Venezuela’s former regional allies, Brazil and Argentina, have reacted with dismay to President Nicholás Maduro’s plans to rewrite the constitution, as protesters in Caracas once again barricaded streets and clashed with riot police.

Argentina’s foreign minister, Susanna Malcorra, said on Tuesday that the move “poured petrol on the fire” of unrest, which has claimed 29 lives over the past month, including victims on both sides of the political divide as well as bystanders.

Maduro – who is struggling to overcome low approval ratings, bloody demonstrations, a deteriorating economy, runaway crime and riots over food shortages – announced on Monday night a constituent assembly that will revise the nation’s democratic system. “It seems that he is doubling down, and not realizing that those who die in the street – whatever colour they wear – are Venezuelans,” said Malcorra.(guardian)…[+]

India’s security forces have suffered a double blow in Kashmir, with five police officers shot dead in a bank raid and two soldiers killed in an attack on the border with Pakistan. Early on Monday, the Indian army accused Pakistan of killing two of its soldiers and mutilating their bodies in an “unprovoked” rocket and mortar attack in the disputed border region.

The army said Pakistani troops attacked a patrol operating between two border posts on the de facto frontier known as the line of control in the remote Himalayan region.

“In an unsoldierly act by the Pak army the bodies of two of our soldiers in the patrol were mutilated,” it said, warning of an “appropriate response”. The Pakistani army denied responsibility for the cross-border attack, and said the mutilation claims were false. “Pakistan army is a highly professional force and shall never disrespect a soldier, even Indian,” it said.(guardian)…[+]

The far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been accused of plagiarism after a speech to her supporters used phrases lifted from the conservative candidate François Fillon.

The original speech, delivered by Fillon shortly before he was knocked out in the first round of the contest, was on the subject of France’s role in Europe and the world. Le Pen’s, made at a Front National May Day rally, was on France’s roots in western Europe. The accusations came as supporters of her rival Emmanuel Macron warned that a high abstention rate could hurt his chances of victory in the second round vote on Sunday.

Florian Philippot, the deputy leader of Le Pen’s party, said it “completely owned up” to the fact that the speech resembled one made by Fillon on 15 April. He told Radio Classique that Le Pen’s speech it was a “nod-and-a-wink” to Fillon’s earlier discourse in order to “launch a real debate” concerning French identity.(guardian)…[+]

An FBI translator travelled to Syria to marry a former German rapper turned Islamic State recruiter she was supposed to be investigating, it has been revealed.

Daniela Greene, who warned her jihadi bridegroom he was under investigation, quickly began having second thoughts and returned to the US shortly afterwards. She pleaded guilty to making false statements involving international terrorism and was sentenced to two years in prison. She was released in August last year. Details of the extraordinary case have only just emerged after a CNN investigation.

Greene, who is fluent in German, was assigned to investigate German citizen Denis Cuspert in January 2014. As gangster rapper Deso Dogg, Cuspert once opened a concert for the American music star DMX. But he traded rap tracks for videos encouraging people to fight for Isis, becoming one of the organisation’s most influential recruiters.(guardian)…[+]

Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos has filed a $100m lawsuit against Fyre festival organizers Ja Rule and Billy McFarland.

Geragos is working on behalf of plaintiff Daniel Jung and is expecting more than 150 others to join him for a class action suit, seeking damages for alleged fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and negligent misrepresentation. His previous clients have included Michael Jackson and Kesha.

The suit claims the “festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees – suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions – that was closer to The Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies than Coachella”.

The much-hyped festival, set to feature acts including Disclosure, Migos and Major Lazer, kicked off last week disastrously with the site unprepared for visitors and amenities failing to live up to the glamour promised by the star-studded promotional campaign.(guardian)…[+]

Donald Trump has revived US relations with two of Asia’s most authoritarian heads of state – the leader of Thailand’s junta and the president of the Philippines – by inviting them to the White House. In separate phonecalls over the weekend, Trump spoke with Thailand’s prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former general who took power in a 2014 coup, and the Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, who is accused of mass murder. The calls aimed to rally regional allies as Washington takes an increasingly hard line towards North Korea’s nuclear programme. The country ran another failed missile test on Friday.(guardian)…[+]

Pedro Canché, an indigenous journalist and activist in the southern Mexico state of Quintana Roo, had a hunch the local authorities were closing in on him for his coverage of angry protests over rising water rates in local Mayan communities.

So he filmed a video criticizing the intensely image-conscious state governor, Roberto Borge, and uploaded it to YouTube in August 2014. Just a few days later, police pulled Canché from his car and threw him in prison on charges that he had sabotaged a local waterworks. The charges were eventually thrown out after nine months as a judge ruled no damage had been caused, and Canché had no relationship with the protest ringleaders.

The National Human Rights Commission later ordered the state government to publicly apologize to Canché and pay compensation, but Borge refused. This week, a new state administration apologized to Canché – who took the opportunity to highlight Mexico’s ongoing crisis of press freedom, and the unpunished murders of scores of journalists. “Who will ask for public apologies for the 104 journalists killed [since 2006]? Canché asked. “The Mexican state owes them and their family an enormous debt.”(guardian)…[+]

At the university of Paris Nanterre, on the outskirts of the French capital, Antoine Guerreiro of the union of communist students was handing out leaflets urging students to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the final round of the presidential election next Sunday.

Or, to be strictly accurate, to vote against the Front National’s Marine Le Pen. Guerreiro can find very little – if anything – to support in Macron’s programme, but needs must. The alternative is worse. “On Sunday night, we were all shaken, but now we must carry on without denying our ideals; and one of our strongest ideals is to oppose the far right in all circumstances,” Geurreiro, 19, said. “It’s clear.”(guardian)…[+]

On his 100th day in office, facing a historically low popularity rating, a succession of intractable foreign crises and multiple investigations of his links with Moscow, Donald Trump reminded the nation that 1 May was Loyalty Day.

The day is an American tradition dating back to the Cold War, when it was a bolster to stop May Day becoming a rallying point for socialists and unionised workers. But for an embattled president learning on the job, it has an added resonance.

Making his remarks in an interview with Fox News timing with the 100-day mark, Trump also declared himself “disappointed” with congressional Republicans – despite his many “great relationships” with them. Regarding his lack of signature legislative achievement, he blamed the constitutional checks and balances built in to US governance. “It’s a very rough system,” he said. “It’s an archaic system … It’s really a bad thing for the country.”(guardian)…[+]

A 27-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempting to carrying out a terror attack in Westminster has been named as Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali.

He is understood to be a British national from Tottenham, north London, who was born overseas.

The attack was foiled on Thursday afternoon after armed police swooped on the man, who was allegedly armed with two knives, near the Houses of Parliament.

Officers were lying in wait for the suspect, whose movements were being tracked by a joint police and MI5 operation as he travelled into central London. They arrested him close to Westminster underground station.

The scene where the man was arrested is metres away from where Khalid Masood launched his attacks on Westminster Bridge and the parliamentary estate five weeks ago, leaving five people dead, including himself. Masood used a vehicle to mow down pedestrians before stabbing a police officer to death with a knife.(guardian)…[+]