International
The Supreme Court is skeptical of Trump’s immunity but could lengthen the litigation
The United States Supreme Court was skeptical this Thursday about Donald Trump’s request to enjoy absolute judicial immunity for having been president of the country, but there were judges who were inclined not to fully resolve the matter and return it to lower courts.
In a historic hearing of more than two hours, the nine magistrates (six conservatives and three progressives) questioned Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, and prosecutor Michael Dreeben about the Republican’s potential immunity.
The high court must decide if Trump has absolute immunity for having been president of the country and, therefore, the trial against him pending in a federal court in Washington for electoral interference and the assault on the Capitol must be annulled.
Most judges were skeptical of Trump’s request when considering that only the actions of the functions of a president are shielded by immunity and not those that are personal.
But there were also conservative magistrates critical of the handling of the case by the Prosecutor’s Office and suggested that they could return the case to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to determine whether Trump’s actions can be considered public or private.
Trump, a Republican pre-candidate in the elections on November 5, should extend the litigation since, if he returns to the White House, he could order the Department of Justice to close the federal accusations against him.
On the other hand, the Special Prosecutor’s Office led by Jack Smith pressures the high court to make a quick decision and the preparations for the trial of the assault on the Capitol, which should have begun on March 4 but was suspended due to Trump’s request for immunity, can be resumed.
It is unknown when the Supreme Court will issue its ruling, but it usually publishes its decisions in June, before the summer recess.
Although it is not included in the Constitution or in the laws, the active presidents of the United States have historically enjoyed immunity from judicial processes related to their functions, in order to avoid a violation of the separation between the executive and judicial branches.
Questioned by conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by Trump himself, the Republican’s lawyer admitted that some of the actions that the former president carried out after the 2020 elections were “private” and probably not protected by immunity.
Later, the also conservative Samuel Alito pressured the prosecutor with the idea that leaving the former presidents unprotected would “destabilize” democracy because it would open the door for the new leaders to imprison their predecessors for revenge.
Progressive judges were very opposed to Trump’s absolute immunity.
Elena Kagan recalled that the drafters of the Constitution were opposed to the existence of a “monarch” who was “above the law” and Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that the pardon that Richard Nixon received after the Watergate scandal shows that the former presidents can be prosecuted.
Unlike Trump, however, Nixon was not formally charged with any crime. His successor, Gerald Ford (1974-1977), granted him a preventive pardon for any crime he could have committed during his Presidency to prevent him from being prosecuted in the future, in a controversial decision that divided the country.
International
Australia asks the population to write down their flatulence to study intestinal health
An Australian government scientific agency asked the population of the oceanic country on Friday to make an exhaustive record of their flatulence, in order to better understand how the excessive expulsion of gases impacts intestinal health.
‘Chart your fart’ campaign (Register your fart)
Through the ‘Chart your fart’ campaign, researchers from the Australian scientific and industrial government agency (CSIRO) invited people over the age of 14 to keep track of their winds in a free cell phone app for at least three days.
These data, which include the amount and quality of flatulence, including attributes such as smell, volume, duration, persistence and detectability, will help create a graph of what can be a ‘normal’ wind in the different groups of Australians, according to a statement from CSIRO.
“The expulsion of gases is a natural fact and a sign that our digestive system is functioning as it should to expel the excess gas that is produced by breaking down and processing the food we eat,” explained Megan Rebuli, a nutrition expert who participates in CISRO’s research.
Excessive flatulence, according to 60%
The characteristics of the winds vary by the intake of “different foods, medical conditions or even the way we chew or swallow can influence the way our body processes excess gases, which translates into odors, frequencies or even different volumes,” said Rabuli.
For her part, the project director and CISRO scientist, Emily Brindal, explained that this citizen research will be “as good as the data we obtain,” by trusting that the population will contribute to this study on the health and well-being of citizens, despite the fact that some people feel embarrassed or uncomfortable by this body function.
According to a study on CSIRO’s intestinal health in 2021, more than 60% of Australians reported experiencing what they identified as excessive flatulence, and up to 43% said they experienced it most days.
