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Argentina’s Kirchner slams court as ‘firing squad’

Photo: @CFKArgentina

| By AFP |

Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Kirchner on Tuesday accused the court trying her for alleged corruption of being a “firing squad,” speaking in her final arguments before a verdict is due.

Kirchner, 69, is accused of fraudulently awarding public works contracts in her stronghold in Patagonia during two terms as president, and prosecutors want her jailed for 12 years and banned from politics. However, even if she is convicted, she will not go to prison as long as she enjoys parliamentary immunity as head of the country’s Senate.

“This court has been a true firing squad,” the veteran politician said, accusing prosecutors of having “dedicated themselves to disrespecting and insulting me.”

Kirchner spoke for 20 minutes in a virtual speech broadcast from her Senate office, just days after announcing she would run again as vice president in October elections. She repeated accusations that the prosecution had “invented and misrepresented” facts that she said had been shown to be false.

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“They slandered, lied, and insulted me and our government,” said the divisive leftist, seen as the most powerful figure in Argentine politics.

Kirchner is charged alongide12 others for alleged involvement in the illicit attribution of public works contracts in the southern Santa Cruz province in favor of businessman Lazaro Baez. The period investigated includes Kirchner’s eight years in office, from 2007 to 2015, and the preceding four years when her late husband Nestor Kirchner, who died in 2010, was president.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Diego Luciani hit out at what he said was “probably the biggest corruption operation the country has known.”  One hearing remains in the trial, on December 6, the same day a verdict is expected, though judges technically have up to 10 days to rule.

Mass daily protests erupted outside Kirchner’s apartment building in the upmarket suburb of Recoleta in late August in response to the prosecutor’s sentencing request. During one of these protests on September 1, a man shoved a revolver in her face and pulled the trigger — but the gun did not fire. Four people have been charged with involvement in the attack.

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International

White House considered dropping leaflets over Caracas to pressure Maduro

The White House recently proposed a plan to drop leaflets from U.S. military aircraft over Caracas to further pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by The Washington Post.

The operation — which as of Saturday had not yet been authorized — considered dropping the leaflets this Sunday, the day of Maduro’s 63rd birthday. The materials were expected to highlight the $50 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, a bounty the White House doubled in August on the grounds that the Venezuelan leader is involved in “narcoterrorism.”

The proposal represents an escalation in Washington’s efforts to oust Maduro, a goal Trump pursued during his first term (2017–2021) and one that remains a priority for several of his top advisers.

Since the summer, the United States has carried out a large-scale military deployment in the southern Caribbean aimed at pressuring Maduro and, according to the White House, combating drug trafficking. This operation has resulted in the destruction of roughly twenty boats allegedly carrying narcotics and the deaths of 83 people on board.

In mid-November, Trump said he had made a decision regarding a possible military action in Venezuela, further raising tensions with Caracas.

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On Friday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an advisory urging commercial flights to “exercise extreme caution” when flying over Venezuela and the southern Caribbean due to the “potentially hazardous situation” linked to increased military activity in the region.

This prompted several European and American airlines to cancel flights to the Caribbean nation.

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International

Trump attacks Europe and Biden on Truth Social ahead of talks on Ukraine peace plan

In a message posted on Truth Social, the U.S. president also targeted European nations, “which continue buying oil from Russia,” as well as his predecessor, Joe Biden, whom he accused of inaction at the start of the conflict.

“I inherited a war that never should have happened, a war in which everyone is losing,” the president wrote in all caps on his social media platform.

“The Ukrainian leaders have shown zero gratitude for our efforts, and Europe keeps buying oil from Russia.”

“The United States continues to sell massive quantities of weapons to NATO for distribution to Ukraine (corrupt Joe gave everything away — free, free, free — including large sums of money!),” he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet with a Ukrainian delegation in Geneva this Sunday in hopes of advancing Trump’s plan for Ukraine.

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Washington now presents Trump’s 28-point proposal as a “framework for negotiations” aimed at ending the conflict, though it is viewed with concern in both Kyiv and Brussels.

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Tatiana Schlossberg reveals aggressive leukemia diagnosis in personal New Yorker essay

In a deeply personal essay published in The New Yorker, Tatiana Schlossberg revealed her diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia with a rare genetic mutation known as Inversion 3, a variant that responds poorly to standard treatments.

The 35-year-old journalist explained that the disease was discovered shortly after the birth of her second daughter in May 2024, when doctors detected an extremely high white blood cell count. Schlossberg said she was in complete shock upon receiving the diagnosis, noting that she “didn’t feel sick” and had experienced a healthy pregnancy.

Her treatment since then has been intense. She has undergone chemotherapy, at least two bone marrow transplants, and is participating in clinical trials involving CAR-T therapy, an advanced form of immunotherapy. In one of these trials, her doctors told her they might be able to “keep [her] alive for a year, maybe less.”

Schlossberg reflected on her fears for her children, her husband, George Moran, and her parents, and on the emotional weight of becoming part of the Kennedy family’s long history of tragedy. She also criticized her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for political decisions that she argues have harmed medical research that could benefit cancer patients like her.

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