never been this expansive in spring in the history of the US Drought Monitor, which has data back to 2000.

The Southeast in particular is facing unprecedented levels of dryness, with 94% of the area from Florida to Virginia officially in severe or worse drought, the highest on record. Bone-dry vegetation is already feeding at least 20 large fires across the region as of Wednesday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

This year’s footprint of parched conditions is also just 2 to 3% behind the monitor’s record for anytime of year, set on September 25, 2012.

The April data comes on the heels of a March that had the third worst drought conditions in over 130 years of records, based on another way the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculates long-term dryness across the continental US. Only two 1934 Dust Bowl-era months were worse off.

Drought intensifies after record-dry start to 2026

A dearth of rain and snow in the first three months of 2026 has helped stoke this spring’s drought. Precipitation for the continental US as a whole was less than 70% of average from January through March, which ranks as the lowest in records dating to 1895, according to NOAA. The previous record was set in 1910.

La Niña likely played a role in the lack of rain, especially across the nation’s southern tier, while in the West, storms have tracked farther north this winter and early spring, avoiding the Rockies.

Parched conditions in the Southeast have worsened significantly through winter and early spring, with over 99% of the region experiencing some level of drought.

In Georgia, extreme drought now covers 71% of the state, the highest since 2012. It’s prompted the first-ever mandatory burn ban in the history of the Georgia Forestry Commission for 91 counties in the lower half of the state. That includes Brantley County, about 20 miles west of Brunswick, Georgia, where the Highway 82 Fire has burned at least 54 structures — including homes — and forced evacuations this week. More than 99% of the county is now in exceptional drought, the highest category, for the first time on record.

Wildfires in Florida are feeding off of vegetation made tinder-dry by a double-whammy of depleted rainfall from La Niña this past winter and a lack rainfall from tropical storms last fall. Nearly 1,800 wildfires have charred parts of the state so far this year, according to the Florida Forest Service.

In the West, an unprecedented March heat wave made worse by planet-warming pollution also further depleted the dismal snowpack from a winter filled with more blue skies than snowflakes. Colorado’s state climate center Read more

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Steve Contorno, Alicia Wallace, CNN

(CNN) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order Thursday reclassifying state-licensed marijuana as a less dangerous drug, changing a policy that has for decades made the drug’s potential medicinal benefits more difficult to research.

The order from Blanche does not make recreational use legal under federal law. Instead, it moves licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — which are the most restricted drugs such as heroin and ecstasy — to Schedule III, the same category as some prescription medicines like ketamine and Tylenol with codeine.

It also gives a tax break to licensed medical marijuana dealers and eases some restrictions on researching its effects.

“These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana’s safety and efficacy, expanding patients’ access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions,” Blanche wrote in a social media post on X.

The Drug Enforcement Administration will hold administrative hearings before a judge on the rule change, Blanche said.

The effort to downgrade marijuana’s classification has been discussed and attempted by several administrations, but none were successful in finalizing a rule. Former President Joe Biden initiated a new attempt in the last year of his presidency, but it wasn’t completed before he left office.

Critics blamed reluctancy from then-DEA Administrator Anne Milgram for slow-walking the process. The rule had been similarly scheduled for administrative hearings before the end of Biden’s term but was put on pause indefinitely by the DEA’s top judge.

In an executive order last December, President Donald Trump ordered the Justice Department to expedite the process and push through Biden’s proposed rule change.

But there was little public movement in the proceeding months, and advocates of eased regulations grew frustrated.

Trump himself appeared to express frustration about the delay over the weekend, telling podcaster Joe Rogan, a supporter of rescheduling marijuana, at an Oval Office event that “they’re slow walking me.”

Sources told CNN that in the White House and Justice Department have also faced increasing pressure from the cannabis industry to get the scheduling change over the line.

As a plan to move forward was being finalized, some in the department hoped to publicize its efforts on April 20 — a day of celebration for marijuana enthusiasts — but were told that it would be unseemly, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

Now, the reinvigorated effort is likely to face swift legal challenges from critics who say that the downgrade could encourage recreational use of a harmful drug.

