By Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — Palmerston, the black and white feline who rose from the streets of London to the hallowed halls of Britain’s Foreign Office, has died in Bermuda, London’s foreign ministry said Monday.

The former ‘Chief Mouser’ of the Foreign Office retired from Whitehall in 2020 but returned to the spotlight in 2025 when he joined the new Governor of Bermuda Andrew Murdoch in the overseas territory, according to an Instagram post.

The cat’s X account said the “diplocat extraordinaire” passed peacefully on February 12.

Affectionately known as ‘Palmy,’ the feline was a “special member of the Government House team in Bermuda, and a much loved family member,” the post said.

“He was a wonderful companion, with a gentle nature, and will be sorely missed.”

Palmerston was rescued from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and joined the Foreign Office in 2016 during a turbulent time in British politics, just months before the UK voted to withdraw from the European Union.

Named after the 19th-Century Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston, the cat quickly garnered a large online fanbase, boasting nearly 100,000 followers as of Tuesday who closely tracked his adventures across Westminster.

Palmerston enjoyed a friendly rivalry with Britain’s most famous cat, 10 Downing Street’s Larry, who just celebrated 15 years in his post.

“Farewell old friend x,” Larry said on X.

Among Palmerston’s many contributions to the UK public service was pest control. Just weeks into his post, Palmerston caught his first mouse, according to a congratulatory X post from the former Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Simon McDonald.

He was also a philanthropist and raised more than 3,000 British pounds ($4,082) for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

Palmerston retired in 2020 during the Covid pandemic to “spend more time relaxing away from the limelight,” according to a letter pawed by the cat and addressed to McDonald.

“I will miss hearing the footsteps of an Ambassador and sprinting to my hideout to see who it is,” Palmerston wrote, adding that his departure would be a “major loss for our intelligence gathering” but it was time to “enjoy some me-time.”

In 2025, “a purr-fect role” lured Palmerston out of retirement, the beloved cat said on X.

Palmerston ditched London’s grey skies and rain for the white sandy beaches and clear waters of Bermuda, where in his final days he could be seen playing with giant avocados, welcoming foreign dignitaries and handing out poppies ahead of Remembrance Day, according to his X account.

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Por Brad Lendon, CNN

China incrementó su producción de submarinos de propulsión nuclear en los últimos cinco años hasta el punto de estar lanzando submarinos más rápido que Estados Unidos, lo que amenaza con anular una ventaja en el poder naval que durante mucho tiempo ha pertenecido a Washington, según un nuevo informe de un think tank.

El aumento en la fuerza de submarinos nucleares de la Armada del Ejército Popular de Liberación incluye tanto submarinos de misiles balísticos como de ataque, afirma el informe del International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Durante los años 2021 a 2025, la construcción de submarinos de China superó a la de EE.UU.
tanto en número de submarinos lanzados (10 contra 7) como en tonelaje (79.000 contra 55.500), según el informe, que analizó imágenes satelitales de astilleros para estimar la construcción china.

Beijing no revela el número de unidades de su flota.

Es un cambio drástico respecto al periodo de 2016 a 2020, cuando China solo sumó tres submarinos (23.000 toneladas) frente a los siete de la Marina de EE.UU. (55.500 toneladas), según el análisis del IISS.

Las cifras representan submarinos lanzados pero no necesariamente completados ni incorporados a la flota en servicio activo, donde EE.UU. aún mantiene una gran ventaja.

A principios de 2025, China tenía 12 submarinos nucleares en servicio activo: seis de misiles balísticos y seis de misiles guiados o de ataque, según el “Military Balance 2025” del IISS. EE.UU. tenía un total de 65 submarinos, de los cuales 14 eran de misiles balísticos.

China también mantiene una gran flota de submarinos de propulsión convencional, con 46 unidades, según el “Military Balance”.

EE.UU. no tiene submarinos de propulsión convencional, los cuales – a diferencia de los nucleares – necesitan reabastecerse de combustible regularmente.

Para acomodar el crecimiento de su flota de submarinos nucleares, Beijing ha ampliado significativamente el astillero Huludao de Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co. en el norte de China, según el informe titulado “Boomtime at Bohai”.

Esto ocurre después de que un informe del Congressional Research Service al Congreso el mes pasado señalara que la Marina de EE.UU. está quedando muy rezagada en su objetivo de construir dos submarinos de ataque clase Virginia por año, debido a que los astilleros estadounidenses solo han entregado entre 1,1 y 1,2 submarinos por año desde 2022.

EE.UU. también construye nuevos submarinos de misiles balísticos clase Columbia, pero ese programa tiene al menos un año de retraso, y el primer submarino de la clase, el USS District of Columbia, no se espera que sea entregado a la Marina hasta 2028, según dijo el almirante a cargo del programa a Breaking Defense la semana pasada.

“La mayor cantidad de unidades en el agua representa un desafío creciente para (EE.UU. y otros países occidentales) mientras luchan por aumentar su propia producción”, dice el informe del IISS.

El informe del IISS destaca dos submarinos de misiles balísticos Tipo 094 (SSBN) que se han lanzado en el astillero de Huludao. Con la capacidad de lanzar misiles balísticos con ojivas nucleares, los Tipo 094 se suman a la creciente tríada nuclear de Beijing, que incluye misiles balísticos intercontinentales terrestres y bombarderos, señala el informe.

Y China tiene incluso mejores SSBN en desarrollo, según el IISS.

“El Tipo 096 aún se espera que comience su producción en Bohai en esta década, entrando en servicio a finales de la década de 2020 o principios de la de 2030”, indica el informe.

Además de los SSBN, el númer

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By Elise Hammond, Mark Morales, Danya Gainor, Amanda Musa, CNN

(CNN) — A hockey game was violently interrupted Monday when the sound of gunfire echoed inside a packed ice rink in Rhode Island, leaving at least two people dead and three others injured, police said.

The suspected shooter, who police say took their own life after opening fire, appeared to target family members during the incident, two law enforcement officials who have been briefed on the situation tell CNN. Police have said the investigation is ongoing.

Police identified the suspected shooter as Robert K. Dorgan, who Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said went by the name of Roberta Esposito.

The latest spasm of gun violence comes just two months after a shooting at Brown University, a few miles south, left Rhode Island shaken and underscored the vulnerability of trusted community spaces.

The shooting appeared to unfold behind one of the team’s benches in the middle of play, video from the youth-sports streaming service LiveBarn shows. In the footage, aired by CNN affiliate WJAR, players from both teams are seen taking cover as at least a dozen shots are fired, with players and coaches rushing for the gates leading out of the rink’s benches.

Some of the high-school-aged skaters joined the players on the ice, leaping into the rink amid the sound of shots, charging toward a door on the opposite side which leads to the locker room, according to WJAR. Another person tried to disarm the shooter in the stands, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said on social media.

The good Samaritan’s efforts are “probably what led to a swift end of this tragic event,” Goncalves said at a news conference Monday evening.

The three injured people are in critical condition at Rhode Island Hospital with gunshot wounds, the hospital system said. It is the same facility where victims in the shooting at Brown University were treated.

Police are working to put together a timeline of what happened before they responded to the facility at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Goncalves said.

It was the 41st mass shooting across the US in the first 47 days of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

“This kind of violence, especially in a place meant for families and youth, is devastating,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in a post on X.

Students playing in the game are safe, school says

Two teams made up of students from multiple schools were playing in hockey games at the arena, according to school officials. North Providence, which is involved with one of the co-op teams, told CNN the shooting involved spectators and happened around the start of the first period.

“Fortunately, all students involved in the game are safe,” Superintendent Joseph B. Goho said. North Providence previously said, “Preliminary information indicates the incident may have involved parent(s) of NP student(s).”

Meanwhile, Coventry,

By Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — Australia will not repatriate its citizens with links to Islamic State members, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the national broadcaster Tuesday, with blunt advice to families stranded in Syria: “If you make your bed, you lie in it.”

His comments followed reports that 34 Australian women and children were turned back by Syrian authorities after they had left a Syrian detention camp housing ISIS militants and their families with the aim of returning to Australia via the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The 11 families had left the Al-Roj camp in northeastern Syria for Damascus when they were contacted by Syrian officials who told them the procedures for their departure were incomplete and they could not travel, according to the Associated Press.

The camp’s director Hakmiyeh Ibrahim told AP the repatriations were organized by family members of the returnees, who had traveled from Australia to accompany them. It was not clear if or when they would be able to re-attempt the journey, the AP reported.

“We won’t repatriate them,” Albanese told the national broadcaster, the ABC. These are people who went overseas supporting Islamic State and went there to provide support for people who basically want a caliphate.”

Pressure has been mounting on Australia, the US, the UK and other countries to repatriate thousands of citizens, most of them women and children, who have been trapped in detention camps in Syria since the fall of the Caliphate more than five years ago.

Amnesty International and other NGOS have warned of widespread and systematic human rights abuses in the camps, where they say detainees, many of whom were forcibly trafficked to ISIS or born into the Caliphate, are subjected to torture, gender-based violence, forced disappearance and other atrocities.

Some countries have begun the legally and politically fraught process of repatriating their citizens, but progress has been slow as many governments have been reluctant to act due to national security concerns and domestic opposition.

The Al-Roj camp, where the 34 Australians have been living, is home to Shamima Begum, the London schoolgirl who ran away at the age of 15 to join ISIS in 2015 and was subsequently stripped of her British citizenship.

Australia has previously repatriated groups of women and children with links to ISIS from Syrian refugee camps in 2019 and 2022.

Last year, two Australian women and four children escaped Syria on their own and returned home via Lebanon without support from Australian authorities, according to the ABC.

In a statement to CNN, a Australian government spokesperson said the country “is not and will not repatriate people from Syria.”

“Our security agencies have been monitoring – and continue to monitor – the situation in Syria to ensure they are prepared for any Australians seeking to return to Australia,” the home affairs spokesperson said.

“People in this cohort need to know that if they have committed a crime and if they return to Australia they will be met with the full force of the law.”

Save the Children has long advocated on behalf of Australian citizens in Syrian detention, an

By Brad Lendon, CNN

(CNN) — China has ramped up its production of nuclear-powered submarines over the past five years to the point where it is launching subs faster than the United States, threatening to negate a sea-power advantage that has long belonged to Washington, a new think tank report says.

The buildup in the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s nuclear-powered sub force includes both ballistic-missile and attack subs, the report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) says.

During the years 2021 to 2025, China’s submarine building surpassed that of the US in both numbers of subs launched – 10 to 7 – and tonnage – 79,000 to 55,500, says the report, which looked at shipyard satellite imagery to draw estimates of China’s construction.

Beijing does not disclose fleet numbers.

It’s a stark turnaround from the 2016 to 2020 period, when China only added three subs (23,000 tons) to the US Navy’s seven (55,500 tons), according to the IISS analysis.

The numbers represent subs launched but not necessarily completed and added to the active-duty fleet, where the US still maintains a large advantage.

As of early 2025, China had 12 active nuclear-powered submarines, six ballistic-missile boats and six guided-missile or attack boats, according to the IISS’ “Military Balance 2025.” The US had 65 total subs, with 14 of those being ballistic-missile boats.

China also maintains a large conventionally powered sub fleet, with 46 boats, according to the “Military Balance.”

The US has zero conventionally powered subs which – unlike nuclear-powered subs – need to refuel regularly.

To accommodate its nuclear-powered sub fleet growth, Beijing has significantly expanded the Huludao yard of Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co. in northern China, according to the report, headlined “Boomtime at Bohai.”

It comes after a Congressional Research Service report to Congress last month said the US Navy is falling well behind its submarine-building goal of two Virginia-class attack boats per year, with US shipyards delivering only 1.1 to 1.2 subs a year since 2022.

The US is also building new Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines, but that program is at least a year behind schedule, with first-in-the-class USS District of Columbia not expected to be delivered to the Navy until 2028, the admiral in charge of the program told Breaking Defense last week.

“The greater numbers in the water present a growing challenge to (the US and other Western) countries as they struggle to increase their own output,” the IISS report says.

The IISS report highlights two Type 094 ballistic-missile subs (SSBNs) that have been launched at the Huludao shipyard. With the ability to fire nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, the Type 094s add to Beijing’s growing nuclear triad of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and bombers, it says.

And China has even better SSBNs in the works, the IISS says.

“The Type-096, is still expected to begin production at Bohai this decade, entering service either in the late 2020s or early 2030s,” it says.

Besides the SSBNs, the PLA Navy’s nuclear-powered launch numbers for the past five years include at least six guided-missile sub (SSGN) hulls, the report says. These boats have the vertical launch system (VLS), which could be used to fire new high-speed anti-ship missiles displayed at China’s Victory Day parade in Beijing last fall.

But the IISS report isn’t all bad news for Washington and its allies.

“Chinese designs almost certainly lag behind US and European boats in terms of quality