International
The United States maintains that Israel’s operation in Rafah is of a “limited” scope
The Pentagon held on Tuesday its analysis that the operation of the Israel Defense Forces in Rafah has a limited scope and although he described the attack on a camp of displaced people as “horrible”, he asked to wait for the results of the Israeli investigation.
“We still think it’s a limited operation,” Pentagon’s deputy spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a press conference.
In that intervention he stressed that “of course” they have seen the images of the attack on a camp of displaced people from Tal al Sultan, where the impact of a missile and the subsequent fire killed 45 people on Sunday night.
“It’s horrible. It’s heartbreaking and it must stop. We must also remember that we support Israel in its fight against Hamas. It is a terrorist organization that is embedded in tunnels, that uses innocent civilians as hostages and that uses people as human shields. That’s why we are going to support Israel in its efforts to defeat Hamas,” he said.
Singh reiterated that they continue to urge the Israeli Executive to take all precautions to protect the population and stressed that they are waiting for the conclusions of the investigation opened by Israel, whose Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has described what happened as a “tragic mishap.”
The vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, said on Tuesday that “the tragic word does not even begin to describe” the Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, in which 45 people died last Sunday night.
Harris made those statements to questions about the bombing, during a ceremony in Washington for the inauguration of Courtney O’Donnell as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The vice president did not respond to a second interrogant, about whether that attack crossed a “red line” in the United States’ policy towards Israel.
In an interview with CNN on May 8, US President Joe Biden warned for the first time that he would stop supplying Israel with certain offensive weapons, which he acknowledged has been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Rafah to invade.
The United States warned Israel that it is opposing a large-scale operation in Rafah, but so far the Biden government has maintained that the current military operations are of limited scope.
The Israeli airstrike, in which about 45 Palestinians were killed, many of them children, affected a camp of tents for displaced people in Rafah, in southern Gaza, where the war has caused about 36,000 deaths.
After the incident was known, Netanyahu claimed that the death of civilians in Rafah was a “tragic mishap.”
The deceased were in an alleged “safe zone” in the Tal al Sultan neighborhood, in the northwest of Rafah, where there were hundreds of displaced people in an improvised camp that Israel had not yet ordered to evacuate.
The Israeli Army reported that it was a “precise intelligence-based operation” aimed at eliminating two high commanders of Hamas who were in a building in the area, although it admitted that a fire later generated that caused a high number of fatalities.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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