AFP

Mexico on Friday captured a notorious drug kingpin on the FBI’s list of 10 most-wanted fugitives for the murder of a US undercover agent that strained the countries’ diplomatic relations.

Rafael Caro Quintero, 69, is accused by the United States of ordering the kidnap, torture and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.

He was detained by Mexican marines in the town of Choix in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, for “the purpose of extradition,” the navy said in a statement.

Caro Quintero had already been arrested in 1985, tried in Mexico and sentenced to 40 years in prison for Camarena’s murder.

But in 2013, a Mexican court ordered his release on a legal technicality after he served 28 years, a move that angered US authorities.

By the time Mexico’s Supreme Court overturned the decision, Caro Quintero had already gone into hiding.

The case plunged US-Mexican relations into a crisis, and it took decades for anti-drug agencies on both sides of the border to rebuild trust.

Caro Quintero, alias “Rafa,” has a $20 million bounty on his head and is described by the FBI as “extremely dangerous.”

He is accused of co-founding the now-defunct Guadalajara drug cartel and currently runs an arm of the infamous Sinaloa cartel, according to US authorities.

The US Department of Justice expressed gratitude Friday to Mexican authorities over Caro Quintero’s arrest, confirming the US plans to seek his extradition.

“There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. 

– Denial of guilt –

In 2016, in an interview published by news magazine Proceso, Caro Quintero denied killing Camarena, whose story was depicted in the Netflix show “Narcos: Mexico.”

“I did not kidnap, did not torture and did not kill him,” Caro Quintero said, adding that he wanted to “live in peace” and work as a cattle rancher.

“I apologize to the society of Mexico for the mistakes I made, to the Camarena family, the DEA, the US government. I apologize,” he added.

Camarena’s murder was considered a vendetta for investigations by the DEA agent that led to the seizure of a massive marijuana field in Chihuahua.

Last year a Mexican court ruled that Caro Quintero could be extradited to the United States if caught, rejecting an appeal from his lawyers who argued that he had already been tried in his home country.

The Guadalajara drug cartel, powerful in the 1980s, is considered the forefather of modern Mexican drug cartels.

It was one of the first to establish contacts with Colombian drug lords to transport cocaine from the South American country to the United States.

The cartel’s other founders, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo and Ernesto Fonseca Carillo, were also handed long prison sentences in Mexico for Camarena’s murder.

The organization’s disappearance led to the rise of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

In 2017, Mexico extradited Guzman to the United States where he is serving a life sentence.

A wave of cartel-related violence has left more than 340,000 people dead in Mexico since the government deployed the military in the war on drugs in 2006.

Anxious employees, wary advertisers and hamstrung management: Twitter is limping along as it waits to learn how the fight over Elon Musk’s buyout bid will end.

Just days before the first court hearing in Twitter’s lawsuit seeking to force the Tesla boss to close the $44 billion deal, the firm is stuck in limbo.

“The best conclusion for me would be that he leaves us alone, so that we can go on our merry way,” an engineer at the key social media network told AFP on condition of anonymity. 

The engineer spoke of employees departing and a “climate of uncertainty that does not leave one with a peaceful state of mind.” 

“We’re still trying to do our work normally, because the main reasons why we chose to work for Twitter still hold true,” he added.

But there’s been nothing normal about Musk’s unsolicited bid that he’s now backed away from, saying Twitter has obfuscated on the number of fake accounts on the platform.

He has harangued the network, on its own platform no less, with mocking tweets about its management and direction.

“Musk’s repeated disparagement of Twitter and its personnel, create uncertainty… that harm Twitter and its stockholders,” the firm’s lawyers argued in their lawsuit lodged this week.

The billionaire’s comments “also expose Twitter to adverse effects on its business operations, employees, and stock price,” the lawyers added.

A judge has set the first hearing in the case for Tuesday in a court in the eastern state of Delaware.

– Sluggish ad sales – 

“Twitter is facing a huge image crisis, and confidence in its leadership is wavering,” eMarketer analyst Debra Williamson told AFP. “But whether the Musk situation has affected its revenues is unclear.”

She said the most loyal advertisers have likely stuck around, but those less committed to Twitter may have scaled back their spending while waiting for the endgame.

Angelo Carusone, president of watchdog group Media Matters, thinks the damage is already done because Musk has been a frequent critic of content moderation.

The fight against hate and disinformation is widely defended internally, but also by many advertisers, concerned that their brands are not associated with toxic messages. 

Carusone said that in early May, at an annual marketing event where companies negotiate large advertising deals, Twitter was “not able to give advertisers any clarity or confidence” that it would continue to be safe showcase for them.

“They didn’t go anywhere close to what they normally sell at that event. And it’s obviously been sluggish since then,” he added. 

The San Francisco-based social network cannot afford to lose customers. 

Unlike big fish such as Google and Facebook parent Meta, which dominate online advertising and make billions in profits, Twitter lost hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020 and 2021.

The group will capture less than one percent of global ad revenue in 2022, according to eMarketer, compared to 12.5 percent for Facebook, 9 percent for Instagram and nearly two percent for booming upstart TikTok. 

On top of that, Twitter’s user base is barely expected to grow and may even shrink in the United States, noted Williamson, the eMarketer analyst.

– ‘Twitter can’t meaningfully respond’ – 

Musk once had potential Twitter investors salivating with his talk of growing revenue fivefold and aiming for a billion users by 2028.

Instead, a court battle is building to “end either with Twitter being owned by an unhappy investor who decided he didn’t want it after all, or with Twitter on its own and weaker than it was before this all started,” Williamson added.

