International
Stoltenberg assures that NATO countries are willing to give more Patriots to Ukraine
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the allies are willing to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses, especially Patriot anti-missile batteries, after the specific request made today by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Kuleba.
“The allies understand the urgency of accelerating when it comes to air defense, so they will now look in their inventories or if there is a way they can provide more systems, in particular Patriots,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference at the end of a two-day meeting of the Alliance’s Foreign Affairs heads.
At the same time, he said that it is necessary to make sure that the air defense systems that are already deployed in Ukraine “have the ammunition and spare parts to work as they should.”
“In part it is a question of battery systems, but it depends a lot on the delivery of the interceptors of the systems that are already there,” he explained.
Stoltenberg assured that several allies promised that they will make “a new effort to find what they can, see what else they can provide.”
The 32 allied ministers participated today in a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council after attending a ceremony to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Atlantic Alliance.
“I don’t want to water the anniversary party, but my main message today will be Patriots, because saving Ukrainian lives, saving the Ukrainian economy, saving Ukrainian cities, depends on the capacity of the Patriots and other air defense systems,” Kuleba told the press upon his arrival at the meeting.
“The situation on the battlefield is still serious. Ukraine needs more air defenses, more ammunition and more help,” Stoltenberg stressed.
The Allied Secretary General listed that, in recent days, Germany has announced about 600 million euros for the Czech initiative to acquire artillery ammunition, the United Kingdom has announced the shipment of 10,000 drones to Kiev, France will give more missiles and armored vehicles and Finland will provide a new aid package worth 188 million euros.
“But we have to do even more. And we need to establish our support on an even firmer and more lasting basis,” he said.
Therefore, yesterday, Wednesday, the allied ministers agreed to move forward in the planning of a greater role of NATO in the coordination of aid and security training for Ukraine, a work that will continue in the coming weeks.
Stoltenberg indicated that the allies must move forward on these two aspects: the mobilization of urgent aid in the coming days and weeks and the establishment of “a more predictable framework for long-term support” that “does not depend on voluntary ‘ad hoc’ announcements, but on more predictable commitments.”
In this way, the allies have entrusted the supreme commander of the Alliance for Europe (SACEUR), American General Christopher G. Cavoli, start the planning of that framework, which “could be underpinned by financial commitments.”
Stoltenberg has proposed to create a fund of 100 billion euros for five years for Ukraine so that the support has a long-term journey, at a time when it is possible to return in November to the White House of Republican Donald Trump, who has already said that he would cut off attendance to Kiev.
“Russia is mobilizing more troops, but it is also willing to sacrifice men and material for marginal profits. This is serious, and that is exactly why it is urgent to mobilize more support for Ukraine,” argued the Norwegian politician.
He warned that there are fundamentally two possible scenarios: that the allies are able to mobilize more support and that Ukraine can recover more territory, or “that we are not able to do so.”
“And then there is a real risk that Russia will capture even more territory and that we will find ourselves in an even more dangerous position,” he said.
In his opinion, if NATO allies comply, he was convinced that Ukraine will be able to make new advances, and therefore “we must thoroughly seek and provide more military support” and put in place “stronger and more solid structures in the long term.”
Stoltenberg also insisted again that they have “no plan to have combat troops within Ukraine, there has been no request for it.”
The fact that the allies are providing him with weapons to defend himself “does not make us part of the conflict,” 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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