News

Sept. 21 (UPI) — The California attorney general’s office dropped all felony charges Monday against five Stanford University students who took part in a campus protest against Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

The students had faced prison sentences and thousands of dollars in restitution in connection with the charges of felony conspiracy to trespass and felony vandalism, The Guardian reported. They were part of a group of 12 students who barricaded themselves inside the university president’s office for an hour in June 2024, asking that Stanford divest itself from companies connected to Israel.

Five of the students went to trial in early 2026 over the charges. The trial ended in a hung jury, and a judge later ordered in May that the Santa Clara county district attorney, Jeff Rosen, recuse himself from the case over a conflict of interest, The Guardian said.

The California attorney general’s office took over the case and reached a resolution that includes dropping all charges in return for 100 hours of community service and total restitution of about $50,000.

“We believe this outcome serves the best interests of the community and all parties involved,” said a spokesperson from the state attorney general’s office.

Three students who earlier accepted plea deals will also have convictions overturned after completing community service.

The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States, responded to the agreement Monday, saying that “advocacy for Palestinian rights should not be subjected to harsher treatment than other forms of political expression.”

“We welcome the attorney general’s decision not to pursue another trial and the court’s approval of a path to dismissal,” Zahra Billoo, CAIR-SFBA executive director, said in a statement. “These students should never have faced felony charges for their part in a campus protest. Treating protest activity as felony conduct was disproportionate from the outset, and putting them through another trial after more than two years, a mistrial and the disqualification of the district attorney’s office because of a conflict of interest would only have compounded that harm.”

The students who briefly occupied the president’s office were arrested, suspended and banned from campus for two years. Rosen did not announce the felony charges against them until April 2025.

Rosen was removed from the case after the students’ legal teams submitted evidence that he was using it to fundraise for his re-election campaign on a platform of fighting “antisemitism,” although the students were not charged with hate crimes.

Sept. 21 (UPI) — Paramount on Monday reached an agreement to resolve an antitrust lawsuit against it , clearing its path toward finalizing its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The lawsuit brought by 12 states’ attorneys general argued that Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would give the company too much control of the market. As part of Monday’s agreement, which needs court approval, Paramount has agreed to continue releasing 30 movies in theaters each year and maintain editorial for CNN and CBS News, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said .

“Let me be clear: This settlement is not a vote of support for this merger. But we believe this settlement, which resolves our antitrust concerns in every market alleged in our case, protects competitions and consumer choice, and puts workers’ needs, concerns and futures first, is the best course of action,” Bonta said in a statement.

“When we get down to brass tacks, what heard over and over form people who would be most directly and immediately impacted by the merger is that what matters most is consistent film output, domestic production and protecting the livelihoods of workers about and bellow the line.”

Paramount CEO David Ellison has met with President Donald Trump at the White House while his company’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery was in question. His father Larry Ellison is co-founder of Oracle, the company that oversees U.S. data storage for TikTok, aiding a group of investors in acquiring the social media platform.

David Ellison said he was “grateful” to Bonta and the other attorneys general, and the Writers Guild of America for finding a solution.

“Our shared aim was an outcome that best serves consumers, workers and — most importantly — the creative community so vital to the art of visual storying telling,” David Ellison said in a statement, adding that he is confident in the agreement to bring about those aims.

“Our goal has always been to build a stronger Hollywood — one with more stories told, greater choice for consumers and stronger competition.”

While the agreement notes ensuring editorial independence at CNN and CBS News, CBS News has already marked a shift in its editorial standards under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who was selected by David Ellison to lead the news organization last year.

Weiss, a conservative political commentator, has overseen the news organization as it has parted ways with notable senior leaders and journalists, including 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley.

Sept. 21 (UPI) — A jury found Jason Eaton guilty on three counts of attempted murder on Monday for the 2023 shooting of three Palestinian American college students in Burlington, Vt.

The jury deliberated for about 2 hours before reaching its verdict. The victims, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdal Hamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, survived the shooting.

Eaton sought an insanity defense but his bid was rejected by the jury. He was arrested the day after the Nov. 25, 2023, shooting while federal agents were searching his apartment complex.

“Jason Eaton never disputed that he was the shooter,” Elizabeth Price, Awartani’s mother, told reporters after the verdict came down. “During the trial, we had to listen to him use hateful words to describe our sons over and over again. They were not the words of a man confused about who he shot or why.”

Eaton was represented by public defenders in the six-day trial.

The survivors of the shooting all testified during the first day of the trial. They said they were approached by Eaton, who drew a pistol and opened fire without speaking to them.

Bullet casings that matched ammunition that Eaton possessed in his apartment were submitted into evidence. A Ruger pistol that was also in Eaton’s apartment was believed to be the weapon used in the shooting, a firearms expert testified.

Eaton’s attorneys argued that he was legally insane at the time of the shooting as he reported receiving messages from the CIA while listening to Vermont Public radio. He claims he was given orders to commit the attack on the night that it happened.

“I was either talking to my ancestors and the divine consult or talking to an intelligence agency using an incredible AI that could come through my FM radio, through my Bluetooth headset, through my phone — or I’ve had this incredible psychotic break,” Eaton said in an interview recorded days after the shooting.

Sept. 21 (UPI) — A special rapporteur for the United Nations human rights council said in a new briefing that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that U.S. attacks over the past year on boats allegedly carrying illegal drugs may be crimes against humanity.

Special rapporteur Ben Saul said in his briefing note that the attacks are “serial extrajudicial killings in violation of the right to life, being unjustified in national or personal self-defense or under international humanitarian law, the international law of the sea, narcotics suppression conventions or international counter-terrorism law.”

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law,” Saul’s note said.

The investigator said that while U.S. President Donald Trump has told Congress that the attacks are “self-defense” against “designated terrorist organizations,” they are, however, “contrary to international law, violate the human right to life, and plausibly constitute crimes against humanity.”

Saul noted that the attacks have been condemned by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, U.N. independent experts, the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, many international lawyers and others.

“There is no right to use force in self-defense against the criminal groups listed as terrorist organization,” he wrote. “Firstly, even assuming that the vessels and crew attacked were members of the criminal groups listed as terrorist, such organizations have not mounted any ‘armed attack’ on the United States so as to trigger a right of self-defense.”

In the latest attack Saturday, U.S. Southern Command posted on social media that it “executed a lethal, kinetic strike on a go-fast vessel operating along established narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean. Confirmed intelligence revealed the vessel’s active involvement in narco-trafficking.The operation killed four narco-terrorists.”

It did not name those killed or give any information about the alleged intelligence that led to the fatal attack.

The Guardian reported that while Trump has said these attacks have stopped 97% of all illegal drugs entering the country by sea, reports show that the attacks have had no impact on the amount of cocaine entering the United States.

Further, The Guardian reported, those who’ve identified some of the victims have found they were sometimes innocent and sometimes “at best low-ranked participants in trafficking networks.”

Sept. 21 (UPI) — Retiring Michigan Sen. Gary Peters is set to lead USC’s Dornsife’s Center for the Political Future, the university announced on Monday.

The Democrat, who announced he would not seek re-election earlier this year, has been named the Warschaw Chair. Peters began his professional career as an educator at several institutions in Michigan, including Michigan State University.

Peters is serving his second term in the U.S. Senate. His term will end in January as former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Democrat Abdul El Sayed seek to succeed him in November’s midterm elections.

“I look at this as a capstone of my years in public service at the local, state and federal level,” Peters said in a statement. “It’s never been more important to bring people together, and there’s no better place to start than working with students and getting them engaged in civic activism.”

Peters will work alongside Republican strategist Mike Murphy, who has been named the center’s co-director.

Peters first entered government in 2008 when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Gary Peters brings an extraordinary combination of public service, bipartisan leadership and real experience getting things done in Washington,” James Bullock, Dean of USC Dorsife’s Center, said in a statement. “He has spent his career showing that you can hold strong political convictions and still work productively with people who see the world differently. I’m especially excited about what his leadership will make possible for our students, both in Los Angeles and in Washington.”

Sept. 21 (UPI) — CNN, MS Now and Politico announced Monday they filed a lawsuit and other news organizations declined to participate in White House coverage after President Donald Trump banned the three outlets.

CNN, MS Now and Politico filed the emergency request seeking to restore their access to the White House in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In a joint statement, they said the government should not be allowed to decide what the press reports.

“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the statement read. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

The lawsuit said Trump’s ban threatened the Constitution’s due process and First Amendment protections.

CNN had been scheduled to serve as the White House press pool representative for television Monday. Multiple news outlets take part in a rotating schedule to share television, radio and written coverage of the president each day.

Instead of replacing CNN, the White House press corps decided to decline television coverage of presidential events Monday, The New York Times reported.

“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the president,” a pool note from Bryan Boughton, Fox News Washington bureau chief, said.

“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal.

“We will provide updates as this situation develops.”

The five networks that share television coverage — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — issued a separate statement.

“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

In a post on Truth Social on Monday morning, Trump denied the allegation that the ban was “an assault on the Free Press.”

“It is instituting an assault on the FAKE News, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America,” he wrote. “It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”

Trump on Friday announced he was banning reporters from the three outlets from the White House “effective immediately,” citing allegations of “fake news.”

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”

CNN, MS Now and Politico aren’t the first news organizations to face a ban at the White House. In 2025, the administration banned the Associated Press from multiple events after it refused to stop using the term “Gulf of Mexico” despite Trump’s efforts to rename the body of water the “Gulf of America.”

Sept. 21 (UPI) — Two people died when a helicopter crashed while conducting water-bucket drops to fight a wildfire in Yosemite National Park in California, aviation officials said.

The crash took place Sunday afternoon near Mariposa, northwest of Fresco, Calif., Federal Aviation Administration officials said. One crew member and one passenger were on board the Eurocopter AS32 when it “crashed under unknown circumstances while on water-bucket drops,” the FAA said.

The agency and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.

The Dome Fire, in a remote area of Yosemite, has burned more than 3,000 acres since it started Tuesday and was 15% contained by Monday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on its website. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

FlyPrecision, a firefighting contractor, posted on social media that the two people were part of its team.

“It is with unimaginable sadness and broken hearts that we share the loss of two beloved members of our team,” the company said. “We are devastated by this loss and are struggling to find the words. Please keep their families, loved ones and our entire team in your thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time.”

Yosemite National Park is nearly 1,200 square miles. It takes up part of four counties; the Dome Fire is so far contained to Mariposa County. It’s also a World Heritage Site.

Sept. 21 (UPI) — A Venezuelan man who was shot Sunday in Austin, Texas, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during a traffic stop has been transferred to a detention facility with a bullet still lodged in his back, a lawyer said Monday.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, said on the phone during a news conference that doctors did not remove the bullet because it is close to his spine, and that ICE agents were pressuring the hospital to release him into ICE custody quickly, NBC News reported.

“I am not doing well due to the gunshot wound, and I have not received the medical attention that I require,” Garces Perez said through a translator, Axios reported.

ICE agents shot Garces Perez while he was making deliveries as a DoorDash driver. He was first taken to a hospital, then transported to the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas.

Federal authorities have not said what led up to the shooting. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who said she is representing Garces Perez’s family, said Sunday that ICE agents boxed him in his car and shot him through the rear window.

“They sent him to [an ICE facility] with a bullet in hisback without pain medication, and he slept overnight in a processing center without a bed,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said Monday.

ICE said Sunday that Garces Perez’s condition is stable and that he is in federal custody “pending removal.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said Monday on social media that ICE was going to take Garces Perez back to the hospital, although this has not been confirmed.

“He is in tremendous pain and tells us that the bullet is still inside his left side,” Casto said. “He can’t move the left side of his body.”

Immigration advocates are demanding Garces Perez’s release before he can be deported, saying that he is a witness to his shooting.

“Wilber is a victim of the shooting and the most important witness to it. You do not deport the key witness to your own officer’s use of force,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, at the press conference Monday.

Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez entered the county legally through CBP One, a Biden-era program, to seek asylum, CNN reported. The Trump administration ended the program, and a court changed his court date without notifying him, she said.

Sept. 21 (UPI) — Stock prices are on the rise on Monday as crude oil prices dip and U.S. Treasury yields slip.

The S&P 500 was up 0.6% early on Monday, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.9% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average bumped up 0.3%. This followed a 1.7% drop in the Dow last week.

A fall in oil prices coincided with Monday’s stock market gains. The price of Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, fell by 3% per barrel, as did West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark. U.S. crude oil futures are trading above $96 per barrel while Brent crude remains above the $100 per barrel mark.

Despite the change in direction on oil prices, tension in the Middle East remains. The Houthis, a Yemeni militia group supported by Iran, said it launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The Houthis have expanded their control over the Red Sea in recent weeks, adding pressure to another chokepoint in the Middle East oil trade as the Strait of Hormuz remains under constant threat.

The U.S. State Department placed a travel alert for the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, warning that travel is not advised due to risks of Iranian drone and missile attacks.

President Donald Trump has renewed his willingness to discuss the war with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. He told Fox News that he would be willing to meet with the Iranian president during the U.N. General Assembly in New York City later this week.

A decline in 10-year Treasury note yields was also a welcomed sign to start the week. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes, an indicator of borrowing costs, fell by three basis points, or 0.03%, to 4.963%.

Monday’s market developments also followed the Federal Reserve raising benchmark interest rates for the first time in three years last week. The central bank raised the benchmark interest rates to the 3.75% to 4% range after holding them from 3.5% to 3.75% since 2023.