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Sept. 23 (UPI) — The Wall Street Journal filed a motion Monday to dismiss President Donald Trump‘s $10 billion defamation lawsuit over the newspaper’s reporting on a 50th birthday letter he claims he did not write to Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago.

According to the filing, The Journal argued the case should be thrown out because “the article is true.”

“Epstein’s estate produced the Birthday Book, which contains the letter bearing the bawdy drawing and Trump’s signature, exactly as The Wall Street Journal reported.”

“While this case’s threat to the First Amendment is serious, the claims asserted by President Trump are meritless and should be promptly dismissed with prejudice,” the newspaper said.

Trump has denied writing the letter, saying, “This is not me,” and “This is a fake thing.” He is asking for $10 billion on two counts of defamation, which could total more than $20 billion.

The Journal’s filing asks the court to order Trump pay the defendants’ attorneys’ fees. The newspaper argues the article is not defamatory.

“Even if it had reported that President Trump personally crafted the letter — and it does not — there is nothing defamatory about a person sending a bawdy note to a friend,” according to the motion, which detailed the note that included a drawing of a naked woman.

Trump disagreed.

“The Wall Street Journal and News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social in July. “The press has to learn to be truthful and not rely on sources that probably don’t even exist.”

The Wall Street Journal’s motion to dismiss comes days after a federal judge threw out a $15 billion lawsuit, also filed by the president, against The New York Times. The judge called Trump’s allegations “superfluous.”

Last year, Trump won a $15 million settlement from ABC News in a defamation suit against the network over false statements. Trump also won a $16 million settlement from CBS News over what he called deceptively edited comments during the presidential election.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has presented a 19th package of sanctions on Russia, urging members of the European Union to adopt new sanctions on Russia’s exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in an attempt to push Moscow to end its “brutal” war in Ukraine.

“Russia’s war economy is sustained by revenues from fossil fuels,” von der Leyen said on Friday. “We want to cut these revenues. So we are banning imports of Russian LNG into European markets.”

The sanctions must be endorsed by all 27 EU member countries before they can enter into force.

“It is time to turn off the tap,” von der Leyen said, calling on members to quickly endorse the move.

“We want Russia to leave the battlefield and come to the negotiation table, and this is the way to give peace a real chance,” she added.

Russia is showing the full extent of its contempt for diplomacy and international law.

So we’re increasing the pressure.

With our 19th package of sanctions covering energy, financial services and trade restrictions ↓ https://t.co/uW7HuZp3br

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 19, 2025

EU sanctions have already targeted more than 2,500 entities, including banks, ministries, energy companies and officials.

Those being sanctioned include President Vladimir Putin, his close associates, dozens of Russian lawmakers and several oligarchs. The measures largely consist of travel bans and asset freezes.

Von der Leyen said the bloc’s existing sanctions are having an effect.

“Russia’s overheated war economy is coming to its limit,” she said, pointing to persistently high inflation in the country.

The EU has so far adopted 18 sanction packages against Moscow, though reaching agreement on new targets often takes weeks.

Russian LNG accounted for roughly 16 percent of the bloc’s total imports last year, with Europe being Russia’s largest buyer of LNG.

Hungary and Slovakia have opposed any phase-out of Russian LNG, creating potential obstacles to further action, and they have been known to use their veto power to gain concessions.

Moscow to ‘pay the price’

In a separate statement, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was moving up a previous pledge to end all imports of LNG before the end of 2027 by 12 months.

“Our aim is to speed up the phase-out of Russian liquefied natural gas by 1 Jan 2027,” she posted on X.

“Moscow thinks it can keep its war going. We are making sure it pays the price for it.”

Tearing children from their families and deporting them to re-education camps is beyond description.
We will not let Russia weaponize childhood itself.

We are also going to make is easier to sanction individuals involved in the abduction and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) September 19, 2025

Kallas said the bloc was also looking to “make it easier” to sanction individuals involved in abducting Ukrainian children.

Since 2022, Russia has faced global criticism over the deportation of Ukrainian families, many of them with children.

“Tearing children from their families and deporting them to re-education camps is beyond description,” Kallas posted on social media. “We will not let Russia weaponise childhood itself.”

UK sanctions target Georgian businessmen

Meanwhile, the UK announced sanctions on Friday against two Georgian businessmen over their support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as two tankers carrying Russian oil.

“The UK has announced new sanctions targeting Georgia-linked supporters of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine,” the UK foreign ministry said in a statement.

“As Russia’s war footing weakens, the Kremlin is increasingly looking to proxies in third countries to support its war and propaganda operations, including in Georgia,” the ministry’s statement said.

Among the individuals sanctioned are Georgian media mogul and politician Levan Vasadze, whom the UK accuses of putting out pro-Russian disinformation.

Otar Partskhaladze, former prosecutor general of Georgia and someone London said had “extensive links to Russia,” was also sanctioned.

In addition, two tankers were sanctioned for carrying Russian oil to the Georgian port in Batumi in violation of Western restrictions.

“Putin’s war machine relies on an international web to spread lies and fund this network,” Minister of State Stephen Doughty said, according to the statement.

“We’re cutting off another lifeline by targeting and deterring those in Georgia who provide support for Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

Platform to allow people to securely pass on information anywhere in the world, or offer their own services to MI6.

The United Kingdom’s spy agency is set to launch a web portal on the dark web to recruit informants and receive secret information from agents in Russia and worldwide, Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has said.

The Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, will officially announce the launch of the secure messaging platform called “Silent Courier” on Friday.

It is aimed at harnessing the anonymity of the dark web – the murky, hidden part of the internet often used by criminal actors – and allowing anyone, anywhere in the world, to securely contact the UK spy agency.

Users of the portal can securely pass on details about illicit activities anywhere in the world, or offer their own services, according to a Foreign Office statement.

Outgoing MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore – who is due to hand over to Blaise Metreweli later this month – will officially launch the web portal in Istanbul on Friday.

