By Brian Todd, CNN

(CNN) — For days after the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, fellow workers for the Department of Veterans Affairs held vigils at health centers nationwide, partly in protest and partly to pay their respects.

Becky Halioua, a recreational therapist and union leader at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, said she felt “it was important to acknowledge him, as a brother of our organization.”

“It’s scary for me to think about a fellow VA employee being murdered by the same government that they work for,” Halioua told local TV station WRDW, a CNN affiliate, at the time. “That’s terrifying for me.”

Then Halioua learned she was under investigation by that same government. Her supervisor informed her that an internal probe had been launched into whether she violated agency rules regarding employee interviews with the news media, a probe that could result in disciplinary action.

Halioua is not alone, several sources familiar with the matter told CNN. At least three other VA employees have been investigated for their interactions with the press, including at least one other related to Alex Pretti, according to one of the sources.

As part of her investigation, Halioua says investigators emailed her photos of herself at the vigil from news coverage, which also included a brief interaction with a local newspaper. Someone had drawn a line around image in photographs, labeled with her name.

“It really gave me an uneasy feeling,” she says. Seeing her face circled in a photograph of a crowd seemed “very stalker-like.”

VA press secretary Quinn Slaven said he could not comment on Halioua’s case, citing privacy concerns. “Privacy laws prevent VA from publicly discussing specific details about its employees without their written consent,” Slaven said in a written statement. He did not address more general questions about the VA’s media relations policy and how often it conducts these types of investigations.

Federal agencies typically have rules that limit employees from talking about their government role or department in media interviews, while allowing them to speak in a personal capacity. In some cases, Trump administration officials have taken a hard line against federal employees talking with reporters and what they characterize as leaks.

In the case of the VA workers, the interviews touched on an issue that sparked a national discussion. Pretti’s killing, along with that of another protester, Renee Good, became political flashpoints in debates over immigration enforcement and free speech following a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minneapolis in January.

Within hours of their deaths, officials from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, claimed without evidence that Pretti and Good were domestic terrorists, sparking outrage. Protests and vigils, like the one Halioua attended, popped up across the country.

National Nurses United, a union that helped organize the January vigil for Pretti that Halioua attended, said its members won’t be silenced.

“It is despicable and immoral to come after any federal employee who participates in a vigil for a fellow worker,” the union said in a statement to CNN.

‘A scare tactic’

Halioua has added a grievance over the vigil probe to other complaints she’s filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against VA officials.

She believes she was investigated because of her role as a union leader and her participation in internal investigations against superiors. Halioua is a local president of the largest union of federal government employees in Georgia, the American Federation of Government Employees.

“I think that

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El trabalenguas de Trump con Cuba. El Chapo Guzmán pide su extradición a México. ¿Qué es el hantavirus? Esto es lo que debes saber para comenzar el día. Primero la verdad.

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Las Fuerzas Armadas estadounidenses “hicieron explotar” el lunes seis pequeñas embarcaciones iraníes en el estrecho de Ormuz después de que Irán lanzara “varios misiles de crucero, drones y pequeñas embarcaciones” contra buques de la Marina y navíos mercantes que estaban siendo “protegidos” por EE.UU, declaró el jefe del Comando Central, en el marco de una iniciativa de Trump que ha puesto bajo tensión el frágil alto el fuego.

• Precios del petróleo se dispararon el primer día del “Proyecto Libertad” de Trump para desbloquear el estrecho de Ormuz
• Análisis: Trump tiene un nuevo plan para el estrecho de Ormuz, pero el mercado no lo compra

Casi 150 personas se encuentran varadas en un crucero frente a la costa de África occidental después de que un presunto brote de hantavirus a bordo causara la muerte de al menos tres personas. Se trata de una enfermedad rara causada generalmente por la exposición a la orina o las heces de roedores infectados. Los humanos también pueden infectarse al tocar objetos contaminados y luego tocarse la boca o la nariz.

• El crucero que enfrenta un brote mortal de hantavirus zarpó de Argentina. El virus en ese país tiene un capítulo traumático
• El angustiante ruego de un pasajero a bordo del crucero con presunto brote de hantavirus

Mientras Trump lanza amenazas de “invadir” o “tomar” Cuba que encienden titulares, su Gobierno endurece la presión real: más sanciones y, sobre todo, el cierre de vías legales para que los cubanos entren a EE.UU., con un desplome de visas, más arrestos migratorios y deportaciones. Análisis de Juan Carlos López.

La Corte Suprema de EE.UU. restableció temporalmente el acceso a la píldora abortiva mifepristona mediante telemedicina y correo postal, en respuesta a una apelación de emergencia que advertía del posible caos para las pacientes que tenían citas para acceder al medicamento.

Lucía es beneficiaria de DACA y solicitó un permiso de salida en enero de 2025 para visitar a su abuela enferma en México. Con el fin de asegurar la aprobación, pagó más para obtener una decisión expedita. Pero pasó enero, febrero, marzo y abril sin saber siquiera si su solicitud había sido recibida. En mayo su abuela murió y Lucía se quedó sin visitar

By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — Some human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board the cruise ship hit by a hantavirus outbreak that has left three people dead and several others ill, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.

“We do know that some of the cases had very close contact with each other and certainly human-to-human transmission can’t be ruled out so as a precaution this is what we are assuming,” Dr. Maria Van Kerhove, WHO’s Director for Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, told reporters.

Almost 150 people, including 17 Americans, remain stranded on the MV Hondius that is currently off the coast of West Africa.

The ship, operated by tour company Oceanwide Expeditions, left Ushuaia, Argentina last month on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, stopping off at some of the world’s most remote islands. But along the way, several passengers fell sick with a rapidly progressing respiratory illness, the company said.

Seven cases of hantavirus, a rare disease typically caused by contact with infected rodents’ urine, faeces or saliva, have been identified so far. Two of those are confirmed and five suspected, WHO said Monday.

Three people – a Dutch couple and German national – have died while one British national remains in intensive care in South Africa, though Van Kerkhove said his condition is improving.

Two other people suffering from hantavirus symptoms remain on board the ship, though their medical evacuation is currently underway, Van Kerkhove said.

“The risk to the general public is low,” Van Kerkhove emphasized. “This is not a virus that spreads like flu or like COVID. It’s quite different.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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By Adam Pourahmadi, Magdalena Vitores Moreno, CNN

(CNN) — An “unprecedented” crisis is unfolding for 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Persian Gulf, a UN body has warned, as the Strait of Hormuz closure leaves crews trapped on ships with no clear way out.

As the stalemate in the Gulf drags on, maritime workers – many from poor, developing countries – are finding themselves stranded at sea, caught between commercial pressure from ship owners, security threats from drones and sea mines and limited legal protections.

“It is an unprecedented situation,” Damien Chevallier, director of the Maritime Safety Division at the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), said in an interview with CNN. “We have around 20,000 seafarers in the Gulf for now close to eight weeks. It is a humanitarian crisis. We have never faced such a situation.”

The warning lays bare the severity of the situation facing the crews. Many are unable to dock on either side of the Persian Gulf: Iranian ports pose war-zone risks, while visa restrictions and logistical hurdles along the Arab states lining the Gulf’s southern shores make it difficult for many sailors to leave their vessels. The maritime exit – through the Strait of Hormuz – remains effectively closed.

Since the war started, Iran has sought to impose new navigation rules in the Persian Gulf, allowing vessels from so-called “friendly” countries to pass through the strait in exchange for fees.

In response, the Trump administration has moved to enforce a naval blockade targeting ships entering or leaving Iranian ports and warning shipping firms they could face sanctions if they pay those tolls.

The competing measures have created a standoff that has brought traffic through the strategic chokepoint to a near halt, with only a handful of vessels transiting the waterway each day compared to more than a hundred in normal conditions.

Hundreds of vessels are now seeking a way out of the war-torn area.

“Around 800 to 1,000 vessels would like to sail through the Strait of Hormuz to evacuate the area,” Chevallier said.

One such case is the Auroura, a sanctioned oil tanker linked to Iran’s shadow fleet of vessels used to transport oil in defiance of American sanctions.

Crew members told CNN in an interview last month that they had been stranded onboard for weeks after the war broke out, requesting repatriation after they say the ship’s owner pressured them to sail to Iran to pick up oil despite mounting risks.

The vessel’s crew, all Indian nationals, described worsening conditions onboard, including shortages of food and fresh water.

Manoj Yadav, a union organizer with the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, said the situation was dire.

“The crew is facing shortages of basic supplies,” he told CNN at the time. “They want to go back home. The situation on this vessel is not good.”

The Auroura is far from an isolated case, according to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), a global trade union that represents seafarers around the world.

“It’s not only repatriation, it’s abandonment,” said Mohamed Arrachedi, the ITF’s flag of convenienc

By Clare Duffy, CNN

New York (CNN) — Since independent vehicle crash testing began in the mid-1990s, automakers have been incentivized to make safety changes that have saved thousands of lives each year.

Now, a new group is hoping to take a similar approach to artificial intelligence.

Nonprofit media watchdog Common Sense Media is launching the Youth AI Safety Institute, an industry-backed, independent research and testing lab to study the risks AI tools may pose to children and teens. It will aim to provide information to parents and families about various AI tools and set safety benchmarks for tech firms.

AI companies are locked in a race to build the most powerful, widely used models, and that sometimes means speed is prioritized over safety testing. Because AI tools are complex systems with a range of different uses, ranking their safety will likely be far trickier than judging how a car responds in a crash.

But Common Sense Media and the board of top AI, education and health leaders it recruited to oversee the Youth AI Safety Institute believe that solely relying on AI firms to self-police on safety isn’t enough to protect young people. Existing third-party AI safety organizations largely focus on societal-level and existential risks, such as job loss or even human extinction, rather than consumer-friendly safety ratings aimed at everyday use.

The goal is for the public spotlight and third-party standards to spark what Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer called a “race to the top” for tech firms to make safety fixes to improve their standing.

Leading AI firms invest in safety research to “make their models as good as they possibly can, but there’s no independent measure of that,” John Giannandrea, Apple’s former AI strategy chief who joined the institute’s advisory board, told CNN. “We don’t really know which models are more appropriate for kids at a certain age than others, and I think the only real way to do that is to have an independent set of public standards.”

The launch comes as multiple families have sued AI companies alleging that chatbots encouraged their children’s suicides. A recent CNN investigation found that AI chatbots advised teen test accounts on how to commit violence. Grok, xAI’s chatbot, came under fire earlier this year for sharing sexualized images of women and children in response to users’ “digital undressing” prompts. And growing AI adoption in classrooms has raised questions about whether the technology could stunt learning.

“I think many parents and educators and citizens feel we’re at a catastrophic moment as AI is reshaping the lives of children and families and schools and, quite frankly, all of society,” Steyer told CNN exclusively ahead of announcing the group on Tuesday.

Independent youth safety benchmarks

The Institute will start with a $20 million annual budget, backed by OpenAI, Anthropic and Pinterest, as well as the Walton Family Foundation, Goldman Sachs Managing Director Gene Sykes and other philanthropists. Funders will have no say in the group’s operation or research, according to Common Sense.

The group’s advisory board will also include Mehran Sahami, chair of Stanford University School of Engineering’s computer science department; Dr. Jenny Radesky, director of University of Michigan Medical School’s developmental behavioral pediatrics division; and Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, who served as California’s first-ever surgeon general — bringing together expertise in research, standards settin