Immigration agents turned away after trying to enter LA elementary schools

School district says DHS agents, seeking five students in first through sixth grades, were barred from entering

Immigration officials attempted to enter two Los Angeles elementary schools this week, but were turned away by school administrators. The incident appears to be the Trump administration’s first attempt to enter the city’s public schools since amending regulations to allow immigration agents to enter “sensitive areas” such as schools.

At a Thursday press conference, the Los Angeles unified school district superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, confirmed that agents from the Department of Homeland Security were seeking five students in first through sixth grades.

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Homeland security apparently used British man’s tattoo to identify alleged gang members

‘Average man from Derbyshire’ shocked to find photo of tattoo celebrating child’s birth was used to deport migrants

A British man was shocked to discover that a photo of his tattoo was included in a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document used to identify alleged members of a notorious Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Earlier this week, 44-year-old Pete Belton, who lives in the English county of Derbyshire, told the BBC that he was stunned to find a photo of his forearm tattoo featured in a DHS document among nine images of tattoos intended to assist in “detecting and identifying” TdA members.

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Mexico to send water to Texas farmers as US treaty threat grows

Mexico’s failure to keep up 81-year-old water-sharing treaty has sparked a diplomatic spat with the US

Mexico will make an immediate water delivery to Texas farmers to help make up its shortfall under a treaty that has strained US relations and prompted tariff threats by Donald Trump, said Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Friday.

Mexico is looking for alternatives to comply with the 81-year-old water-sharing treaty with the US, Sheinbaum said in her regular news conference. A proposal had already been sent to US officials, she said.

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Liberal candidate co-authored inquiry submission suggesting Hazaras not persecuted for ethnicity in Afghanistan

Exclusive: Zahid Safi, who is running in Melbourne seat of Bruce, listed as last author on 2021 Senate submission which says victims of Afghanistan war ‘not based on ethnicity’

The Liberal candidate for Bruce co-authored a parliamentary submission suggesting the Hazara community in Afghanistan was not persecuted on the basis of its ethnicity, contradicting the Australian government and drawing rebuke from international human rights groups.

Zahid Safi co-authored a submission to a 2021 parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war, which incorrectly cited a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report to allege Hazara “warlords” had “cut the breasts of women” and watched “live delivery of pregnant women” during the early 1990s. The 2005 HRW report does not mention these acts.

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Ukraine allies promise €21bn in military support for Kyiv

Ukraine defence contact group accuses Putin of dragging his feet over deal and Trump urges Russia to ‘get moving’

Ukraine’s allies have announced a record €21bn (£18.2bn) in additional military support for Kyiv and accused Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet and delaying US-led negotiations over a ceasefire deal.

Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group in Brussels, the British defence secretary, John Healey, said the Russian president had rejected a 30-day pause in fighting proposed a month ago by Donald Trump.

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Tesla stops taking orders in China for two models imported from US

Carmaker removes ‘order now’ buttons for Model S saloon and Model X SUV on its Chinese website amid tariffs war

Tesla has stopped taking orders in China for two models it previously imported from the US, as companies scramble to adapt to prohibitive tariffs imposed in Donald Trump’s trade war.

The manufacturer, run by Trump’s close ally Elon Musk, removed “order now” buttons on its Chinese website for its Model S saloon and Model X sports utility vehicle.

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Zimbabwe starts compensating white farmers 25 years after land seizures

Step is requirement for restructuring country’s debt, including new IMF programme

Zimbabwe has started to make compensation payments to white former farm owners, 25 years after Robert Mugabe’s government began confiscating land.

The government paid $3.1m (£2.3m) to a “first batch” of 378 farms, the ministry of finance said in a statement on Wednesday, the first payout under a 2020 agreement to pay $3.5bn in compensation.

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Trump administration ordered to help return man wrongly deported to El Salvador – US politics live

Supreme court upholds earlier order that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be released after being improperly sent to prison

The Mississippi library commission, which offers services such as specialized research assistance to libraries in the state, has ordered the deletion of two research collections: the race relations database and the gender studies database. The collections were stored in what’s called the Magnolia database, which is used by publicly funded schools, libraries, universities and state agencies in Mississippi.

The commission’s executive director, Hulen Bivins, confirmed the deletion to the Guardian, and said:

We may lose a lot of materials.

All of the states, we are in dire shape. We have had a reconsideration of everything with regard to what Doge [is doing].”

Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties.”

Our message to Denmark is very simple: you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful land mass.”

I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by vice-president Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik space base.”

Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense.”

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Head of US military base in Greenland fired after JD Vance visit

Col Susannah Meyers removed amid reports she distanced base from Vance’s criticism of Denmark’s oversight of territory

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The head of the US military base in Greenland has been fired for criticising Washington’s agenda for the Arctic island after JD Vance visited two weeks ago.

Col Susannah Meyers, who had served as commander of the Pituffik space base since July, was removed amid reports she had distanced herself and the base from the US vice-president’s criticism of Denmark and its oversight of the territory.

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‘A huge cudgel’: alarm as Trump’s war on universities could target accreditors

Advocates braced for revamp of certification system as experts warn of political pressure being brought to bear

Advocates for academic freedom are bracing for what they expect to be the next phase of the government’s effort to reshape higher education: an overhaul of the system accrediting institutions of higher learning.

