标签： North America

A 26-year-old Colombian man legally residing in the U.S. was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officer during an enforcement operation early Monday in Biddeford, a coastal Maine city, according to multiple state and federal officials. The incident has triggered immediate calls for a full, impartial probe, coming on the heels of a second controversial fatal ICE shooting that killed an unintended target in Texas just one week prior.

Ryan Fecteau, Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, first confirmed the shooting via a Facebook post Monday morning, noting that Maine State Police and the state’s Department of Public Safety had secured the scene, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tapped to lead the independent investigation. Fecteau later updated his post to confirm the victim’s identity details: a 26-year-old Colombian national who was in the U.S. legally and held a valid Social Security number. Federal authorities have not officially released the deceased’s name to the public as of Monday.

Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey outlined the official preliminary account of the encounter in a Monday statement. According to Frey, the officer was carrying out enforcement actions tied to a final order of removal when the victim attempted to flee the scene by driving his vehicle directly toward the officer, prompting the fatal gunfire. Multiple local residents reported hearing at least four separate shots during the incident.

User-posted videos circulating on social media offer on-the-ground context of the aftermath. One clip captured a man clinging to the driver’s side window of a white sedan as the vehicle spun in place, while another footage shows ICE agents removing the victim’s body from the driver’s seat and surrounding the remains on the ground.

Maine’s top elected officials have all weighed in on the tragedy, calling for transparency to answer lingering questions. Governor Janet Mills confirmed she had received an official briefing on the incident, while U.S. Senator Susan Collins emphasized in a post on X that the shooting demanded a full and unbiased investigation. Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain said he was deeply shaken by the news, noting “situations like these are alarming and frightening.” “My thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the person who died as they face an unimaginable loss,” LaFountain said. “They deserve compassion, dignity and, in time, a full understanding of the circumstances that led to this tragedy.” He joined other leaders in calling for a complete, transparent investigation into the killing.

U.S. Senator Angus King told reporters at a noon news conference at Portland International Jetport that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials had confirmed to him the victim was a man in his 20s who had been served a final removal order, and that agency officials claimed the victim had “weaponized the vehicle” against the officer.

The Maine shooting comes as ICE has drastically scaled up immigration enforcement operations across the U.S. in recent weeks, with the agency increasingly targeting individuals not already held in law enforcement custody. It also follows a separate fatal shooting just seven days earlier in Houston, Texas, that has already stirred significant controversy.

In that July 7 incident, ICE agents fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican father of three who had lived in Houston for 35 years and had no criminal record. Salgado Araujo was not the target of the ICE operation; he was driving to his construction job when agents in unmarked black vehicles pulled his van over. An official ICE statement claimed Salgado Araujo “refused to follow multiple verbal commands” and used his vehicle as a weapon to try to run over an agent, who then opened fire. But accounts from three passengers in the van, relayed by their attorney, contradict that narrative, saying Salgado Araujo never attempted to ram agents. Crucially, none of the responding ICE officers wore body cameras, leaving no definitive visual evidence to verify either account. Salgado Araujo’s son Ronaldo told local media his father was in the process of applying for legal permanent residency and was well-aware of how to interact with law enforcement during stops. U.S. Representative Al Green has formally called for a full investigation into the Houston killing.

The unexpected passing of longtime U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham at age 71 has thrown Senate Republicans into a precarious position, amplifying existing strains on the party’s narrow one-seat majority that is already stretched thin by the extended absence of Senate veteran Mitch McConnell.

Preliminary results from a Washington D.C. medical examiner point to an aortic dissection as the immediate cause of Graham’s death, with a final official cause pending the completion of toxicology screenings. Graham, who was first elected to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate in 2002, leaves behind a political legacy defined by a sharp ideological shift: he began his Senate tenure as an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, once labeling Trump the “most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican Party,” but later evolved into one of Trump’s most unwavering Congressional allies.

With the Senate’s 53-47 Republican majority already down one voting member due to McConnell’s month-long absence, Graham’s death leaves the party without a critical vote for the foreseeable future. Eighty-four-year-old McConnell, the long-serving Republican leader, broke his public silence on Sunday to confirm he had been hospitalized after a fall that caused him to lose consciousness, followed by a mild case of pneumonia that extended his recovery period away from Capitol Hill.

South Carolina’s governor holds the authority to appoint a temporary replacement to fill Graham’s Senate seat until a permanent successor is elected in the November midterm election. As of Sunday, no name had been announced for the interim appointment, but prospective candidates for the open permanent seat are expected to formally declare their campaigns this week. Multiple Republican names have begun circulating among political circles as potential contenders, per reporting from the Associated Press, with U.S. Representative Ralph Norman emerging as an early popular pick.

