International
Severe floods and widespread power outages in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Ernesto
Puerto Rico suffered severe floods and widespread power outages this Wednesday due to the copious rains brought by tropical storm Ernesto, which became a category 1 hurricane when it passed to the north of the island.
The rainfall caused all the rivers on the island to be “close to or above their overflow level,” according to meteorologist Ernesto Morales, of the National Meteorological Service (SNM), said at a press conference.
The weather agency warned from the beginning of the day of sudden floods in most of Puerto Rico and predicted total accumulations of rain of between 6 and 10 inches (15 to 25 centimeters).
One of the most affected areas was the northern Toa Baja, at the mouth of the La Plata River, where the authorities had to evict several families because the water reached the homes of neighborhoods such as San José.
Inspector Robert Ramos Rosario, director of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Bayamón area, explained to EFE that Highway 2 was closed for the safety of citizens due to the overflow of the river.
“Every time there is an atmospheric event this happens because the river comes from the mountainous area of Barranquitas, Comerío, Cayey and Naranjito, and flows here,” he lamented.
One of the people who could not cross was Arsenio Inocencio Frías, an employee of the Los Nevarez Cowboy, who tried to challenge police security and take a shorter stretch to attend to the 300 cows that he has to milk twice a day.
“I have to get there,” he told EFE Frías, who assured that in the area these floods “have happened quite a few times.”
The NHC stressed that tropical storm alerts are maintained for the British and American Virgin Islands, as well as for the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra, according to the 11:00 local time bulletin (15.00 GMT).
At that time the tropical storm was about 280 kilometers (175 miles) northwest of San Juan (Puerto Rico) and about 1,340 kilometers (835 miles) south-southwest of Bermuda.
It is the third hurricane so far in the hurricane season in the Atlantic basin, which began on June 1, and has produced five tropical storms: Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby and Ernesto.
Of them, Beryl, Debby and Ernesto were strengthened until they reached hurricanes. Beryl even reached the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the five, causing destruction and death in the Caribbean and in the United States.
This hurricane season in the Atlantic is expected to be one of the most active and intense in decades because up to 25 storms and 13 hurricanes are expected to form.
Hundreds of people are in the shelters set up by the authorities of Puerto Rico, where there are blocked roads and some rivers are overflowing after the passage of Ernesto, who has become a hurricane.
According to data from the Department of the Family, at least 375 people have sought refuge in 72 shelters in different municipalities of the island.
The torrential rains and strong gusts of wind have caused damage to private homes, as well as the fall of trees and some light poles.
Dozens of roads in municipalities in the north, center and east of the island are obstructed by water, trees or landslides.
Some of the most affected areas have been the municipal islands of Vieques and Culebra, for which the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States maintains tropical storm alerts.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden signed an emergency declaration to help Puerto Rico face the consequences of Hurricane Ernesto, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported.
The agency pointed out in a statement that the presidential order authorizes it to coordinate response efforts in order to reduce the difficulties and suffering of the local population.
The objective, according to his note, is to provide adequate support to the 78 municipalities of that Commonwealth to “save lives, protect property, safety and public health and minimize or prevent the threat of a catastrophe.”
The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Puerto Rico resumed air operations on Wednesday after the passage of the tropical storm Ernesto, already turned into a hurricane, which caused the cancellation of 145 flights.
About 80 flights were canceled on this day, in addition to the 65 suspended on Tuesday, according to the statement from Aerostar, the operating company of the airport.
The president of Aerostar, Jorge Hernández, reported that air operations were restarted after a process of inspection of the facilities.
International
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
The American press agency Associated Press (AP) announced this Friday that it has sued three members of the Donald Trump Administration after being banned from the Oval Office and the presidential plane Air Force One for not complying with the directive of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not to be retaliated for it by the Government. The Constitution does not allow the Government to control freedom of expression,” the media maintains.
In its style guide, AP decided to continue calling the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name”, still mentioning the new name chosen by Trump, since it is a body of water that shares a border with Mexico and Cuba.
The White House formally blocked AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One on February 14. “We are very proud of this country and we want it to be the Gulf of America,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The agency’s lawsuit, of 18 pages and filed before a federal court in Washington DC, alleges that they have decided to take this step to claim their right to editorial independence and prevent the Executive from coercing journalists to use only a language approved by it.
Trump signed the executive order to change the name to Gulf of America on January 20, the first day of his return to power. He later named February 9 as ‘ Gulf of America Day’.
The AP complaint is specifically directed against the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, his number two, Taylor Budowich, and the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.
This Thursday, more than thirty US media asked the Government to restore AP’s participation in presidential events and not to take into account “the editorial point of view” when limiting access to the White House.
Among the signatories are the television networks Fox News and Newsmax, with a conservative tinge, in addition to other large newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Wall Street Journal or The Atlantic.
AP highlighted when reporting on his complaint that this Friday Trump referred to that agency as “radical left-wing lunatics”: It is “a third-rate company with a first name,” he said about it, the main one in the country and founded in 1846.
International
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
The Legislature of the city of Buenos Aires approved this Friday the suspension of the open, simultaneous and mandatory primary elections (PASO), a measure that, according to the deputy head of government, Clara Muzzio, “allows to save 20 billion pesos (about 18,894 million dollars)”, and advanced the legislative elections for May 18.
“The City Legislature suspended the PASO, a measure that saves $20 billion for neighbors,” Muzzio announced on Friday.
For his part, the mayor of the City, Jorge Macri, maintained that the PASO “were an expensive mechanism that only solved the problems of politicians, not of the people.”
The May 18 elections, which were originally scheduled for July, will be held through the Single Electronic Ballot system.
In that instance, the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires will elect their local legislators and, in October, they will have to return to the polls to define, together with the rest of the country, the composition of the chambers of Deputies and Senators.
“The fact that the elections are in May allows each Buenos Aires to decide on their own city, without being tied to national discussions,” said the mayor.
The project was approved in the Buenos Aires legislature with 55 votes in favor, 3 against and one abstention, after an agreement between the main political forces.
The suspension of the primaries in the City of Buenos Aires occurs one day after the Argentine Parliament approved the same measure at the national level.
The original project sent by the national government sought the elimination of the primary system but finally, given the lack of support for that objective, the government chose to promote an initiative that suspends them for this year.
The primary election system was first implemented in Argentina to define the candidates for the 2011 general elections, based on a political reform approved by Parliament at the end of 2009, with the aim of democratizing political representation, transparency and electoral equity.
According to the PASO system, to be qualified to compete in the general elections, candidates or lists of candidates must achieve at least 1.5% of the total votes in the primaries.
All parties are obliged to participate in the primaries, although they do not necessarily have to present more than one list of candidates to decide which one will lead to the general elections, an option for which the majority of the forces have opted in the last elections.
That is one of the reasons why the system has been questioned, among which are also its costs and the cumbersomeness of the organization.
International
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Friday that threatens to impose tariffs on foreign governments that apply digital fees to US companies, including Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
The order states that “foreign governments have exercised a growing extraterritorial authority over US companies, particularly in the technology sector,” and directly cites the taxes on digital services that “several business partners” apply since 2019.
According to the text, the Trump Administration will impose tariffs on those governments that use taxes or regulations that are “discriminatory, disproportionate or designed to transfer significant funds or intellectual property from US companies to that government or its chosen domestic entities.”
Trump delegates to the US Trade Representative the possibility of “renewing investigations” on the so-called technology fees of Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Turkey, imposed in the first term of the Republican, and if so, “take all appropriate actions”, which would include the imposition of tariffs.
“US companies will no longer sustain failed foreign economies through fines and extortionational taxes,” says the White House document, which provides for a “process” for them to “report” these “disproportionate” measures to the Commercial Representative.
He also instructs him to investigate together with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce whether in the European Union or the United Kingdom the use of products or services of US companies is “required or encouraged” to “undermine freedom of expression”, political activity or, “otherwise, moderate content”.
It also suggests to the Representative, among other things, to hold “a panel” with its partners of the T-MEC (Canada and Mexico) on the tax on digital services in Canada, and identify ways to achieve a “permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions”.
The order does not mention any specific company, but mainly affects large technology companies such as Apple, Google (subsidiary of Alphabet), Meta and Amazon, which have precisely starred in a resounded approach to President Trump since he won the elections in November.
In his first term (2017-2021), Trump ordered to investigate the digital fees to his companies abroad and threatened to apply tariffs to the six countries indicated today; taxes were imposed in the government of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, and subsequently suspended.
Trump signed another executive order aimed at restricting access to US technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, what he calls “foreign adversaries”, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China.
The executive order does not specify in detail what measures will be taken to restrict the access of these “foreign adversaries” to US technology.
Under the label of “foreign adversaries”, the order identifies China, Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the “regime of Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro”, according to the text.
Trump justifies his decision with the argument that “economic security is national security” and maintains that the country must protect its sensitive infrastructures and technologies, from artificial intelligence to semiconductors and advances in biotechnology.
The executive order focuses especially on China, pointing out that companies linked to Beijing have used investments in the US to access key technologies and that the Chinese government is taking advantage of US technology to modernize its military apparatus.
Since his return to the White House on January 20, Trump has announced several restrictions on trade with the aim of balancing the trade balance and pressuring countries such as Mexico and Canada to make concessions on immigration and efforts against drug trafficking.
It has imposed a 10% tariff on China, which is in addition to the rates already applied during its first term (2017-2021).
Trump’s new restrictions come after his predecessor, Joe Biden, took steps to limit exports of semiconductors and artificial intelligence technology to China, which led Beijing to respond with export controls on graphite, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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