International
Judge analyzes Trump’s request to discard the Florida case due to the “illegal” election of the prosecutor
The judge in the case of former president and Republican pre-candidate Donald Trump for the mishandling of confidential documents, analyzes this Friday a request from the defense to dismis the accusation arguing that the special prosecutor who presented it, Jack Smith, was illegally appointed.
Trump’s defense asked Judge Ailenn Cannon in a hearing today to dismiss the charges against her, arguing that the special prosecutor who filed the accusation, Jack Smith, was illegally appointed.
They detailed that the U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland, lacked legal authority to appoint Smith as special prosecutor in charge of the process.
Trump’s team defended at the hearing that Smith was illegally appointed in November 2022 by prosecutor Garland, since his appointment was not first approved by Congress and, in addition, this legislative body did not act in the creation of the special prosecutor’s office.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office led by Smith maintained, for its part, that Garland had full powers as head of the Department of Justice to make the appointment.
Last May, the judge indefinitely postponed the date of the trial against Trump in Florida for the mishandling of confidential documents found in her Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach (Florida) after leaving the White House.
In the same case, Trump faces charges of obstruction and deliberate retention of official documents related to U.S. Security, which are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
This Thursday The New York Times noted that Cannon, appointed in that federal court by former President Trump (2017-2021) during his term, rejected in 2023 the request of two federal judges in Florida to resign from overseeing the case after his assignment.
Today’s hearing took place just a few weeks after a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying commercial records to hide his relationship with porn actress Stormy Daniels and thus protect his 2016 election campaign.
It is expected that next week there will be a debate in court, among other issues, on a silence order that prosecutors have requested to prevent Trump from making comments that could jeopardise the safety of FBI agents and other officials involved in the case.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction