At least 29 people have been killed in Mexico following violent clashes and hours of shootouts prompted by the capture of one of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons.
Nineteen suspected gang members and 10 military personnel were killed in a wave of violence after Mexican security forces arrested Ovidio Guzman, the country’s defence minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said on Friday.
The ministry has also released a photo of the drug cartel boss following his arrest on Thursday.
Detailing the violent events that unfolded on Thursday, Mr Sandoval said cartel gunmen opened fire on troops with .50 caliber machine guns.
He added that the army called in Blackhawk helicopter gunships to attack a convoy of 25 cartel vehicles.
Guzman, 32, who is wanted by the US on drug trafficking charges, was extracted by helicopter from the house where he was caught in the northern state of Sinaloa in the early hours of Thursday morning, Mr Sandoval added.
The minister said Guzman, 32, was taken to a maximum security federal prison and 21 other people were arrested in the Mexican security force’s operation.
Social media footage appeared to show heavy fighting across the city of Culiacan after the arrest, as residents posted videos showing convoys of gunmen in pickup trucks and SUVs rolling down boulevards in the city.
Image: Burning vehicles blocking a road after drug lord Ovidio Guzman’s capture in Culiacan, Sinaloa
No US force assisted Guzman’s arrest
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The US has sought Guzman’s extradition for years.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said there were no immediate plans to extradite Guzman to the US, where his father is in a maximum security prison.
He added that no US forces had assisted in Guzman’s capture.
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1:36
Gunfights after ‘El Chapo’ son arrest
Guzman, known by the nickname “The Mouse,” has been charged in the US with conspiracy to traffic cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the US.
In 2021, the State Department announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Image: Ovidio Guzman when he was briefly captured by Mexican military police in 2019. Pic: Mexican Government TV/Reuters
Guzman arrest ‘gift’ to US
The Mexican administration bagged the high-profile cartel figure just days before hosting Joe Biden.
Samuel González, who founded Mexico’s special prosecutor’s office for organized crime in the 1990s, said Guzmán’s capture was a “gift” ahead of Biden’s visit.
The Mexican government “is working to have a calm visit,” he said.
Authorities’ bungled arrest of Guzman in October 2019 embarrassed the government and spotlighted the challenges in cracking down on cartels, which control large swaths of Mexico.
The attempt ended in humiliation when Mr Obrador ordered the military to let him go after gunmen shot up the city with high-powered weapons.
Donald Trump has posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed in papal regalia on his Truth Social platform – just 11 days after the death of Pope Francis.
Uploaded onto his account early on Saturday morning, it shows the US president with a large gold cross on a chain around his neck.
From there, it was published, without comment or explanation, on the White House X and Instagram accounts and, though it drew fierce criticism, it was liked more than 100,000 times.
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It comes just a few days after the world leader joked that he’d like to be the pontiff.
Last week, he was asked by reporters on the White House lawn who he would like to succeed Francis and he replied: “I’d like to be Pope. That would be my number one choice.”
He went on to say that he did not have a preference, but there was a cardinal in New York who was “very good”.
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‘I’d like to be pope’
Mr Trump was quickly accused of mocking Pope Francis’sdeath, but, by noon, UK time, the post had been liked more than 58,000 times on Instagram.
User comments, however, were mostly negative, with one saying that the image “isn’t funny. It’s not satire. And it’s not harmless”.
Another simply called it “disgusting”, while other reactions included “disturbing”, “disrespectful” and “offensive”.
On X, where the picture was liked more than 78,000 times, a user commented that Mr Trump was “making a mockery of the pious”, while another judged it “not a wise decision”.
The Argentinian, who became pope in 2013, died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 due to a stroke and heart failure.
Last weekend, the president was criticised for wearing a non-traditional blue suit for Francis’s Vatican funeral and chewing gum during the ceremony.
However, his meeting in St Peter’s Basilica with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the outdoor mass got under way was dubbed “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy.
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in St Peter’s Basilica. Pic: Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
Mr Trump’s own religious views have long been a matter of speculation.
He was raised as a Presbyterian and publicly identified with it for most of his adult life, before, in October 2020, he renounced it and said he now considered himself a non-denominational Christian.
Many have questioned the depth of his faith, but that hasn’t stopped him appealing to conservative Christians and the Christian right, particularly evangelicals, some of whom have helped him get elected twice.
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Earlier this year, Mr Trump shared a bizarre AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform showcasing what appeared to be a vision of Gaza under his proposed plan.
The footage showed the area transformed into a Middle Eastern paradise with exotic beaches, Dubai-style skyscrapers, luxury yachts and people partying – and featured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk.
She was working as a production assistant at the time.
Weinstein has strenuously denied all allegations, and Ms Haley also testified at Weinstein’s initial trial.
Image: Miriam Haley. AP file pic
Image: Harvey Weinstein on Wednesday as he appeared for his retrial. Pic: AP
The 48-year-old was testifying in a Manhattan court when Weinstein’s defence lawyer Jennifer Bonjean questioned her account of the incident.
In court, Ms Bonjean asked why Ms Haley would agree to Weinstein’s invitation to his apartment after testifying about his previous behaviour, including her alleging that he barged into her home.
Ms Haley then became emotional after being asked how her clothes came off before Weinstein allegedly pulled out a tampon and performed oral sex on her.
She said Weinstein took off her clothing, but she didn’t recall the details, before Ms Bonjean asked: “You removed your clothes, right?”
Ms Haley then told jurors that Weinstein “was the one who raped me, not the other way around” – to which his lawyer said: “That is for the jury to decide.”
She then started crying and said: “No, it’s not for the jury to decide. It’s my experience. And he did that to me.”
Sky’s US partner network NBC News reported that Ms Haley said during the exchange: “Don’t tell me I wasn’t raped by that f*****g asshole.”
Judge Curtis Farber then halted questioning and sent jurors on a break. Ms Haley’s eyes were red and her face was glistening as she left the witness stand.
In February 2020, Weinstein was found guilty of sexually assaulting Ms Haley – along with raping former actor Jessica Mann in a New York hotel in 2013 – and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
His conviction for the two crimes was overturned in April after an appeals court ruled the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against Weinstein based on allegations that weren’t part of the case.
After the appeal ruling, Weinstein was charged with raping one woman and forcing oral sex on two others.
Two of the charges are those he faced during the original trial, while the third – one of the charges of forcing oral sex on Kaja Sokola – was added last year.
Weinstein denies all allegations, and his lawyers argue his accusers had consensual sexual encounters.
Regardless of the outcome of the retrial, he will remain in prison over a 2022 conviction in Los Angeles for a separate count of rape. His lawyers are also appealing this sentence.
In any other government, at any other time, political expediency would have demanded his immediate sacking.
To have shared sensitive military information on a group chat is a most reckless error of judgement.
Bad enough that the information reached the inbox of a US journalist – who knows who else might have accessed the information in what is a commercially available app? China, Russia? Iran, the very country that backs the Houthi rebels who were under attack?
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Initially, Donald Trump defended Waltz as a “good man” who had “learned a lesson”. The president will have known, though, that he’s a man who has fundamentally weakened him.
Waltz’s mistake put the lives of US service personnel at risk and called into question the credibility of his ultimate boss.
The emoji-laden group chat read like the stuff of excited youngsters breathlessly sharing gossip.
It was recklessness over responsibility at the heart of government, and it reflected on the commander-in-chief and his judgement in appointing Waltz in the first place.
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1:50
‘Nobody was texting war plans’ – Hegseth
To keep him in post for weeks following the scandal looked like an acceptance, of sorts, and it didn’t look good. If there are questions about the circumstances surrounding Waltz, there are, too, about Trump’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth was also part of the Signalgate group chat and more.