International
Biden accuses Trump Republicans of white supremacy

AFP
US President Joe Biden on Thursday used the backdrop of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial to charge Republicans with following Donald Trump into a “deep black hole” of white supremacy and voter suppression.
The searing speech at a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the memorial to the slain African-American civil rights hero on Washington’s National Mall was unusual for Biden’s direct attacks on Trump.
Biden said Republican state representatives, ranging from governors to officials in charge of overseeing elections, have launched “an unrelenting assault” on access to free elections ahead of next year’s midterm legislative poll and the 2024 presidential vote.
What Biden called an “un-American” campaign is defended by Republicans as an attempt to tighten security around elections.
But the Republican push comes as Trump continues to press his unprecedented bid to discredit Biden’s win in the 2020 election, which he claims, with no evidence, that he won.
“They’re following my predecessor, the last president, in a deep, deep black hole,” Biden said, citing “a sinister combination of voter suppression and election subversion.”
Democrat Biden has often called out Trump’s incendiary lies about the election — which polls show that many ordinary Republicans believe are true. However, Biden more rarely refers to Trump directly, preferring to ignore the Republican.
In his speech, Biden said the white supremacy that King fought before being assassinated in 1968 had never fully gone away.
“It only hides,” he said.
Biden described the January 6 assault by a pro-Trump mob on the US Capitol building while lawmakers were inside certifying the 2020 election results as another outbreak of the same problem.
“The violent, deadly insurrection on the Capitol nine months ago was about white supremacy in my view,” he said.
“The bad news: we had a president who appealed to the prejudice. The good news is that it ripped the Band-Aid off, made it absolutely clear what’s at stake,” Biden added.
He was speaking the day after Republicans in the Senate blocked a debate on Democratic legislation to reform what Biden’s party says is a morass of unfair election laws, including campaign finance, voting rules and redistricting.
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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