Donald Trump has threatened to close the US-Mexico border next week, if America's southern neighbour did not "immediately" stop illegal immigration.
On Twitter, the US President wrote, " If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING … the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week."
He said it was very easy for Mexico to "stop people from coming up, but they don't choose to do it".
Mexico, however, refused to be drawn into a confrontation on the issue. In a Tweet, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico was a "great neighbour" to the US and would "not act on the basis of threats".
The closure would cost billions of dollars in trade and disrupt border crossings.
Israel's military is poised to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and assault Hamas hold-outs in the southern Gaza Strip city, a senior Israeli defence official said, despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Marine wildlife experts were frantically trying to rescue some 140 pilot whales stranded on Thursday in the shallow waters of an estuary in the southwest of the state of Western Australia.
A grand jury has charged 18 people with allegedly participating in an Arizona fake elector scheme to re-elect then-US President Donald Trump in 2020, the state's attorney general said on Wednesday.
India is inspecting facilities of spice makers MDH and Everest for compliance with quality standards after sales of some of their products were halted in Hong Kong and Singapore for allegedly containing high levels of a cancer-causing pesticide.