It was supposed to be a journey that would save her life, when U.S. immigration officials brought a 7-year-old girl named Ajlee from an asylum-seekers’ camp in the Mexican border city of Matamoros to an emergency room in Brownsville, Texas on Dec. 11. That same day, they also transported two women in need of urgent care: Yanet, with a possibly cancerous tumor, and Yoladiz, who is going blind from an untreated parasitic infection.

But the next day, all three were back in Mexico, living in tents in Matamoros with no access to the medical care they needed—despite agency guidelines requiring border officials to allow asylum-seekers with known medical issues to remain in the United States.

And attorneys and medical professionals say there are many more like them: individuals with health issues who’ve been caught up in the Trump Administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, which requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases are adjudicated in the U.S. Those with ser..

Democratic candidates had tough words for China—and offered support for Hong Kong protests—at Thursday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate.

When asked about how the U.S. should address the Chinese government’s alleged human rights abuses, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg brought up the protests in Hong Kong as part of his answer.

“If they perpetrate anything like Tiananmen Square when it comes to Hong Kong, they will be isolated from the free world, and we will lead that isolation diplomatically and economically,” Buttigieg said, referring to the Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.

Billionaire Tom Steyer also touched on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which have gripped the Chinese territory since June.

The U.S. should not respond on its own, he said, but should instead gather a “coalition of democracy and freedom loving partners and allies to push back.”

Steyer added that the U.S. should treat China like a “frenemy.”

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Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison cut short his family vacation in Hawaii Friday and apologized after two firefighters were killed battling bushfires that have continued to spread across the country.

“I deeply regret any [offense] caused to any of the many Australians affected by the terrible bushfires by my taking leave with family at this time,” he said in a statement.

Geoffrey Keaton, 32, and 36-year-old Andrew O’Dwyer were en route to fight a fire when a tree fell on their truck, which then rolled off the road, reports the Associated Press.

Firefighters are battling more than 100 fires across New South Wales, where Sydney is located, according to the state’s Rural Fire Service, and a ‘Catastrophic Fire Danger’ alert has been issued for the weekend for parts of the country due to hot, windy conditions.

Protesters gathered outside Morrison’s office on Thursday demanding urgent action on climate change, according to the Associated Press. Others criticized the timing of his..

(PERTH, Australia) — Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales declared a seven-day state of emergency Thursday as oppressive conditions fanned around 100 wildfires.

Around 2,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, half of which remain uncontrolled, with the support of U.S. and Canadian backup teams and personnel from the Australian Defence Force.

The last state of emergency ran for seven days in mid-November amid “catastrophic” fire risk and was the first implemented in New South Wales since 2013. Central Sydney reached a maximum of 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) on Thursday, while outer suburbs scorched at 42 Celsius (108 F).

A statewide total fire ban announced on Tuesday will remain in place until midnight on Saturday.

Around 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land has burnt nationwide during a torrid past few months, with six people killed and more than 800 homes destroyed.

The annual Australian fire season, which peaks during the Southern Hemisphere s..