Olympian David Hearn indicted for alleged vandalism of Reflecting Pool

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday charged former Cuban President Raul Castro with murder over his alleged role in shooting down two planes that were carrying humanitarian aid in 1996, according to a newly unsealed court docket. The shootdown resulted in the deaths of three Americans.

The indictment marks a major escalation in the United States’ ongoing pressure campaign to achieve regime change of the island nation’s Communist-led government, though it’s not immediately clear whether the 94-year-old Castro will ultimately see the inside of a U.S. courtroom.

The indictment charges Castro with seven counts including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft and murder for each of the four passengers aboard the planes being flown by Brothers to the Rescue, a group that conducted rescue missions for Cuban exiles who sought to flee the country.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and other senior officials are expected to speak about the charges later in Miami.

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(NEW YORK) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth heads to Capitol Hill Wednesday for what is formally billed as a routine hearing on the Pentagon’s budget request.

But the appearance — the first before Congress for Hegseth since the war in Iran began in February — lands just two days before a 60-day deadline to wind down hostilities.

It also comes amid intensifying questions on the Hill about how quickly the Pentagon is depleting weapons stockpiles, and as lawmakers continue to scrutinize Hegseth’s unusual spate of firings of senior defense officials without a public explanation.

Questions over civilian casualties in the Iran war, as well as whether the U.S. was properly prepared for retaliatory strikes, and broader questions over the strategic rationale for the conflict, are likely to be a key part of committee members on both sides of the aisle questioning of Hegseth, multiple congressional aides explained. 

This week marks Hegseth’s first return to Capitol Hill in nearly a year — with testimony Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee and Thursday on the Senate side — and his first exposure to sustained scrutiny since the war with Iran began. He’ll be joined by Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at both hearings. 

While Hegseth has appeared before the press since the conflict began in late February, he has largely limited engagement to reporters viewed as sympathetic to the administration.

At the center of this week’s hearings is the administration’s request for $1.5 trillion in defense spending, the largest amount in the Pentagon’s history and a jump of 50% over current levels, which would mark the largest single-year increase in a generation.

The proposal would triple spending on drones and related technologies to more than $74 billion, while directing over $30 billion toward munitions procurement. But that budget request was developed months ago: not account for spending in the war with Iran.

“The overlap, you’ll see, is the request for munitions, which is something we always need,” Jules Hurst III, acting undersecretary of defense and the Pentagon’s comptroller, told reporters last week. “We always need to increase our magazine depth. But outside of that, there aren’t any operational costs in here from Iran.” Hurst is set to join Hegseth and Caine at the Senate hearing on Thursday.

That means the Pentagon may require additional funding to cover the cost of the vast quantities of munitions being expended as U.S. forces have struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran since February, along with other significant war-related expenses.

Defense experts have long raised concerns about stockpile constraints even before the war with Iran, with some estimates of a potential conflict with China suggesting the United States could exhaust long-range missile inventories within the first few weeks of fighting.

In less than two months of exchanging fire with Iran, the U.S. has used roughly half of certain missiles and other munitions, according to an analysis published last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Retired Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS and an author of the report, said Operation Epic Fury “does create a window of vulnerability” for a period of as many as four years – the time it would take to replenish stocks.

“The United States has enough munitions to fight this war if it stubs up again,” Cancian said. “But the risk is in a future war with China, where inventory levels are far below where war planners would like them to be.”

Pentagon officials have maintained the U.S. has enough ammo to fight Iran. Though rearming the force with new munitions can take years, with some missiles requiring one to two years to build, reflecting an inherent limit on how many complex munitions the defense industry can produce each year, spurring much of the interest in huge investments in relatively cheap, easier-to-produce drones, which the Pentagon continues to surge into the Middle East. 

Hegseth is also likely to face questions on his unprecedented firing or sidelining of two dozen senior military officials, particularly during a time of war, where he recently fired Gen. Randy George, who was the Army’s top officer and John Phelan, the Navy secretary.

Hegseth has also fired numerous lower-profile generals, without explanation, including Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., who was the chief of the Army Chaplain Corps, a collection of clergy from different faiths within the service. He has also blocked the promotion of four colonels to brigadier general, two of whom are women and two are Black, according to two U.S. officials, who both described a secretary of defense intervening in promotions as unprecedented.

Meanwhile, Democrats have failed in their multiple attempts to rein in President Donald Trump’s authority to wage war in Iran without Capitol Hill’s approval.

The 1973 War Powers Resolution gives the president latitude to conduct military strikes for a 60-day window, which closes Friday. The law allows for a one-time 30-day extension for the president to act without the consent of lawmakers, though it is unclear whether Trump intends to do so or whether Republicans will take into account the ceasefire in a way that relieves any deadline pressure.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said the U.S. is engaged in serious talks with a “new” and “more reasonable” regime in Iran as the war enters its fifth week.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during an appearance on “Good Morning America,” declined to say who exactly the U.S. is negotiating with.

“Well, I’m not going to disclose to you who those people are, because it probably would get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran. Look, there’s some fractures going on there internally,” Rubio said.

“And if there are new people now in charge who have a more reasonable vision of the future, that would be good news for us, for them, for the entire world,” the secretary continued. “But we also have to be prepared for the possibility, maybe even the probability that that is not the case.”

When pushed for more clarity, Rubio said, “You have people there that are saying some of the right things privately.”

“But at the end of the day, we have to see if these people end up being the ones in charge, seeing if they’re the ones that have the power to deliver. We’re going to test it. We are hopeful that’s the case,” he went on. “There are clearly people there talking to us in ways that previous people in charge in Iran have not spoken to us in the past.”

Iranian officials have denied any direct talks with the U.S., saying that messages have been passed through intermediaries. Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said Monday, “We have not had any negotiations with America.”

The U.S. presented Iran with a 15-point framework for a peace deal by way of Pakistan last week. Baqaei commented on the U.S. proposal during a press conference Monday.

“The information that has been conveyed to us [from the US], regardless of what name you want to give it, as 15 articles or whatever you call it, involved a large number of requests that are excessive, unrealistic, and illogical,” Baqaei said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that the country would host talks between the U.S. and Iran “in the coming days.” There has not been confirmation from either Iran or the U.S. on when exactly these talks would take place or who will be involved for either side.

Trump on Sunday told reporters he could “see a deal” being made with Iran soon, though “it’s possible we won’t.”

The president suggested talks were moving in a positive direction because Iran allowed 20 oil tankers to pass through the critical Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blocked to international shipping traffic after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on the country last month.

Trump on Monday continued to tout progress but also threatened major U.S. attacks on Tehran’s energy infrastructure and more if a diplomatic off-ramp isn’t reached.

“The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran,” he wrote in a post to his social media platform.

“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,'” the president posted.

Last week, Trump extended the deadline for Iran to reopen the strait twice. Trump said the U.S. would continue a pause on energy site attacks until next Monday, April 6.

Trump has not ruled out using ground troops in Iran. Experts say troops could be used to seize Iran’s nuclear material or Kharg Island, the country’s primary oil export hub.

“I just have lots of alternatives,” Trump said on Sunday.

More U.S. service members have arrived in the Middle East, including roughly 3,500 sailors and Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday that he wants the U.S. to “take the oil in Iran.”

“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump told the news outlet.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pressed Rubio on Monday about how the president would go about taking Kharg Island and whether it would require American troops on the ground.

Rubio was noncommittal, but said again that Iran’s threats about controlling the Strait of Hormuz in perpetuity needed to be addressed. 

“That’s not going to be allowed to happen. And the president has a number of options available to him, if he so chooses, to prevent that from happening,” Rubio said.

“There is a way forward here. We are going to achieve our objectives in a matter of weeks, not months.”

ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr, Emily Chang and Meghan Mistry contributed to this report.

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