WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President ​Donald Trump signed an executive order on Saturday intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic ‌drugs. The order instructs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expedite the review of drugs such as ibogaine, which U.S. military veteran groups have said can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

In what is possibly another sign of climate change, mosquitoes have landed in Iceland for the first time. For many years, the island was the only Arctic country that could claim to be mosquito-free. But that all changed in 2025, when three Culiseta annulata specimens were discovered in a garden in Kjós, just north of the capital Reykjavík.

Many, though not all, of the lawyers who attempted to overturn the 2020 election continue to face the fallout.

St. Vincent Medical Center, a seven-floor yellowish-white structure that looms over MacArthur Park, is the oldest hospital in Los Angeles. Or it was — the hospital closed six years ago, and the building has been vacant since. In case that wasn’t clear, the words “MEDICAL CENTER” on the facade have been covered up by a big white tarp. But this historic complex, recently controversial for being inactive in a high-need neighborhood, is notable right now for the opposite reason. St. Vincent is preparing not just to reopen, but to take on several completely new identities at once — including a homeless shelter, a large supportive housing development, and an immersive, selfie-friendly pop-up art museum with 70 rooms.

“These people that say, ‘It was an accident, move on,’ they don't have to worry about what the contamination is going to do to their health long term... I can't afford to just go move.”

Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

Lemkin defined genocide as being aimed at ‘the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups’. He was thinking about the way the Nazis saw the Jewish ghettos and enslaved labour camps as means of slow, indirect extermination. But he was also aware of the colonial origins of this mode of destruction. Though direct acts of massacre took place in colonised territories everywhere, slow, indirect killings have more often been the means of annihilating Indigenous peoples. Dispossessed of their ancestral habitats, separated from the land on which they depended for sustenance and ritual, forced into reservations, Indigenous populations were destroyed to free up the best land for European settlement. Two and a half years after 7 October 2023, most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture, wells and the soil itself – has been destroyed and made toxic by bombs, artillery, tank shells and sappers. The most systematic destruction was caused by D9 bulldozers made by the US company Caterpillar. These giant armoured machines stabbed their blades into the ground, churning up fields, felling orchards, flattening homes, tearing through roads and ploughing through cemeteries. The tide of destruction flowed inwards from Gaza’s perimeter fences, pushing Palestinians into enclaves referred to by the Israeli army as ‘safe areas’ and ‘humanitarian zones’, though they were never safe or humane. These overcrowded coastal sites, such as al-Mawasi, with its barren sand dunes, were without housing, healthcare or other services, and were continuously bombed from the air and attacked on the ground. The bulldozers turned the agriculturally rich land of eastern Gaza into a monochrome desert of crushed grey cement mixed with the area’s yellowish soil. Entire cities such as Rafah, towns such as Beit Hanoun and refugee camps such as Jabalia were erased. When buildings are bombed or bulldozed, their remains – plastics, wiring, solvents, insulation, asbestos – release toxic chemicals into the soil. Some bombs penetrate the ground before exploding and release heavy metals or metalloids – such as uranium, lead and arsenic – deep underground. Many of these substances are slow to decay and will affect the composition of the soil for decades. A lived-in landscape has been turned into what a former Israeli general, Giora Eiland, described as a place ‘where no human being can exist’.

Objection, a Thiel-backed startup, aims to use AI to judge journalism, letting users pay to challenge stories. Critics warn it could chill whistleblowers and reshape how media accountability works.

Conspiracy theories about the Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting have ramped up in recent weeks as once steadfast Trump supporters turn on the president.

By questioning the myth of the cowboy, he offered a different kind of legend, one more suited to this country and its contradictions.

With the help of Jerry, a detector dog, the Canadian Border Services Agency seized over five kilograms of undeclared sausage, salami and butter at Toronto Pearson Airport earlier this month.

FBI alleges Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, was captured on video throwing explosive device outside home of OpenAI chief

Dave Chappelle says members of the Republican party have "weaponized" and "politicized" his transgender jokes.

Jessica McClure Morales has been arrested. The 40-year-old — known by many as "Baby Jessica," who was saved from a deep well after 58 hours at 18 months old in 1987 — was arrested Saturday following a reported domestic disturbance at her Midland County, Texas home, ABC affiliate KMID reports. WGN and KTLA have also reported news of the arrest. Morales was reportedly taken into custody at the scene and charged with assault causing bodily injury involving family violence. She was later released from the Midland County Detention Center after posting bond.

The DOJ settled, but more than 30 states kept litigating against Ticketmaster anyway.

Stefan Pildes, a 50-year-old New Jersey man, facing one count of wire fraud, feds say.

More than 2,200 ants were found in Zhang Kequn’s luggage at Nairobi airport, with baggage destined for China

Attorneys representing immigrants held at the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention site alleged Friday in federal court that guards beat and pepper-sprayed detainees after a protest over lost phone access — allegations they argue show state and federal officials defying a recent court order protecting detainees’ civil rights. In a court filing in Fort Myers, lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and civil rights groups said officers at the controversial Everglades facility entered a unit earlier this month and physically assaulted detainees. One man was thrown to the ground and “severely beat,” according to his attorney, who submitted photographs to the court showing her client with a black eye. The attorney, Katie Blankenship of the legal-services organization Sanctuary of the South, wrote in a sworn declaration that officers broke another detainee’s wrist and “pepper sprayed everyone in the cage.” The violence, the attorneys say, erupted after site employees abruptly cut off detainees’ access to phones on April 2 — eliminating what they described as their clients’ only connection to legal counsel and their families. The day-long prohibition came less than a week after Middle District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell issued an order expanding Alligator Alcatraz detainees’ access to their lawyers and their ability to use phones at the remote pop-up facility.

A Mongabay and CNN investigation found the eight Chinese state-owned ships that conduct deep-sea mining research in China’s mining areas allocated by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) actually spent little time in these exploration areas, while spending much of their remaining time operating in militarily strategic waters. Many of these vessels are linked to the Chinese Navy, have regularly called on military-connected ports, encroached on other countries’ coastal exclusive economic zones and turned off their AIS location beacons. While none of this proves the vessels serve military roles, it suggests the ships may serve dual-use purposes, having a strategic military role as well as a scientific one. With China positioning itself as a leader in deep-sea mining, the U.S. is accelerating its own push to access seabed areas and counter China’s dominance in critical mineral supply chains. The Cook Islands is one hotspot where U.S-China competition is intensifying. As competition heightens between China and the U.S., critics of the industry warn deep-sea mining could cause irreversible harm to marine ecosystems, raising fears that the environment could be the main casualty in this geopolitical rivalry.

Dozens of protesters were arrested at a demonstration urging Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen.