International
Bolsonaro ex-minister arrested for ‘influence peddling’
AFP
A Brazilian former education minister accused of influence peddling, allegedly at the request of President Jair Bolsonaro, was arrested Wednesday, police and a defense lawyer said.
Milton Ribeiro resigned in March over allegations that he channeled public funds to allies of two influential Evangelical pastors at Bolsonaro’s “special request.”
Newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo revealed an audio recording of Ribeiro saying he gave priority in deciding school-funding requests to municipalities governed by “friends” of the pastors.
One mayor reportedly said he had been asked for a kilo of gold in exchange for having his school-funding request cleared.
The claims triggered calls from opposition lawmakers for Ribeiro and Bolsonaro to be investigated.
Bolsonaro, a conservative Catholic, won the presidency in 2018 with solid backing from Brazil’s powerful Evangelical Christian movement.
He is keen to keep the Evangelical vote as he seeks reelection in October, trailing in the polls to leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro and Ribeiro, himself a Presbyterian pastor, have denied wrongdoing.
“Based on documents, testimony and the final report of the preliminary investigation… possible indications of criminal practice in the granting of public budgets were identified,” Brazilian police said in a statement.
Ribeiro’s arrest, it said, was the result of an operation across four Brazilian states Wednesday morning to dismantle a criminal network, with officers armed with five arrest warrants and 13 search warrants.
He risks a sentence of between two and five years for influence peddling and two to 12 years for corruption, the police said.
Ribeiro’s lawyer Daniel Bialski in a statement described his client’s arrest as “unjust” and “indisputably unnecessary.”
The Ministry of Education confirmed its premises were searched on Wednesday and said it intended to cooperate with investigators.
In March, Bolsonaro defended Ribeiro and called the claims “cowardly.”
On Wednesday, the president appeared to distance himself from his former minister.
“Let him answer for his actions, I pray to God that he has no problem. But if he does, it shows that I have no influence on the police,” the far-right president told the Itaitiaia radio station.
“I have 23 ministers, about a hundred secretaries of state… If someone does something wrong, will they blame me?” he added.
Ribeiro, 64, took office in July 2020 — the third education minister in the cabinet of Bolsonaro, whose government was shaken by an avalanche of resignations and dismissals.
International
Putin calls U.S.-Russia summit a “mistake” without guaranteed results
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Wednesday that holding a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump would be a “mistake” without certainty of concrete results, following the cancellation of the planned meeting in Budapest.
“Without a doubt, such a meeting must be well-prepared. For me and the U.S. president, it would be a mistake to treat it lightly and come out of that meeting without the expected outcome,” Putin told local media from the Kremlin.
The Russian leader said the initiative for the summit came from the U.S. side and that he had accepted the proposal. “In our last phone conversation, both the meeting and its location were proposed by the U.S. side. I agreed,” he said.
Putin added that Moscow continues to support dialogue, even in the current context. However, he admitted uncertainty about whether a meeting with Trump could take place later. “Now I see that, in his statement, the U.S. president has decided to cancel or postpone the meeting. Most likely, it is a postponement, since dialogue is always better than confrontation, disputes, or especially war,” he emphasized.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova reaffirmed that Moscow does not consider a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine that does not meet its original demands. “We see no alternative other than achieving the objectives of the special military operation,” Zakharova stated.
Among the conditions Russia has set for resuming dialogue with Washington and other international actors are: ensuring Ukraine’s neutral and non-aligned status, its demilitarization, the removal of elements considered “Nazis,” full respect for the rights of Russian-speaking populations, and unrestricted operation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
International
Colombia ready to replace suspended U.S. support, President Petro asserts
Colombian President Gustavo Petro downplayed on Thursday the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend all economic aid to the country, asserting that the measure “changes nothing” structurally, although he acknowledged potential effects on military resources.
“What happens if they take away our aid? In my opinion, nothing (…) I have never seen a single dollar of aid in Colombia’s budget,” Petro said during a press conference at the Casa de Nariño, a day after Trump publicly announced the suspension of all payments and subsidies to Colombia.
The Colombian leader explained that U.S. funds are not allocated directly to the government but rather to organizations linked to the now-defunct USAID. “U.S. aid is not for the government; it is for the NGOs managed by USAID, that is, for themselves,” he argued.
Petro also questioned the effectiveness of this cooperation, stating that Washington’s decades-long anti-drug strategy has failed by focusing on forced eradication of illicit crops, which, according to him, has perpetuated violence in Colombia. “They have condemned us to violence,” he asserted.
Although he acknowledged that the suspension could create difficulties in the military sector—such as the withdrawal of combat helicopters and limitations in arms supply—he assured that his government is prepared to replace that support with the national budget. “Colombia buys its own weapons,” he emphasized.
International
Cristina Fernández calls Argentina’s legislative elections “decisive” to stop Milei
Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández (2007–2015) described this Thursday as “decisive” the legislative elections taking place this Sunday in Argentina, urging voters to support Peronism as a way to put a “brake” on Javier Milei’s government.
“The brake on Milei starts this Sunday, but the work continues the next day to think about how to get Argentina out of the disaster this government will leave. This October 26 is Milei and permanent austerity, or Argentina, our common home,” Fernández said in a recorded message from her Buenos Aires residence, where she is serving a six-year prison sentence for irregularities in the awarding of road construction contracts during her presidency.
Fernández emphasized that the elections are not only about choosing deputies and senators but also represent “a great democratic opportunity” to “set limits on Milei’s mismanagement.”
“The libertarian experiment has failed, and everyone knows it. People cannot make ends meet, they have to go into debt to pay for electricity, buy food, or medicine,” she added.
The former president also criticized the government for changing the voting system “without proper training, putting transparency at risk,” referring to the introduction of the Single Paper Ballot, which lists all candidates, offices, and political parties on a single sheet.
Putin calls U.S.-Russia summit a “mistake” without guaranteed results
Colombia ready to replace suspended U.S. support, President Petro asserts
Cristina Fernández calls Argentina’s legislative elections “decisive” to stop Milei
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
-
International2 days agoThe Chief Builder: Trump and his remodeling of the White House
-
International3 days agoJoe Biden finishes prostate cancer radiotherapy at Penn Medicine
-
International4 days agoU.S.-Colombia Tensions Escalate as Trump Ends Subsidies, Criticizes Petro
-
Central America3 days agoWhite House targets Nicaragua over human rights and labor violations
-
International2 days agoTrump warns Hamas that they will be “eradicated” if they break the ceasefire with Israel in Gaza
-
International1 day agoUruguay’s Orsi and Tony Blair discuss AI cooperation and child poverty policies
-
International2 days agoVenezuela accuses U.S. of using anti-drug operations as pretext to target Maduro
-
International1 day agoColombia conducts nationwide emergency drill focused on hidroituango dam
-
International3 days agoZelenskyy: Meeting with Trump “Positive” Despite Rejected Missile Request
-
International1 day agoCuba accuses U.S. of pressuring countries ahead of UN vote on embargo
-
International3 days agoTrump says Venezuela is ‘feeling the heat’ amid U.S. anti-drug operations in the Caribbean
-
Central America1 day agoU.S. and Panama hold joint jungle exercises to strengthen security ties
-
International2 days agoCosta Rica hails appointment of Japan’s first female Prime Minister, Takaichi Sanae
-
International2 days agoMexico and the US launch an unprecedented joint border plan to stop arms trafficking
-
International2 days agoTrump assures that Ukraine could still “win” the war
-
International2 days agoThe United States investigates why a Waymo autonomous vehicle did not respect a stop sign
-
International2 days agoColombian court overturns ex-president Uribe’s conviction for witness tampering
-
International1 hour agoCristina Fernández calls Argentina’s legislative elections “decisive” to stop Milei
-
International1 hour ago
Trump announces over 3,000 arrests in major U.S. crackdown on drug cartels
-
International1 hour agoColombia ready to replace suspended U.S. support, President Petro asserts
-
International3 minutes agoPutin calls U.S.-Russia summit a “mistake” without guaranteed results