acting

WASHINGTON — David Venturella, a former executive at a private prison operator, will serve as the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Trump administration says, after the agency’s current leader steps down at the end of the month.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said late Tuesday that Venturella would succeed Todd Lyons, who led the agency through much of the administration’s tumultuous crackdown on immigration. ICE did not immediately respond to an email seeking additional information Wednesday.

Venturella left the Geo Group in early 2023 and has been working at ICE leading the division that oversees detention contracts, members of Congress wrote in a public letter earlier this year.

At the Geo Group, which houses around one-third of ICE detainees, Venturella served in a number of posts, including executive vice president overseeing corporate development, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. He also oversaw removal operations for ICE in 2011 and 2012 after working for federal contractors, including one that specializes in security clearances and background checks.

Geo has benefited from President Trump’s mass deportation push, garnering big contracts to open three shuttered facilities. Among them was a $1-billion, 15-year deal for a detention center in New Jersey’s largest city.

“Last year was the most successful period for new business wins in our company’s history,” Geo’s CEO George Zoley said during an earnings call last week.

Geo owns and operates 23 ICE detention facilities, with about 26,000 available beds. Zoley also said that ICE’s air transportation subcontract had continued to steadily increase and that it secured a new contract last year for electronic monitoring.

Venturella will lead ICE at a time when the public mood has soured on Trump’s immigration crackdown, which sent surges of federal immigration officers into American cities to round up immigrants. Those raids sent tensions soaring and prompted clashes between protesters and law enforcement, leading to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Trump returned to the White House on a promise of mass deportations, and ICE has been a central executor of that vision. Under Lyons’ leadership, the agency used a massive infusion of cash to expand hiring and detention capabilities, and it ramped up arrests to meet demand from the Republican administration.

Federal officials announced Lyons’ departure last month from ICE, which had gotten $75 billion from Congress to fulfill Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Venturella’s appointment comes as Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin settles into his role atop the Cabinet agency overseeing ICE. Mullin has promised to keep his department out of the headlines and has indicated a softer tone on immigration, although he is expected to align with the president’s priorities on mass deportations.

One contentious issue confronting Homeland Security now is a plan for converting warehouses into immigrant detention centers. Conceived while Kristi Noem led the department, the effort has encountered multiple lawsuits and intense community blowback, including in Republican-led states.

The $38.3-billion plan would increase detention capacity to 92,000 beds and mean acquiring eight large-scale facilities, capable of housing 7,000 to 10,000 detainees each, and 16 smaller regional processing centers.

Those, and other sites, were supposed to be running by the end of November. But after Noem’s departure, the department paused the purchase of new warehouses as it scrutinizes all contracts signed during her tenure.

Last month a judge extended a pause on transforming a massive Maryland warehouse into a processing facility for immigrants, and there are signs that federal officials are scaling back the plans.

This could be good news for Geo. The Florida-based company has about 6,000 idle beds at six company-owned facilities, Zoley said last week.

Zoley had offered a note of skepticism about the warehouse plan during an earlier earnings call in February, noting that renovating a warehouse is “more complicated than you may think.” At that point, he said the company was “cautiously” looking at whether to bid to help operate some of them.

Hollingsworth writes for the Associated Press.

Ex-mayor of wealthy Los Angeles suburb promoted pro-China propaganda at behest of Chinese officials, prosecutors say.

The former mayor of a wealthy suburb in the United States city of Los Angeles has admitted to acting as an illegal agent of China, according to authorities.

Eileen Wang, the former mayor of Arcadia, agreed to plead guilty to one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government from late 2020 until 2022, the US Department of Justice said on Monday.

Wang admitted that she did not notify the US government that she was acting on behalf of China while promoting pro-Beijing propaganda, the Justice Department said.

Wang, 58, operated a website, called the US News Center, that published content supportive of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while purporting to provide news for Chinese Americans, the department said.

Wang ran the site with Yaoning Sun, a Californian man who was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government in October 2025, according to US prosecutors.

Wang’s activities included republishing a “PRC official-written essay” that denied allegations that the Chinese government was committing genocide against ethnic-minority Uighurs in its far-western region of Xinjiang, according to prosecutors.

Wang resigned as mayor on Monday, according to a statement published on the City of Arcadia’s website.

She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Her lawyers, Brian A Sun and Jason Liang, said Wang wished to apologise for “mistakes she has made in her personal life”.

“It is important to note, however, that the conduct underlying the information and the agreement with the government relates solely to Ms. Wang’s personal life – i.e., a media platform that she once operated with someone whom she believed to be her fiancé – and not to her conduct as an elected public official,” Sun and Liang said in a statement.

“Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver,” they added.

“She asks for the community’s understanding and continued support.”

US Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A Eisenberg issued a statement expressing deep concern over Wang’s activities.

“Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” he said.

“It is deeply concerning that someone who previously received and executed directives from PRC government officials is now in a position of public trust at all, but particularly so because that relationship with that foreign government had never been disclosed.”

China’s embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wang’s prosecution comes as US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet in Beijing on Wednesday for a summit expected to focus on the US-Israel war on Iran, trade, and the status of Taiwan, among other issues.

The summit comes after the two leaders agreed to a yearlong pause in their trade war during a meeting in South Korea last October.

THE HAGUE — Venezuela ’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez told journalists Monday that her country had no plans to become the 51st U.S. state after President Trump said he was “seriously considering” the move.

Rodríguez was speaking at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the final day of hearings in a dispute between her country and neighboring Guyana over the massive mineral- and oil-rich Essequibo region.

“We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history,” said Rodríguez, who assumed power in January following a U.S. military operation that ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuela is “not a colony, but a free country,” she added.

Speaking to Fox News earlier on Monday, Trump said he was “seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state,” according to a post by Fox News’ co-anchor John Roberts on social media. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Trump has made similar comments about Canada.

Rodríguez went on to say that Venezuelan and U.S. officials have been in touch and are working on “cooperation and understanding.”

Before addressing Trump’s comments, Rodríguez defended her country’s claim to Essequibo at the United Nations’ highest court, telling judges that political negotiations — not a judicial ruling — will resolve the century-old territorial dispute.

The 62,000-square-mile territory, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana, is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. It also sits near massive offshore oil deposits currently producing an average 900,000 barrels a day.

That output is close to Venezuela’s daily production of about 1 million barrels a day and has transformed one of the smallest countries in South America into a significant energy producer.

Venezuela has considered Essequibo its own since the Spanish colonial period, when the jungle region fell within its boundaries. But an 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana.

Venezuela has argued that a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration. In 2018, however, three years after ExxonMobil announced a significant oil discovery off the Essequibo coast, Guyana’s government went to the International Court of Justice and asked judges to uphold the 1899 ruling.

Tensions between the countries further flared in 2023, when Rodríguez’s predecessor, Maduro, threatened to annex the region by force after holding a referendum asking voters if Essequibo should be turned into a Venezuelan state. Maduro was captured Jan. 3 during a U.S. military operation in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and taken to New York to face drug trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Rodríguez did not address the referendum in her remarks, but she told the court that the 1966 agreement is designed to allow negotiations between Venezuela and Guyana to resolve the territorial dispute. And she accused Guyana’s government of undermining the agreement with the “opportunistic” decision to ask the court to address the dispute.

“At a time when the mechanisms established in the Geneva agreement were still fully in force, Guyana unilaterally chose to shift the dispute from the negotiating arena to a judicial resolution,” she said. “This change was not accidental; it coincided with the discovery in 2015 of the oil field that would become world-renowned.”

When hearings opened last week, Guyana’s foreign minister, Hugh Hilton Todd, told the panel of international judges that the dispute “has been a blight on our existence as a sovereign state from the very beginning.” He said that 70% of Guyana’s territory is at stake.

The court is likely to take months to issue a final and legally binding ruling in the case.

Venezuela has warned that its participation in the hearings does not mean either consent to, or recognition of, the court’s jurisdiction.

Quell and Cano write for the Associated Press. Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.

The Channel 4 show’s newest surrogate partner therapist may look familiar to some viewers

Risdon Roberts it the newest addition to Virgin Island’s therapy team, but some fans may recognise her.

She is appearing on the Channel 4 show as a surrogate partner therapist, a professional who can offer two-way touch with the cast and even engage in full sex if deemed appropriate. She is the third so-called ‘sex surrogate’ on the show alongside Kat Slade, 35, and Andre Lazarus, 42.

In tonight’s episode (May 4) fans will get a glimpse at Risdon’s work with 25-year-old accountant Tegan, with the pair trying out directed gazing. This involves staring at different parts of the body in a bid to stir up feelings of desire.

As Risdon gets more screen time, fans may be curious about the star’s background and her path to appearing on the Channel 4 reality series. Here’s everything to know.

How old is Risdon Roberts?

Risdon is 42 years old and was born in Japan. She is same age as fellow surrogate partner therapist, Andre, who she already knew before the show.

She is usually based in Los Angeles where she works as a surrogate partner therapist and an intimacy expert, also advising for events, film and TV. Her specialism is working with people new to intimacy, experiencing sexual dysfunction or who are coming out later in life. She herself identifies as a queer woman.

Explaining she she signed up for Season 2, she shared: “I was very impressed with Kat [Slade] on the show and how the show supported her when the work with one of her clients shifted, as that is something that comes up a lot in Surrogate Partner Therapy.

“Seeing Kat’s incredible work on the first season really inspired me to want to participate. Andre and I have been friends and colleagues for years as well, so his positive experience during the first season was a major reason why I signed on.”

She added: “As a queer woman I also appreciated how there was so much room on the show for the cast to explore their divergent identities, attractions, and sexualities. I also really enjoyed the sex education elements of the show because those are some of my favourite parts of the work.”

Why does Risdon Roberts look familiar?

If fans recognise Risdon already, it’s likely due to her background in acting. She started her career in film and TV and trained as an intimacy coordinator before switching to her current career path.

Her first big acting role was in the online web series, Bite Me, in which she starred as a character called Lauren. The show centred around three gamers who try and survive a zombie outbreak using their gaming skills.

According to her IMDB page, her most recent TV work outside of Virgin Island is a 2017 TV mini series titled This Place Is Weird where she is credited as ‘Risdon’ as well as an appearance as ‘Lulu’ in 2023 comedy short, Surprise!

Virgin Island airs Monday and Tuesday nights at 9pm on Channel 4.

In an emotional statement, I’m A Celebrity… South Africa star Adam Thomas admitted he struggled in camp due to his health and clashes with David Haye and Jimmy Bullard

A friend of I’m a Celebrity… South Africa star Adam Thomas has spoken out after seeing the actor’s confrontational side on the show. The 37-year-old has faced a number of challenging moments in the all-stars series – and not just in the Bushtucker trials.

In scenes aired on Tuesday night, Adam clashed with Jimmy Bullard after the former footballer withdrew from the Rancid Run trial, putting their time in camp in jeopardy.

During the heated exchange, the actor criticised Jimmy for his decision to pull out and called him a “p***k”, while the sportsman branded his reaction “pathetic”.

The tension came after the Waterloo Road actor confronted David Haye over his behaviour in previous days. The boxer had been accused of “bullying” Adam by some viewers, following a series of remarks.

As tensions escalated, David branded his co-star “useless” and questioned his “mental strength” to complete challenges, despite Adam telling campmates he was unwell.

The actor eventually confronted David in a heated exchange, telling him to “shut up” before the boxer apologised.

Reflecting on the fallout, Ashley Roberts, who also appeared in the series, described the atmosphere as “tough” during a discussion on Heart Radio Breakfast.

The show’s host Jason King went on to say that seeing Adam in a more serious way on screen suggested he had been pushed to his limits.

“I know Adam very, very well and he is the loveliest, most cheerful, smiley, happy guy. If you’ve broken Adam, David, you’ve done something wrong,” he shared.

Ashley chimed in: “It was nice for him to stand up for himself. It starts as lad banter, but we could tell it was going too far.

“And then finally Adam was like, ‘I’ve just had enough’ and we were like, ‘Go on Adam!’ It was tough in there at times, it was tough in general just being in there, let alone having to deal with all of that.”

David was voted out of camp on Monday night. In his exit interview with hosts Ant and Dec, he said there was “no bad blood” between him and Adam and claimed it was banter.

“I won the world heavyweight championship against a seven-foot Russian giant,” he shared.

“So when a grown man tells me that a fun TV show – where we’re being paid handsomely every single day – is the hardest thing he’s ever been through, it’s just not a frequency I recognise. I was actually on my best behaviour in there, honestly.

“I’ve spoken to Adam, I’ve said my piece, and some of what’s still to air will speak for itself. I’ll leave it there.”

In a statement shared on Instagram on Sunday evening, Adam said the boxer “broke me” in camp and “pushed me to my limits”, adding: “I’ve told David this and he’s apologised – that’s that. I’ve moved on now, I’m not one to hold a grudge.”

He went on to say he also struggled in camp due to his psoriatic arthritis, a long-term condition that can cause joint pain, swelling and stiffness.

I’m A Celebrity… South Africa airs weeknights at 9pm on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons, a key executor of President Trump’s mass deportations agenda, will resign at the end of May, federal officials announced Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced Lyons’ departure, calling him a great leader of ICE who helped to make American communities safer. Mullin said Lyons’ last day will be May 31.

“We wish him luck on his next opportunity in the private sector,” Mullin said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press asking why he is resigning.

Lyons, who was named acting director in March 2025, led the agency at the center of President Trump’s plans to reshape immigration to the U.S.

Under his leadership, the agency was granted a massive infusion of cash through Congress, which it used to expand hiring and detention capabilities, and it ramped up arrests to meet demand from the administration.

ICE was also central to a series of high-profile immigration enforcement operations in American cities, including Chicago and Minneapolis, a deployment that ended after backlash erupted over the deaths of two American protesters at the hands of federal immigration officers.

Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff and the main architect of his immigration policy, called Lyons a “dedicated leader.”

“His courageous work at ICE has saved countless thousands of American lives and helped deliver safety and tranquility to millions of Americans,” Miller said in a statement.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson described Lyons in a post on X as “an American patriot who made our country safer.”

It’s not clear who might replace Lyons. But whoever does will take over an agency flush with cash while still a flashpoint for controversy. ICE is at the center of a battle in Congress, with Democratic lawmakers demanding restraints on immigration officers before agreeing to restore routine funding for DHS.

On Thursday, Lyons, along with two other top immigration officials, appeared before a House subcommittee to argue for his agency’s budget and faced continued scrutiny from lawmakers of ICE’s actions.

Lyons’ departure also comes as DHS is under new leadership after Trump fired former Secretary Kristi Noem, who led the department through the administration’s major immigration policy changes.

Mullin, who took over as secretary last month, is likely to continue to advance the president’s agenda but has struck a softer tone on some of the administration’s most contentious policies.

Public perceptions of ICE during Lyons’ tenure were low. In a February AP-NORC poll, most U.S. adults, including independents, said they have an unfavorable view of the agency.

Lyons faced questions in Congress over the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and was asked if he would apologize for the way some Trump administration officials characterized Good as an agitator. He declined to do so.

“I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private. But I’m not going to comment on any active investigation,” Lyons said.

Lyons said he had seen video that captured Pretti’s shooting but said he could not comment, citing an active investigation.

Lyons, who joined ICE in 2007 as an immigration enforcement agent in Texas, signed off on a memo, first obtained by the Associated Press, that granted federal immigration officers sweeping powers to forcibly enter homes and make arrests without a judge’s warrant.

Trump’s border advisor Tom Homan described Lyons as serving selflessly and “a highly respected and effective acting Director of ICE.”

Goldenberg and Golden write for the Associated Press. Golden reported from Seattle.

Film buffs understand that nearly every movie is, at heart, a travelogue — even if it occurs in your neighboring town — and that most travelogues can come across like love stories, whether anyone ends up together or not. That’s the whimsical, charged appeal of the Charli XCX-starring “Erupcja,” a mélange of romance, escape and disruptive coincidence in modern Warsaw from American micro-auteur Pete Ohs.

If you put footage of a smoke-spewing volcano under that Polish title, you’ll gather what the word means, which is exactly what Ohs does at the beginning, color-tinting his boxy frame ’60s-arthouse-style and adding a vintage Mancini-esque track from a Polish chanteuse. All the better to seed the belief that we’re about to experience something dreamy and convulsive.

That said, a volcano isn’t why British couple Bethany (Charli XCX) and Rob (Will Madden) have arrived in Warsaw. That rumbling you hear could also just be suitcases rolled over ancient streets. Besotted Rob’s surprise plan was to propose to Bethany in Paris — as revealed to us in omnipotent voice-over (by Jacek Zubiel) that fills in the feelings and backstories of our protagonists.

Bethany chose Warsaw, however, because she has a rekindling in mind, in the form of her longtime friend Nel (Lena Góra), a florist for whom Bethany’s unprompted arrival under her balcony one night — stealing away from her Airbnb with Rob — is complicated and exciting. With the news breaking that Italy’s Mount Etna has just erupted, grounding planes across Europe, a mighty passion they forged as teenagers, fueled by drugs, clubbing, heart-to-hearts and poetry, has once more been unleashed. It’s just their thing: Whenever Bethany and Nel connect, a volcano announces itself somewhere in the world. Woe be to the moony boyfriend or, in Nel’s case, exasperated girlfriend (Agata Trzebuchowska), left behind to dust off the ash.

“Erupcja,” which Ohs also photographed and edited with impressionistic verve, unfolds as if Jacques Rivette’s playful air of mystery and Roberto Rossellini’s earthy melancholia had somehow come together to form a zillennial with a restless heart. Ohs makes movies with the in-the-moment creative participation of his cast — he, Charli, Madden, Góra and playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who portrays a friendly American artist, are the credited writers and the whole enterprise goes down like a cocktail of ruminations and swerves invented on the spot, but not haphazardly.

You get the buzz (music by Charlie Watson and Isabella Summers plays a big part), the hangover, but also an aura of remedy and renewal. It’s all very human, evident in the pop star’s subtly frisky portrait of someone drawn to abandon (Charli should definitely continue acting), but also in Madden’s unshowy, mature hurt and in how Góra suggests the more grounded half of a self-mythologizing duo. Ohs works in evocative details: inserted frames of color, like mood flashes, or a shot of a lonely phone ringing, never getting picked up.

He leaves it up to you to wonder if Bethany and Nel have ever been more than friends — “It’s not Romeo and Juliet,” Nel coolly declaims from her balcony upon glimpsing Bethany waiting below — but what’s fun is how that’s ultimately beside the point. The edgy appeal of “Erupcja” is in the way it maps humans as molecules and electrons, fizzed by location, inspired by connection, driven to hover, fuse and release. The characters may get bounced around a bit and some will feel stranded, but you’ll know you’ve been taken somewhere new by this charming indie.