Reports of Trump deportation plans highlight abuse of migrants in Libya
CAIRO — Reports of plans to deport migrants from the U.S. to Libya , a country with a documented history of serious human rights violations and abuse of migrants , have spotlighted the difficulties they face in the lawless North African nation .
Migrants in Libya are routinely arbitrarily detained and placed in squalid detention centers where they are subjected to extortion, abuse, rape and killings.
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Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs' ex testifies she resents the way he introduced her to ‘cuckold' sex marathons
NEW YORK (AP) — Under cross-examination, Sean 'Diddy' Combs ' ex-girlfriend testified Tuesday she took part in sex acts with male sex workers at the music mogul's request because it made her feel loved by him, but now regrets what she came to recognize as the 'cuckold' lifestyle. The woman testified at Combs' sex-trafficking trial under the pseudonym 'Jane' to protect her identity. A day earlier, she revealed their three-year relationship lasted until the Bad Boy Records founder was arrested in September at New York hotel, where she'd been planning to meet him. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges that carry a potential penalty of 15 years to life in prison. He has been jailed without bail. Prosecutors allege Combs used violence, threats and a network of employees and associates to control and abuse women for two decades. His lawyers have told the jury in federal court in Manhattan that although there was domestic violence in his relationships, everything he did sexually was consensual. Earlier in the trial, R&B signer Casandra ' Cassie ' Ventura testified over four days that Combs physically abused her and that she participated in hundreds of 'freak-off' sexual performances during a nearly 11-year relationship that ended in 2018. The Associated Press doesn't name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have shared their identities publicly, as Cassie has. Attorney Teny Geragos, representing Combs, cross-examined Jane on Tuesday by leading her into discussing the drug-fueled sexual marathons choreographed by Combs — which Jane said sometimes happened weekly — by reminding her that she mentioned regrets in earlier testimony. 'I resent him for leading me into the lifestyle he led me to,' Jane said. 'I resented the way he went about introducing me to this lifestyle.' She said she agreed to these 'hotel nights' while 'under a lot of emotional pressure' — and already hooked on love and a desire to stay in a relationship with Combs. Jane testified that she partook in the encounters, sometimes grudgingly, because they pleased Combs and she enjoyed spending time alone with him afterward. Jane testified she began therapy about three months ago. She previously met with lawyers on Combs' defense team but cut off those meetings in April, days before the trial began. She said she struggles to understand why she kept participating in 'hotel nights' even though she only wanted to have sex with Combs, however the reasons are 'becoming more and more clear' as she proceeds with therapy. Jane initially felt it was 'something very special' to have these secret sexual experiences with Combs. She said she didn't want to judge him and 'really wanted to just go along with these things because if I can be my partner's escapes than I would be.' Jane said she researched sexual variations in 2022 and came across the words 'cuck' and 'cuckold,' which seemed to fit the lifestyle she found herself in because she said a man known as a 'cuck' derives pleasure seeing 'his woman receive pleasure' from another man. 'He likes to use the words 'voyeurism' and 'escapism,'' Jane said. She added: 'I would use the word cuck for him more so.' Geragos reminded Jane that she had testified last week that she loves Combs currently. 'I do,' she responded. Geragos had Jane read aloud some of the many sexually explicit messages in which she expressed the types of activities she wanted to engage in during 'hotel nights' with Combs and male sex workers as she tried to portray Jane as a willing and eager participant in frequent sex events. In earlier testimony, Jane provided recent examples of Combs acting violently toward a woman while seeking to fulfill his sexual desires. Cassie sued Combs in November 2023 alleging sexual abuse. The lawsuit was settled within hours for $20 million, but it touched off the criminal investigation into Combs.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Federal judge sides with anti-Israel ringleader Mahmoud Khalil, halts Trump administration's deportation bid
A federal judge sided with Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel ringleader detained by the Trump administration, blocking the government from continuing to hold him on "foreign policy" grounds. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz granted Wednesday a preliminary injunction preventing the government from detaining or removing Khalil, 30, based on a memorandum issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The memo asserted that Khalil's presence "compromises a compelling foreign policy interest." "The government cannot claim an interest in enforcing what appears to be an unconstitutional law," Farbiarz wrote, adding that the threat to free speech raised serious First Amendment concerns. The ruling is a significant legal setback for the administration's efforts to deport Khalil, who has been held at a detention facility in Louisiana following his involvement in anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University. While the ruling grants a preliminary injunction against Khalil's removal, it stops short of ordering his release. The court's decision will remain on hold until Friday morning, giving the government time to appeal. READ THE RULING – APP USERS, CLICK HERE Khalil, a green card holder, was arrested after leading student protests on the Ivy League campus. He has argued that his free speech rights were being "eroded" by the Trump administration. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys have argued that Khalil's free speech claims were a "red herring," saying that the 30-year-old green card holder lied on his visa applications. Khalil, they said, willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency. The agency also accused Khalil of failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest. Rubio has cited a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Khalil's removal from the U.S. The provision allows the secretary of state to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines their presence in the U.S. "would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences." Rubio accused Khalil of participating in "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which foster a hostile environment for Jewish students in the United States." "Condoning antisemitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective," Rubio wrote. Khalil has Algerian citizenship through his mother, but was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. As of Wednesday evening, no further hearings are scheduled in Khalil's immigration case. "We're just waiting for the judge to issue her ruling," Johnny Sinodis, a partner at Van Der Hout LLP who is representing Mahmoud Khalil in immigration proceedings, said during a press conference following the hearing. Meanwhile, the federal court's preliminary injunction will prevent Khalil's removal until at least June 13.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Analysis: Trump's top general just undercut his ‘invasion' claims
One of the problems with making a series of brazen and hyperbolic claims is that it can be hard to keep everyone on your team on the same page. And few Trump administration claims have been as brazen as the idea that the Venezuelan government has engineered an invasion of gang members into the United States. This claim forms the basis of the administration's controversial efforts to rapidly deport a bunch of people it claimed were members of the gang Tren de Aragua – without due process. But one of the central figures responsible for warding off such invasions apparently didn't get the memo. At a Senate hearing Wednesday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine acknowledged that the United States isn't currently facing such a threat. 'I think at this point in time, I don't see any foreign state-sponsored folks invading,' Caine said in response to Democratic questioning. This might sound like common sense; of course the United States isn't currently under invasion by a foreign government. You'd probably have heard something about that on the news. But the administration has said – repeatedly and in court – that it has been. When Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport migrants without due process, that law required such a foreign 'invasion' or 'predatory incursion' to make his move legal. And Trump said that's what was happening. 'The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States,' reads the proclamation from Trump. It added that Tren de Aragua's actions came 'both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.' So the White House said Tren de Aragua was acting in concert with the Maduro regime to invade; Caine now says 'state-sponsored folks' aren't invading. Some flagged Caine's comment as undermining Trump's claims of a foreign 'invasion' in Los Angeles. Trump has regularly applied that word to undocumented migrants. But the inconsistency is arguably more significant when it comes to Trump's claims about the Venezuelan migrants. Perhaps the administration would argue that Trump has halted the invasion and it is no longer happening; Caine was speaking in the present tense. Caine did go on to cite others who might have different views. 'But I'll be mindful of the fact that there has been some border issues throughout time, and defer to DHS who handles the border along the nation's contiguous outline,' he said. But if an invasion had been happening recently, it seems weird not to mention that. And if the invasion is over, that would seem to undercut the need to keep trying to use the Alien Enemies Act. The Department of Homeland Security is certainly not in the camp of no invasion. On Wednesday, DHS posted on Facebook an image with Uncle Sam that reads: 'Report all foreign invaders' with a phone number for ICE. When asked about the image and whether the use of the term 'foreign invaders' had been used previously, DHS pointed CNN to a number of posts from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller using terms like 'invade' or 'invaders' when referring to undocumented immigrants. Plenty of Trump administration figures have gone to bat for this claim. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said soon after Trump's proclamation that Tren de Aragua gang members 'have been sent here by the hostile Maduro regime in Venezuela.' Then-national security adviser Michael Waltz claimed Maduro was emptying his prisons 'in a proxy manner to influence and attack the United States.' We soon learned that the intelligence community had concluded Venezuela had not directed the gang. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood by Trump's claim. 'Yes, that's their assessment,' Rubio said last month about the intelligence community. 'They're wrong.' Trump administration border czar Tom Homan has said the gang was an 'arm of the Maduro regime,' and that Maduro's regime was 'involved with sending thousands of Venezuelans to this country to unsettle it.' The question of Venezuela's purported involvement actually hasn't been dealt with much by the courts. A series of judges have moved to block the administration's Alien Enemies Act gambit, but they've generally ruled that way because of the lack of an 'invasion' or 'predatory incursion' – without delving much into the more complex issue of whether such a thing might somehow have ties to Maduro's government. One of the judges to rule in that fashion was a Trump appointee, US District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. So the intelligence community and a bunch of judges – including a Trump-appointed one – have rebutted the claim the underlies this historic effort to set aside due process. And now, the man Trump installed as his top general seems to have undercut it too.
