Mexico | Pakistan

A supermarket explosion killed at least 23 people in northern Mexico on Saturday, according to local officials, with investigators saying the blast was an accident possibly caused by a faulty electric transformer. “Sadly, a number of the victims we’ve found were minors,” Alfonso Durazo, governor of Sonora state, said in a video message as he announced the toll of 23 dead and another 11 injured. Durazo said the survivors were being treated at hospitals in the city of Hermosillo, where the explosion took place. “I have ordered an extensive and transparent investigation to determine the causes of the incident and figure out those responsible,” he said. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that “the working assumption is that the incident was accidental, and the investigation is looking into a transformer located inside the store“. “Once the firefighters allow access into the building … it will be possible to precisely determine the cause of the incident,” it added. The explosion happened at a Waldo’s stor...

Torrential rains that lashed Mexico last week killed at least 64 people and 65 more are missing, the government said on Monday, after a tropical depression triggered landslides and flooding in parts of the Gulf Coast and central states. The unnamed depression came toward the end of the rainy season, battering land and bursting rivers that had already been soaked by months of rains, while forecasters were focused on tropical storms and two hurricanes on the Pacific coast. “This intense rain was not expected to be of such magnitude,” President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters. Admiral Raymundo Morales, Mexico’s Navy secretary, said the flooding was the result of the coming together of warm and cold air fronts over rivers that were already filled to the brink and mountains weakened by months of rain. Around 100,000 homes were affected, Sheinbaum said. She is set to meet with the finance ministry later in the day to discuss rebuilding efforts, and visit some hard-hit states. Laura Velazquez, national coordinator ...

United States President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed a 30 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union beginning on August 1 after weeks of negotiations with the key trading allies failed to reach a more comprehensive trade deal. The fresh tariffs were announced in separate letters posted on Truth Social on Saturday. Earlier this week, Trump issued new tariff announcements for a number of countries, including Japan, South Korea, Canada and Brazil, as well as a 50pc tariff on copper. The EU had hoped to reach a comprehensive trade agreement with the US for the 27-country bloc. It had been bracing for the letter from Trump outlining his planned duties on the United States’ largest trade and investment partner after a broadening of his tariff war in recent days. The EU initially hoped to strike a comprehensive trade agreement, including zero-for-zero tariffs on industrial goods, but months of difficult talks have led to the realisation that it will probably have to settle for an interim agre...

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Saturday that she had rejected an offer from United States President Donald Trump to send American troops to Mexico to help combat drug trafficking. “I told him, ‘No, President Trump, our territory is inviolable, our sovereignty is inviolable, our sovereignty is not for sale,’” she said at a public event, referring to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal that described a tense exchange between the leaders. During the recent call, Sheinbaum said, Trump had asked how he could help fight organised crime and suggested sending troops. She said she declined, telling him that “we will never accept the presence of the United States Army in our territory”. Sheinbaum said she offered to collaborate, including through greater information-sharing. Trump himself said in an interview last week with conservative outlet The Blaze that he had offered to help Mexico fight the drug cartels, but that he had been turned down. Without providing details, Trump told his interviewer: ...