At least 43 people have died in a fire in a multi-storey commercial building in the Bailey Road area of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, the fire department has rescued about 70 people, 42 of them unconscious, who were on the roof and in other spaces of the seven-story building.

According to the first reports, the fire started in one of the restaurants on the first floor around 9:45 p.m. local time on Thursday and many of the affected people were in the restaurants when the fire spread to other floors.

The Minister of Health of the Asian country, Samanta Lal Sen, has told the media that 33 bodies of the deceased were in the facilities of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, while the remaining 10 confirmed so far were at the headquarters of the Institute. Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery.

Another similar fire affected the center of the Bangladeshi capital on March 7, 2023, when an explosion occurred in a building that left fifteen people dead and another 39 injured.

In that same month last year, three more people lost their lives and forty were injured after a fire at a construction site in Dhaka itself.

This Thursday, Brazil surpassed the barrier of one million dengue cases so far this year, 390% more than in the months of January and February 2023, according to updated data from the Ministry of Health. The country has recorded 207 deaths and another 687 suspects attributed to this infectious disease transmitted by a type of mosquito and whose expansion has been favored by high temperatures.

Rio de Janeiro declared “a state of public health emergency” at the beginning of the month on the eve of Carnival. In addition, the mayor's office presented a contingency plan to face what it called a “dengue epidemic” that foresees the implementation of a series of measures to prevent the proliferation of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, transmitter of the disease.

With 30,279 probable cases, São Paulo, the largest city in South America, has already exceeded in just two months the number of cases registered throughout last year. But it is in the capital, Brasilia, where the situation has reached dramatic levels, with 101,772 cases of the disease and 53 deaths as of this Thursday.

Insufficient number of vaccines

The governor of the Federal District of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, warned at the end of last week that the capital's health centers were overwhelmed and that the peak of cases had not even been reached.. The public health system began vaccinating children and adolescents in the most affected regions against dengue this month, but authorities have recognized that the number of doses available is not enough to cover the entire population.

In parallel with vaccination, cities throughout the country have reinforced street fumigation and health teams that go house to house looking for mosquito breeding sites.. With the increase in cases, seven of the country's 27 states (Acre, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and the Federal District) declared a public health emergency due to dengue.

A US judge this Thursday suspended the entry into force of a controversial Texas law that allows police authorities to detain and expel migrants whom they suspect of having entered the United States illegally, the plaintiffs reported.

The law, which was expected to go into effect next Monday and is temporarily suspended, is one of the most drastic anti-immigrant measures in American history. Immigrant advocates have warned that the law will lead directly to racial discrimination, especially against Hispanics.

The measure (SB 88-4) was demanded by civil rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last December just days after being signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican. , the main driver of the measure.

After hearing the ruling, Abbott announced that he would immediately appeal. “Texas has the right to defend itself due to President (Joe) Biden's continued failure to fulfill his duty to protect our state from invasion at our southern border,” he said in a statement. Abbott indicated that he intends to take this case all the way to the Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs allege that the law is unconstitutional because it violates the supremacy of federal law, which regulates immigration in the United States, over measures approved by a state.

The law makes it a misdemeanor for a foreigner to “enter or attempt to enter the state from a foreign nation” irregularly.. The offense becomes a serious crime, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, if the offender is a repeat offender.

The initiative also allows the state Justice to order the expulsion of people without a legal process. Additionally, police officers will be able to arrest any individual they suspect of having entered the country illegally, and will have the discretion to expel them to Mexico instead of arresting them.

Anand Balakrishnan, an attorney with the ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project, said in a statement that the federal court's decision “confirms” the illegality of the measure.

Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways, another of the plaintiff organizations, stressed that “the only way to fix our broken immigration system is through federal Congressional action, not individual state action.”

Biden and Trump at the southern border

The temporary decision issued by the Federal Court of the Western District of Texas comes just when President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, separately, arrived at the southern border of that state this Thursday to advance their electoral campaigns around immigration. .

The US president meets with members of the Border Patrol and local authorities and leaders in Brownsville, while Trump will be 500 kilometers northeast in Eagle Pass, where Abbott has instituted several measures that challenge federal power over immigration. The plaintiffs anticipated that the Texas government would most likely appeal the court's temporary decision.

Rejection of the law

The law was rejected by local governments such as El Paso, which participated in the lawsuit. Iliana Holguín, a county commissioner, applauded the court's decision in a statement and said the law “would impose an undue burden on local taxpayers, while opening the door to possible violations of residents' civil rights.” borders”.

For his part, Domingo García, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the oldest Hispanic organization in the US, said in a statement that “Abbott and other right-wing politicians must stop wasting millions of US taxpayer dollars.” Texas and lying to Texans that they are actually detaining immigrants.”

He accused Republican leaders of being “complicit with smugglers” of migrants by sending new arrivals to other U.S. cities and failing to work on a bipartisan immigration plan to resolve the humanitarian crisis at the border.

Fairy lanterns, or Thismiaceae as they are known in botany, are a type of plants that do not have green leaves or carry out photosynthesis.. They are tiny oddities of nature that feed on fungi and look like glass lanterns, hence their fairy-tale name.

There are a hundred known species but no new ones had been discovered for almost a hundred years, until now. The extremely rare find occurred in Japan, a country famous for its interest in flora and which has many amateur botanists who collaborate with scientists.

Fairy lanterns, or Tanuki-no-Shokudai or “raccoon dog candlestick”, as they are called in Japan, are found mainly in tropical, but also subtropical and temperate regions and only produce flowers for a short period. Additionally, they are very rare and difficult to find.

Thanks to local botanists

Kobe Suetsugu, a botanist at Kenji University and a recognized world expert in this type of plants, has long collaborated with local botanists who access remote areas throughout Japan and whose dedication “has been crucial to identifying species unknown to science,” the researcher acknowledges. So when he was sent a specimen of a fairy lantern that a hobbyist had found and that an expert believed represented a new species of the Tanuki-no-sokudai genus, he knew he had to investigate them.

Suetsugu realized that the plant was not part of any of the existing genera of Thismia and that it had “unique characteristics”, so he moved to Kimotsuki, in Kagoshima prefecture, where the discovery took place to search for new copies but his search gave no results. A year later, he tried again and this time he found four more plants, all of them in the same area.. The details of the new genus are published this Thursday in the Journal of Plant Research.

A new genre

From morphological and genetic analyses, the team concluded that the plant is not only a new species, but is in fact different enough from Tanuki-no-shokudai to be a distinct genus, the next level of kinship above species.

The researchers believe that the plant probably diverged early in the evolution of the entire Thismiaceae family and retains characteristics common to the family that have been lost in the Thismia genus. This is why Suetsugu chose the name Mujina-no-shokudai, or badger candlestick: Mujina is an old Japanese word for badger, but it has also sometimes been used for the raccoon dog, which is it seems, but from which it is different,” he explains.

“Japan is one of the regions in the world where botanical studies are most advanced, which makes the discovery of new plant species extremely rare, and the discovery of a new genus even more so,” he emphasizes. In fact, the last discovery of a new vascular plant simultaneously identified as a separate genus was that of Japonolirion in 1930.

The Government of the Argentine province of Salta, bordering Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile, decided to start charging for health care for foreigners with certain categories of temporary residence, who until this decision received free assistance in northern Argentina, reported this Thursday official sources.

The governor of Salta, Gustavo Sáenz, signed a decree that establishes that foreigners who belong to the categories of temporary residents (tourists, passengers in transit, seasonal or academic migrant workers) and precarious residents (residency applicants during their admission process) must contribute to the expenses generated by their health care in provincial health centers, either individually or through health insurance.

“This measure seeks to guarantee the solvency of the Salta public health system,” indicated a statement from the provincial government.

The decree provides that health care for foreigners in cases of urgency or emergency may not be denied or restricted, but determines that the provincial State will subsequently arbitrate the necessary means to collect the expenses incurred.

The geographical position of Salta – bordering Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile – means that it “regularly and constantly” receives “a large number of foreign people requesting health care”, to whom it has “provided a quality service until now.” and free”, “to the detriment of nationals who often have to postpone their care due to the collapse of the system,” according to the source.

Foreigners in Argentina are grouped into four categories of residents: permanent, temporary, transitory and precarious, so permanent and temporary residents are provided health care equally to nationals, because they pay taxes.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, underwent an annual medical check-up this Wednesday, amid criticism of his age and questions about his state of health ahead of the November presidential elections.

After the examination, carried out by White House internist Kevin O'Connor, Biden joked before the press about the results, which will be publicly announced this Wednesday. “They said I look very young,” said the 81-year-old president, adding that the exam went the same as last year's.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre has also stated that the doctor was satisfied with the results. “The president does not need a cognitive test. And this is not my opinion, it is the opinion of his doctor and that of his neurologist (…) He undergoes a cognitive test every day, when moving from one topic to another,” he said in a press conference.

Jean-Pierre has insisted that Biden has been able to carry out his work in the last three years and that “we must not forget that he is leading a historic Presidency.” Both the Republican opposition and some members of his own party have questioned the state of health of the president, who aspires to obtain the Democratic nomination for this year's presidential elections.

The allegations were reinforced after a special counsel report studying Biden's handling of classified documents stated this month that he showed a “significantly limited memory” during interrogations in 2023.

The special prosecutor, Robert K Hur, assured that Biden did not remember the dates on which he held the Vice Presidency and that he had difficulty remembering the date of his son Beau's death, which was in 2015.

The medical report following last year's annual check-up concludes that Biden was in good health and “fit” to continue holding office. “He is a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old man capable of successfully carrying out the duties of the Presidency, including the tasks of head of the Executive, head of State and commander in chief,” the White House doctor stated then.

The state of Idaho (northwestern United States) on Wednesday suspended the execution of Thomas Creech, a serial killer who was convicted of five murders, when the medical team was unable to insert an intravenous catheter. Creech, a 73-year-old white man believed responsible for at least 11 murders, was scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT) at the Idaho State Correctional Institute, south of Boise.

According to the protocol, he was to receive an injection with five grams of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative, but after more than 45 minutes trying to insert the probe, the medical team gave up executing him, according to authorities and testimonies. The prisoner was returned to his cell after the execution was suspended.

Idaho is one of the least active states in the country regarding the death penalty: since the United States reintroduced capital punishment in 1976, it has executed three people, the last 12 years ago.

Long criminal history

Creech has been in prison for 50 years, more than 40 on death row. The murder for which Idaho was going to execute Creech occurred in 1981, inside the prison, but the inmate had a very extensive criminal record.

He had initially been sentenced to death for the 1974 murders of John Wayne Bradford and Edward Thomas Arnold in Idaho, but that sentence was later commuted to a life sentence when the death penalty was briefly declared unconstitutional.

While serving his new life sentence, he beat David Dale Jensen to death in prison, another prisoner serving time for a car theft. In addition, he had also been convicted in the state of Oregon for the 1974 murder of William Joseph Dean and in California for that of Vivian Grant Robinson in the same year.

These are the five murders for which Creech was convicted throughout his life, but he admitted to nearly 40, although authorities are now skeptical that he is really responsible for all of them, since he made the confessions under duress.

The authorities, however, do believe him responsible for at least 11 murders. In Oregon, precisely, prosecutors decided to file another murder case against Creech – that of Sandra Jane Ramsamooj – in view of the convictions he already accumulated.

Executions by lethal injection have faced numerous problems in recent years, including the difficulty of medical teams in introducing intravenous tubes in elderly prisoners or those with health complications. For this reason, among others, Alabama tested nitrogen gas asphyxiation for the first time last month, a new method that other states have already begun to study.

