Federal officials say a man from El Salvador has died at a New Jersey immigration jail. The jail has been targeted for months by protesters over living conditions for people detained there. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday that Edwin Lopez-Cornejo had been held at Delaney Hall in Newark after being arrested in June. The agency says he died Saturday. The government accused Lopez-Cornejo of entering the U.S. illegally. His official cause of death has not been released. His death has prompted immediate and fierce condemnation from officials and community members. President Donald Trump and his deputies have defended the center’s operations.
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A 37-year-old Spokane man charged with intentionally setting a wildfire that’s destroyed hundreds of buildings in and around Washington state’s second-largest city was questioned by law enforcement about two different blazes last year, though he wasn’t charged in either. Aaron F. Farinacci was arrested Monday and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire. He appeared in court Tuesday via video link from the jail, and the judge set his arraignment for Thursday. According to an affidavit, Farinacci denied under questioning by sheriff's deputies that he set the Old Trails Fire. It is the biggest of the three blazes that have destroyed at least 700 buildings in and around Spokane.
The last person known to have seen a Navajo elder alive has been arrested in an unrelated incident, raising questions about whether he will be sent back to federal prison. Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Ella Mae Begay. He was released early from federal prison in June and was on supervised release at a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. According to court records, Phoenix police arrested him this week, and he faces a home burglary charge. Under the terms of his federal plea agreement, he is not to commit any additional crimes. Tolth's federal public defender didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday from The Associated Press.
Florida has become the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in one day, putting to death an ex-police officer convicted of murder and only the second octogenarian known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Ex-police officer James Aren Duckett was pronounced dead after a three-drug injection Tuesday afternoon at Florida State Prison. He was convicted of the 1987 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. Hours later, 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone was executed for the 1986 killing of his ex-girlfriend’s parents. Florida has now carried out 12 executions this year — more than all other states combined. In 2017, Arkansas executed two men in a single day.
Keiko Fujimori has been sworn in as Peru’s president after a narrow victory in the June runoff election. The swearing-in ceremony took place on Tuesday. She is the ninth president in a decade and has said she aims to stabilize the country. Her Popular Force party and allies will hold half the senate seats in the new legislature. Fujimori's campaign focused on improving security and infrastructure while she's also announced plans to fight crime with policies similar to those in El Salvador. Peru remains economically stable but there's a growing gap in living standards between coastal and highland areas. Fujimori's victory in the June runoff election confirmed a regional shift in South America toward the conservative wing.
A labor union and two female prison employees filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing a U.S. civil rights agency of unlawfully halting their sexual harassment case as part of wider order to indefinitely suspend proceedings in all federal-sector class claims. The lawsuit claims that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ordered an indefinite suspension of all federal-sector class complaints pending before the agency’s administrative judges, who handle discrimination complaints from federal workers in process that is different than private sector workers. The women, correctional officers at a Louisiana federal prison, have a pending complaint against the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate will remain in jail at least two more weeks until their next hearing. The brothers are fighting extradition to the United Kingdom where they are accused of rape and sex trafficking. U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis on Monday set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released as they fight extradition. The Tates weren’t in court Monday or required to be there. They’ve have remained in jail since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest. The brothers have consistently denied allegations of abuse and human trafficking.
Security camera video shows some bystanders appeared to barely bat an eye when a man set off a fountain of fireworks then started a blazing fire outside a federal building in Lower Manhattan earlier this week. The surveillance footage was released from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Wednesday. It offers the most complete look yet at the bizarre episode Monday morning outside 26 Federal Plaza. No one was seriously injured. Prosecutors say 43-year-old Anthony Arrabaca confessed to carrying out the attack and has been charged with arson. He was jailed without bail Tuesday.
A June 1 trial date has been set for Nicolás Maduro to face drug trafficking charges in New York. The trial date was set on Wednesday during a brief hearing in Manhattan federal court. His lawyer says he plans to contest the charges against his client on sovereign immunity grounds, among others. Defense lawyers have objected to the U.S. military action that snatched Venezuela’s president from power. Maduro was being returned to a Brooklyn jail. Maduro and his wife have pleaded not guilty to charges that they sided with drug dealers in a multidecade scheme to ship large quantities of drugs to the United States.