Donald Trump has made no secret of such plans. During the campaign, he boasted that accreditation would be his “secret weapon” against colleges and universities the right has long viewed as too progressive.

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Polish woman, 80, can stay in UK after Home Office U-turn

Elzbieta Olszewska had previously been told she faced deportation after mistakenly filling in form online

A Polish woman who had her application to remain in the UK rejected because she mistakenly filled in a form online instead of on paper has been granted permission to stay in Britain after a change of mind by the Home Office.

Elzbieta Olszewska, 80, had been living alone in her flat in Warsaw before arriving in the UK last September. Her only child, Michal Olszewski, 52, an aeronautical engineer and dual British-Polish citizen, who lives in Lincoln with his wife, had been travelling regularly to the Polish capital to support his mother.

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Spanish PM offers condolences after family of five killed in New York helicopter crash

Spanish family including three children age 11, five and four killed in crash along with pilot, who has not yet been named

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has offered his condolences to friends and relatives of a Spanish family who died in New York on Thursday after their sightseeing helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, killing all onboard including the pilot.

It emerged on Friday that the victims were Agustín Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí, and their three children, who were 11, five and four. The identity of the pilot has not yet been made public.

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‘Toxic cocktail’: study finds almost 200 pesticides in European homes

More than 40% of pesticides discovered in dust linked to toxic effects including cancer and hormone disruption

Almost 200 pesticides have been found by a study examining dust in homes around Europe, as scientists say regulators need to take “toxic cocktails” of chemicals into account when banning or restricting the use of pesticides.

Scientists say their research supports the idea that regulators should assess the risks posed by pesticides when they react with other chemicals, as well as individually. They say this should apply to substances already in use, as well as those yet to be approved.

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China raises US tariffs to 125% as Xi invites EU to team up against Trump ‘bullying’

Chinese leader canvasses Spain and other trading partners on how to tackle economic fallout as market turmoil continues

China has raised its tariffs on US products to 125% in the latest salvo of the trade dispute with Washington, just hours after Xi Jinping said there were “no winners in a tariff war”.

Xi made the comments during a meeting with the Spanish prime minister in which he invited the EU to work with China to resist “bullying”, part of an apparent campaign to shore up other trading partners.

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Trump’s economic adviser dampens Starmer’s hopes of tariffs relief

It would take an ‘extraordinary deal’ for any country to improve on 10% rate, says Kevin Hassett

A senior economic adviser to Donald Trump has said it would take “an extraordinary deal” for any country, including the UK, to improve on the 10% tariff rate the US has imposed almost worldwide, pouring cold water on Downing Street’s hopes for a breakthrough.

Trump succumbed to pressure from plunging financial markets on Wednesday and temporarily reduced “retaliatory” tariffs on all countries’ goods to 10%, except those from China, which face a rate of 145%.

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Israeli military organises tourist tours of newly occupied Syrian territory

Twice-daily hiking trips for civilians in Golan buffer zone recently seized by Israel sold out almost immediately

Israel’s military is organising hiking tours for civilians in newly occupied Syrian territory during the Passover holiday, local media has reported.

The twice-daily tours in the contested Golan Heights will run for a week beginning this Sunday. Tickets sold out almost immediately.

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Will global climate action be a casualty of Trump’s tariffs?

Clean energy investors likely to pull back from US, but other countries may seize opportunity to speed transition

Donald Trump’s upending of the global economy has raised fears that climate action could emerge as a casualty of the trade war.

In the week that has followed “liberation day”, economic experts have warned that the swathe of tariffs could trigger a global economic recession, with far-reaching consequences for investors – including those behind the green energy projects needed to meet climate goals.

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Taiwan charges Chinese captain with damaging undersea cables

Taiwan launches first such prosecution, alleging the captain of the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58 dropped anchor near an undersea cable that then damaged it

Prosecutors in Taiwan charged, for the first time, a Chinese ship captain with intentionally damaging undersea cables off the island in February, after a rise in sea cable malfunctions alarmed Taiwan officials amid tensions with China.

Prosecutors say the man was captain of the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58, registered in Togo, which Taiwanese authorities detained after suspecting the ship had dropped anchor near an undersea cable off southwestern Taiwan, allegedly damaging it.

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Bobi Wine to run for president in Uganda’s 2026 election ‘if I am still alive and not in jail’

Exclusive: Opposition leader says he has ‘no choice’ but to challenge Yoweri Museveni’s regime, despite threats and previous attacks

The musician turned opposition leader Bobi Wine has said he will stand again against Uganda’s authoritarian leader, Yoweri Museveni, in next year’s presidential elections. Despite being jailed, attacked, shot, and facing threats of violence, including from Museveni’s son, Wine said he felt he had little choice but to try to advance the hope for change that was energising Ugandans, especially the young.

“We cannot just give the election to General Museveni,” he said, in an interview with the Guardian.

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EU will not rip up tech rules for trade deal with Trump, senior official says

Bloc is ‘very committed’ to laws on big tech and is not targeting US companies, says European Commission’s Henna Virkkunen

The EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to reach a trade deal with Donald Trump, the bloc’s most senior official on digital policy has said.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, indicated the EU was not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US – a key demand of Trump administration officials.

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