BERLIN (AP) — A knife attack on a high-speed train in Germany left three people severely wounded, the Bavarian Red Cross said Saturday. Police said a man has been arrested in connection with the morning attack.
The train, one of Germany’s high-speed ICE trains, was traveling between the Bavarian cities of Regensburg and Nuremberg at the time of the attack. A spokesperson for the Bavarian Red Cross, which had 110 responders at the scene, said the organization processed three “severely injured” people.
A 27-year-old Syrian man was arrested in Seubersdorf, where the train stopped after the attack, Bavarian state police told The Associated Press. The injured people came from the Regensburg and nearby Passau areas, state police said.
In addition, 200 to 300 other people from the train were taken off and brought to a nearby location, the Bavarian Red Cross spokesperson said.
Local police told The Associated Press they received a call about the attack around 9 a.m.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the background behind the “terrible” attack was “still unclear.” He said people in Seubersdorf, a municipality 473 kilometers (294 miles) south of Berlin, faced no “acute danger.”
“I hope that those injured and those who witnessed this will recover quickly and completely,” Seehofer said.
A spokesperson for the German railway network confirmed that the station in Seubersdorf was closed and that train travel between Regensburg and Nuremberg was suspended. Long-distance train service has since been rerouted via the nearby city of Ingolstadt.
“While the world will not be surprised, it’s a sad reminder of where the world’s former leader on climate change now stands,” Susan Biniaz, a lecturer at Yale Law School and former State Department climate negotiator, said in an email about Monday’s announcement. “The decision of two years ago [to abandon the Paris accord] is now even more grotesque — the reasons for withdrawing are no more correct, and the science is even clearer that, far from withdrawing, we should be increasing our efforts.”
Top Biden aides are looking at capping the relief to people earning less than $125,000 to $150,000, or $250,000 to $300,000 for couples that file joint taxes, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. But they said that no final decision has been made on the plans.
“There’s different proposals floating around the administration about how to structure this,” one person told the Washington Post.
They added that administration and Congressional staff have centered their discussion on “how to best meet the president’s desire to ensure the most economically vulnerable people with student debt benefit from any action.”
The US administration is discussing the amount that will be cut from student-loan debt but this could be at least $10,000 for eligible individuals, the people briefed on the matter told The Washington Post.
The people added that the White House is also considering excluding relief for loans that were taken out for professional degrees like medicine and law, and could limit the aid to undergraduate loans.
En diálogo con la prensa en la puerta de la Torre Le Parc, donde se desarrolló el operativo policial iniciado a primera hora de la madrugada en torno al edificio situado en Azucena Villaflor 450, la fiscal Federal Viviana Fein detalló además que el cuerpo del fiscal “fue encontrado dentro de la unidad por su madre”, quien acudió al domicilio de Puerto Madero al no tener novedades de su hijo en toda la jornada.
Poco después, el Ministerio de Seguridad confirmó a través de un comunicado que “los efectivos de la custodia de Nisman, pertenecientes a la Policía Federal Argentina, habían alertado a su Secretaría en horas de la tarde de su falta de respuesta a los insistentes llamados telefónicos. Al constatar que el hombre tampoco respondía al timbre de la casa y que el periódico del domingo aún se encontraba en el palier, decidieron notificar a los familiares”.
“El fiscal disponía de 10 efectivos de la Policía Federal Argentina para su custodia personal. La custodia entonces recogió a la madre de Nisman en su domicilio y la llevó a la torre Le Parc. Al intentar ingresar, la mujer constató que la puerta se encontraba cerrada con la llave colocada en la cerradura por dentro”, se resaltó.
El ministerio de Seguridad agregó que “los familiares solicitaron entonces al personal de mantenimiento del edificio que convocaran a un cerrajero para ingresar al departamento” “A primera hora de la noche, la madre ingresó a la vivienda acompañada por uno de los custodios, hallando el cuerpo de Nisman en el interior del baño de su habitación, bloqueando la puerta ingreso al mismo”, subraya el comunicado.
Inmediatamente, “se notificó a la justicia de turno” y “ante la presencia del juez Manuel De Campos y de la fiscal Fein, el personal policial logró ingresar al baño”. El comunicado concluye que “junto al cuerpo de Nisman, que se hallaba en el suelo, se encontró un arma de fuego calibre 22, además de un casquillo de bala”.
Cerca de la 1 de la madrugada se montó el gigantesco operativo en torno al domicilio, cuando Gendarmería estableció un cerco perimetral y en el lugar trabajó personal de la Unidad Criminalística Móvil, de la Unidad Médica Forense, Prefectura y Same. Minutos después de las 3.30, fuentes policiales confirmaron el deceso de Nisman, y dos horas después su cuerpo fue retirado por la Unidad de Traslado Forense de Bomberos rumbo a la morgue de Tribunales, en la calle Viamonte.
La fiscal trabajó en el lugar junto al juez de la causa, Manuel de Campos, y el secretario de Seguridad de Nación, Sergio Berni, quien se constituyó en el edificio para supervisar la aplicación de los protocolos de preservación de la escena del crimen por parte de los servicios de policía científica de la Prefectura Naval Argentina y de la Policía federal Argentina convocados por los funcionarios judiciales a cargo de la investigación.
“Confío en la Policía Federal y Prefectura, trabajaremos con prudencia y cerca del mediodía tendremos precisiones, porque todavía no podemos confirmar el suicidio”, puntualizó la fiscal antes de retirarse.
Nisman debía presentarse esta tarde en el Congreso para explicar la denuncia que presentó contra la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner por la firma del Memorando de Entendimiento con Irán. La reunión había sido convocada para las 15 por la oposición, y el oficialismo había confirmado su presencia para el encuentro de comisión.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has cut its outlook on Boeing, saying the airline manufacturer’s recent troubles with its 737 are worse than expected. Boeing shares tumbled 4% on the move.
Two crashes of the Boeing 737 Max 8 forced the company to cut its production. BofA now estimates delays with the 737 will last six to nine months, longer than the three- to six-month delay originally forecast.
BofA cut its rating on the Dow component from buy to neutral and lowered its price objective to $420 from $480.
The company’s issues stem from crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610 over the past six months. Questions have been raised about the safety of the Max 8 and 9 jets as well as the general oversight being provided by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The reputational loss from these events could erode long-term market share and pricing power of the 737 MAX,” BofA analyst Ronald Epstein said in a note to clients.
Though still up 21.5 percent year to date, Boeing’s shares have fallen nearly 9 percent in the past month.
In addition to the initial 737 Max delays, BofA estimates it will take Boeing through 2021 to catch up to delivery orders for its aircraft.
“A six month delay also means lower margins due to penalties owed to customers, weaker negotiating position with airlines as airlines consider cancellations, and operational inefficiencies from the production disruption,” Epstein wrote.
Boeing is reducing its production of the 737 Max to 42 per month, down 10 from its original target.
Correction: This story was revised to correct that BofA’s new rating of Boeing stock is neutral.
In one of the key moments of his March 20 press conference about the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, President Trump touted hydroxychloroquine, a common anti-malaria drug, as a potential treatment for the illness, even while the top health official beside him urged caution about it.
“This is prescribed for many years for people to combat malaria, which was a big problem and it’s very effective,” Trump said. “It was a strong drug.” He later added, “I sure as hell think we ought to give it a try.”
Dr. Tony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a beacon of evidence-based policy in the administration’s botched pandemic response, had been asked by a reporter whether hydroxychloroquine could be used against Covid-19 after reports surfaced this week of doctors using it in other countries to treat patients. Fauci was clear: The evidence was thin and anecdotal. (Their extended exchange was bizarre and revealing, as my colleague German Lopez reported.)
But what is the deal with hydroxychloroquine, you ask? With the spread of the coronavirus across the world and increasing numbers of infected people, there’s now an international race to develop effective treatments for Covid-19. And hydroxychloroquine, a less-toxic derivative of chloroquine, another malaria drug, has emerged as one of the frontrunners. (Chloroquine itself is related to quinine, an ingredient in tonic water.)
Hydroxychloroquine, the less toxic version, is an appealing option mainly because it’s an off-the-shelf drug. Companies know how to make it, there are low-cost generic versions available, and the drug has already been tested and approved for use against malaria and to treat inflammation in conditions like arthritis.
But as Fauci noted, it has not been approved as a treatment for Covid-19, and right now, the evidence for its effectiveness is sparse.
Chinese researchers showed in lab cell culture tests that hydroxychloroquine can slow infections from the virus behind Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, blocking it from entering cells. Some doctors in China and South Korea have also used it to treat patients. And a recent study by researchers in France found that the drug was “efficient” in clearing upper airways from the virus in three to six days in most patients. That timing is important because an untreated infected person can transmit the virus for 20 days or more, even without showing symptoms. So it’s important to shrink the amount of time a person carries the virus in order to limit its spread.
“Such results are promising and open the possibility of an international strategy to decisionmakers to fight this emerging viral infection in real-time even if other strategies and research including vaccine development could be also effective, but only in the future,” the French researchers wrote. “We therefore recommend that COVID-19 patients be treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to cure their infection and to limit the transmission of the virus to other people in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the world.”
But the researchers only looked at 36 patients and only 26 actually received hydroxychloroquine in the study — a tiny sample size. Hydroxychloroquine can also have side effects like headaches, dizziness, and diarrhea, so it’s not something that doctors can blanketly prescribe. And the study wasn’t blinded, meaning the patients knew what they were getting, nor was it randomized. That limits the scientific merit of the study.
That said, there are plans for wider testing. At least six clinical trials for hydroxychloroquine are recruiting patients or in planning stages around the world. In the meantime, health officials are scrambling to get enough Covid-19 tests and to build up the capacity to care for a looming surge in patients.
Right now, the most effective way to fight the virus remains not getting infected in the first place, which means using good personal hygiene like handwashing and social distancing measures.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., discusses the Senate gearing up to take up the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden will wait to address a joint session of Congress until after Congress decides on the American Rescue Plan, his coronavirus relief package.
No date for the address has yet been scheduled, even though the president had suggested it would take place in February. Psaki, during Wednesday’s briefing, explained the delay.
“When it became clear, which it should have been from the beginning, that the American Rescue Plan would take until about, hopefully, about mid-March to get passed and signed into law, we made a decision internally that we weren’t going to have the president propose his forward looking agenda beyond that,” Psaki said, noting that parts of Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda are “still being determined” and that there are still discussions ongoing “internally.”
Psaki maintained, though, that he would not deliver his address “until after that bill is signed, until after those checks are going out to Americans, until after that vaccine money is going out, and after the money is going out to schools.”
Psaki’s comments come after the president endorsed a plan from moderate Democrats to narrow income eligibility for the third round of stimulus checks in his nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, a Democratic source said Wednesday.
Under the latest proposal, Americans earning $75,000 or less would receive the fully promised $1,400 payment. But the checks would phase out faster for individuals at higher income levels than in the version passed Saturday by House Democrats, with individuals making $80,000 a year or more and couples making $160,000 a year, or higher, no longer qualifying for the money.
The House version of the bill would also send the $1,400 payments to individuals earning $75,000 or below each year, but the money would phase out slower, with the eligibility cut-off at $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 per year for couples.
That means individuals earning between $80,000 and $100,000, and couples earning between $160,000 and $200,000, are newly excluded from a partial check under the newest plan endorsed by the Biden administration.
Stimulus check eligibility emerged as a major point of contention between different ideological factions of the Democratic Party. The party can’t afford to lose the support of even a single Senate Democrat, as it needs all 50 members to pass the measure via simple majority with a procedural tool known as budget reconciliation.
Lawmakers are racing to send the legislation to Biden’s desk before March 14, when more than 11 million Americans will lose their jobless aid when two key federal jobless aid programs created a year ago under the CARES Act — and extended in the $900 billion relief package that Congress passed in December — lapse.
Meanwhile, as for his first address to Congress, past presidents have traditionally given a speech to Congress during their first year in office, often in February. An address to a joint session of Congress is like a State of the Union, though it technically is not called that until the president’s second year in office.
Typically, new presidents deliver their addresses just weeks after the inauguration.
Former President George H.W. Bush delivered one of the earliest addresses to a joint session, taking place on Feb. 9, 1989. Former President Donald Trump delivered one of the latest — his address was on Feb. 28, 2017.
Former President Barack Obama delivered his address on Feb. 24, 2009; former President George W. Bush delivered his on Feb. 27, 2001; and former President Bill Clinton delivered his on Feb. 17.
Presidents, during their first congressional address, tend to establish the tone of their new administration, with optimistic language to look ahead, and to set their legislative agenda as well as outline their positions on a range of policy issues.
Biden, since taking office, has signed dozens of executive orders, actions and directives, with Biden officials telling Fox News that the moves are “previews” of the agenda items the president will push in Congress. They have been focused on environmental regulations, the climate crisis, immigration policies, racial justice, health care and more.
FOX Business’ Megan Henney and Blake Burman contributed to this report.
President Trump delivers remarks at Hope for Prisoners Graduation Ceremony at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Headquarters. #FoxNews
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Tourists visiting Times Square on Monday expressed fears for their safety — and the city’s future — following the second shooting there in as many months.
“Worrying about getting killed in a crossfire was not on my itinerary when I booked this trip with my girlfriends — especially while touring the biggest attraction,” said Pat Flanagan of Cleveland.
“It’s actually more sad than scary because I want to see New York pick up again.”
Flanagan, 44, added: “Crime can be controlled if you control it. New York learned how to do it in the past, so why not now? It’s got the biggest police department in the country and it can’t stop people from firing guns in Times Square?”
“Right now, tourism is making a comeback after COVID,” she said.
“Don’t kill it by letting crime run rampant.”
Police at the scene of a shooting near 45th St. and 7th Avenue in Times Square.William C. Lopez/NYPOST
Retired teacher Arthur Escalera of Harrisburg, Penn., who was vacationing with his wife, said Sunday’s shooting made it seem like “you’re in a city that’s lost the power to police itself.”
“We remember Times Square the way it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and if we had tickets to a Broadway show we would consider it a sort of walk on the wild side to walk down 42nd Street at night,” he said.
“But we never feared for our lives. Getting mugged was a fear, but death by a stray bullet? Never.”
Police patrol in Times Square following another daytime shooting yesterday in the popular tourist destination on June 28, 2021.Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Meghan Nash, a dental hygienist from Charlotte, N.C. — who’s staying at a Hampton Inn just blocks from the scene of Sunday’s shooting — was unaware of the incident until learning about it from a reporter.
“That’s insane. That’s really terrible,” said Nash, 30.
The NYPD released additional footage of the suspect.DCPI
“I knew crime was up but I didn’t think things had gotten so bad that people were firing guns in Times Square.”
Nash added, “I probably would have picked a different destination. I really just wanted to have fun, not worry about getting randomly killed by a stray bullet.”
William Montanez is used to getting stopped by the police in Tampa, Florida, for small-time traffic and marijuana violations; it’s happened more than a dozen times. When they pulled him over last June, he didn’t try to hide his pot, telling officers, “Yeah, I smoke it, there’s a joint in the center console, you gonna arrest me for that?”
They did arrest him, not only for the marijuana but also for two small bottles they believed contained THC oil — a felony — and for having a firearm while committing that felony (they found a handgun in the glove box).
Then things got testy.
As they confiscated his two iPhones, a text message popped up on the locked screen of one of them: “OMG, did they find it?”
The officers demanded his passcodes, warning him they’d get warrants to search the cellphones. Montanez suspected that police were trying to fish for evidence of illegal activity. He also didn’t want them seeing more personal things, including intimate pictures of his girlfriend.
So he refused, and was locked up on the drug and firearms charges.
William MontanezCourtesy of William Montanez
Five days later, after Montanez was bailed out of jail, a deputy from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office tracked him down, handed him the warrants and demanded the phone passcodes. Again, Montanez refused. Prosecutors went to a judge, who ordered him locked up again for contempt of court.
“I felt like they were violating me. They can’t do that,” Montanez, 25, recalled recently. “F— y’all. I ain’t done nothing wrong. They wanted to get in the phone for what?”
He paid a steep price, spending 44 days behind bars before the THC and gun charges were dropped, the contempt order got tossed and he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor pot charge. And yet he regrets nothing, because he now sees his defiance as taking a stand against the abuse of his rights.
