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US one step closer to ‘100%’ deal with Mexico ending decades-long sewage crisis gripping vacation hotspot: EPA
The U.S. and Mexico are one step closer to permanently ending a sewage crisis spewing from across the border into waters off the coast of San Diego, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced.
«This week, EPA transmitted to Mexico a proposed ‘100% solution’ that would PERMANENTLY END the decades-old crisis of raw sewage flowing in to the U.S. from Mexico. Next, technical groups from both nations will be meeting to work through the details necessary to hopefully reach an urgent agreement,» Zeldin posted to X on Friday.
Zeldin visited San Diego last month, where he announced talks with his government counterparts in Mexico to end the decades-long issue. The problem, blamed on outdated wastewater infrastructure, has persisted for decades, but has spiraled in recent years as Tijuana’s population skyrocketed.
The sewage water has not only threatened San Diego’s massive tourism industry and local residents, but also poses a national security risk as it pollutes the waters where U.S. Navy SEAL members and candidates train, Fox Digital previously reported.
EPA CHIEF ZELDIN LAUNCHES TALKS WITH MEXICO TO END SEWAGE HITTING SAN DIEGO, NAVY SEALS: ‘OUT OF PATIENCE’
The U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command is headquartered in San Diego and is where Navy SEAL candidates complete their arduous six-month Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.
In February, the Department of Defense’s inspector general released a report finding that the Naval Special Warfare Center reported 1,168 cases of acute gastrointestinal illnesses among SEAL candidates between January 2019 and May 2023 that were attributed to the contaminated water.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin attends a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on March 13, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Veterans who spoke to Fox News Digital in April described the contaminated water as a national security crisis.
«This is a huge national crisis,» Navy SEAL vet Jeff Gum, who was sickened by the water when he was working through SEAL training in 2008, told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview last month. «Like half the SEAL teams are located in San Diego; the other half are in Virginia Beach. So when you’ve got half the SEAL teams who are getting exposed to this, then it’s a major issue.»
EPA CHIEF TAKES ON MEXICAN ‘SEWAGE CRISIS’ FLOWING INTO US WATERS WHERE NAVY SEALS TRAIN
Zeldin said last month that he and his counterparts in Mexico had launched good-faith talks to update infrastructure and water management facilities, adding that he zeroed in on the «specifics,» including drafting a «comprehensive list of everything that we believe with full confidence is going to end the crisis» on both the U.S. side of the border and Mexico’s.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during a briefing. (Luis Barron/Eyepix Group/LightRocket)
«Now, if you don’t do all of the other projects and all you do is clean up the current contamination, that feel-good moment will last about a day,» Zeldin said during a press conference in San Diego last month. «We have to stop the flow in. Mexico needs to fulfill its part in cleaning up the contamination that they caused.»
MEXICO IS POISONING SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN A BORDER CRISIS ALMOST NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT
«We need Mexico to not just commit to all the projects that will stop the flow, but in order to actually finish this project, they’re going to need to commit to that final cleanup,» he added.
Aerial view of sewage water spilling into Playa Blanca beach in the coast of Tijuana, Mexico on March 21, 2024. (Getty Images)
Zeldin first addressed the sewage problem in March before previewing the trip to take on the issue.
«I was just briefed that Mexico is dumping large amounts of raw sewage into the Tijuana River, and it’s now seeping into the U.S.,» he posted to X on March 8. «This is unacceptable. Mexico MUST honor its commitments to control this pollution and sewage!»
Local leaders have been sounding the alarm on the sewage problem. Imperial Beach’s Mayor Paloma Aguirre sent a letter to Zeldin in March describing how the raw sewage has sparked one of «America’s most horrendous environmental and public health disasters,» as billions of gallons have polluted the Pacific Ocean since 2023 alone.