Graham’s empty seat comes at a critical legislative juncture for the Republican caucus. Graham chaired the Senate Budget Committee, which is currently advancing key provisions of Trump’s voter ID legislation. A prominent foreign policy hawk with a long record of pushing for aggressive U.S. intervention overseas, Graham was also a leading supporter of expanded U.S. military action against Iran. His position will be missed as the Senate prepares to consider a new request for additional military funding for the ongoing conflict with Iran.

Just days before his death, Graham completed his tenth official trip to Ukraine, where he has long been a vocal backer of Kyiv in its conflict with Russia, and spoke to reporters alongside destroyed Russian military vehicles on public display in the capital. In May, he made headlines for introducing a bill that would grant Trump authority to impose new tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian oil and gas, and repeatedly made critical public remarks about China and its international relations. He spent much of his career opposing the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran reached under former President Barack Obama, and repeatedly called for preemptive military strikes against the Iranian government.

Trump issued a public tribute to Graham on social media Sunday, calling him “one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known.”

A former senior Wall Street executive has uncovered new documentary evidence that contradicts public statements from U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick regarding his long-concealed business relationships with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Britain’s disgraced Prince Andrew. Simon Andriesz, who previously served as a managing director at BGC Partners — a financial brokerage under Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald umbrella — shared his findings from the massive cache of publicly released Epstein court documents with members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee ahead of Lutnick’s May 2025 confirmation hearing appearance.

Andriesz, who has been locked in a years-long legal battle with his former employer after blowing the whistle on accounting misconduct at BGC in 2016, told the BBC he uncovered a 2018 email chain directly exchanged between Lutnick and Epstein about a joint startup investment both men held stakes in. After noticing that Cantor Fitzgerald executives routinely used initials instead of full names in internal communications, Andriesz searched the 3.5 million-page document trove for Lutnick’s initials HWL, rather than his full name — a search strategy that uncovered the correspondence missed by other researchers.

In the exchange, Epstein asked Lutnick directly for his perspective on growth prospects for Adfin, a digital advertising startup that counted both Epstein and Cantor Fitzgerald as investors. Lutnick replied that the firm was finally generating revenue and predicted it would become financially self-sufficient within the next 12 months. This directly contradicts Lutnick’s public and congressional testimony that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s investment in Adfin until 2025, and that he had only met Epstein once as neighbors in Manhattan 20 years prior.

The newly released Epstein files also contain a 2012 photograph showing Lutnick alongside Epstein on Little St James, Epstein’s private Caribbean island, years after the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. In a separate finding, Andriesz uncovered details of a 2013 business proposal from Cantor Fitzgerald to partner with then-Prince Andrew, who was a close associate of Epstein. The plan outlined a £1 million loan to a firm controlled by Prince Andrew in exchange for exclusive access to the prince’s high-level global business contacts, a deal Andriesz described in an interview as an attempt to “buy a prince.”

Epstein himself warned Prince Andrew’s business advisor against the exclusive terms of the deal, which required Prince Andrew to only introduce wealthy clients to Cantor Fitzgerald. Documents show advisors from both sides negotiated the proposal for four months before it was ultimately abandoned. Cantor Fitzgerald did not deny that discussions took place, but confirmed the deal was never finalized. Prince Andrew, who was stripped of his royal titles in 2025, has not responded to requests for comment on the proposal.

When Lutnick appeared before the House Oversight Committee in May, he repeated his claim that he had only learned of Epstein’s Adfin investment in 2025, stated he unequivocally condemns Epstein’s criminal actions, and noted he has never been formally accused of any wrongdoing tied to the sex offender. All 21 Democratic members of the committee signed a formal letter calling for Lutnick’s immediate resignation, accusing him of lying to Congress about his ties to Epstein.

In response to questions from the BBC, the U.S. Commerce Department dismissed the allegations as a partisan political distraction, arguing there is no evidence of wrongdoing on Lutnick’s part. The White House echoed this defense, calling the BBC’s reporting a “pathetic and desperate attempt to slander” Lutnick, who it described as the most consequential commerce secretary in modern U.S. history. BGC Partners has dismissed all of Andriesz’s allegations as “categorically false,” arguing multiple investigations across different jurisdictions have failed to substantiate his claims. The firm says it terminated Andriesz’s employment in 2017 for refusing to follow medical guidance, declining to perform core job duties, and abandoning his role, and denies any retaliation against him for whistleblowing.

