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Panamanian opposition politicians have accused the US of launching a “camouflaged invasion” of the country, amid simmering discontent over the government’s handling of the diplomatic crisis.

After a three-day visit by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump appeared to confirm that US military personnel had been deployed to the Central American country on Thursday, telling reporters: “We’ve moved a lot of troops to Panama.”

Hegseth said that the US would increase its military presence at three former US bases in the country to “secure the Panama canal from Chinese influence”.

“This is a camouflaged invasion,” said Ricardo Lombana, the leader of the opposition Other Way Movement. “An invasion without firing a shot, but with a cudgel and threats.”

In the past six months, two babies in Louisiana have died of pertussis, the disease commonly known as whooping cough.

Washington state recently announced its first confirmed death from pertussis in more than a decade.

Idaho and South Dakota each reported a death this year, and Oregon last year reported two as well as its highest number of cases since 1950.

While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak concentrated in the small, dusty towns of West Texas, cases of pertussis have skyrocketed by more than 1,500% nationwide since hitting a recent low in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths tied to the disease are also up, hitting 10 last year, compared with about two to four in previous years. Cases are on track to exceed that total this year.

The new vessels cost quadruple their original price tag, one was delivered seven years late, the other is still being built, and both are too big to fit the main harbour for their daily journeys to and from the Isle of Arran.

But in this latest chapter of the scandal, the unbelievable is very much part of the script. And, as Sky News has been hearing, the consequences are brutal.

And to add insult to injury, both are too big for Ardrossan Harbour's jetty to cope with and require an £80m upgrade.

When Jonathan returned from the US to Australia for a quick trip to scatter his sister’s ashes, he packed only two changes of clothes, leaving enough space in his small bag to carry the empty ashes urn to his home in the US. The trip was so brief he didn’t even pack a laptop charger.

The Australian says he was detained and deported when returning from the memorial in March, despite holding a working visa still valid for more than a year. He has been living on the US east coast for the better part of a decade – where his American partner, apartment, work studio and clients remain.

Jonathan, who spoke on the condition his real name was not disclosed, says he is now couch surfing in Australia, separated from his “whole life”.

Donald Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the international criminal court (ICC) is facing a legal challenge from two US human rights advocates who argue it is “unconstitutional and unlawful”.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday, the advocates said the order had forced them to stop assisting and engaging with the ICC out of fear the US government would punish them with criminal prosecution and civil fines.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed the case on the advocates’ behalf, argued that Trump’s order violated the first amendment by prohibiting their constitutionally protected rights to share information with the ICC’s chief prosecutor and his staff.

They said the plaintiffs “wish to continue communicating with the [prosecutor’s office], but are chilled from doing so because of the substantial risk that they will be penalised”.

Young men and boys fuelled by “strongly misogynistic” online material are hunting for vulnerable women and girls to exploit on websites such as eating disorder and suicide forums, senior officers have said.

The threat from young males wanting to carry out serious harm is so serious that counter-terrorism officers are joining the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the hunt for them, fearing they could go on to attack or kill.

Britain’s head of counter-terrorism, Matt Jukes, told the Guardian that a joint taskforce would be set up between his force and the NCA to tackle those fixated with violence online, in what he called a “decisive moment”.

Jukes, the Metropolitan police force’s assistant commissioner for specialist operations, said the new pairing would look for those consuming online material about killings or sexual abuse. Those who might go on to plot school shootings and other mass attacks, as well as those who encouraged women and girls to harm themselves, would also fall under their remit.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit involved in the killings of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers in the Gaza Strip last month was under the command of a brigade led by a notorious Israeli general previously accused by some of his own troops of having “contempt for human life”.

The IDF has confirmed that troops from Golani, one of the army’s five infantry brigades, opened fire on two convoys of ambulances in Rafah on 23 March and dug a mass grave to cover the bodies of those killed until the corpses could be retrieved by a UN team six days later. It has disputed allegations from two witnesses who exhumed the bodies and newly released postmortem results that found several of those killed had close-range gunshot wounds to the head and chest and were discovered with their hands or legs tied.

Field operatives from Unit 504, a military intelligence unit with a reputation for cruelty and reckless behaviour, including torture, were also present during the attack, a senior military intelligence source with knowledge of recent IDF deployments in southern Gaza told the Guardian. The Israeli military declined to comment on whether 504 was involved.

The vote sets the stage for a potentially high-stakes test of the state’s power to police oil development along the coast. The onshore pipeline in Gaviota gushed more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil onto coastal land and ocean waters, shutting down fisheries, closing beaches and harming marine life and coastal habitats in 2015.

Sable Offshore Corp., a Houston-based company, purchased the pipeline from the previous owners, Exxon Mobil, last year, and is seeking to restart the Santa Ynez offshore oil operation.

The Coastal Commission said Sable has done something no alleged violator has ever done before: ignoring the agency’s multiple cease-and-desist orders and continuing its work.

Michael Jeffries requires round-the-clock care because the 80-year-old has Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and the “residual effects of a traumatic brain injury,” defense attorneys wrote in a letter filed Thursday in a New York federal court, citing recent evaluations by medical professionals.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers want a federal judge in Central Islip to place Jeffries in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons for up to four months so that he can be hospitalized and receive treatment that might allow his criminal case to proceed.

Normally, investors rush into Treasurys at a whiff of economic chaos but now they are selling them as not even the lure of higher interest payments on the bonds is getting them to buy. The freak development has experts worried that big banks, funds and traders are losing faith in America as a good place to store their money.

“The fear is the U.S. is losing its standing as the safe haven,” said George Cipolloni, a fund manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management. “Our bond market is the biggest and most stable in the world, but when you add instability, bad things can happen.”

That could be bad news for consumers in need of a loan — and for President Donald Trump, who had hoped his tariff pause earlier this week would restore confidence in the markets.

The resolutions reflect the Republican president’s continued success in bending prominent law firms to his will as they seek to cut deals with his administration to avoid being targeted by White House sanctions like the ones confronting others in the legal community.

The White House said that the firms of Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Latham & Watkins LLP would each provide $125 million in free legal work for causes including veterans affairs and combatting anti-Semitism. As part of the agreement, the administration agreed to withdraw letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission demanding information about whether the firms were engaged in discriminatory hiring practices.

In a separate deal also announced Friday, Trump said that the firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft would agree to dedicate $100 million in pro bono services. The agreements also required the firms to disavow any “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in their hiring and to agree to accept clients regardless without regard to political beliefs.

The U.S. government attorney also struggled to provide any information about the exact whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite Thursday’s ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that the Trump administration must bring him back.

“Where is he and under whose authority?” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis asked in a Maryland courtroom.

“I’m not asking for state secrets,” she said. “All I know is that he’s not here. The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador, and now I’m asking a very simple question: where is he?”