Still, loosening restrictions around marijuana is broadly popular. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found nearly six in 10 Americans support the legalization of recreational cannabis.

Economic impacts

The federal government acknowledging marijuana’s medical value is not only symbolically powerful but also could serve as a permissive signal to state-level lawmakers currently weighing cannabis legislation, said Brian Vicente, a founding partner of Vicente LLP, a Denver-based cannabis law firm.

A rescheduling would carry practical implications as well, he said, not

Por Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN en Español

La presidenta encargada de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, recibirá este viernes al mandatario de Colombia, Gustavo Petro, en su segundo encuentro con jefe de Estado desde que asumió el cargo en enero tras la captura de Nicolás Maduro, luego de un intento fallido de reunirse en marzo.

“Si Mahoma no viene a mí, yo voy a la montaña. Y entonces voy a Caracas”, dijo días atrás Petro en entrevista con RTVE y EFE, cuando anunció su visita. Esta semana, detalló que la reunión se centrará en la seguridad en la frontera común.

“Catatumbo es un tema a hablar con la presidente Delcy. Por eso mi delegación va a ser más bien militar, policial, con el ministro de Defensa, para que organice la comitiva”, explicó el presidente en un consejo de ministros televisado.

Con una porosa frontera de más de 2.000 kilómetros, con presencia de grupos armados, la seguridad es un tema clave de la relación bilateral. Petro afirmó que el encuentro buscará avanzar en un “plan conjunto” del tema y una “estrecha relación en inteligencia” entre ambos países.

Sin embargo, Petro también se ha referido a la situación política de Venezuela bajo la nueva etapa del chavismo. Según declaró en España, el Gobierno y la oposición “tienen que cogobernar un tiempo para darse confianza”, para que tras uno o dos años puedan realizarse “unas elecciones libres de verdad”.

Además, consideró que la población venezolana tiene “un gran temor” al regreso de la líder opositora María Corina Machado, que permanece fuera del país, en caso de que decida llevar a cabo una “vendetta política”. En respuesta, la ganadora del Nobel de la Paz dijo que Petro debería concentrarse en “buscar la paz en Colombia y no en promover violencia en Venezuela”.

Por su parte, la agenda internacional de Rodríguez ha estado hasta ahora acotada a Estados Unidos, más allá de un breve viaje oficial a Granada hace dos semanas. La mandataria encargada ha recibido a varios funcionarios de Washington vinculados a la diplomacia, la energía y la inteligencia.

Petro y Rodríguez vienen sosteniendo conversaciones desde hace meses y tenían previsto reunirse a mediados de marzo en la frontera, pero el encuentro fue cancelado “por motivos de fuerza mayor”, según un comunicado de Venezuela, pocas horas después de que el presidente de Colombia sostuviera una charla con el mandatario de EE.UU., Donald Trump.

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By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Britain’s Prince Louis celebrated his eighth birthday on Thursday, with the royal family keeping up the tradition of releasing a photo to mark the occasion.

The image, posted on the social media accounts of his parents William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales, shows a smiling Louis wearing a blue quarter zip with his arms folded.

“Happy birthday, Louis! 8 today!” reads the caption.

The Waleses release a new photo of each of their three children to celebrate their birthdays.

Louis is the youngest of the trio and is fourth in line to the British throne.

This year’s edition was taken by photographer Matt Porteous during a family holiday in Cornwall, southwest England, according to PA Media news agency.

Last year’s photo showed that Louis was missing his two front teeth, but his adult teeth have now come through.

In his seventh birthday photo, Louis was dressed in jeans and a green V-neck jumper over a check shirt, while his sixth birthday was marked by an image of him lying on his front on some grass with his arms crossed in front of him.

Louis is known for his cheeky and playful nature. He has drawn attention during public events, such as Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022, when cameras caught him acting out.

The then 4-year-old Prince Louis stole the show during the jubilee pageant, displaying some elaborate facial expressions, which ensured he quickly went viral.

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