US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky will meet next Thursday at the White House. This was announced this Friday by Jake Sullivan, Biden's main foreign advisor, who stressed the importance of this meeting taking place just after the summit this week between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. a.

“Certainly, the meeting comes at a critical time, as Russia is desperately seeking help from countries like North Korea for its brutal war in Ukraine, while Ukrainian forces continue to advance their counteroffensive,” Sullivan said at a press conference.

The details of the meeting between Kim and Putin have not been made public but, at its end, the Russian president stated in statements to public television Rossía-1 that there is room for military and space cooperation with North Korea.

In addition to meeting Biden, Zelensky will also see Democratic congressional leaders next week, Sullivan said.

The meeting at the White House will come after Zelensky participates in the United Nations General Assembly's High-Level Week, where leaders from around the world gather to address the most important current issues and deliver speeches to their peers.

Biden and Zelensky are scheduled to speak on Tuesday, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is attending in Putin's place, is expected to speak on Saturday, according to the provisional schedule provided by the UN.

More humanitarian aid

The meeting will take place at a time when Biden is trying to convince Congress to approve $24 billion in humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine, where the counteroffensive is yielding less satisfactory results than expected by some lawmakers in Washington.

In particular, a growing number of House Republicans have been trying to reduce military assistance and criticizing what they see as a “blank check” for Ukraine.

This will be the sixth bilateral meeting between Biden and Zelensky since the American assumed the presidency in January 2021.

The first two took place at the White House – one in September 2021 before the start of the war and the second in December 2022 -, which marked Zelensky's first foreign visit since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. .

The third meeting took place in kyiv in February of this year, coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion.. The fourth meeting took place in May on the sidelines of the G7 in Hiroshima, Japan, and the fifth in July during the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Ireland's data regulator has fined the social network TikTok 345 million euros for violating community regulations on the protection of minors, as reported this Friday.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) has announced in a statement its decision to punish the video platform for its practices between July 31, 2020 and December 31 of that year, although the company claims to have modified them since then.

By default, the social network opened minors' accounts to the general public, thus allowing adults to have access to them and be able to send direct messages to their owners.

Eight violated clauses

The DPC, which regulates the platform within the EU, explained that its investigation, opened in September 2021, has revealed that eight clauses of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) were violated for, among other things, not providing transparent information. to its underage users.

It was also considered that TikTok did not take into account the risks for children under 13 years of age who had access to the platform, despite the fact that that is the minimum age to open an account.

This decision by the DPC comes after the platform had already suffered a fine of 12.7 million pounds (14.8 million euros) in April imposed by the British regulator for processing the data of 1.4 million minors. 13 years old who used the Internet without parental consent.

All accounts opened by minors under 16 years of age since 2021 are set to be private by default, so only people authorized by the user can access their contents.

Thousands of workers at three assembly plants of General Motors (GM), Ford and Stellantis in the United States began strikes early this Friday due to the lack of an agreement to sign a new collective agreement.

It is the first time in history that factories of the so-called Big Three of Detroit, as the three companies are known, have gone on strike simultaneously. The three plants employ around 13,500 people.

“For the first time in history, we will declare strikes at the same time in all three companies. “We are using a new strategy, the selective strike,” said United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fein.

Following Fein's words, hundreds of union members stood at the entrance doors of the factories to participate in the strike pickets.

The union and the three companies have been negotiating since July the signing of a new collective agreement for the next four years. But the union has said the companies are not negotiating in good faith.

They demand a salary increase of 46%

UAW demands a salary increase of 46% in four years, the reintroduction of traditional pensions, the reduction of working hours and the unionization of workers in battery production factories.

UAW has warned that it will use the strategy of selective strikes in different plants of the Big Three to put more pressure on the companies. The number of plants on strike will increase as negotiations continue.

Fein has also not ruled out the UAW declaring a simultaneous general strike at the three companies, which would be an unprecedented measure in the history of the United States.

The last strike that the sector experienced occurred in 2019 when the UAW was negotiating the signing of the collective agreement that expired at midnight this Thursday.

Then, GM's 49,000 workers went on strike for 40 days, costing the company about $3.8 billion.

The case of the disappearance of the girl Madeleine McCann against the suspected German pedophile Christian Brueckner “is about to collapse” as the former friend who gave a damning statement is “faltering” and threatens to stop helping the investigation” , as reported by the British press.

The fear that has now been raised is that Helge Busching is about to withdraw his evidence against Brueckner, 45, considered a key suspect in Madeleine's disappearance since last year.

The case could collapse, given that it focuses heavily on the testimony of his former friend who claimed that he told him when they were talking about Madeleine's disappearance that “she didn't scream.”

Busching gave Brueckner's name to British police in 2017, around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.

Busching claims Brueckner told him at a Spanish kite festival in 2008 that he was involved in Madeleine's kidnapping in Praia da Luz a year earlier.

Rapist and pedophile

However, it was not until German prosecutors announced they were investigating Brueckner in June that British police revealed they had received a tip about him in 2017.

Brueckner, a convicted rapist and pedophile, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005.

Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on Portugal's Algarve coast, in May 2007.

Will Nadia Calviño be the next president of the European Investment Bank? All the clues suggest yes, although within the EU framework nothing is almost ever certain.. The issue of charges is like a game of chess, and the movements of pieces bring the acting vice president closer to the Luxembourg-based organization for a position that she would assume on January 1, 2024.. Calviño competes, in the final race, with the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, and starts as a favorite against her – despite the fact that there are more options, such as the former Italian Minister of Finance, Daniele Franco -, as 20minutes reported a few years ago. weeks.

This weekend the Ministers of Economy of the Union meet in Santiago de Compostela in a Council under the Spanish presidency that seems decisive for the election of Calviño, although this could be delayed until October if the reluctance that some States still show is not resolved. members. For example, Germany is concerned about national dynamics, with a government in office, even despite the good harmony that the vice president has with the German economic minister, Christian Lindner.. In the case of France, the focus is on the investments that can be made by the EIB in nuclear energy, something from which Spain distances itself.. but the EU as a whole does not have to do so.

All in all, there is an element that works quite in favor of Nadia Calviño in her intention to return to the European sphere (she was already Director General of Budgets of the European Commission before assuming the position of Minister): the ECB has nominated Claudia Buch to preside over the Single Supervisory Mechanism against Margarita Delgado, and although this process has not ended, the almost complete dismissal of Delgado leaves all the doors open to the number two in the Executive, since Spain would not occupy two positions of a very similar nature.

The sources consulted by 20minutos draw an optimistic map for Calviño's aspirations. “Right now it is in a very good position,” they comment, especially because it has already obtained the 'yes' of some Member States, such as Portugal, and also because it is “promoting its candidacy more than others.”. These years, the sources conclude, Calviño has acquired “experience in national government” which was “what he needed to move to a position of this type.”

In this scenario, some of the other countries have given some clues and Paris precisely recognizes the skills of the Spanish leader. “I firmly believe that he has all the necessary skills, but we have to talk among all the ministers to make a final decision,” warned the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire.. He asks, however, “not to force the process” and assures that his Executive will announce his support – to whomever – “when the right time comes.”

Calviño herself prefers to be cautious, and does not consider the meeting in Galicia to be decisive for the election to the EIB. “Personally, I am not going to address this issue because I do not think it would be appropriate. It would not seem appropriate to me taking into account that I chair these informal Ecofin meetings and that we are in Spain and not only in Spain, but in my land, in Galicia, here in Santiago de Compostela,” he said.. Right now Spain holds the position of High Representative, in the hands of Josep Borrell, and could be in a good position, who knows, to have either a strong vice-presidency in the next Commission or another position such as the presidency of the European Council, always depending on the balances between the different political families. At the same time, the options are reduced, if Calviño ends up in Luxembourg, for the European Agency against Money Laundering to have Madrid as its headquarters – although Spain already has several Union agencies and that also works against it.

The European Investment Bank was created in 1958 and provides financing for projects that contribute to achieving the objectives of the EU, both inside and outside it.. Its objectives are also to boost Europe's growth and employment potential, support measures to mitigate climate change and promote EU policies in other countries.. Likewise, it is financed in the capital markets and grants loans on favorable conditions for projects that contribute to the objectives of the European Union.. Nearly 90% of the credits are granted in the EU but not a euro comes from the community budget.

The Ukrainian General Staff announced this Friday the liberation of the town of Andrivka, located about 13 kilometers south of the occupied city of Bakhmut, in the eastern province of Donetsk.. The note also speaks of “partial successes” in the area of Klishchivka, another municipality located south of Bakhmut, where Ukraine is making the greatest advances on the eastern front.. Since it began its counteroffensive in June, Ukraine has recovered about fifty kilometers around Bakhmut.

Uber loses court fight in Brazil. A Brazilian court this Thursday sentenced Uber to pay 1 billion reais (about 190 million euros) for “collective moral damages” to the application's drivers, which announced that it will appeal the decision.

The ruling of the Regional Labor Court of São Paulo has national scope and establishes that 90% of the value of the fine be allocated to an unemployment fund and the remaining 10% to associations of drivers of digital mobility applications.

Furthermore, the judge forces the company to recognize the “employment link” with its drivers and to register them with the labor authorities, under penalty of penalties of 10,000 reais per day per unregistered worker.

The decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed in 2021 by the Public Ministry of Labor, who considered during its investigations that Uber had “control” over “the way in which the activities of professionals should be carried out,” the prosecutor's office itself explained in a statement.

In the ruling, the judge agrees with the Public Ministry, considering that this control over the drivers was “much greater” than what was known until now, with “rewards and losses for attendance or absence, being connected for the trip or not. “, reads the decision.

“The action required a dense legal analysis and, without a shadow of a doubt, the largest cross-over of data in the history of the Public Ministry of Labor and Labor Justice,” said one of those responsible for the prosecutor's investigation, Renan Kalil. .

Uber has announced in a statement that it will appeal the ruling and that it will not adopt any of the measures decided by the judge until all possible legal remedies have been exhausted.

According to the platform, the court's decision represents an “isolated understanding and contrary to jurisprudence” and causes “legal uncertainty.”

Uber has one million drivers in Brazil who provide service to more than 30 million users in about 500 municipalities, according to platform data for the first quarter of 2022.

The Royal Gibraltar Police have arrested Judge Charles Pitto, 62, for an alleged crime of indecent exposure for having shown his genitals in public, according to Gibraltar public television GBC.

Although the information was published this Thursday, the truth is that the alleged incident occurred a week ago and was arrested this Tuesday. According to police information, Judge Pitto is now free on bail.

For his part, the president of the Supreme Court, Anthony Dudley, issued a statement in which he acknowledged the arrest and added that “it would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is active.”

Furthermore, the British network has recalled that this is a judge known in Gibraltar for handling several media cases.. For days there had been speculation about his arrest because one of the trials he was conducting had been postponed.

The Gibraltarian Justice has assured that while the investigation lasts, the judge will not carry out any judicial activity.

The president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, has decreed the closure of the maritime, air and land border with its neighbor Haiti starting at 6:00 a.m. (local time) on Friday and has ordered the Army, Navy and Air Force to be prepared to comply with the provision.

“The Haitian Government itself has control problems in its territory. If there are uncontrollable things there, they will be uncontrollable for the Haitian Government, but they will not be uncontrollable for the Government of the Dominican Republic,” Abinader said, according to the Dominican newspaper Listín Diario.

At the beginning of the week, the Dominican authorities already threatened Haiti with closing the border if it finally decided to divert the Masacre River, which, according to Santo Domingo, would violate Article 10 of the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Arbitration between both Caribbean nations.

They have already warned that the construction carried out by Haitians in the river is being carried out unilaterally and by private individuals.. However, the Government of Haiti has stated that it neither supports nor participates in said work.

At the beginning of the week, President Abinader made the decision to resume the extraction of water from the Dajabón River in order to “guarantee the supply of water to national producers,” although the Santo Domingo authorities recognized that this was a short-term measure.

Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, was charged this Thursday with three charges related to the purchase and possession of weapons, illegal in the case of people with addictions.

The indictment is signed by David Weiss, the federal prosecutor for Delaware, who in mid-August was appointed special prosecutor in charge of these investigations by the Secretary of Justice of the United States, Merrick Garland.

According to the document, on October 12, 2018 or on a date close to that day, Hunter Biden purchased a pistol, a .38-caliber Colt Cobra. To do this, he lied to the seller by giving him a certificate that stipulated that he was not an illicit user or addicted to stimulants, narcotics or other controlled substances.

“I knew that this statement was false and fictitious,” notes the document, which also reproaches the president's son for lying about his addictions in the information that should be recorded in the federal firearms license (FFL). ). With a third charge, he is also accused of possessing a firearm knowing it was illegal due to his addictions.

He lied on the weapons certificate

Specifically, the gun certificate that must be filled out asks the buyer if he or she is an “illegal user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic, or any other controlled substance.” It also warns that “the use or possession of marijuana remains illegal under federal law, regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medical or recreational purposes in the state” in which that person resides.

That record makes it clear that the information provided will be used to determine whether Federal or State law prohibits that person from receiving a firearm, or prohibits its sale or disposal.. As a result, certain violations of the Gun Control Act are punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $250,000.

At the hearing on July 27, Hunter Biden was scheduled to plead guilty after reaching an agreement with federal prosecutors, but the deal ended up falling apart after the judge, Maryellen Noreika, nominated by former President Donald Trump, expressed doubts about the same.

He pleaded not guilty

Under that agreement, the president's 53-year-old son could have avoided a formal indictment under certain conditions, but after a hearing full of interruptions and changes, Biden decided not to sign the agreement and plead not guilty. Republicans, led by Trump, have used the investigation against the current president's son to sow doubts about his businesses abroad and to describe the president's family as corrupt.

The investigations against him were opened in 2018 during Trump's mandate. As a consequence, conservatives have relied on them to attack the Democratic president, whom they accuse of having made no effort to take this investigation to the end.

This Wednesday the leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, ordered the opening of an impeachment investigation against the president, accusing him precisely of taking advantage of his political ties to intervene in his son's businesses and benefit from them, accusations repeatedly refuted. by the White House.