Andriesz, who now lives in a quiet seaside village in Cornwall, UK, says his decade of legal conflict with Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC has destroyed his career, drained his finances, and damaged his health. Though he received a $420,000 whistleblower award from U.S. regulators after BGC was ordered to pay a $3 million penalty for supervision, reporting, and record-keeping violations stemming from his original 2016 allegations, he says neither U.S. nor UK authorities have held the firm or its leadership fully accountable, nor protected him from retaliation. He told the BBC he has been frustrated by the lack of public and official interest in his findings on Lutnick’s ties to Epstein.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, leaving behind a massive trove of personal and business documents that have been gradually released to the public over the past year. Lutnick, a prominent Wall Street executive, was appointed to lead the Commerce Department by President Donald Trump in 2025, after which he sold his controlling stake in Cantor Fitzgerald and transferred leadership of the firm to his sons.

A former long-serving Canadian Member of Parliament and small-town mayor is facing a dozen criminal charges after Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigators seized nearly 450 firearms, an antique cannon, and more than C$300,000 in cash from his rural Manitoba property.

The 78-year-old Inky Mark, who represented the Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa region at both municipal and federal levels for more than 15 years, was taken into custody on July 7 during a search warrant execution as part of an ongoing cross-border firearms trafficking probe. Authorities confirmed Tuesday that investigators recovered 439 firearms from Mark’s home near Dauphin, with at least three confirmed to be tied to illegal trafficking. One weapon was also found to have its serial number intentionally altered, a key red flag for illegal gun circulation.

Mark faces multiple charges including formal firearms trafficking, possession of unauthorized firearms-related devices, and unsafe storage of weapons. RCMP officials have emphasized that the illicit activities uncovered in the raid pose a direct threat to public safety across the region.

The investigation traces back to March of this year, when RCMP received notice of pending firearms charges filed in the United States against a separate man from the Dauphin area. Follow-up inquiries connected that case to Mark, leading investigators to the cache of weapons that police say were never processed through legal transfer channels. Alongside the hundreds of guns, officers also found an antique cannon and the C$300,000 in cash (equivalent to roughly £158,000).

While Mark has a documented history as a firearms collector, investigators have not yet confirmed a clear motive for the alleged trafficking activity. Manitoba RCMP Corporal Barry Kirby told reporters Monday: “We know he’s a firearm collector, but that’s really all that we know at this stage.”

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Scott McMurchy, commanding officer for the Manitoba division, released a formal statement on the case stressing the severity of the charges. “The illegal trafficking of prohibited weapons is a serious offence that threatens public safety,” McMurchy said. “We thank the many RCMP officers who are working on this case for their tireless efforts in targeting individuals who are trafficking these dangerous and illegal weapons and bringing them to justice.”

Officials noted that processing and cataloging the hundreds of seized items will take investigators several additional weeks, as they work to sort legally held property from illegally possessed firearms and confirm the full scope of the alleged trafficking network.

Following his initial court appearance last week, Mark was released from custody on a series of undiclosed conditions. A veteran of Canadian federal politics, Mark was first elected mayor of Dauphin in 1994, holding that municipal seat until he lost re-election in 2010. He moved to federal politics in 1997, representing his rural Manitoba constituency until stepping down from the House of Commons in 2010. Over his political career, he was a member of the Reform Party of Canada, the Canadian Alliance, and the Conservative Party of Canada, before running unsuccessfully for re-election as an independent candidate in 2015.

The arrest comes amid an ongoing national debate over gun policy in Canada. While Manitoba is bound by Canada’s strict federal gun control regulations, the provincial government has openly pushed back against additional federal firearms restrictions, and recreational shooting has long held deep cultural roots in rural regions of the province.

In a unique public event staged on the grounds just outside the White House, former President Donald Trump stood in as an on-site observer for a demonstration IndyCar pit stop, a showcase that served as an advance preview for an upcoming race. This preview event traced its origin back to an executive order Trump signed back in January, which authorized the organization and promotion of the open-wheel racing competition. The outdoor demonstration brought elements of professional motorsports directly to the nation’s most prominent political address, drawing on-site attention from reporters and attendees gathered for the unusual cross between presidential politics and professional auto racing. Pit stops are a critical make-or-break component of IndyCar competition, where teams work at high speed to change tires, refuel vehicles, and make adjustments to cut down on time lost in the pits, so staging the demonstration outside the White House offered a one-of-a-kind look at the sport for political and public audiences.