Síntesis informativa - 12 de agosto 2019
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Alejandro Giammattei, a Conservative, Wins Guatemala’s Presidency
A conservative former prisons director was elected Guatemala’s president on Sunday, in a race that took place against the backdrop of a migration crisis in which thousands of Guatemalans leave the country each month.
Alejandro Giammattei, 63, who was making his fourth run for the presidency, won nearly three-fifths of the vote in beating Sandra Torres, the former first lady, according to preliminary results from Guatemala’s election board.
Neither candidate inspired much confidence and just over 42 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
That so many Guatemalans choose the uncertainty of migration over the poverty, violence and corruption they know at home is a sign of the challenges facing Mr. Giammattei, who has little political experience.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/world/americas/guatemala-election.html
U.S. Officials Suspect New Nuclear Missile in Explosion That Killed 7 Russians
American intelligence officials are racing to understand a mysterious explosion that released radiation off the coast of northern Russia last week, apparently during the test of a new type of nuclear-propelled cruise missile hailed by President Vladimir V. Putin as the centerpiece of Moscow’s arms race with the United States.
American officials have said nothing publicly about the blast on Thursday, possibly one of the worst nuclear accidents in the region since Chernobyl, although apparently on a far smaller scale, with at least seven people, including scientists, confirmed dead. But the Russian government’s slow and secretive response has set off anxiety in nearby cities and towns — and attracted the attention of analysts in Washington and Europe who believe the explosion may offer a glimpse of technological weaknesses in Russia’s new arms program.
Thursday’s accident happened offshore of the Nenoksa Missile Test Site and was followed by what nearby local officials initially reported was a spike in radiation in the atmosphere.
Late Sunday night, officials at a research institute that had employed five of the scientists who died confirmed for the first time that a small nuclear reactor had exploded during an experiment in the White Sea, and that the authorities were investigating the cause.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/world/europe/russia-nuclear-accident-putin.html
North Korea Says It Tested New Type of Missile, Further Enhancing Its Arsenal
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Sunday that the two projectiles it fired a day earlier were a new type of missile, making this the third new short-range ballistic missile or rocket system the North has successfully tested in less than a month as Washington struggles to resume talks on denuclearization.
The two missiles were launched off North Korea’s east coast on Saturday in its second weapons test in the past week. On Sunday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency released photographs of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, watching what it called the launching of “another new weapon system.”
After scrutinizing the photos, outside analysts said the missiles, fired from a tracked mobile launcher with two missile tubes, were of a type unveiled for the first time.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/world/asia/north-korea-missile-test.html
THE GUARDIAN
Libya drone strike heightens fears of air war and risk of civilian deaths
At least 45 people were killed and dozens wounded in an airstrike last Sunday that targeted a town hall meeting in south-western Libya. The forces of Khalifa Haftar, the 75-year-old military strongman who controls much of the east of the country, have been blamed.
Last months had led to an increasing deployment of air power to gain tactical advantage in what has become a stalemate and to avoid further military casualties, experts say.
The shift has been fuelled by the provision of drones and other weapons systems by regional and international powers backing both factions.
Russia honours 'national heroes' killed in mysterious nuclear rocket blast
Officials have been drip-feeding information about the blast on a platform in the White Sea off northern Russia on Thursday that caused a radiation spike in a nearby city.
US-based nuclear experts said they suspected the explosion occurred during the testing of a nuclear-powered cruise missile vaunted by the Russian president Vladimir Putin last year.
Oil producer Saudi Aramco makes $47bn half-year profit
The previously secretive Aramco lifted the lid on its financial performance for the first time at the start of April as it prepared to raise money on international capital markets. Investors placed orders worth $100bn for $12bn of bonds, the highest level of demand in history.
The figures offered an unprecedented glimpse into the company long thought to be the largest in the world. They revealed that Aramco made $111.1bn of profits in 2018, on revenues of $355.9bn – well above those of other oil supermajors such as Royal Dutch Shell or ExxonMobil, and Apple, the world’s most profitable listed company. Apple made net income of $50.6bn in 2018, while Shell made $23.4bn.
A world of walls: the brutish power of man-made barriers
For American architects, the invitation to participate in designing a border wall struck a particularly raw nerve. Historically, the profession has proved willing to comply with political schemes that discriminated against marginalised communities and concretised systemic inequalities.
