International
No signs of influence peddling in the case that made António Costa resign in Portugal
The Lisbon Court of Appeal did not appreciate signs of influence peddling in ‘Operation Influencer’, the judicial case that led to the resignation of former Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, and rejected the appeal filed by the Prosecutor’s Office to the precautionary measures applied to the suspects.
The facts investigated “are not, by themselves, integrative of any type of crime,” which means that he has not appreciated indications of a crime of influence peddling, according to a statement from the Court cited this Wednesday by local media.
The Court rejected the appeal filed by the Portuguese Prosecutor’s Office and agreed with the two main suspects in the case, Vítor Escária – former chief of staff of Costa – and Diogo Lacerda Machado, businessman and friend of the former socialist prime minister.
In that sense, he annulled the preventive measures applied against both, including a bail of 150,000 euros and the prohibition of leaving the country, considering that there is no type of risk that justifies them.
The judges considered that “none of the facts advanced resulted in the commission of crimes and the development of the functions of each of the interveners was not overcome, since all of them acted within the scope of them.”
The ‘Operation Influencer’ jumped in November 2023 and revolves around irregularities in lithium and hydrogen projects and in the construction of a data center.
The Prosecutor’s Office then reported that several suspects spoke of Costa’s involvement in the case for “unblocking procedures” and that these allegations would be analyzed in an autonomous investigation.
That same day, Costa submitted his resignation, although he assured that he had not committed illegal acts.
Since the resignation of the Prime Minister, the country’s attorney general, Lucília Gago, and the body she heads have been criticized for not having given further explanations about Costa’s alleged involvement in those irregularities and not having made public evidence against him.
Following Costa’s resignation, legislative elections were held in Portugal on March 10, which resulted in the coming to power of a center-right government headed by Luís Montenegro.
Earlier this month, after ceding the witness to the new Government, Costa told the press that, after leaving office, he had asked his lawyer to send a petition to be heard before Justice.
International
Former President Alberto Fujimori, admitted to a hospital for probable tumor in the tongue
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, 85, was admitted to a clinic in Lima and will be operated on for a probable tumor at the base of the tongue, his daughter Keiko Fujimori reported on Monday.
The former president (1990-2000), who received a humanitarian pardon in 2017 and was released at the end of last year, has received cancer treatment for an injury to the oral area in the past and has had recurrent medical attention for the same reason.
Precisely, his medical record was the reason for former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to grant him the pardon before he served 25 years of sentence for crimes against humanity.
Last night, on behalf of his family, his daughter and former presidential candidate reported on his account on the social network X that his father was admitted to the Delgado Clinic in Lima to prepare him and perform a surgical intervention related to his tongue injury.
He added that the medical report literally specifies that Fujimori has “an Ambulatory Presumptive Diagnosis of malignant tumor at the base of the tongue with probable right cervical metastases.”
In this sense, the also leader of the Fuerza Popular party announced that they will carry out an examination under general anesthesia and biopsy in the operating room for their father.
“The objective of this intervention is to perform a biopsy that allows us to confirm the exact nature of that disease. The results of the biopsy will still take several days,” he said.
He stated that his father and his family trust that he will be able to “overcome and recover” and thanked the prayers of those who appreciate his father.
In recent weeks, the images shared on social networks show the former president walking through the streets of Lima with people in his care and receiving in a good mood the greetings of his supporters.
Likewise, Fujimori opened a YouTube channel where he reviews his management by the government and in the last of his deliveries, last Friday, he denied that he had transported drugs on the presidential plane, as it emerges from a judicial process that recently expelled his children, and asked his followers not to be “poononed” by his “enemies.”
International
Police enter La Sorbonne to expel dozens of pro-Palestinian students
The riot police entered the Sorbonne University of Paris, the most emblematic in France, to expel dozens of pro-Palestinian students who had settled in the main courtyard of the building next to the Pantheon to protest the Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
The police intervention, which took place without incidents and without the reporting of arrests, at least at first, happened after another blockade on Friday by about 200 university students from another prestigious university center, Sciences Po in Paris, also in protest against what they called “the genocide suffered by the Palestinian people.”
The Sorbonne, created in the 13th century, is an emblem of the university and French culture through which famous figures (Pierre and Marie Curie, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Louis Pasteur or Victor Hugo, among others) have passed as students or professors and was one of the main centers of the revolution of May 1968.
Jacques, a Sciences Po student who went to the Sorbonne on Monday in solidarity with the protest of his colleagues there, told EFE that the mobilization was a response “to the genocide that Israel is committing, with the complicity of (Joe) Biden and (Emmanuel) Macron.”
“We are going to close ranks against repression,” said the university student, alluding to police pressure in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and the investigation for apology of open terrorism against a prominent left-wing leader, Mathilde Panot, for a controversial statement published after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The young man denied that there is a political manipulation of these mobilizations by Panot’s party, the Unsubmissive France (LFI), the main leftist formation in the Assembly.
“We are the young people who direct the protests. Whoever says otherwise is wrong. The majority are not affiliated with a specific party,” added Jacques, who promised to “continue with the mobilizations,” as at Columbia University, in the United States.
In addition to Panot, the Franco-Palestinian jurist Rima Hassan, a candidate for the European elections, has also been summoned by the police for advocacy of terrorism.
The controversial statement of the head of the LFI in the Assembly described the Hamas action of October 7 as “an offensive by Palestinian forces” and was paralleled with “the intensification of the Israeli occupation policy” in the Palestinian territories.
International
Desertions in the Russian Army in Ukraine are growing, according to Kiev’s military intelligence
The number of desertions is growing in the ranks of the Russian Army in occupied Ukraine, according to information published on Monday by Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR).
“The desertions increase among the armed formations of the southern military district of the Russian occupation army,” reads the GUR note. “In total, more than 18,000 Russian soldiers have voluntarily left their military units in this district,” the text adds.
The territories occupied by Russia in the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporiyia and Kherson are included in the Southern Military District of Russia.
According to Kiev’s military intelligence, about 12,000 of these deserters belonged to the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Armed Forces, which participates in hostilities in eastern Ukraine.
Information recently published by the Russian dissident media Mediazona estimated the total number of convictions for desertion handed down by Russian courts at 7,400, since the partial mobilization decreed by the Kremlin in September 2022.
They also alluded to the “record” number of Russians who evade military service and are asking for asylum in Western countries.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff today reported massive Russian casualties and losses in the last 24 hours, after a week of Russian advances in Donetsk that has led the Army to recognize that the situation has worsened on the east front.
According to the last military report, Russia suffered more than 1,300 casualties during the last day, a figure substantially higher than those reported in previous days.
In addition, Kiev claims to have destroyed 37 Russian artillery systems in the last 24 hours.
Today, the “most complicated situation” for Ukraine occurs in the areas of Pokrovsk and Kurajiv, northwest and southwest respectively of Avdivka, which was occupied by Russia last February.
Ukrainian troops in this area have delayed their defensive line in the face of constant Russian attacks.
The head of the Army, Oleksandr Sirski, has highlighted the intensity of the fighting in the Khasiv Yar area, a town located about ten kilometers west of the occupied Bajmut, which is, according to Kiev, a Russian priority objective.
Despite these advances, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, assured on Monday from Riyadh that the war against Ukraine launched two years ago by Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “strategic debacle” for Russia.
“The last thing I’m going to say about it is that if you take a step back and analyze it, I think this aggression by Russia has been a strategic debacle for Russia,” said the head of American diplomacy at the special session of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which ends today in Riyadh.
For Blinken, “as a whole, Russia is weaker economically. He is weaker militarily, given the destruction of so many of his forces. And it is weaker diplomatically in much of the world, not in everything, but in a large part.”
In this sense, the Secretary of State pointed to China as a country that is not supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia, but is providing “incalculable support” to its defense industry, through the sale of microelectronic products, machine tools and optics.
Blinken acknowledged that the increase in Russia’s production capacities is something that Europe is “deeply concerned about turning against it” once the war in Ukraine is over.
Former President Alberto Fujimori, admitted to a hospital for probable tumor in the tongue
Police enter La Sorbonne to expel dozens of pro-Palestinian students
Desertions in the Russian Army in Ukraine are growing, according to Kiev’s military intelligence
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