Hurricane Simon strengthens into Category 4 storm as it takes aim at Mexico’s Pacific coast

Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico’s Pacific coast. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday that Simon’s maximum sustained winds increased to 155 miles per hour. The hurricane center said it expects Simon to approach Mexico’s west-central coast on Sunday as a major hurricane, which is defined as a Category 3 storm or stronger, with winds of at least 111 mph. Simon on Saturday night was just below a Category 5 classification, which requires maximum sustained winds of 157 mph.

Forecasters said that Simon could weaken rapidly if its core moves fully onshore once it makes landfall. The hurricane could bring as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain over parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas in the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco receiving up to 30 inches. “This rainfall will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” the center warned in a bulletin that also urged residents to take immediate action to prepare as tropical storm conditions arrived Saturday afternoon. According to the hurricane center, Simon was about 65 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, on Saturday and moving slowly northward at 5 mph. “Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion in the hurricane warning area before conditions deteriorate later tonight,” the hurricane center warned. Jalisco state suspended classes on Monday in 22 coastal municipalities and began evacuating dozens of people from at-risk areas.

It also asked the tourism sector in Puerto Vallarta, a popular destination for U.S. tourists, to ensure that both workers and visitors were fully accommodated in shelters or safe zones by Friday afternoon. Convenience stores, hotels and other businesses in Puerto Vallarta were boarding up their windows Saturday morning, when few were walking the streets under overcast skies. “Let’s hope it doesn’t hit us, right? That it doesn’t affect us,” Jesús Gómez said as he stood outside a shop and handed out free samples of candied peanuts to passersby. “We’ll be working as usual throughout the day, but when Civil Protection officials come and tell us we need to close, then we’ll close and take shelter until the storm passes.” The hurricane center expected a dangerous storm surge “along the immediate coast near and to the east of where the center makes landfall.” The agency warned that near the coast, large and destructive waves will accompany the surge.

Meanwhile, Canadian tourist Ed Currie, who along with his wife still has five more days to enjoy Puerto Vallarta, said the hurricane had not yet affected his plans. “Just stay in the hotel and look out the window hopefully,” he said of what the couple would do Saturday. “I just don’t know what to expect.”  Unlike the Atlantic, which saw just its first named hurricane of the season this week with Isaias, the Pacific season has been very active. Simon’s arrival comes on the heels of Polo, which slammed Mexico last week as a Category 2 hurricane before reaching the southwestern U.S. and bringing heavy flooding to the region. 

Source: Hurricane Simon strengthens into Category 4 storm as it takes aim at Mexico’s Pacific coast – CBS Miami

Seek good and not evil, That you may live; So the LORD God of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken.
Amos 5:14

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Fishermen found alive floating on cooler 150 miles off Mexico 5 days after going missing

Fishing boat Sea Breeze PD-104 and floating cooler at sea

Two fishermen who used a cooler to survive at sea for days were found alive and rescued on Wednesday, the Mexican navy said.  The fishermen, 53 and 32, last communicated with their fishing cooperative on Aug.14. At the time, they were aboard a ship called the Camaronera. The staff of the cooperative sent out a distress call when the men were not heard from.  The Mexican navy responded to the distress call by deploying surface and air assets. The wide range of the search allowed rescuers to locate the men floating in the Pacific Ocean about 150 miles off the coast of Chiapas, a southern Mexican state that borders Guatemala.  Photos shared by Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy show the two men sitting inside a blue cooler. Video shows the container bobbing on the ocean waves as rescuers approach it in a navy ocean patrol vessel. 

Dos pescadores que permanecieron cinco días a la deriva sobre una hielera fueron localizados y rescatados por personal naval a más de 240 km de la costa de Chiapas. Mediante el despliegue de unidades de superficie y aéreas bajo el concepto Trinomio (buque–interceptora–aeronave),… pic.twitter.com/ysMhoOCpz1 — SEMAR México (@SEMAR_mx) August 20, 2026

The navy said that once the fishermen were rescued, they underwent medical evaluations. They were then airlifted to port and received further medical attention. One of the photos shared by the Secretariat of the Navy shows one fisherman on a stretcher. In a second image taken on land, that fisherman is in a wheelchair, while the other is being rolled on a stretcher. More information about the men’s condition was not shared.  The fishermen were reunited with their families after the medical examination, the navy said.  Mexico’s navy said the rescue shows its “commitment to the public to safeguard human life at sea,” and encouraged anyone experiencing a maritime emergency to seek aid from the Secretariat of the Navy. 

Source: Fishermen found alive floating on cooler 150 miles off Mexico 5 days after going missing – CBS News

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.
Romans 15:2

Hunted for Following Jesus

In some communities, Muslims who leave Islam to follow Christ face rejection, threats, violence, and even death because of their faith. For Muslim-background believers, choosing…

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Moving pillowcase leads to discovery of venomous snakes, other reptiles hidden in car at border

Several snakes emerging from beneath a patterned pillow on a bed

U.S. border agents found a collection of endangered reptiles when they noticed a pillowcase moving in a woman’s car after she was stopped at the border with Mexico due to an outstanding arrest warrant. Georgina Bribiesca Chavez, 66, of Tijuana, Mexico, was arrested earlier this month on wildlife trafficking charges after allegedly participating in a yearslong reptile smuggling scheme. She is accused of bringing exotic reptiles into and out of the U.S. with her alleged trafficking partner, Salvador Pelayo, who was arrested in July on a federal charge similar to hers, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

Chavez was arrested while trying to cross the border from the U.S. into Mexico on Aug. 10, the office said. Realizing she had an outstanding arrest warrant related to a wildlife trafficking investigation, Customs and Border Protection officers took Chavez into custody and seized the vehicle.  As they searched the car the next day, officers discovered a hidden compartment behind one of its rear seats, which contained pillowcases that were tied and taped shut, according to the release. When one of the pillowcases appeared to move, the officers transferred them to the San Diego Zoo to be examined. Staff at the zoo opened the pillowcases. Inside, they found 60 abronia lizards, four venomous yellow-blotched palm pit vipers, three caimans, one baby crocodile and one indigo snake. Several of those species are considered endangered or threatened, and are protected by international agreements.

Stolen exotic reptiles were found inside pillowcases in a car that was trying to cross the U.S. border into Mexico. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California

The three caimans died before they could receive care at the San Diego Zoo, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. “Even after her arrest, Chavez never told CBP officers about the live animals in her car, leaving them abandoned for nearly 24 hours in the August heat in San Ysidro,” the news release said. Officials said all of the other stolen reptiles were considered stable and under the care of the San Diego Zoo. “These animals were not cargo — they were living creatures subjected to dangerous conditions for profit,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement.

During her first court appearance on the trafficking charges on Tuesday, Chavez pleaded not guilty, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. They said her alleged partner, 28-year-old Pelayo, has also pleaded not guilty. Citing court documents, the office said Chavez and Pelayo started trafficking exotic reptiles into the U.S. in 2023 with the intent to sell them. Their activity prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to open an undercover investigation into the alleged scheme, which found that the two were involved in multiple undercover sales of protected turtles. They are accused of sending and receiving wildlife at shipping centers in the San Diego area.  Authorities have alleged that Chavez and Pelayo made tens of thousands of dollars from the sales of exotic animals. More from CBS News

Source: Moving pillowcase leads to discovery of venomous snakes, other reptiles hidden in car at border – CBS News

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10

Powerful earthquake shakes Panama

A major earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 has struck Panama, according to the US Geological Survey. Local media are reporting structural damage in some parts of the…

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5 police officers shot dead in cartel-plagued part of Mexico as World Cup kicks off

string with flags

Five Mexican police officers were shot dead and five others wounded Wednesday in violence-hit Michoacan state on the eve of the World Cup opener in Mexico City, local authorities said. The officers were attacked by unknown assailants in an Indigenous region of the western state, which is plagued by cartel violence, the state government reported. The pickup truck they were traveling in was riddled with bullet holes, according to images obtained by AFP. In a social media post, the Moriela Police Department identified the slain officers as Porfirio Rodriguez Briseno, Brandon Josue Zamora Torres, Francisco Javier Otero Damas, Jonatan Mondragon Servin and  Mateo Valdez Abarca.

Jose Pablo Alarcon Olemdo, the city’s former police chief, extended his condolences the victims’ families and friends. “The criminals responsible for this attack must be arrested and punished with the full weight of the law,” he wrote on social media. The attack took place in the municipality of Nahuatzen, a region inhabited by the Purepecha people where the powerful New Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) operates. In May, the brazen murder of a small-city mayor, allegedly by the CJNG, prompted angry protests targeting symbols of the state, which many residents accused of failing to combat spiraling violence.

