International
Germany, France and Poland commit to intensifying the supply of weapons to Ukraine
German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz; French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged this Friday to intensify their military support for Ukraine with a new coalition of long-range missiles and the purchase of more ammunition.
“We will not give up on our support,” Scholz stressed at the end of the meeting in the Weimar Triangle format.
Scholz also highlighted the agreement of the European Union (EU) to promote a specific military support fund to Ukraine endowed with 5 billion euros for this year, the reinforcement of the community training mission of Ukrainian soldiers, as well as the decision to use the interests of Russian assets frozen in Europe to support the purchase of weapons for Kiev.
Next Tuesday, a new meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine will be held at the US air base in Ramstein, in Germany, in which that new coalition of long-range missiles will be proposed, although the German Chancellor himself has categorically refused to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which have the ability to hit targets 500 kilometers away.
With respect to the Taurus, there are differences even within the German Government where part of the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP) are in favor of sending it, despite the rejection of it by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Scholz.
On two occasions the opposition has taken advantage of the differences within the Government to try, unsuccessfully, to carry out a resolution in Parliament asking for the sending of the Taurus.
Nevertheless, the government coalition adopted a resolution in the Lower House in February in which it calls for “wide-ranging weapons systems and ammunition” for Ukraine.
Scholz maintains that these weapons cannot be used without the participation of German soldiers and has asked not to divert attention with a debate about a single type of weapons.
Macron pointed out that the coalition is open to all countries, as well as the many others that exist for the supply of F16 fighters and drones for Ukraine, for example.
The French president, who reiterated that the security and future of Europe is at stake due to the Russian war in Ukraine, explained that the three countries support the Czech initiative, which at the Munich Security Conference in February announced that it has found up to 800,000 NATO standard munitions that can be sent to Ukraine if the necessary funding is found.
At the moment it has commitments for 500,000 pieces of ammunition as a result of the initiative, which Germany had already joined.
Macron said that the three countries will work with the industry in Europe and in Ukraine to promote the production of ammunition in the territory of the invaded country.
The French president pointed out that boosting European production is a priority, but that, “if this is not possible fast enough or in the necessary volume, we will be able to mobilize funding to buy ammunition and military equipment in other countries to support Ukraine.”
The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, pointed out in turn that it is very important for him that the Weimar Triangle has been reactivated and that the trilateral meeting has served to make concrete decisions.
He maintained that this shows that “the malicious rumors, the disputes or differences between the capitals are not true,” he said in reference to the differences between the French president and Scholz on some issues such as the possible sending of European or NATO troops to Ukraine.
“Today we have spoken with one voice, especially about the security of our continent and our countries.”
Tusk informed his two counterparts about his recent visit to Washington and the climate in the US capital in the context of the presidential elections, in which Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump aspires to return to the White House.
Trump has already threatened not to help Europe if the Old Continent does not pay for its defense and would also have told the Hungarian president, Viktor Orbán, that he will not give “a penny” to Ukraine if he becomes president of the United States again.
“The three of us are aware that we Europeans have the responsibility for transatlantic relations and our future, and that can’t be changed by anyone, no matter what happens politically,” he said.
International
The United States accuses Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukraine
The U.S. State Department determined that Russia has used chemical weapons against Ukraine with agents that constitute a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CAQ) and will impose sanctions on those responsible.
The United States determined that Russia has used chloropicrin, a pesticide used as a suffocating gas in World War I and banned internationally. He has used it in Ukraine to force the departure of troops from fortified positions.
For this reason, the United States has imposed new sanctions on individuals and organizations related to this use of chemical weapons.
“We make this determination, in addition to our conclusion that Russia has used riot control agents as a method of war in Ukraine, also a violation of the CAQ,” the State Department said.
The United States considers that the use of this chemical armament is not isolated and “is probably driven by the desire of the Russian forces to expel Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical advances on the battlefield.”
The Treasury and State Departments sanctioned two people, six Russian entities and four companies. All associated with Russia’s chemical and biological weapons programs.
Chloropicrin is used as a tear agent, but it is prohibited in armed conflicts. In a trench war you can’t escape its effects and you can suffocate.
International
Trump promises the largest deportation of migrants in history, “they are going to destroy the country”
The former president of the United States and Republican pre-candidate Donald Trump promised to carry out the “highest deportation” of migrants in the country’s history if he returns to the White House after the elections on November 5, because “they are going to destroy the country.”
“Allowing the entry through the southern border of millions and millions of people, many of them very bad, is not sustainable. They are going to destroy the country. We are going to do the biggest deportation in history. We have no other choice,” he said at a campaign rally in Waukesha, in the key state of Wisconsin.
The former president once again accused his rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, of having applied an open border policy during the last four years that has resulted in an “invasion” of migrants.
Trump made these statements a day after an interview with Time magazine was published in which he detailed that he plans to deploy the Army to persecute and detain undocumented migrants if he wins the elections.
In the same interview, he did not rule out the possibility of building new migrant detention camps. Although he did not point it out as a priority since his plan is to deport them quickly.
Trump, who won the elections in 2016 after promising to build a wall on the border with Mexico, has put migration back at the center of his campaign, which has become one of the issues of greatest concern for voters.
The Republican took advantage of a pause in the open criminal trial he has in New York to campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan. Places where he is practically tied with Biden in the polls.
The New York tycoon already visited these two states in the midwest of the country in April and then also insisted on the issue of migration, since he accused the current president of having caused a “bloodbath at the border.”
The Biden Administration annulled Trump’s policy that facilitated the return of hot migrants. It launched humanitarian permit programs for people from several countries, while restricting asylum applications at the border.
More than two million people were arrested last year when crossing the southern border of the United States irregularly.
International
‘Gaby’ Carrizo, the unpopular ruling presidential candidate for the Presidency of Panama
José Gabriel Carrizo, the current Panamanian vice president, better known as ‘Gaby’, aspires to the historic Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) to lead Panama again for another five years after next Sunday’s elections, in which he participates with low popularity rates.
Carrizo, the ruling party’s candidate for the Presidency in conjunction with the Molinera party, and who this Wednesday closes his campaign in Panama City, is at the queue of the polls among the five candidates with options, although the strong base of the PRD in the country, the party of the iconic general Omar Torrijos, cannot be underestimated.
The polls that ‘Gaby’ does lead are those of rejection, with between 50% and 60% of the participants in some surveys who assured that they would “never” vote for him.
“Don’t eat a story (…) we are going to win the elections in a forceful way,” Carrizo said on Wednesday at the closing ceremony of the campaign before a mass of members of the PRD, and assured that the polls “really that they do not want to publish” predict that triumph.
A lawyer by profession, he has been a member of the majority party of Panama since 2007 and in 2019 he became the youngest vice president in Panamanian history at just 36 years old, after Laurentino Cortizo won that year’s elections.
‘Gaby’, 40, has had a lot of visibility within the Executive, which has led to it being popularly pointed out as one of the main faces behind the different scandals that have enveloped the current Government since its inception and that increased with the COVID-19 pandemic.
That year, Carrizo defended the transparent management of the $1,457 million approved during 2020 to combat the pandemic in Panama.
Carrizo has also had a step run over by the presidential debates or during interviews with some media, when making mistakes when explaining his proposals, defending for example that “Panama is safer than France” or that they want to “pass Panama from the first world to the third world.”
This triggered a wave of jokes on social networks that the same candidate used in his favor to campaign with humor, a tone of his political strategy.
In the third and final debate he made the decision not to participate, arguing that José Raúl Mulino, candidate who leads the polls for the Realizing Goals party and substitute for the disabled former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009 – 2014), did not join the debate, as he had not done in the previous ones.
“In the case of the vice president candidate, I think he was looking for an excuse not to come because the last interventions have really been disastrous for him,” José Blandón, the running mate for vice president of Rómulo Roux of Democratic Change, told EFE after the debate.
The youngest of the eight candidates for the Presidency, starts with his main proposal to reduce the working week by maintaining 40 hours in fewer days, a system similar to the one already implemented in some European countries: “Work four days, pound three,” he says on his advertising posters and social networks.
Carrizo has given continuous mass baths in the provinces of Panama during his campaign explaining his electoral promises, which include that cut in working days, salary increases – including for security groups -, free medicines and promotion of tourism, among others.
“When you ask how much 4×8 is (referring to the ruling you had in one of the debates by saying 40 and not 32) answer that there are a thousand sticks (tickets) for your pocket,” the candidate shouts eagerly in one of his videos.
The United States accuses Russia of using chemical weapons against Ukraine
Trump promises the largest deportation of migrants in history, “they are going to destroy the country”
‘Gaby’ Carrizo, the unpopular ruling presidential candidate for the Presidency of Panama
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