Twelve-year-old killed by gunmen on jet skis targeting rival drug dealer, officials say
(NEW YORK) — A 12-year-old boy was killed on a beach in Cancun after gunmen on jet skis opened fire, allegedly targeting a rival drug dealer, according to Mexican officials.
The incident, which took place on Kukulcán Boulevard in the municipality of Benito Juárez on Sunday, is now under investigation by the Attorney General’s office.
Prosecutors said they believe “attackers arrived by sea, aboard a jet ski shooting at some people presumably in dispute for drug sales.”
The 12-year-old, who has not been publicly identified, is not believed to have been purposefully targeted by the shooters.
“The authorities arrived immediately and the minor was transferred to the hospital where, unfortunately, he lost his life,” prosecutors said.
The boy and his family, who were present at the time of the shooting, are Mexican and from the municipality.
(LONDON) — At least 14 more people were killed and 450 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday after a series of new explosions of wireless devices rocked the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the Ministry of Health and the Lebanese Red Cross.
More than 30 ambulances are providing treatment and evacuations to wounded people in Lebanon on Wednesday, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
The Lebanese Army command has asked citizens not to gather in places witnessing security incidents to allow medical teams to arrive.
Members of the Lebanese Civil Defense are working to extinguish fires that broke out inside homes, cars and shops in the Bekaa, the South, Mount Lebanon and the southern suburbs due to the explosions, officials said.
All walkie-talkie devices were taken from security services members at the Rafiq Harir International Airport in Beirut after news of the devices exploding.
Pagers explode across Lebanon on Tuesday
At least 12 civilians were killed and at least 2,800 people injured in the explosions that took place Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities. Around 460 of the injuries were critical and required surgery, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said. Most victims are suffering from eye and facial injuries, while others suffered injuries to hands and fingers, he said.
Israel was behind the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.
The Hezbollah militant group said it is conducting a “security and scientific investigation” into the explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday.
Hezbollah said 11 of its members were killed on Tuesday, though — as is typical in its statements — did not specify how they died.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds,” Hezbollah said of the pager explosions in a Tuesday statement.
In a Wednesday morning statement, Hezbollah said it would continue operations to “support Gaza,” and vowed a “reckoning” for Israel for the “massacre on Tuesday.”
The dead and injured included people who are not members of Hezbollah. Lebanese officials said that an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy are among the dead.
Israel has not commented on explosions
Israel has not commented on its alleged involvement in the apparent attack, which prompted chaos in the capital Beirut and elsewhere in Hezbollah’s south Lebanon heartland.
Around 100 hospitals received wounded people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said, with hospitals in Beirut and its southern suburb quickly filling to capacity. Patients were then directed to other hospitals outside the region.
The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who had one of the pagers and was injured in an explosion Tuesday, according to Iranian state TV. The diplomat said in a phone call that he was “feeling well and fully conscious,” according to Iranian state TV.
“I am proud and honored that my blood has become one with the blood of the honorable Lebanese people, as a result of the horrific terrorist crime that targeted our brotherly Lebanon yesterday. This noble country has stood with dignity and pride since the first day of al-Aqsa Storm,” Amani said Wednesday.
At least 14 people were also injured in targeted attacks on Hezbollah members in Syria, according to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Fears grow of Israel-Hezbollah escalation
The alleged Israeli operation has again piqued fears of escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict ongoing since Oct. 8, when members of the Iranian-backed group began cross-border attacks in support of Hamas’ war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Frontier skirmishes, Israeli strikes and Hezbollah rocket and artillery salvoes have been near-constant through 11 months of war in Gaza. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to launch a new military operation against Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in border regions due to the fighting.
The Israel Defense Forces said warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in six locations in southern Lebanon overnight into Wednesday. Artillery strikes were also conducted, it added.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to make a public address on Thursday afternoon to address the situation. In February, Nasrallah urged members to stop using their cellphones, describing the technology as “a deadly agent.”
Schools across Lebanon will be closed on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, citing the country’s Minister of Education. Schools and offices closed include public and private schools, high schools, technical institutes, the Lebanese University and private higher education institutions, Lebanese state media reported.
The Lebanese Council of Ministers collectively condemned “this criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards.”
It added that “the government immediately began making all necessary contacts with the countries concerned and the United Nations to place it before its responsibilities regarding this continuing crime.”
World reacts to pager attacks
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon condemned the attack on Lebanon, calling it an “extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context,” in a statement released by the U.N. Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Egypt on Wednesday that the U.S. “did not know about and was not involved” in Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon and Syria — but said that officials were still gathering information and did not directly blame Israel.
“Broadly speaking, we’ve been very clear, and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we’re trying to resolve in Gaza,” Blinken said. Its spread to other fronts, he added, is “clearly not in the interest of anyone involved.”
A cease-fire deal in Gaza, Blinken added, would “materially improve the prospects of defusing the situation” on the Israeli-Lebanese border and allow thousands of people living near the area on both sides of the divide to return home.
The U.S. and the European Union have both designated the Hezbollah militant group a foreign terrorist organization.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, Ghazi Balkiz, Morgan Winsor, Anne Flaherty, Nasser Atta, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau authorized the Canadian Armed Forces to respond on Thursday to wildfires raging in Alberta.
Trudeau said he was sending “resources, evacuations support, and more emergency wildfire resources to the province immediately — and we’re coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance.”
More than 400 firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Africa are also on their way to help fight the wildfires in Alberta, he said.
“Alberta, we’re with you,” Trudeau said in a social media post.
The town of Jasper and Jasper National Park in Alberta have closed and were evacuated due to active wildfires in the park.
Since the two wildfires were initially reported on Monday near Jasper, the wildfire situation “remains out of control,” Jasper National Park said Thursday.
Wildfires reached the town of Jasper on Wednesday evening, the park said, as firefighters worked to combat multiple structural fires and protect critical infrastructure.
“Today has been an exceptionally difficult day for Jasperites, incident personnel, and everyone who loves Jasper,” Jasper National Park said in an update Wednesday night. “As the pictures and videos circulating online show, significant loss has occurred within the townsite.”
Park officials were unable to provide an update on the extent of damage in the area.
“As the heartbreaking images from Jasper emerge, I want to thank the brave first responders who are in Alberta right now, fighting to save every home and every community they can,” Trudeau said Thursday.
There have been no reported injuries due to the wildfires, Jasper National Park said in an update Thursday morning.
More than 25,000 people were ordered to evacuate from the park and areas nearby this week due to the wildfires, officials said.
The evacuation impacted 15,000 people who were visiting and staying in the park when the order was issued, as well as about 10,000 people in the town of Jasper, including seasonal workers, according to the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
“The Town of Jasper and Parks Canada’s priority is the safety of our staff, residents and visitors,” Jasper National Park said in a statement on Tuesday. “We acknowledge this is a stressful time and appreciate patience as this is an evolving and complex situation.”
Thousands of residents and visitors already evacuated Monday into Tuesday, as two wildfires burned in Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, the park said.
Parks Canada mobilized additional firefighting resources and aircraft to assist in battling the blazes, according to Jasper National Park.
“Our priority is to protect the town and community of Jasper, limiting wildfire growth towards town, Highway 16 and critical infrastructure,” Jasper National Park said.
Reservations through Aug. 6 in Jasper National Park have been canceled. A reopening date has not yet been announced.
Alberta is experiencing “extreme wildfire conditions,” with more than 170 wildfires burning across the province, according to the government of Alberta.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Titanic may have survived more than a century at the bottom of the North Atlantic, but a chunk of the ship’s iconic bow railing, featured in the movie of the same name, has not, newly released photos show.
RMS Titanic Inc., the American company with salvage rights to the wreck, completed its ninth remote imaging expedition since it first visited the wreck at the bottom of the Atlantic in 1987. More than two million photos were taken and countless artifacts were scouted for future recovery, according to the company.
Among the discoveries made during the July mission, was a “significant” change to the Titanic’s silhouette since it was last photographed in 2022 by the deep-sea mapping company Magellan.
A 15-foot-long portion of the railing on the ship’s bow — recognizable from James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic scene where Jack held Rose over the front of the ship — has fallen off and is seen lying on the ocean floor.
“Titanic’s Bow is iconic,” the company said in a statement on its website. “We are saddened by this loss and the inevitable decay of the Ship and the debris.”
“Although Titanic’s collapse is inevitable, this evidence strengthens our mission to preserve and document what we can before it is too late,” the company added.
Additionally, remote imaging captured a look at the 2-foot-tall bronze statuette of the Roman goddess Diana, known as “Diana of Versailles.”
The statue was previously positioned on a fireplace mantle in the first-class lounge of the Titanic.
When the ship sank, the lounge was torn open and the statue of Diana was thrown into the debris field where it rested for over a century, according to the company.
“With just hours left on the final day of Expedition 2024, Diana was found and photographed. We are honored to release these breathtaking visuals captured by Marine Imaging Technologies and showcase the beautiful and intricate details of Diana not seen in 112 years,” the company said.
The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean while traveling from Southampton in the United Kingdom to New York.
More than 1,500 passengers and crew members died in the shipwreck.
The Titanic was first discovered on the Atlantic ocean floor over 12,000 feet below sea level in September 1985.