Highly invasive wood-boring beetle intercepted at U.S. border
April 7 (UPI) -- A highly invasive wood-boring beetle was intercepted last month by U.S. border agents before it could destroy forests and ecosystems, Customs and Border Protection announced Monday.
The live Asian long-horned beetle, which can cause significant damage to hardwood trees, was discovered during an inspection of wood cargo from Romania on March 17. CBP agriculture specialists at the Port Huron rail yard in Michigan found solid insect waste before discovering live beetle larvae.
"Our nation's agriculture industry is constantly at risk from pests and disease not known to occur in the United States," said Area Port Director Jeffrey Wilson. "This interception by our highly skilled agriculture specialists showcase our continued commitment to safeguarding American agriculture and protecting public health."
The beetle larvae were found inside wood pallets that were stamped with a marking to show that they had been heat-treated to prevent invasive species. The treatment is required by the Interim Commission on Phytosanitary Measures of the International Plant Protection Convention and is the international standard for the safe use of wooden pallets and crates.
While the marking on the wood packaging material "appeared to be legitimate," agents believe the heat treatment process may not have been "executed properly."
Untreated wood packaging material can risk non-native pests -- such as the Asian long-horned beetles -- to be introduced to new environments where they can kill forest and shade trees while causing "significant economic damage."
"Every successful interception, like this one, prevents potential devastation to our hardwood trees and reinforces our commitment to keeping invasive pests from harming our environment and economy," said CBP Director of Field Operations Marty Raybon.
"The Asian long-horned beetle is a destructive invasive species that threatens our forests and urban landscapes," Raybon added. "This discovery underscores the vital role our agriculture specialists play in protecting the nation's natural resources and economy."
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UPI
28 minutes ago
- UPI
8 hurt in attack targeting Boulder event supporting Israeli hostages
June 1 (UPI) -- Authorities in Colorado said a man armed with a makeshift flamethrower attacked a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages near Boulder's county courthouse on Sunday, injuring eight. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman of Colorado Springs, was taken into police custody at the scene. He has been booked into the Boulder County jail on a slew of charges, including first-degree murder, according to jail records. Bond has been set at $10 million. Mark Michalek, the FBI special agent in charge, told reporters during a press conference that the suspect is alleged to have attacked the group of demonstrators with the homemade flamethrower and incendiary devices, later said to have been Molotov cocktails. He said witnesses reported hearing the suspect yell "Free Palestine" during the attack. "It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism," he said. Police originally stated six people were injured but in a late Sunday statement said it had identified eight victims, four men and four women between the ages of 52 and 88. The conditions of the victims ranged from minor to serious, though Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said he could not confirm specific injuries. Authorities earlier said four victims had been transported to local hospitals and two were airlifted to the Denver area where they were receiving treatment by the Aurora hospital burn unit. Redfearn said at least one victim was "very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition." The attack near Pearl St. Mall in downtown Boulder occurred just before 1:30 p.m. MDT, authorities said. Police arrived at the scene to find victims suffering from burns. The suspect was taken into custody without incident but was transported to the hospital for minor injuries. "We need to hold the attacker fully accountable. That is my promise -- to hold to the attacker fully accountable," Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty vowed during the press conference. FBI Director Kash Patel described it as "a targeted terror attack," and his deputy director, Dan Bongino, said it was being investigated as "an act of ideologically motivated violence." The pro-Israel advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League identified the demonstrators attacked in a statement as participants of the weekly Run for Their Lives event, which sees Jewish community members run and walk in solidarity with Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. "Today, America bore witness to yet another heinous act of anti-Semitism designed to terrorize a peaceful community," Colorado Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "This type of hate-filled violence has no place in our civilized society and must be universally condemned." The attack is the latest to occur in the United States targeting Jewish people amid Israel's war in Gaza. On May 21, Elias Rodriguez, 31, was accused of yelling "Free Palestine" as he was being arrested after allegedly shooting two Israeli embassy employees outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum, where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee. Days later, a U.S. citizen from Boulder was charged with planning to firebomb the U.S. embassy in Israel with Molotov cocktails. The ADL on Sunday said, "We're witnessing a global campaign of intimidation and terror deliberately directed against the Jewish people." Decades of fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas exploded into a full-fledged war in Gaza after the military group killed 1,200 Israelis and took 251 more hostage in a blood surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has responded by devastating Gaza with a brutal military offensive, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry. Last month, Israel launched a new military offensive in the Palestinian enclave, increasing international criticism, including from allies, over the war. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser condemned the Sunday attack as a potential hate crime while stating violence is not the answer to political differences. "People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences. Hate has no place in Colorado," he said in a statement. "We all have the right to peaceably assemble and the freedom to speak our view. But these violent acts -- which are becoming more frequent, brazen and closer to home -- must stop, and those who commit these horrific acts must be fully held to account." An evacuation zone encompassing several blocks of downtown Boulder was established. The FBI late Sunday said in a statement that agents located in El Paso County, Colo., were conducting "a court-authorized law enforcement activity" related to the Pearl Street Mall attack. No other information was given. According to the ADL, there have been nine plots or attacks allegedly targeting Jews or Jewish institutions in the United States in the past 11 months, a sharp increase from seven between the 54 months between January 2020 to June of last year.
