International

The Vatican media will have a new head. Or rather, a new female head. Her name is Montserrat Alvarado, Mexican by birth and American by adoption, and she will be the new prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, starting November 1. For the first time, a woman will lead the media galaxy of the Holy See. Additionally, she will be the first layperson chosen to hold the position of prefect alone. Alvarado will be in charge of one of the largest Vatican “ministries,” which oversees Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media, the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican Publishing House, the Vatican Printing House, and the Vatican Film Library.

Ukrainian drones reached Russia’s second city this Wednesday, where the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, known as “the Russian Davos,” begins on the same day. The airstrike hit three districts of the city, representing a serious setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sees this economic event as a window to attract investments to Russia.

The exchange of skirmishes between Iran and the United States is becoming a constant during the fragile ceasefire currently governing the conflict. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed this Wednesday that it attacked a US ship in response to a previous offensive by the North American country against an Iranian tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, in a new offensive round that both parties accuse each other of initiating. Meanwhile, Kuwait was forced to suspend flights after its international airport was targeted by Iranian reprisals, causing injuries and damage.

If he was badly wounded and disfigured in the bombings at the start of the war in Iran, the United States believes that the Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Jamenei, is alive and “increasingly involved” in the country’s leadership and negotiations, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in the Senate this Tuesday, while talks to end the war remain uncertain.

The European Commission has listened to the requests of countries such as Spain and, especially, Italy, and is inclined to give greater budgetary leeway to Member States to address the consequences of Iran’s energy crisis. The Community Executive is considering allowing countries to allocate 0.3% of GDP to energy-related expenses outside the EU budgetary framework, something it will detail this Wednesday in the fiscal package it had planned to present.

The grand prize for loyalty to Donald Trump went this Tuesday to Bill Pulte, who is the choice of the President of the United States to serve temporarily as the National Intelligence Director replacing Tulsi Gabbard, who will leave the position this month. The chosen one lacks any experience in the field of espionage and until now managed the federal agency for Housing Finance, which is essentially the mortgage market.

In Washington, thousands of journalists work, but there is one who seems to get almost all the exclusives: Barak Ravid.

Anger in Kenya against the U.S. over Ebola. The plan of Donald Trump’s administration to build a quarantine center to house Americans who have been exposed to the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda has outraged many Kenyans, who took to the streets to protest a measure that, they believe, puts the country’s public health at risk.

The image of a safe haven of the Persian Gulf countries, on which their opulent economies were based, has been disrupted by the Iran war. Maintaining the perception of security has become an imperative for these monarchies, even if it infringes on the freedom of expression of their citizens. Amnesty International (AI) denounced on Monday a “campaign of repression,” resulting in more than a thousand detainees accused of sympathizing with Iran during the United States and Israel war against the Islamic Republic.

A new Russian airstrike with drones and missiles against the main cities of Ukraine left at least nine people dead and dozens injured last night. In the capital, the number of dead was four and the number of injured, about 60, according to the report published on Telegram by its mayor, Vitali Klichkó. In Dnipro, there were five fatalities.