AFP USA

US President Donald Trump said Sunday he had directed officials to rebuild and reopen Alcatraz prison, the notorious federal jail based on a small island in California that shuttered six decades ago.The jail will house “America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that the institution will be “substantially enlarged.”Alcatraz closed in 1963 due to high operating costs after being open for just 29 years, according to the US Bureau of Prisons, and now serves as a tourist attraction.Located two kilometers (1.25 miles) off the coast of San Francisco and with a capacity of just 336 prisoners, it held several well-known criminals, including Prohibition-era mob boss Al Capone, and saw many fantastical escape attempts by inmates.Trump has made cracking down on crimes — particularly those committed by migrants — a key element of his second term in the White House.”When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Trump wrote Sunday.”No longer will we tolerate these Serial Offenders who spread filth, bloodshed, and mayhem on our streets,” he said.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to extend a recent pause in rate cuts this week as it waits to see how President Donald Trump’s stop-start tariff rollout affects the health of the world’s largest economy.Trump has imposed steep levies on China, and lower “baseline” levies of 10 percent on goods from most other countries, along with 25 percent duties on specific items like steel, automobiles and aluminum.The president has also paused higher duties on dozens of other trading partners until July to give them time to renegotiate existing arrangements with the United States.Most economists expect the tariffs introduced since January to push up prices and cool economic growth — at least in the short run — potentially keeping the Fed on hold for longer.”The Fed has to be very focused on maintaining inflation so that it doesn’t start moving back up in a more persistent way,” said Loretta Mester, who recently stepped down after a decade as president of the Cleveland Fed. “That would undermine all the work that was done over the last three years of getting inflation down,” she told AFP. – ‘Good place to be’ – Trump reiterated his call for Fed chair Jerome Powell to lower rates in an NBC interview published in full on Sunday, claiming the decision not to do so was largely personal.”Well, he should lower them. And at some point, he will. He’d rather not because he’s not a fan of mine,” Trump said.The Fed has held its key interest rate at between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since December, as it continues its plan to bring inflation to the bank’s long-term target of two percent, with another eye firmly fixed on keeping unemployment under control. Recent data points to the Fed’s inflation remaining broadly on track ahead of the introduction of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, while unemployment has remained relatively stable, hugging close to historic lows.At the same time, various “softer” data points such as consumer confidence surveys have reflected a sharp decline in optimism about the health of the US economy — and growing concerns about inflation.”Whether the economy enters a recession or not, it’s hard to say at this point,” said Mester, now an adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.”I think the committee remains in good condition here, and most likely they’ll remain on hold at this meeting,” said Jim Bullard, the long-serving former president of the St. Louis Fed.”I think it’s a good place for them to be while there’s a lot of turbulence in the trade war,” added Bullard, now dean of the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University.Financial markets overwhelmingly expect the Fed to announce another rate-cut pause on Wednesday, according to data from CME Group. – Pushing back rate cuts -US hiring data for April published last week came in better than expected, lowering anxiety about the health of the labor market — and reducing pressure on the Fed’s rate-setting committee to reach for rate cuts.Economists at several large banks including Goldman Sachs and Barclays subsequently delayed their expected date for rate cuts from June to July.”Cutting in late July allows the committee to see more data on the evolution of the labor market, and should benefit from resolving uncertainty about tariffs and fiscal policy,” economists at Barclays wrote in a note to clients published Friday.Other analysts see rate cuts happening even later, depending on the effects of the tariffs.”A slower reaction to economic weakness” could happen “if backward-looking data gives the impression of resilient demand while inflation gauges heat up,” wrote EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco.The rise in longer-run inflation expectations in the survey data points to growing concerns that tariff-related price pressures could become embedded in the US economy — even as the market-based measures have remained close to the Fed’s two percent target.”I would be sort of in the camp (saying) prove to me that they’re not going to be inflationary,” Mester said of tariffs, adding that it would be “unwise” to assume that inflation expectations were stable, given the recent survey data. But Bullard from Purdue took a different view, stressing the stability of the market-based measures.”I haven’t liked the survey-based measures of inflation expectations, because they seem to be partly about inflation but partly about many other issues, maybe, including politics,” he said. “This is a moment where you might want to look through the survey-based measures that are talking about very extreme levels of inflation that don’t seem likely to develop near-term,” he added. 

US President Donald Trump said in remarks airing Sunday that he does not know whether he must uphold the US Constitution, the nation’s founding legal document.In a wide-ranging NBC News interview, the 78-year-old Republican also said he was not seriously considering running for a constitutionally-barred third White House term, and blamed his presidential predecessor Joe Biden for the “bad parts” of the current economy.Trump has drawn widespread criticism for repeatedly brushing up against constitutional guardrails since returning to the White House in January, notably over his policy of mass deportations of undocumented migrants, some without the benefit of a court hearing.He insists such rapid expulsions are necessary in the face of what he has declared to be a “national emergency,” and that giving every migrant a court trial would take “300 years.”When NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker asked if people in the United States — citizens and non-citizens alike — deserve the due process of law, as the US Constitution states, Trump said: “I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”Pressed more generally on whether he believes he needs to uphold the supreme law of the land, Trump repeated: “I don’t know.”The remarks in the interview — recorded Friday and broadcast Sunday — quickly made waves in Washington, including among some Republicans. “We’re either a free society governed by the Constitution or we’re not,” Republican Senator Rand Paul, a self-described constitutional conservative, posted on X without additional comment.- No third term? -Trump’s suggestion of possibly seeking a third term has been sharply questioned by legal and constitutional scholars.The 22nd Amendment states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”But Trump said in March he was “not joking” about seeking a third term, adding there are “methods” that would allow it to happen.Changing the Constitution to allow a third term would be difficult, requiring a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratification by at least 38 of the 50 states.But “this is not something I’m looking to do,” Trump told NBC — even while acknowledging that the Trump Organization’s official store is selling red “Trump 2028” hats.”I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward.”Asked who that might be, he mentioned Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, adding: “We have a lot of good people in this party.”But Trump appeared to bristle when asked for his reaction to critics who warn he is leading the country toward authoritarianism.”Why don’t you ask it a different way? Many people want to come into our country. Many people love Trump,” he said. “I won the election.”Trump’s first 100 days in office were marked by economic turmoil, primarily over his plans to impose sweeping tariffs on most countries.But despite the world’s largest economy shrinking in the first quarter of 2025, he struck an optimistic if defiant tone in the interview, insisting US economics were sound and that “tariffs are going to make us rich.””I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy,” said Trump.- ‘We subsidize Canada’ -The president also exaggerated some of the success he has had in bringing down prices, claiming gas has dropped to $1.98 per gallon in some states.According to the American Automobile Association, the lowest US price per gallon this week was $2.65, with the average at $3.16.With two days before Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney visits the White House, Trump was asked whether he planned to reiterate his call for Canadians to give up their sovereignty and become the 51st US state.”I’ll always talk about that,” Trump said, as he griped about how “we subsidize Canada” through a massive trade deficit.Trump, when pressed, said it was “highly unlikely” that he would use military force against Canada. “I think we’re not going to ever get to that point,” he said.But he did speak glowingly about US power, ruminating on an upcoming military parade in Washington to coincide with his 79th birthday, on June 14.”We’re going to have a big, beautiful parade,” he said, dismissing concern about the event’s high cost as his administration lays off thousands of government workers.”We have the greatest weapons in the world, and we’re going to celebrate it.”

New Marvel superhero film “Thunderbolts” triumphed over the North American box office this weekend, raking in an estimated $76 million in a promising start to the summer movie season, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.”Thunderbolts” features Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell and David Harbour as a motley bunch of antiheroes. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a malevolent CIA chief.”This is a very good opening for a new superhero story,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. With “excellent” reviews and audience scores, the film should “play extremely well around the world,” he said.Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian said on X that “this kickoff film of the summer movie season will ignite an epic month of May for movie theaters!”Ryan Coogler’s period vampire thriller “Sinners” starring Michael B. Jordan slipped to second place but still took in $33 million in its third weekend out, a showing The Hollywood Reporter called “phenomenal.”Warner Bros.’ video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie,” starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, rose one spot from last weekend to third, earning $13.7 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period. It remains the top release of the year, with total US ticket sales of $398.2 million and international sales of $475 million for a total of $873.2 million.Fourth place went to Amazon MGM Studios’ “The Accountant 2,” at $9.5 million. Ben Affleck plays a neurodivergent math genius with criminal ties, and Jon Bernthal is his hit-man brother.And in fifth was another video game adaptation, Sony’s gory horror film “Until Dawn,” at $3.8 million. Meantime, Alec Baldwin’s ill-fated Western “Rust” — made infamous when a weapon held by Baldwin discharged a bullet, fatally wounding the film’s cinematographer — finally opened in a limited release of 115 theaters. It took in just $25,000, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Rounding out the top 10 were:”The Amateur” ($1.8 million)”The King of Kings” ($1.7 million)”Warfare” ($1.3 million)”Hit: The Third Case” ($925,000)”The Surfer” ($675,000)

A federal official said a mayor in western Mexico was arrested as part of a probe into a suspected drug cartel training camp, where forced recruits were allegedly tortured or killed if they refused to cooperate. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a powerful drug trafficking group, allegedly used the ranch in Jalisco state to train newly recruited gunmen, senior officials have said.The discovery of human bones and clothing at the ranch in the city of Teuchitlan in March — what Human Rights Watch has called an “apparent mass killing site” — caused shock in a country where murders and kidnappings are daily occurrences.Teuchitlan Mayor Jose Murguia Santiago was arrested as part of an investigation by government prosecutors into probable omissions or complicity of authorities with the cartel, a federal source told AFP on Saturday.The source requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.Murguia was arrested late Saturday afternoon, according to federal arrest records.The Guerreros Buscadores collective, a group dedicated to locating missing relatives, has described the Teuchitlan ranch as an “extermination center” with “clandestine crematoriums” where forced recruits were thought to have been held by the cartel.Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told reporters in late March that there was “no evidence that it was an extermination camp.” But he also said that an alleged recruiter — who was arrested — said that cartel members tortured and killed recruits who refused to cooperate or tried to flee.The attorney general’s office, which has denied executions were systematically carried out, took over the investigation after a complaint from Guerreros Buscadores.The group found buried bones, clothing, shoes and other objects at the ranch, which went unnoticed during a search in September by authorities who raided it following reports of gunfire.According to the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, 10 people were arrested, two captives freed and a dead body found along with skeletal remains in September.Besides Mayor Murguia, about a dozen others have been arrested in the case, including a police chief from a neighboring municipality and two of his officers.More than 127,000 people are registered as missing in Mexico, most of them since 2006 when the government declared war on drug trafficking groups.By state, Jalisco has the highest number of missing persons cases, with more than 15,000.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to extend a recent pause in rate cuts this week as it waits to see how President Donald Trump’s stop-start tariff rollout affects the health of the world’s largest economy.Trump has imposed steep levies on China, and lower “baseline” levies of 10 percent on goods from most other countries, along with 25 percent duties on specific items like steel, automobiles and aluminum.The president has also paused higher duties on dozens of other trading partners until July to give them time to renegotiate existing arrangements with the United States.Most economists expect the tariffs introduced since January to push up prices and cool economic growth — at least in the short run — potentially keeping the Fed on hold for longer. “The Fed has to be very focused on maintaining inflation so that it doesn’t start moving back up in a more persistent way,” said Loretta Mester, who recently stepped down after a decade as president of the Cleveland Fed. “That would undermine all the work that was done over the last three years of getting inflation down,” she told AFP. – ‘Good place to be’ – The Fed has held its key interest rate at between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since December, as it continues its plan to bring inflation to the bank’s long-term target of two percent, with another eye firmly fixed on keeping unemployment under control. Recent data points to inflation hitting that target ahead of the introduction of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, while unemployment has remained relatively stable, hugging close to historic lows.At the same time, various “softer” data