International
The United States maintains that Israel’s operation in Rafah is of a “limited” scope
The Pentagon held on Tuesday its analysis that the operation of the Israel Defense Forces in Rafah has a limited scope and although he described the attack on a camp of displaced people as “horrible”, he asked to wait for the results of the Israeli investigation.
“We still think it’s a limited operation,” Pentagon’s deputy spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a press conference.
In that intervention he stressed that “of course” they have seen the images of the attack on a camp of displaced people from Tal al Sultan, where the impact of a missile and the subsequent fire killed 45 people on Sunday night.
“It’s horrible. It’s heartbreaking and it must stop. We must also remember that we support Israel in its fight against Hamas. It is a terrorist organization that is embedded in tunnels, that uses innocent civilians as hostages and that uses people as human shields. That’s why we are going to support Israel in its efforts to defeat Hamas,” he said.
Singh reiterated that they continue to urge the Israeli Executive to take all precautions to protect the population and stressed that they are waiting for the conclusions of the investigation opened by Israel, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has described what happened as a “tragic mishap.”
The vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, said on Tuesday that “the tragic word does not even begin to describe” the Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in which 45 people died last Sunday night.
Harris made those statements to questions about the bombing, during a ceremony in Washington for the inauguration of Courtney O’Donnell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The vice president did not respond to a second interrogant, about whether that attack crossed a “red line” in the United States’ policy towards Israel.
In an interview with CNN on May 8, US President Joe Biden warned for the first time that he would stop supplying Israel with certain offensive weapons, which he acknowledged has been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Rafah to invade.
The United States warned Israel that it is opposing a large-scale operation in Rafah, but so far the Biden government has maintained that the current military operations are of limited scope.
The Israeli airstrike, in which about 45 Palestinians were killed, many of them children, affected a camp of tents for displaced people in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where the war has caused about 36,000 deaths.
After the incident was known, Netanyahu claimed that the death of civilians in Rafah was a “tragic mishap.”
The deceased were in an alleged “safe zone” in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood, in the northwest of Rafah, where there were hundreds of displaced people in an improvised camp that Israel had not yet ordered to evacuate.
The Israeli Army reported that it was a “precise intelligence-based operation” aimed at eliminating two high commanders of Hamas who were in a building in the area, although it admitted that a fire later generated that caused a high number of fatalities.
International
El Chapo’s son Joaquín Guzmán López pleads guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges
Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, pleaded guilty on Monday to drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court, months after his brother Ovidio reached a similar plea agreement, according to local media reports.
The defendant appeared before a federal court in Chicago early Monday afternoon and changed his previous plea in the case, the Chicago Tribune reported. U.S. authorities accuse him of forming, together with his three brothers, the cartel faction known as “Los Chapitos.”
The group is believed to have continued the operations of El Chapo, who has been serving a life sentence in the United States since 2019.
Guzmán López, 39, was arrested after landing in Texas in a small aircraft alongside cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
International
Venezuela authorizes return flights as U.S. continues deportations amid rising tensions
The arrival of U.S. aircraft carrying undocumented Venezuelan migrants continued regularly despite rising tensions between Washington and Caracas over President Donald Trump’s military deployment in the Caribbean.
Trump maintains that the deployment is part of an anti-narcotics operation, while Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro insists the true objective is to remove him from power and seize the nation’s oil resources.
Venezuela’s aviation authority has “received a request from the United States government to resume repatriation flights for Venezuelan migrants from that country to Venezuela,” the Ministry of Transportation said in a statement .
“Under the instructions of President Nicolás Maduro, authorization has been granted for these aircraft to enter our airspace,” it added.
Caracas will permit two Eastern Airlines flights to land on Wednesday and Friday.
Migration remains one of the Trump administration’s flagship issues. On Monday, the U.S. president held a meeting with his National Security Council to discuss the situation in Venezuela, a day after confirming he had spoken with Maduro by phone, without offering further details.
According to the Venezuelan government, roughly 75 deportation flights have been carried out this year, returning at least 13,956 Venezuelans from the United States.
International
20,000 rounds stolen from german army after driver leaves cargo unattended
The German army confirmed the theft of a shipment of ammunition that occurred a week ago while it was being transported by a civilian delivery driver, a military spokesperson told AFP, confirming earlier media reports.
According to Der Spiegel and the regional broadcaster MDR, around 20,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen from an unguarded parking lot near Magdeburg, in eastern Germany, while the driver was asleep in a nearby hotel. No information has been released regarding the identity of the suspects, and the military declined to specify the exact type or amount of ammunition taken.
Authorities have also not indicated how the perpetrators knew the cargo would be left unattended.
“The theft was discovered upon delivery at the barracks,” the German army spokesperson said.
A police spokeswoman confirmed to AFP that an investigation has been opened but refused to provide further details “for tactical reasons.”
Sources close to the German military, cited by Der Spiegel, believe it is unlikely the theft was a coincidence. They suspect the thieves waited for the driver to stop for the night before striking.
Der Spiegel also reported that the Defense Ministry normally requires two drivers for this type of transport to ensure the cargo is constantly monitored. However, in this case only one driver was assigned, meaning the civilian transport company failed to comply with the security protocols.
El Chapo’s son Joaquín Guzmán López pleads guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges
Venezuela authorizes return flights as U.S. continues deportations amid rising tensions
20,000 rounds stolen from german army after driver leaves cargo unattended
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