Trump’s Memphis crime taskforce accused of using ‘immense force’ in intimidation campaign

Central American country says its president spoke with Pete Hegseth to confirm terms of cooperationSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailGuatemala has requested US military cooperation spanning access to equipment, training and experts to assist Guatemalan operations against drug trafficking, the country’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, said on Thursday.The joint plans stopped short of US military operations on Guatemalan soil and fall within existing bilateral agreements, the government noted. Continue reading...

Murrell has been remanded in custody after pleading guilty to embezzling more than £400,00 from SNPNicola Sturgeon said she was “deceived, betrayed and lied to” by her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, as he embezzled hundreds of thousands of pounds from the SNP.The former first minister told an audience in Ireland at her first public appearance since Murrell pleaded guilty that she was coming to terms with being married to someone she “did not know at all”, and acknowledged people would have questions. Continue reading...

Treasury secretary says banknote would celebrate US’s 250th anniversary but Democrats vow to block moveThe White House is pushing Congress to approve a $250 bill bearing Donald Trump’s portrait, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said, which would require changing longstanding federal law that prohibits any living person from appearing on US currency.Speaking from the White House at a news conference, Bessent said the bill would be in celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary of independence, and that the treasury has already started preparing for the possibility of the new currency. Continue reading...

Spy agency says politicians and public servants ‘should be conscious of the things that they are discussing’ in internet-connected cars. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAsio has warned politicians and public servants not to discuss sensitive government information in internet-connected cars, due to the risk of electronic eavesdropping.The country’s top spy agency said discussing classified or sensitive information outside the workplace was always a risk, especially in vehicles which send realtime information back to the manufacturer. Continue reading...

Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington state sued as ICE seeks plates in Trump’s immigration crackdownThe Trump administration is suing to challenge the refusal of four US states to issue confidential license plates to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, saying the states have long provided them to other law enforcement agencies conducting undercover operations.The US Department of Justice on Thursday said it had filed lawsuits against Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington state after states led by Democratic governors refused to rescind their policies. ICE is seeking access to such plates to carry out arrests as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Continue reading...

Rival groups are vying for territorial control of strategic cocaine production and trafficking regionAt least 52 guerrilla fighters have been killed in clashes between two rival armed groups vying for territorial control of a strategic cocaine production and trafficking region in south-east Colombia, a faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) involved in the fighting has said.The clashes, the most violent in recent months, took place in the jungles of the department of Guaviare, near the village of Barranco Colorado. Continue reading...

Trump administration in a bind as it faces mounting economic costs ahead of midterms from Iran warThe terms of a purported 60-day deal to negotiate peace in the Iran war have trapped the Trump administration between mounting economic costs ahead of midterm elections and anger from Republican hawks who accuse the US government of surrendering to Iran.The public rift between Trump and Senate Republicans over his shift toward diplomacy with Iran has also been matched within his administration, where the dovish JD Vance and traditional neoconservative Marco Rubio have been forced to pirouette between Trump’s policies as he shifts to exit the war as soon as possible. Continue reading...

AP review finds unprecedented number of suicide deaths as critics attack failures of Trump’s immigration crackdownBrayan Rayo Garzon was distraught. Detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he was on his fourth day of isolation in a Missouri jail as he battled the fevers and chills of Covid.His request for mental health treatment had been put off, records show, and staff had forbidden Rayo from making his nightly call to his mother, as a precaution intended to prevent the spread of illness.In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email [email protected] or [email protected]. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Job seekers say the lack of opportunities has affected their mental health and left them fearing for the futureWhen Catherina finished her degree in digital film production in London, she thought her prospects of finding work were good, but she has found the jobs market tough. Continue reading...

DNA testing proved Anthony Odiong fathered child with woman to whom he had been providing spiritual guidance, authorities saySign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailTexas prosecutors on Thursday established that a Roman Catholic priest being tried there on charges that he illegally exploited his status as a priest to pursue sex with three spiritually vulnerable congregants had a child with a separate congregant in approximately 2023 – while working outside New Orleans.That explosive development unfolded on the third day of Anthony Odiong’s trial at a state courthouse in Waco, Texas, where he worked before being transferred to Luling, Louisiana. Continue reading...

Happy was the focus of a high-profile court case launched in 2018 over whether she had the legal rights of a personHappy, an elephant that became embroiled in a high-profile court case over whether she had the legal rights of a person, has died after being euthanized at New York City’s Bronx zoo at the age of 55.The Asian elephant, was euthanized on Tuesday after zoo staff determined that “progressive, age-related health conditions” required the decision, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs four zoos and an aquarium in New York. Continue reading...