
Soldiers patrol streets in Ecuador as government and cartels declare war on each other
CBSN
Hundreds of soldiers patrolled near-deserted streets in Ecuador's capital Wednesday after the government and drug mafias declared war on each other, leaving residents gripped with fear.
The small South American country has been plunged into crisis after years of growing control by transnational cartels who use its ports to ship cocaine to the U.S. and Europe.
President Daniel Noboa, 36, gave orders on Tuesday to "neutralize" criminal gangs after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces. Less than two months after taking office, he declared the country in a state of "internal armed conflict."

Unprecedented footage of an elusive deep-sea creature came to light this week. On an expedition through the Southern Ocean last Christmas Day, researchers discovered the Gonatus antarcticus, a mysterious species of squid known to roam the freezing waters around Antarctica but never seen alive before in its natural habitat.

London — President Trump declared on Wednesday morning that a U.S. trade "deal with China is done." The American leader offered a few key details of the agreement reached between senior U.S. and Chinese trade representatives in London on Tuesday, but he acknowledged that both he and Chinese President Xi Jinping were both yet to formally sign off on the agreement.

Jerusalem — Israel deported activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, the country's Foreign Ministry said, a day after the Gaza-bound ship she was on with 11 other people was seized by the Israeli military. Thunberg left on a flight to France and was then headed to her home country of Sweden, the Foreign Ministry said in a post on X. It posted a photo of Thunberg, a climate activist who shuns air travel, seated on a plane.