points such as consumer confidence surveys have pointed to a sharp decline in optimism about the health of the US economy — and growing concerns about inflation.”Whether the economy enters a recession or not, it’s hard to say at this point,” said Mester, now an adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.”I think the committee remains in good condition here, and most likely they’ll remain on hold at this meeting,” said Jim Bullard, the long-serving former president of the St. Louis Fed.”I think it’s a good place for them to be while there’s a lot of turbulence in the trade war,” added Bullard, now dean of the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University.Financial markets overwhelmingly expect the Fed to announce another rate cut pause on Wednesday, according to data from CME Group. – Pushing back rate cuts -US hiring data for April published last week came in better than expected, lowering anxiety about the health of the labor market — and reducing pressure on the Fed’s rate-setting committee to reach for rate cuts.Economists at several large banks including Goldman Sachs and Barclays subsequently delayed their expectations for rate cuts from June to July.”Cutting in late July allows the committee to see more data on the evolution of the labor market, and should benefit from resolving uncertainty about tariffs and fiscal policy,” economists at Barclays wrote in a note to clients published Friday.Other analysts see rate cuts happening even later, depending on the effects of the tariffs. The rise in longer-run inflation expectations in the survey data points to growing concerns that tariff-related price pressures could become embedded in the US economy, even as the market-based measures have remained close to the two percent target.”I would be sort of in the camp (saying) prove to me that they’re (tariffs are) not going to be inflationary,” Mester said, adding it would be “unwise” to assume that inflation expectations were stable given the recent survey data. But Bullard from Purdue took a different view, stressing the stability of the market-based measures.”I haven’t liked the survey-based measures of inflation expectations, because they seem to be partly about inflation, but partly about many other issues, maybe, including politics,” he said. “This is a moment where you might want to look through the survey-based measures that are talking about very extreme levels of inflation that don’t seem likely to develop near-term,” he added. 

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of gaining city status for his SpaceX spaceport in the southern US state of Texas became a reality on Saturday, when voters overwhelmingly backed turning his Starbase into a new municipality.The ballot, which also named a senior SpaceX representative as its mayor with 100 percent of the early vote, was never really in doubt.Most of the 283 eligible voters were SpaceX employees at the site on Boca Chica Bay bordering Mexico, or had connections to the company, whose billionaire chief has long eyed a human mission to Mars.”Starbase, Texas,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, “Is now a real city!”His post came after polls closed and unofficial results published by Cameron County showed an unambiguous 97.7 percent backing the project.Musk himself is registered to vote, Cameron County Election Coordinator Remi Garza told AFP, but the South African-born embattled 53-year-old had yet to cast his ballot when the early voting period closed on April 29.Official documents show that nearly 500 people live around the base in Cameron County, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees.The change allows Starbase to control building and permitting and avoid other regulatory hurdles, while collecting taxes and writing local law. The vote came at a difficult time for Musk, who is expected to reduce his role as the unofficial head of US President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to instead focus more on his troubled car company, Tesla.The early voting also confirmed as mayor Bobby Peden, who is vice president of testing and launches at SpaceX, according to LinkedIn. He was the only name on the ballot.The Texas base launched in 2019 and is a key testing site for the company’s rocket launches.Not everyone had been upbeat about the prospect of a SpaceX town.Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, earlier voiced concern over the environmental impact, warning of more “destruction.””They would attempt more illegal dumping, they would build up their dangerous rocket operations and cause more seismic activity, cause our homes to shake, and that they would destroy more of the wildlife habitat in the region,” she told AFP before election day.- Environmental concerns -It was Musk himself who proposed the name Starbase in a social media post during a visit to the facility four years ago.Then, last December, general manager of SpaceX Kathryn Lueders appealed to local authorities to grant the site city status.Lueders argued in her letter that SpaceX already maintained infrastructure there like roads, education services and medical care.She promised the creation of the new city would not undermine SpaceX efforts to mitigate the base’s environmental impact.SpaceX did not respond to an AFP request for comment.The hub overlooks the Gulf of Mexico — renamed the Gulf of America by Trump — and there is controversy over access to Boca Chica Beach.A Texas House State Affairs committee rejected a bill this week by Republican lawmakers that would have given coastal cities with spaceports control over beach access.Hinojosa, the activist, said SpaceX has limited access to Boca Chica Beach for many years and told AFP she worried the vote could cut access entirely to a beach “our families have been going to for generations.”The Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas, descendants of an Indigenous tribe in the area, has also complained.In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas authorities found that SpaceX was responsible for repeated spills and releasing pollutants into Texas waterways.In response to reports that its rockets had caused damage to wild bird nests, Musk quipped on social media: “To make up for this heinous crime, I will refrain from having omelette for a week.”

Researchers at Dartmouth College believe artificial intelligence can deliver reliable psychotherapy, distinguishing their work from the unproven and sometimes dubious mental health apps flooding today’s market.Their application, Therabot, addresses the critical shortage of mental health professionals. According to Nick Jacobson, an assistant professor of data science and psychiatry at Dartmouth, even multiplying the current number of therapists tenfold would leave too few to meet demand.”We need something different to meet this large need,” Jacobson told AFP.The Dartmouth team recently published a clinical study demonstrating Therabot’s effectiveness in helping people with anxiety, depression and eating disorders. A new trial is planned to compare Therabot’s results with conventional therapies.The medical establishment appears receptive to such innovation. Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association (APA), described “a future where you will have an AI-generated chatbot rooted in science that is co-created by experts and developed for the purpose of addressing mental health.”Wright noted these applications “have a lot of promise, particularly if they are done responsibly and ethically,” though she expressed concerns about potential harm to younger users.Jacobson’s team has so far dedicated close to six years to developing Therabot, with safety and effectiveness as primary goals. Michael Heinz, psychiatrist and project co-leader, believes rushing for profit would compromise safety.The Dartmouth team is prioritizing understanding how their digital therapist works and establishing trust. They are also contemplating the creation of a nonprofit entity linked to Therabot to make digital therapy accessible to those who cannot afford conventional in-person help.- Care or cash? -With the cautious approach of its developers, Therabot could potentially be a standout in a marketplace of untested apps that claim to address loneliness, sadness and other issues. According to Wright, many apps appear designed more to capture attention and generate revenue than improve mental health.Such models keep people engaged by telling them what they want to hear, but young users often lack the savvy to realize they are being manipulated.Darlene King, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on mental health technology, acknowledged AI’s potential for addressing mental health challenges but emphasizes the need for more information before determining true benefits and risks. “There are still a lot of questions,” King noted.To minimize unexpected outcomes, the Therabot team went beyond mining therapy transcripts and training videos to fuel its AI app by manually creating simulated patient-caregiver conversations.While the US Food and Drug Administration theoretically is responsible for regulating online mental health treatment, it does not certify medical devices or AI apps. Instead, “the FDA may authorize their marketing after reviewing the appropriate pre-market submission,” according to an agency spokesperson.The FDA acknowledged that “digital mental health therapies have the potential to improve patient access to behavioral therapies.”- Therapist always in -Herbert Bay, CEO of Earkick, defends his startup’s AI therapist Panda as “super safe.” Bay says Earkick is conducting a clinical study of its digital therapist, which detects emotional crisis signs or suicidal ideation and sends help alerts.”What happened with Character.AI couldn’t happen with us,” said Bay, referring to a Florida case in which a mother claims a chatbot relationship contributed to her 14-year-old son’s death by suicide.AI, for now, is suited more for day-to-day mental health support than life-shaking breakdowns, according to Bay.”Calling your therapist at two in the morning is just not possible,” but a therapy chatbot remains always available, Bay noted.One user named Darren, who declined to provide his last name, found ChatGPT helpful in managing his traumatic stress disorder, despite the OpenAI assistant not being designed specifically for mental health.”I feel like it’s working for me,” he said.”I would recommend it to people who suffer from anxiety and are in distress.”

Influential billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday he would retire from leading his Berkshire Hathaway business group by the end of the year and that he would recommend his chosen successor Greg Abel take over.Buffett’s success, coupled with his ability to explain his thinking in clear soundbites, has made him highly influential in the business and financial communities, earning him the nickname “The Oracle of Omaha.”Buffett indicated several years ago 62-year-old Abel would be his pick for successor.”The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett, 94, told an annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, the Midwestern city where Berkshire is based. Buffett said he believed the board of directors would be “unanimously in favor of” his recommendation.”I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be,” he added.Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway from a medium-sized textile company when he bought it in the 1960s into a giant conglomerate, now valued at more than $1 trillion and with liquid assets of $300 billion.- ‘Wizard of Wall Street’ – Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital Securities described Buffett as the “Wizard of Wall Street” and said his announcement could come as a relief to those worried about succession. “This helps alleviate concerns about who will replace him and may very well be well received by his followers,” Cardillo told AFP.The company on Saturday reported first-quarter profits of $9.6 billion, down 14 percent. That works out to $4.47 per share, also down sharply.And Buffett’s net worth as of Saturday was $168.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s real-time rich list.”I have no intention — zero — of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually,” Buffett told shareholders, who responded with a standing ovation.”The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine.””So that’s the news hook for the day,” Buffett quipped.Abel, a long-time core figure of Berkshire, joined the group in the energy division in 1992 and has been on the board of directors since 2018.”Greg Abel and the rest of the team has huge shoes to fill, and they have immense amounts of cash to put to work if they so desire,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.”This is truly the end of an era,” he added.- Trade ‘should not be a weapon’ -Buffett earlier used the stage to declare that “trade should not be a weapon,” in remarks clearly targeting US President Donald Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs against countries around the world.”There is no question that trade can be an act of war,” he said, without mentioning Trump by name.Those comments came as analysts in the United States and abroad have expressed growing concern that tariffs could seriously slow global growth.Two months ago, Buffett told a CBS interviewer that tariffs “are a tax on goods” — and not a relatively painless revenue-raiser, as Trump has suggested — adding, “I mean, the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay ’em!”On Saturday Buffett urged Washington to continue trading with the rest of the world, saying, “We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best.”Achieving prosperity is not a zero-sum game, with one country’s successes meaning another’s losses, he said. Both can prosper.”I do think that the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won’t be at our expense. The more prosperous we’ll become, and the safer we’ll feel,” Buffett said.He added that it can be dangerous for one country to offend the rest of the world while claiming superiority.”It’s a big mistake, in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don’t like you very well, and you got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done,” Buffett told shareholders.Compared to that dynamic, he said, the financial markets’ recent gyrations are “really nothing.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Saturday that she had rejected an offer from US President Donald Trump to send American troops to Mexico to help combat drug trafficking.”I told him, ‘No, President Trump, our territory is inviolable, our sovereignty is inviolable, our sovereignty is not for sale,'” she said at a public event, referring to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal that described a tense exchange between the leaders.During the recent call, Sheinbaum said, Trump had asked how he could help fight organized crime and suggested sending troops.She said she declined, telling him that “we will never accept the presence of the United States Army in our territory.”Sheinbaum said she offered to collaborate, including through greater information-sharing.Trump himself said in an interview last week with conservative outlet The Blaze that he had offered to help Mexico fight the drug cartels, but that he had been turned down.Without providing details, Trump told his interviewer: “You could say at some point maybe something’s gonna have to happen. It can’t go on the way it is.”In her appearance Saturday, Sheinbaum said she had urged Trump to stop the cross-border arms trafficking that has contributed to a wave of violence lasting nearly two decades, claiming more than 450,000 lives in Mexico.Trump, on his part, has complained repeatedly about cross-border drug smuggling and has pressured Mexico to crack down on criminal cartels.Trump angered Mexicans in early March when he said America’s southern neighbor was “dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control… posing a grave threat to (US) national security.” Trump has also long complained — and uses as an argument for imposing tariffs on the country — that Mexico has not done enough to stop the trafficking of migrants and drugs, particularly fentanyl, into the United States.Those topics have been part of an ongoing diplomatic dance between the countries over the trade tariffs.Mexico, as the largest US trade partner and the second-largest economy in Latin America, is considered one of the most vulnerable to the US president’s expansive import duties.