By Jeremy Diamond and Abeer Salman

Jenin, West Bank (CNN) — Ali al-Samoudi gingerly walks down the steps toward his home.

The 59-year-old Palestinian journalist is gaunt, with closely cropped gray hair and a matching beard. Each cautious step he takes reveals the physical toll of all he has endured that has aged him beyond his years.

We’ve worked with Samoudi for years, and this is the first time we’ve seen him in person in over a year. We can barely recognize him.

Samoudi was released last week from Israeli prison, where he was held for a year. He was never charged with a crime, held instead under administrative detention orders, which allow the Israeli military to imprison Palestinians without trial for up to six months at a time. The orders can be renewed indefinitely.

“It was a real hell. Prison today is hell in every sense of the word,” Samoudi said in an interview at his home in Jenin. “Everything they practiced with us was punishment and revenge.”

He is one of 105 Palestinian journalists who have been detained and imprisoned since October 7, 2023, the majority also held without charge, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The startling scale of detentions made Israel the third-worst jailer of journalists for 2025, behind only China and Myanmar, according to CPJ. Thirty-three Palestinian journalists are still imprisoned in Israel, the organization said.

Samoudi is a well-known journalist who has worked as a local producer and fixer for CNN, among other international outlets. He was at Shireen Abu Akleh’s side when the Palestinian American journalist was fatally shot by Israeli troops in 2022. He was also shot in the shoulder in the same incident.

Despite his four decades of reporting experience, Samoudi said he was shocked by the conditions in Israeli prisons, where he says he endured physical and psychological abuse that sometimes left him wondering whether he would make it out of prison alive. Israel’s Prison Service did not respond to CNN’s request for comment about Samoudi’s detention.

Samoudi lost 60 kilos (132 pounds), or about half his body weight, during his year in prison.

“They basically gave us food only to keep us alive,” Samoudi said. “Breakfast consists of one spoon of labneh, a quarter spoon of jam. For lunch: four spoons of rice in addition to two slices of cucumber or two slices of tomato or two slices of sweet pepper.”

He described dinner as a “deluxe” meal: two spoonfuls of hummus, a spoonful of tahini and an egg. Saturdays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays the prison service would add a small piece of chicken or meat, he said.

Dozens of other Palestinian prisoners have also emerged from Israeli prisons emaciated. Israel’s supreme court ordered improvement in prison conditions after it ruled in September that the state was failing to meet prisoners’ basic nutritional needs. But Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister who oversees the prisons, has doubled down on his draconian approach, boasting about the poor quality of food in prison and the “bare minimum of bare minimum” being provided.

Books, pens and paper were all banned, Samoudi said. The dollop of shampoo he received each week was labeled as being for dogs, he said. And every move within or between prisons brought with it physical abuse.

Trips to detention hearings brought beatings. So did those to the clinic.

“One time after I returned from a visit with the lawyer, they threw us on the ground, on our faces and they started hitting us,” Samoudi said. “An Israeli officer stood and stepped on my head like this and pressed my face into the ground for four minutes until I suffocated.”

But it’s what he witnessed others endure that is most difficult for Samoudi to recount:, like the young man in his cell who was refused medical treatment.

Samoudi says one of his

By Anabella Gonzalez, Gonzalo Zegarra, Caitlin Danaher, CNN

(CNN) — Hantavirus cases in Argentina have almost doubled in the past year, with the country recording 32 deaths alongside its highest number of infections since 2018.

The rise comes as Argentine authorities race to trace the footsteps of a couple who traveled extensively in the country and later died amid an outbreak of the virus on the cruise ship MV Hondius, which left port in Ushuaia, southern Argentina, on April 1 and is currently on its way to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Experts blame climate change and habitat destruction for the rise in cases of the disease, which is usually caused by exposure to the urine or feces of infected rodents.

The current season, which started in June 2025, has already seen 101 confirmed hantavirus cases, Argentina’s health ministry said – compared with just 57 during the same period last season.

Not only did the country record an unusually large number of cases this year, but it also recorded one of the highest lethality rates of recent years, with the number of deaths marking an increase of 10 percentage points compared to the previous year.

