International
The FBI director announces that he will resign before Trump takes power
FBI director Christopher Wray announced that he will leave office before the President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, takes power on January 20, 2025.
Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017 during his first term and has only seven years of a ten-year term.
However, the president-elect, who has been very critical of the FBI, has already announced that he will appoint Kash Patel as the new director of the organization, so Wray was going to be fired.
Trump, upset with the FBI
Trump is upset, for example, by the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, his Florida mansion, in search of the classified documents he took from the White House after his first term.
Difficult decision
Wray made the announcement during an event with FBI agents.
“It should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: this is not easy for me,” Wray said, referring to his decision to resign.
“In my opinion, this is the best way to prevent the FBI from being dragged further into this dispute,” he added.
“I love this place, I love our mission and I love our people, but my focus is, and has always been, on us and on doing the right thing for the FBI,” Wray said.
Trump celebrates the resignation of the FBI director as “a great day” for the United States.
For his part, Trump celebrated the announcement of Wray’s resignation as “a great day” for the country and urged the Senate to ratify the substitute he has proposed for the position, Kash Patel.
Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017 during his first term, confirmed that he will not complete his ten-year term and leave the direction of the FBI before the Republican returns to power on January 20.
“Christopher Wray’s resignation is a great day for the United States,” said Trump, who has been very critical of the FBI since the police force raided his mansion in Mar-a-Lago (Florida) in 2022 in search of the classified documents that the Republican took from the White House.
Trump promised to “restore the rule of law” and said he did not understand “what happened” to Wray, whom he accused of having “illegally” raided his house and of “instrumentalizing” justice against him.
The next president took advantage of his message on the Truth Social network to urge the Senate to ratify the appointment as new director of Kash Patel, a fervent Trumpist very critical of the FBI.
“Kash Patel is the most qualified candidate to lead the FBI in the history of the agency and is committed to helping ensure that law, order and justice return to our country again, and soon,” Trump said.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction