International
Researcher points to Russia as responsible for the “Havana syndrome”
A former U.S. military investigator believes that health incidents known as “Havana syndrome” have been the result of attacks by Russia, according to the results of an investigation issued by the 60 Minutes program.
The report comes out as a result of a joint investigation by the CBS television network, the Russian media outlet The Insider, and the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Greg Edgreen, who handled the Pentagon’s investigation into what the United States officially describes as “anomalous health incidents,” said on the 60 Minutes program that the affected officials received an attack from Russia.
More than 200 American diplomats and relatives destined for different countries have suffered symptoms of the so-called “Havana syndrome,” which was first detected in the Cuban capital in 2016 and would manifest with dizziness, nausea, hearing problems or migraines.
A little more than a year ago, the United States intelligence concluded that it was “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary will provoke the so-called “Havana syndrome.”
Edgreen told CBS that, in the investigation, the criterion for validating the evidence was very strict because the government does not want to accept realities such as the possible omission in its duty to protect Americans.
“Unfortunately, I can’t give the details, due to the classification,” he added. “But I can tell you that from very early (in research) I began to focus on Moscow.”
Edgreen said that the affected officials have excelled in their performance and “there was constantly a Russian link.”
According to the former soldier, “they worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and they did it extremely well.”
The then-President Donald Trump (2017-2021) decided following the detection of these health incidents to suspend consular services in Havana in 2017 and minimize diplomatic staff on the island.
Havana has denied any responsibility and set up a commission of experts that found no scientific or criminal evidence that linked the symptoms to possible sonic attacks, microwaves or other deliberate action.
The Insider, for its part, published the testimony of Mar Polymeropoulos, identified as a former operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with assignments in places such as Baghdad and Kabul, and who suffered the symptoms related to “Havana syndrome” after a trip to Moscow in 2017.
The symptoms, according to this report, corresponded to the “Havana syndrome,” and for years Polymeropoulos had to struggle with his employer to access the medical care that his condition demanded.
60 Minutes indicated that, according to several of its informants last year, when President Joe Biden attended a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Lithuania, a high-ranking official in the Pentagon became ill.
Edgreen pointed out that, in his opinion, “that indicates that there are no barriers to what Moscow will do, or who it will attack and that, if we do not face this head-on, the problem will get worse.”
A senior official of the United States Department of Defense who attended the NATO summit in Vilnius (Lithuania) in 2023 experienced strange symptoms similar to those of the so-called ‘Havana syndrome’, the Pentagon confirmed on Monday.
“I can confirm that a senior official of the Department of Defense experienced symptoms similar to those reported in other instances,” Sabrina Singh, one of the Pentagon’s spokespersons, said on Monday during a press conference.
The official, whose identity was not revealed, was not part of the official delegation of the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, at the NATO summit in Vilnius, but attended “separately, meetings that were part of the summit,” the spokeswoman explained.
Singh did not specify what type of symptoms the affected person suffered, citing medical privacy.
International
Thousands rally nationwide against Trump’s threat to U.S. democracy
Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday (April 19, 2025) in major cities like New York and Washington, as well as in small communities across the United States, in a second wave of demonstrations against President Donald Trump. The crowds denounced what they view as growing threats to the country’s democratic ideals.
In New York City, demonstrators of all ages rallied in front of the Public Library near Trump Tower, holding signs accusing the president of undermining democratic institutions and judicial independence.
Many protesters also criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policies, including mass deportations and raids targeting undocumented migrants.
“Democracy is in grave danger,” said Kathy Valyi, 73, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She told AFP that the stories her parents shared about Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany “are happening here now.”
In Washington, demonstrators voiced concern over what they see as Trump’s disregard for long-standing constitutional norms, such as the right to due process.
International
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
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