International
Beryl causes damage, but without injuries or deaths, after making landfall in Mexico
Hurricane Beryl made landfall in the early morning of this Friday north of the municipality of Tulum, Quintana Roo, in the Mexican Caribbean, but so far no injuries or deaths have been reported, reported the Civil Protection Coordinator, Laura Velázquez.
“We have no reports so far of injured or deceased, I repeat they are preliminary data, we are in the aid phase,” the official said during a call made within the framework of the morning press conference of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Velázquez specified that the hurricane hit Quintana Roo at 05:05 local time (11:05 GMT) with maximum sustained winds of 175 kilometers per hour and gusts of 220 kilometers per hour.
Now Beryl, who made landfall as a category 2 hurricane, degraded in the last hours to a tropical storm on the ground as it passed through the Mexican state of Yucatan (southeast), according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN) of Mexico.
“At this moment we are already in the aid phase, we are already making tours mainly in Tulum throughout the length and breadth of the municipality,” said the head of Civil Protection.
He pointed out that tours are being carried out to quantify the damage, although the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has reported that in Tulum approximately 40% of the area is without electricity, while in Cozumel seven colonies have electrical energy effects.
In addition, in Isla Mujeres, 50% of homes are without electricity.
The SMN, said in its most recent report, that “Beryl is now a tropical storm. It is located on land over Yucatan and its cloudy bands maintain the probability of intense to torrential rains, intense winds, storm tide and high waves in the Yucatan Peninsula.
For his part, Velázquez specified that so far 58 temporary shelters have been enabled in which 2,193 people are housed who have hot food and “are being very well taken care of.”
He also reported that the airports of Tulum, Cozumel and Cancun did not suffer any affect.
The governor of Quintana Roo, Mara Lezama, reported the fall of trees and affectations in the municipalities of Solidaridad and Benito Juárez, which are the most inhabited areas, in addition to some fall of fences (walls).
The authorities noted that in the area there are 25,611 elements deployed to collaborate in the rescue work, of which 4,150 are elements of the Ministry of National Defense, 1,128 of the Secretariat of the Navy, 4,451 of the National Guard and 2,189 of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
Meanwhile, López Obrador recommended that people do not go out because there are still fallen trees, which may pose a risk to the population.
Beryl is the first hurricane of the season and sets an “alarming precedent” because a cyclone of maximum intensity had never been formed at this point in the year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Tuesday.
Of the three cyclones that have occurred in this Atlantic season, Beryl would be the third to impact Mexico, where on Sunday tropical storm Chris entered, which left floods in the center and east of the country.
While storm Alberto, which made landfall on June 20, left six dead in Nuevo León, a state on the northern border of Mexico, and destruction and floods in Monterrey, the second most populous city in the country.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction