UCLA chancellor faces faculty outcry over 9/11 statement, a test of academic freedom

LOS ANGELES — A public message from UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk distancing the university from a law school 9/11 symposium that included a lawyer for the alleged "mastermind" of the attack has ignited an intensifying outcry among UC faculty and hundreds of academics nationwide over what they see as a high-level infringement on academic freedom.

In letters to Frenk this week, dozens of UCLA School of Law faculty demanded a retraction and called Frenk's statement "not befitting of a leader." More than 200 signatories to a nationwide open letter that included professors at Harvard and Stanford also called for a retraction.

The influential leaders of UCLA's Academic Senate sent a more measured letter to Frenk about their "concerns and reservations," urging administrators and faculty to work together to uphold academic freedom.

The Sept. 10-11 symposium in question examined the legal consequences of the U.S. response to the attacks, including torture, detention and government surveillance. Right-leaning media criticized its inclusion of a Defense Department lawyer who represented alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a speaker from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group.

—Los Angeles Times

Trump says his son will repay Russian oligarch for wedding party

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said his son, Donald Trump Jr., told him he was repaying a Russian oligarch for a wedding party, seeking to tamp down on an incident that has spurred fresh ethical questions.

“I asked about it. He said, ‘No, I’m paying him back, Dad,’ so, and that was a while ago, so I heard he’s paying him,” Trump told reporters Friday in the Oval Office when asked about the controversy. “I understand that Don’s paid him back,” he added at one point.

Trump sought to downplay the matter, casting the oligarch as a friend of his son’s and saying it was common for those who know a bride or groom to pay for a wedding party. “A person that he knows, I guess a friend of his, gave him a wedding party. That’s very common. I’ve heard of many people giving wedding parties,” Trump said.

The president’s daughter-in-law, Bettina Trump, said in an Instagram post earlier this week that the couple had a private marriage ceremony in May, which was followed by a celebration the following weekend in the Bahamas. The second event was hosted by Umar Kremlev, Bettina Trump said.

—Bloomberg News

Climate change may have contributed to a quarter of ER visits for heat-related illness from 2018-25, study finds

DALLAS — Across the country, at least a quarter of emergency room visits for heat-related illness may be attributable to human-caused climate change, researchers from Climate Central, a nonprofit group, estimate in a new study.

Published in the September issue of Climatic Change, a scientific journal, the researchers' peer-reviewed analysis suggests climate change contributed to about 27% of heat-related ER visits in the U.S. during warm seasons from 2018 through 2025.

Heat-related illness is on the rise across the United States. Yale School of Public Health researchers found that heat-related deaths increased by more than 50% between 2000 and 2020. "Our healthcare system is pretty strained, when we think of emergency medicine in particular," said Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central. "This data is giving us a baseline that we know we'd be building on if we continue warming our planet."

Climate change's impact on ER visits varies by region, Dahl's team found. In the Southern Plains area containing Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico, the researchers estimated human-caused climate change contributed about 25% to the rate of heat-related ER visits.

—The Dallas Morning News

Miami jury rejects torture and killing claims against former Colombian colonel

MIAMI — After Colombian magistrate Carlos Horacio Urán Rojas was found dead inside Bogotá’s Palace of Justice in November 1985, military officials told his family that he had been killed in the crossfire as Colombian forces retook the building from M-19 guerrillas.

Years later, evidence emerged that challenged that account. Video and eyewitness accounts indicated that Urán had left the burning building alive and injured, escorted by soldiers. In 2007, some of his personal belongings were discovered in a locked vault at a Colombian Army installation. His daughters came to believe that he had been taken into military custody, tortured and executed.

Their effort to hold someone responsible eventually brought them to U.S. District Court in Miami, where they sued retired Colombian Army Col. Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega, who participated in the operation to retake the palace and now lives in Weston.

On Thursday, after an eight-day trial, a 10-person federal jury found that Plazas Vega was not civilly liable for Urán’s torture or extrajudicial killing. Jurors rejected the claims brought by Helena Urán Bidegain, Mairée Urán Bidegain and Xiomara Urán under both theories presented at trial: conspiracy and command responsibility.

—Miami Herald