Longtime Iowa federal judge dies at 78 after more than 26 years on the bench
Robert Pratt, a federal judge in Iowa who served more than two decades on the bench, died Wednesday after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 78. His son, Michael Pratt, told The New York Times that his father died of a heart attack while at a gym. Pratt was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa by former President Bill Clinton in 1997 and went on to serve more than 26 years on the federal court. The Iowa State Bar Association said he retired in 2023, having presided over cases including a sentencing decision that was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gall v. United States. APPEALS COURT DISMISSES DOJ MISCONDUCT COMPLAINT AGAINST FEDERAL JUDGE An obituary for Pratt, who was born May 3, 1947, described him as a man who “championed the underdog and the uncelebrated” throughout his career in public service. In 2009, he helped launch an annual Fourth of July naturalization ceremony held alongside Iowa Cubs baseball games and later presided over dozens of ceremonies welcoming new U.S. citizens. Pratt previously drew scrutiny after publicly criticizing President Donald Trump over a series of pardons in 2020, comments he later acknowledged were inappropriate for a federal judge. REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF TRUMP, WARNS OF PRESIDENT’S ‘ASSAULT ON THE RULE OF LAW’ During a phone interview with The Associated Press, Pratt took aim at Trump’s pardons of John Tate and Jesse Benton, two former top aides to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. “It’s not surprising that a criminal like Trump pardons other criminals,” he said. “But apparently to get a pardon, one has to be either a Republican, a convicted child murderer or a turkey.” The Associated Press reported that the remarks led to a judicial misconduct complaint by Lavenski Smith, who was serving as chief judge of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals at the time. In an April 16, 2021, letter to Smith, Pratt apologized for the remarks and said he accepted the conclusion they could be construed as “inappropriate partisan statements.” “I acknowledge the wrongfulness of the comments, and I regret the embarrassment they have caused to my court and the judiciary in general. I am truly sorry for the remarks and apologize for having made them,” Pratt wrote. “I also want to reaffirm my commitment to the impartial administration of justice in full compliance with the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.” He is survived by his wife, Rose Mary, three children, a stepdaughter and seven grandchildren.
Illegal immigrant in Florida charged with arson, felony criminal mischief, sheriff says
Police arrested an illegal immigrant in Florida on charges of arson and felony criminal mischief, Florida police announced Sunday. Authorities say Marcelino Gillen-Hernandez attempted to start two fires on a property in Wahneta, Florida. Authorities first received reports from the property’s owner, who said she was able to extinguish the latest blaze with a garden hose after she saw it glowing under a mobile home on the property. She told police that Hernandez admitted to her that he had started both fires, one earlier in January and another this weekend. Hernandez said he had been told to do so by people “at a residence he used to live at,” the owner told authorities. Authorities say Hernandez made the same confession when being interviewed by police. DESANTIS ANNOUNCES FLORIDA ARRESTED 10,400 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN ‘OPERATION TIDAL WAVE’ After Hernandez was taken into custody, he told deputies that he had also previously broken some windows at the Placita Mexico store in Wahneta, police said. “Hernandez stated that on the first occasion he attempted to break a window using a rock but was unsuccessful. He advised that on a subsequent occasion he returned and successfully broke a door window. On another occasion, he stated he struck a door with a hammer in combination with a rock,” police wrote. Hernandez is being charged with three counts of unoccupied burglary, two counts of criminal mischief with property damage less than $1,000 dollars, and one count of criminal mischief with property damage $1,000 or more. He is also facing two counts of arson. DHS TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER ARRESTING OVER 10K ILLEGAL ALIENS IN DEEP BLUE CITY DESPITE VIOLENT RIOTS Each of the charges has been enhanced by one degree due to the suspect being in the country illegally, police noted. HOUSTON ICE OPERATION NETS OVER 3,500 CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS IN SIX WEEKS DURING SHUTDOWN “This suspect—who is in the country illegally—committed very serious felonies while taking advantage of someone who allowed him to live in a trailer on her property. He caused over $1600 worth of damage to a local business as well,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “We also learned he threatened to kill a 74-year-old man with a knife in 2024 and was arrested for aggravated assault on a person over 65 years old. He should have been deported back then and perhaps he wouldn’t have been here to terrorize and victimize others,” Judd added.
Federal agents arrest 2 more in connection to Minnesota church storming
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday said federal agents have arrested two more individuals in connection with the storming of a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bondi identified the suspects as Ian Davis Austin and Jerome Deangelo Richardson and said the arrests stem from a “coordinated attack on Cities Church” on Jan. 18. A total of nine individuals have now been charged in connection with the protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where an ICE official serves as a pastor. The other individuals involved have been charged with conspiring to violate someone’s constitutional rights and with violations of the FACE Act, the 1994 law that prohibits the use of force, intimidation, or obstruction to deliberately “injure, intimidate, or interfere” with an individual’s ability to exercise their right to religious freedom at a place of worship. The two additional individuals are expected to face the same charges. “If you riot in a place of worship, we WILL find you,” Bondi said on X. DON LEMON COULD FACE UP TO A YEAR IN PRISON IF CONVICTED ON CRIMINAL CHARGES The group of anti-ICE protesters in question were seen on video chanting “ICE out” during a church service in St. Paul last month and interrupting the service. The Justice Department has announced charges against nine individuals connected to the protest. FACE Act violations carry penalties ranging from fines to prison time, depending on the severity of the violation alleged and other contributing factors. MINNESOTA DRAGS TRUMP’S ICE TO COURT IN EFFORT TO PAUSE IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN The new arrests come after the Justice Department on Friday also arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent journalist Georgia Fort on alleged FACE Act violations for their participation in the same protest, according to copies of their indictments. A federal magistrate judge in Minnesota had previously rejected the Justice Department’s initial attempt to bring criminal charges against Lemon in connection with the Jan. 18 protest, describing the administration’s case against Lemon as “frivolous.” Both Lemon and Fort claimed they had been attending the demonstration in a reporting capacity, and not as protesters. Their arrests sparked fresh concerns over First Amendment protections for journalists, including from Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. “The arrest today of journalists for covering a protest is deeply chilling,” Her said in a statement Friday. “We need to all be hyper vigilant and call out the way this administration has eroded our First Amendment and other Constitutional rights — because if we let this go unanswered, it won’t stop here.”
GOP senator’s ‘Federal Fumbles’ report highlights $240M spent on transgender rat testing
FIRST ON FOX: A new report from a Senate Republican showed that in the last year, the federal government wasted millions on transgender animal tests, lab testing beagles in China and aborted fetal tissue research. In his 9th annual edition of “Federal Fumbles,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., found several instances of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, and he laid out a game plan to address some of the shortcomings of the past year. Lankford noted that after the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, the Republican-controlled Congress was able to improve efficiency, save billions in taxpayer dollars and redefine spending in Washington, D.C. SENATE REPUBLICANS PUSH FOR HOUSE GOP REBELLION AGAINST FUNDING PACKAGE, VOTER ID LEGISLATION “However, the work is far from over,” Lankford wrote in the report. “Too often, the federal government is gridlocked, unresponsive and inefficient,” he continued. “We must continue pushing through bureaucratic red tape to make the government work better for you, the taxpayer. We have so much still to do.” Some of the more egregious examples of federal waste laid out in the report included a handful of grant programs from the National Institute of Health (NIH) held over from the Biden administration. Among those were a roughly $240 million study on transgender “animal experiments involving mice, rats and monkeys.” That grant program was eventually terminated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “These NIH-funded studies attempted to model transgender adults and children by subjecting animals to hormone regimens and surgical procedures,” Lankford wrote. HOUSE DEMOCRATS MUTINY SCHUMER’S DEAL WITH WHITE HOUSE, THREATENING LONGER SHUTDOWN In 2024, the Biden-led NIH funded $53 million worth of grants that allowed for “research using human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions.” And last year it was found that 17 of those grants were still active. Lankford noted that the NIH canceled the grants when the money flow became public after watchdog the White Coat Waste Project found that the agency was still funding them, and that the Trump administration went a step further to cancel all research involving aborted fetal tissue. HOUSE CONSERVATIVES THREATEN EXTENDED SHUTDOWN OVER ELECTION INTEGRITY MEASURE Still, Lankford argued that unless Congress passed a law regarding the issue, “another pro-abortion Administration could resume or expand such projects at any time, forcing taxpayers to fund research that is both immoral and scientifically obsolete.” Though the sums were not as eye-popping, Lankford also found that $124,000 in taxpayer money was sent to China to conduct drug research and experiments on “up to 300 beagles per week.” Lankford said NIH announced it would not renew the contract after national scrutiny, but that there are still “18 Chinese animal research laboratories, including several with troubling ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, [that] still hold NIH approval to receive U.S. funding.”
