Feed aggregator

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is updating guidance in the Policy Manual (Volume 7, Part A, Chapter 7), to clarify how to calculate the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) age for noncitizens who demonstrate extraordinary circumstances.

HELSINKI — Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years ahead of time, as the zoo where they live can no longer afford their upkeep, the chair of the zoo's board told Reuters on Tuesday.  The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals.  Since its founding in 1949, the People's Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trading ties, cement foreign relations and boost its international image.  The Finnish agreement was for a stay of 15 years, but instead the pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas' current home.  The zoo, a private company, had invested over 8 million euros ($8.92 million) in the facility where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5 million euros for their upkeep, including a preservation fee paid to China, Ahtari Chair Risto Sivonen said.  The zoo had hoped the pandas would attract visitors to the central Finland location but last year said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was discussing a return.  Rising inflation had added to the costs, the zoo said, and Finland's government in 2023 rejected pleas for state funding.  In all, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said.  "Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done," Sivonen said.  The return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo which did not involve Finland's government and should not impact relations between the two countries, a spokesperson for Finland's foreign ministry said.  Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries in the end jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters. 

Washington — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were "foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day," according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.  Similar to the agency's own internal investigation and an ongoing bipartisan House probe, the interim report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found multiple failures on almost every level ahead of the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting, including in planning, communications, security and allocation of resources.  "The consequences of those failures were dire," said Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the Democratic chairman of the Homeland panel.  Investigators found that there was no clear chain of command among the Secret Service and other security agencies and no plan for coverage of the building where the shooter climbed up to fire the shots. Officials were operating on multiple, separate radio channels, leading to missed communications, and an inexperienced drone operator was stuck on a help line after his equipment wasn't working correctly.  Communications among security officials were a "multi-step game of telephone," Peters said.  The report found the Secret Service was notified about an individual on the roof of the building approximately two minutes before shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire, firing eight rounds in Trump's direction less than 150 yards from where the former president was speaking. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was struck in the ear by a bullet or a bullet fragment in the assassination attempt, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured before the gunman was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.  Approximately 22 seconds before Crooks fired, the report found, a local officer sent a radio alert that there was an armed individual on the building. But that information was not relayed to key Secret Service personnel who were interviewed by Senate investigators.  The panel also interviewed a Secret Service counter-sniper who reported seeing officers with their guns drawn running toward the building where the shooter was perched, but the person said they did not think to notify anyone to get Trump off the stage.  The Senate report comes just days after the Secret Service released a five-page document summarizing the key conclusions of a yet-to-be finalized Secret Service report on what went wrong, and ahead of a Thursday hearing that will be held by a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting. The House panel is also investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month when Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump's Florida club.  Each investigation has found new details that reflect a massive breakdown in the former president's security, and lawmakers say there is much more they want to find out as they try to prevent it from happening again.  "This was the result of multiple human failures of the Secret Service," said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the top Republican on the panel.  The senators recommended that the Secret Service better define roles and responsibilities before any protective event, including by designating a single individual in charge of approving all the security plans. Investigators found that many of the people in charge denied that they had responsibility for planning or security failures, and deflected blame.  Advance agents interviewed by the committee said "that planning and security decisions were made jointly, with no specific individual responsible for approval," the report said.  Communication with local authorities was also poor. Local law enforcement had raised concern two days earlier about security coverage of the building where the shooter perched, telling Secret Service agents during a walk through that they did not have the manpower to lock it down. Secret Service agents then gave investigators conflicting accounts about who was responsible for that security coverage, the report said.  The internal review released last week by the Secret Service also detailed multiple communications breakdowns, including an absence of clear guidance to local law enforcement and the failure to fix line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally grounds that left Trump open to sniper fire and "complacency" among some agents.  "This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It's important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again," said Ronald Rowe Jr., the agency's acting director, after the report was released.  In addition to better defining responsibility for events, the senators recommended that the agency completely overhaul its communications operations at protective events and improve intelligence sharing. They also recommended that Congress evaluate whether more resources are needed.  Democrats and Republicans have disagreed on whether to give the Secret Service more money in the wake of its failures. A spending bill on track to pass before the end of the month includes an additional $231 million for the agency, but many Republicans have said that an internal overhaul is needed first.  "This is a management problem plain and simple," said Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Homeland panel's investigations subcommittee. 

Athens — Greece and Turkey will explore whether they can start talks aimed at demarcating their maritime zones, Greece's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Neighbors Greece and Turkey, both NATO allies but historic foes, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues from airspace to maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus. An agreement on where their maritime zones begin and end is important for determining rights over possible gas reserves and power infrastructure schemes. Tensions have eased in recent years and both countries agreed last year to reboot their relations, pledging to keep open channels of communication and work on the issues that have kept them apart. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and discussed bilateral ties, according to statements from the Turkish presidency and the Greek foreign ministry. "The two leaders tasked the foreign ministers to explore whether conditions are favorable to initiate discussions on the demarcation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone," Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said. Foreign ministers from the two countries will start preparations for a high-level meeting to take place in Ankara in January, the Greek prime minister's office said.

Helsinki — Environmental activists sprayed red paint on Finland's parliament building on Wednesday to protest against the peat industry, sparking strong criticism from politicians. Activists from Extinction Rebellion Finland and Swedish organization Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands) smeared several granite columns at the building's main entrance in red paint resembling blood. They told AFP they were protesting against the Finnish state-owned company Neova mining peat in Swedish wetlands. Peat extracted from wetlands is often used as an energy source or for farming purposes, emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide. In their natural state, peatlands store large amounts of carbon dioxide. "We have painted the columns with this easily washable paint to show that Finland is actively involved in accelerating the climate crisis," said Valpuri Nykanen, an activist from Extinction Rebellion Finland standing outside the building. "Finland is mining peat in Sweden, while we know that we must phase out oil, gas and all fossil fuels and peat is very fossil," added Lior Tell-Stefansson from Aterstall Vatmarker. Police arrived at the scene after 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and removed 10 protesters sitting on the stairs with signs in their hands. The incident was investigated as aggravated damage to property, the police said in a statement. Several Finnish politicians immediately condemned the act. Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat quoted Prime Minister Petteri Orpo as saying it was "completely incomprehensible and unacceptable vandalism." "Finland is a free democracy. We have the right to demonstrate and influence things, but we have civilized ways of doing it," Orpo said.

BANGKOK — Thailand's exports rose for a second straight month in August, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday as it maintained its forecast of 1% to 2% growth this year despite the baht strengthening to 30-month highs against the U.S. dollar. With demand picking up in key markets, further export growth was expected this year and it could even come in above forecast, although the baht's rise would impact Q4 shipments, said Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, head of the ministry's Trade Policy and Strategy Office. Exports, a key driver of Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, rose 7% in August from a year earlier, and followed July's 15.2% rise, which was the fastest growth in 28 months. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected a rise of 5.8% Imports rose 8.9% in August from a year earlier, compared with a forecast rise of 7.30% in the poll. That led to a trade surplus of $0.26 billion in August, compared with a forecast deficit of $0.07 billion. In the first 8 months of 2024, exports rose 4.2% from a year earlier, while imports rose 5.2%, with the cumulative trade deficit at $6.35 billion. The baht has risen 4.6% since the beginning of the year, with large gains seen in the past month, to be the region's second-strongest performing currency after Malaysia's ringgit. "The stronger baht is impacting liquidity and profits, especially for agricultural goods," said Chaichan Chareonsuk, chairman of the Thai National Shippers' Council. "Some business could take a loss when negotiating new orders or not get orders," he said. The Finance Ministry and central bank are due to meet next week to discuss currency appreciation and inflation target. The Bank of Thailand said it was closely monitoring the currency and was ready to reduce volatility. For August, shipments to the United States rose 3% from a year earlier, while exports to China was up 6.7% but those to Japan were down 11.3%. Last month, rice exports rose 39.5% from a year earlier to 885,387 metric tons, and were up 46.6% in value terms to $562 million.