- Slipper to become most-capped Wallaby in All Blacks clash
- Tokyo surges on weak yen as Asian traders cheer big US rate cut
- Vast France building project sunk by sea level rise fears
- UK campaigners in green energy standoff reject 'nimby' label
- Rainbow warriors: Three things to watch at cycling world championships
- China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms
- Amazon drought leaves Colombian border town high and dry
- Some Cubans depend on sugar water as food shortages bite
- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
- Lebanon doctors tell of horror after pager blasts
- McIlroy eyes Wentworth glory after Irish Open collapse
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ |
Town at center of US migrant conspiracies hit with 33 bomb threats
The town of Springfield has seen some three dozen bomb threats as it endures being the center of Republican-boosted conspiracy theories about immigration, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Monday.
"We have received at least 33 separate bomb threats," DeWine told a news conference in the city.
They were all hoaxes, he said, adding that some of them have come from a foreign country, which he did not name.
Racist rumors, amplified by top Republicans including presidential candidate Donald Trump, have falsely said that the town's Haitian immigrant community is stealing and eating people's pets and causing a crime wave.
Since Trump declared "they're eating the dogs" at last week's presidential debate, threats of bombings, shootings or other violence have poured in, including on Monday when two schools were shut down.
Some Haitians living in the city have told AFP they feared for their lives. The mayor has said he is receiving death threats.
It was unclear if DeWine's figure included the threats about shootings and other violence, or the bomb threat made Monday against the Ohio state legislature, in Columbus.
Two schools in Springfield were evacuated Monday, local media reported, though authorities had not yet released details about the threats that prompted the closures.
The local ABC affiliate in Columbus reported that the statehouse threat "included derogatory remarks about Springfield's Haitian's population."
"Our children deserve to be in school," DeWine said, announcing that 36 troopers from the state Highway Patrol would be stationed throughout the city to provide extra security.
The troopers will sweep the schools each morning and remain on site throughout the day, said DeWine, a Republican who has pushed back against the rumors amplified by his party.
DeWine did not elaborate on how many threats came locally versus from abroad.
"Some of them are coming from one particular country," he said.
"We think that this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States, and they're continuing to do that."
The mostly white town in the American Midwest has seen a boom in population in recent years, fueled mostly by Haitian immigrants attracted by its economic revival, and new businesses happy to attract laborers.
Frustrations over the growing pains of the city -- where some 10-15,000 Haitians have arrived, in a town that had fewer than 60,000 people in 2020 -- have spiraled into a racist backlash amid a heated political campaign leading up to November's presidential election.
H.Portela--PC