International
U.S. authorities say new Ohio train derailment poses no public risk
March 6th |
Ohio authorities say there is no indication of any public health risk from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train between Dayton and Columbus, the second company train derailment in the state in a month.
Norfolk Southern and Clark County officials say 28 of the southbound train’s 212 cars, including four empty tanker trucks, derailed about 4:45 p.m. Saturday in Springfield Township, near a business park and the county fairgrounds. Springfield is about 46 miles (74 kilometers) west of the state capital of Columbus.
As a precautionary measure, residents living within 1,000 feet (305 meters) were asked to shelter in place and responding firefighters deployed the county’s hazardous materials team as a precautionary measure, but authorities said early Sunday that there was “no indication of injury or public health risk at this time.”
A team from Norfolk Southern, the hazardous materials team and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency “each independently examined the accident site and verified that there was no evidence of spills at the site,” authorities said.
Authorities confirmed Sunday afternoon that no hazardous materials were involved in the derailment.
However, Norfolk Southern general manager Kraig Barner said a couple of other cars on the train headed from Bellevue, Ohio, to Birmingham, Alabama, were carrying liquid propane and a couple more were carrying ethanol. The rest of the train was made up of mixed cargo, such as steel and finished automobiles, he said.
“Many of the cars that derailed were empty cars,” Barner said.
Officials said two of the four empty tank cars that derailed had been carrying diesel exhaust fluid and the other two had residual amounts of polyacrylamide water solution, which Barner said is an additive commonly used in wastewater treatment.
County officials say environmental officials have confirmed that the derailment is not near a protected water source, meaning there is no risk to public water systems or private wells. The shelter-in-place order affected only four or five homes, officials said.
No injuries to the public or the two-person train crew were reported, he said. The cause of the derailment is under investigation and the findings will be turned over to the Federal Railroad Administration, Barner said.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Saturday night that President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had called him “to offer assistance from the federal government.”
On Feb. 3, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, in northeastern Ohio near Pennsylvania, derailed and several of the train’s cars carrying hazardous materials caught fire.
Although no one was injured, nearby neighborhoods in both states were in danger. The accident prompted the evacuation of about half of the town’s approximately 5,000 residents, an ongoing multi-governmental emergency response, and lingering concerns among villagers about long-term health impacts.
International
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.
“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.
“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.
Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.
Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”
The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.
International
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.
The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”
This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.
International
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, returned this Thursday to delegate – for the second time – the Presidency to the Secretary of Public Administration and Cabinet of the Presidency Cynthia Gellibert, whom he himself appointed by decree vice president in charge, in the face of the open confrontation he maintains with the vice president, Verónica Abad.
As he did last week, Noboa again issued a decree in which he announces that he is absent from the Presidency from Thursday to Sunday, to make an electoral campaign in search of his re-election in the elections of February 9, and during that period of time it will be Gellibert who will be in charge of the head of the State.
This action of the president of Ecuador is a matter of evaluation by the ordinary and constitutional justice at the request of the vice president, Verónica Abad, who claims to assume the presidential functions during the full period of the electoral campaign, in which according to the Constitution the head of state must ask for leave for being a candidate for re-election.
In his decree, Noboa argues that, although the Constitution determines that the Vice Presidency must assume the head of State in the event of the absence of the president, this “is not limited to the elected vice-president, but to the person who to date is exercising the functions of the Vice Presidency.”
Before appointing Gellibert as vice president in charge by decree, Noboa sent Abad to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Turkey, after a judge annulled the five-month suspension that the same Government had imposed on him. Until now, the vice president remains in Ecuador to claim to be the one who temporarily assumes the Presidency.
The new period of Gellibert with presidential powers began at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT) this Thursday and is scheduled to end at 22:00 (03:00 GMT) next Sunday, time at which the debate between presidential candidates is expected to end where Noboa is summoned to participate.
After the debate, Noboa plans to travel to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, according to the Ecuadorian Presidency.
After the first assignment of the Presidency to Gellibert, Abad denounced a “coup d’état” and urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to apply the Democratic Charter, considering that the constitutional order had been broken because it had not received the presidential powers, as contemplated in the Ecuadorian Constitution.
In addition, he filed a protection action with which he seeks that the Justice annul the decrees in which Noboa appointed Gellibert as vice president in charge and delegated the Presidency to him. A court admitted the appeal on Friday, but did not accept some precautionary measures that Abad also asked for to suspend those effects immediately.
Controversies like this will be part of the analysis and evaluation of the electoral observation mission (EOM) of the European Union (EU) for the Ecuadorian elections, as anticipated on Wednesday by its leader, Spanish MEP Gabriel Mato.
The confrontation between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign for the second round of elections for the extraordinary elections of 2023, and was reflected when he assumed the charges, when in one of his first decisions, the president sent the vice president to Israel as ambassador, with the mission of seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Abad has denounced Noboa for alleged political gender violence and has accused her of leading a harassment against her to force her to resign and thus avoid having to delegate the Presidency to her during the electoral campaign period, which runs from January 5 to February 6.
The titular vice president has also accused the Government of being behind the corruption investigation in the offices of the Vice Presidency that involves her son in a case where the Prosecutor’s Office also sought to indict Abad, but the National Assembly (Parliament) voted mostly against lifting the jurisdiction, although the ruling party voted in favor.
The general elections in Ecuador are called for Sunday, February 9 and, according to the polls published so far, Noboa and the candidate of the correismo Luisa González appear as prominent favorites to move on to the second round.
-
Central America4 days ago
President Arévalo highlights anti-corruption and drug trafficking efforts in first year report
-
Central America3 days ago
Venezuelan opposition leader to meet Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves on thursday
-
International3 days ago
The Government of Israel accuses Hamas of wanting to modify the truce agreement and postpones its vote
-
International4 days ago
ACLU prepares for “worst-case scenario” on immigration under incoming Trump administration
-
International3 days ago
Russia attacks Kiev in the middle of British Prime Minister Starmer’s visit
-
International3 days ago
An Australian influencer is accused of poisoning her baby to earn money
-
International4 days ago
Trump announces creation of external revenue service to collect foreign tariffs
-
International4 days ago
HMPV infection rate declining in Northern China, health official reports
-
International3 days ago
Far-right Israeli minister will leave the Netanyahu government if his country does not resume the war after the truce
-
International1 day ago
Mark Carney announces his candidacy to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
-
International1 day ago
Musk’s Starship was lost after a smooth takeoff
-
International1 day ago
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
-
International1 day ago
HRW assures that Sheinbaum “inherited a crisis” from López Obrador due to “extreme violence” in Mexico
-
International4 days ago
Elon Musk sends Cybertrucks with Starlink and supplies to assist Los Angeles wildfire victims
-
International3 days ago
Marco Rubio warns of China’s threat and criticizes Venezuela and Cuba in Senate hearing
-
International1 day ago
The Prosecutor’s Office asks Boluarte to hand over the documents that justify the surgery he kept hidden
-
International3 days ago
Pope Francis suffers a fall without fractures and his arm is immobilized as a precaution
-
International3 days ago
Canadian business leaders meet with president Sheinbaum to boost investments in Mexico
-
International3 days ago
Biden warns “Soul of America” still at stake ahead of farewell address
-
International3 days ago
Emotional support dogs help firefighters fighting fires in California
-
International1 day ago
Antony Blinken assures that the Panamanian sovereignty of the Panama Canal “will not change”
-
International1 day ago
China, Israel and Burma, the countries in the world with the most journalists imprisoned in 2024
-
International3 days ago
Indigenous peoples of Mexico help migrants stranded in the south far from the border
-
International17 hours ago
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
-
International3 days ago
Russia and Iran will sign a strategic agreement three days before Trump’s inauguration
-
International1 day ago
Edmundo González Urrutia’s team says that the anti-chavista will attend Trump’s investiture
-
International3 days ago
French justice saves a domesticated boar threatened with euthanasia by the authorities
-
International3 days ago
The ‘Supersopa’, created during the great crisis of 2002, returns to the canteens of Argentina
-
International1 day ago
At least five peace signatories and social leaders are killed in fighting in Colombia
-
International17 hours ago
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
-
International3 days ago
Separate negotiators and last-minute details, this is how the ceasefire in Gaza was negotiated
-
International3 days ago
Carlos Correa, director of the Venezuelan NGO Espacio Público, has been released from prison
-
International1 day ago
Foreign Affairs confirms the kidnapping of a Spaniard in North Africa by a jihadist group