Andrés Manuel López Obrador wins Mexican presidency, becoming first leftist to govern in decades. USA TODAY
MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government has announced plans to spend $30 billion over the next five years on Central American development, an initiative designed to slow migration from some of the hemisphere’s poorest and most violent countries through Mexico and toward the United States.
Exact details were still pending on how the money would be disbursed, but the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a tweet Monday that Mexico “will change its migration policies to respond to the needs required in the south of our country and Central America.”
The Mexican announcement comes as more 5,000 Central American migrants traveling in caravans have congregated in Tijuana, where many had hoped to make asylum claims in the United States, but face waiting lists of more than several months.
And it serves as an early test of the relationship between new Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and President Donald Trump, who has already cut aid to Central America and vowed to halt all foreign aid to the region if the caravan wasn’t stopped.
The two leaders have maintained cordial relations. But as a candidate, López Obrador vowed that he “will not do the dirty work of any foreign government,” a clear swipe at demands Trump was imposing on Mexico to stop the migrant caravan.
It also comes as an early initiative on the migration issue from López Obrador — who, on the campaign trail, responded to questions on migrants transiting Mexico that his country “will not do the dirty work of any foreign government.”
López Obrador hasn’t repeated that pledge since being elected July 1 and has instead proposed a sort of “Marshall Plan” for Central America, which he insists will diminish the need to emigrate in the first place.
“We’re going to guarantee that the rights of migrants in our territory are respected,” he told reporters on Dec. 5. “About how to resolve the problem, we’re putting together a proposal to invest in productive projects and job creation. And, not only that, in work visas as well for Mexican and for the United States.”
López Obrador swept into office on a domestic agenda of curbing corruption, combating poverty and reasserting state influence over economic affairs. But the arrival of so many caravan travelers in Tijuana has thrust migration to the top of the bilateral agenda as he starts his six-year administration — during which time he promises “respect” for the United States and Trump.
López Obrador promises to focus the work of Mexico’s network of consulates in the United States on “defending” the millions of Mexicans living north of the border. But focusing on the thousands of Central Americans transiting the country hasn’t proved a priority for successive Mexican administrations, even as asylum claims accumulate and migrants fleeing violence and poverty increasingly see Mexico as a destination country.
“It’s not part of their project. There is very little to gain politically from it,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics. “Nobody wants to deal with it, it’s very hard to find a solution and very easy to screw up.”
Members of the López Obrador administration have negotiated with their U.S. counterparts since before his Dec. 1 inauguration. The Washington Post reported last month that the incoming López Obrador administration and U.S. government had agreed to a plan known as “Remain in Mexico,” in which asylum seekers stay in Mexico while their claims are heard in U.S. courts.
Interior Minister Olga Sánchez Cordero denied any deal, saying Mexico would not serve as a “safe third country,” which means migrants setting foot in Mexico would be unable to seek asylum in the United States and be required to do so in Mexico instead.
Migration observers say “Remain in Mexico” would serve a similar purpose to Mexico becoming a “safe third country.”
“This would be like giving Mexico an excuse to put up a wall and then force people to cross the only way possible, the illegal way,” said Gilberto Martínez Amaya, director of a migrant shelter in Tijuana.
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Honduran migrant Leivi Ortega, 22, center, carries her two-year-old daughter Naomi Michell as they climb into the back of a police van with more than a dozen other Central Americans who had been waiting on a rainy beach at night in hopes of finding an opportunity to cross the U.S. border, before police decided to take them back to a distant migrant shelter, in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018. Discouraged by the long wait to apply for asylum through official ports of entry, many Central American migrants from recent caravans are choosing to cross the U.S. border wall and hand themselves in to border patrol agents. Rebecca Blackwell, AP
Migrants depart on a bus from a temporary shelter where they were staying, on their way to a new shelter on the eastern side of the city, on Nov. 30, 2018 in Tijuana, Mexico. Rains yesterday in Tijuana brought flooding to sections of the old shelter, which is located in a soccer complex. Officials hope to re-locate at least 3,000 of the migrants, many from the ‘migrant caravan’, to the new shelter. Around 6,000 migrants from Central America were crowded into the original shelter which was intended to hold 3,000. Mario Tama, Getty Images
Residents stand on a hill before barriers, wrapped in concertina wire, separating Mexico and the United States, where the border meets the Pacific Ocean, in Tijuana, Mexico, Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018. Many of the nearly 3,000 migrants have reached the border with California. The mayor has called the migrants’ arrival an “avalanche” that the city is ill-prepared to handle. Marco Ugarte, AP
Sairy Hueso, part of the Central American migrant caravan, carries her daughter Etzabe Ponce, as she stands next to her husband while waiting in line to receive a number as part of the process to apply for asylum in the United States, at the border in Tijuana, Mexico Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. Rodrigo Abd, AP
Members of the caravan of Central American migrants prepare to leave Mexico City, Mexico, and resume their journey to the United States on Nov. 10, 2018. After failing to get the UN to provide free transportation, thousands of migrants from the caravan of Central Americans camped in Mexico City agreed to prepare to leave the capital on Saturday and resume their march on foot to the United States. Groups of migrants, mostly young, did not comply with this decision and left early in the morning for Queretaro, north of the capital, although most of the approximately 5,000 people in the caravan remained in the camp, following the indications of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the organization that accompanies them. Sashenka Gutierrez, EPA-EFE
Hundreds of members of the Central American migrant caravan move in the early hours toward their next destination on Nov. 04, 2018, in Isla, Mexico. The group of migrants, many of them fleeing violence in their home countries, last took a rest day on Wednesday and have resumed their march to the United States border. As fatigue from the heat, distance and poor sanitary conditions has set in, the number of people participating in the march has slowly dwindled, but a significant group are still determined to get to the United Sates. The U.S. will deploy more than 5,000 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to prevent members of the migrant caravan from illegally entering the country. Spencer Platt, Getty Images
Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, get a ride on a truck in Donaji, Oaxaca state, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. The migrants had already made a grueling 40-mile trek from Juchitan, Oaxaca, on Thursday, after they failed to get the bus transportation they had hoped for. But hitching rides allowed them to get to Donaji early, and some headed on to a town even further north, Sayula. Rodrigo Abd, AP
Ernesto Martinez, 27, and his wife Yesenia, 23, are traveling with their three daughters, including a baby who was just 17-days-old when they joined the caravan on Oct. 20. The family is from San Martin, Retalhuleu, Guatemala. They have pushed the baby in a stroller more than 180 miles crossing through the state of Chiapas, before reaching the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, 2018. Nick Oza, Arizona Republic, via USA TODAY Network
Central American migrant Cristian pushes a carriage occupied by his daughters; Karen, 5, left, and Beiyi, 4, as they make their way to Mapastepec, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in a caravan headed to the U.S. Rodrigo Abd, AP
Marvin Sanabria, a Central American migrant traveling with a caravan to the U.S., kneels in prayer after waking up, in Huixtla, Mexico, Tuesday. The caravan, estimated to include more than 7,000 people, had advanced but still faced more than 1,000 miles, and likely much further, to the end of the journey. Moises Castillo/AP
Honduran migrants, who were taking part in a caravan heading to the US, board a bus to return to Honduras, in Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 20, 2018. Some 220 Honduran migrants were returning to their country and some 130 were waiting at a shelter Saturday, according to a police source, while thousands who forced their way through Guatemala’s northwestern border and flooded onto a bridge leading to Mexico, were waiting at the border in the hope of continuing their journey. Johan Ordonez, AFP/Getty Images
Mexico has had moments in its history of welcoming migrants such during the Spanish Civil War. Thousands of Guatemalans also fled to southern Mexico and settled there during a 1980s civil war.
Asylum claims in Mexico have climbed 10-fold over the past five years to 14,596 in 2017 — a figure expected to be easily surpassed this year due to the arrival of several caravans.
Less than 1 percent of the country’s population is foreign-born, however, and attitudes towards migrants can be complicated — especially toward those from poorer countries, said Javier Urbano, a migration expert at the Iberoamerican University.
“The biggest part of the immigration that has arrived here is from groups that are socioeconomically medium or high,” Urbano said. “The number of permits the Mexican government gives to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador is barely between 2 percent and 3 percent of all the people who ask.”
Polls show attitudes toward the caravan are slipping, even though the caravans crossing the country toward Tijuana were met with outpourings of generosity as Mexicans provided everything from food and water to shoes and shelter. A November survey by the newspaper El Universal found 55 percent of respondents wanting the López Obrador administration to “take tougher measures” with future caravans.
In a July letter to Trump, López Obrador pitched the U.S. president on partnering to develop Central America — not unlike what he’s proposed for underdeveloped parts of southern Mexico, where he’s planning to build a refinery, two railway lines and plant millions of hectares of trees.
“Such a plan that addresses the political and economic needs of Central Americans would be a more humane response to the regional crisis than additional funds for border walls and family and child detention centers” said Mike Allison, an expert in Central American politics at the University of Scranton.
But he added, “Our Central American partners do not have the best record when it comes to combating corruption and promoting good governance.”
Media captionA Royal Navy frigate can be heard warning Iranian armed forces, before the oil tanker is seized
The UK government did not take its “eye off the ball” over the seizure of a UK-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf on Friday, the chancellor told the BBC.
Philip Hammond said the UK has been working closely with US and European partners in response to Iran’s actions.
But ex-Tory party leader Iain Duncan Smith said the Stena Impero’s capture was a “major failure” for the UK.
Iran’s foreign minister said only “prudence and foresight” would reduce tensions between Iran and Britain.
The 23 crew members, who are Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino, have now been taken off the ship for “questioning”, Iran’s Press TV has reported.
Charts showing the ship was in Omani waters when it was captured prove its seizure was in “clear violation of international law”, the UK Chamber of Shipping said.
But Mr Duncan Smith told the BBC there are questions to be raised about the British government’s behaviour.
He said the detention of a tanker carrying Iranian oil two weeks earlier ought to have served as a warning British vessels in the Gulf needed protection.
The MP said he understood the US had offered the UK “assets” to support its shipping and they were not taken up.
“This is a major failure and the government has to answer that charge very quickly indeed.”
Defence minister Tobias Ellwood told Sky the Royal Navy was too small to manage the UK’s interests around the globe but had not been negligent in protecting its ships.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt earlier said Iran viewed this as a “tit-for-tat situation” but “nothing could be further from the truth”.
Labour shadow justice minister Richard Burgon said the UK should avoid becoming Donald Trump’s “sidekicks” and warned a US-backed conflict with Iran could be worse than the Iraq War.
What happened?
On Friday, the Stena Impero was seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran said it was “violating international maritime rules”.
A second tanker, the British-owned MV Mesdar, was also boarded by armed guards but released.
Video released by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard-affiliated Fars news agency appeared to show the moment the tanker was raided.
Media captionFootage released by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard-affiliated Fars news agency appears to show Stena Impero being seized
HMS Montrose was alerted but it was too far away to stop the seizure.
A recording of radio exchanges between a Royal Navy frigate and Iranian armed forces vessels moments before the tanker was seized was also released.
In the recording, an Iranian vessel tells HMS Montrose it wants to inspect the Stena Impero for security reasons.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said the tanker was captured after it collided with a fishing boat and failed to respond to calls from the smaller craft.
But Mr Hunt said it was seized in Omani waters in “clear contravention of international law” and forced to sail into Bandar Abbas port in Iran.
The tanker’s owner, Stena Bulk, said it has made a formal request to visit the crew members.
A relative of an Indian crew member aboard the Stena Impero told the BBC on Sunday the family was concerned and had not received any messages from him since the vessel was detained.
The seizure of the Stena Impero comes two weeks after Royal Marines helped seize Iranian tanker Grace 1 off Gibraltar, because of evidence it was carrying oil to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.
He said Iran guarantees the security of the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and insisted its action were to “uphold international maritime rules”.
Iran’s ambassador to London has warned the UK against escalating tensions.
Hamid Baeidinejad said in a tweet: “This is quite dangerous and unwise at a sensitive time in the region. Iran however is firm and ready for different scenarios.”
Media captionWhy does the Strait of Hormuz matter?
What’s the background to tensions in the Gulf?
Relations have been deteriorating between Iran and the UK and US.
In April, the US tightened sanctions it had re-imposed on Iran after withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal.
Last week, the UK said Iranian boats also attempted to impede a British oil tanker in the region before being warned off by HMS Montrose but Iran denied this.
International reaction
The White House said Friday’s incident was the second time in more than a week the UK had been “the target of escalatory violence” by Iran.
US Central Command said it was developing a multinational maritime effort in response to the situation.
France and Germany called on Iran to release the Stena Impero.
Diplomatic solution ‘will be complicated’
A diplomatic solution to this crisis is going to be complicated, not least because Britain’s relationships with its traditional partners – the US and the Europeans – are under strain.
Diplomatic pressure – action at the UN or tough economic sanctions – requires the building of a coalition.
Think back to the collective action taken against Moscow in the wake of the murder of a British woman by Russian agents in Salisbury.
The US and Britain’s Nato and European allies all expelled Russian diplomats in an impressive show of solidarity.
But will the same solidarity be shown towards Tehran?
France and Germany have given London rhetorical support. President Trump is standing beside his British ally.
But the US and the EU are fundamentally at loggerheads over the fate of the nuclear deal with Iran and what many European capitals see as a thinly disguised US policy that seeks regime change in Tehran.
Ships must fly the flag of a nation state but it does not need to be the same nation as its owners.
The Stena Impero is Swedish-owned and those on board are Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino.
A relative of a crew member from India, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC the family was being kept well informed by the Swedish company.
They felt reassured about diplomatic efforts to free the ship after a meeting with company officials attended by crew members’ families on Sunday afternoon, he said.
But it is the UK flag that is important symbolically and politically, explained Richard Meade from maritime publication Lloyds List.
“Historically speaking it means that the UK owes protection to the vessel.”
President Donald Trump criticized social media companies after Facebook banned a number of extremist figures, declaring that he was “monitoring and watching, closely!!”
Trump, who tweeted and re-tweeted complaints Friday and Saturday, said he would “monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. ” He has previously asserted that social media companies exhibit bias against conservatives, something the companies have rejected as untrue.
The president’s comments came after Facebook this week banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and other extremists, saying they violated its ban on “dangerous individuals.” The company also removed right-wing personalities Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer, along with Jones’ site, Infowars, which often posts conspiracy theories. The latest bans apply both to Facebook’s main service and to Instagram and extend to fan pages and other related accounts.
Facebook’s move signaled renewed effort by the social media giant to remove people and groups promoting objectionable material such as hate, racism and anti-Semitism. The company said it has “always banned” people or groups that proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence, regardless of political ideology.
On Twitter, Trump cited a number of individuals he said were being unfairly treated by social media companies, including Watson and actor James Woods. He insisted it was “getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!”
Woods, one of Hollywood’s most outspoken conservatives, has had his Twitter account locked. Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said Woods will need to delete a tweet that violated Twitter rules before he can be reinstated.
“We enforce the Twitter Rules impartially for all users, regardless of their background or political affiliation,” Rosborough said.
Mr. Trump on Saturday lashed out against members of the news media including the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, suggesting the outlets should also be banned from Facebook and Twitter for their coverage of the Russia investigation. “Much of what they do is FAKE NEWS!,” he asserted.
Trump, who uses Twitter extensively to push his message, recently met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the White House after attacking the company and complaining that it was not treating him well because he was a Republican. He later described it as a “great meeting.”
The president had more than social media on his mind Saturday. Trump also tweeted that he was holding out hopes for a deal with North Korea on its nuclear program, as well as improved relations with Russia, now that he feels the special counsel investigation is behind him.
“A vos te paga Stiuso para perjudicarme, vos mentís, esta es una operación berreta para perjudicarme a mí y al Papa Francisco“, gritaba furioso del otro lado de la línea el diputado Gustavo Vera en octubre de 2016, cuando NOTICIAS lo consultó sobre la denuncia de un ciudadano boliviano por la que estaba imputado en la Justicia.
“Con la devolución de las máquinas, la causa quedó sin efecto”, insistía el ahora precandidato a legislador por el Partido Justicialista junto al también polémico ex secretario de Comercio, Guillermo Moreno. Sin embargo, tal como lo había anticipado NOTICIAS, el juez consideró que había elementos suficientes para dictar su procesamiento por el delito de peculado y así lo hizo finalmente el viernes 7.
Todo comenzó en octubre de 2015 cuando, alertado por un allanamiento a un taller textil, Vera se presentó en calidad de “depositario judicial” para disponer de las 19 máquinas confiscadas con el objetivo de darle “un fin social”.
Según Lucas Schaerer, vocero de Vera, esto es un procedimiento habitual desde 2008, en lo que llaman “incautación con reinserción social”: lo decomisado en procedimientos contra el trabajo esclavo se utiliza con fines benéficos, como la capacitación de trabajadores en cooperativas. Sin embargo, al poco tiempo se le dictó la falta de mérito al dueño del taller allanado, quien le solicitó a Vera la devolución de su material de trabajo. Ante la falta de respuesta luego de meses de reclamos, lo denunció por el delito de “maversación de caudales públicos”. En su escrito, el abogado Alejandro Kim dejó constancia de que no se trataba de un hecho aislado, sino de una forma de proceder de un grupo en el que se ven implicados jueces y fiscales, quienes, con la excusa de combatir el trabajo esclavo en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, se apropian de bienes de los comerciantes textiles. Esta es quizá la razón del nerviosismo de Vera ante la consulta periodística.
Por ese entonces, y a pesar de los intentos del legislador por frenar su difusión, NOTICIAS publicó la información que rápidamente se viralizó y provocó que, no conforme con los agravios telefónicos, se despachara por escrito en un comunicado que todavía puede leerse en el sitio web de La Alameda con el sugerente título “Respuesta a las Calumnias”. En ese texto, en el que aclara que “hay algunos periodistas muy enojados con el Papa Francisco que hace tiempo vienen desinformando y demonizando su figura y a todos los que estamos cercanos a él”, el diputado afirma que las máquinas ya habían sido devueltas y que “toda la denuncia es una maniobra con el claro objetivo de calumniar a nuestra organización, al referente y al Papa Francisco“. El Sumo Pontífice llegó a escribirle una carta solidarizándose con él, difundida por el propio imputado.
Sin embargo, según consta en el acta de procesamiento firmada por el juez Claudio Bonadio, la Justicia entiende que Vera no sólo no restituyó las máquinas denunciadas, sino que también presentó documentación falsa para simular que estaban siendo refaccionadas.
El dirigente se defiende: “Toda la causa es un cachivache de Bonadio, que es un empleado de Clarín y busca perjudicarme en plena campaña”. La prueba estaría, según Vera, en que el juez sólo lo procesó a él mientras que Julio Piumato, el otro depositario judicial denunciado en la causa, fue sobreseído. Ahora, el precandidato a legislador porteño por el PJ enfrenta una pena de 2 a 10 años de presión y un embargo por 20 mil pesos.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasts Democrats for blocking GOP police reform bill and tells ‘The Daily Briefing’ Sen. Tim Scott’s speech was from ‘the heart of his life.’
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., took Democrats to task Thursday for blocking the Senate Republican police reform bill a day earlier, calling their treatment of Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., “appalling.”
“You know what Nancy Pelosi said yesterday, and doubled down [on], that Tim Scott and the Republicans were supporting murder,” McCarthy said on “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino.” “She says this to Tim Scott, who didn’t start working on this bill a month ago after the death of George Floyd. He’s worked it his entire life. Tim Scott’s legislative achievements [are] opportunity zones, criminal justice reform, funding of black colleges.”
Pelosi asserted in an interview Tuesday that Republicans are “trying to get away with murder, actually — the murder of George Floyd” using the reform bill introduced by Scott.
Scott himself ripped Democrats Wednesday after his bill failed to receive the 60 votes required to open debate, accusing them of punting on the issue until after the election and abusing what he described as their “monopoly” on black voters.
McCarthy also blasted Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who used the word “token” to describe the bill authored by Scott, the lone African-American GOP senator. Durbin later apologized.
“What’s most frustrating to me is watching the speaker of the House call Tim Scott, in essence, his bill as murder,” Scott said. “And the number two individual in the Democrat Senate side said it was ‘a token.’ That’s what they said to a man who rose above it all and sits in the U.S. Senate.”
McCarthy then recalled Scott telling him a story saying he had been stopped from entering the Senate because security didn’t believe he was a senator. According to McCarthy, Scott said he showed a guard his Senate pin, only to be asked who he had taken it from.
“That’s the passion that Tim Scott has to do something about this to unite this nation,” McCarthy said. “And the only people who are denying this is [Sen. Chuck] Schumer and Pelosi. It’s appalling.”
McCarthy also criticized Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., for voting to block debate on Scott’s bill.
“Why wouldn’t she vote to go forward, knowing what has gone on and knowing you need police reform and knowing you’re going to get 20 amendments?” McCarthy said. “No, she’s making a decision that she wants … to try to be a vice president instead of … represent the people [to whom] she swore that she would uphold the Constitution for. That’s appalling to me.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw and Gregg Re contributed to this report.
President Trump on Tuesday blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for spreading a “false and nasty rumor” about a bedbug infestation at his golf resort in Doral, Fla., after he said he would like to hold next year’s Group of Seven summit at the property.
“No bedbugs at Doral,” Trump wrote in a midmorning tweet. “The Radical Left Democrats, upon hearing that the perfectly located (for the next G-7) Doral National MIAMI was under consideration for the next G-7, spread that false and nasty rumor. Not nice!”
In 2016, Doral was sued by a former guest, Eric Linder, who said he had been bitten multiple times by bed bugs while staying in the luxe Jack Nicklaus Villa at Trump’s property. His complaint alleged that he awoke to discover “welts, lumps and marks over much of his face, neck, arms and torso.”
Linder alleged that the villa had “a history of severe bed bug infestation.”
The Trump Organization denied the allegation, without going into detail. It settled the case in 2017, shortly after Trump’s inauguration.
Neal Hirschfeld, a Florida attorney who represented Linder in the bedbug lawsuit, said he could not comment Tuesday because the settlement included a confidentiality clause.
Reports about the settlement resurfaced on social media Monday after Trump held a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France. At the news conference, Trump sought to make a case for convening at the Trump National Doral Miami next year when the United States hosts the G-7 summit.
By Monday night, the hashtag “#TrumpBedBugs” was trending on Twitter.
Those needling Trump included university professor and author Seth Abramson, who wrote: “Next year it’s the ‘G-7 Million’ — seven world leaders and the 6,999,993 bedbugs at Trump Doral.”
At Monday’s news conference, Trump touted the location and amenities of his property.
“Doral happens to be … only five minutes from the airport, the airport’s right next door,” he told reporters. “And by the way, my people looked at 12 sites, all good, but some were two hours from the airport, some four hours.
“We have a series of magnificent buildings, we call them bungalows, they each hold from 50 to 70 rooms, they have magnificent views,” he added. “And what we have also is Miami.”
It was unclear late Monday whether Trump had formally chosen Doral. Trump said he had not. But after he spoke, the White House’s official Twitter account seemed to say he had — calling Doral “the location of the next [G-7] summit.”
In other morning tweets, Trump took aim at the news media, claiming it had unfairly covered a summit in France that ended with no major breakthroughs.
“The G-7 was a great success for the USA and all,” Trump wrote. “LameStream Media coverage bore NO relationship to what actually happened in France – FAKE NEWS. It was GREAT!”
Sí, a mí también me llegaron. Sí, también me revolvieron el estómago a pesar de ocho años de ver autopsias y escenas de crimen en primera persona por haber trabajado en la justicia penal. Sí, también tengo mi teoría sobre si estuvo ahí desde hace dos meses o es un cuerpo plantado.
Podría hablar largo rato y dar ejemplos concretos ya ocurridos sobre cómo un cuerpo puede salir a flote luego de estar hundido a causa de los gases de la descomposición, o cómo es que algunas partes se descompusieron más que otras, o por qué no lo vieron antes y ahora sí, y un largo listado de preguntas que nos habríamos ahorrado si no hubiera comenzado todo el asunto con eso de “respetar un territorio sagrado” en un país con un sólo territorio y en el que lo sagrado no importa a la hora de allanar un convento al que se arrojan bolsos repletos de dinero o una congregación donde sacerdotes abusan de menores de edad.
El hallazgo de un cuerpo con intervención judicial siempre es un encontronazo con lo peor. Primero, si hay intervención judicial es porque no se dieron las cosas de la forma que culturalmente tenemos aceptadas este tipo de cuestiones. Creemos idílicamente que una persona debe morir en un lecho, de viejo, y en paz. Si intervino la justicia es porque algo se rompió en el camino, desde un homicidio hasta un infarto en la calle, un choque en una ruta o un ahogo.
Pero siempre hay algo que puede empeorar las cosas y son los que quedaron vivos. Y me refiero puntualmente a quien haya filtrado las fotos que todos vieron y que están circulando por Whatsapp y, por cuestiones de segundos, fueron a parar a las redes sociales.
En el río Chubut, puntualmente en la zona del hallazgo del cuerpo al que sólo le falta un “ok” de la justicia para que podamos ponerle el nombre y apellido que todos ya sabemos, no hay señal de celular. Y si bien habia varias personas, mirando las mismas fotos que fueron tomadas se puede saber que, al menos dos, sabían quién estaba tomando las fotos. Es cuestión de dos preguntas para saber quién filtró la documentación que, antes de que los celulares vinieran con cámaras, eran exclusivas de los expedientes judiciales y, por decoro, generalmente eran cubiertas dentro del mismo expediente para evitar tener que verlas cada vez que se trabajaba en una causa.
Quien las haya filtrado posee la misma pulsión de fama que todos los que también las hicieron circular a personas que no son peritos, no son periodistas ni están abocados al asunto. Y lo hicieron con la misma ilusión: sentir que dieron una primicia, sentir que fueron partícipes de algo que no hicieron. Quien las haya filtrado a su primer contacto porque quiso o porque las vio por ahí, contribuyó una vez más a que una oleada de sujetos con título otorgado por la Escuela de Detectives de Facebook esté elaborando sus conjeturas con el rigor científico que da decir cosas en redes sociales desde la comodidad de un teclado virtual. Preferentemente, en mayúsculas.
Pero, principalmente, quien las haya filtrado perdió de vista algo superior a todo y que poco tiene que ver con la solidaridad, sino con el egoísmo más narcisista: creer que a él no le puede pasar lo mismo, que su vida terminara con tranquilidad en un lecho y que sus fotos no terminarán en los celulares de todos, entre videos pornos y fotos de gatitos.
The U.S. death toll rose to 26, infections spread to all but a handful of states and two cruise ships languished on each side of the country Tuesday as the coronavirus rolled unabated across the nation and around the world.
U.S. stocks collapsed Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting by more than 2,000 points, but futures were sharply positive territory early Tuesday.
While acknowledging that the threat of a pandemic was “very real,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also noted that 93% of the worldwide cases were confined to four countries and insisted that “we are not at the mercy of this virus.”
More than 2,000 passengers and crew anxiously awaited exodus from the Grand Princess cruise ship when disembarkation continues Tuesday in Oakland, California. More than 20 passengers dealing with acute illness and scores of Canadians bound for a flight home were among the first group to exit the ship Monday. The vessel had been floating off the California coast since Thursday, when 21 of those aboard – including 19 crew members – tested positive for novel coronavirus. U.S. passengers are bound for quarantine at military bases.
On the East Coast, the Caribbean Princess faced a no-sail order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after learning two crew members had transferred from another vessel where at least one guest tested positive for the virus. Neither crew member appears symptomatic, Princess Cruises said in a statement. The Caribbean Princess will make a brief stop at Grand Cayman for test kits and then is expected to anchor off the coast of Florida until the no-sail order is lifted, the statement said.
– David Oliver and Jorge Ortiz
‘Wheel of Fortune’ spins without an audience
The popular NBC game show “Wheel of Fortune” is the latest television project to shift plans amid the coronavirus scare. The show is taping without live studio audiences, USA TODAY has confirmed. Last week, CBS announced that it was suspending production on “The Amazing Race” in response to the outbreak. “Fortune” tapes months in advance, so the presumably quieter shows will not immediately be noticeable to viewers at home. Both are filmed at a studio in Culver City, California.
– Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY
Locker rooms off limits to media
Officials from four major professional sports leagues – MLB, NBA, NHL and MLS – have announced that team clubhouses and locker rooms will temporarily be closed to the media and non-essential personnel, effective Tuesday.
Instead, all interviews will take place in designated areas outside locker rooms. The media will also be asked to maintain a six-foot distance from players during those Q&A sessions.
– Gabe Lacques, Bob Nightengale and Jeff Zillgitt
California county cancels mass gatherings following first death
The order, issued by the county’s Public Health Officer on Monday night, comes in the wake of the county’s first coronavirus death. The mass-gatherings ban goes into effect at 12 a.m. PDT Wednesday and will last at least three weeks.
The move will directly impact events held at San Jose’s SAP Center — home of the NHL’s Sharks and AHL’s Barracuda — as well as at Earthquakes Stadium — home of the MLS’ Earthquakes — and potentially sporting events at Stanford University in Palo Alto.
— Jace Evans
New Jersey governor declares state of emergency
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and a public health emergency on Monday as the number of coronavirus cases in the state grow, effective immediately, to “contain the spread of COVID-19.”
It’s the first time that a New Jersey governor has declared a public health emergency under state law, said Murphy’s communications director, Mahen Gunaratna. That order lasts for 30 days and would have to be extended after that, if needed, he said.
It comes two days after New York declared a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus, though New Jersey’s count of 11 presumed positive cases is much lower. New York has the nation’s most presumed positive cases, at 143.
— Dustin Racioppi and John Connolly, NorthJersey.com
Chinese President Xi makes first visit to Wuhan since coronavirus outbreak
President Xi Jinping visited China’s virus epicenter Tuesday for the first time since cases of a then-unidentified respiratory illness emerged in the city of Wuhan in December.
The disease’s spread in China cast scrutiny on Xi’s leadership, as he was conspicuously absent from the public eye during the early days of the crisis. Initial failures to react quickly were pegged on municipal and provincial-level officials who have since been replaced.
State media reported Xi arrived in the morning in Wuhan, which has been under lockdown along with several nearby cities since late January in a disease-containment measure. The city has the bulk of the country’s more than 80,000 confirmed cases, and authorities sent thousands of medical workers and built several prefabricated isolation wards to deal with its mass of COVID-19 patients.
Xi’s visit may indicate that the ruling Communist Party is feeling confident about the results of its anti-virus campaign, which shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy starting in late January. The apparent subsiding of China’s outbreak came only after authorities there imposed massive quarantines, which are still largely in place.
Panama reports first coronavirus case
The country of Panama, on the isthmus that connects Central and South America, confirmed its first case of coronavirus Monday. The patient is a 40-year-old woman who had returned Sunday from Madrid. She is now isolated at home and will receive daily visits from health workers, according to Rosario Turner, the country’s health minister.
The virus that causes the COVID-19 illness has also been confirmed in the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Argentina, Peru, Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina.
Map: Which states have coronavirus cases?
Here’s a look at which U.S. states have reported cases of COVID-19:
What’s the worldwide death toll?
The global death toll surpassed 4,000 on Monday night, pushed by a rising number of fatalities in Italy (463), Iran (237), South Korea (54), according to a Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.
The total of confirmed cases is nearing 115,000, with more than 80,700 in mainland China, where the virus has killed more than 3,100 people. Six other countries have at least 1,000 cases — Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Germany and Spain.
For most people, the virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, but it can progress to serious illness including pneumonia, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. WHO says mild cases last about two weeks while patients with serious illness recover in about three to six weeks.
His appearance in El Paso on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, came as a temporary satellite processing center was set up under the Paso Del Norte International Bridge. Mark R Lambie and Aaron Martinez and Samuel Gaytan, Wochit
EL PASO – Under a bridge connecting the U.S. with Mexico, dozens of migrant families cram into a makeshift camp set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The families are there because permanent processing facilities have run out of room.
Seven hundred miles east, busload after busload of weary, bedraggled migrants crowd into the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas. Organizers there are used to handling 200 to 300 migrants a day. Lately, the migrants have been arriving at a clip of around 800 a day, overflowing the respite center and straining city resources.
“It’s staggering,” McAllen City Manager Roy Rodriguez said. “Really, we’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Along the Texas border with Mexico – from El Paso to Eagle Pass to the Rio Grande Valley – masses of migrants have been crossing the border in unprecedented numbers, overwhelming federal holding facilities and sending local leaders and volunteers scrambling to deal with the relentless waves of people.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday during a visit to El Paso that the border had hit its “breaking point” and urged Congress to come up with legislative solutions to the problem.
