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Reporter killed in restaurant she owns hours after journalist shot dead in separate attack in Mexico

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The U.N. human rights office in Mexico said Wednesday journalists in Mexico need more protection, after gunmen killed a journalist whose Facebook news page covered the violent western Mexico state of Michoacan. Then less than 24 hours later an entertainment reporter in the western city of Colima was killed inside a restaurant she owned.

Journalist Mauricio Solís of the news page Minuto por Minuto was shot to death late Tuesday just moments after he conducted a sidewalk interview with the mayor of the city of Uruapan. State prosecutors said a second person was wounded in the shooting.

Solís had just finished an interview on the street outside city hall with Mayor Carlos Manzo. Manzo told local media he had walked away and “two minutes later, I think, and just a matter of meters away, we heard gunshots, four or five gunshots.”

“We sought cover because we thought the attack was aimed at us,” Manzo said. “After a few minutes we found out that Mauricio was the one they attacked.”

Manzo said he could not rule out a connection between the interview and the killing.

Mexico Journalist Killed
Relative and friends of slain journalist Mauricio Solis carry his coffin during his wake in Uruapan, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.

Armando Solis / AP


The radio station where Solis worked mourned his killing in a statement published on social media.

“Mauricio was more than a colleague, he was an unconditional friend, a source of inspiration and a tireless voice in the service of our community,” the station said.

The U.N. rights office said Solís was at least the fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year. It said he had previously reported security problems related to his work. His Facebook page reported on community events and the drug cartel violence that has wracked the city.

“His killing is a wake-up call to defend the right to information and freedom of expression in Mexico,” the office wrote.

An increasing number of the journalists killed in Mexico have been self-employed and reported for local Facebook and online news sites.

Uruapan is the nearest large city to Michoacan’s avocado-growing region, and it has been the scene of drug cartel extortions and turf battles between gangs. The cartels demand protection money from local avocado and lime orchards, cattle ranches and almost any other business.

Solís was reporting on a suspicious fire at a local market just before the shooting. Gangs have sometimes burned businesses that refuse to pay extortion demands.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, entertainment reporter Patricia Ramírez González was found with serious injuries inside her Colima restaurant and died at the scene, according to the Colima state prosecutor’s office.

Local media said Ramírez, who was better known as Paty Bunbury, published a blog on local entertainment and was a contributor to a Colima newspaper.

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned both killings and called for transparent investigations.

Wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say.

Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994 — and 2022 was one of the deadliest years ever for journalists in Mexico, with at least 15 killed.

Media workers are regularly targeted in Mexico, often in direct reprisal for their work covering topics like corruption and the country’s notoriously violent drug traffickers.

In August, a Mexican journalist who covered one of the country’s most dangerous crime beats was killed by gunmen, and two of his government-assigned bodyguards were wounded.

In April, Roberto Figueroa, who covered local politics and gained a social media following through satirical videos, was found dead inside a car in his hometown of Huitzilac in Morelos, a state south of Mexico City where drug-fueled violence runs rampant.

All but a handful of the killings and abductions remain unsolved.

“Impunity is the norm in crimes against the press,” the the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report on Mexico in March.



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United Airlines passenger attacked while sleeping on flight from San Francisco: “His face was bruised and bloody”

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A man on a cross-country United Airlines flight violently attacked a sleeping passenger, punching him repeatedly in the face until it was bloody, authorities said. A witness said the man who was attacked is deaf and nonverbal.

Authorities identified the suspect as Everett Chad Nelson, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.

The incident unfolded Monday on United Flight 2247 about two hours after it took off from San Francisco International Airport for Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

Nelson got up from seat 35F toward the back of the Boeing 737 and went to the lavatory near the front of the plane, according to the affidavit. When he was returning to his seat, he stopped at seat 12F and started punching the man who was sleeping there, according to the affidavit, which didn’t identify the victim.

Sandhya Gupta, who was sitting behind the sleeping man, watched the attack unfold.

“I will not forget the look in his eyes,” Gupta told CBS News. “I had not seen a look from anyone’s eyes like that. It was like he was seeing through the victim.”

