Author

admin

Browsing

Mexican authorities say they have arrested Francisco Javier Román-Bardales, an alleged leader of the MS-13 gang who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Román-Bardales was arrested on the Teocelo-Baxtla highway in Veracruz, according to a joint statement from the Attorney General, the Ministry of National Defense, and the National Guard.

“He was informed of the reason for his arrest, his legal rights were read to him, and he will be transferred to Mexico City, before the corresponding authority, and subsequently deported to the United States, where he is wanted,” the statement added.

According to the FBI, Román-Bardales was allegedly involved in directing the criminal group’s activities in the United States, Mexico and El Salvador, where he is originally from.

He is also accused of having ordered “numerous acts of violence against civilians and rival gang members, as well as his role in drug distribution and extortion schemes in the United States and El Salvador.”

Román-Bardales has been charged in the US with “conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists, narco-terrorist conspiracy, racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to traffic aliens.”

A $250,000 reward had been offered for information leading to his arrest, according to the FBI.

The Trump administration has designated MS-13, which originated in Los Angeles, as a terrorist organization, along with other criminal groups.

Some current and former officials say designating cartels as terrorist groups could potentially lay the groundwork for direct US strikes against the cartels and their drug labs in Mexico.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison was notorious long before the Trump administration’s recent decision to deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members there.

The Center for Terrorism Confinement, to give it its full name, is considered the largest prison in the Americas – with a capacity of 40,000 inmates – and has been the biggest symbol in the Latin American country’s controversial crackdown on domestic crime.

It is now home to some of the country’s most hardened criminals, including mass murderers and gang members billed as the “worst of the worst” and is notorious for the spartan conditions in which they are kept.

Some 10,000 to 20,000 prisoners are currently thought to be housed there, with the most recent arrivals being the 261 people the Trump administration deported from the US over the weekend – 238 of whom it accused of belonging to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and 23 alleged members of the MS-13 gang.

El Salvador’s leader Nayib Bukele – a strongman president and self-styled “world’s coolest dictator” – offered to house the US deportees in Cecot as part of an unprecedented deal in which the US will pay $6 million dollars in return. The money will help sustain El Salvador’s penitentiary system, which currently costs $200 million a year.

Harsh conditions

Those deported by the US got a taste of the prison’s uncompromising policies as soon as they arrived Sunday morning.

Officers held their heads down to waist-level as they escorted them to the facility in shackles. The new inmates were then forced to kneel while prison guards shaved their hair and shouted commands.

“We are executing to the letter a regiment to which you will submit from this moment on, where prison security personnel will be treated with absolute respect! Is that clear?” one officer shouts at the visibly disturbed inmates in a video shared by the Salvadoran government.

Such brutal introductions have been a hallmark of the prison since it started housing inmates a few years ago.

Images published by the government in 2023 showed some of the first prisoners being transferred to the facility, stripped down to white boxer shorts, with their heads shaved, as they were forced to run into their cells.

Inmates are not allowed visits from family or friends and some of them must face the possibility that they will never be released.

Civil liberties suspended

Cecot houses both convicted criminals and those still going through El Salvador’s court system. Some people have even been locked up without any due process, critics say.

The incarcerations have been part of Bukele’s controversial efforts to stem the high crime rates and gang violence that have plagued the country for years.

In 2022, Bukele, with the support of lawmakers, declared a state of emergency which allowed the government to temporarily suspend constitutional rights, including the right to legal defense provided by the state. The measure was intended to last 30 days but has been extended dozens of times and continues to this day.

In the three years since it was declared, security forces have arrested nearly 87,000 people nationwide, or more than 1% of the Salvadoran population, according to authorities.

The government insists the crackdown has made the country safer, but critics say it has violated people’s rights and resulted in countless cases of wrongful detentions.

Bukele has admitted that some innocent people have been detained by mistake but says several thousand of them have already been released. He argues that the tough measures have been necessary to transform the country from being dubbed the “murder capital of the world” to what he now considers one of the safest on Earth.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Ireland’s leader has condemned anti-immigration comments made by Conor McGregor, during an appearance by the 36-year-old former mixed martial arts champion in the White House ahead of a St Patrick’s Day meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Speaking in the White House briefing room Monday, McGregor said the Irish government had “abandoned the voices” of the Irish people and claimed rural towns in Ireland were being overrun by immigrants.

“Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness,” he said.

McGregor, who was at the White House to meet US President Donald Trump on Ireland’s national day, has previously said he is considering running for president in his native country.

Irish leader Micheál Martin was quick to denounce the fighter’s comments, however, saying Conor McGregor’s remarks were wrong, and “did not reflect the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland.”

In a post on X, Martin said the holiday was “a day rooted in community, humanity, friendship and fellowship.”

McGregor has long been vocal about his anti-immigration views and, as far back as 2022, expressed support for people protesting against immigration. His controversial social media posts have been circulated by groups with links to the far right.

“It’s about time that America is made aware of what’s going on in Ireland. What is going on in Ireland is a travesty. Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability,” McGregor said ahead of his meeting with Trump.

“So, issues need to be addressed, and the 40 million Irish Americans, as I said, need to hear this,” he added. “And I’m here to raise the issue and highlight it. You know, it’s also St. Patrick’s Day, so a little bit of celebrations.”

McGregor’s appearance at the White House came after Martin, the Irish taoiseach, met with Trump last week. During that visit, a reporter asked the president about his favorite Irish person.

“Oh, there’s so many — are you kidding me? Well, I do happen to like your fighter; He’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen. Conor’s great, right? I’m talking about Conor,” Trump said.

Once the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, McGregor is a controversial figure in Ireland.

In a January civil lawsuit, a woman accused McGregor of sexual battery during the 2023 NBA Finals in Miami. The incident was investigated by police at the time and the Miami-Dade state attorney declined to press charges against him. McGregor, said the allegations were false.

Last fall, a civil jury in Dublin awarded nearly 250,000 euros ($257,000) in damages to Nikita Hand, a woman who claimed McGregor had “brutally raped and battered” her in a hotel in Dublin in 2018. McGregor testified that the two had consensual sex and vowed to appeal the verdict.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Footage of four, rarely-seen snow leopards clambering up snowy cliffs in northern Pakistan has created a frenzy of excitement among conservationists.

Snow leopards are among the world’s most elusive creatures in the wild and it is hard to catch even one on camera, let alone four, with the sighting being celebrated as a success story for Pakistan’s conservation efforts.

Sakhawat Ali, a gamekeeper and photography enthusiast from the remote village of Hushe, captured the footage on March 13 after what he described as “two weeks of tracking their pawprints” through the snow-covered Central Karakoram National Park – close to K2, the world’s second highest mountain.

“In the village we are used to seeing snow leopards but, nobody, not even the elders that I spoke to, have ever seen four snow leopards in one go,” he said.

He spotted the mother first, then started noting additional pawprints. He later “got lucky” sighting the animals together while observing a nearby cliff, through binoculars, from the rooftop of his house. He them scampered out with his camera to film them, from a distance of 200 meters.

Ali said neighbors from his village are celebrating the sighting – even though they have some concerns that their livestock could be in danger.

Snow leopards are currently listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. Known locally as the “ghost of the mountains,” they camouflage easily in their natural habitat of the Karakoram Mountain range in Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan region.

Environmental anthropologist Shafqat Hussain says the rocky terrain in the north of Pakistan is perhaps the “best snow leopard habitat in the world.”

They only inhabit high alpine areas of the Himalayas and while their habitat spreads over 12 nations, including China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Russia, and Mongolia, sightings are exceedingly rare.

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Pakistan, said it was optimistic about the sighting but stressed snow leopards remain an endangered species still facing “numerous threats.”