MEXICAN SEWAGE GUSHING INTO NAVY SEAL TRAINING WATERS IS US’ ‘NEXT CAMP LEJEUNE,’ VETS WARN
Aerial view of Tijuana, Mexico, top, and San Diego, California (Getty Images)
«The toxic sewage coming across the border from Mexico into South San Diego County is among America’s most horrendous environmental and public health disasters,» Aguirre’s March 3 letter to Zeldin, published online, reads. «Since 2023, over 31 billion gallons of raw sewage, polluted stormwater and trash have flowed across the Mexican border, down the Tijuana River, through the cities of San Diego and Imperial Beach and into the Pacific Ocean.»
«Our residents, are getting ill due to polluted air,» the letter continued. «Workers, including Navy Seals training in the area, have been sickened on the job by waterborne and aerosolized diseases. Many homeowners have been forced to place air quality monitors on their property so they know whether or not it’s safe to go outside. And the economic impact is profound, with the sewage crisis hurting area tourism, maritime industry jobs and local property values.»
San Diego is one of the nation’s top cities for tourism – behind other national treasures such as New York City, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. – attracting roughly 32 million tourists to the city in 2024, the San Diego Tourism Authority previously reported.
SAN DIEGO SUBURB FACES ‘SEWAGE CRISIS’ FROM LOCAL BEACH
During his visit to San Diego last month, Zeldin vowed to bring an end to the issue as Californians run out of patience with the crisis.
A SEAL class participates in a surf passage training exercise at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in Coronado, California. (Getty Images)
«The Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this… for decades, are out of patience,» Zeldin said at a Tuesday press conference in San Diego. «There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere.»
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«So we are all out of patience,» he continued. «There’s a very limited opportunity. We’re in good faith, both on the American side and also on the Mexican side, what’s being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation.»
Mexico,US Environment,Navy,Politics
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President Donald Trump, frustrated by the Senate stalemate on the SAVE America Act, has moved via executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting, a move that swiftly drew legal threats from Democrats.
«I don’t see how they can challenge it,» Trump said at Wednesday night’s Oval Office signing, admitting, «maybe it’ll be tested.»
«I believe it’s foolproof.»
Arizona, California and Oregon, states that widely offer mail-in voting, immediately pledged to sue the Trump administration, but Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Utah, Vermont, Washington state, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin could follow suit.
REPUBLICAN SENATORS BLAST DEMOCRATS FOR ‘FEAR-MONGERING’ OVER ELECTION SECURITY SAVE ACT
President Donald Trump acknowledges the likelihood of legal objections to his executive order on mail-in voting. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
«The President wants to limit which Americans can participate in our democracy,» California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on X.
«We’re challenging it,» he added. «See you in court.»
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the state’s vote-by-mail system is now used by 80% of voters, adding Arizona does not need the federal government to tell it who can vote, and arguing federal data is not always reliable.
GOP TRIGGERS MARATHON SENATE FIGHT TO EXPOSE DEMS’ OPPOSITION TO TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL
«It is just wrongheaded for a president of the United States to pretend like he can pick his own voters,» Fontes, a Democrat, told The Associated Press. «That’s just not how America works.»
It is yet another battleground for Trump versus blue on the U.S. map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Republicans will fight to maintain razor-thin majorities in the House (217-214 currently, with one GOP-caucusing independent) and Senate (53-45, with two independents caucusing with Democrats).
«The cheating on mail-in voting is legendary,» Trump said after signing the order in the Oval Office on Wednesday night. «It’s horrible what’s going on.
GOP GOVERNORS, AGS BACK TRUMP SAVE ACT PUSH, WARN SYSTEM GIVES ‘UNDUE INFLUENCE’ TO STATES WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS
«I think this will help a lot with elections.»
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately issued a ‘see you in court’ after President Donald Trump’s election integrity executive order Tuesday night. (Tayfun Coskun/Getty Images)
Trump won 30 states outright in 2024, compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 18 (19, when including Washington, D.C.). Maine and Nevada split their Electoral College votes.
Trump won Nevada and Utah, two universal mail-in voting states. Nevada is a battleground state, while Utah is generally reliably red.
TRUMP VOTER ID PUSH FACES SENATE TEST AS GOP REBELS THREATEN TO SINK BILL
Among the states won by Harris, New Hampshire is the only one that generally requires a specific reason (such as illness or absence) to vote by mail.
«This is a massive and unconstitutional voter suppression effort aimed at giving Trump the power to create a list of who is allowed to vote by mail,» Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias, who was an election integrity attack dog for both former President Joe Biden and Harris, wrote immediately on X.
«We know where this will go — the targeting of Democrats for mass disenfranchisement.
DOJ SUES 5 MORE STATES, DEMANDING ACCESS TO VOTER ROLLS: ‘WE WILL NOT BE DETERRED’
«We will sue and we will win.»
Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias has been suing Donald Trump for years. (David Jolkovski for The Washington Post)
New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and Minnesota have «Permanent Absentee» lists where, once you sign up, you are automatically mailed a ballot for every future election. New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Mexico and Delaware have standard no-excuse needed mail-in voting.
Any of those states also stand to object, but Trump said he is prepared for the legal wrangling.
TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER OVERHAULING MAIL-IN VOTING IN MAJOR ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH
«They’ll probably challenge it,» he said. «You find a rogue judge — a lot of rogue judges. Very bad, bad people. Very bad judges. And hopefully we’ll win on appeal if it is.»
Trump’s order directs the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Social Security Administration, to compile lists of eligible voters in each state and seeks to block the U.S. Postal Service from delivering absentee ballots to voters not on state-approved rolls. It also calls for ballot envelopes with unique tracking barcodes and threatens to withhold federal funding from states and localities that do not comply.
«Not only is his order unconstitutional, it’s unserious,» NAACP President Derrick Johnson told Reuters in a statement. «This order will not stand.»
TRUMP WARNS HE WON’T ENDORSE LAWMAKERS WHO OPPOSE SAVE AMERICA ACT
Legal experts said the order is likely to face immediate constitutional challenges because election administration is largely left to the states, not the president.
«This executive order is plainly unauthorized and unlawful,» Brennan Center for Justice Vice President at New York University Wendy Weiser told The Washington Post.
AP reported that Oregon, Arizona, Maine and Nevada were among the Democrat-led states where top officials either threatened lawsuits or said they would not comply:
TRUMP EXPLAINS VOTING BY MAIL: ‘I’M PRESIDENT’ WITH ‘A LOT’ GOING ON
Oregon: «We don’t need decrees from Washington, D.C.,» Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, said. «My message to the President: We’ll see you in court.» Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, also a Democrat, added that the state would «use every legal tool available to us to fight this and protect Oregonians’ right to vote.»
Arizona: Fontes, in addition to his comments above, added, «We will not let this stand.»
Maine: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, called the order «laughably unconstitutional» and said Maine would not comply. More than a quarter of Maine voters cast mail-in ballots in the 2024 election.
TRUMP CALLS MAIL IN VOTING CORRUPT AS SENATE BEGINS DEBATE ON SAVE ACT REQUIRING VOTER ID
Nevada: Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, the lone Democrat in a state won by Trump in 2024, said the order would burden local election officials and «doesn’t benefit anybody in this country except himself.»
The latest order follows Trump’s broader push to reshape election rules from Washington. A March 2025 executive order that sought major changes to voter registration and mailed-ballot rules was largely blocked in court after lawsuits from voting-rights groups and Democrat state attorneys general.
«The president has no authority to regulate elections,» Weiser told the Post. «He tried to do something like this a year ago.
TWO DOZEN HOUSE REPUBLICANS GO TO WAR WITH SENATE GOP OVER SAVE AMERICA ACT
«We and others actually sued. We won. We expect the same result this time.»
Election-law specialists say Tuesday’s order is vulnerable for many of the same reasons.
David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer who now leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the Constitution is clear that the president does not control state-run elections.
PENCE URGES SENATE TO ‘RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE’ WITH NATIONWIDE VOTER ID LAW
The order was «clearly unconstitutional» and would be blocked immediately, Becker wrote on social media, adding Trump «might as well sign an EO banning gravity.»
Becker also noted the Postal Service is governed by a board of governors, limiting the president’s authority to dictate what mail it can carry.
«There’s no authority for any of this,» UCLA Safeguarding Democracy Project Director Richard Hasen told the Post, adding the order would be unenforceable in time for the midterm elections.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: GOP WEIGHS ‘NUKING’ FILIBUSTER TO PASS TRUMP’S SAVE ACT
It is «just a fantasy,» Hasen concluded. «That’s why I think this isn’t serious.»
The order also revives concerns about the federal SAVE system, which voting-rights advocates have criticized as unreliable and prone to errors that could affect eligible voters.
At least one Republican elections official on Tuesday defended the SAVE system while downplaying the potential of widespread voter fraud.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: GOP PUSHES ELECTION SECURITY BILL DESPITE SLIM ODDS, AS TRUMP PRESSURE LOOMS
Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — who stood firmly against Trump’s 2020 presidential election integrity investigation — said their recommendations to the Trump administration have strengthened voter verification and stressed that «the small number flagged as potential non-citizens cannot vote by mail or in person until they provide proof of citizenship.»
«The executive order will be decided in court, but in Georgia, we already verify citizenship and will continue to do so regardless of the outcome,» Sinners added.
The Brennan Center and other groups have warned that using federal databases to police state voter rolls can create mistakes, privacy concerns and barriers for lawful voters.
SLOTKIN PRESSES DHS PICK ON ICE AT POLLS, SAYS SHE CAN’T TRUST TRUMP TO ALLOW ‘FREE AND FAIR’ ELECTION
«The Constitution doesn’t allow the executive to take over elections administration; that’s a job for the state legislatures or Congress, and so I don’t think this is going to pass any sort of judicial muster,» Fontes told The New York Times.
«So this is a big, giant waste of time, and it’s an attention grab from the Trump administration.»
Trump vehemently disagrees, despite using mail-in voting himself last month.
SCOTUS CONSERVATIVES SIGNAL READINESS TO CURB LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS
«Yeah, I did,» Trump shot back at a reporter Thursday. «You know what? Because I’m president of the United States.»
«And because of the fact that I’m president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine.»
«You know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots,» Trump said. «You do know that, right? So if you’re away, you have an exception. If you’re in the military, we have an exception. If you’re on a business trip, we have an exception. If you’re disabled, we have an exception. And if you’re ill, if you’re not feeling good.
«So I was away mostly in Washington, D.C., so I used a mail-in ballot.»
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Trump frequently invokes the critical 2005 findings of the Carter-Baker Commission, which warned about the election integrity vulnerabilities of mail-in voting.
Reuters and AP contributed to this report.
elections, voting, federal courts, constitution, donald trump, midterm elections, senate
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En Gran Bretaña, los drones transportan contrabando a las cárceles «como si fuera Uber Eats»
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Israel approves sweeping death penalty legislation targeting terrorism, EU condemns move
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JERUSALEM: Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, on Monday passed a law mandating the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists convicted of deadly acts of terrorism, sparking anger from European countries and an Israeli opposition leader.
Lawmakers voted 62-47 in favor of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s legislation to prescribe the death penalty by hanging. Ben Gvir and his party, Otzma Yehudit, proposed the measure.
Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Tzvika Foghel, who chairs the National Security Committee and advanced the bill through the committee under his leadership, told Fox News Digital that Israelis are fed up with policies of containment and compromise.
NETANYAHU URGES COURT TO REVOKE PALESTINIANS’ ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP AFTER CONVICTIONS FOR VIOLENT CRIMES
The opening assembly of the Knesset’s winter session on Monday evening. (Yoav Dudkevitch/TPS-IL)
«For too many years, we have tried to please the entire world, even when we were being murdered in our streets. Since October 7, we have shifted to an offensive approach so that we can dictate the reality in the future,» he said.
Foghel said the death penalty for terrorists is part of a broader shift in Israel, driven by the recognition that no other country faces a reality in confronting radical Islamic terrorism in Gaza, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), as well as in Yemen and Iran.
«The death penalty for terrorists who burned, raped, mutilated and abused children and parents is the same punishment we established for the Nazis,» he said.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said, «The EU has a principled position against the death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances. Israel had long upheld a de facto moratorium on both executions and capital punishment sentencing, thereby leading by example in the region despite a complex security environment.»
She added, «The approval of the Death Penalty Bill by the Israeli Parliament marks a grave regression from that practice and from Israel’s own commitments. We are deeply concerned about the de facto discriminatory character of the Bill.»
ANALYSTS SAY GAZA ‘CIVILIAN’ DEATHS INCLUDE HAMAS, OTHER TERROR MEMBERS WORKING AS MEDICS, MEDIA WORKERS
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid speaks at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Oct. 13, 2025 in Jerusalem. ((Photo by Evelyn Hockstein – Pool/Getty Images))
Israel has applied the death penalty only once in the state’s history for the Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann in 1962. The death penalty exists on the books in Israel, but Israeli courts have limited latitude to apply execution to cases beyond penalties for Nazi war criminals.
Former Prime Minister and current leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid said the legislation is fundamentally flawed because it does not apply to Hamas terrorists involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre that killed 1,200 people.
«This law is not a show of force; it is a sign of panic. This law is more extreme than anything in the United States, and they know it will get struck down by the law. It isn’t a law for justice or for deterrence, it is a law for public relations,» he added.
Adolf Eichmann, in a bullet-proof cabin, puts on earphones to hear the reading of the act of accusation against him, Dec. 17, 1961. He was in charge of the extermination of Jews in Poland and then organized the deportation and extermination of Jews in 13 European countries. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, a supporter of the legislation, told Fox News Digital that the events of Oct. 7 underscored, in his view, the need to prevent terrorists from viewing the kidnapping of civilians as a viable means of securing the release of imprisoned militants.
«The death penalty shatters that equation. It serves as the ultimate deterrent, ensuring that terrorists know their actions lead only to their own demise, not a negotiated release. We are a life-loving nation, but to protect life, we must deal decisively with those who seek to destroy it,» he said.
«Prime Minister Netanyahu’s vote in favor was crucial. It projects an unmistakable message of strength and moral clarity from the very top of Israel’s leadership. By personally casting his vote, the Prime Minister showed our enemies, and the entire world, that our government is completely united and unyielding in our resolve to eradicate terrorism and defend our citizens,» he added.
MICHIGAN SYNAGOGUE ATTACKER WAS INSPIRED BY HEZBOLLAH, SOUGHT TO KILL AS MANY JEWISH PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE: FEDS
The Israeli Channel 12 political commentator, Amit Segal, wrote that he supports «executing terrorists who attempt to murder civilians — especially the monsters of October 7,» but was critical of Ben Gvir’s legislation.
He wrote in his newsletter, «The law defines terrorism as acts ‘to negate the existence of the state,’ a definition that could apply to groups such as extremist Haredi factions and violent members of the ‘Hilltop Youth’ (which Ben-Gvir supports.)
Hamas terrorists killed civilians, including women, children and the elderly, when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces via AP)
Segal said that «while Ben-Gvir’s law is essentially a campaign stunt, a more responsible law is making its way through the system. Proposed by MKs Simcha Rotman and Yulia Malinovsky, the law establishes the practical mechanisms — procedural and evidentiary — to secure convictions of Nukhba terrorists, after which the death penalty could be imposed.»
Another Likud lawmaker, Amit Halevi, told Fox News Digital that the central element of the legislation is the distinction between criminal offenses and crimes against the state or against humanity.
«A terrorist commits his crimes as part of an ideology aimed at killing, oppressing and controlling all Jews. These terrorists, if they could, would kill every one of us. They are ideological murderers, in a different category from ordinary criminals, and that is a critical point of the bill,» he said.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrives for a cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on Aug. 27, 2023. (MENAHEM KAHANA/Pool via REUTERS)
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Halevi added that further efforts are needed to clearly delineate crimes against the state, including what falls within that category and what does not.
«Generally speaking, this legislation is a step in the right direction. Much of the criticism I hear relates to ordinary criminals. People do not understand the enemy — who he is and what this war is about,» he said.
israel, terrorism, hamas, conflicts, benjamin netanyahu
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