Appeals court dismisses DOJ misconduct complaint against federal judge
A federal appeals court dismissed a Justice Department misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, according to court documents revealed this week. Jeffrey S. Sutton, chief judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, dismissed the complaint on December 19, but news of the ruling only arrived this weekend. The DOJ alleged misconduct on the grounds that Boasberg had made comments at a judicial conference saying the Trump administration would trigger a “constitutional crisis” by disregarding federal court rulings. His comments at the conference came just days before Boasberg issued an order blocking deportation flights. Sutton argued that the government had failed to provide evidence of Boasberg’s comments or sufficient context surrounding them. FIX IS IN IN MINNESOTA, WHERE ANTI-ICE FEDERAL JUDGE LEAVES HIS LANE TO SIDE WITH MOB “A recycling of unadorned allegations with no reference to a source does not corroborate them. And a repetition of uncorroborated statements rarely supplies a basis for a valid misconduct complaint,” Sutton said in his ruling. News of the ruling comes days after the White House confirmed its support for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry involving Boasberg and another judge Republicans have described as an activist. “Left-wing, activist judges have gone totally rogue,” a White House official told Fox News Digital. “They’re undermining the rule of law in service of their own radical agenda. It needs to stop. And the White House fully embraces impeachment efforts.” COURT SAYS BOASBERG DIDN’T KNOW ARCTIC FROST SUBPOENAS HIT LAWMAKERS, GRASSLEY CALLS THAT ‘DEEPLY TROUBLING’ The White House official continued that President Donald Trump must be able to “lawfully implement the agenda the American people elected him on,” arguing that judges who repeatedly issue partisan rulings have abused their offices and forfeited their claim to impartiality. Boasberg has become a prime target for Republicans over a string of rulings tied to Trump-era immigration policies — including cases involving the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act law to deport Venezuelan migrants to CECOT in El Salvador. More recently, he drew fresh GOP backlash after reports surfaced that he approved warrants in former special counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe that enabled investigators to seize phone records connected to some Republican lawmakers. A top federal court official defended Boasberg from those accusations in December, however, saying that the judge would likely have been unaware that the gag orders were hiding subpoenas that were intended to target members of Congress. He first faced articles of impeachment in March 2025 for preventing the administration from deporting some illegal migrants under the Alien Enemies Act, and again in November over the Arctic Frost decision. Fox News’ Emma Colton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Laura Fernandez declares victory in Costa Rica’s presidential election
Right-wing candidate’s closest challenger concedes defeat as partial results showed her on verge of winning the presidency. By News Agencies Published On 2 Feb 20262 Feb 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Right-wing candidate Laura Fernandez has declared victory in Costa Rica’s presidential election after preliminary results gave her a commanding lead and her closest challenger conceded defeat. The move early on Monday came after Supreme Electoral Tribunal said that votes tallied from 81 percent of polling stations showed the candidate of the Sovereign People’s Party winning 48.9 percent of the vote. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list In her victory speech, Fernandez promised “deep and irreversible change” and announced that Costa Rica was entering a new political era. The Central American nation’s second republic, which began after the 1948 civil war, “is a thing of the past,” she said. “It’s up to us to build the third republic,” Fernandez told flag-waving supporters. The 39-year-old politician also pledged to lead a nation that is “respectful and firm on the rule of law”. “Any law that is ineffective, that has become obsolete, that has become a hindrance to development, will be modified or repealed,” she added. Fernandez’s closest challenger was economist Alvaro Ramos of the National Liberation Party, who obtained 33 percent. At third was Claudia Dobles, a progressive architect and former first lady, who was just shy of 5 percent of the vote. Ramos conceded on Sunday night and pledged to lead a “constructive opposition,” but one that would not let those in power get away with anything. “In democracy dissent is allowed, criticizing is allowed,” he said. Fernandez needed at least 40 percent to win the election outright and avoid a run-off on April 5. The politician is the handpicked successor of incumbent President Rodrigo Chaves, and campaigned on continuing his tough security policies. Advertisement She has pledged to complete a maximum-security mega-prison that Chaves started to build in August, saying that it would “isolate leaders of organised crime”, cutting them off from the outside world. She has also advocated for mandatory prison labour and stricter criminal sentencing. Al Jazeera’s Julia Galiano, reporting from capital San Jose, said that the main issue during the campaign was security, with homicides reaching an all-time high in 2023. “Without a doubt, the increasing insecurity was the main issue for everyone that we spoke to here. Costa Rica has long been considered as the Switzerland of Central America. It’s a nation known for its long history of a stable democracy,” she said. Fernandez’s tough line on security has prompted worry among the opposition, Galiano said. “They fear the changes that her government will do will ultimately erode the democratic nature of this country. But in her victory speech, she did say that above all, she would remain democratic and that her government would never turn authoritarian,” our correspondent added. Costa Ricans also voted for the 57-seat National Assembly on Sunday. Fernandez’s party is projected to win a majority of 30 seats in the 57-seat Congress, up from its current eight seats, but short of a “supermajority” that would give it greater powers. Some 3.7 million Costa Ricans were eligible to vote in Sunday’s elections. Adblock test (Why?)
