International
Biden government to ask Supreme Court to block Texas abortion ban

AFP
President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday said it would ask the Supreme Court to block a ban on most abortions in Texas, in the latest stage of a national battle over reproductive rights.
Last month, the US Supreme Court cited procedural issues when it decided by a 5-4 vote against intervening to block the highly restrictive Texas law.
It did not rule on the merits of the case brought by abortion providers.
Biden’s administration has vowed to fight the Texas ban, citing its interest in upholding Americans’ constitutional rights.
At stake is the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which enshrined a woman’s legal right to an abortion.
Last week, US District Judge Robert Pitman, in response to a Justice Department lawsuit over the Texas law, issued a preliminary injunction halting its enforcement, calling it “flagrantly unconstitutional” and a violation of Roe v. Wade.
“This court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right,” Pitman said in a blistering decision.
Days later, in a complex legal wrangle, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals effectively reinstated the ban in Texas on most abortions once a heartbeat is detected in the womb.
On Thursday, the court confirmed the law would remain in place during ongoing proceedings.
The whiplash and temporary nature of the rulings meant only a fraction of Texas’ abortion clinics had begun conducting the procedure again beyond what was allowed under the ban.
Anti-abortion groups cheered the reinstatement, even though the Biden administration was widely expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
On Friday, a spokesman for the Justice Department confirmed it “intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay.”
The department is expected to formally file its appeal in the coming days.
The “Texas Heartbeat Act” allows members of the public to sue doctors who perform abortions, or anyone who helps facilitate them, once a heartbeat is detected in the womb — usually at around six weeks.
They can be rewarded with $10,000 for initiating cases that lead to prosecution, prompting charges that the law encourages people to act as vigilantes.
The law makes no exception for victims of rape or incest.
If the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, every state would be free to ban or allow abortions.
The court’s next move will be watched closely, with its initial refusal to intervene seen as confirmation of the bench’s swing to the right following a series of appointments by former president Donald Trump.
The Texas law is part of a broader conservative drive to restrict abortions across the United States that has prompted a public backlash.
Tens of thousands of women took to the streets in cities across the country earlier this month, asserting their reproductive rights.
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”

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.”
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