Cuba faces

pressure

MIAMI (AP) — The Justice Department is preparing to seek an indictment against former Cuban President Raúl Castro, three people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press. The indictment would require approval by a grand jury. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

One of the people said the potential indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of planes operated by the Miami exile group. Prosecutors in Miami have been building cases against senior Cuban officials amid renewed pressure from south Florida Republicans and a pledge earlier this year by President Donald Trump to orchestrate a “friendly takeover” of the communist-run island

Mistrial

for Weinstein

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial has ended in a mistrial. A judge declared it Friday after the jury deadlocked.

The former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on two U.S. coasts and remains behind bars. But the mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials. The majority-male Manhattan jury weighed whether the former movie mogul raped a woman in a New York hotel in 2013.

Defense lawyers argue that the encounter was consensual. Some jurors told reporters that nine people wanted to acquit Weinstein and three wanted to convict him.

Pentagon halts

deployments

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is drawing down thousands of troops in Europe by stopping units from deploying to Poland and Germany as opposed to yanking those already stationed there. Several U.S. officials confirmed that 4,000 troops from an Army brigade are no longer en route to Poland this week.

The Trump administration had previously said it was cutting U.S. forces only in Germany. The deployment was canceled after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo directing a brigade combat team to be moved out of Europe. That’s according to two U.S. officials.

One of them said the choice of which unit was left to military leaders. The memo also led to the cancellation of an upcoming deployment to Germany.

Ukraine death

toll rises

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The death toll from a Russian missile attack that flattened a Kyiv apartment building has risen to 24. It was one of the deadliest attacks on the capital in the 4-year-old war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said three teenagers were among the victims. He led an official day of mourning Friday in Kyiv, a day after the Russian cruise missile struck the nine-story corner block amid what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia’s biggest barrage of the country since its full-scale invasion in 2022.