The Trump administration purposefully chose a notorious Louisiana prison to hold immigration detainees as a way to encourage people in the US illegally to self-deport, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Kristi Noem said Wednesday.

A complex inside the Louisiana state penitentiary, an immense rural prison better known as Angola, will be used to detain those whom Noem described as the “worst of the worst” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detainees. Noem was speaking to reporters as she stood on the grounds of the facility near a new sign reading, “Louisiana Lockup.”

“This facility will hold the most dangerous of criminals,” Noem said, adding it had “absolutely” been chosen for its reputation.

Officials said 51 detainees were already being housed at Angola. But Louisiana governor Jeff Landry said he expects the building to be filled to capacity, expecting over 400 people to come in ensuing months, as president Donald Trump continues his large-scale attempt to remove millions of people suspected of entering the country illegally.

The dirt road to the new Ice facility meanders past lofty oak trees, green fields and other buildings – including a white church and a structure with a sign that says, “Angola Shake Down Team”.

The facility is surrounded by a fence with five rows of stacked barbed wire. Overlooking the outdoor area is a tower, where a guard paced back and forth.

At the prison entrance a sign reads: “You are entering the land of new beginnings.”

The Associated Press joined officials for a brief tour of the facility, viewing some of the cells where detainees would be held. The cells, built of three cinder block walls and steel bars on the front, were single occupancy – one bed, toilet and sink in each.

Outside were confined enclosures of chain-link fencing, tall enough for multiple people to stand in.

“If you don’t think that they belong in somewhere like this,” Landry said of the detainees during Wednesday’s news conference, “you’ve got a problem.”

The building holding Ice detainees is not new, but rather refurbished after sitting vacant for years. The rest of Angola, which is made up of many buildings, has remained active. Many of Angola’s 6,300 inmates still work the fields, picking long rows of vegetables by hand as armed guards patrol on horseback.

In addition, the prison is home to more than 50 death row inmates. The most recent execution was in March, using nitrogen gas to deprive the inmate of oxygen, causing death. The state’s electric chair, nicknamed “Gruesome Gertie”, is still on display in the prison’s museum.

The notoriety of the 18,000-acre (7,300-hectare) prison stretches back well over a century. Described in the 1960s and 1970s as “the bloodiest prison in America,” it has seen violence, mass riots, escapes, brutality, inhumane conditions and executions.

The Trump administration has crafted its immigration messaging to reinforce a tough-on-crime image and create a sense of fear among people in the US illegally, most pointedly with the detention center dubbed Alligator Alcatraz that it built in the Florida Everglades.

The Everglades facility may soon be completely empty after a judge upheld her decision ordering operations there to wind down indefinitely.

Racing to expand the infrastructure necessary for increasing deportations, the federal government and state allies have announced a series of new immigration detention facilities, including the “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana and the “Cornhusker Clink” in Nebraska.

The approximate 400 people the Angola immigration facility will be able to hold is just a tiny percentage of the more than 100,000 people that Ice seeks to detain under a $45bn expansion for immigration detention centers that Trump signed into law in July.

The prison traces its history back to a series of wealthy slave traders and cotton planters who built an operation known as Angola Plantation. An 1850s news report said it had 700 slaves, who historians say were forced to work from dawn to dark in Louisiana’s brutal summer heat.

The plantation became the state prison after the Civil War, with a former Confederate officer awarded a lease that gave him control over the property and its convicts.

“The majority of black inmates were subleased to land owners to replace slaves while others continued levee, railroad, and road construction,” the museum’s website says. White inmates at the time worked as clerks or craftsmen.

Inmate leasing ended in the late 1800s amid a public outcry, and the state took direct control of the prison in 1901.

DETROIT – The Powerball drawing on Wednesday night is worth more than $1.4 billion.

The cash option for the jackpot is $634.3 million.

If someone wins the jackpot, it would be the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the sixth-largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.

Michigan last saw a Powerball jackpot winner on Jan. 1, 2024. A Mid-Michigan lottery club won an $842.4 million prize with a ticket purchased in Grand Blanc. That remains the largest Powerball prize ever won in Michigan.

Winning Powerball numbers for Sept. 3, 2025

Powerball numbers: 61-29-69-16-03

Powerball: 22

Powerplay multiplier: 2x

How do you play Powerball?

Powerball tickets cost $2 per play. In Idaho and Montana, the game is bundled with Power Play, making the minimum cost $3 per play. They can be purchased at stores across Michigan or online at MichiganLottery.com.

Players select five numbers between 1 and 69 for the white balls, then one number between 1 and 26 for the red Powerball. Numbers can be chosen manually on a play slip or randomly by the lottery terminal.

The jackpot is won by matching all five white balls in any order and the red Powerball.

Drawings take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern time at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee.

Jackpot winners can choose to receive their prize as an annuity, paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or as a lump sum. Both prize options are before federal and jurisdictional taxes.

Emergency services in the Portuguese capital Lisbon said that at least 15 people were killed and 18 injured one Wednesday when one of the city’s iconic yellow Gloria railway cars derailed.

In a statement, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies said that five of the injured were in serious condition, including a child, and that some were foreigners.

According to emergency services, all of the victims have been recovered from the wreckage.

What do we know about the accident?

The famous funicular, which travels up and down a steep street in central Lisbon, is used by locals and tourists alike.

According to eye-witnesses, the railway car hurtled down the hill, apparently out of control, before crashing.

“It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” resident Teresa d’Avo told Portuguese TV channel SIC.

Video and images from the scene showed that the train tipped over and severely damaged, with its sides and roof partially crumpled. It appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends.

Several dozen emergency workers attended the scene but most were stood down after about two hours.

The Portuguese government said that an investigation into the causes will begin once the rescue operation is over.

Politicians offer condolences

Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas called the accident an “unprecedented tragedy” and said that the city was in mourning. The Portuguese government said that a nationwide day of mourning would be held on Thursday. 

Portugese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to the affected families.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also offered her condolences. “It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous ‘Elevador da Gloria,'” she wrote in Portuguese on X.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X that he was “appalled by the terrible accident,” while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he had met with his Portuguese counterpart and expressed his “solidarity with the victims.”

What is the Gloria funicular?

The Gloria funicular, which opened in 1885, connects an area of downtown Lisbon near Restauradores Square to the Bairro Alto (Upper Quarter), which is famous for its vibrant nightlife.

The two cars, which can each carry around 40 people, are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, and electric motors on the cars provide the traction.

The Gloria line is one of three funicular lines operated by the municipal public transportation company, Carris, and is used by tourists and local residents alike.

According to the town hall, the Gloria line transports around 3 million people annually.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery