UNITED STATES
Gun store locations restricted
Counties can restrict the location of gun stores without violating the Second Amendment, a court of appeals said on Tuesday. The ruling by an 11-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a California county’s ordinance banning new gun stores within 152m of schools, day care centers, residential areas, liquor stores and other gun shops. A majority of the panel said the law did not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms of would-be gun owners because there were other stores in the county where they could buy a gun. The majority also rejected the argument that gun sellers’ Second Amendment rights were violated, saying there is no constitutional right to sell guns.
UNITED STATES
HHS secretary appointed
President Donald Trump has appointed Eric Hargan as acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the White House said on Tuesday. Hargan, the deputy secretary of the department, formerly served on Trump’s transition team for HHS. The appointment follows Tom Price’s resignation as secretary last month over his use of costly private charter planes for government business. US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, considered a potential successor to Price, said on Tuesday he believed he could best serve the administration in his current role.
MEXICO
Inmates killed in prison riot
At least 13 inmates died in a prison riot in the northern State of Nuevo Leon that authorities ended with lethal force, a state security official said on Tuesday. Spokesman Aldo Fasci said the riot occurred at the state prison in Cadereyta and the death toll could climb because eight people were in critical condition. Several hours of attempted negotiations failed and police using non-lethal force were unable to quell the riot, Fasci said. Authorities decided to use lethal force to protect the lives of the guards and the prisoners. Authorities could see through video monitors that at least one prisoner had already been killed and guards had been taken hostage, Fasci said.
URUGUAY
Transgender senator seated
Michelle Suarez on Tuesday became the nation’s first transgender senator, vowing to use her position to expand and protect the rights of transgender people in the counrty. The 34-year-old lawmaker representing the Communist Party assumed her seat in the upper chamber of congress, where she intends to push a law that would let transgender people change their legal identities without having to get a judge’s approval. It would also mandate that 1 percent of government jobs be reserved for transgender people and establish a pension to compensate transgender people who were persecuted during the 1973 to1985 military dictatorship. “Uruguay has evolved, but it’s still a discriminatory country,” Suarez said. Previously, as an activist, she helped draft a bill that legalized gay marriage when it became law in 2013. In an interview, Suarez said she was 15 when she acknowledged that she was a woman living in a male body. She added that her parents have always been supportive, but some classmates and teachers discriminated against her growing up. Suarez became the first transgender person in the nation to earn a university law degree. In 2009, she began working as an activist for gender rights as a way to cope with her mother’s death.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion