TAPACHULA, Mexico: An 11-year-old Egyptian girl and her 18-year-old sister were among those killed after Mexican army troops opened fire on a truck carrying migrants earlier this week, an official said Friday.
The sisters, and four other migrants from countries including Peru and Honduras, were killed on Tuesday in the southern state of Chiapas.
An official in the state’s prosecutors office confirmed the identification of the two sisters and said their father was wounded in the shooting, but survived.
Federal officials, including newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum, again refused Friday to confirm the ages or genders of the six migrants killed in the shooting, which occurred on Sheinbaum’s first day in office.
Soldiers claimed they heard shots and returned fire and officials have studiously avoided saying the migrants were killed by army gunfire. However, that appears to be the case, and two soldiers have been relieved of duty and turned over to civilian prosecutors for questioning.
The killings placed in doubt Sheinbaum’s statements over her first days in office that human rights will be at the forefront of her administration’s policies.
Asked about her immigration policy Friday, Sheinbaum said only that the killings were under investigation and doubled down on earlier claims that the government doesn’t violate human rights.
“First of all, human rights are respected,” Sheinbaum said. “That is very important, that is why it is called a humanistic immigration policy, because human rights are at the forefront.”
Three of the dead were from Egypt, and one each from Peru and Honduras. The other has apparently not yet been identified.
Ten other migrants were wounded in the shooting. but there has not been any information on their conditions.
Peru’s foreign ministry confirmed one Peruvian was killed and demanded “an urgent investigation” into the killings. Peru and Mexico have had damaged relations since a 2022 diplomatic spat.
It was the worst killing of migrants by authorities in Mexico since police in the northern state of Tamaulipas killed 17 migrants in 2021.
Sheinbaum has said the shootings are being investigated to see if any commanders might face punishment, and noted “a situation like this cannot be repeated.”
But she left out any mention of that Thursday at a ceremony at a Mexico City army base, where army and navy commanders pledged their loyalty to her in front of massed combat vehicles and hundreds of troops.
“In our country, there is not a state of siege, there are no violations of human rights,” Sheinbaum said, as she promised wage increases for soldiers and sailors.
The shootings Tuesday occurred near the city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.
The Defense Department initially said that soldiers claimed to have heard shots as a convoy of three trucks passed the soldiers’ position.
The Attorney General’s Office later said all three trucks ignored orders to stop and tried to flee. The soldiers pursued them and reported coming under fire from the convoy, and returned fire.
One of the trucks eventually stopped, the driver reportedly fled, and a total of 33 migrants were found aboard, from the three countries already mentioned, as well as Nepal, Cuba, India and Pakistan.
The Defense Department said four of the migrants were found dead, and 12 wounded. Two of the wounded later died of their injuries. Sheinbaum refused to say whether any weapons were found in the migrants’ truck.
The area is a common route for smuggling migrants, who are often packed into crowded freight trucks. It has also been the scene of drug cartel turf battles, and the department said the trucks “were similar to those used by criminal groups in the region.”
Irineo Mujica, a migrant rights activist, said he doubted the migrants or their smugglers opened fire.
“It is really impossible that these people would have been shooting at the army,” Mujica said. “Most of the time, they get through by paying bribes.”
If the deaths were the result of army fire, as appears likely, it could prove a major embarrassment for Sheinbaum.
The new president has followed the lead of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in giving the armed forces extraordinary powers in law enforcement, state-run companies, airports, trains and construction projects.
It is not the first time Mexican forces have opened fire on vehicles carrying migrants in the area, which is also the object of cartel turf battles.
In 2021, the quasi-military National Guard opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants, killing one and wounding four. The Guard officers initially claimed some of those in the migrants’ truck were armed and had fired shots, but the governmental National Human Rights Commission later found that was not true.
And in 2021, state police in Tamaulipas killed 17 migrants and two Mexican citizens. Those officers also initially claimed to have come under fire from the migrants’ vehicles.
They argued they were responding to shots fired and believed they were chasing the vehicles of one of the country’s drug cartels, which frequently participate in migrant smuggling. But that later turned out to be false, and the police in fact burned the victims’ bodies in an attempt to cover up the crime.
Eleven of the policemen were convicted of homicide and sentenced to over 50 years in prison.
2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting
https://arab.news/2d58u
2 sisters from Egypt were among those killed in Mexican army shooting
- The sisters, and four other migrants from countries including Peru and Honduras, were killed on Tuesday in the southern state of Chiapas
- Prosecutors’ office confirmed the identification of the two sisters and said their father was wounded in the shooting, but survived
Muslim NY mayoral candidate reports threats; Jewish Ohio lawmaker was threatened separately
WASHINGTON: The New York City Police Department said on Thursday its hate crime unit was probing anti-Muslim threats against mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani while in another incident US Representative Max Miller of Ohio said he was “run off the road” by another driver with a Palestinian flag.
These marked the latest US incidents to raise concerns about the rise in hate against Americans of Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian heritage since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in late 2023.
