Raw materials to keep British Steel plant operating reach the UK

LONDON (AP) — The U.K. government said Tuesday that it had bought enough raw materials to keep Britain’s last steelmaking blast furnaces operating for the “coming weeks.”

The announcement came amid fears that the government’s decision to wrest control of British Steel from its Chinese owners would deepen tensions between the U.K. and China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday warned against “politicizing” the issue as British officials raised concerns about Chinese investment in strategic industries.

The issue has dominated British politics since Saturday, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer recalled lawmakers from their spring recess so Parliament could pass emergency legislation allowing the government to take operational control of British Steel.

That move was spurred by reports that the company’s owners, China’s Jingye Group, were trying to shut down steelmaking operations in Scunthorpe, northern England, by starving the plant of the iron ore and coking coal needed to keep the blast furnaces operating. That raised the prospect that Britain would lose its last plant capable of making high-quality steel from scratch because once blast furnaces are shut down it is difficult and expensive to restart them.

The Department for Business and Trade said shipments of the raw materials that had been waiting at the port of Immingham will be unloaded on Tuesday after the government agreed to pay for them. A separate shipment is on the way from Australia after the government resolved a legal dispute with Jingye.

“After intensive work over the weekend, the government has secured coke and iron ore pellets for the blast furnaces and is confident there will be enough materials to keep the furnaces burning,” the department said in a statement.

While Jingye remains the owner of British Steel, the government has said temporary nationalization is likely as it looks for other investors to rescue the company.

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday warned Britain to treat Jingye fairly and avoid “politicizing and over-securitizing” the issue, “so as not to affect the confidence of Chinese enterprises in investing and cooperating in the U.K.”

Coking coal is unloaded at Immingham Port, northern England, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Darren Staples/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, second from left, observes as coking coal is unloaded at Immingham Port, at Immingham Port, northern England, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Darren Staples/Pool Photo via AP)

Coking coal is unloaded at Immingham Port, northern England, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Darren Staples/Pool Photo via AP)

Coking coal is unloaded at Immingham Port, northern England, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Darren Staples/Pool Photo via AP)

The British Steel works in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, Saturday April 12, 2025. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

The British Steel works in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, Saturday April 12, 2025. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and technical director Chris Vaughan, left, view blast furnaces during her visit to the British Steel site in Scunthorpe in Scunthorpe, England, Monday April 14, 2025. (Peter Byrne, Pool Photo via AP)

A general view of blast furnaces at the British Steel site in Scunthorpe, England, Monday April 14, 2025. (Peter Byrne, Pool Photo via AP)

DENVER (AP) — A soldier present at an after-hours nightclub where more than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally were taken into custody last weekend has been charged with distributing cocaine, court records show.

Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, who is assigned to Fort Carson, an Army post near the illegal club in Colorado Springs, was arrested Wednesday evening, the FBI said in a statement.

Orona-Rodriquez has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to an arrest affidavit. It said he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration days before the raid.

It wasn't immediately known if Orona-Rodriguez — a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team in the 4th Infantry Division — had a lawyer ahead of an expected court appearance Thursday.

The FBI said the arrest followed an investigation by the DEA, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and officials at Fort Carson.

More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies participated in Sunday’s operation at the nightclub, which had been under investigation for months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.

Cocaine was among the drugs found, Pullen said at a news conference.

Orona-Rodriquez was one of about 17 active-duty U.S. Army service members who were at the club, known as Warike, when it was raided early Sunday, the affidavit said.

He appears to have held a leadership role in a business that provides armed security at nightclubs, including at Warike, according to the document. However, it did not say whether he was working security there at the time of the raid. It notes that he had been warned by his commanding officer this spring that he could not work for the security company.

Rodriguez received more than a dozen Army awards during his almost nine years in service, including an Army Commendation Medal with combat device, which is earned during a deployment where the soldier was “performing meritoriously under the most arduous combat conditions,” according to Army descriptions of the award.

Of the 17 soldiers who were at the venue at the time of the raid, 16 were patrons and one was working there in a security role, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. Sixteen of the soldiers there were assigned to Fort Carson, the official did not know where the seventeenth was assigned.

Investigators suspect Orona-Rodriguez was getting cocaine from an unidentified Mexican citizen who is “unlawfully present in the United States without admission,” according to the affidavit.

President Donald Trump posted a link to the DEA video of the raid on his social media site, Truth Social. “A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” the president wrote.

Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officers stop a patron from a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)

In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a law enforcement officer with a weapon drawn is shown at a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)