Category: NEWS
NATO formally invites Sweden, Finland to join the alliance
NATO has invited Sweden and Finland to become members of the military alliance, a commununique published by the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday said. …read more
Woman fatally struck by train after falling onto NYC subway tracks
A 20-year-old woman was fatally struck by a Manhattan subway train after accidentally falling onto the tracks on Tuesday night, police said. …read more
https://nypost.com/2022/06/29/woman-fatally-struck-by-nyc-train-after-falling-onto-subway-tracks/
Rappler, Nobel Laureate’s news site, ordered to shut down in the Philippines
A Philippine news site co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has been ordered to shut down, the company said Wednesday, a day before President Rodrigo Duterte leaves office. …read more
Death toll in abandoned trailer in San Antonio rises to 51
SAN ANTONIO — Desperate families of migrants from Mexico and Central America frantically sought word of their loved ones as authorities began the grim task Tuesday of identifying 51 people who died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning in the sweltering Texas heat.
It was the worst tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico.
The driver of the truck and two other people were arrested, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas told The Associated Press.
He said the truck had passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint northeast of Laredo, Texas, on Interstate 35. He didn’t know if migrants were inside the truck when it cleared the checkpoint.
The bodies were discovered Monday afternoon on the outskirts of San Antonio when a city worker heard a cry for help from the truck parked on a lonely back road and found the gruesome scene inside, Police Chief William McManus said. Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground.
More than a dozen people — their bodies hot to the touch — were taken to hospitals, including four children.
Forty-six people were found dead at the scene, authorities said. Five more later died after being taken to hospitals, said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the county’s top elected official. Most of the dead were males, he said.
The death count was the highest ever from a smuggling incident in the United States, according to Craig Larrabee, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio.
“This is a horror that surpasses anything we’ve experienced before,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “And it’s sadly a preventable tragedy.”
President Joe Biden called the deaths “horrifying and heartbreaking.”
“Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy, and my administration will continue to do everything possible to stop human smugglers and traffickers from taking advantage of people who are seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry,” Biden said in a statement.
The home countries of all of the migrants and how long they were abandoned on the side of the road were not immediately known.
At least 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, head of the North America department in Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department, said on Twitter. Families were reaching out to the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio throughout the morning looking for their loved ones, an employee there said.
Attempts to cross the U.S. border from Mexico have claimed thousands of lives in both countries in recent decades.
U.S. border authorities are stopping migrants more often on the southern border than at any time in at least two decades. Migrants were stopped nearly 240,000 times in May, up by one-third from a year ago.
Comparisons to pre-pandemic levels are complicated because migrants expelled under a public health authority known as Title 42 face no legal consequences, encouraging repeat attempts. Authorities say 25% of encounters in May were with people who had been stopped …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/28/death-toll-trailer-san-antonio-00042953
Trans skateboarder who won first prize against teen is a combat vet, dad who was rejected from the Olympics
Trans skateboarder Ricci And Tres, who recently beat a 13 year-old girl at a LA competition, talked about having children, an ex-wife, and military service in a previous interview. …read more
Djokovic breezes into third round after scintillating Wimbledon performance
Novak Djokovic was in blistering form as he swept aside Thanasi Kokkinakis in straight sets — 6-1 6-4 6-2 — on Wednesday to progress into the third round at Wimbledon.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/tennis/novak-djokovic-wimbledon-second-round-spt-intl/index.html
Vietnam’s climate credentials come under scrutiny after activist jailing
The Vietnamese government’s commitment to action on climate change is in the spotlight after a leading environmental activist was sentenced this month to two years in prison on murky charges of “tax evasion.” …read more
Video shows lightning strike boat with 7 people aboard
The US Coast Guard rescued seven people after the boat they were in was struck by lightning 100 miles off the coast of Florida. None of the passengers were injured in the incident, which was caught on video.
West Hollywood votes to defund sheriff’s department despite soaring crime
The West Hollywood City Council voted 3-2 to reallocate funds meant to pay the salaries of five sheriff’s deputies to unarmed safety ambassadors. …read more
https://nypost.com/2022/06/29/west-hollywood-votes-to-defund-sheriffs-dept-despite-soaring-crime/
EU seeks ban on flavored heated tobacco products
The European Commission wants to crack down on the use of novel tobacco products as part of a plan to fight cancer. However, the ban would not cover all vaping products. …read more