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The United States and Colombia called home their respective envoys on Thursday in an apparent acceleration of worsening ties, against the backdrop of an alleged plot against Colombia’s leftist leader.Washington went first, recalling its charge d’affaires John McNamara “following baseless and reprehensible statements from the highest levels of the Government of Colombia,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, without giving specifics.In addition to McNamara’s recall, Bruce said the United States “is pursuing other measures to make clear our deep concern over the current state of our bilateral relationship.” She did not detail the actions.Within hours, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced he was calling home his top diplomat in Washington in response. Ambassador Daniel Garcia Pena “must come to inform us of the development of the bilateral agenda,” Petro wrote on X, such as tapping South America’s “great potential for clean energy” and the fight against “drug lords and their international finances.”   The diplomatic spat came on the heels of the resignation of Colombia’s foreign minister earlier Thursday — the latest top-ranking official to exit Petro’s government.”In recent days, decisions have been made that I do not agree with and that, out of personal integrity and institutional respect, I cannot support,” Laura Sarabia, who was also Petro’s former chief of staff, wrote on X.- Plot investigation -Colombia was until recently one of the United States’s closest partners in Latin America. But ties have sharply deteriorated.Colombian prosecutors opened an investigation this week into an alleged plot to overthrow Petro with the help of Colombian and American politicians, following the publication by the Spanish daily El Pais of recordings implicating former foreign minister Alvaro Leyva.”This is nothing more than a conspiracy with drug traffickers and apparently, the Colombian and American extreme right,” Petro said on Monday.During a speech in Bogota on Thursday, Petro said he did not think US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom he had previously linked to the alleged overthrow attempt, was “in the midst of a coup d’etat” against his government.”I don’t believe that a government that has Iran as its enemy and nuclear weapons pointed at it… is going to start fooling around with a coup d’etat” in Colombia, he said.In late January, the United States briefly suspended consular services to retaliate for Petro’s refusal to allow US military planes to return Colombian migrants to their homeland. Petro accused the United States of treating the migrants like criminals, placing them in shackles and handcuffs. The pair issued threats and counter threats of crippling trade tariffs of up to 50 percent. A backroom diplomatic deal involving the deployment of Colombian Air Force planes to collect the migrants averted a looming trade war at the eleventh hour.Colombia’s leftist government also recently refused a US request to extradite two prominent guerrilla leaders wanted by Washington for drug trafficking.

A Salvadoran man was beaten and suffered psychological torture after being wrongly deported from the United States to a notorious prison in El Salvador, his lawyers said in a court filing.Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 30, was summarily deported to the maximum security CECOT prison in El Salvador in March as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Abrego Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, was wrongly removed due to an “administrative error.”He was brought back to the United States last month to face human smuggling charges in the southern state of Tennessee.In a filing with a US District Court in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia resided until his deportation, his lawyers provided details about his treatment at the Salvadoran prison.”He was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture,” they said.When he arrived, Abrego Garcia and other detainees were greeted by a prison official who reportedly said: “Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave.”He was forced to strip and “kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms.”His head was shaved and he was struck with wooden batons while being frog-marched to a cell, leaving him with bruises all over his body.”Abrego Garcia and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM, with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,” his lawyers said. “During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself.”The prisoners were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows and bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day.His lawyers said Abrego Garcia lost 31 pounds (14 kilograms) during his first two weeks in prison.Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, denied the claims. “The man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention,” he said Thursday in a post on X. “Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary.”Abrego Garcia was among a group of 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans deported to El Salvador by the United States on March 15.The Trump administration invoked an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA), to justify the removal of the Venezuelans, accusing them of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang involved in an “invasion” of the United States.The US Supreme Court blocked further deportations under the AEA in May, saying the deported migrants were not being given enough time to legally contest their removal.Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.His lawyers in Tennessee have taken the unusual step of asking a judge to delay his release from prison ahead of his trial on the human smuggling charges, fearing he could be taken into custody by federal immigration agents and deported again.

Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been arrested by US immigration officers and faces deportation from the United States, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.Chavez, a former world champion and the son of legendary Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Chavez, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Los Angeles on Wednesday after authorities determined that he was in the country illegally, Homeland Security said in a statement.Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said the 39-year-old fighter has “an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition and explosives.”The Mexican public prosecutor’s office said in a statement later Thursday that Mexico had issued an arrest warrant for Chavez in 2023 “for organized crime and arms trafficking.”US authorities informed Mexico that they have begun the procedure to send him home, it added.Homeland Security said Chavez is believed to have ties to the Sinaloa cartel, one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United States.- ‘Outrageous’ -Chavez’s arrest comes days after his lopsided loss to YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in a cruiserweight bout before a sell-out crowd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.Michael A. Goldstein, a lawyer for Chavez, told the Los Angeles Times that Chavez “was detained outside of his residence by 25 or more ICE and other law enforcement agents.””They blocked off his street and took him into custody, leaving his family without any knowledge of his whereabouts,” Goldstein said. “The current allegations are outrageous and appear to be designed as a headline to terrorize the community.”Homeland Security said Chavez had entered the United States legally in 2023 on a tourist visa that was valid until February 2024.In April last year, he applied for permanent residency based on his marriage to a US citizen “who is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.”Homeland Security said that in addition to the active warrant in Mexico, Chavez had criminal convictions in the United States, including on weapons charges in 2024 in Los Angeles.According to the statement, US Citizenship and Immigration Services told ICE that Chavez posed “an egregious public safety threat.”Donald Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, and he has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings.Authorities accused the administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden of not making Chavez an “immigration enforcement priority.”Chavez was allowed to re-enter the United States on January 4, 2025 at the San Ysidro port of entry, Homeland Security said — while Biden was still in the White House.In a statement posted on the X account of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., the Chavez family expressed support for Chavez Jr.”Our family is deeply dismayed by the situation,” the statement said.”In these difficult times, we reiterate our full and unconditional support for Julio.”We fully trust in his innocence and his humanity, as well as in the justice institutions in both Mexico and the United States, in which we place our hope that this situation will be clarified according to the law and truth.”- ‘Why so much violence?’ -Chavez Jr. won the WBC middleweight world title in 2011 and successfully defended it three times.He owns a record of 54-7 with one draw, but his career has also included multiple suspensions and fines for failed drug tests.Two weeks before his bout with Paul, Chavez held a public workout in California where he told the Los Angeles Times that one of his trainers had skipped the session because of fears raised by immigration arrests.”I don’t understand the situation — why so much violence?” he told the newspaper. “There are a lot of good people, and you’re giving the community an example of violence.”After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t want to be deported,” he said.

The US Supreme Court on Thursday gave the green light for the Trump administration to deport a group of migrants stranded at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan.The decision by the  conservative-dominated top court comes 10 days after it cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries that are not their own.The eight migrants were being flown to South Sudan from the US in May but ended up in Djibouti when a district court imposed a stay on third-country deportations.The court said migrants were not being given a “meaningful opportunity” to contest removal.On June 23, the Supreme Court lifted the stay imposed by District Judge Brian Murphy, clearing the way for third-country deportations.But Murphy, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, said the case of the eight migrants who ended up in Djibouti was subject to a separate stay order he issued that had not been addressed by the Supreme Court.On Thursday, the Supreme Court said its June 23 decision applied to both of the judge’s orders.Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the decision.”What the Government wants to do, concretely, is send the eight noncitizens it illegally removed from the United States from Djibouti to South Sudan, where they will be turned over to the local authorities without regard for the likelihood that they will face torture or death,” Sotomayor said.”Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial,” she said.The US authorities have said that the eight men — two from Myanmar, two from Cuba, and one each from Vietnam, Laos, Mexico and South Sudan — are convicted violent criminals.The Trump administration has defended third-country deportations as necessary since the home nations of some of those who are targeted for removal sometimes refuse to accept them.Donald Trump campaigned for president promising to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States, and he has taken a number of actions aimed at speeding up deportations since returning to the White House in January.

