Latest news with #Avila
Scottish Sun
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Inside twisted crew on Greta Thunberg's Gaza ‘Freedom Flotilla' from terrorist sympathiser to Nazi-ranting TV presenter
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE crew on board Greta Thunberg's "Freedom Flotilla" include a terrorist sympathiser and a raging presenter who branded the IDF Nazis. The climate zealot, aged 22, is working with 11 other pro-Palestine activists on board the Madleen to deliver a "symbolic" amount of aid into Gaza. 6 Greta Thunberg's Freedom Flotilla is packed with a controversial crew Credit: Getty 6 Thiago Ávila (L) hailed the former leader of terrorist group Hezbollah 6 Yasemin Acar is among the extremist crew 6 French MEP Rima Hassan (R) is on board the ship Credit: Reuters The young campaigners say they are hoping to 'break the siege' and raise 'international awareness' of the humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip. But some of them have openly supported terrorist organisations like the infamous Hezbollah. Brazilian protestor Thiago Avila attended the funeral of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in February after he was assassinated last year. Avila hailed the Islamist militia leader as a "beloved" leader and a "martyr." The Brazilian also said he was "very honored" and "very happy" to attend the funeral of the terrorist group leader. Nasrallah "inspired people all over the world", according to Avila. On X, Avila said of Hezbollah's head was an "important figure", and that the funeral "amazed him". Nasrallah was the leader of Hezbollah - which is deemed a terrorist organisation in the UK and US among other countries. He helped train fighters from the terror group Hamas and other militias in Iraq and Yemen. Another sailor on board the so-called Freedom Flotilla is Yasemin Acar, from Berlin, who gained notoriety for hate speech against Jews. Death of Hamas chief Mohammad Sinwar could cause DECIMATED terror group to implode When Iran launched a terrifying missile strike on Israel, she reportedly danced with a pal in celebration as the rockets hit, according to Bild. Acar has also reportedly drawn slogans to target Israel, and at a demonstration she was heard racially abusing a white woman. She said: "You're a white person, you shouldn't tell us what to do." Scandalous politician Rima Hassan is also on board the ship to Gaza. She has accused Israel of being responsible for the October 7 deaths and kidnappings of Kfir and Ariel Bibas and their mum Shira in 2023. This is despite the fact that terror group Hamas executed the infamous attack where the three were taken and killed. Hassan reportedly tweeted: "Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas were killed by an Israeli attack." 6 Great Thunberg en route to Gaza Credit: X 6 Deceased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah Credit: AP She also took part in a protest in Jordan last year - in which demonstrators held up banners praising Hamas and calling for the destruction of Israel, according to Bild. Hassan was among people reportedly chanting in the streets: 'We die for jihad.' French journalist Omar Faiad is also sailing with Greta and co. The Al-Jazeera journalist has downplayed the Holocaust and shockingly compared the IDF to Nazis. The reporter said on X: "The Israeli army resembles the Nazi army." He also claimed that "Israel is committing a new Holocaust in Gaza" shortly after the barbaric October 7 attack. Who is on board the "Freedom Floitlla"? Greta Thunberg - Swedish climate activist Rima Hassan – French-Palestinian MEP Yasemin Acar – German activist Thiago Avila – Brazilian activist Omar Faiad – French journalist Pascal Maurieras – French activist Yanis Mhamdi – French reporter Suayb Ordu – Turkish activist Sergio Toribio – Spanish activist Marco van Rennes – Dutch activist Reva Viard – French activist Liam Cunningham - Irish actor Baptiste Andre - French Physician On Wednesday, Israel issued a stark warning to Thunberg's ship as the climate activist aimed to sail into Gaza. The Swede left from Catania, Italy, on Sunday to take the Madleen across the Mediterranean. Also on board the ship is Irish Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham. She posted pictures of herself on social media with a Palestine flag and wearing a keffiyeh scarf. Israel is prepared to raid the ship, IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said. He said: "We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly." One activist on board has said they are being followed by a drone - a month after another boat under the same flag was allegedly attacked by one.
Fox News
27-05-2025
- General
- Fox News
Rare glimpse: 440-year-old remains of Saint Teresa draw 100,000 pilgrims to Spain
Catholics made a pilgrimage to a town in Spain to see the more than 440-year-old body of Saint Teresa of Avila. The faith-filled journey took believers to Alba de Tormes, where the Spanish saint is buried, to see her remains. The Catholic Church displayed Teresa for the first time in over 110 years. According to the Associated Press, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, the prior of the Discalced Carmelites of Salamanca, said that 100,000 people visited the saint over two weeks. Visitors from around the world made the trip to see this rare occurrence. Guiomar Sánchez, who traveled from Madrid with her two daughters on Sunday, told the Associated Press that "It gave me a feeling of fulfillment, of joy, and of sadness." A group of nuns from India had to wipe away tears as they stood by the side of the casket looking at the saint. Pope Leo XIV himself took a trip to Teresa's hometown of Avilia, which is an hour's drive from Alba de Tormes. The casket of the patron saint of headache sufferers is about four feet long. What visitors see is Teresa's skull dressed in a habit with vestments covering the rest of the body. Teresa's heart is kept in a jar in another part of the church while her fingers, jaw, hand are kept in other churches as relics across Europe. Teresa was born Teresa Ali Fatim Corella Sanchez de Capeda y Ahumada in Avila in 1515. She was sent to a convent at the age of 16 by her father and eventually founded the Discalced Carmelites. She passed away in 1582 at the age of 67. She was canonized in1622 and made a Doctor of the Church in 1970 and is one of two women ever to receive the title. Once the casket was resealed, it was carried through the streets with visitors following the procession. It is currently unclear how long, or if ever again, the saint's remains will be put on display for believers to see. The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Boston Globe
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘Whom shall I fear?' In South Texas, two bakers face Trump's immigration wrath.
As their July trial nears, many in this Latino-majority community of 8,500 close to Brownsville, Texas, are learning what life will be like under President Donald Trump and his immigration crackdown. More than 52% of Los Fresnos' once-bright-blue Cameron County voted for Trump in November, but his aggressive policies are dividing families and rattling local businesses where people in this country without legal permission are indistinguishable from the larger border population. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up If found guilty of the most serious charge, conspiring to transport and harbor undocumented migrants, both Baez, 56, and Avila, 46, face sentences of up to 10 years in prison. Advertisement The Justice Department has framed the case as open-and-shut: Law enforcement officers found a room in the shopping plaza that includes the bakery with six mattresses on the floor housing employees unauthorized to work in the country. The raid, the government said, found two migrants 'unlawfully present in the United States' and six visa holders 'who did not have the right to work.' The Baez family agreed to discuss their lives, but at the suggestion of their lawyers, they would not talk about the case. But one of those lawyers, Jaime Diez, did speak on the case and said the federal indictment is a break from how 'harboring' charges are typically used. Advertisement 'Harboring charges used to be saved for cases where criminal groups would help smuggle undocumented people into the U.S. illegally,' he said. Migrants would 'then be stashed in houses until they could be picked in cars where they would be hidden so that they could be taken up north,' he added. A recent wave of high-profile immigration actions, such as visits this month to Washington, D.C., restaurants owned by celebrity chef Peter Chang and the husband of CBS News correspondent Norah O'Donnell, may have left the impression that the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is long and targeted at liberal urban redoubts and establishments that grab headlines. But in Los Fresnos, the arrests of Baez and Avila -- immigrants from Mexico who are pillars of the community and decidedly not celebrities -- feel personal, local residents said. Chang and Geoff Tracy, O'Donnell's husband, were not arrested, nor were any of their employees detained. Baez and Avila face potential prison terms, loss of their legal status and deportation if they are found guilty of harboring immigrants who are in the country without legal permission. 'What we are witnessing is the federal government targeting smaller minority-owned businesses, which aligns with the current administration's views on immigrants and immigration,' said Sylvia Gonzalez-Gorman, a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who specializes in immigration. Angela Dodge, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Texas, said each case is prosecuted on its merit. Advertisement 'We consider each such case based on the evidence and what can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,' Dodge said. On Feb. 12, as Trump's second term got underway, a team from Homeland Security Investigations conducted what it described as a worksite enforcement action at Abby's Bakery next to a busy road. Videos posted on Facebook showed armed officers escorting despondent handcuffed workers out of the property. A woman recording the video can be heard saying: 'They took all of the workers here, Abby's. Look how they take them.' A criminal complaint said agents found eight workers without legal documentation, whom court documents paint as knowingly hired and sheltered by the couple. Baez and Avila, legal U.S. residents with green cards who have owned the bakery for nearly 15 years, 'admitted they knew the aliens were unlawfully present in the United States in violation of the law, and they harbored aliens in their personally owned property,' according to prosecutors' court filings. A week after the raid, the couple reopened the bakery doors with about seven legal workers, including family members. Avila operates an adjoining restaurant that opened last year, and Baez said they try to focus on work, not their possible legal peril. 'The community never stopped supporting us,' Baez said. As it turned out, the raid on Abby's was just the beginning. In recent days, the Trump administration has directed about 2,000 agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI to aid ICE agents in finding and arresting immigrants in the country without legal permission, a sharp escalation in the administration's effort to fulfill a campaign promise to enact mass deportations. Advertisement But in Los Fresnos, that larger picture is less important than the local ordeal at hand. Jessica Castro, 46, this past week scanned the freshly baked goods, such as conchas, a pastry in the shape of a seashell, empanadas and Mexican cake, her husband's favorite. She explained why it was important to buy the Baezes' bread instead of the supermarket's. 'They need us,' she said. The rightward shift in the Rio Grande Valley was driven, in part, by the toll that inflation had taken on a region where the median income has remained stubbornly low, at around $33,000, residents say. Since then, immigration raids have shaken local shops, like tortillerias and used clothing shops, leaving many worried they could be next. Family members with mixed immigration statuses -- citizens, green card holders and migrants without legal documentation -- often live and work under one roof. 'As soon as I heard what happened, my heart broke for them,' Castro said as she loaded a tray with baked goods. 'I want them to know that locals are here for them, and we want them to be OK.' Edward Padron, 67, a longtime Republican and Army veteran who voted for Trump, scoffed at the sentiment. 'Sympathy has nothing to do with it,' he said. 'The law is the law.' Baez said that he was leaving his and his wife's fate up to God. Symbols of his faith are evident throughout the shop, with religious phrases and pamphlets greeting customers. He finds solace in Bible passages he has memorized. On this day, while on a break, Baez cleared sweat from his forehead and recited a verse that speaks to him from Psalm 27. Advertisement 'The Lord is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?' he said in Spanish. Baez said achieving the American dream seemed like an impossible goal growing up in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, a Mexican state bordering Texas. He sold bread on the streets, learned how to make it from a mentor and married his wife when she was 18 and he was 28. Soon after, the couple decided to try their luck in the United States. 'I asked her, 'let's go work on the other side,'' he recalled. They moved with his mother-in-law to a small brick home with a metal roof and an outhouse in Los Fresnos, where he made bread and sold it on the streets with his children. A few years later, the Baezes bought a wooden home with a working bathroom. In 2011, Baez stopped by a mechanic and saw that the building next door was up for rent. He borrowed money from members of his church and purchased basic bread making equipment to start his bakery. 'From the moment we opened, the customers never stopped coming,' Baez said. 'God has blessed us that way.' The business has expanded since. Today, the Baezes own the entire shopping center that includes the bakery, the size of half a block. This article originally appeared in
West Australian
17-05-2025
- General
- West Australian
The New York Times recipe: Sopa de Albondigas (Mexican Meatball Soup)
