All posts by Luis Moreno

Moreno Luis - is a business and economics reporter based in Barcelona. Prior to joining the BNE24 he was economics editor of the BBC Spaine and worked as an economics and political reporter for Murcia Tuday.

Netanyahu warns Lebanon if Hezbollah enters all-out war: 'You will be destroyed'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated this Saturday the threats to Lebanon, a country that will be “destroyed” if the Hezbollah militia party enters a large-scale war with Israel.

“We are going to restore security in the north and south. “If Hezbollah makes the mistake and enters into a full-scale war, it will have destroyed Lebanon with its own hands,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech.

“We are acting in the north against all Hezbollah initiatives against us. We are eliminating terrorist cells, moving them away from the border, destroying ammunition. “We are going to continue with strong deterrence in the north and total victory in the south,” he explained.

Regarding the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu has defended that the only way to achieve the objective of destroying the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is through a ground invasion of the enclave and has stressed that the offensive will continue “until the end.”

“We are going to do everything we can to bring (the hostages) home, to complete the mission, but also to destroy Hamas and ensure that Hamas is never a threat to us again and that no group threatens Israel from Gaza.” , has added.

“I say it simply and plainly: we are going to continue with the war until we achieve all our objectives (…). There is no way to achieve these objectives other than by winning, there is no way to win other than with a ground invasion,” he argued.

Netanyahu has highlighted that so far 110 hostages have been released, of which 86 were Israeli civilians, children, women and the elderly.. “I had a very hard time with the decision, wondering how to negotiate with the demon that murders, kidnaps and rapes. However, at that very moment, I knew we could save dozens of lives. We have recovered many, but the mission is not yet complete,” he highlighted.

Hamas announces that it will not release more hostages until the war with Israel ends

The 'number two' of Hamas, Salé al Aruri, assured this Saturday that there will be no new exchanges of hostages for prisoners until the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip stops.

“Right now there are no negotiations for a truce. There will be no exchange of prisoners until the aggression ceases and there is a comprehensive and definitive ceasefire,” Al Aruri said in statements to the Qatari channel Al Jazeera.

“The occupation insists that there are still women and children being held, but we have handed them all over. “The prisoners remaining in Gaza are male soldiers and civilians who have been in the occupation army,” he noted.

Al Aruri, considered the leader of Hamas in the West Bank, has pointed out that “our Zionist prisoners are not going to be released until all our prisoners are free and there is a ceasefire.”. “The resistance is prepared for all Israeli military scenarios, whether they are war on land, in the air or otherwise,” he stressed.

This same Saturday, Israel announced the withdrawal of a team of negotiators that was discussing in the capital of Qatar, Doha, the possibility of reactivating the truce with Hamas in force in Gaza until this past Friday, after regretting that the talks are currently going through a “deadlock” over the circumstances of new exchanges between hostages and prisoners.

“Due to the blockage in the talks and on instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of (Israel's foreign intelligence service) Mossad, David Barnea, has ordered his Doha team to return to Israel,” the agency said. Office of the Prime Minister of Israel in a statement collected by the Israeli news portal Walla.

In the statement, the Office accuses the Hamas movement of “breaching its part of the agreement” regarding the exchange, “which included the release of all women and children, included on a list that was sent to Hamas, and to whom Hamas gave its approval.”

However, negotiations would continue at “low intensity” with a Shin Bet delegation present in Cairo, according to Israeli public television Kan, citing sources from the Israeli apparatus.. There would also be a Qatari delegation traveling to Israel.

The goal would be to leave a door open for Hamas to release the women and children that Israel says it is still holding, ten in total, and a one-day ceasefire would be granted in exchange.

The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing Egyptian sources, that there is a Qatari delegation in Israel and that there are Egyptians in Gaza to keep communication lines open.

“We continue talking and giving reports every hour. Negotiations only end when the parties stop talking.. That is not happening here,” explained the Egyptian source.

A total of 136 hostages remained in the hands of Hamas and associated Palestinian militias at the time of the end of the truce on Friday.. Ten of the hostages are 75 years old or older. The vast majority of the hostages, 125, are Israelis. Eleven are foreign nationals, including eight from Thailand.

According to official Israeli sources on condition of anonymity to the Walla portal, the fundamental obstacle lies in the liberation of women.. “We will not discuss anything about the plan until the women are released. If Hamas abides by the agreement and frees the women, it will be possible to resume negotiations under fire,” they say.

Israeli Kan television has indicated that Hamas has proposed the release of the oldest hostages, but that for this it is waiting for the release of “relevant” prisoners who are locked up in Israeli prisons, since they would also be the oldest.

The spectacular map that shows the flight madness in the United States after Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the most important holiday in the United States. All families get together on the fourth Thursday in November, and the entire weekend is a crazy movement between cities.

The FlightRadar24 website, famous for its real-time monitoring of air traffic around the world, has shared on its Twitter account a spectacular map showing the movement of planes last Sunday, when most people returned to their homes. cities of residence after spending Thanksgiving with their families.

As reported by the Daily Mail, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed that last Sunday a passenger record was broken in the country.

Specifically, 2.9 million people took a plane, surpassing the previous record of 2.88 million, set on June 30. It is also a 10% increase compared to the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2022.

But despite the enormous traffic, it was a quiet day. Only 55 flights within, within or outside the United States were canceled, according to FlightAware, a tracking service.. That is 0.11% of the 51,332 flights that operated. Of course, almost 8,000 flights were delayed, including several hundred that were affected by snow in Denver and Chicago.

Airplane pilot Chris Pohl, in a post about the record on Instagram, revealed more statistics: there were 56.2 people per flight, 2,003 people tested per minute (120,199 per hour), 35 flights taking off per minute (one every 1.7 seconds) and zero accidents.

Israel confirms the death of five hostages held by Hamas in Gaza

Five people who were held captive in the Gaza Strip as hostages of the Islamist terrorist group Hamas died, the Israeli Army confirmed this Friday, while Israeli authorities estimate that there are still 132 hostages alive in the Strip.

Israeli forces “notified the families of hostages Eliyahu Margalit, Mia Goren, Ronen Engel and Aryeh Zalmanovich of their deaths,” Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video conference.

“A committee of experts from the Ministry of Health, together with the National Center for Forensic Medicine, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Ministry of Religious Services, determined his death based on the findings collected and established intelligence,” he added.

In addition, soldiers deployed in Gaza were able to recover the lifeless body of Ofir Tzarfati, 27, “for burial in Israel,” Hagari added.

The Army did not provide details on how these five deaths occurred in Gaza.

According to Hagari, Hamas is still holding 136 hostages — four of whom lost their lives. Among them are 125 Israelis and 11 foreigners: 8 from Thailand, one from Nepal, one from Tanzania and one with French-Mexican citizenship. Among those 136 people, there are 17 women and 2 children.

The two children are brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas, aged 4 years and 10 months, respectively, who were kidnapped along with their mother, Shiri Silverman Bibas – of Argentine origin – and their father, Yarden Bibas.

Israel and Hamas this Friday broke a truce that was negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, which included the release of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and which marked a seven-day pause in the war that broke out. on October 7.

During the truce, 105 hostages were released: 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners (23 Thais and one Filipino).

They are joined by four other hostages who were previously released: an Israeli-American mother and daughter and two elderly Israeli women.

On the other hand, Israel has recovered the bodies of three hostages who perished in Gaza: that of Tzarfati, announced this Friday, as well as those of a soldier and an elderly woman.

Thus, there are 132 live hostages and four dead in Gaza, a total of 110 released alive, and three who were rescued after dying.

Hagari said Friday that for the truce to continue, Hamas had to release the Bibas family's mother and two children, but the Islamist group refused.

For its part, Hamas alleges that these three people were killed by Israeli bombings and that it offered Israel to hand over their bodies, something that the Jewish State rejected.

The war began after an attack by the armed wing of Hamas that included the launching of thousands of rockets towards Israel and the infiltration of some 3,000 terrorists who massacred some 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 240, in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip. Loop.

Controversy in Argentina over the latest appointment of Milei due to his philonazi past

Politicians from the Argentine left, feminists and an association of the Jewish community of the South American country rejected this Friday the appointment of former Minister of Justice Rodolfo Barra as attorney of the National Treasury in the next Government of Javier Milei.

In a message published on her social networks, the former candidate for the Presidency of Argentina for the Left Front and Workers-Unity in the last elections, Myriam Bregman, described Barra as “anti-rights and ultra-right (sic).”

Bregman's message accompanied another from the feminist philosopher and director of the Gender in Justice Observatory of the Judicial Council of the City of Buenos Aires, Diana Maffía, who recalled Barra's intention to constitutionally prohibit abortion in Argentina during his stage as minister in the governments of neoliberal Peronist Carlos Menem (1989-1999).

Barra, who was minister of the Supreme Court between 1990 and 1993 and head of Justice between 1994 and 1996, had to leave the Menemist Executive when his past as a militant of the far-right youth organization Movimiento Nacionalista Tacuara, linked to fascism and the neo-Nazism, and anti-Semite.

The Argentine Forum against Antisemitism (FACA) also rejected the appointment of the former official by the president-elect and asked Milei to rectify his decision.

“We consider this election as a direct affront to the democratic and plural spirit of our country,” FACA members said in a message published on the forum's social networks.

For its part, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA) – which is, together with the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), the main Jewish association of the South American country – recalled in a statement broadcast on its social networks that Barra apologized in the years ninety for his “horrible behaviors and manifestations when he was young.”

“It is important to highlight what happened, since it will be in charge of the highest body of the Corps of State Lawyers and will have as a central axis the fight against anti-Semitism and discrimination,” added the DAIA.

Argentina – and especially its capital, Buenos Aires – is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world outside of Israel: the first in Latin America and the fifth in the world, with between 300,000 and 400,000 people.

The elected president, Javier Milei, has recognized himself as Catholic, but has expressed on numerous occasions his intention to convert to Judaism.

Regarding abortion – recognized in the country as a right since 2020, after a long struggle by the Argentine feminist movement -, the libertarian expressed during the electoral campaign his intention to call a referendum on the issue and expressed his position contrary to it.

Gaza returns to the horror of bombings after the end of the truce: "I was sleeping and I woke up with an explosion"

In the already devastated Gaza Strip, its inhabitants woke up this Friday under fire from intense Israeli bombardments after the Islamist group Hamas and Israel ended their truce, rekindling a painful déjà vu of death and destruction in the Palestinian enclave.

The roar of the explosions that shook the Strip early on, seeding it from north to south with colossal gray mushrooms of smoke and dust, gave way to screams of horror. “Yuri, Yuri…. Don't go!” Fatena Meqdad cried inconsolably, when she discovered that her five-year-old daughter was dead, a week before her birthday.

The girl, whose name means “flower”, died in a neighborhood of Rafah, very close to the border with Egypt, when a projectile hit near where she was playing with her cousins.

“I was sleeping and suddenly I woke up with an explosion, I didn't realize what happened. His uncle went to see and came back shouting my daughter's name, he told me that she had been murdered and that my son was injured,” says Ramadan Meqdad, Yuri's father.

“She looked like a flower. The last two nights he came to sleep with me, and told me: 'I love you dad', I never thought he was saying goodbye to me,” he commented. Fatena was planning to bake his birthday cake in a few days, while Yuri's sister says not understanding why the Israeli Army is cruel against children.

At least 6,000 minors have died under bombs in this war. “Why do they kill children? We haven't done anything to them,” he cries. “This is the worst day of my life.” The Strip has recorded more than 15,000 deaths since the war began on October 7, in addition to some 7,000 people buried under the rubble.

The Strip has recorded more than 15,000 deaths since the war began on October 7, in addition to some 7,000 people buried under the rubble. This Friday alone, 178 more deaths were added to the list, as well as 589 injured, most of them children and women, indicated the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas.

In the streets of Rafah, several women hugged the corpses of their babies or children, some covered in dust and with their eyes still open, while the bodies of adults wrapped in white cloth were piled up. Many others desperately searched among the rubble for signs of life for their loved ones.

With no place to go

Thursday was the seventh and final day of a truce negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, through an agreement that included the release of 105 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Israel and Hamas blamed each other for breaking the truce, and shortly before 7:00 a.m. local time (5:00 GMT), when the truce they did not renew expired, they began the exchange of fire despite increasing international opposition.

An Israeli government spokesman said that “Hamas will receive the mother of all blows,” while the Islamist group promised to respond “firmly.” The United States warned Israel against resuming the military offensive in Gaza unless it had a concrete plan to avoid mass deaths and displacement of Palestinian families, as occurred before the truce.

This Friday, Israel dropped thousands of leaflets from the air in the south of the Strip, urging the inhabitants of the city of Khan Younis, now considered a “dangerous combat zone”, to move towards Rafah, too. bombed today.

But according to Gazan authorities, thousands of refugees are in the Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, while Rafah “is today a city hit by disaster, since the medical aid that came in during the truce is only enough for one day.”

“My family and I are from northern Gaza, we evacuated to the south when Israel announced it would be safe. I wish we had not evacuated, maybe my daughter would be alive,” he laments in Rafah.

Humanitarian crisis

“Medical teams are caring for a large number of wounded after the end of the truce and new bombings against civilians. The injured are lying on the floor of the emergency services and in front of the operating rooms, due to the accumulation of cases,” denounced the Ministry of Health.

“The health situation in the north of the Strip is extremely catastrophic. The three remaining hospitals are small and are not prepared to receive a large number of wounded,” he added, urging Gazans to donate blood. Before the end of the truce, the panorama in the Strip was already apocalyptic.