While the world economy faces instability from US President Donald Trump’s threats of a global trade war, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is dramatically ramping up its investment activities.The Washington-based IFC — the World Bank’s private sector arm — mobilizes private capital and provides financing to support businesses across emerging economies. Though not widely known outside development circles, the organization plays a crucial role in creating jobs and supporting growth in less developed regions.”The world economy has been going through a bit of a turbulent time, but what I must say is that even though there is turbulence… we are seeing a lot of interest in investing in emerging countries,” Makhtar Diop, the IFC’s managing director, told AFP.This optimism is backed by concrete numbers. In the fiscal year ending June 30, preliminary data shows that the IFC committed over $71 billion — nearly double its commitment from just three years ago and a significant jump from last year’s record of $56 billion.The investment spans the globe, with more than $20 billion flowing to Latin America, $17 billion to Asia, and $15.4 billion to Africa. The dramatic increase stems from a deliberate strategic shift. Diop, an economist and former Senegalese finance minister, explained that the IFC has focused on becoming “simpler, more agile, and delegating decision-making to our teams that are in the field.” This approach abandons the over-centralized structure that previously “was slowing down our ability to respond and seize new opportunities.”The timing is significant. As Western economies pull back from direct aid to developing countries — constrained by mounting debts, rising defense budgets, and increasingly inward-looking politics — the IFC has accelerated.”It’s totally understandable that they have fewer resources to make available in the form of grants to developing countries,” Diop acknowledges.However, he emphasized that World Bank funding for the world’s poorest countries remains fully replenished, calling it “the most efficient and best way to support countries.”The IFC’s expanding role within the World Bank Group is evident. Today, its funding nearly matches the support the bank provides directly to governments, making it an equal partner in development efforts.- Dubai to Africa -The organization is also attracting new types of investors. Many co-financing partners now come from regions that traditionally haven’t invested outside their home areas. The IFC’s largest renewable energy investment in Africa, for example, was completed with a Dubai-based company.These investors trust the IFC not only for its market knowledge but also for the risk-mitigation tools it offers, Diop said.In Africa particularly, the IFC pursues a strategy of identifying and supporting “national champions” — successful local companies that need help to become more competitive and globally integrated.A significant portion of the IFC’s mandate involves sustainability projects, an area where Diop decries debates with false choices between economic development and the environment, especially in electricity projects that form an important part of the agency’s portfolio.”It happens that today, you don’t have to make that trade-off because the sustainable solutions are often the cheaper ones, and that’s the beauty of what we are seeing,” he said. While fossil fuel generation remains part of the energy mix to ensure grid stability, the economics increasingly favor clean alternatives.Behind all these investments lies an urgent demographic reality: 1.2 billion young people will reach working age in developing countries over the next decade. For the World Bank, creating employment for this massive cohort is paramount.”The first question of any leader you meet from the developing world is how can you help to create jobs for young people?” Diop observed.Beyond infrastructure development that stimulates broader economic activity, Diop identifies tourism, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture as the most promising sectors for job creation. These industries can offer the scale and growth potential needed to absorb the coming wave of young workers entering the global economy.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has suspended 139 employees after they signed a scathing open letter accusing Administrator Lee Zeldin of pushing policies hazardous to both people and the planet, a spokesperson said Thursday.The letter, published Monday on the website of activist group Standup for Science, described a climate of political interference and warned that the agency’s leadership was eroding public health protections and scientific integrity.”The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” the EPA said in an email to AFP. More than 200 individuals originally endorsed the statement, though the number placed on administrative leave was 139. The list of names, which initially appeared on the website, has since