International

Ukraine proposes a three-sto-one Zelenski-Trump-Putin meeting between June 20 and 30

Ukraine proposed this Monday to Russia, at the Istanbul meeting, that a three-way meeting be held between June 20 and 30 with the presidents of Ukraine, the United States and Russia – Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, respectively – to give impetus to peace negotiations.

“This is crucial to advance in the negotiation process,” announced the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, at the end of the meeting held in the Turkish city.

Zelenski’s willingness to meet with Putin was reaffirmed shortly after by the spokesman for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Guerogui Tiji.

“Our president is ready to meet tomorrow. If Putin says he wants to meet tomorrow, President Zelenski will meet with him tomorrow. We don’t have a problem with that. Unfortunately, the problem is on his side,” Tiji said from Istanbul.

Another key issue of the meeting was the Ukrainian request for a 30-day ceasefire to be declared to advance the talks to achieve peace.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

According to Umerov, Ukraine will respond within a week to the conditions presented by Russia to declare that truce.

Umerov regretted that Russia had not delivered the documents with its conditions on the ceasefire and on the resolution of the conflict until the same meeting, despite the fact that Kiev had sent its positions to Moscow in advance and demanded that the Russian side do the same so that this Monday’s meeting already produced results.

“Our teams will take a week to review the documents and then we will be able to coordinate the steps to follow,” said the Ukrainian Minister of Defense.

The Russian chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinski, said that he proposed to Ukraine the steps to take to declare a total ceasefire on the front.

“We have delivered a memorandum that has two parts (…) The second includes the steps for a possible and total ceasefire,” Medinski said in his appearance before the press at the end of the talks.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

The Russian negotiator assured that this ceasefire plan, which he described as “detailed”, includes two alternatives.

“The Ukrainian part decided to take it and study it. They will study it and answer. We’ll see,” he said.

In addition, Russia also proposed to Ukraine “concrete ceasefires: two-three days in certain sectors of the front (…) so that the commanders can collect the corpses of their soldiers.”

“This will now be dealt with by our military specialists with the Ukrainians,” he said.

Medinski explained that in certain areas the health situation is dangerous and there is “the danger of an epidemic”, so brief truces would allow these bodies to be quickly buried by the enemy.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

In fact, he said that the Russians will unilaterally deliver 6,000 corpses of soldiers and officers in their possession.

Today’s meeting comes after the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) destroyed more than forty Russian fighter jets this Sunday with a drone attack against the enemy rearguard and the derailment of two trains in Russian border regions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on the phone last night to address the situation in Ukraine.

In the call, Rubio expressed his sincere condolences for “the civilian victims caused by the blaze of the railway infrastructure in the (Russian) regions of Briansk and Kursk on June 1,” according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

For his part, Lavrov said that the competent authorities are carrying out a thorough investigation and that the results will be published soon.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

“Those responsible will be identified and punished,” the Russian minister promised.

International

Three U.S. Executions Set for Same Day as Trump Pushes to Expand Death Penalty

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states, while three others —California, Oregon and Pennsylvania— currently have moratoriums in place.

The United States is set to carry out three executions on the same day, a rare occurrence that has not happened since 2010, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

President Donald Trump has sought to expand the use of capital punishment for what he describes as “the most heinous crimes.” In April, the Department of Justice proposed expanding execution methods to include firing squads, lethal gas and electrocution.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, 66, on Thursday. He was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of a woman, according to local media.

In Oklahoma, Carlos Cuesta-Rodríguez, 70, is scheduled to be executed for a 2003 murder.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

Meanwhile, Alabama plans to execute Jeremy Williams, 42, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.

The United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, the highest number since 2009, when 52 executions were recorded.

Florida conducted the largest number of executions last year, with 19, followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, with five each.

Of the executions carried out in 2025, 39 were conducted by lethal injection. Three were carried out by firing squad and five through nitrogen hypoxia, a method that involves forcing nitrogen gas into a face mask, depriving the prisoner of oxygen.

The United Nations has condemned nitrogen gas as a cruel and inhumane method of capital punishment.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

International

Colombia Earthquake Death Toll Reaches 265 as Rescue Teams Race Against Time

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday, the strongest to hit the country this century, has so far left 265 people dead and around 3,500 injured.

In Cali, Pereira and other cities in western Colombia, rescue teams are working around the clock as they search for survivors. The first 72 hours following the earthquake will be reached at 7:34 a.m. local time (12:34 GMT), a critical window for rescue efforts as the chances of finding survivors generally decline significantly after that point.

Among those anxiously awaiting news is Valeria Cardona, a 26-year-old student searching for two of her cousins in Cali.

“We have some suspicions about their location, but there are no signs of life,” she said. “Hope is the last thing you lose, but we are anxious about receiving news we don’t want to hear.”

A team of members from the Topos Aztecas, the renowned Mexican volunteer rescue group, has also arrived in Cali to join the search. The rescuers had been working in neighboring Venezuela, where a double earthquake on June 24 left more than 6,000 people dead.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

“We all came from Venezuela, from La Guaira. The 41 days we spent working there made us stronger because we overcame hunger, pain and sleepless nights,” said Héctor Méndez, 80, president of Topos Aztecas.

Méndez encouraged those affected by the disaster not to lose hope and emphasized the commitment required from rescue teams during an emergency.

“Do not feel like victims. This is not an office or workshop schedule. This is real life, where the best part of the human spirit emerges. These are things of nature that happen,” he said.

International

German Authorities Investigate More Than 100 New Cases Against Convicted Nurse

German authorities announced Monday that they are investigating more than 100 additional cases involving a nurse who was sentenced to life in prison in November for the murder of 10 patients.

The man, who was 44 at the time of his conviction, worked in palliative care at a hospital in Würselen, near Aachen. He was also found guilty of 27 attempted murders.

Aachen prosecutors are now examining 121 new cases, a spokesperson for the office said.

Prosecutors leading the investigation are preparing a new indictment that could be filed next year. Nearly 40 bodies have so far been exhumed as part of the investigation, which covers alleged incidents dating back to September 2022.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the city of Cologne are investigating 18 additional cases. According to a spokesperson, the oldest case dates back to 2010.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

Before working at the Würselen hospital, the nurse is believed to have worked at a clinic in eastern Cologne, according to local media reports.

At the time of his November conviction, the court ruled that the severity of his crimes was particularly serious, a finding that would make it difficult for him to obtain early release after 15 years in prison.

Between December 2023 and May 2024, the nurse administered overdoses of sedatives or painkillers to terminally ill patients, most of them elderly, according to the indictment in the original case.

His alleged motive was to sedate patients who required care so that he could minimize his workload during night shifts, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, the nurse worked «without enthusiasm» and «without motivation». When faced with patients requiring extensive care, he allegedly became «irritated» and showed a lack of empathy.

20260101_dengue_cubeta_728x90

The case has revived painful memories in Germany of Niels Högel, a former nurse and serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 for the murders of at least 85 patients.