Law and Crime

Aug. 28 (UPI) — Less than a month after taking office, Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori’s government was to formally ask Congress on Friday for authority to legislate by decree for 120 days, seeking broader powers to advance its security and economic agenda.

The Council of Ministers, led by Fujimori, approved a bill containing 66 legislative proposals Thursday night for congressional consideration and debate.

The initiatives focus on public safety, formal employment, economic development, the removal of bureaucratic barriers, structural reform of the state, taxes and customs, among other areas.

The core of the government’s request centers on the so-called “Shield Plan,” a punitive security strategy designed to address the country’s public safety crisis and the expansion of transnational organized crime.

The bill seeks to establish the legal framework needed to institutionalize and expand joint patrols by the Armed Forces and National Police in urban areas with the highest rates of violent crime.

The proposal also includes measures to address prison overcrowding and organized crime by giving the military administrative control of prisons as well as responsibility for border security.

The legislative package also proposes changes to the Penal Code to increase penalties for common crimes and redefine police powers during preliminary investigations conducted in coordination with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

On the economic front, Fujimori’s proposal seeks to reshape labor market conditions to attract investment and boost economic activity.

The government contends that reducing nonwage labor costs for businesses is necessary to address an informal employment rate that affects almost 70% of the economically active population.

The government also proposes greater flexibility in traditional employee benefits through individual agreements or collective bargaining between workers and employers.

In Peru’s new bicameral Congress, the government needs a simple majority in the Chamber of Deputies to secure the legislative package approval, requiring at least 66 votes from the chamber’s 130 members.

Because the governing bloc does not have enough votes on its own, Fujimori’s government must negotiate with moderate opposition lawmakers and secure at least 10 additional votes.

Aug. 28 (UPI) — The Justice Department is suing four more states over offering in-state tuition benefits to qualifying undocumented students, for a total of 21 lawsuits filed against so-called Dream Acts amid the Trump administration’s anti-immigration push.

The lawsuits against Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington — all Democratic-led — were individually filed Thursday, alleging their laws providing undocumented students with in-state tuition and financial assistance unconstitutionally discriminate against out-of-state U.S. citizens to whom such benefits are not offered.

“By granting illegal aliens in-state tuition, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona are pushing citizens to the side and ignoring federal law. No more,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. said in a statement.

“Our efforts will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to American citizens.”

The Trump administration is asking the courts to enjoin the states from enforcing their so-called Dream Acts that require colleges and universities to offer the in-state benefits to certain noncitizen students. The lawsuits argue the laws conflict with a 1996 federal statute that bars states from offering in-state tuition to people not lawfully present in the United States unless a citizen of the United States is eligible for the same benefit without regard to whether they are a resident of the school’s state.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said he plans to fight the lawsuit.

“Washington State won’t be bullied into changing how we provide opportunities for young people in our state,” he said in a statement.

“We’ll see them in court, and we expect to win.”

The Justice Department has been targeting these laws following an April 2025 Trump-signed executive order that directed the attorney general to identify and stop enforcement of policies that favor “aliens over any groups of American citizens,” specifically highlighting Dream Act laws.

Proponents of these laws argue that they put postsecondary education within reach of those who otherwise would never have the opportunity to attend university, while reducing high school dropout rates as well as raising student incomes and tax contributions.

Of the 21 lawsuits, five states have been enjoined from enforcing their laws, while the other lawsuits continue to be litigated.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — Colombian authorities captured an alleged senior Tren de Aragua leader in Bogotá who was wanted by the United States for crimes that include international arms trafficking and drug trafficking, President Abelardo de la Espriella announced Thursday.

Luis Saúl Pérez Nieto, also known as “Páez” or “Nairobi,” was arrested in Fontibón, a district in western Bogotá. De la Espriella identified him as the gang’s top leader in Peru and a trusted associate of Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of the Venezuelan criminal organization.

Tren de Aragua began as a prison gang in Tocorón and expanded across South America and into the United States. It has been involved in murder, extortion, drug trafficking, human trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping and other violent acts.

“Nairobi” allegedly coordinated extortion, international arms trafficking, targeted killings and drug trafficking along strategic routes in South and Central America, according to the president’s announcement.

De la Espriella said U.S. authorities wanted Pérez Nieto in connection with those crimes. Colombian and U.S. officials have not publicly disclosed the jurisdiction handling the case, the specific charges against him or whether Washington has submitted an extradition request.

“Colombia will not be a refuge or sanctuary for any criminal,” De la Espriella said. “We will pursue them, capture them and bring them to justice, no matter where they come from.”

The operation involved Colombia’s National Police and Attorney General’s Office, along with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to Colombian outlets.

Police sources told Semana that Pérez Nieto was allegedly involved in trafficking ketamine, cocaine and weapons from Bogotá. Authorities had been tracking his movements in the Colombian capital before carrying out the arrest.

Peruvian media also reported the detention, but authorities in Peru had not announced whether Pérez Nieto faces charges or an extradition request there.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — More than 100 bone fragments and about 30 teeth were found in El Arenal, a rural community in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco.

The remains were discovered Wednesday at a suspected clandestine extermination site during a search conducted by members of a group named after Vicente Suástegui Muñoz, an activist who disappeared five years ago.

The discovery coincided with the observance of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, which seeks to draw attention to people whose whereabouts remain unknown and demand action to resolve disappearance cases, Infobae reported.

The search occurred in an area considered a priority by families searching for missing relatives because of reports and testimony linked to disappearances in different parts of the region.

Samantha Colón Morales, president of the search collective and Suástegui’s wife, said an anonymous caller alerted her to the presence of bone fragments in the eastern part of Acapulco, local newspaper El Sur reported.

Colón said the site where the remains were found is accessible by dirt roads and is about 40 minutes from the federal highway. Lipsticks, belt buckles and rings were also among the items recovered at the site, she said.

Colón said she believes the property may have been used as an extermination site because of the number of remains and the conditions in which they were found, Quadratín Guerrero reported.

She said that for families of the missing, each piece of evidence recovered could help advance an investigation and eventually establish the identity of a missing person.

Colón explained authorities will analyze the remains to determine how many people they belong to and seek to establish their identities.

More than 115,000 people are listed as missing in Mexico, according to the country’s National Registry of Missing and Disappeared Persons.

Mexico’s disappearance crisis is closely linked to organized crime violence, institutional complicity or inaction and high levels of impunity, which have overwhelmed the country’s forensic services.

Amid limited government resources, hundreds of search collectives have emerged across Mexico. Made up primarily of mothers and other relatives of missing people, their members often risk their lives searching clandestine graves and suspected extermination sites in an effort to find their loved ones.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — At least two people were killed and 10 were injured, after a car was driven into a crowd near a train station in Normandy in northern France.

Seven of the injured were in a critical condition in the hospital after the vehicle allegedlly srruck the group of people in the city of Caen late Wednesday evening on purpose, following an altercation, local authoritiies said.

Calvados department prefect David Clavière said the car “deliberately drove into pedestrians in the street opposite the train station.”

A fight had broken out between two groups of men immediately prior to the incident, according to witnesses.

A major emergency response was mounted across the wider Normandy region, leading to the arrest of a 26-year-old Russian-born male suspect in Ouistreham, a port on the Normandy coast.

The deputy prosecutor and police said terrorism had, for now, been ruled out.

“For the moment, we are not dealing with a terrorist motive, but the investigation is only just beginning,” said the city’s deputy mayor with responsibility for security, Bruno Coutanceau.

The incident came a month after a car attack on a Pride parade in Berlin that killed at least one person and injured many more and nine months after 10 people were injured, two critically, when a man purposely drove into pedestrians and cyclists on the French holiday island of Oléron.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — A divided federal appeals court has ruled that Rep. LaMonica McIver is not immune from prosecution on charges stemming from a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside a federal immigration detention facility in 2025.

The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three federal counts of impeding and interfering with federal immigration officers over alleged conduct on May 9, 2025, as they were attempting to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during an unannounced congressional oversight inspection of Delaney Hall Federal Immigration Facility.

McIver denies the allegations and has sought their dismissal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 Wednesday that two of the three charges against McIver may proceed to trial, while the third was sent back to a lower court for reconsideration.

McIver said she disagrees with the ruling and was “exploring” her options.

“To protect the people, their elected representatives must be authorized to conduct oversight of the executive branch without fear of retaliation,” McIver said in a statement.

“Today’s decision chills that authority and emboldens the Trump administration to continue persecuting our most vulnerable communities, those who try to defend them and anyone who dares hold the president or his lackeys accountable.

“I will not fold to this administration,” she continued. “The administration will not stop me from doing my job or standing for what is right. This is not over.”

Federal prosecutors charged McIver in a three-count indictment in June 2025, a month after the incident at Delaney Hall.

According to the court document, she and two other members of Congress were at the facility to conduct an unannounced congressional oversight inspection of the facility as a protest was occurring outside against the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

After arriving at the facility, Baraka entered but was informed by a federal officer he was not authorized to be there, according to federal prosecutors, who said McIver prevented the federal officers from arresting the mayor, who was allegedly given multiple warnings to leave.

Outside the facility, McIver allegedly placed herself in front of Baraka and wrapped her arms around him to prevent his arrest. During the situation she is accused of having “slammed her forearm into the body of one law enforcement officer,” whom she also allegedly tried to retrain by grabbing him.

Court documents also accuse her of striking a second officer with both of her forearms.

Video of the incident posted online shows a chaotic scene that day outside the facility.

Baraka was eventually arrested and charged with trespassing, though the case against him was later dropped.

McIver moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing it violated the Speech or Debate Clause and the constitutional principle of separation of powers as well as under selective prosecution and enforcement claims, while also arguing selective and vindictive prosecution and enforcement.

All three counts accuse her of forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with federal officers. However, the appeals court sent count three back to the lower court to review whether it includes conduct that can be considered legislative acts.

While counts one and two identify specifics act, count three encompasses a range of alleged conduct over a broad time frame, both inside and outside the facility, the court said.

Numerous Democrats came to McIver’s defense, arguing it is an attack on congressional oversight.

“Donald Trump wants Congressmembers to fall in line & not conduct oversight of detention centers,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said in a statement.

“And he wants to make an example out of @RepLaMonica. But we’re not letting up.”

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill similarly said that she continues to stand with her friend.

“Trump weaponizing the Department of Justice to target members of Congress simply for doing their jobs is straight out of his corruption playbook,” she said in an online statement.

“It’s a brazen and unlawful abuse of power, and a direct attack on congressional oversight.”

Aug. 26 (UPI) — The Justice Department and FBI announced Wednesday that they seized two platforms used to target U.S. critical infrastructure and other sensitive networks.

The seizures were of two hacking platforms called QScan and QTRouter, which were used to hack U.S. infrastructure sites, the press release said. The affidavit described a Chinese state-sponsored group known as QTFY whose members are employed by China-based Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company that has hacked into NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Senate.

“Federal law enforcement investigated and disabled [China’s] malicious software, the latest in a series of technical operations to dismantle indiscriminate hacking activities sponsored by the People’s Republic of China,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

“These court-authorized seizures deny [China]-linked hackers access to tools they use to mount online attacks against our Nation’s critical infrastructure,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg in a statement.

According to court documents, QTFY offers computer hacking services to its paying customers, including China’s army and Ministry of State Security. These computer hacking services include QScan and QTRouter, which work in conjunction, the press release said.

QScan scans and automatically infects thousands of internet-of-things devices worldwide, which are then added to the QTRouter network of QTFY-controlled devices. QTRouter consists of these compromised IoT devices, as well as commercial proxy service devices and leased virtual private servers. QTRouter then serves as an obfuscation network — meaning it allows QTFY and other malicious cyber actors to conceal the China-origin of their computer intrusion activities because the malicious communications appear to originate from computers that are outside of China and may even be local to the targeted networks.

Because the seized domains were hard-coded into the QScan and QTRouter malware and used for essential tasks such as communication and authentication, the court-authorized seizures made QScan and QTRouter inoperable.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to 48 states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories on Wednesday, in settlements resolving lawsuits over the mental health risks its social media platforms pose to children as well as spearate privacy claims.

Court filings state that the settlements, pending judicial approval, include payments of $16.68 billion to 51 U.S. jurisdictions, more than $1 billion to Texas and another $459 million to 46 states, Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands to resolve privacy claims tied to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The filings also state that Meta must implement safeguards on its platform for minors, including limits on daily use, blocking access at night, more parental tools, stricter age-assurance standards, the hiding of likes on posts and banning cosmetic-procedure filters, among other measures.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that his state may receive between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion in the settlement.

“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of difference for children and their families,” Bonta said in a statement. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months.”

Meta said that 70% of the funds will be distributed over a 10-year period, with the remaining 30% to be released only after Alphabet-owned YouTube and ByteDance’s TikTok implement a one-hour dayily limit, night mode and age-assurance measures as well as each pay a matching $5.3 billion.

The Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta said the structure was designed to enforce an industry-wide adoption of the measures it has agreed to and ensure teens receive the same level of protection across major social media platforms.

“Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers, TikTok and YouTube, to implement this new framework, right away,” C.J. Mahoney, chief legal officer at Meta, said in a statement.

As part of the settlement, all parties, including Meta, waive all rights to appeal the final judgment.

“The focus of this case was to protect our kids: stopping notifications and alerts at night and when they are in school, encouraging them to take breaks from social media, protecting them against harmful features,” Phil Weiser, Colorado attorney general, said in a statement.

The cases brought by U.S. states are among several across the globe investigating social media companies over the harms they pose to children. Elsewhere, countries, such as Australia, have implemented age restrictions and called for the end to addictive features that encourage compulsive use, such as endless scrolling.

Meta still faces additional lawsuits in the United States still. Several school districts and individuals have filed lawsuits against Meta and other social media platforms for contributing to mental health problems among children.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people in July, an average of more than 1,500 people a day, according to newly released government data.

This sets a new monthly record for ICE in President Donald Trump‘s second term. ICE provided the information to the Deportation Data Project based at UC Berkeley and UCLA.

“The way people are being detained is far less flashy, but we are continuing to see arrests,” Melissa Shepard, director of legal services at immigrant services group ImmDef, told The Guardian. “It’s just on a quieter scale instead of, you know, 10, 12 officers making one arrest, you have a handful of officers pulling someone over.”

Markwayne Mullin took over as secretary of U.S. Homeland Security in March, succeeding Kristi Noem, and said he would fulfill Trump’s deportation goals without constant headlines.

“What we’re seeing is an expansion in all of the different ways that ICE is detaining people,” Graeme Blair, co-director of the Deportation Data Projection, told NPR. “They’re arresting people at airports, at ICE check-ins, at immigration courthouses, and this is the result of that.”

The 49,571 people detained in July mark the highest total since October 2022. A record number of those arrested had no criminal history, making up 51% of detainees, The Guardian said.

The number of those removed from the United States also hit a record high in July — nearly 34,000 people.

More than half the arrests were in Texas, Florida, Georgia and California. The prior three states take part in the 287(g) program, in which state and local police can do parts of ICE’s job in the field under ICE supervision. California and a number of other states, including New York, Maine and Vermont, ban 287(g) agreements.

Congress recently approved a $70 billion surge in funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, helping fuel these numbers. The figures also include the first arrests made after the Supreme Court allowed Trump to revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants last month.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — A Haitian gang threatened Wednesday to kill more than 50 people abducted during an attack on the Kenscoff community if security forces continue their offensive after at least 47 people, including five children, were killed, the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti said.

A gang leader known as Izo 2 posted a video on social media that showed nearly 20 hostages, including three children. The man said he was holding more people captive and directed his threat at Vladimir Paraison, acting director of the Haitian National Police.

“If one of my men or a soldier dies, these people will be killed,” the criminal leader said, according to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

Izo 2, also known as Didi, leads the armed group operating in Kenscoff in coordination with Johnson André, alias Izo, one of the most powerful leaders of the Viv Ansanm criminal coalition.

The attack began on the night of Aug. 23, when armed men stormed central Kenscoff and several surrounding communities. The attackers killed residents, abducted more than 50 people and set homes and vehicles on fire.

Twenty-two of those killed were reportedly executed inside a religious compound in which they had sought shelter, according to the United Nations.

“The relentless gang attacks against communities and the loss of life underscore the alarming security conditions in Haiti,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in an official statement.

The Haitian National Police deployed specialized units and opened an investigation to determine how the attackers entered central Kenscoff despite the presence of security forces. Paraison ordered investigators to determine whether there had been acts of complicity or negligence.

Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé said the government would continue its operations against gangs despite the threats.

“Kenscoff will not be abandoned,” he said. “Government authority will be restored, without weakness and without delay.”

Kenscoff occupies a strategic position in the mountains above Port-au-Prince. Controlling the area would allow gangs to encircle Pétion-Ville and dominate alternative routes connecting the capital with southern Haiti, said María Fernanda Arocha, a researcher with the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, or ACLED.

Security operations reduced violence in Kenscoff by 66% between January and August compared with the same period in 2025, according to ACLED.

However, the organization warned that gangs take advantage of the limited police presence in rural communities while authorities concentrate their resources in central Port-au-Prince.

The attack also highlights the difficulties of ensuring secure conditions before the general elections scheduled for Dec. 13, Haiti’s first in more than a decade.

Between April and June, at least 1,408 people were killed, 656 were injured, 796 were raped and 81 were abducted, according to the United Nations’ quarterly report.

The U.N., said the actual number of abductions is probably higher because many families negotiate directly with gangs and do not report them.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — Three Secret Service employees have been put on administrative leave during an investigation into “potential misconduct,” the agency confirmed.

The three staffers are “non-law enforcement personnel,” including Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi and two others in the agency’s communications office, CNN, CBS News and The Hill reported. CNN first reported the investigation.

It isn’t clear what the “potential misconduct” was or why they were put on leave.

The employees lost their security clearances and access to work devices, which is common practice during internal investigations.

A Secret Service spokesperson said the investigation is being handled by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in fulfilling our zero-fail mission of protecting the President and other high-level government officials. Our critical work demands that our workforce maintain an unwavering commitment to duty, honesty, and courage in all aspects of their jobs. We will continue to pursue the level of excellence that is worthy of the mission which has been entrusted to us by the American people,” the spokesperson said.

On Tuesday, the Secret Service said it was “aware” of a video by Iran threatening Barron Trump’s life.

A week ago, the Secret Service launched a probe into a member of Vice President JD Vance’s security detail for allegedly leaking sensitive information.

The agency has faced intense scrutiny over several assassination plots and attempts on President Donald Trump‘s life.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — A U.S. district court has blocked Texas from banning drag performances as unconstitutional, ruling that the solution to the problem is for those who find such events offensive to just not attend.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 12 into law in June 2023 to ban “sexually oriented performances” via civil penalties on businesses that host them and criminal penalties on performers.

It has been debated in the courts since, with a court ruling it unconstitutional in 2023 and an appeals court in February allowing it to take effect while sending the case back to the district court for review.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Hittner, a Reagan appointee who issued the 2023 ruling, declared Senate Bill 12 an unconstitutional restriction on speech and ordered that the state be permanently enjoined from enforcing it.

“Finally, for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive, the solution is relatively simple … just don’t go,” Hittner said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate with President Donald Trump‘s endorsement, called the ruling in a statement “flawed,” arguing without proof that it will endanger children while being “an affront to Texas values.”

“I will appeal this decision immediately and continue to fight to protect our kids,” he said online.

Meanwhile, civil rights and LGBTQ advocates celebrated the ruling.

“Today’s decision confirms that the legislature’s attempt to ban drag performances was unconstitutional from start to finish,” Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which filed the original lawsuit in August 2023, said in a statement.

“This law stifled free expression across our state and made people afraid to engage in or attend drag shows and other performances. But all Texans — no matter our gender or background — are guaranteed the right to free expression.”

Brigitte Bandit, a drag performer and a plaintiff in the case, said the ruling was “a relief.”

“As a lifelong Texan, I’m sick of this state trying to censor art and stoke hatred and violence against drag artists and the LGBTQIA+ community. No one should be punished for performing drag, and I wish lawmakers would take steps to protect kids from real dangers in our state instead of trying to divide and marginalize us.”

Aug. 25 (UPI) — A federal judge on Tuesday denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s attempt to overturn her conviction and prison sentence, slamming the petition as “demonstrably meritless.”

In the the ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said the petition by Maxwell, a co-conspirator of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was “generally based on speculation, distortions and/or outright falsehoods.”

“There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial,” Engelmayer wrote.

Maxwell sought to overturn her five felony convictions on the stance that her due process rights were violated, claiming the documents released by the Department of Justice this year supported this. She also made claims of juror misconduct, inaccurate evidence and “selective prosecution” on the part of the Justice Department.

Engelmayer wrote that Maxwell’s claim “incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.”

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. She had been found guilty of conspiring to lure underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. She is serving time in a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas.

Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was awaiting trial in 2019 when he died by suicide while in jail. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice released many documents related to Epstein’s activities under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress in November 2025.

The U.S. government has been criticized for the limited release of some of the files, in which names of alleged perpetrators were heavily redacted while many victim names were not.

Aug. 25 (UPI) — A man is facing federal charges for forging the signature of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and impersonating a federal agent.

Joshua M. Culver was indicted Friday in the Northern District of Indiana on four counts of falsely impersonating an officer of the United States and one count of forging the signature of a judge and court seal.

He was arrested in Colorado and has been assigned a public defender there.

The indictment alleges that Culver identified himself as a National Security Agency agent on at least two occasions in September 2025. He allegedly did so at the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office trying to get information about the location of a family member. The indictment also alleges that he made phone calls to someone at their employer threatening them and accusing them of breaking the law.

In January 2026, Culver allegedly claimed to be a “Special Master enforcing orders of the United States Supreme Court” to get a Lake County, Ind., judge to dismiss criminal cases and judgments against him.

He’s accused of forging Roberts’ signature and using a counterfeit seal on an order in September that told a Grant County, Ind., court to drop theft charges against him.

Aug. 25 (UPI) — British authorities said a dozen people have been arrested in an investigation following a weekend crash that killed seven people, including two police officers.

Police in Cleveland, which serves the Teesside area of northeast England, announced the arrests Monday, identifying those detained as nine men and three women between the ages of 19 and 61.

They were detained on a range of offenses, including allegations of participating in organized crime, possession of an offensive weapon and drug-related crimes.

The suspects were detained over the weekend in a wide-scale investigation following a collision early Saturday involving a Volkswagen Passat and a police vehicle on the A66, resulting in the deaths of the five occupants of the Passat and two officers in the police vehicle.

Authorities were initially alerted early Saturday to reports of two vehicles being driven dangerously in Middlesbrough. A Volvo XC60 was reportedly seen ramming properties, while a Volkswagen Passat was believed to be associated with the Volvo. Police said both vehicles were operating with cloned license plates.

Police later spotted the Passat and pursued it for nearly seven minutes before the Passat entered the A66 at South Bank, traveling against traffic, prompting the pursuing police vehicle to end its case.

However, seconds later, at 3:39 a.m. local time, the Passat collided with a second police car, which was traveling in the correct direction, authorities said.

The deceased officers have been identified as Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38. The deceased occupants of the Passat were named as Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Jakub Matusiak and Michael Robert Cahill.

“The events of that tragic night will have a lasting and profound impact on the Cleveland area and the communities we seek to protect,” Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Fox said Monday in a statement.

Fox said they have a duty to investigate the “serious criminal activity” that led to the fatal crash and bring those responsible to justice, though it was not clear how those detained were involved.

“Our robust response will continue in the weeks and months to come, as we continue to tackle those that seek to cause harm to our communities and tackle serious and organized crime,” Fox said.

Aug. 24 (UPI) — Immigration officials arrested the father of a sailor on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier that’s come under scrutiny for conditions on board.

In a Facebook post Sunday, sailor Joshua Aviles said his father, Luis Manuel Aviles Roa of Nicaragua was arrested Saturday.

Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News the arrest happened during a traffic stop in Key West, Fla. Luis Manuel Aviles Roa was in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and faced deportation proceedings.

“I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE,” Joshua Aviles wrote. “If you know my dad, you know he is a hardworking, humble man who is always willing to help anyone if he can.

“This is heartbreaking for me. I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal.”

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been under an extended deployment to the Middle East and was en route back to the United States. The journey could take several weeks.

Luis Manuel Aviles Roa’s stepdaughter, Katty Delgado, told NBC News that he had been living in the United States for about two decades. She said she had no knowledge of any criminal history for her stepfather and that he had a pending immigration application seeking legal status.

“He’s doing everything the right way,” she told the outlet.

DHS did not deny that Luis Manuel Aviles Roa lacks a criminal record. Officials said that having “a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws.”

“We are simply enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” the DHS statement said. “This administration does not pick and choose which laws to enforce.”

Aug. 22 (UPI) — The United States Postal Service has prepared a final rule changing how mail voting is administered under an executive order issued by President Donald Trump despite a pair of court injunctions against it, documents show.

An unpublished version of the rule was entered into the Federal Register late on Friday, indicating the USPS intends to press ahead with implementation of a measure the administration says is necessary to prevent fraud in mail-in voting — a popular method of casting ballots that Trump has called “inherently corrupt.”

But critics contend actual fraud in mail-in voting is exceedingly rare and have denounced the measure as one of the most serious attempts by the administration to federalize control of elections in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves such power for the states.

A federal judge 10 days ago expanded an earlier injunction against Trump’s executive order, under which the USPS would be required to decide who will get mail-in ballots.

The injunction blocked it from implementing Section 3 of the order for this year’s midterm elections, which most polls shows will likely favor Democratic congressional candidates.

Despite the court rulings, USPS promulgated the final rule with Friday’s filing, thus making it available to be officially published in the Federal Register on Wednesday. After that it would theoretically take effect immediately, even though it will be blocked for this year’s midterm elections unless a court decides otherwise.

The current filing is an amended version of the initial proposal which received more than 200,000 comments during its review phase.

Trump signed the order on March 31 directing the Department of Homeland Security to build a list of citizens from federal data, which would then be sent to state election officials.

The USPS would then only send absentee or mail-in ballots to people it has determined are eligible to vote, and the U.S. Attorney General would investigate and prosecute election officials who issue federal ballots to those ineligible to vote.

Twenty-three mostly Democratic-led states sued to block the order and U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani agreed with the plaintiffs.

The administration appealed the decision and failed. It appealed again on July 27 to the Supreme Court, which has yet to make a ruling.

“Yesterday’s new mail-in voting rule is an attempt to weaponize USPS as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to take over elections,” Michael McNulty of the bipartisan political reform group Issue One said in a statement issued Saturday.

“If it holds up in court, it would mean postal workers shift from neutral transporters of a state-led process to a federal gatekeeper of states’ outbound mail ballots — requiring states to provide USPS with voter-level ballot information and giving USPS authority to reject ballots that do not meet the new federal requirements.”

He dismissed Trump’s oft-stated concerns about voter fraud as “tired, debunked conspiracy theories to justify gaining control over secure, verified, and effective methods of voting, including mail-in voting, to tilt the playing field” in favor of Republican candidates.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — A 17-year-old girl is dead after a sword attack at a Swedish high school on Friday.

Three students were injured, two of them seriously, in the attack in Fagersta, Sweden.

The alleged attacker is an 18-year-old, male student of the school who carried out the attack while classes were in session Friday. He was arrested and the police are investigating the case as murder and attempted murder. They said they have no reason to believe there were more attackers involved.

The Brinelskolan School principal told local news Saturday that the attacker was a student there.

Vastmanland County said the two injured boys are ages 12 and 17, ABC News reported. The third person is also younger than 18 and was slightly injured. That person has been discharged from the hospital, Swedish News agency TT reported.

The teen girl’s body was found when police entered the school to secure the premises, authorities said.

Police said they fired shots at the attacker, but didn’t hit him. Sweden’s national police said they have carried out two searches of homes connected to the suspect and that they expect to interview many witnesses.

“That’s why we can’t give out too much information, because we don’t want to influence witnesses,” Police Chief Tommy Alriksson said.

No official information on the attacker’s motive has been released.

On Saturday morning, people gathered at a memorial site that the town created, carrying flowers and lighting candles, CBS News reported.

Fagersta city government said it created a crisis center in a sports hall near the school. Fagersta is a town of about 12,000 about 105 miles northwest of Stockholm.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition party leader Magdalena Andersson visited the memorial site to lay flowers.

“What must never happen has happened again,” Kristersson said.

Sweden’s parliamentary elections are scheduled for September, so the Swedish political parties suspended their campaigning Saturday.

School attacks have happened in Sweden several times in recent history.

In February 2025, 11 people, including the gunman, were killed in an attack on an adult education center in Orebro. It was Sweden’s worst-ever mass shooting. After the attack, the government tightened gun laws because the suspect had legally owned four rifles. He had brought three of them to the attack.

Two teachers were killed with a knife at a high school in Malmo in 2022, and an 18-year-old later confessed to the killings.

In 2015, three people were killed in a sword attack in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, Liz Hurley and four others who accused the Daily Mail of improper reporting tactics and privacy violations have been ordered by the court to pay the publisher $13 million in legal costs by Aug. 28.

Judge Justice Nicklin ruled on Friday that the claims made by the claimants were “unreasonable to a high degree” and they should have to pay more than what was agreed upon previously. They have until Oct. 2 to file an appeal.

Nicklin dismissed the claims against Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher of the Daily Mail, last month.

The claimants were insured to cover up to $22.1 million of ANL’s legal costs. ANL says it incurred about $47 million in legal costs.

Nicklin’s ruling on Friday means that ANL does not need to show that the costs it incurred were reasonable and proportionate.

“The claims, and the manner in which they were brought, pleaded, pursued, maintained and publicly advanced, involved a combination of circumstances and conduct which took the litigation outside the ordinary and reasonable conduct of civil proceedings,” Nicklin said in his ruling.

Nicklin did not put a limit on the costs that the claimants may have to pay to ANL, though this does not mean that ANL can recover all of its costs. Nicklin did say the costs reported to the court are “excessive,” “striking” and “largely unexplained.”

He explained that he came to this ruling, in part because of the “speculative and substantially inferential character of the claims at their origin,” the “exceptional breadth” of the cases and the “public presentation of allegations of serious criminality and impropriety which were not ultimately established.”

Nicklin added that the claimants did not reassess their allegations when evidence required them to do so.

“The truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought,” ANL said in a statement. “That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession.”

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo said Guatemala has received 2,284 Mexican nationals deported from the United States this year.

Arévalo confirmed the figure after international media outlets, including CBS News, reported details about the repatriation operations carried out under the U.S. administration.

“What we have done is admit them in transit so that, in coordination with Mexican immigration authorities, they can return and enter Mexican territory less than 24 hours after arriving in the country,” Arévalo said at a news conference Wednesday night.

Arévalo also rejected the suggestion that the procedure could constitute a safe third-country arrangement because the Mexican nationals remain in Guatemala only temporarily before continuing to their home country, local newspaper Prensa Libre reported.

Until recently, Mexican nationals deported from the United States mostly were sent directly back to Mexico, with only a small number routed through other countries.

The Trump administration has used third-country deportations to remove migrants from the United States, signing bilateral agreements with several countries, including Mexico, to receive migrants from other nations.

Arévalo said expenses associated with the Mexican nationals arriving in Guatemala are covered by the Mexican government or, in some cases, by the U.S. government.

The president said the procedure has been carried out more consistently in 2026, with Guatemalan authorities coordinating with the Mexican government to return the deportees to their country.

Arévalo, however, did not explain whether a specific agreement with the United States provides the basis for the arrangement, despite being asked by a journalist what agreement established the procedure and when it was negotiated. He focused his response on the migrants’ transit status and coordination with Mexican authorities.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Ministry objected Thursday to the U.S. practice and said it was coordinating with the countries involved to ensure the safe repatriation of Mexican nationals, DW reported.

“The Mexican government has expressed its opposition to this practice to U.S. authorities and has reiterated that every Mexican citizen has the right to enter the country,” the ministry said.

The ministry did not provide details on the number of cases or the costs involved.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Authorities in Germany discovered an underground weapons cache in a forest near Berlin and are seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the suspect as a “low-level agent” and added that several more agents have been detained this year. The call for extradition is part of a monthslong investigation after authorities discovered two firearms and ammunition stowed away in the forest.

The weapons cache is suspected to be linked to Russian intelligence. Investigators left the weapons in place after determining they were rendered useless in hopes of observing someone coming back for them. After months of surveillance, no one had come to the site to retrieve them, leaving investigators to believe that the operation had been abandoned.

Dobrindt said authorities are investigating whether the weapons were meant for a violent threat to national security.

“This case demonstrates that we are operating under a high threat level,” Dobrindt told reporters.

German intelligence has been on elevated alert since Director General of the German Federal Domestic Intelligence Service Sinan Selen said two months ago that Russia may be preparing to carry out assassinations on supporters of Ukraine, members of the defense industry and political opponents.

The Russian embassy in Germany has not commented on the allegations.

Germany’s Leipzig/Halle international airport was the site of an incident two weeks ago in which a drone armed with explosives was discovered. Authorities suspect that the Russian government is involved in the incident.

On the same day, a DHL cargo plane had to abort its landing at Leipzig and divert to another airport after colliding midair with an unknown object. The plane suffered minor damage to its nose.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Ecuador’s Defense Ministry said it is conducting joint military operations with the U.S. Southern Command against drug cartels near the border with Colombia.

The operations are concentrated primarily in the coastal province of Esmeraldas, which has been plagued by killings, kidnappings and extortion by drug trafficking groups that use Pacific ports to ship drugs to the United States and Europe.

Ecuadorian Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo confirmed the arrival of three Black Hawk helicopters and two U.S. warships at the port of Manta as part of an effort to triple maritime patrol capabilities against drug-running boats.

“We are going to triple our interdiction capabilities in the maritime zone,” Loffredo said in a video posted on X with military-style music playing in the background.

The operations come after the Ecuadorian government issued a decree this week allowing U.S. military personnel to remain in Ecuador for up to 180 days without visas and granting them exemptions from immigration requirements, local broadcaster Teleamazonas reported.

The operations are part of the “Shield of the Americas” alliance, a U.S.-led coalition of about 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries aimed at combating drug trafficking.

U.S. Southern Command personnel have been operating in Esmeraldas for some time, provincial Gov. Juan Jaramillo told local reporters.

Jaramillo did not say when U.S. personnel were deployed, how many are participating in the operations or how long they will remain in the province.

The governor said U.S. military personnel have conducted intelligence operations alongside the Ecuadorian Navy and will focus primarily on San Lorenzo and Eloy Alfaro, areas affected by drug trafficking and illegal mining, La FM reported.

Jaramillo also highlighted Colombia’s participation in the security operations, saying police and armed forces from both countries are sharing intelligence, information and operational targets.

The governor linked the cooperation to Colombia’s new political landscape after Abelardo de la Espriella’s inauguration as president of the neighboring country.

Washington and Quito have conducted joint operations for months targeting criminal groups in Ecuador as the country struggles with a wave of violence.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has pursued a tough-on-crime strategy since taking office in 2023. However, the country’s homicide rate has remained high, reaching a record 52 killings per 100,000 people last year.