by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | americas, CNN
The number of migrants crossing the treacherous Darien Gap, a mountainous rainforest region that connects South and Central America, has broken a new record, according to immigration officials in Panama.
The Panama migration authority’s deputy director Maria Isabel Saravia told media that 2022’s already-high number of crossings was surpassed on Monday.
Last year was an “unprecedented year” where a total of 248,284 people crossed the Darién National Park, she said. 2023 now looks set to outstrip that number as the year continues.
“With today and yesterday’s crossings of 1,869 people, there have been 248,901 crossings,” Saravia said Monday.
Around 20% of the people making the dangerous trek are children and adolescents, authorities say.
“Within that age group, at least 51% are five-year-old children or under. As the figures anticipated, we exceeded last year’s number (…) The last three years have been much higher than the last 11 years in crossings,” Saravia added.
Venezuelans and Haitians represent the majority of the people crossing, followed by Colombians, Ecuadorians, and migrants from outside the continent, she said.
The 66-mile (106-kilometer) hike through the Darien Gap brings migrants from Colombia to Panama and is a crucial passage for those hoping to reach the United States and Canada.
Mass migration across the Western Hemisphere has fueled a growing number of people moving north.
But after officials warned that a surge in illegal migration across the US southern border would accompany the May expiration of a Trump-era border restriction, used in the pandemic to turn back migrants at the US-Mexico border, the number of daily encounters along the US border remained low in June.
“As a result of planning and execution – which combined stiffer consequences for unlawful entry with a historic expansion of lawful pathways and processes – unlawful entries between ports of entry along the Southwest Border have decreased by more than 70 percent since May 11,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release in June.
It is unclear whether the deterrent effect will last, and human rights advocates say migrants, who were fleeing danger in their home countries, are now living in limbo in Mexico as they wait for their asylum claims.
Others are being forced to take increasingly risky paths to reach the US, advocates said. In June, dozens of people were found dead inside a semi-truck in Texas.
by tyler | Aug 4, 2023 | americas, CNN
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 66% last month compared to July 2022 and is now at its lowest rate in six years, according to preliminary data released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) on Thursday.
Nearly 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of rainforest were cleared in July, a significant fall from the 1,487 square kilometers (574 square miles) cleared last July.
There has been a sharp decline in deforestation since Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as president in January. Lula has pledged to end deforestation, which had increased rapidly under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, said government policies, including increasing surveillance and fining perpetrators, has played a big role in bringing rates of deforestation down.
“It is the end of the expectation of impunity,” Silva told journalists at a news conference announcing the results. “When you see the increase in operations … this creates a virtuous circle of no longer expecting impunity.”
The preliminary data should be confirmed in the next few days, and comes as the countries which contain parts of the Amazon prepare to meet on August 8 and 9 in the Brazilian city of Belem, for a summit aimed at increasing protection of the rainforest.
The reduced rate of deforestation is positive news at a time when the Amazon remains critically vulnerable.
Mikaela Weisse, the director of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch, said the data is “incredibly important and promising.”
“The fact that we’re still seeing these massive declines compared to last year and previous years in July, I think is very significant,” she told CNN. “Lula and his administration are taking deforestation much more seriously than his predecessor.”
Some scientists have warned that the rainforest may be approaching a critical tipping point that could see it transformed into a grassy savannah. This would have huge implications for biodiversity as well as the climate crisis – the Amazon stores huge amounts of carbon and has a significant impact on global weather patterns.
“The Amazon rainforest really serves as kind of a motor, for rainfall and precipitation throughout the region. And so I think we would expect to see pretty major implications on agricultural production, for example, in other parts of Brazil and across South America,” Weisse said.
If the Amazon is not protected, it will also be much harder to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, said Weisse. Breaching this threshold risks of triggering major tipping points, including the death of coral reefs and the melting of polar ice sheets.
Continued effort is needed to keep pushing deforestation rates down, Weisse said. “You can’t just reduce the rates and expect that it’s going to stay that way.”
What’s happening in the Brazilian Amazon provides some hope that rainforest destruction rates might start to decline globally. In 2022 an area of global tropical forest the size of Switzerland was lost as forest destruction rose by 10% compared to the previous year, according to a recent report from Global Forest Watch.
by tyler | Aug 3, 2023 | americas, CNN
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel López Obrador has condemned Texas’s anti-migrant buoys, calling the border enforcement tactic on the Rio Grande river “inhumane” after bodies were found in the waters that flow along the US-Mexico border.
“No one should be treated like this. That kind of treatment does not come from a good person; only by being good can we be happy,” Lopez Obrador said at his daily press briefing on Thursday.
“Abbott shouldn’t act like that; it’s inhumane,” he also said, directly attacking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has touted the new barrier as a protective measure for his state and previously refused to remove it.
Two bodies were found in separate incidents by United States and Mexican officials in the Rio Grande river, according to Mexico’s foreign ministry on Wednesday.
One body was found stuck in the southern section of the buoys, and another body was found three miles upstream. Both were recovered by a rescue group from Mexico’s National Institute of Migration.
It is unclear what caused their deaths, though Texas officials have said that they suspect that the person found caught in the floating barrier had died upstream.
The floating barrier, which is intended to block migrants crossing from Mexico, was installed last month without federal authorization, according to the US Justice Department, which is suing the state of Texas over its use of the buoys.
The Mexican government has also decried Abbott’s decision to float the buoys. Last week, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Alicia Bárcena Ibarra said her country had sent its second diplomatic note to the US complaining about the barriers.
They not only violate two treaties between the US and Mexico, she said, but a slide that accompanied her remarks claimed that a portion of the 305 meters of deployed buoy is on “Mexican territory.”
López Obrador on Thursday warned that the buoys violated Mexico’s “sovereignty and human rights,” adding that “we are already demanding that these buoys be removed.”
He also said that authorities were working to determine the deceased’s nationalities.
When first announcing the barrier in June, Abbott, a longtime critic of the Biden administration’s border policies, said he intended to float the first 1,000 feet of the barrier in the river near the city of Eagle Pass in Maverick County.
Texas’ treatment of migrants who attempt to cross into the US illegally has faced increasing scrutiny, and Biden administration officials have shown concern about Abbott’s measures, which have disrupted US Border Patrol operations in the region and put migrants at risk.
An internal email written by a Texas trooper-medic and shared with CNN last month said medics in Eagle Pass were ordered to push people back into the water, and described seeing a boy struggle “while he tried to cross a more dangerous part of the river away from the buoys,” as well as a mother and two children who drowned while trying to cross the river in an area without wire.
The email also described “a man with a significant laceration on his leg, suffered when he tried to rescue his child from razor wire placed on a deterrence buoy in the Rio Grande.”
In recent years, advocates say migrants have resorted to increasingly risky – and often fatal – paths to evade detection and enter the US amid a flurry of deterrence measures by both state and federal authorities. In June, dozens of people were found dead inside a semi-truck in Texas.
by tyler | Aug 2, 2023 | americas, CNN
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau are separating, Trudeau announced on his Instagram account Wednesday.
Trudeau said after “many meaningful and difficult conversations” with Sophie, “we have made the decision to separate.”
“As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build,” he wrote.
He asked that their privacy be respected for the well-being of their children.
After spending several years teaching in Vancouver, Trudeau returned to Montreal in 2002 where he met Grégoire Trudeau, according to the Canadian Prime Minister’s official biography.
“In 2002, Justin returned home to Montréal, where he met Sophie Grégoire. They married in 2005 and are now the proud parents of Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien,” it wrote.
According to Trudeau’s Liberal Party website, Grégoire Trudeau gained a degree in communications at the University of Montréal, later working in sales and advertising before becoming a television and radio reporter.