And those numbers exclude the outbreak on the cruise-ship MV Hondius, the origins of which remain unknown.

While no cases of the hantavirus have been recorded in Ushuaia in recent decades, according to the ministry, the virus is endemic in some other areas of Argentina.

Argentine authorities believe the couple visited various regions of the country as they crossed back and forth over the border with neighboring Chile on several occasions, and into Uruguay, before joining the cruise.

Four geographic regions of Argentina are historically high-risk areas for contagion: Northwest (in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, and Tucumán), Northeast (Misiones, Formosa, and Chaco), Center (Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, and Entre Ríos), and South (Neuquén, Río Negro, and Chubut).

The Dutch couple who died amid the outbreak on the ship are thought to have visited both Misiones and Neuquén on their travels.

For many years, hantavirus had been associated with Patagonia in Argentina’s southern tip, after a deadly outbreak in 2018 killed 11 people and resulted in dozens of infections.

This season, however, most cases have been found in the country’s central region, with the province of Buenos Aires topping the highest number of cases with 42.

The outbreak on the ship has been linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare but potentially severe form of the virus that in some cases can spread between humans through close contact.

Climate to blame?

Hantavirus in Argentina usually develops in rural and peri-urban areas, in the presence of crops, tall weeds, humidity, or a subtropical climate.

But experts believe environmental degradation caused by climate change and human activity is contributing to its spread by allowing the rodents that transmit the virus to thrive in new areas.

“Increasing human interaction with wild environments, habitat destruction, the establishment of small urbanizations in rural areas, and the effects of climate change contribute to the appearance of cases outside historically endemic areas,” the ministry said.

Extreme weather phenomena, such as droughts and episodes of intense rainfall in recent years, are also fueling the trend, according to experts.

Temperature rises generate changes in the ecosystem that affect the presence of the long-tailed mouse, the main carrier of the vir

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - We're getting a chance to hear about some of the strangest things collected from Santa Cruz Island during a recent cleanup effort.

Laura Sanchez, Communications Director for Santa Barbara Channelkeeper shared details about the collaborative, daylong excursion.

"This event is part of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s larger effort to remove marine debris
from five different marine sanctuaries across California, Washington, and the Gulf of Mexico a project
supported by a 2023 award from the NOAA Marine Debris Program."

"I found a syringe, a football and, a lot of salsa containers," said Helen Perez, with a laugh.

Perez was one of 18 volunteers from seven group who trekked out to the Channel Islands that day. Sanchez said together they collected about 775 pounds of trash. 

Photographer Matt Dayka documented the event with beautiful photographs; Intern Ella Engel took video testimonials, asking the volunteers about the crazy, weird things they found.

"What's the most interesting thing you found out here today?" Engel asked. "We found a huge, rusted piece of a ship's engine buried in the rocks," said Alex Negrila, a student from Pepperdine.

"The craziest thing I found was so much Starbucks. So many lids, so many plastic cups," said Niki Mazaroli with Open Water.

Emma Beaver with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation said the strangest thing she plucked from the rocky shore was an irrigation line tangled up in seaweed and sticks.

Rich Powell said he found something useful.

"I found a green hat and it came in handy cuz I wore it the rest of the afternoon out here cleaning."

The volunteers also collected mylar balloons, lots of plastic bottles, rusty metal traps, even shoes.

"They ferried the trash from shore using kayaks and a skiff and loaded it onto boats that brought it back to the mainland for proper disposal," Sanchez shared in a press release.

“These annual cleanups provide a valuable opportunity to bring our partners and volunteers together for a productive and meaningful day of service in a very special place,” says Channelkeeper’s science and
program manager Molly Troup. “We hope that these events inspire community members to continue to
elevate the plastic crisis and push for meaningful change.”

Michaela Miller, Sr. Conservation Manager for the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, said,
"Removing marine debris from the shorelines of Channel Islands National Park and Channel Islands
National Marine Sanctuary is important to the local community, and this debris removal effort is the
result of expert

* WHAT…Northwest winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph
expected.

* WHERE…Santa Barbara County Southwestern Coast and Santa Ynez
Mountains Western Range.

* WHEN…Until 2 AM PDT Saturday.

* IMPACTS…Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree
limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.
Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high
profile vehicles. Use extra caution.

The post Wind Advisory issued May 8 at 7:21PM PDT until May 9 at 2:00AM PDT by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Zachary Cohen, Natasha Bertrand y Jim Sciutto, CNN

La inteligencia de Estados Unidos estima que el nuevo líder supremo de Irán desempeña un papel crítico en la configuración de la estrategia de guerra junto con altos funcionarios iraníes, según múltiples fuentes familiarizadas con la inteligencia. Los informes concluyeron que la autoridad precisa dentro de un régimen ahora fracturado sigue sin estar clara, pero que es probable que Mojtaba Jamenei esté ayudando a dirigir las negociaciones de Irán con Estados Unidos para poner fin a la guerra.

Jamenei no ha sido visto en público desde que sufrió heridas graves durante un ataque que mató a su padre y a varios de los principales líderes militares del país al comienzo de la guerra, lo que llevó a especulaciones sobre su salud y su papel en la estructura de liderazgo iraní.

El Gobierno de Trump continúa buscando un fin diplomático del conflicto mientras un alto el fuego se extiende por más de un mes. La inteligencia estadounidense estima que Irán continúa recuperándose de la campaña de bombardeos de Estados Unidos que dejó intactas capacidades militares iraníes significativas y la capacidad de sobrevivir varios meses más de un bloqueo estadounidense, según las fuentes.

Jamenei fue anunciado como el nuevo líder supremo de Irán, en sustitución de su padre, días después del ataque que lo hirió, pero hasta la fecha la comunidad de inteligencia de Estados Unidos no ha podido confirmar visualmente su paradero, dijeron las fuentes.

Parte de la incertidumbre se debe a que Jamenei no utiliza ningún dispositivo electrónico para comunicarse; en su lugar, solo interactúa con quienes pueden visitarlo en persona o enviando comunicaciones a través de un mensajero, añadió una de las fuentes.

Jamenei permanece aislado mientras recibe tratamiento médico por sus heridas, incluidas quemaduras graves en un lado de su cuerpo que afectan su rostro, brazo, torso y pierna, añadieron las fuentes.

El presidente de Irán, Masoud Pezeshkian, declaró a los medios estatales iraníes a principios de esta semana que había mantenido una reunión de dos horas y media con Jamenei, lo que marca la primera reunión en persona reportada entre un alto funcionario iraní y el nuevo líder supremo del país.

Lo que los funcionarios de Estados Unidos sí saben sobre el estado de Jamenei se basa en datos obtenidos de quienes se comunican con él, dijeron las fuentes familiarizadas.
Sin embargo, existe cierta duda entre los analistas de inteligencia sobre si algunos en la estructura de poder de Irán podrían intentar influir en Jamenei para apropiarse de su autoridad y promover sus propios intereses.

La guerra ha degradado las capacidades militares de Irán, pero no las ha destruido, según informes de inteligencia estadounidense. CNN informó previamente que la inteligencia de Estados Unidos evaluó que aproximadamente la mitad de los lanzadores de misiles de Irán habían sobrevivido a los ataques de EE.UU. Un informe reciente elevó esa cifra a dos tercios, en parte debido a que el alto el fuego en curso está proporcionando a Irán tiempo para desenterrar lanzadores que podrían haber quedado enterrados en ataques anteriores, según fuentes familiarizadas con la inteligencia.

Un informe separado de la CIA concluyó que Irán probablemente puede resistir hasta cuatro meses más del bloqueo estadounidense sin una desestabilización completa de su economía, dijeron las fuentes. The Washington Post fue el primero en informar sobre la evaluación de la CIA. Las fuerzas militares de Estados Unidos e Irán han intercambiado disparos en los últimos días, a pesar de un alto el fuego en curso, mientras el tráfico a través del estrecho de Ormuz se ha reducido casi a cero, con ambas partes reclamando el control de la vía marítima.

Al ser consulta