By REGINA GARCIA CANO and JUAN ARRAEZ, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — María Alejandra Rubio hasn’t seen her son in five months. They were separated in the United States when she was detained to be deported to her native Venezuela and he was sent to live with a family friend.

Rubio says U.S. immigration authorities led her to believe she would board a plane to Venezuela with her 8-year-old son, Anyerson. But she made the hourslong journey last month without him.

Heartbroken, Rubio is now part of a group of Venezuelan mothers and grandmothers appealing to U.S. first lady Melania Trump to help them see their children and grandchildren again. Members of the group, backed by Venezuela’s government, say they sent Trump a letter seeking her assistance last month.

“He tells me, ‘Mom, I want to be with you. I want to return to my country with you,’” Rubio said of her calls with Anyerson, who is in Georgia. “So, I would really like the first lady to put her hand on her heart and answer our letter.”

Trump’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press seeking comment on the letter. Venezuela’s government on Thursday told the AP the letter, dated Aug. 18, was sent to the White House via a private mail delivery service.

“We ask you as mothers to raise our voices, to help our children return to their homes, to be a bridge to the justice and humanity that you yourself call for,” members of the group wrote in Spanish, according to a copy of the letter shared with the AP. “We ask you to listen to the cries of families, to stop this separation policy from continuing, to simply deport mothers along with their children.”

Venezuelans are being steadily deported to their home country this year after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the U.S. Immigrants now arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuela’s state-owned airline.

Maduro’s government has said more than 10,000 migrants, including children, had returned to the South American country as of mid-August. But not all parents have traveled with their children.

Among the minors separated from their parents was 2-year-old Maikelys Espinoza. She remained in the U.S. after her mother was deported to Venezuela and her father was sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador under President Donald Trump’s invocation of an 18th-century wartime law to swiftly deport hundreds of immigrants.

The U.S. government said Maikelys’ separation was justified because U.S. authorities had linked her parents to the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua gang, which the Republican president designated a terrorist organization. The girl reunited with her mother in mid-May in Venezuela and with her father in July, when he was released from the Salvadoran prison.

Maduro publicly thanked President Trump after Maikelys arrived in Venezuela. The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president, but it has negotiated various actions with his government this year, including the release of several Americans detained in the South American country. The U.S. government, however, has said the return of minors to Venezuela could take time.

Related Articles

$50 million suit against crypto ‘godfather’ reads like a movie plot, featuring corrupt LA deputies

The gender gap in math widened in the pandemic. Schools are trying to make up lost ground

Top US coal miner Peabody sees booming demand in Trump era

As summers grow deadlier, here’s what to know about utility shutoffs

Stocks wobble as Wall Street questions whether the US job market has slowed by enough or too much

“Unlike the illegitimate Maduro regime, the United States does not use children as bargaining chips, and we will not be rushed to move unaccompanied minors before thoroughly assessing what is in their best interest,” the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs posted on X on Aug. 8.

Like Venezuelan government officials, mothers and grandmothers who signed the letter seeking the return of children to their home country are characterizing their stay in the U.S. as kidnappings.

“You not having contact with your child, you not knowing where your child is, is a kidnapping. We don’t know where she is,” Syntia Cáceres said Thursday, referring to her granddaughter Aurore, who’s 4.

Cáceres said her grandchild was placed in foster care in Georgia after her son was detained in July. She said the family caring for Aurore allowed her to speak with the girl once last month but later told her that child protective services instructed the family to end any contact with the grandmother.

Cáceres now wants to make sure her son and granddaughter are deported together when the time comes.

“If they’re going to deport people, it doesn’t matter, but they should deport them with their children,” she said. “If (President Trump) doesn’t want us there in his country, it doesn’t matter, fine. Deport us, send us back, but all together.”

Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report from Washington.

By JILL LAWLESS and PAN PYLAS

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shook up his Cabinet Friday after his top deputy stepped down over a tax error on a recent house purchase, leaving a big hole in the center-left Labour government.