The battle is set to last for months, and at a time when economic headwinds are steady and firms need to be nimble to monetize new audio and video formats, diversify revenue sources and attract younger audiences.

“At least Facebook can respond to current threats, even if they’re responding poorly, they can respond,” said Carusone, the Media Matters president.

“What Twitter cannot do right now is meaningfully respond to anything.”

The social network’s lawyers have blamed Musk for withholding consent for two employee retention programs “designed to keep selected top talent during a period of intense uncertainty generated in large part by Musk’s erratic conduct.” 

Internally, some employees have also lost confidence in management, which they would have liked to be more combative in dealing with the world’s richest person. 

Parker Lyons, a financial analyst at Twitter, went so far as to tweet several memes that took aim at the firm’s board for its deal with Musk.

In one, the board is shown firing bullets into Twitter above the sarcastic caption: “Who could have done this?”

Ivana Trump, the first wife of the former US president, died of “blunt impact injuries” to the torso in an accident, New York’s chief medical examiner said on Friday. 

The statement did not specify the circumstances, but US media reported that police had been investigating whether the 73-year-old died falling down the stairs at her Manhattan home.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department told AFP in an emailed statement Thursday that officers responded to a call at Ivana Trump’s address on the Upper East Side, and found her “unconscious and unresponsive.”

She was pronounced dead at the scene, and the statement added that “there does not appear to be any criminality.”

Donald Trump announced her death on Thursday, calling her a “wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.”

He said her “pride and joy” were the couple’s three children, Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump.

Ivana Trump, a model who grew up under communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia, married Donald Trump, then a budding real estate developer, in 1977.

Their first child, Donald Jr., was born later that year. Ivanka was born in 1981 and Eric followed in 1984.

Throughout the ’80s, the Trumps were one of New York’s highest-profile couples, their extravagant lifestyle exemplifying the flashy excesses of the decade.

Their power and celebrity grew as Donald Trump’s property business soared, with Ivana Trump taking on number of key roles in the business.

Their high-profile split, rumored to have been caused in part by Donald Trump’s affair with actress Marla Maples, provided juicy content for New York’s tabloids.

Donald Trump and Ivana Trump divorced in the early ’90s and in 1993 the future president married Maples.

Ivana Trump went on to enjoy a successful business career of her own, developing clothing, jewelry and beauty products and penning a number of books.

She was married four times in her life, once before her marriage to Donald Trump and twice after.

On Friday, a US justice official said depositions of Donald Trump, Donald Jr and Ivanka in New York’s civil probe into alleged fraud at his family business had been postponed following her death.

Tesla chief Elon Musk asked a Delaware court Friday to reject a bid by Twitter to put their $44 billion merger lawsuit on trial in September, instead asking to push it back until next year.

In a court document cited by US media, Musk’s lawyers accuse Twitter’s board of directors of wanting to expedite the case. 

Twitter on Tuesday sued Musk for breaching the contract he signed to buy the tech firm, calling his exit strategy “a model of hypocrisy.”

The suit filed in the US state of Delaware urges the court to order the billionaire to complete his deal to buy Twitter, arguing that no financial penalty could repair the damage he has caused.

The social media giant wants to hold the trial in September so as not to prolong the period of uncertainty currently threatening the company. 

But Musk asked that the trial not start before February 13, citing the complexities involved.

Musk’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request by AFP for comment. 

The billionaire had agreed to buy Twitter at the end of April.

But after weeks of threats, Musk last week tried to pull the plug on the deal, accusing Twitter of “misleading” statements about the number of fake accounts.

That set the stage for a potentially lengthy court battle with Twitter, which has defended its fake account oversight and vowed to force Musk to complete the deal, which contained a $1 billion breakup fee.

The social network says the number of fake accounts is less than five percent, a figure challenged by Musk, who says he believes the percentage is much higher.

His lawyers say proving that will require analyzing mountains of data.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in a business law court in Delaware.

Lizzo’s summer turned up a notch Friday, with the poster child of self-love dropping her long-awaited album “Special” fresh off an Emmy nomination and ahead of a forthcoming tour.

The 12-track record brings back the soulful pop-rap blends that made the effervescent performer a household name with her messages of body positivity, feminist empowerment and sexual freedom.

The hitmaker, whose 2017 song “Truth Hurts” became a viral sleeper smash and boosted her to global fame two years later, promoted the release of her fourth album with a “Today” show performance in Manhattan outside of NBC’s studios.

“I’m so proud of this album,” she told the show Friday. “It was three years in the making. It’s literally a classic, no-skips album. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Lizzo’s week had already kicked off to a banner start after she scored an Emmy Awards nomination for her show “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” a reality show where she searches for her tour’s back-up dancers.

“We didn’t do this for awards, we did this for ourselves. For the lives we touched making this… To shake up the industry.. and show the world how BEAUTIFUL AND TALENTED WE AREEEEE!” she posted on Instagram after learning of the nomination.

“BIG GRRRLS ARE BOOKED, BLESSED AND BUSY.”

The 34-year-old artist born Melissa Viviane Jefferson debuted in 2013 but did not achieve mainstream success until the release of her third album “Cuz I Love You,” which found runaway success and earned the Detroit-born, Houston-raised performer eight Grammy nominations with three wins.

She’s set to kick off a North American tour in September, with stops including New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Kia Forum.

“It takes 10 years to become an overnight success,” she told Today. 

“I needed to discover my self-love,” she continued, elated fans cheering her along. “The music that’s connecting to people is about my self-love.”