In a statement, it said it’s crucial that local communities “work together to protect and conserve these incredible big cats, ensuring future generations can witness their splendor in the wild.”

According to the United Nation’s Environment Program “human activities and growing livestock herds in some areas have led to the degradation of pastureland and wildlife habitats,” affecting the snow leopards food supplies.

Other threats according to the UNEP include poaching and the fragmentation of the animal’s habitat due to massive new infrastructure projects in addition to climate change – which is “expected to aggravate these existing threats.”

In 2023, Pakistan was ranked as the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change according to the World Bank’s Global Climate Risk Index.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s book, ‘Antisemitism in America: A Warning,’ is slated for release on Tuesday, but promotional events for the long-serving lawmaker’s book that were scheduled for this week are being called off.

‘Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled,’ a statement to Fox from a book tour spokesperson noted.

The senator had been scheduled for multiple events this week.

Schumer irked some Democrats last week by voting to overcome a procedural hurdle and advance a Trump-backed government funding measure to a vote as the nation faced the prospect of a partial government shutdown.

He and a number of other Senate Democratic caucus members voted to invoke cloture, but then voted against passing the measure.

Two members of the Senate Democratic caucus – Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. – voted to both invoke cloture and to pass the measure. 

Shaheen announced last week that she will not seek re-election in 2026.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Senate Republican who voted against passing the funding measure last week.

Ahead of the vote, Schumer said that while the ‘bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.’

Fox News’ Kelly Phares contributed to this report

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Americans like the idea of downsizing the federal government but are far from thrilled with how billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are carrying out cuts to the federal bureaucracy, according to new national polling.

President Donald Trump, after winning back the White House in last November’s election, created DOGE with marching orders to overhaul and downsize the federal government.

Trump named Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, to steer the organization.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies during the first two months of the Trump administration, rooting out what the White House argues was billions in wasteful federal spending. Additionally, it has taken a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. The moves by DOGE grabbed tons of national attention and have triggered a slew of lawsuits in response.

American voters, by a 46%-40% margin in an NBC News poll conducted March 7-11 and released on Sunday, said creating DOGE was a good idea rather than a bad idea. 

However, when asked about their feelings towards DOGE, 47% of respondents held negative views, with 41% saying they saw DOGE in a positive light.

It is a similar story in a Reuters/IPSOS survey conducted March 11-12.

By a 59%-39% margin, Americans questioned in the poll said they supported downsizing the federal government.

However, 59% opposed the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers, with 38% supporting the moves by the Trump administration, and by a 50%-38% margin, they said Trump and Musk had gone too far in cutting federal spending.

Trump has repeatedly praised Musk for his efforts with DOGE, including during a primetime address earlier this month to a joint-session of Congress.

During an interview a week ago on Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures,’ Trump called Musk a ‘real patriot’ whose efforts have ‘opened a lot of eyes.’

However, Americans do not hold such rosy views of Musk, according to the surveys. Only 39% of those questioned in the NBC News poll had a positive view of Musk, with 51% holding a negative view.

He was underwater at 38% favorable and 59% unfavorable in the Reuters/Ipsos survey.

According to a Quinnipiac University national poll conducted March 6-10, 60% disapproved of the way Musk and DOGE are dealing with workers employed by the federal government, with only 36% approving.

The survey’s release noted that ‘54% of voters think Elon Musk and DOGE are hurting the country, while 40% think they are helping the country.’

A CNN poll conducted March 6-9 indicated that more than six in 10 thought the cuts by DOGE would go too far and that important federal programs would be shut down, with 37% saying the cuts wouldn’t go far enough in eliminating fraud and waste in the government.

It appears Trump is well aware of the negative reviews for Musk and DOGE.

Two weeks ago, Trump told the Cabinet secretaries that they, rather than Musk, would be in charge of department downsizing at their agencies.

In a social media post, Trump said they would use a ‘scalpel’ rather than a ‘hatchet’ in making government staffing cuts.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Ukraine now has a cruise missile that can travel over 600 miles, far enough to reach Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy boasted over the weekend. 

‘We have significant results,’ Zelenskyy said Saturday. ‘Long Neptune has been tested and successfully used in combat. A new Ukrainian missile, an accurate strike. The range is a thousand kilometers,’ or 620 miles. 

That puts Moscow within striking range. 

The missile has been in development for years. Battle watchers believe the combat success Zelenskyy referred to was a Friday strike on an oil refinery in Tuapse, Russia, some 300 miles from the front line. 

The refinery is under 60 miles from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sprawling cliffside palace on the Black Sea in Gelendzhik. 

The Neptune cruise missile was used in April 2022 to take out a flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. 

Zelenskyy recently pledged that Ukraine would produce 100,000 long-range munitions in 2025.

Russia intercepted and destroyed several Ukrainian drones flying over Moscow on Friday, with some coming as close as just two miles away from the Kremlin, according to Russian officials. White House envoy Steve Witkoff was in Moscow last week.

The fresh attacks and new offensive weapons contradict the delicate ceasefire negotiations that will culminate in a phone call between President Donald Trump and Putin on Tuesday. 

Zelenskyy has already agreed to the terms of a 30-day ceasefire after meetings with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia. 

‘We’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants, that’s a big question. But I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much, by both sides, Ukraine and Russia,’ Trump said of his call. 

Russia has not accepted the terms of the ceasefire and accelerated attacks on Ukraine after Zelenskyy said he would agree to it. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday that ‘the ball is now in Russia’s court’ to accept a U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal that Ukraine agreed to last week.

The U.S.-backed proposal, which includes an immediate 30-day ceasefire and guaranteed resumption of U.S. military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, was finalized during diplomatic talks in Saudi Arabia last week.

‘Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate interim 30-day ceasefire to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The ball is now in Russia’s court,’ Bruce said during the State Department’s second briefing of Trump’s second term. ‘Following this historic meeting, Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio traveled to the G7 in Canada, where our partners expressed support for a swift and a durable end to this conflict.’

After President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Putin said during a news conference that he agreed with the truce in principle, noting, ‘The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it.’ Meanwhile, Trump’s national security advisor, Michael Waltz, said following the meeting that there is ‘cautious optimism’ a ceasefire could be close at hand.

While a ceasefire appears imminent, Russia and Ukraine still need to resolve key disagreements before finalizing the deal.

These include negotiations related to Ukraine’s entrance into NATO — which Russia has said is a non-starter — territorial integrity disputes and security guarantees, such as whether NATO peacekeeping troops will be allowed in Ukraine to maintain the ceasefire. Potential prisoner swaps will also need to be ironed out between the two warring nations.

Trump has also signaled that control of certain land and power plants in Ukraine would also be part of the negotiations.

While Trump and his team have expressed optimism about the deal, GOP South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said only ‘time will tell’ whether Putin plans on ‘deceiving us.’

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Nationwide injunctions ordered against the first Trump administration account for more than half of the total injunctions ordered against the federal government since 1963, data show. 

Nationwide injunctions are court orders that prevent the federal government from implementing a policy or law that has a cascading effect impacting the entire country, not just the parties involved in the court case. 

Trump’s first administration faced 64 injunctions out of the total 127 nationwide injunctions issued since 1963. There were 32 injunctions issued against the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations collectively since 2001, meaning the first Trump administration was on the receiving end of double the amount of nationwide injunctions than his two predecessors and successor combined, according to the April 2024 edition of the Harvard Law Review. 

The Harvard Law Review found there were six injunctions issued against the Bush administration, 12 against the Obama administration and 14 against the Biden administration. 

Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January has brought with it more than 120 lawsuits from activists, government employees and others targeting his executive orders and actions. The lawsuits have resulted in nationwide injunctions in some cases, including 15 in February alone, according to Trump’s acting solicitor general, Sarah Harris.

Trump filed an emergency appeal Thursday asking the Supreme Court to narrow three injunctions that were issued to halt Trump’s nullification of birthright citizenship. The emergency appeal requests the injunction only cover individuals directly impacted by the relevant courts. 

Harris argued in the emergency appeal that nationwide injunctions have hit ‘epidemic proportions’ under the second Trump administration, noting that the federal government faced 14 universal injunctions in the first three years of the Biden administration compared to 15 leveled against the Trump admin in one month alone. 

‘Years of experience have shown that the Executive Branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere,’ Harris wrote.

Officials in the first Trump administration also railed against the flow of injunctions ordered against the 45th president’s policies and laws, including the former chiefs of the Department of Justice. 

‘Courts issued an average of only 1.5 nationwide injunctions per year against the Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations, and 2.5 per year against the Obama administration,’ former Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams said in February 2019.  

‘In President Trump’s first year in office, however, judges issued a whopping 20 nationwide injunctions – an eightfold increase. This matches the entire eight-year total of such injunctions issued against President Obama during his two terms. We are now at 30, matching the total number of injunctions issued against the first 42 presidents combined.’

Former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr added in remarks later in 2019 that there were ‘only 27 nationwide injunctions­ in all of the 20th century’ compared to 37, at the time, against the first Trump administration. 

‘Since President Trump took office, federal district courts have issued 37 nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch. That’s more than one a month. By comparison, during President Obama’s first two years, district courts issued two nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch, both of which were vacated by the Ninth Circuit. And according to the Department’s best estimates, courts issued only 27 nationwide injunctions­ in all of the 20th century,’ the former AG said in May 2019. 

Harvard Law Review found that the judges who issued the injunctions against the first Trump administration were overwhelmingly ordered by judges who were appointed by a Democrat. 

Democratic-appointed judges ordered 92.2% of the injunctions against the Trump administration, meaning just five of the 64 injunctions were ordered by Republican-appointed judges. 

Republican-appointed judges ordered all 14 of the nationwide injunctions against the federal government under the Biden administration. 

Injunctions under the Bush and Obama eras were much more bipartisan, with 50% of the injunctions in the Bush era issued by Democratic-appointed judges, and Republican-appointed judges ordering 58.3% of the 12 injunctions in the Obama era. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been ordered to pay more than $54,000 for violating the state’s open records laws in relation to the prosecution of President Donald Trump.

The county’s Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause formalized her ruling Friday and ordered Willis to pay $54,264 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs after ‘intentionally’ failing to provide records requested by Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney who filed the motion to disqualify Willis from prosecuting Trump on charges of allegedly interfering with the 2020 presidential election.

Krause stated that Willis’ office failed to provide documents related to the employment of Nathan Wade, the former special assistant district attorney forced to resign from the Trump case due to his romantic relationship with Willis. 

Merchant believed that Willis and Wade may have financially benefited from Wade’s appointment as the special prosecutor in the case.

‘Defendants — through the Open Records custodian, Dexter Bond — were openly hostile to counsel for Plaintiff, Ms. Merchant, and testified that Ms. Merchant’s requests were handled differently than other requests,’ the court order said.

Bond, who testified that his usual practice was to call a requestor to receive additional information to fulfill requests, indicated that he refused to communicate with Merchant by telephone, the court order stated.

‘While there is no requirement under the ORA for Mr. Bond to call any requestor about a particular request, Mr. Bond’s handling of Ms. Merchant’s requests in this manner indicates a lack of good faith,’ the order said. ‘Defendants’ failures were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.’

Merchant, who reacted to the ruling in a post on X Friday, said she was ‘proud that we have judges willing to hold people in power accountable when they ignore the law!!!!’

Fox News Digital reached out to Merchant and Willis’ office for additional statements but did not immediately receive a response.

The DA’s office has 30 days from the court’s order to pay the penalty. The plaintiff also received injunctive relief directing Willis to finally provide the requested documents.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS