VENEZUELA
Alleged US spy charged
Chief prosecutor Tarek Saab on Monday announced charges of terrorism and weapons trafficking against alleged US “spy,” Matthew John Heath, who was detained last week. Saab said Heath was plotting attacks against the nation’s oil industry and electricity system. He also claimed that Health was carrying a “coin” linking him to the CIA. Three local citizens, including one member of the military, were also charged with treason as part of the plot, Saab said.
BRAZIL
Lula faces new charge
Car Wash corruption investigation prosecutors on Monday charged former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva with money laundering. Prosecutors said Lula received bribes from construction giant Odebrecht disguised as donations to the institute that carries his name between December 2013 and March 2014 in exchange for granting contracts with state-run oil company Petrobras. Attorneys for the ex-president said they were surprised by the charges and that prosecutors have no evidence to back them. Prosecutors also charged Lula’s first finance minister and the head of his institute, Paulo Okamotto.
COLOMBIA
Ex-rebel leaders apologize
Eight former commanders of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas on Monday asked forgiveness for kidnappings committed by the rebels and said they regretted the grave error. It is the first time since the November 2016 peace deal between the government and FARC that a group of former commanders, including leader Rodrigo Londono, have asked for forgiveness and accepted they had made mistakes. “We are here to publicly ask forgiveness of all our victims and their families from the bottom of our hearts,” the members of the FARC political party said.
UNITED STATES
Hysterectomies condemned
Human rights organizations on Monday denounced the number of hysterectomies carried out on immigrant women at the privately run Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, after one detainee described it as like “an experimental concentration camp.” Information about the operations emerged after a whistle-blower revealed practices, where some detainees are held under Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. “When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. It was like they’re experimenting with our bodies,” said one detainee interviewed by the Project South organization, which filed a complaint to the government. The whistle-blower, a nurse at the facility, said that detainees told her they did not fully understand why they had to have a hysterectomy.
UNITED STATES
‘Deer crash’ victim human
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg reported hitting a deer with his vehicle on Saturday night last week, when he had actually struck and killed a pedestrian whose body was not found until the next day, authorities said on Monday. Ravnsborg said in a statement that he was cooperating with the investigation and offered his sympathies to family of the dead man, 55-year-old Joseph Boever. Ravnsborg, who was driving home alone from a Republican fundraiser, reported to police at about 10:24pm that he had been involved in a “car-deer crash,” authorities said. Boever’s family voiced fears that the case would be covered up, including a possible hit-and-run.
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