International
Iran promises to punish Israel for destroying its consulate in Syria and killing a general
Tehran promised on Monday a harsh response against Israel for bombing and destroying its consulate in Damascus, where the Iranian ambassador resided, who came out unharmed, but who caused at least eight deaths, including an important brigade general of the Revolutionary Guard.
In one of the hardest blows to Iran in recent years in Syria, Iran’s ambassador to this country, Hossein Akbari, said on Iranian state television from Damascus that “the Zionist regime (Israel) acts against international laws, so he will receive a harsh response from us.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its right to take countermeasures, and will decide on the type of reaction and punishment of the aggressor,” said, for his part, the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Naser Kanani.
The Syrian authorities accused the “Israeli enemy” of launching a bombing “around 5:00 p.m. today (14.00 GMT),” from the Golan Heights occupied by Israel against the “Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” according to an unidentified military source, which pointed out that the air defenses shot down “some” of the launched missiles.
Akbari witnessed from the embassy window of the attack on the consulate, which, according to him, was carried out with F-35 fighters that fired six missiles at Iranian facilities.
So far, Israel has not claimed this action, as is usual in its attacks on the Syrian territory.
On the battlefield, the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the entire Strip, has been completely out of service after two weeks of military operation by the Israeli Army, which ended this morning.
“The destruction of the complex makes it impossible to resume work and the hospital has been completely out of service,” the director of Shifa, Marwan Abu Saada, told the media.
For its part, the Civil Defense of the Gaza Strip denounced on Monday that, after the departure of Israeli troops from the hospital, they have found corpses with signs of having been executed, others burned and also in a state of decomposition.
“Most of the bodies are decomposing and we reach bodies that are skeletons burned inside the medical complex,” Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Busal said in a statement.
“It is difficult to count the number of martyrs, since the occupation raised the roads and buried the bodies in and near the Shifa complex,” Busal said.
According to the Civil Defense, there are dozens of bodies in the residential apartments in the vicinity of the medical complex for “the massacres committed by the occupation.”
The Israeli troops, who launched the operation on Shifa on March 18, claim to have killed about 200 alleged militiamen and identified 500 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, after interrogating about 800 suspects.
The Army insists that its military operations have not been directed against “patients, health personnel or medical equipment,” although the Gazaz Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, yesterday denounced that this incursion of the troops has left at least 400 dead throughout the area and the destruction of more than a thousand houses.
For Israel, this is one of the most “success” operations they have carried out since the beginning of the war, on October 7, due to the high number of alleged “terrorists” they have managed to capture in the hospital, where they assure that the militias of the Strip were regrouping.
Meanwhile, in Israel, a drone attack hit a building near the port of Eilat, in the south of the country, without injuries being reported.
According to the Israeli Army, the aggression came “from the east,” apparently from Iraq.
“After the sirens that sounded in the city of Eilat and in the Hevel Eilot area over an infiltration of hostile planes, the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces identified a suspicious air target that crossed from the east to Israeli territory,” said a military statement.
“The target fell in the area of the Gulf of Eilat. No injuries were reported and there was minor damage to a building,” he added.
The reference to the projectile coincides with the claim, this morning, by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq of an attack “towards our occupied lands in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza.”
Israeli media suggest that the target of the attack would be the frigate Saar 6, moored in the port of Eilat, since the impact occurred in a nearby building.
Eilat has been the target of launching several ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in parallel to the war, but most of them came from the Houthis of Yemen, a group related to Iran.
International
Marco Rubio warns of China’s threat and criticizes Venezuela and Cuba in Senate hearing
Marco Rubio, selected by Donald Trump as the head of diplomacy in his future cabinet, stated on Wednesday that Venezuela is “governed by a drug trafficking organization” and Cuba is “literally collapsing.” He made these remarks during a Senate hearing that focused on China, which he described as the “most dangerous adversary” of the United States.
In the United States, the Constitution requires that ministerial and other high-level appointments be confirmed by a Senate vote following a hearing in the relevant committee.
Rubio emphasized that China is “the most powerful and dangerous adversary” the U.S. has ever faced because it possesses “elements that the Soviet Union never had.”
“We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this world order. They took full advantage of its benefits but ignored all its obligations and responsibilities,” he added. “They have lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status at our expense,” the Republican asserted.
He rejected one of the key principles of outgoing President Joe Biden: prioritizing a “liberal world order” based on rules and led by the United States.
Instead, he defended Trump’s “America First” motto.
The post-war global order, he argued, “is now a weapon being used against us,” he said during a speech interrupted several times by protesters.
“If we continue down the current path, in less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us will depend on whether China allows it or not,” Rubio warned.
To deter China from invading Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, Rubio believes Washington must demonstrate that the cost would be “too high.”
International
Biden warns “Soul of America” still at stake ahead of farewell address
The “soul of America” remains at stake, outgoing President Joe Biden warned ahead of delivering his farewell address to the nation on Wednesday, just days before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The 82-year-old Democrat will give his speech at 8:00 PM (01:00 GMT Thursday) during prime time from the Oval Office.
In advance, he released a letter to the American people, indirectly criticizing the 78-year-old Republican without naming him directly.
“I ran for president because I believed the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was on the line. And that remains true today,” Biden wrote. “History is in your hands. Power is in your hands. The idea of America is in your hands. We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are,” he added.
Biden claimed that the United States is stronger now than it was four years ago, citing what he described as its recovery from Trump’s first term, the COVID-19 pandemic, and “the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War.”
Biden took office just days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters attempting to overturn his electoral defeat.
While Biden did not mention Trump by name, his remarks echoed themes from previous speeches, where he stated that he ran in the 2020 election because America’s “soul” was in danger due to Trump and his followers.
International
Canadian business leaders meet with president Sheinbaum to boost investments in Mexico
Canadian business leaders met with Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday to express strong interest in increasing their investments in the country. This initiative aligns with a joint effort to strengthen the region under the framework of the North American trade agreement (USMCA).
Francisco Cervantes, President of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), highlighted the participation of the top 10 Canadian entrepreneurs, who discussed strategies to boost key sectors.
He also emphasized that Mexico is fostering an unprecedented climate of trust to attract foreign investment, with better-paid jobs as one of the main objectives.
“The government, led by the president, is doing exceptional work to establish Mexico as an attractive destination for investors,” Cervantes stated. “We are working together to develop a tariff plan with the United States to ensure that negotiations are favorable for all parties involved,” added the CCE president.
Marco Rubio warns of China’s threat and criticizes Venezuela and Cuba in Senate hearing
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Biden warns “Soul of America” still at stake ahead of farewell address
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