Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.
Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:
- The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hoped a new stimulus package would help them with budget difficulties but with coronavirus relief talks at an impasse in Congress, the agency will have to furlough nearly 13,400 employees. This will stall the process for immigrants who are currently in the process of becoming U.S. citizens, asylum applicants already waiting through delays, DACA recipients renewing their benefits and more. [Forbes]
- Emory University is forging ahead with advanced trials of a biotech company vaccine but there are concerns that not enough Black and Latinx people are enrolled in the trials. [Univision]
- Activists told The Independent that migrants held in a detention facility in California are being doused with HDQ Neutral—an industrial and potentially toxic disinfectant that can cause burns and severe eye damage. Detainees are allegedly sprayed every 20 to 30 minutes as a way to control the spread of the coronavirus.
- Mexico signed a deal with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to cover the initial production of a potential vaccine in development by Oxford. If the vaccine’s advanced trials and regulatory approvals succeed, the government would provide the vaccine for free starting in 2021. The deal also provides for production in Argentina. [Aljazeera]
- In a move seen as an intended blow to Cuba’s economy during the pandemic, the U.S. has suspended all private charter flights to the island. Charter flights have often been used as a substitute for commercial flights to Cuba, which briefly resumed in 2016 before the Trump administration rolled them back. [BBC]
- In wholesome news, AOC reunited with her second-grade teacher on Twitter in a sweet, accidental exchange. AOC had tweeted about only having 60 minutes at the Democratic National Convention, and a woman replied, “Remember all those poems we recited together in 2nd grade? It was prep for this moment. You’ve got this.” Realizing it was her teacher, AOC wrote back, “Ms. Jacobs! Is that you?!”
