Credit Suisse must face lawsuit over U.S. 'volatility' crash

By Jonathan Stempel 

4/27/2021

© Reuters/ARND WIEGMANN FILE PHOTO: Logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen in Zurich

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit accusing Credit Suisse Group AG of causing huge losses by defrauding investors in a complex product for betting on stock market swings that lost 96% of its value in a single day.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said investors could try to prove Credit Suisse intended to collapse the market for its VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short-Term Exchange-Traded Notes ("XIV Notes") through just 15 minutes of its own trading of futures contracts.

Set Capital LLC and other investors in the proposed class action claimed they lost $1.8 billion, while the Swiss bank reaped at least $475 million in profit at their expense.

The 3-0 decision adds to problems facing Credit Suisse, which recently lost $4.7 billion when the hedge fund Archegos Capital Management collapsed, and has been sued over its ties to Archegos and another client, the failed supply chain financier Greensill Capital.

XIV notes imploded on Feb. 5, 2018, when the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 4.1% and unexpected market turbulence punished investors betting on low volatility.

Circuit Judge John Walker said investors could pursue claims that Credit Suisse manipulated the market for the notes while downplaying the risks in offering documents.

"The complaint plausibly alleges both motive and opportunity to commit a manipulative act, as well as strong circumstantial evidence of conscious misbehavior or recklessness," he wrote.

Credit Suisse spokeswoman Candice Sun declined to comment.

Michael Eisenkraft, the investors' lawyer, said: "We look forward to prosecuting these claims vigorously."

The price of XIV notes plunged as low as $4.22 from $108.37 during the collapse. Credit Suisse later redeemed them at $5.99 each.

When dismissing the case in September 2019, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan adopted a magistrate judge's findings that Credit Suisse had simply taken advantage of market conditions, and was not trying to defraud investors.

The appeals court returned the case to Torres.

The case is Set Capital LLC et al v Credit Suisse Group AG et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 19-3466.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

DC police officer: 'It's been very difficult' seeing elected officials trying to whitewash brutal insurrection

By Paul LeBlanc and Caroline Kelly,

 CNN 4/27/2021


A DC Metropolitan Police officer who was brutally assaulted while defending the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection said Tuesday evening that it's been difficult to watch some elected officials and others "whitewash" the episode in its aftermath.

© Brent Stirton/Getty Images Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Michael Fanone, who was stun-gunned several times and beaten with a flagpole during the attack, told CNN's Don Lemon on "CNN Tonight" that "some of the terminology that was used, like 'hugs and kisses,' and 'very fine people,' is like very different from what I experienced and what my co-workers experienced on the 6th."

Though Fanone didn't name Donald Trump specifically, the former President falsely claimed in an interview with Fox News last month that the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol behaved properly with law enforcement and there was "zero threat" to the building.

Trump also claimed that some of the rioters "went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards."

His false account conflicts with reams of video evidence of the violence that broke out on January 6, criminal charges filed against participants, law enforcement officials' testimony, police officers' accounts of the violence and lawmakers' descriptions of the fear they experienced that day.

Fanone suffered a heart attack and a concussion during the insurrection and is now dealing with a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I experienced the most brutal, savage hand-to-hand combat of my entire life," he said Tuesday. "Let alone my policing career, which spans almost two decades. It was nothing that I had ever thought would be a part of my law enforcement career, nor was I prepared to experience."

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against Thomas Sibick, who allegedly participated in the assault of Fanone. Prosecutors said Sibick was seen in police body-camera footage assaulting Fanone while he lay on the ground outside the Capitol during the riot.

During the brawl outside the Capitol, Sibick allegedly grabbed Fanone's badge and radio, and he later posted a photo of himself holding a police shield on Facebook, court filings say.

"I want people to understand the significance of January 6," Fanone said Tuesday. "I want people to understand that thousands of rioters came to the Capitol hell-bent on violence and destruction and murder."

Living in Myanmar during a military coup like a ‘dystopian world order,’ woman says

Emerald Bensadoun 

For 25-year-old Thet, each morning in Myanmar brings a constant barrage of what sounds like gunshots, and, more recently, grenades. Yangon, Thet's home as well as the country's largest city, "looks like a wasteland now." If she were to look outside her window, Thet said some parts would resemble a ghost town, while others "look like battle zones."

© Provided by Global News Anti-coup protesters standing behind barricades standoff with a group of police in Yangon, Myanmar Thursday, March 4, 2021. Demonstrators in Myanmar protesting last month's military coup returned to the streets Thursday, undaunted by the killing of at least 38 people the previous day by security forces. (AP Photo)

"It feels like a dystopian world order," she says during an interview conducted over Signal, an encrypted messaging service. "The city that I lived in and grew up in is no longer the city that I know anymore."


Global News has agreed to identify Thet by only her first name due to fear of reprisal from Myanmar's military. Global News has also agreed to keep social media accounts run by Thet and other members of the country’s resistance movement anonymous to protect her identity.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has undergone three military coups since gaining its independence from the British Empire in 1948. The most recent began on Feb. 1, after the Tatmadaw leadership refused to accept election results that declared civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi the winner. The military detained National League for Democracy leaders, cabinet and chief ministers, opposition politicians, journalists and activists.

Since the recent coup d'etat, Thet said it all too common to hear about protesters who end up in jail, some of whom she claims are beaten and tortured before being released back home. But some don't come home.

"We do not know if they're alive anymore or whether or not they have been buried and their bodies cremated," she says.

"Lately, we've been hearing about cases of people being burned alive."

Video: Myanmar protests: Demonstrators burn tires, Chinese flag as military continues crackdowns

Government forces have killed at least 753 protesters and bystanders since the takeover, according to the most recent briefing from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors casualties and arrests. The group says 3,441 people, including Suu Kyi, are in detention.

Reporting by the Associated Press found nearly all of the protests have been nonviolent, but as police and soldiers have increased their use of lethal force, some participants have armed themselves with homemade weapons such as hunting rifles and gasoline bombs for self-defence.

Southeast Asian leaders said Monday that an agreement had been reached with the junta chief to end the crisis in Myanmar, but no consensus was reached that would put an end to the killing of civilian protesters.

Phone and internet service has been suspended in major cities. In Yangon, where Thet lives with her family, the internet is shut down at 1 a.m. and comes back up at around 8:30 a.m.

"Then we hear about what will happen, what happened in parts of our city, the people they kidnapped, the people they shot, the people they killed during the night," she says.

Read more: Up to 3.4 million in Myanmar face hunger after military coup, United Nations says

Thet's experience is all too common for those living in Myanmar. Burmese Canadian Si Thu Naing, who lives in British Columbia, says it's been difficult to connect with his family in Myanmar due to the shutdowns, and fears for their safety.

His brother is a journalist, which he says has made his family a target for the military junta.

"A lot of the media personalities are on the run. They are not living in their own houses or places anymore. They are usually separated from their family because of what they are doing," he tells Global News.

"If they want to arrest somebody, they go into their house and if they can't find the person they are looking for then they just grab one of their family members."

Unable to ignore the news as conditions in Myanmar worsened, he started a petition. On March 23, NDP MP Laurel Collins brought that petition to the House of Commons floor urging the international community and federal government to "act firmly to reject the coup and put pressure on our allies and Asian partners to stop providing arms to the Myanmar military."

"Canadians want our country to be a leader when it comes to standing up for human rights," Collins says in an interview with Global News. "It's really important for Canada to condemn violence, to condemn military coups that undermine democracy, especially when there is escalating violence against civilian protesters and media blackouts."

Naing's petition also demands Canada bar all businesses from exporting arms and tech to the Myanmar military that can be used against the public.

"We're trying to push and put pressure on the government and western countries to do differently this time and hopefully resolve this so that there will be a whole lot more stability over there," Naing says.

Video: Myanmar protests: Mother of military crackdown victim mourns loss of son during funeral

Since the military coup began, Canada has imposed sanctions on nine Myanmar military officials and has urged Canadians doing business with Myanmar-related entities to comply. Foreign Affairs minister Marc Garneau also "unequivocally" condemned the junta's use of force in a statement on Feb. 28, adding that Canada was considering more measures.

Global Affairs Canada reiterated that the federal government condemns "the coup and the violence being perpetrated against civilian protestors" in an emailed statement to Global News, adding that they have "demanded the restoration of the democratically-elected government and the release of all members of the civilian government, activists and civil society leaders."

"We have also urged the Tatmadaw leadership to provide immediate and unfettered access to Myanmar to the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy," the statement read.

Aung Naing Thein, who heads the Alberta Alliance for Myanmar Democracy, has also requested Canada's government take more aggressive against Myanmar's military. His petition was put to the House floor on April 14.

Garnett Genuis, the Conservative MP who brought the petition forward, recalled Canada's call to action against the Rohingya genocide more than one year after Prime Minister Trudeau’s Special Envoy to Myanmar published his 2018 report detailing multiple accounts of mass rape, killings, separation of families and torching of homes and villages.

"Let's not make the mistake that the government made on Burma in the past," he says. "Let's be prioritizing this in discussions of multilateral fora now and pushing for coordinated actions in terms of sanctions against individuals and other measures that will force a change in behaviour."

But for Thein, the petition is personal. Like Thet, Thein was born and raised in Yangon. He said he wrote the petition in the hopes that it would draw attention to what is happening in his hometown.

"Every day I get a phone call or internet call, the first question we ask is not, 'How are you?' Our question is, 'Are you still alive? Are all of my family members still alive?'" He tells Global News. "I never thought that could be a normal conversation."

Both of Thein's parents live in Yangon, as well as his grandparents, aunts and uncles. He says he's scared for his family.

"The military and security force, they come to the streets and then they randomly shoot people indiscriminately," he claims, when asked what he hears from his family about the state of Yangon.

Unable to return home, he asked himself: "As a Burmese Canadian here, what can I do?"

Read more: Myanmar anti-coup protesters stage ‘silent strike’ to mourn over 700 dead

Thein's petition differs slightly from Naing's, in that it calls on Canada to impose sanctions against members and businesses who are chaired and assembled by Min Aung Hlaing, the senior general in Myanmar and de facto leader following the Feb. 1 coup.

When asked about this distinction, Thein says "the more money they have, the more weapons they will buy and then the more atrocities will happen in Myanmar."

Even if his petition receives no traction, Thein says he will continue to push for a future where Myanmar is a democratic state.

"As long as this military are in power, in control and killing people, I cannot stop what I'm doing here because that's not fair for those people in Myanmar who are suffering," he says.

Video: Dozens killed in Myanmar in one of the deadliest days since military coup

For some living in Myanmar, like Thet, the future remains uncertain. Last month, Thet says her neighbour's home was raided by Myanmar militants. She claims her neighbour was taken, and still doesn't know where he is or if he's still alive.

So far, she says she has been lucky. To her knowledge, none of her friends have died. Living with her family has eased her anxiety — at least this way, she knows where they are. But for Thet, every day is a dangerous waiting game, each passing moment more uncertain than the last.

"So much has happened and yet everything feels so achingly slow at the same time," she says. "At this point, I feel less that I'm living and more that I'm surviving and existing."

At 25 years old, Thet has accepted that her life could end.

"I want to be as dispensable as possible," she says.

"Whatever happens: if I go missing, if they end up killing me too, I know the movement will be able to go on as if nothing happened. They may mourn for me, for my friends and family. But the movement itself will be able to continue on because our movement is a leaderless movement."

Read more: Myanmar security forces kill 82 pro-democracy protesters in single day, reports say

Her actions today may not be the tipping point that sets Myanmar back toward democracy, but Thet says anything that could help future generations of activists is a risk she's willing to take.

"Right now my rights no longer matter. I cannot speak out about what my opinions are without fear of being killed. Police and military can come into our house at any time and kidnap us. This is not the type of life that I want for myself and for other people in my community, not just the youth who will have to carry us in the future, but also the elders too," she said.

"For me, the fight is worth it. Risking my life is worth it because we deserve to live in a free Myanmar, a really inclusive Myanmar as well. So that is why I keep organizing in the ways that I can. We must when we have no other option not to. We have already lost so many people. We cannot make their sacrifices go in vain."

-- With files from Reuters and The Associated Press

Women of color make up 1 in 4 hourly workers at Walmart, but less than a tenth of executives

insider@insider.com (Allana Akhtar) 
4/27/2021

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images People of color make up roughly half (47.3%) of all hourly workers at Walmart locations in the US. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Women of color made up 26.8% of all US hourly employees in 2020, Walmart said in a new report.

Meanwhile, 74.5% of executives and 52.3% of hourly workers at Walmart are white.

"We're investing in change," Ben Hasan, global chief of diversity and inclusion, said in a release.

Women of color are doing much of Walmart's hourly work, yet are responsible for few executive-level decisions.

Women of color - or workers who identify as Black, Asian, Latina, or Native -made up 26.8% of all US hourly employees, according to a new report. People of color make up roughly half (47.3%) of all hourly workers.

Though they represent about one in four hourly workers, women of color make up just 8.4% of people at the "officer" level, or people with president or vice president in their titles. Women of all races make up 32.8% of officers at Walmart's US operations.

Read more: A top Walmart healthcare exec is leaving the retail giant

Black and Latino people account for 39% of hourly workers at Walmart, but 14% of US executives. The majority of Walmart employees are white, making up 74.5% of executives and 52.3% of hourly workers.

"Representation matters, education is the foundation of progress, and we're investing in change," Ben Hasan, Walmart's senior vice president and global chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in a release.

Hasan said women representation in upper management stayed roughly the same between 2019 and 2020, but Walmart increased management promotions for women by 4.4%.

CEO Doug McMillan said, "We remain focused on building teams that are diverse and inclusive, and on fostering an environment where people have the opportunity for continued growth and development."

Walmart, the country's largest employer, had 1.5 million total workers in the United States last year.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE; FOX LIES 

A  Fox News anchor admitted on air on Monday that his show was inaccurate when it claimed on Friday that President Joe Biden is trying to require Americans to sharply reduce their consumption of red meat

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John Roberts, co-host of the afternoon show "America Reports," made the Monday concession after CNN and other media outlets published fact check articles explaining that Biden does not have any plan to restrict red meat consumption.

Roberts acknowledged Monday that "a graphic and the script" from his Friday show "incorrectly implied" that a 2020 academic study about meat-eating and greenhouse gas emissions is "part of Biden's plan for dealing with climate change."

"That is not the case," Roberts said.

Roberts had falsely claimed on Friday that the study -- which is not connected in any way to Biden's actual policies -- found that people need to "say goodbye to your burgers if you want to sign up to the Biden climate agenda." As Roberts spoke on Friday, Fox aired a graphic that claimed "Biden's climate requirements" are to "cut 90% of red meat from diet, max 4 lbs per year, one burger per month."

The graphic went viral online; it was amplified on Twitter by Donald Trump Jr., the Republican governors of Texas and Idaho and others. But it was entirely wrong.

Biden has not put forward any proposal to force Americans to change their diets. And the study Roberts cited -- which was published before Biden had even won the Democratic presidential nomination -- was not about Biden at all.

The study from scholars at the University of Michigan and Tulane University looked at what would happen to greenhouse gas emissions if Americans hypothetically decided to reduce their meat consumption to four pounds per year. It said nothing about a government-mandated reduction to four pounds per year -- and did not even mention Biden's name.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, baselessly linked the study to Biden in a Thursday article. A series of Fox personalities then did the same thing on Friday and Saturday.

Fox News hosts Jesse Watters and Ainsley Earhardt also pushed false claims about Biden and red meat. So did Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, the former Trump administration economic official.

Carly Shanahan of Fox's media relations department declined to comment on Monday when asked whether these hosts would also acknowledge they were inaccurate.

ROARING TWENTIES REDUX

A second cryptocurrency exchange has collapsed in Turkey, adding to the country's crypto woes.

© Ozan Kose/Getty Images Turkey's government is planning to crack down on cryptocurrencies.

Analysts said the abrupt closure of the exchanges highlighted the risks of cryptocurrencies.

Many have turned to bitcoin and other assets to try to hedge against the country's high inflationn rate.

The cryptocurrency market has been dealt a major blow in Turkey after a second exchange went down on Friday. The closures have left hundreds of thousands of people without access to bitcoin and other assets, which many had bought as a hedge against rampant inflation.

Analysts said the events were a reminder to cryptocurrency investors everywhere to be sure to do business with reputable companies.

Vebitcoin, a Turkish crypto exchange which had around $60 million in daily trading volumes, announced it had stopped all of its activities on Friday. It put a message up on its website blaming financial strains.

The Turkish financial crimes watchdog then blocked all the exchange's bank accounts in the country later that day, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Vebitcoin's announcement came days after rival Turkish crypto exchange Thodex stopped operations and its founder fled the country. The exchange had around 390,000 active users, according to reports.

The abrupt closure of the exchange was one catalyst for bitcoin's dramatic fall below $50,000 from recent highs close to $65,000, analysts said.

"The collapse of two exchanges in Turkey sent a warning to many cryptocurrency traders who have gotten into crypto with unreputable companies," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said.

Turkey's cryptocurrency woes have been tied up with government efforts to crack down on the market.

Last week the country's central bank backed a ban on crypto payments. It said using cryptocurrencies for payments could cause "non-recoverable losses" for the parties involved.

But many Turks have turned to cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation, which stood at 16.2% in March.

"People like the idea of cryptocurrencies because they're unconstrained by the government," Marshall Gittler, head of investment research at BDSwiss, said. "But that freedom comes with costs - it also means there's no insurance and limited regulation."

Philip Gradwell, chief economist at Chainalysis, said: "The troubles at Turkish exchanges illustrate the importance of clear and stable regulation for cryptocurrency."

He added: "Investors in the USA and Europe are fortunate to have reputable cryptocurrency exchanges that operate within a strong regulatory framework, so the events in Turkey should not reduce their confidence."

cbc.ca

Relief efforts underway after La Soufrière volcanic eruptions
Duration: 00:36 

While no deaths have been reported following a series of volcanic eruptions over the past two weeks, large swaths of the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are left covered in ash and dust. Local agriculture has been devastated and infrastructure compromised, hindering search and rescue efforts.

FASCIST HEGEMONY
Orban seen entrenching right-wing dominance through Hungarian university reform

By Marton Dunai and Anita Komuves 

4/26/2021

© Reuters/BERNADETT SZABO FILE PHOTO: Students in front of the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is set to pass legislation on Tuesday setting up foundations to take over the running of universities and cultural institutions in a move critics say extends the ideological imprint of the ruling right-wing government.

Currently, most Hungarian universities are owned by the state but have a large amount of academic autonomy.

The bill, drafted by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's deputy, says they need to be privatised because modern conditions require a "re-thinking of the role of the state" and the foundations will manage institutions more efficiently.

© Reuters/BERNADETT SZABO FILE PHOTO: Hungary's PM Orban in Budapest

Orban's government will appoint boards of trustees to run the foundations, which will control substantial real estate assets and benefit from billions of euros worth of EU funds, while also having considerable influence over universities' everyday life.

The government will endow several of the foundations using its stakes in blue chip companies MOL and drug maker Richter. It will also allocate over 1 trillion forints ($3.3 billion) worth of EU recovery funds for the revamp of universities.

Orban, who came to power in 2010, has tightened his control over much of Hungarian public life, such as the media, education and scientific research, as he seeks to reshape national culture. Orban set out the changes in a speech in 2018 when he envisioned embedding his political system in a new "cultural era".

© Reuters/BERNADETT SZABO FILE PHOTO: Supporters gather in front of the University of Theatre and Film Arts, in Budapest

His government, promoting what it calls Christian, conservative values, has strongly opposed immigration and limited gay adoption and legal recognition of transgender people.

Critics say the new legislation was the next move in extending its ideological influence and power grab.

"This is part of the ideological war that Orban declared two years ago," said Attila Chikan, a professor at the Corvinus economics university in Budapest and a former minister in Orban's first government in 1998.

"They make it no secret: they want to assume intellectual power after political and economic power."

He noted the move came after the government boosted controls over academic research and forced a top liberal school, Central European University, to move to Vienna in 2019.

The bill, to be voted on in parliament on Tuesday, says "the fundamental expectation is that the foundations actively defend the survival and well-being of the nation and the interests of enriching its intellectual treasures."

The foundations running some of the cultural institutions would have patriotic tasks such as "strengthening national identity."

The opposition said with supporters of Orban's ruling Fidesz party, and even government ministers, sitting on the boards, Orban could retain a degree of control over universities beyond the 2022 election and could undermine their autonomy.

Gergely Arato, an MP from opposition party Democratic Coalition said the bill would take away "the property, traditions, community, knowledge" of Hungarian people and give them to government allies controlling the universities.

The government says universities would benefit from the new model. Istvan Stumpf, government commissioner in charge of the changes, declined an interview with Reuters.

In October, students at Hungary's University of Theatre and Film Arts blockaded their school in a row over the imposition of a government-appointed board that protesters said undermined the school's autonomy.

($1 = 300.8700 forints)

(Reporting by Marton Dunai and Anita Komuves; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Opponents force referendum on Swiss same-sex marriage

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters will get final say on whether same-sex couples can marry after opponents gathered enough signatures to force a binding referendum on a 2020 law allowing them to wed

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© Reuters/Denis Balibouse FILE PHOTO: A rainbow flag is pictured on a balcony ahead of a referendum on anti-homophobia law in Neuchatel

That legislation also allowed transgender people to change their legal gender with a declaration, in a major change for a country that has lagged other parts of western Europe in gay rights.


The Swiss government certified that opponents had gathered enough support to call a referendum under the nation's system of direct democracy. It will in May set a date for the vote, which could come in September at the earliest, a spokesman said.

Opponents had decried "fake marriages" and said only a man and a woman could wed.

A survey commissioned by a gay advocacy group Pink Cross in 2020 showed more than 80% of Swiss support same-sex marriage, suggesting the law would take effect even if subjected to a referendum.

France legalised same-sex marriages in 2013, Germany followed in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that the Constitution provides same-sex couples the right to marry.

(Reporting by Michael Shields and John Miller; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

THE SURGE IN MIGRATION EL NORTE

More than 27,000 displaced in Colombia violence in 2021

AFP  4.27.2021

More than 27,000 people were displaced during the first quarter of 2021 due to a surge of violence in lawless areas of Colombia, the human rights ombudsman said on Monday.

© Luis ROBAYO Despite a 2016 peace accord, Colombia has seen a surge of violence in lawless areas due to a multi-faceted conflict

People have either fled or been chased from their land by threats, murders, forced recruitment by armed gangs, clashes between such gangs, and others pitting them against the armed forces.

It amounts to a 177 percent increase in displacements on the same period in 2020, the ombudsman said.

Colombia thought it had seen the back of more than a half century of armed conflict when in 2016 the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace deal with the government to disband and form a political party.

But violence has continued pitting dissident FARC members, other leftist guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN), drug-traffickers, right-wing paramilitaries and the armed forces in a multi-faceted conflict.

Between January 1 and March 31, there were 65 "massive displacement events" compared with just 35 in the same period the previous year, said the ombudsman.

In a statement, the United Nations deplored "the violence carried out against communities, people defending human rights, social and community leaders, as well as ex-combatants of the former FARC, a situation that has worsened in recent weeks."

The UN said seven ex-guerrillas were murdered in an eight-day period recently.

The leftist Comunes party, which was formed after the peace deal, claims that 271 former fighters that signed the accord have been killed.

lv/jss/gma/bc/st

U.S. announces $310 million in humanitarian, food aid to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in a virtual meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday, announced an additional $310 million in U.S. government support for humanitarian relief and to address food insecurity in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the White House said.

© Reuters/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN U.S. Vice President Harris holds videoconference with Guatemala's President Giammattei at the White House in Washington

The two leaders also "agreed to open Migrant Resource Centers in Guatemala to provide services for people seeking lawful pathways of migration as well as those in need of protection, asylum referrals, and refugee resettlement," the White House said.

Gallery: Migrants deported from U.S. find shelter in Mexico (Reuters)















4/25 SLIDES © Reuters

An asylum-seeking migrant child from Central America, who was airlifted from Brownsville to El Paso, Texas, and deported from the U.S. with his mother, is seen inside the El Buen Samaritano shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 1, 2021. Young families who crossed the U.S. border seeking a better life find themselves forced to head back south into Mexico. They had hoped President Joe Biden would allow them and their young children to stay in the U.S. until their immigration cases could be heard. Instead, many were promptly deported. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Kim Coghill)