Zia Yusuf of Reform UK at a press conference in Dover. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
Zia Yusuf sets out proposals and calls migration an ‘invasion’, as rights groups decry ‘grotesque’ measures
Reform UK’s plan to create an ICE-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic”, after the party’s home affairs spokesperson vowed to face down “progressive outrage”.
Zia Yusuf, introduced as “the shadow home secretary” at a press conference in Dover, said mass deportations carried out by a planned UK Deportation Command would not trigger the same kind of violent showdowns seen in the US because “policing is done by consent” in the UK. He also described the number of migrants arriving in the country as an “invasion”.
His remarks came as Reform set out plans to tackle immigration, including mass deportations, expanded surveillance powers and a ban on the conversion of churches into mosques.
The party also wants to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa. There would also be a new rule mandating automatic home searches for anyone referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme by three “separate, corroborating authorities”, the party said.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Nigel Farage reminds you that he’s the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
Lord Peter Mandelson is seen leaving his home in Wiltshire, England, on February 20, 2026, days before his arrest by UK police on suspicion of misconduct in public office. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)
“In the UK, they are prosecuting the Epstein class…” said Rep. Ro Khanna. “We need accountability in the United States.”
After a second prominent associate of Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in the UK, calls are growing louder for those in the US who may have been complicit in his crimes to face similar accountability.
Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the US, was arrested by police on Monday on “suspicion of misconduct in public office.” The arrest is reportedly in connection with an investigation opened into the former minister earlier this month.
Mandelson was dismissed from his ambassadorship by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in September after leaked emails showed that he’d maintained a close friendship with Epstein long after the financier had been convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.
A criminal probe was opened last month after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released more files, suggesting that in 2009, Mandelson—then a member of the UK government—had passed Epstein sensitive internal economic information that could have affected international markets.
Bank statements also show Mandelson accepting $75,000 from Epstein over several years for an unknown purpose.
He is the second powerful figure in British society to be arrested amid scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein this month. Last week, former Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in office, after emails showed him forwarding trade reports to Epstein, which were produced during his role as an official UK envoy.
Epstein had been charged with the sex trafficking of dozens of underage girls before his death in jail in 2019, and connections with the financier have led prominent individuals across Europe to be shamed out of office or out of influential corporate positions.
Neither Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor nor Mandelson has been criminally charged with any sexual misconduct related to the billionaire. However, at least two women have publicly accused Mountbatten-Windsor of having sex with them while underage after procuring them through Epstein.
In 2022, Mountbatten-Windsor settled a civil suit for about £12 million with Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that the former prince had sex with her when she was 17.
Peter Mandelson, the former British Ambassador to the US, was arrested today on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This is after files revealed Jeffrey Epstein sent $75,000 to accounts connected to him. As we have said before: no one is above the law. We will make sure… https://t.co/Sjf8FjnWSu
The arrest of yet another British government official for inappropriate dealings with Epstein has only heightened the contrast with the unaccountability of American elites, who have thus far emerged from the Epstein scandal unscathed despite damning connections.
“Peter Mandelson, the former British Ambassador to the US, was arrested today on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This is after files revealed Jeffrey Epstein sent $75,000 to accounts connected to him,” wrote the official social media account for the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, which oversees the release of the files. “As we have said before: No one is above the law. We will make sure accountability and justice come to everyone in Epstein’s world.”
Files released by the DOJ in January, in compliance with a law passed last year, showed that at least one woman had accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the 1980s after being introduced to him by Epstein, and that the FBI considered her to be credible, speaking to her on at least four occasions. It is not known what happened as a result of the investigation, and the DOJ slideshow referencing her allegation has since been scrubbed from the department’s website.
Meanwhile, at least six other members of the current Trump administration have documented ties to Epstein revealed by the files.
Most notably, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was revealed to have lied when he claimed to have cut off connections to the billionaire in the early 2000s. In fact, Lutnick maintained a relationship with Epstein for nearly a decade after the billionaire registered as a sex offender and even visited his infamous Caribbean island with his family.
Many other figures in the upper echelon of American society also maintained close relationships with Epstein despite his criminal conviction, including former President Bill Clinton, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Following news of Mandelson’s arrest, US Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—who has led the charge for the release of the files in full to the American public, along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—said he wanted to see similar investigations and charges against Epstein’s American associates.
“In UK, they are prosecuting the Epstein class [Massie] and I have exposed,” Khanna wrote on social media. “We need accountability in the United States.”
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As reported by the New York Times, the court has agreed to hear arguments related to a petition filed by ExxonMobil and Canadian energy firm Suncor related to a 2018 lawsuit by the city of Boulder, Colorado that seeks financial damages from the companies for their role in causing global climate change.
The Times report noted that dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed by states and municipalities over the last decade, and they generally seek money from energy firms to help mitigate or repair damage done by extreme weather exacerbated by the climate crisis.
According to the Associated Press, attorneys for the energy companies are petitioning to have the case moved from state courts to federal courts that have in the past dismissed similar complaints.
“The use of state law to address global climate change represents a serious threat to one of our nation’s most critical sectors,” the attorneys claimed.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case comes months after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Boulder’s lawsuit could initiate the discovery process and move toward a trial.
In an interview with the Colorado Sun, Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said that the city wasn’t backing down from its efforts make the fossil fuel industry pay for the damage it’s done.
“The oil companies have tried every avenue to delay our climate accountability case or move it to an out-of-state court system,” said Stolzmann. “As everyone continues to face rising costs that put budgets under pressure, we must hold oil companies accountable for the significant harm they’ve caused our communities.”
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said that the merits of the Boulder lawsuit are clear, regardless of the Supreme Court’s intervention.
“Big Oil’s climate lies are the most consequential and harmful corporate deception campaign in history,” Wiles said, “and the communities paying the price for that deception deserve to put these companies on trial. Exxon’s desperation to escape accountability does not change the evidence of their wrongdoing or the law that lower courts agree is on Boulder’s side.”
Alyssa Johl, vice president of legal and general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, said the Supreme Court should simply affirm lower court rulings stating that “communities like Boulder have the right to seek accountability in their state courts when corporations have knowingly caused local harms.”
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (L) stands next to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at the opening of the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council at the United Nations office in Geneva on February 23, 2026. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
“We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away… where humans are used as bargaining chips… where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
The secretary-general of the United Nations and the body’s top human rights official did not call out world leaders by name as they warned that “impunity has become a contagion” among powerful governments at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s annual session in Geneva on Monday.
But their comments appeared to allude to numerous recent actions by the Trump administration, whose officials have explicitly dismissed concerns about international law regarding the White House’s foreign policy in recent months.
Secretary-General António Guterres warned global officials that “the rule of law is being out-muscled by the rule of force.”
“This assault is not coming from the shadows. Or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight—and often led by those who hold the greatest power,” said Guterres.
The leader’s comments came nearly two months after President Donald Trump ordered an invasion of Venezuela, killing dozens of people, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and charging them with narcotics trafficking, and pushing to take control of the South American country’s oil supply.
That operation as well as the United States’ bombings of dozens of boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in recent months—also ostensibly to fight “narcoterrorism”—have been violations of international law, according to numerous legal experts, with the former violating the prohibition on the use of force in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
Trump officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, however, have claimed the US has the right to use military force against any country if doing so advances US interests.
“We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away… where humans are used as bargaining chips… where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience,” said Guterres on Monday. “Conflicts are multiplying and impunity has become a contagion. That is not due to a lack of knowledge, tools, or institutions. It is the result of political choices.”
When human rights fall, everything else tumbles.
Peace. Development. Social cohesion. Trust. Solidarity.
It’s more important than ever to translate political engagement into a path towards strengthening human rights everywhere.
The UN has directly condemned other policies by the Trump administration in recent weeks, including Trump’s executive order threatening tariffs on any country that provides Cuba with oil as it baselessly accused the island nation’s communist government of harboring terrorists, and Guterres has suggested Trump’s creation of a “Board of Peace” to govern Gaza is akin to “one power calling the shots.”
Guterres mentioned just two specific conflicts: Russia’s war on Ukraine and the “blatant violations of human rights, human dignity, and international law in the occupied Palestinian territory,” where the US-backed Israel Defense Forces have been waging war on Gaza and Israeli settlers have been carrying out increased violent attacks in the West Bank as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government pushes to further illegally annex the territory and make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible.
“The current trajectory is stark, clear, and purposeful: The two-state solution is being stripped away in broad daylight,” said Guterres. “The international community cannot allow this to happen.”
Regarding Ukraine, which will enter its fifth year of war with Russia on Tuesday and where more than 15,000 civilians have been killed, Guterres said, “It is more than past time to end the bloodshed.”
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, added in his own remarks that “domination and supremacy are making a comeback.”
“A fierce competition for power, control, and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years,” said Türk. “The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalized.”
Türk highlighted how “the gears of global power are shifting”, calling for people to band together to protect rights and create “a strong counterbalance to the top-down, autocratic trends we see today”.
Some world leaders, he said, are operating as though “they are above the law, and above the UN Charter.”
“They claim exceptional status, exceptional danger, or exceptional moral judgement to pursue their own agenda at any cost,” he said. “They spread disinformation to distract, silence, and marginalize.”
Türk also warned that some leaders appear to “weaponize their economic leverage”—an apparent reference to Trump’s decision to drastically cut foreign aid funding and withdraw from dozens of UN organizations last month, putting the international body at risk of “imminent financial collapse,” as Guterres said at the time.
“Humanitarian needs are exploding while funding collapses,” said Guterres on Monday. “Inequalities are widening at staggering speed. Countries are drowning in debt and despair. Climate chaos is accelerating… Across every front, those who are already vulnerable are being pushed further to the margins. And human rights defenders are among the first to be silenced when they try to warn us.”
“In this coordinated offensive, human rights are the first casualty,” he added, urging world leaders to “not let power write a new rulebook in which the vulnerable have no rights and the powerful have no limits.”
“Let this be the place that helps end the broad and brutal assault on human rights,” said Guterres. “Because a world that protects human rights protects itself.”
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A member of the General Attorney’s Office stands guard near a bus set on fire by organized crime groups in response to an operation in Jalisco to arrest a high-priority security target, at one of the main avenues in Zapopan, state of Jalisco, Mexico, on February 22, 2026. (Photo by Ulises Ruiz/AFP via Getty Images)
The killing of Mexico’s top cartel leader, known as “El Mencho,” has created a power struggle that “could plunge Mexico into almost record levels of violence,” said one expert.
With support from the US, Mexican security forces killed one of the nation’s most powerful cartel bosses on Sunday. Almost immediately, the country descended into violence and chaos.
The killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes—known as “El Mencho”—has set off a violent power struggle within the organization he led, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which has left civilians caught in the crossfire.
Cars set on fire by cartel members blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states and left smoke billowing into the air. Jalisco’s capital, Guadalajara, was turned into a ghost town Sunday night as civilians hunkered down. Later, authorities announced they had cleared most of the more than 250 cartel roadblocks across 20 states.
Several Mexican states canceled school Monday, and local and foreign governments warned citizens to stay inside as violence erupted.
The sudden outbreak of violence has created a state of terror for many ordinary people in Mexico. One Guadalajara resident, Maria Medina, told Agence France-Presse that men with guns showed up at the gas station where she works, ordered everyone to leave, and set the building on fire.
“I thought they were going to kidnap us. I ran to a taco stand to take cover with the people there,” Medina said.
The US State Department has urged Americans in parts of Mexico to “seek shelter and remain in residences or hotels.” Many flights out of the country have been canceled, leaving tourists stranded.
Visitors at the popular Jalisco beach resort of Puerto Vallarta have been forced into hiding as gunmen have taken over the streets.
One father in Seattle told the local news station Fox 13 that he received frightened texts from his daughter, who was visiting the area, around 3:30 in the afternoon, describing the chaos.
“The text she sent, talking about, ‘The whole city is on fire, and we are hiding at home,’” he said. “’The cartel are outside right now watching the citizens and making sure the military does not come in. The police are not here to help. We are hiding.’”
According to one open-source effort to map the fallout, at least 19 of Mexico’s 32 states had seen outbreaks of violence as of Sunday evening.
So far, no civilian deaths have been confirmed. However, according to the Associated Press, at least 25 members of the National Guard have been killed since El Mencho’s death.
A wave of violence swept Mexico after security forces killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho’, in a US-backed military raid.
Gunmen torched cars and blocked highways across several states in retaliation. pic.twitter.com/Zr3Ga6hyuM
United States forces were not reportedly involved in the operation that led to El Mencho’s death. However, US fingerprints are all over the attack.
In a statement on Sunday night, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US “provided intelligence support to the Mexican government in order to assist with an operation” in which El Mencho was killed.
She added that “President [Donald] Trump has been very clear—the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved.”
The attack comes after months ofthreats from Trump to use US military force to take out cartel leaders, against the wishes of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
At a press conference on Monday, Sheinbaum said that despite the previous day’s chaos, “the country is at peace.”
“We awoke today with no blockades,” she said. “All activity has practically been reestablished.”
Several news outlets have described the killing of El Mencho as a direct response to US sabre-rattling, which has ramped up following last month’s operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
El Mencho, who founded CJNG around 2010, has been “public enemy number one” for the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for nearly a decade, for his role in turning the cartel into a hyper-violent organization that coordinated global drug operations.
While CJNG has been considered one of the largest suppliers of Mexican fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine to the US—even greater than the more famous Sinaloa Cartel—experts say it’s unlikely that the killing of its 59-year-old kingpin will do much to solve the problem.
“What we’ve seen in the past is that the removal of the kingpin doesn’t necessarily affect significant network disruption,” Anthea McCarthy-Jones, an expert in Latin America at the University of New South Wales, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “The removal of the leader doesn’t have any impact on the day-to-day relations and the relationships that facilitate this kind of global drug trafficking operation.”
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau boasted that taking out “one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins” was “a great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world.”
But David Mora, the senior Mexico analyst at the International Crisis Group (ICG), said it will likely trigger more instability.
“In the absence of a direct succession, a power vacuum is created that opens the door to violent realignments within the organization,” Mora told AFP.
Chris Dalby, an organized crime expert who has written a book about the Jalisco cartel, toldThe Guardianthat this power struggle could culminate in a full-scale civil war if no successor emerges to fill El Mencho’s shoes.
“If no one can, if the CJNG finally splinters, you have four or five different lieutenants with the manpower, the weaponry, and the criminal empires to build their own fiefdoms—and that could plunge Mexico into almost record levels of violence,” said Dalby.
The explosion of violence and instability following the death of just one cartel leader has mirrored what critics warned may follow if the US attempted to bring about the “total elimination” of drug cartels using airstrikes and special operations forces.
“At best, US military strikes in Mexico will weaken the cartels over the short term,” wrote fellows Daniel DePetris and Christopher McCallion in a July paper for the think tank Defense Priorities. “At worst, they will cause the cartels to splinter even further, spiking the level of violence, straining the Mexican government’s military resources, and causing significant blowback against Americans in both Mexico and the United States.”
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