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Mexico detains 791 undocumented migrants, National Guard starts to patrol southern border
JUNE 16, 2019 / 10:41 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Roberto Ramirez
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-mexico-detentions/mexico-detains-791-undocumented-migrants-national-guard-starts-to-patrol-southern-border-idUSKCN1TH0M0
TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican officials detained nearly 800 undocumented migrants on Saturday, the government said, in one of the biggest swoops against illegal immigration in recent months, as members of the National Guard began patrolling the southern border.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) said in a statement late on Saturday that 791 foreign nationals were found in four trucks stopped in the eastern state of Veracruz, confirming earlier reports about a mass detention.
The apprehension came as Mexico steps up efforts to reduce a surge of migrants toward the U.S. border under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who vowed to hit Mexican goods with tariffs if Mexico does not do more to stem illegal immigration.
As part of those efforts, Mexico has pledged to deploy 6,000 National Guard members along its border with Guatemala.
Although there have been few signs of that deployment so far, a Reuters reporter near the border in Tapachula this weekend saw a handful of security officials wearing National Guard insignia and spoke to others in military outfits who said they were part of the guard.
Mexico made a deal on June 7 with the United States to avert the tariffs, setting the clock ticking on a 45-day period for the Mexican government to make palpable progress in reducing the numbers of people trying to cross the U.S. border illegally.
There has been a jump in apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border this year, angering Trump, who has made reducing illegal immigration one of his signature policy pledges.
Most of those caught attempting to enter the United States are people fleeing poverty and violence in three troubled Central American nations, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Mexico’s decision to tighten its border and respond to Trump’s threats has caused tensions within the government, and on Friday, the head of the INM, Tonatiuh Guillen, resigned.
He was replaced by Francisco Garduno, who had previously served as the head of Mexico’s prison system.
Pope slated to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in late November
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906150021.html
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
June 15, 2019 at 13:10 JST
Pope Francis will likely travel to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in November in what will be the first papal visit to Japan in 38 years, government and other sources said.
Aside from visiting the two cities leveled by atomic bombing in 1945, Francis, 82, is expected to meet with Emperor Naruhito, who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne in May, as well as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
He will hold mass at the Tokyo Dome stadium in the capital during his four-day stay, the sources said.
The pope is also considering meeting with people who evacuated their homes following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and an advocacy group calling for abolition of the death penalty.
Francis, who assumed the papacy in 2013, is expected to visit from Nov. 23 to Nov. 26, the sources said. The last pontiff to visit Japan was John Paul II in 1981.
As spiritual head of 1.2 billion Catholics, the pope is an ardent advocate of a world without nuclear weapons and the abolition of capital punishment.
On the latter issue, the Roman Catholic Church formally changed its teaching last year to declare it inadmissible whatever the circumstance after the Vatican had turned a blind eye to the death penalty in extreme cases.
The recent change reflects Francis' vehement opposition to capital punishment.
He may raise the issue during his stay in Japan, where execution by hanging is still carried out.
Francis is the first Jesuit pope and the first from South America. Born in Buenos Aires, he harbored a strong desire when he was young to visit Japan as a missionary to pay his respects to 26 Jesuits who were martyred for their faith in Nagasaki during Japanese authorities’ persecution of Christians in the late 16th century.
Space weather satellites set to launch
Taiwan and the US will operate 6 satellites that will improve tropical-storm prediction and provide details about the ionosphere
https://cen.acs.org/environment/atmospheric-chemistry/Space-weather-satellites-set-launch/97/i24
by Katherine Bourzac
JUNE 15, 2019 | APPEARED IN VOLUME 97, ISSUE 24
On June 24, the US and Taiwan are scheduled to launch a coterie of six small satellites that will orbit tropical latitudes. The satellites, a joint project of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Taiwan National Space Agency, will provide more frequent high-resolution data about temperature, pressure, and water vapor, improving tropical-storm forecasts. The project, called COSMIC-2 in the US and FORMOSAT-7 in Taiwan, will also provide an unprecedented level of detail about the planet’s ionosphere. This upper level of the atmosphere is a swirl of electrons and ions, blasted by the sun and adjacent to the Earth’s magnetosphere. So far, atmospheric scientists have had limited tools for monitoring this region. Previous satellite and ground-based systems provided infrequent, low-resolution data about the ionosphere. COSMIC-2 will continuously monitor the electron density of the ionosphere from 40° north of the equator to 40° south, tracking how charges move and potentially enabling predictions of space weather. “We’re not getting this data from any other source,” says Elsayed Talaat, an atmospheric scientist who directs NOAA’s Office of Projects, Planning, and Analysis. He says the agency hopes this continuous monitoring will help predict magnetic and electrical disturbances that can interfere with air traffic and the electrical grid.
Chemical & Engineering News
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