US Business

Western allies vowed on Tuesday to boost NATO’s defences and to back Ukraine to the end as Moscow demanded Kyiv’s surrender.

As NATO leaders gathered in Madrid for a summit, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said Finland and Sweden would be formally invited to join NATO after Turkey lifted its block on their bids.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had stubbornly refused to approve their applications — lodged in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine — despite calls from his NATO allies to clear their path to membership.

But he abandoned his opposition following crunch talks on Tuesday with the leaders of the two Nordic countries in Madrid.

Erdogan’s office said late on Tuesday it had agreed to back their applications, saying Ankara had “got what it wanted”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the agreement between Finland, Sweden and Turkey, saying their membership would make the defence alliance “stronger and safer”.

Meanwhile, a senior US official said their membership would be a “powerful shot in the arm” for NATO unity.

NATO’s expansion came as Russian missiles continued to pound Ukrainian cities. 

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters arriving with President Joe Biden that Washington will announce “historic” new long-term military deployments in Europe.

The reinforcements will join NATO’s eastern flank, Russia’s nervous neighbours like the Baltic states, and reflect a long-term change “in the strategic reality” elsewhere in Europe.

Ahead of the summit, Stoltenberg said the allies would boost their high-readiness forces from 40,000 to 300,000.

– New sanctions –

Before travelling to Madrid, Biden and other leaders of the G7 powers — the world’s richest democracies — had held a summit in the German Alps.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz boasted afterwards that his country, a laggard in defence spending, would build “the largest conventional army within the NATO framework in Europe”.

Russia’s invasion, he said, had convinced Berlin “that we should spend more… an average of around 70 to 80 billion euros a year on defence over the next few years”.

NATO member Bulgaria announced it would expel 70 staff from Russia’s diplomatic mission accused of working against its interests.

At the G7 summit, the leaders agreed to impose new sanctions targeting Moscow’s defence industry, raising tariffs and banning gold imports from the country.

The US Treasury said the measures “strike at the heart of Russia’s ability to develop and deploy weapons and technology used for Vladimir Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine,” 

The new set of sanctions target Rostec, Russia’s largest defence conglomerate, as well as military units and officers implicated in human rights abuses in Ukraine, the Treasury said.

Putin’s Kremlin was not fazed by the sanctions, warning that Ukraine’s forces’ only option was to lay down their arms.

“The Ukrainian side can stop everything before the end of today,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“An order for the nationalist units to lay down their arms is necessary,” he said, adding Kyiv had to fulfil a list of Moscow’s demands.

– ‘Everything burned’ –

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the United Nations to visit the site of a missile strike on a shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk, as he addressed the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

“I suggest the United Nations send either a special representative, or the secretary-general of the United Nations, or a plenipotentiary commission to the site of this terrorist act… so the UN could independently find out information and see that this indeed was a Russian missile strike,” Zelensky said of the attack on Monday that killed at least 18 people.

“Everything burned, really everything, like a spark to a touchpaper. I heard people screaming. It was horror,” witness Polina Puchintseva told AFP.

All that was left of the mall was charred debris, chunks of blackened walls and lettering from a smashed store front.

Russia claims its missile salvo was aimed at an arms depot — but none of the civilians who talked to AFP knew of any weapons store in the neighbourhood.

And, outside Russia, the latest carnage sparked only Ukrainian fury and western solidarity.

“Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” the G7 leaders said in a statement, condemning the “abominable attack”.

Zelensky declared on his social media channels: “Only total insane terrorists, who should have no place on Earth, can strike missiles at civilian objects.

“Russia must be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism. The world can and therefore must stop Russian terror,” he added.

The G7 leaders did not go so far as to brand Putin a terrorist — but they vowed that Russia, already under tough sanctions, would face more economic pain.

“The G7 stands united in its support for Ukraine,” Scholz told reporters. 

“We will continue to keep up and drive up the economic and political costs of this war for President Putin and his regime.”

– Oil price cap? –

The G7 had announced several new measures to put the squeeze on Putin, including a plan to work towards a price cap on Russian oil.

The group also agreed to impose an import ban on Russian gold. At the same time, the G7 powers heaped financial support on Ukraine, with aid now reaching $29.5 billion.

Meanwhile, with fierce artillery duels continuing in the eastern Donbas region, Ukrainian officials said the central city of Dnipro and several other sites had been hit by more Russian missiles.

Pro-Moscow forces detained Igor Kolykhayev, the elected mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson.

Russian media said the “nationalist” was an opponent of Moscow’s supposed efforts to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, but Kolykhayev’s aides said he had been “kidnapped” by the city’s illegitimate occupiers.

The UN said 6.2 million people are now estimated to have been displaced within Ukraine, in addition to 5.26 million who have fled abroad.

“Ukraine now faces a brutality which we haven’t seen in Europe since the Second World War,” Stoltenberg said as leaders began to gather in Madrid.

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Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls, capping the former socialite’s sordid fall from grace.

The Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell appeared not to react as New York Judge Alison Nathan handed down the term in a packed Manhattan federal court.

The sentence was much less than prosecutors sought but still means the 60-year-old friend to royalty and former US presidents is likely to spend much of the rest of her life in jail.

Nathan called Maxwell’s crimes “heinous and predatory” as she went with the amount of time recommended by the US probation office, rejecting Maxwell’s claims that she was pursued by prosecutors only because Epstein escaped trial by killing himself in prison.

“It is important to emphasize that although Epstein was central to this criminal scheme, Ms Maxwell is not being punished in place of Epstein or as a proxy for Epstein,” said the judge.

Maxwell was convicted late last year on five of six counts, the most serious for sex trafficking minors following a month-long high-profile trial in New York.

The charges stemmed from crimes committed against four women between 1994 and 2004.

Prosecutors successfully proved that she was “the key” to Epstein’s scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he would sexually abuse them.

Two of Epstein’s victims, identified as “Jane” and “Carolyn,” testified that they were as young as 14 when Maxwell began grooming them.

Maxwell expressed sympathy for the victims during a statement in court Tuesday, saying she was “sorry for the pain that you experienced” but blamed Epstein.

“I believe that Jeffrey Epstein was a manipulative, cunning and controlling man who lived a profoundly compartmentalized life and fooled all of those in his orbit,” she said.

Prosecutors had called for Maxwell to receive between 30 and 55 years in jail, saying she “was an adult who made her own choices.”

In a statement, Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the 20-year term “holds Ghislaine Maxwell accountable for perpetrating heinous crimes against children,” he said.

Annie Farmer, the only victim not to testify under a pseudonym, welcomed the sentence as proof that “it is never too late for the truth to come out and never too late for there to be accountability.”

– Appeal –

Maxwell has already been held in detention for some two years following her arrest in New Hampshire in the summer of 2020, meaning she will likely be released in her late 70s, possibly earlier for good behavior.

“Ghislaine must die in prison,” accuser Sarah Ransome told reporters outside court before Maxwell’s fate was delivered.

Her sentencing completes a dramatic fall for the former international jetsetter who grew up in wealth and privilege as a friend to royalty.

Maxwell’s circle included Britain’s Prince Andrew, former US president and real estate baron Donald Trump and the Clinton family.

In February, Prince Andrew settled a sexual abuse lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre, who said she had been trafficked to the royal by Epstein and Maxwell.

Maxwell’s lawyers asked Nathan to show leniency and sentence their client to no more than five years.

They said she had suffered “a difficult, traumatic childhood with an overbearing, narcissistic, and demanding father.”

“It made her vulnerable to Epstein, whom she met right after her father’s death,” they wrote in submissions this month, adding that Maxwell “cannot and should not bear all the punishment for which Epstein should have been held responsible.”

Money manager Epstein, then aged 66, hanged himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting his own sex crimes trial in New York.

Maxwell’s lead attorney Bobbi Sternheim told reporters that she would appeal the sentence.

In April, Nathan rejected a request by Maxwell for a new trial. 

She unsuccessfully argued that a juror, who had boasted of helping convince fellow panelists to convict Maxwell by recalling his own experiences as a sex abuse victim, had biased the jury.

Roofs coated with canopy-like solar panels and indoor spaces awash in sunlight: Google has bet big on in-person work with its sprawling new Silicon Valley offices.

AFP visited Google’s 1.1 million square foot (100,000 square metre) campus on Monday as the tech giant welcomes employees back after pandemic-era telecommuting.

“Luckily, a lot of the things we were already planning kind of set us up for success with Covid,” said Michelle Kaufmann, Google director of development for built environments.

“Thank god, because otherwise we would have built these buildings and we would have to change,” she added.

The campus spans 42 acres (17 hectares) of leased federal land next to NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, close to the company’s headquarters.

It includes an event center and small apartments that employees from out of town can use when visiting for work.

Ventilation systems in the buildings use 100 percent outside air, a plus against the spread of Covid-19.

– ‘Not going empty’ –

Ground floors feature cafes, fitness centers, meeting rooms, social spaces and playful touches such as multi-colored stationary bikes that people can pedal as they chat, with the option of plugging in to charge devices with power they generate.

Upper floors of the two story structures are home to desks, with furniture and fixtures easily reconfigured as teams want. 

Work areas are divided into “neighborhoods” with homey touches and even “courtyards” with cozy furniture.

“The ground level is really like a market, so it’s more the vibrant.” Kaufmann said.

“Upstairs is more the quiet space where the teams really do a lot of their work,” she added.

Bay View campus is planned to accommodate 4,500 workers, with move in to take place during the coming weeks. 

Solar panels provide power, geothermal systems aid with heating and cooling and water collection and recycling systems result in surplus that is used to help restore wetlands on the property.

Google expects a norm going forward for people to typically work from the office about three days a week, with that rhythm changing depending on phases of projects and, of course, the tempo of the pandemic.

“I don’t believe that any of our buildings are going to be empty, that is not a problem that we are worried about,” Kaufmann said.

“We are more worried are we going to have enough space, just because the company is still growing,” she added.

Google has more than 45,000 employees in the Silicon Valley area.

US health authorities said Tuesday they were immediately releasing 56,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine — five times the number distributed so far — to areas of high transmission as part of a major escalation of the country’s immunization strategy.

Until now, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) only recommended monkeypox vaccines be offered to those who had confirmed exposures.

“But now, we are recommending that vaccines be provided to both people with known monkeypox exposures who are contacted by public health, and also to those people who’ve been recently exposed to monkeypox that may not be identified through case investigations and contact tracing,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a briefing.

Examples include men who have sex with men (MSM) who have recently had multiple sex partners in a venue where there was known to be monkeypox or in an area where monkeypox is spreading.

Walensky said that 4,700 cases have been detected globally during the current outbreak that began in early May, including 306 in the United States that have all been non-fatal.

Monkeypox is a viral illness endemic in West and Central African countries that causes symptoms such as fever and rash. It is similar to but less severe than smallpox, but can be riskier in immune compromised people. It is primarily spread through close contact.

David Boucher, an official with the Health and Human Services department said the federal government had so far distributed nearly 10,000 doses and 300 antiviral courses, and was Tuesday releasing a further 56,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine, originally developed against smallpox.

JYNNEOS is a two dose vaccine given 28 days apart and takes full effect two weeks after the second dose.

The government is securing an additional 240,000 doses in the coming weeks, and expects to have a total of 1.6 million doses available this year.

Jurisdictions can also order shipments of the older generation ACAM2000 vaccine, which is in much greater supply, but is not recommended for everyone because of significant side effects.

Observers have said the true number of monkeypox cases in the United States is likely to be far higher than the official figure, and part of the new strategy is making testing more widely available and easier to access.

The CDC has now scaled testing to 78 sites in 48 states, “with spare capacity to conduct nearly 10,000 tests per week nationwide,” a fact sheet said.

A panel of US medical experts on Tuesday called for Omicron-specific boosters this fall, as anticipation mounts that Covid vaccines will be needed on an ongoing seasonal basis, as is the case for influenza.

The committee, convened by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), voted 19 in favor and two against the measure after a day spent reviewing available data, including projections about future waves and early results from vaccine makers.

Senior FDA scientist Peter Marks summed up the complexity of the problem before the experts’ meeting: making predictions about the future course of a virus that has frequently defied predictions, and mutates even faster than the flu.

“What we’re doing today is working in a very challenging area, because none of us has a crystal ball,” he said.

