🇺🇸 West Virginia’s ban on transgender athletes in female school sports upheld as constitutional by federal judge

West Virginia’s ban on transgender athletes competing in female school sports is constitutional and can remain in place, a federal judge ruled.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its West Virginia chapter filed the lawsuit in 2021 on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who hoped to compete in middle school cross-country in Harrison County. The lawsuit named the state and county boards of education and their superintendents as defendants.

The ACLU of West Virginia said it was reviewing the decision with co-counsel to determine next steps. The ban applies to middle and high schools, as well as colleges.

#US #WestVirginia

@meriblood

🇺🇸Connecticut state bill would allow illegal immigrants to vote in state elections

The legislation would amend the state’s constitution to "allow undocumented immigrants who are residents of the state to be admitted as electors for purposes of voting in municipal and state elections."

Similar bills to allow non-citizen voting have also been proposed in other states in the U.S.

#US

@meriblood

🇺🇸🇲🇽 New York to distribute flyers telling migrants at U.S.-Mexico border to 'consider another city'

New York City will distribute flyers at the U.S.-Mexico border telling newly arrived migrants to "consider another city" and limit shelter stays for adult asylum seekers to 60 days.

New York City says that it has provided services to 90,000 migrants since last spring and that nearly 55,000 remain in its care.

🔎 Source
#US #Mexico

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🔨Potentially world's largest lithium reservoir found in supervolcano McDermitt Caldera in Nevada

Geologists have uncovered what they believe could be the world's largest lithium deposit inside an ancient supervolcano along the Nevada-Oregon border in the US.

Clay containing up to 40 million metric tons of lithium was identified throughout the 600-mile-wide McDermitt Caldera - nearly double what has been found in Bolivia's salt flats that have long held the record for the most lithium deposits.

While the amount of lithium is based on estimates - no drilling has taken place - scientists have found high concentrations of lithium in the caldera since the 1970s.

As of 2022, the average battery-grade lithium carbonate price was $37,000 per metric ton, meaning the volcano is potentially sitting on $1.48 trillion worth of the precious metal.

🔎 Source
#US #resources

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇲🇽 Mexico pledges to set up checkpoints to ‘dissuade’ migrants from hopping freight trains to US border

Mexican officials pledged Friday to set up checkpoints to “dissuade” migrants from hopping freight trains to the U.S. border.

The announcement came Friday at a meeting that Mexican security and immigration officials had with a representative of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute did not say where the checkpoints would be established or how migrants would be dissuaded or detained. In 2014, Mexican authorities briefly took to stopping trains to pull migrants off, but it was unclear if the government was planning to resume the raids.

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#Mexico #US #border

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇲🇽 US sanctions 9 tied to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and leader of Colombia’s Clan del Golfo

The U.S. Treasury has announced sanctions against nine affiliates of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug trafficking cartel, as well as the current leader of Colombia’s powerful Clan del Golfo criminal enterprise.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated all 10 for their roles in drug trafficking, meaning any of their assets in the United States will be blocked and U.S. citizens are generally prohibited from dealing with any of their assets.

The nine affiliates of the Sinaloa cartel follow a U.S. indictment unsealed in April that targeted a branch of the Sinaloa cartel run by the sons of former leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Monday’s sanctions include several other people named in that indictment including people who assisted with security, the actual movement of fentanyl to the U.S. and the laundering of drug profits back to the cartel in Mexico.

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#US #Mexico #cartels

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸 Only 2,100 New York migrants applied for work authorization — none have been approved yet to fill reported 18,000 job openings

New York City officials reported Wednesday that only 2,100 of the more than 40,000 adult migrants in its shelter system have applied for work authorization.

In September, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security extended temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. Since the announcement, no migrant has received federal approval to work.

Approximately 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the country before July 31, 2023, are eligible for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months and legally able to work. The DHS extended the TPS status to the migrants “due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela that prevent individuals from safely returning.”

Following the DHS’ announcement, Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated that her office identified 18,000 private-sector job openings in the state that migrants with legal work status would be eligible to fill.

On Wednesday, New York City officials admitted that a little over 2,000 migrants had applied for work permits and that not one individual had been approved so far.

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#US

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇭🇹 California sees surge in migrants from Haiti

The number of Haitian migrants entering California more than doubled from January to February, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The number of migrant encounters at the northern and southern borders in The Golden State totaled 2,220 in February, the most recent month of CBP data—doubling the 1,109 encounters in January.

In comparison, Haitian migrant encounters in the state did not exceed 600 in either October or November. Total encounters since the fiscal year, which began on October 1, have totaled 5,469, with March data not yet published by authorities.

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#Haiti #US #border

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇻🇪🗳 US may 'calibrate' Venezuela sanctions policy post-election, officials say

The Biden administration will "calibrate" its sanctions policy towards Venezuela depending on how the high-stakes election unfolds in the OPEC nation on Sunday, U.S. officials said, signaling that Washington could ease punitive measures if President Nicolas Maduro holds a fair vote.

But the U.S. also put Maduro on notice that if he claims victory without providing concrete proof, it would "call into question" whether the international community should accept the outcome.

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#US #Venezuela #election

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇲🇽 U.S. special forces to land In Mexico to train local marines at President Sheinbaum's request

Fully armed U.S. special forces will land in Mexico next week to begin a training course for Mexican marine infantry troops. The training will take place between February 17 and March 30 in the state of Campeche.

The mission was approved unanimously by a Senate commission at the request of President Claudia Sheinbaum. It will focus on conventional and non-conventional types of combat.

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#US #Mexico

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇨🇦🇺🇸 Canada will delay second wave of retaliatory tariffs, finance minister says

Canada will delay a planned second wave of retaliatory tariffs on C$125 billion of U.S. products until April 2, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a post on X on Thursday.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier in the day exempting goods from both Canada and Mexico under a North American trade pact for a month from the 25% tariffs that he had imposed earlier this week.

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#Canada #US

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🌍🇺🇸 Trump Administration Overhauls USAID: 83% of Programs Cut

The Trump administration has made a bold move in reforming U.S. foreign aid by terminating 83% of USAID programs.

Following a six-week review, 5,200 contracts were identified as ineffective or harmful to U.S. national interests. The remaining 18% will now be managed by the State Department, ensuring alignment with U.S. strategic goals.

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#US

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇲🇽 US transfers land on Mexican border to the Army to prevent illegal crossings

The Trump administration announced an emergency transfer of nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border to the Army to help prevent illegal immigration, the Interior Department said on Tuesday.

The land, which crosses Hidalgo, Luna and Dona Ana counties in New Mexico, will be transferred to the Department of the Army for three years, the agency said, allowing for patrols by federal personnel and construction of infrastructure to prevent illegal crossings.

This is not the first time Trump has made such a move. In 2019, during his first term as president, the Interior Department made a similar transfer of 560 acres along the southern border to the Army to build a wall.

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#US #Mexico #border

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇲🇽🇺🇸 Mexico has received nearly 39,000 deportees from US since Trump took office

Mexico has received nearly 39,000 immigrants deported from the United States since the beginning of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, of which 33,000 are Mexicans, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday.

Sheinbaum said that although Mexico decided to accept non-Mexicans deported from the U.S. for "humanitarian reasons," only a few thousand have been sent to Mexico since Trump took office in late January.

"Fewer and fewer people are arriving from other countries because the U.S. government has agreements with practically all nations," Sheinbaum said.

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#Mexico #US

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇸🇻 Migrants deported from US to Salvadoran prison remain under US control, Salvadoran officials tell UN

The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries.

The revelation was contained in court filings Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who are seeking to challenge their deportations to El Salvador’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

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#US #ElSalvador

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇲🇽 US sanctions Mexican cartel figures, including popular rapper El Makabelico

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions on assets of four individuals whom it linked to Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste, including the popular hip-hop artist El Makabelico.

Treasury said the sanctions target three "high-ranking members" of Cartel del Noreste (Northeast Cartel), which splintered off from Los Zetas, as well as a "prominent associate" of the group, Ricardo Hernandez, a 34-year-old musician known as El Makabelico who has millions of followers on social media.

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#US #Mexico #cartel

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸🇲🇽 US charges five members of Mexico's United Cartels, imposes sanctions

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday charged five high-ranking members of the Carteles Unidos drug gang, known in English as United Cartels, while the Treasury Department announced it was imposing sanctions on the group.

United Cartels, which is less widely known than some of its rivals, controls large areas of Michoacan, Mexico. The Justice Department called it one of the "most prolific" methamphetamine producers, and said that the proceeds from its illicit drug sales are used to acquire weapons, hire mercenaries, and bribe local officials.

The State Department said it is offering collectively up to $26 million in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the five men.

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#US #Mexico

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇧🇷🇿🇦🇺🇸 U.S. Puts Brazil and South Africa on Human Trafficking Watch List

The U.S. State Department announced that Brazil and South Africa have been placed on the 2025 “Tier 2 Watch List” for human trafficking, citing what it says is declining performance in victim identification, prosecutions, and enforcement. The classification carries risk of sanctions if improvements are not made.

Critics note that this move comes amid strained relations with those governments and may be used as leverage. Some analysts argue it distracts from internal problems in the U.S. and doubles as a geopolitical tool.

🔎 Source
#Brazil #SouthAfrica #US

☠️ Blood Meridian