BRAZIL
Court orders magnate freed
A court on Monday ordered the release of a meatpacking magnate arrested days ago as part of the wide-ranging “Operation Car Wash” investigation into corruption. Nefi Cordeiro, a judge at the Superior Court of Justice, ruled that it was excessive to hold Joesley Batista in prison pending further investigation. Batista and his brother Wesley own the world’s biggest meatpacking company, JBS. The judge also ordered the release of 16 other people arrested on Friday along with Batista, including two former agriculture ministers. Two others also arrested then were released on Sunday. Investigators have said JBS bribed agriculture ministry officials through political intermediaries to obtain benefits from industry regulations and the attribution of commercial licenses. These bribes gave JBS advantages over its competition and the possibility to build a market monopoly, police said.
CHILE
Chileans to leave Venezuela
Minister of Foreign Affairs Roberto Ampuero on Monday confirmed that an air force plane would late this month transport the first group of Chileans who have sought government help to return home from Venezuela. More than 200 Chileans have indicated that they wish to return from Venezuela, where annual inflation is running at about 149,000 percent amid widespread food and medicine shortages. During Chile’s right-wing military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s, Venezuela gave sanctuary to thousands of exiled Chileans. “Given the grave difficulties that they are up against to live there, they want to return to our country and we will help them come back to Chile,” the minister wrote in a press release. The government last week initiated a program aimed at helping Haitian migrants return home, with 176 people flown to Port-Au-Prince aboard the same aircraft that is to be dispatched to Venezuela. President Sebastian Pinera’s administration is considering whether to broaden the measure assisting the Haitian returnees to other nationalities wishing to return to their home countries. Chile, a nation with a population of about 18 million, has about 1 million immigrants.
UNITED STATES
Corsi to face charges
An associate of President Donald Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone on Monday said that he expects to face charges in the special counsel’s Russia investigation. Conservative conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi said on his YouTube show that negotiations fell apart with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and he expects in the coming days to be charged with making false statements. “I’m going to be indicted,” Corsi said on his show. “That’s what we were told. Everyone should know that, and I’m anticipating it.” The Associated Press could not immediately confirm Corsi’s claims that charges against him are forthcoming. Corsi’s attorney, David Gray, declined to comment. A spokesman for the special counsel’s office also declined to comment. Corsi is one of several Stone associates who have been questioned by investigators as Mueller probes Stone’s connections with WikiLeaks. Intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian agents were the source of hacked material released by WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. Corsi, the former Washington bureau chief of the conspiracy theory outlet InfoWars, said he had no recollection of ever meeting WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange. Corsi said that he has been cooperating with the Mueller investigation since receiving a subpoena in late August.
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
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