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Citing Hollywood’s already struggling production economy, two influential industry unions have jointly called on Paramount Skydance Chairman David Ellison and California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to settle their antitrust fight.

The Directors Guild of America and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — which represent a combined 200,000 union members — are turning up the political pressure to try to resolve the clash over the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which has already carved deep divisions throughout the industry.

The DGA and IATSE’s unusual missive comes as Paramount has been trying to drum up support for the deal and while
development projects reportedly are being put on hold. Paramount executives and others have decried the delay in deciding whether the deal moves forward. Bonta and Paramount are now poised to slug it out in an Oakland courtroom next spring.

“Our collective members are concerned about their futures, and the future of the industry,” DGA Executive Director Russell Hollander and IATSE President Matthew D. Loeb wrote Thursday in their three-page letter to Ellison and Bonta.

“We are aware of productions that have been put on hold or canceled altogether, leading to further reductions in available work for our members and other industry workers,” the letter reads in part.

The effort adds heat to a growing campaign urging Bonta to bend in his fight to block the industry- reshaping deal that would combine the Warner Bros. and Paramount film and television studios, HBO, CBS, CNN, HGTV and Comedy Central.

Earlier this week, California’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Xavier Becerra, said he favored a settlement. Republican Steve Hilton has decried the antitrust lawsuit as being politically motivated.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who leaves office next year, has stayed above the fray.

Paramount and Bonta’s office didn’t immediately comment.

The Writers Guild of America last month joined Bonta’s coalition of state attorneys general in filing lawsuits to upend the $111-billion transaction, saying the Paramount-Warner combination violates U.S. antitrust laws and would decimate the entertainment industry by erasing jobs and reducing pay.

At issue is the $81 billion in debt that Ellison would have to take on to pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders for the keys to the studios and HBO.

WGA leaders and others have warned that level of debt would choke the two historic studios, creating a more devastating sequel to 2019‘s combination of the Disney and Fox studios, and the 2022 takeover of Warner Bros. by Discovery.

The union leaders conceded they weren’t merger fans, and they stopped well short of asking Bonta to throw in the towel.

Instead, they listed nine conditions — including requiring Paramount to maintain its operations in Hollywood and a commitment to make film and television shows in the U.S. — as part of any settlement.

The unions want Ellison to make an enforceable commitment that Paramount and Warner Bros. studios each release 15 films into theaters a year. They also want a 45-day theatrical window so that cinema chains can continue their rebound.

Some of the DGA and IATSE terms may be difficult for Ellison to swallow. Already, Paramount is looking to shave expenses to come up with the $81 billion promised to Warner Bros. shareholders. Sources have said Ellison’s suggestion to move Paramount from its picturesque Hollywood campus is designed, in part, to attract financial incentives from another state, such as Tennessee, eager to help with a relocation.

Among the conditions, the DGA and IATSE asked that Paramount’s and Warner Bros.’ motion picture units be kept as “as separate studios, with each studio maintaining its own production, distribution, marketing and exhibition groups as distinct divisions.”

One of the goals of the merger is to shave costs by consolidating overlapping business divisions and back-office functions.

The union leaders also want Warner Bros. television studio to operate independent from the Paramount and CBS production arms. They called on HBO to remain a linear television channel and available on third-party platforms, including Amazon.

Loeb and Hollander’s requests are designed to keep production jobs in the U.S.

They asked Ellison to commit to producing films and TV shows in the U.S. “at no less than the average percentage produced in the United States during the last five years” excluding 2020, the pandemic year, and 2023, when two strikes idled production.

“Our goal, with respect to the proposed merger, has always been to achieve an outcome that ensures a vibrant, competitive marketplace for the production, distribution, and licensing of film and television programming that serves the interests of consumers and filmmakers alike,” Hollander and Loeb wrote.

“We believe that these conditions, if secured through a binding agreement, will largely serve this purpose,” the said.

Bonta previously has said his preference would be structural remedies — divesting key business units — rather than “behavioral” compromises that could evaporate soon after the merger closed.

Should the two sides fail to hash out a settlement with conditions, Loeb and Hollander asked Ellison and Bonta to seek an earlier trial date for the legal showdown.

A federal judge set a March 2 date — despite Paramount’s request to hold the proceedings in November.

SACRAMENTO — Two state lawmakers from Los Angeles want tougher penalties for disasters caused by industrial companies after a massive fire in Boyle Heights left neighbors struggling with smoky air and the smell of rotting meat.

Assemblymember Mark González and state Sen. María Elena Durazo, both Democrats, are seeking a new law that would require any new cold storage facility to create a contingency fund for emergencies.

The fund would be used to help neighbors mitigate the fallout from a disaster.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for reelection, will appear with González and Durazo at an event Wednesday to discuss the proposed laws.

Lineage’s 500,000-square-foot food warehouse in Boyle Heights caught fire on June 17. The company blames a power company, which was working on the warehouse’s roof, for the blaze.

The company, Altus Power, has denied responsibility, stating that the cause is undetermined. The company accused Lineage of finger-pointing instead of focusing on community relief.

Noxious smoke and an influx of rats and flies attracted to rotting meat stored at the facility have tormented neighbors. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has cited Lineage for unsanitary and nuisance conditions related to rodent and pest control violations.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District has issued at least 20 violation notices to Lineage for public nuisance.

Lineage recently applied for building permits to replace the site, which Bass called “a slap in the face” to Boyle Heights families.

A press release ahead of Wednesday’s news conference said the proposal by lawmakers “will ensure that Lineage can’t rebuild without being accountable to the community.”

González and Durazo plan to insert proposed legislation related to the Lineage fire into existing bills, a process known as “gut and amend.”

The politicians also want to allow for stiffer fines against companies following a disaster.

Their proposed legislation also would ensure that anyone who sues over the fire doesn’t have to pay state taxes on any settlement, and that local jurisdictions are responsible for pest extermination efforts.

Greg Lehmkuhl, president and chief executive of Lineage, said in a quarterly earnings call last week that the company has committed $3.3 million to the community in the aftermath of the fire.

“Safety remains our top priority, and I’m incredibly proud of our team and how they’re handling this very challenging situation,” Lehmkuhl said on the call.

Rangers are being “proactive” in seeking a new striker after Youssef Chermiti was ruled out long term, says manager Derek McInnes, who warned defensive injuries have left the club “playing with fire”.

Chermiti, 22, sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Saturday’s defeat by Hibernian, shortly after McInnes confirmed a bid had been rejected for the Portugal Under-21 cap. Galatasaray have been linked with the former Everton player.

A specialist in London will be consulted, with a possible operation next week.

Chermiti is joined on the sidelines by left-back Tuur Rommens, who has been ruled out for up to eight weeks with a groin problem suffered in the same game.

McInnes, whose side will attempt to overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit at home to Jagiellonia Bialystok in their Europa League third-round qualifier on Thursday, said of Chermiti: “Obviously, really disappointing for ourselves.

“Selfishly, he’s a big part of what we wanted to do this season and he’s obviously a talented boy.

“For Youssef himself, obviously he’s very young. It’ll be difficult for him to accept and understand what’s happened to him.

“The only saving grace from our point of view as a club is the fact it’s happened in a transfer window and we’ve got the opportunity to react to that.

“The plan was for Youssef to stay in. Obviously it was a big number that was reportedly bid for him. I don’t know exactly what the figure was. Obviously the club rejected that. It’s neither here nor there now, to be honest. It’s done.

“We are obviously looking at maybe strengthening that area of the pitch. We’re trying to be quite proactive with that and seeing what is available. Number nines are normally the most difficult ones to get.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to eliminate a foundational safety principle that has for 50 years minimized the radiation people in the United States are exposed to and that has been adopted around the world.

Currently, facilities such as nuclear plants, hospitals or academic institutions that use radioactive materials must ensure radiation exposures are kept “as low as reasonably achievable” — the ALARA principle. The NRC proposal would abandon that philosophy while keeping a separate standard on maximum radiation exposure.

The two standards have worked together in radiation safety. Dose limits set the maximum amount of radiation the public and radiation workers can be exposed to, while ALARA kept radiation exposure as low as practical under those limits. Research shows radiation exposure increases a person’s chance of getting cancer, a risk that increases as the dose increases.

The dose limits are not changing. But the NRC, which regulates civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials, now wants to replace ALARA with a “graded approach” that includes several actions facilities must take depending on the potential dose of radiation to workers. More rigorous radiation protection measures would be required when approaching dose limits to ensure they aren’t exceeded.

This comes as President Trump attempts to quadruple domestic nuclear energy production because of surging electricity demand amid a data center and artificial intelligence boom. Reforming the NRC is one way Trump is trying to speed up nuclear reactor development. He instructed the federal agency in an executive order last year to “adopt science-based radiation limits.”

The Energy Department, which oversees national energy policies, has already stopped using ALARA. The NRC expects to finalize its radiation protection regulations in the coming months.

NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said the commission is not lowering the bar on safety.

“We’re just removing the ambiguity,” he said in a call with reporters. “But the standard for exposure to workers and the public, those are not changing. We’re just putting in place greater clarification.”

Nieh doesn’t expect major changes within the nation’s existing fleet of large, traditional reactors. But companies designing and building new, smaller reactors could move faster with a clearer picture of the radiation protection requirements, he said.

Could radiation doses creep higher?

The NRC said radiation exposure limits are set well below levels associated with health effects, and it expects remaining standards and industry practices to keep radiation doses far below the limits. There’s incentive to do so — it’s more expensive and time-consuming to work in areas with higher radiation because access must be restricted and more surveys are required.

The nuclear industry’s trade association agrees with the NRC.

“We will always continue to look at what can we do to reduce the dose to workers, and maintain our doses to the off-site public as low as possible,” said Doug True, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute. “It’s not like we’re just going to throw open the doors and let everything run up to the limits.”

ALARA created a “moving target” for regulation, said Justin Friedman, a nuclear energy consultant who previously spent three decades at the U.S. Department of State. Getting rid of the rule would allow NRC scientists to make more rational decisions about appropriate levels of manageable risk, he added.

Some experts question cutting ALARA

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, cautions that some parts of the NRC proposal could raise permissible radiation doses in certain cases, while still staying below the cap. Lyman highlighted a proposed revision to radionuclide emissions standards, in particular.

Radiation exposure to the general public is limited to 100 millirem per year. A typical dose of radiation from a chest X-ray is 10 millirem.

The NRC wants to increase its radionuclide emissions standards from a conservative, 10 millirem per year dose to 25 millirem per year, based on a hypothetical person living in a house at the property line for a nuclear plant.

The NRC says actual doses to the public would remain far lower because, in reality, people live farther from nuclear sites and benefit from dispersion in air and water.

The NRC should improve, rather than eliminate, ALARA, Lyman said, to protect the public and workers. ALARA has become a political target because some people mistakenly believe radiation exposures have to be as low as possible no matter the cost, Lyman said. In reality, it allows trade-offs.

Katy Huff, a former U.S. assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said in some cases, the requirement may be challenging to regulate. Additional clarity would improve the regulatory environment without harming the public, added Huff, a professor and department chair at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

However, Huff said, she thought the NRC was going to clarify what “reasonably” means in ALARA without scrapping it. She said she’s open to being convinced the graded approach will be just as effective.

One expert sees a mixed bag

The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, chartered by Congress to provide independent scientific guidance, has not formally weighed in yet. Council President Kathryn Higley said she likes some things in the 180-page document but thinks others are problematic.

The NRC should look at the whole picture for managing risk, she said. For instance, if a worker at a nuclear power plant were to enter an area where airborne radioactive materials are present, in keeping with ALARA, they might wear full personal protective equipment with respirators, said Higley, professor emeritus at Oregon State University. That makes them move slower, potentially subjecting them to heat stress that could hurt them more than a low dose of radioactivity, she said.

A concern with the proposal, Higley said, is that it maintains the current occupational dose limit for adult radiation workers at 5 rem, or 5,000 millirem, per year. With ALARA in place, the average dose to workers has been well below that cap.

The International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends an occupational dose of 2 rem per year on average. The NRC previously found it wasn’t justified to match that, because workers were exposed to less than that and changing regulations is costly.

Higley said the U.S. may need to align with the international community if ALARA is going away.

McDermott writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — President Trump and his allies escalated attacks on U.S. elections on Friday, after the president’s prime-time effort to convince Americans that that the nation’s voting systems are fundamentally flawed, and threatened to punish California and other Democratic states that refuse the administration’s demands for voter data.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened local election officials with fines and prison if they don’t turn over voter rolls to federal officials seeking to root out purported illegal voting by non-citizens.

“Try us,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X in response to Mullin’s threats. He added that “California has free, fair, and secure elections” and that the state “will fight for them.”

The administration’s threats — made less than four months before the November midterm elections — are a continuation of an aggressive Trump-led campaign to use the federal government to attempt to overhaul the nation’s voting systems and sow public mistrust in elections.

The administration has tried for months to compel Democrat-led states into handing over sensitive voter data to the federal government, but the efforts have run into resistance in courts, in part out of concern for privacy laws. The courts have also reaffirmed in many cases that the Constitution gives states — not the federal government — primary authority over elections.

On Friday, Mullin said his agency has found “as many as” 190,832 possible non-citizens registered to vote in California, along with more in three other Democratic-led states. He said Homeland Security arrived at those numbers by checking the four states’ public voter records.

He vowed to withhold federal election security grants from states until they agree to the administration’s demands, including having their voter registration lists “scrubbed” and their election security systems updated.

“If these states want a grant and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they are going to have to implement security measures,” Mullin said at a news conference. “We need to make sure that individuals who are legally able to vote are voting.”

Newsom said the state had “no idea” where that claim came from. The administration has not made its methodology public, and the system Mullin’s department has used to check for non-citizens in the past has inaccurately flagged some citizens as non-citizens. Past election reviews have found non-citizen voting is rare.

“There is plenty of reason to be suspicious of the claims from the administration,” said Brendan Fisher, director of strategic investigations at the Campaign Legal Center, “and every reason for voters to have confidence in our elections.”

Mullin’s remarks came the day after Trump delivered a prime-time address about vulnerabilities in the election system, claims that largely were not backed up by the evidence he provided. The White House released a trove of declassified documents that fell short of showing that any American election had been affected by fraud or foreign interference.

The White House dug in on the strategy Friday morning, deploying agency heads to continue amplifying the idea of election vulnerabilities, even after fact-checks showed most of his claims were exaggerated and had been previously known, investigated or debunked.

“SAVE OUR ELECTIONS,” the White House said on X.

Trump also used his address to pressure Congress to pass legislation that would tighten voting restrictions and could make it harder for millions to register to vote and cast ballots. While hardline Republicans applauded him, others in the party have rebuffed his request.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Friday that he did not understand why Trump is focusing on a past election when Republicans should focus on what is ahead.

“I think historically the midterms for the party in power are really tough,” Cornyn said. “So, yeah, I am concerned about it. We ought to be talking about things looking forward that our constituents are most concerned about.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said the nation’s electoral systems are safe, and while he thinks election officials need to be “vigilant,” he said he is more concerned about economic issues ahead of the midterms..

Discussing the legislation ahead of the speech Thursday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said it would be “impossible” to carry out changes to the nation’s voting laws in time for the midterms.

“The only thing that will occur is an undermining of the integrity of our elections right now,” Tillis said on the Senate floor.

David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, called Mullin’s threats “laughable.”

“There is no significant pool of federal grant money appropriated, so this threat has no teeth for any state. None of them are expecting any significant federal funds for elections,” Becker said.

Mullin told reporters Friday the federal government plans to use public records requests to try to obtain the voter roll information in order to investigate whether non-citizens have voted. Any member of the public can make a public records request; the move signals that the government has few remaining avenues to force the state to turn over voter data.

But Mullin appeared to acknowledge the limitations, saying: “I obviously can’t force the states.” He later threatened to levy fines, penalties or criminal charges against elections officials in states that don’t comply with the government’s demand.

If their behavior wasn’t criminal, Mullin said he would make sure state and county officials — who do not work for the federal government — would “never work for the federal government again.”

More than a dozen courts have ruled against the Justice Department’s highly unusual demand for state voter rolls. The federal government is not entitled to the data under federal law, Becker said.

He said previous government investigations into non-citizen voting have found that most people flagged against DHS’ database were either citizens or non-citizens who had never registered themselves to vote.

The Trump administration has used a database from an immigration verification system to flag possible non-citizen voters, but election officials have found that method misidentified some voters. Even with citizens mistakenly included in the count, the number of possible ineligible voters was extremely low — in Texas, 0.0001% of voters.

Data indicate that voting by non-citizens is rare. A study of the 2016 election by the Brennan Center for Justice found that officials referred about 30 cases of suspected non-citizen voting for investigation or prosecution. A 2024 review by the American Immigration Council of the right-wing Heritage Foundation‘s database turned up 68 cases of noncitizen voting since the 1980s.

While Trump’s speech prompted warnings from his critics that he could be laying the groundwork to take further steps to interfere with or tighten restrictions on elections, experts said he was running out of moves.

Becker predicted that Trump would not actually attempt to cancel elections or send officers to the polls and that courts would block the president if he declared a national emergency to exert control over elections.

“But I think there are people in the administration, including the president himself, who would like us all to think this is possible,” he said.

Fisher said Trump may be trying to lay the groundwork to dispute the midterm results if he doesn’t like the outcome, but said his powers to do so are limited.

“There’s safeguards and laws in place to protect the freedom to vote,” Fisher said, “and voters should tune out the noise and continue to participate in our democracy.”

Madrid, Spain – Badr Tmairi, 22, from Morocco, has spent six years living in Spain without legal status. He arrived at 16, alone, without his family. He held legal residency briefly after turning 18, but lost it when he failed to renew it in time.

“What I want is to get my papers back so I can work as a hairdresser and travel to visit my family in Morocco,” he said.

Tmairi is one of more than a million people who have now applied for regularisation under a new scheme that contrasts with a growing European trend against irregular immigration.

He has been homeless for the past year. Without documents, finding work and decent housing in Spain is difficult.

“It’s very encouraging to know that so many people submitted an application and are trying to regularise their situation, but that huge number is also proof that the state has failed in its duty to protect the most vulnerable,” Edith Espinola, president of the Active Domestic Workers’ Service Association (SEDOAC) and spokesperson for the Regularizacion Ya (Regularisation Now), told Al Jazeera.

Regularizacion Ya, a collective made up of migrants, has led the push for regularisation since 2020. The measure grew out of a broad social consensus and has been backed by civil society organisations, the Catholic Church, trade unions and business associations.

Living without legal status, Espinola said, condemns people to social exclusion, as it has for Tmairi. Without rights or protection from abuse, they are unaligned with most of the rest of the population.

The new initiative, Spain’s first regularisation process since 2005, began in April and closed on June 30. The government now has three months to resolve the vast majority of the applications submitted.

Of the 1,174,978 applications, according to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, only 11,000 have received a favourable resolution so far. About 608,000 have been accepted for processing, granting provisional residency and work permits until a final resolution.

‘All I want is to work’

Rocio Neciosupe, 54, is a Peruvian migrant who has spent two years without legal status in Spain. “Regularisation isn’t a handout; all I want is to work. To work without fear and with rights, so that if I fall and I’m sick, I don’t have to go to work that day and can still get paid, like anyone else,” she said.

Neciosupe, a cleaner in private homes, is busy across six different buildings around Madrid. But she is currently recovering from a back injury sustained in a fall at work. Without documents or a contract, she has no right to sick leave.

Unable to afford to lose her income while she recovers, her husband accompanies her to work each day and helps her with tasks she cannot manage alone.

Rocio, her husband and their two daughters, aged 22 and 17, have all had their regularisation applications accepted for processing and are now awaiting a favourable resolution.

“I want to support the country I live in, and if the country grows, we grow too,” Neciosupe added.

It is precisely in the contribution and growth potential of people like her that the Spanish government has framed its case for the measure.

“By 2050, Spain’s GDP would be 19 percent lower, 90,000 bars would close, 50,000 classrooms would shut and 220,000 farms would disappear,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said recently in a public address.

Gonzalo Fanjul, director of ISGlobal’s policy and development team and head of Research at the porCausa Foundation, said: “If you look at what’s happening in the United States, there are already estimates of the impact of the government’s violent, hostile anti-migration policies. Whole economic sectors are struggling to keep functioning.”

One of those sectors is care work. With an ageing population, Spain needs trained workers to fill positions in that sector, among others.

Josselyn Aguirre, 32, is one of those workers. A nursing assistant, she migrated from Ecuador to Spain in 2024. Her original plan had been to move to the United States, but her visa application was rejected.

“My goal is to stay and help older people. I really enjoy working with them,” she said.

“Here, in my country and in other countries around the world, this sector is collapsing due to a shortage of staff. That’s why I believe that being able to regularise your status and contribute as a professional benefits everyone,” she told Al Jazeera.

Migrants and refugees who applied for regularisation had already been living in Spain, working in the informal economy for years; 57 percent are men, most come from Latin American countries, and six out of 10 are below the age of 34.

So far, 159,097 additional people have registered with the Social Security system as a result of the regularisation process.

With this measure, “Spain has made a bet on growth. We’re going to be a country of 50 million people,” Fanjul said. “But it’s not enough.”

Amid a European political climate in which anti-migration rhetoric appears to be gaining ground, Spain’s approach shows another path is possible, though “regularisation is only the beginning”, Fanjul said.

“The system has been reset, but none of the underlying reasons that brought us to this point have been resolved.

“For the state to open up legal, safe and orderly channels for labour mobility is simply common sense,” he concluded.

Espinola is in no doubt.

Despite criticism from those opposed to the regularisation, she stressed, “We have come out stronger. The migrant community has once again shown its capacity for mutual support in difficult situations.”

The regularisation process is not yet over, she added: “We will remain vigilant to make sure the more than a million applications submitted are processed properly.”

South Korea seeks phased denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as it also seeks to normalize ties with North Korea, President Lee Jae Myung has said ahead of his state visit to Mongolia, which he called a “trusted partner” in such efforts.

In an interview with Mongolia’s state-run Montsame news agency released Thursday, the South Korean president highlighted Mongolia’s potential role in bridging the divided Koreas.

“I hope that Mongolia … will contribute even more to peace and stability, not only on the Korean Peninsula but across Northeast Asia as a whole.” the president said. “I believe that the power to create peace comes not from military force, but from mutual trust and dialogue.”

“Mongolia has maintained balanced relations not only with China and Russia, but with other key countries of the region … I believe this diplomatic capacity of Mongolia is more important now than at any time before,” he added.

Mongolia has traditionally maintained a close relationship with North Korea, having established diplomatic ties with Pyongyang only after the then Soviet Union. Lee arrived here earlier in the day, becoming the first South Korean president in 15 years to pay a state visit to Mongolia.

“Our government seeks to end the era of hostility and confrontation between South and North Korea, and to build a new era of peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said in the interview.

“To realize this vision, we plan to comprehensively pursue the expansion and normalization of inter-Korean relations, along with a phased approach to denuclearization.”

Lee emphasized the “significant role” Mongolia can play based on “the trust it has accumulated in the region.”

He also expressed his hope to elevate South Korea-Mongolia relations to a forward-looking “strategic partnership” that will usher in a “new golden era” of bilateral cooperation.

The South Korean president was scheduled to hold a summit with his Mongolian counterpart, Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, later in the day, followed by a joint business forum aimed at exploring opportunities for bilateral cooperation.

“Through this visit, I hope to elevate Mongolia-Korea relations to a future-oriented ‘strategic partnership,’ and I hope this will be a step toward opening a ‘New Golden Era’ of Mongolia-Korea relations together,” Lee was quoted as saying.

“I believe the Golden Era of Mongolia-Korea relations that our two countries will build together will open a new chapter filled with pride for the peoples of both nations,” he added.

Lee cited trade, supply chains, healthcare and food security as challenges the two countries need to tackle together, expressing hope that his ongoing visit could produce tangible results on those pressing issues.

The South Korean president, in particular, described critical minerals as “strategic assets” that underpin industry, technology and national security, adding that “building safe and reliable supply chains has become a vital challenge for every country.”

“From this perspective, Mongolia, with its abundant mineral wealth and development potential, and Korea, with its strengths in mining exploration, technological development and industrial innovation, can become vital supply chain partners for each other,” he said.

Seoul also aims to boost the number of visitors between the two countries to 500,000 per year by 2030, when the countries will mark the 40th anniversary of establishing their diplomatic ties, the president noted.

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It has taken two years, but the parents of the late Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. have finally been able to express appreciation for the efforts of authorities in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. Still, they are a long way from what they might consider a satisfactory resolution.

Dickey died after collapsing during the first day of Bucknell University football training camp in July 2024. The freshman lineman was put through rigorous drills by strength and conditioning coach Mark Kulbis, according to the attorney general’s office, even though Kulbis knew Dickey had sickle cell trait. The medical condition can increase the risk of serious injury or death following extreme exertion.

Dickey, 18, was taken to the hospital and died two days later.

Kulbis, who left Bucknell in January 2025, has been charged with felony aggravated hazing and misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and hazing, according to the attorney general’s office. Bail was set at $10,000.

“The facts show this was an intentional, deliberate hazing perpetrated by a coach who knew CJ’s health condition made him vulnerable to extreme workouts,” Atty. Gen. Dave Sunday said in a statement. “The facts show this defendant received information about CJ’s health condition, along with training about NCAA anti-hazing standards, and disregarded that information. This is an extraordinary tragedy, worsened by the fact that CJ’s death was preventable.”

Reached by the Associated Press on Tuesday, Dickey’s father, Calvin Sr., said that he and his wife, Nicole, are “at the point where we’re just glad that someone is being held responsible for our son’s death. We just want to see the process through, and we’re going to leave it to the attorney general to continue following the evidence.”

Dickey’s parents filed a lawsuit in April 2025 against Bucknell and its athletic staff, alleging that CJ’s death was the result of a hazing ritual for freshmen players.

“While the University will not comment on pending litigation, we again extend heartfelt sympathies to CJ’s family, and we will continue to focus on our most important priority — the health and safety of all Bucknell students,” Bucknell told ESPN in a statement.

According to an autopsy report issued by Montour County, Dickey was diagnosed with “exercise collapse associated with sickle cell trait,” rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure.

With rhabdomyolysis, kidneys become strained when proteins and electrolytes from damaged muscle tissue are released into the bloodstream. Studies have shown that sickle cell trait can be fatal when coupled with rhabdomyolysis.

In the lawsuit, Dickey’s parents alleged that Bucknell athletic trainers and coaches knew their son had sickle cell trait and failed to take steps to ensure precautions were in place.

“We have asked repeatedly for not just a high-level overview of what happened that day, but for the details, the specific fully transparent details,” Nicole Dickey told NPR shortly after the lawsuit was filed. “We’ve reached the point with Bucknell where we do not feel that we’re going to get that. The only path for us to get that truth is to file the civil lawsuit.”

More than a year later, the charges brought against Kulbis created another path that Dickey’s parents hope lead to a resolution.

“We do this for CJ, for every young man on that team, and anyone who comes after him, and anyone at any university,” Nicole Dickey told ESPN. “This is a longer, harder path, and I am ready for it. My boy is worth it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

LONDON — Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announced Tuesday that he will quit his seat in Parliament and seek reelection in an effort to clear his name over financial allegations linked to millions of dollars’ worth of donations.

The unexpected resignation is an effort by the anti-immigration politician to preempt a standards investigation that could have seen him ejected as a lawmaker, and to present himself as the victim of a witch hunt by the news media and his political foes.

“I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all. I have not misused public money,” Farage, a prominent ally of President Trump, said in a statement broadcast by his party. Media outlets were not allowed to attend the broadcast and he did not take questions.

Farage faces a parliamentary standards investigation about undeclared and potentially rule-breaking donations, including a $6.7-million gift he received from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. A finding of wrongdoing could lead to Farage being suspended or expelled from Parliament. But he has made the first move by triggering an election for his seaside seat of Clacton in eastern England.

“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” Farage said. “This will be a people versus the establishment by-election.”

And, he said: “I will fight to win.”

Farage won Clacton comfortably in the 2024 election, taking 46.2% of the vote, and stands a good chance of winning reelection. Reform UK said it was willing to pay for the special election, which may deflect claims it is wasting taxpayers’ money.

Farage’s opponents were unimpressed. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the announcement “a desperate stunt” from a man “up to his neck in sleaze.” Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Farage was having a “hissy fit” and triggering an “ego by-election.”

Farage may run almost unopposed. The opposition Liberal Democrats called on other parties to not enter the contest in order to starve Farage’s “vanity project” of oxygen. The Labor Party said it would not stand a candidate, as did the Conservatives, who also confirmed they would not run.

The gambit may only postpone Farage’s problems. Even if he wins, the standards inquiry is likely to resume.

Farage tipped by some as a future prime minister

Scrutiny of Farage’s finances has spurred speculation about the future of a politician some considered the favorite to be prime minister after the next national election.

One of the most high-profile and controversial figures in British politics, Farage has had an outsized effect as a champion of leaving the European Union and foe of large-scale immigration. He was key in securing victory for the “leave” side in the 2016 EU membership referendum.

His rise has echoes of Trump’s nationalist, anti-immigration playbook. Farage has capitalized on — critics say stoked — concerns about migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, which he has called an invasion, and alleges that white people face discrimination from police.

He also rails against “the establishment” and the media, which he claimed are using “foul means” to stop him.

A skilled communicator whose supporters see a beer-drinking plain-speaker, and whose critics see a populist rabble-rouser, Farage has had a checkered political career and was elected to Parliament in 2024 only after seven failed attempts. He also has a history of walking away from parties he led, stepping down from both the UK Independence Party and its successor, the Brexit Party, in the last decade.

Reform UK has only eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons but consistently leads opinion polls over the governing Labor Party and the main opposition Conservatives.

Farage’s party was the big winner in local and regional elections in May that led to the ouster of Starmer at the hands of his own Labor Party.

But Reform UK has lost three consecutive special elections that it hoped to win, a possible sign its support may be sagging. The most recent loss was to Labor’s Andy Burnham, who is likely to succeed Starmer as prime minister within weeks.

Donors include a crypto billionaire and a fraudster

Parliamentary standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg is investigating the 5-million-pound donation to Farage from Christopher Harborne, a British businessman based in Thailand. Farage says the money was a personal gift that he used to fund security and came before he was elected to the House of Commons.

U.K. rules state that newly elected lawmakers must declare gifts worth more than $400 they received in the previous 12 months, except where the gift “could not be reasonably thought by others” to relate to their political activities.

Farage is also facing questions about claims, reported by the Sunday Times, over his financial relationship with George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur, convicted fraudster and on-off aide to the Reform UK leader.

Cottrell was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in 2016, while traveling with Farage, over allegations he offered to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers. Indicted on 21 counts relating to money laundering, fraud, blackmail and extortion, he agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of wire fraud, admitting attempting to defraud criminals on the dark web by masquerading as a money launderer. He served eight months in prison.

Cottrell, 32, remains close to Farage, and the Sunday Times said he gave the politician funding for staffing and security before Britain’s 2024 general election, as well as the use of a London townhouse near Buckingham Palace.

Lawless writes for the Associated Press.

The German football association is seeking talks with Jurgen Klopp about becoming their men’s national team coach after Julian Nagelsmann resigned.

Nagelsmann requested to be relieved of his duties on Thursday following the team’s early exit from the World Cup.

The German FA (DFB) has now granted that request and immediately terminated their contractual relationship with the 38-year-old former Bayern Munich boss.

In a statement, DFB said it “will now seek talks with Jurgen Klopp”, adding: “He has already signaled his general willingness to take on the position.”

Germany bowed out of the World Cup on Monday after the four-time winners were beaten by Paraguay on penalties in the last 32.

Initially Nagelsmann, who was appointed in 2023, was determined to remain in charge, saying after the game: “I’m not someone who runs away.”

But in a statement on Friday, he said: “I’ve done a lot of thinking in the days since our elimination and have consulted with trusted individuals both personally and within the federation.

“The decision was anything but easy for me. My top priority has always been the team ‘s success. After such a bitter disappointment, they deserve the chance for a fresh start.”

More to follow.

In Alameda County, Sharon Ford, a Medi-Cal recipient, was turned away from two private hospitals last December while in labor, because a hospital computer erroneously showed that she did not have insurance. Hours later, her baby was born dead at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, the county facility.

The Alameda County district attorney decided against filing criminal charges in the case, but concluded “it is unmistakably clear that this transfer should not have been attempted.”

Economic Reasons

In San Bernardino last winter, a patient with a stab wound to the heart was sent to the San Bernardino County Medical Center after being examined and declared “stable” by a cardiac surgeon at another hospital, according to Dr. Max Lebo, the clinical director of emergency services at the county hospital. The patient arrived moribund, had a cardiac arrest and died.

In each case, the patient was shifted from one emergency room to another not for medical reasons, but for economic ones–the fear by the receiving hospital that it would not be paid for treating the patient.

Health care officials call such transfers hospital “dumping,” and it is a problem that is drawing increasing attention in California and across the nation.

Attention will be focused on the dumping issue Tuesday, when the state Assembly’s Health Committee meeting in Sacramento considers a bill that if enacted would give California one of the toughest “anti-dumping” laws in the nation.

“Lives are being lost every month this goes on,” said Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles), who introduced the bill. “It is a violation of every code of ethical behavior one can imagine.”

The patients who are “dumped” are almost always the indigent, the uninsured and those on Medi-Cal. Hospitals are motivated to transfer them out of fear that the patients won’t be able to pay for their care or that the Medi-Cal payments won’t cover the hospital’s actual costs. In addition, some specialists, on call to back up the emergency room doctor, refuse to care for such patients.

The patients are usually transferred to public hospitals, where their unpaid bills are absorbed by local taxpayers.

The dumping problem has become more acute in recent years as competition among hospitals has increased and state and federal support for health care has been cut back. Margolin’s bill would supplement a federal “anti-dumping” law, approved by Congress March 20 as part of a deficit reduction measure and awaiting President Reagan’s signature. It details appropriate transfer procedures, mandates reporting of all violations and establishes stricter enforcement procedures.

The federal bill specifies civil penalties up to $25,000 per case against a hospital or doctor when patients are transferred inappropriately. Hospitals can be excluded from the Medicare program for violations.

Margolin’s bill, AB 3403, would require that all hospital emergency rooms in the state provide needed emergency treatment, regardless of the patient’s “insurance status, economic status or ability to pay.” A similar requirement would be imposed on individual doctors with hospital staff privileges.

Existing regulations specify these responsibilities, according to Margolin. But the possible penalties for abuses–a letter of reprimand or revoking the license of a doctor or an emergency room–are usually either too mild or too harsh, he said.

The Margolin bill would impose new penalties–including fines of up to $25,000 and jail terms of up to one year. A summary of all violations would be published quarterly by the state Department of Health Services and be available to the public.

The California Medical Assn. opposes the bill, according to a spokesman.

The California Hospital Assn. supports the “intent” of the Margolin bill, said C. Duane Dauner, its president, despite reservations about some of the provisions.

“Economic transfers are a way of life today,” according to Dauner, who characterizes dumping as just one symptom of a larger issue–providing medical care for the poor and uninsured.

The dumping problem was documented in a recently completed study by Lebo, the physician at the San Bernardino County Medical Center. It showed that in a three-month period last fall, 423 patients were transferred to the San Bernardino County Medical Center from other hospitals–91% for financial reasons. Of these patients, 31 were in unstable condition, including nine with stab wounds and three with gunshot wounds, Lebo said.

“The great majority of these patients were sent from hospitals that had the facilities to take care of them,” said Lebo, who declined to identify these hospitals.

One patient died during the study–a man in his 50’s, suffering from alcoholism, anemia and pneumonia. He stopped breathing in the ambulance after being declared stable for transfer by physicians at another hospital. “He might have survived if they had cared for him,” Lebo said.

Despite a regulation of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Hospitals that patients not be transferred until the receiving hospital has consented to the transfer, 40% of the transferred patients arrived unexpectedly.

“It is frustrating and exasperating,” said Dr. Francis Communale, the hospital’s medical director.

“Sometimes the receiving hospital would call up and we would tell them the hospital was full, but the patient would be sent to our emergency room anyway.”

Problems in 38 Cases

Even within Los Angeles County, which enacted widely praised transfer procedures in 1982, 87 inappropriate transfers were investigated between March, 1985, and February, 1986, according to Robert Karp, of the health facilities division of the county Department of Health Services. Problems were confirmed in 38 cases, he said.

Under Los Angeles County regulations, a medical alert center, staffed 24 hours a day at County-USC Medical Center, must approve all transfers from private hospitals based on guidelines developed in conjunction with the Hospital Council of Southern California.

Violations are reported by emergency room doctors to the county Department of Health Services for investigation. If neglect or abuse is found, the offending hospital is contacted and asked to submit a plan to correct the problem.

In the last year, five cases were also sent to the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance, which licenses physicians, according to Karp.

The county system is credited with cutting the number of inappropriate transfers by more than half, according to Geraldine Dallek, of the National Health Law Program in Los Angeles, who has investigated the issue. Of about 80 transfers arriving each day at County-USC Medical Center, more than 90% receive prior approval and meet all protocol requirements, she said.

But a National Health Law Program study also pointed out the county system’s weaknesses. “Hospitals which violate transfer provisions know that the penalty for doing so is light,” it concluded. “The county has no authority to fine a hospital and the likelihood of a license revocation is almost nil.”

A National Trend

The California bill reflects a national trend toward legislation to ensure that the poor receive adequate emergency care. In addition to the federal bill, both South Carolina and Texas enacted tough “anti-dumping” laws in 1985. Alameda County is preparing transfer procedures similar to those in Los Angeles County.

The California Hospital Assn., however, asserted that the larger issue of so-called “uncompensated care,” must be tackled as well. Uncompensated care exceeds $1 billion out of the more than $12 billion spent on hospital care in the state each year, the association’s Dauner estimated, with 12% of the hospitals bearing 60% of the burden.

To provide relief for these institutions, the hospital association has proposed the creation of a fund, to be jointly financed by the state and federal governments and the hospitals.

Supporters of Margolin’s bill, however, believe the transfer issue should be dealt with on its own terms. “I want to get the whole damn thing stopped,” said Lebo, who was on duty the night the patient stabbed in the heart died.

Paula Corbin Jones’ lawyers asked a judge in Little Rock, Ark., to order President Clinton to pay nearly $500,000 in legal reimbursements after he was found in contempt of court in her sexual harassment case. Their proposal came a month after U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright found Clinton in contempt for giving intentionally false testimony about his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky. Wright ordered Clinton to pay Jones’ lawyers any expenses they incurred as a result of his false testimony. In a letter to Wright, Clinton lawyer Robert S. Bennett said Clinton will “object to the amount of the claim by Ms. Jones’ attorneys.”

June 15 (Asia Today) — South Korean broadcaster JTBC and four other companies affiliated with JoongAng Group filed for court-led rehabilitation Monday, two days after the television network defaulted on 20.6 billion won, or about $13.6 million, in debt.

The applications could lead to restructuring, asset sales and efforts to attract new investment if the court approves the rehabilitation proceedings.

The five applicants are JTBC, Contentree JoongAng, Megabox JoongAng, JoongAng Holdings and JoongAng P&I.

JoongAng Group Vice Chairman Hong Jeong-do apologized during a news conference at the JoongAng Ilbo building in western Seoul.

“As a senior executive of JoongAng Group, I sincerely apologize to our employees,” Hong said.

“Management has explored every possible option to overcome the credit crunch and liquidity crisis and maintain the group’s operational stability,” he said. “However, accumulated financial burdens and the prolonged contraction of the capital market have left us with no choice but to file for rehabilitation proceedings.”

JTBC declared a payment default Friday after failing to repay 20.6 billion won in securitized borrowings at maturity.

South Korean credit-rating agencies subsequently downgraded the credit ratings of JTBC and other major group companies.

NICE Investors Service cut JTBC’s unsecured bond rating from BBB with a negative outlook to CCC. A CCC rating indicates a substantial risk of default and generally makes it difficult for a company to raise funds through conventional financial markets.

The agency also downgraded JoongAng Ilbo’s long-term credit rating from BBB with a negative outlook to BB- and lowered its short-term rating from A3 to B-.

Korea Ratings lowered JTBC’s unsecured bond rating from BBB with a negative outlook to BB under negative review. It also downgraded the broadcaster’s commercial paper and electronic short-term bond ratings from A3 to B under negative review.

The group’s financial difficulties have been attributed partly to a sharp decline in television advertising as audiences and advertisers move toward digital platforms and streaming services.

Heavy investment in sports broadcasting rights has also placed pressure on the group’s finances.

JTBC acquired exclusive South Korean broadcasting rights for the FIFA World Cup through Phoenix Sports, an affiliate of JoongAng Group.

Contentree JoongAng, the parent company of Phoenix Sports, reportedly invested $125 million, or about 190 billion won, to secure World Cup rights.

The group also reportedly committed about $500 million for rights to broadcast the Olympic Games from 2026 through 2032 and FIFA World Cup tournaments through 2030.

JTBC failed in February to resell Winter Olympics broadcasting rights to South Korea’s three terrestrial television networks, contributing to substantial losses.

For the 2026 World Cup, JTBC sold some broadcasting rights to public broadcaster KBS for 14 billion won, or about $9.2 million, but did not reach agreements with MBC or SBS.

If the court approves the applications, the companies are expected to consider workforce and business restructuring, asset sales and outside investment as part of a financial recovery plan.

The Seoul Bankruptcy Court assigned the cases involving the JoongAng Group companies and subsidiaries to its Rehabilitation Division 2.

The court will review financial records and other documents submitted by the companies before deciding whether to formally begin the proceedings. Such decisions are generally made within about a month.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260616010005214

June 2 (Asia Today) — South Korean small business owners called for more practical labor consulting and measures to ease payroll burdens during a government meeting Tuesday.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a roundtable on labor difficulties facing small businesses at the Korea Certified Public Labor Attorneys Association in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

Minister Han Seong-sook, government officials and representatives from convenience stores, restaurants and cafes attended the meeting to discuss labor management difficulties in the field.

Participants said complicated wage rules, including weekly holiday allowances and severance pay, have become a major management burden. They urged the government to provide professional consulting support.

At the meeting, the ministry announced support measures to help small businesses manage labor issues. The measures include a question-and-answer guidebook on commonly missed labor rules, regional on-site briefings and stronger online guidance through short-form videos.

The ministry also plans to help resolve disputes through counseling centers and labor lawyers. It said it will link a 24-hour artificial intelligence labor law counseling service with Small Business 24, a government support platform for small businesses.

Small business groups, however, expressed disappointment with the measures. They said expanding online and offline counseling channels could become a formality unless the government also secures enough budget and staffing to handle a surge in labor complaints.

They also said 24-hour AI counseling may have limits because labor disputes often involve complicated facts and competing interests that differ from case to case.

Participants emphasized that small businesses need more than basic information or counseling. They said the government should build a field-based consulting system and adopt policies that directly reduce labor cost pressures.

They said the government needs a bolder approach that goes beyond publicity-focused measures to address the core problems facing small businesses, including complex employment structures and allowance management.

“We will implement the measures announced today without disruption to create an environment where small business owners can run their businesses with confidence,” Han said.

The government said it will continue listening to difficulties in the field and review possible improvements to the system.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260602010000499

NEW YORK — American businesses big and small have started receiving tariff refunds after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Trump lacked the constitutional authority to impose higher import taxes on goods from nearly every other country.

The process could grind to a halt, however, after the Trump administration said Friday that it intended to appeal a federal judge’s order to allow all companies that paid the illegal import taxes to seek refunds, not just the ones that filed lawsuits.

Until the Department of Justice informed the judge of its planned appeal, the refund system overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been working fairly smoothly. Refunds reached the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12, about three weeks after American importers and their customs brokers could start submitting claims through an online system, according to CBP.

Applications for refunds totaling $85 billion — more than half of the $166 billion the agency estimated the government owes to companies that paid the illegal tariffs on imported goods — were accepted for processing as of May 22, CBP reported in a legal filing earlier in the week. It said it had so far directed the Treasury Department to issue $20.6 billion in refunds.

The administration revealed its appeal preparations while objecting to a demand by Judge Richard K. Eaton for CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott to appear in the U.S. Court of International Trade to answer questions about how long it would take to repay all 330,000 importers that might be eligible for refunds. The judge has scheduled a June 9 hearing on why he shouldn’t require the government do whatever it takes to speed up the process.

Justice Department lawyers asked Eaton to allow one or two of Scott’s deputies to appear in his place, arguing that as a high-ranking presidential appointee, the CBP chief could not be compelled to testify in court. They also argued that Eaton exceeded his own authority when he determined in March that the Supreme Court’s ruling entitled “all importers of record’’ to refunds.

“For that reason, defendants intend to appeal the court’s universal injunction,” the lawyers wrote, adding that CBP would continue to move “as quickly as it can to process refunds in a phased approach” for businesses that filed some 485 pending trade court complaints to assert their rights to refunds.

In a terse reply Friday, Eaton said he needed to hear directly from Scott whether the government would return all of the money it collected between when Trump imposed what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on goods from most countries in April 2025 and when the Supreme Court struck them down in late February.

“This case involves $166 billion,” the judge wrote. “It is undisputed that the remedy for this unlawful collection is for the United States government to refund the unlawfully collected duties.”

Some national retail chains said they planned to use their tariff refunds to lower customer prices on some items. Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told analysts last week that the company would implement price cuts even though the maximum refund it might be eligible for represented less than half of 1% of Walmart’s $483 billion in annual U.S. sales.

Some smaller companies told the Associated Press that the partial refunds they’ve received so far would go toward paying remaining or future tariffs, reducing debt or just keeping the lights on after more than a year of uncertainty and additional import costs.

Jay Foreman, chief executive of toy company Basic Fun, said he received about $450,000, or 7% of his total claim, over two consecutive days this month. He took the initial repayment as a positive sign but said that after having less than $10,000 refunded since then, the process seemed like a “total slow roll.”

“It’s time to release the funds back into the economy, especially given how much we and others need these funds to support our businesses and fund our operations,” Foreman said.

Anderson writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Last June 16, armed immigration agents broke the locks to forcibly enter an Oxnard auto body shop. Juan Carlos Ramirez, a U.S. citizen, filmed as they arrested his father.

Then the agents pepper-sprayed Ramirez, slammed him onto the hoods of two vehicles, punched his face and kneed him in the side, according to a legal claim he later filed against the federal government.

Local attorney Vanessa Valdez denounced Ramirez’s arrest at an Oxnard City Council meeting the next day. The following month, Valdez found herself in a similar situation when agents raided the cannabis company Glass House Farms.

Despite identifying herself as a legal observer, she said, agents — or possibly National Guard — deployed tear gas and shot her six times with rubber bullets. She ran and then, unable to see, crawled on all fours to escape.

Vanessa Valdez, a Ventura-based attorney, has filed a claim against the federal government, alleging she was hit with tear gas and six rubber bullets during the Glass House Farms raid last July.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

“They were just shooting aimlessly, it seemed like,” she said. “I thought maybe they had fractured a rib because that’s how painful it was. I couldn’t sleep face down for three weeks.”

Ramirez and Valdez are among the dozens of U.S. citizens and immigrants who are seeking financial compensation for damages they say they suffered during President Trump’s immigration dragnet. For Valdez, that includes the cost of hospital visits, lost wages as she recovered, anxiety medication and seeing a therapist.

After reviewing public accounts and legal documents and interviews with more than a dozen lawyers and immigrants, The Times found that claimants from across the country are seeking at least $260 million.

In a statement, Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bis wrote that ICE officers are held to the highest professional standard and receive regular training. Bis said that when agents are faced with danger, they use their training to protect themselves and the public.

“The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force. It’s a pattern of violent agitators attacking our law enforcement,” she wrote.

Asked about Valdez, Bis said law enforcement deployed chemical irritants including pepper balls, but not rubber bullets, after agitators attempted to breach the perimeter at Glass House Farms. She said Ramirez refused officer’s commands and physically attacked them, so they pepper-sprayed him in self-defense.

Lawyers who are experts in tort claims said the bureaucratic process is lengthy and complex, and any damage award would likely be lower than what a claimant is seeking.

Still, seeking redress through the Federal Tort Claims Act is one of the few legal remedies available for those seeking financial compensation for deaths, physical injuries, emotional trauma, unlawful detention or property damage caused by federal employees.

The number of claims is expected to rise.

Federal agents, some wearing street clothes and some wearing uniforms and protective gear, form a defensive line against hundreds of protesters outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 30.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

In recent months, advocacy organizations have prepared practice advisories for attorneys interested in filing tort claims, and law groups across the country have begun holding training sessions on the process.

“There is no question in my mind that a lot of people — hundreds, thousands — have been harmed significantly and will be legally entitled to large damages payouts, which are going to come from the federal government,” said Jonathan Feinberg, a Philadelphia-based attorney.

Feinberg, who specializes in cases involving excessive use of force by police and abuses of detained immigrants, is president of the board of directors for the National Police Accountability Project, which focuses on law enforcement misconduct.

“We’re going to be talking about Minneapolis in 2030,” he added.

Before they can sue in federal court, individuals must first request a review by the agency that they say is responsible, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection. The agency has six months to respond and deny the claim or offer a settlement.

If the agency doesn’t respond or denies a claim, the claimant can then file suit.

Unlike civil rights lawsuits, in which juries decide the verdict, in tort cases, judges make that call. Only the agencies are named as defendants, not individuals.

The Times reviewed the claims of nearly 80 people filed since the start of 2025. The vast majority remain in the review stage. Lawyers anticipate most will not be settled, unleashing a flood of lawsuits starting this summer.

Federal law since 1871 has established that people can sue state and local officials for violating their constitutional rights. But the law left out federal actors.

One hundred years later, the Supreme Court allowed for damages lawsuits against federal officials who violate a person’s civil rights, though decisions in recent years have substantially narrowed that ability.

Democrats in California are pursuing legislation that would make it easier for residents to seek financial damages for constitutional violations committed by federal agents. Similar laws were already enacted in Maryland, Illinois and Connecticut, though the Trump administration has sued to block the latter two.

But there is a different route — tort claims.

Tort cases can be difficult to win, in part because the government can claim a “discretionary function exception,” which shields the agency from liability when the situation involves a policy-driven judgment call.

“So that’s what a lot of plaintiff’s lawyers are really anxious about, that the Trump administration is going to say, ‘Well, we’ve got our own immigration policies. Of course a lot of people disagree with them, but the statute is designed to give us the right to make those policy judgments,’” said Benjamin Zipursky, a Fordham University law professor who studies torts.

“Now, if I were the plaintiff’s lawyer, I would say, ‘Yeah, but shooting somebody in cold blood because you’re just mad about their political views, and they’re not really threatening your life at all — that’s not a policy judgment,’” he said.

The law office of John Burris, an Oakland-based attorney who represented Rodney King after he was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in 1991, has taken on damages clients in Minnesota. He said he anticipates filing around 80 tort claims stemming from the immigration enforcement actions there.

A memorial for Renee Good at the location where she was fatally shot in Minneapolis.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Burris said the experience has given him flashbacks to the period before King’s beating and the subsequent protests over police brutality, when officers felt they could act with impunity.

“There’s 1779798656 a more fundamental understanding that bad stuff does happen,” he said. “Everyday people are not as willing as they once were to just accept a police officer’s perspective.”

Public disapproval over immigration enforcement rose after federal immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed two 37-year-old U.S. citizens, Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, in separate incidents.

Other deaths took place before the Minnesota operation: 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez, who was killed by an ICE agent in Texas who fired repeatedly through the open window of his car; Keith Porter, 43, who was killed in Los Angeles by an off-duty ICE agent after shooting his gun into the air on New Year’s Eve; and Jaime Alanis Garcia, 57, who fell 30 feet from atop a greenhouse while fleeing agents at the Glass House Farms site in Camarillo.

Lawyers for the families of Good, Martinez and Garcia confirmed they are pursuing tort claims. Lawyers for the other families did not respond to requests for comment.

Additional highly publicized cases have also resulted in tort claims: Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago; Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student and Palestinian rights activist who spent 104 days detained after the administration labeled him a national security threat; Aliya Rahman, a disabled woman on her way to a doctor’s appointment in Minneapolis who blacked out at a detention facility after ICE agents detained her.

New claims appear to be filed weekly. Seventeen men, women and children who were detained in a military-style raid at a Chicago apartment complex filed claims this month seeking about $5 million each.

In many of the cases, Bis said, the claimants impeded or assaulted agents. Pretti’s death remains under investigation, she said.

Willy Wender Aceituno stands in the parking lot where he was arrested last November by ICE agents in Charlotte, N.C.

(Jesse Barber / For The Times)

Willy Wender Aceituno was already a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of North Carolina challenging the policy allowing warrantless immigration arrests after he was stopped twice in a span of minutes by immigration agents last November. In March, he also submitted a tort claim.

Aceituno is a Honduran-born U.S. citizen who voted for Trump. On the day he was arrested, a group of masked agents checked his identification and left. Aceituno then filmed as a second group surrounded his red truck.

“If you break it, you will pay for it,” he tells them in Spanish seconds before one agent smashes the window with a baton. “Why did you do that, sir?”

Aceituno suffered cuts when agents threw him to the ground, which was covered in shattered glass. They placed him in an SUV with other detainees and drove him around Charlotte, N.C., before releasing him, still bleeding, more than 2 miles from his vehicle.

The moment brought back Aceituno’s childhood memory of watching his father be arrested by the Honduran military and disappeared.

“I remember they broke down the door, entered, put him in handcuffs and threw him to the ground,” he said. “I thought, ‘It’s happening again.’ To see the other Hispanics in the car made it feel like this is racial persecution. This is about skin, not criminality.”

Bis, the Homeland Security spokesperson, said Aceituno acted erratically, escalated the situation and refused to comply with officers’ commands.

Lawyers said many people, especially immigrants, who have viable claims have chosen not to pursue them out of fear of being targeted for deportation. Some were deported before they could sue.

“Even now, our clients wake up some days thinking, ‘What am I doing suing the federal government?’” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Lawyers for Civil Rights. “You have to have a lot of courage to be able to stand up against an administration that has put a bull’s-eye on you and that has targeted you based on your identity.”

Others have turned to mutual aid or online fundraisers to pay for medical bills or to repair property damage. On the website GoFundMe, donation campaigns describe shattered car windows, broken limbs, head trauma and mounting bills.

Some damage can’t be fully recompensated, Espinoza-Madrigal added.

Members of the Haitian community hold signs in support for the extension of Temporary Protected Status during a rally last month in Miami.

(Carl Juste / Miami Herald / Getty Images)

One of the organization’s clients is Jose Pineda, a Salvadoran man with Temporary Protected Status. A year ago, Pineda was stopped by ICE officers on his way to work in East Boston as a landscaper. They wouldn’t accept his Social Security and work authorization cards as proof enough that he was not deportable, and detained him without explanation, according to his tort claim.

So Pineda spent nearly two days in a holding cell at the ICE Boston Field Office with around 50 other people. He couldn’t sit or sleep and received minimal water and food.

Bis said agents “briefly questioned” Pineda because he matched the description of the subject of an operation, and that he was released after being identified.

When he was released, the claim alleges, his documents were returned but $600 in cash that he was saving to pay rent was not. The incident left him with frequent headaches, anxiety and memory loss, and exacerbated his gastritis. His absence from work resulted in a demotion from lead foreman to an assistant role.

“Whenever I drive, if someone stays behind me for three, four or five minutes, I start to imagine that it’s them again,” he said in an interview.

Pineda’s arrest also caused recurring nightmares that leave him shouting and thrashing around in bed. Out of fear that he could inadvertently harm his wife, they now sleep in separate beds.