Cuba put

under 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 a 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

Putin arrives

in China

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in China for meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The visit comes less than a week after U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up his own trip to Beijing. Putin’s two-day visit is likely to be closely watched as Beijing seeks to maintain stable relations with the United States while also preserving strong ties with Russia.

The Kremlin has said Putin and Xi are planning to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries but also key international and regional issues. The visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship signed in 2001.

Evacuations

in California

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — More than 17,000 people are under evacuation orders as a wildfire continues to threaten suburban homes in Southern California. The Sandy Fire in hills above Simi Valley, northwest of Los Angeles, had consumed more than two square miles of dry brush as of Tuesday.

The fire is 5% contained, and the cause is under investigation. Evacuation orders and warnings are still in place for several neighborhoods in Simi Valley, a city of more than 125,000 people. Meanwhile, firefighters are battling a 23-square-mile blaze on Santa Rosa Island, off the Southern California coast. It has no containment.

Trump defends

ballroom

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is defending the White House ballroom he’s building. He showed off the construction site to a group of reporters on Tuesday.

The surprise visit comes days after the Senate parliamentarian said a proposal to pay for $1 billion in security additions to the White House campus could not be included in a bill currently before Congress.

Raising his voice over the banging and clanging of loud construction equipment, Trump described the ballroom’s security features, repeated that taxpayer money isn’t paying to build it and called it a “gift to the United States of America.”