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Wife of 'El Chapo', from teen beauty queen to accused drug trafficker
New York (AFP) - Emma Coronel Aispuro's resume is dense: model, social media influencer and fashion designer, small-town beauty queen at 17, wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman a year later. And now, at age 31, she is a suspected drug trafficker, accused of taking part in the operations of her husband's cartel, being held in a US jail after her arrest this week at a Washington airport. Coronel, 32 years her husband's junior, has been a source of fascination since she played a key role in the trial of Guzman two years ago in New York, which ended in a life sentence for the power...
AFP
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New York designer Minkoff mixes in-person show with 'extended reality'
New York (AFP) - Rebecca Minkoff is one of few designers to present her collection at New York's Fashion Week in person -- but she's also betting on the power of streaming, using innovative technology to immerse online viewers in her work. Just like at last fall's edition of Fashion Week, this spring's collections will be presented almost exclusively online due to the Covid-19 pandemic -- and many of the major designers have opted out altogether. The exceptions include Jason Wu, who held a show for 25 people on Sunday, and Minkoff, who invited 100 people to a studio in Soho to view her latest ...
AFP
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Biden begins dismantling Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' asylum policy
Washington (AFP) - Asylum seekers forced to remain in Mexico while their cases are being resolved in the United States will begin to be admitted into the US as of next week, President Joe Biden's administration announced Friday. Biden instructed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this month to take action to end the controversial "Remain in Mexico" program put in place by his predecessor Donald Trump. It saw tens of thousands of non-Mexican asylum seekers -- mostly from Central America -- sent back over the border pending the outcome of their asylum applications, creating a ...
AFP
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Fake heiress freed from New York prison
New York (AFP) - "Prison is so exhausting you wouldn't know," writes fake Russian-German heiress Anna Sorokin on Instagram, under a black and white photo of herself wearing black sunglasses while in bed. Sorokin posted the image to her 75,000 followers after her release from the medium-security Albion prison in New York on Thursday, where she had spent three years and four months for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from banks, hotels and friends. Sorokin, a Russian truck driver's daughter who had been living in Germany, reinvented herself as socialite Anna Delvey on arrival in the US in...
AFP
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Biden begins dismantling Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' asylum policy
Washington (AFP) - Asylum seekers forced to remain in Mexico while their cases are being resolved in the United States will begin to be admitted into the US as of next week, President Joe Biden's administration announced Friday. Biden instructed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this month to take action to end the controversial "Remain in Mexico" program put in place by his predecessor Donald Trump. It saw tens of thousands of non-Mexican asylum seekers -- mostly from Central America -- sent back over the border pending the outcome of their asylum applications, creating a ...
AFP
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Pandemic takes mental health toll on US youngsters
New York (AFP) - Anxiety, depression, self-harm and even suicide: a growing number of children in the United States are struggling with their mental health during the coronavirus pandemic, doctors, teachers, parents and the government are all warning. Millions of students have been attending school virtually since March last year, spending hours in front of computers, without playing games or chatting with friends in person and missing out on sports and face-to-face art or music classes. "There's a lot of loneliness for me and other teens," said Sarah Frank, an 18-year-old from Florida, who ha...
AFP
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Man arrested in Puerto Rico government chat scandal
Miami (AFP) - The FBI arrested a man Wednesday for allegedly trying to extort $300,000 from government officials in Puerto Rico to prevent the release of private messages that later pushed the island's governor to resign, authorities said. The governor, Ricardo Rossello, stepped down in 2019 after hundreds of pages of incendiary messages on the app Telegram were leaked. Sixto Jorge Diaz Colon, 52, faces federal charges including extortion and obstruction of justice for allegedly demanding government contracts in exchange for keeping secret the chats that sparked protests in the US Caribbean t...
AFP
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US, Mexico, Guatemala bar migrant caravans, citing Covid
Guatemala City (AFP) - The United States, Mexico and Guatemala agreed Friday to bar migrant caravans from passing through their territories due to the Covid pandemic, days after one from Honduras was violently broken up in Guatemala. US Ambassador to Guatemala William Popp stressed that any migrants who cross the US border in an irregular manner will be returned home immediately, citing national health security. His comments came after a meeting with Guatemalan Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo and Mexican Ambassador to Guatemala Romeo Ruiz. "Any attempt to create massive flows of people will not b...
AFP
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New migrant caravan leaves Honduras in pursuit of American dream
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (AFP) - Some 3,000 people left Honduras on foot Friday in the latest migrant caravan hoping to find a welcome, and a better life, in the US under President-elect Joe Biden. Seeking to escape poverty, unemployment, gang and drug violence and the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, the migrants plan to walk thousands of kilometers through Central America. But they will have to overcome a rash of travel restrictions in Guatemala and Mexico long before they even make it to the American border. The quest is likely to end in heartbreak for many, with American authoriti...
AFP
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New migrant caravans leaving Honduras to pursue American dream
San Pedro Sula (Honduras) (AFP) - Hundreds of asylum seekers are forming new migrant caravans in Honduras, planning to walk thousands of kilometers through Central America to the United States via Guatemala and Mexico, in search of a better life under the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden. A first group of some 300 people set out at dawn on Thursday from San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, headed for Corinto, on the border with Guatemala, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest. Traveling in small groups, some bearing the Honduran flag, most of the migrants wore...
AFP
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