“Today we’re asking those with sensitive information on global instability, international terrorism or hostile state intelligence activity to contact MI6 securely online,” Moore is set to say when he formally announces the plans.

“Our virtual door is open to you,” he will add.

Instructions on how to use the portal will be publicly available on MI6’s verified YouTube channel.

Users have been encouraged to access it through VPNs and devices not linked to themselves.

MI6 was established in 1909 but was not officially acknowledged by the UK government until the 1990s.

The spy agency operates from the iconic SIS Building on the banks of the River Thames in London and only its head – known as “C” – is a publicly named member of the service.

In advance of the portal’s launch, new Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that “national security is the first duty of any government and the bedrock of the prime minister’s Plan for Change” – referring to a national revitalisation plan outlined by the premier and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer in December.

“As the world changes, and the threats we’re facing multiply, we must ensure the UK is always one step ahead of our adversaries,” Cooper said.

“Now we’re bolstering their efforts with cutting-edge tech so MI6 can recruit new spies for the UK – in Russia and around the world,” she added.

The US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) took a similar approach in 2023, when it published videos on social media attempting to recruit potential Russian spies.

Sept. 18 (UPI) — Ecuador President Daniel Noboa announced Thursday plans to call a voter referendum to ask whether they want a constituent assembly. He said the country must “free itself from institutional captivity” and establish a new legal framework to confront organized crime.

In an official statement, he said Ecuadorians will set the rules for a “new Ecuador” and accused traditional political structures of blocking reforms needed to strengthen his security policy.

According to the presidential message, earlier questions submitted by the executive branch for a public vote “were rejected” by the Constitutional Court, a decision Noboa attributed to “political activism” without naming a specific institution or giving dates.

Noboa’s decision follows other recent measures, including the Sept. 1 replacement of the entire military leadership, which the Defense Ministry described as a new phase in the war against criminal gangs.

The Security Bloc has seized 135 tons of drugs in maritime operations so far this year, a record that already surpasses all seizures made in 2024. Between January and August, authorities confiscated 68.1 tons of cocaine at the ports of Guayaquil, Machala and Posorja, including 27.3 tons at Posorja, which accounted for 40% of the total.

Posorja, a fishing town in the southwest that is home to Ecuador’s most modern port, has become a symbol of the international fight against drug trafficking. Built to boost legal exports, it is now at the center of battles over cocaine routes.

Ecuador has also strengthened cooperation with the United States. The Trump administration pledged $13.7 million in security aid and $6 million in drones to bolster maritime surveillance, along with updates to the extradition treaty and intelligence sharing to combat criminal groups.

The government says this year’s seizures have caused losses of more than $9.3 billion for criminal networks.

“Our goal is to financially strangle drug trafficking and cut off every supply route,” Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo said.

In 2012, Agnes Wanjiru was discovered in a septic tank at the Lion’s Court Hotel in central Nanyuki after she was last seen at the hotel with a group of British soldiers. 

A Kenyan court has issued an arrest warrant and requested the extradition of a British citizen over the murder of a 21-year-old woman near a UK army training camp in Kenya over a decade ago.

Nairobi High Court Justice Alexander Muteti announced on Tuesday that there was “probable cause to order the arrest of the accused” and issued a warrant for “one citizen and resident of the United Kingdom.”

The case has strained relations between the two countries, which have argued over the jurisdiction to prosecute British soldiers in Kenya.

In 2012, Agnes Wanjiru was discovered in a septic tank at the Lion’s Court Hotel in central Nanyuki after she was last seen at the hotel with a group of British soldiers.

Wanjiru, the single mother of a then four-month-old baby, was beaten, stabbed and most likely still alive when she was thrown into the septic tank, a Kenyan magistrate said in a 2019 inquest.

After Muteti’s decision, the Office for the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) wrote on X that “extradition proceedings would now be initiated to ensure the suspect is brought before a Kenyan court”.

“The matter will return to court on 21st October 2025, for further directions,” the ODPP said.

DPP secures arrest warrant for Briton linked to Agnes Wanjiru murder

The pursuit of justice for Agnes Wanjiru, a young mother brutally killed in Nanyuki more than a decade ago, has gained fresh momentum after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) successfully obtained a… pic.twitter.com/3Q5dPCwpLE

— Office of The Director Of Public Prosecutions (@ODPP_KE) September 16, 2025

Wanjiru’s sister, Rose Wanyua Wanjiku, 52, welcomed the ruling and said, “Let justice prevail.”

“As a family, we are very happy because it has been many years, but now we can see a step has been made,” she told the AFP news agency.

Wanjiru’s niece, Esther Njoki, also told the Reuters news agency that while she welcomed the news, it took too long.

“We are grateful to see the Kenyan government has acted, although it has taken too long and kept the family in darkness,” Njoki said.

A spokesperson for the British government acknowledged that the ODPP had “determined that a British National should face trial in relation to the murder of Ms Wanjiru in 2012”.

The spokesperson added that the government remains “absolutely committed” to helping Kenya “secure justice”.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said that there must be a “collective response” to Israel’s attack on the Qatari capital Doha, as Arab leaders rushed to the tiny Gulf nation to express solidarity.

“There is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” he told US media outlet CNN on Wednesday, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk”.

“We are hoping for something meaningful that deters Israel from continuing this bullying,” Sheikh Mohammed added, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading the region into “chaos”.

“We understand some sort of regional meeting will be held here in Qatar. We know that the countries have pulled together their own legal team. They are looking at all legal avenues to have Netanyahu tried for breaking international law,” Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said.

“So yeah, the pressure is definitely mounting on Israel, not only from Qatar, but obviously on a regional and a wider international level. And that’s what I think he’s obviously trying to do in giving these very forceful statements to the US network, CNN.”

The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday as they were meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by US President Donald Trump. At least seven people were killed in the attack, but Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination bid. Qatar says two of its security officers were killed in the attack that has drawn global condemnation.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Israel’s attack in a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “These strikes are unacceptable. I condemn them. I reaffirmed France’s commitment to the sovereignty and security of Qatar,” he posted on X.

The attack was part of a wider wave of Israeli strikes extending beyond its immediate borders, and marked the sixth country attacked in just 72 hours and the seventh since the start of this year. On Wednesday, Israel killed 35 people in an attack on Yemen.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said on Wednesday that Israel’s strike on Qatar is a warning to oil-rich Gulf countries that they would not be spared in the future if armed groups in the region are defeated.

“We are on the side of Qatar that was subjected to an aggression and we also stand with the Palestinian resistance,” Naim Kassem said. He added that the Israeli strike is part of its attempts to create a “Greater Israel” in large parts of the Middle East.

The “Greater Israel” concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis is understood to refer to an expansionist vision that lays claim to the occupied West Bank, Gaza, parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza by numerous rights groups, but that has not stopped it from its brutal campaign of bombardment. On Wednesday, Israeli attacks across Gaza killed at least 72 people, taking the total number of Palestinians killed since October 2023 to more than 64,656. Israel has intensified its assault to capture Gaza City – home to more than one million Palestinians.

Sheikh Mohammed, the Qatari prime minister, also said that the Israeli strike was aimed at undermining “any chance of peace” in Gaza.

“Everything about the meeting is very well known to the Israelis and the Americans. It’s not something that we are hiding,” he said of the presence of Hamas officials in Qatar.

“I think that what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did yesterday – he just killed any hope for those [Israeli] hostages,” Sheikh Mohammed said about the 20 captives believed to be still alive in Gaza.

Netanyahu appears unfazed

However, Netanyahu appears unfazed by the criticism from global leaders, including the UN secretary-general.

On Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister threatened further attacks on Qatar. “I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu said.

Qatar has condemned Netanyahu’s “reckless” comments regarding Qatar’s hosting of the Hamas office. “Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

It also called out “the shameful attempt therein to justify the cowardly attack that targeted Qatari territory, as well as the explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.

Netanyahu’s threats came despite the US President Donald Trump on Tuesday saying no further attacks would happen on Qatari soil.

The attack on Tuesday was the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and hosts the region’s largest United States military base, Al Udeid airbase, which hosts US troops.

The Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister of the Gulf nation, has dubbed Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday “state terrorism”.

“I have no words to express how enraged we are from such an action … we are betrayed,” he said in the interview with the cable network.

Netanyahu “needs to be brought to justice. He’s the one who’s wanted at the International Criminal Court. He broke every international law,” Sheikh Mohammed said, referring to the arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister for war crimes.

Arab states express solidarity with Qatar

Meanwhile, Gulf leaders have visited Doha to rally around Qatar, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan calling the Israeli action “criminal” and a threat to regional stability.

In a meeting on Wednesday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, Sheikh Al Nahyan reaffirmed his country’s “resolute solidarity with Qatar and its steadfast support for all measures taken to safeguard its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the safety of its people”, according to the UAE state media outlet WAM.

“He [Sheikh Al Nahyan] stressed that the criminal attack constituted a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and of all international laws and norms, warning that such actions threaten the region’s security, stability, and prospects for peace,” WAM added.

The crown princes of Kuwait and Jordan also travelled to Doha on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, will arrive in Doha on Thursday.

“We will stand with the State of Qatar in all measures it takes, without limits, and we will harness all our capabilities for that,” Prince Mohammed said in an address to the Shura Council on Wednesday.

“We reject and condemn the attacks of the Israeli occupation in the region, the latest of which was the brutal aggression against the State of Qatar,” the crown prince added.

“This requires Arab, Islamic, and international action to confront this aggression and to take international measures to stop the occupation authority and deter it from its criminal practices aimed at destabilising the region’s security and stability.”

In a brief interview with reporters on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was “not thrilled” about Israel’s strike.

“This was a decision made by [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Still, it remains unclear whether the Trump administration had been caught off guard, whether the US had indicated even tacit approval for such a strike, or if the attack could represent a rupture in Washington’s “ironclad” support for Israel.

Independent Middle East Analyst Adam Shapiro said if the US was not made aware of the attack, it was not “something new”.

“I think this is just simply the way Israel continually acts as the tail wagging the US dog, doing what it wishes, when it wishes, and getting what it wants, according to a double standard,” he told Al Jazeera.

Sept. 8 (UPI) — NASA on Monday announced its 2026 Lunabotics challenge that seeks a team or person to create a robot able to move about and build things on the moon’s surface.

The challenge comes as the space agency gears up for future lunar activity as part of its Artemis program.

NASA officials said its annual challenge — held since 2010 — is one of several student challenges associated with Artemis, and that next year’s event seeks mechanical robots with an ability to construct berms out of lunar regolith by using loose, fragmental material found on the moon’s surface.

“We are excited to continue the Lunabotics competition for universities as NASA develops new moon-to-Mars technologies for the Artemis program,” Robert Mueller, senior technologist at NASA, said in a statement.

Officials at America’s space agency said berms will be critical during lunar missions as blast protection during landings and launches. They added that, among other uses, berms also will play a role in shading for cryogenic propellant tank farms and radiation shielding around nuclear power plants.

“Excavating and moving regolith is a fundamental need to build infrastructure on the moon and Mars, and this competition creates 21st century skills in the future workforce,” said Mueller, also co-founder and chief judge of the Lunabotics competition.

NASA said the competition will provide hands-on experiences in computer coding, engineering, manufacturing, fabricating and other crucial tech skills.

Officials will notify selected teams to begin the challenge, the top 10 teams will be invited to bring their robot creations to the final competition in Florida in May at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Artemis Arena.

The team scoring the most points will receive the Lunabotics Grand Prize and participate in an exhibition-style event at NASA Kennedy.

An in-person qualifying event will be held May 12-17 at the University of Central Florida’s Space Institute’s Lab in Orlando.

The NASA challenge launched Monday comes after last week’s announcement that a separate NASA competition is seeking a special space wheel in a design by an American inventor or team.

Meanwhile, interested participants can submit applications via NASA’s portal starting Monday and find other information in the challenge guidebook.

Reporting from Kissimmee, Fla.  — Campaigning for Hillary Clinton at a Florida baseball stadium, President Obama lamented Sunday that the nature of this year’s presidential race has become so negative that even “Saturday Night Live” this week couldn’t keep parodying it.

What bothered him most, the president said, was the way “stuff that’s not normal, people have been treating like it’s normal.”

He referred to how just days ago he encouraged people at one of his rallies to show respect for a Donald Trump supporter who came to protest the event.

But Trump claimed just hours later that Obama had yelled at the man.

“Didn’t just make it up, but said the exact opposite of what had happened, with impunity,” he said. “There was tape. There was a video…. He thought it was OK just to lie in front of all his supporters.

“That says something about how unacceptable behavior has become normal,” Obama added. “And that’s why he is uniquely unqualified to hold this job. The good news is, all of you are uniquely qualified to make sure that he doesn’t get the job!”

Obama also mocked Trump after a report that his own campaign apparently had taken away his access to Twitter, where Trump has been known to send insulting missives.

“If somebody can’t handle a Twitter account, they can’t handle the nuclear codes,” Obama said.

It was a typically chesty speech from the outgoing commander in chief as he not only stumps aggressively for Hillary Clinton to succeed him, but settles some scores with the Republicans who have tried to stifle his every move for eight years.

In his reelection campaign four years ago, Obama would talk somewhat optimistically — in retrospect, perhaps naively — about his view that Republicans who had opposed him in his first term would be more cooperative should he win a second.

Knowing he would not be on the ballot again, there was less political incentive to deny him policy victories, and perhaps political incentive to try to find common ground, he thought.

“The fever will break,” he would say back then.

“C’mon, man,” has become his head-shaking credo now.

Obama on Sunday again attacked Republicans who support Trump even though they hold private — and some even public — reservations about him. He also warned that electing a Republican Congress would lead to a continuation of the obstruction he’s faced.

“They’re suggesting they might impeach Hillary. They don’t know what for yet. But they’re thinking about it,” Obama said.

Gridlock, he continued, is not “some mysterious fog that descends on Washington,” or something equally the fault of Democrats and Republicans.

“You want some more endless gridlock, vote for Republicans. You want an America that can do better … then you need to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot,” he said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has emerged as one of Obama’s favorite targets, an example of a Republican whose devotion to defeating Democrats sometimes supersedes his personal and policy convictions.

Rubio supports Trump now, Obama said, even though he called Trump a con artist while running against him for the GOP nomination.

“He tweeted, ‘Friends don’t let friends vote for con artists,’” Obama said. “Guess who just voted for Trump a few days ago? Marco Rubio.”

Rubio’s opponent, Rep. Patrick Murphy, appeared before Obama on Sunday.

“If you want a senator who will say anything, do anything, be anybody just to get elected, then that’s your guy,” Obama said of Rubio. “If you want a senator who will show up and work for you and tell you the truth, then vote for Patrick Murphy and give Hillary some help.”

Obama made just one stop Sunday here in Central Florida, a key swing area in the always-important battleground state. “We win this election if we win Florida,” Obama said. “If we win Florida, it’s a wrap.”

Monday he has three appearances scheduled, in Michigan, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. He will join Clinton at the latter.

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Angela Rayner denies she wanted to dodge the extra tax, adding that she made a ‘mistake’ following legal advice.

United Kingdom Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has admitted she underpaid property tax on a flat she purchased, triggering calls for her sacking, as her party faces sliding poll numbers amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Rayner, who also serves as housing minister, confirmed she owed more tax on a property she bought in Hove, a seaside town in southern England, after initially relying on incorrect advice.

“I’m devastated because I’ve always upheld the rules and always have done,” she told Sky News on Wednesday. “I made a mistake based upon the advice that I relied upon that I received at the time.”

The admission has put her under pressure as Labour struggles in the polls, a year after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s landslide victory.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has surged ahead, with a June YouGov poll projecting Reform would win 271 seats in parliament, pushing Labour down to 178. The Conservatives, who suffered a historic defeat last year, would take just 46 seats.

Rayner, 45, is seen as a future leadership contender, but her future may hinge on an investigation by the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards. Her opponents have accused her of avoiding 40,000 pounds ($54,000) in stamp duty on a second home by transferring ownership of her primary residence in northern England before buying the Hove property.

Calls to resign

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged Starmer to dismiss her. Starmer defended his deputy, saying she had gone “over and above” transparency requirements regarding her property dealings and that he was “very proud” to work with her.

The Labour government has already been rattled by a string of scandals, with four ministers resigning over misconduct since its election. Both Starmer and Rayner were also criticised earlier this term for accepting high-end clothing donations, a practice they later scrapped.

Known for her blunt style and strong working-class roots, Rayner is widely regarded as one of Labour’s strongest political assets.

She rose to prominence from a modest background, often using her story to connect with disillusioned voters. Political analysts say her appeal among working-class communities is a key part of Labour’s strategy, making her potential downfall a significant blow to Starmer’s leadership team.

The controversy comes as Labour grapples with slowing economic growth, discontent over cuts in welfare schemes, and frustration among voters who backed the party last year, hoping for sweeping change. Pollsters say Reform UK’s surge signals deep public anger at mainstream parties, with Farage positioning himself as the voice of working-class Britons.

With the next election not due until 2029, Labour still has time to recover. But Rayner’s troubles add to a growing list of scandals that have chipped away at Starmer’s authority, fuelling speculation over whether the government can hold on to its massive majority.

The federal public defender’s office in Los Angeles filed a motion Friday to disqualify acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, arguing that President Trump’s pick to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Southern California is unlawfully occupying his post.

Essayli, a former Riverside County assemblyman, was appointed by U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi in April, and his term was set to expire in late July unless he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate or a panel of federal judges. But the White House never moved to nominate him to a permanent role, instead opting to use an unprecedented legal maneuver to shift his title to “acting,” extending his term another nine months without any confirmation process.

The federal public defender’s office filed a motion seeking to dismiss an indictment against their client and to disqualify Essayli and attorneys working under him “from participating in criminal prosecutions in this district,” according to a motion filed Friday morning.

The defendant, Jaime Ramirez, was indicted on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

In a 63-page motion filed in Ramirez’s case, James Anglin Flynn and Aya A. Sarsour , deputy federal public defenders, argued that the Trump administration circumvented limitations that Congress has imposed on temporary service in offices like that of the U.S. attorney.

Essayli’s term was supposed to expire on July 29. At that point the White House had not formally nominated him before the U.S. Senate, and local federal judges had taken no action to confirm Essayli, or anyone else, to the position. At the eleventh hour, the White House named Essayli as “acting” U.S. Attorney, allowing him to hold the post for 210 more days without confirmation hearings.

“Mr. Essayli “was not lawfully acting as the United States Attorney in any capacity” on August 8 when the government obtained the indictment,” against Ramirez the deputy federal public defenders wrote in their motion. “And he has no such lawful authority today.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In their motions, Flynn and Havens pointed out that the Trump administration has used similar strategies to keep political allies in power in U.S. Attorney’s offices in Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and the Northern District of New York. But legal challenges are mounting. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Alina Habba has been illegally occupying her seat in New Jersey since early July, although that order was put on hold pending appeal.

Habba was nominated for the post earlier this year but did not receive Senate or judicial confirmation. Instead, local federal judges chose Desiree Leigh Grace, a veteran Republican prosecutor within the office, to replace Habba. Bondi responded by firing Grace and naming Habba acting U.S. Attorney, sparking confusion over who actually held the post and all but paralyzing the federal criminal court system in the Garden State.

On Tuesday, the federal public defender’s office in Nevada filed a motion to do one of two things: dismiss an indictment that acting U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah brought against one of its clients, or disqualify the U.S. attorney’s office entirely. The 59-page motion specifically challenged Chattah, stating that she is not lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney.

Echoing Judge Matthew W. Brann’s ruling on Habba, the Nevada public defenders argued that Chattah was not first assistant as federal law required when the U.S. attorney seat became vacant.

The motion also argues that Chattah was illegally kept in office past the 120 day limit and can’t exercise the powers of the office without Senate confirmation.

“The Court should dismiss the indictment; at a minimum, it should disqualify Ms. Chattah from this prosecution, as well as attorneys operating under her direction; and the judges of this district should exercise their authority to appoint a proper interim U.S. Attorney,” the Nevada motion read.

Last month, in the final days before Chattah’s interim appointment ended, more than 100 retired state and federal judges wrote Nevada’s chief federal district judge to urge him not to appoint her once her term expired. The group said Chattah’s history of “racially charged, violence-tinged, and inflammatory public statements” was disqualifying.

The letter called Chattah’s interim appointment “a troubling pattern by the Trump administration of bypassing the Senate’s constitutional role in confirming U.S. Attorneys.”

According to the letter, as of July, Trump had submitted formal nominations for only nine of his administration’s 37 interim appointees.

“If this pattern persists, by late fall, more than one-third of the 93 U.S. Attorneys will have evaded Senate review this year alone,” the letter read. “Yet, the constitutional role of the Senate is vital regarding the appointment of U.S. Attorneys.”

Each of Trump’s controversial picks has demonstrated fealty to the president. Chattah has long upheld Trump’s lie that he actually won the 2020 election. Habba — who once served as Trump’s personal attorney and has no prosecutorial experience — promised to turn New Jersey “red,” breaking with longstanding norms of federal prosecutors eschewing partisan politics. She’s also filed criminal charges against two Democratic lawmakers in the state over scuffles with immigration officers at a Newark detention facility.

Since taking office, Essayli has doggedly pursued Trump’s agenda, championing hard line immigration enforcement in Southern California, often aping the president’s language verbatim at news conferences. His tenure has sparked discord in the office, with dozens of prosecutors quitting in the face of his belligerent, scream-first management style.

A Times investigation last month found that his aggressive pursuit of charges against people protesting immigration enforcement in Southern California has led to weak cases being rejected again and again by grand juries. A number of others have been dismissed.

Even if Trump had formally nominated him to serve a full term as U.S. attorney, it is unlikely he would have ever appeared on the Senate floor. California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff are both opposed to Essayli’s appointment and could have derailed any nomination by withholding what is known as their “blue slip,” or acknowledgment of support for a nominee.

The procedural blockades have drawn Trump’s ire, and the president has challenged Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley to do away with honoring the “blue slip” tradition. Grassley has held firm, but Trump has threatened litigation.

Legal experts called the White House’s move to keep Essayli in office unprecedented last month, and warned it could impact criminal cases.

“These laws have never been used, as far as I can see, to bypass the Senate confirmation process or the judicial one,” Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor in L.A. who now serves as a professor at the Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, told The Times last month. “The most serious consequences are if you’re going to end up with indictments that are not valid because they weren’t signed by a lawful U.S. attorney.”

White House seeks to run out the clock on funding after already slashing billions in aid in move decried as overreach.

United States President Donald Trump has sought to cut another $5bn in foreign aid already approved by Congress.

The move is the latest effort by Trump to gut the funding the US provides to humanitarian projects and international organisations. It is also the latest attempt to test the limits of Trump’s presidential power.

While Trump had previously obtained congressional approval to cancel $9bn in foreign aid and public media funding in legislation passed in July, the latest move seeks to use an obscure tactic to bypass the legislative branch entirely.

Under the US Constitution, Congress controls federal spending. But in a letter posted online late Thursday, Trump notified House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that he planned to unilaterally withhold the $4.9bn in approved foreign spending.

The tactic, known as a “pocket rescission”, would see Trump invoke a law that allows him to pause the spending for 45 days. That would, in turn, take the funding beyond the end of the September 30 fiscal year, causing it to expire.

The White House has said the tactic was last used in 1977, more than 50 years ago.

A court document filed on Friday said the money was earmarked for foreign aid, United Nations peacekeeping operations, and so-called “democracy promotion” efforts overseas.

Most of it was meant to be overseen by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which Trump has largely dismantled and reorganised under US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

‘Triage of human survival’

The move comes as the United Nations and aid organisations have increasingly warned of the devastating fallout of US cuts.

In June, the United Nations announced sweeping programme shrinkages, amid what the humanitarian office described as “the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector”.

At the time, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the cuts meant the humanitarian community has been “forced into a triage of human survival”. In July, the UN also predicted a surge in HIV/AIDS deaths by 2029 due to the funding withdrawals.

The knock-on effects have been felt sharply in regions across the world, particularly in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.

In July, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, reported that at least 652 malnourished children had died at its facilities in northern Nigeria in the first half of 2025 due to a lack of timely care.

Earlier this week, Save the Children warned that Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan were expected to run out of so-called “ready-to-use therapeutic food” (RUTF) over the next three months.

Meanwhile, at least one Republican lawmaker has challenged Trump’s move as an illegal overreach of presidential power.

“Instead of this attempt to undermine the law, the appropriate way is to identify ways to reduce excessive spending through the bipartisan, annual appropriations process,” Senator Susan Collins said in a statement.

China’s top diplomat tells Brazil’s FM Mauro Vieira that Beijing-Brazil ties are at their ‘best in history’.

China is willing to strengthen coordination with Brazil to “resist unilateralism and bullying”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told his Brazilian counterpart Mauro Vieira.

Wang made the pledge to Vieira in a phone call, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, as the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva considers retaliatory trade measures against the United States over President Donald Trump’s imposition of 50 percent tariffs on a range of Brazilian goods.

During the phone call, Wang told Vieira that the China-Brazil relationship “is at its best in history”, China’s state-run Global Times reported, quoting Wang.

Noting that the current international situation “is undergoing complex changes”, Wang also pledged China’s willingness to join hands with the BRICS trading block, to protect “the legitimate rights and interests” of developing countries.

BRICS, which includes emerging economies such as Brazil, is a China-led political and economic grouping that is seen as a counter to the Western-led APEC and G7 groups.

Beijing’s offer comes amid indications that Brazil is considering a coordinated response with China and India against punitive US trade measures.

According to Global Times, Wang also recalled Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Lula’s phone call two weeks ago in which the two leaders “forged solid mutual trust and friendship” in the building of a China-Brazil community “with a shared future”.

In May, Lula also travelled to China for a five-day state visit.

Beijing has worked in recent years to court Latin America as a way of countering Washington, which is historically the most influential major power in the South American region.

But China has surpassed the US as Brazil’s largest trading partner, and two-thirds of Latin American countries have also signed up to Xi’s Belt and Road infrastructure drive.

Brazil exports large quantities of soya beans to China, which, as the world’s largest consumer of the ingredient, relies heavily on imports for its supply.

Relations between the US and Brazil have been icy since Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian coffee and other goods, which took effect on August 6.

While Trump’s trade war has chiefly targeted countries that run a large trade surplus with the US, Brazil imports from the US far outweigh its exports, and Washington had a trade surplus of $28.6bn in goods and services with Brazil in 2024.

Trump has explained his economic hostility towards Brazil in terms of retribution for a so-called domestic legal “witch-hunt” against Brazil’s former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for coup plotting.

Trump has called for charges against Bolsonaro – who he considers an ally – to be dropped and has imposed sanctions on Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for overseeing the case against the former leader.

In recent days, Brazil has also complained after the US revoked the visa of Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.

Aug. 27 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is asking a New York appeals court to throw out the remaining penalties imposed against him in his civil fraud case after the roughly $500 million fine was dismissed last week.

Trump’s defense filed the motion in a New York appeals court Tuesday asking it to remove a three-year ban placed on the president from holding corporate leadership positions in the state, and a three-year ban on him and his companies receiving bank loans, among other punitive actions.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron fined Trump $454 million in February 2024, after Trump was found liable for financial fraud by inflating his net worth to secure favorable loans.

Last week, a divided appeals court threw out the massive monetary penalty, calling it excessive, but let stand the judgment.

After his financial penalty was erased, Trump claimed “TOTAL VICTORY” online.

“I greatly respect the fact that the Court had the Courage to throw out this unlawful and disgraceful Decision that was Hurting Business all throughout New York State,” Trump said on his Truth Social media platform.

“It was a political Witch Hunt, in a business sense, the likes of which no one has ever seen before.”

New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump, said she will appeal to have the $500 million fine reinstated.

“It should not be lost to history: yet another court has ruled that the president violated the law, and that our case has merit,” she said Thursday in a statement.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday approved the seventh waiver intended to hasten construction of the border wall in Texas by sidestepping environmental reviews and other requirements.

The waiver applies to about five miles of a new 30-foot tall border wall in Starr and Hidalgo counties near the southern tip of the state, according to a department press release. The move is part of President Donald Trump‘s long-held goal of erecting a border wall along the southern border as part of his hardline approach to immigration.

With waiver in hand, Noem will be able to override the National Environmental Policy Act and other similar requirements. In a document justifying the move, Noem cited a high level of illegal border crossings and drug trafficking in the area. She wrote that in the last four years authorities had apprehended 1.5 million people trying to cross illegally and had seized more than 87 pounds of heroin, and more than 118 pounds of fentanyl, among other drugs.

However, the Center for Biological Diversity blasted the decision in a press release, citing figures showing that border crossings have plummeted over the last year. The center stated that the area is home to endangered ocelots, aplomado falcons, hundreds of migratory birds as well as plants that would be harmed by the wall.

“There’s a special cruelty in walling off national wildlife refuges that were created for conservation,”Laiken Jordahl, the center’s Southwest Conservation Advocate, said in the statement. “These lands exist to protect endangered species and connect fragmented habitat, not to be bulldozed for Trump’s wall.”

The center has previously sued the Trump administration over past waivers.

In July, the Noem signed a similar waiver for 17 miles of the barrier to prevent migrants from swimming across the Rio Grande. A month earlier, Noem took a similar action for a 27-mile stretch in Arizona near Tucson and another that extended into New Mexico.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has about 100 miles of the barrier in varying states of completion with money from previous appropriations, according to the announcement. The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill included $46.5 billion for the project that will fund secondary walls, waterborne barriers, as well as patrols, cameras, sensors and others.

Maputo, Mozambique – Down the main aisle of a bustling conference pavilion in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, Lucia Matimele stands surrounded by lush green leaves, peppers on the stalk, and bunches of ripe bananas.

“We have land, we have water, we have farmers!” she enthuses. “What we need is investment.”

Matimele is the director of industry and commerce for Gaza province, a region about 200km (125 miles) away that is one of the country’s main breadbaskets. She and her team packed up some of their most promising crops and joined thousands of others – from within and outside Mozambique – to exhibit their wares and make industry connections as the government works to promote economic growth and development in what has been a politically challenging year.

More than 3,000 exhibitors from nearly 30 countries are in Mozambique this week for the 60th annual Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM) – the largest of its kind in the country. Tens of thousands are expected to attend the seven-day event, the government said.

Crowds of exhibitors and eager attendees gathered at the sprawling conference site on the outskirts of Maputo for day one of the event on Monday. A dozen pavilions are hosting local businesses, provincial industry leaders, such as Matimele, and regional and international companies looking to trade in or with Mozambique.

Standing before delegates and businesspeople at the opening ceremony, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo focused on the need to ensure a good environment for foreign investors, while also building an inclusive and sustainable local economy.

“Mozambique has a geostrategic location, with ports, development corridors and various other potentialities; vast resources, mineral, natural, agricultural, tourist, and above all a humble, hard-working, friendly and welcoming people,” Chapo said in Portuguese, highlighting the country’s “unique opportunities” for international partners.

But at home, he affirmed, “economic independence starts with agriculture workers, farmers, the youth, women – all of us together”.

With that in mind, the government, with financing from the World Bank, has instituted a new $40m Mutual Guarantee Fund to help finance small and medium enterprises in the country. It will provide credit guarantees to at least 15,000 businesses and aims to assist mainly women and young people, the president said.

“One of the concerns we hear repeatedly at all the annual private sector conferences is the difficulty in accessing financing,” Chapo said while launching the fund at FACIM on Monday.

“We know that high interest rates have been almost insurmountable barriers for small- and medium-sized businesses, which represent the heart of the national business fabric, hence the creation of this fund, specifically dedicated to this group of companies, because they are responsible for 90 percent of the dynamism of our economy, generating income mainly for young people.”

He added: “This instrument is not just a financial mechanism, it is a bridge to the recovery of the Mozambican economy.”

‘We can feed our people best’

Mozambique has “ample resources”, the World Bank says, including arable land, abundant water sources, energy, mineral resources and natural gas deposits.

However, its gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2025 is projected to be just 3 percent (it was 1.8 percent in 2024 and 5.4 percent in 2023).

Experts point to a raft of challenges facing the Southern African nation: for years it was besieged by a $2bn “hidden debt” corruption scandal that implicated senior government officials; it is still recovering from post-2024 election protests that affected tourism; and it faces an ongoing rebellion by armed fighters in the northern Cabo Delgado province, home to offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) reserves.

The armed rebellion has halted TotalEnergies’ $20bn LNG project, and, with it, put added strain on the region’s finances and near-future economic prospects, noted Borges Nhamirre, a Mozambican researcher on security and governance with the Institute for Security Studies.

“The economy of Mozambique was prepared for the next 20, 30 years to rely on natural resources … But now the most recent problem is the insurgency in the northern part of the country. So that affects the economy of Mozambique deeply,” Nhamirre said.

“And unfortunately, Mozambique did not diversify the source of revenues, did not invest in other sectors like agriculture, industry, manufacturing – relying mostly on natural gas,” he added.

“Mozambique needs to bet on producing its own food,” the researcher said, noting that it is not affordable to keep importing when the country has the potential to feed itself. “The land for agriculture is there, water is there. So, the problem is just mentality and a bit of capital.”

At her booth in one of the pavilions at FACIM, Matimele has similar thoughts. “We can feed our people best,” she said, surrounded by fresh produce from small farms in Gaza province. Across the aisle from her, another booth boasts supplies from the province of Tete: grains, seafood, vegetables, livestock; while throughout FACIM, businesses are selling locally sourced items, including coffee and honey.

In Gaza, Matimele says, people farm rice, bananas, cashews and macadamias, much of which they send abroad to countries such as South Africa and Vietnam – and she would like to increase exports and reach new places.

The challenge for them is not production, but processing and distribution, she says.

“We need big industry getting into this business,” Matimele said, adding that small farmers need guarantees that what they produce will be sold and not go to waste.

“FACIM helps us by giving us a secure market,” she explained.

Without funding, ‘you will get stuck’

For other observers, FACIM’s focus this year on investment and the Mutual Guarantee Fund are a step in the right direction, especially for small business owners in the agricultural sector.

“Agriculture is our main resource. It employs millions of people and feeds millions more,” said Rafael Shikhani, a Mozambican historian and researcher. Yet, there remains a longstanding “problem” with the sector, he noted from Maputo.

“[Historically], we have had so many breakups in that [agriculture] cycle,” he said, highlighting the 1977-92 civil war, and in the midst of that, a severe drought that hit the country from 1982 to 1984. “It was a sort of disruption to production,” he said, one that has had ripple effects.

Current challenges facing Mozambican agriculture, the researcher said, include a lack of capital for farming, as well as some people preferring to take an easier route by importing food from neighbouring South Africa to sell locally instead of growing it from scratch.

“In many areas, the funding is a key motivation,” Shikhani said. “If you don’t have funds, you can [still] start a very nice business, but there will be a certain way you will get stuck – you’ll need equipment, you’ll need to pay people, you’ll need a truck, you’ll need to put up a fence; for whatever, you will need money.”

That is where the Mutual Guarantee Fund could come in handy.

“More investment in agriculture is good,” Shikhani said. It will also help the sector evolve from individuals farming small plots of land to small and medium-sized farming businesses that make more informed choices about “the type of land, where you farm, and how you exploit your land”.

For analyst Nhamirre, the way the Chapo government goes about tackling the country’s most pressing economic issues will go a long way in determining the outcome.

But he remarks that external factors, such as the armed rebellion in the north and internal governance issues, will also play a part.

“There are internal things that the government needs to do well … The people are still very frustrated,” he said, pointing to the past year’s post-election violence, saying there is a chance protests may flare up again.

Meanwhile, Shikhani looks at the issue through a historian’s lens. “There is a cycle of crisis: if there is an economic crisis, it leads to a political crisis, and it leads to social unrest. If you deal with economics and you feed people, there will be no more social unrest, and there will be no political crisis. So, you start with economics,” he said.

“Give people food, give people jobs, give people hope – they will work and make money.”

At her booth in FACIM, Matimele and her team stand ready in matching red shirts emblazoned with the words: “Gaza, the route of progress” in Portuguese. Ahead of them is a week of networking that they hope will lead to more – more food, more jobs, more hope.

“Investment is the right way to follow,” said the provincial industry chief. “If we have investment, we can solve all the issues.”

Immigration officials in the United States say they intend to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, according to a court filing, in what the man’s legal team describes as an act of “vindictiveness” by US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The court filing on Saturday said the idea of sending Abrego Garcia to Uganda came after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges.

He has pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case, claiming that it is an attempt to punish him for challenging his deportation from the US to El Salvador earlier this year.

Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flashpoint in Trump’s hardline, anti-immigration agenda after the Salvadoran national was mistakenly deported in March.

Facing a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the US in June, only to detain him on human smuggling charges.

The Costa Rica offer came late on Thursday, after it was clear that Abrego Garcia would likely be released from a Tennessee jail the following day.

Abrego Garcia declined to extend his stay in jail and was released on Friday to await trial in Maryland with his family.

Later that day, the US Department of Homeland Security notified his lawyers that he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities on Monday.

“The government immediately responded to Mr Abrego’s release with outrage,” Saturday’s filing by Abrego Garcia’s lawyers reads.

“Despite having requested and received assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an ICE representative informed Mr Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday morning.”

The filing also accuses US officials of “using their collective powers to force Mr Abrego to choose between a guilty plea followed by relative safety, or rendition to Uganda, where his safety and liberty would be under threat”.

“It is difficult to imagine a path the government could have taken that would have better emphasized its vindictiveness,” it says.

Although Abrego Garcia was deemed eligible for pretrial release, he had remained in jail at the request of his lawyers, who feared the Trump administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed.

Those fears were somewhat allayed by a recent ruling in a separate case in Maryland, which requires immigration officials to allow Abrego Garcia time to mount a defence.

But Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, on Saturday evening, said the latest developments have raised new fears that Abrego Garcia will be quickly deported once he reports to ICE officials on Monday.

“He and his lawyers argue there’s a very real fear that the US will once again ignore a judge’s order to basically leave him alone and put him on a plane and take him to another country – in this case, Uganda,” she said.

Questions on due process

Abrego Garcia had been living in the US under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.

He then became one of more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison as part of Trump’s crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers in the US.

But Department of Justice lawyers admitted that the Salvadoran citizen had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error”.

Abrego Garcia – who denies any wrongdoing – now stands accused of involvement in smuggling undocumented migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and other countries into the US between 2016 and earlier this year.

His trial in his human smuggling case is set to begin in January 2027.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said in a social media post on Saturday that “no matter what you think about Mr Abrego Garcia, if you believe in due process, you should be infuriated” by the effort to send him to Uganda.

“The Trump admin is threatening to dump him in Africa as punishment for not pleading guilty to criminal charges they brought to avoid complying with a court order,” Reichlin-Melnick wrote on X.

The Trump administration has defended its policies, saying the US president was elected on a promise to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in the country’s history.

But Washington’s push to deport people has drawn widespread criticism, with removals to third countries, in particular, fuelling fears that those being sent abroad could face human rights abuses and other dangers.

Last month, the Trump administration sent eight men to South Sudan, a country gripped by political instability and violence.

NASHVILLE — U.S. immigration officials said they intend to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.

The Costa Rica offer came late Thursday, after it was clear that the Salvadoran national would probably be released from a Tennessee jail the next day. Abrego Garcia declined to extend his stay in jail and was released Friday to await trial in Maryland with his family. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security notified his attorneys that he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities Monday.

Abrego Garcia’s case became a high-profile story in President Trump’s immigration crackdown after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March. Facing a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, only to detain him on human smuggling charges.

He has pleaded not guilty and has asked the judge to dismiss the case, claiming that it is an attempt to punish him for challenging his deportation to El Salvador. The Saturday filing came as a supplement to that motion to dismiss, stating that the threat to deport him to Uganda is more proof that the prosecution is vindictive.

“The government immediately responded to Mr. Abrego’s release with outrage,” the filing reads. “Despite having requested and received assurances from the government of Costa Rica that Mr. Abrego would be accepted there, within minutes of his release from pretrial custody, an ICE representative informed Mr. Abrego’s counsel that the government intended to deport Mr. Abrego to Uganda and ordered him to report to ICE’s Baltimore Field Office Monday morning.”

Although Abrego Garcia was deemed eligible for pretrial release, he had remained in jail at the request of his attorneys, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed. Those fears were somewhat allayed by a recent ruling in a separate case in Maryland, which requires immigration officials to allow Abrego Garcia time to mount a defense.

Loller writes for the Associated Press.