According to the FBI affidavit, the attack lasted about a minute. The man screamed as Nelson kept hitting him and his blood was seen on the sleeves of Nelson’s windbreaker, a nearby seat and on the plane’s wall and window, according to the affidavit.

“I actually wondered does this guy have a weapon because I didn’t realize you could do so much damage with just your fists,” Gupta told CBS News. “… His face was bruised and bloody.”

Another passenger rushed up the aisle and wrapped his arms around Nelson to stop him, Gupta said.

“He didn’t fight the person who came to subdue him,” Gupta said. “It was like powering off a robot.”

A doctor on the flight ran toward the man who was attacked and started administering first aid, Gupta said. She said she realized he was deaf and nonverbal when he started signing at the people helping him.

According to the affidavit, the man sustained bruising to his eyes and a gash on his nose. Nelson didn’t appear to be injured, and there wasn’t any indication that the man fought back, according to the affidavit.

Nelson was taken to a seat toward the front of the plane and monitored by the passenger who stopped the attack, according to the affidavit. Gupta said he wasn’t restrained after the attack.

“He just went limp,” Gupta said.

In a statement, United praised the reaction of the passenger and crew.

“Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one passenger was restrained after becoming physically aggressive toward another customer on a flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles on Monday. The flight landed safely and was met by paramedics and local law enforcement,” the airline said.

Gupta said a flight attendant told her that Nelson claimed the man had attacked him in the street earlier. 

“He kept texting, ‘I’m innocent,'” Gupta said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement it was investigating the incident. According to the agency, airlines have reported over 1,740 unruly passenger incidents this year and that such incidents have dropped from the record highs reached in early 2021.

Kathryn Krupnik and Ryan Sprouse contributed reporting.



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Trump’s net worth slumps by as much as $2.4 billion amid DJT stock plunge

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Trump Media & Technology Group has had a wild stock market ride this month. After quadrupling in price just days before, the stock on Thursday plunged as much as 39% since its intraday high on Tuesday. The two-day decline has shaved more than $2.4 billion from former President Donald Trump’s stake in the business, which trades under the ticker DJT, the same as his initials. 

Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social app, shed $5.35, or 13.4%, to $34.68 in early afternoon trading on Thursday, after touching an intraday low of $33.41. That comes after a 22% tumble on Wednesday, which followed more than five weeks of market gains, sending the shares to a Tuesday intraday high of $54.68.

Because of their volatility, DJT has earned comparisons to meme stocks, or companies that trade on social media buzz rather than revenue growth or profitability, investors’ favored yardsticks. Despite Truth Social’s declining revenue and large losses, Trump Media shares surged for much of October as polls in the presidential race tightened and as betting markets such as Polymarket predicted odds in Trump’s favor to win. 

It’s not exactly clear what sparked the two-day sell-off, but DJT shares have attracted a number of speculators and short sellers, with the latter betting the stock would fall. Some of the October surge in DJT shares could have come from short sellers forced to cover their bets, which requires them to buy stock and create a so-called short squeeze, which can send shares higher, according to research group S3 Partners.

“Trump and Media Group (DJT) stock, closely tied to Trump’s election chances, faces high squeeze risk due to limited float and elevated short interest,” S3 wrote on Tuesday. “Trump’s 57% stake and current short losses intensify squeeze potential.”

Trump’s stake in DJT

Trump owns about 115 million shares of Trump Media, making him the largest investor in the fledgling social media company. At its most recent intraday peak of $54.68 on Tuesday, his stake was valued at almost $6.3 billion. 

But the two-day sell-off has whittled the value of that stake to about $3.8 billion, based on Thursday’s intraday low. 

To be sure, those losses represents paper wealth, and Trump has vowed not to sell his shares after a lock-up period expired last month, which now enables him to liquidate his stake. Because Trump owns almost 60% of the company’s stock, selling even a portion of his stake could flood the market with available shares, potentially lowering its price.

Many of the other DJT shareholders are small investors who bought shares as a way to express support for the former president. On Thursday, as the stock tumbled for a second day, some of its shareholders vowed revenge in the months to come, with some blaming short sellers and others pointing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC.)

“I was happy to strap my investment dollars to @realDonaldTrump and take all the financial arrows with him,” wrote Chad Nedohin, a minister and shareholder who runs a DJT group on Truth Social. “The more they try to hurt DJT, the worse it’s going to be for them in 2025.” 

Nedohin added #TrumpTheSEC at the end of his post.



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U.S. imposes sanctions on top members of armed wing of Mexican cartel linked to 2019 killings of 9 Americans

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The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on senior members of the armed wing of a Mexican drug cartel that operates on border territories in and around Chihuahua, Mexico. The cartel has also been linked to the 2019 ambush that killed nine Americans in Mexico.

Five Mexican citizens and two companies linked to La Linea, a violent Mexico-based drug trafficking organization that smuggles fentanyl and other synthetic drugs into the U.S. on behalf of the transnational Juarez Cartel, were hit with economic sanctions Thursday.

The latest action is meant to stem a major source of the fentanyl coming into the U.S; the powerful opioid is the deadliest drug in the U.S. today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have increased more than sevenfold from 2015 to 2021, though the agency reported a 3% decline in the number of drug overdose deaths this year.

Mexico and China are the primary sources of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the U.S., according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking. Nearly all the precursor chemicals that are needed to make fentanyl come from China.

La Linea and the Juarez Cartel are known for inflicting violence on innocent people, and U.S. authorities have tried to pursue them – in July 2022, a North Dakota federal judge ordered La Linea to pay $4.6 billion in monetary damages to the families of nine Americans killed in an ambush in Northern Mexico on Nov. 4, 2019.

APTOPIX Mexico Border Killings
Framed by heavily armed Mexican authorities, relatives of the LeBaron family mourn at the site where nine U.S. citizens, three women and six children related to the extended LeBaron family, were slaughtered along a dirt road near Bavispe, at the Sonora-Chihuahua border, Mexico, Nov 6, 2019. 

Marco Ugarte / AP


Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement Thursday that “if La Linea continues to directly contribute to the proliferation of deadly fentanyl throughout our communities, Treasury will continue to use every tool in our arsenal to go after their criminal activity.”

The Biden administration has taken a slew of actions against fentanyl traffickers — charging powerful traffickers with drug and money laundering offenses and announcing indictments and sanctions against Chinese companies and executives blamed for importing the chemicals used to make the dangerous drug.

In December 2023, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen launched a Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force that brings together personnel and intelligence from throughout the Treasury Department — from its sanctions and intelligence arms to IRS Criminal Investigations – to more effectively collaborate on stopping the flow of drugs into the country.

And President Biden signed into law the bipartisan FEND off Fentanyl Act as part of the supplemental spending package signed in April, which among other things, declares that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency.

Combatting fentanyl has increasingly become a political issue. Republicans say fentanyl smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border should be viewed alongside migration issues, which are a focal point of the 2024 presidential election.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has blamed migrants for the trafficking of drugs like fentanyl, even though federal data suggests many people smuggling fentanyl across the border are U.S. citizens.

Over the past two years, Treasury has sanctioned more than 350 people and firms connected to drug trafficking, from cartel leaders to labs and suppliers.

Last month, the U.S. sanctioned a man known as “The Tank” who allegedly leads the fuel theft arm of Mexico’s hyper-violent Jalisco New Generation cartel .

In July, the U.S. imposed sanctions on a group of Mexican accountants and firms allegedly linked to a timeshare fraud ring run by the Jalisco cartel in a multi-million dollar scheme targeting Americans.

The month before that, U.S. officials announced economic sanctions against eight targets affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, accused of fentanyl trafficking and human smuggling. Among the leaders targeted was an alleged assassin named Uriel Tabares Martinez.  According to the Treasury Department, he is known as “El Medico” (“The Doctor”) for the violent and surgical manner in which he tortures and kills those who cross the high-ranking members of the cartel.



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