New York Post
5 hours ago
- New York Post
Miranda Devine: Jill Biden's ‘work husband' Anthony Bernal may have played a key role in covering up Joe's cognitive decline
There are few doubts in the White House about Jill 'Lady Macbeth' Biden's role in covering up her husband's cognitive deficits as she urged him to run for re-election. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made that point crystal clear from the press room podium Thursday, saying the former first lady 'needs to answer' for 'lying to the American people' and 'shielding her husband away from the cameras.' For the normally circumspect Leavitt, it was a damning indictment. 'I think, frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw in regards to her husband and when she saw and what she knew,' she told reporters at a White House briefing. 'Anybody looking again at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see this was a clear cover-up, and Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that coverup.' Some, like Leo Terrell, a senior counselor in the DOJ's civil rights office, went so far as to say Jill was guilty of 'elder abuse.' Of course, Joe Biden's delusional ambition is most at fault. He knew what he was doing when he ran for president in 2019 but needed teleprompters to recite a basic stump speech he used to know by heart. He knew what he was doing when he decided to run again in 2024, despite his health problems. 'Wizard of Oz-type' What is becoming clear is that the social-climbing former first lady and the aide she calls her 'work husband,' Arizona-born former child actor Anthony Bernal, played a bigger role in this con job than previously has been acknowledged. David Hogg, recently ousted as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Deterrian Jones, a former Biden White House staffer, point the finger at Bernal as the chief puppeteer in a new undercover video from Project Veritas released last week. Bernal had 'an enormous amount of power,' said Hogg. Jones described Jill's diminutive gay factotum as 'scary . . . like a Wizard of Oz-type figure. The general public wouldn't know what he looked like, but he wielded enormous power.' According to Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's new book, 'Original Sin,' Jill was one of the most powerful first ladies in history, and that gave her Rasputin-like senior adviser outsized influence among the 'Politburo' that controlled her husband. When Biden was hidden away during the 2020 campaign in his Delaware basement using the COVID pandemic as an excuse, Bernal was one of only two staffers allowed to move to Wilmington to tend to their daily needs. When Biden was holed up at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach last year, wrestling with the decision to abandon his campaign after his disastrous debate performance, Bernal was one of only four aides allowed by his side. Bernal, who boasted the title of 'special assistant to the president' and reportedly earned the maximum White House salary, began working for Jill during the 2008 presidential campaign when he was hired to help her transition into the role of second lady. While he was obsequious with the Bidens, he was loathed and feared by other White House staffers: 'He would not be welcome at my funeral,' a longtime Biden aide told the authors. Another said Bernal was 'the worst person they had ever met.' Bernal enforced a strict culture of loyalty, interrogating aides he felt didn't measure up, and using his power to cast out 'potential heretics.' 'Bullied colleagues' He worked with Jill to keep score of 'who was with them and against them,' chose her wardrobe, orchestrated her multiple Vogue covers, and planned glamorous overseas trips they could take together on Air Force One. This should come as no surprise to Post readers since White House correspondent Steven Nelson broke the story last March that Bernal 'bullied and verbally sexually harassed colleagues over more than a decade' but is considered 'untouchable' because Jill adores him. Bernal repeatedly speculated about 'the penis size of colleagues,' according to Nelson's sources. 'They talk a big game about integrity, decency, and kindness but when you work for the Bidens, you experience anything but that,' said one former staffer. The Bidens told us 'decency' was on the ballot. It was, but not in the way they meant. As Joe faded and disappeared from view toward the end of his presidency, Jill's rival court took charge as she commandeered Air Force One and a big Secret Service contingent for a frenetic round of solo campaigning, always accompanied by the indispensable Bernal. Her priority over then-candidate Donald Trump for Secret Service resources at a dinner she attended in Pittsburgh on the day of his rally in Butler, Pa., was blamed in part for Trump being inadequately protected when he was shot during an attempted assassination. Bernal was by Jill's side when she swanned into Hunter's gun trial in Wilmington last year to project presidential power to the jury, which nonetheless convicted her wayward 55-year-old stepson. He joined Jill on Air Force One when she jetted back to France for 24 hours at taxpayer expense to join her husband on an official visit for D-Day commemorations in the middle of the trial, before they returned together to the courtroom. If Jill is guilty of hiding the Bidens' many secrets, she had a willing accomplice in Bernal. We may learn more about his role in coming weeks as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) probes the cover-up of Joe's cognitive decline and whether the president was fit to authorize the use of an autopen for his signature on executive orders and pardons. 'Historic scandal' Comer sent letters about what he calls the 'historic scandal,' demanding transcribed interviews from Bernal and four other former Biden aides, including Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Neera Tanden, Annie Tomasini, and Ashley Williams, all of whom have hired lawyers, he told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. O'Connor's interview is set for the end of June. Comer also is considering subpoenas for Jill and Hunter. 'These executive orders were many meant to Trump proof this White House,' Comer told Bartiromo. 'If we can find information that would lead us to believe that Joe Biden had no knowledge of those executive orders being signed in his name, then I think that the Trump administration could get them thrown out in court, and then Trump would be able to execute his agenda a whole lot easier without all the Trump-proofing that happened with the auto pen at the end of the Biden administration.' The American people do deserve to know who was running the White House the last four years. But it may not be so easy to prove that Joe was out of it. The former president showed he still has fight in him last week when he showed up at a veterans' memorial event in Delaware and snarked at questions from reporters about his cognitive and physical health: 'You can see that I'm mentally incompetent and I can't walk,' he said, sarcastically.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump offers no rest for lifelong US activist couple
They've lost count of how many times they've been arrested, but even with a combined age of 180 years, American couple Joseph and Joyce Ellwanger are far from hanging up their activist boots. The pair, who joined the US civil rights rallies in the 1960s, hope protesting will again pay off against Donald Trump, whose right-wing agenda has pushed the limits of presidential power. "Inaction and silence do not bring about change," 92-year-old Joseph, who uses a walker, told AFP at a rally near Milwaukee in late April. He was among a few hundred people protesting the FBI's arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan, who is accused of helping an undocumented man in her court evade migration authorities. By his side -- as always -- was Joyce, 88, carrying a sign reading "Hands Off Hannah." They are certain that protesting does make a difference, despite some Americans feeling despondent about opposing Trump in his second term. "The struggle for justice has always had so much pushback and difficulty that it almost always appeared as though we'll never win," Joseph said. "How did slavery end? How did Jim Crow end? How did women get the right to vote? It was the resilience and determination of people who would not give up," he added. "Change does happen." The couple, who have been married for more than 60 years, can certainly speak from experience when it comes to protesting. Joseph took part in strategy meetings with Martin Luther King Jr -- the only white religious leader to do so -- after he became pastor of an all-Black church in Alabama at the age of 25. He also joined King in the five-day, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, which historians consider a pivotal moment in the US civil rights movement. Joyce, meanwhile, was jailed for 50 days after she rallied against the US military training of soldiers from El Salvador in the 1980s. Other causes taken up by the couple included opposing the Iraq war in the early 2000s. "You do what you have to do. You don't let them stop you just because they put up a blockade. You go around it," Joyce told AFP. - 'We'll do our part' - Joseph admitted he would like to slow down, noting the only time he and his wife unplug is on Sunday evening when they do a Zoom call with their three adult children. But Trump has kept them active with his sweeping executive actions -- including crackdowns on undocumented migrants and on foreign students protesting at US universities. The threats to younger protesters are particularly concerning for Joyce, who compared those demonstrating today to the students on the streets during the 1960s. "They've been very non-violent, and to me, that's the most important part," she said. Joyce also acknowledged the couple likely won't live to see every fight to the end, but insisted they still had a role to play. "We're standing on the shoulders of people who have built the justice movement and who have brought things forward. So, we'll do our part," she said. Joyce added that she and Joseph would be protesting again on June 14 as part of the national "No Kings" rally against Trump. "More people are taking to the streets, we will also be in the street," she said. str/bjt/nl/mlm