International
Israel bombs Lebanon again after a wave of attacks with dozens of dead
The Israeli Army bombed Dahye on Friday, a suburb in southern Beirut considered a stronghold of the Shiite group Hezbula, after ordering residents to evacuate the area and among a wave of attacks in Lebanon that have caused at least 43 deaths in recent hours.
The bombings took place on Friday morning, according to the Lebanese media Al-Mayadeen, and for the moment it is clear whether they caused deaths or injuries.
Shortly before, the Arabic spokesman of the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, urged the neighbors of several buildings located in the Ghobeiry area to evacuate “immediately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”
Air planes against Hezbulá command centers
The Israeli Army already bombed the Dahye, including two Civil Defense centers, last Wednesday and Thursday, also after requesting the evacuation of several buildings in the area.
The armed forces then claimed in a statement that they had destroyed nine weapons warehouses and command centers of the Shiite group “embedded” in civilian areas, an argument that Israel repeats to justify its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon.
This Friday, their fighter jets attacked the command centers of the elite force of the Shiite group Hizbulá (Radwan) in the Nabatieh area, in southern Lebanon.
Among the targets attacked is a terrorist infrastructure site used by the elite force of Hezbullah “to carry out terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and our troops,” according to a military statement.
He also said that yesterday the troops attacked more than “120 terrorist targets” throughout the neighboring country, including weapons storage facilities, command centers and a large number of launchers, including some from which Hezbulah fired rockets towards Haifa and the area of Upper Galilee, in northern Israel.
Early this Friday, the Army also bombed south of Beirut, a bastion of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbula known as the Dahye, after a wave of attacks in Lebanon that have left at least 43 dead in recent hours.
Shortly before the attacks, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli Army, Avichay Adraee, urged the neighbors of several buildings located in the Ghobeiry area to “evacuately and stay away from them at a distance of no less than 500 meters.”
According to a military statement, these attacks against the capital were targeted at weapons warehouses, a command center and other unspecified infrastructures of Hizbulá.
On the other hand, the Army also detected about five projectiles fired from Lebanon towards the district of Haifa and Alta Galilee, which were intercepted or fell in the open air.
Likewise, the military note assured that last night Israeli planes attacked “several smuggling routes of the Syrian regime” on the Syrian-Lebanese border, allegedly used for the illegal introduction of weapons to Hezbulah.
Negotiations for a ceasefire
This crossfire is maintained while in recent hours reports have continued to arrive disseminated by Israeli and American media indicating that the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon could be closer.
This Thursday, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, reiterated in a conversation he had with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, that there is “a desire to achieve a ceasefire” in Lebanon to allow the more than 60,000 evacuees from the north to return to their homes, and that “progress” is being made in the negotiations.
Although, Saar also wanted to point out that an agreement is not enough if the international community does not guarantee that Lebanon “is returned to the Lebanese people instead of being controlled by the Iranian regime.”
In more than a year of conflict, at least 3,386 people have died in Lebanon and another 14,417 have been injured, including 220 minors and 658 women, according to the latest update from the Lebanese government, prior to these latest attacks.
Lebanon: “The US truce proposal is not acceptable”
The President of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, confirmed on Friday that he has received a proposal from the United States for a truce between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbulá, but indicated that “it is not acceptable” in its current terms.
“The US proposal includes a text that is not acceptable to Lebanon, which is the question of the formation of a committee to oversee the implementation of Resolution 1701 (which ended the war between Israel and Hezbula in 2006), which includes several Western countries,” he said in a written interview with the London-based Arab newspaper Al Sharq al Awsat.
Likewise, Berri – the main mediator figure in the truce, being the one in whom Hizbulá trusts for the negotiations – said that “the proposed alternative mechanism is currently being debated,” and that “the work is progressing, in an environment that is positive.”
“Americans and others know that it is unacceptable, and that it cannot even be discussed in principle, and that we cannot accept any violation of our sovereignty,” he said in reference to the “freedom of movement” of the Israeli Army in Lebanon.
He also denied that the proposal includes “the deployment of NATO or other forces” in the country.
Regarding the possible arrival of the envoy of the administration of US President Joe Biden, Amos Hochstein, pointed out that his visit to Beirut “depends on the development and progress of the negotiations,” without giving further details.
A French blue helmet dies in a traffic accident
A French blue helmet died this Friday in a traffic accident while traveling in a convoy to the headquarters of the UN mission in Lebanon (UNFIN) in Naqoura, in the south of the country.
According to a brief statement from the FINUL, which does not give details about the circumstances of the accident, three other Gallic members of the peacekeeping forces “suffered minor injuries.”
“This morning, a FINUL convoy heading to the FINUL headquarters in Naqoura was involved in a traffic accident on the coastal road, near the village of Shama,” the note says.
The victims were cared for by the staff of the peace mission and the Red Cross at the scene, according to the FINUL, who conveyed their condolences to the family of the deceased blue helmet and expressed their wishes that the injured recover soon.
International
Latin America will once again be in the sights of the United States with Rubio at the head of diplomacy
Marco Rubio, of Cuban origin and first Hispanic appointed as US Secretary of State, promises to redirect Washington’s attention to Latin America under a second term of Donald Trump, at a critical moment marked by the immigration issue and Chinese investments in the region.
The great campaign promise of the president-elect is to carry out the largest deportation in the history of the country, which anticipates that “Latin America will have the most central role in US foreign policy of the last 30 years,” says Brian Winter, expert of the Americas Society organization.
Latin America waiting for US actions.
At the head of US diplomacy, Rubio “will bring enormous attention to a region that the United States has overlooked on many occasions,” adds Henry Ziemer, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Considered a ‘hawk’ in foreign policy, this Florida senator born in Miami 53 years ago has distinguished himself for being a supporter of the hard line with China and Iran, as well as a strong defender of Israel.
He has also paid great attention to Latin America, being a strong supporter of US sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as being critical of the left-wing governments of Mexico and Colombia, and a supporter of Javier Milei’s Argentina.
“Rubio sees the region with a strong ideological spectrum: he divides it between left and right leaders, between rivals and friends,” Winter explains.
The unknown of Venezuela or the end of “Florida politics”
One of the unknowns that Trump’s team has not cleared is the policy it will maintain towards Venezuela, after the president, Nicolás Maduro, proclaimed his re-election in elections questioned by the international community.
During his first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican chose to apply maximum pressure on the Caribbean country with sanctions to overthrow Maduro, but the president is still in power and the crisis in the country has caused thousands of Venezuelans to migrate to the United States.
The main reason for the insistence on Venezuela was not so much a desire for interventionism but a desire to win votes in the key state of Florida, with an important population of Cuban and Venezuelan voters, Michael Shifter, former director of the Inter-American Dialogue analysis center, tells EFE.
US in search of accelerating deportations to Latin America
With the electorate in the state already solidly republican, Trump does not have that incentive now. On the contrary, the future president could try to “give in to Maduro and perhaps recognize him to reach an agreement on migration and give business opportunities to his friends” in the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
The truth is that in order to deport Venezuelan migrants, against whom Trump has led a stigmatization campaign and promised mass deportations, the United States needs to reach an agreement with Venezuela, a country with which it has no diplomatic relations.
Joe Biden’s Administration resumed deportation flights after a brief pause in the oil sanctions imposed on the country.
According to Adam Isacson, an expert at the Washington Office for Latin America (WOLA) center, the other option to accelerate deportations would be to pressure Mexico, and other countries such as Colombia, to accept Venezuelan migrants.
Mexico and the review of the T-MEC
What seems very clear is that “Mexico will be at the forefront of the policies of the second Trump Administration in terms of both migration and the economy,” Ziemer highlights.
Washington is increasingly concerned about Chinese investments in strategic industries such as electric vehicles in Latin America and especially in Mexico, a country with which the United States has the T-MEC free trade agreement.
Trump himself said in the campaign that he wanted to open the T-MEC review process in 2026 and Rubio has been one of the legislators who has positioned himself most in favor of countering Chinese operations in the region.
The Republican, who already threatened Mexico with tariffs in his first term to force greater control of migratory flows, will use this letter again in trade negotiations.
“I don’t think the break of the agreement is the most likely way, but it is possible. Companies are underestimating it,” warns Winter.
Australia asks the population to write down their flatulence to study intestinal health
Israel bombs Lebanon again after a wave of attacks with dozens of dead
Latin America will once again be in the sights of the United States with Rubio at the head of diplomacy
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
-
Central America5 days agoBukele begins official visit to Costa Rica based on security, cooperation and trade
-
Central America3 days agoNicaraguan Naval Force seizes cocaine on Pacific Coast, suspects escape
-
Central America3 days agoEl Salvador delivers aid to Costa Rica amid severe flooding and red alerts
-
Central America3 days agoBukele urges Costa Rica to reform prison system amid rising crime rates
-
International4 days agoMarco Rubio considered for Secretary of State in Trump administration, reports say
-
International5 days agoDaniel Ortega turns 79: 29 in power, 17 “governing from below”, and 7 in prison
-
International5 days agoLe procureur vénézuélien dénonce une campagne visant à présenter les “criminels” comme prisonniers politiques
-
International4 days agoSheinbaum pledges support for mexican migrants amid U.S. border enforcement plans
-
International5 days agoLes migrants qui ont été retenus en Albanie par le gouvernement de Meloni arriveront ce soir en Italie
-
International4 days agoElon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency
-
International3 days agoMálaga paralyzed by new storm as torrential rains hit Spain
-
International5 days agoA US flight to Haiti is deflected after being shot when approaching Port-au-Prince
-
International3 days agoSeven bodies found with signs of torture in Sinaloa
-
International3 days agoPresident-elect Trump chooses Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense
-
International3 days agoEcuadorian judge orders preventive detention for nine inmates after deadly prison clashes
-
International5 days agoIrish mobster Hutch is rending for general elections after arrest in Spain
-
International3 days agoHezbollah launches explosive drone strike on Israel’s defense headquarters
-
Internacionales4 days ago
Mexico deploys 12,000 security agents to Guerrero amid escalating violence
-
International3 days agoSantiago Uribe cleared of homicide and paramilitary charges
-
International5 days agoTrump appoints an ally without experience in the sector to the environmental agency
-
International3 days agoTrump nominates Matt Gaetz as attorney general
-
International2 days agoDrug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
-
Central America2 days agoMulino warns Trump: Darién is U.S.’s ‘other border’ in call for bilateral solutions to migration
-
International2 days agoVenezuelan opposition activist dies in custody amid allegations of repressive crisis
-
International3 days agoMarco Rubio to become first latino U.S. diplomacy chief under Trump
-
International5 days agoThe court of El Salvador postpones the preliminary hearing for the massacre of Jesuit parents in 1989
-
International2 days agoIsraeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
-
International2 days ago
Aemet downgrades rainfall alert as heavy rains ease in Spain
-
Central America2 days agoTen dead in Panama due to storms causing over $100 million in damages
-
International2 days agoMaria Corina Machado sees clear signs for Venezuela after Trump’s victory
-
International2 days agoPope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
-
International18 hours agoThousands of displaced people in Haiti flee the violence of armed gangs
-
International17 hours agoTrump will nominate Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, as Secretary of the Interior
-
International18 hours agoNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un orders the mass production of drones for suicide attacks
-
International17 hours agoThe Ibero-American Summit begins, the first without Latino presidents except the host
-
International18 hours agoTrump elects Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health
-
International18 hours agoFour complaints in a month for sexual abuse against public figures shake Chile
-
International17 hours agoUkraine finds in technology its best ally for war
-
International17 hours agoBoluarte and Xi inaugurate Chancay megaport, called to be a bridge between China and A.Latina
-
International5 hours agoAbkhesian opponents take the seat of the Parliament of the region