Latest news with #centralAmerican
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ships Could Pay Panama Canal Transit Fees in Bitcoin and Cut the Line, Panama City Mayor Muses
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The Mayor of Panama City, Mayer Mizrachi, is taking notes on bitcoin from the leader of El Salvador. Speaking at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on Thursday, Mizrachi said he's been thinking of ways Panama's capital city, which is home to the Panama Canal, could implement bitcoin payments. This includes potentially setting up a strategic bitcoin reserve for Panama City, as well as possibly taking payments — including for passage through the Panama Canal — in bitcoin, Mizrachi said. 'What if you have a perk for paying in bitcoin?' Mizrachi mused. 'You'd get to go faster.' Under Mizrachi, Panama City passed a bill that allows residents to pay for taxes, parking tickets, permits, and other fees with bitcoin BTC, ether ETH and some stablecoins. Four years ago, at Bitcoin 2021, Nayib Bukele, the leader of Panama's central American neighbor El Salvador, announced that his country would begin accepting bitcoin as legal tender. Mizrachi said he was directly inspired by Bukele's policies. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Middle East Eye
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Alleged US plans to deport people to Libya 'inhuman,' rights groups say
Human rights defender David Yambio recalls his time in Libya as one of 'perpetual fear'. Yambio fled Sudan in 2016 after he was forcibly recruited as a child soldier, and wound up in a series of detention centres and prisons in Libya. 'I was tortured, I was enslaved. I saw an enormous level of violence that I cannot describe,' he told Middle East Eye. He managed to escape and cross the central Mediterranean to Europe, and has since painstakingly documented abuses against refugees in Libya through his organisation Refugees in Libya. The news that US President Donald Trump is seeking to deport migrant people to Libya left him 'deeply troubled'. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters CNN has reported that Trump officials discussed with a Libyan delegation the possibility of sending non-nationals with criminal records to the country. One source said that administration officials are also seeking to strike a formal 'safe country' agreement with Libya which would allow the US to send asylum seekers apprehended at the US border to Libya to process their claims. 'As someone who has lived through this harsh reality of life in Libya, and the fact that I work every single day to address the ongoing crisis there, what I can say with certainty is that it's a dangerous, unacceptable and inhuman proposal,' Yambio said. 'Libya has never been a safe place for migrants, and I don't see it in any foreseeable future. The number of abuses we're documenting against migrants, refugees and Libyans is enormous,' he told MEE. Giulia Messmer, a spokesperson for the monitor Sea-Watch, said the move is 'tantamount to condemning refugees to a violent cycle of torture, slavery and sexual violence.' According to the report, no final agreement has been struck, and it is currently unclear which nationalities would be eligible for deportation. A State Department spokesperson and a Libyan official denied that deportations were discussed at the meeting. 'The most vile people on earth' During his election campaign, Trump pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in US history, and has deported and detained thousands of people since taking office. In January, he signed an executive order instructing officials to facilitate international agreements that would enable the US to deport migrant people. 'Libya has never been a safe place for migrants... The number of abuses we're documenting against migrants, refugees and Libyans is enormous' - David Yambio, co-founder of Refugees in Libya Since then, his administration has reportedly struck deals with a number of central American countries including El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, and is pushing to expand the list. His administration is also reportedly also seeking a deal with Rwanda, which will see the country accept individuals with criminal records who have already served sentences in the US. Under the agreement, the deportees would be integrated into Rwandan society. In March, a refugee from Iraq, Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, was deported from the US to Rwanda. Also in March, the US deported 200 Venezuelan men, whom it claimed were gang members, to an El Salvadoran mega prison, Cecot, shortly after the countries struck a $6m deal for El Salvador to detain around 300 migrants at the prison for one year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a US Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the administration is 'actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries'. 'We're working with nations to ask: would you take in some of the most vile people on Earth as a favour to us? The farther they are from America, the better - so they can't come back across the border,' he added. Continuous abuse Rights groups have long documented abuses perpetrated against thousands of people who arrive in Libya in the hope of boarding a boat to Europe and are abducted by traffickers and held to ransom. Libya is a key transit country for thousands of refugees, often from Sub-Saharan Africa, with 760,000 estimated to have arrived in the country as of July 2024. There, they are subjected to prolonged arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, forced labour and financial extortion, at the hands of both smuggling gangs and state actors. The Libyan Coast Guard, which is trained and equipped by the European Union and member states, has long intercepted refugees attempting to cross the central Mediterranean and sent them to unofficial detention centres. Libya: Video reveals young Ethiopian woman being tortured for ransom Read More » 'What we are documenting is continuous human trafficking of migrants but also continuous abuse,' Yambio said. 'We are speaking about innumerable human trafficking hubs that belong to people who are affiliated either with the Ministry of Interior or with the government itself. This is the huge chain of human trafficking,' he added. According to a recent report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), refugees in the country are stripped of protections, which prevents them from accessing healthcare. The NGO warned that the lack of healthcare access for refugees risked worsening the trauma and injuries they had sustained in detention. In April, the Libyan authorities accused aid groups - including MSF and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR - of plotting to 'change the demographic composition of the country,' ordering several to shutter their offices. In mid-March, MSF was forced to wind down its operations in the country, citing a campaign of harassment targeting its staff. Yambio highlighted that the potential deal with the US would grant yet more impunity to those committing abuses. Rights groups have repeatedly highlighted the role of EU funding and support in perpetuating abuses against people on the move in Libya. A UN fact-finding mission in March 2023 concluded that the EU had 'aided and abetted' Libyan authorities' crimes against migrants, through its bolstering of the Libyan Coast Guard and funding of Libyan border management programmes.
Telegraph
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Accountant 2, review: Ben Affleck does Dirty Harry? Count me in
Back in December, your critic theorised that Hollywood's so-called 'woke era' was nearing its end: Trump was back in force, and Republican voters were an audience the studios could no longer ignore. Never in my wildest dreams, however, did I imagine that less than five months later I would be watching a mainstream vigilante thriller from Warner Bros in which Ben Affleck thwarts a human trafficking ring being run out of a pizza shop. Intentionally or otherwise, the most notorious Maga-adjacent conspiracy theory serves as the premise for this belated sequel to The Accountant: a largely forgotten action romp from 2016, which starred Affleck as a beefy savant who cooks crooks' books for a living, with occasional breaks for battling assassins. It was dour, disposable and poorly reviewed, but also pretty successful, and Amazon fast-tracked this second instalment into production in February last year. The result is sillier, more rambling and reactionary than its predecessor, and all the better for it – perhaps as close as 2020s Hollywood will ever come to producing a modern-day Dirty Harry without imploding with guilt. Notionally anchored to real-world concerns such as illegal immigration and administratively hamstrung law enforcement, it is at heart a fraternal buddy caper starring Affleck's high-functioning action hero Christian Wolff and his cooler, neurotypical hitman brother Braxton, played again by Jon Bernthal. I can't recall anyone on screen ever actually using the word 'autistic' to describe him, but a droll opening skit set at a speed-dating event reminds us that Affleck's character sits somewhere towards the X-Men end of the spectrum. And if that sounds insensitive – well, Bill Dubuque's script furnishes him with a entire support team of autistic schoolchildren, capable of hacking any computer system out there from a picturesquely remote Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Honestly, the only thing missing from these scenes is Patrick Stewart in a wheelchair. Affleck is brought back into service by Cynthia Addai-Robinson's financial crimes investigator, who needs him to cast his unorthodox eye over a particularly perplexing case involving an unidentified gunwoman (Daniella Pineda), Addai-Robinson's boss (JK Simmons), and a missing family of central American refugees. The plotting meanders its way to the very brink of incoherence, but as the scenes tick past, the vague sense of a many-tendrilled mystery being solved does gradually descend. In fact, many of the film's best scenes are the ones that serve the least narrative purpose: Affleck learning how to line-dance; Bernthal standing around in his underwear ranting about dog adoption into his phone; even the pizza bases being sluiced with tomato sauce on the production line at the shady factory itself. Such moments have an authenticity and sense of fun-for-its-own-sake that's too rarely felt in the age of green screen. It's tempting to describe these high points as throwback pleasures – the sort of heel-kicking colour that went out of fashion in the 2000s when fantasy franchise mania bit. But could they instead be anticipating a freer, less regimented strain of popular cinema? Time and box-office takings will tell, but one rather hopes the sums add up.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Yahoo
ICE agents make arrest in Des Moines on February 21st
DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested a 28-year-old man in Des Moines on February 21st. ICE agents and U.S. Marshalls initiated a routine traffic stop on February 21 in Des Moines and arrested Luis Enrique Baires, 28. According to ICE, Baires is an 'illegal alien' wanted in El Salvador, his home county, on two counts of aggravated homicide, two counts of proposition and conspiracy for the crime of aggravated homicide, and one count of illicit associations with the MS-13 Enfermos Criminales Salvatruchos clique. DMPD note young adult involvement following federal weapons, drug investigation According to the Department of Justice, MS-13 is a gang primarily composing of immigrants and immigrant's descendants from El Salvador. In the U.S., the gang originated in Los Angeles, California and engaged in turf wars for the control of drug distribution locations. They are reportedly one of the largest street gangs in the Unites States. Following the arrest, the Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations St. Paul Field Office released this statement. 'Rural Iowa is not immune from central American criminals like Baires, and we will continue to face the challenge of tracking down and arresting the worst of the worst,' said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations St. Paul Field Office Director Matthew Putra. 'Thanks to U.S. Marshals Service for assisting us in this arrest to keep communities safe.' According to ICE, Baires remains in ICE custody, without bond, pending the outcome of his removal proceedings. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
