Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein who also alleged she was sexually trafficked to Prince Andrew, has died. She was 41.

Her family issued a statement on Saturday confirming she took her own life at her farm in Western Australia, where she had lived for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” the statement read.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Giuffre was one of the most vocal victims of Epstein, alleging she had been groomed and sexually abused by him and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, beginning in her teens.

The family described her as a “fierce warrior” against sexual abuse and sex trafficking and a “light that lifted so many survivors”.

“Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure,” they said.

Giuffre is survived by her three children, Christian, Noah and Emily, who her family said were the “light of her life”.

“It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others,” they said.

“There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit.”

Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, said she was “much more than a client”.

“She was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims. Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” McCawley said.

“The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet angel.”

Giuffre’s representative Dini von Mueffling said she was “one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know”.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims. She adored her children and many animals,” she said.

“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

Josh Schiffer, a lawyer who represents one of Epstein’s victims, said Giuffre was integral to exposing the financier.

“The case wouldn’t have existed without the input, her cooperation, her bravery at the beginning, inspiring so many other people to come forward,” he told US cable network NewsNation.

“Her loss will hopefully be a marker and almost an inspiration for people to calling attention to the epidemic that is sex trafficking, that is the international sex industry.

“This is an issue that still persists. It changes its form all the time and it exists all around the world. This just happened to be a really prominent example.”

Western Australia police did not publicly confirm Giuffre had died, but said emergency services responded to reports a 41-year-old woman was unresponsive at a home in Neergabby, about 75km north of Perth, about 9.50pm on Friday.

The woman was given emergency first aid but was pronounced dead, they said.

The death will be investigated but is not considered suspicious.

Earlier this month, Giuffre posted on social media that she had just days to live after a school bus crashed into her car.

WA police later confirmed a 41-year-old woman was in a car that collided with a bus on 24 March but there were no reported injuries. It is understood Giuffre presented to a Perth hospital emergency department on 1 April.

Giuffre, who is American, said she met Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000 when working as a locker-room assistant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Maxwell offered her a job as massage therapist to Epstein, during which she alleged she was trafficked to the financier’s friends and clients – “passed around like a platter of fruit”.

In a 2009 civil lawsuit against Epstein, under the pseudonym “Jane Doe 102”, she alleged that her duties included being “sexually exploited by Epstein’s adult male peers including royalty”. Giuffre reached a settlement with Epstein in that case before it went to trial.

In 2021, Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in the federal court in New York, alleging he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was 17.

Andrew has repeatedly and strongly denied the accusations.

In the lawsuit, Giuffre alleged Epstein and Maxwell had introduced her to Andrew in 2001, and alleged that Maxwell forced her to have sex with Andrew.

In 2022, Andrew and Giuffre agreed to an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum.

Maxwell, who has maintained her innocence, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for sex trafficking.

Epstein was arrested by federal authorities in July 2019 and charged with sex-trafficking counts. Shortly after, he died by suicide while awaiting trial.

About 1am on Friday, Yuliia Verbytska woke to the sound of an air raid siren. She grabbed her teenage children – Dmitry, 17, and Olexiy, 12 – and sat in the corridor, checking her phone. In the sky above came an ominous whine. Minutes later, a Russian drone crashed into the disused soap factory down the road in Polyova Street. There was an enormous explosion.

“We don’t have a shelter in our building, so we hide behind two concrete walls. All the neighbours sit together. You wonder if this is your last moment,” she said. Friday’s raid followed a massive attack on Thursday on Verbytska’s home, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and on the capital, Kyiv, where 12 people were killed. “I haven’t slept for two days,” she said wearily.

Exhausted residents sweeping up glass and fixing broken panels pointed out that the latest attack came hours after a post from Donald Trump on social media. It said: “Vladimir, STOP.” Russia’s president, it seemed, had decided to ignore Trump’s rare rebuke. Despite peace negotiations and an appeal by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a month-long ceasefire, the Russians were bombing as usual.

One of the damaged buildings belongs to a charity, Heart of Kharkiv, where Verbytska works as a volunteer. Bits of concrete fell amid clothes and donated shoes. Children’s drawings were blown from a noticeboard. The charity’s wheelchairs and pushchairs survived unscathed. “I don’t believe in promises or words. Not from Trump or anybody else. I don’t really have much faith in anything any more,” Verbytska said gloomily.

By late morning, emergency service workers were still extinguishing small blazes in the now-ruined factory. Built in 1918, it once made soap for the Soviet Union. It went bankrupt last year. The Kremlin’s drones narrowly missed an old acacia tree by its entrance gate. They flattened a brick administration building. Firefighters doused charred beams and splashed among puddles and piles of twisted metal.

“They are fascists. Inhuman people. Barbarians. Cruel,” the complex’s security guard, Anton, said, when asked what he thought about Russians. “They want to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians. That’s their plan.” He was sceptical that the peace process – Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks on Friday with Putin in Moscow – would lead to a settlement that might end the fighting.

The security guard said Zelenskyy would be unwise to accept the US’s latest leaked proposal. It envisages handing Crimea and four other Ukrainian regions to Russia. Ukraine gets back a sliver of territory in the Kharkiv region. “Today it’s five oblasts. Tomorrow, the Russians will demand another five. Zelenskyy should not sign,” he said. He dismissed Trump as a “Russian agent recruited long ago”, and said: “I’m disappointed that the Americans elected him.”

Russia says its devastating attacks are against Ukrainian military objects. Its latest murderous barrage follows a double strike this month on the north-eastern city of Sumy, in which 35 people were killed. Most were travelling on a bus when an Iskander missile exploded next to them. Overwhelmingly, the victims of Russia’s air raids are civilians. They include two children killed on Thursday and dug from the rubble of their Kyiv apartment block.

Liudmyla Hanzii, a pensioner, was at her home in Kharkiv’s Slobidsky district when the soap factory was hit. Her son, Andriy, showed off the bed where she had been sleeping. It was decorated with icons and a black-and-white photograph of Liudmyla as a young woman. “Mum heard a bang. All the glass came flying in. A teenage boy living next door dragged her out,” he said, adding she was being treated in hospital for minor injuries.

According to Anatoliy Yaskovets, the deputy head of Kharkiv fire station No 6, Russia has stepped up its air attacks. The frequency increased in January, he said, when Trump came back as US president. Apart from a brief pause last weekend, when Putin announced an Easter ceasefire, bombing was continuous. “It’s terror against the civilian population. There’s no time to react. It takes 50 seconds for a missile fired from Belgorod in Russia to arrive,” he said.

The Russians had recently changed tactics, he added. They now send a swarm of drones, one after another, at the same target. Three of his colleagues were killed last summer when they went to the scene of a drone strike. Twenty minutes later, a second drone incinerated their vehicle. Moscow was using drones to drop CS gas and delayed-action grenades, which detonate up to an hour after impact. They go off if touched, he explained.

Asked if he thought the war might end soon, Yaskovets answered: “Probably not.” He continued: “People are tired. There are air raid sirens all the time. It’s a psychological burden. Russia has been destroying our power stations and industrial infrastructure. The aim is to make people unhappy so they turn on Ukraine’s government.” His mobile phone rang with a popular song, Moscow Burns. “It’s my mother. She worries about me,” he said.

In February 2022, Russian armoured columns tried to seize Kharkiv. There was fierce fighting. Ukrainian units pushed the enemy back to the city’s edge. For the next six months, Kharkiv was repeatedly shelled. That autumn, a Ukrainian counteroffensive liberated most of the surrounding province. In recent months, though, the Russians have been advancing again, reoccupying the border town of Vovchansk last year, and swallowing villages.

How far could they go? Yaskovets said it was clear the Russians would try again to encircle and occupy Kharkiv. “Putin doesn’t intend to stop. He wants to take the south of Ukraine and go as far as the Dnipro River. He doesn’t have a big enough army to do that,” he suggested. In the meantime, there would be more drone attacks, and more casualties. “We’ve had four years of full-scale war. Somehow, people have got used to it,” he noted.

A group of soldiers from the Kraken regiment – breaking off for coffee at a Kharkiv petrol station – said Putin’s behaviour this week was not surprising. “By bombing us, he shows his true nature,” one of them, Saifula, said. He added: “My feeling is that Trump is not really a president at all. He’s a parody or a clone of a president. The whole world is laughing at him. Our only option now is to have a strong army and to carrying on fighting.”

A secretive Russian satellite in space that US officials believe is connected to a nuclear anti-satellite weapons program has appeared to be spinning uncontrollably, suggesting it may no longer be functioning in what could be a setback for Moscow’s space weapons efforts, according to US analysts.

The Cosmos 2553 satellite, launched by Russia weeks before invading Ukraine in 2022, has had various bouts of what appears to be errant spinning over the past year, according to Doppler radar data from space-tracking firm LeoLabs and optical data from Slingshot Aerospace, shared with Reuters.

Believed to be a radar satellite for Russian intelligence as well as a radiation testing platform, the satellite last year became the centre of US allegations that Russia for years has been developing a nuclear weapon capable of destroying entire satellite networks, such as SpaceX’s vast Starlink internet system that Ukrainian troops have been using.

US officials assess Cosmos 2553’s purpose, though not itself a weapon, is to aid Russia’s development of a nuclear anti-satellite weapon. Russia has denied it is developing such a weapon and says Cosmos 2553 is for research purposes.

Russia has for decades been locked in a security race in space with the US that, in recent years, has intensified and seeped into public view as Earth’s orbit becomes a hotspot for private sector competition and military technologies aiding ground forces.

The Cosmos 2553 satellite has been in a relatively isolated orbit about 2,000km above Earth, parked in a hotspot of cosmic radiation that communications or Earth-observing satellites typically avoid.

LeoLabs in November detected what appeared to be errant movements with the satellite using Doppler radar measurements from its global network of ground stations. The company in December upgraded its assessment to “high confidence” that it was tumbling based on additional radar data and imagery of the satellite taken by another space company, Darren McKnight, a senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, told Reuters.

Russia’s defence ministry did not return a request for comment.

“This observation strongly suggests the satellite is no longer operational,” the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based thinktank, said of LeoLabs’ analysis in its annual space threat assessment, published on Friday.

US Space Command, which tracks objects in space and has condemned Russian military satellites in the past, said it was aware of a change in Cosmos 2553’s altitude but declined to provide further assessment on its current state.

The satellite earlier showed signs of odd behaviour. Slingshot, whose global telescope network has been tracking the spacecraft since its launch on 5 February 2022, detected movements in May 2024.

“Slingshot noted that the object’s brightness became variable, indicating a potential tumble,” a company spokesperson said.

