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El Salvador offers to swap Venezuelan US deportees for political prisoners

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El Salvador offers to swap Venezuelan US deportees for political prisoners

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El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has offered to repatriate 252 Venezuelans deported to his country by the US in exchange for “political prisoners” held by Caracas.

Bukele, the authoritarian leader of El Salvador, has agreed to hold deportees from the US in a notorious maximum-security prison known as CECOT in exchange for a fee. The Trump administration has claimed the Venezuelan migrants belong to criminal gangs including Tren de Aragua, which Washington designates a “terrorist organisation”.

But some of the migrants have not been convicted or charged with a crime, and they were deported to El Salvador last month despite a court order blocking the move.

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The Trump administration admitted in court this month that one of the migrants was deported wrongly due to an “administrative error”, and some of the men signed paperwork agreeing to be returned to their home country, family members told the Financial Times.

Bukele wrote on social media platform X on Sunday that the men could be sent to Venezuela in exchange for the same number of “political prisoners” being held by the regime of President Nicolás Maduro under a “humanitarian agreement”.

“Your political prisoners haven’t committed any crime,” he wrote.

The El Salvadoran president did not specify the fate of the prisoners to be accepted from Venezuela.

A spokesperson for the Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Bukele has a close relationship with US President Donald Trump’s administration, whose officials have praised his iron-fisted approach to crime.

But the deportations — which both Washington and Bukele have publicised on social media, posting images and videos of men with shaven heads, doubled over in chains — have drawn public condemnation from rights groups and Democratic politicians.

Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Maryland, travelled this week El Salvador and met Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration admitted it had wrongly deported.

The US Supreme Court last week ruled that the White House should “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return, but Bukele has refused assist in his repatriation.

If Maduro were to accept the deal, it could ease political pressure on the Trump administration, which has been accused of denying due process to immigration detainees. The Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily blocked the White House from further deportations under a rarely used 18th century law.

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Maduro, who assumed Venezuela’s presidency in 2013 following the death of socialist revolutionary leader Hugo Chávez, has cracked down on dissent following a disputed election in July. According to Venezuelan rights group Foro Penal, there are 903 political prisoners being held in the country, including protester and opposition leaders.

Among the political prisoners Bukele mentioned was the son-in-law of Edmundo González, a former diplomat who ran against Maduro and is regarded by Washington and many of its allies as the winner of last year’s election. He also referred to a journalist, Roland Carreño, and the mother of opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose home has been repeatedly surrounded by government agents.

Maduro has also presided over an economic collapse that has led 7.7mn Venezuelans — nearly a quarter of the population — to flee the country.

After initially pursuing talks with Maduro, Trump has intensified a “maximum pressure” campaign from his first term in office, imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s vital oil industry and cancelling Biden-era exemptions granted to international energy groups including Chevron, Repsol, and Eni.

Last month, Washington announced 25 per cent “secondary tariffs” on countries that buy Venezuelan crude, in an effort to cut off funds to Maduro’s regime.

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.

The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.

Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.

The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.

The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.

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Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.

The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.

“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”

The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.

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Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.

“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”

Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
Allegations pile up, but Child Protective Services declines to investigate and the school district continues to promote Ronnie Stoner. We include an update at the end of the episode. “The Girls” is a 4-part series from the Louisville Public Media’s investigative podcast, Dig.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.

The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.

In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.

Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.

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A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.

Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.

A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.

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When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.

He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.

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