An NYPD spokesperson said police received reports that on Wednesday at 9:45 a.m., Mamdani, a Democratic state assembly member and mayoral candidate, reported that he “received four phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual.”
There have not been any arrests so far and the investigation remained ongoing, the NYPD added. The New York Daily News reported a man threatened to blow up Mamdani’s car. Mamdani had no immediate comment.
Separately, Republican US Representative Max Miller from Ohio said on X he was “run off the road” in the city of Rocky River on Thursday while he and his family were threatened by a person with a Palestinian flag. He said he had filed a police report.
“Today I was run off the road in Rocky River, and the life of me and my family was threatened by a person who proceeded to show a Palestinian flag before taking off,” said Miller, who is Jewish and pro-Israeli. He labeled the incident, which was also condemned by top congressional Democrats, as antisemitic.
Recent incidents that raised alarm over antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes in the US include a fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington and a Colorado attack that left eight people wounded when a suspect threw incendiary devices into a pro-Israeli crowd.
Incidents raising alarm about anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian prejudice include the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian child in Illinois, the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas and a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California.
Spain rejects NATO’s anticipated 5 percent defense spending proposal as ‘unreasonable’
- Most US allies in NATO are on track to endorse Trump’s demand that they invest 5 percent of GDP on defense and military needs
- But Spanish PM Sánchez’s decision risks derailing next week’s NATO summit, which could have lingering repercussions
MADRID: Spain has rejected a NATO proposal to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense needs that’s due to be announced next week, calling it “unreasonable.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a letter sent on Thursday to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, said that Spain “cannot commit to a specific spending target in terms of GDP” at next week’s NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands.
Any agreement to adopt a new spending guideline must be made with the consensus of all 32 NATO member states. So Sánchez’s decision risks derailing next week’s summit, which US President Donald Trump is due to attend, and creating a last-minute shakeup that could have lingering repercussions.
Most US allies in NATO are on track to endorse Trump’s demand that they invest 5 percent of GDP on their defense and military needs. In early June, Sweden and the Netherlands said that they aim to meet the new target.
A NATO official on Thursday said that discussions between allies were ongoing about a new defense spending plan.
“For Spain, committing to a 5 percent target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive, as it would move Spain away from optimal spending and it would hinder the EU’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its security and defense ecosystem,” Sánchez wrote in the letter seen by The Associated Press.
Spain was the lowest spender in the trans-Atlantic alliance last year, directing less than 2 percent of its GDP on defense expenditure.
Sánchez said in April that the government would raise defense spending by 10.5 billion euros ($12 billion) in 2025 to reach NATO’s previous target of 2 percent of GDP.
On Thursday, Sánchez called for “a more flexible formula” in relation to a new spending target — one that either made it optional or left Spain out of its application.
Sánchez wrote that the country is “fully committed to NATO,” but that meeting a 5 percent target “would be incompatible with our welfare state and our world vision.” He said that doing so would require cutting public services and scaling back other spending, including toward the green transition.
Instead, Spain will need to spend 2.1 percent of GDP to meet the Spanish military’s estimated defense needs, Sánchez said.
At home, corruption scandals that have ensnared Sánchez’s inner circle and family members have put the Spanish leader under increasing pressure to call an early election, even from some allies.
Increased military spending is also unpopular among some of Sanchez’s coalition partners. In April, when Sánchez announced that Spain would reach NATO’s previous 2 percent spending target, the move angered some coalition members further to the left of his Socialist Party.
NATO allies agreed to spend 2 percent of GDP on military expenditure after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. But the alliance’s plans for defending Europe and North America against a Russian attack require investments of at least 3 percent.
The aim now is to raise the bar to 3.5 percent for core defense spending on tanks, warplanes, air defense, missiles and hiring extra troops. A further 1.5 percent would be spent on things like roads, bridges, ports and airfields so armies can deploy more quickly, as well as preparing societies for possible attack.
Several allies have committed to reaching the new spending goal, even though other nations will struggle to find the billions required.
Rutte had been due to table a new proposal on Friday aimed at satisfying Spain and trying to break the deadlock. European allies and Canada want to end the standoff before the leaders meet with Trump on Wednesday.
Poland and the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have already publicly committed to 5 percent, and Rutte has said that most allies were ready to endorse the goal.
But Spain isn’t alone among NATO’s low spenders. Belgium, Canada and Italy will also struggle to hike security spending by billions of dollars.
A big question still to be answered is what time frame countries will be given to reach an agreed-upon new spending goal.
A target date of 2032 was initially floated, but Rutte has said that Russia could be ready to launch an attack on NATO territory by 2030.
Russia’s economy minister says the country is on ‘the brink of recession’
- Minister delivers warning at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
- Economy ministry also sees export losses due to trade wars at $9 billion
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia: Russia’s economy is “on the brink of going into a recession,” the country’s economy minister said Thursday, according to Russian media reports.
Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov delivered the warning at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the annual event in Russia’s second largest city designed to highlight the country’s economic prowess and court foreign investors.
Russian business news outlet RBC quoted the official as saying “the numbers indicate cooling, but all our numbers are (like) a rearview mirror. Judging by the way businesses currently feel and the indicators, we are already, it seems to me, on the brink of going into a recession.”
The economy, hit with a slew of sanctions after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has so far outperformed predictions. High defense spending has propelled growth and kept unemployment low despite fueling inflation. At the same time, wages have gone up to keep pace with inflation, leaving many workers better off.
Large recruiting bonuses for military enlistees and death benefits for those killed in Ukraine also have put more income into the country’s poorer regions. But over the long term, inflation and a lack of foreign investments remain threats to the economy, leaving a question mark over how long the militarized economy can keep going.
Economists have warned of mounting pressure on the economy and the likelihood it would stagnate due to lack of investment in sectors other than the military.
Speaking at a forum session, Reshetnikov said Russia was “on the brink,” and whether the country would slide into a recession or not depends on the government’s actions.
“Going forward, it all depends on our decisions,” Reshetnikov said, according to RBC.
RBC reported Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Central Bank Gov. Elvira Nabiullina gave more optimistic assessments.
Siluanov spoke about the economy “cooling” but noted that after any cooling “the summer always comes,” RBC reported.
Nabiullina said Russia’s economy was merely “coming out of overheating,” according to RBC.
Export losses
On the issue of exports, Russia estimates potential losses due to global trade wars at $9 billion, but expects a gradual stabilization of flows and a possible expansion of supplies to China, Deputy Economy Minister Vladimir Ilyichev said.
President Trump has upended longstanding trade relations since returning to the White House, using erratic tariff threats and aggressive negotiating tactics in a bid to secure better deals from trading partners.
“Overall, we estimate the impact on Russia of this reorientation at $33 billion, of which about $9 billion is the potential loss of Russian exports in third-country markets,” said Ilyichev.
ICE agents asked to leave Dodger Stadium parking lot, team says
LOS ANGELES: The Los Angeles Dodgers organization said Thursday that it asked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to leave the Dodger Stadium grounds after they arrived at a parking lot near one of the gates.
Dozens of federal agents with their faces covered arrived in SUVs and cargo vans to a lot near the stadium’s Gate E entrance. A group of protesters carrying signs against ICE started amassing shortly after, local media reported.
“This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the team said in a statement posted on X.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agents were not trying to enter the stadium.
“This had nothing to do with the Dodgers. vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement,” she said in an email.
The team said the game against the San Diego Padres later Thursday will be played as planned.
Television cameras showed about four agents remained at the lot Thursday afternoon while officers with the Los Angeles Police Department stood between them and dozens of protesters, some carrying signs that read “I Like My Ice Crushed” and chanting “ICE out of LA!”
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez arrived at the stadium and said she had been in communication with Dodger officials and the mayor’s office.
“We’ve been in communication with the mayor’s office, with the Dodgers, with Dodgers security, about seeing if they can get them moved off their private property,” she told KABC-TV. “Public property is different. Private property — businesses and corporations have the power to say, ‘Not on my property,’ And so we’re waiting to see that movement happen here.”
Protests began June 6 after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire the following days, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
The team has yet to make a statement regarding the arrests and raids. The Dodgers’ heavily Latino fan base have been pushing for the team to make a public statement and ignited a debate online about its stance on the immigration crackdown happening in Los Angeles.
The Trump administration has activated more than 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines over the objections of city and state leaders. Dozens of troops now guard federal buildings and protect federal agents making arrests.
The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of around 4 million people. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids.
Despite the protests, immigration enforcement activity has continued throughout the county, with city leaders and community groups reporting ICE present at libraries, car washes and Home Depots. School graduations in Los Angeles have increased security over fears of ICE action and some have offered parents the option to watch on Zoom.
Zelensky appoints new ground forces chief
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Voloydmyr Zelensky on Thursday appointed Gennadiy Shapovalov as commander of the country’s ground forces, replacing a previous commander who resigned following a deadly Russian strike on an army training ground.
Shapovalov worked as a military aid liaison in Germany and previously commanded Ukraine’s southern military district.
In his evening address, Zelensky said he hoped Shapovalov would bring “real combat experience” to the role and called for changes in the Ukrainian army, which is struggling to hold off Moscow’s forces more than three years into Russia’s invasion.
“Changes are needed, this is a mandatory issue,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
Moscow’s forces have been advancing across the front line for over a year and have been making inroads in Ukraine’s Sumy region, which the Kremlin had not occupied since the start of the war.
Peace talks on ending the conflict have stalled in recent weeks and Kyiv’s biggest ally, Washington, is now focusing its attention on the Middle East.
Russia says it is open to a peace settlement but Kyiv has accused Moscow of deliberately sabotaging talks to prolong the fighting.
