International

Merkel asks Putin to act in Belarus migrant crisis: spokesman

AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask him to get Belarus to stop the “inhumane” instrumentalisation of migrants, her spokesman said Wednesday.

“She underlined that the instrumentalisation of migrants by the Belarusian regime is inhumane and unacceptable, and asked President Putin to use his influence” to end it, wrote Steffen Seibert on Twitter.

But Putin suggested the European Union should engage in “direct contacts” with Minsk on the issue, the Kremlin said in a separate statement from Moscow about the phone call.

The two leaders also agreed to “continue discussions on this topic”, the Kremlin said.

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Western critics have for months accused Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of luring migrants from the Middle East to Belarus to send them across the border, in retaliation for European sanctions.

On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Putin of orchestrating the migrant crisis — a claim that Moscow has firmly denied.

International

Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction

Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.

Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.

Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.

However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.

Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.

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He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.

His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.

Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.

International

U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince

The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.

Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.

“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.

Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.

According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.

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International

Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations

The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.

“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”

The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.

The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”

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Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.