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(WASHINGTON) — The United States has now had “direct contact” with Niger’s junta leaders, but the conversations have yet to substantially move the needle as the West African nation — a key ally on counterterrorism in the region — faces an apparent coup, U.S. officials said.

U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller acknowledged for the first time during a press briefing on Monday that American diplomats have been speaking with Nigerien military figures behind the attempted takeover but said they “remain in touch with” the country’s democratically elected president and other leaders in West Africa.

“There has been direct contact with military leaders urging them to step aside,” Miller told reporters, insisting there was still a chance to turn things around despite the difficult realities.

“The window of opportunity is definitely still open,” he added. “I don’t want to put an assessment on when that window would be closed other than to say that using diplomacy to achieve this objective is our top priority with respect to Niger and we continue to pursue it.”

Acting Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was among the American diplomats who recently traveled to Niger to meet with the power-players in the insurgent government there, telling reporters later Monday that the goal was “to get some negotiations going and also to make absolutely clear what is at stake in our relationship and the economic and other kinds of support that we will legally have to cut off if democracy is not restored.”

But they were unable to make any significant progress despite speaking for more than two hours with Niger’s self-proclaimed top defense official, according to Nuland.

“The conversations were extremely frank and at times quite difficult,” Nuland said. “It was not easy to get traction there. They were quite firm in how they want to proceed.”

Nuland told reporters that her requests to see Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum went unfulfilled and she was also not given an opportunity to meet with Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, the commander of Niger’s presidential guard who has been declared the new head of state.

“I hope they will keep the door open to diplomacy,” she added. “We made that proposal. We’ll see.”

Despite the setbacks, Nuland said the U.S. was not yet ready to officially declare that a coup had indeed taken place in Niger.

“Obviously, we are at the stage where assistance is paused. There is still a lot of motion here,” she told reporters. “It is not our desire to go there, but they may push us to that point.”

On July 26, a group of mutinous soldiers led by Tchiani placed Bazoum and his family under house arrest in the Nigerien capital of Niamey. They then announced on Nigerien state television that they have “put an end to the regime” of Bazoum due to “the continuing degradation of the security situation, the bad economic and social governance.” The group, which calls itself the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, said “all institutions” have been suspended, aerial and land borders have been closed and a curfew has been imposed until the situation is stabilized.

“The defense and security forces are managing the situation. All external partners are asked not to interfere,” Tchiani, flanked by soldiers, said in the televised statement.

Bazoum’s apparent ousting marks the seventh attempted coup in West and Central Africa since 2020 and throws into question the future of Niger, a landlocked country that has had four coups since gaining independence from France in 1960. Bazoum was elected to office in 2021 in Niger’s first peaceful democratic transfer of power.

As military leaders seized control last month, the streets of Niger’s capital erupted in chaos as hundreds of people marched in support of the president while chanting “No coup d’etat.” Thousands of others came out in support of the junta, waving Russian flags and holding signs that read “Down with France.” Protesters also burned down a door and smashed windows at the French embassy in Niamey before being dispersed by Nigerien soldiers.

France, along with several other countries, has since evacuated its citizens from Niger while the U.S. partially evacuated its embassy in Niamey. Although the U.S. embassy remains open for limited, emergency services to its citizens there, routine consular services were suspended and Americans were being advised not to travel to Niger.

“We can confirm that our non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members have departed from Niger,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Monday. “We were able to accommodate nearly 100 private U.S. citizens with the extra capacity on the charter flight that relocated embassy employees and their family members on August 4. Some U.S. citizens also departed on flights organized by our French, Italian, and Spanish organized flight partners.”

The ordered temporary departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and eligible family members from the American embassy in Niamey has no impact on U.S. forces in Niger, according to U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional body comprised of 15 West African countries, announced sanctions against Niger on July 30 and threatened to use force if the coup leaders don’t reinstate Bazoum within one week. The African Union and the United Nations have also issued statements condemning the apparent coup.

Guinea, a nearby nation that has been under military rule since 2021, issued a statement on July 30 expressing support for Niger’s junta and urging ECOWAS to “come to its senses.” On July 31, the military-ruled governments of Burkina Faso and Mali, which share borders with Niger, released a joint statement denouncing the ECOWAS sanctions as “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane,” refusing to apply them, and also warned that “any military intervention against Niger will be considered as a declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali.”

Meanwhile, Benin, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal — all ECOWAS member states — have indicated their willingness to send troops into Niger if the bloc decided to do so.

Senior officials within the U.S. Department of State told ABC News last week that ECOWAS is creating plans for military action if it becomes necessary but sees it as a very last resort.

In a televised statement on Sunday night, hours before the deadline set by ECOWAS, a spokesperson for the Nigerien coup leaders announced that the nation’s airspace will be closed until further notice due to “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country.” The spokesperson warned that any airspace violation will be met with “an energetic and immediate response.” At least 3,000 Nigerien troops have since been moved from the northern Agadez region to the country’s southern border with Nigeria.

Various sources told ABC News on Monday that an American delegation was currently in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to discuss a strategy to avoid neighboring Niger being overtaken by the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organization, which could destabilize the entire region.

Bazoum’s government has been a top ally to both the U.S. and Europe in the fight against violent extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in Africa’s Sahel region. The U.S. Department of Defense said it has provided $500 million in military assistance to Niger since 2012, “one of the largest” security assistance and training packages in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are currently 1,100 U.S. military personnel in Niger as part of a long-running counterterrorism mission that trains the Nigerien military and runs drone operations from a large base in the northern city of Agadez, located in the Sahara desert. Those operations have been suspended in the wake of the apparent coup, namely the drone activity since Niger’s airspace has been closed below 24,000 feet.

Other countries in the region, including Burkina Faso and Mali, have ousted the French military and instead enlisted the help of Wagner. In a voice message posted July 27 on social media channels linked to Wagner, the group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, appeared to endorse the coup in Niger and offer the services of his fighters to the junta.

So far, there has been no indication that Prigozhin’s mercenaries have arrived in Niger, but the U.S. Department of State is aware of unverified reports that leaders of the Nigerien junta have traveled abroad to seek assistance from Wagner, according to Miller.

While the U.S. has freezed its funding to Niger amid the apparent coup, Miller said money could start flowing again as soon as Bazoum is back in control.

“That assistance will affect development aid to the government, security aid to the government. It’s a significant amount,” he told reporters on Monday. “I don’t have a number because it’s a pause, and it’s a pause that we would hope would be reversed if the junta leaders would step aside and restore constitutional order.”

“As we’ve made clear, hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake,” he added.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Emma Ogao and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(LISBON, Portugal) — In one of the most iconic moments coming out of World Youth Day, Pope Francis called on the hundreds of thousands gathered before him to yell back at him that the Catholic Church is for “todos, todos, todos” — everyone, everyone, everyone.

“The Lord is clear,” the pope insisted on Sunday. “The sick, the elderly, the young, old, ugly, beautiful, good and bad.”

Taking questions from reporters aboard his flight back to Rome after a five-day trip to Portugal, the pope was asked how he could reconcile his “todos” message with the fact that LGBTQ+ people are excluded from the sacraments. The pope answered the Church has laws, but is still a place for everyone.

Pia Held, who travelled from Germany, was among those fighting for better treatment of LGBTQ+ people within the church, bringing a rainbow flag to the massive evening prayer service held on Saturday in Lisbon’s Parque Tejo.

“Some people come up to me and hug me and say thank you for representing this,” she said, describing other pilgrims’ reactions to the flag. “And then other times you get people praying for you, because it’s sin or making faces, crossing their heart because they think it’s evil.”

Held described an incident during which another pilgrim grabbed ahold of her flag and broke into pieces, bringing her to tears.

“The attack wasn’t towards me, but towards this group of people,” she said, explaining she’s not gay herself. “And now I feel like I gotta step in and make it my fight. My faith tells me that everyone is loved, everyone is welcome.”

Held says the Pope’s “todos” message really resonated with her.

She “felt like that spoke directly to me. I felt so alone, and then when he said the church is for everyone, I felt like yes, I was right. What I did, and what I keep doing is exactly what we are supposed to do as Christians,” she said.

On his first day in Portugal, the pope also met with 13 victims who were sexually abused as children by members of the Catholic Church.

“Speaking with abused people is a very difficult experience,” the pope said as he reflected on the encounter. “But it also does me good, not because I like to listen, but because it helps me take on their load.”

He added the Church needs to “grab the bull by its horns” when it comes to child sex abuse.

The pontiff also shot down speculation that his eyesight was failing him, after he repeatedly abandoned his lengthy prepared remarks for shorter, off the cuff speeches. The pope told reporters he was just trying to connect with young people, who have a shorter attention span. He joked the homily can at times be akin to “torture.”

This was the 86-year-old’s first trip since he underwent abdominal surgery in June.

While the pope met with 15 young Ukrainians on Thursday, he faced some criticism for not taking a stronger stance in support of Ukraine.

One group of young Ukrainians who spoke with ABC News before mass on Sunday said they were disappointed, that they were hoping to see more from the pope — and specifically for the pontiff to condemn Russia by name.

“In thinking of this continent, I feel great sorrow for beloved Ukraine, which continues to suffer greatly,” the pope said, speaking to the crowd in his native Spanish before a noontime prayer and blessing.

He added, “Friends, allow me also, now an old man, to share with you young people a dream that I carry within: it is the dream of peace, the dream of young people praying for peace, living in peace and building a peaceful future.”

Aboard his plane, the pope defended his approach, telling reporters he had privately prayed for peace, that he just didn’t “advertise” it.

Local officials say over 1.5 million people attended the World Youth Day closing mass presided over by Francis on Sunday.

The pope said he’d host a Youth Jubilee in Rome during Jubilee Year which is set for 2025, ahead of the next World Youth Day in Seoul, South Korea, in 2027.

“This is a beautiful sign of the universality of the Church and the dream of unity to which you are witnesses,” he said.

As the pope arrived home on Monday, he made the customary visit to the Basilica of St. Mary Major, Vatican officials said. He paused in prayer before the icon of the Virgin Salus Populi Romani, then then returned to the Vatican.

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(KYIV, Ukraine) — A Ukrainian woman has been detained by Ukraine’s Security Service in connection with an apparent plot to attack President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the service said on Monday.

The woman, who is from Mykolaiv but was not publicly named, was being questioned, officials said.

She had been part of a plot aimed at assassinating Zelenskyy during his visit last week to Mykolaiv, a southeastern city near the front, officials said.

She allegedly was planning to pass information on to Russian forces about Zelenskyy’s location, including specific places in the Mykolaiv region where the president was visiting.

The Russians would have then ordered an airstrike to assassinate him, Ukrainian officials alleged.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(EDINBURGH, U.K.) — Monster hunters, assemble! The Loch Ness Centre announced it’s set to begin the biggest search for its infamous mythical creature in over 50 years and volunteers are needed.

In partnership with research team Loch Ness Exploration, the tourism company is looking for volunteers to join in a search for the legendary Nessie from Aug. 26- 27. The search is dubbed the biggest of its kind since the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau studied the lake in 1972, it said.

“Over the weekend, surveying equipment that has never been used on Loch Ness before will be enlisted to uncover the secrets of the mysterious waters. This includes thermal drones to produce thermal images of the water from the air using infrared cameras, as observing heat from above could provide a crucial component for identifying any mysterious anomalies,” the Loch Ness Centre said in an announcement on its website.

A hydrophone will also be used to detect acoustic signals under the water.

The Loch Ness Centre is looking for volunteers to take part in a surface watch of the Loch, to keep an eye out for breaks in the water and any “inexplicable movements.”

Volunteers will be briefed on what to look out for and how to record findings.

Alternatively, tickets are being sold for four cruises available over the weekend, with the opportunity to use a 60 foot hydrophone to listen for noises in the loch.

The mythical creature is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish highlands, according to local folklore. Reported sightings and a series of disputed photos depict a dinosaur-like beast with a long neck. Previous attempts to find the creature have yielded scant evidence of its existence.

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(LISBON, Portugal) — You’d think you were at a music festival — jubilant crowds singing and dancing, wearing face paint, even having a beer in some cases. And the young people packing the streets of Lisbon are here for their very own rockstar: Pope Francis.

Close to 800,000 young people from around the world came out to see Francis on Friday, according to Portuguese officials, with that number expected to rise over the weekend. Often described as a type of “Catholic Woodstock,” World Youth Day is a five-day event that’s held once every three years for young Catholics, most between the ages of 18-25.

“I’ve been a Catholic for 62 years, and I’ve never been to masses as joyful,” said ABC News contributor Father James Martin.

“The atmosphere itself is like an Energizer bunny,” said Haley Nash, who travelled from St. Petersburg, Florida. “Everybody’s pumped to be here, everybody’s saying ‘Hola’ and talking to each other. It’s overwhelmingly beautiful.”

The pope seemed to be loving it. Despite his recent hospitalizations for abdominal surgery and infectious bronchitis, he’s moving full steam ahead with a jam-packed agenda.

Aboard the Papal plane, he joked with reporters that he expected to come out of World Youth Day feeling “rejuvenated.” By day three, that seemed to be the case.

Though he may be using a wheelchair and a cane, the Pope appeared to be feeding off the youthful energy around him. In a powerful, playful moment on Thursday, he was even engaging with the crowd — just like a popstar — asking them to yell back at him that the Church is a place for “todos,” “everyone.”

“Repeat after me. Todos, todos, todos,” he told them. “I can’t hear you. Todos, todos, todos.”

“The energy of the youth inspires him, and gives him energy, and new life. He’s clearly happy to be with young people — and they’re happy to be with him,” said Martin.

Francis here is also addressing a number of issues that matter to young people. He’s talking about the need to preserve the environment for future generations, and even warning of the dangers of social media.

“I really admire Pope Francis’s attention to my generation,” said Johanna Schuh, who travelled from Nashville, Tennessee. “I think [we’re] often left out, and I think that’s been received well.”

But as he lays the groundwork for the future of the Catholic Church, the past still hangs heavy over it all.

An independent commission in Portugal reported earlier this year that close to 5,000 boys and girls were abused by members of the Catholic Church since the 1950s — most of the abusers being priests, with the Church “systematically” working to conceal the issue.

The Pope privately met with some of the victims on the first day of his visit, in what the Vatican described as a moment of “intense listening.” The Pope also publicly called for the Church to listen to “the anguished cry of the victims.”

The Pope also met with a small Ukrainian delegation. In a new interview released today by Spanish-language religious magazine Nueva Vida, he said Cardinal Zuppi would now be heading to Beijing. Zuppi has been tasked with negotiating peace in Ukraine and has already been to Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.

The Pope on Saturday will be at the shrine of Fatima, where he’s expected to implore peace for Ukraine.

Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to three children in Fatima in 1917 and, among other things, requested the conversion and consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope Francis consecrated both Ukraine and Russia shortly after the start of the war in 2022.

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(NEW YORK) — A Moscow court has extended the detention of Travis Leake, an American man detained by Russia on drug charges.

Heavily armed Russian police arrested Leake in early June at his apartment in Moscow, accusing him of selling narcotics. Leake, 51, had lived in Russia for more than a decade, working as an English teacher and as a musician in the country’s rock scene. He was detained along with a Russian woman, Valeria Grobanyuk.

Leake has denied the charges and a former colleague has suggested he may have been targeted by Russian authorities as an American.

At a hearing Thursday, a judge prolonged Leake’s pre-trial detention until Sept. 6.

Leake’s detention comes amid ongoing concerns that Russia may seize U.S. citizens as political hostages to use as leverage, following a string of such cases. In March, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges, which the United States and dozens of international media outlets have denounced as fabricated.

WNBA star Brittney Griner, as well as two former Marines, Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan, were also all detained on charges the U.S. said were spurious. Griner and Reed were later freed in prisoner swaps for Russians held by the U.S., while Whelan and Gershkovich remain in detention.

The U.S. and Kremlin last month confirmed they are in talks about a potential prisoner swap to free Gershkovich but so far have not found a clear path to a deal.

The U.S. has not designated Leake as wrongfully detained like Gershkovich and Whelan and has commented little on his detention.

In court on Thursday, Leake again denied the charges against him and pleaded with the U.S. to trade him if possible.

Speaking from inside a cage where defendants are kept, an agitated Leake told reporters he was enduring grim conditions in jail, denied proper food, toilet paper and other essentials, saying he has already suffered bronchitis twice because he was often being forced to sleep on the floor.

“They’re trying to kill me,” Leake shouted at the judge.

Leake currently had only a court-appointed attorney, who was not present at the hearing.

A representative from the U.S. embassy was also present in the court.

Leake, who speaks Russian, was the front man of his band Lovi Noch but had also worked with some well-known Russian rock bands that have been critical of Vladimir Putin’s government.

Dmitry Spirin, leader of the successful band, Tarakani, who spoke to ABC News shortly after Leake’s arrest, said Leake had worked as a trainer with him on English-language performances. Spirin disbanded his group last year under pressure from the authorities after publicly criticizing the war in Ukraine and Putin’s regime.

In a decade of knowing Leake, Spirin said, he had never heard he was selling drugs and said he did not believe the charges against him. “Not 1%,” Spirin said.

The Russian government is “trying with all available means to one way or another detain, arrest Americans so as to fill up an [prisoner] exchange pool. So that it will be possible to blackmail the States,” Spirin said.

“In my view, it’s this standard practice that started already a few years ago with the basketball player, not long ago continued with the correspondent and now Travis has fallen foul of it,” he went on.

