International
Russia and NATO, the antagonism that can lead to direct confrontation
The Kremlin warned today on the 75th anniversary of NATO that relations between Russia and the Western bloc are on the verge of “direct confrontation” due to the involvement of the allied countries in the war in Ukraine.
“Relationships, practically, have now led to a level of direct confrontation,” said Dmitri Peskov, presidential spokesman, at his daily telephone press conference.
The antagonism between Moscow and the Alliance has experienced very tense moments since 1949, both in the times of the Soviet Union – construction of the Berlin Wall, Cuban Crisis, invasion of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan – and with the Russian Federation since 1991 (bombing of Yugoslavia and the war with Georgia).
But the tension has reached unsuspected limits since Russia started the military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022, a conflict that has strengthened NATO, something that took the Kremlin on guard off guard.
“NATO continues to demonstrate its essence, since NATO was conceived as an alliance, configured, created and directed by the United States as an instrument of confrontation, especially on the European continent. And, in this regard, it continues to fulfill its function,” said the presidential spokesman.
Peskov assured that this block “at the present time does not contribute in any case to the security, predictability and stability of security on the continent.”
“Contrary, it is a destabilizing factor,” he said.
In addition, he accused the allies of continuing their approach and reinforcing the presence of their military infrastructure near the Russian border, one of the arguments used at the time by Moscow to invade the neighboring country.
The Kremlin has been accusing NATO of participating “directly” in the war in Ukraine for months by supplying huge amounts of weapons to Kiev, which, according to Moscow, will not prevent its victory and will only prolong the conflict.
“The NATO countries, the Alliance itself, is not that it is constantly increasing (their presence), but that it has already been involved in the conflict in Ukraine,” Peskov said.
In turn, Moscow has condemned the comments of some European leaders – specifically, the French President, Emmanuel Macron – on the possible sending of troops to Ukraine, something that the White House has totally ruled out.
In fact, the Kremlin today denied “plans to make contacts at the highest level,” in particular with Macron.
“President Vladimir Putin remains open to dialogue with those who express an interest in developing relations with our country,” said Peskov, who reiterated that the president “always” is willing to sit down and negotiate “to solve the most complex global and regional problems.”
At the same time, Russia has denied plans to attack NATO member countries and that it has “aggressive intentions” against Poland and the Baltics.
“Now they say that Ukraine is about to lose, which cannot be allowed, since as soon as Ukraine loses, Russia will attack NATO. Our president has already said it, ‘silly and nonsense,’” said Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister.
That does not detract from the fact that the Baltics have decided to strengthen security and that Finland and Sweden, neutral countries with pragmatic relations with Moscow for decades, decided to join NATO.
That is considered Putin’s biggest miscalculation, since Russia now has 1,300 kilometers more border with the Alliance than before the war.
The brutal attack on March 22 against a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, which left 145 dead and highlighted the lack of foresight of the Russian security forces, has only exacerbated the tension.
The West warned about possible jihadist attacks two weeks in advance, warnings that were disqualified by Putin, who insists on the existence of a “Ukrainian print.”
“Russia behaves in such a way in the international arena that it can hardly be attacked by Islamic fundamentalists,” Putin said when meeting with the union members on Thursday.
The newspaper ‘The Washington Post’ reported that the United States even mentioned the Crocus City Hall as a possible target, news that was immediately branded as “disinformation” by Moscow.
“Today, Ukraine (…) has become an openly terrorist state,” Lavrov said.
Precisely, the defense ministers of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, and France, Sébastien Lecornu, addressed the fight against international terrorism on Wednesday in their first telephone conversation in a year and a half.
“France does not have any information that allows a link to be established between this attack and Ukraine. We ask Russia to stop manipulating,” said the official statement issued by Paris.
International
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
The American press agency Associated Press (AP) announced this Friday that it has sued three members of the Donald Trump Administration after being banned from the Oval Office and the presidential plane Air Force One for not complying with the directive of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not to be retaliated for it by the Government. The Constitution does not allow the Government to control freedom of expression,” the media maintains.
In its style guide, AP decided to continue calling the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name”, still mentioning the new name chosen by Trump, since it is a body of water that shares a border with Mexico and Cuba.
The White House formally blocked AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One on February 14. “We are very proud of this country and we want it to be the Gulf of America,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The agency’s lawsuit, of 18 pages and filed before a federal court in Washington DC, alleges that they have decided to take this step to claim their right to editorial independence and prevent the Executive from coercing journalists to use only a language approved by it.
Trump signed the executive order to change the name to Gulf of America on January 20, the first day of his return to power. He later named February 9 as ‘ Gulf of America Day’.
The AP complaint is specifically directed against the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, his number two, Taylor Budowich, and the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.
This Thursday, more than thirty US media asked the Government to restore AP’s participation in presidential events and not to take into account “the editorial point of view” when limiting access to the White House.
Among the signatories are the television networks Fox News and Newsmax, with a conservative tinge, in addition to other large newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Wall Street Journal or The Atlantic.
AP highlighted when reporting on his complaint that this Friday Trump referred to that agency as “radical left-wing lunatics”: It is “a third-rate company with a first name,” he said about it, the main one in the country and founded in 1846.
International
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
The Legislature of the city of Buenos Aires approved this Friday the suspension of the open, simultaneous and mandatory primary elections (PASO), a measure that, according to the deputy head of government, Clara Muzzio, “allows to save 20 billion pesos (about 18,894 million dollars)”, and advanced the legislative elections for May 18.
“The City Legislature suspended the PASO, a measure that saves $20 billion for neighbors,” Muzzio announced on Friday.
For his part, the mayor of the City, Jorge Macri, maintained that the PASO “were an expensive mechanism that only solved the problems of politicians, not of the people.”
The May 18 elections, which were originally scheduled for July, will be held through the Single Electronic Ballot system.
In that instance, the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires will elect their local legislators and, in October, they will have to return to the polls to define, together with the rest of the country, the composition of the chambers of Deputies and Senators.
“The fact that the elections are in May allows each Buenos Aires to decide on their own city, without being tied to national discussions,” said the mayor.
The project was approved in the Buenos Aires legislature with 55 votes in favor, 3 against and one abstention, after an agreement between the main political forces.
The suspension of the primaries in the City of Buenos Aires occurs one day after the Argentine Parliament approved the same measure at the national level.
The original project sent by the national government sought the elimination of the primary system but finally, given the lack of support for that objective, the government chose to promote an initiative that suspends them for this year.
The primary election system was first implemented in Argentina to define the candidates for the 2011 general elections, based on a political reform approved by Parliament at the end of 2009, with the aim of democratizing political representation, transparency and electoral equity.
According to the PASO system, to be qualified to compete in the general elections, candidates or lists of candidates must achieve at least 1.5% of the total votes in the primaries.
All parties are obliged to participate in the primaries, although they do not necessarily have to present more than one list of candidates to decide which one will lead to the general elections, an option for which the majority of the forces have opted in the last elections.
That is one of the reasons why the system has been questioned, among which are also its costs and the cumbersomeness of the organization.
International
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Friday that threatens to impose tariffs on foreign governments that apply digital fees to US companies, including Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
The order states that “foreign governments have exercised a growing extraterritorial authority over US companies, particularly in the technology sector,” and directly cites the taxes on digital services that “several business partners” apply since 2019.
According to the text, the Trump Administration will impose tariffs on those governments that use taxes or regulations that are “discriminatory, disproportionate or designed to transfer significant funds or intellectual property from US companies to that government or its chosen domestic entities.”
Trump delegates to the US Trade Representative the possibility of “renewing investigations” on the so-called technology fees of Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Turkey, imposed in the first term of the Republican, and if so, “take all appropriate actions”, which would include the imposition of tariffs.
“US companies will no longer sustain failed foreign economies through fines and extortionational taxes,” says the White House document, which provides for a “process” for them to “report” these “disproportionate” measures to the Commercial Representative.
He also instructs him to investigate together with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce whether in the European Union or the United Kingdom the use of products or services of US companies is “required or encouraged” to “undermine freedom of expression”, political activity or, “otherwise, moderate content”.
It also suggests to the Representative, among other things, to hold “a panel” with its partners of the T-MEC (Canada and Mexico) on the tax on digital services in Canada, and identify ways to achieve a “permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions”.
The order does not mention any specific company, but mainly affects large technology companies such as Apple, Google (subsidiary of Alphabet), Meta and Amazon, which have precisely starred in a resounded approach to President Trump since he won the elections in November.
In his first term (2017-2021), Trump ordered to investigate the digital fees to his companies abroad and threatened to apply tariffs to the six countries indicated today; taxes were imposed in the government of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, and subsequently suspended.
Trump signed another executive order aimed at restricting access to US technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, what he calls “foreign adversaries”, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China.
The executive order does not specify in detail what measures will be taken to restrict the access of these “foreign adversaries” to US technology.
Under the label of “foreign adversaries”, the order identifies China, Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the “regime of Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro”, according to the text.
Trump justifies his decision with the argument that “economic security is national security” and maintains that the country must protect its sensitive infrastructures and technologies, from artificial intelligence to semiconductors and advances in biotechnology.
The executive order focuses especially on China, pointing out that companies linked to Beijing have used investments in the US to access key technologies and that the Chinese government is taking advantage of US technology to modernize its military apparatus.
Since his return to the White House on January 20, Trump has announced several restrictions on trade with the aim of balancing the trade balance and pressuring countries such as Mexico and Canada to make concessions on immigration and efforts against drug trafficking.
It has imposed a 10% tariff on China, which is in addition to the rates already applied during its first term (2017-2021).
Trump’s new restrictions come after his predecessor, Joe Biden, took steps to limit exports of semiconductors and artificial intelligence technology to China, which led Beijing to respond with export controls on graphite, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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