Election of Mexico's first Indigenous Supreme Court justice in 170 years raises hope and skepticism
MEXICO CITY (AP) — In his campaign for Mexico's Supreme Court, Hugo Aguilar sent a simple message: He would be the one to finally give Indigenous Mexicans a voice at one of the highest levels of government.
'It's our turn as Indigenous people ... to make decisions in this country,' he said in the lead up to Sunday's first judicial elections in Mexican history.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Syrian families return home in time for Eid al-Adha after years in notorious displacement camp
AL-QARYATAYN, Syria (AP) — Yasmine al-Saleh has two occasions to celebrate this year: the Eid al-Adha holiday and her family's return home after nine years in a notorious displacement camp in the Syrian desert. True, the home they returned to, in the town of al-Qaryatayn in the eastern part of Syria's Homs province, was damaged during the nearly 14 years of civil war. Al-Saleh fears that even a small earthquake will bring it down on their heads. Many of the surrounding buildings have collapsed. 'When I first entered my house — what can I say? It was a happiness that cannot be described,' al-Saleh said tearfully. 'Even though our house is destroyed, and we have no money, and we are hungry, and we have debts, and my husband is old and can't work, and I have kids — still, it's a castle in my eyes.' Last month, the last families left Rukban, a camp on the borders with Jordan and Iraq that once housed tens of thousands of families who lived under a crippling siege for years. People started gathering in Rukban in 2015, fleeing Islamic State militants and airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, Russia and the forces of then-Syrian President Bashar Assad. Displacement camps became widespread in Syria during the war, but the situation in Rukban was particularly dire. While the bulk of the camps sprung up in opposition-controlled areas in the country's northwest, Rukban was hemmed in on all sides by areas controlled by Assad's forces and by the border. Jordan sealed its border and stopped regular aid deliveries in 2016 after a cross-border IS attack that killed seven Jordanian soldiers. For years, the U.N. and other humanitarian organizations were largely unable to bring aid in. Food, water and other essentials were only available via smuggling at exorbitant prices, and there was almost no access to medical care. Al-Saleh recalled that when she gave birth to her two daughters, she feared that she would die in childbirth as other women in the camp had. In recent years, some aid got in via the U.S. Army. The camp was located in a 55-km (34-mile) 'deconfliction zone' surrounding the base. Many of the camp's residents were families of fighters with the U.S.-backed Syrian Free Army. 'Conditions were horrid,' said Lt. Col. Ryan Harty, who was stationed at the nearby al-Tanf garrison as squadron commander in 2024 and assisted with the aid shipments. 'They lacked medical care, medical supplies, food, basic food supplies, water — anything you could think of that you would need to sustain life, they lacked.' The U.S.-based NGO Syrian Emergency Task Force worked with military officials to implement a provision that allows American aid groups to send humanitarian goods on military cargo planes if the planes are not fully loaded with military supplies. Eventually they were also able to secure seats on the planes to bring doctors to the camp. Maj. Bo Daniels, who was chief of the civil affairs team al-Tanf in 2023, was the first to realize that doctors could be classified as 'humanitarian aid.' 'I've been in the Army now for 24 years. I'm an Afghanistan and Iraq veteran,' Daniels said. He has mixed feelings about those deployments. But in Syria, he said, he felt that 'every day my missions really, truly mattered.' Working in Rukban, he said, was 'was probably the proudest thing I've ever done in my military career.' Still, the situation remained dire. A few months before Assad's fall, Amnesty International issued a statement condemning the Syrian government's tightening siege of the camp and criticizing Jordanian authorities for continuing to 'unlawfully deport Syrians to Rukban despite the camp's unlivable conditions' and the U.S. government for making 'little visible effort to improve the desperate conditions despite its ability to do so.' Many former residents were desperate enough to leave the camp and head to government-held territory, risking arrest and forcible conscription to the Syrian army. Before Assad's fall, about 8,000 people remained. After Assad fell, there was an immediate exodus from the camp. But a few hundred people — including al-Saleh's family — remained, unable to scrape together the funds to make the move. Islamic Relief USA paid for trucks and buses to move some 564 people and their belongings back to their homes last month. The Syrian Emergency Task Force said in a statement that the repatriation of those families brings 'an end to one of the worst humanitarian crises in Syria' and 'marks the end of the tragedy of Rukban.' For some, their return was bittersweet. Bakir al-Najim, another recent returnee to al-Qaryatayn, said, 'After 10 years of displacement, we will celebrate Eid al-Adha back in our hometown.' But, he said, 'we are poor, we have no jobs, we have no food or drinks to offer our (Eid) guests.' Ahmed Shehata, chief executive officer of Islamic Relief USA, said the UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations that would normally provide aid to returning refugees and internally displaced people are scrambling to find the funding after the Trump administration's recent major cuts to U.S. foreign aid. He said his organization is in talks with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR about allocating a significant amount of funding to provide aid to those returning to their homes. Al-Saleh said however difficult her family's circumstances are now, they are nothing compared to the time they spent in Rukban. 'Rukban was a death camp,' she said. 'All I can say about it is that it was a death camp.' —— Sewell reported from Damascus, Syria. Associated Press writer Malak Harb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Planet-warming emissions dropped when companies had to report them. EPA wants to end that
LEOPOLD, Ind. (AP) — On the ceiling of Abbie Brockman's middle school English classroom in Perry County, the fluorescent lights are covered with images of a bright blue sky, a few clouds floating by. Outside, the real sky isn't always blue. Sometimes it's hazy, with pollution drifting from coal-fired power plants in this part of southwest Indiana. Knowing exactly how much, and what it may be doing to the people who live there, is why Brockman got involved with a local environmental organization that's installing air and water quality monitors in her community. 'Industry and government is very, very, very powerful. It's more powerful than me. I'm just an English teacher,' Brockman said. But she wants to feel she can make a difference. In a way, Brockman's monitoring echoes the reporting that the Environmental Protection Agency began requiring from large polluters more than a decade ago. Emissions from four coal-fired plants in southwest Indiana have dropped 60% since 2010, when the rule took effect. That rule is now on the chopping block, one of many that President Donald Trump's EPA argues is costly and burdensome for industry. But experts say dropping the requirement risks a big increase in emissions if companies are no longer publicly accountable for what they put in the air. And they say losing the data — at the same time the EPA is cutting air quality monitoring elsewhere — would make it tougher to fight climate change. Rule required big polluters to say how much they are emitting At stake is the Greenhouse Gas Reporting program, a 2009 rule from President Barack Obama's administration that affects large carbon polluters like refineries, power plants, wells and landfills. In the years since, they've collectively reported a 20% drop in emissions, mostly driven by the closure of coal plants. And what happens at these big emitters makes a difference. Their declining emissions account for more than three-quarters of the overall, if modest, decline in all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions since 2010. The registry includes places not usually thought of as big polluters but that have notable greenhouse gas emissions, such as college campuses, breweries and cereal factories. Even Walt Disney World in Florida, where pollution dropped 62% since 2010, has to report along with nearly 10,600 other places. 'We can't solve climate change without knowing how much pollution major facilities are emitting and how that's changing over time,' said Jeremy Symons, a former EPA senior climate adviser now at Environmental Protection Network, an organization of ex-EPA officials that monitors environmental policies. The group provided calculations as a part of The Associated Press' analysis of impacts from proposed rule rollbacks. Symons said some companies would welcome the end of the registry because it would make it easier to pollute. Experts see a role for registry in cutting emissions It's not clear how much the registry itself has contributed to declining emissions. More targeted regulations on smokestack emissions, as well as coal being crowded out by cheaper and less polluting natural gas, are bigger factors. But the registry 'does put pressure on companies to … document what they've done or at least to provide a baseline for what they've done,' said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who heads Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists that tally national carbon emissions yearly. Gina McCarthy, a former EPA administrator under Obama, said the registry makes clear how power plants are doing against each other, and that's an inducement to lower emissions. 'It is money for those companies. It's costs. It's reputation. It's been, I think, a wonderful success story and I hope it continues.' The potential end of the reporting requirement comes as experts say much of the country's air goes unmonitored. Nelson Arley Roque, a Penn State professor who co-authored a study in April on these 'monitoring deserts,' said about 40% of U.S. lands are unmonitored. That often includes poor and rural neighborhoods. 'The air matters to all of us, but apparently 50 million people can't know or will never know' how bad the air is, Roque said. EPA seeks to cancel money to fund some air monitoring The EPA is also trying to claw back money that had been earmarked for air monitoring, part of the termination of grants that it has labeled as targeting diversity, equity and inclusion. That includes $500,000 that would have funded 40 air monitors in a low-income and minority community in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. CleaneAIRE NC, a nonprofit that works to improve air quality across the state that was awarded the grant, is suing. 'It's not diversity, equity and inclusion. It's human rights,' said Daisha Wall, the group's community science program manager. 'We all deserve a right to clean air.' Research strongly links poor air quality to diseases like asthma and heart disease, with a slightly less established link to cancer. Near polluting industries, experts say what's often lacking is either enough data in specific locations or the will to investigate the health toll. Indiana says it 'maintains a robust statewide monitoring and assessment program for air, land and water,' but Brockman and others in this part of the state aren't satisfied. They're installing their own air and water quality monitors. It's a full-time job to keep the network of monitors up and running, fighting spotty Wi-Fi and connectivity issues. Fighting industry is a sensitive subject, Brockman added. Many families depend on jobs at coal-fired power plants, and poverty is real. She keeps snacks in her desk for the kids who haven't eaten breakfast. 'But you also don't want to hear of another student that has a rare cancer,' she said. ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed from Washington. ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
US employers added a solid 139,000 jobs in May despite uncertainty over trade wars
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers slowed hiring last month, but still adding a solid 139,000 jobs amid uncertainty over Trump's trade wars. Hiring fell from a revised 147,000 in April, the Department of Labor said Friday. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.2%. Trump's aggressive and unpredictable policies – especially his sweeping taxes on imports – have muddied the outlook for the economy and the job market and raised fears that the American economy could be headed toward recession. But so far the damage hasn't shown up clearly in government economic data. Economists expect Trump's policies to take a toll on America's economy, the world's largest. His massive taxes on imports — tariffs — are expected to raise costs for U.S. companies that buy raw materials, equipment and components from overseas and force them to cut back hiring or even lay off workers. Billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has slashed federal workers and cancelled government contracts. Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration is expected to make it harder for businesses to find enough workers. For the most part, though, any damage has yet to show up in the government's economic data. The U.S. economy and job market have proven surprisingly resilient in recent years. When the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve raised their benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, the higher borrowing costs were widely expected to tip the United States into a recession. Instead, the economy kept growing and employers kept hiring. But former Fed economist Claudia Sahm warns that the job market of 2025 isn't nearly as durable as the two or three years ago when immigrants were pouring into the U.S. job market and employers were posting record job openings. 'Any signs of weakness in the data this week would stoke fears of a recession again,' Sahm, now chief economist at New Century Advisors, wrote in a Substack post this week. 'It's too soon to see the full effects of tariffs, DOGE, or other policies on the labor market; softening now would suggest less resilience to those later effects, raising the odds of a recession.'' Recent economic reports have sent mixed signals. The Labor Department reported Tuesday that U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly to 7.4 million in April — seemingly a good sign. But the same report showed that layoffs ticked up and the number of Americans quitting their jobs fell, a sign they were less confident they could find something better elsewhere. Surveys by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, found that both American manufacturing and services businesses were contracting last month. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. And the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in eight months. Jobless claims — a proxy for layoffs — still remain low by historical standards, suggesting that employers are reluctant to cut staff despite uncertainty over Trump's policies. They likely remember how hard it was to bring people back from the massive but short-lived layoffs of the 2020 COVID-19 recession as the U.S. economy bounced back with unexpected strength. Still, the job market has clearly decelerated. So far this year, American employers have added an average 144,000 jobs a month. That is down from 168,000 last year, 216,000 in 2023, 380,000 in 2022 and a record 603,000 in 2021 in the rebound from COVID-19 layoffs. Trump's tariffs — and the erratic way he rolls them out, suspends them and conjures up new ones — have already buffeted the economy. America's gross domestic product — the nation's output of goods and services — fell at a 0.2% annual pace from January through March this year. A surge of imports shaved 5 percentage points off growth during the first quarter as companies rushed to bring in foreign products ahead of Trump's tariffs. Imports plunged by a record 16% in April as Trump's levies took effect. The drop in foreign goods could mean fewer jobs at the warehouses that store them and the trucking companies that haul them around, wrote Michael Madowitz, an economist at the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute.
