Hegseth accuses Europe, Asia of ‘freeriding’ over Hormuz

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused European and Asian countries of relying on the U.S. military to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz after it was closed by the war against Iran.

“Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for freeriding is over,” Hegseth said at a news conference on Friday. “America and the free world deserve allies who are capable, who are loyal.”

The Pentagon chief said the U.S. blockade of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil and gas flows out of the Persian Gulf, is growing stronger each day after reports that some vessels were circumnavigating U.S. Navy vessels in the area.

The U.S. launched the blockade amid Iranian resistance to President Donald Trump’s demands for a ceasefire, with the strait largely closed to tanker traffic by Iranian threats — raising global energy prices significantly since the U.S. and Israel launched the war in late February.

—Bloomberg News

Jake Reiner on parents Rob and Michele’s killings: ‘My world, as I knew it, had collapsed’

LOS ANGELES — The oldest son of Rob and Michele Reiner has published a heart-rending account of learning from his sister that their parents were dead and his troubled brother had been arrested for the slayings inside their Los Angeles home.

In a personal essay published Friday on Substack, 34-year-old Jake Reiner described the “nightmare” of unexpectedly losing his parents last December. His younger brother Nick, 32, was arrested for the double murder within 24 hours of his parents’ bodies being found inside their bedroom.

“We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable. Sure, any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it,” he wrote.

“It’s almost too impossible to process. I understand that people have questions about what happened. Some of those answers will come in time. But some parts of this belong only to our family, and keeping them private is the only way to protect what little remains of something that was taken from us.

—Los Angeles Times

Maryland Supreme Court vacates Baltimore’s $153 million opioid verdict, sends case back

BALTIMORE — The Maryland Supreme Court on Friday wiped out Baltimore’s $153 million opioid verdict, sending the case back to a lower court and dealing a major blow to the city’s efforts to hold drug distributors liable under public nuisance law.

In a brief order, Chief Justice Matthew Fader said the court was acting in light of its recent ruling in Express Scripts, Inc. v. Anne Arundel County, which sharply limits how public nuisance claims can be used in opioid litigation. The justices granted review, vacated the Baltimore City Circuit Court judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with that decision.

The move effectively erases the jury’s finding that distributors McKesson and Cencora were liable for contributing to Baltimore’s opioid crisis.

Retired federal judge Andre Davis said the order leaves little room for the city to recover damages from the companies that went to trial.

—Baltimore Sun

UN human rights office accuses Israel of war crimes in Lebanon

GENEVA — The U.N.'s human rights office says it has identified evidence of Israeli war crimes in Lebanon.

The Geneva-based body — formally known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights — has documented killings of medical staff and journalists, spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said on Friday.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military reportedly obstructed paramedics from providing assistance after a journalist was killed and a photographer injured in an attack. "Medical personnel, whether military or civilian, and other civilians, including journalists, are protected under international humanitarian law," said Al-Kheetan. "Deliberately targeting them would amount to a war crime."

In a report, the office presented evidence gathered during the first three weeks of renewed warfare in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, which followed the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Tehran on February 28.

—dpa