Crouching out of sight, awaiting a smuggler’s signal that it was safe to cross a road near Los Corazones. With increasing vigilance, Mexican authorities have cracked down on illegal migrants. Photo: Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times
Author: WHES
U.S. closing a loophole on products tied to slaves
WASHINGTON — President Obama will sign legislation this week that effectively bans American imports of fish caught by forced labor in Southeast Asia, part of a flurry of recent actions by the White House, federal agencies, international trade unions and foreign governments to address lawlessness at sea and to better protect offshore workers and the marine environment.
See the newspaper series that sparked this concern Seafood from Slaves Associated Press 2015 and also The Outlaw Ocean Ian Urbina New York Times July 25, 2015. (These two series won the 2016 Polk Award for foreign reporting.)
At Mass, Pope Francis embraces ‘misunderstood’ of Mexico
SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico — Pope Francis came to the highlands of Mexico’s southern frontier on Monday to offer a pastoral embrace to the region’s impoverished indigenous people, expressing shame over discrimination and exploitation and honoring the legacy of a beloved local bishop who once clashed with the Mexican government — and the Vatican.
In Mexican slum, Pope Francis laments economic gap
ECATEPEC, Mexico — Pope Francis stepped into the heartland of Mexican inequality on Sunday, presiding over an enormous outdoor Mass in the impoverished outskirts of the capital and urging the joyous crowd not to fall prey to the wealth, vanity and pride that can create “a society of the few, and for the few.”
Disparity in life spans of the rich and the poor is growing
The poor are losing ground not only in income, but also in years of life, the most basic measure of well-being. In the early 1970s, a 60-year-old man in the top half of the earnings ladder could expect to live 1.2 years longer than a man of the same age in the bottom half, according to an analysis by the Social Security Administration. Fast-forward to 2001, and he could expect to live 5.8 years longer than his poorer counterpart.
The trouble with Iowa: Corn, corruption, and the presidential caucuses
I’m driving through these beautiful fields. I want to grab that corn like you have never seen. So rich, so beautiful,” Donald Trump told a standing-room crowd last July, at a Make America Great Again “family picnic” in Oskaloosa, Iowa. An obvious applause line, perhaps, but Trump delivered it with the aplomb of a man who had just taken the lead in every national poll. He was speaking to a crowd of about 700 people inside a high-school auditorium, and another 700 or so were standing outside in the overflow section. The appearance of this crowd was, not surprisingly, homogeneous, though one man who looked Latino sat on the bleachers behind the podium, well within view of the cameras trained on Trump. Before the speech, this man had been intensively stage-managed by Trump’s people: he was taken off the stage, given a properly logoed T-shirt, then reseated up front, stage left, nope, not quite, and finally reseated on the periphery, stage right, about halfway back.
The new normal in Fata
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 11 2016 (IPS) – A military operation by Pakistan’s army has been proving fatal for Taliban militants who held sway over vast swathes of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) for over a decade. They crossed over the border from Afghanistan and took refuge in Fata after their government was toppled by US-led forces towards the end of 2001. After a few years, when they got a toe-hold in the region, they extended their wings to all seven districts of Fata. Not any more.
Step by step on a desperate trek of migrants through Mexico
ARRIAGA, Mexico — The police truck appeared suddenly, a glint of metal and glass. The migrants broke into a sprint, tripping over cracked pavement as an older woman sweeping her stoop urged them to hurry.
Who are the low-income childless adults facing the loss of SNAP in 2016?
While the research is surprisingly limited, especially since childless adults are the only demographic group subject to time limits on basic food assistance, it paints a picture of a diverse, struggling, and underserved group of poor Americans. While some experience long spells of deep poverty or chronic homelessness, many others cycle in and out of work, often in low-paying jobs that do not lift them out of poverty. The nation’s safety net offers meager assistance while they are working, and virtually none when they are out of work. SNAP benefits for this group average only about $150 to $170 per person per month, or about $5 a day.
Step by step on a desperate trek of migrants through Mexico
ARRIAGA, Mexico — The police truck appeared suddenly, a glint of metal and glass. The migrants broke into a sprint, tripping over cracked pavement as an older woman sweeping her stoop urged them to hurry.
