Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

The US justice department has released more than three million pages of documents linked to its investigation into the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in what officials say represents the bulk of the long-awaited “Epstein files”. Speaking at a tense press conference on Friday, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the disclosure included more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, many of which will be heavily redacted. He said the material was released in an effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by Donald Trump last year. Blanche said the department…

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from detaining refugees in Minnesota who do not yet hold green cards, following a move to re-examine thousands of refugee cases. The ruling, issued on Wednesday by US District Judge John Tunheim, prevents immigration authorities from arresting refugees solely on the basis that they have not adjusted to lawful permanent resident status. The temporary restraining order was granted after a legal challenge brought by the International Refugee Assistance Project and other groups on behalf of refugees who have already been detained or fear imminent arrest. In his decision, Judge Tunheim said…

A US immigration judge has granted asylum to a Chinese national who exposed alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs, ruling that he had a “well-founded fear” of persecution if returned to China. Guan Heng entered the United States illegally in 2021 and later applied for asylum. He has been in immigration detention since August last year after being arrested during a large-scale enforcement operation linked to the Trump administration’s mass deportation drive. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had initially sought to deport Guan to Uganda. That plan was abandoned in December following public outcry and scrutiny from members of…

Tesla is set to discontinue production of its Model S and Model X vehicles, marking the clearest signal yet that the company is shifting away from its electric car business. Speaking during an investor call on Wednesday, chief executive Elon Musk said the two models would be phased out next quarter. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programmes to an end,” Musk said. The factory in Fremont, California, currently used to build the Model S and X, will be converted to produce Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, according to Musk. The announcement comes as Tesla faces falling…

A small aircraft crashed in a rural area of Colombia’s Norte de Santander department on Wednesday, killing all 15 people on board, including a local lawmaker, authorities said. The plane, operated by the state-owned airline Satena, went down near the community of Curasica in the country’s north-east. Local residents alerted authorities to the crash site, prompting the deployment of rescue teams. Colombia’s Ministry of Transport later confirmed that there were no survivors. The aircraft, registered as HK4709, departed from the city of Cúcuta at 11.42am local time and was heading to Ocaña, a mountainous municipality about 40 minutes away by…

The mayor of a hilltop town in Sicily has warned that “the situation is dire” after a powerful storm triggered a major landslide, leaving homes teetering on the edge of a cliff. About 1,500 residents have been evacuated after a long section of hillside gave way near the town of Niscemi, in the south of the island. The landslide, which began showing signs of movement on Sunday, has developed into a 4km-long front that continues to widen. There are growing fears that the chasm could engulf parts of the town’s historic centre. “This is a dramatic landslide,” said Massimiliano Conti,…

Spain’s socialist-led coalition government has approved a decree that it says will regularise the status of around 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers, setting itself apart from the hardline anti-migration stance seen across much of Europe. The measure, due to come into force in April, will apply to asylum seekers and people living in Spain without legal status. To qualify, applicants must prove they have no criminal record and that they had been living in Spain for at least five months, or had sought international protection, before 31 December 2025. Speaking after Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, the minister for inclusion, social…

The mother of a British-born man detained without trial in Syria for almost nine years has called on the UK or Canada to repatriate him, amid US plans to transfer thousands of Islamic State-linked prisoners from Syria to Iraq. Sally Lane, the mother of Jack Letts, 30, said she was “frantically trying to find out as much as possible” as uncertainty grows over his fate. She said it was unclear whether he would be sent to Iraq, where he could face the death penalty, remain in Syria, or be transferred to the UK or Canada in line with US demands.…

California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused TikTok of suppressing content critical of President Donald Trump, as he launched a review of the platform’s content moderation practices to determine whether they breach state law. The announcement came as TikTok’s new US ownership structure was finalised, with the company’s Chinese owner ByteDance saying it had completed a deal to establish a majority US-owned joint venture. The move is intended to secure US user data and avoid a potential ban on the popular short-video app, which has more than 200 million American users. Newsom’s office said on X on Monday that it had…

Israel said on Sunday that its military was carrying out a “large-scale operation” in Gaza to recover the body of the last remaining hostage, adding that the Rafah crossing with Egypt would only reopen once the mission was completed. The announcement came as Israel’s cabinet met to consider reopening the crossing, and a day after senior US envoys reportedly urged prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the passage of aid through the key border point. Israel’s insistence on the return of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, has been widely viewed as the main obstacle to reopening Rafah and moving into…