But according to Slingshot’s latest observations, Cosmos 2553 appears to have stabilised, according to Belinda Marchand, the company’s Chief Science Officer.

Commercial space-tracking services are relatively young but fast-evolving and in high demand as the number of civil and military satellites in space soars.

The US defence department and other countries’ militaries, keen on avoiding military miscalculation, have made better eyesight in orbit a high priority to better distinguish between various types of spacecraft manoeuvres and whether objects are civil or military assets.

Russia, a US Space Command spokesperson said, has claimed Cosmos 2553’s mission is to test onboard instruments in a high-radiation environment, “but this does not align with its characteristics”.

“This inconsistency, paired with a demonstrated willingness to target US and allied on-orbit objects, increases the risk of misperception and escalation,” the spokesperson said.

Cosmos 2553 is one of dozens of Russian satellites in space with suspected ties to its military and intelligence programs. The country has viewed SpaceX’s Starlink, a formidable constellation of thousands of satellites, as a legitimate military target as Ukrainian troops use the service in conjunction with weapons on the battlefield.

After 529 days on the run, Australia’s favourite fugitive has been caught at last.

Valerie the miniature dachshund, who went missing on Kangaroo Island way back in 2023, has been rescued by conservationists.

“Kangala Wildlife Rescue is overjoyed to announce the successful rescue of Valerie,” the group said on TikTok on Friday night.

“After weeks of tireless efforts … by volunteers and partner organisations Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well.

“We are absolutely thrilled and deeply relieved that Valerie is finally safe and able to begin her transition back to her loving parents.”

People have been trying to find Valerie since she went missing in November 2023, when her owners, New South Wales couple Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock, were holidaying at Stokes Bay – home to one of Australia’s best beaches but also farmland and dense scrub.

Valerie escaped from her pen at their campsite at Stokes Bay before running into the scrub. The pair searched for her with the help of locals but to no avail.

Then, in March, reports began coming in that Valerie had been spotted. One picture appeared to show the dog’s oversized ears poking above some paddock stubble.

Kangala Wildlife Rescue volunteers used surveillance, traps and lures to try to find Valerie. They captured a video of her, but she remained at large.

Stokes Bay locals like to point out their island is six times bigger than Singapore. It’s also much wilder – a place where a couple can walk alone on a pristine beach, whales visit, trees grow bent over from the wind, and bushfires occasionally raze the land. Much of it remains untamed, remote.

So the residents are somewhat bemused at the way Valerie’s story has spread around the world. The New York Times reported on the elusive dog, still apparently wearing her pink collar. In the UK, the Times wrote of her dodging snakes and eagles, and the Independent commented on her “remarkable resilience”.

“Kangaroo Island is known for many things … dogs that survive for 500 days is not what you expect,” resident and animal lover Louise Custance said in April.

“I think people just want to have a good news story; otherwise, everything’s so sad. The last global headline that Kangaroo Island made was the [2020] fires.”

Now, after an estimated 1,000 hours of volunteer effort and more than 5,000km travelled around the island searching for her, she was snared in a search operation using cameras and prepared traps.

“There were many challenging moments over the past month,” the group said, “and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who played a part in bringing Valerie home.”

Exhausted and relieved, the Kangala Wildlife Rescue team have revealed precisely how they finally caught Valerie the dachshund, after 529 days on the run in Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

The Kangala directors, Jared and Lisa Karran, were excited to share the news that Valerie had been secured, but they were also extremely careful not to let the small dog escape from a specially designed cage.

“There was no way we were letting that sausage dog run away on us again,” Jared said in an update posted to social media. Valerie’s owners, Georgia Gardner and Josh Fishlock, are said to be “over the moon”.

An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2024 while fighting under contract for the Russian military, according to an investigation by independent Russian media.

Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on 4 April 2024 in “Eastern Europe”, according to an obituary published by his family. He was the son of Juliane Gallina, who was appointed the deputy director for digital innovation at the Central Intelligence Agency in February 2024.

The story of how the son of a top-ranking US spy died fighting for Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is an unlikely tale of how homegrown anger at the United States and online radicalisation led from a middle-class Virginia childhood to the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.

On a VKontakte page attributed to Gloss, a high school football player born to parents who both served in the military, he described himself as “a supporter of the multipolar world. I ran away from home. traveled the world. I hate fascism. I love my homeland.” He also posted the flags of Russia and Palestine.

According to the investigative website iStories, Gloss is one of more than 1,500 foreigners who have signed contracts with the Russian military since February 2022. The database for the enrollment office was later leaked, exposing him as having signed the contract in September 2023. Sources told iStories that Gloss had been deployed with “assault units”, those engaged in harsh frontline fighting, in December 2023. An acquaintance said that he had been deployed to a Russian airborne regiment sent to storm Ukrainian positions near the city of Soledar.

“With his noble heart and warrior spirit Michael was forging his own hero’s journey when he was tragically killed in Eastern Europe on April 4, 2024,” his family wrote in the obituary, which did not mention Russia and Ukraine or discuss the circumstances of his death.

In university, Gloss was active in gender equality and environmental protest circles. He joined Rainbow Family, a leftwing environmental protest group, and in 2023 traveled to Hatay, Turkey, to assist in the recovery following the earthquake that killed more than 56,000 people. He had also become increasingly angry at the US for its support of Israel and the war in Gaza.

While in Turkey, Gloss began expressing a desire to go on to Russia. “He was usually watching videos about Palestine and was so angry at America,” one acquaintance told iStories. “He started thinking about going to Russia. He wanted to war with the USA. But I think he was very influenced by the conspiracy theory videos.”

After receiving a visa to Russia, he traveled around the country before arriving in Moscow, where he joined the military shortly before his documents expired. Photographs and videos obtained by iStories showed he was sent to a Russian training camp, where he mostly trained alongside Nepali contract soldiers. Three months after enlisting, an acquaintance said, he was deployed to Ukraine as a member of an assault battalion.

A number of acquaintances told the outlet that he had not been interested in fighting, but hoped the army would allow him to receive a Russian passport and stay in the country.

The circumstance’s of Gloss’s death are not known. A friend said that his family had been informed by the Russian government of his death but were given little other information. “It was announced that he died within the borders of Ukraine,” the friend wrote. “We do not know whether he participated in the war. They did not provide any other detailed information.”

It was not clear whether the Russians performed a background check on Gloss or knew the identity of his mother. The Guardian has approached the CIA for comment on the reports.

• Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine are “very close to a deal” on ending the war after his envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday to discuss Washington’s peace plan. The US president said after the three-hour meeting that it was a good day of talks and called for a high-level meeting between Kyiv and Moscow to close the deal. “Most of the major points are agreed to,” Trump said in the post on his Truth Social platform, without giving any details.

• Trump made his comments despite Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s repeated rejections of a proposal that Kyiv cede Crimea to Russia. Trump said in an interview with Time published on Friday that Crimea – which Russia annexed in 2014 – “will stay with Russia”. Washington has not revealed details of its peace plan but has suggested freezing the frontline and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for peace.

• An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2024 while fighting under contract for the Russian military, according to an investigation by independent Russian media.

• The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine for a car bomb that killed a senior Russian general near Moscow on Friday, hours before the Witkoff-Putin meeting. Kyiv has not commented on the blast that killed Yaroslav Moskalik, the latest in a series of Russian military officers and pro-war figures to be killed during the war. “There are reasons to believe that Ukraine’s special services were involved in the murder,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, without providing any evidence.

• Zelenskyy said he might miss Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, which Trump is attending, due to important “military meetings”. The Ukrainian leader had earlier said he would attend the Vatican funeral, where he wanted to meet Trump. “If I am not [there] in time, Ukraine will be represented at a proper level,” Zelenskyy said as he visited the site of a Russian strike on Kyiv on Thursday that killed 12 people and wounded at least 90.

• Ukraine has detained a foreign vessel in its territorial waters that it alleges was involved in the illegal trade of stolen Ukrainian grain, the SBU state security service said on Friday. “The investigation found that the arrested vessel was part of Russia’s ‘shadow’ fleet, which the Kremlin uses to sell looted Ukrainian grain to third countries,” it said on Telegram. Kyiv has accused Russia of trading stolen Ukrainian grain since the 2022 war began – allegations Russia denies – but ship seizures have been rare.

• Two civilians were killed and one critically injured after a Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia’s Belgorod region on Friday, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

• Russia’s security services said on Friday they had arrested a Romanian citizen on suspicion of spying on military sites for Ukraine. The FSB security agency alleged the suspect had “collected and transmitted information about the locations of air defence systems in the city of Sochi”. Romania’s foreign ministry said the Romanian citizen was initially detained in the Abkhazia region four months ago and subsequently transferred to Sochi.

The FBI on Friday arrested a judge whom the agency accused of obstruction after it said she helped a man evade US immigration authorities as they were seeking to arrest him at her courthouse.

The county circuit judge, Hannah Dugan, was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 8.30am local time on Friday on charges of obstruction, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to the Guardian.

Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, wrote on X: “We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject – an illegal alien – to evade arrest.”

He said that agents were still able to arrest the target after he was “chased down” and that he was in custody. Patel added that “the judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public”.

Dugan appeared briefly in federal court in Milwaukee later on Friday morning before being released from custody. Her next court appearance is 15 May.

“Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing.

A crowd formed outside the courthouse, chanting: “Free the judge now.”

In a statement shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, an attorney for Dugan said: “Hannah C Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.”

It continued: “Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously, and looks forward to being exonerated.”

Trump weighed in on his Truth Social platform by sharing an image of the judge found on the judge’s Facebook page by the rightwing blogger Libs of TikTok, which showed Dugan on the bench wearing a KN95 face mask and displaying the Ukrainian national symbol of a trident.

The Milwaukee city council released a statement following the arrest: “This morning’s news that Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by federal authorities is shocking and upsetting. Judge Dugan should be afforded the same respect and due process that she has diligently provided others throughout her career.

“Perhaps the most chilling part of Judge Dugan’s arrest is the continued aggression by which the current administration in Washington, DC has weaponized federal law enforcement, such as ICE, against immigrant communities,” the statement reads. “As local elected officials, we are working daily to support our constituents who grow increasingly concerned and worried with each passing incident.”

Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat representing Wisconsin, called the arrest of a sitting judge a “gravely serious and drastic move” that “threatens to breach” the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in an emailed statement after Dugan’s arrest.

The leftwing senator Bernie Sanders said the move was about “unchecked power”.

“Let’s be clear. Trump’s arrest of Judge Dugan in Milwaukee has nothing to do with immigration. It has everything to do with [Trump] moving this country towards authoritarianism,” he said in a statement.

The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren said in a social media post: “This administration is threatening our country’s judicial system. This rings serious alarm bells.”

Later in the day, the FBI director posted a photograph of the judge in handcuffs on X with the caption: “No one is above the law”.

The judge’s arrest dramatically escalates tensions between federal authorities and state and local officials amid Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown. It also comes amid a growing battle between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary over the president’s executive actions over deportations and other matters.

In a statement Wisconsin’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, accused the Trump administration of repeatedly using “dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level”.

“I have deep respect for the rule of law, our nation’s judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favor, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime,” Evers said. “I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.”

It was reported on Tuesday that the FBI was investigating whether Dugan “tried to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest when that person was scheduled to appear in her courtroom last week”, per an email obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Dugan told the Journal Sentinel: “Nearly every fact regarding the ‘tips’ in your email is inaccurate.”

The arrest of Dugan is the first publicly known instance of the Trump administration charging a local official for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement.

Emil Bove, the justice department’s principal associate deputy attorney general, issued a memo in January calling on prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against local government officials who obstructed the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Bove stated in the three-page memo: “Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands or requests.”

Dugan has been charged with the federal offenses of obstructing a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest, according to documents filed with the court.

The administration alleged that in the original encounter, the judge ordered immigration officials to leave the courthouse, saying they did not have a warrant signed by a judge to apprehend the suspect they were seeking, who was in court for other reasons.

Prosecutors said that Dugan became “visibly angry” when she learned that immigration agents were planning an arrest in her courtroom, according to court filings.

Dugan ordered the immigration officials to speak with the chief judge and then escorted Flores Ruiz and his attorney through a door that led to a non-public area of the courthouse, the prosecution complaint said.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, citing sources it did not identify, said Dugan steered Flores Ruiz and his attorney to a private hallway and into a public area but did not hide the pair in a jury deliberation room as some have accused her of doing.

Dugan was first elected as a county judge in 2016 and before that was head of the local branch of Catholic Charities, which provides refugee resettlement programs. She was previously a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, which serves low-income people.

The case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a backdoor of a courthouse to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent.

That prosecution sparked outrage from many in the legal community, who slammed the case as politically motivated. Prosecutors under the Biden administration dropped the case against Newton district judge Shelley Joseph in 2022 after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.

However, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, gave a media interview in which she said the administration would target any judges it believed were breaking the law.

Bondi said on a Fox News segment that she believed “some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today … if you are harboring a fugitive, we will come after you and we will prosecute you.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

The FBI on Friday arrested a judge whom the agency accused of obstruction after it said she helped a man evade US immigration authorities as they were seeking to arrest him at her courthouse.

The county circuit judge, Hannah Dugan, was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 8.30am local time on Friday on charges of obstruction, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to the Guardian.

Kash Patel, the Trump-appointed FBI director, wrote on X: “We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject – an illegal alien – to evade arrest.”

He said that agents were still able to arrest the target after he was “chased down” and that he was in custody. Patel added that “the judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public”.

Dugan appeared briefly in federal court in Milwaukee later on Friday morning before being released from custody. Her next court appearance is 15 May.

“Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety,” her attorney, Craig Mastantuono, said during the hearing.

A crowd formed outside the courthouse, chanting: “Free the judge now.”

In a statement shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, an attorney for Dugan said: “Hannah C Dugan has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career as a lawyer and a judge.”

It continued: “Judge Dugan will defend herself vigorously, and looks forward to being exonerated.”

Trump weighed in on his Truth Social platform by sharing an image of the judge found on the judge’s Facebook page by the rightwing blogger Libs of TikTok, which showed Dugan on the bench wearing a KN95 face mask and displaying the Ukrainian national symbol of a trident.

The Milwaukee city council released a statement following the arrest: “This morning’s news that Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by federal authorities is shocking and upsetting. Judge Dugan should be afforded the same respect and due process that she has diligently provided others throughout her career.

“Perhaps the most chilling part of Judge Dugan’s arrest is the continued aggression by which the current administration in Washington, DC has weaponized federal law enforcement, such as ICE, against immigrant communities,” the statement reads. “As local elected officials, we are working daily to support our constituents who grow increasingly concerned and worried with each passing incident.”

Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat representing Wisconsin, called the arrest of a sitting judge a “gravely serious and drastic move” that “threatens to breach” the separation of power between the executive and judicial branches.

“Make no mistake, we do not have kings in this country and we are a democracy governed by laws that everyone must abide by,” Baldwin said in an emailed statement after Dugan’s arrest.

The leftwing senator Bernie Sanders said the move was about “unchecked power”.

“Let’s be clear. Trump’s arrest of Judge Dugan in Milwaukee has nothing to do with immigration. It has everything to do with [Trump] moving this country towards authoritarianism,” he said in a statement.

The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren said in a social media post: “This administration is threatening our country’s judicial system. This rings serious alarm bells.”

Later in the day, the FBI director posted a photograph of the judge in handcuffs on X with the caption: “No one is above the law”.

The judge’s arrest dramatically escalates tensions between federal authorities and state and local officials amid Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown. It also comes amid a growing battle between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary over the president’s executive actions over deportations and other matters.

In a statement Wisconsin’s governor, Democrat Tony Evers, accused the Trump administration of repeatedly using “dangerous rhetoric to attack and attempt to undermine our judiciary at every level”.

“I have deep respect for the rule of law, our nation’s judiciary, the importance of judges making decisions impartially without fear or favor, and the efforts of law enforcement to hold people accountable if they commit a crime,” Evers said. “I will continue to put my faith in our justice system as this situation plays out in the court of law.”

It was reported on Tuesday that the FBI was investigating whether Dugan “tried to help an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest when that person was scheduled to appear in her courtroom last week”, per an email obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Dugan told the Journal Sentinel: “Nearly every fact regarding the ‘tips’ in your email is inaccurate.”

The arrest of Dugan is the first publicly known instance of the Trump administration charging a local official for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement.

Emil Bove, the justice department’s principal associate deputy attorney general, issued a memo in January calling on prosecutors to pursue criminal cases against local government officials who obstructed the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Bove stated in the three-page memo: “Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands or requests.”

Dugan has been charged with the federal offenses of obstructing a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest, according to documents filed with the court.

The administration alleged that in the original encounter, the judge ordered immigration officials to leave the courthouse, saying they did not have a warrant signed by a judge to apprehend the suspect they were seeking, who was in court for other reasons.

Prosecutors said that Dugan became “visibly angry” when she learned that immigration agents were planning an arrest in her courtroom, according to court filings.

Dugan ordered the immigration officials to speak with the chief judge and then escorted Flores Ruiz and his attorney through a door that led to a non-public area of the courthouse, the prosecution complaint said.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, citing sources it did not identify, said Dugan steered Flores Ruiz and his attorney to a private hallway and into a public area but did not hide the pair in a jury deliberation room as some have accused her of doing.

Dugan was first elected as a county judge in 2016 and before that was head of the local branch of Catholic Charities, which provides refugee resettlement programs. She was previously a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, which serves low-income people.

The case is similar to one brought during the first Trump administration against a Massachusetts judge, who was accused of helping a man sneak out a backdoor of a courthouse to evade a waiting immigration enforcement agent.

That prosecution sparked outrage from many in the legal community, who slammed the case as politically motivated. Prosecutors under the Biden administration dropped the case against Newton district judge Shelley Joseph in 2022 after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.

However, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, gave a media interview in which she said the administration would target any judges it believed were breaking the law.

Bondi said on a Fox News segment that she believed “some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not, and we are sending a very strong message today … if you are harboring a fugitive, we will come after you and we will prosecute you.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Xi Jinping has announced a plan to counter China’s continuing economic problems and the impact of the US trade war, as reports swirl that it could drop tariffs on some US products, including semiconductors.

Friday’s meeting of the politburo was convened to discuss China’s economy, which since the pandemic has faced difficulties fuelled by a housing sector crisis, youth unemployment and Donald Trump’s tariffs on all Chinese imports to the US.

A readout of the meeting published by the official state media outlet Xinhua said China’s economy had showed a “positive trend” with increasing social confidence in 2025, but “the impact of external shocks has increased”.

“We must strengthen bottom-line thinking, fully prepare emergency plans and do a solid job in economic work,” it said.

In a reference to Trump’s global tariffs, the readout said Beijing would “work with the international community to actively uphold multilateralism and oppose unilateral bullying practices”.

he US president has again insisted that Xi has called him to discuss the border taxes, despite Beijing denying any contact between the two countries over their bitter trade dispute.

In an interview conducted on Tuesday with Time magazine and published on Friday, Trump repeated the claim but did not say when the call took place or specify what was discussed. “He’s called,” Trump said of Xi. “And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf.”

On Thursday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign affairs ministry, Guo Jiakun, said of the reports of talks: “None of that is true.”

Friday’s politburo readout proposed a series of interventions to bolster the domestic economy and protect people and businesses from the impact of Trump’s tariffs, including increasing unemployment insurance payouts. It promised to increase low and middle incomes, develop the service industry and boost consumption.

“We should take multiple measures to help enterprises in difficulties,” it said. “We should strengthen financing support. We should accelerate the integration of domestic and foreign trade.”

It stressed the need for more proactive macroeconomic policies, faster development of a new real estate model and increased housing stock, and “stepping up” city renewal programmes and urban renovation.

Wen-ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, said the politburo’s decisions showed Beijing “clearly views the international macroeconomic environment as hostile” and was willing to take on high domestic inflation to weather the tariffs.

“[This] hints that China will be digging into the trenches and is preparing for a long trade fight with Trump,” he said.

Sung said Beijing was “doubling down on boosting domestic demand” and bolstering fiscal stimulus as the international market showed no signs of significant improvement.

The meeting was held amid reports that Chinese authorities were considering a list of US products to exempt from the 125% tariffs imposed on all US imports. Earlier reports from Bloomberg and Reuters said medical equipment, semiconductors and some industrial chemicals such as ethane were being considered.

On Thursday, a Shenzhen-based supplier posted online that it had been notified by the customs agency that eight semiconductor products would no longer attract the 125% duty.

On Friday, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, Michael Hart, said the Chinese authorities had been asking members what products they imported from the US that they could not find anywhere else.

He welcomed the early signs that both sides were reviewing tariffs and starting to produce lists of excluded items. Stock markets across the Asia Pacific region rose after the reports.

The trade war has hit the US and Chinese economies, and the tariff exemptions are likely to be a sign of the parties trying to ease their way out. The US had already exempted some categories of Chinese-made products from tariffs, including smartphones and laptops. This week, Trump said his tariffs on China would “come down substantially but it won’t be zero”.

But in public the two governments have given different accounts on the status of negotiations on ending the trade war.

On Friday afternoon, China’s foreign ministry reiterated its claim that the US and China were not engaged in any negotiations on tariffs, contradicting Trump’s claims on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the two sides were talking. “We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China,” he said, declining to say who “they” were.

The remarks appeared to be in response to the Chinese commerce ministry’s spokesperson, He Yadong, earlier saying there were “currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States”.

Joe Kasper, the controversial chief of staff to the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who was central to a dramatic power struggle at the Pentagon, has left his post, in an unexpected departure.

Despite Hegseth’s assurances just days ago in a TV appearance on the Fox & Friends show that Kasper would merely transition to “a slightly different role” within the department, Kasper confirmed to Politico in a Thursday interview he will instead return to government relations and consulting, maintaining only limited Pentagon ties as a special government employee.

A senior defense official at the Pentagon confirmed the dramatic title change to the Guardian on Friday, saying Kasper would be “handling special projects at the Department of Defense”

“Secretary Hegseth is thankful for [Kasper’s] continued leadership and work to advance the America First agenda,” the official said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump’s protectionist policy push.

The quick exit comes after Kasper was implicated as the orchestrator of a power grab that led to the dismissal of three senior Pentagon officials – Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll – allegedly as part of a leak investigation.

The administration’s first hundred days created a troubled tenure for Kasper, with anonymous sources claiming he was frequently late to meetings, failed to follow through on critical tasks, and displayed inappropriate behavior, including berating officials and making crude comments allegedly about his bowel movements during high-level meetings.

“He lacked the focus and organizational skills needed to get things done,” one anonymous insider told Politico.

The leadership shake-up coincides with separate allegations that Hegseth had an unsecured internet connection installed in his Pentagon office, which would bypass government security protocols, to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer. This “dirty line” arrangement potentially exposes sensitive defense information to surveillance or hacking risks, according to reports from the Associated Press and ABC News.

Kasper previously worked at the Department of Homeland Security, the US navy and the air force during the first Trump administration before becoming a lobbyist.

George Santos, the disgraced former representative, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Friday, bringing an end to an extraordinary controversy that began with a fraudulent congressional campaign.

He lied extensively about his life story both before and after entering the US Congress, where he was the first openly LGBTQ+ Republican elected to the body. He was ultimately convicted of defrauding donors.

Santos, 36, was sentenced on Friday morning in Long Island, the large suburban area to the east of New York City.

He sobbed in court saying he was “humbled” and “chastised” and realized he had betrayed his constituents’ trust. He pleaded guilty last summer to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and had appealed for mercy.

“I offer my deepest apologies,” he said on Friday, adding: “I cannot rewrite the past, but I can control the road ahead.”

US district court judge Joanna Seybert appeared unconvinced by his display of contrition.

“Where is your remorse? Where do I see it?” she asked as she sentenced him to 87 months behind bars. She said the former politician appeared to feel that “it’s always someone else’s fault”.

He served in Congress barely a year before his House of Representatives colleagues ousted him in 2023. Having flipped his seat to the GOP it then reverted to the Democrats with Tom Suozzi winning the vacant spot in a special election in February last year.

He admitted to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of nearly a dozen people, including his family members, to fund his winning campaign. He also made up strings of fantastical stories about his life, identity and experiences.

During his court case he frequently held press gatherings and mocked the media and his detractors, saying he was being smeared.

Santos was shown to have spent donor money on vacations, luxury goods, Botox treatment and the website OnlyFans.

Shortly before being elected to the US House of Representatives in New York’s third congressional district, Santos was first accused of deceiving voters by the North Shore Leader, a local newspaper in Long Island, which accused Santos of fabricating much of his résumé.

Santos’s sentencing was not without controversy. Before his Friday court appearance, he referred to himself as a “scapegoat” on social media, in reference to prosecutors accusing him of organizing the fraudulent conspiracy.

Santos also alleged that the justice department was a “cabal of pedophiles”, in posts made to X. Prosecutors highlighted Santos’s comments in a filing after Santos’s defense team requested a two-year prison sentence.

The former representative later defended his remarks, saying he was “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but that a seven-year prison sentence was too harsh.

“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” Santos wrote. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”

Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August.

Prosecutors, at the time, highlighted Santos’s plea as the first time that he had “told the truth about his criminal schemes”.

“For what may seem like the first time since he started his campaign for Congress, Mr Santos told the truth about his criminal schemes. He admitted to lying, stealing and conning people,” said Breon Peace, the US attorney for the eastern district of New York, in a statement.

“By pleading guilty, Mr Santos has acknowledged that he repeatedly defrauded federal and state government institutions as well as his own family, supporters and constituents. His flagrant and disgraceful conduct has been exposed and will be punished. Mr Santos’s conviction demonstrates this office’s enduring commitment to rooting out corruption and grift by public officials.”

At the time, Santos faced 22 years in prison.

As part of the plea agreement, Santos was forced to pay a restitution of $373,749.97 and forfeiture of $205,002.97.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

A headteacher who was caught on video attacking his deputy with a large adjustable spanner, in an assault motivated by “overwhelming sexual jealousy”, has been jailed for more than two years.

