International
Petro has the former director of the DIAN as the new Minister of Commerce
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, inaugurated on Tuesday the former director of the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (DIAN), Luis Carlos Reyes, as the new Minister of Commerce. Petro entrusted him with the challenge of changing oil and coal exports for those of industry and agro-industry.
“Today we have the first cabinet change in the middle of the year. Dr. Umaña played a decent role, he will continue to work with us on other aspects of the action that is economic,” Petro said in the act of possession with respect to Germán Umaña. He leaves office after having taken care, among other matters, of recovering trade relations with Venezuela.
Reyes is an economist and historian and has become popular on social networks such as ‘Mr. Taxes’ for his pragmatism in explaining tax issues in a simple way. He assumes from today as a minister with the challenge of changing the country’s export matrix.
“We are selling mainly coal and oil, if the world decarbonizes, we stop selling coal and oil, which is what is already happening in these months. Therefore, replacing those currencies becomes fundamental,” Petro explained during the possession speech.
For that, according to President Petro, we have to: “export agriculture – something we have done -, we have to export agro-industry – we have a lot to do -, and we have to export industry, which is where we have to do the most.”
That change, which is not simple, because the “industry has red numbers” and therefore there are flaws in the “industrial policy”. It has to come, in the words of the president, from an increase in international tourism.
“The industry involves allocating public and private resources in a priority way; lowering their interest rates; achieving regions prone to industrialization; stimulating the profitability of transforming products in Colombia; increasing it; which implies lowering its financial costs and lowering their electricity costs,” Petro added, who also added the need to lower energy prices and make it clean.
“These are its objectives and its challenges, these alone, are: how to achieve a true industrialization process, in my opinion, starting with agro-industry, modernizing manufacturing, even to export,” the president told the new Minister of Commerce.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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