Pakistani forces kill 145 fighters in Balochistan after deadly attacks
Pakistani security forces have killed at least 145 fighters in the restive Balochistan province in a manhunt launched after a series of coordinated gun and bomb attacks that left nearly 50 people dead. The announcement on Sunday came a day after the attacks, which began early on Saturday at multiple locations across southwestern Balochistan and left 31 civilians, including five women, and 17 security personnel dead. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The assault, claimed by the banned separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), prompted authorities to impose months-long security restrictions on the province, banning public gatherings, demonstrations and limiting traffic movement. The measures also ban the use of face coverings that conceal the identification of individuals in public places, the Dawn newspaper reported. Sarfraz Bugti, the provincial chief minister, told reporters in Quetta that troops and police officers responded swiftly to the attacks, killing 145 members of “Fitna al-Hindustan,” a phrase the government uses for the BLA. The number of fighters killed over the past two days was the highest in decades, he said. “The bodies of these 145 killed terrorists are in our custody, and some of them are Afghan nationals,” Bugti said. He claimed that the “Indian-backed terrorists” wanted to take hostages, but failed to make it to the city centre. Pakistan’s military said 92 fighters were killed on Saturday, while 41 were killed on Friday. “We had intelligence reports that this kind of operation was being planned, and as a result of those, we started pre-operations a day before,” Bugti said. Advertisement Bugti also accused Afghanistan of backing the assailants, and said senior leaders of the BLA were operating from Afghan territory. Both New Delhi and Kabul deny the allegations. ‘Baseless allegations’ In a statement on Sunday, India denied the assertion, accusing Islamabad of deflecting attention from its own internal problems. “We categorically reject the baseless allegations made by Pakistan,” the spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, said, adding that Islamabad should instead address the “longstanding demands of its people in the region”. Balochistan, which is also Pakistan’s poorest province, has faced decades-long violence and separatist attacks by ethnic Baloch seeking greater autonomy and a larger share of the area’s natural resources. The BLA regularly targets Pakistani security forces and has attacked civilians, including Chinese nationals, who are among thousands working on various projects in the province. Officials said the latest assaults on Saturday were launched almost simultaneously across the Quetta, Gwadar, Mastung and Noshki districts, with armed men opening fire at security installations, including a Frontier Corps headquarters, attempting suicide bombings and briefly blocking roads in urban areas. Outside a damaged shop, private security guard Jamil Ahmed Mashwani said the attackers struck shortly after midday. “They hit me on my face and head,” he said. Burned vehicles stand inside a torched police station on the outskirts of Quetta following the series of attacks carried out by Baloch separatists [Banaras Khan/AFP] ‘Audacious operation’ Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from the Baloch capital, Quetta, reported that the BLA targeted at least 12 locations during what he described as an “audacious” operation. “The attackers were able to strike at the heart of the provincial capital, penetrating the centre of the city while also blocking major highways,” he said. In Quetta, the aftermath was visible in burnt-out vehicles at a police station, bullet-riddled doors and streets sealed off with yellow tape, as security forces tightened patrols and restricted movement following the attacks. Businesses were also forced to shutter, with residents telling Al Jazeera they fear more attacks. According to Pakistan’s junior interior minister, Talal Chaudhry, the attackers dressed as civilians entered hospitals, schools, banks and markets on Saturday before opening fire, “In each case, the attackers came in dressed as civilians and indiscriminately targeted ordinary people working in shops,” he said, claiming that the fighters also used civilians as human shields. Advertisement Pakistani Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif said that two of the attacks involved female fighters. He noted that the attacks were now increasingly targeting civilians, labourers and low-income communities. The United States condemned the attacks, with its charge d’affaires, Natalie Baker, calling them acts of terrorist violence and saying Washington stood in solidarity with Pakistan. The BLA is designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organisation. Pakistan has also faced periodic attacks by armed groups elsewhere in the country, including factions linked to the Pakistan Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Adblock test (Why?)
LIVE: Wounded Palestinians prepare to leave Gaza as Israel opens Rafah
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Rafah crossing will reportedly operate for six hours a day and allow only 150 patients to exit into Egypt for care.
Jammu and Kashmir: Earthquake with 4.7 magnitude jolts valley
A 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck Baramulla district in Jammu & Kashmir early Monday, with its epicentre near Pattan. Tremors were felt across Srinagar, Sopore, Ganderbal, Pulwama, and parts of PoK.
Kolkata: Gang war erupts ahead of assembly election, bombs hurled, shops ransacked
A violent clash in south Kolkata’s Golpark area on Sunday night left two people injured. Stones, crude bombs, and bullets were fired as mobs fought over local dominance. Police arrested 10 people, deployed forces, and are investigating the incident using CCTV footage.