Department of Homeland Security says it plans more such ‘large charter flights’, sparking concerns for safety of migrants escaping poverty or repression

The US has sent back 116 Chinese migrants in the first such “large charter flight” in five years, the Department of Homeland Security has said.

“We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

Agreement would have shortened prison term but exposed alleged attacker to a federal terrorism-related charge

The man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie in 2022 rejected a plea deal on Tuesday that would have shortened his state prison term but exposed him to a federal terrorism-related charge, the suspect’s lawyer said.

Hadi Matar, 26, has been held without bail since Rushdie’s attack, in which he is accused of stabbing the acclaimed author more than a dozen times and blinding him as he was onstage, about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.

Hot sea temperatures are fueling storm’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper

Hurricane Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm shows the literal hot water the Atlantic and Caribbean are in – and the kind of season ahead, experts said.

Beryl smashed multiple records even before its major-hurricane-level winds approached land. The powerful storm is acting more like monsters that form in the peak of hurricane season thanks mostly to water temperatures as hot or hotter than the region normally gets in September, five hurricane experts told the Associated Press.

Artist behind controversial piece in Linz cathedral says vandalism shows there are still ‘people who question women’s right to their own bodies’

Vandals have beheaded a sculpture of the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus on display in the cathedral in the Austrian city of Linz. The work had drawn criticism from some Catholics, who said it was blasphemous.

The sculpture had been on view at the St Mary Cathedral, Austria’s largest, as part of an art installation about women’s roles, family images and gender equality, the Linz diocese said in a statement. It said the vandalism, which occurred on Monday, had been reported to police.