Tracy Mumford

According to the man's family, a staffer at the El Paso Medical Examiner's Office told them it planned to list the manner of death as homicide, and the family shared a recording of that conversation, though the Times could not verify it.

The office declined to comment on the recording, saying an autopsy is pending.

The facility where the man died is the largest of its kind in the country, with about 2,700 detainees.

Last year, several human rights groups urged federal officials to close the center over reports of abuse.

The DHS called those claims categorically false.

Australia has passed new, tighter gun control laws in the wake of a mass shooting targeting a Hanukkah celebration there last month.

The legislation calls for a national gun buyback program.

It also limits firearms imports and tightens background checks.

The move echoes what Australia did back in the 90s when a mass shooting shook the country.

Almost immediately, it tightened its laws and did a massive buyback.

A fifth of Australia's guns were taken out of public circulation.

Since then, the country has had one of the lowest gun homicide rates per capita.

But the number of firearms has climbed back up, and it's now at a record high.

The details of how the new buyback program will work haven't been finalized.

At the same time, in response to rising anti-Semitism in the country, Australia's parliament also passed a bill targeting hate speech.

It gives authorities more leeway to deny entry visas to people with extremist views and to designate organizations as hate groups, though some critics have warned it could have a chilling effect on protest and civil rights.

And finally, in one of his final acts in office, the governor of New Jersey signed a law this week requiring that all elementary school students in the state learn cursive.

Yes, cursive.

So practice your loop-de-loops because it is making a comeback.

While the federal government dropped cursive from the Common Core standards back in 2010, New Jersey joins roughly two dozen other states that have revived it in recent years.