San Juan Star

4 days ago | vifreepress.com | John McCarthy |Croix Avis |San Juan Star

HAVANA (AP) — For Marylín Álvarez and her family, like countless other Cubans, the question is no longer if the power will go out, but when — forcing them to implement ingenious alternatives to sustain daily life as the island undergoes its most severe energy crisis in decades. Since December, when the government stopped supplying their cooking gas, the family had relied on an electric burner — until persistent blackouts made that solution impractical.

4 days ago | vifreepress.com | John McCarthy |Croix Avis |San Juan Star

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Kelsey Mitchell had 23 points, Lexie Hull scored all 14 of her points in the second half and the short-handed Indiana Fever, playing without Caitlin Clark, beat the Washington Mystics 85-76 on Tuesday night to snap a three-game losing streak. Clark was out with a left quad strain, while veteran guard Sophie Cunningham exited early in Friday’s loss to Connecticut and did not play against the Mystics.

4 days ago | vifreepress.com | John McCarthy |Croix Avis |San Juan Star

SAN JUAN (AP) — A record amount of sargassum piled up across the Caribbean and nearby areas in May, and more is expected this month, according to a new report. The brown prickly algae is suffocating shorelines from Puerto Rico to Guyana and beyond, disrupting tourism, killing wildlife and even releasing toxic gases that forced one school in the French Caribbean island of Martinique to temporarily close.

5 days ago | vifreepress.com | John McCarthy |Croix Avis |San Juan Star

The tragic case of Joshlin Smith, a six-year-old whose mother sold her to a self-professed ‘healer’, has captivated and horrified South Africa. Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, 35, was last week found guilty of kidnapping and trafficking her daughter and will spend the rest of her life in prison. The court heard how Little Joshlin, who had a fair complexion and striking turquoise eyes, was sought out by the ‘healer’ for her ‘light eyes and skin’.

5 days ago | vifreepress.com | John McCarthy |Croix Avis |San Juan Star

SAN JUAN (AP) — Activists on Monday celebrated a decision by Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court to allow nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people to update their birth certificates. The ruling comes after a group of six nonbinary people filed a lawsuit against Puerto Rico’s governor, its health secretary and other officials. The ruling means that nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people will now be able to select ‘X’ as their gender marker on birth certificates.