International
Trump will receive Zelenski in the US next week and talk to Putin on the phone
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Friday that next week he plans to receive his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House, and will speak on the phone with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine.
“I will probably meet with President Zelensky next week and also talk to President Putin. I would like that war to end,” he said in statements to the press in the Oval Office, where he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The last time Trump met with Zelenski was in December in Paris, in a three-man meeting sponsored by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Trump had not yet taken office, but served as president-elect after winning the elections weeks earlier against Democrat Kamala Harris.
This Friday, the US president announced, without giving more details, that Zelenski will be in Washington next week.
With regard to Putin, he assured that both have had “always a good relationship.”
“Putin and I have always had a good relationship. That’s why it’s so sad that this (the war) happened. This would never have happened if I had been president,” said the US president.
“So many dead people and so many destroyed cities. Let’s talk about Gaza, but let’s look at Ukraine. Many of those cities are mere rubble. It’s so sad, it should never have happened. All those beautiful golden domes, but most importantly, all those beautiful dead people. It should never have happened,” he added.
Trump said this week that he wants Ukraine to deliver rare earths to the United States – key minerals for technological innovations ranging from electric vehicles and wind turbines to state-of-the-art aircraft – in exchange for the help that Washington is providing.
He has also threatened Moscow with tariffs and more sanctions, as well as promoting a drop in oil prices if the war continues.
Trump advocated before his arrival at the White House on January 20 to end the conflict in Ukraine immediately, something he has not achieved for the moment.
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