The president of El Salvador has denied claims that Kilmar Ábrego García was subjected to beatings and deprivation while he was held in the country before being returned to the US to face human-smuggling charges.

Nayib Bukele said in a social media post that Ábrego García, the Salvadorian national who was wrongly extradited from the US to El Salvador in March before being returned in June, “wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight”.

They said that, at one point, Ábrego García and four other inmates were transferred to a different part of the prison, “where they were photographed with mattresses and better food – photos that appeared to be staged to document improved conditions”.

The first American academics fleeing Donald Trump's America for France have arrived.

Aix-Marseille University last week introduced eight U.S.-based researchers who were in the final stage of joining the institution's “Safe Place for Science" program, which aims to woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts under the Trump administration. AMU offers the promise of a brighter future in the sun-drenched Mediterranean port city.

While both France and the European Union have launched multimillion-euro plans to woo researchers across the pond since Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in January, AMU's initiative was the first of its kind in the country — meaning the eight researchers who were welcomed are the first academic refugees planning to trade the United States for France.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the European Union’s top diplomat that Beijing can’t accept Russia losing its war against Ukraine as this could allow the United States to turn its full attention to China, an official briefed on the talks said, contradicting Beijing’s public position of neutrality in the conflict.

The admission came during what the official said was a four-hour meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas on Wednesday in Brussels that “featured tough but respectful exchanges, covering a broad range of issues from cyber security, rare earths to trade imbalances, Taiwan and Middle East.”

The official said Wang’s private remarks suggested Beijing might prefer a protracted war in Ukraine that keeps the United States from focusing on its rivalry with China. They echo concerns of critics of China’s policy that Beijing has geopolitically much more at stake in the Ukrainian conflict than its admitted position of neutrality.

The move blindsided the State Department, Ukraine, European allies and members of Congress, who demanded an explanation from the Pentagon.

The Defense Department held up a shipment of U.S. weapons for Ukraine this week over what officials said were concerns about its low stockpiles. But an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.

The move to halt the weapons shipment blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

Critics of the decision included Republicans and Democrats who support aiding Ukraine’s fight against Russia. A leading House Democrat, Adam Smith of Washington, said it was disingenuous of the Pentagon to use military readiness to justify halting aid when the real reason appears to be simply to pursue an agenda of cutting off American aid to Ukraine.

Disaster declarations have been issued for parts of central Texas after heavy rains produced “a catastrophic flooding event” and killed an as yet unconfirmed number of people.

The National Weather Service issued multiple flash flood warnings followed by a flash flood emergency early on Friday morning for Gillespie and Mason counties, after more than a foot of rainfall fell in just a few hours in the hill country west of Austin.

The local news outlet KXAN warned that “life-threatening flooding is imminent or occurring. Leave low-lying or flood-prone areas immediately, but do not drive over water-covered roads.”

A group of Florida Democratic state lawmakers was blocked from entering the Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention facility in the Everglades Thursday, despite citing legal authority for an official legislative site visit.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried issued a statement following the incident, saying, "Lawmakers on the ground were just blocked from entering a state-funded detention site because of so-called 'safety concerns.' This is a taxpayer-funded facility, run by the State of Florida. Our elected officials have every legal right to walk through those gates."

Fried added, "What are Ron DeSantis and his administration trying to hide? If it's unsafe for lawmakers to visit, how is it safe for anyone inside?"

What the senator claimed was a difficult decision was just a case of backroom deals and abandoned principles.

When the Republican-controlled Senate passed the disastrous megabill on Tuesday, the deciding vote came from Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The Alaskan lawmaker, who has long claimed to be a moderate, got over the finish line the bill for Donald Trump’s priorities, which would send billions of dollars to ICE, extend tax cuts for the wealthy, kick large abortion providers out of the Medicaid program, and knock millions of low-income people off their health insurance.

Murkowski cast this vote just a week after she suggested in a podcast interview that she’d consider becoming an independent and caucusing with Senate Democrats. She cast this vote, which could shutter nearly 200 Planned Parenthood clinics, after repeatedly painting herself as “pro choice.” She cast this vote after Planned Parenthood called the bill a “backdoor abortion ban” and said it could eliminate one in four abortion providers nationwide.

As Bolts Magazine Editor-in-Chief Daniel Nichanian noted after the vote: “The Senate’s small-state ultra-bias is never more maddening than when one senator uses it to get benefits for her 740,000 constituents while openly acknowledging the bill she’s supporting will harm the nation’s 339 million other residents.”

A Los Angeles school district is demanding an investigation of an incident last month, during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents gathered at a local high school before a raid and were seen publicly urinating on school grounds, not far from where elementary school students were attending summer classes.

According to a statement from El Rancho unified school district, which also released video evidence in the form of surveillance-camera footage, the incident took place on the morning of 17 June at Ruben Salazar high school in Pico Rivera, in south-eastern LA county.

The school has since written to Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, to request an inquiry. “At no time was a legal or legitimate reason offered or provided as to why ICE agents entered and remained on school grounds, nor did they provide any judicial warrant,” the school district said in the statement.

Seven-hour assault prompts Ukraine to accuse Putin of humiliating Trump hours after the leaders spoke by phone

Ukraine has accused Vladimir Putin of “publicly humiliating” Donald Trump after Russia launched a devastating attack with a record number of drones and ballistic missiles on Kyiv, hours after the two leaders spoke by phone.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the seven-hour raid as a “deliberate act of terror” which “immediately followed the call between Washington and Moscow”. It was one of the most severe assaults of the entire war and a “clear interpretation of how Moscow interprets diplomacy”, he added.

The sustained and coordinated night-time attack involved more than 550 Russian drones and ballistic missiles – a record. Families in Kyiv spent the night in metro stations, basements and underground parking garages.

The Republican fantasy of lower taxes and hard-to-access social safety net programs will now be a reality

For decades, Republicans have argued that the US would be better off if taxes were low, and programs to help low-income Americans were harder to access. With Donald Trump’s marquee tax and spending bill now set to become law, the country will find out what it’s like to live under that sort of system.

The massive legislation that Trump plans to sign Friday will make his campaign promises a reality by extending tax cuts enacted during his first term, and creating new deductions aimed at the working-class voters who backed his re-election.

But it will also fundamentally reorder two major social safety net programs, slashing funding and imposing new work requirements that nonpartisan estimates say will cost millions of people their benefits. The ripple effects, experts say, will be felt across the country, and not just by the poor.

Tesla said it delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 units a year ago

Tesla posted another big drop in quarterly deliveries on Wednesday, putting it on course for its second straight annual sales decline as demand falters due to backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s political stance and an ageing vehicle lineup.

The stock has lost 25% of its value so far this year as investors feared brand damage in Europe, where sales have slumped most sharply, and in the US from Musk’s embrace of rightwing politics and his role in spearheading the Trump administration’s cost-cutting effort.

The day Trump and Musk split publicly in early June, Tesla lost about $150bn in market value. Its share price has somewhat recovered in the ensuing month, but Trump and Musk have likewise reignited their feud as they spar over Trump’s sweeping tax bill.

Support is lowest in France, Spain and Poland, while 21% back authoritarian rule under certain circumstances

Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found.

A majority from Europe’s generation Z – 57% – prefer democracy to any other form of government. Rates of support varied significantly, however, reaching just 48% in Poland and only about 51-52% in Spain and France, with Germany highest at 71%.

More than one in five – 21% – would favour authoritarian rule under certain, unspecified circumstances. This was highest in Italy at 24% and lowest in Germany with 15%. In France, Spain and Poland the figure was 23%.

Nearly one in 10 across the nations said they did not care whether their government was democratic or not, while another 14% did not know or did not answer.