International

Obama says democracy at stake in US midterms

Photo; The Straits Time

| By AFP |

Former US president Barack Obama said Friday that democracy is at stake in next month’s midterm elections in the United States, as he hit his first stop on the campaign trail.

The Democratic power player, who remains a hugely popular figure in his party, told a boisterous rally in Georgia that everyone had to get out and vote to prevent election conspiracy theorists getting their hands on the levers of power.

“It’s not enough to elect Democrats at the top of the ticket,” a fired-up Obama told the crowd in the suburbs of Atlanta.

“We need to elect good people up and down the ballot. Across the country, some of the folks who tried to undermine our democracy are running for offices that will oversee the next election.

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“And if they win, there’s no telling what might happen.”

Obama, who has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office in 2017, was guest of honor at the rally in Georgia, where two extremely close contests, fueled by tens of millions of dollars, are captivating America.

Democrat Raphael Warnock, the first Black US senator elected in the southern state with a long history of segregation, is seeking re-election against Herschel Walker, a former American football star backed by Donald Trump.

The contest could well decide which party gets control of the US Senate — and the ability to advance or frustrate President Joe Biden’s agenda.

There is also a fierce battle for the governor’s office, where Republican Brian Kemp is up against influential Democratic figure Stacey Abrams.

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As well as hammering the Republican Party on electoral integrity and the Trump-driven false claims that the 2020 presidential ballot was rigged, Obama also touched on abortion rights, which have been threatened since the Supreme Court overturned the long-standing Roe vs. Wade.

“Women everywhere should be able to control have a say in what happens with their own bodies,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be controversial to say that the most personal of healthcare choices should be made by a woman and her doctor. Not by a bunch of mostly male politicians.”

Americans have already begun voting in elections that will decide control of both houses of Congress, as well as who gets the governors’ mansions in dozens of states.

Hundreds of other positions at county and state level will also be decided in the November 8 polls.

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International

MEPs Approve Plan That Could Fast-Track Rejection of Some Asylum Claims

With an overwhelming majority of 408 votes in favor, the European Parliament backed the creation of a list of safe countries of origin for asylum seekers.

People coming from Colombia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia who apply for asylum in the European Union could see their requests rejected on the grounds that the bloc’s 27 member states consider those nations safe. Applicants would have to prove their individual circumstances, showing evidence of persecution or specific risks if they were to return.

At the same time, while their applications are processed or their return is arranged, migrants could be transferred to third countries outside the EU if the bloc has an agreement with them, if the individuals previously transited through those nations, or if they have family or cultural ties there. The measure provides legal cover for the creation of processing centers beyond EU territory, similar to an initiative previously pursued by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Albania.

Tuesday’s vote reflects the tightening of European migration policy in recent years, despite asylum applications having fallen by more than 20% last year and the issue not ranking among citizens’ top concerns, according to recent surveys.

International

Chile Unveils Latam-GPT to Give Latin America Its Own AI Model

Chile on Tuesday launched Latam-GPT, an initiative aimed at providing Latin America with its own artificial intelligence model in a field largely dominated by U.S. companies, while seeking to reduce biases identified in existing systems.

The project is led by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), a private corporation funded with public resources.

Latam-GPT is backed by universities, foundations, libraries, government agencies and civil society organizations from across the region, including Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.

“Thanks to Latam-GPT we are positioning the region as an active and sovereign player in the economy of the future. We are at the table — we are not on the menu,” President Gabriel Boric said during the presentation of the initiative on national broadcaster Televisión Nacional.

The tool aims to break down prejudices and prevent Latin America from being portrayed as a single, uniform reality, Chile’s science minister, Aldo Valle, told AFP.

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The region, he added, “cannot be merely a user or passive recipient of artificial intelligence systems. That could result in losing a significant part of our traditions.”

Despite its name, the initiative is not an interactive chatbot. Instead, it is a large regional database trained on Latin American information that can be used to develop technological applications, the minister explained.

International

Mexico Rises Slightly to 141st in Global Corruption Perceptions Index 2025

Mexico improved by one point in its rating and climbed to 141st place in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published Tuesday by the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, which gave the country a score of 27 out of 100.

The slight increase in score comes after Mexico recorded its lowest CPI result in history in 2024 during the final year of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term, also scoring 27 out of 100. The CPI is widely regarded as the main global measure of perceived public-sector corruption, where 0 represents high corruption and 100 denotes very low corruption.

Within the region, Mexico ranks above only Guatemala (26), Paraguay (24), Honduras (22), Haiti (16), Nicaragua (14) and Venezuela (10), but trails key economic peers such as Brazil (35) and Chile (63).

Among the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mexico ranks last. In the G20 grouping, it sits in the penultimate position, ahead of only Russia. Experts say Mexico’s persistently low score reflects ongoing challenges in curbing corruption and protecting public funds.

Transparency International’s report also highlights structural corruption issues that have allowed organized crime to infiltrate politics and weaken governance, as well as risks to journalists covering corruption.