International

The big U.S. TV networks will ask for a face-to-face between Biden and Trump

The five largest television networks in the United States are preparing a joint letter to ask the US president, Joe Biden, and the virtual Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to participate in televised debates, in the face of speculation that in this electoral year they will not reach an agreement to celebrate this traditional face-to-face.

CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News request that the presidential campaign that leads to the election in November, this year have those debates that have been part of the tradition of the United States in all electoral cycles since 1976.

“The signatory national news organizations urge the probable presidential candidates to publicly commit to participate in debates before the election,” says a draft of the request revealed by The New York Times.

The 81-year-old Democrat Biden has not discarded the idea of facing Trump again in front of the cameras and the national audience, as he did twice in 2020.

For his part, Trump, 77, who refused to participate in the debates of the Republican primaries this year, has said that he is willing to debate with Biden “at any time, anywhere.”

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These debates have been losing interest for voters: the second confrontation between Trump and Biden in 2020 attracted an audience of 63 million people, 10 million less than the first, and 8.6 million less than the final debate of Trump and Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

In their letter, according to the draft cited by The New York Times, television networks affirm that “if there is something that Americans can agree on, in these times of polarization, it is that what is at stake in this election is exceptionally important.”

“Simply, nothing can replace the debate of the candidates face to face, before the citizenry, with their visions for the future of the nation,” the text adds.

The first of these televised debates occurred in the 1960 campaign when Republican candidate and vice president Richard Nixon, and young Democratic Senator John F., clashed. Kennedy, and it took 16 years until the confrontation of then Republican President Gerald Ford, and the Democratic Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”