The White House indicated on Monday that Washington is still in contact with Tehran, despite what was said today by President Donald Trump, who said he was not talking to representatives of Iran, after the United States bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities executed more than a week ago.

“As I already told you from this podium last week; the administration, and in particular our special envoy (for the Middle East), Steve Witkoff, have been in communication, both directly and indirectly, with the Iranians,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt explained at a press conference today.

“That communication continues, but the president himself has not spoken directly with Iran, something he highlighted in his statement on Truth (Social),” Leavitt added in reference to the online message written shortly before by the president.

“I’m not offering Iran ANYTHING, unlike Obama, who paid them billions of dollars under the stupid ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) aimed at a nuclear weapon’ (which would now have expired!), I’m not even talking to them since WE totally DESTROYED their nuclear facilities,” Trump wrote today.

Signed in 2015 between Iran, the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU), the JCPOA agreed to control Iranian nuclear developments in favor of lifting sanctions against Tehran.

Trump himself in his first term (2017-2021) withdrew his country from the pact because he considered that it did not undermine the atomic capacities of the Islamic nation enough or that it favored the financing of regional groups related to Iran.

On the other hand, Leavitt did not want to answer today when he was asked about whether the talks between Washington and Tehran have the possibility of focusing on aspects beyond the nuclear program; such as the aforementioned related groups – such as the Houthi or Hizbulá -, the Iranian ballistic missile program or the possibility of resuming bilateral trade relations.

A court of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador unanimously decided on Monday to sentence former Correísta vice-president Jorge Glas to 13 years in prison for embezzlement (embezzlement of public funds) during the process of reconstruction of the areas affected by the 2016 earthquake, the case that led him to request asylum from the Mexican Embassy in Quito and that he was arrested in an invasion of the diplomatic headquarters when they granted it.

Along with Glas, who was in the courtroom in person, Carlos Bernal, former technical secretary of the Manabí Reconstruction Committee, created with the aim of carrying out the most urgent works, also received the same years in prison, who must also pay a fine of 60 unified basic salaries ($28,200) and compensation of 250 million dollars.

The court, composed of judges Mercedes Caicedo, Marco Rodríguez and Javier De la Cadena, determined that Glas and Bernal used their positions as president and secretary of the Committee to “abuse public money” that was to be used “for the care of earthquake victims”.

The magistrates considered the thesis of the Prosecutor’s Office, which during the trial of the case called the Reconstruction of Manabí, assured that Glas, who presided over the Committee, and Bernal prioritized projects of works that were not urgent and that the urgent requirements of those affected by the earthquake were not met, which generated a damage to the State of more than 225 million dollars.

The financing of these works, some of them unfinished or classified as unnecessary, came from funds from the Solidarity Law, created to alleviate the damage of the earthquake.

“This money from Ecuadorians was allocated to 11 non-priority projects that would have benefited particular interests in the allocation and signing of contracts, and in the securities canceled by complementary and inspection contracts,” the Public Ministry said.

Glas assured days ago that he did not administer “a single dollar” during the reconstruction process, but Judge Caicedo said in the reading of the decision that, although the former vice president of Correísta did not sign contracts, they could show “his impulse to process and approve the prioritization of works under the context of an emergency, but that they did not attend to the emergency, but rather to an arbitrariness.”

In the same sense, Bernal’s defense had assured that the former secretary of the Committee did not award contracts either, but the magistrate pointed out that she was promoting the disbursement of money so that the institutions make those contracts and that the budget of some of those prioritized projects “finally reached the coffers of Bernal Alvarado’s family because the contracts were directed towards them.”

The judges also ordered the loss of participation rights for 25 years of both and that the Prosecutor’s Office initiates investigations into beneficiaries of contracts prioritized by the Committee, especially to the works related to Bernal’s family.

“This is not the trial of a political crime nor is it a political decision, this is about funds that were not used in favor of the victims of the earthquake, who to date suffer the pain of loss, so it is necessary to repair the damage caused by the actions carried out by Jorge Glas and Carlos Bernal,” Caicedo added.

Jorge Glas, one of the strongmen of the Government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), is already serving an eight-year prison sentence following two convictions for corruption imposed in 2017, for illicit association in the Odebrecht case, and in 2020 for bribery in the Bribery case, in which Correa was also sentenced to eight years and politically disqualified.

At the end of 2022 he was released from prison thanks to a controversial and irregular judicial decision and he remained free for just over a year, until at the end of 2023 he arrived at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, where he asked for asylum, when he warned that the Prosecutor’s Office sought to prosecute him for this same case.

Months later, on April 5, 2024, the President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, ordered the assault of the diplomatic headquarters to arrest Jorge Glas, once the Mexican Government had granted him asylum considering him a “political persecuted” and since that day he is imprisoned in La Roca, the maximum security prison of the country.

The invasion of the embassy led to the rupture of relations between the two countries and a dispute in the International Court of Justice, where Mexico accuses Ecuador of having broken the inviolability of the diplomatic headquarters and Ecuador blames the North American country of having contravened the treaties that regulate diplomatic asylum.

The Donald Trump Administration informed Harvard University on Monday that, after developing an investigation into the institution’s inclusion policies, they found that it had violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students.

U.S. government lawyers concluded that Harvard knew these students felt threatened and allegedly acted with deliberate indifference, the US press reported.

The Executive led by Donald Trump has also warned the richest university in the United States to permanently withdraw all federal funding if it does not make changes in this regard, related to its protocols on anti-Semitism and inclusive policies known as DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).

“Not implementing adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and will continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in the letter received today.

The letter indicates that Harvard remained impassive after Israeli students were allegedly assaulted during the last two years, and that the campus was vandalized with graffiti showing a dollar sign inside a David Star or an Israeli flag with a swastika instead of the Star of David.

These formal notifications of violation of civil rights law are usually followed by a lawsuit from the Department of Justice or a voluntary resolution with the university.

Seen with perspective, this warning of the Trump Administration against Harvard is one more step in a tense relationship between the parties, after earlier this year the Executive demanded that the institution be able to supervise its admissions, hiring and the ideology of students and staff.

Harvard opposed the requirement and the Trump Administration announced that it would freeze more than $2 billion in federal funds for the prestigious university, so the institution has sued the US government for alleged violation of the First Amendment and due process.