Some soups are a family affair: this one was passed down from grandmother, to mother, to son, namely Wesley Avila, the chef of Guerrilla Tacos in Los Angeles. For his family's take on the traditional Mexican meatball soup, he suggests paying special attention to the grains that are mixed into the meatballs. 'My mum always told me that when the rice is done, the soup is ready,' Avila says. 'She used it almost as a timer.' For the meatballs: 900g beef mince 450g pork mince pork ½ cup uncooked long-grain rice ⅓ cup chopped fresh mint 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tbsp salt flakes 1 ½ tsp black pepper For the soup: 2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil 1 medium brown onion, peeled and diced (about 1½ cups) 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut on an angle into 1cm slices 3 medium celery stalks, peeled and cut on an angle into 1cm slices 1 large red potato, cut into 2.5cm cubes Salt flakes and black pepper 3 tbsp tomato paste 3 garlic cloves, minced 2 bay leaves 2 tsp dried oregano, preferably Mexican 2 tsp ground cumin 8 cups chicken stock 240ml tomato passata or puree For garnish (optional): Crumbled queso fresco, panela or cotija 2 avocados, halved lengthwise, pitted and thinly sliced crosswise or diced Mini sweet capsicums, thinly sliced into rounds Serrano and habanero chillies, very thinly sliced Small fresh coriander sprigs or chopped fresh coriander Lime wedges, for squeezing Step 1 Prepare the meatballs: in a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, rice, mint, garlic, salt and pepper. Using your hands, gently mix until well combined. Pinch off 55g portions and gently roll between your palms to form golf ball-size rounds, transferring rounds to a baking tray. (You should have about 28 meatballs.) Step 2 In large pot, combine the olive oil, onion, carrots, celery and potato; season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, garlic, bay leaves, oregano and cumin, and cook over medium, stirring frequently, until fragrant and tomato paste starts to caramelise, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and tomato passata or puree and bring to a simmer over high. Step 3 Once the stock begins to bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low. Carefully add the meatballs, one by one, distributing them evenly in the pot until they're all submerged. If necessary, reduce the heat to reach a low simmer (this will keep the meatballs tender), and cook until the meatballs and rice are cooked through, about 40 minutes. (Resist the urge to stir for the first 20 minutes, otherwise you risk breaking the meatballs apart before they've firmed up.) Skim any impurities from the surface as the soup simmers. Step 4 Season to taste with salt. Divide the soup among bowls, about 4 or 5 meatballs per portion, and set out bowls of whatever garnishes you like. Serves 6-8 Total time: 1 ½ hours This article originally appeared in The New York Times . © 2023 The New York Times Company
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mexican governor says Trump revoked her tourist visa preventing her from traveling to the US
The governor of the Mexican state of Baja California announced on Sunday that she and her husband had their tourist visas for the U.S. revoked. Marina del Pilar Avila, a member of Mexico's Morena party, said she and her husband were informed that their visas had been revoked, but did not say why, or if she was given a reason for losing her visa. She attributed the revocation to actions taken by President Donald Trump. "I fully trust that the situation will be satisfactorily clarified for both of us," Avila wrote on X. Avila's visa is one of hundreds that the Trump administration has revoked as it continues to crack down on immigration to the U.S. Carlos Torres Torres, another member of the Morena party and Avila's husband, said in a Facebook post that his visa had also been revoked. He noted in his post that losing his visa "does not represent an accusation, investigation, or formal indictment by any authority, neither in Mexico nor in the United States." Torres further said that his "conscience is clear" regarding the matter. Avila also commented in defense of her husband. 'I say this with absolute clarity: Carlos has always acted with integrity, dedication, and a deep commitment to Baja California," she said, according to the New York Post. Torres serves as the special projects coordinator for the Baja California state government and the city of Tijuana. The San Ysidro border crossing in Baja California — the border between the cities of Tijuana, Mexico, and the greater San Diego, California area — is the busiest border crossing on the planet. Baja California also has two other major border crossings further east in Otay Mesa and Tecate. Avila has been involved in immigration talks with the U.S. since Trump took office. Last week, she met with the U.S. Consul General in Tijuana, Christopher Teal, for talks. She isn't the first foreign official to have her visa revoked. Several weeks ago, Colombian President Gustavo Petro also had his visa revoked by the Trump administration. He lost his visa ahead of a visit with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
