Argentina, where the MV Hondius cruise departed, consistently ranked by WHO as having highest incidence of hantavirus in region

Officials and experts in Argentina are scrambling to determine if their country is the source of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has gripped an Atlantic cruise ship, amid reports that a number of passengers have already returned to their home countries.

Argentina, where the cruise to Antarctica departed, is consistently ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having the highest incidence of the rare, rodent-borne disease in Latin America. Investigators there are working to contact trace the source of contamination.

Video shows ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades

A controversial social media influencer known as Clavicular is facing charges in connection with a video showing him shooting an apparently already dead alligator in the Everglades, local Florida media has reported.

Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters and is known for the practice of “looksmaxxing”, faces charges of unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place or residential property, according to legal files obtained by television station ABC6 in South Florida.

Without offering details or evidence, US Southern Command describes the people killed as ‘narco-terrorists’

The US military said on Tuesday it had struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing three people, in the latest such attack that rights groups label as “extrajudicial killings” and Washington describes as targeting “narco-terrorists”.

US Southern Command posted about the strike on social media Tuesday evening, alleging that the vessel struck on Tuesday was operated by “Designated Terrorist Organizations” that it did not identify.

Spokesperson calls former New York City mayor ‘a fighter’ but does not say cause of his hospitalization

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, has been hospitalised and is in a “critical but stable condition”, his spokesperson said on Sunday evening.

Ted Goodman, the spokesperson, posted on social media: “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak. We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani.”

About 200 firefighters responded to devastating blaze at University of South Florida’s lab on Saturday

Officials are investigating whether a huge fire that destroyed a top marine science laboratory at the University of South Florida may have been caused by a lightning strike.

Despite a massive response from local fire crews the Marine Science Laboratory building was completely destroyed after the blaze began on Saturday.

US attorney says ‘we can establish’ pellet from defendant’s gunshot was ‘intertwined with fiber of vest’ of federal agent

The US government has evidence that a federal agent was shot by the suspect during an alleged recent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, the US attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Sunday.

“We now can establish that a pellet that came from the buckshot from the defendant’s Mossberg pump-action shotgun was intertwined with the fiber of the vest of the Secret Service officer,” Pirro said on CNN.

Investigators find explosives in car, which crashed into Multnomah Athletic Club shortly before 3am Saturday

A person was found dead after a vehicle plowed into a health club in downtown Portland, Oregon, early Saturday morning, police said. Investigators later found explosives inside the car.

Portland police and the Portland fire and rescue department responded to the Multnomah Athletic Club shortly before 3am after the vehicle crashed through the front entrance and caught fire. Once the blaze was brought under control, a person was found dead inside the vehicle, police said in a statement.

Orange county resident Tommi Jo Mejer’s son was illegally riding e-motorcycle when he ran into 81-year-old

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A southern California woman is facing an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter after an 81-year-old man died from his injuries after being struck by the woman’s teen son while he was riding an e-motorcycle, prosecutors said on Friday.

On 16 April, Tommi Jo Mejer’s 14-year-old son was riding a Surron e-motorcycle and doing wheelies when he hit Ed Ashman, according to prosecutors. Ashman, a former captain in the US Marine Corps, was walking home from his job as a substitute teacher at a high school in Lake Forest.

The US sanctions target people operating in broad sections of Cuban economy, including energy, defence and mining

Cuba’s government has said new sanctions imposed on the island by Donald Trump amounted to “collective punishment”, as an enormous 1 May procession outside the American embassy in Havana vowed to “defend the homeland”.

In an executive order on Friday, the US president said he would impose sanctions on people involved in broad sections of the Cuban economy, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year.

OpenAI, Google, Nvidia and others agreed to ‘any lawful use’ of their tech. Anthropic, feuding with Pentagon over potential AI misuse, was not included

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The Pentagon said on Friday it had reached agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies: SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

“These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare,” the Pentagon said in statement.

Dozens of people gather outside hospital where 47-year-old was being treated five days after the five-year-old girl disappeared

•Warning: This article contains references to and images of Indigenous Australians who have died

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An angry crowd has clashed with police outside a hospital in Alice Springs where a 47-year-old man arrested by police in connection with the death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby was being treated.

Council workers were assessing the damage on Friday morning, as fires smouldered in skip bins and a nearby service station had been pulled apart.

Pair apologise in court after being accused of defrauding buyers including some of New York’s most prominent fine art auction houses

A father and daughter in New Jersey have pleaded guilty to running a years-long counterfeiting scheme to trick art galleries and auction houses into buying forged paintings of works by prominent artists such as Andy Warhol, Banksy and Pablo Picasso.

Federal prosecutors said Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, commissioned an artist in Poland to create at least 200 of the fakes and ultimately defrauded buyers of at least $2m.