“This boy’s too young to be singin’ the blues,” Elton John sings in one of his biggest hits “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

And on Saturday, the legendary singer found himself singing with the sky blue side of Manchester as he was serenaded by Manchester City shortly after the team had won the FA Cup.

Pep Guardiola’s side had defeated its bitter rival Manchester United 2-1 at Wembley to keep its hopes of a ‘treble’ still standing, before players and staff bumped into John at Manchester Airport on the tarmac by a plane.

“Look who I ran into at Manchester Airport,” John posted on Instagram, alongside a photo of himself holding the FA Cup with some of City’s staff, including a grinning Guardiola. “Congratulations on an incredible double. Fingers crossed for the treble.”

Saturday night’s alright! @eltonofficial pic.twitter.com/iFq50iS8Qw

— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 3, 2023

Videos posted by Manchester City showed John hugging each of the players in turn as they walked past him, while Phil Foden even posed for a selfie with the singer, before the team serenaded John with a rendition of his famous “Your Song.”

“You can tell everybody, we’ve won the FA Cup,” City quipped.

Senegal’s opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has been sentenced to two years in prison for “corrupting youth,” according to state media.

The conviction means Sonko, who has a large youth following and is the leader of the PASTEF party (Patriots of Senegal for Ethics, Work and Fraternity), will not be eligible to stand for the country’s upcoming 2024 elections.

The court cleared Sonko of other charges, including rape, Radio Television Senegalaise said.

Sonko previously said that the rape allegation was politically motivated by President Macky Sall’s government.

This is a breaking news story. More details soon…

Every time Romelu Lukaku scores, he thinks of his grandfather who passed away when he was 12, four years before he made his professional debut for Belgian club Anderlecht as a talented 16-year-old.

Lukaku has scaled some of soccer’s highest heights – he is Belgium’s all-time top goalscorer, has won the FA Cup with Chelsea, the Serie A title with Inter Milan, and will now play in the Champions League final for Inter Milan on June 10 – but all that pales in comparison to looking after his family.

“It doesn’t matter, wins or losses, I take it in my stride, this is real family issues. So (my grandfather) meant the world to me,” he says, his voice breaking as he is unable to hold back the tears.

Playing in a Champions League is the pinnacle for any player in club soccer and when asked what this moment would mean to his grandfather, Lukaku is almost unable to answer.

“A lot,” he says, before pausing to collect his thoughts and attempt to express almost two decades of emotion as words. “When I see my son, I see so much of him…My grandfather, for me was my number one. He was my biggest fan.”

As a child growing up in Belgium, Lukaku missed 10 years of watching the Champions League. His family couldn’t afford it. Instead, he would watch the finals on school computers or pretend to his classmates that he had seen them, he recalls smiling and shaking his head.

In a Players’ Tribune article published in 2018, he wrote about his family’s poverty, remembering that his mother used to add water to milk to make it last longer.

“I couldn’t watch (the Champions League final), but now, by the grace of God, I can play one,” he adds. “To be in this position now, to have my family there, it would be a beautiful thing because then it’s like (full circle).”

A ‘brotherhood’ at Inter Milan

On loan from Chelsea, Lukaku returned to Inter Milan in June 2022 for a second stint at the Italian club, after a period playing there between 2019 and 2021.

Inter’s experiences together during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lukaku says, solidified a “brotherhood” between the players, many of whom still form the core of the team.

“It was an emotional time because we really as a team, we spent so much time together,” he says. “At that time I really spent much more time with my teammates than with my oldest son…playing a game, going back to the hotel, staying in the room, watching games together, stuff like that.”

That bond, in some ways, emulates the spirit of the 2010 Inter Milan squad that completed an unprecedented treble, winning the Serie A title, Coppa Italia, and the Champions League.

“It’s very similar,” Lukaku says. “And to be honest, the funny thing is a lot of those players from that 2010 band, they come and watch our games and they feel the same thing.”

Inter Milan emerged from one of this year’s most difficult Champions League groups, also containing Bayern Munich and Barcelona, before defeating Porto, Benfica and crosstown rival AC Milan on route to the final.

But it faces the toughest opposition of all next weekend. Manchester City has swept all before it in a light blue wave this season and sits on the cusp of a ‘treble,’ fresh from winning the Premier League title and the FA Cup.

“It’s a beautiful thing, playing probably against the best team in the world. I just want to enjoy it, not having pressure, just enjoy the moment, enjoy the buildup, go there to have the best result possible,” Lukaku says.

Spearheading City’s attack is striker Erling Haaland who has enjoyed a record-breaking season, seemingly scoring goals at will, at a pace never seen before in the Premier League.

“I think he will dominate, with Mbappé, world football for the next 10 years. They will be fighting from the new generation…They will really take over (from Messi and Ronaldo) in the next two years.”

It is not just Haaland who will pose a threat to Inter Milan next weekend for City is a team stacked full of superstars.

“Man City is a well-drilled team…Guardiola is such a good coach because every game is a different game plan,” Lukaku observes.

“It’s not the same. They have different patterns every game… And you know (Haaland) with these movements and the way how they open defenses up at the end, he will get those chances because those movements and the patterns that they do, they synchronize very well.”

Jordan’s heir to the throne on Thursday married into one of Saudi Arabia’s prominent business families in a glitzy ceremony attended by international royals and heads of state.

From Britain’s Prince and Princess of Wales to US first lady Jill Biden, nearly 140 guests arrived at Zahran Palace in the Jordanian capital Amman to watch 28-year-old Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II and his fiancée Rajwa Alseif tie the knot.

A 29-year-old Saudi architect and a graduate of Syracuse University in New York, Alseif will be known as Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Jordan and, when the Crown Prince takes the throne, her title will change to Queen Rajwa.

The bride is related to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), through her mother, who hails from the prominent Al-Sudairi family.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is one of the so-called “Sudairi Seven,” the seven full brothers born to King Abdulaziz and Hussa bint Ahmed Al-Sudair, according to Saudi media reports.

The event began by 9:00 AM (ET), when Jordan’s king and queen began receiving guests at the Zahran Palace. Jordan’s armed forces played music as attendees arrived to greet and congratulate the royal family.

The event then moved to a gazebo in the palace garden, where the couple and their fathers signed the marriage contract in an Islamic ceremony known as “Katb Al-Kitab” and exchanged rings.

Outside the palace, jubilant crowds cheered and waved flags as they awaited the motorcade carrying the newlyweds along a six-mile route across the capital. Streets had been adorned for days with photos of the couple and the Jordanian flag.

Both Jordan and Saudi Arabia are among Washington’s strongest Middle East allies. Jordan is custodian of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and maintains a relationship with both Palestinians and Israelis. A global oil powerhouse, Riyadh’s ties with the US have been strained of late, namely over the kingdom’s oil policies and its relationship with Russia.

Ties between Saudi Arabia and Jordan have recently thawed after years of tension. During a trip to Jordan last year, MBS was quoted by Saudi media as saying that he was keen to “push relations [with Jordan] to a new phase.”

Authorities investigating one of the deadliest train crashes in India’s history were examining whether a signal failure led to the disaster, as rescue workers finished their search for survivors and overturned train cars were cleared from the tracks on Sunday.

Less than 48 hours after the devastating crash in eastern Odisha state, which left at least 275 dead and more than 1,000 injured, officials were rushing to resume rail services, with scores of workers toiling away in heat over 95 degrees Fahrenheit to get the tracks back online. With the rail routes still blocked, family members of deceased passengers had to find their way by other means to claim their loved ones.

At the site of the wreck, in the midst of farm fields, belongings of the many people who were on board the passenger trains when they collided with a freight train were still strewn across the ground. Suitcases, bags, shoes and personal items lined the tracks. Crushed rail carriages were rolled in a ditch, some lying on their side.

Deepak Behera, 37, had been playing football in the nearby town of Bahanaga within earshot of the crash on Friday evening. “For a moment we thought it was an earthquake,” he said.

Behera and other local residents rushed to the crash site to find hundreds of passengers packed into the overturned carriages in total darkness, desperately trying to find a way out. They used the flashlights on their mobile phones and began searching for survivors.

“We found a lot of screaming and crying sounds. The carriages were so badly turned and crashed that nobody was capable of getting out,” Behera said, adding that he pulled 28 people alive from the carriages, as well as countless who had died.

Many of the bodies were still unidentified on Sunday. In a sign of the chaos at the site, the death toll was revised down from at least 288 after officials said some of the bodies at the scene had been counted twice.

A survivor of the disaster, Anshuman Purohit, described a scene of horror – train carriages stacked on top of each other two or three story’s high, passengers crushed by the wreckage, blood everywhere.

“When we opened the door, that’s when I actually heard the wail of humanity, crying out in pain crying out for water and crying out for help,” Purohi, who was in first-class and seated towards the end of the train, said.

“There were lots of bodies with unimaginable injuries. I saw a head without a body, I saw skulls crushed in, I saw bodies completely crushed by the metal of the train… it was horrifying.”

Anger is growing over the deadly accident across India, now the world’s most populous nation, renewing calls for authorities to confront safety issues in a railway system that transports more than 13 million passengers every day. While the government has recently poured millions into upgrading the system, years of neglect has left tracks to deteriorate.

India’s railways minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said on Sunday that the accident had occurred “due to a change in electronic interlocking” and that an investigation would show “who was responsible for that mistake.”

“The cause has been identified and the people responsible for it have been identified,” he told Indian news agency ANI, declining to give further details until the government report was released.

According to senior railway officials, the Coromandel Express, a high-speed train that was traveling from Kolkata to Chennai, was diverted onto a loop line and slammed into a heavy goods train idled at Bahanaga Bazar railway station. Its carriages derailed onto the opposite track, where they were hit by an oncoming high speed train, the Howrah Express, which was traveling from Bangalore.

Jaya Varma Sinha, an Indian railways ministry official, said on Sunday that the high speed of the Coromandel Express colliding into the goods train, which was carrying iron ore, had contributed to the huge number of casualties and injuries.

“The impact was high as the train was moving at full speed, 128 kmph [79.5mph], and the other issue here is that it was a goods train carrying iron ore, which is a heavy train so the entire impact of the collision was felt on the moving train,” Sinha said.

She added that the other passenger train was also moving at a very high speed, 126 kmph [78.2mph], and that in the last fraction of a second it came into the path of the other derailed coaches.

Hopes have faded that any more survivors will be found, with authorities on Sunday switching their focus from searching for people stuck under overturned carriages to clearing the wreckage. All 21 coaches which were derailed have been moved and the rest of the site is being repaired so that services can start again.

Hundreds of workers, many of them working by hand with picks and shovels, were toiling in the heat and humidity on Sunday to fix the tracks. Seven excavating machines, two accident relief trains and four railway and road cranes have been deployed to the site, India’s railway ministry said.

Vaishnaw, the railways minister, who is facing calls from opposition politicians to resign, said the aim was to have a “complete, normal-like situation by Wednesday morning,” adding, “we have mobilized lots of resources.”

The number of injured remains at over 1,000 people, and over 100 patients need critical care, according to Mansukh Mandaviya, India’s health minister, who arrived in Odisha state on Sunday morning. Expert doctors, specialized equipment, and medication have been flown in from the Indian capital, New Delhi, Mandaviya added.

Odisha’s chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, on Sunday announced 500,000 rupees ($6,067) in compensation for the next of kin of those who died and 100,000 rupees ($1,213) for people who sustained serious injuries.

Patnaik said “all possible steps have been taken to save the lives of injured passengers in different hospitals,” according to a statement issued by Odisha’s Information and Public Relations Department.

The state authorities said a special train service will run on Sunday to transport survivors and dead bodies out of Odisha. It will run to Chennai, in the southern Tamil Nadu state, and stop at all major stations, with a parcel carriage attached to carry bodies of the deceased.

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, who visited the site, hailed local authorities and rescuers for their work. He has also emphasized that those to blame for the accident will be brought to justice.

“We can’t bring back those we have lost but the government is with them (families) in their grief. This incident is very serious for the government … Whoever is found guilty will be punished severely,” Modi said on Saturday, adding that the government would “leave no stone unturned.”

The train crash has raised questions over the safety of the country’s massive and outdated rail network, as the government invests in its modernization.

India’s extensive rail network, one of the largest in the world, was built more than 160 years ago under British colonial rule. Today, it runs about 11,000 trains every day over 67,000 miles of tracks in the world’s most populous nation.

Decaying infrastructure is often cited as a cause for traffic delays and numerous train accidents in India. Though government statistics show that accidents and derailments have been on the decline in recent years, they are still tragically common.

More than 16,000 people were killed in nearly 18,000 railway accidents across the country in 2021. According to the National Crime Records, most railway accidents – 67.7% – were due to falls from trains and collisions between trains and people on the track. Train-on-train collisions are less common.

In 2005, at least 102 people died when a passenger train derailed in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh as it tried to cross tracks washed away by a flood. In 2011, scores were killed when a train jumped tracks in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The death toll from Friday’s crash has already surpassed that of another infamous incident in 2016, when more than 140 people were killed in a derailment in northern Uttar Pradesh state. The same year, Modi announced huge investments in India’s railway system aimed at improving safety and connectivity.

In February, Modi inaugurated the first section of a 1,386-kilometer (861-mile) expressway linking the capital New Delhi to the financial hub of Mumbai. Construction is also underway for the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, which aims to decongest India’s railway network. Later this year, the country will open Chenab Bridge – the world’s tallest railway bridge – in the country’s Jammu and Kashmir region.

Upgrading India’s transportation infrastructure is a key priority for Modi in his push to create a $5 trillion economy by 2025. For the fiscal year that started in April, Modi’s government raised capital spending on airports, road and highway construction and other infrastructure projects to $122 billion, or 1.7% of its GDP.

A significant portion of that spending is targeted at introducing more high-speed trains to its notoriously slow railways.

Several major projects have just finished, or are close to completion, including the construction of the world’s tallest railway bridge in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

Modi had been set to inaugurate a new high-speed train, the Vande Bharat Express, on Saturday before the accident happened.

This story has been updated to clarify that Deepak Behera was in Bahanaga, the nearest town to the crash site.

A fifth person was found dead after a group went missing during a fishing trip in northeastern Quebec, authorities announced Sunday.

Authorities say they found the body of Keven Girard, 37, in the St. Lawrence River Saturday night. He went missing after his 11-person fishing group got caught in a tide. Four children, who were found unresponsive on the beach, also died in the incident.

Girard, from Les Bergeronnes, was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to police. Authorities had been searching with divers, boats and helicopters.

Six of 11 people in the group were rescued. Five remained missing overnight, including Girard, the spokesperson said.

Around 6 a.m. Saturday, four children, all over the age of 10, were found unresponsive and sent to the hospital, where they died, authorities said.

Quebec police are investigating the circumstances of the incident, the spokesperson said.

Ukrainian soccer star Oleksandr Zinchenko says his first trip back to his home country since the Russian invasion has been hard to comprehend.

The 26-year-old Arsenal star has been forced to watch from afar as devastation spread across Ukraine but he has continued to use his platform to raise awareness of his country’s plight.

Despite playing multiple times for his national team since the war started, the defender had been unable to return home amid the busy Premier League fixture list but with the English soccer season having now ended he has been able to witness the reality of war first hand.

“First of all, I would like to say that I’m so happy to be back in my land where I’ve been born and raised, and where I feel the best inside of myself.

“To be honest, I’m not sure if I have enough emotions to show it to the other people when you see all these things. But in my head, there are a lot of thoughts.”

Violence continues to be the reality for many across Ukraine. On Thursday, Ukraine’s military said it shot down 10 Russian missiles that had been fired at Kyiv overnight.

At least three people were killed by falling debris, including a nine-year-old girl and her mother, as they tried to enter a bomb shelter that was closed, according to the national police.

Motivated by making a difference, Zinchenko recently became an ambassador of UNITED 24 – a fundraising organization set up by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and is fronting an initiative to rebuild a school, alongside legendary Ukrainian soccer star Andriy Shevchenko.

The pair have organized a charity match which will be played at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium in London on August 5, with proceeds going towards the rebuilding project.

Rebuilding a school

Both Zinchenko and Shevchenko visited the school in Chernihiv Oblast, north of Kyiv, which had been damaged by a Russian missile.

UNITED 24 say no one was injured in the attack but the classrooms had been largely destroyed, meaning children from the surrounding villages have had to find alternative ways to study.

“These stories come from the children who basically were there when the full scale invasion started.

“These stories come from children and they’re telling the whole true story about how the soldiers occupied the town. When they came inside of the houses, obviously the children were scared.

“We can rebuild everything but the most important thing is to take the war out of the childrens’ lives.

“This project today, to rebuild the school, is very important. Very important just to give the right signal and the message.”

He, alongside many other Ukrainian sports stars, have responded to Zelensky’s call to keep Ukraine in the headlines and sees it as his duty to speak to the media about such topics.

“I use every chance in public and using interviews to remind people that the war is still going on in Ukraine,” he says.

“We defend the most important fundamental of the freedom of democracy and our people, our soldiers, risk their lives to protect our country, to defend our country.

“For me, it is an honor to represent my country and help my country.”

Both Zinchenko and Shevchenko have children, which they say made the school visit even more difficult to witness.

Zinchenko, who last month announced he and his partner were expecting a second child, warned that the scars of war will be deeper than many think.

“I feel being a dad, I really feel pain,” he says.

“These kids don’t understand […] they just see the facts. Imagine you’re going to school and then your school has suddenly been destroyed. For what? For what reason?

“This is a big injury, mentally, for the rest of their lives. That’s what people have to know.

“Imagine your kid going to school and then one day a bomb lands and hits. This is a proper injury for the rest of their life. So that is what I would say is the most scary thing. Our kids are our future.”

While many his age are fighting on the frontline, Zinchenko has tried to fly the flag of Ukraine through his sporting exploits.

He’s been a leader for the national team and helped his Arsenal teammates push Manchester City for the Premier League title.

But when asked how he’s managed to balance all the emotions over the past year with playing and training at such an elite level, he’s reluctant to dwell too long on his own personal struggles.

“Difficult is for our soldiers who are staying on the front line, for the people who are taking a risk every single minute during these days to help Ukraine and to defend our land. That’s the people for whom it is difficult,” he says.

“For me, to be honest, I would say that maybe Ukrainian people are not the most talented people around the world, let’s say in football, but I know for sure that our mentality and our character is so strong.

“We’re never going to give up and we’re going to adapt in all cases and we’re going to fight until the very end.”

Charity match

Zinchenko says it was an honor to meet with President Zelensky this week, adding that it had inspired him to keep helping his beloved country.

The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the charity match, which will see both Zinchenko and Shevchenko lead opposing teams.

The match will be broadcast free for Ukrainians and people have been urged to donate to the cause, with a host of modern and past players expected to feature.

The two stars were reluctant to give too much away, promising that more would be revealed in the run up to the match.

Arsenal will be in action in the Community Shield that weekend after Manchester City beat Manchester United in the FA Cup on June 3, meaning Zinchekno may be forced to miss one or the other.

“We would like to keep it quiet,” Zinchekno says when pushed for names of possible participants. “But for sure, it’s going to be so interesting.”

The Vegas Golden Knights scored three goals in the third period and showed off what may be the best save of the postseason to claim a 5-2 victory against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Saturday night.

Panthers’ defenseman Eric Staal drew first blood in the tension-filled Game 1 after tucking in the puck on a wraparound for the short-handed goal and a 1-1 Florida lead. The goal is the third of Staal’s career in the Stanley Cup Final and first in 17 years – the longest span between goals in the final in NHL history.

The Golden Knights though would answer later in the first period when Chandler Stephenson made a tight pass to Jonathan Marchessault who buried the power-play goal for his tenth of the postseason.

In the second period, it seemed as if the Panthers were going to retake the lead on a shot by Nick Cousins, but Golden Knights goalkeeper Adin Hill made an incredible save as he reached back and fully extended out his stick for the stop to keep the game tied at 1-1.

The journeyman goalie, Hill, is the second goalkeeper to start for the Golden Knights this postseason after replacing starter Laurent Brossoit who was injured in the second round. Hill finished with 32 saves in the game.

“That was incredible at a pretty important time of the game too,” Golden Knights star Mark Stone said after the game on the Hill save. “He’s been making huge saves for us ever since he stepped into the lineup in Game 3 of the Edmonton [Oilers] series, but yeah it’s definitely a momentum swinger for sure that got the bench energized.”

Vegas took their first lead of the game on a wrist shot from the point area by Shea Theodore that went past two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky and into the back of the net.

Florida’s Anthony Duclair would draw the game level at 2-2 in the final seconds of the second period after getting the puck off the face-off and burying the wrister from the circle and through the five-hole for the score.

In the third period, the Golden Knights’ offense took over.

Defenseman Zach Whitecloud scored the first of Vegas three goals in the period, firing a long wrist shot through traffic for the 3-2 lead.

Stone extended the Golden Knights’ lead with an insurance goal after batting down an attempted pass and scoring it from the slot for the 4-2 advantage. Stone’s goal was reviewed for a high stick but later confirmed.

Reilly Smith then added an empty-net power-play goal that took whatever doubt was left that Vegas would hold on for the win.

The comeback victory is the ninth for the Golden Knights this postseason, which ties Vegas for the second most in NHL history, putting them one behind the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009) and Colorado Avalanche (2022).

With both teams seeking their first ever Stanley Cup, Vegas now has the historic statistical advantage as teams that have won Game 1 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final hold an all-time series record of 63-20 (.759), including a 50-10 (.833) record when starting a Final at home.

With Saturday’s loss, the Panthers fall to 8-1 this postseason when scoring first and remain in search for the franchise’s first victory at a Stanley Cup Final. Florida was swept by the Avalanche in the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals in the franchise’s only other appearance.

“I liked how we came out there. We’ll look at some things that we did with the puck and some short areas that we just, we can improve on.” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said after the game. “But it’s going to be tight, it’s going to be tight like that both goalies made some big saves, special teams will keep getting better on both sides, we’ll have to figure each other out, we just don’t see each other much. We’ll learn as we go.”

Game 2 is on Monday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Lionel Messi’s final game for Paris Saint-Germain ended in defeat as the Ligue 1 champion lost 3-2 at home to Clermont on Saturday.

Sergio Ramos, who was also playing his final match for the club, scored as did Kylian Mbappé to give PSG a 2-0 lead within 21 minutes, but mid-table Clermont fought back for an unlikely win.

PSG announced in a statement ahead of the match that Messi’s “adventure” with the club would conclude at the end of the season.

“I would like to thank Leo Messi for his two seasons in Paris. To see a seven-time Ballon d’Or winner in the Rouge & Bleu and at Parc des Princes, winning back-to-back Ligue 1 titles and inspiring our younger players has been a pleasure,” PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi said in the club’s statement.

“His contribution to Paris Saint-Germain and Ligue 1 cannot be understated and we wish Leo and his family all the best for the future.”

Less than six months ago Messi was awarded the Golden Ball at the World Cup – the prize given to the best player in the tournament – and led his country to World Cup glory.

But the former Barcelona star has had a difficult final season in Paris. Though he scored 21 goals and 20 assists in all competitions, helping the team to the Ligue 1 title, PSG again failed to progress beyond the last 16 of the Champions League, the trophy the club covets the most.

Some PSG fans have recently booed his name before and during matches, doing so again at his final match, according to Reuters.

And last month, signs of an increasingly fractious relationship between PSG and Messi were evident when he received a club-imposed suspension for taking an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia, resulting in a missed training session.

Speculation about his future has been rife amid rumors of a lucrative deal in the Middle East, but Messi’s representatives have repeatedly declined to comment on his career beyond PSG.

Mexico is launching a new app to speed up its asylum process amid record levels of asylum seekers, even after a similar US app came under fierce criticism for glitches and difficulty of use.

“We’re having so many people that we simply cannot cope,” Ramírez said.

Ramírez said that for the first time in the history of his agency, during the first 18 days of May, more asylum applications were filed in Mexico City than in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, which borders Guatemala.

During that time, 3,300 applications were filed in Mexico City and 3,000 in Tapachula, Ramírez said.

The new app – called simply the “pre-registration system” – will allow individuals to register their intent to seek asylum online and is hoped to speed up processing. It is expected to launch next week in Mexico City only, with other areas expected to be added at a later date, according to Ramírez.

He believes that the influx is in part the result of the end of Title 42 in the US, which brought many more people to Mexico in hopes of crossing the US-Mexico border. Those hopes were punctured by a harsh new rule enacted by the Biden administration that bars most asylum-seekers who travelled through other countries from gaining protection in the United States if they enter the country illegally.

Ramírez also said that some individuals applying for asylum in Mexico City may still be waiting to get an appointment on US Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One App, through which users can make appointments to enter legally through a port of entry to make their case for asylum.

Apps for asylum-seekers

The US CBP One app has been sharply criticized by immigrant advocacy groups, who point out that some migrants lack the resources to get a smartphone, absence of adequate internet access to use the app, and may struggle with language and literacy barriers. Groups have also reported concerns about how the app’s facial recognition technology handles darker skin.

Mexico’s asylum software application is similar to CBP One, in that individuals start the process by entering their information online, which is hoped to speed up the processing. But there is a significant difference, as Ramírez points out: unlike the CBP One app, his agency’s app allows individuals to apply from inside Mexican territory.

Still, immigration experts warn against using apps in the asylum process.

“You shouldn’t have to schedule an appointment when you’re running for your life,” says Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center who has witnessed the use of the CBP One app first hand.

“The CBP One app is a logistical and humanitarian failure that should not be replicated by Mexico or any other country,” Matos said.

Matos said she met countless migrants fleeing danger in their home countries who were waiting in Mexico in dangerous conditions, and many of them experienced glitches, facial recognition issues for those with darker skin and language access problems.

Meanwhile, the number of migrants living in limbo as they wait in Mexico City for their asylum claims has become dangerously unsustainable, aid groups say.

Jose Antonio Silva, migration project coordinator for Doctors without Borders in Mexico City, says his organization is concerned about health and living conditions for those currently in overcrowded shelters or living on the streets.

“The shelters, most of them with their own resources, face not only overcrowding problems, but also the challenge of being able to cover the different basic needs of people: health, food, water, hygiene, sanitation, and information,” Silva said.

Silva said migrants staying in the saturated shelters are predominantly Haitians and Venezuelans, followed by Mexicans and Central Americans, with a few Afghans and Angolans, too.

His observations match COMAR’s data, which shows that during the first four months of the year, the top five nationalities seeking asylum in Mexico were Haitian, Honduran, Cuban, Venezuelan, and Salvadoran. Angolan was the only nationality in the top 10 from outside the western hemisphere, COMAR data shows.

Migrants are particularly vulnerable to extortion, robbery, physical and verbal aggression, sexual abuse, and discrimination, and Silva worries that sleeping on the street could increase their chances of being revictimized.

From January 1 to May 18 of this year, more than 56,000 people have sought asylum in Mexico, according to Ramirez. At that pace, Ramírez said his agency is expecting to receive about a record-breaking 140,000 applications by year’s end.

“Seeking asylum is a legal right that should not be dependent on having a smartphone or using an app,” Matos said. “Our countries should instead be working together to create fair and humane systems that meet the realities of our world in the 21st century.”