OFFICIALS SAY 57 DEAD IN BRAZIL PRISON RIOT

At least 57 prisoners were killed by other inmates during clashes between organized crime groups in the Altamira prison in northern Brazil Monday with 16 of the victims being decapitated, according to prison officials.

Para state prison authorities a fight erupted around 7 a.m., between the Rio de Janeiro-based Comando Vermelho and a local criminal group known as Comando Classe A.

“Leaders of the (Comando Classe A) set fire to a cell belonging to one of the prison’s pavilions, where members of the (Comando Vermelho) were located,” the statement read.

State prisons chief Jarbas Vasconcelos said the fire had spread rapidly, with inmates held in old container units that had been adapted for the prison while another building is under construction.

U.S. moves to limit asylum for threatened family members.

PHOENIX» Immigrants who fear persecution because of their family ties will no longer be eligible for asylum, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Monday.

Barr, who has power to overturn immigration court rulings as head of the Department of Justice, argues not all family units are necessarily considered a “social group” for the purposes of asylum.

People can seek asylum in the U.S. if they can prove a wellfounded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in specific social group.

Until now, asylum seekers who were threatened because of something their family member did or did not do were eligible. For example, a mother whose life was threatened because her son refused to join a gang would previously qualify for asylum.

American parents increasingly expect kids to help pay for college.

When parents take their children out to dinner, more often than not it’s expected that Mom or Dad will pick up the tab; when it comes to college, it’s a trickier question.

A survey of U.S. parents with college-bound students by Discover Student Loans found 38% expect their child to pay for most of higher education, a 7% increase from 2018. Just 28% are willing and able to cover the entire cost of college, a 6% slide from last year.

U.S. student debt hit $1.6 trillion in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Federal Reserve. As of September 2018, over 11% of student debt was more than 90 days delinquent or in default. In the final quarter of 2017, over 44.5 million Americans had some form of outstanding student loans and almost 8 million Americans had a balance of $50,000 or more, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Paying for college is a worry for most parents. Three-quarters of those surveyed are at least somewhat concerned about how their child’s education costs will affect their own financial situation.

U.K. warship arrives to protect Hormuz as Seoul mulls deployment.

Efforts to secure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz are ramping up as the U.K. said a second warship arrived in the area and South Korea may deploy its own unit as part of a multinational force.

Tensions have flared in the strait in recent weeks as Iran pushes back against U.S. sanctions that are crippling its oil exports. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is still holding a U.K. vessel it detained earlier this month, the Stena Impero, in retaliation for British forces seizing an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar for allegedly violating sanctions against Syria.

The U.K. has deployed the HMS Duncan, one of its Type 45 destroyers, to shepherd Britishflagged ships through the strait, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement Sunday. It will operate alongside the Royal Navy’s HMS Montrose Type 23 frigate until late August, it said.