Border Patrol officials were on pace in March for more than 100,000 apprehensions and encounters with migrants – the highest monthly tally in over a decade, he said. Around 90 percent of those – or 90,000 – crossed the border between legal ports of entry.
The vast majority of those crossing between ports of entry turn themselves into Border Patrol agents, seeking asylum.
“The surge numbers are just overwhelming the entire system,” McAleenan said.
But not even Trump’s proposed wall could stop the wave of migrants overflowing shelters in the Rio Grande Valley, where the vast majority are turning themselves in to apply for asylum, McAllen Mayor Jim Darling said.
A wall would go up on levees about a mile from the winding Rio Grande, which is the U.S.-Mexico border. Migrants will just have to cross the river to be in U.S. territory and seek asylum, he said.
“That’s not a solution for asylum-seekers,” Darling said.
Once in the U.S., the migrants – mostly families from Central America – are crowding into facilities designed to hold single adult men, said Theresa Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center and a former CBP policy adviser for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
CLOSE
CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan says border region is at “breaking point” because of influx of migrants from Central America. Mark R Lambie, El Paso Times
Increasingly, smugglers are bringing larger numbers of families together and delivering them across the Rio Grande, knowing they’ll overrun facilities and be released until their immigration court date, she said. Under U.S. law, Border Patrol is not supposed to hold any migrant for longer than 72 hours.
Usually, Border Patrol hands them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which can detain families for up to 20 days. But all of those facilities are overcrowded, Brown said, leading Border Patrol to skip the transfer to ICE and release migrants to shelters en masse.
“This is a system-wide collapse,” she said.
In El Paso, migrant families pressed their faces against the chain-link fencing at the makeshift outdoor shelter under the Paso Del Norte International Bridge as they awaited their turn to seek asylum. Children covered their mouths with swaths of Mylar blankets and peeked through the fencing at passing Border Patrol guards.
On Wednesday, more than 850 migrants were released to local shelters, marking a new high for El Paso. The numbers are expected to keep rising, according to Ruben Garcia, executive director of Annunciation House, a nonprofit that provides services to migrants released by federal authorities.
“It’s going to be very, very challenging,” he said.
Garcia and other shelter organizers have relied on a growing number of volunteers to help with the increased migrants. Ande McArthy, a retired nurse, and her husband, Michael, a retired physician assistant, traveled from Lake Huron, Michigan, to El Paso last week after their church put out a call to help for the Annunciation House.
The McArthys are among 12 full-time volunteers who help to sort clothes, handle day-to-day donations and tend to the needs of hundreds of migrants arriving at the shelters each day.
“We’re here trying to show that [migrants] are fleeing conflict,” McArthy said.
The El Paso City Council and County Commissioners voted recently to fund a position that would help coordinate volunteers. Mayor Dee Margo said the city will seek reimbursement from the federal government.
“It allows us to frankly take more action than we’ve been able to do in the past and justify that for a humanitarian need — an emergency need,” Margo said. “If we are required to spend some funds, we will.”
In McAllen, migrants deemed to have credible asylum cases are released to the Catholic Charities respite center, where they’re allowed to shower, given medical attention and helped with getting a bus or airplane ticket to their final U.S. destination.
Sister Norma Pimentel, who oversees the shelter, said she received a phone call two weekends ago from a Border Patrol official warning that the numbers were about to skyrocket. The next day, around 800 migrants showed up to the shelter, she said.
On Wednesday, clusters of migrants crowded the halls of the center. Lines stretched down long halls, as migrants waited to use the shower or pick up diapers. Teams of volunteers called migrants’ relatives to get bus tickets. Every 20 minutes or so, a new tour bus would drive up and deliver another 50 migrants into the shelter.
Among the throngs were Fredy Escobar, 27, and his wife, Katherine Lopez, 23, and three-year-old daughter, Ayleen Escobar. The family fled Guatemala earlier this year when corrupt police officers threatened to take over his car wash business in Guatemala City and tried to kidnap him, Fredy Escobar said.
They crossed into the U.S. from nearby Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, waiting 10 days at the international bridge and sleeping in a nearby church, until they were allowed to cross and seek asylum. He said he was surprised by the throngs of other migrants joining him in U.S. processing centers but was excited to get to Houston to start a new life.
“It won’t be easy. We’re starting over,” he said, “but we pray everything will turn out OK.”
The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S. Therefore, CONGRESS MUST CHANGE OUR WEAK IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW, & Mexico must stop illegals from entering the U.S….
Despite the crush, Pimentel said she will continue taking in the migrants. “If you drop them off on the street, they’re not going to know what to do,” she said. “We’re going to have chaos. We’re going to have a terrible problem.”
As the respite center started to overflow last week, city officials got involved, opening new shelters and contracting buses to take the migrants directly to shelters rather than have them cluster around the bus station downtown.
Rodriguez, the city manager, said he’s dedicated several city officials to spearhead the problem and the city’s spending thousands of taxpayer dollars a day on the buses and other services.
He’s lobbied the federal government for reimbursement, but he’s not overly hopeful. In 2014, when a similar crush of Central American migrants strained city resources, local officials applied for $600,000 in federal disaster funds. After years of wrangling, they got just $140,000, he said.
“This is very similar to what we saw then,” Rodriguez said. “It’s real people and real time and real money.”
LOS ANGELES, July 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — KWHY-TV Noticias 22, the MundoFOX Los Angeles television network affiliate’s award-winning newscast, Noticias 22, “La voz de Tu Ciudad,” “The voice of your city”, scored as the fastest growing late Spanish language newscast in Nielsen’s recently completed July 2015 Sweeps for Los Angeles, the city with the largest Hispanic market in the nation.
“Our growth is a strong statement of relevance and support to our news team and editorial direction,” stated Palmira Perez, Noticias 22 MundoFOX News Anchor. “Noticias 22 continues to produce the most engaging, compelling news and information daily for our community, and as part of Meruelo Media, together we’re committed to journalistic excellence,” added Otto Padron, President of Meruelo Media.
KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX Los Angeles July 2015 Sweeps Highlights:
KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX at 10:00 p.m. posted significant “year-to-year” growth in average ratings among the key demographic Adults 18-49, up 35% from the July 2014 Sweeps.
All the other Spanish-language late local newscasts were down, including those on KRCA/Estrella (-22%), KVEA/Telemundo (-1%) and KMEX/Univision (-2%). (Based on Monday to Friday average ratings.)
Among Adults 25-54, ratings for KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX at 10:00 p.m. were up 34% from the July 2014 Sweeps, more than the late newscast on KMEX/Univision (+15%) and KVEA/Telemundo (+7%), with KRCA/Estrella falling 19%.
Source: Los Angeles NSI Ratings, July 2015
For more information on KWHY-TV Noticias 22 MundoFOX, please visit www.mundofox22.com.
About Meruelo Media
Meruelo Media (MM) is the media division of The Meruelo Group. MM currently operates two Southern California Legendary media platforms; the classic hip-hop and R&B radio station, 93.5 KDAY and one of Los Angeles’ oldest Hispanic TV stations, KWHY-TV Canal 22, which is currently the flagship of MundoFOX Television Network. MM also owns the first and only US Hispanic Super Station, Super 22, airing on its KWHY-TV second digital stream and reaching over 6 Million Homes over various multiple video delivery providers. MM also broadcasts in Houston and Santa Barbara. The Meruelo Group is a minority owned, privately-held management company serving a diversified portfolio of affiliated entities with interests in banking and financial services; food services, manufacturing, distribution and restaurant operations; construction and engineering; hospitality and gaming; real estate management; media, public and private equity investing. For more information please visit www.meruelogroup.com.
North Korean state media on Sunday showed leader Kim Jong Un observing live-fire drills of long-range multiple rocket launchers and what appeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile, a day after South Korea expressed concern that the launches were a violation of an inter-Korean agreement to cease all hostile acts.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over Saturday’s drills and stressed that his front-line troops should keep a “high alert posture” and enhance combat ability to “defend the political sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country.”
The weapons launches were a likely sign of Pyongyang’s growing frustration at stalled diplomatic talks with Washington meant to provide coveted sanctions relief in return for nuclear disarmament. They also highlighted the fragility of the detente between the Koreas, which in a military agreement reached last September vowed to completely cease “all hostile acts” against each other in land, air and sea.
South Korea said it’s “very concerned” about North Korea‘s weapons launches, calling them a violation of the agreements to reduce animosities between the countries. The statement, issued after an emergency meeting Saturday of top officials at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, also urged North Korea to stop committing acts that would raise military tensions and join efforts to resume nuclear diplomacy.
“Praising the People’s Army for its excellent operation of modern large-caliber long-range multiple rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons, he said that all the service members are master gunners and they are capable of carrying out duty to promptly tackle any situation,” the KNCA paraphrased Kim as saying. “He stressed the need for all the service members to keep high alert posture and more dynamically wage the drive to increase the combat ability so as to defend the political sovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country and … the security of the people from the threats and invasion by any forces.”
The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos that showed Kim, equipped with binoculars, observing tests of different weapons systems, including multiple rocket launchers and what appeared to be a short-range missile fired from a launch vehicle, and also an explosion of what seemed to be a target set on island rocks.
Kim Dong-yub, an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North Korean missile appeared to be modeled after Russia’s 9K720 Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile system. The solid-fuel North Korean missile, which was first revealed in a Pyongyang military parade in February, is potentially capable of conducting nuclear strikes on all areas of South Korea, Kim said.
“The North tried to clearly demonstrate its abilities to strike any target on the Korean Peninsula, including U.S. troops stationed across the country in areas such as Seoul, Pyeongtaek, Daegu and Busan,” Kim said.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that “several projectiles” had been launched from near the coastal town of Wonsan and that they flew up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) before splashing into the sea toward the northeast. That roughly matched the distance between the area and the South Korean capital of Seoul, although the North in Sunday’s report did not issue any direct threat or warning toward the South or the United States. Experts say the North may increase these sorts of low-level provocations to apply pressure on the United States to agree to reduce crushing international sanctions.
The launches comes amid a diplomatic breakdown that has followed the failed summit earlier this year between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un over the North’s pursuit of nuclear bombs that can accurately target the U.S. mainland. The North probably has viable shorter-range nuclear armed missiles, but it still needs more tests to perfect its longer-range weapons, according to outside analysts.
Trump said Saturday that he still believes a nuclear deal with North Korea will happen. He tweeted that Kim “fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it.”
Trump added: “He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!”
Pyongyang has recently demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from nuclear negotiations and criticized national security adviser John Bolton. North Korea also said last month that it had tested a new type of unspecified “tactical guided weapon.”
North Korea could choose to fire more missiles with longer ranges in coming weeks to ramp up its pressure on the United States to come up with a roadmap for nuclear talks by the end of this year, said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University.
“North Korea wants to say, ‘We have missiles and nuclear weapons to cope with (U.S.-led) sanctions,'” Nam said. “They can fire short-range missiles a couple more times this month, and there is no guarantee that they won’t fire a medium-range missile next month.”
North Korea last conducted a major missile test in November 2017 when it flight-tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that demonstrated potential capability to reach deep into the U.S. mainland. That year saw a string of increasingly powerful weapons tests from the North and a belligerent response from Trump that had many in the region fearing war.
During the diplomacy that followed those weapons tests, Kim said that the North would not test nuclear devices or ICBMs. The short-range projectiles launched on Saturday don’t appear to violate that self-imposed moratorium, and they may instead be a way to register Kim’s displeasure with Washington without having the diplomacy collapse.
South Korea’s liberal president, Moon Jae-in, has doggedly pursued engagement with the North and is seen as a driving force behind the two summits between Trump and Kim.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha talked by phone with Pompeo about the North Korean launches. The Foreign Ministry also said that South Korea’s chief nuclear envoy, Lee Do-hoon, had a telephone conversation with Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea who is scheduled to travel to Seoul next week for talks.
———
Associated Press writers Foster Klug and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.
El candidato socioliberal Emmanuel Macron sería el vencedor de la segunda vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales francesas que se celebran hoy con más del 60% de los sufragios, según las estimaciones de voto publicadas por varios medios de Bélgica y Suiza.
Según publican hoy las ediciones digitales del diario francófono “Le Soir” y de la televisión francófona RTBF belgas, el centrista Macron se impondría así con una ventaja “amplia” a la candidata ultraderechista, Marine Le Pen.
El diario “Le Soir” cita como fuente los sondeos a pie de urna realizados por cuatro institutos estadísticos diferentes y de acuerdo con estas estimaciones también habría un “número importante” de votos blancos o nulos.
En Francia, una ley del 19 julio de 1977 prohíbe la difusión de sondeos relativos a las elecciones presidenciales desde el viernes a medianoche hasta el domingo a las 20 horas (18.00 GMT), en que cierran los colegios electorales.
El diario belga subraya que estos datos se basan en encuestas realizadas durante la jornada y recuerda que las primeras estimaciones procedentes del recuento de votos no se conocerán hasta que cierren los colegios electorales, a partir de las 19.00 horas (17.00 GMT) en las ciudades pequeñas.
La cadena de televisión francófona belga informa también en su página web de que Emmanuel Macron “estaría claramente en cabeza” y “obtendría más del 60% de los votos”, según los datos obtenidos también de encuestas a pie de urna y varios estudios.
Los medios belgas no proporcionan por el momento información sobre el número de votos que habría obtenido la candidata del Frente Nacional.
En Suiza, los diarios francófonos “La Tribune de Génève” y “24 Heures” en sus ediciones digitales apuntan a que Macron, líder del movimiento “En Marche”, sería el ganador de la segunda vuelta de las presidenciales francesas, con entre el 62% y el 64% de los votos.
Los dos diarios helvéticos basan sus estimaciones en las primeras indicaciones de tres institutos de sondeos, pero no publican de momento el porcentaje que habría obtenido la candidata ultraderechista Marine Le Pen.
De acuerdo con estas mismas fuentes en las urnas galas habría un 10% de votos en blanco y nulos.
Las elecciones presidenciales de Francia registraron al mediodía una participación del 28,23%, casi igual que a la misma hora en la primera ronda (28,54%) en abril pasado.
Los colegios electorales en la Francia metropolitana abrieron hoy a las 08.00 horas (06.00 GMT) y permanecerán abiertos hasta las 19.00 horas (17.00 GMT) en la mayor parte de las ciudades y una hora más tarde en las de mayor tamaño.
President Trump on Sunday pushed back against Democrats who have described Washington as being in a “constitutional crisis” over the White House’s refusal to cooperate with congressional follow-up investigations to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“The “Constitutional Crisis” is the Democrats refusing to work. Let them start by fixing the mess that their Immigration Laws have caused at the Southern Border,” Trump tweeted Sunday evening.
The “Constitutional Crisis” is the Democrats refusing to work. Let them start by fixing the mess that their Immigration Laws have caused at the Southern Border.
The claim came as Trump railed against the Democrats’ lack of action.
“When the Mueller Report came out showing NO Collusion with Russia (of course), it was supposed to be over, back to work for the people. But the Dems have gone “nuts,” and it has actually gotten worse! Hope the Republicans win back the House in 2020, or little will get done!” he tweeted.
Trump has insisted his administration will not comply with House and Senate Democrats’ subpoenas because he claims they are politically motivated. The White House has said Trump and his campaign were cleared of collusion and wrongdoing in the special counsel’s report.
“The Dems have been working overtime to damage me and the Republican Party by issuing over 80 demands for documents and testimonies, and with NO REASON. That’s all they want to do – don’t care about anything else!” he tweeted Sunday.
However, 750 federal prosecutors recently released a letter stating that Trump obstructed Mueller’s investigation, even if it did conclude no illegal action took place during the 2016 election.
Trump’s Sunday evening tweet accuses liberal lawmakers of not focusing on other issues, mainly the surge of noncitizen families illegally entering and applying for asylum at ports of entry along the southern border in record-high numbers.
Republicans have called for asylum law changes and legislative fixes to a 2015 court ruling that only allows families in federal custody to be held up to 20 days before being released into the U.S. without having their asylum claims resolved.
National Security Council expert Fiona Hill explained during her testimony on Thursday why the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the 2016 U.S. election interference is false. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff asked Hill how the theory served Russian interests, and Hill responded: “The Russians interests are frankly to delegitimize our entire presidency.”
Joe Biden’s gaffes continue to get worse as he mixes up his wife and sister.
Sean Hannity addressed Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden‘s age and gaffes Wednesday, reacting to the former vice president’s strong performance during Super Tuesday. He also blamed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander‘s performance on his praise of “mass-murdering” dictators.
“Now, in the two weeks prior to the Super Tuesday, Bernie’s never-ending effusive praise of mass-murdering communist dictatorships was likely what pushed many radical socialist Democrats late deciders towards Joe Biden,” Hannity said on his television program. “‘Bolshevik’ Bernie’s bizarre love affair with, let’s see, the former Soviet Union that killed millions and the Castro regime, that killed all hundreds of thousands of people and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and the violent socialist regime that he had.”
“Even Democrats, they could not support that,” Hannity said. “And by the way, they had no other option at that point but to circle the wagons around a very frail, obviously struggling [Biden].”
Hannity began to focus on the health of Biden.
“There are serious, significant issues percolating around [Biden],” Hannity said. “Joe, let me put it this way, [I’m] not a doctor, not going to perform any kind of armchair psychology. But as I have been saying, if a 78-year-old Democrat ever had a fastball, even a slow pitch seems to be long gone.”
“This is now a pattern of daily embarrassing gaffes that is only getting worse and worse and worse,” Hannity said.
The host then also brought up accusations of corruption and the Ukraine scandal involving his son Hunter.
“Joe, seems to be in a rapid state of decline and not up to the rigors needed, even on a campaign,” Hannity said. “It is also fair to ask what would someone as corrupt as quid pro quo Joe do with the most powerful position in the country?”
“This will be a campaign issue. We all know his sons zero experience,” Hannity said. “Hunter got paid millions of millions of dollars sitting on a board of a corrupt Ukrainian oil and gas company named Burisma Holdings.”
President Donald Trump‘s campaign is defiantly insisting the race for the White House is not over, despite Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden inching closer to an Electoral College victory with leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Matt Morgan, the Trump 2020 campaign’s general counsel, said in a statement that projections of a Biden victory are based upon “states that are far from final,” taking issue specifically with Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona.
“Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected,” Morgan said.
Outlining the issues in each state further, Morgan said:
Georgia is “headed for a recount,” campaign confident of “improperly harvested” ballots
“Many irregularities in Pennsylvania,” volunteer legal observers prevented “meaningful access to vote-counting locations”
In Nevada, “thousands of improperly cast ballots”
Trump “on course to win Arizona,” branded earlier calls of the state “irresponsible”
Newsweek has asked the Trump campaign for further detail to back up points within the statement.
Trump previously prematurely declared himself to be the winner, prompting a backlash from rivals as well as some supporters, and has insisted he will be if only votes he deems to have been cast legally are accounted for. He has said the dispute should be escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” Biden said previously. “So, I ask everyone to stay calm—all the people to stay calm. The process is working. The count is being completed and we’ll know very soon.”
While Trump has taken issue with those four specific states, based on calls elsewhere Biden would not necessarily need to win all of them to achieve an Electoral College victory.
At present, The Associated Press puts him on 264 Electoral College votes without Nevada or Georgia.
If Arizona were taken away, that would take him to 253. A win in just Pennsylvania, if those calls were correct, would take him to 273, securing the majority needed for victory.
As well as being closer to Electoral College victory, Biden is also ahead in the popular vote having secured more votes than any candidate in preceding races, according to a tally from AP.
Trump has also broken records, with his haul being only second to that of Biden’s this year in terms of all-time rankings.
Newsweek has contacted the Biden campaign for comment.
With each candidate looking to secure the coveted 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory, the graphic below from Statista shows the tightest Electoral College victories since 1896.
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