International
Police kill an armed man who wanted to burn a synagogue in the north of France
The French police have killed an armed man who wanted to set fire to the synagogue in the city of Ruán, in the north of France.
This was announced this Friday by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who has so far ruled out the terrorist trail.
“I congratulate the reactivity and courage of the agents,” Darmanin said on Twitter.
For its part, the Prosecutor’s Office has announced the opening of two investigations, one regarding a voluntary fire in a place of worship and another about the circumstances of the man’s death, killed by one of the agents with his regulatory weapon.
The Ruán Prosecutor’s Office is in the process of verifying the identity of the deceased.
“The individual was carrying only a transport card from Ruan. We are in the process of verifying his identity,” the prosecutor, Frédéric Teillet, told the press.
However, French media assure that this man, whose nationality and age are unknown, was under an expulsion order issued more than a year ago for an irregular stay in French territory, a directive that was not executed due to the legal remedies presented.
Teillet explained that he informed the anti-terrorist Prosecutor’s Office about this incident, but clarified that, for the time being, the Ruán Prosecutor’s Office is in charge of coordinating the investigations, which means that the authorities still do not see enough clues to treat that attack as a terrorist.
As for the agent who shot him, he has been placed in police custody while the images of the events are being investigated and interrogated.
However, Teillet has anticipated that, after seeing the available images of the intervention, the policeman fired his weapon within the regulations.
According to the French press, the Police arrived at the synagogue of Ruan at 6:45 local time, alerted by the smoke coming out of it.
There they saw a man stationed on the roof of the building. Armed with an iron bar and a knife, he would have jumped on one of his agents, who responded with a shot.
The mayor of Ruán, the socialist Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, has assured on social networks that there have been no other victim of this incident and that the fire is being controlled by firefighters.
“I fully support the Israeli community of Ruhan,” said Mayer-Rossignol.
France has the most numerous Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe. Since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts have multiplied in the country.
International
Trump: U.S. has hit three venezuelan narco boats in Caribbean
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that American forces have struck three suspected Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean so far, not two as previously reported.
“We took down boats. It was actually three boats, not two, but you only saw two,” Trump told reporters at the White House before departing for a state visit to the United Kingdom.
The president was asked about remarks by Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, who accused Washington of plotting to invade his country.
“Stop sending members of the Tren de Aragua to the United States. Stop sending drugs to the United States,” Trump responded.
The Republican leader mentioned this third vessel a day after announcing that U.S. forces had struck a speedboat in which, according to him, three “terrorists” were killed. Later, from the Oval Office, he claimed the boat had been carrying cocaine and fentanyl.
The attacks come amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas, as the U.S. military maintains a Caribbean deployment under the banner of counter-narcotics operations.
The Trump administration accuses Maduro of heading the so-called Cartel of the Suns, which the Venezuelan government denies. Washington has also offered a $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s capture.
On Monday, Maduro said communications with the U.S. were “broken” in the face of what he called an “aggression” and declared that Venezuela is now “better prepared” in case of an “armed struggle.”
International
Ecuador’s Noboa declares State of Emergency in seven provinces amid fuel price protests
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on Tuesday in seven provinces due to what he described as “serious internal unrest,” as road blockades and demonstrations erupted in response to the elimination of the diesel subsidy and growing concerns over insecurity.
The 60-day measure applies to the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Azuay, Bolívar, Cotopaxi, and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.
Since Monday, partial protests have been reported in Pichincha, Carchi, Azuay, and Imbabura. On Tuesday, road blockades extended to northern Pichincha and routes in Carchi, near the Colombian border. In response, the Executive headquarters was temporarily relocated to Cotopaxi and the Vice Presidency to Imbabura.
The presidential decree states that the measure comes amid “strikes that have disrupted public order and provoked acts of violence, endangering the safety of citizens and their rights to free movement, work, and economic activity.”
According to the decree, the goal is to “prevent the radicalization of disruptive actions” in the affected provinces and to limit the impact on the population. It further emphasizes that the situation requires an “exceptional intervention by state institutions to safeguard security, guarantee citizens’ rights, maintain public order, and preserve social peace.”
Social organizations and labor groups, including the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), have strongly rejected the diesel price increase following the subsidy’s elimination.
The decree justifies the two-month duration as necessary “to ensure a strengthened state presence in the affected territories, restore order, and prevent further acts of violence against people, public, and private property.”
International
Colombia’s special peace tribunal hands down first sentence against former FARC leaders
Seven former rebel leaders, including their last known commander Rodrigo Londoño, alias “Timochenko,” have been handed the maximum penalty established in the 2016 peace agreement.
Under the ruling, they will face mobility restrictions and be required to carry out activities aimed at restoring the dignity of victims, such as helping locate missing persons and participating in landmine clearance in territories where they once operated. These alternative sentences to prison were part of the historic deal signed in 2016 between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) —once the most powerful guerrilla group in Latin America— and then-President Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) found the ex-commanders guilty of being responsible for the kidnapping of 21,396 people before laying down their arms and transitioning into a political party. “Investigations showed that kidnapping became a systematic practice. These crimes not only broke the law but also left open wounds that persist in families, communities, and the daily life of the country,” a magistrate told reporters in Bogotá, in the absence of the former commanders, who had accepted responsibility for their crimes back in 2022.
It took the tribunal more than seven years to deliver its first ruling, amid criticism from opponents of the peace deal who argue it is too lenient on the rebels. The former commanders still face charges for other crimes against humanity, including the recruitment of minors.
During their decades-long conflict, the FARC held hostage soldiers, police officers, businesspeople, and political leaders, including French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt. Images of emaciated captives chained in jungle camps shocked the world and became symbols of the conflict.
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