Agenda for the day
Europa
SPAIN: Some 400 storks were found dead along a river in the Madrid region, victims in principle of an outbreak of avian flu, local authorities announced Tuesday, who are now conducting new tests to determine the severity of the virus.
SPAIN: A local leader of the Spanish Socialists was the target of an internal complaint of sexual harassment, it was learned on Wednesday, a new case of this type affecting the party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, which has made a banner of its feminist policies.
FRANCE: Cuban son and nine other Latin American expressions were declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by Unesco, including the first distinction for El Salvador: the flower and palm fraternity of Panchimalco, recognized during the committee’s annual meeting in New Delhi.
NORWAY: Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia on Wednesday in Oslo, should arrive in the Norwegian capital between tonight and Thursday morning, the director of the Nobel Institute told AFP.
NORWAY: The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, was handed over to her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado on Wednesday in Oslo, in the absence of the laureate, who is on her way but did not arrive at the ceremony.
NORWAY: The chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to accept his 2024 election defeat and resign, at Wednesday’s award ceremony honoring the country’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
America
EL SALVADOR: A group of Salvadoran military officers, including a former defense minister, will be tried for the massacre of nearly 1,000 civilians in 1981 as part of a state offensive against leftist guerrillas, an organization representing the victims announced Tuesday.
BRAZIL: Brazil’s lower house approved early Wednesday morning a bill that could drastically reduce the sentence of former president Jair Bolsonaro, sentenced to 27 years in prison for coup d’état.
MEXICO: Mexican lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that could establish penalties of up to eight years in prison for the sale of electronic cigarettes.
MEXICO: Mexico’s army announced Tuesday a plan for operations on the southern border together with Guatemala, after a confrontation between Guatemalan military and a Mexican armed group left one dead and one soldier wounded.
COLOMBIA: Colombia’s Congress on Tuesday shelved leftist President Gustavo Petro’s new tax reform proposal, with which the president hoped to raise some US$4 billion to add to the 2026 national budget.
USA
Africa
MOROCCO: The collapse of two buildings killed 22 people in the northern Moroccan city of Fez, authorities said Wednesday, in the deadliest such accident in the kingdom in recent years.
Asia
CHINA: A fire broke out in a residential building in southern China claiming the lives of 12 people, state media reported Wednesday. The fire in the four-story building in Shantou, Canton province, started late Tuesday night and was extinguished after an hour.
CAMBODIA: More than 500,000 people were evacuated and moved to safety following the outbreak of border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia, which have left at least 11 people dead, authorities from the two Southeast Asian neighbors said Wednesday.
SOUTH KOREA: South Korea and Japan reacted angrily Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with Seoul and Tokyo sending planes.
Middle East
AUSTRALIA: Australia on Wednesday banned legions of teenagers from accessing social networks, with a world-first law it says it hopes to “take back control” from the formidable tech giants at the helm of platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
