British rapper Stormzy banned from driving for using phone behind wheel of his Rolls-Royce

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British rapper Stormzy banned from driving for using phone behind wheel of his Rolls-Royce

2025-01-03 00:11 Last Updated At：00:21

LONDON (AP) — British rapper Stormzy was banned from driving for nine months on Thursday after admitting he drove his Rolls-Royce through London while using his phone.

The 31-year-old, whose real name is Michael Ebenazer Owuo Jr., is known for bringing the grime genre of rap into the commercial mainstream. His debut “Gang Signs and Prayer” won album of the year at the Brit Awards in 2018, where he was named best male British solo artist — an honor he won again in 2020.

His record on the road, however, isn’t good, a judge said at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court.

District judge Andrew Sweet said that Stormzy’s actions were “dangerous and irresponsible.”

Stormzy previously put “vulnerable road users at risk” when he drove a Lamborghini Urus with illegally tinted windows, prosecutor Alice Holloway said. The windows only allowed 4% light transmission — a tiny fraction of the 70% required for tinting.

Stormzy, who wasn’t in court for the hearing, pleaded guilty in writing to the cellphone driving charge from March. He had previously admitted to the 2023 tinting offense and also had a record of speeding.

The rapper was also fined 2,010 pounds ($2,500) and penalty points were added to his license.

Defense lawyer Peter Csemiczky said that Stormzy apologized and accepted responsibility.

Driving bans are handed down regularly in England for traffic offenses. They can be discretionary or mandatory for using a phone while driving, depending on the nature of the offense.

Chief Justice Roberts pauses deadline for return of Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador

2025-04-08 04:08 Last Updated At：04:11

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts agreed Monday to pause a midnight deadline for the Trump administration to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

The temporary order comes hours after a Justice Department emergency appeal to the Supreme Court arguing U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis overstepped her authority when she ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the United States.

The administration has conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador because an immigration judge found he likely would face persecution by local gangs.

But he is no longer in U.S. custody and the government has no way to get him back, the administration argued.

Xinis gave the administration until just before midnight to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

“The district court’s injunction—which requires Abrego Garcia’s release from the custody of a foreign sovereign and return to the United States by midnight on Monday—is patently unlawful,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in court papers, casting the order as one in “a deluge of unlawful injunctions” judges have issued to slow President Donald Trump's agenda.

The Justice Department appeal was directed to Roberts because he handles appeals from Maryland.

The Trump administration is separately asking the Supreme Court to allow Trump to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members to the same Salvadoran prison under an 18th century wartime law.

The federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, denied the administration's request for a stay. “There is no question that the government screwed up here,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in a brief opinion accompanying the unanimous denial.

The White House has described Abrego Garcia’s deportation as an “administrative error” but has also cast him an MS-13 gang member. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia said there is no evidence he was in MS-13.

“The Executive branch may not seize individuals from the streets, deposit them in foreign prisons in violation of court orders, and then invoke the separation of powers to insulate its unlawful actions from judicial scrutiny,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers wrote in a response filed moments after Roberts issued his temporary pause.

Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest him and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless,” explaining that little to no evidence supports a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Abrego Garcia was once an MS-13 member.

Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who has never been charged or convicted of any crime, was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.

He had a permit from DHS to legally work in the U.S. and was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said. His wife is a U.S. citizen.

In 2019, an immigration judge barred the U.S. from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.

A Justice Department lawyer conceded in a court hearing that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported. Attorney General Pam Bondi later removed the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, from the case and placed him on leave.