Related Articles

A deadly strike marks a moment in Rubio’s long desire to confront Venezuela

AP reporting calls into question why and how Israel attacked a Gaza hospital

Google hit with $3.5 billion fine from European Union in ad-tech antitrust case

WHO chief says the mpox outbreak in Africa is no longer a global health emergency

Japan welcomes Trump’s order to implement lower tariffs on autos and other goods

Foreign Secretary David Lammy was moved to replace Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister, and also took the justice portfolio. Yvette Cooper moved from the Home Office to become foreign secretary while the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, became home secretary.

Treasury chief Rachel Reeves was kept in post, meaning that the three major offices of state below the prime minister will be occupied by women for the first time in history.

The changes came after Rayner handed in her resignation to Starmer because an independent inquiry concluded that she hadn’t met the ethical standards required of government ministers over her recent purchase of an apartment in Hove, on England’s south coast. The report concluded that she should have sought more specific advice, even though she acted in good faith.

“I take full responsibility for this error,” Rayner said in her resignation letter to Starmer. “I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.”

FILE – Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner attend a concert to mark the 80th Anniversary of V-E Day at Horse Guards Parade, London, Thursday May 8, 2025. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP, File)

In response, Starmer voiced his sadness, but said that Rayner had made the right decision to stand down.

“I have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics,” Starmer wrote. The handwritten letter signed off “with very best wishes and with real sadness.”

Rayner is a hugely popular member of the Labour Party and was widely tipped to be a potential successor to Starmer. In addition to resigning as deputy prime minister, Rayner quit as deputy leader of the party, meaning that members will have to select someone new.

Starmer will be hoping that his government changes will allow him to seize back the political agenda following days of speculation surrounding Rayner’s future.

His government has seen its support fall sharply since its landslide victory in last year’s election, following a string of missteps over welfare reform and mounting public concern about immigration.

Rayner will remain a U.K. lawmaker on the back benches. She referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus, on Wednesday, who delivered his report to Starmer on Friday.

Though Magnus concluded that Rayner had “acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service,“ he said that “with deep regret” she had breached the ministers’ code of conduct.

In the U.K., levies are charged on property purchases, with higher charges due on more expensive homes and secondary residences. Reports have suggested that Rayner saved 40,000 pounds (nearly $54,000) by not paying the appropriate levy, known as a stamp duty, on her 800,000-pound ($1 million) purchase.

Rayner, 45, had sought to explain that her “complex living arrangements” related to her divorce in 2023 and the fact that her son has “lifelong disabilities” underlay her failure to pay the appropriate tax.

In her resignation letter, Rayner said she also had to “consider the significant toll that the ongoing pressure of the media is taking on my family.”

Rayner’s journey from teenage single mother to trade union official to lawmaker and deputy prime minister is a rarity in British politics.

Her no-nonsense attitude and plain-speaking manner have been a distinct — and politically useful — contrast to the more pragmatic, lawyerly Starmer and she will be hard to replace. She had the ability to connect with sections of the public that Starmer had struggled with since he became prime minister.

Rayner, who also held the housing brief, had often railed against those who deliberately underpay tax, particularly those in the preceding Conservative administration, which Labour replaced in July 2024.

Her previous comments had opened her up to charges of hypocrisy, particularly from current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who said that Rayner’s position had been “untenable for days.”

“The truth is simple, she dodged tax,” Badenoch said in a video posted on social media. “She lied about it.”

Event promoter Ryan Chapell wouldn’t budge — then the guns came out.

Chapell refused to refund half the $50,000 that self-proclaimed crypto “godfather” Adam Iza had paid for his 21st birthday gala.

Things went downhill from there.

Iza allegedly turned loose his hired thugs, gun-toting, badge-wearing Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who took Chapell’s cellphone at gunpoint and stole thousands from his online bank account, and then framed Chapell on drug charges and falsely obtained a search warrant to trash his West Los Angeles home ostensibly in search of fentanyl and cocaine. They found none.

Federal authorities cracked Iza’s illegal operation, recently securing guilty pleas or agreements to plead guilty from three of the former deputies, Iza and his girlfriend. Chapell now is suing the county and Iza in federal court for more than $50 million in damages.

‘Money can buy the police’

“It just shows, money can buy the police,” said Chapell’s attorney, Jerry Steering. The suit, filed Aug. 15, details Iza’s illegal rise as a “cryptocurrency” mogul and, for the first time, lays out Iza’s attacks from Chapell’s point of view.

In a prepared statement, the Sheriff’s Department responded: “This deplorable behavior is a direct violation of department standards, betrays public trust, and tarnishes the reputation of all deputies and the entire department. …Those who misuse their badge to exploit their power for personal gain through illegal activities have no place in law enforcement and must be held accountable.”

According to the lawsuit, Iza, now 24, aspired to be a “quasi-Mafioso figure in the mold of Tony Montana from the movie ‘Scarface.’ ” Iza and his girlfriend, Iris Au, schemed to defraud Meta Platforms Inc. and its Facebook advertising clients by selling access to hacked business manager accounts and associated lines of credit, the lawsuit said.

Iza and Au then opened a group of shell companies to launder the money, under the names Zort Inc., Dream Agency Inc., Rise Agency Inc. and Atlas Marketing Agency. From 2020 through 2023, Iza and Au stole about $37 million from Meta, according to the lawsuit.

Lavish lifestyle

Iza billed himself as a cryptocurrency millionaire, spending his allegedly illegal gains on a lavish lifestyle, buying luxury vehicles, moving into homes in Bel-Air, Beverly Hills and Newport Beach. He even hired a surgeon to break his legs to make him taller, the suit said. Iza also engaged a Chino-based security firm operated by then Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Eric Chase Saavedra, the suit said.

At the time, Saavedra was assigned to the sheriff’s gang bureau and a federal fugitive task force with the U.S. Marshal’s Office.

Iza allegedly paid Saavedra $100,000 a month to strongarm enemies and rivals. Saavedra gave at least eight other deputies $750 a shift to be the “godfather’s” enforcers, according to the suit. They communicated with each other by using the Telegram  encrypted messaging application.

Besides muscle, the deputies provided Iza with information from confidential police databases that allowed him to locate and harass his alleged victims, the suit said.

Event planner targeted

Iza trained his law enforcement resources on Chapell, 36, a promoter hired to produce Iza’s birthday party at his mansion in Bel-Air on Aug. 14, 2021. Two days after the bash, Chapell was summoned by text message to the home by an unhappy Iza.

When Chapell arrived, Iza was sitting behind his office desk, loading bullets into a firearm magazine, a black handgun nearby, an AR-15 rifle propped against the desk. Surrounding Chapell were at least eight armed, active deputies, their badges on their belts, according to the suit.

Iza said he was dissatisfied with the party and demanded half the money back. When Chapell refused, Iza demanded his cellphone. Chapell wouldn’t give it to him.

When Chapell reached for his pocket, the guns came out, all bearing down on him, the suit said. Chapell gave his cell and his password to Iza, who used the phone to transfer $25,000 from Chapell’s bank account to one of the shell companies, the suit said.

But Iza allegedly didn’t stop there. He photographed Chapell’s driver’s license, passport and credit cards. Iza let Chapell go, but kept the phone, using it to steal tens of thousands of dollars from Chapell’s financial accounts, the suit said.

According to the lawsuit, Saavedra and the deputies then paid a woman who was romantically involved with Chapell to frame him for drug possession. The deputies gave her money to buy illegal narcotics to plant in her vehicle, near the passenger seat. She then picked up Chapell from the airport, after persuading him to return early from a trip to Florida.

The deputies pulled over the vehicle in Paramount during a “traffic stop” and arrested Chapell. As he was being led away in handcuffs, a black SUV pulled up with Iza in the back seat, smoking a cigar with the window down, the suit said. He talked with the deputies, took a few photos and then was driven away.

Chapell spent three days in the lockup at the Lakewood sheriff’s station, while the deputies allegedly falsified police reports on the arrest, the suit said. Prosecutors, however, ultimately dropped the charges for lack of evidence.

Iza allegedly texted Chapell that he was a “worthless loser” and that he “f–ked with the wrong people,” the suit said.

The harassment continued.

Iza’s hired deputies, alleging that Chapell was selling large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine, fraudulently obtained a search warrant for Chapell’s house near University High School on Los Angeles’ Westside. They found nothing, but trashed the place, Steering said.

“I have never seen this level of police corruption — actually having the police on the payroll of a vicious and ongoing criminal enterprise like that created and run by Adam Iza,” said Steering, who has been suing police agencies for 41 years. “

Chapell feared that reporting the assaults to the Sheriff’s Department would bring reprisals, so he fled to New York and contacted the FBI, which said the case was outside its jurisdiction, according to the suit. So he moved back to Los Angeles and reached out in 2022 to the Los Angeles Police Department, which referred the case to the FBI. This time agents launched an investigation.

Others victimized

Besides Chapell, Iza allegedly had victimized others, the lawsuit said.

In November 2021, Iza attempted to kidnap actor and entrepreneur Enzo Zelocchi, whom he believed had large amounts of cryptocurrency in various electronic devices, according to the lawsuit. Zelocchi was driving his car, with Iza in the back seat, in Riverside County, the suit said. Iza had Zelocchi pull over at a gas station/convenience store to buy some food.

When Zelocchi stopped, a black SUV with the deputies pulled up. One of them accosted Zelocchi at gunpoint and told him to get in the car. Zelocchi got away and called 911.

According to the lawsuit, a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy responded and talked to the Los Angeles County deputies, who made it appear that they were the victims. The Riverside County deputy left without making any arrests.

‘Shocking to the conscience’

Iza later had his hired deputies obtain a computerized personal data report on Zelocchi, the suit said. They sent text messages to Zelocchi with photos of his report as well as a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department business card. Zelocchi also received text photos of his family members and his car.

Under the assumption that one of Zelocchi’s associates had his laptop, Iza’s deputies confronted the associate at a home in Orange County. But the associate refused to open the door and spoke to them through a window. The deputies identified themselves as law enforcement and said a stolen computer was pinging inside the home.

Local police officers were called, but they left without taking any action, the lawsuit said.

Iza, frustrated when he could not locate Zelocchi, had the deputies allegedly obtain a search warrant for GPS information from Zelocchi’s cellphone, the suit said. Deputies falsely told the judge that Zelocchi’s cell number was associated with a suspect in a firearms investigation.

Pings from the cellphone GPS led the deputies to a Los Angeles apartment complex, where they spotted Zelocchi standing outside. They gave the location to a private investigator, who put Zelocchi under surveillance for months, according to the lawsuit.

The suit said the deputies also went back to Zelocchi’s associate in Orange County and stole a laptop from him, which was delivered to Iza. They also tried a home invasion robbery where Zelocchi was staying, but fled when he fired at them.

Los Angeles Police Department officers responded, but made no arrests.

“It’s beyond weird, mind-boggling … shocking to the conscience,” Steering said of the former deputies.

Saavedra and seven other deputies were relieved of duty or were “out of service,” the Sheriff’s Department said. Iza pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and tax evasion. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 15.

Saavedra, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. He is free on $50,000 bond. Former Deputy David Rodriguez, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and ex-Deputy Christopher Michael Cadman, 33, agreed to plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy.

At least three other deputies have been relieved of duty.

The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial.

By CORA LEWIS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As the cost of electricity outpaces inflation and summers grow deadlier, consumer advocates are sounding alarms about the risks to low-income people who can’t afford consistent air conditioning in dangerous temperatures.

While about half of U.S. states offer protections from utility shutoffs during extreme heat, the rest do not. In contrast, 41 states have “cold weather rules,” which forbid utility companies from shutting off household heat during extreme cold. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides funds for vulnerable groups who have trouble affording heating bills in the winter, but the program has less funding available to meet consumers’ increasing needs in the summer months.

