By Maria Santana, Fidel Gutierrez, Caroll Alvarado, Marlon Sorto, Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — The parents of an 18-year-old US citizen who has terminal colon cancer have been reunited with their son a day after they were released from a Department of Homeland Security detention facility in Arizona.

The couple, Isidoro González Avilés and Norma Anabel Ramírez Amaya, reunited with their son Kevin González Saturday evening in Durango, Mexico.

Their son, who was born in the US but raised in Mexico, fell ill while visiting family in Chicago over Christmas, according to CNN affiliate WLS. He was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

“What I want to say to people is thank you for helping my family to be able to have the choice,” the 18-year-old – his face gaunt – told CNN in Durango shortly after reuniting with his parents.

Avilés and Amaya were in tears as they embraced Kevin after taking a bus to Durango, a state in northwest Mexico.

His parents, Mexican nationals, had both previously been deported from the US after entering “illegally,” DHS told CNN Friday.

In a desperate bid to see their son again after his diagnosis, the couple attempted to reenter the US in April, WLS reported. They were both arrested April 14 near Douglas, Arizona, according to DHS. They say they spent weeks in detention before they were deported and able to reunite with their son.

DHS told CNN the couple had applied for B1/B2 visas – temporary nonimmigrant visas – “which were denied due to their previous unlawful presence and entries into the United States.”

The couple were deported to Mexico Friday, DHS said. A US district judge in Tucson, Arizona, ordered the release of González’s parents on Thursday morning, according to WLS.

Their son flew to Mexico around a week ago, according to WLS, hoping to be reunited with his parents before he dies.

“We managed to make my son’s dream come true: to be with him again, to love him, to give him the love we could not give him during these months when he was not with us,” said Avilés after reuniting with his son.

“We sought every option. They denied us visas. They detained us at the border,” he said.

He showed his tattoos of his son’s name as well as Saint Jude – the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations.

Kevin, his father said, is “very strong.”

“I have a lot of faith in him, and I know he is going to heal from this and from many more things,” he added.

Amaya cried as she held her son.

“These tears are from emotion, from seeing him again, from touching him again, from telling him how much I love him,” she said.

DHS said Avilés had been arrested and charged multiple times for different crimes, which ranged from minor to serious, and was deported in 2011. DHS did not respond to questions about where or when the alleged charges took place, and the outcomes of those cases are unclear.

Interviewed before reuniting with his son, Avilés said Friday he was “a humble worker” who worked as a taxi driver and truck driver in Durango.

In detention, he said, they were treated “like criminals” and were chained at the hands and feet for their court appearances.

He also said he and his wife had been denied humanitarian visas to see their son. “We went through a lot, and in the end, all I want is to be with him,” he said.

DHS said, “Anabel illegally entered the United States for the first time in 2005 and was later removed back to Mexico in 2011.”

Rep. Delia Ramirez, who represents the district where González is receiving treatment in Chicago, expressed her support for the family in a statement Thursday.

“Rejecting visas to Kevin’s family did not pro

By Brad Lendon, Sylvie Zhuang, Wayne Chang, CNN

(CNN) — As the war in Iran enters its third month, it’s providing a window for China into how US military capabilities work under fire, and a useful reminder that, on any battlefield, the adversary always has a big say in the outcome.

CNN spoke with a range of experts in China, Taiwan and elsewhere about how the last two months of fighting in and around the Persian Gulf can inform what might happen in any possible conflict that would pit Beijing against Washington.

They warned of China misreading its own strengths, lack of experience and holding on to a too-narrow view of the conflict and its consequences.

Fu Qianshao, a former colonel in China’s air force, said his major takeaway from the fighting so far is that the People’s Liberation Army can’t forget about its defenses, noting how Iran has found ways around US anti-missile systems like the Patriot or Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

“We need to devote significant efforts to identify weakness in our defensive side to ensure we remain invincible in future wars,” Fu told CNN.

The PLA has rapidly expanded offensive firepower capacity in recent years, adding missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles that can evade interceptors and the platforms that can launch them.

The PLA Air Force is adding fifth-generation stealth fighters at a rapid rate and will field around 1,000 J-20 jets – the rough equivalent of US F-35s – when performing in a long-range precision strike mode, according to the British think tank RUSI.

China has a long-range stealth bomber, similar to the US’ B-2 or the B-21, in the works.

But its defenses are another matter.

Analysts note Iran was able to penetrate US air defenses in the Persian Gulf with relatively primitive technology, including low-cost Shahed drones and lower-cost ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, the US unleashed an air campaign on Iran with much more sophisticated weaponry, like F-35s and B-2s, and mixed it with cheaper, less high-tech guided munitions dropped from B-1s, B-52s and F-15s. They’ve knocked out everything from missile launchers to naval vessels to bridges.

It’s a mix that Beijing must plan for, Fu said.

“We have to delve deeper to effectively guard our key sites, airfields and ports against attacks and raids,” he said.

Across the Taiwan Strait

When it comes to a possible US-China conflict, Taiwan is often viewed as a potential flashpoint.

China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “reunify” with the self-governing democracy, despite having never controlled Taiwan. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has not ruled out using military force to do so.

In Taiwan, analysts recognize that China has assembled a military that can match both the US in high-tech precision weaponry and Iran in low-cost, high-volume drone warfare.

“Long-range rockets and drone swarms will definitely play a key role in China’s joint military operations against Taiwan,” Chieh Chung, an associate research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told CNN.

But would that key role be enough to win a war across the Taiwan Strait?

China is the world’s leading drone manufacturer, and the numbers of unmanned weapons systems its manufacturers can produce is staggering, according to analysts.

“Chinese civilian manufacturers have the capacity to retool in under a year to turn out one billion weaponized drones annually,” a 2025 report on China’s drone program in the a

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Channel League rivals San Marcos and Dos Pueblos will begin the CIF-Southern Section-Ford Championship softball playoffs at home but in different divisions.

Co-Channel League champion Dos Pueblos will host Crescenta Valley in a first round Division 3 game on Friday, May 15th.

San Marcos is in Division 5 and the Royals are home against Leuzinger on Friday. Santa Clara has a D5 road game at Jurupa Hills.

In Division 4 Channel League co-champion Rio Mesa hosts Segerstrom in a Division 4 first round game on Thursday, May 14th while Oxnard is also home to Poly Pasadena.

Tri-Valley League champion St. Bonaventure is the top-seed in D4 and will host Valencia on Thursday.

In Division 6 first round games on Thursday, Santa Paula is at El Monte.

Channel Islands has a Division 8 road game on Thursday at San Bernardino and Valley Christian Academy plays at Workman.

The post Dos Pueblos and San Marcos will start CIF-SS Softball playoffs at home appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Jessie Yeung, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — It’s an age-old question: are you a cat person or a dog person?

In East Asia, it seems more and more people these days are Team Cat.

Take Taiwan, the self-ruled island where pet cats outnumbered dogs for the first time in 2025, according to a government survey. The pet cat population has surged rapidly, from 1.3 million in 2023 to 1.7 million last year – an increase of nearly 33%.

The same thing happened in mainland China in 2021. Japan was perhaps the earliest originator of this trend, with cats overtaking dogs a decade ago. Even in places where dogs are still more common, like South Korea or Hong Kong, cats are growing in popularity.

All these places have certain factors in common: people living in small apartments in dense cities, often lonely, and working busy jobs that leave little time for a canine companion.

“Having a cat would be more convenient (in a city), because you have to frequently take dogs out for walks, you might not have that much time, and some people are afraid of dogs,” said Hong Kong resident Ellen Chung, speaking to CNN one afternoon at a cat café filled with visitors and frock-wearing cats.

And, she added, “I think cats are just cuter.”

If those factors sound familiar, it may be because they’ve also contributed to declining birth rates in every one of these places – despite governments’ best attempts to reverse the trend.

“People choose not to have kids now. So having a pet almost resembles having a child,” said Paul Wong, a clinical psychologist who works with therapy animals and associate professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).

The combined challenges of city life “would probably make people feel like having cats rather than dogs,” he added.

Stressed, busy and lonely

Some of these places have a history of cat mania that helped fuel the current feline boom.

For instance, Japan is the home of Hello Kitty, the little cartoon cat created in 1974 that launched an $80 billion empire. It also has several “cat islands” with feral feline populations, that have become popular tourist destinations.

But cats have had a more difficult time in other places. For many years, people in South Korea associated them with ill fortune or evil spirits – partly why they were historically much less popular as pets than dogs.

That’s slowly changing, however. The number of pet cats in South Korea has risen sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic – perhaps because cats are easier to care for indoors, with outdoor activities limited by Covid restrictions for several years, according to a 2025 report by KB Financial Group.

Gong Su-hyun, a veterinarian at the Ballyeomaru cat adoption center in Hwaseong, a city in northwestern South Korea, told CNN she could “feel that the interest in cats is growing.” More people are coming in for cat adoptions and volunteering than before, she said.

The main difference in the last decade or so has been a mental shift, from thinking of animals as utilitarian to companion pets, said Wong at HKU. For instance, before dogs were primarily used for security or other purposes, while cats were used for pest control; now, they are used for “tackling loneliness,” he added.

Meanwhile, many places across East Asia have seen massive changes in demographic and social trends in recent decades. Across China, Japan and South Korea, young people left their countryside homes in droves to find work in major cities, often leaving behind emptying villages occupied by a shrinking number of elderly people.

But city life brings its

Por Chelsea Bailey, CNN

Han pasado 30 años desde la última vez que la familia de Kristin Smart vio su sonrisa iluminar una habitación.

La estudiante universitaria de primer año desapareció del campus de California Polytechnic State University en San Luis Obispo durante el fin de semana del Día de los Caídos en 1996, lo que desencadenó una investigación de décadas que llevó al juicio y la condena en 2022 de Paul Flores por su asesinato.

Pero incluso después de años de búsqueda, las autoridades nunca han recuperado el cuerpo de Smart y fue declarada muerta en 2002.

Ahora, las autoridades dicen que nuevas pruebas de suelo en la casa de la madre de Flores han arrojado indicios de restos humanos, aunque no pueden confirmar si los restos aún están allí ni si pertenecen a Smart.

“Creemos que, con base en la evidencia que estamos observando… hubo restos humanos en algún momento o aún podrían estar allí”, dijo el sheriff del condado de San Luis Obispo, Ian Parkinson, en una conferencia de prensa el viernes.

“No podemos afirmar que se trate de Kristin, pero creemos que hay evidencia que respalda la presencia de restos humanos”.

La nueva búsqueda en la casa de Susan Flores es la más reciente señal de que los investigadores siguen comprometidos en encontrar respuestas en el caso de Smart.

“Hasta que tengamos a Kristin, todo sigue abierto”, dijo Parkinson.

La vivienda de Susan Flores en Arroyo Grande ha sido registrada múltiples veces durante los 30 años de investigación, pero Parkinson señaló que desde entonces ha habido avances en la ciencia del suelo y en el radar de penetración terrestre que ahora utilizan los investigadores para examinar la propiedad.

Parkinson dijo que Flores es una persona de interés en el caso y “siempre lo ha sido”, pero su oficina no tiene base legal para detenerla. No ha sido acusada de ningún delito por los fiscales del caso.

La familia de Smart ha dicho que sienten que Paul Flores sigue “interponiéndose en el camino para que nuestra hija nos sea devuelta”.

“Seguimos rezando por el día en que finalmente podamos darle sepultura en presencia de quienes la amamos”, dijo la familia en una carta abierta en su sitio web.

Esto es lo que sabemos y cómo se ha desarrollado el caso Smart a lo largo de los años.

Los investigadores acudieron esta semana a la casa de la madre de Flores, revisando el abarrotado garaje y examinando la terraza.

Contaban con una orden de registro que les permitía regresar a la vivienda con base en “pistas investigativas y evidencia”, dijo el sheriff, así como “información obtenida de lo que consideramos un testigo”.

Parkinson indicó que era la primera vez que los investigadores regresaban al patio trasero durante su gestión.

“Es un área muy pequeña para registrar, pero, como pueden ver, está bastante llena de objetos”, lo que complica los esfuerzos, dijo.

Tim Nelligan, experto en análisis de vapor del suelo, dijo a The Associated Press el jueves que estuvo en el lugar recolectando muestras tanto en el patio de Susan Flores como en el de un vecino.

Nelligan declinó comentar sobre la investigación, pero señaló que su equipo “ha desarrollado una metodología para evaluar el vapor del suelo” y su relación con la “descomposición de cad