F:BRIEFS

GERMANY

Suspect arrested in online
sex exploitation of minors

BERLIN | A 20-year-old man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of engaging in an online campaign of cybergrooming and virtual sexual abuse of children, including pressuring a 13-year-old American boy to kill himself and livestream the act, authorities said Wednesday.

The German-Iranian man, whose name was not made public in line with German privacy rules, was taken into custody Tuesday at his parents’ apartment in the northern city of Hamburg.

The man is accused of being a member of “764,” which the FBI describes as a violent online network that exploits minors. He is suspected of committing 120 crimes against eight victims, ages 11 to 15.

Through his online pseudonym, “White Tiger,” the suspect preyed on desperate children in online forums, including those discussing suicide, investigators said, coercing them into creating pornographic and violent recordings that were then used to blackmail victims into committing more self-harm on camera.

The group’s purported leader — a 21-year-old American man — was arrested in northern Greece in April, and another member of 764, based in Michigan, was sentenced in November to 30 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a girl.

— Associated Press

MEXICO

U.S. sanctions members
of drug-trafficking cartel

MEXICO CITY | The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed economic sanctions on five high-ranking members of Mexico’s powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel for their drug trafficking, while also citing their involvement in killings.

Previous administrations have also sanctioned the cartel — one of Mexico’s most powerful — as the Trump administration also did in May, when it targeted the cartel’s fuel theft operations.

The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals or companies have in the U.S. and prohibit U.S. citizens from doing business with them.

In February, the U.S. administration designated Jalisco New Generation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The cartel is led by Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes and he was among the five leaders named Wednesday. Washington has offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Two of those sanctioned have been recently connected to high-profile investigations in Mexico.

— Associated Press

UKRAINE

Kyiv death toll from latest
Russian attack at least 28

KYIV | Emergency workers pulled more bodies Wednesday from the rubble of a nine-story Kyiv apartment building demolished by a Russian missile, raising the death toll from the latest attack on the Ukrainian capital to 28.

The building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district took a direct hit and collapsed during the deadliest Russian attack on Kyiv this year. Authorities said that 23 of those killed were inside the building. The remaining five died elsewhere in the city.

The attack overnight on Monday into Tuesday was part of a sweeping barrage as Russia once again sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in what Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was one of the biggest bombardments of the war, now in its fourth year.

Russia has launched a summer offensive on parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and has intensified long-range attacks that have struck urban residential areas.

— Associated Press

MEXICO

Erick strengthens off coast
to a Category 2 hurricane

PUERTO ESCONDIDO, Mexico | Hurricane Erick rapidly strengthened Wednesday afternoon into a potent Category 2 storm as it churned toward Mexico’s southern coast amid warnings it was likely to become a dangerous major hurricane that would threaten the region with damaging winds, life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.

The hurricane’s maximum sustained winds had risen by early afternoon to 100 mph as the intensifying storm headed toward an expected landfall sometime Thursday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

By Wednesday afternoon, Erick was centered about 105 miles south of Puerto Ángel and about 215 miles southeast of Punta Maldonado in the eastern Pacific, the latest hurricane center advisory said.

Forecasters said Erick was expected over the coming hours to lash Mexico’s Pacific coast with heavy rain, strong winds and a fierce storm surge. Rains of up to 20 inches could fall across the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, with lesser totals in Chiapas, Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco states, the center’s advisory says. The rainfall threatened flooding and mudslides, especially in areas with steep terrain.

Erick was forecast to reach major hurricane strength late Wednesday night or early Thursday near the coast and is then expected to move inland.

 — Associated Press