More than 50 people from Cuba land in Florida Keys as Coast Guard stops others at sea
MIAMI — U.S. Border Patrol and Coast Guard crews were kept busy on Thanksgiving intercepting people from Cuba attempting to enter the country through the Florida Keys.
Throughout Thursday, the Border Patrol responded to three landings up and down the island chain. A total of 51 people from Cuba were taken into custody, Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent of the Border Patrol’s Miami sector, said in a statement released on Twitter.
The migrants arrived in homemade, rustic vessels, Slosar said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Coast Guard crews stopped several Cuban migrant vessels before they were able to reach land, the agency said.
On Twitter, the Coast Guard posted photos of several migrant vessel interceptions off Islamorada in the Upper Keys and off the Marquesas, an island group about 20 miles west of Key West.
This week also saw tragedy on the water as the ongoing exodus from Cuba and Haiti — with the Keys the most common destination — shows no sign of slowing.
—Miami Herald
US avian flu outbreak worst on record with 50 million dead birds
The American outbreak of avian influenza is officially the worst on record with 50.54 million dead birds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The highly pathogenic virus was found at a commercial turkey farm in South Dakota this week, resulting in tens of thousands of birds being killed to avoid further spread. That pushed the 2022 total depopulation figures above 2015 when 50.5 million birds were killed, USDA data shows.
The virus has mostly impacted turkey and egg operations, sending prices to all-time highs and contributing to soaring food inflation. While the spread slowed during the warmer months, it continued to fester and now risks further spread as cooling temperatures prompt more birds to migrate.
In addition to the turkey farms, bird flu has also been detected in recent days at a Utah petting zoo and Missouri chicken farm. The virus has been confirmed in over 630 flocks in 46 U.S. states. The risk to humans is low but people should avoid unprotected contact with wild or domestic birds that look sick, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
—Bloomberg News
Greta Thunberg sues her native Sweden for failing to take action on climate
A group of children and young adults including Greta Thunberg have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Swedish state for failing to take adequate measures to stop climate change.
The lawsuit is part of an international wave of climate-related legal action, some of it targeting national governments.
It follows a high-profile case in the Netherlands, where the country’s highest court ruled in 2019 that the government had a legal obligation to take action to mitigate global warming.
The Swedish suit involves Thunberg, possibly the world’s best known climate activist, and more than 600 others who claim that Sweden’s climate policies violate its constitution as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The Swedish state fails to meet the constitutional requirement to promote sustainable development leading to a good environment for present and future generations,” the group said in a statement.
In 2017, Sweden adopted a climate law that requires the government to work to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases toward a net-zero target set for 2045.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is key to meeting the 2015 Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February triggered a scramble for energy that’s set back efforts and this year’s U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Egypt failed to step up ambitions.
—Bloomberg News
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defends emergency edict used to end trucker convoy
OTTAWA, Canada — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his decision to invoke emergency powers to quell a trucker convoy protest in February, arguing during public testimony that the move was aimed at staving off the threat of violence.
Speaking Friday at a televised public inquiry into the government’s decision, Trudeau cited the “weaponization” of vehicles by protesters, and what he said was the use of children as human shields. He also said weapons were found at one of the sites,and there were people in the convoy promoting ideologically motivated extremism.
The anti-government protests gridlocked Canada’s capital city and blockaded U.S. border crossings.
“The fact that there was not yet any serious violence that had been noted was obviously a good thing but we could not say that there was no potential for threats of serious violence,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister is the final witness in the six-week hearing that has seen almost every senior federal government official appear, along with police officers, mayors and the convoy organizers. The inquiry was mandated by the prime minister’s emergency edict itself.
Hundreds of semi-trucks and other vehicles arrived in Ottawa on the last weekend in January to protest vaccine mandates and other public health restrictions enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inquiry has heard that Ottawa police expected the trucks to leave after the weekend, but instead the protesters dug in and raised millions of dollars — some in Bitcoin — through online fundraising platforms including GiveSendGo.
Invoking the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 gave Trudeau’s government the power to order banks to freeze the accounts of people and companies participating in the protests, and to compel towing companies to help clear out the blockades.
—Bloomberg News
