Largest US immigration raids in a decade net 680 arrests
MORTON, Miss. — U.S. immigration officials raided numerous Mississippi food processing plants Wednesday, arresting 680 mostly Latino workers in what marked the largest workplace sting in at least a decade.
The raids, planned months ago, happened just hours before President Donald Trump was scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, the majority-Latino city where a man linked to an online screed about a “Hispanic invasion” was charged in a shooting that left 22 people dead in the border city.
Workers filled three buses — two for men and one for women — at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in tiny Morton, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Jackson. They were taken to a military hangar to be processed for immigration violations. About 70 family, friends and residents waved goodbye and shouted, “Let them go! Let them go!” Later, two more buses arrived.
A tearful 13-year-old boy whose parents are from Guatemala waved goodbye to his mother, a Koch worker, as he stood beside his father. Some employees tried to flee on foot but were captured in the parking lot.
Workers who were confirmed to have legal status were allowed to leave the plant after having their trunks searched.
Puerto Ricans get their 3rd governor in 6 days
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez became Puerto Rico’s new governor Wednesday, just the second woman to hold the office, after weeks of political turmoil and hours after the island’s Supreme Court declared Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in a week ago unconstitutional.
Accompanied by her husband, Judge Jorge Díaz, and her daughter, Vázquez took the oath of office in the early evening at the Supreme Court before leaving without making any public comment.
“Puerto Rico needs assurance and stability,” she said earlier in a statement. “Our actions will be aimed toward that end and it will always come first.”
The high court’s unanimous decision, which could not be appealed, settled the dispute over who will lead the U.S. territory after its political establishment was knocked off balance by big street protests spawned by anger over corruption, mismanagement of funds and a leaked obscenity-laced chat that forced the previous governor and several top aides to resign.
But it was also expected to unleash a new wave of demonstrations because many Puerto Ricans have said they don’t want Vázquez as governor.
Trade war escalation comes at inopportune moment for economy
WASHINGTON — The escalation of the U.S.-China trade fight comes at a particularly inopportune moment for the global economy, threatening to turn a period of slower growth into recession.
In the past week, President Donald Trump has said he will impose new taxes on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports. Beijing responded by halting purchases of U.S. farm goods and allowing the value of its currency, the yuan, to fall to an 11-year low. Trump, in turn, labeled China a currency manipulator, a step that has little immediate effect but could lead to future tariff hikes.
The rapid-fire sequence of events “shatters confidence, trust and expectations,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in California. World stock markets tumbled Monday — the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 767 points or 2.9% — before rebounding Tuesday.
A late-afternoon rally Wednesday lifted most of the major stock indexes out of the red, reversing most of the early slide that briefly pulled the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 580 points. Technology and consumer staples stocks powered much of the gains, offsetting losses in banks, energy companies and other sectors.
Even so, the moves in the bond and commodities markets signaled that investors are nervous that the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China might derail the global economy.
The prospects for a trade deal, which appeared bright as recently as mid-May, dimmed to near-invisibility.
“They are all moving in the wrong directions,” Sohn said. “I don’t think the Chinese are looking for a trade deal during the current term of President Trump. They have decided he is too unpredictable to negotiate with.”
In his own words: Ex-Cardinal’s letters to abuse victims
VATICAN CITY — At first glance, the handwritten postcards and letters look innocuous, even warm, sometimes signed off by “Uncle T.” or “Your uncle, Father Ted.”
But taken in context, the correspondence penned by disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to the young men he is accused of sexually abusing or harassing is a window into the way a predator grooms his prey, according to two abuse prevention experts who reviewed it for The Associated Press.
Full of flattery, familiarity and boasts about his own power, the letters provide visceral evidence of how a globe-trotting bishop made young, vulnerable men feel special — and then allegedly took advantage of them.
The AP is exclusively publishing correspondence McCarrick wrote to three men ahead of the promised release of the Vatican’s own report into who knew what and when about his efforts to bed would-be priests. Access to an archbishop for young men seeking to become priests “is a key piece of the grooming process here,” said one of the experts, Monica Applewhite.
Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick, 89, in February after a church investigation determined he sexually abused minors as well as adult seminarians. The case has created a credibility crisis for the Catholic hierarchy , since McCarrick’s misconduct was reported to some U.S. and Vatican higher-ups, but he nevertheless remained an influential cardinal until his downfall last year.
Is pot safe when pregnant? Study seeks answer, draws critics
CHICAGO — Pregnancy started out rough for Leslie Siu. Morning sickness and migraines had her reeling and barely able to function at a demanding New York marketing job, so like rising numbers of U.S. mothers-to-be, she turned to marijuana.
“l was finally able to get out from under my work desk,” said Siu, who later started her own pot company and says her daughter, now 4, is thriving.
There’s no proof that cannabis can relieve morning sickness, and mainstream medicine advises against use in pregnancy because of studies suggesting it might cause premature birth, low birthweight and infant brain deficits. But the National Institute on Drug Abuse is pressing for more solid evidence. Many of those studies were in animals or complicated by marijuana users’ other habits and lifestyles.
“I don’t want us to cry wolf,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, the agency’s director. “We have to do these studies in a way that can identify risks.”
With nearly $200,000 from her agency, University of Washington scientists in Seattle are seeking clearer answers in a new study investigating potential effects on infants’ brains. The agency is supporting three similar studies in other states.