In an Instagram post celebrating their wedding anniversary last year, Grégoire Trudeau said the pair had “navigated through sunny days, heavy storms, and everything in between and it ain’t over.”
She added: “Long-term relationships are challenging in so many ways. They demand constant work, flexibility, compromise, sacrifice, devotion, patience, effort, and so much more. None of us are perfect and so there is no perfect relationship, but love is only true when it keeps you safe, sets you free, and makes you grow.”
The pair attended King Charles’ coronation in London earlier in May, and also met with US President Joe Biden in March.
by tyler | Aug 2, 2023 | americas, CNN
The American woman arrested and charged with conspiring to kill her husband in the Bahamas months after the couple filed for divorce has been granted bail, a defense attorney said Wednesday.
Lindsay Shiver, 36, of Thomasville, Georgia, is accused of unsuccessfully conspiring with two Bahamas natives to kill her husband, Robert Shiver, on July 16 while on the Abaco Islands.
Bail for Lindsay Shiver was set at $100,000, her defense attorney, Ian Cargill, said. The bail conditions stipulate that she remain in the Bahamas and wear an ankle monitoring device until her next court appearance on October 5, Cargill said.
Lindsay Shiver and two suspected co-conspirators have been in custody at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services since their arrest last week. Cargill did not confirm whether Lindsay Shiver was still incarcerated as of Wednesday.
The alleged co-conspirators – Terrance Adrian Bethel, 28, and Farron Newbold Jr., 29 – face conspiracy to commit murder charges. Their bail was set at $20,000 each, Cargill said.
CNN has reached out to the Bahamian Supreme Court and local authorities for more information.
Police successfully foiled the plot by acting on crucial information on a phone recovered during a separate criminal inquiry into a recent local business break-in, a Bahamian police source told CNN.
Written messages found on that phone indicated the existence of the sinister plot, according to the source, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity. The identity of the phone’s owner remains unclear. As the investigation continues, the police source did not provide further details on that matter.
Attorneys represented the defendants in court during a Friday arraignment, according to court documents. They were not required to enter pleas and were remanded to the Bahamas corrections department until an October 5 hearing.
Lindsay and Robert Shiver both attended Auburn University and live in Thomasville, according to social media posts. – an insurance executive and former Auburn University football player, court records and his company’s website show.
Robert Shiver had filed for divorce April 5, and his wife had done the same the next day, according to a complaint at the Thomas County, Georgia, Clerk of Courts website.
Shiver listed Lindsay Shiver’s “adulterous conduct” as a reason for divorce, saying the marriage is irrevocably broken, according to the court filings viewed by CNN.
Lindsay Shiver’s filing says she “incurred debt beyond her means to pay” and asks that Robert Shiver be made to pay. CNN has reached out to attorneys representing each in the divorce case.
The family has spent a good deal of time in the Bahamas, pictures posted on a social media account believed to belong to Lindsay Shiver indicate.
Robert Shiver briefly was a member of at least one NFL team, according to his company’s website. Court documents in the Bahamas misidentify him as Richard Shiver.
by tyler | Aug 2, 2023 | americas, CNN
Here’s a look at the life of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Birth date: December 25, 1971
Birth place: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Birth name: Justin Pierre James Trudeau
Father: Pierre Elliot Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada (1968-1979 and 1980-1984)
Mother: Margaret (Sinclair) Trudeau
Marriage: Sophie Grégoire (May 2005-2023, separated)
Children: Hadrien, 2014; Ella-Grace Margaret, 2009; Xavier James, 2007
Education: McGill University, B.A., 1994; University of British Columbia, B.Ed., 1998
Religion: Roman Catholic
Trudeau is the first child of a Canadian prime minister to become prime minister himself.
Has worked as a snowboarding instructor, nightclub bouncer and camp counselor.
Regularly boxes.
While campaigning for prime minister, Trudeau endorsed the legalization of marijuana.
April 1972 – During a state visit with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, US President Richard Nixon makes a prediction: “Tonight, we’ll dispense with the formalities,” Nixon says. “I’d like to toast the future prime minister of Canada: to Justin Pierre Trudeau.”
1998 – Trudeau’s brother, Michel Trudeau, is killed in an avalanche while skiing.
1999-2002 – Teaches high school math and French in British Columbia.
2000 – Trudeau’s father dies of prostate cancer.
2002-2006 – Chair of Katimavik, a national volunteer service program for young Canadians.
October 14, 2008 – Elected a member of Parliament, representing the Papineau district of Montreal.
May 2, 2011 – Is reelected to Parliament.
November 17, 2011 – Strips down to his undershirt, while audience members bid on a lunch date with him, at a charity event for the Canadian Liver Foundation. In 2013, the footage is used by the Conservative Party in attack ads.
March 31, 2012 – Participates in a charity boxing match against Patrick Brazeau, a senator from Canada’s Conservative Party. Trudeau is declared the winner.
April 14, 2013 – Is elected leader of the Liberal Party with nearly 78% of the vote.
November 11, 2014 – His memoir, “Common Ground,” is published.
October 19, 2015 – The Liberal Party wins 184 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons.
November 4, 2015 – Is sworn in as Canada’s 23rd prime minister.
March 10, 2016 – US President Barack Obama welcomes Trudeau and his wife as the guests of honor for the first official Canadian White House visit in 19 years.
November 24, 2017 – Trudeau, on behalf of the Canadian government, formally apologizes to indigenous people in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador for the boarding school system, which removed children from their families, culture and religion.
November 28, 2017 – Trudeau, on behalf of the Canadian government, formally apologizes to members of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and two-spirit community (LGBTQ2) for systemic discrimination.
June 9, 2018 – During a news conference at the G7 Summit, Trudeau announces that Canada will “move forward with retaliatory measures” on July 1 in response to the US President Donald Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, the European Union and Mexico.
July 6, 2018 – A former newspaper reporter says allegations in an editorial claiming Trudeau groped her at a music festival 18 years ago are true, but she considers the matter closed. Trudeau said a day earlier that he apologized at the time and doesn’t “feel that I acted inappropriately in any way.”
August 14, 2019 – Ethics commissioner Mario Dion releases a report saying that Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act by interfering with a corporate criminal case. In the report, Dion says Trudeau attempted to pressure former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould into abandoning the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, an engineering company.
September 18, 2019 – Trudeau apologizes after three images surface of him in blackface makeup.
September 19, 2019 – Trudeau apologizes again and declines to say definitively whether there could be more pictures. He says that he may not remember because his privilege gave him a blind spot on the issue.
October 21, 2019 – Is reelected prime minister.
December 4, 2019 – Trudeau admits that he and other world leaders were talking about Trump when they were caught on camera during a NATO reception. The video shows Trudeau, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte laughing. None of the leaders explicitly names Trump in the video.
July 6, 2020 – Trudeau declines an invitation from Trump to attend a July 8th ceremony marking the beginning of the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in Washington. Although Trudeau is concerned about the health situation and the coronavirus reality that is affecting all three countries, the Prime Minister’s office states, “We wish the United States and Mexico well…while there were recent discussions about the possible participation of Canada, the Prime Minister will be in Ottawa for scheduled Cabinet meetings and the long-planned sitting of Parliament.”
September 6, 2021 – After denouncing protesters as “anti-vaxxer mobs,” Trudeau is pelted with gravel at an election campaign stop in London, Ontario.
January 31, 2022 – Trudeau announces via Twitter that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and will continue to work remotely. He and his family have been isolating after exposure a few days earlier.
June 13, 2022 – Trudeau announces via Twitter that he has tested positive for Covid-19.
August 2, 2023 – Trudeau announces that he and his wife Sophie are separating.