This Wednesday afternoon the state of Texas plans to execute at 6:00 p.m. local time (00:00 Thursday GMT) another prisoner, the Latino Ivan Cantu, sentenced to death for the murders in 2000 of his cousin and his fiancée.

The French Senate approved this Wednesday the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, in the same terms that the National Assembly had decided almost a month ago, which makes France the first country in the world to adopt this measure. By a result of 267 votes in favor and 50 against, the Senate approved supporting the text that the National Assembly voted on last January 30.

Deputies and senators will meet next Monday at the Palace of Versailles in a joint Congress to modify the Magna Carta and include this constitutional reform, which requires three-fifths of the parliamentarians.

“We have written a page in the history of women's rights. This is a historic vote. We will be the first country in the world to inscribe in the Constitution this freedom for women to dispose of their bodies,” proclaimed the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupont-Moretti, in charge of defending the reform by the Executive.

Half a century after the legalization of abortion in France, the country takes this step, a decision promoted by the president, Emmanuel Macron, after the decision of the United States Supreme Court to reverse the jurisprudence that gave federal protection to the right to abortion in that country.

“I committed to making the freedom of women to resort to voluntary interruption of pregnancy irreversible by inscribing it in the Constitution. The Senate has taken a decisive step,” said the president on the social network

Although he does not have a majority in either chamber, Macron has managed to push through this measure that has broad popular support.

The left-wing opposition embraced it with enthusiasm and the right has not opposed it, on the eve of European elections and for fear of gaining a reactionary image in society, which is why the text has received majority support, even from the extreme right. .

Some conservative voices had risen in the Senate to introduce amendments to the text, which would have delayed its inclusion in the Constitution, but they were rejected by the senators.

A moment of harmony

The president thus achieved a moment of concord in a mandate in which he is having many difficulties in carrying out his measures, with broad opposition in some laws such as the pension reform or the immigration law.

The constitutional reform will reform article 34, which will include “the guaranteed freedom of women to resort to voluntary interruption of pregnancy.”

Although he acknowledged that currently the right to abortion is not threatened in France, the Minister of Justice considered it “necessary” to register abortion so that “in the future no majority can call it into question.”

He recalled the case of the United States, but also those of Hungary or Poland, where conservative parties have restricted the right to abortion and pointed out that in the future it could also happen in France.

With this measure, it will be more difficult to modify it, since a qualified majority of three-fifths will be required to modify the Constitution again.

While the senators were debating the reform, a small group of anti-abortion activists demonstrated at the doors of the chamber, while others did so, somewhat further away, in favor of the new measure.

The Mexico City International Airport (AICM) reported this Tuesday that, due to the activity of the Popocatépetl volcano, 22 flights from different airlines have been canceled due to safety checks on the aircraft due to having passed through ash during the flights.

In a statement on its X social network account, the AICM indicated that “it has remained open and in operation.”. “Management personnel and specialized teams remain on alert and are evaluating the ash fall conditions.”. At this time, the volcanic ash cloud is heading towards the Gulf of Mexico,” they say in the statement.

The airport has asked travelers, if they have a flight scheduled for this day or the following days, to stay informed through institutional channels. Meanwhile, the National Civil Protection Coordination (CNPC) of Mexico has confirmed that the Popocatépetl volcano “remains at the phase 2 yellow alert level, and that it does not represent a risk to the population.”

Continuous emission of ash

According to data from the National Disaster Center (Cenapred), after the increase in volcanic activity in May and June 2023, starting in July “various episodes of high-frequency tremor associated with the continuous emission of ash have been recorded, sporadic exhalations and low-intensity explosions”, which have generated columns up to two kilometers high.

In addition, the center recalled that, during 2024, the activity has continued with similar characteristics to what was recorded from July, with fluctuations from medium to very low levels and “24 low intensity exhalations without explosions have been recorded.”

According to specialists, the dispersion of ash from emissions and exhalations follows trajectories depending on the direction of the winds at the time of expulsion.. According to the forecasts for this Tuesday, issued by the National Water Commission (Conagua), they are heading towards the west-northwest of the volcano.