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US says ‘ready’ for talks with Russia from early January

AFP

The United States is preparing for talks with Russia that could start within weeks, a senior official said Thursday, as Western powers accuse Moscow of continuing a major troop build-up on the border with Ukraine.

“The US is ready to engage in diplomacy as soon as early January,” both bilaterally and through “multiple channels,” the US official said.

“There are some issues that Russia has raised that we believe we can discuss, and others that they know very well we will never agree to.”

The statement comes as fears mount in the West over a major military escalation in Ukraine.

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The Kremlin has grown increasingly insistent that the West and NATO are encroaching dangerously close to Russia’s borders.

Moscow presented the West with sweeping security demands last week, saying NATO must not admit new members and barring the United States from establishing new bases in former Soviet countries.

The US official added: “Any dialogue must be based on reciprocity, meaning that we have our own concerns put on the table.”

“We are continuing to watch closely Russia’s alarming movement of forces and deployments along the border with Ukraine.”

Speaking to reporters in Moscow earlier Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said that Washington’s willingness to discuss Russia’s security proposals aimed at curbing NATO’s eastward expansion in January in Geneva was “positive.”

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Tensions peaked this week when Putin vowed that Russia would take “appropriate retaliatory” military steps in response to what he called the West’s “aggressive stance.”

Later Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to “discuss their shared concern about Russia’s military build-up on the borders of Ukraine,” the State Department said. 

The officials stressed that “the Alliance remains ready for meaningful dialogue with Russia, while standing united to defend and protect Allies.”

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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.

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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.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

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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