Month: March 2023

The White House announced Tuesday that South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee will travel to Washington for an official state visit on April 26. Yoon was elected president of South Korea last May. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “The upcoming visit celebrates the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-ROK alliance, which is critical to advancing peace, stability, and prosperity for our two countries, the Indo-Pacific, and around the world. President Biden and President Yoon will highlight the importance and enduring strength of the ironclad U.S.-ROK alliance as well as the United States’ unwavering commitment to the ROK. The presidents will discuss our shared resolve to deepen and broaden our political, economic, security and people-to-people ties.” (the Republic of Korea is the official name of South Korea).

The presidents have met multiple times the past year, including during visits to Cambodia and the United Nations General Assembly in New York.  The White House said the visit from President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee will include a state dinner. White House state visits traditionally includes formal ceremonies, bilateral meetings and a black-tie dinner.

On Monday, South Korea announced plans to compensate victims of Japanese wartime forced labor, settling a bitter dispute between two key U.S. allies. The U.S. and South Korea also both announced they will be reviving a massive springtime joint military exercise this month, in response to growing missile and nuclear threats from North Korea.  The two countries are returning to a scale not seen in five years.

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Police confirm that one person was killed and at least nine others were injured after a stampede was sparked by reports of gunfire at a GloRilla concert in Rochester, New York on Sunday night. GloRilla — real name Gloria Hallelujah Woods — said in a tweet early Monday morning that she was “just now hearing about what happened …praying everybody is ok.”

The Rochester Police Department said in a news release that as fans were leaving the GloRilla concert at the Main Street Armory just after 11 p.m., they thought they heard gunfire inside the venue – which caused the crowd to surge and rush toward the exit.  Police said: “We do not have any evidence of gunshots being fired or anyone being shot or stabbed,” and they were unclear as to why fans thought they heard gunfire. Police are continuing to investigate what caused the incident, as well as who may have been responsible.

A 33-year-old woman did not survive her injuries, and two others remain in critical condition. Police said that “as the night went on, an additional seven people arrived at local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries from the event. Preliminary reports from people at the scene indicate that these injuries were caused from being trampled.”

The next scheduled show at the Main Street Armory in Rochester, a Saturday performance by rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, has since been canceled.

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The FBI said that four U.S. citizens have been kidnapped after gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in the northern Mexico border city of Matamoros. The four Amricans had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, on Friday and were travelling in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. U.S. officials also confirmed on Monday that a Mexican citizen was killed in the incident.

Matamoros is home to warring factions of the Gulf drug cartel, and the U.S. Consulate issued an alert about shootouts there on Friday were so bad that local authorities warned people to shelter in place. The alert reminded U.S. citizens that this part of Mexico is a “Level 4: Do Not Travel,” which is the highest-level warning in the U.S. State Department’s travel advisory system.

The FBI San Antonio Division office said in a statement Sunday that the vehicle came under fire shortly after it entered Mexico: “All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of the culprits.” A post on Twitter appears to show the moment they were kidnapped, with one woman, walking on her own, forced into a white pickup truck. Men armed with guns and wearing bulletproof vests are then seen dragging one person after another into the vehicle. The video posted online appears to show some of them may be injured, but their conditions of the four remain unknown.

On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement that the Americans were kidnapped at gunpoint and that an “innocent” Mexican citizen died in the attack. He said various U.S. justice agencies were working with their Mexican counterparts to recover the missing U.S. citizens, but did not provide further details.  Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that the Americans had crossed the border to buy medicine and ended up caught in the crossfire between two armed groups.

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Five people were injured in a shooting at a Los Angeles beach, just a few miles from where city officials had hosted a gun buyback event earlier in the day.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department and City Councilmember Tim McOsker, the LAPD’s Harbor Division responded to a radio call of a shooting at Royal Palms Beach around 5:45 p.m. Saturday.  The LAPD said in a statement on Sunday that ‘five male Hispanic victims were at a barbeque, at the beach, with a group of approximately 10-20 people.’  Two suspect approached the group and got into a physical altercation, and ‘the suspects then produced a handgun and fired multiple rounds, striking the victims. The suspects then fled the location in a vehicle.’  Five victims were struck by gunfire, and the police said that the “last information we received was two victims are in critical condition, two victims are in serious condition and one victim is in stable condition.”

A joint statement by McOsker and Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, read: “We’re outraged and saddened by the shooting at Royal Palms Beach in San Pedro that has left 5 people injured. It’s tragically ironic that today we hosted a gun buy-back event just a few miles away from this location. Gun violence is wreaking havoc on our community … Royal Palms Beach will be closed Sunday and will close earlier on weekends as city officials work on plans to ensure safety and peaceful community use.”

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President Joe Biden traveled to Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Biden spoke at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — where in 1965 hundreds of civil rights marchers were attacked by police. Met by public outrage, the event marked a turning point and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Biden has spoken on voting rights often, and in his most recent State of the Union address he said: “In America, we must protect the right to vote, not suppress that fundamental right. We honor the results of our elections, not subvert the will of the people. We must uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy.”

Said Biden in his remarks at the bridge: “They forced the country to confront the hard truth and to act to keep the promise of America alive.”   The president said he believed voting is a “fundamental right,” but remains under assault decades later from conservative Supreme Court justices, state lawmakers and election deniers. Biden repeated his plea for Congress to pass new voting legislation named for the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who was beaten and suffered a skull fracture during “Bloody Sunday.” Democrats attempted last year to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act with a bill named after Lewis, but failed to gain enough support to break the Senate filibuster.

Biden ended his speeches saying “extremism will not prevail …. Silence, as the saying goes, silence is complicity. And I promise you, my administration will not remain silent. I promise you.” The president then marched across the bridge with civil rights advocates after his speech, the first time he did so since entering the White House.

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