Former world champion Julio César Chávez Jr arrested by Ice over alleged cartel ties
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has arrested the Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr in California and begun proceedings to deport him, citing cartel affiliations, multiple criminal convictions and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for weapons trafficking and organized crime,Chávez Jr, 39, the son of the legendary world champion Julio César Chávez Sr, was taken into custody by Ice agents on Tuesday in Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for celebrity residences,According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he had been living in the US unlawfully and posed a significant threat to public safety,Nonetheless, just five days before his arrest, Chávez Jr was allowed to participate in a heavily promoted boxing match against the YouTuber-turned-fighter Jake Paul in Anaheim,The fight promoter claimed that the match which Chávez Jr lost to Paul proved to be the highest-grossing boxing event ever held at Anaheim’s Honda Center, with one outlet estimating it generated more than $1.
5m in gate revenue.Chávez Jr first entered the US legally on a six-month tourist visa in August 2023.He later filed for permanent residency in April 2024, citing marriage to a US citizen.That application raised alarms within federal agencies due to what officials described as “multiple fraudulent statements” and connections to the Sinaloa cartel, a powerful drug-trafficking organization labeled a foreign terrorist group by the Trump administration.His arrest comes amid mounting political tension over the Biden administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Internal DHS documents reportedly showed that although Chávez was flagged as an “egregious public safety threat” in December 2024, his removal was not prioritized.In January 2025, despite those warnings, Chávez was allowed re-entry into the country at the San Ysidro port of entry in California under a discretionary parole process.“This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate with an active arrest warrant for trafficking guns, ammunition, and explosives was arrested by Ice,” said the DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a sharply worded statement.“It is shocking the previous administration flagged this criminal illegal alien as a public safety threat but chose to not prioritize his removal and let him leave and come back into our country.”Federal officials allege Chávez Jr has longstanding ties to organized crime.
In Mexico, he is wanted on charges of weapons trafficking and manufacturing explosives without authorization,In the United States, he has a criminal record dating back more than a decade,He was convicted of DUI in California in 2012, and more recently, in January 2024, he was convicted of illegal possession of an assault weapon and manufacturing or importing a short-barreled rifle,The boxer has struggled with substance abuse and legal trouble throughout his career,Once seen as a rising star in Mexican boxing, who held the World Boxing Council’s version of the middleweight title from 2011 through 2012, his in-ring performances in recent years have been overshadowed by repeated arrests, erratic behavior and suspensions.
Chávez’s wife – through whom he filed for a green card – has also drawn scrutiny.DHS officials say she was previously in a relationship with one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s sons, though she has not been charged with any crime.Chávez is currently in Ice custody and will be processed for expedited removal.A spokesperson for his legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The arrest highlights ongoing friction between immigration enforcement priorities and public safety concerns.
‘A billion people backing you’: China transfixed as Musk turns against Trump
Few break-ups have as many gossiping observers as the fallout between the once inseparable Donald Trump and Elon Musk.The ill-fated bromance between the US president and the world’s richest man, which once raised questions about American oligarchy, is now being pored over by social media users in China, many of whom are Team Musk.The latest drama comes from Musk’s pledge to found a new political party, the America party, if Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill, which Musk described as “insane” passed the Senate this week (it did). Musk had already vowed to unseat lawmakers who backed Trump’s flagship piece of legislation, which is expected to increase US national debt by $3.3tn
AI companies start winning the copyright fight
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. If you need me after this newsletter publishes, I will be busy poring over photos from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding, the gaudiest and most star-studded affair to disrupt technology news this year. I found it a tacky and spectacular affair. Everyone who was anyone was there, except for Charlize Theron, who, unprompted, said on Monday: “I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that’s OK, because they suck and we’re cool
China hosts first fully autonomous AI robot football match
They think it’s all over … for human footballers at least.The pitch wasn’t the only artificial element on display at a football match in China on Saturday. Four teams of humanoid robots took on each other in Beijing, in games of three-a-side powered by artificial intelligence.While the modern game has faced accusations of becoming near-robotic in its obsession with tactical perfection, the games in China showed that AI won’t be taking Kylian Mbappé’s job just yet.Footage of the humanoid kickabout showed the robots struggling to kick the ball or stay upright, performing pratfalls that would have earned their flesh-and-blood counterparts a yellow card for diving
Whitehall’s ambition to cut costs using AI is fraught with risk
A Dragons’ Den-style event this week, where tech companies will have 20 minutes to pitch ideas for increasing automation in the British justice system, is one of numerous examples of how the cash-strapped Labour government hopes artificial intelligence and data science can save money and improve public services.Amid warnings from critics that Downing Street has been “drinking the Kool-Aid” on AI, the Department of Health and Social Care this week announced an AI early warning system to detect dangerous maternity services after a series of scandals, and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said he wants one in eight operations to be conducted by a robot within a decade.AI is being used to prioritise actions on the 25,000 pieces of correspondence the Department for Work and Pensions receives each day and to detect potential fraud and error in benefit claims. Ministers even have access to an AI tool that is supposed to provide a “vibe check” on parliamentary opinion to help them weigh the political risks of policy proposals.Again and again, ministers are turning to technology to tackle acute crises that in the past might have been dealt with by employing more staff or investing more money
Musk vows to unseat lawmakers who support Trump’s sweeping spending bill
Elon Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” he wrote on his social media platform, X.A few hours later he added that if the “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he helped prop up
Gov.uk smartphone app to launch with limited functionality
A government app intended to “cut life admin” will be free to download by millions of UK citizens from Tuesday, but its functions will be limited and the cabinet minister in charge has admitted: “The design is not as we would like it to be.”The gov.uk app will be accessible on smartphones for people aged 16 and over and is intended to be the main mobile hub for many citizen interactions with the government, although not the NHS or HM Revenue and Customs.Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science and technology, said the version launched this week would only steer users to existing government webpages, with more functionality to be added by the end of the year.A generative artificial intelligence chatbot trained on 700,000 pages of the gov
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