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.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion