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![]() by Allen Cone Washington (UPI) Jul 18, 2019
An additional 2,100 troops, including 1,100 active-duty service members and 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers, will be deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border "in the next several weeks," the Pentagon announced. Acting Defense Secretary Richard Spencer, who took responsibility of the Defense Department on Tuesday, authorized the additional personnel Wednesday. Spencer has been the Navy secretary since August 2017. Already at the border are about 2,500 active-duty and 2,000 National Guard troops. The new active-duty personnel will provide "aerial surveillance, operational, logistical, and administrative support" to Customs and Border Patrol, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Chris Mitchell said in a statement obtained by media, including Politico and Military Times. Members of the Texas Guardsmen will assist CBP with with intake and detention of migrants. The additional active-duty forces are necessary because of "shortfall in volunteer National Guard personnel," Mitchell said. In June, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the impending mobilization of the additional Texas National Guard troops to help establish holding facilities in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso for single adults entering the country illegally. The mission will be federally funded and under the control of the governor. And earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security formally sent a request to the Pentagon for extra National Guard troops. Civilian law enforcement will continue to supervise the migrants and the military troops will assist at the holding camps, officials said. The 1,000 Guard breakdown includes about 250 additional personnel at ports of entry and airports in Texas and the other 750 to help Customs and Border Protection staff at two "temporary adult migrant holding facilities" in Donna or Tornillo in Texas, Mitchell said. "Decisions regarding arming military personnel and related rules for the use of force will be informed by the circumstances of their mission and be made by the governor of Texas, in consultation with CBP," Mitchell said. Army Secretary Mark Esper, who has been nominated as the next defense secretary, spoke about military support at the border during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday. "I think in many ways, it's just one of those things we do -- whether it's putting out wildfires in California, helping with hurricane recovery in Texas or Puerto Rico, flooding along the Mississippi," he said. "It's one of those things we provide to other parts of the government, to the American people."
USNS Comfort leaves Peru after treating 4,500 Venezuelan refugees The ship completed its five-day "medical mission," the U.S. Southern Command said in a statement on Wednesday, to "relieve pressure on national medical systems strained by an increase in Venezuelan migrants." In Peru, over 4,500 patients were treated and over 100 surgeries were performed aboard the ship. "This morning the mission ended with expected success, having seen a great number of patients and provided medical services to the community in general," said Vice Adm. Manuel VĂ¡scones, chief of staff of the Peruvian Navy on Sunday, at a ceremony to end the visit. "The commitment of cooperation that the governments of the United States and Peru have undertaken only reaffirms the solid bilateral relations that allow the execution of humanitarian efforts like this mission." Staffed with 320 medical professionals from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Peru, the USNS Comfort's current deployment includes stops in Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago. Vice President Mike Pence announced the deployment in May. The ship is a non-combatant hospital vessel typically staffed by officers of the Navy's Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Medical Service Corps, Nurse Corps and Chaplain Corps, and enlisted Hospital Corpsman personnel. It is primarily visiting areas hosting Venezuelan refugees who have fled their country's economic and political hardships. Pence, in his announcement, said that at least three million people have left Venezuela and the regime of President Nicolas Maduro. The ship most recently visited South America and the Caribbean area on an 11-week mission in the autumn of 2018. In support of the U.S. Southern Command's Enduring Promise initiative, the ship and personnel worked to relieve shortages of medical care in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Honduras. In 2017, Comfort traveled to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico with medical and other supplies. It arrived as 97 percent of the island was without electrical power, and about half the population was without clean drinking water.
![]() ![]() Using satellite information to help rebuild after a disaster Paris (ESA) Jul 13, 2019 ESA and the Asian Development Bank have joined forces to help the Indonesian government use satellite information to guide the redevelopment following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the provincial capital of Palu and surroundings last year. On 28 September 2018, the Indonesian island of Sulawesi was struck by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. The epicentre was on the island's northwest coast - 77 km north of Palu, which lies at the head of a long narrow bay. The quake triggered a tsunami tha ... read more
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