James’ wife and stepdaughter were also killed when the Cirrus SR22T crashed in Franklin, North Carolina

Brett James, a Grammy-winning songwriter whose credits include the Carrie Underwood hit Jesus, Take the Wheel, died alongside his wife and stepdaughter in a plane crash on Thursday, according to authorities and reports.

James, 57, had been flying with his wife and stepdaughter when the plane, a Cirrus SR22T, crashed “under unknown circumstances” in a wooded area of Franklin, North Carolina, said officials and media reports. The plane had taken off from John C Tune airport in Nashville, Tennessee, as reported by the Associated Press.

At least two protesters arrested as Democratic congressional candidate condemns ‘violent abuse of power’

• New York lawmakers arrested for blocking Ice access to federal building

Federal law enforcement agents used teargas and pepper balls to disperse a group of about 100 protesters, including two Democratic candidates for Congress, during a series of early morning clashes outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) building in Chicago on Friday.

Demonstrators had attempted to block a number of government SUVs from entering and exiting the facility, which has become an operating hub and detention location during an immigration crackdown in the Democratic city dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz”.

Erik Siebert leaving after his investigation finds insufficient evidence to charge New York’a attorney general Letitia James with a crime

The federal prosecutor for the eastern district of Virginia resigned Friday under intense pressure from Donald Trump, after his office determined there wasn’t sufficient evidence to charge New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, a political rival of the president, with a crime.

Erik Siebert told colleagues he was resigning in a letter sent Friday, NBC News reported. Hours earlier, Trump bluntly told reporters in the Oval Office: “I want him out.” The president claimed he soured on Siebert because Virginia’s two Democratic senators had endorsed his nomination, but also claimed that James “is very guilty of something”. ABC News

Texas senator says Brendan Carr’s threats to revoke licenses amid Jimmy Kimmel suspension ‘right out of Goodfellas’

Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, compared Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr’s threats to revoke the broadcast licenses of ABC stations over late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s commentary to “mafioso” tactics similar to those in Goodfellas, the 1990 mobster movie.

“Look, Jimmy Kimmel has been canned. He has been suspended indefinitely. I think that it a fantastic thing,” Cruz said at the start of the latest episode of his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz. There were, however “first amendment implications” of the FCC’s role, the senator, a Harvard Law School graduate who clerked for US supreme court chief justice William Rehnquist, added.

Public spat over membership portal is a huge turn-off for those sympathetic to ideals of nascent party

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, the pair spearheading a new leftwing party, have fallen out publicly over a membership portal the former Labour leader said had been set up without approval.

From being unsurprised to hopeful for the party’s future, six people share their views on the split and what they think will happen next.

Former Scottish Tory leader alleges Hepburn grabbed him amid row over SNP’s apparent failure to tackle gull attacks

A Scottish minister has resigned after a row over aggressive gulls spilled over into an angry altercation with the former Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.

Jamie Hepburn, the Scottish government’s minister for parliamentary business, tendered his resignation after Ross accused him of assault outside the parliament chamber on Wednesday.

Body found in field hours after search near Wisborough Green as police rule out foul play

A man has died after falling from a hot air balloon in West Sussex.

Emergency services carried out an extensive search for the man involving police drones and dogs after receiving reports of the incident near Newpound Common, in Wisborough Green, shortly after 9am on Friday.

Stuart Latham admitted 49 offences in one of UK’s biggest online child sexual abuse cases

An “abhorrent” Snapchat predator has been jailed for 14 years for raping a 12-year-old girl and exploiting dozens of others in one of the UK’s biggest online child sexual abuse investigations.

Stuart Latham, 22, is believed to have solicited explicit images from hundreds of girls, most aged between 11 and 13, on social media over the space of a year.

At least 17 dead as torrential downpours trigger landslides, while heavy rain lashes India, Pakistan and Australia

At least 17 people have been confirmed dead in Bali, Indonesia, after the island’s worst flooding in more than a decade.

Torrential rain last Tuesday and Wednesday triggered widespread flooding and landslides, leaving a trail of destruction. Eight victims were found in Denpasar, the island’s capital, and rescue teams continue to search for several others who remain missing.

Report from independent conflict tracker Acled indicates one of the highest civilian death rates since start of war

About 15 of every 16 Palestinians the Israeli military has killed since its renewed offensive in Gaza began in March have been civilians, data collected by the independent violence-tracking organisation Acled indicates.

The civilian death rate implied by a report from Acled, which stands for Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, is one of the highest recorded during the conflict, and will increase international pressure on Israel as its forces advance into Gaza City, forcing up to a million people to evacuate and threatening further large-scale civilian casualties.

Calls for sanctions on Israel and ban on trade that aids international law violations among snubbed motions

Labour has ruled out motions about Palestine being debated at its party conference later this month, triggering accusations that it is trying to stifle debate.

The conference arrangement committee, made up of Labour elected reps and officials, has ruled about 30 motions about Palestine from local parties out of order.

Rising wages and costs of having to dig deeper for minerals – not royalty payments – are behind job cuts in a sector that appears to be in decline

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s big miners are not averse to a political fight.

Consider the biggest miner of them all: BHP.

Jonathan Barrett is business editor of Guardian Australia

Trump’s statement suggests preliminary agreement between leaders in the first direct contact between them since June

Donald Trump said on Friday that he and Xi Jinping had agreed to approve a deal over TikTok.

“He approved the TikTok deal,” Trump said about Xi to reporters in the Oval Office, suggesting the leaders signed off on a preliminary agreement. But Trump offered no details about the agreement or when it would be signed.

Qingzhou Wang of Amarvel Biotech accused by prosecutors of turning chemical company into ‘pipeline of poison’

A Chinese company executive has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for trafficking in chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl, the US justice department has said.

Qingzhou Wang, 37, principal executive of Amarvel Biotech, a company based in Wuhan, and Yiyi Chen, 33, the firm’s marketing manager, were convicted in New York in February of fentanyl precusor importation and money laundering.

Trump had refused to grant visas for Palestinian delegation due to attend conference and UN general assembly

The United Nations general assembly has voted to allow the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to address next week’s annual gathering of world leaders next week in New York via video link after Donald Trump said he would not give him a US visa.

The resolution received 145 votes in favour and five votes against, while six countries abstained.

Justice department urges court to overturn ruling that Kristi Noem lacked authority to end TPS program

The Trump administration asked the US supreme court on Friday to intervene for the second time in a case involving its bid to end deportation protections the former president, Joe Biden, granted to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the United States.

The justice department filed an emergency application asking the justices to lift a federal judge’s ruling that the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, lacked the authority to end the protections for Venezuelans under the temporary protected status, or TPS, program.