COLOMBIA
ELN kidnaps three soldiers
The military said that three soldiers have been kidnapped by a rebel group that is holding peace talks with the government. The Colombian National Army on Thursday said that the National Liberation Army (ELN) grabbed the soldiers while they were off duty and were riding on a bus in the oil-rich Arauca Department. Last week, authorities said that the rebels kidnapped three policemen and a soldier in the remote Choco Department. With about 2,000 fighters, the ELN is Colombia’s largest remaining rebel group. The guerrillas have been holding peace talks with the government since last year, but the sides recently failed to agree on a ceasefire. During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, Colombian President Ivan Duque said he would review the ELN negotiations and would only proceed if the rebels stop their attacks.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s in-laws naturalized
The Slovenian-born parents of first lady Melania Trump became US citizens at a naturalization ceremony in New York on Thursday, their immigration lawyer, Michael Wildes, confirmed to reporters. President Donald Trump’s in-laws, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, took the oath of citizenship, Wildes said. He did not specify how long it had taken the Knavs to complete the citizenship process, nor whether the 48-year-old first lady sponsored their permanent residency. The president has taken a hard line on immigration policy, criticizing so-called chain migration that allows naturalized US citizens to sponsor close relatives for permanent residency. He has argued that the system threatens jobs and national security, calling for a merit-based system that gives preference to educated, English-speaking professionals. Viktor Knavs, a car salesman in Slovenia, and Amalija, who worked in a textile factory, are both older than 70 and retired, and spend much of the year in the US.
UNITED STATES
Broadcom founder arrested
Tech billionaire and advocate for crime victims Henry Nicholas III is facing drug counts in Las Vegas. Las Vegas police officer Larry Hadfield said that Nicholas was on Tuesday arrested at a Las Vegas Strip casino resort on suspicion of trafficking heroin, cocaine, metamphetamine and MDMA. Hadfield said that police responded to the casino resort following a report from security, which had found contraband in a room. Nicholas’ attorney, David Chesnoff, said that his team is conducting its own investigation. Nicholas was arrested along with a woman. Court records showed that they have been released on their own recognizance. Nicholas in the 1990s cofounded Broadcom and left the company in 2003.
VENEZUELA
Legislature protests arrest
The opposition-controlled National Assembly is leaving a seat empty for a member that it said has been kidnapped by President Nicolas Maduro’s ruling party. The assembly on Thursday marked Deputy Juan Requesens’ seat with a sign saying that he is missing or kidnapped. Officials arrested Requesens on Tuesday. He and fellow Deputy Julio Borges are charged with the attempted assassination of Maduro using drones loaded with explosives. Rafaela Requesens said that her brother was arrested for being a critic of Maduro’s repressive regime — not a criminal. Her brother has not been allowed to make outside contact or see an attorney since being arrested in violation of his rights, she said. Diplomats from the US, France and Canada attended the special session in a show of support.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema