Law and Crime

Nov. 15 (UPI) — At least nine died and 32 were injured at a police station in Kashmir when officials accidentally triggered an explosion while examining materials used to make bombs.

The materials were to undergo forensic examination, but a “very unfortunate” incident caused them to explode shortly before midnight on Friday, regional Director-General of Police Nalin Prabhat told media.

“Any speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary,” Prabhat said, without detailing how the deadly detonation occurred.

The explosion happened in Nowgam in the India-administered province as police inspected the materials that they seized while investigating a terrorism network, The New York Times reported.

The 6,000 pounds of materials and other weapons were seized in Faridabad while investigating a car bomb that killed eight in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Monday and has been deemed a terror attack.

Officials say the materials were tied to a Pakistan-based organization called Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The raid also resulted in the arrests of six people, four of whom were identified as medical doctors whose licenses were revoked on Friday.

Friday night’s explosion severely damaged the police stationand nearby buildings also were damaged.

Body parts were found up to 650 feet from the blast site, and several vehicles were “engulfed in flames and reduced to charred husks,” police told media in a prepared statement.

Regional Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha ordered an investigation to determine the explosion’s cause.

Nov. 15 (UPI) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents initiated enforcement of federal immigration laws in Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday.

Many businesses on Central Avenue in the eastern portion of Charlotte closed as federal agents began making arrests and detained people in local neighborhoods, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Local officials expressed their support for migrants in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

“We want people in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to know we stand with all residents who simply want to go about their lives contributing to our larger community,” Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and Mecklenburg County Commission Chairman Mark Jerrell and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education Chairwoman Stephanie Sneed said in a joint statement.

“Our region has thrived and grown because our strength lies in our diversity and our collective commitment to each other and to this community,” they said.

“Let us all — no matter our political allegiance — stand together for all hard-working and law-abiding families.”

The local officials said the arrival of the CBP agents unnecessarily created “fear and uncertainty in our community.”

Federal agents have most recently been deployed to Chicago, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent the past month enforcing immigration law amid opposition from protesters and others.

The Charlotte Observer reported a man saying the federal agents smashed a window on his vehicle, and another said agents aimed a rifle and threatened to shoot him after he followed them.

CBP agents also allegedly broke the window of another man’s vehicle and took his keys after stopping him twice in 10 minutes, but the man did not say if he was following the agents as they went about their work.

Local officials earlier said the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department does not participate in immigration enforcement and asked community members to stay peaceful amid the immigration enforcement action, according to NBC News.

North Carolina is not a sanctuary state, and state law prevents local governments from declaring themselves to be sanctuaries for those who have illegally entered or otherwise remained in the United States.

The federal immigration enforcement effort in Charlotte prompted Asheville, N.C., Mayor Esther Manheimer to suggest the city could be next, WLOS reported.

Nov. 15 (UPI) — An inmate in Louisiana was recaptured overnight Friday, a little more than two days after he escaped and six months after 10 men broke out from another jail in the state.

Cecil Michael Stratton, 46, of Morgan City, previously escaped from jails in 2005 and 2009.

He was been booked in the Berwick Police Department jail on Wednesday.

Stratton allegedly threw a chemical substance at a police officer’s face. At the time “jailers were securing inmates during lockdown procedures,” the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Thursday.

Then a “brief struggle” ensued between Stratton and the officers.

Stratton and another inmate, Brandon Brunet, 22, got out of the jail. Brunnet was captured a short time later, police said.

At 12:15 a.m., Stratton was arrested after the Morgan City Police Department received a complaint that he was seen inside a residence in Morgan City, the county sheriff’s office posted Saturday on Facebook. He was found lying on the ground in a boat at a business in Morgan City and taken into custody.

“The teamwork between agencies and the relentless man-hours invested into locating and apprehending Cecil Stratton have paid off,” St. Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell said in a statement. “I would like to thank the men and women of all the agencies involved for the teamwork they have displayed over the past three days.”

The two escapees are facing charges of disarming a police officer, battery on a police officer, aggravated battery, aggravated escape and unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure.

In 2005, Stratton escaped from the Centerville Jail in St. Mary’s Parish in southern Louisiana, WBRZ-TV reported.

Stratton and another person led police on a chase at speeds hitting 80 mph in Ouachita Parish after police received a report that two men had robbed a Harvest Foods store. They were driving a truck that had been stolen in New Iberia.

He went to Allen Correctional Center in north Louisiana, from which he also escaped in 2009 with two other inmates, KPLC-TV reported.

He was brought to the Lafayette Parish Jail. Investigators say they escapes through a compromised fence and with the help of a correctional center guard.

Stratton’s past arrests that date to at least 1998 include theft, illegal possession of a stolen property, marijuana possession, attempted first-degree murder and resisting an officer, according to WBRZ-TV.

“Mr. Stratton is no stranger to the law enforcement. He has been in and out of prison most of his adult life. At one point in time he was actually an escaped inmate from Allen Parish Correctional Facility,” Berwick Police Chief Elect J.P. Henry said.

On May 16, 10 men escaped from the Orleans Justice Center in the morning after climbing through a hole behind a toilet. Their disappearance was unnoticed for several hours.

Three inmates were apprehended in New Orleans within the first 24 hours of the jailbreak.

The nine inmate was taken into custody again in New Orleans on June 27 and final one on Oct. 8 in Atlanta.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — The Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council announced a replacement for Fani Willis as the prosecutor in the election interference case against President Donald Trump and 14 others charged.

PAC Executive Director Peter J. Skandalakis announced on Friday, that he would prosecute the case because the group couldn’t find anyone to take it up.

“Several prosecutors were contacted and, while all were respectful and professional, each declined the appointment,” he said in the announcement. “Out of respect for their privacy and professional discretion, I will not identify those prosecutors or disclose their reasons for declining.”

In September, the Georgia Supreme Court denied Willis’ attempt to continue in the case. It refused to hear her appeal of a lower court’s decision to disqualify her because of “impropriety.” She had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor in the case.

Another reason he chose to prosecute the case is that he has some familiarity with the case file. The documents he received to review included 101 banker boxes of documents and an 8-terabyte hard drive, which he hasn’t had the time to fully read.

Some of the others charged include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

On Nov. 7, Trump pardoned 77 people, including those involved in the Georgia case.

Skandalakis said the pardons don’t apply to state charges, only federal ones. “Therefore, the task before my office remains unchanged,” he said.

Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow said the “politically charged prosecution has come to an end.”

“We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump,” Sadow said.

Skandalakis noted the importance of the case.

“I am keenly aware that this matter has been of significant public interest since January 2021, when District Attorney Fani Willis announced the initiation of the investigation,” he said in a statement. “My only objective is to ensure that this case is handled properly, fairly, and with full transparency discharging my duties without fear, favor, or affection.”

Nov. 14 (UPI) — President Donald Trump posted on social media Friday that he wants an investigation into former President Bill Clinton and others mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein emails released this week.

On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a cache of emails between convicted sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and others that talked about Trump repeatedly. The emails were released by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the committee.

“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking [Attorney General] Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

Summers was Clinton’s treasury secretary and an economic adviser to former President Barack Obama. Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn and donates to Democrats.

JP Morgan Chase issued a statement in response. Spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said in a statement it “ended our relationship with him years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges.”

“The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” Wexler said. “We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”

The White House continued to defend the president.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday, “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”

The House of Representatives is expected to pass legislation that demands the government release all files related to Epstein, who died by suicide in a jail cell. The discharge petition has enough signatures now that Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was sworn in. Though it should pass the House, it’s not certain to pass the Senate.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — Four U.S. citizens and a Ukrainian pleaded guilty to participating in North Korean internet technology worker and virtual currency theft schemes.

The Department of Justice announced the guilty pleas on Friday for the illegal schemes that generated funding for North Korea’s armaments program and other uses at various times, from 2019 to 2024.

“Facilitators in the United States and Ukraine assisted North Korean actors with obtaining remote IT employment with U.S. companies,” the DOJ said.

“The facilitators provided their own, false or stolen identities and hosted U.S. victim company-provided laptops at residences across the United States to create the false appearance that the IT workers were working domestically.”

The DOJ said the employment schemes affected at least 136 U.S. companies and used the identities of more than 18 U.S. citizens or legal residents to generate more than $2.2 million for the North Korean government.

The three U.S. defendants who pleaded guilty are Audricus Phagnasay, 24; Jason Salazar, 30; and Alexander Paul Travis, 34, all of whom entered their guilty pleas in the U.S. District Court for Southern Georgia.

The three pleaded guilty to providing U.S. identities to those who are located outside of the United States to enable them to obtain remote work with U.S. firms in exchange for between $3,450 and $51,397 in compensation.

Salazar and Travis at times completed drug testing on behalf of the overseas individuals.

The three defendants also kept laptops at their homes to make it look like the foreign individuals were located in the United States.

The IT worker scheme generated about $1.28 million in pay for the overseas workers.

Erick Ntekereze Prince, 30, also pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida on Nov. 6.

Federal prosecutors said Prince used his company Taggcar Inc. to contract and supply overseas IT workers to U.S. firms by misrepresenting them as U.S.-based workers.

He also hosted laptops at several Florida residences and installed remote-access software to make it look like the overseas workers were working from locations in Florida.

Prince was paid more than $89,000 for his participation in the scheme, according to the DOJ.

Ukrainian Oleksander Didenky also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in the U.S.District Court for the District of Columbia.

He agreed to forfeit $1.4 million for helping North Korean and other IT workers to get jobs at 40 U.S. companies.

A North Korean military hacking group identified as Advanced Persistent Threat 38 also carried out virtual currency heists totaling millions of dollars in value in 2023 while targeting four overseas platforms, according to the DOJ.

“While APT38 actors continued to launder their ill-gotten gains for these heists, the U.S. government froze and seized more than $15million worth of virtual currency that it now seeks to forfeit for eventual return to their rightful owners,” the DOJ said.

The criminal activities arise from the North Korean government’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions and generate millions of dollars to help fund its weapons programs, including nuclear arms development, said Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division.

“These guilty pleas send a clear message: No matter who or where you are, if you support North Korea’s efforts to victimize U.S. businesses and citizens, the FBI will find you and bring you to justice,” Rozhavsky said.

“We will ask all our private sector partners to improve their security process for vetting remote workers and to remain vigilant regarding this emerging threat,” he added.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting of John Beam, the Laney College athletic director who was featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U, according to authorities.

No further details of the arrest have been made public. Beam was taken to Highland Hospital in critical condition, CNN reported. A hospital spokesperson wouldn’t give further information.

The shooting happened at noon Thursday at the Laney College Field House, in the Peralta Community College District, which Laney College is a part of, the college said in a statement.

The Oakland, Calif., school went into lockdown. It remained closed for the remainder of the day.

Acting Oakland Police Chief James Beere told reporters during a press conference that officers arrived at the scene to find a victim suffering from a gunshot wound who was immediately taken to a local hospital.

The school district identified the victim as a “senior member of our athletic staff.” It was later revealed that Beam — who was featured in season 5 of the hit Netflix show about struggling college football athletes — had been shot.

“Coach Beam is a giant in Oakland — a mentor, an educator and a lifeline for thousands of young people,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement. “For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family.”

The suspect was earlier described as a male of an unknown race, wearing dark clothing and a dark hoodie. Beere said the suspect had been seen fleeing the scene.

“I know that there was some concern that this may have been an active shooter. We responded as if it was an active shooter,” he said. “I can tell you right now it was not an active shooter.”

Witnesses were being interviewed and surveillance footage was being reviewed, he said.

Beam is the athletics director but retired from coaching last year, CNN said.

“The Peralta community is devastated by his shooting and deeply concerned for his well-being,” said Chancellor Tammeil Gilkerson in a message to employees. “We are stunned and heartbroken that such violence has touched our campus and one of the most respected and beloved members of our Laney, Peralta, and Oakland community.”

Nov. 14 (UPI) — John Beam, the Laney College athletic director who was featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U, has been shot, according to authorities and officials.

The shooting occurred at noon Thursday at the Laney College Field House, the Peralta Community College District, which Laney College is a part of, said in a statement.

The Oakland school went into lockdown. It remained closed for the remainder of the day.

Acting Oakland Police Chief James Beere told reporters during a press conference that officers arrived at the scene to find a victim suffering from a gunshot wound who was immediately transported to a local hospital.

The school district identified the victim as a “senior member of our athletic staff.” It was later revealed that Beam — who was featured in season 5 of the hit Netflix show about struggling college football athletes — had been shot.

“Coach Beam is a giant in Oakland — a mentor, an educator and a lifeline for thousands of young people,” Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said in a statement.

“For over 40 years, he has shaped leaders on and off the field, and our community is shaken alongside his family.”

Authorities are searching for a potential suspect, described as a male of an unknown race, wearing dark clothing and a dark hoodie. Beere said the suspect had been seen fleeing the scene.

“I know that there was some concern that this may have been an active shooter. We responded as if it was an active shooter,” he said.

“I can tell you right now it was not an active shooter.”

Witnesses were being interviewed and surveillance footage was being reviewed, he said.

Beam is the athletics director and head football coach at Laney, according to the school’s website.

Nov. 14 (UPI) — The Justice Department is suing California over its recently voter-approved congressional maps, alleging they are an unconstitutional “power grab.”

Earlier this month, Californians approved Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s redistricting initiative, introduced in direct response to Texas’ effort to create new congressional maps that favor Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

While Texas Republican lawmakers pursued an unprecedented mid-cycle redraw without voter approval, President Donald Trump and his allies have been critical of the California move. Democrats counter that they are trying to protect the state’s representation in Congress, accusing Trump — who pressured Texas to pursue the new maps — of undermining democratic norms.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday filed the lawsuit against Newsom over California’s redistricting plan, alleging that it racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Gov. Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”

According to the lawsuit, federal prosecutors accuse California’s Democratic leaders of manipulating congressional maps to bolster “the voting power of Hispanic Californians because of their race.”

“Our Constitution does not tolerate this racial gerrymander,” the 17-page court document states.

“No one, let alone California, contends that its pre-existing map unlawfully discriminated on the basis of Race. Because the Proposition 50 map does, the United States respectfully requests this court enjoin defendants from using it in the 2026 election and future elections.”

Texas’ GOP-controlled legislature in August passed its new maps that are projected to give Republicans as many as five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.

Democrats have criticized this move as Trump trying to create more red seats to keep control of the House, which the GOP now narrowly holds.

Texas has 38 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, 25 of which are filled by Republicans.

California, which has 52 House districts — 43 of them held by Democrats — responded with Proposition 50.

Republicans hold a 219-214 majority of the U.S. House of Representatives, with two seats vacant.

Several states — led by both Republicans and Democrats — have since announced efforts to redraw their maps, setting off a gerrymandering arms race ahead of 2026.

“These losers lost at the ballot box, and soon they will also lose in court,” Newsom’s office said in a statement in response to the Trump administration lawsuit.

Nov. 13 (UPI) — A federal judge was set to hear arguments Thursday that interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly in her role when she brought charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Attorneys for Comey and James are attending a rare joint hearing to put their case before U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie in Virginia. Currie traveled to Virginia from her normal jurisdiction, the District of South Carolina, to hear the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest, NBC News reported.

The attorneys have argued that Halligan, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, is improperly in her position as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Trump handpicked her to replace Erik Siebert, whom the president ousted in September after he refused to bring charges against people considered political opponents of his. Siebert had also served in the U.S. attorney position on an interim basis since May.

Within days of being named interim U.S. attorney, Halligan brought charges against Comey on obstruction charges related to the Russian collusion investigation and, separately, against James on charges she committed bank fraud related to a property she purchased in 2023.

Under federal law, U.S. attorney posts may be served on an interim basis for only 120 days without a Senate confirmation.

James and Comey’s attorneys said that 120 days had already passed under Siebert’s leadership by the time Halligan was named to the post in September. Additionally, they argue that 120-day timer does not reset when a new interim U.S. attorney is named, CNN reported.

Currie’s ruling on the matter could upend the Justice Department’s cases against James and Comey. Comey’s lawyers additionally said Halligan didn’t have the ability to bring charges against him because a five-year statute of limitations had passed.

Both James and Comey have pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — Hundreds of Chicago Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detainees will be freed soon after a judge ordered them released on bond.

On Wednesday, District Judge Jeff Cummings ordered bond for at least 615 people in a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups. The people held were arrested in Operation Midway Blitz, President Donald Trump‘s law enforcement operation in Chicago.

Those who will be released must be granted bond by noon Nov. 21, the ruling said. People eligible are those who have no mandatory detention orders and do not pose significant risk.

NBC 5 Chicago investigated the claim that the government has arrested the “worst of the worst,” showing that 85% of those arrested have no criminal convictions.

Cummings ordered the Department of Justice to review all remaining arrests through Wednesday and have a list by Nov. 19.

The plaintiffs in the case, the National Immigrant Justice Center, argued that hundreds of arrests by ICE agents were carried out in violation of a consent decree in Illinois and five neighboring states, according to 7 Eyewitness News. The decree puts limits on warrantless arrests.

The decree said that to arrest someone without a warrant, ICE agents must pre-determine if there is probable cause to believe the person is in the country illegally, and whether they are also a flight risk. Immigrant advocates say ICE has ignored those rules.

“As we’re digging into it, we are very concerned that many, if not most [of ICE arrests], are violations of our consent decree,” Mark Fleming of the National Immigrant Justice Center told 7 Eyewitness News.

“Our initial analysis is that it’s over 3,000 arrests,” that are in violation of the consent decree, Fleming said.

“We’ve started to dig into the case file that they produced to us, and the vast majority are violations. If they did not have a prior order of removal, in almost all circumstances, they’ve been uniformly violating the consent decree.”

The government’s attorneys have argued that Congress had stripped the courts of the power to grant parole to large groups of immigrants in ICE custody.

“Federal courts cannot order the Department of Homeland Security to release any aliens on parole because Congress has stripped them of that authority,” they said.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — President Nicolás Maduro announced activation of a “higher phase” of the Independence Plan 200, a program of joint civilian-military exercises designed to test Venezuela’s ability to respond to external threats.

The deployment includes the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, or FANB, the Bolivarian Militia and police units across all states, with a focus on Apure, Cojedes, Carabobo and the capital region, TeleSURTV reported.

The measure, announced Tuesday by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, aims to “strengthen territorial defense and enhance operational readiness” amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Caribbean.

Activation of this “higher phase” coincides with the arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in the region under the U.S. Southern Command.

The U.S. Department of Defense said the deployment is part of an operation aimed at “disrupting narcotics trafficking and dismantling transnational criminal organizations” operating in the region. However, the Venezuelan government has interpreted the move as a “provocation.”

According to Venezuela’s Defense Ministry, the new stage of the Independence Plan 200 includes command, control and communications exercises, along with simultaneous air, land, naval and river operations, the newspaper Ámbito reported.

The government described it as an “advanced phase” of the plan launched in September, aimed at ensuring “active resistance and permanent defense” against what it calls pressure and maneuvers by the United States.

Alongside the heightened military alert, the government enacted the Law of the Command for the Comprehensive Defense of the Nation, approved days earlier by the National Assembly.

The law establishes a network of comprehensive defense commands at the national, regional and municipal levels to coordinate the armed forces, civilian institutions and citizens in the “protection of sovereignty and peace.”

Maduro signed the law at the Miraflores Palace on Wednesday, invoking Article 326 of the Constitution, which defines the people’s shared responsibility in national defense. The president said he was prepared to confront any threat and ordered the immediate creation of the new commands.

“The order must be activated so that the comprehensive defense commands are established, structured and begin their work, to be prepared, if we as a republic and as a people are called to take up armed struggle to defend this sacred legacy of the liberators, to be ready to win, to triumph through patriotism and courage,” Maduro said, according to a report by NTN24.

These groups will be led by the Strategic Operational Command of the Armed Forces, which will oversee the integration, planning, coordination, supervision and control of the country’s defense organizations in support of military operations nationwide.

The government sees the legislation as a step toward strengthening its civilian-military defense doctrine, while analysts and opposition figures warn it could expand the militarization of the country and the political role of the armed forces.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — Dozens of Venezuelans incarcerated in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT — terrorism confinement mega prison — after being deported from the United States were tortured and subjected to other serious human rights abuses, according to a report out Wednesday.

Titled “You Have Arrived in Hell,” the 81 page report by Human Rights Watch and regional human rights organization Cristosal details the treatment of 40 Venezuelans during four months of incommunicado detention in the maximum security facility this year.

The men were among 252 Venezuelans flown to El Salavador in March and April by U.S. authorities, most of them on the basis of allegations by the U.S. and El Salvadorean governments that they were “terrorists” in the Tren de Aragua organized crime gang, designated a foreign terrorist group by Washington.

Detainees told HRW of constant beatings from the moment they were taken off the plane, being held in inhumane conditions, insufficient food, poor hygiene and sanitation, limited access to health care and medicine and zero recreation or education provision.

Three said they suffered sexual violence and several reported being severely beaten, apparently as punishment for speaking with the International Committee of the Red Cross when the charity visited CECOT in May.

The ill-treatment did not constitute isolated incidents by rogue guards or riot police, but rather systematic violations “designed to subjugate, humiliate, and discipline detainees,” Human Rights Watch and Cristosal said.

“The brutality and repeated nature of the abuses also appear to indicate that guards and riot police acted on the belief that their superiors either supported or, at the very least, tolerated their abusive acts,” they added.

Human Rights Watch and Cristosal said that contrary to the allegations the men were terrorists, only 3% of them had U.S. convictions for violent or potentially violent offenses, half had no U.S. criminal record at all and many had clean records in their home country of Venezuela or other Latin American countries.

The report said the human rights abuses in El Salvadorean prison were well known — including by the State Department which had criticized security and law enforcement in the countrty — but the Trump administration sent the Venezuelans, including dozens of asylum seekers, there anyway.

“The Trump administration paid El Salvador millions of dollars to arbitrarily detain Venezuelans who were then abused by Salvadoran security forces on a near-daily basis,” said HRW Americas director Juanita Goebertus.

“The Trump administration is complicit in torture, enforced disappearance, and other grave violations, and should stop sending people to El Salvador or any other country where they face a risk of torture,” she said.

Cristosal executive director Noah Bullock, said the Trump administration was guilty of “hir[ing] the Salvadorian prison system as a prop in a theatre of cruelty.”

“They wanted to demonstrate and send a message of brutality. But I don’t know if they knew how far it would go and how terrible the horrors of torture are,” he said.

HRW and Cristosal also called for an independent investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and warned that U.S. complicity in the violations drew parallels with the human rights abuses meted out to Iraqis by U.S. military and intelligence personnel in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraqib prison in the Iraq War.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump signaled his intention to push ahead with a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC, saying he had an obligation due to the “fraudulent” way it had edited a speech he made right before the Capitol Hill riots in 2021.

Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday night, Trump said he had to take legal action because the public service broadcaster “butchered up” the speech he gave to supporters outside the White House on Jan. 6 and had deceived viewers.

The speech formed part of a documentary, Trump: A Second Chance, that went out on the BBC network just before the Nov. 4 U.S. elections, although the BBC maintains that it was not available to view outside of the United Kingdom.

“They defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it. They actually changed my Jan. 6 speech which was a beautiful speech, which was a very calming speech, and made it sound radical. It was very dishonest,” Trump said.

Trump said he had a duty to go ahead and file a defamation lawsuit against the BBC because he “can’t allow people to do that,” in the same way he had been forced to pursue CBS over an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris that aired four weeks before the election on Nov. 4.

CBS settled Trump’s $20 billion claim out of court for $16 million in July.

The BBC has acknowledged receipt of a letter from Trump’s legal team demanding a “full and fair retraction” of the documentary, an immediate apology, and that the BBC “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused.”

It said the BBC must comply by 5 p.m. EST on Friday, to which the corporation has said it would respond “directly in due course.”

The director-general and the head of news both resigned Sunday after it was revealed the corporation’s Panorama program spliced together two sections of Trump’s speech 53 minutes apart without telling viewers it had done so.

The edited version made it sound as if Trump was inciting his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight” when what he actually said was that they should all walk down to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically” and “we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

No complaint was raised at the time the documentary aired but the incident has reignited a furious domestic debate about the BBC’s editorial impartiality and the internal culture of the institution which is funded by a $229 annual license that households with a TV must pay.

If the BBC chose to fight the case, which Trump’s lawyer intends to file in the state of Florida, significant obstacles mean long odds on Trump’s chances of prevailing.

For his lawsuit to succeed, his team would have to convince a court that Trump had “suffered overwhelming financial and reputational harm” as a result of the program, as stated in the letter to the BBC.

BBC Chairman Samir Shah has already apologized for what he said was an “error of judgment.”

“We accept that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action. The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment,” Shah told a parliamentary committee Monday.

However, while that could go against the corporation, as an apparent admission of liability, the case would still have to overcome major challenges.

Legal expert Joshua Rozenberg KC called for the BBC to go further and “draft a retraction and apology in terms that the president’s lawyer finds acceptable” and for the retraction to feature as prominently as the original broadcast.

Writing on his blog post Tuesday, Rozenburg said the BBC would have to pay compensation but suggested that, based on previous legal claims brought by Trump, it would be an out-of-court settlement.

“It won’t be cheap. But it will be cheaper than a billion dollars,” he said.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — A government watchdog has called on the bar associations of Florida and Virginia to investigate lawyer Lindsey Halligan on grounds for violating numerous rules of professional conduct by carrying out prosecutions against President Donald Trump‘s political rivals.

Halligan, a former personal attorney to the president who lacks prosecutorial experience, was named interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia by Trump after her predecessor resigned amid pressure to bring criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Comey, a Republican, investigated potential collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. James successfully secured a civil fraud verdict against Trump and his businesses, but the judgment was vacated and is being appealed.

Since taking up the position of interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Halligan has filed charges against both Comey and James.

The former FBI director has been charged with obstructing justice in connection with a 2020 investigation into his Russian collusion probe. James has been charged with bank fraud and making false statements on a financial statement in connection with an alleged misrepresentation of property she purchased in Virginia in 2020.

Both cases have come under serious scrutiny by legal experts, with Campaign for Accountability stating that Halligan brought the charges against Trump’s rivals “despite a dearth of evidence that either committed any crimes.”

The nonprofit watchdog on Tuesday sent letters to the Florida Bar and Virginia Bar to investigate the Florida-licensed attorney.

According to the letters, Campaign for Accountability alleges that by indicting Comey and James, Halligan violated several rules of both bars, including those requiring competence, prohibiting the prosecution of a charge a prosecutor knows is unsupported by probable cause and prohibiting dishonesty, deceit, misrepresentation or prejudicial conduct.

It also alleges that Halligan’s actions pressuring reporter Anna Bower about her coverage of the case against James last month violated Justice Department regulations prohibiting pretrial publicity.

“Ms. Halligan’s actions with respect to the prosecution of Mr. Comey and Ms. James, and her Signal exchange with Ms. Bower, appear to represent a serious breach of her ethical obligations,” Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of Campaign for Accountability, said in the letter to both states’ bars.

“The committee has a responsibility to stop Ms. Halligan from abusing her position and her Florida bar license for improper purposes. Failing to discipline Ms. Halligan under these egregious circumstances will embolden others who would use our system of justice for their own political ends.”

Both Comey and James have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Nov. 12 (UPI) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered the South American nation’s security authorities to cease sharing intelligence with the United States over the Trump administration’s continued attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean.

“An order is given to all levels of intelligence within the public security forces to suspend the sending of communications and other dealings with U.S. security agencies,” Petro said in the statement on X.

“This measure will remain in effect as long as the missile attacks on boats in the Caribbean continue.”

At least 75 people have been killed in 19 known U.S. military attacks targeting boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since Sept. 2. The Trump administration accuses the vessels of shipping narcotics for drug cartels that it has designated as terrorist organizations.

The attacks have drawn both domestic and international criticism and allegations of potential war crimes and extrajudicial killings perpetrated by the United States. Petro has also accused Trump of murder, saying one of the attacks in mid-September killed a fisherman named Alejandro Carranza.

The Trump administration has defended the strikes as necessary to protect Americans from the drugs the boats are allegedly bringing into the United States. President Donald Trump has also seemingly rejected the notion of seeking congressional approval for the strikes, stating last month that “I think we are just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.”

The announcement Tuesday came on the heels of Petro recalling Colombia’s ambassador to Washington for consultations in response to a photo released by the White House on Oct. 21 in which Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair is seen holding a folder that contains photos of Petro and Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, in prison jumpsuits.

The actions are expected to further strain relations between the two allies, which have become fraught during the Trump administration. Petro has been a critic of the American leader’s hardline immigration and drug enforcement policies, and Trump has accused Petro of not doing enough to curb the manufacturing of drugs in the South American nation.

Trump has imposed sanctions on Petro and his immediate family members on accusations that Petro is permitting drug cartels to conduct their business without impediment.

Petro has rejected the accusations and, in turn, accused the Trump administration of lying. His administration maintains drug production is declining under Petro’s tenure.

“The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people,” Petro said Tuesday.

Nov. 11 (UPI) — Women fleeing El Fasher in western Sudan are subjected to rape, starvation and deadly bombing, the United Nations reported on Tuesday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces recently captured El Fasher after a 500-day siege and are using rape as a “weapon of war,” according to the United Nations.

“Women speaking to us from El Fasher, the heart of Sudan’s latest catastrophe, tell us that they’ve endured starvation, displacement, rape and bombardment,” said Anna Mutavati, U.N. Women regional director for East and Southern Africa.

“Pregnant women have given birth in the streets as the last remaining maternity hospitals were looted and destroyed,” she added.

“What the women tell us in that on their horrific journey, every step that they’ve taken to fetch water, to collect firewood or to stand in a food line has carried a high risk of sexual violence,” Mutavati said.

“There is mounting evidence that rape is being deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war.”

The situation is getting worse as fighting spreads throughout El Fasher, forcing thousands of women and girls to flee the city or risk being killed, raped or otherwise brutalized by RSF forces, the United Nations reported.

El Fasher is the capital of North Darfur and was the area’s last stronghold for the Sudanese Armed Forces amid the civil war in Sudan. An estimated 89,000 people have fled El Fasher and often seek refuge in Tawila, which is about 45 miles away, as well as Korma and Malit.

Humanitarian resources are scarce in those locales, though, according to the United Nations.

Satellite images also show evidence of widespread summary executions and other likely war crimes committed by the RSF, the Australian Broadcasting Company reported.

“All of my patients, my staff and everyone else in the hospital were killed,” a medical professional identified as “Abdullah” told the ABC. “They shot them all.”

Abdullah was part of the Saudi Hospital staff in El Fasher, where the World Health Organization said more than 460 patients and their companions were killed by RSF members.

At least six healthcare workers also were taken by the RSF, according to the WHO.

Nov. 11 (UPI) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Harris County for allocating $1.35 million to help fund legal defense of those facing immigration deportation hearings.

Harris County, which includes Houston and forms the core of the Greater Houston Area, has historically ranked among the top U.S. counties for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers, according to reporting by The Texas Tribune.

Paxton accused the Harris County Commissioners Court of illegally allocating more than $1.35 million in taxpayer funds to “radical-left organizations” that use the money to “oppose the lawful deportations of illegal aliens.”

He called the fund “blatantly unconstitutional” and “evil and wicked” in a news release announcing the lawsuit Tuesday.

“We must stop the left-wing radicals who are robbing Texans to prevent illegals from being deported by the Trump administration,” Paxton said Tuesday in a news release.

“Millions upon millions of illegals invaded America during the last administration,” Paxton said. “They must be sent back to where they came from.”

He said the Harris County Commissioners Court recently voted 4-1 to allocate $1.35 million to several non-governmental organizations that are “dedicated to fighting the deportation of illegal aliens.”

Recipients include the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, Justice for All Immigrants, Kids in Need of Defense, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and BakerRipley.

The allocations serve no public purpose and amount to illegal grants of taxpayer dollars to pay for the legal defense of those who should not be in the country, Paxton said.

He said the Texas Constitution prohibits allocating taxpayer funds to individuals or groups that do not serve the public interest and filed the lawsuit in the Harris County Judicial District Court on Monday.

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said the county will oppose the state’s lawsuit in court, The Texas Tribune reported.

“This lawsuit is a cheap political stunt,” Menefee said in a prepared statement.

“At a time when the president has unleashed ICE agents to terrorist immigrant neighborhoods, deport U.S. citizens and trample the law, it’s shameful that Republican state officials are joining in instead of standing up for Texans.”

Although Menafee accused the Trump administration of deporting U.S. citizens, the Department of Homeland Security said that is a false accusation and no U.S. citizens have been deported.

“We have said it a million times: ICE does not arrest or deport U.S. citizens,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Oct. 1 in response to a New York Times article accusing ICE of deporting citizens.

Before becoming the Harris County attorney, Menafee’s biography says his private practice “focused heavily on pro bono work, including advising the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, advising immigrants and their families at Bush Intercontinental Airport during the ‘Muslim ban’ and working with Texas Appleseed on expanding alternatives to involuntary commitment for the mentally ill.”

Nov. 9 (UPI) — Emmanuel Clase de la Cruz and Luis Leandro Ortiz Ribera, two pitchers with the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball, were indicted Sunday for taking bribes in exchange for throwing rigged pitches so bettors could profit off the illegal information.

Federal prosecutors said Ortiz, 26, was arrested Sunday in Boston, Mass. Clase, 27, was already in police custody, authorities said.

The grand jury indictment unsealed Sunday in a Brooklyn courthouse charges the pair of pitchers with honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money-laundering conspiracy.

“Integrity, honesty and fair play are part of the DNA of professional sports. When corruption infiltrates the sport, it brings disgrace not only to the participants but damages the public trust in an institution that is vital and dear to all of us,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement announcing the indictment.

Federal prosecutors allege the conspiracy began around May 2023 when Clase, a relief pitcher agreed with bettors to rig so-called prop bets on pitches he threw. Ortiz allegedly agreed to join the conspiracy in June.

The indictment states at least two bettors were involved in the conspiracy who allegedly used two online betting platforms to make their illegal wagers.

According to the document, Clase agreed with a person identified as Bettor-1 around May of 2023 to throw specific pitches, often balls and slower sliders, on the first pitches when brought in as relief during a game.

In one instance referenced in the document, Clase allegedly threw a pitch slower than 94.95 mph into the dirt “well before home plate.” Bettor-1 and others won about $38,000 on the pitch, according to the document.

In another instance, in late June 2025, after Ortiz allegedly joined the conspiracy, Ortiz agreed to throw a rigged pitch in exchange for $7,000. Clase allegedly was also paid $7,000 for arranging the interaction.

The pitch was to be thrown in a June 27 game, before which Ortiz allegedly withdrew $50,000 in cash, $15,000 of which was allegedly provided to an unnamed co-conspirator who bet on the rigged pitch.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for each honest wire fraud conspiracy and honest services wire fraud conspiracy, five years for conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and 20 years for money laundering.

Ortiz is to be arraigned in the Eastern District Court of New York at a later date.

Clase was entering the fourth year of his five-year, $20 million contract with the Guardians, which he signed in 2022 and runs through 2026.

The indictment against Clase and Ortiz is the latest legal action taken in the last few weeks targeting illegal gambling in professional and amateur sports.

On Friday, the NCAA stripped eligibility from six former men’s basketball players for betting-related game manipulation.

Last month, Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat and Chauncey Billups, coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, were arrested over their alleged involvement in a wide-ranging illegal sports betting and poker investigation.

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump is pictured in this photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office in Atlanta on August 24, 2023. Trump surrendered on a 13-count indictment for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Photo courtesy of Fulton County Sheriff’s Office/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 10 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is pardoning Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and dozens of other allies who have been accused of trying to subvert the 2020 election, according to U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.

The list of 77 people pardoned by Trump was published late Sunday on Martin’s personal X account.

“No MAGA left behind,” he said.

The proclamation signed by Trump was dated Friday.

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 presidential election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” the document states.

Those pardoned were tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including participation in what has become known as the fake electors scheme. The strategy involved the creation of false slates of pro-Trump electors in every battleground state that he lost to Biden, including Georgia.

Among those pardoned were four of Trump’s 17 co-defendants in a case concerning the effort in Georgia, including Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the scheme. Powell, Scott Hall and Jenna Ellis were the other three.

Trump, who was among those charged in Georgia, was specifically not granted a pardon.

“This pardon does not apply to the president of the United States,” the document states.

Others granted pardons include Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff during his first term, and former Trump adviser John Eastman.

On his first day of his second term in office in January, Trump issued pardons and commutations of sentences for more than 1,500 people convicted for their participation in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including those who injured police officers.

He has also issued pardons to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, convicted on corruption charges, former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer and former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore.