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Florida building collapse: memorial discussed for site

AFP

A memorial honoring the victims of an apartment building collapse nearly three weeks ago in the Florida beachfront community of Surfside may be built on the site of the disaster, officials said Tuesday. 

The sudden condo collapse in a north Miami suburb killed at least 95 people, 85 of whom have been identified, said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Over a dozen are still missing. 

“We started to talk about the fact that we definitely need a memorial,” Levine Cava told reporters. 

Officials are discussing where exactly to place the tribute and whether it would take up the all or just part of the site, she added. 

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A petition on Change.org collected more than 1,200 signatures supporting the idea of a memorial where Champlain Towers South stood. 

“This was a mass casualty and each and (every one) of those missing and deceased should be remembered,” the petition reads.

But some former residents want to replace the wreckage with another apartment building, said Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett, whose town counts a population of about 6,000. 

“Some of the families want to go back and live there again,” he said. “They want the building rebuilt on a portion of the site. They acknowledge that a percentage of that site is a holy site.” 

Authorites are still determining why the 12-story, beachfront apartment building partially collapsed on June 24. Multiple ongoing investigations have uncovered degraded infrastructure and overall structural issues. 

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Following the accident, residents in the remaining structure were evacuated for its demolition, with authorities citing safety concerns.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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