WASHINGTON: A US soldier who fled to North Korea last year will plead guilty to desertion at a court martial as part of a plea deal, his lawyer said.
Private Second Class Travis King ran across the border from South Korea into the North in July last year while on a sightseeing tour of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea expelled King in September and the US Army later charged him with desertion and a raft of other crimes.
King’s lawyer Frank Rosenblatt said Monday the US Army had charged the soldier with 14 offenses and that he would plead guilty to five of them.
“He will plead guilty to five of those, including desertion, 3 counts of disobeying an officer, and assault on a noncommissioned officer,” Rosenblatt said in a statement.
“He will plead not guilty to the remaining offenses, which the Army will withdraw and dismiss.”
King’s guilty plea and sentencing hearing would take place on September 20 at a court martial in Fort Bliss, Texas, the lawyer said.
“There, he will explain what he did, answer a military judge’s questions about why he is pleading guilty, and be sentenced,” Rosenblatt said.
Desertion carries a jail sentence of up to five years.
“Travis is grateful to his friends and family who have supported him, and to all those outside of his circle who did not pre-judge his case based on the initial allegations,” his lawyer said.
At the time of the incident, King had been stationed in South Korea and after a drunken bar fight and a stay in South Korean jail, he was meant to fly back to Texas to face disciplinary hearings.
Instead of traveling to Fort Bliss, he walked out of the Seoul-area airport, joined a DMZ sightseeing trip and slipped over the fortified border where he was detained by the communist North’s authorities.
Pyongyang had said that King had defected to North Korea to escape “mistreatment and racial discrimination in the US Army.”
But after completing its investigation, North Korea “decided to expel” King in September for illegally intruding into its territory.
King’s border crossing occurred with relations between the two Koreas at a low point, with diplomacy stalled and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for increased weapons development, including tactical nuclear warheads.
US soldier who fled to North Korea to plead guilty to desertion: lawyer
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US soldier who fled to North Korea to plead guilty to desertion: lawyer
- Private Second Class Travis King ran across the border from South Korea into the North in July last year
- North Korea expelled King in September and the US Army later charged him with desertion and a raft of other crimes
London’s Heathrow airport closed after fire causes major power cut
London: Britain’s Heathrow airport, Europe’s busiest, was shut down early Friday for 24 hours after a major fire at an electricity substation cut power to the sprawling facility west of London, officials said.
Airport authorities said they “expect significant disruption” over the coming days, with hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers affected.
“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage,” the airport operator said in a statement on its website, adding it would be closed until just before midnight Friday (2359 GMT).
“Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said Heathrow’s closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from the airport.
It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.
London Fire Brigade said there had been a “significant” fire at a substation in Hayes, a nearby town in the London borough of Hillingdon, which caused the power outage.
It said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were on the scene, while around 150 people had been evacuated from nearby properties.
Images on social media — which could not immediately be verified by AFP — showed huge flames and smoke rising from the substation.
Other videos, apparently shot inside Heathrow’s terminals, showed shuttered shops and deserted corridors, lit only by emergency lighting.
“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimize disruption,” said London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne.
He said the blaze was first reported at 11:23 p.m. (2323 GMT).
“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” a statement said.
British utility firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on its website that an “unplanned outage” had left more than 16,000 homes without power in the area.
Heathrow handles more than than 80 million passengers a year and the operator says there are around 1,300 takeoffs or landings a day.
Seven United Airlines flights returned to their airport of origin or to other airports and all Friday flights to London Heathrow are being canceled, a spokesperson said.
In Sydney, Qantas said two flights en route to Heathrow — a non-stop flight from Perth and another via Singapore — had both diverted to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.
It said two other flights scheduled to fly out of London on Friday were likely to be impacted.
In January, the government gave permission for Heathrow to build a third runway — which could be ready by 2035 — after years of legal wrangling brought on by complaints from local residents.
Five major airports serve the capital and towns nearby.
But capacity is stretched, especially at Heathrow whose two runways each measure almost four kilometers in length, while the airport covers a total area 12.3 square kilometers.
It opened in 1946 as London Airport before being renamed Heath Row, a hamlet demolished two years earlier to make way for the construction.
Situated 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of central London, the present Heathrow serves 200 destinations in more than 80 countries, with passengers having access to four terminals.
Among its main flight destinations last year were Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York.
67,000 white South Africans express interest in Trump’s plan to give them refugee status
- Trump has offered refugee status to some white South Africans who claimed they are victims of racial discrimination by their Black-led government
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: The United States Embassy in South Africa said Thursday it received a list of more than 67,000 people interested in refugee status in the US under President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate members of a white minority group he claims are victims of racial discrimination by their Black-led government.
The list was given to the embassy by the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US, which said it became a point of contact for white South Africans asking about the program announced by the Trump administration last month. The chamber said the list does not constitute official applications.
Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 7 cutting US funding to South Africa and citing “government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”
Trump’s executive order specifically referred to Afrikaners, a white minority group who are descendants of mainly Dutch and French colonial settlers who first came to South Africa in the 17th century. The order directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to prioritize humanitarian relief to Afrikaners who are victims of “unjust racial discrimination” and resettle them in the US under the refugee program.
There are approximately 2.7 million Afrikaners in South Africa, which has a population of 62 million. Trump’s decision to offer some white South Africans refugee status went against his larger policy to halt the US refugee resettlement program.
The South African government has said that Trump’s allegations that it is targeting Afrikaners through a land expropriation law are inaccurate and largely driven by misinformation. Trump has posted on his Truth Social platform that Afrikaners were having their farmland seized, when no land has been taken under the new law.
The executive order also criticized South Africa’s foreign policy, specifically its decision to accuse Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in a case at the United Nations’ top court. The Trump administration has accused South Africa of supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran and taking an anti-American stance. The US has also expelled the South African ambassador, accusing him of being anti-America and anti-Trump.
An official at the US Embassy in the South African capital, Pretoria, confirmed receipt of the list of names from the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US but gave no more detail.
Neil Diamond, the president of the chamber, said the list contains 67,042 names. Most were people between 25 and 45 years old and have children.
He told the Newzroom Afrika television channel that his organization had been inundated with requests for more information since Trump’s order and had contacted the State Department and the embassy in Pretoria “to indicate that we would like them to make a channel available for South Africans that would like to get more information and register for refugee status.”
“That cannot be the responsibility of the chamber,” he said.
Diamond said only US authorities could officially register applications for resettlement in the United States. The US Embassy in South Africa said it is awaiting further instructions on the implementation of Trump’s order.
In latest blow to Tesla, regulators recall nearly all Cybertrucks
- NHTSA warned that an exterior panel that runs along the left and right side of the windshield can detach while driving, creating a dangerous road hazard
- The recall of 46,096 Cybertrucks covers all 2024 and 2025 model years, manufactured from November 13, 2023, to February 27, 2025
US safety regulators on Thursday recalled virtually all Cybertrucks on the road, the eighth recall of the Tesla-made vehicles since deliveries to customers began just over a year ago.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recall, which covers more than 46,000 Cybertrucks, warned that an exterior panel that runs along the left and right side of the windshield can detach while driving, creating a dangerous road hazard for other drivers, increasing the risk of a crash.
The stainless steel strip, called a cant rail assembly, between the windshield and the roof on both sides, is bound to the truck’s assembly with a structural adhesive, the NHTSA report said. The remedy uses an adhesive that’s not been found to be vulnerable to “environmental embrittlement,” the NHTSA said, and includes additional reinforcements.
Tesla will replace the panel free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed May 19, 2025.
The recall of 46,096 Cybertrucks covers all 2024 and 2025 model years, manufactured from November 13, 2023, to February 27, 2025. The NHTSA order says that Tesla became aware of the problem early this year.
Videos posted on social media showing people ripping the panels off of Cybertrucks with their hands have gone viral in recent days.
The Cybertruck, which Tesla began delivering to buyers in late 2023, has been recalled eight times in the past 15 months for safety problems, including once in November because a fault in an electric inverter can cause the drive wheels to lose power. Last April, the futuristic-looking trucks were recalled to fix acceleration pedals that can get stuck in the interior trim. Other recalls were related to windshield wipers and the display screen.
It’s the latest setback for the Elon Musk-owned electric automaker, which has come under attack since President Donald Trump took office and empowered Musk to oversee a new Department of Government Efficiency that’s slashing government spending.
While no injuries have been reported, Tesla showrooms, vehicle lots, charging stations and privately owned cars have been targeted.
Prosecutors in Colorado charged a woman last month in connection with attacks on Tesla dealerships, including Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles and the words “Nazi cars” spray-painted on a building.
And federal agents in South Carolina last week arrested a man they say set fire to Tesla charging stations near Charleston. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in an affidavit that authorities found writings critical of the government and DOGE in his bedroom and wallet.
Even before the attacks ramped up in recent weeks, Tesla has been struggling, facing increased competition from rival electric vehicles, particularly out of China.
Though largely unaffected by Thursday’s recall announcement, Tesla shares have plummeted 42 percent in 2025, reflecting newfound pessimism as sales crater around the globe.
With regard to Thursday’s recall, Cybertruck owners may contact Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752 and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 888-327-4236, or go to nhtsa.gov.
Judge stops Elon Musk’s DOGE team from ‘unbridled access’ to millions of Americans’ private data
- DOGE accessed sensitive SSA data without proper vetting
- Democracy Forward calls ruling a win for data privacy
A federal judge said on Thursday the Social Security Administration likely violated privacy laws by giving tech billionaire Elon Musk’s aides “unbridled access” to the data of millions of Americans, and ordered a halt to further record sharing.
US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of Maryland said Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was intruding into “the personal affairs of millions of Americans” as part of its hunt for fraud and waste under President Donald Trump.
“To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA is in the public interest. But, that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so,” Hollander said.
The case has shed light for the first time on the amount of personal information DOGE staffers have been given access to in the databases, which hold vast amounts of sensitive data on most Americans.
The SSA administers benefits for tens of millions of older Americans and people with disabilities, and is just one of at least 20 agencies DOGE has accessed since January.
Hollander said at the heart of the case was a decision by new leadership at the SSA to give 10 DOGE staffers unfettered access to the records of millions of Americans. She said lawyers for SSA had acknowledged that agency leaders had given DOGE access to a “massive amount” of records.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack,” Hollander said.
‘Crown jewels’
One of the systems DOGE accessed is called Numident, or Numerical Identification, known inside the agency as the “crown jewels,” three former and current SSA staffers told Reuters. Numident contains personal information of everyone who has applied for or been given a social security number.
Thursday’s ruling is one of the most significant legal setbacks for DOGE to date. It comes two days after a federal judge ruled Musk’s efforts to shut down the US Agency for International Development were likely illegal because he is not a Senate-confirmed cabinet official.
DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A White House spokesman criticized the decision in a statement and said Trump will “continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people goes into effect.”
“This is yet another activist judge abusing the judicial system to try and sabotage the President’s attempts to rid the government of waste, fraud, and abuse,” spokesman Harrison Fields said.
Judges have declined to block DOGE from accessing computer systems at the departments of Labor, Health and Humans Services, Energy and others, although the team has been barred from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment systems.
The two labor unions and an advocacy group that sued SSA, Musk, DOGE and others, said in their lawsuit the agency had been “ransacked” and that DOGE members had been installed without proper vetting or training and demanded access to some of the agency’s most sensitive data systems.
The advocacy group Democracy Forward said the ruling was an important win for data privacy.
“Today, the court did what accountability demands — forcing DOGE to delete every trace of the data it unlawfully accessed. The court recognized the real and immediate dangers of DOGE’s reckless actions and took action to stop it,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement.
Records to the 1930s
Musk says that millions of people are using the identities of dead people to claim social security payments, or that checks are still being sent to people who died long ago.
Two of the former SSA officials told Reuters the names of millions of dead people are inside the main database because it contains records dating back to the agency’s founding in the 1930s. But the fact they are listed in the systems does not mean they receive payments, the officials said.
“We will work to comply with the court order,” said an SSA spokesperson.
In a statement on March 3, the SSA said it had identified over $800 million in cost savings for the 2025 fiscal year.
“The SSA continues to make good on President Trump’s promise to protect American taxpayers from unnecessary spending,” it said in the earlier statement.
The information in SSA’s records includes Social Security numbers, personal medical and mental health records, driver’s license information, bank account data, tax information, earnings history, birth and marriage records, and employment and employer records, Judge Hollander said.
Hollander also noted that DOGE staffers had been granted anonymity in the proceeding due to fears for their safety.
“(The) defense does not appear to share a privacy concern for the millions of Americans whose SSA records were made available to the DOGE affiliates, without their consent, and which contain sensitive, confidential, and personally identifiable information,” the judge said.
US judge bars deportation of pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student
- Badar Khan Suri being targeted for wife’s Palestinian heritage and for pro-Palestinian views, lawyer says
- US Homeland Department alleges Suri, an Indian studying at Washington’s Georgetown University, has ties to Hamas
WASHINGTON: A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport Badar Khan Suri, an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University whose lawyer has said the United States was seeking to remove him after it accused him of harming US foreign policy.
The order is to remain in effect until lifted by the court, according to the three-paragraph order by US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Department of Homeland Security has accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media. On March 15, Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined Suri could be deported for those activities, according to DHS.
Suri is living in the US on a student visa and is married to an American citizen and has been detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to his lawyer. He is awaiting a court date in immigration court, his lawyer said.
Federal agents arrested him outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night. The lawyer welcomed Thursday’s ruling and called it “the first bit of due process Dr. Khan Suri has received since he was snatched from his family Monday night.”
The American Civil Liberties Union also defended Suri and said he was “transferred to multiple immigration detention centers” before being taken to Alexandria, Louisiana.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s court order.
The case comes as Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel’s war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack. Trump’s measures have sparked outcry from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups who accuse his administration of unfairly targeting political critics by invoking rarely used laws.
Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of the university’s School of Foreign Service.
Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a US citizen, said his lawyer. Saleh is from Gaza, according to the Georgetown University website, which said she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and worked with the foreign ministry in Gaza. Saleh has not been arrested, the lawyer added.
The lawyer had said on Wednesday Suri was being targeted for his wife’s Palestinian heritage and for his own pro-Palestinian views.
Some media outlets, including the Washington Post, reported that Ahmed Yousef, the father of Suri’s wife, was a former political adviser to Hamas. Yousef had also written for some Western publications like The Guardian.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration arrested and sought to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Khalil was moved to Louisiana and is challenging his detention in court.
Trump, without evidence, has accused Khalil of supporting Hamas. Khalil’s legal team says he has no links to the militant group that the US designates as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Trump has alleged pro-Palestinian protesters are antisemitic. Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and their support for Palestinian rights are wrongly conflated with antisemitism by their critics.
