International
Trump receives Netanyahu in a gesture of support, with Gaza and Saudi Arabia on the agenda
US President Donald Trump will receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday at his first meeting with a foreign leader since his return to power, and with the future of Gaza and the possibility of a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia as key issues on the agenda.
The appointment represents international support for Netanyahu, especially after the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose jurisdiction Washington does not recognize and whose decision has strongly condemned.
Both leaders are expected to address a wide variety of issues, including the future of the Gaza Strip, the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the growing tension with Iran, which attacked Israel twice with missiles and drones last year.
This Monday, in statements to the press at the White House, Trump was skeptical about the possibility of a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
“I have no guarantees that peace will be maintained,” he said on the eve of his meeting with Netanyahu.
The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu will coincide with the beginning of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the second phase of the truce agreement, which provides for the release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza and the establishment of bases for the definitive end of the war.
Hamas, which has reaffirmed its control over Gaza since the beginning of the ceasefire on January 19, has warned that it will not release more hostages until the end of the war is agreed and the Israeli forces withdraw from the enclave.
Netanyahu, for his part, faces growing pressure within his government coalition with far-right ministers such as Bezalel Smotrich threatening to overthrow the Executive if, once the first phase of the truce is concluded, the fighting in the Strip does not resume.
Trump, for his part, has not given clear signals about what his strategy will be in the Gaza conflict. Although he is a strong ally of Israel, the Israeli press assures that it has already told Netanyahu that it does not want the country to resume fighting in the Strip.
Trump has promised to end the wars in the Middle East and, in addition, has attributed the merit of having facilitated the current ceasefire agreement, which in its first phase allowed the release of 13 Israelis and 5 Thais in exchange for more than 500 Palestinian prisoners.
However, his apparent intention to end the war does not imply improvements for the Gazati. On the contrary, since his return to power he has lifted sanctions against Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians and has thawed a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel, paused by his predecessor, Joe Biden (2021-2025).
During his first term, Trump already made several decisions in favor of Israel, such as the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the negotiation of the Abraham Agreements, which allowed Israel to establish diplomatic relations with several Arab countries.
Beyond the truce in Gaza, Trump seeks to take advantage of the meeting to relaunch his aspiration to reach an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a goal that he already pursued in his first term (2017-2021) and that the Biden Administration also tried unsuccessfully.
Saudi Arabia has shown interest in signing an agreement with Israel, but has made it a condition to receive strategic guarantees from the United States, such as a defense pact, and has made it clear that there will be no agreement without the creation of a Palestinian State.
The form that an eventual Palestinian state would take is still to be defined, especially due to the position of both Trump and Netanyahu with Israel.
In recent days, the US president has insisted that Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries should accept more Palestinian refugees from Gaza, a proposal that has been flatly rejected by both several Arab nations.
Netanyahu, for his part, rejects any attempt to use the formula of the “two-state solution” to resolve the conflict.
Beyond the topics to be discussed, attention will be focused on the gestures between the two leaders and on the current state of their personal relationship.
During Trump’s first term, both maintained a close relationship, but later the former US president felt betrayed when Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his victory in the 2020 elections, in which Trump denounced an alleged electoral fraud without evidence.
Since then, Netanyahu has sought to rebuild the relationship with Trump. In July of last year, he traveled to the US president’s mansion in Florida to meet with him before the elections and, after his victory in November, he was one of the first leaders to congratulate him.
International
The Government of Colombia presents twelve questions that it will propose in a popular consultation to promote its reforms
The Government of Colombia announced this Tuesday the twelve questions that will be included in the popular consultation that President Gustavo Petro will file on May 1 before the Senate to achieve the approval of the stagnant reforms in Congress.
The twelve questions are focused on the labor reform proposed by the Government and which was archived after its third debate in the Seventh Senate Commission last month.
“If we were not sure that these questions would get the yes, we would not be proposing them, it was that simple,” said the Minister of Labor, Antonio Sanguino, at a press conference with the Minister of the Interior, Armando Benedetti.
For his part, Benedetti said: “If the consultation is won, Congress has two periods before then to pass the law based on what was approved in the consultation or if not the president takes it out by decree.”
The consultation is binding if it obtains the necessary majorities and is declared valid in terms of participation.
In Colombia there are 40,963,370 people qualified to vote, so at least 13,654,456 citizens must pay for the popular consultation to be valid and for half plus one of the votes to be expressed in favor of each question of the Government.
Therefore, the consultation is “mandatory, first for Congress and then for the President of the Republic,” Benedetti added.
These questions “constitute the soul and backbone of the labor reform that will be proposed in the popular consultation that we hope will be endorsed or facilitated with the approval of the Senate of the Republic in its plenary,” explained Minister Sanguino at the press conference.
The consultation will consist of closed-answer questions: Colombians must vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ before each initiative and to move forward, “each question has to pass the threshold” required, Benedetti added.
The questions are aimed at improving the labor rights of all Colombians with proposals such as the regulation of the working day with a maximum of eight hours a day or the guarantee of medical permits, including licenses for disabling menstrual pain.
In addition, they have a section focused on the business world with proposals such as the elimination of outsourcing and abusive intermediation in employment contracts, minimum hiring quotas for people with disabilities or the guarantee of fair wages for rural workers.
The complete content of the questionnaire, according to the ministers, was built from more than 20,000 proposals sent by citizens through the portal enabled until last Monday, April 21.
The popular consultation must be officially filed by President Gustavo Petro, on May 1, as, as he said, a tribute to the working class of Colombia within the framework of International Labor Day.
International
Within Francis’ private wake: respect and prayer for the deceased pope
Two Swiss guards watch over Pope Francis’ coffin day and night in the chapel of his private residence. Next to him, a lit candle and at his feet, few flowers and some people who pray for him, only clerics, nuns or Vatican employees, all immersed in a climate of deep respect.
The wake has been arranged in what in his little more than twelve years of reign was his residence, since he did not want to inhabit the Apostolic Palace: the Casa Santa Marta, a simple and more lively building within the Vatican State, next to the apse of the basilica.
The coffin is made of simple wood, and has been installed in his private chapel, located on the ground floor, just as he himself wanted by simplifying what would be his funeral.
The body of the pontiff, who died yesterday Monday at the age of 88 due to a stroke and after months with serious respiratory problems, will be transferred this Wednesday to St. Peter’s Basilica for exhibition before the faithful.
But in the meantime, its burning chapel runs privately, reserved only for members of the Curia, religious or employees of the Holy See who must show their accreditation before crossing the walls of the hermetic Papal State, in the center of Rome.
Once inside, those who want to say goodbye to the pontiff must wait under this torrid April sun for a gendarme to allow them to access Santa Marta, protected by a strict security protocol.
Then they parade through the corridors of their ground floor, between saints, virgins and some plants, until they reach the chapel, which is entered in small groups.
Inside, several agents of the Vatican police and the Swiss Guard dressed as civilians conscientiously control that no one leaves the line: the sign is of maximum respect and decorum.
But also for security reasons since the first ecclesiastical authorities have already begun to arrive at the residence, several purpured – surely with the mind already in the conclave -, and also politicians, such as the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella.
The chapel is a small room with a triangular roof, like a cement hut, supported on a row of four columns and in which, on one side, natural light creeps in, with a narrow gallery of crystals that overlook the Leonine walls.
Francis rests in the apse of the chapel, under a wooden crucifix and an inscription in golden letters that runs through the triangular ceiling: ‘Veni sancte spiritus reple tuorum corda fidelium’, a prayer: ‘Come Holy Spirit and fill the heart of your faithful’.
In the box, lined in red cloth, the pope appears dressed in purple coats, a sign of maximum distinction and dignity, with a white bishop’s mitre on his head and a rosary between his hands.
The coffin is guarded day and night by two Swiss guards with their colorful uniform, metal helmet, red feather and halberd in hand, but also by the faithful of the pope who have arrived at the enclosure.
In the middle of the morning, just after Mattarella’s visit, in the chapel there are about 45 faithful, some sitting in chairs and others standing: there are several archbishops, as indicated by their violet sashes, as well as nuns and other people who nail their knees on the ground to pray deeply, in the midst of a sepulchral silence.
A woman commits the recklessness of taking the phone out of her pocket, but one of the gendarmes who watch everything, with zeal, scolds her and requisitions the device, despite the lady’s reluctance. It’s the only case. The rest pray, meditate or shut up, ignoring the scene.
Others are just passing through, parade down the corridor, reach the height of the coffin, make the sign of the Cross and bow their heads before the inert body of the pope as a sign of respect.
At his feet, on a carpet, someone has left some branches of white and yellow flowers, the colors of the Vatican flag.
After the prayer, a Vatican employee shows you the exit, quick and direct because Vatican City does not allow walks.
In this chapel, Cardinal Camarlengo, Kevin Joseph Farrell, practiced the rite of the confirmation of the pope’s death, and then sealed his apartments as dictated by the old protocol to prevent the deceased’s documents from being touched.
From Wednesday morning the body of the pontiff will be exposed to the faithful in the Basilica of San Pedro and on Saturday his funeral will take place, before Francis rests forever in a simple crypt of the Roman temple of Santa María La Mayor.
International
Trump’s emissary will visit Russia this week for consultations on the arrangement in Ukraine
The enmissary of the United States, Steve Witkoff, will visit Russia this week with whose authorities he will consult on the White House’s plan for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
“We are waiting for you,” Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s international advisor, told local agencies.
The announcement came after US President Donald Trump assured that he will reveal details of his peace plan “in the next three days.”
Some sources have suggested that, in the event of an agreement, Europeans could deploy peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, something that Moscow has always categorically opposed.
In this regard, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said today that the Kremlin does not yet know the content of Trump’s peace plan, which has not been published anywhere.
Witkoff held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 11 in St. Petersburg, the third in the last three months.
Then, he offered an interview in which he assured that one of the keys to the arrangement is the territorial issue, to which the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, replied that Kiev will never recognize the Russian occupation of its territory.
Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, warned last week that if there was no progress in the coming weeks, the United States would consider abandoning the negotiations.
In response, Putin declared on Saturday a 30-hour Easter truce that Zelenski seconded, after which both sides resumed fighting.
Zelenski proposed to extend the cessation of attacks against civilian infrastructure for 30 days, an offer that Putin promised to study, even at the bilateral level, which triggered speculation about possible direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.
In this regard, the Kremlin spokesman assured today that for these talks to take place, Zelenski must annul his decree to prohibit trading with the current Russian president.
The Government of Colombia presents twelve questions that it will propose in a popular consultation to promote its reforms
Within Francis’ private wake: respect and prayer for the deceased pope
Trump’s emissary will visit Russia this week for consultations on the arrangement in Ukraine
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