been removed, and the reason for the numeric discrepancy was not immediately clear.”The decisions of the current administration frequently contradict the peer-reviewed research and recommendations of Agency experts,” said the letter.”Make no mistake: your actions endanger public health and erode scientific progress — not only in America — but around the world.”The letter outlines five key concerns, including the deepening politicization of the EPA, the reversal of initiatives aimed at marginalized communities, and the “dismantling” of the agency’s Office of Research and Development.It further accuses EPA leadership of turning the agency’s communications apparatus into a vehicle “to promote misinformation and overtly partisan rhetoric.”Since taking office, Zeldin has led the charge in executing Donald Trump’s environmental agenda: gutting climate regulations, ramping up fossil fuel development, and slashing funding for clean energy — moves that have drawn fierce backlash from scientists and environmental advocates alike.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday secured a major political victory when Congress narrowly passed his signature tax and spending bill, cementing his radical second-term agenda and boosting funds for his anti-immigration drive.A jubilant Trump said the bill’s passage would supercharge the US economy “into a rocket ship” — glossing over deep concerns within his own Republican Party that it will balloon the national debt and gut health and welfare support.Speaking to reporters as he headed for a rally in Iowa to kick off America’s 250th birthday celebrations, the president called the spending package “the biggest bill of its kind ever signed.”A small group of Republican opponents finally fell into line after Speaker Mike Johnson worked through the night to corral dissenters in the House of Representatives behind the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”The bill squeezed past a final vote, 218-214. The White House declared “VICTORY” on social media and said Trump would sign the bill into law on Friday, the July 4th Independence Day holiday.The timing of the vote had slipped back to Thursday as Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries spoke against the bill for nearly nine hours to delay proceedings.- Mass deportations, tax breaks -The legislation is the latest in a series of big wins for Trump, including a Supreme Court ruling last week that curbed lone federal judges from blocking his policies, and US air strikes that led to a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.His sprawling mega-bill narrowly passed the Senate on Tuesday and had to return to the lower chamber for a rubber stamp of the senators’ revisions.The package honors many of Trump’s campaign promises: boosting military spending, funding a mass migrant deportation drive and committing $4.5 trillion to extend his first-term tax relief.”Everything was an absolute disaster under the Biden-Harris radical regime, and we took the best effort that we could, in one big, beautiful bill, to fix as much of it as we could,” Johnson said.”And I am so grateful that we got that done.”But it is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the country’s fast-growing deficits, while shrinking the federal food assistance program and forcing through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch.Some estimates put the total number of recipients set to lose their insurance coverage under the bill at 17 million. Scores of rural hospitals are expected to close.While Republican moderates in the House fear the cuts will damage their prospects of reelection next year, fiscal hawks chafed over savings that they say fall far short of what was promised.Johnson had to negotiate tight margins, and could only lose a handful of lawmakers in the final vote, among more than two dozen who had earlier declared themselves open to rejecting Trump’s 869-page text.Trump spent weeks hitting the phones and hosting White House meetings to cajole lawmakers torn between angering welfare recipients at home and incurring the president’s wrath.Democrats hope public opposition to the bill will help them flip the House in the 2026 midterm election, pointing to data showing that it represents a huge redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.Jeffries held the floor for his Democrats ahead of the final vote, as he told stories of everyday Americans who he argued would be harmed by Trump’s legislation. “This bill, this one big, ugly bill — this reckless Republican budget, this disgusting abomination — is not about improving the quality of life of the American people,” he said.  After the bill was passed, Trump predecessor’s Joe Biden said it was “not only reckless — it’s cruel.”Extra spending on the military and border security will be paid in part through ending clean energy and electric vehicle subsidies — a factor triggering a bitter public feud between Trump and former key advisor Elon Musk.

US actor Michael Madsen — best known for his frequent collaborations with director Quentin Tarantino including “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill” — died Thursday at age 67 after suffering cardiac arrest, his management team said.The actor was found unresponsive early Thursday at his home in Malibu, they said.”Michael Madsen was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many,” his managers Susan Ferris and Ron Smith said in a joint statement with his publicist, Liz Rodriguez.Madsen’s most iconic performances include Mr. Blonde, a psychopathic criminal in the 1992 crime thriller “Reservoir Dogs,” and Budd, the younger brother of the antagonist in the “Kill Bill” movies, both directed by Tarantino.In addition to his appearances in other Tarantino films like “The Hateful Eight” and “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” Madsen’s prolific career saw him play more than 300 roles over the course of 40 years.Among his other notable films are “Thelma & Louise,” “Free Willy,” “Donnie Brasco” and the 2002 James Bond flick “Die Another Day.”Madsen also did voiceovers for several video games, including “Grand Theft Auto III,” and published several volumes of poetry.Madsen was born on September 25, 1957 in Chicago to a firefighter father and a filmmaker mother. His sister, Virginia Madsen, is also an actress.He married three times over the course of his life and had six children, one of whom died by suicide in 2022.

Even for a man who once boasted that his supporters would get “tired of winning,” US President Donald Trump is on a roll.The 79-year-old’s victory on his “One Big, Beautiful” bill is the latest in a series of consequential successes at home and abroad in the past two weeks.From US airstrikes that led to an Iran-Israel ceasefire, to a NATO spending deal and a massive Supreme Court win, they have underscored Trump’s growing power.The Republican will now take a victory lap wrapped up in the US flag after Congress passed the tax and spending bill that embodies the political goals of his second term. He will sign it at an Independence Day event at the White House on Friday featuring a flyover by a B-2 stealth bomber, the type of aircraft used in the US raids on Iranian nuclear sites.”It’s going to be a HOT TRUMP SUMMER,” the White House said on social media.After the bill passed, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Scavino, posted a video of Trump telling a campaign rally during his first presidential run in 2016 that “we’re going to win so much, you may even get tired of winning. And you’ll say, ‘Please, please. It’s too much winning.”- ‘Work just beginning’ -The author of the book “Trump: The Art of the Deal” has bragged of several in recent weeks, but the bill is arguably the biggest. It honors many of the pledges he made in the 2024 election with its tax cuts and funding for his mass migrant deportation program. It also showed his ability to get his Republican party to fall in line despite bruising infighting — and a major row with his billionaire former ally Elon Musk.But more importantly for a man who openly wants to join the pantheon of US presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore, it promises to consolidate his legacy.The bill seals Trump’s hard-line US domestic policy into law — in contrast to the rash of presidential executive orders he has signed that can be overturned by his successors.Yet Trump still faces a series of challenges.They start with selling a bill that polls show is deeply unpopular among Americans due to its huge cuts to welfare and tax breaks for the rich.”The president needs to lead the effort to go out and explain it, he has the biggest megaphone in America,” Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff under president George W. Bush, told Fox News.Rove added that it would have a “huge impact” on the US midterm elections in 2026, as Democrats pounce on it and people realize that they are losing healthcare coverage.”The work is just beginning.”Trump was talking about the bill at a campaign-style rally in Iowa on Thursday that was also kicking off celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary year.- ‘Win after win’ -Trump’s winning streak has meanwhile fueled the self-belief of a man who said he had been “saved by God to make America great again” after he survived an assassination attempt last year.But the next prizes could be far harder to obtain. After the Iran-Israel ceasefire, Trump has stepped up his search for a deal to end to the brutal war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.He will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday in push him — but peace has proven cruelly elusive in the 22-month conflict.Trump’s election campaign promise to end Russia’s war in Ukraine within 24 hours has also stalled, despite him having his sixth call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday.The US president is meanwhile due to reimpose steep tariffs on dozens of economies next week. He has insisted that countries will either bow to him and reach a deal or face sweeping levies, but global markets remain gripped by uncertainty. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt however insisted that Trump would do what he had promised.”Despite the doubters and the Panicans, President Trump has delivered win after win for the American people,” Leavitt told reporters.