BRAZIL
Campos’ flight not recorded
The black box recovered from the wreckage of a plane crash that killed socialist presidential candidate Eduardo Campos failed to record his flight, the air force said on Friday. The two hours of recordings it contained were not related to Wednesday’s doomed flight, according to the military branch in charge of the investigation into the crash. “The reasons why the recording does not correspond to the flight will be studied during the investigation,” the air force added, noting that the voice recording was not “crucial” to the probe seeking to determine the causes of the crash. Campos, 49, died when his campaign jet slammed into houses in Santos city in bad weather, killing all seven people on board and setting buildings alight. He had been running third in opinion polls for the October election. A popular former governor of the northeastern Pernambuco State, Campos was married with five children, the youngest just six months old. His remains are due to be buried in the coming days in Recife, capital of Pernambuco.
MEXICO
Border deployment slammed
The Foreign Relations Department is denouncing Texas’ decision to deploy US National Guard troops along the border. The department said in a statement on Friday that Texas’ decision “doesn’t help joint efforts to have a modern, prosperous and safe border.” A new wave of National Guard troops were deployed along Texas’ border with Mexico this week as part of a counter-drug task force. Mexico says there has not been a change of border security to justify the decision. It says such measures “deviate from the path of dialogue and cooperation.”
COLOMBIA
Pair charged over bus fire
A church pastor and a bus driver face up to 60 years in prison after they were charged on Friday over an inferno on an overcrowded bus that killed 33 children in Colombia. The May tragedy in northern Colombia deeply shocked the country and prompted a crackdown on rules governing the road-worthiness of vehicles. Jaime Gutierrez, the driver of the bus — who lost two of his own children in the tragedy — and the pastor of the church that hired him, Manuel Ibarra, have been accused of numerous offenses including “manslaughter in the form of possible fraud,” prosecution sources said. The children burned to death when Gutierrez refueled the bus with a jerrycan and it burst into flames. He fled the scene, pursued by a mob that stoned his house, before giving himself up to police. The children, aged between three and 12 years old, were returning from evangelical church services in the small northern town of Fundacion.
UNITED STATES
New orca tanks planned
Theme park operator SeaWorld said on Friday that it would build new tanks for its killer whales, whose captivity has caused uproar and hit the company’s earnings. SeaWorld also pledged US$10 million in funds for killer-whale research and announced an ocean health partnership. The Orlando, Florida company, whose shares have hit their lowest point since going public in April last year, has faced rising criticism since the release of the documentary Blackfish. The film probed the impact of captivity on SeaWorld’s orcas and the fatal 2010 attack by one of them, Tilikum, on a trainer. The first of the so-called whale environments, due to open to the public in 2018 at SeaWorld San Diego, is to have a total water volume of 38 million liters, nearly double that of the existing facility.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
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