(GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA) — The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday announced the transfer of two detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, bringing the total announced departures to three detainees in the last 24 hours.
Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, who are both Malaysians, are being sent to their home country to serve the remainder of a five year sentence imposed in June, the Pentagon said in a press release. Officials had announced the transfer of Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu to Kenya on Tuesday.
There are now 27 detainees at Guantanamo, 15 of whom are eligible for a transfer out of the detention facility.
The two detainees whose transfers were announced Wednesday had previously been brought before a Military Commission, where they pleaded guilty to multiple offenses, including murder in violation of the law of war, the Pentagon said.
Both had agreed prior to their trials to testify against Encep Nurjaman, who the U.S. described as the alleged mastermind behind al-Qaeda attacks in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002, and in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2003, the Pentagon said.
“On June 13, 2024, in accordance with the pretrial agreements, the Convening Authority approved sentences of confinement for approximately five years for each and recommended that both men be repatriated or transferred to a third-party sovereign nation to serve the remainder of the approved sentence,” the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
In announcing the transfer of Bajabu to Kenya on Tuesday, the Pentagon said that a review board had found that his detention was “no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States.”
He was released to the Kenyan government, the U.S. said.
“The United States appreciates the support to ongoing U.S. efforts toward a deliberate and thorough process focused on responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantanamo Bay facility,” the Pentagon said.
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(WASHINGTON) — On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump announced some energy and environmental policy priorities that represent a stark departure from U.S. climate policy under former President Joe Biden.
His professed policies include a declaration of a “national energy emergency,” a rollback of the previous administration’s vehicle emissions standards — which were released last March — and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which is a major international agreement intended to reduce the impacts of global warming.
On energy Trump said during his second inaugural address Monday afternoon that he will declare a “national energy emergency” during his first day in office and “drill, baby, drill.”
“We have the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it,” Trump said. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
The U.S. became a net energy exporter in 2019, during Trump’s first term — a status maintained under the Biden administration. In 2024, the U.S. reached an annual record of 13.2 million barrels per day of crude oil production, according to the Energy Information Administration. Last week, the EIA forecast additional growth for U.S. crude oil production this year in its most recent short-term energy outlook.
America is also already the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, according to the EIA. The Biden administration paused the approval of additional LNG export facilities last January, with several project proposals awaiting approvals at that time. Ahead of the inauguration, the Trump administration said that it intended to undo this pause and expand LNG exports further.
On EV standards Trump also said Monday that he would “end the Green New Deal” and “revoke the electric vehicle mandate,” in a statement that references Biden-era rules from the Environmental Protection Agency regulating tailpipe emissions from both standard and heavy-duty vehicles.
“With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers,” Trump said. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”
Trump’s comments misrepresent the Biden-era rules, which were not a mandate for automakers to manufacture electric vehicles and did not require Americans to buy any specific type of car. The standards, released in March 2024, established an average of allowed emissions across a vehicle manufacturer’s entire fleet of offered vehicles. They affected only newly manufactured cars from model years 2027 to 2032.
At the time, Biden administration officials emphasized that there were multiple pathways to compliance with the new tailpipe standards, including the use of improved internal combustion engines, hybrids and fully electric cars.
On the Paris climate accords In a press release, Trump also said he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Day 1 — a move that would make good on one of his campaign’s promises.
The Paris Agreement was originally ratified at the annual United Nations Climate Conference (also known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP) in 2015. It intended to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels — a metric scientists believed would significantly reduce the impacts of climate change.
The world exceeded this metric for the first time in 2024, which was the warmest year on record according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
During his first term in office, Trump withdrew from the agreement; however, Biden re-entered it on his first day in office. The Biden administration implemented a slate of policies meant to address the country’s contribution to climate change and help mitigate emissions.
Both priorities are widely expected to change under the new Trump administration.
With another withdrawal, it seems Trump renders moot the Nationally Determined Contribution released by the Biden administration last month. That NDC, required by the Paris Agreement to be updated every five years, claimed the U.S. was setting a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions more than 60% by the year 2035.
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump, seeking to halt the upcoming sentencing in his criminal hush money case in New York, on Monday filed suit against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan over the judge’s denial of his presidential immunity motions.
The filing came as Judge Merchan denied a request by Trump, filed earlier Monday, that Merchan stay the sentencing, which is scheduled for Friday.
Trump’s lawyers filed the lawsuit — called an Article 78 motion — in New York’s Appellate Division First Department.
Trump’s attorneys argued in the suit that Judge Merchan exceeded his jurisdiction when he denied Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in his ruling last week and ordered Trump to appear for sentencing, either in person or virtually, on Jan. 10 following his May conviction.
Trump was found guilty in May of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
In denying Trump’s request to halt the sentencing, Merchan wrote, “This Court has considered Defendant’s arguments in support of his motion and finds that they are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”
“Further, this Court finds that the authorities relied upon in the instant motion by the Defendant are for the most part, factually distinguishable from the actual record or legally inapplicable,” Merchan wrote.
In asking Merchan to stay the sentencing, Trump’s attorneys had argued that Merchan “will lack authority to proceed with sentencing” because Trump is still appealing Merchan’s earlier ruling that the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision does not apply to the New York hush money case.
“Forcing a President to continue to defend a criminal case — potentially through trial or, even more dramatically here, through sentencing and judgment — while the appellate courts are still grappling with his claim of immunity would, in fact, force that President ‘to answer for his conduct in court’ before his claim of immunity is finally adjudicated,” defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
Merchan initially scheduled the sentencing for July 11 before pushing it back in order to weigh if Trump’s conviction was impacted by the Supreme Court’s July ruling prohibiting the prosecution of a president for official acts undertaken while in office. Merchan subsequently ruled that Trump’s conviction related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged Merchan to reject Trump’s request, arguing in a filing on Monday that the court has already “bent over backwards” to allow Trump to raise his claims of presidential immunity.
Bragg rejected Trump’s argument that his pending appeals mean Merchan does not have the authority to go forward.
“The notices of appeal that defendant will file with the Appellate Division do not divest this Court of jurisdiction or otherwise automatically stay proceedings in this Court,” Bragg argued in his filing.
Prosecutors argued that Trump’s lawyers failed to make the “extraordinary showing” needed to justify a stay of the entire case as they requested, arguing that the delay is largely a product of Trump’s own doing.
“The current schedule is entirely a function of defendant’s repeated requests to adjourn a sentencing date that was originally set for July 11, 2024; he should not now be heard to complain of harm from delays he caused,” the filing said.
The district attorney said sentencing Trump on Jan. 10 would not impair the discharge of Trump’s official duties because they are “duties he does not possess before January 20, 2025.”
“The President-elect is, by definition, not yet the President. The President elect therefore does not perform any Article II functions under the Constitution, and there are no Article II functions that would be burdened by ordinary criminal process involving the President elect,” the filing said.
Merchan last week indicated that he would sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge — effectively a blemish on Trump’s record — saying it struck a balance between the duties of president and the sanctity of the jury’s verdict.
Trump’s attorneys, in their Monday filing, said it did not matter.
“It is of no moment that the Court has suggested an intention to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge. While it is indisputable that the fabricated charges in this meritless case should have never been brought, and at this point could not possibly justify a sentence more onerous than that, no sentence at all is appropriate based on numerous legal errors — including legal errors directly relating to Presidential immunity that President Trump will address in the forthcoming appeals,” the defense said in Monday’s filing.
Trump, who is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, has also argued that the sentencing would disrupt his presidential transition and “threatens the functioning of the federal government.”
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — As brush fires continue to spread across Los Angeles County, more than 1,000 prisoners, working as “incarcerated firefighters,” are among the emergency responders fighting the blazes, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation confirmed to ABC News.
The prisoners, who voluntarily sign up to be a part of the Conservation (Fire) Camps Program, are embedded with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, crew members.
Participating individuals are typically paid between $5.80 and $10.24 per day plus $1 an hour when responding to active emergencies, according to the CDCR.
Those responding to the Los Angeles fires and working 24-hour shifts are earning $26.90 per day, according to the law enforcement agency.
“CDCR Fire Camp Program firefighters are proud to be embedded with CAL FIRE personnel to protect lives, property and natural resources in Southern California,” the agency said in a statement.
Incarcerated firefighters have been working “around the clock” cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow fire spread, the CDCR said, adding that the program is a source of “crucial support” during emergencies.
The exact number of hours and shifts the incarcerated crew members have worked since brush fires erupted in Los Angeles on Jan. 7 was not immediately clear.
The agency said the program paves the way for professional emergency response certifications and job opportunities after an inmate’s release. It also allows for criminal record expungement and opportunities to reduce their sentences, according to the CDCR.
Most incarcerated fire crew members receive two additional days off their sentence for every one day they serve on a fire crew, according to the agency, and camp volunteers, who work as support staff but not on a fire crew, receive one day off their sentence for every one day they serve.
The inmate firefighting program dates back to 1915 but largely expanded in California in the 1940s because of firefighter shortages during World War II, according to the CDCR.
The state’s Assembly Bill 2147, which passed in 2020, allowed inmate firefighters to petition courts to dismiss their convictions after serving their time.
The Los Angeles fires have brought renewed attention to the program, drawing some criticism over the wages the inmate firefighters receive.
Kim Kardashian took to social media over the weekend to call for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to raise their wages. “I am urging @cagovernor to do what no Governor has done in 4 decades, and raise the incarcerated firefighter pay to a rate [that] honors a human being risking their life to save our lives and homes,” Kardashian wrote.
In comparison, California firefighters typically earn a monthly base salary between $3,672 and $4,643 plus an additional $1,824 to $2,306 of extended duty week compensation every four weeks, according to Cal Fire.
The CDCR’s inmate fire program operates 35 minimum-security facilities in 25 counties across California, including two camps designated for incarcerated women.
There are more than 1,800 incarcerated individuals staffing the camps across the state, according to the agency.
Participating prisoners have joined the thousands of federal, state and local emergency responders who are battling at least four active wildfires across Los Angeles County as of Tuesday.
The largest of the devastating blazes, the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades, has scorched more than 23,000 acres, destroyed thousands of structures and remains at 17% containment as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Eaton Fire, in Altadena, has spread over 14,000 acres and is 35% contained, according to Cal Fire. There have been at least 24 deaths between the two fires — a number officials warn may rise as emergency efforts continue.
Approximately 88,000 Los Angeles County residents are under evacuation orders Tuesday as another dangerous Santa Ana wind event is forecast to impact the already vulnerable region.