AFP USA

A South Carolina man convicted of a 2005 double murder was put to death by lethal injection on Friday, the fourth execution in the United States this week.Stephen Stanko, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:34 pm (2234 GMT) at the state prison in Columbia, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a statement. Stanko had a choice between his method of execution — firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection.He chose lethal injection.  Stanko was convicted of the 2005 murders of his girlfriend, Laura Ling, 43, and Henry Turner, a 74-year-old friend.He also raped Ling’s teenage daughter and slit her throat but she survived and testified against him at trial.In a final statement read by his attorney, Stanko said he was “truly sorry for the pain and loss that I caused.”Sorry is never enough but that does not mean it should not be said.”Stanko was the fourth Death Row inmate executed in the United States this week.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and called on his first day in office for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”John Hanson, 61, was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday for carjacking and kidnapping Mary Bowles, 77, from a mall in the city of Tulsa and then shooting her to death along with a witness, Jerald Thurman.Hanson had been serving a life sentence for bank robbery in a federal prison in the state of Louisiana but the Trump administration approved his transfer to Oklahoma so he could face the death penalty.Anthony Wainwright, 54, convicted of the 1994 murder of Carmen Gayheart, 23, a nursing student and mother of two young children, was put to death by lethal injection in Florida on Tuesday.Gregory Hunt, 65, convicted of the 1988 rape and murder of his girlfriend, Karen Lane, 32, was executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama that same day.There have been 23 executions in the United States this year: 18 by lethal injection, two by firing squad and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The use of nitrogen gas as an execution method has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.

Pro-Palestinian student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil remained in US detention Friday despite an expected release, his lawyer said, following reported accusations of inaccuracies in his permanent residency application.US District Judge Michael Fabiarz had issued an order Wednesday that the government could not detain or deport Khalil, a legal permanent resident, based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertions that his presence on US soil posed a national security threat.The order gave the government until Friday to release Khalil. But by Friday afternoon, the Trump administration “represented that the Petitioner is being detained on another, second charge,” the judge wrote.The Department of Homeland Security has provided the court with press clippings from various American tabloids suggesting Khalil, who is married to a US citizen, had failed to disclose certain information about his work or involvement in a campaign to boycott Israel when applying for his permanent resident green card, ABC News reported.”The government is now using cruel, transparent delay tactics to keep him away from his wife and newborn son ahead of their first Father’s Day as a family,” Khalil attorney Amy Greer said in a statement, referring to the US holiday observed on Sunday.”Instead of celebrating together, he is languishing in ICE detention as punishment for his advocacy on behalf of his fellow Palestinians. It is unjust, it is shocking, and it is disgraceful.”Since his March 8 arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s willingness to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism.At the time a graduate student at New York’s Columbia University, Khalil was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.Authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from his home in New York to a detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.His wife Noor Abdalla, a Michigan-born dentist, gave birth to their son while Khalil was in detention. 

An Afghan man pleaded guilty on Friday to plotting to carry out an attack on US election day on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) group, the Justice Department said.Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested in the central US state of Oklahoma in October, several weeks before the November 5 presidential election.He pleaded guilty in a federal court in Oklahoma City to charges of conspiring to provide material support to IS and attempting to receive firearms and ammunition to carry out an attack.He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and up to 15 years in prison for the firearms charge.”By pledging allegiance to IS and plotting an attack against innocent Americans on Election Day, this defendant endangered lives and gravely betrayed the nation that gave him refuge,” US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.”Today’s guilty plea guarantees he will be held accountable, stripped of his immigration status, and permanently removed from the United States.”Tawhedi and a co-conspirator, Abdullah Haji Zada, sought to buy two AK-47 rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to carry out a “mass-casualty attack” on November 5, according to court documents.The seller turned out to be an undercover FBI employee.  Zada, 18, pleaded guilty in April to the firearms charge and is awaiting sentencing.According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi entered the United States in September 2021 on a special immigrant visa.

Less than a month after it began receiving migrants, a controversial detention center run by a private firm has been the scene of protests, violence, and escapes, sources said Friday. Soon after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inked a billion-dollar, 15-year contract to outsourcing giant Geo Group to transform an industrial estate near the international airport in Newark, New Jersey into a 1,000-bed detention center.In May, the center – Delaney Hall – began receiving migrants arrested by ICE and facing deportation, despite objections from area residents and local politicians.Late Thursday, detainees at the center began a protest against detention conditions, according to Mustafa Cetin, a lawyer for an asylum seeker being held there.”I have talked to my client yesterday and he told me that roughly 50 detainees were protesting against their conditions,” Cetin told AFP.”They were getting aggressive and it turned violent.” Cetin slammed the Geo Group and ICE for their performance, decrying “a lack of planning and accountability.”US media reports and footage circulated late Thursday showed protesters trying to block an ICE van in front of Delaney Hall and clashing with police. A senior official with the US Department of Homeland Security meanwhile confirmed to AFP on Friday that four detainees “had escaped” from the center the night before.”Additional law enforcement partners have been brought in to find these escapees,” the official said.Newark’s mayor, Democrat Ras Baraka, said Friday that he was concerned about reports of events at Delaney Hall, “ranging from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees.” “This is why city officials and our congressional delegation need to be allowed entry to observe and monitor, and why private prisons pose a very real problem to our state and its constitution,” he said in a statement. The detention center has become one of the latest flashpoints in Democrats’ fight against Trump’s crackdown on what he calls an “invasion” of undocumented migrants. Baraka himself was arrested and briefly held last month after he tried to enter the detention center, closely guarded by ICE agents and security personnel.Following the dispute that broke out between elected officials and federal agents, Democratic congresswoman LaMonica McIver was also charged with assaulting law enforcement officers, something she has dismissed as “purely political.”

Roughly 200 US Marines took up position in Los Angeles on Friday to protect federal property and personnel after protests in the city against immigration raids. The deployment of the Marine Corps — typically deployed abroad as a rapid strike force — is highly unusual for domestic crowd-control scenarios inside the United States.- Why were they called? -Protests began last week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted raids in and around Los Angeles. The gatherings were mostly peaceful but there were also incidents of vandalism and aggression towards ICE agents and local police.Some demonstrators breached curfews as they rallied by the downtown Federal Building and the nearby Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison holding immigrants.President Donald Trump first took the controversial step of “federalizing” thousands of California National Guard troops — sending them to the area against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.Shortly after, on Monday, the Trump administration announced that about 700 active-duty Marines would also be sent to Los Angeles.- What will they do? -US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which has responsibility over US armed forces operating in North America, said the Marines will protect federal personnel and property.Major General Scott Sherman, who is leading the Los Angeles mission, said two companies of Marines were taking up position at the Wilshire Federal Building. Sherman said the Marines would “hold off crowds” as needed.Military members cannot arrest protesters as that is a law enforcement activity.But NORTHCOM said Marines could “temporarily detain an individual to stop an assault of, to prevent harm to, or to prevent interference with federal personnel performing their duties.”- Could they get more power? -The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 prevents the use of US federal troops such as Marines for domestic law enforcement activities.But that would change if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act, which lets the president deploy federal troops to suppress a violent rebellion on US soil.It was last used during the Los Angeles riots in 1992 following the acquittal of police officers involved in the beating of motorist Rodney King.Under the Insurrection Act, federal troops have the power to conduct searches and arrest people suspected of breaking the law.Trump has notably not ruled out using the act.”If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it,” he said this week. “We’ll see.”

US rapper Kanye West showed up at a Manhattan federal courthouse Friday to support music mogul Sean Combs, who is on trial for alleged sex trafficking and racketeering.West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, never entered the courtroom; he briefly watched the proceedings in an adjacent room on closed-circuit video with one of Combs’s sons and then left.When asked by broadcaster ABC whether he was there to support Combs, the 48-year-old West nodded and replied: “Yes.”His brief appearance came one day after a former girlfriend of Combs wrapped up her testimony.The woman, speaking under the pseudonym Jane, delivered emotional, graphic details about how he allegedly pressured her into drug-fueled sex sessions with escorts.Her description closely tracked with the testimony of a previous star witness, Combs’s longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura, who said the encounters were called “freak-offs.”In her testimony, Jane described traveling to Las Vegas last year on a well-known rapper’s private plane, and that she had recommended a male escort to that rapper and his girlfriend.For nearly a month, jurors in the Manhattan court have heard a series of witnesses describing the influence the 55-year-old Combs exerted over staff and ex-girlfriends. Combs faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.The music mogul has pled not guilty to the charges against him, with his lawyers arguing that what prosecutors deem to be sex trafficking was in fact consensual.The trial is expected to continue at least through June.

Russia, China and Iran are amplifying disinformation about protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles, researchers said Friday, adding to a surge of domestically generated falsehoods and conspiracy theories.The findings from researchers at the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard illustrate how foreign adversaries of the United States are exploiting deep divisions in American society as a tactic of information warfare.NewsGuard said Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state-affiliated sources have published around 10,000 posts and articles about the demonstrations that recently erupted in Los Angeles, advancing false claims framing the city as “ground zero in an American apocalypse.”Seizing on the political rift between President Donald Trump and Governor Gavin Newsom, pro-China accounts on X and Chinese platforms such as Douyin and Weibo have peddled unfounded claims that California was ready to secede from the United States and declare independence.Meanwhile, Tehran-based newspapers have peddled the false claim that popular Iranian singer-songwriter Andranik Madadian had been detained by the National Guard in Los Angeles, in an apparent effort to portray the United States as an authoritarian state.NewsGuard quoted Madadian, better known by his stage name Andy, as denying the claim, stating: “I am fine. Please don’t believe these rumors.” Russian media and pro-Russian influencers, meanwhile, has embraced right-wing conspiracy theories, including the unfounded claim that the Mexican government was stoking the demonstrations against Trump’s immigration policies.”The demonstrations are unfolding at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities such as eroded trust in institutions, AI chatbots amplifying false claims about the unrest, political polarization, and a rollback of safety and moderation efforts by major platforms,” McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with NewsGuard, told AFP.”As a result, foreign actors have a wide-open playing field to flood the zone with falsehoods at a faster rate and fewer barriers compared to previous moments of unrest,” she added.The apparent alignment across the three countries was noteworthy, Sadeghi said.”While Russia, China, and Iran regularly push their own unique forms of disinformation, it’s less common to see them move in such a coordinated fashion like this,” she said.”This time, state media outlets have escalated their messaging to advance their geopolitical interests and deflect attention from their own domestic crises.” The disinformation comes on top of false narratives promoted by US-based influencers.In recent days, conservative social media users have circulated two photographs of brick piles they claimed were strategically placed for the California protesters to hurl at police and inflame violence.The photos were cited as proof that the protests were fueled by nonprofit organizations supported by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has long been a bogeyman for the far right.But AFP’s fact-checkers found that one photo was lifted from an online marketplace, where a Malaysian hardware dealer uploaded it years ago, while the other was snapped near a construction site in New Jersey.”Every time there’s a popular protest, the old clickbaity ‘pallets of bricks’ hoax shows up right on cue,” the Social Media Lab, a research center at the Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote on the platform Bluesky.”The fact that these types of fake images are used isn’t a coincidence. It’s part of a pernicious (and) persistent narrative that protests against government policies are somehow inauthentic.”

Israeli airstrikes on Friday hit dozens of targets across Iran, including nuclear sites, as well as killing several top military commanders and nuclear scientists. Iran called the attack “a declaration of war” and launched missiles at Israel hours later.US President Donald Trump — insisting his country was not involved — warned Iran the next planned attacks will be “even more brutal”.International calls for restraint are multiplying, as fears grow the Middle East could be on the threshold of a broader conflict.Here is what we know:- Nuclear sites hit -The attacks started in the early hours of Friday, a day of rest and prayer in Iran, and continued through the day, on various sites.A key target was a vast underground nuclear site in Natanz, which Israel hit several times, Iranian state television said.Radiation levels outside the facility “remain unchanged”, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said.Israel said it struck another important nuclear site in Isfahan, where Iranian news agency Mehr reported a “massive explosion” late Friday.- Commanders killed -Top brass killed included the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, and the chief of staff of its armed forces, Mohammad Bagheri, with replacements swiftly named by supreme leader Ali Khamenei.The Revolutionary Guards said that its aerospace commander, Amirali Hajizadeh, was also killed. He was in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile forces.Iranian media said several nuclear scientists were killed.State media said senior Khamenei adviser Ali Shamkhani was hurt in one of the strikes.- Ongoing strikes -Additional strikes hit sites in Iran’s northwestern East Azerbaijan province, with 18 people killed there, state news agency IRNA said.The Israeli raids will “continue as many days as it takes”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.A military spokesman said “more than 200 targets” were hit.Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said “there is currently no plan to kill” Khamenei and other political leaders.Internet restrictions were imposed across Iran, the country’s communications ministry said, adding they would be lifted “once normalcy returns”.- Iran’s response -Iran launched dozens of missiles, the Revolutionary Guards and Israeli official said, hours after the Israeli military said “most” of the 100 drones fired by Iran were intercepted outside Israeli territory.Khamenei warned Israel faces a “bitter and painful” fate over the attacks.His newly appointed Revolutionary Guards chief, Mohammad Pakpour, said that “in retribution… the gates of hell” will be opened on Israel.Netanyahu said: “We expect to be exposed to several waves of Iranian attacks.”There was a state of emergency declared in Israel, and the country closed many of its embassies around the world, including in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.- ‘Declaration of war’ -Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called the Israeli attacks “a declaration of war” and urged action from the UN Security Council, which is due to hold an emergency meeting at 1900 GMT.Iran had previously warned it would hit US military bases in the Middle East if conflict occurred. The United States pulled out non-essential personnel from several sites days ahead of the Israeli attack.Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said the United States would protect its forces in the Middle East.”Let me be clear: Iran should not target US interests or personnel,” Rubio said.- US involvement? -Trump said Israel fully informed him of its raids ahead of time, but insisted the United States was not involved.He warned Iran that the “next planned attacks” will be “even more brutal” and said Tehran should cut a deal to roll back its nuclear programme “before there is nothing left”.The US leader has repeatedly said he will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.Trump came to power vowing not to drag the United States into more wars in the Middle East, but some of his domestic political allies are worried the turn of events could lead to that.- Nuclear programme -Tehran has long denied seeking atomic bombs, but had been enriching uranium to a level close to weapons-grade.The United States and Iran had been holding talks on the issue. The next round, scheduled for Sunday in Oman, now looks to be cancelled.- Reactions -The attack, and likely Iranian response, is fuelling international alarm.Many capitals were urging restraint, fearing the consequences if the Israel-Iran conflict widened and drew in the United States, and if Middle East oil production and shipments were impacted.The leaders of France, Germany and Britain were to hold a call to discuss the Israeli strikes, Berlin said. The UN’s atomic energy agency planned an emergency meeting for Monday.Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Syria closed their airspaces.Several airlines cancelled flights servicing the region, including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Air France and Lufthansa. Others flying through the Middle East, such as Air India, had to turn planes back or reroute.- Oil prices -Oil prices leapt dramatically on Friday, trading sharply up to around $75 a barrel before falling back a little.Analysts underlined the risk to the 20 percent of the world’s crude oil supplies that are shipped through the narrow Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.burs/rmb/gv/ami/jsa

The Salvadoran migrant at the heart of a row over US President Donald Trump’s hardline deportation policies pleaded not guilty on Friday to human smuggling charges.Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, was summarily deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March and brought back to the United States last week.He was immediately arrested on his return and charged in Nashville, Tennessee, with smuggling undocumented migrants around the United States between 2016 and 2025.Abrego Garcia entered a plea of not guilty to the criminal charges on Friday before a federal district judge, US media reported.The US Supreme Court had ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador.Abrego Garcia was flown back to the United States on June 6 but Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted to reporters that his return resulted from an arrest warrant presented to Salvadoran authorities.Abrego Garcia was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Most of the migrants who were summarily deported were alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a foreign terrorist organization.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia — who is married to a US citizen — was wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.Bondi alleged that Abrego Garcia “played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring” and was a smuggler of “children and women” as well as members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.She said Abrego Garcia would be returned to El Salvador upon completion of any prison sentence in the United States.

The first US Marines ordered by Donald Trump to Los Angeles will deploy Friday, the Pentagon said, raising the stakes in a standoff that pits the president against protesters claiming growing authoritarianism.The approximately 200 Marines are part of a group of 700 set to join 4,000 National Guard soldiers, while local police conduct a crackdown on unrest over Trump’s sweeps for undocumented migrants.The Marines — normally used as crack troops in foreign conflicts — will be equipped with riot gear to guard a federal building starting from 12:00 pm (1900 GMT), Major General Scott Sherman told reporters.An intense legal battle is underway over Trump’s authority to deploy troops on US soil, as the country braces for widespread protests Saturday, when the Republican will be overseeing a rare large-scale military parade in Washington.The parade celebrates the 250th anniversary of the US Army but also coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday and will be the first time tanks and other heavy weaponry has rolled through the capital city in three decades.A “No Kings” movement has sprung up promising to stage protests in more than 2,000 places across the country in response.Trump dispatched about the California National Guard to Los Angeles last weekend following mostly peaceful, but occasionally violent protests against a surge in immigration raids in the second-largest US city.In a show of political force, Trump overrode the objections of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom who usually would control the Guard. The president repeatedly exaggerated the scale of violence, claiming that without troops, Los Angeles would be “burning to the ground right now.”Late Thursday, District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump’s actions were “illegal” and ordered that he return control of the guard to Newsom. Breyer said the LA unrest fell “far short” of the “rebellion” that Trump had described.However, a higher court quickly paused the order pending an appeal hearing with the Trump administration next Tuesday.The Department of Justice slammed Breyer’s ruling as “an extraordinary intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority as Commander in Chief.”The dispute mirrors multiple other tussles over Trump’s attempts to expand the limits of presidential power, but is the first to involve troops.The use of Marines is especially controversial, although those deploying Friday will be at a building nowhere near the site of last week’s protests.- ‘Voices for the people’ -Many in Los Angeles are angry about immigration raids carried out as part of Trump’s ambition to deport vast numbers of undocumented migrants around the country.Outrage at Trump’s raids and the use of masked, armed immigration agents backed by uniformed soldiers has already sparked protests in other cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago and San Antonio, Texas.”What brings me out here? The people that were taken, people who don’t have voices. We are the voice for the people,” Jasmine, a protester in Los Angeles, told AFP on Thursday.Tensions hiked further Thursday when California Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat, was handcuffed and forcibly removed from a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The incident “reeks of totalitarianism,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, calling for an investigation.The White House hit back, claiming despite video evidence to the contrary, that Padilla “lunged toward Secretary Noem.”