NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Border guard:
Mexican officials said Tuesday they are beginning deployment of the country’s new National Guard for immigration enforcement, an accelerated commitment of a 6,000-strong force made as part of an agreement with the U.S. to head off threatened U.S. tariffs on imports from Mexico. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard also announced that a team of five officials, including a general and a prison director, has been formed to implement the immigration plan. Ebrard said that Gen. Vicente Antonio Hernández Sánchez, commander of the Tapachula military zone near the border with Guatemala, will begin a tour of the south “to speed up the deployment in the area.” The main objective is to register migrants, offer them options for regularizing their immigration status and return those who don’t want to register, he added. Ebrard did not mention detentions, which have risen notably in recent months.
_2 Russian reporter:
In a stunning turnaround, Russian authorities Tuesday abruptly dropped all charges against a prominent investigative reporter after a public and media outcry over his arrest, and they promised to go after the police who allegedly tried to frame him as a drug dealer. The release of Ivan Golunov marked an extremely rare case of security officials admitting a mistake. It also highlighted the difficulties that Russian journalists routinely face when reporting on sensitive topics like graft, corruption and President Vladimir Putin’s personal life. Golunov, 36, was stopped Thursday by police on a Moscow street and taken into custody, where his defense team said he was beaten and denied a lawyer for more than 12 hours. The journalist, who works for the independent website Meduza, had been facing drug charges that could put him in prison for up to 20 years. But Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said police found “no proof ” of Golunov’s part in a crime.
_3 Journalists attacked:
Attacks against journalists in Haiti are escalating, and the slaying of a radio reporter has prompted media organizations on Tuesday to renew demands that police protect them and give them space to work. An unidentified gunman shot Rospide Pétion, 45, as he drove home late Monday in a car owned by Radio Sans Fin. The shooting came amid days of sometimes violent street protests calling for the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse, during which several journalists have been attacked.
_4 Migrant crackdown:
Italy’s populist government has approved stiff fines for migrant rescue boats that defy orders to stay out of Italian waters. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Tuesday after a Cabinet meeting that a new decree allows fines of up to $57,000 when charity boats carrying migrants who were rescued at sea enter Italy’s ports without authorization. Since becoming interior minister a year ago, the right-wing Salvini has further toughened Italy’s oversight of rescue boats operated by private aid groups.
_5 Gay rights:
Botswana became the latest country to decriminalize gay sex on Tuesday, a landmark case for Africa, as the High Court rejected laws punishing it with up to seven years in prison. Jubilant activists in the packed courtroom cheered the unanimous decision in the southern African nation that is seen as one of the continent’s most stable and democratic. The ruling came less than a month after Kenya’s High Court had upheld similar sections of its own penal code in another closely watched case.