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[1/3] Mexico City's Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum speaks near Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (not pictured) during a news conference at the Old City Hall (Antiguo Palacio del Ayuntamiento), in Mexico City, Mexico January 20, 2023. "If accidents continue, like a cable or the signal system breaks, the National Guard is not going to detect that or make a difference," Miranda said. A school collapse that killed 19 children in a 2017 earthquake happened on her watch as a district mayor of Mexico City. She filed a criminal complaint accusing two prior attorneys for the district of failing to enforce the law after discovering illegal construction, and became Mexico City Mayor in 2018. Now, Lopez Obrador has backed her decision to use the National Guard, in a clear sign of support for her.

The EU froze funds earmarked for Hungary and Poland over their nationalist governments' track record of undercutting liberal democratic rules. Portugal had disbursed 1.4 billion euros, or 8.5% of the total recovery funds assigned to it, to project promoters by the end of 2022. Romania and Portugal are the two countries pushing hardest to extend the 2026 deadline and Spain and other Eastern European countries are supporting their demands, a source with knowledge of the negotiations said. Some countries are devising workarounds for projects that are particularly important and look like they are unlikely to meet the deadline, said a source. This would imply budgeting and allocating funds before the projects have been commissioned in order to meet the 2026 deadline, the person said.

☆ 9 things about sharks you saw in movies that are actually wrong, according to an expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Margaret Guzman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Here are facts that "Jaws," "Finding Nemo," and "The Meg" got wrong — and one that's right. NOAA fisheriesIt's those scales that make the shark nose the wrong target for a sucker punch. When Dory hits her nose, her blood goes straight into the shark's nose. So "Finding Nemo" hit the nail on the head when they showed blood actually going into the shark's nose, she said. Gerard Soury/Getty ImagesSharks in "Finding Nemo" might want to fight their urges to eat fish, but it's not in their nature.

☆ Female cabin crew applicants had to strip so recruiters could check for scars, birthmarks or tattoos, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Recruiters rejected women with glasses, moles or visible scars, Spain's El Diario reported. Three sources told El Diario that the interview process was uncomfortable from the start. Bianca, a 23-year-old flight attendant from Romania, told El Diario: "The first girl that went in came out crying." I was freaking out — but they weren't exaggerating," Bianca told El Diario. The recruiter told Bianca that she was checking for "scars, birthmarks, and tattoos."

☆ The US military is planning for a 'transformative' year in Asia as tensions with China continue to rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Amid rising tensions with China, the US military has sought to bolster its presence in Asia. US forces there may see the "most transformative year" in a generation in 2023, a US official said. Major changes to the US military presence in Asia face logistical and political hurdles, however. Other countries have sought more training with the US military or, in the case of Palau, to host US forces. There are opportunities for the US "to expand its access and deepen relationships" in both Northeast and Southeast Asia, said Thompson, a former US Defense Department official, but US leaders will have to reckon with the limits of those partnerships, especially in Southeast Asia.

It was a third World Cup for Argentina, but the first in 36 years. Messi has long lived in the shadow of Maradona in Argentina, who fans still adore with almost God-like status. [1/13] Soccer Football - FIFA World Cup Final Qatar 2022 - Fans in Buenos Aires - Buenos Aires, Argentina - December 18, 2022 General view as Argentina fans celebrate with flares after winning the World Cup REUTERS/Mariana Nedelcu 1 2 3 4 5In the streets of the capital revelers partied early into the hours of Monday. The World Cup had been the one piece of silverware missing for Messi, 35, who has broken multiple records playing for club teams Barcelona and Paris St Germain. Sunday's final was likely his last World Cup game for his country.

Wilmaris Villarroel/via REUTERSDec 15 (Reuters) - Protests triggered by Peru's developing political crisis have stranded dozens of tourists, including children, in a remote mountain town for over 48 hours as locals refuse passage to Bolivia, a member of the group told Reuters. The Dec. 7 ouster of former President Pedro Castillo has sparked deadly street protests across Peru, as well as highway and train blockades that have stranded hundreds of tourists at Peru's Machu Picchu ruins. Villarroel told Reuters that locals would not let the group, which she says includes elderly people and children, continue their journey. Villarroel added that the buses' Bolivian drivers have been unwilling or unable to turn around, and that police presence has been minimal. Meanwhile, efforts to secure aid from foreign embassies in Peru have been unsuccessful, Villarroel said.

Brazil has yet to publish its official annual figures for Cerrado deforestation, based on satellite analysis by the government's space research agency Inpe. The Cerrado neighbors the Amazon, occupying more than 2 million square kilometers in central Brazil – larger than Mexico. FARM-DRIVEN DEFORESTATIONThe Brazilian savanna is now a major concern for top grains traders, who have broadly pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2025. The sources discussed Cerrado deforestation data from Brazil's PRODES program, which produces annual data that is far more accurate than rapid alert data published on a weekly and monthly basis. An Inpe official said earlier this year that Brazil would soon stop publishing PRODES Cerrado data due to lack of funding.

☆ Morgan Stanley upgrades Vale, says China reopening and iron ore price jump could help mining stock
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Vale has a "cocktail of positive catalysts" that will boost the stock in 2023 and beyond, according to Morgan Stanley. The Brazil-based mining company is mainly focused on iron ore and nickel. The stock will be helped by rising prices for iron ore, which Morgan Stanley is bullish on during the first half of 2023. Iron ore trades at about $109 per ton, which is up from $80 in early November, but could rise to $140 in the second quarter of 2023 as Chinese steel output improves while iron ore supply seasonally falls. Reopening measures in China should also help the stock as it's tied directly to iron ore production abilities.

SAO PAULO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell in the 12 months through July, according to government data released on Wednesday, retreating from a 15-year high under outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. The destruction declined 11% from a year earlier to 11,568 square kilometers (4,466 square miles), according to annual data from Brazilian space research agency Inpe. That was still more Amazon deforestation than any year from 2009 to 2020. Ane Alencar, science director at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, said that there has been no change in Bolsonaro's policy of weakening environmental agencies to explain the drop in deforestation. Those months will instead be reflected in the first annual PRODES data released under Lula in 2023.

The class members are Google Play Store individual consumers in 12 states, including Ohio, Michigan and Georgia, in addition to American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The plaintiffs' lawyers in the newly certified class action are jointly working with those state enforcers. Google has defended its Play Store business practices, denying the claims in the case before Donato and others. In arguing against class-action certification, attorneys for Google said the plaintiffs failed to show how they were harmed, an argument that Donato rejected. The class attorneys allege among other things that Google prohibited app developers from steering customers to competitors and used "misleading warnings to deter customers from downloading apps outside the Google Play Store."

☆ Brazil's Lula seen favoring leftist Haddad for finance minister, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Lisandra Paraguassu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Mariana Greif/File PhotoBRASILIA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Leftist former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad is emerging as the front-runner to be Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's finance minister, three sources told Reuters, although they said no final decision has yet been made. Investors, already jittery over Lula's spending plans, are eager to learn who will be Brazil's next finance minister. Lula is not expected to announce any of his ministers until early December after he returns from Egypt and Portugal trips. Markets tumbled in Brazil last week on concerns that Lula was delaying the naming of his finance minister and disregarding fiscal discipline as he studied ways to bypass the budget spending ceiling. Haddad failed in his bid to be Sao Paulo governor in last month's election, losing out to Bolsonaro's pick for the job.

Former President Donald Trump made official his plan to run for president again. Here's a look inside the exclusive resort that the public doesn't get to see. Former President Donald Trump announced his intent to run for a second presidential term at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. During Trump's presidency, the exclusive resort was often referred to as "the winter White House." Following the end of his presidential term, Trump decamped to the ornate resort.

☆ Remote undersea volcano believed to be erupting in Pacific Ocean
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

HONOLULU — A volcano is probably erupting deep beneath the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but scientists don’t know for sure because it’s so inaccessible. All indications are that the Ahyi Seamount began erupting in mid-October, the U.S. Geological Survey said Monday. The Ahyi Seamount is one of a long string of submarine seamounts at the northern edge of the Northern Mariana Islands. Ahyi seamount is a large conical submarine volcano. “There are no local monitoring stations near Ahyi Seamount, which limits our ability to detect and characterize volcanic unrest there,” the agency said.

☆ U.S. Congress split on making daylight-saving time permanent
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Legislative aides told Reuters they do not expect Congress to reach agreement before the end of the year. Daylight-saving time has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s. Pallone previously said he backs ending the clock-switching but has not decided whether to support daylight or standard time as the permanent choice. On Sunday, Mexico rolled back its clocks one last time after the passage of a law last week to abolish daylight-saving time. The White House declined to say earlier this year if Biden supports making daylight-saving time permanent.

A former Miss Argentina and an ex-Miss Puerto Rico announced on Instagram over the weekend that they are married. The video included in their post features a montage of them traveling, their candlelit marriage proposal and a kiss outside a courthouse in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Varela, 26, and Valentín, 22, appear to have met last March, when they competed in the Miss Grand International beauty pageant in Thailand. !” And Miss Universe Puerto Rico 2017 Danna Hernández commented, “Beautiful couple congratulations and blessings on your marriage!!! Same-sex marriage has been legal in Puerto Rico since 2015 as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

[1/2] Brazil's former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Sao Paulo Governor candidate Fernando Haddad react at an election night gathering on the day of the Brazilian presidential election run-off, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 30, 2022. Defeated President Jair Bolsonaro had not made public remarks more than 17 hours after the race was called. Some of his key allies have recognized publicly that Lula had won the race, easing concerns of contested election results. "There will be no transition problem, even if Bolsonaro reacts badly, most of his allies have already recognized Lula's victory". Francisco Levy, chief strategist at Empiricus Investimentos, said a favorable international reaction to Lula may help markets on the short term.

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Brazilian leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff election, but the far right incumbent did not concede defeat on Sunday night, raising concerns that he might contest the result. The Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) declared Lula the next president, with 50.9% of votes against 49.1% for Bolsonaro. It was a stunning comeback for the leftist former president and a punishing blow to Bolsonaro, the first Brazilian incumbent to lose a presidential election. [1/6] Brazil's former President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reacts at an election night gathering on the day of the Brazilian presidential election run-off, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 30, 2022. "A former union leader born into poverty, Lula organized strikes against Brazil's military government in the 1970s.

☆ Bolsonaro, Lula trade blows in bruising final Brazil election debate
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/6] People observe a debate ahead of the runoff election between Brazil's President and candidate for re-election Jair Bolsonaro and former President and current candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 28, 2022. REUTERS/Mariana GreifRIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist election rival, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, traded barbs late on Friday in their final televised debate ahead of Sunday's tense runoff vote. But Bolsonaro outperformed opinion polls in the first-round vote this month, and many analysts say the election could go either way. In their first head-to-head debate this month, Lula blasted Bolsonaro's handling of a pandemic in which nearly 700,000 Brazilians have died, while Bolsonaro focused on the graft scandals that tarnished the reputation of Lula's Workers Party. Lula vowed to revive those boom times, while Bolsonaro suggested current social programs are more effective.

☆ Bolsonaro-Lula presidential race down to the wire in Brazil, polls show
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Anthony Boadle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A survey by pollster MDA showed Lula's edge slipping to just 2 percentage points, equal to the margin of error for the poll commissioned by transport sector lobby CNT. But Bolsonaro outperformed opinion polls in the first-round vote on Oct. 2, and many analysts say the election could go either way. The final opinion surveys by pollsters IPEC and AtlasIntel, however, showed Lula holding a stable and slightly larger lead. AtlasIntel, among the most accurate pollsters in the first round, showed Lula's lead holding at 7 percentage points. Lula vowed to revive those boom times, while Bolsonaro suggested current social programs are more effective.

☆ Tesla's Musk eyes potential investment in Mexican border state -sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk is considering investing in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Monday. Musk recently held a meeting in the state with Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia along with other local officials and Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, one of the sources said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterA spokesperson for the Nuevo Leon government declined to comment. Musk's visit to Nuevo Leon was originally reported by Mexican media. Tesla, based in Austin, Texas, has its own lane at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing in Nuevo Leon to facilitate trade for local suppliers, the state government said in August.

A man writes on a memorial wall as he takes part in a memorial ceremony in honour of the victims of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo, Brazil October 23, 2022. REUTERS/Mariana GreifSAO PAULO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Brazilians on Sunday paid tribute in Sao Paulo to friends and family members who died of the coronavirus by writing messages on a mural set up on a boulevard in honor of the 680,000 people Brazil lost to the pandemic. Representatives from the Terena and Guarani tribes joined the demonstration, some donning headdresses and black-and-red face paint. "The left takes that and uses it for all sorts of politicking, it's really ugly." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Leonardo Benassatto and Brian Ellsworth in Sao Paulo; Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Supreme Court declines to consider overturning racist 'Insular Cases'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | Lawrence Hurley Covers The Supreme Court For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

They say that the Justice Department, in defending the law, and an appeals court, in upholding it, relied upon the so-called “Insular Cases,” a series of long-criticized early 20th century Supreme Court rulings. The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case means the lower court ruling remains in place. “The subordinate, inferior non-citizen National status relegates American Samoans to second-class participation in the Republic," the challengers’ lawyers say in court papers. American Samoa is the only territory to which Congress has not extended birthright citizenship. Of the current nine justices, two of them — liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch — have expressed concern about the Insular Cases remaining on the books.

☆ Brazil's Bolsonaro and Lula spar in first debate of runoff campaign
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Former Brazil's President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Brazil's President and candidate for re-election Jair Bolsonaro attend a Presidential Debate ahead of the runoff election, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 16, 2022. REUTERS/Mariana GreifBRASILIA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attacked each others' records in office on Sunday in the first debate of the second round of Brazil's election. Lula won 48% of the votes in the first round of the election on Oct. 2 against 43% for Bolsonaro, whose unexpectedly strong performance set the stage for a competitive runoff on Oct 30. In a heated campaign to win swing votes, both candidates have ramped up their rhetoric, and delivered bruising personal attacks in TV ads. Bolsonaro's campaign was counting on Sunday's debate to help close the gap with Lula, who still has a lead of roughly 5 percentage points, based on surveys by pollster Datafolha.

☆ U.S. judge approves sales process for shares in Citgo Petroleum's parent
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterDelaware District court judge Stark last year approved the sale of shares in PDV Holding, whose only asset is Citgo shares, to pay Canadian miner Crystallex $970 million. Citgo is the crown jewel of Venezuela's overseas assets, and has split from its Caracas-based ultimate parent, Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA. Judge Stark's process sets a nine-month calendar after the official launch date before he reviews a high bid. The number of shares sold would only be enough to cover the Crystallex judgment and any others the court attaches to the case. Koch Minerals and Koch Nitrogen last week applied to the Delaware District Court to link their $387 million judgment.

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