Anthony John Felton, 54, concealed the wrench in his jacket pocket as he approached his colleague, Richard Pyke, 51, from behind. Video of the incident showed him taking out the heavy tool and then repeatedly swinging it at Pyke’s head.

Pyke fell to the floor and attempted to kick away Felton before colleagues at St Joseph’s Roman Catholic comprehensive school in Aberavon, south Wales, heard the disturbance and came to his aid.

When graphic CCTV footage of the incident was played to Swansea crown court there were gasps in the public gallery at the ferocity of the attack.

Ieuan Rees, for the prosecution, said Felton believed Pyke had slept with another teacher with whom he had recently been in a relationship.

“The evidence of his wife and the admissions he made to her suggested Mr Felton had been in a relationship with another member of staff and had recently discovered he was the father of her child,” he said.

“Furthermore, he believed that Mr Pyke had now begun his own relationship with that lady.”

After the attack, Felton fled the school in his car and then emailed staff to apologise “for the problems and distress his actions were likely to cause”, the court heard.

Felton, who had been headteacher since September 2023, pleaded guilty to attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, at a hearing earlier this month.

In a victim impact statement address to Felton, Pyke said: “You had my complete trust in every way and you used that to manoeuvre me into a position of utter vulnerability. And then you attacked me from behind.”

He added: “The fear that you could attempt to do me such harm, smiling at me just seconds before, will always be with me.”

On Friday, Judge Paul Thomas sentenced Felton to two years and four months in jail and issued an indefinite restraining order.

The judge said the “ambush” by a headteacher on their deputy was: “I suspect, entirely without precedent”.

He added: “You are more than intelligent enough to realise when you plotted this bizarre attack that the impact and ramifications would be immense and far-reaching.

“Ultimately, the trigger for your act of extreme violence was of your own doing, the overwhelming sexual jealousy arising from an adulterous affair and the uncontrollable rage it created in you.”

John Hipkin KC, speaking for the defence, said Felton had recently suffered due to the death of his mother and a cancer diagnosis.

After the attack, police said Pyke had been discharged from hospital after suffering minor injuries.

Civil rights activists in Germany have demanded an independent inquiry into alleged police racism after an officer shot a 21-year-old black man from behind, killing him after an altercation outside a nightclub.

The 27-year-old officer was suspended from duty over the shooting early on Sunday morning in the city of Oldenburg in north-west Germany pending a murder investigation, said state prosecutors. Fatal police shootings are relatively rare in Germany and prosecutors were quoted in local media as saying the suspension and investigation were “routine”.

Police have not identified the victim due to data protection laws but media and pressure groups have identified him as Lorenz A.

Police said in a statement that the man, a German citizen, aimed pepper spray at security staff outside the club after they refused him entry, hurting four people, and that he threatened others with a knife while running away.

When a patrol car tracked him down, police said he again used the pepper spray and approached the 27-year-old officer in a threatening manner. The police officer then opened fire.

A coroner’s report found that at least three bullets hit the man from behind: in the back of his head, torso and hip, local prosecutors said. A fourth shot is believed to have grazed his upper thigh. He later died in hospital.

The state interior minister, Daniela Behrens, said the autopsy results raised “serious questions and grave suspicions” that must be “unsparingly addressed and resolved”.

Police representatives warned against any rush to judgment. “There are racism accusations because the deceased was a person of colour,” Kevin Komolka, the state chair of the GdP police union, told the public broadcaster NDR. “There’s a mood developing painting police as trigger-happy hooligans.”

Prosecutors have begun evaluating security camera footage and audio recordings from the scene and said there was no indication that Lorenz A had threatened police with the knife he had with him. The officers’ body cameras were reportedly turned off.

Rights groups, which have organised a rally in Oldenburg on Friday, said the shooting raised serious concerns.

The German chapter of Amnesty International said the killing “impacts an entire community and all those people in Germany affected by racism”. It said any investigation into the incident led by police would be biased. “We finally need independent investigation mechanisms that are not controlled by police or interior affairs authorities,” it said, citing “structural racism”.

The Black People in Germany Initiative (ISD) quoted friends and the family of Lorenz, calling him a keen basketball player and a “fun-loving person who was full of energy”.

“Now he’s dead, killed by an institution that is supposed to protect us,” it said in a statement, joining the call for an independent investigation as well as a national complaints office for allegations of police racism.

The ‪Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which campaigns against extremism and racism in German society, also denounced what it said was not an isolated incident and questioned the police account that the officer had grounds to fear for his life.

The gathering and march in Oldenburg, called by a Justice for Lorenz group with more than 15,000 followers on social media, is expected to draw at least 1,000 people, according to police. Similar vigils have been called in Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Vienna.

The Black Lives Matter movement, which was initiated after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, also led activists to turn a spotlight on German police. In September of that year, 29 officers in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia were temporarily suspended after their unit was found to have shared extreme rightwing content on a WhatsApp group including a collage of a refugee inside a gas chamber and the shooting of a young black person.

A 2024 study found that 30% of German police had heard colleagues make racist comments in the previous year, with a marked rise in reported anti-Muslim sentiment.

An average of 10.5 people a year are shot dead by police in Germany, the news agency dpa said, citing figures collected by the trade journal Civil Rights and Police, with no clear upward or downward trend across the decades. However, last year there were 22 victims, and this year there have already been 11 such cases reported.

In 2023, the last year statistics were available, Germany’s federal criminal police office reported a record number of incidents of violence against firefighters, police and emergency services workers.