Key events23m agoTrump refiles $10bn defamation suit against WSJ over report on Epstein tiesShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureGuatemala has agreed to conduct joint strikes with the United States against drug traffickers in its territory, the New York Times reported.The move marks an escalation of US president Donald Trump’s crackdown on drug cartels operating out of Latin America.Guatemalan president Bernardo Arevalo agreed to the strikes with US defense secretary Pete Hegseth in a call last week, the Times reported, quoting two people familiar with the talks.The Central American nation has formally requested “cooperation in operations led by Guatemalan security forces against drug trafficking organizations” in a letter to Hegseth, Arevalo’s office told The Times.The two officials told the newspaper that the United States and Guatemala had also agreed to “other military action” to target drugs gangs, without giving further details.Trump refiles $10bn defamation suit against WSJ over report on Epstein tiesHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.Donald Trump has refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10bn in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after a judge threw out an earlier version over legal deficiencies.The lawsuit is one of several that the president has brought in his personal capacity against news organizations, part of what critics say is a wider pressure campaign against the media.The lawsuit claims that the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper tarnished his reputation with an article describing a birthday card to deceased sex offender Epstein as bearing Trump’s signature.Trump and his lawyers said the card is fake, even after it was released by lawmakers investigating Epstein’s case, Reuters reported. The president is seeking at least $10bn in damages, according to the amended lawsuit - the same amount he had previously sought.“At the time of publication, Defendants recklessly disregarded whether the Defamatory Statements were true and/or they purposefully avoided the discovery of the truth,” lawyers for Trump wrote in the amended complaint.It comes as the Trump administration opened a criminal investigation into E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused the president of sexual assault, according to news reports.Prosecutors, the New York Times and CNN reported on Wednesday, are looking into whether Carroll, 82, committed perjury in a 2022 deposition during her civil lawsuits against Trump, in which she said she did not accept outside financial support for her legal battles.In other developments: