International
Putin considers a “snonise” a possible attack by Russia against NATO countries
Russian President Vladimir Putin called a possible Russian attack on NATO countries “nonseness” due to the great difference in their military potential.
“It’s nonsense (…) Have you seen the potential of Russia and NATO?” Putin said during an interview with the main international news agencies, including EFE, within the framework of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
Addressing the representatives of 16 international media, the head of the Kremlin asked not to create an image that Russia is the enemy.
“It has been invented that Russia wants to attack NATO. Who invented it? It’s nonsense, do you understand? A delirium,” he insisted, adding that Russia has no “imperial ambitions.”
According to Putin, such statements are made to “deceive the population” of Western countries and justify the sending of weapons to Ukraine.
The Russian leader’s interview with leaders of the world’s leading news agencies lasted for more than three hours, in which Putin answered more than 20 questions.
On the other hand, the Russian president warned that the tactical nuclear weapons in his country’s arsenal have 70-75 kilotons of power, more than three times those launched by the United States against Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
“The United States is the only country that used nuclear weapons. It was during World War II, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 20 kilotons. Our tactical nuclear weapons are 70-75 kilotons,” Putin said during the interview with heads of the main international news agencies, including EFE.
Therefore, he added: “We do not take the situation not only to its use, but even the threat of use” of nuclear weapons.
While he highlighted that it is the West that always brings this issue to light and then accuse Russia of “shaking the nuclear mallet,” he recalled what the Russian military doctrine says.
“For some reason the West believes that Russia will never use them. We have a nuclear doctrine. Look at what is written on it. If someone’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all the means at our disposal,” he said.
Putin also stressed that in this matter you have to behave like professionals and not “lightly, superficially.”
“I hope that everyone in the world also takes that position,” he said.
Putin also assured the agencies that the fighting in Ukraine will cease in two or three months if the United States suspends the supply of weapons to Kiev.
“And these military actions will conclude in two or three months at most,” Putin said during an interview with the main international news agencies, including EFE, within the framework of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.
The head of the Kremlin indicated that in a response letter to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, he wrote to him: “If you want the combat actions in Ukraine to end, stop supplying him with weapons.”
He assured that the West prevented the signing of a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine a few months after the outset of the fighting and convinced the Ukrainian authorities to fight until a strategic defeat was done to Moscow.
The Russian president recalled that the then British Prime Minister, Boris Jonhson, traveled especially to Kiev for that purpose.
“And I’m sure, I have no doubt, that it had the support of the United States Administration,” he added.
According to Putin, the so-called Istanbul treaty to end the conflict had been agreed by the Ukrainian side, so only its signature was missing.
“The Ukrainian side and its official positions publicly declared that if they had signed this treaty, the war would have ended by the end of 2022. We didn’t say it, official charges in Kiev said it, publicly,” Putin emphasized.
International
Thousands rally nationwide against Trump’s threat to U.S. democracy
Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday (April 19, 2025) in major cities like New York and Washington, as well as in small communities across the United States, in a second wave of demonstrations against President Donald Trump. The crowds denounced what they view as growing threats to the country’s democratic ideals.
In New York City, demonstrators of all ages rallied in front of the Public Library near Trump Tower, holding signs accusing the president of undermining democratic institutions and judicial independence.
Many protesters also criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policies, including mass deportations and raids targeting undocumented migrants.
“Democracy is in grave danger,” said Kathy Valyi, 73, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She told AFP that the stories her parents shared about Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany “are happening here now.”
In Washington, demonstrators voiced concern over what they see as Trump’s disregard for long-standing constitutional norms, such as the right to due process.
International
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
Thousands rally nationwide against Trump’s threat to U.S. democracy
ACLU seeks emergency court order to stop venezuelan deportations under Wartime Law
UN complaint filed against Costa Rica over detention of migrant children
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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