International
Armed man surrenders after Rio de Janeiro bus hostage situation
The armed man who took 17 passengers hostage on Tuesday in a bus parked in the main terminal of Rio de Janeiro, after shooting two other people, surrendered to the Police after about three hours of kidnapping, official sources reported.
“I can report that the situation is resolved, the man who took the hostages surrendered and is detained, and all the hostages were released,” said Colonel Marco Andrade, spokesman for the Militarized Police of Rio, in statements to the press.
Although authorities initially indicated that the passengers were taken hostage after a failed robbery attempt on the bus, Andrade clarified that this information has not been confirmed so far.
According to police sources cited by the Globonews station, the perpetrator of the kidnapping is a criminal from Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, who was attempting to flee to another city on another bus.
Despite attempts by specialized agents of the Special Operations Battalion of the Militarized Police to negotiate the release of the hostages, the kidnapper responded with gunfire to the initial attempts to approach the uniformed personnel.
Later, he allowed the agents to enter the vehicle and surrendered himself, before releasing all the hostages, including children and the elderly.
The hostages were held for about three hours inside the bus in the main parking lot of the intermunicipal terminal of Rio, whose access roads were completely blocked by the Police.
According to a statement from the Militarized Police, before taking the hostages on the bus, the kidnapper shot two people on one of the platforms of the terminal, one of whom was seriously injured.
One of the wounded men, who was apparently going to travel on the hijacked bus, received three bullet wounds to the chest and abdomen, and his condition is critical, according to spokespeople from the Souza Aguiar Hospital, also located in the central and port region of Rio de Janeiro, where he was taken.
The kidnapping began around 2:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. GMT), when, after an initial shooting on the platform, the kidnapper armed himself and entered a bus of the company Viação Sampaio, which was bound for the city of Juiz de Fora, in the state of Minas Gerais, and was still parked in the lot, but with its passengers on board.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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