Panelist Michael Nelson, a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia, said he voted “yes” because he was concerned waning vaccine efficacy would translate to severe outcomes for high risk patients, adding “We need to make a move sooner rather than later.”

Vaccine-makers Pfizer and Moderna have previously announced positive data on antibodies evoked by their Omicron-specific vaccines. The two companies made presentations Tuesday about their mRNA candidate vaccines, as did Novavax, about its protein subunit vaccine.

The scientists were not asked to vote on which form of Omicron they would like to see targeted in updated vaccines: BA.1, the original Omicron, or BA.4 and BA.5, which are rising fast globally.

But in their discussion, most of the experts appeared to favor new shots that are “bivalent” and target both the original Wuhan strain, to generate a wider breadth of immune response, as well as against BA.4 and BA.5, the latest forms of Omicron.

Neither Moderna nor Pfizer have yet produced such vaccines at scale, but representatives from the companies said they could move to production within three months. 

In its presentation, Pfizer said a prototype booster it had developed against BA.4 and BA.5 performed well in mice.

While previous “variants of concern” like Alpha and Delta eventually petered out, Omicron and its sublineages have dominated throughout 2022, to the point it comprises the vast majority of all Covid in the world, FDA official Jerry Weir told the meeting.

This makes it more likely that the virus’s future evolution will occur along the Omicron branch of the Covid family tree. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization also recommended the use of Omicron boosters after a primary series against the original strain, in order to evoke a broad immune response.

The death toll of undocumented migrants who were abandoned in a scorching-hot trailer in Texas rose to 51 Tuesday, as President Joe Biden blamed “criminal” professional smugglers for the tragedy.

Rebeca Clay-Flores, a Bexar County official, reported the new tally of “39 men and 12 women” dead, following the Monday discovery of the tractor-trailer on an isolated road in her district.

She did not say how many survivors remained in hospital, but the number could be around 11 based on initial figures that officials gave, including possibly four children.

The Department of Homeland Security announced it had opened a criminal investigation, as Biden took aim at human smuggling gangs.

“The tragic loss of life in San Antonio, Texas that took place yesterday is horrifying and heartbreaking,” he said in a statement.

“This incident underscores the need to go after the multi-billion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths,” he said.

– Intense heat –

According to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the dead whose identities are known, 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras.

“It’s a tremendous misfortune,” he told reporters.

It was the deadliest single incident involving migrants along the southern border in memory, and drew more attention to the risks that hundreds of thousands of people face seeking to enter the United States from Mexico without permission.

On Monday, the high temperature in San Antonio was 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius), and the temperature in the unvented trailer would have been much higher.

By Tuesday afternoon, authorities had removed the trailer from where it had been abandoned with its human cargo, on a narrow road sandwiched between train tracks and auto junkyards.

Replacing it were makeshift crosses adorned with artificial flowers.

“I feel that if these people walk hundreds of miles to get over here, it wouldn’t hurt us to walk maybe one mile to put the crosses and candles,” said Angelita Olvera, who lives nearby.

“Hopefully, whoever had them in the trailer will pay the consequences,” she said.

– Common route –

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said authorities were first alerted to the trailer by an emergency call at about 5:50 pm local time (2250 GMT) on Monday.

“A worker who works in one of the buildings up here behind me heard a cry for help,” he told reporters. 

The worker “came out to investigate, found a trailer with the doors partially open, opened them up to take a look, and found a number of deceased individuals inside,” McManus said.

Three people have been taken into custody but officials gave no further details.

The tragedy came five years after 10 migrants were found dead in a trailer with broken air conditioning and clogged ventilation holes near San Antonio. 

In recent weeks Border Patrol officers have discovered other attempts to bring undocumented travelers into the country in large trucks.

On June 14, 80 people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were discovered inside a tractor-trailer when it was inspected by agents at a highway checkpoint north of Laredo, a border hub in south Texas.

Three weeks earlier, agents intercepted a trailer with 48 people inside near Sierra Blanca in western Texas.

Jesus Thompson, 60, lives just across the train track from where the people in the trailer were found.

“People from Mexico and Guatemala come here to seek the American dream,” he said. 

“I would tell the people who are there and who are fleeing to think about it before coming here, because there is a tremendous risk, and especially now that the weather is very hot.”

– Political issue –

The case immediately became a focus of politics when Republicans attacked Democratic President Biden for allegedly being soft on immigration.

“These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Under Biden more than 200,000 people attempting to enter the country illegally have been interdicted at the border each month and sent back.

But there is no good estimate of the thousands more that succeed in staying inside the country.

Biden said he had already launched an anti-smuggling campaign that focused on the networks and arrested 2,400 people in recent months.

“Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy,” he said.

The migration issue will be a key agenda item when Biden hosts Mexican counterpart Lopez Obrador for talks on July 12.

Fifty-one undocumented migrants died after the tractor-trailer rig they were being smuggled in was abandoned Monday outside of San Antonio, Texas. Here is what we know about the tragedy:

– Who were the migrants? –

Officials at the scene intially put the toll at 46, and said 16 people, 12 adults and four children, were taken to hospital. The toll was later increased to 51, and media reports said several had died in hospital.

US officials did not give any breakdown by age, gender or nationality of the dead. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras. Lopez Obrador said he did not have information about the nationality of the others.

It is unclear whether there were other people who escaped earlier from the trailer.

– How were they found? –

The large tractor-trailer they were in was abandoned on the side of a road in a sparsely populated area about eight miles (14 kilometers) from the center of San Antonio. It was beside a railroad track and near several auto junkyards and car parts businesses.

It was also just a short distance from Interstate 35, which connects San Antonio with Laredo, a major hub on the Texas-Mexico border, 250 kilometers (150 miles) to the south.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said authorities were first alerted to the trailer by an emergency call at about 5:50 pm local time (2250 GMT).

He said a worker in a nearby building heard a cry for help and went to investigate. The worker found the trailer with its door partly open, and looked in to see a number of dead bodies.

– How did they die? –

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said the trailer was designed as a refrigerated space yet did not have a working air conditioning unit. 

Sixteen people, including four children, were taken from the trailer alive apparently suffering from acute heatstroke and dehydration. The high temperature in San Antonio Monday was 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius). 

According to Patterson, which makes cooling equipment for trailers, temperatures in hot weather can rise to as much as 150 degrees inside an uncooled, unvented trailer.

– Who’s behind the tragedy? –

Still unknown. McManus said three people have been detained, but added that officials were not certain they were involved. Border officials say well-organized human smuggling rings run such operations, earning large sums of money from those wanting to sneak into the United States.

On June 14, 80 people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador were discovered inside a tractor-trailer at a highway checkpoint north of Laredo, Texas. Three weeks earlier, agents intercepted a trailer with 48 people inside near Sierra Blanca, Texas.

President Joe Biden said the incident “underscores the need to go after the multi-billion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths.”

An eight-year-old boy shot dead a baby and wounded her toddler sister while playing with his father’s gun in Florida last weekend, police said.

The father, 45-year-old Roderick Randall, was arrested and charged with culpable negligence, unlawful possession of a firearm and concealment of evidence, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said. 

The tragedy — all too common in a country awash with firearms — took place in a motel where Randall, who has a criminal record that forbade him from owning a gun, met with his girlfriend.

He had brought his son, while his girlfriend had brought along her two-year-old twins and her one-year-old daughter.

At one point, Randall went out and left his weapon “in the closet,” said the sheriff during a press conference. Knowing where it was hidden, his son took it out and started playing with it while the girls’ mother was asleep.

“He pulls the gun from the holster, starts playing with it and fires a round into the one-year-old toddler, ultimately killing the one year old. The bullet then goes through and strikes one of the two year old toddlers who’s injured but is expected to recover.”

When the father returned, he took the gun and an unidentified substance that may have been drugs, out of the room before the police arrived. 

The baby girl’s death is the latest in a staggering series of similar accidents.

“Every year, hundreds of children in the United States gain access to unsecured, loaded guns in closets and nightstand drawers, in backpacks and purses, or just left out,” according to a recent report by Everytown For Gun Safety.

“With tragic regularity, children find these unsecured guns and unintentionally shoot themself or someone else.”  

The organization, which advocates for increased regulation of firearms, estimates that these “unintentional shootings” by minors cause an average of 350 deaths each year. 

More generally, firearms cause approximately 40,000 deaths a year in the United States, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.