Leake appeared in a 2014 segment of the Anthony Bourdain show “Parts Unknown,” filmed in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the segment, Leake complained about political censorship and criticized the Russian government, alleging that an episode of an MTV series about dissident musicians in which he featured had been shelved under pressure from the authorities.

On Thursday, Leake told the court he had loved Russia.

“I spent a decade of my life trying to help the world not hate you guys but now you’ve made me hate you,” he said. “I didn’t do this to you.”

 

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(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent could be sentenced Friday to an additional two decades behind bars on extremism charges.

A Russian judge is set to deliver a verdict in the closed-door trial against Alexey Navalny at a courtroom inside the maximum-security prison camp in Melekhovo, about 145 miles east of Moscow, where the Russian opposition leader is already serving 11 1/2 years. Russian prosecutors have requested a 20-year prison sentence for the latest charges, which stem from Navalny’s pro-democracy campaigns against Putin’s regime.

If the judge finds Navalny guilty, it will be his fifth criminal conviction. All of the charges have been widely viewed as a politically motivated strategy by the Kremlin to silence its fiercest critic.

The 47-year-old lawyer-turned-politician has been in jail since 2021, upon returning to Russia after recovering in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. In 2022, a Russian judge added another nine years to Navalny’s sentence of 2 1/2 years on embezzlement and other charges.

Earlier this year, Navalny’s team sounded the alarm over his deteriorating health while in solitary confinement, saying he has not received any treatment. They said he has been repeatedly put in solitary confinement for two-week stints for months.

On the eve of Friday’s verdict, Navalny said in a social media statement from behind bars that he expects a “Stalinist” sentence of about 18 years.

“When the figure is announced, please show solidarity with me and other political prisoners by thinking for a minute why such an exemplary huge term is necessary,” Navalny wrote in the social media post on Thursday. “Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I’ll even say this: you personally, who are reading these words.”

In closing statements during his last hearing on July 20, Navalny condemned Russia’s ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine.

“[Russia is] floundering in a pool of either mud or blood, with broken bones, with a poor and robbed population, and around it lie tens of thousands of people killed in the most stupid and senseless war of the 21st century,” he said.

 

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(SAN DIEGO, CA) — Two U.S. Navy sailors have been arrested on charges related to allegedly spying for China, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.

Both are accused of having passed along national defense information to Chinese intelligence officials in return for cash payments.

Jinchao “Patrick” Wei, a 22-year-old petty officer 2nd class, was arrested Wednesday and charged with espionage. Wei served as a machinist’s mate aboard the amphibious ship USS Essex, which is currently receiving maintenance at Naval Base San Diego.

Petty Officer Wenheng Zhao, of Monterey Park, California, was also arrested Wednesday, by FBI and NCIS agents, and is charged with conspiracy and receipt of a bribe by a public official. Zhao, 26, worked at the Naval Base Ventura County in Port Hueneme and had an active U.S. security clearance who had access to classified information.

According to officials, Wei and Zhao are alleged to have each worked with Chinese intelligence officers to whom they passed along sensitive information related to the technologies they worked with and about upcoming Navy operations, including international military exercises.

Officials said Wei allegedly began communicating with an intelligence officer from China’s government in February 2022 who tasked him with passing photos, videos and documents concerning U.S. Navy ships and their systems.

Wei and his handler agreed to hide their communications by deleting records of their conversations and using encrypted methods of communications, officials claim.

Wei is alleged to have passed along imagery of the USS Essex, provided the locations of various Navy ships and provided dozens of technical and manual for systems aboard his ship and other Navy ships.

In June 2022, Wei was allegedly paid $5,000 by the Chinese intelligence official after having passed along the initial batch of those manuals, officials say.

Throughout their interactions, the intelligence official allegedly instructed Wei to gather U.S. military information that was not public and warned him not to discuss their relationship and to destroy evidence of their relationship and activities.

If convicted, Wei could face 20 years to life in prison.

Zhao is alleged to have begun working with a Chinese intelligence official in August 2021 and continuing to do so through at least May of this year, according to officials.

He is alleged to have passed along photos and videos, blueprints for a radar system in Okinawa and operational plans for a large scale U.S. military exercise in the Pacific.

In exchange for this information, the indictment against Zhao alleges that he received $14,866 in payments from the Chinese intelligence officer.

If convicted, Zhao could fact a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

 

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(EAGLE PASS, TX) — Two people have been found dead in the southern part of the Rio Grande river, officials said.

One body was found stuck in the lines of orange buoys installed by Texas authorities near the U.S.-Mexico border. A second body was discovered separately in the area of the buoys by the Beta Group of Piedras Negras, according to a statement from Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary and Mexico’s Migration Institute.

The Texas Department of Public Safety notified the Mexican Consulate in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon that a person was found dead in the southern part of the floating barriers. Members of the Mexican National Institute of Migration’s assistance unit are spearheading efforts to recover the body, according to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“So far, the cause of death and nationality of the person is unknown,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The identifies of the bodies are unknown. It is not clear yet if the deceased are migrants.

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said a “possible drowning victim” was first spotted floating upstream from the buoys. The spokesperson said DPS notified CBP and the Mexican Consulate.

“Later that day a body was discovered at the marine barrier,” the spokesperson said.

Added DPS Director Steven McCraw: “Preliminary information suggests this individual drowned upstream from the marine barrier and floated into the buoys. There are personnel posted at the marine barrier at all times in case any migrants try to cross.”

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeated its condemnation of the buoys, calling them a “violation of our sovereignty.”

“We express our concern about the impact on the human rights and personal safety of migrants that these state policies will have, which go in the opposite direction to the close collaboration between our country and the federal government of the United States,” the ministry added. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to follow up on the case promptly through the Mexican Consulate in Eagle Pass, maintaining contact with the corresponding authorities in Mexico and the United States to obtain more information on what happened and to request that the necessary investigations be carried out.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety, at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, began installing the floating barriers along portions of the Rio Grande river this summer in an effort to deter migrants from illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Abbott over the use of the buoys.

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While cases of mpox continue to decline across the United States and Europe, infections are steadily rising in China.

For the week ending July 21, 117 cases were confirmed in China, according to data from the World Health Organization. Between the week ending May 5 and the week ending July 21, 315 cases were reported.

This comes after just six cases were confirmed throughout all of 2022, WHO data shows.

Additionally, China had the highest increase in the weekly number of cases during the most recent week of full reporting and cases have risen have more than 50% over the last three weeks, the global health agency said.

“As we know from not only COVID … we only see the tip of the iceberg and we’re not really sure what the true enormity of the issue is,” Dr. Peter-Chin Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News. “Of course, mpox hasn’t gone away and we’ve seen that here. But I think it’s exemplified in places that hadn’t seen a lot of mpox before.

“If you hadn’t seen it before, at some point, it’s going to get there and probably infect people,” he added.

The global mpox outbreak began in the United Kingdom in spring 2022 before spreading throughout Europe and, eventually, to the U.S. At this time, China still had COVID restrictions in place with little travel allowed in and out of the country.

The outbreak was primarily concentrated among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that anyone — regardless of sexual orientation — can contract the virus.

After seemingly poised to overwhelm the U.S., the outbreak took a dramatic turn downward. Public health experts have said the combination of people changing their behaviors and a strong vaccination campaign helped beat back the disease.

Despite the WHO declaring the mpox public health emergency over in May 2023, that’s just when cases began rising in Asia, including Japan, Thailand and, most recently, China.

However, case reporting has not been regular in Beijing. The Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released just one report, last month, documenting 106 cases in June.

No data has been released on any other monthly cases, reminiscent of irregular reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similarly, there are three vaccines in use around the world to prevent mpox: the Jynneos vaccine (the only one being used in the U.S.), ACAM2000 and Imvanex, although none are approved in China.

“There’s a lot of nationalism in Chinese diagnostics, and vaccines and therapeutics,” Chin-Hong said. “So, China tends to want to use their homegrown stuff. And there’s some early trials for a Chinese mpox vaccines, but there hasn’t really been a lot of outreach, as far we know, to the one factory that makes it which is in Denmark.”

Chin-Hong also added there’s been a lack of urgency to combat the outbreak in China despite the rise in cases. The Chinese CDC only posted a program to prevent and control the spread on July 26, which made mention of a public education program but not of a vaccine campaign.

Chin-Hong added, even though it seems this may not affect the U.S., in today’s closely connected world, diseases can spread quite quickly, as we saw with COVID-19.

“We should care because with these transmissible diseases and globalization of infectious diseases, what happens in China doesn’t only stay in China, even though sure [mpox] is less transmissible,” he said. “So, it can easily find to many places around the world again, and lead to secondary outbreaks. So, anything happening in China, with the world open up again, can affect even more rapidly, other countries.”

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