International
Who will be Trump’s vice presidential candidate? He will announce it today
The Republican National Convention kicks off on Monday with the question of who will be chosen here as Donald Trump’s vice president, a role that has taken on greater relevance after the attempted assassination of the former president has reminded that this running mate could one day be forced to govern the country.
According to Fox News, Trump will make his decision, which he has kept secret and limited to three names, this Monday.
Saturday’s assassination attempt, in which the former president was wounded and one of his supporters killed, adds to the calculations the need for the chosen one to be capable of governing and not just represent a help in attracting votes and being a loyal “number two.”
The quality of loyalty has until now been essential for Trump, who believes that Mike Pence, who was his vice president between 2017 and 2021, betrayed him by refusing to block the transition of power after Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
One of the front-runners for the post is Ohio Sen. JD Vance, 39, who won his Senate seat in 2021 thanks to key support from Trump, whom he had criticized in years past.
A law graduate from Yale University and a Navy veteran, he rose to fame in 2016 thanks to the publication of his memoirs ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ about his childhood in a poor family and has become a young figurehead of the American right.
Trump recently denied a rumor that Vance was disqualified from the race for wearing a beard, as the former president does not like facial hair. “He looks good,” he said of him in an interview.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s dream of reaching the White House, after his failed attempt in 2016, could become a reality if he is chosen by Trump as his running mate.
But this son of Cuban immigrants faces a legal obstacle: the 12th Amendment of the Constitution prohibits presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ticket from living in the same state, as is the case in Florida in the case of Trump (Palm Beach) and Rubio (Miami).
If the residency issue is resolved and Trump chooses him, the 53-year-old senator would become the first Hispanic on a U.S. presidential ticket.
On the plus side, ‘Little Marco’, as Trump called him before they became allies, is helped not only by his fluency in Spanish, but also by his role as a key point of reference for Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan exiles.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, 67, was little known nationally until he entered the Republican primary. He withdrew his candidacy to endorse Trump and has gradually become a stronger vice presidential contender.
Burgum is a billionaire businessman who began his career with a small software company that was eventually acquired by Microsoft for more than $1 billion.
On the downside, Trump has expressed suspicions about the governor’s strong support for abortion restrictions in North Dakota, an issue that the New York magnate fears will come back to haunt him in the November elections.
Tim Scott is the only black senator in the Republican Party. The grandson of a cotton worker in the American Deep South, he is often held up as an example of the American dream and initially ran for the presidential nomination himself.
The 58-year-old South Carolina representative, a staunch believer, never managed to get above 4 percent of the vote in the primary process and eventually gave up his aspirations, saying voters had made it clear to him that now was not the time.
Since then, his support for Trump has been clear. In January, he interrupted a speech by the former president to tell him that he loved him: “That’s why he’s a great politician,” he replied, and that if he were to elect him, Scott could be an ally in bringing the African-American community closer to his base.
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
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction