The Democrat senator who flew to meet the man wrongly deported to El Salvador has said photos of them with margaritas were staged by officials working for the country’s president.

Chris Van Hollen added that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from the US last month, told him he has been moved from a notorious high-security prison in El Salvador to a detention centre with better conditions.

The deportation of Mr Garcia has become a flashpoint in the US, with Democrats casting it as a cruel consequence of Donald Trump’s disregard for the courts, while Republicans have criticised Democrats for defending him and argued his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime.

Mr Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, is being detained in the Central American country despite the US Supreme Court calling on the White House to facilitate his return home.

Trump officials have said Mr Garcia has ties to the violent MS-13 gang. However, Mr Garcia’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence, and he has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.

Mr Van Hollen flew to El Salvador and met with Mr Garcia this week in an effort to help secure his return to America.

Speaking to reporters at Washington Dulles International airport after returning to the US on Friday, Mr Van Hollen said: “As the federal courts have said, we need to bring Mr Abrego Garcia home to protect his constitutional rights to due process. And it’s also important that people understand this case is not just about one man.

“It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America.”

Mr Van Hollen added the Trump administration is “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country” in foreign prisons “without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order”.

The senator also revealed Mr Garcia was brought from a detention centre to his hotel after initial requests to meet or speak with him were denied.

Mr Van Hollen said Mr Garcia told him he was “traumatised” after being detained at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, but he had been moved to a “different facility” with better conditions nine days ago.

The senator said Mr Garcia told him he was worried about his family and that thinking about them was giving him “the strength to persevere” and to “keep going” under awful circumstances.

Mr Garcia’s wife, Jennifer, was at the news conference and wiped away tears as Mr Van Hollen spoke of her husband’s desire to speak to her.

Earlier, Mr Van Hollen had posted photos of himself meeting with Mr Garcia.

It came before El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele shared his own images of the meeting, which he claimed showed the pair “sipping margaritas” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador”.

In an apparent sarcastic remark, Mr Bukele wrote that Mr Garcia had “miraculously risen” from the “death camps”.

Giving an account of what he says happened when the photos were taken, Mr Van Hollen said: “We just had glasses of water on the table. I think maybe some coffee.

“And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice. And I don’t know if it was salt or sugar round the top, but they looked like margaritas.

“If you look at the one they put in front of Kilmer, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me in front of me to try to make it look, I assume like he drank out of it.

“Let me just be very clear. Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us.”

He added that people can tell he is telling the truth because if someone had sipped from one of the glass there would be a “gap” where the “salt or sugar” had disappeared.

Mr Van Hollen said the image shows the “lengths” the El Salvadorian president will go to “deceive people about what’s going on”.

“It also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and [President Trump] will go to, because when he was asked by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride.”

Donald Trump has threatened to “take a pass” on attempts to secure a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, as he denied the Kremlin was playing him.

The US president’s past confidence he could do a quick deal to end the conflict has proved to be misplaced, and now his administration has floated the prospect of abandoning its efforts to broker one.

US threatens to abandon peace talks – latest updates

Mr Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the White House is prepared to “move on”, with little sign of fighting coming to an end some two months after talks began with Vladimir Putin.

Negotiations have since taken place with both Kyiv and Moscow, the latter of which Mr Trump has been accused of being soft on, but the war has continued well beyond its three-year anniversary.

Asked what it will take to secure a deal, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House he needed to see “enthusiasm” from both sides.

“I think I see it,” he added.

“It’s coming to a head right now.”

‘I know when people are playing us’

Mr Trump dismissed the idea he was being played by Mr Putin, saying: “Nobody is playing me. I’m trying to help.”

“My whole life has been one big negotiation and I know when people are playing us and when they’re not,” he added.

Nonetheless, Sky News’ Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett said the White House raising the spectre of walking away from peace talks showed Mr Trump was frustrated by the lack of progress.

Before winning last November’s presidential election, he infamously claimed he could end the war in a day.

Echoing Mr Rubio, he’s now said “we’re just going to take a pass” if Russia or Ukraine “makes it very difficult”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted progress towards a deal had been made, but acknowledged the “complicated” situation was “not an easy one” to solve.

A 30-day moratorium on striking energy infrastructure targets was previously agreed, but both sides have since accused one another of breaching it.

Russia has also continued to launch deadly airstrikes on civilian infrastructure – the bloodiest of the more recent attacks saw at least 35 people killed in Sumy.

Kyiv and its European allies have said the continued attacks show Russia is not serious about peace.

Read more from Sky News:
Godfather-style gang war grips Scotland
How Israel’s attack on aid workers unfolded

Looking ahead, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has indicated a “memorandum of intent” on a much vaunted US minerals deal could soon be signed.

Mr Trump wants to profit from the country’s natural resources in what he says is repayment for military aid.

It’s hoped America having a stake in the country could also help maintain any truce.

The deal was due to be done weeks ago but was derailed by his falling out with Mr Trump at the White House.

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More meetings are also expected among the so-called coalition of the willing, assembled by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron to help police any peace deal.

Sir Keir spoke with Mr Trump on the phone on Saturday, with ending the Ukraine war a topic of conversation.

Hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has lost a bid to delay his upcoming sex-trafficking trial by two months.

US district judge Arun Subramanian said the 55-year-old rapper made his request too close to his trial, which is due to start next month.

Jury selection is currently scheduled for 5 May with opening statements set to be heard seven days later.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to five criminal counts including racketeering and sex trafficking.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office accuse Combs of using his business empire to sexually abuse women between 2004 and 2024.

Combs’s lawyers say the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.

In a court filing on Wednesday, Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Mr Subramanian to delay the trial because he needed more time to prepare his defence to two new charges which were brought on 4 April.

The charges were of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Mr Agnifilo also said his team needs extra time to review emails it wants an alleged victim to turn over.

The new allegations brought the total number of criminal charges against the rap mogul to five – following the three original counts, which also included racketeering conspiracy, filed in September.

Federal prosecutors were opposed to any delay, writing in a Thursday court filing that the additional charges brought
earlier this month did not amount to substantially new conduct.

They also said Combs was not entitled to the alleged victim’s communications.

Read more: Everything you need to know about the Sean Combs trial

Meanwhile, Mr Subramanian is weighing other evidentiary issues, such as whether to allow alleged victims to testify under pseudonyms.

Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Notorious B.I.G, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.

But prosecutors have said his success concealed a dark side.

They say his alleged abuse included having women take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak-offs” with male sex workers, who were sometimes transported across state lines.

Combs has been in jail in Brooklyn since September, having been denied bail.

He also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who have accused him of sexual abuse.

Combs has strenuously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.