AL JAZEERA
Zarif: US arms sales make Gulf into 'tinderbox ready to blow up'
Iran's foreign minister warns against arms race after Saudi Arabia and UAE spent more than $100bn on weaponry.
"The US [sold] $50bn worth of weapons to the region last year. Some of the countries in the region with less than a third of our population spend $87bn on military procurement," Zarif told Al Jazeera.
"This is a tiny body of water and the more foreign naval vessels you have in this body [of] water the less secure it is for everybody. Based on experience, the presence of US and foreign naval fleet in the Persian Gulf has never produced security," the foreign minister said.
Alejandro Giammattei wins Guatemala's presidential race
Trained surgeon and former head of country's prison system campaigned on the issue of fighting crime and corruption.
Jeff Abbott.- The 63-year-old conservative candidate and former surgeon won a runoff election with 58.26 percent of the votes after 98 percent of voting centres had been counted. He defeated former First Lady Sandra Torres from the centrist National Unity of Hope party, who received about 40 percent of the votes.
Giammattei's campaig focused on being tough on crime, promising to treat gang members "like terrorists", to legalise the death penalty and to bring in more funding to combat migration from Guatemala. For voters like Julaju, it is his stance on crime which contributed to her reasons to vote for him.
"Giammattei has publicly said that he will not tolerate the actions of [protesters] that are part of a democratic system," Claudia Samayoa, the founder of the Guatemalan human rights organisation UDEFEGUA, told Al Jazeera.
In 2010, he was arrested following an investigation by the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor's office and the United Nations-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), but was acquitted after 10 months in pre-trial detention.
Yemeni official: UAE won in Aden, Saudi silent over 'slaughter'
Interior minister acknowledges defeat to UAE-backed southern separatists, accuses Riyadh of not protecting its allies.
The interior minister of Yemen's internationally recognised government has said the United Arab Emirates won in the southern port city of Aden, a day after UAE-backed southern separatists took control of all government military camps and the presidential palace.
Aden has been the temporary seat of Hadi's government since the Houthi rebel movement seized the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, prompting a military intervention the following year by the Saudi-UAE-led coalition in support of the president's forces and aimed at stopping the rebels' southern advance.
But this week's deadly clashes between the UAE-backed separatists and the government troops highlighted a rift fracturing the alliance, threatening to open a new front in Yemen's five-year-war that has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.
Hadi, who was swept from power in 2014 when Houthi rebels overran Yemen's capital, Sanaa, is currently based in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.
AL MAYADEEN
Ejército sirio controla importante ciudad en Idleb
Los combatientes del Ejército sirio recuperaron el control de la ciudad de Al-Hobait, ubicada a 10 km del gran puesto avanzado del grupo terrorista Frente al-Nusra en Khan Cheikhun, provincia sureña de Idleb.
Anteriormente, el ejército rompió las líneas defensivas del enemigo en Khasray-Zakat, al norte de la provincia de Hama, y ahora está a 2 km de los poblados de El Latamn y Kfar Zeit, de donde los terroristas del Frente al Nusra se retiraron.
Más de 60 palestinos heridos durante choques con policía israelí en la mezquita de Al Aqsa
El domingo comenzó la fiesta del Eid Al Adha musulmán y miles de palestinos rezaron en la mezquita de Al Aqsa. Coincidió con la fiesta judía de Tisha B'av, que normalmente implica un aumento de las visitas judías al lugar sagrado.
Unos mil 300 judíos visitaron el lugar durante el día, según la organización musulmana Waqf, que administra el recinto sagrado. Jordania, el custodio del sitio, condenó las "continuas violaciones" de (Israel) allí.
Madre de Julian Assange denuncia a EE.UU. y Reino Unido por maltrato a su hijo
El 11 de abril, el actual presidente ecuatoriano, Lenín Moreno, tomó la decisión de retirar el asilo de Assange y lo entregó a la Policía del Reino Unido, país donde cumple 50 semanas de cárcel.
Tras el arresto, Washington anunció una acusación criminal en su contra por presunta conspiración, y el pasado 23 de mayo le imputó 17 nuevos cargos, entre ellos violación de la Ley de Espionaje.
De ser hallado culpable de tales acusaciones, y si fuera extraditado a Estados Unidos, el activista podría afrontar una pena de hasta 175 años de cárcel.
