Agenda for the day
Europa
GERMANY: Russia’s embassy in Berlin said Friday it “categorically rejected” German government claims that Russian-backed hackers had attacked German air traffic control and this year’s general election.
BELGIUM: EU finance ministers agreed Friday to impose a three-euro tariff on low-value imports into the bloc from July 2026 to help tackle a flood of small packages ordered through companies such as Shein and Temu.
BELGIUM: Belgian authorities said Friday they had arrested four people and charged “numerous” others with possession and distribution of child sex abuse images during a large-scale operation in Brussels involving hundreds of detectives.
BULGARIA: Bulgaria’s parliament on Friday unanimously approved the resignation of conservative Rosen Zhelyazkov’s government, submitted a day earlier, following a wave of anti-corruption protests, opening the door to the eighth general election since 2021.
VATICAN CITY: The Pope on Friday asked the Virgin of Guadalupe to protect young people “from the threats of crime, addictions and the danger of a meaningless life,” during the traditional Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of the patron saint of Mexico and the Americas.
SPAIN: OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, and BBVA on Friday announced a multi-year agreement to massively expand the Spanish banking giant’s use of artificial intelligence, including to reshape the customer experience.
FRANCE: Iranian security forces on Friday “violently” arrested Narges Mohammadi, winner of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, along with at least eight other activists at a memorial ceremony for a lawyer who died earlier this month, supporters said.
ITALY: Tens of thousands protest in Italy against Meloni’s budget plans.
ITALY: Journalists at one of Italy’s leading dailies, La Repubblica, went on strike Friday over the possible sale of their paper to a Greek company.
NORWAY: The King of Norway receives Machado at the Royal Palace in Oslo after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
UNITED KINGDOM: British King Charles III announced on Friday that his cancer treatment will be “reduced” in 2026, in a message broadcast on a Channel 4 public television program.
RUSSIA: Wreckage from a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment block northwest of Moscow, injuring seven people and sparking a fire, Russian authorities said Friday.
UKRAINE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Berlin on Monday and meet with European leaders, as well as the heads of the EU and NATO.
America
ARGENTINA: Lieutenant General Carlos Presti is sworn in as Minister of Defense of Argentina, the first military officer to hold the post in a democracy.
BRAZIL: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke last week by telephone with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, about “peace in South America”, the Brazilian presidency informed AFP on Friday.
BRAZIL: Brazilian leftists, including iconic singer Caetano Veloso, called for nationwide protests on Sunday against congressional efforts to reduce the prison sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of a failed coup attempt.
CHILE: will decide in Sunday’s presidential ballot between two visions of society and individual rights: leftist Jeannette Jara defends more rights for women, including decriminalization of abortion, while José Antonio Kast, a far-right Catholic and favorite in the polls, opposes any openness.
COLOMBIA: The Colombian guerrilla ELN ordered on Friday civilians in regions under its rule to confine themselves for three days starting on Sunday, while it carries out military exercises to respond to Donald Trump’s “threats of intervention”.
COLOMBIA: The ambassador appointed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the Palestinian Territories denounced on Thursday that he was unable to take office because Israel prevented him for months from entering the West Bank, where Bogota plans to open a diplomatic headquarters.
ECUADOR: The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, and his interim counterpart of Peru, José Jerí, inaugurated this Friday in Quito the sixteenth Binational Cabinet and presidential meeting that will be focused on security issues and the fight against organized crime in border areas.
EL SALVADOR: The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, will share his experience in the war against gangs with Costa Rica, according to an agreement signed on Thursday with his Costa Rican counterpart, Rodrigo Chaves, who is facing an increase in crime.
HONDURAS: A prominent human rights group said Thursday that gang members in Honduras “forced” voters to cast their ballots during the Nov. 30 presidential elections and reported seven political murders during the campaign.
MEXICO: The Mexican Congress approved a law that punishes the vape trade with jail time after heated debates in both chambers, where opponents warned of the risk of criminalizing users.
MEXICO: Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said Friday that she had a phone call with Pope Leo XIV, whom she invited to visit the country.
VENEZUELA: The Venezuelan Ministry of the Interior informed that the United States “unilaterally” suspended a flight with deported migrants scheduled for this Friday as part of the repatriation program, which has been maintained despite the crisis between both countries.
UNITED STATES: U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Thailand and Cambodia agreed to halt fighting along their disputed border, which has killed at least 20 people this week.
UNITED STATES: Democratic lawmakers on Friday released a new set of photographs from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that includes images of U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.
UNITED STATES: Lieutenant General Evan L. Pettus assumed on Friday the leadership of the United States Southern Command, whose jurisdiction includes the Latin American and Caribbean region, where Washington has deployed thousands of soldiers for an alleged operation against drug traffickers.
UNITED STATES: U.S. cancels family reunification for citizens of seven Latin American countries with temporary residency.
UNITED STATES: A series of meetings organized by the US government with Colombian mayors, governors and businessmen in Washington provoked on Friday a critical reaction from President Gustavo Petro, who described the agenda as electoral interference.
UNITED STATES: Treasury lifts sanctions against Brazilian Supreme Court judge.
UNITED STATES: Tyler Robinson, the alleged perpetrator in the death of ultraconservative Charlie Kirk, appeared Thursday for the first time in person in a Utah state court to answer for the seven charges he faces, in a hearing in which the public and the press were not allowed to be present at his start.
UNITED STATES: The U.S. ambassador to the UN on Friday accused Rwanda, which supports the armed group M23 in the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, of driving the region toward war.
UNITED STATES: The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s high volume of handshakes explains the adhesive bandages he has worn on the back of his right hand in recent days.
UNITED STATES: US immigration authorities on Thursday released undocumented Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García, who was mistakenly deported in March and then returned to the United States, under surveillance, a court battle that is still alive before the courts.
UNITED STATES: The US government announced Thursday a reward of up to five million dollars for information leading to the arrest of one of the leaders of the Ecuadorian criminal gang Los Choneros, Francisco Manuel Bermúdez Cagua.
UNITED STATES: Time magazine on Thursday named the “architects of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” as its personality of the year, considering that their work in the development of this cutting-edge technology is transforming humanity.
Africa
Asia
JAPAN: Japan lifted a tsunami warning after a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck its northern coast on Friday, the weather bureau showed on its website.
SRI LANKA: More than 630 people have died and 193 remain missing in Sri Lanka following the passage of Cyclone Ditwah, the country’s Disaster Management Center said.
THAILAND: Thailand’s prime minister said he told U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Friday that Cambodia was to blame for deadly border clashes, but stopped short of declaring that Bangkok was willing to stop the fire.
Middle East
ISRAEL: A series of Israeli strikes hit southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday, state media reported, as Israel’s military said it was targeting Hezbollah sites, the latest such incursions despite a year-old ceasefire.
AUSTRALIA: Poignant footage released Thursday by Australian authorities showed the moment a skydiver was left dangling thousands of feet in the air after his parachute snagged on the tail of the plane.
