2A ■ Saturday, September 20, 2025 ■ theadvocate.com ■ The Advocate
BRIEFS
FROM WIRE REPORTS
Trump asks to strip Venezuelans’ TPS status
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order allowing it to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. The Justice Department asked the high court to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that the administration wrongly ended Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans. The federal appeals court in San Francisco refused to put on hold the ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen while the case continues. In May, the Supreme Court reversed an order from Chen that affected another 350,000 Venezuelans. The high court provided no explanation at the time, which is common in emergency appeals. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the new court filing that the justices’ May order should also apply to the current case.
lll
Estonia: 3 Russian jets in its airspace BY GEIR MOULSON and ANDREW WILKS Associated Press
Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian fighter aircraft entered its airspace without permission Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Foreign Ministry said. It happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over. Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Russia violated Estonian airspace four times this year “but today’s incursion, involving three fighter aircraft entering our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen.” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur also said the government had decided “to start consultations among the allies” under NATO’s article 4, he wrote on X, after Russian jets “violated our airspace yet again.” The North Atlantic Council, NA-
TO’s principal political decisionmaking body, is due to convene early next week to discuss the incident in more detail, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Friday. Article 4, the shortest of the NATO treaty’s 14 articles, states that: “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.” Russian officials did not immediately comment. Russia’s violation of Poland’s airspace was the most serious cross-border incident into a NATO member country since the war in Ukraine began with Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022. Other alliance countries have reported similar incursions and drone crashes on their territory. The developments have increasingly rattled European governments as U.S.-led efforts to stop the war in Ukraine have come to nothing.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Friday’s incursion “an extremely dangerous provocation” that “further escalates tensions in the region.” “On our side, we see that we must show no weakness because weakness is something that invites Russia to do more,” she said. “They are increasingly more dangerous — not only to Ukraine, but also to all the countries around Russia.” Estonia, along with fellow Baltic states Lithuania and Latvia and neighboring Poland, are staunch supporters of Ukraine. The Russian MIG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace in the area of Vaindloo Island, a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said in a separate statement. The aircraft did not have flight plans and their transponders were turned off, the statement said, nor were the aircraft in two-way radio communication with Estonian air traffic services. NATO fighter jets scramble hun-
Senate confirms Waltz as Trump’s U.N. ambassador
Flights snarled at Dallas airports over equipment DALLAS — Hundreds of flights in and out of Dallas were delayed or canceled Friday as telecommunications equipment issues disrupted one of the nation’s busiest airports, federal officials said The Federal Aviation Administration said it was slowing flights at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport because of a “reported local telephone company equipment issue.” The same problems were also impacting Dallas Love Field, according to the agency, which said the issue did not involve FAA equipment. According to FlightAware, as of late Friday afternoon, nearly 700 flights in and out of DFW Airport were delayed while about 200 canceled. About 160 flights were delayed in and out of Love Field while one flight was canceled. As of late Friday afternoon, departures from Love Field were delayed by an average of about 30 minutes, according to the FAA website. At DFW Airport, a ground stop was in place for American Airlines and flights on other airlines were being delayed by over an hour.
Administration proposes $6B in weapons to Israel WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has told Congress it plans to sell nearly $6 billion in weapons to Israel, a fresh surge of support for the U.S. ally as it faces increasing isolation over its war in Gaza. It includes a $3.8 billion sale for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters, nearly doubling Israel’s current stocks, and a $1.9 billion sale for 3,200 infantry assault vehicles for Israeli army, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the proposal who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public. The weapons would not be delivered for two to three years or longer. The huge sales come as U.S. plans to broker an end to the nearly two-year war between Israel and Hamas have stalled and after Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, drew widespread condemnation among U.S. allies in the Middle East. The U.S. has kept up its support despite growing international pressure on Israel and attempts from a growing number of U.S. Senate Democrats to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel.
dreds of times most years to intercept aircraft, many of them Russian warplanes in northwest Europe flying too close to the airspace of its member countries, but it’s rarer for planes to cross the boundary. Dozens of NATO jets are on round-the-clock alert across Europe to respond to incidents such as unannounced military flights or civilian planes losing communication with air traffic controllers. The Russian charge d’affaires was summoned and given a protest note, a ministry statement said. Earlier Friday, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency said there is “absolutely no evidence” that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wants to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6 as it is more commonly known, said Putin was “stringing us along.” “He seeks to impose his imperial will by all means at his disposal. But he cannot succeed,” Moore said.
BY FARNOUSH AMIRI and SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO BY JON ORBACH
People bring flowers to the site where seamstresses died inside a textile plant that collapsed in the 1985 earthquake on the 40th anniversary of the quake in the Obrera neighborhood of Mexico City on Friday.
Mexico City remembers deadly 1985 earthquake BY MARÍA VERZA Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — Every Sept. 19, residents of Mexico City ask themselves an unsettling question: “Is the ground shaking?” On that day 40 years ago, at 7:19 a.m., a 8.1-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks left the Mexican capital devastated. Official counts put the death toll around 12,000, but the real number remains unknown. The earthquake was a watershed moment for the city. A new culture of civil defense evolved, better warning systems developed, building codes changed and, since 2004, there have been annual earthquake drills held on that day. Then, on that very same day in 2017, things changed again. Barely two hours after the annual drill, a 7.1-magnitude temblor began shaking the ground; its epicenter was so close to the capital that the warning alarms didn’t even sound. Nearly 400 died this time and word spread in an instant on social media, but the destruction showed some lessons still hadn’t been learned, as many deaths could have been prevented. Whether the ground shakes or not, Sept. 19 continues to rattle residents of the capital, because for many there are symbols across the city that have not been forgotten.
Screams of the seamstresses First came the screams from the seamstresses buried under one of the capital’s collapsed textile plants, recalled Gloria Juandiego, now 65. Soon after, the screams were from people like her outside the rubble, who shouted that others were trapped inside. The soldiers did
nothing, she said. “The bosses got the equipment out, the raw materials, their safe boxes, they prioritized that,” she said. They didn’t let them tear up the salvaged clothing to make tourniquets. Then came the smell and the image of how “the bodies were tossed into trucks, even as more and more women came out to demand authorities rescue their colleagues. In the end, hundreds of seamstresses, normally holed up working 12-hour days without breaks, died. “Our submission was buried under the rubble,” a popular sign at the time read. It was the start of the Sept. 19 seamstress union to fight for decent working conditions.
‘The Moles’ “We were digging with sardine cans and our hands,” recalled Francisco Camacho, now 66. In 1985, he was one of the young people looking for survivors of a collapsed apartment building on Tlatelolco Plaza, where today a sun dial marks the time of the earthquake. A woman organized a chain of volunteers removing buckets full of debris. Children brought water. Camacho recalled the tenor Plácido Domingo, who was also helping, saying the volunteers were making holes and crawling into them “as if they were moles.” And so a volunteer rescue group known as “Los Topos” (The moles) was born. The organization has grown from 20-some amateurs to a diverse force of some 1,200 people today. Now, a powerful symbol of Mexican solidarity, they have traveled to 32 countries to assist at times of catastrophe. They continue training every Sunday for what could happen next.
Grammy-winning songwriter James dies in plane crash BY KATHY MCCORMACK and JOSH FUNK the North Carolina State Highway Pa- Underwood, earned the 2006 Grammy Associated Press
Grammy award-winning country songwriter Brett James, whose string of top hits includes “Jesus, Take the Wheel” by Carrie Underwood and “When the Sun Goes Down” by Kenny Chesney, died in a plane crash in North Carolina, authorities said Friday. The small plane with three people aboard crashed Thursday afternoon “under unknown circumstances” in the woods in Franklin, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary report. There were no survivors,
trol said in a statement. It was not known if James was the pilot. The patrol confirmed his death. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board said they will investigate the crash. The other two people on the plane were Melody Carole and Meryl Maxwell Wilson, the patrol confirmed. A native of Oklahoma City, James, 57, left medical school to pursue a music career in Nashville, according his biography on the Hall of Fame’s site. His first No. 1 hit was “Who I Am” in 2001, by Jessica Andrews. “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” which he co-wrote for
for Best Country Song, among other honors. James had more than 500 of his songs recorded, for albums with combined sales of more than 110 million copies, according to his Grand Ole Opry biography online. Additional hits in- James clude “Cowboy Casanova” by Underwood, “Out Last Night” by Chesney and “Summer Nights” by Rascal Flatts.
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Friday confirmed Mike Waltz to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, filling the last vacancy in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet after eight months of delays and the withdrawal of a previous nominee. The bip a r t i s a n Waltz vote for Waltz came after a recent procedural hurdle sent his nomination back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it had to be voted on again on Wednesday. The Senate did not vote on a separate matter that would formally designate Waltz as a representative at the General Assembly, due to objections from
Democrats, according to a person familiar with the Senate deliberations. It is unclear how or whether Waltz would be able to participate in the annual U.N. gathering in New York next week. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. It is unclear why Waltz wasn’t advanced before Democrats employed the procedural move last week, given that his nomination moved out of committee last month with bipartisan support. A State Department spokesperson said they had worked closely with the White House “to advance every one of our nominees as quickly as possible,” including Waltz. But a Democratic congressional aide said this week that the administration officials had shown “no urgency” in getting Waltz confirmed before the U.N. General Assembly, which kicks off Tuesday.
GET IN TOUCH Customer Service: HELP@THEADVOCATE.COM or 225-388-0200 News Tips / Stories: NEWSTIPS@THEADVOCATE.COM Obituaries: 225-388-0289 • Mon-Fri 9-5; Sat 10-5; Closed Sun Advertising Sales: 225-388-0262 • Mon-Fri 8-5 Classified Advertising: 225-383-0111 • Mon-Fri 8-5 Subscribe: theadvocate.com/subscribe E-Edition: theadvocate.com/eedition Archives: theadvocate.newsbank.com The Advocate (USPS 363-040) is published daily in Baton Rouge and at additional mailing offices. Periodicals postage paid at Baton Rouge, LA. ISSN: 1061-3978. Capital City Press, proprietor. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Advocate, Circulation Accounting, P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821. Newspaper carriers are independent contractors and not employees of Capital City Press.
All home delivery subscription sales are non-refundable. Should you discontinue your subscription during term, the subscription will end with the expiration date on your subscription, and there will not be a refund of a prorated amount. Subscribers who purchased their subscription before Feb. 1, 2023 and wish to cancel can request a refund of a remaining balance at https://www.nola.com/app/forms/refund-request-form/. Refunds are considered on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of Capital City Press, LLC or its designee. All subscriptions purchased that include a special edition will have the special edition value deducted prior to any refund provided to subscriber upon cancellation of service. Standard subscription rates may be effective upon renewal. All standard subscriptions include digital access and e-Edition, a digital replica of the printed Advocate edition(s). The apps are free for tablets and smartphones. Smartphone apps may not be supported on all devices. The Advocate standard subscription rate is $68.48 per 4-week period, plus tax. The Acadiana Advocate standard subscription rate is $68.48 per 4-week period, plus tax. Standard digital subscriptions include e-Edition with the rate of $29.95 per 4-week period, plus tax starting 1/1/25. Special editions included in home delivery subscriptions are 1/10/24, 2/2/24, 4/10/24, 5/15/24, 7/17/24, 9/25/24, 10/30/24, 1/8/25, 2/14/25, 4/2/25, 5/14/25, 7/16/25, 8/20/25, 10/1/25, 1/30/26, 3/11/26, 4/15/26, 5/27/26, 7/8/26, 8/19/26 and 9/30/26 and are billed at $5.99 each. The Thanksgiving Day edition will be billed at your regular Thursday rate plus $5.99. To opt out of special edition delivery, email help@theadvocate.com or call 225-388-0395. By opting out of special editions you will not receive that day’s newspaper. Thanksgiving Day is not a special edition and opting out for that edition isn’t permitted. Prices shown are in U.S. dollars. Prices subject to change. Other restrictions may apply. We no longer provide credit for temporary delivery stops of 14 days or less. During a temporary delivery stop donations are made to our News in Education program. This program provides newspapers and digital access to schools across Louisiana. This program is paid for by sponsors and temporary stops so that students may use the newspaper for educational purposes in the classroom. During a temporary delivery stop of the print edition subscribers have unlimited digital access to theadvocate.com, nola.com and the apps for tablet and smartphone. Seasonal delivery times from August 2024 through February 2025 will extend to 8:00 a.m. on weekends. Subscribers may also choose to access our digital replica e-Edition of the printed Advocate, Times Picayune | New Orleans Advocate and Acadiana Advocate only. As a highly valued customer, we also value your privacy. All personal information collected by The Advocate will be used for administration and customer verification; it may be used for promotional purposes in accordance with The Advocate’s privacy policy. Please refer to our policy located at https://www.theadvocate.com/new_policy/ for information regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. By providing your phone number and email address you agree that we can call or email you to confirm delivery service, satisfaction and/or sales promotions as they may occur from The Advocate. The Advocate: 10705 Rieger Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70809 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0588