The vast majority of the buildings in the northern half of the enclave were reduced to ashes, while nearly two million Gazans – almost the entire population – are displaced in the middle of winter, in the midst of a serious humanitarian crisis due to the collapse. of hospitals and the shortage of drinking water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel.

At least 180 dead in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the end of the truce

The toll of Palestinians killed due to the bombings carried out this Friday by the Israeli Army against the Gaza Strip has risen to nearly 180 deaths after the start of Israeli bombings against the enclave.

The Gaza Ministry of Health has indicated in a brief message on its account on the social network Facebook that the official toll of victims “due to the Israeli aggression since this morning” stands at 178 dead and another 589 injured.

Health spokesman Ashraf al Qidra had previously highlighted that “the temporary truce has not helped the health system” of the enclave, badly damaged by the offensive launched by Israel after the attacks carried out on October 7 by Hamas.. “We need to guarantee the delivery of medical supplies and fuel to all hospitals in Gaza,” he said.

In this sense, he stated that “the reality of the health system in Gaza and the north of the Strip is absolutely catastrophic because the main hospitals are out of service.”. “Medical facilities and clinics in Gaza are very limited,” he stressed, before explaining that the three hospitals that remain operational “cannot receive a large number of wounded.”

The authorities of the Strip, controlled by Hamas, have detailed that among the dead is photojournalist Abdullah Daruish, from the Palestinian television network Al Aqsa.. “The number of journalists who have fallen martyrs increases to 71,” he said in a message on his Telegram account.

“The killing of Palestinian journalists and media workers by the Israeli occupation seeks to hide the truth and is an attempt to scare and intimidate journalists from carrying out their duty in the absence of a Palestinian narrative. “, he has settled.

In the city of Rafá, in the south of the Strip, the authorities have already recorded four deaths after a bomb hit a house in a central neighborhood, while another three people have died from bombings in the Maghazi refugee camp, in the center of Gaza. In addition, the body of a Palestinian has been recovered from the rubble in the south of the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas of “violating” the truce and releasing a new group of prisoners and has stressed that the country “is committed to achieving the objectives of the war”. For its part, the Israeli Army has claimed that Hamas violated the truce and claimed to have intercepted a projectile launched from the enclave.

The temporary truce, agreed with the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, came into force on November 24 with a duration of four days, although it was extended twice for a total of three more days.. On this occasion, the parties have failed to agree on a new extension, while Israel has rejected calls for a ceasefire.

The Israeli Army launched an offensive against the Palestinian enclave after the attacks carried out on October 7 by Hamas, which left some 1,200 dead and nearly 240 kidnapped.. The Gazan authorities, controlled by the Islamist group, have put the number of Palestinians dead at 15,000, to which another 230 are added at the hands of the Israeli Army and by attacks by settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A Peruvian court ratifies that Alberto Fujimori must remain in prison

A court in the Peruvian Ica region this Friday declared inadmissible a resolution of the Constitutional Court (TC) that restored the pardon to former president Alberto Fujimori, who will therefore continue in prison.

“The First Preparatory Investigation Court of Ica declares inadmissible the execution of the sentence of freedom of Alberto Fujimori, by his office because the habeas corpus demand has not been upheld,” indicates a message from the Judiciary published on the social network. X (formerly Twitter).

The president of the TC, Francisco Morales, stated this Wednesday that the authorities should “proceed to the immediate release” of Fujimori, despite the fact that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDC Court) ordered the opposite last year.

“We must proceed to comply with the previous sentence,” Morales declared to Canal N television, clarifying an order from the TC that declared inadmissible a consultation by the Ministry of Justice on the pardon granted to Fujimori in 2017 by the then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and which had given rise to different interpretations.

But the resolution signed by Judge Vicente Fernández Tapia details that the habeas corpus claim has not been upheld before the aforementioned court as it lacks jurisdiction in accordance with the last paragraph of article 27 of the New Procedural Code.

In its decision, the Ica court also ordered “that everything taken be returned to the Constitutional Court so that it can proceed in accordance with the law regarding the execution of the estimatory sentence, issued in this habeas corpus process.”

The pardon, granted on December 24, 2017, had already been annulled by the Judiciary in 2018, after the Inter-American Court asked the Peruvian State to guarantee the administration of justice for the victims of the massacres of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, the cases for in which Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Also last Wednesday, lawyer Carlos Rivera, defender of the relatives of the victims of the massacres for which Fujimori was convicted, announced that he planned to go to the Inter-American Court if the former president's release was ordered.

“Let's see if today there is some kind of decision in the preparatory investigation court of Ica. Obviously the path that we will automatically take is to request a new compliance supervision process from the Inter-American Court,” he stressed.

Hours before the Ica judge's decision, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expressed its concern over the possibility that the TC's resolution would lead to Fujimori's release.

The organization recalled on Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases”.

An Avianca flight covering the Madrid-Bogotá route lands in the Azores due to technical failure

An Avianca airline flight that covered the route between Madrid and Bogotá, with 235 passengers on board, made an emergency landing on the Azores islands due to a technical failure, the company has reported.

“Flight AV11 Madrid-Bogotá, operated by the 787 aircraft with registration N780AV, was diverted to the Santa María airport, located in the Azores of Portugal, after presenting a technical indication,” the company detailed in a statement.

The information added that the plane “landed at 8:11 p.m. local time (7:11 p.m. GMT) with its 235 passengers and crew without incident.”

To transfer passengers to Bogotá, Avianca will have an additional operation which will be confirmed in the next few hours, said the company, which did not give more details about what happened.

Russia continues its crusade against gays and bans the LGBT movement

The Supreme Court of Russia put the Russian homosexual community on the verge of hiding this Thursday by banning the LGBT movement, which is now considered “extremist”, a ruling that has unleashed a wave of indignation among sexual minorities.

“Recognize the international civic LGBT movement as an extremist organization and prohibit its activities on Russian territory,” ruled the judge, Oleg Nefedov, when reading the verdict.

The measure prohibits both LGBT propaganda and advertising, as well as “generating interest and encouraging joining the ranks” of said movement.

Homosexual activists and jurists responded that, according to the Constitution, Russia is a secular state and accuse the Kremlin of wanting to “control” the consciences of Russians, while instilling “traditional family values, supposedly incompatible with the activities of said movement.” .

Russian President Vladimir Putin, determined to turn his country into a moral reserve against Western relativism, recently assured that homosexuals “are also part of society,” but criticized the obsession with the equality of sexual minorities.

summary judgment

The ruling, which has “immediate effect”, “does not affect the right of citizens to private life”, since homosexuality ceased to be a crime in this country in 1993. “We will appeal the ruling not only in Russia. We will appeal to the UN human rights committee,” said exiled Yuri Kochetkov, one of the leaders of the homosexual movement in Russia, who clarified that the ban will not come into force until January 10.

The hearing took place behind closed doors and was only attended by representatives of the Ministry of Justice, which is why its detractors consider it illegal.

LGBT activists, many of whom went into exile after the start of the war in Ukraine, created the previously non-existent International LGBT Civic Movement organization at the last minute in order to defend the movement's rights, but were not invited. to the session.

The plaintiff presented evidence about the alleged “extremist tendencies” and “incitement to social and religious hatred” in the activities of said movement.

Human rights organizations addressed the Supreme Court the day before arguing that “it is impossible” to classify people who belong to a social group as a movement. “This would be as absurd as, for example, calling all pensioners or people who belong to a particular ethnic group a social movement,” they noted.

Rainbow ban?

Activists fear that the ruling will lead to the banning of popular symbols such as the rainbow and unleash a wave of hatred and violence, since, according to the latest surveys, 62% of Russians already support limiting their rights, many more than ten years ago. years.

In addition, they warn that, from now on, the organizers of any activity of the LGBT movement can be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“We understand that this case is a preparation of the ground for political repressions (…) It is the intimidation of all those who defend a point of view different from the state, those who are capable and want to dedicate themselves to organizational activities that the State cannot control,” Kochetkov said.

The activist was convinced that the activity of any organization linked to the homosexual community will be “impossible”, so the movement will have to radically change its strategy.

Amnesty International warned this Thursday that “the consequences could be catastrophic”, since “there is a risk of reaching a total ban on LGBTI organisations”, which “will affect countless people”. “While threatening to instigate and legitimize a whole new level of violence against LGBTI people throughout Russia,” he notes.

Endless spiral of repression

A year ago Russia passed a law that completely censored LGBT propaganda, including books and movies; Last June, sex change surgical operations were banned, which caused great alarm among the transsexual community, and adoption by homosexual couples was also prohibited and same-sex marriages were annulled.

War “does not only take place on the battlefields, but also in people's consciences, in their minds and in their souls,” proclaimed Alexandr Jinstein, controversial pro-government deputy, author of the law against homosexual propaganda.

However, the Deputy Minister of Justice, André Luguinov, assured this month before the UN that in Russia there is no discrimination or persecution of the homosexual community and that the ban on their public demonstrations responds to the country's moral values.

The 2020 constitutional reform introduced the concept that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, after Putin assured that, as long as he is president, there will be no homosexual marriage in Russia.