04/08/2025

MONDAY | AUG 4, 2025

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Immigration patrols restraint stays

Rights groups hailed the order as a victory for those seeking to bar the Department of Homeland Security and agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting such raids. “This decision is further confirmation that the administration’s paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region,” said attorney Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. “We look forward to holding the federal government accountable for these authoritarian horrors it unleashed in California.” – AFP

California residents and advocacy groups sued the Department of Homeland Security over the detentions. Los Angeles and surrounding suburbs have been ground zero for President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. He ordered the US military deployed there for weeks, and agents have rounded up migrants at car washes, bus stops, stores and farms. The ruling said the government’s defence team argued that “certain types of businesses, including car washes, were selected for encounters because ... they are likely to employ persons without legal documentation.”

citizen born and raised in East Los Angeles, was arrested outside a tow yard in Montebello on June 12 by agents carrying military-style rifles. “The agents repeatedly asked Gavidia whether he is American – and they repeatedly ignored his answer: ‘I am an American,’ ” the ruling said. Agents asked what hospital he was born in, and Gavidia responded he did not know, but said he was born in “East LA”. It said Gavidia told the agents he could show them his government issued ID. “The agents took Gavidia’s ID and his phone and kept his phone for 20 minutes. They never returned his ID.”

described as illegally using racial profiling. District Judge Maame Ewusi Mensah Frimpong had ordered an end to the arrests, arguing such actions by agents violate a person’s constitutional rights that safeguard against unreasonable seizures by the government. She said the detentions were being made “based upon race alone”, on whether a person was speaking Spanish or English with an accent or because of their place of work, and ordered them stopped. Friday’s ruling by the US court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit described the case of plaintiff Jason Gavidia as unlawful. Gavidia, a US

By the end of March, the Cabinet Office, in cooperation with experts, aims to identify legal and procedural issues involved in clearing space debris, such as fragments of rockets and satellites. Challenges include clarifying procedures for obtaining information on a debris from its owner, whether it is a company, a state or another entity. The government aims to use input from an expert panel to lead global discussions on rules for disposing space debris, timed to coincide with a 2026 meeting of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, officials said. Orbital space debris travels at speeds of 7 to 8 kilometres per second, making even small, lightweight fragments capable of SYDNEY: The premier of the Australian state of Victoria announced on Saturday plans to enshrine working from home in law, saying it should be “a right, not a request”. Under Jacinta Allan’s plan, workers would be entitled to work from home at least two days a week, if the job allows. “We’re doing that because we know what the evidence tells us – workers are more productive, it saves time for families, it saves money for families,” Allan said, launching the proposed policy at the Labor Party’s state conference. “This change will mean that any worker who can reasonably do their job from home has the right to do so for at least two days a week.” Allan said the policy would now go out for consultation LOS ANGELES: A US appeals court has upheld an order blocking immigration agents from carrying out patrols in California that led to indiscriminate detentions without reasonable grounds to suspect people of being undocumented. The ruling late on Friday by a three-judge panel denies the federal government’s appeal to overturn a temporary July order to halt the “roving patrols” in Los Angeles that immigration rights groups have o US appeals court upholds order

Victoria to enshrine work from home in law

Research and development are under way for technology to collect space debris, as countries and businesses continue to launch more satellites into space. Astroscale Japan Inc’s inspection satellite successfully approached and captured images of space debris last year. In the next stage of its experiment, the company plans to remove debris from orbit in fiscal 2027. According to a US monitoring organisation, more than 30,000 objects larger than 10cm in diameter are in orbit. The number is estimated to rise to over 100 million when including objects larger than 1mm. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency temporarily alters a satellite’s trajectory when space debris is projected to be a threat. – Bernama with workers, employers and unions. She said it was important to “get the details of this important change right”. Allan said the move could save the average worker A$110 (RM304) a week, cut congestion on roads and keep more women in the workforce. During national elections in May, the opposition Liberal National coalition’s plan to eliminate remote work was partly blamed for its poor performance. Victoria’s opposition leader, Brad Battin, said work from home arrangements had been valuable, and that he supported measures that promote better work-life balance. The measure is likely to come before the state parliament next year. – AFP

ROWERS’ DELIGHT ... Russian fun-seekers paddle down the Fontanka river during the Fontanka SUP (stand up paddle boarding) festival in Saint Petersburg on Saturday. – REUTERSPIC

Japan to address space debris issue TOKYO: Japan will seek to establish rules for the removal of human-made objects in space that could pose collision risks to satellites and the International Space Station if left in orbit. causing serious damage in a collision. According to the European Space Agency, nearly 3,000 defunct satellites and around 2,000 rocket parts are in orbit.

Australian towns blanketed after rare heavy snowfall CANBERRA: Several towns in eastern Australia were blanketed with their thickest layer of snow in decades as wild weather swept the area this weekend, causing floods, stranding vehicles and cutting power to thousands of homes. Snow also settled in Queensland for the first time in 10 years, she said. snow, storms had damaged buildings and it had issued several major flood warnings. Tens of thousands of homes spent the night without power, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. Police in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, said a car had become stuck in floodwater on Saturday evening and a female passenger in her 20s was swept away. The search was continuing yesterday, they said. – Reuters UK gets tough on people smuggling social media ads A cold air front dropped as much as 40cm of snow on parts of northern New South Wales on Saturday, the most since the mid-1980s, said Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist at Australia’s weather bureau.

Bradbury said this had occurred several times in the historical record. “What makes this event unusual is how much snow we had but also how widespread, covering quite a large part of the northern tablelands,” she said. With heavy rain lashing other areas, the New South Wales State Emergency Service said it had responded to more than 1,455 incidents. It said more than 100 vehicles had been stranded by Analysis by the Interior Ministry showed around 80% of migrants arriving on small boats had used social media during their journey to find or communicate with people smugglers. Under a new offence, which will be added to legislation already passing through parliament, individuals who post online to advertise services that facilitate a breach of immigration laws will face fines and prison sentences of up to five years.

LONDON: People smugglers who use social media to promote their services to migrants seeking to enter Britain illegally could face five years in prison under plans announced by the government. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is under huge political and public pressure to cut the number of migrants arriving illegally in small boats from France. More than 25,000 people have made the crossing so far this year.

It is already an offence to facilitate illegal immigration to Britain, but the government said its latest plan would give agencies another option to disrupt gangs that profit from the crossings. The government last month launched a new sanctions regime allowing it to freeze assets, impose travel bans and block access to the financial system for individuals and entities involved in irregular migration. – Reuters