
One year after Argentine President Javier Milei posted on X promoting the $Libra crypto token —and later deleted the message— the episode remains under legal and political scrutiny, with proceedings in Argentina and civil claims in the United States still active.

A large fire broke out on Friday at the Ñico López refinery in Cuba’s capital, sending a thick column of black smoke into the sky that was visible from multiple points around Havana Bay. Authorities have not yet disclosed the cause of the blaze or the extent of any damage, while emergency crews remained on scene.

The United States is shifting the USS Gerald R. Ford, its largest aircraft carrier, from the Caribbean Sea to the Middle East in a move that would place two US carrier strike groups in the region as President Donald Trump presses Iran to reach a deal over its nuclear programme.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to travel to Venezuela, while acknowledging that no date has been set. “I’m going to make a visit to Venezuela,” he told reporters at the White House.

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been placed on administrative leave as ICE and the Justice Department (DOJ) open a joint probe following video evidence that undercut parts of the official account of a Minneapolis arrest in which a Venezuelan man was shot in the leg.

Argentina’s debate over a “lower age of criminal responsibility” centres on the minimum age at which the State can formally prosecute a minor. The lower house of Congress (Chamber of Deputies) has given initial approval to a new Juvenile Criminal Regime that would lower that threshold from 16 to 14 and redefine procedures and sanctions for adolescents.

Washington has issued new authorizations that allow oil-and-gas-related transactions in Venezuela for companies including BP, Chevron, Eni, Repsol and Shell, in a shift that could unlock stalled projects and settle payments previously constrained by US sanctions.

A face-to-face poll reported by the Financial Times points to a sharp swing in public mood in Venezuela following the US military intervention and the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro. The paper said Venezuelans are “much more optimistic about the future”, while the same findings also show heightened concern over security.

Argentina became the first Mercosur country to secure an initial legislative green light for the trade agreement with the European Union, after the Chamber of Deputies approved the text late on Thursday. The bloc also includes Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, which have launched their own domestic ratification processes.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration has withdrawn the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 “endangerment finding,” a determination that has long provided the legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The White House and the EPA framed the move as a major shift in federal climate policy and a broad deregulatory push affecting the auto sector.