International
Colombia and Mexico hit back at the U.S over Venezuela’s Maduro overthrow
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum told Trump that Americas “do not belong” to any power, dismissing Washington’s “dominance” of the hemisphere after seizing Venezuela’s leader in a military raid.
Collage: U.S. President Donald Trump; Colombian President Gustavo; Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Monday he was ready to “take up arms” in the face of threats from US counterpart Donald Trump, who over the weekend seized the leader of neighbouring Venezuela in a military strike.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum told Trump that Americas “do not belong” to any power, dismissing Washington’s “dominance” of the hemisphere after seizing Venezuela’s leader in a military raid.
Petro, a former guerrilla who for months had been the target of insults and threats from Trump, said on X: “I swore not to touch a weapon again… but for the homeland I will take up arms again.”
In reaction, Trump said that Petro should “watch his ass” and described Colombia’s first-ever leftist leader as “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
Petro, whose M-19 urban guerrilla group disarmed under a 1989 peace agreement, has traded barbs with Trump ever since the Republican’s return to the White House in January.
Petro has been a vocal critic of the US military deployment in the Caribbean, which began with blowing up of alleged drug boats, before expanding to seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers, then Saturday’s raid on Caracas to seize President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump accused the Colombian leader, without providing evidence, of being involved in drug trafficking and hit him and his family with financial sanctions.
Washington also removed Colombia from a list of countries certified as allies in the US war on drugs.
In a long message on X, Petro insisted that his anti-narcotics policy is sufficiently robust, but stressed there were limits to how aggressive the military can be.
“If you bomb even one of these groups without sufficient intelligence, you will kill many children. If you bomb peasants, thousands will turn into guerrillas in the mountains. And if you detain the president, whom a good part of my people love and respect, you will unleash the popular jaguar,” he wrote.
Trump, emphasising that American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Mexico’s President Sheinbaum hit back Monday, saying: “The Americas do not belong to any doctrine or any power. The American continent belongs to the peoples of each of the countries that comprise it.”
The Americas comprise North and South
North America includes 23 independent countries, featuring large nations like Canada, the United States, and Mexico, along with Central American nations (e.g., Costa Rica, Panama) and Caribbean island nations (e.g., Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas).
South America has 12 independent countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela, plus French Guiana.
US military forces early Saturday launched strikes on the Venezuelan capital Caracas and seized Maduro and his wife, flying them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
International
US and Iran to sign historic peace deal June 19 in Switzerland
He commended both Washington and Tehran for choosing diplomacy over continued conflict and acknowledged the roles played by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye in facilitating the talks.
•US/IRAN flags
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, revealed that both the United States and Iran have reached a landmark peace agreement to the immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
The formal signing ceremony is scheduled to take place on June 19 in Switzerland.
According to Sharif, the agreement is the result of extensive mediation efforts involving several regional and international stakeholders.
He commended both Washington and Tehran for choosing diplomacy over continued conflict and acknowledged the roles played by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye in facilitating the talks.
International
Zimbabwe Wins UN Security Council Seat for 2027-2028
The five countries were elected by the 193-member General Assembly to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on January 1, 2027.
Zimbabwe has been elected to a non-permanent, two-year term on the United Nations Security Council, the third time the country will be represented on the body mandated to maintain international peace and security.
Voice of Nigeria reports that the other countries that secured seats around the iconic horseshoe table are Austria, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Kyrgyzstan.
The five countries were elected by the 193-member General Assembly to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on January 1, 2027.
Austria and Portugal won the two seats allocated to the Western European and other States (WEOG) Group, while Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe were elected from the Latin American and Caribbean Group and the African Group, respectively.
Kyrgyzstan secured the Asia-Pacific seat after defeating the Philippines in four rounds of voting.
International
Finland’s president says EU should expand to 40 states — including Canada
His comments come as the Trump administration’s actions, alongside Russia’s war with Ukraine, prompt some countries to reconsider the benefits of EU membership.
• Finland’s president Alexander Stubb
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has stressed the need for a much larger European Union, saying the 27-nation bloc should increase its membership to 40 states and named the U.K., Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland as potential candidates to join.
Stubb made the call at an energy conference in the Finnish capital on Wednesday.
His comments come as the Trump administration’s actions, alongside Russia’s war with Ukraine, prompt some countries to reconsider the benefits of EU membership.
Stubb told the Eurelectric Power Summit that “the window of opportunity” for EU enlargement “is quite short because when the war in Ukraine ends and perhaps when the U.S. administration changes, I don’t know, then people are going to take their foot off the gas pedal and start heckling about unnecessary stuff again.”
Stubb added that “European strategic autonomy or European geopolitical power” is “often based on size and scale and I think the best European policy ever has been European enlargement.”
“In this moment, we need to think big and geographically, we need to enlarge or at least create memberships which are flexible enough to bring in a sum total of 40 European states — or even non-European,” Stubb said.
Finland’s president said the EU should look to its western flank and bring the U.K., which left the bloc in 2020, back into the fold, or at least “as close as possible
.”Canada should be considered as another option, Stubb said. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if Canada was the 28th state of the European Union rather than the 51st state of the United States?”
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