Nation and world news in brief for August 1
Border arrests in July drop to low under Biden
(NYT) — The number of arrests by border agents of migrants who crossed the southern border illegally in July is expected to fall under 60,000, according to three people with knowledge of the data, a precipitous drop from the record numbers of crossings that plagued the Biden administration just months ago.
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The July arrest numbers are set to represent the lowest monthly apprehensions under the Biden administration. The previous low came in January 2021, the month President Joe Biden assumed office, when around 75,000 migrant apprehensions were made at the border.
The plunge in arrests — border agents made around 250,000 in December alone — comes after the Biden administration imposed sweeping restrictions on asylum at the southern border in June for migrants who cross illegally in an effort to deter them from making the journey to the United States. The changes suspended longtime guarantees that gave anyone who stepped onto U.S. soil the right to seek a safe haven, allowing border officials to more quickly return migrants to their home countries or Mexico.
US appeals court lets Texas keep river barrier
(Reuters) — Texas can keep a 1,000-foot (300-meter) long floating barrier in the Rio Grande to deter illegal border crossings by migrants at the river separating the United States and Mexico, a U.S. appeals court has ruled, rejecting a challenge by President Joe Biden’s administration.
The full New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a preliminary injunction granted by a lower court that required Texas to move the string of wrecking ball-sized buoys it placed in a shallow area of the river.
The ruling was a victory for Republican Texas officials including Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton and a blow to Biden’s administration, which is locked in several legal battles with Texas and other Republican-led states over their efforts to crack down on illegal border crossings. The administration has called the state actions an unlawful intrusion on federal authority to set immigration policy.
The 5th Circuit’s decision allows Texas to keep the barrier in place pending the outcome of the Biden administration’s lawsuit accusing the state of violating a U.S. environmental law.
Man pleads guilty to threatening to kill Greene
(NYT) — An Atlanta man pleaded guilty Tuesday to making death threats against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
The man, Sean Patrick Cirillo, 34, made two threatening phone calls Nov. 8, 2023, to Greene’s Washington, D.C., office, spoke to staff members and said that he planned to shoot the politician in the head, an FBI agent said in court documents.
“I’m gonna kill her next week,” Cirillo said, according to recordings of the phone call that were reviewed by the FBI. “I’m gonna murder her.”
Cirillo pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to one count of transmitting interstate threats. He will face a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 7.
Police: Tesla that killed motorcyclist was in ‘Full Self-Driving’ mode
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — A Tesla Model S car was in “Full Self-Driving” mode when it hit and killed a 28-year-old motorcyclist in the Seattle area in April, police said, making it at least the second fatal accident involving the technology on which Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pinning his hopes.
The 56-year-old driver was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide based on his admission that he was looking at his cell phone while using the driver assistant feature, police said in a statement.
Tesla says its “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software requires active driver supervision and does not make vehicles autonomous.
Trump says he is against everyone having electric cars
CHICAGO (Reuters) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he was against everyone having an electric car despite the endorsement of billionaire Elon Musk, the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla.
“Elon Musk endorsed me and he is a friend of mine, … but I am against everybody having an electric car,” Trump said while speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.
Ex-BBC presenter pleads guilty to indecent child pictures charges
LONDON (Reuters) — Former British TV presenter Huw Edwards, the long-time face of the BBC’s flagship news programme, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of making indecent pictures of children.
Edwards was the BBC’s highest paid journalist and top news anchor until he quit in April, following allegations he had paid a young person thousands of pounds for sexually explicit photos, something which is unconnected to the criminal charges.
The 62-year-old was a household name in Britain for more than two decades, announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth to the nation in 2022 and leading coverage of elections, royal weddings and the 2012 Olympics.
