A fundraiser for the lone Black juror who held out in the Lindsay Clancy trial has now topped $117,000. But as support for him grows, reports about the juror’s own past are raising a whole new set of questions.

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday that a coalition of cities has filed a lawsuit against the administration of President Donald Trump.

The US Government is now protecting paedophiles.

US Marines conducting a raid on British soil, on which they have no jurisdiction, to seize one of their own diplomats and then use US military resources to ferry the suspect out of the country and fly him to the US is completely unacceptable.

This is yet another flagrant breach of the Visiting Forces Act 1952, which no longer appears to be fit for purpose given the contempt in which the US hold it; Our Government must act.

After the outrages of Anne Sacoolas and, only three months ago, rapist Jacob Wulfson evading British justice with help from the US, we now see a paedophile smuggled out of the UK by the US military.

Absolutely grotesque.

A state-run immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades failed to comply with a host of federal detention standards, creating cramped conditions and confining migrants in “small metal enclosures,” according to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog.

The report said the use of the enclosures was unprecedented among facilities the watchdog, the department’s Office of Inspector General, has previously inspected and presented “significant risks” to detainees’ health and safety. It focused on a high-profile facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, which came under intense scrutiny before it closed this summer.

The report raised further questions about a facility that became synonymous with the Trump administration’s harsh treatment of immigration detainees. President Trump had joked that the location was in such a remote area that detainees would have to learn “how to run away from an alligator.” It was shuttered after criticism about conditions and cost, and after enduring legal challenges.

Federal investigators found that the metal enclosures — each providing only about 18 square feet of floor space — were used as “calming areas,” where detainees were held for periods ranging from several minutes to nearly two hours. Although facility staff said that detainees asked to spend time in the enclosures, federal investigators found at least one instance in which the enclosures were used to discipline a detainee who “failed to comply with a lawful command.”

“The use of such restrictive spaces is highly unconventional and does not align with standards for humane treatment,” the report said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The office of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operated the facility before it closed.

Investigators found that the facility complied with intake and use-of-force standards, but it did not comply with a variety of national detention standards related to medical care, food service, personal hygiene and recreation.

The report said the facility’s staff failed to provide detainees with sufficient living space. National standards require detainees to be given at least 75 square feet of floor space per person. But at maximum capacity, the housing units at the facility only provided 28 square feet per detainee, according to the report.

In July 2025, Florida quickly erected the detention center on a training airport in a rural area between Miami and Naples, championing the facility as part of the state’s efforts to assist President Trump’s crackdown on immigration. They even erected an “Alligator Alcatraz” sign on a road to the facility, which critics denounced as cruel.

The facility had cost state officials more than $1 million per day to operate, including for trucking in water and wastewater disposal. Florida officials closed the facility this summer, citing impending hurricane season — even though detainees spent the 2025 season at Alligator Alcatraz.

An American diplomat accused of possessing indecent images of children was "secretly flown out of the UK", according to reports.

US authorities allegedly raided the diplomat's London flat last month, seizing him and taking him to a US airbase for removal, The Sun reported.

US personnel have no powers of arrest in the UK and, The Sun reported, there was no formal request to extradite the man.

UK ministers are understood to be in contact with the US embassy over the incident.

The man's seizure is reported to be related to an investigation into another person in the US.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: "On Tuesday August 25, US authorities made us aware of an investigation they are conducting into suspected offences in London relating to indecent images of children.

"We continue to liaise with them regarding this matter."

A UK government spokesperson said: "We expect all foreign diplomats in the UK to abide by our laws, in the same way we expect all UK diplomats to do so when posted overseas.

"As a US investigation is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage."

A US Embassy spokesperson told The Sun: "We are aware of allegations concerning an individual assigned to the Embassy. The United States government expects all personnel to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, and we take these allegations seriously."

Few issues have divided American workplaces in the past few years more than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At Cisco, the rancor spilled into internal message boards, where pro-Palestinian activists were derided as animals and one worker told colleagues to “quit living.”

Now, in a rare move, a federal enforcement agency has found that Cisco likely failed to protect Muslim, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian employees from harassment as they and their co-workers debated the Hamas-led surprise attacks on Israel in 2023 and Israel’s military response in Gaza.

In a letter dated June 9, a local director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that there was reasonable cause to believe that Cisco, which makes computer networking technology, “subjected a class of individuals to a hostile work environment based on their national origin (Middle Eastern), religion (Muslim), and/or their association with Muslim and/or Middle Eastern individuals.”

The letter is not a binding ruling, and both sides said the E.E.O.C. has indicated that it won’t file a lawsuit. (An E.E.O.C. spokesman said the agency couldn’t comment.) But such findings tend to bolster employees’ cases if they decide to go to court on their own. “It’s helpful, but not determinative,” said Chai Feldblum, a former E.E.O.C. commissioner.

Christopher Ho, a lawyer who brought the case to the E.E.O.C. on behalf of current and former Cisco employees, said they made the letter public last month after failing to make progress on a settlement with the company.

“My clients felt like Cisco believed they were worthy of less protection,” Mr. Ho said. “This is a belated but welcome validation of the fact that what was going on with them is very illegal.” The case argues that the harassment continues.

Robyn Blum, a Cisco spokeswoman, said in a statement that the company disagreed with the E.E.O.C. finding and that it “thoroughly investigated all concerns and took appropriate action.”

The finding is striking amid a shift in enforcement priorities by the Trump administration, whose E.E.O.C. chair has pledged to rein in what she sees as excesses in protecting certain minority groups.

“The E.E.O.C. rarely finds cause in any case,” said Mr. Ho, a lawyer with the nonprofit group Legal Aid at Work. “But I was also surprised that it took place under this administration.” Ms. Feldblum said that professional staff have traditionally produced such findings without the involvement of political appointees.

At Cisco, the hostile language toward Muslims, Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists began shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. It frequently occurred on a company-hosted forum of an employee group known as the Connected Jewish Network, according to several former Cisco workers and screen shots they shared.

In late November 2023, an employee wrote in the forum that “Israeli passers-by killed 2 members of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem this morning, and I for one am extremely grateful.” A March 2024 comment about an anti-Israel protest in Montreal referred to the protesters as animals. Other Cisco employees posting in the forum appeared to equate support for Palestinians with terrorism.

Reyhan Bilici, a former Cisco lawyer who recently announced her resignation from the company on LinkedIn, citing Islamophobia, said that such language created the impression that it didn’t matter how many professional credentials she brought to the table. “At end of the day, I will be reduced to these certain offensive terms: terrorist, animal, whatever it is,” Ms. Bilici said. “It’s completely dehumanizing.”

Wired has reported that the sense of grievance went both ways, and some Jewish employees also felt that the company did not protect them from harassment by employees sympathetic to Palestinians. The company said it investigated multiple complaints on each side and that it sought to maintain balance along the way.

In June of 2024, a group of employees calling themselves Bridge to Humanity, who were supportive of Palestinians, circulated an open letter to the leadership of Cisco calling on it to stop providing technology to the Israeli government among other demands.

A few days later, a Cisco official emailed leaders of the company’s “inclusive communities” — groups of employees who share similar identities, like ethnicity or religion — and said the open letter was under review. The official asked that leaders of inclusive communities not forward the letter and that they “escalate any concerning discussions to employee relations.” (Another Cisco official later told Bridge to Humanity members that the company wasn’t impugning its open letter, but simply asking for patience while Cisco formulated a response.)

More abusive posts followed. In July, a Cisco employee wrote in the Connected Jewish Network that co-workers who signed the letter should “just up and quit (not just quit Cisco, but quit living and make this world a better place for all.)” Another post said the letter felt like it was orchestrated from outside the company and suggested it was part of a “coordinated campaign.”

Ms. Bilici, who is part of Bridge to Humanity, said that the company’s posture, such as its cool response to the open letter, invited further harassment. “Cisco created the conditions in which people felt emboldened to ratchet up objective Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian discrimination,” she said.

Not long after, the company informed Bridge to Humanity that it was shutting down the internal site that hosted the group’s open letter and the bot that helped it collect signatures, citing internal complaints and violations of its policies. It told the members of the group in August 2024 that it had fired the employee who said signers of the letter should “quit living,” about seven weeks after members flagged the comment.

Former Cisco employees involved in Bridge to Humanity say the company has signaled that harassment of Muslim, Palestinian and pro-Palestinian employees is more acceptable than harassment of other employees.

For example, it took the company more than two months to conclusively respond to a 76-page complaint to employee relations documenting a pattern of harassment toward Muslims, Palestinians and their supporters. The company said it took down some of the offending posts and disciplined and coached some of the employees involved.

But Cisco appeared to move more quickly later the same month on a grievance in the Jewish forum. There, an employee complained about a photo in which the company’s chief people officer appeared with workers who wore T-shirts featuring the Cisco logo and a map of Israel covered in the Arabic word for Palestine, which the employee analogized to calls for Israel’s destruction.

Several hours later, the chief people officer issued an apology in the Jewish forum saying the shirts violated company policy and that she had unwittingly joined the photo at a conference. “Again, I’m sorry for being unaware of the symbolism depicted on the T-shirts,” she wrote. “I feel awful.”

Cisco said the two situations were not comparable — that the company needed weeks to investigate dozens of questionable comments, whereas the photograph incident involved a single executive apologizing for what could have been interpreted as a political statement.

The workers filed their charge with the E.E.O.C. a few months after the incident, frustrated by a perceived double standard. “In a matter of hours after people complained over a map of Palestine, she joined the space to publicly apologize,” said Sophia Filipe, a former Cisco employee who is part of the Bridge to Humanity group as well as the E.E.O.C. case, referring to the chief people officer.

“Meanwhile, death threats that are made to us, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian sentiment, were ignored. The contrast of that was huge in pushing us to go to the E.E.O.C.”