International
The battle of the tribes of California for Biden to protect their ancestral lands
A coalition of Native American tribes from California is fighting an intense struggle for the president of the United States, Joe Biden, to protect their ancestral lands, a vast territory of 400,000 hectares that treasures not only rare species of flora and fauna, but also the legacy of peoples who have lived for centuries with that sacred nature.
This contest has been ongoing for years but it becomes more urgent in the face of the proximity of the November elections, in which Biden will again face the Republican Donald Trump, who during his term (2017-2021) approved oil projects that harmed the Native Americans.
The lands they are fighting for are “irreplaceable,” Thomas Tortez, president of the Torres Martínez desert indigenous people and who has asked Biden to declare about 267,000 hectares as a national monument in the Chuckwalla Valley, in Southern California, explained to EFE and expand the Joshua Tree National Park.
“When someone goes to a sanctuary and it catches fire or is knocked down, they can erect another temple in another place. But when the site that embodies our culture is intrinsically linked to a place and a specific land like the one we have here, there is no human way to replace it,” Tortez says vehemently.
Therefore, he urges Biden to protect the lands of his tribe using the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives the president the ability to create national monuments on federal land without having to go through Congress.
The lands that Tortez defends are, in large part, desert. It might seem that they are sterile, devoid of life, but for Native Americans, this area contains a rich history, with plants that can be used for medicinal, food or spiritual purposes, and animals that have coexisted with the community for centuries.
Even the hills, with their tones ranging from magenta to lighter shades of red, are interpreted by Native Americans as a reminder of the stories of creation and the presence of divinity, says Tortez.
In addition to protecting these lands, the tribal coalition seeks Biden to expand and designate four other national monuments in California.
Among them, the effort of the tribes of the Tataviam Fernandeño and Gabrieleno missions to expand the national monument of the San Gabriel mountains, near Los Angeles, on about 44,100 hectares, stands out.
Within this territory are the remains of three indigenous peoples prior to the Spanish colonization and that are of great importance for the tribes, whose families go there to teach their origins to the new generations, the president of the Tataviam Fernandeño missions, Rudy Ortega Jr., explained to EFE.
Ortega Jr., whose father was also the leader of the tribe for five decades, believes that this effort to expand the national monument of the San Gabriel mountains is part of the struggle that his tribe has fought for centuries to protect its territory.
In its beginnings, its land covered more than 600,000 hectares, from the Antelope Valley to the Pacific Ocean. However, by 1900, it was reduced to zero, and since then they have had to fight to recover their lands.
Another objective of the coalition is to achieve the designation as a national monument of almost 81,000 hectares in the mountainous area of Lake Medicine, which would make it possible to safeguard the heritage of peoples with a long history in that area of northern California, such as the Pit River tribe.
The Quechan tribe of Fort Yuma also longs for the Kw’tsán mountains to be established as a national monument, and finally, the yocha dehe wintun nation wants the Berryessa Snow Mountain national monument to be expanded and Molok Luyuk to be permanently protected, which translates as “condor crest.”
These lands embody the soul of the tribes. As Anthony Roberts, leader of the yocha dehe wintun nation, told EFE, ensuring the protection of those territories is part of the “sacred responsibility” that those peoples have with nature, from which all forms of life emanate.
International
Three Killed, Four Injured in Shooting Near Seattle’s Space Needle
Three people were killed and at least four others, including a young child, were injured in a shooting near Seattle’s iconic Space Needle on Sunday, authorities said.
The shooting occurred during the annual Bite of Seattle food festival, held in one of the city’s busiest tourist areas. Police have arrested one suspect and are searching for a second individual believed to be involved.
Assistant Police Chief Tyrone Davis said officers responded to reports of gunfire at about 6:00 p.m. local time (0100 GMT Monday).
“Two individuals were shooting at each other,” Davis said, adding that investigators recovered two firearms at the scene.
Authorities confirmed that three people died as a result of the shooting. The identities of the victims have not yet been released.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said members of the State Patrol’s SWAT team had been deployed to assist Seattle police with the investigation.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson described the incident as a “horrific act of violence.”
“Our focus is on those who lost their lives, those fighting to recover, and the families standing beside them,” Wilson said in a statement.
Susan Gregg, a spokesperson for Harborview Medical Center, said the hospital admitted four victims: a young child, a 23-year-old man, a 39-year-old woman and another woman whose age was not immediately known and who required emergency surgery.
According to police, the hospitalized victims are in stable condition.
Witnesses told local television station KIRO that they heard multiple gunshots before crowds fled the festival area.
“At first I thought it was fireworks, and then everyone started running,” witness Nick Bate told the station.
Another witness told AFP that panic spread immediately after the shooting.
“We just started running. I didn’t even look to see where the shooter was. I just kept hearing the gunfire,” the witness said.
International
China Accuses U.S. AI Firms of Using Chinese Models to Train Artificial Intelligence
China on Monday accused U.S. artificial intelligence companies of using Chinese AI models to train their own systems, escalating tensions in the technological rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
In a statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it has evidence that “many U.S. artificial intelligence companies have distilled Chinese models during their research, development and training processes.”
Model distillation is a machine learning technique that transfers knowledge from a larger, more advanced model to a smaller and faster one, allowing it to perform efficiently while requiring fewer computing resources. The approach is widely used across the AI industry.
U.S. officials have previously argued that Chinese firms employ distillation on a large scale to unlawfully replicate proprietary American AI systems. Beijing dismissed those allegations, calling them unfounded.
According to the Chinese ministry, Washington’s accusations “lack both factual and legal basis, apply double standards in practice, and represent a typical act of AI hegemony.”
“China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry added.
The statement comes days after a senior White House official accused Chinese startup Moonshot AI of secretly copying Anthropic’s most advanced AI model to develop its Kimi K3 system.
Moonshot’s latest model drew significant attention across the U.S. technology sector following its release, reigniting debate over China’s growing competitiveness in artificial intelligence.
Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Washington could impose sanctions on China as the administration considers restricting or banning foreign-developed open-source AI models, many of which are built using model distillation techniques.
International
Costa Rica Seeks to Expand Extradition Law to Target Organized Crime
Costa Rican President Laura Fernández announced that her administration will submit a constitutional reform bill to Congress on August 3 aimed at expanding the legal grounds for extraditing Costa Rican nationals accused of serious crimes.
Under current legislation, Costa Rican citizens can only be extradited to face prosecution abroad for international drug trafficking and terrorism. The proposed reform would broaden that list to include a wider range of organized crime offenses.
Speaking before the Legislative Assembly while presenting a broader package of public security initiatives, Fernández said the proposal seeks to strengthen the country’s fight against transnational criminal organizations.
“We are going to expand the grounds for extradition to include serious crimes,” the president said.
The initiative would allow the extradition of Costa Rican nationals accused of financing drug trafficking or terrorism, money laundering, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, arms and organ trafficking, contract killings, organized crime-related homicides, cybercrime and cyberterrorism.
“We will not stop in our national crusade against organized crime or in our relentless war against drug trafficking,” Fernández said.
A political ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, Fernández took office in May after campaigning on a promise to adopt a tougher stance against organized crime, which she has linked to the recent rise in violence in Costa Rica, a country long regarded as one of the safest in Latin America.
Costa Rica currently permits the extradition of its own citizens only for international drug trafficking and terrorism, following a 2025 constitutional amendment promoted by former President Rodrigo Chaves, who now serves as the country’s Minister of the Presidency and Finance.
Three Killed, Four Injured in Shooting Near Seattle’s Space Needle
China Accuses U.S. AI Firms of Using Chinese Models to Train Artificial Intelligence
Costa Rica Seeks to Expand Extradition Law to Target Organized Crime
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