United states

See the article in its original context from December 29, 1997 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Hoping to build a new bulwark against the flow of illegal drugs from Latin America, the United States is providing the Mexican military with extensive covert intelligence support and training hundreds of its officers to help shape a network of anti-drug troops around the country, United States and Mexican officials say. The officials say the assistance has included training, equipment and advice from the Central Intelligence Agency to establish an elite army intelligence unit that has quietly moved to the forefront of Mexico's anti-drug effort, sometimes ahead of a new civilian police force that the United States is also pledged to support. The effort has proceeded despite growing American concern that it may lead to more serious problems of corruption and human rights in … [Read more...] about DANGEROUS ALLIES: A special report.; U.S. Helps Mexico’s Army Take a Big Anti-Drug Role

A member of Ukraine’s parliament who federal authorities said meddled in America’s 2020 presidential campaign on behalf of Russia’s intelligence services has been charged with money laundering tied to his purchase of two Beverly Hills apartments he used while sowing disinformation. The charges against the member of parliament, Andriy Derkach, 55, grew out of an investigation into whether he and other Ukrainians had interfered in the 2020 campaign — including by using Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, to spread misleading claims about President Biden, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That inquiry was first reported by The New York Times last year. In an indictment that was unsealed on Wednesday that also charged him with bank fraud conspiracy, sanctions violations and other crimes, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said Mr. Derkach decades ago was a combat crew commander in the Soviet Union’s Strategic Missile Command. When U.S. Treasury … [Read more...] about Ukrainian Accused of Election Interference Charged With Money Laundering

Nikenike Vurobaravu presides over a tiny country with a large hand in climate diplomacy. Rising sea levels threaten the very existence of his Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu and its population of just over 300,000 people. Its best defense, he says, it to raise its voice creatively in international diplomatic talks. From Vanuatu in 1991 came the idea that industrialized countries should pay for the irreversible climate-induced damage faced by developing countries like his. Last month at the United Nations climate talks in Egypt, an agreement was reached — after 30 years of negotiations — to establish a fund that would help poor countries cope with climate loss and damage. Earlier this year Mr. Vurobaravu used the United Nations General Assembly podium to demand, for the first time, a fossil fuel “nonproliferation treaty .” Now, he is dangling Vanuatu’s most provocative suggestion yet. He wants the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest judicial body, based in The … [Read more...] about Tiny Vanuatu Uses Its ‘Unimportance’ to Launch Big Climate Ideas

Emma Coronel Aispuro , the wife of the notorious Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, is set to plead guilty this week to charges of helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar empire and then, after one of his arrests, escape in dramatic fashion from a high-security Mexican prison, according to a person familiar with the case. Ms. Coronel, 31, is expected to appear on Thursday morning in Federal District Court in Washington to enter her plea. She was taken into custody in February at Dulles International Airport, near Washington, after a nearly two-year investigation by U.S. law enforcement officials into her role as an accomplice to her husband, whose real name is Joaquín Guzmán Loera. Mr. Guzmán, a onetime co-leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was convicted in 2019 at a federal trial in Brooklyn and is now serving life sentence in the so-called Supermax in Colorado, the most secure federal prison in the United States. Ms. Coronel, his third — or possibly fourth — wife, … [Read more...] about El Chapo’s Wife Set to Plead Guilty to Helping Run Drug Empire

The Cook Islands had given up on its dream of United Nations membership and, with it, greater autonomy and influence on the world stage. New Zealand, the country that once governed the small Pacific nation and still exercises power there, had rejected its repeated entreaties. But now that President Biden has provided a stamp of approval — with formal recognition for the Cook Islands at a summit of Pacific nations in September — the country of 18,000 people has shifted course, moving toward joining international bodies with renewed vigor. What began with Washington’s attempt to counter Chinese influence with America’s imprimatur has now prompted an apparent shift in New Zealand policy and created a project of something resembling separate nationhood for the Cook Islands, even as its residents remain New Zealand citizens. The Cook Islands’ prime minister, Mark Brown, said in an interview that the country now planned to apply for full membership in the International Monetary Fund … [Read more...] about U.S. Recognition of Tiny Pacific Country Reshapes Its New Zealand Ties

Among women in the United States who no longer have an abortion clinic nearby, many are turning to abortion pills ordered online, outside the U.S. medical system. As a result, the illicit abortions that were once invisible — the back-alley abortions before Roe v. Wade — are becoming increasingly possible to track and count in post-Roe America. Counting these abortions is important to understanding the full impact of abortion bans. That means knowing how many women in states with bans are finding abortions another way, as well as how many are carrying unwanted pregnancies to term. But researchers are debating how well the existing data captures the full scope of the post-Roe landscape. Abortion pills from overseas are a black market with limited transparency, operating outside the U.S. medical and legal systems. Although one of the biggest sources of abortion pills from overseas is sharing information about its orders, it’s unclear exactly how many women end up using such pills to … [Read more...] about The (Incomplete) Revolution in Counting Abortions

Coronavirus culture entered a new age of chic this week with British tech firm Dyson announcing it will soon be selling a set of noise-canceling, air-purifying headphones in March of next year. Unveiled in earlier 2022, the headphones were originally set to go on sale in autumn of this year but were subsequently delayed into March of next year. Prices will be starting at $913 USD. “The headphones come with active noise cancellation to cut out noise around the wearer, and a detachable visor that pumps out filtered air,” reported the Daily Mail . “The visor sits over the wearer’s nose and mouth and pumps out filtered air to help cut exposure to air pollution.” The Dyson Zone headphones will first be available for sale in China (where coronavirus restrictions continue) come January 2023 and will then be sold in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, and Singapore in March. Dyson reportedly created the headphones in response to data that showed “one in five people in … [Read more...] about Dyson to Sell Noise-Canceling, Air-Purifying Headphones

United States Central Command ( CENTCOM ) has said that an Iranian patrol boat tried to blind U.S. Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz during a tense encounter amid ongoing unrest in the Islamic republic. CENTCOM said that the expeditionary sea base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3) and guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) were in international waters on Monday when an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy patrol boat approached. The Iranian vessel "attempted to blind the bridge by shining a spotlight," and got within 150 yards of the American ships, which was "dangerously close, particularly at night." To de-escalate the situation, the U.S. ships used non-lethal lasers and warned the Iranian vessel. The U.S. ships eventually proceeded on their way but CENTCOM said that the Iranian vessel had "violated international standards of professional and safe maritime behavior." Col. Joe Buccino, CENTCOM spokesperson, described the action as … [Read more...] about Iranian patrol boat attempts to blind U.S. Navy ships in Strait of Hormuz

A Fox News medical contributor blamed China for the ongoing national drug shortage Wednesday, adding that the Food and Drug Administration is “sitting limply by” and not working to address the crisis. “Don’t think the FDA is actually doing anything about this, they’re sitting limply by. The story begins and ends in China tonight because those lock downs, those ridiculous lock downs, COVID-zero policies, cut off the supply chains,” Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Tucker Carlson. “And we get, according to U.S. census, we get 95% of our imported ibuprofen from China and 74% of our Tylenol and almost all of our antibiotics. So now, what has happened? They relieve the lockdowns and in China, people are scrambling to the pharmacies trying to find Tylenol, trying to find Motrin. We’re not going to get it because they’re hoarding it over there.” (RELATED: US Must Take Back Pharma Production From China) Siegel noted that part of the problem was … [Read more...] about Medical Expert Blames China For National Drug Shortage, Tells Tucker Carlson The FDA Is ‘Sitting Limply By’

The GOP took the House in the 2022 midterms , but even before Democrats have officially left the House majority, some members are already thinking about 2024 and how their party can win back control from Republicans. Eying the GOP’s slim majority—they won by just nine seats—some Democrats believe the House is prime territory for a flip. That sort of quick turnaround for House control would be a rarity. Democrats last held the House for four years, Republicans held it for eight before that. And yet, House progressives say that at least on their end, the inner workings of that goal are already underway. They’re hoping to be the key for it all—to mobilize voters en masse next election around Democrats’ left-most ideas and candidates. The work to do so starts now, they say. Of course, the minority isn’t where Democrats, including progressives, wanted to be after the 2022 cycle. But defying widespread forecasts of a red wave, the party has been meticulously … [Read more...] about Rep. Pramila Jayapal Wants to Grow Congressional Progressive Caucus and Move Dems Left