International

Environmental alert issued in Bogota due to Amazon fires

AFP

Forest fires that have raged for days in Colombia’s Amazon on Saturday put its Andean capital, Bogota, on an environmental alert as bad air quality spanned an area the size of greater Paris, authorities said.

Wind carried smoke from several fires blamed on armed groups some 350 kilometers (220 miles) to the northwest, all the way to the Colombian capital.

Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez said on Twitter that more than half of the capital’s air quality monitoring stations have been off the charts for the past 48 hours.

“That is why, as an environmental protection measure” the city has issued an environmental alert, she wrote.

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Lopez urged her city’s eight million people to refrain from physical activities outdoors in the coming days.

Authorities have blamed the fires on former rebels who did not accept the 2016 peace deal with the government, saying that that they burn trees to raise cattle on the land.

In the central province of Guaviare, governor Haydeer Palacio, declared a “red alert” due to forest fires that have engulfed 10,000 hectares of land, an area similar to the total area of the French capital.

January of this year was the hottest month in the Colombian Amazon in a decade, also leading to an increase in forest fires in the southeastern region and very likely impacting air quality in the capital, according to an Environment Ministry report seen by AFP Friday.

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International

Merengue concert turns to mourning as Jet Set collapse claims 136 lives

Dominican rescue teams will end search and recovery operations on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Jet Set nightclubin Santo Domingo, where the building collapsed during a live concert.

Authorities estimate that the final 20 bodies will be recovered from the rubble today, bringing the official death toll to 136. This includes 12 additional bodies found overnight in the disaster zone, adding to the previously confirmed 124 fatalities.

Outside the collapsed nightclub, desperate relatives of the missing continue to gather, clinging to hope for news. Many also visited nearby hospitals and morgues in search of their loved ones.

A list of confirmed victims has been posted on a tent set up near the site, where the bodies are being transferred for identification.

The tragedy occurred during a performance by renowned merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among the deceased.

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Central America

Colombia to host fourth EU-CELAC Summit in November

The Fourth Summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will take place on November 9 and 10 in Santa Marta, Colombia, according to a joint statement released Wednesday by the Colombian government and the European Council.

The summit will be co-chaired by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in his role as pro tempore president of CELAC, and European Council President António Costa, the statement added.

The last EU-CELAC summit took place in July 2023 in Brussels, when both blocs agreed to hold these meetings every two years.

The summit brings together the 27 EU member states and the 33 CELAC countries, representing 14% of the global population, 21% of global GDP, and one-third of the members of the United Nations, the communiqué noted.

International

Russia and US to Meet in Istanbul for Diplomatic Talks on April 10

The Kremlin confirmed today a forthcoming meeting with the United States to discuss the normalization of diplomatic relations, which will take place in Istanbul.

“Our participation will be through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Dmitry Peskov, the presidential spokesperson, during his daily telephone press conference.

Peskov was responding to a question about who would represent Russia in the new round of negotiations, which is supposedly scheduled for April 10.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the delegations will be led by the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Alexandr Darchiev, and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Sonata Coulter.

These are the same negotiators who met in late February in Istanbul, where the expert-level negotiation format was the same, according to the source.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said a few days ago that the next meeting would be held in the Turkish city, though he did not confirm a date.

Lavrov, who participated in only one of these meetings, clarified that the upcoming discussions would address the issues still dividing Moscow and Washington diplomatically, referring to the operations of both countries’ embassies.

The Kremlin asserted that Washington has not yet responded to Russia’s security concerns, preventing a ceasefire declaration on land, sea, and air.

Meanwhile, Trump expressed discontent with Russia’s recent attacks, including one last week that killed 20 people in Krivi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

So far, Russia has rejected a cessation of hostilities and only declared a 30-day ceasefire on March 18 against attacks on energy infrastructure, which was extended by Kyiv a week later.