Michoacan’s capital Morelia is situated around 300 kilometers from both Mexico City and fellow World Cup host city Guadalajara. The state’s security department said police were searching for the perpetrators of Wednesday’s attack. Mexico’s government insists that there is no security threat to visiting World Cup fans. Mexico is co-hosting the tournament with Canada and the United States. The U.S. Embassy said this week that because safety risks in Mexico can “vary greatly by region,” each Mexican state has been given its own travel advisory by the U.S. State Department.

In late April,  the Mexican military captured one of the CJNG’s top leaders in the northwest of the country, two months after the cartel’s leader was killed. Audias Flores Silva, also known as “El Jardinero,” or The Gardener, was seen as a possible successor to the killed leader and the United States had a $5 million reward out for information leading to his arrest. Flores Silva was seen as a possible successor to Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” who was killed in a dramatic military operation in February. The killing of “El Mencho” led to a surge of cartel violence with a wave of attacks on businesses by cartel gunmen, vehicle burnings and road blockades that killed more than 70 people, including 25 National Guard members.

Source: 5 police officers shot dead in cartel-plagued part of Mexico as World Cup kicks off – CBS News

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 5:10

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Officer talks man off Bridge with Prayer

istanbul golden horn metro bridge at night

A despondent man was saved by a Jacksonville, Florida, police officer and a team of other cops who talked the individual out of jumping as he was perched on the edge of a bridge nearly two hundred feet above the St. Johns River.

Source: Youtube

For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’
Acts 13:47

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Mexican governor accused by U.S. of drug trafficking steps down during investigation

police car driving on night road

The governor of a Mexican state who was accused by the United States of ties to drug trafficking said on Friday he was temporarily stepping down to facilitate investigations. Sinaloa Gov. Ruben Rocha Moya and nine others were charged by the U.S. Justice Department this week for working with the notorious Sinaloa cartel to distribute “massive quantities” of narcotics to the United States. Rocha Moya, a member of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s left-leaning Morena party, has decried the allegations as “false and malicious.” At least three officials charged in the indictment were affiliated with Morena.

“I inform the people of Sinaloa that today I submitted to the State Congress my request for a temporary leave from the position of governor,” he said in a YouTube video late Friday. Sheinbaum said Thursday that Mexico will extradite officials to the U.S. only if given “irrefutable evidence” of cartel links. The president said this was the first time the U.S. had made narcotrafficking charges public against a sitting governor or other high-ranking official. Rocha Moya, who is close to former leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been governor of the northwestern state of Sinaloa since 2021.

The governor was embroiled in a scandal in 2023 involving the Sinaloa cartel, in which his name was published in a letter written by a then-Sinaloa cartel capo whose leaders of a rival faction the cartel had kidnapped. The cartel capo was handed off to law enforcement in the U.S. The capo said in the letter that when he was kidnapped, he believed he was on his way to meet with Rocha Moya.

Source: Mexican governor accused by U.S. of drug trafficking steps down during investigation – CBS News

No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.
Luke 8:16

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Meth worth $8.1 million found in shipment disguised as tiles at U.S. border

truck on bridge

Authorities at the United States-Mexico border seized a shipment of suspected methamphetamine, which had an estimated street value of $8.1 million, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday. The shipment was disguised as tiles, the agency said. Border patrol officers found the narcotics inside a commercial tractor trailer that crossed the Pharr International Bridge from from Reynosa, Mexico into Texas on April 21. Once it was inspected and screened by a team of drug detection dogs, officers discovered that pallets masquerading as tiles in the back of the cargo vehicle actually contained packages of white powder. 

Overall, they seized 200 packages weighing more than 900 pounds, along with the trailer itself, CBP said. Homeland Security Investigation agents have opened a criminal probe into the seizure, according to the agency CBP said the powder “tested positive for the properties of methamphetamine,” a synthetic stimulant that is considered highly addictive. Although there is an FDA-approved version of it that is very rarely prescribed for specific medical conditions, methamphetamine largely exists in the U.S. illegally, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Association.

Source: Meth worth $8.1 million found in shipment disguised as tiles at U.S. border – CBS Detroit

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Hebrews 8:6

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Mexican special forces arrest top commander of cartel and his alleged money launderer

mexican police parade with national flag display

The Mexican authorities have arrested two top criminals, one of them a close ally of the slain founder of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), prompting gunmen to block roads near the border city of Reynosa. Audias Flores, known as “El Jardinero”, is a regional commander in control of swathes of CJNG territory along Mexico’s Pacific coast. He was considered a potential successor to Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, who ran the cartel and was killed in a security operation in February. Security forces surrounded a cabin in El Mirador, 12 miles (20km) north of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, where Flores was being protected by a perimeter of about 30 pickup trucks and more than 60 gunmen, according to a press release from Mexico’s navy, which led the operation.

Who was El Mencho, the former police officer who co-founded an ultraviolent cartel in Mexico? Read more Flores’s escorts scattered as a diversion but he was located as he tried to hide in a drainage ditch, it added. “The operation was carried out with surgical precision without a single shot being fired,” the navy said in a statement. Videos shared by Mexico’s security minister, Omar García Harfuch, on social media showed aerial footage of the arrest as helicopters hovered overhead during the operation, which the navy said followed 19 months of surveillance and involved more than 500 troops, six helicopters and several planes.

Source: Mexican special forces arrest top commander of cartel and his alleged money launderer | Mexico | The Guardian

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Galatians 6:9

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Gunman at Mexico’s Teotihuacán pyramids kills Canadian tourist, injures at least 13 people

pyramid of the sun in teotihuacan under clear sky

A Canadian tourist was shot and killed Monday while visiting the Teotihuacán pyramids in Mexico, according to local authorities. Mexico’s security officials said a gunman opened fire at the popular tourist spot, killing a Canadian woman and injuring at least 13 people, including seven Americans. The shooter is believe to have taken his own life, the Security Cabinet said. Local prosecutors identified the gunman as Julio Cesar Jasso Ramirez, a Mexican national.

His cause of death has not yet been officially determined, Mexico’s attorney general’s office said. Mexico’s Security Cabinet said a firearm, a bladed weapon and ammunition were found at the scene. The gunman also had notes that appear to reference the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, local officials said. In a video posted on X, verified by CBS News, a man with a gun is seen pacing near the top of the Pyramid of the Moon. In another video, gunshots can be heard as visitors of the archeological site are seen walking at the bottom of the pyramid. “I have hostages and if you try to climb up I’ll kill them,” the gunman can be heard telling responding officers in another video taken by a witness.

Source: Gunman at Mexico’s Teotihuacán pyramids kills Canadian tourist, injures at least 13 people – CBS News

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Luke 9:23

Will The Fight To Succeed ‘El Mencho’ Spark New Wave Of Violence In Mexico?

mexico s president says he will not seek re election

The killing of Nemesio Oseguera, also known as “El Mencho,” constituted a victory for the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Source: Will The Fight To Succeed ‘El Mencho’ Spark New Wave Of Violence In Mexico?

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:4

Baby Bear Nibbles on Photographer’s Boot

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Mexico cartel leader ‘El Mencho’ killing sparks chaos

US tourists are stranded in a Mexican beach town after a wave of violence erupted following the death of drug lord Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, Mexico’s most wanted cartel boss

Source: February 23, 2026 – Mexico cartel leader ‘El Mencho’ killing sparks chaos | CNN

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Mexico’s most powerful cartel leader is killed by security forces.

Mexico’s most powerful cartel leader is killed by security forces

Source: Mexico’s most powerful cartel leader is killed by security forces – The Irish News

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Man catches record-breaking pumpkinseed sunfish in West Virginia

A West Virginia man caught a record-breaking pumpkinseed sunfish, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announced.  Robert Glover caught a record-breaking pumpkinseed sunfish, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announced. (Photo Credit: West Virginia Division of Natural Resources) Robert Glover of Morgantown reeled in the record-setting fish in Cheat Lake in Monongalia County…

Aggressive coyote shot and killed after attacking dog in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, police say

Police in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, say an aggressive coyote has been shot and killed after attacking a dog.  In a social media post Friday afternoon, Cheltenham police said they received multiple reports of an aggressive coyote in the Wyncote section of Cheltenham Township.The coyote was spotted near Curtis Park, Hopeland Road, Washington Lane and Rock…