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A total of 15 people are under arrest and charged after Autauga County authorities say they conducted a child sex trafficking operation.

Autauga County Chief Deputy Tom Allen said the sheriff’s office, with help from the Prattville Police Department, 19th Circuit District Attorney’s Office, Montgomery Police Department, U.S. Marshals Service and Covenant Rescue Group, conducted the operation from Nov. 21-22.

“Our goal was to catch and arrest child sex predators. We were successful in catching several individuals coming to our county to have sex with whom they believed to be a minor,” Allen said.

14 of the 15 are charged with first-degree human trafficking, traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, and electronic solicitation of a child, according to the Autauga County district attorney’s office. The 15th suspect, Austin Gill, is only charged with traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act.

A social media ban for children under 16 passed the Australian Parliament on Friday in a world-first law.

The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

The Senate passed the bill on Thursday 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 102 votes to 13.

The House on Friday endorsed opposition amendments made in the Senate, making the bill law.

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The Democratic chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee blasted the heads of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, issuing a rare but sharp rebuke of the two officials for failing to appear for a public hearing.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said both Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray “refused to appear” before the panel for its annual hearing about threats to the homeland, saying it was the first time in 15 years officials have done so.

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ATHENS, Ga. — Tren de Aragua gang member Jose Ibarra was sentenced to life without parole Wednesday for the vicious murder of promising nursing student Laken Riley in a case that ignited a national firestorm over the Biden administration’s open border policy and coddling of illegal immigrants.

The sentencing was meted out a little more than two hours after Judge Patrick Haggard announced the guilty verdict on all charges on the fourth day of the Athens, Georgia, murder trial, in which 29 witnesses were called by the prosecution.

The illegal migrant was described as a “sick, twisted, and evil coward” in series of heartbreaking victim impact statements from Riley’s loved ones before the sentencing. He reacted to the harsh words with cold detachment as a translator whispered them into his ear.

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The number of students who experienced homelessness in New York City last school year could fill Yankee Stadium nearly three times over. That’s according to a new report released Monday from Advocates for Children of New York, which found over 146,000 public school children – or 1 in every 8 – didn’t have a permanent place to call home during the 2022-2023 school year.

While that staggering figure is a record high, driven in part by the recent surge of asylum-seeking families arriving in New York City, homelessness has long been a major issue in the nation’s largest school system. Last academic year was the ninth consecutive year in which more than 100,000 public school children experienced homelessness.

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