Shylee Johnson, 27, based in Wichita, Kansas, saw firsthand the protection that the local Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) brought to her community during the three years she worked as a case manager for families who were behind on utility bills.

“It was amazing at keeping people’s electricity on in the winter,” she said of the program, which subsidizes costs for households who can’t afford utility expenses. “Families would be deciding between paying their heating bill or another bill, and this took that decision away.”

In the summer, though, Johnson said she’s seen how late or missed utility payments can result in the shutoff of electricity and the removal of vital services, despite air conditioning becoming increasingly essential to families’ health and well-being.

“It’s terrifying,” she said. “There’s a ‘cold weather rule’ — in freezing temperatures, your heat can’t be turned off. But there isn’t an equivalent for summer in Kansas.”

The clients Johnson served were often the most vulnerable, including families with young children, pregnant people, and those with sick or disabled family members, including some who need electricity to operate essential medical equipment in their homes. LIHEAP also sometimes provides air conditioning units in the summer for households that can’t afford to purchase their own units.

Recent studies show that extreme heat in the summer is now the leading cause of weather-related deaths, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That’s ahead of deaths due to extreme cold in the winter or other weather emergencies, like hurricanes or tornadoes. The frequency, duration and intensity of extreme heat waves has significantly increased over the past several decades, according to the EPA, and insignificant support for low-income households contributes to the danger.

In 2023, the death certificates of more than 2,300 people who died in the summer mention the effects of excessive heat, the highest number in 45 years of records, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. And that figure is only a fraction of the real death toll, according to coroner, hospital, and ambulance records, also analyzed by the AP.

Nationally, the cost of electricity has risen at twice the pace of the average cost of living, exacerbating the problem.

Related Articles

Most enduring and biggest iceberg breaks apart, with more splintering to come in its death spiral

States and developer sue the Trump administration for halting work on New England offshore wind farm

Researchers test plant-based birth control on Chicago rats after deaths of owl family

Appeals court backs EPA action terminating billions in ‘green bank’ grants

Melting makeup, sweaty tuxes and overheating guests are shifting summer weddings

According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), which represents state program managers of LIHEAP, almost 20% of very low-income families lack consistent access to cooling. Currently, 26 states and the District of Columbia offer assistance with summer energy bills, while 21 states plus D.C. have policies protecting low-income families from utility disconnections during summer months.

Still, roughly 85% of LIHEAP resources are used for heating in the winter, leaving little support for households seeking cooling, according to Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA.

“Rules that were written thirty years ago, that were adequate for winter, are not adequate for the summer,” he said. “How do we protect vulnerable households both during periods of extreme heat and extreme cold? The rules haven’t caught up.”

Karen Lusson, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center who focuses on energy and utility affordability, said that many deaths from extreme heat in the summer months are preventable.

“The impression we’ve all had is that weather is most dangerous in the wintertime,” she said. “Not any more.”

While the Trump administration fired the entire staff of the LIHEAP program in April, Wolfe and Lusson are hopeful Congress will approve slightly more funding for the program in the fall compared to the previous fiscal year, they said.

To protect households during increasingly hotter summers, Lusson recommends individuals seek information about their rights when it comes to utility shutoffs. State utility commissions, which regulate public utilities, dictate local rules. To find your relevant commission, consult the government site operated by the national association of regulatory commissions, which has a state-by-state look-up tool.

Lusson also encourages people to look into whether their state protections are calendar- or temperature-based, which can make a difference in planning. While some states forbid shut-offs during certain months of the year, others base the protections on the temperature of a given day or the presence of a heat advisory. This LIHEAP site has a break-down of every state’s policies.

Some state attorney generals’ offices also have public utility bureaus that advocate on behalf of consumers, Lusson said.

Lastly, it can be helpful to determine if your utility company offers discount rates or percentage-of-income payment plans to help with electricity bills. Both commission and utility websites have specific information about how to access LIHEAP assistance and whether or not the utility company itself offers assistance.

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.