“The world should know that what they’re doing out here is crazy,” Montanez said. The police never got into his phones.
While few would choose jail, Montanez’s decision reflects a growing resistance to law enforcement’s power to peer into Americans’ digital lives. The main portals into that activity are cellphones, which are protected from prying eyes by encryption, with passcodes the only way in.
As police now routinely seek access to people’s cellphones, privacy advocates see a dangerous erosion of Americans’ rights, with courts scrambling to keep up.
“It’s becoming harder to escape the reach of police using technology that didn’t exist before,” said Riana Pfefferkorn, the associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. “And now we are in the position of trying to walk that back and stem the tide.”
While courts have determined that police need a warrant to search a cellphone, the question of whether police can force someone to share a passcode is far from settled, with no laws on the books and a confusing patchwork of differing judicial decisions. Last month, the Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments on the issue. The state supreme courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are considering similar cases.
As this legal battle unfolds, police keep pursuing new ways of breaking into cellphones if the owners don’t cooperate — or are enlisting help from technology firms that can do it for them. This has put them at odds with cellphone makers, all of whom continually update their products to make them harder for hackers or anyone else to break into.
But the hacking techniques are imperfect and expensive, and not all law enforcement agencies have them. That is why officials say compelling suspects to unlock their cellphones is essential to police work. Making the tactic more difficult, they say, would tilt justice in favor of criminals.
“It would have an extreme chilling effect on our ability to thoroughly investigate and bring many, many cases, including violent offenses,” said Hillar Moore, the district attorney in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who got the FBI’s help in breaking into a cellphone belonging to a suspect in a deadly Louisiana State University fraternity hazing ritual. “It would basically shut the door.”
In the part of Florida where Montanez lives, authorities are guided by a case involving an upskirt photo.
A young mother shopping at a Target store in Sarasota in July 2014 noticed a man taking a picture of her with his phone while crouching on the floor. She confronted him. He fled. Two days later, police arrested Aaron Stahl and charged him with video voyeurism.
Authorities got a search warrant for Stahl’s iPhone, but he wouldn’t give them the passcode, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. A trial judge ruled in his favor, but a state appellate court reversed the decision in December 2016, saying Stahl had to provide the code. Facing the possibility of getting convicted at trial and sentenced to prison, Stahl agreed to plead no contest in exchange for probation.
While Stahl did not provide the passcode in the end, prosecutors still rely on the precedent established by the appellate ruling to compel others to turn over their passcodes under the threat of jail.
“Up until that point you could be a pedophile or a child pornogropher and carry around the fruits of your crime in front of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and judges and taunt them with fact that they couldn’t get the passcode,” said Cynthia Meiners, who prosecuted Stahl at the 12th Judicial Circuit State’s Attorney’s Office. “You could say, ‘I’m a child pornographer and it’s on my phone but I’m not giving you my passcode because I would be incriminating myself.’”
But that ruling only holds in a few counties of Florida. Elsewhere in the country, skirmishes remain unresolved.
In Indiana, police officials are trying to force a woman to share her passcode as they investigate her for harassment, saying she was making it impossible for them to obtain key evidence. The woman’s lawyer says authorities haven’t said what evidence they think is in the phone, raising concerns about a limitless search.
Her appeals reached the state Supreme Court, whose ruling could influence similar cases around the country. Attorneys general in eight other states filed a brief in support of the police, warning against a ruling that “drastically alters the balance of power between investigators and criminals.”
The stakes are similar in New Jersey, where a sheriff’s deputy accused of tipping off drug dealers to police activities has refused to hand over passcodes to his iPhones. The state Supreme Court agreed in May to hear the case.
These clashes aren’t limited to the use of passcodes. Police have also tried to force people to open phones through biometrics, such as thumbprints or facial recognition. Legal experts see the Fifth Amendment argument against self-incrimination as more of a stretch in those cases. The law has generally been interpreted as protecting data that someone possesses — including the contents of their mind, such as passcodes — but not necessarily their physical traits, such as thumbprints. Still, some judges have refused to sign warrants seeking permission to force someone to unlock their phone using their face or finger.
“Depending on where you are in the country, there is different case law on what police can do,” said Andrew Crocker, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties nonprofit.
In some states, there is no authoritative court ruling, leaving law enforcement authorities to decide for themselves. Virginia falls into that category. Bryan Porter, the prosecutor in the city of Alexandria, said he has told local police it’s OK to try to force someone under the threat of jail to open a cellphone by thumbprint or face. But demanding a password seems to go too far, he said.
Criminals shouldn’t be able to inoculate themselves from investigations, Porter said. “But it kind of rubs me the wrong way to present a piece of paper to someone and say, ‘Give us your passcode.’”
In Tampa, Florida, where Montanez was arrested last year, judges still rely on the 2016 ruling against Stahl by the Second District Court of Appeals. That is what prosecutors cited when they tried to force Montanez to give up his passcodes.
But Montanez’s lawyer, Patrick Leduc, argued that, unlike Stahl’s case, police had no reason to search the phone, because it had no connection to the offenses he was charged with. The “OMG, did they find it?” text message — which turned out to be from Montanez’s mother, who owned the car and the gun in the glove box — was meaningless, Leduc said. He warned of a police “fishing expedition” in which authorities could search for anything potentially incriminating on his phone.
While sitting in lockup for contempt, Montanez’s resolve not to give up his passcodes hardened. “What they were doing to me was illegal and I wasn’t going to give them their business like that,” he said.
“They told me I got the key to my freedom,” he added. “But I was like, ‘F— that.’”
But the experience shook him. “I ain’t the toughest guy in the world, but I can protect myself. But it was crazy,” he said. “Bad food, fights here and there, people trying to take your food.”
At the same time, the drugs and gun case against Montanez was crumbling. Laboratory tests on the suspected THC oil came back negative, voiding that felony charge and the gun charge related to it. That left prosecutors with only minor pot charges. But he remained in jail on the contempt charge while his lawyer and prosecutors negotiated a plea deal.
In August 2018, after Montanez had spent more than five weeks in jail for refusing to provide the passcode, an appellate court dismissed the contempt case on a technicality. The court invited prosecutors to try again, but by then the passcode’s value had diminished. Instead, prosecutors allowed Montanez to plead no contest to misdemeanor drug charges and he was freed.
When he was released, Montanez carried a notoriety that made him feel unwelcome in his own neighborhood. He noticed people looking at him differently. He was banned from his favorite bar.
The police keep pulling him over, and he now fears them, he said. He finally left Tampa and lives in Pasco County, about an hour away.
“Yeah, I took a stand against them,” he said. “But I lost all that time. I gotta deal with that, going to jail for no reason.”
A veces pienso que estamos en los 80. Hay algo parecido. Cierta sensación de amenaza en el aire, cierto tono apocalíptico que se cuela a diario en las conversaciones, como si las cosas estuviesen todos los días y por un segundo al borde del desastre total.
Me imagino que no soy el único que capta ese zeitgeist de película de ciencia ficción barata hecha de acontecimientos imposibles que suceden a diario. Basta ver las noticias, que parecen sacadas de alguna película de Paul Verhoeven o de un cómic de Frank Miller, ambos artistas expertos en usar las paradojas de la utraviolencia para describir ciertos movimientos de la sociedad. No creo que exagere al mencionarlos a ambos. Películas como Robocop o Total recall y cómics como El caballero de la noche regresa o Give Me Liberty hacen un uso interminable y provechoso de los noticieros, reportajes periodísticos y programas de debate como telón de fondo de lo que relatan. Las historias centrales están ahí (las vidas un policía cíborg, un agente doble de Marte, un Batman terminal o una soldado de la III Guerra Mundial) acompañadas de todas esas notas sobre la vida cotidiana del futuro que se colaban como telón de fondo a lo que veíamos o leíamos por medio de pantallazos de televisores prendidos de modo perpetuo.
Kike Morandé, Cecilia Pérez, Checho Hirane, Marco Enríquez-Ominami, Alberto Mayol, Alejandro Guillier: todos parecen personajes de una película de los 80”.
Son las noticias de esos presentes falsos donde hay crisis económicas, campañas políticas, guerras lejanas, escándalos sexuales. A Miller y Verhoeven les encantaba meterlas, haciendo que en esas cintas o en esos cómics uno se sometiese a la locura hiperreal con la que sus creadores estaban representando el mundo en el que les tocaba vivir. Por supuesto, eran una broma, sátiras que jugaban con los hechos hasta volverlos imposibles e irreales, pero que aun así se constituían como comentarios descarnados sobre el presente de ciudades como Detroit o Nueva York, sobre el funcionamiento de las megacorporaciones, sobre la estupidez de los discursos nacionalistas del gobierno de Reagan y del pánico a la diferencia.
Que Verhoeven y Miller se solazaran con aquella estética, buscando en el shock cierta clase de belleza violenta y vulgar, sólo volvía más ambigua su lectura, pero no quitaba el hecho de que quien se acercase a esas obras estaba sometido a la intensidad de ese noticiario crónico, salido de un mundo imposible que prefiguraba nuestro presente.
No creo exagerar. Hay días en que es imposible no sentirse parte de una de esas ficciones, pensarse a uno mismo avanzando en el decorado de una obra de ciencia ficción barata de los 80, con todo el horror o la comedia cruel que eso implica. Pienso en eso al ver a Kike Morandé en el Consejo Ciudadano de Piñera, al lado de Marcelo Zunino, un futbolista devenido a la vez en participante de un reality y en concejal de RN por La Florida. O en la resurrección mediática de Checho Hirane y Alberto Plaza. O el deseo de Cecilia Pérez de sacar una semana del aire a Canal 13 porque Yerko Puchento se mofó de ella en su rutina. Pienso en eso al ver cualquier noticia del PS. O la conversación entre Tomás Mosciatti y Marco Enríquez-Ominami (algo podría estar en cualquiera de las viejas de RoboCop; otra esquirla robada a la CNN de los 80; dos voces superpuestas sin punto de encuentro, ME-O pensando en Mosciatti como un prueba de blancura que es incapaz de pasar). Pienso en eso al ver a Alberto Mayol en campaña (hay algo ahí interesante, un relato sobre una caída sorda: cómo el viejo analista del 2011 carga con la mochila de sus propias palabras, cómo desaparece cualquier elocuencia, cómo se convierte la claridad de un discurso en un laberinto que lo asfixia y lo ahoga, dejándolo sin nada que decir, paralizado frente a Felipe Kast, que le respondió de forma artera con una falacia ad hominem de manual, a la deriva frente a Beatriz Sánchez; hundido en una primaria que lo desborda).
O en la languidez en la que parece haberse sumergido la candidatura de Alejandro Guillier, donde nadie, ni sus adherentes o él mismo, parece creer en ella; todos lucen entregados, avanzando en círculos, peleando minucias con los partidos políticos, sin un comando de rostros definidos o potentes; atrapados en la promesa de un triunfo que no sólo se ve cada vez más lejos, sino que también ha perdido sentido como aventura, como épica.
Todas estas imágenes podrían estar en esas viejas películas e historietas. Fragmentos de un mundo en crisis. Voces sin sentido, discursos inverosímiles proyectados en una pantalla dentro de la pantalla, en una viñeta dentro de una viñeta en medio de la historia sobre cómo un policía robot y un vigilante vestido de cuero salen armados a cazar delincuentes en calles sin luz o fábricas vacías mientras esperan que una bomba atómica caiga sobre ellos. Pero son imágenes reales. Es lo que hay, los apuntes de esta semana, de estos días; las noticias falsas de un mundo verdadero o al revés; las noticias verdaderas de un mundo falso.
(Reuters) – North Carolina’s elections board on Thursday ordered a new election for a U.S. House seat after officials said corruption surrounding absentee ballots tainted the results of a 2018 vote that has embarrassed the Republican Party.
The bipartisan board’s 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris, confronted by days of evidence that an operative for his campaign orchestrated a ballot fraud scheme, called for a new vote in the state’s 9th Congressional District.
“It’s become clear to me that the public’s confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted,” Harris said on the fourth day of the hearing in Raleigh, the state capital.
Elections Board Chairman Bob Cordle said “the corruption” and “absolute mess” with absentee ballots had cast doubt on the entire contest.
“It certainly was a tainted election,” Cordle said. “The people of North Carolina deserve a fair election.”
The race is the country’s last unsettled 2018 congressional contest, and the outcome will not change the balance of power in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
But evidence of ballot fraud by the Harris campaign turned the tables on the Republican Party, which has accused Democrats with little evidence of encouraging individual voter fraud in races such as the 2016 presidential election.
Harris’ request for a new vote came as a surprise after he spent months trying to fend off a rerun. He led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast on Nov. 6, but elections officials refused to certify him the winner because of allegations of irregularities in the vote.
The pastor capitulated after his son testified he had warned his father of potential illegal activity by Republican political operative Leslie McCrae Dowless.
North Carolina law requires that a new primary nominating election also be conducted in the district, which covers parts of Charlotte and the southeast of the state. Republicans have held the seat since 1963.
‘ILLEGAL SCHEME’
It is unclear whether Harris, 52, will run again. He told the board he was recovering from an infection last month that led to sepsis and two strokes, and said his illness led to memory lapses during the hearing that made him realize he was not prepared for the “rigours” of the proceeding.
North Carolina’s Democratic Party said the hearing laid bare the Harris campaign’s “illegal scheme to steal an election.” McCready wasted no time in tweeting to supporters to donate to his campaign for the new election.
“Today was a great step forward for democracy in North Carolina,” he tweeted.
If Democrats pick up the seat, they would widen their 235-197 majority in the House after taking control of the chamber from President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in the November elections.
State Republicans said they respected Harris’ decision to resolve a “tremendously difficult situation.”
“The people of North Carolina deserve nothing less than the full confidence and trust in the electoral system,” party Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement.
Earlier on Thursday, Harris said he had known Dowless was going door to door on the candidate’s behalf to help voters obtain absentee ballots, a process that is legal. Harris said Dowless assured him he would not collect the ballots from the voters, which would violate state law.
But residents of at least two counties in the district said Dowless and his paid workers collected incomplete absentee ballots and, in some instances, falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for contests left blank, according to testimony at the hearing.
Harris campaign officials said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless maintained his innocence.
Reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York and Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney
As protesters and armed anarchists seized control last month of a swath of Seattle’s downtown that includes a police station, dubbing it Capitol Hill Organized Protest, the local and mainstream media largely echoed elected leaders by insisting it was a peaceful protest – until people started getting killed.
The spin by the Seattle Times and national outlets that covered it belied the violent and dangerous origin of the area that began on June 8, when Seattle police abandoned their own station and allowed self-described anarchists to create a “police-free” zone. On Wednesday, police went back in and finished clearing out the area, after multiple shootings, an alleged rape and at least two murders.
“CHOP violently seized six blocks of downtown Seattle, guarded the area they stole with semi-automatic rifles and appointed a leader who called himself a warlord and the media spun it as a fun time with ‘free snacks,’” Washington Times columnist Tim Young told Fox News.
“That’s as insane as saying Boko Haram was just trying to start a dating service when they kidnapped nearly 300 women in Nigeria a few years ago,” Young added. “And those liberal outlets probably still can’t figure out why people call them fake news.”
Since it was established, there have been at least four shootings, two of which left a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old dead in separate incidents. Seattle police made more than a dozen arrests after Mayor Jenny Durkan declared the gathering an unlawful assembly – a far cry from how it was originally portrayed by the media and by Durkan herself.
The mayor responded to criticism of her leadership by President Trump by tweeting that he should not be “so afraid of democracy.”
“The CHOP has become lawless and brutal,” Police Chief Carmen Best said Wednesday in a written statement. “Four shootings – two fatal – robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several block area.”
The Seattle Times was perhaps the most egregious when it came to celebrating the cop-free area. The paper boasted about free snacks and pleasant smells inside the zone, called CHAZ at the time, on June 10.
“Free snacks at the No-Cop Co-op. Free gas masks from some guy’s sedan. Free speech at the speaker’s circle, where anyone could say their piece. A free documentary movie – Ava DuVernay’s “13th” – showing after dark,” Seattle Times reporter Evan Bush wrote. “Perhaps most important to demonstrators, the neighborhood core was free of uniformed police.”
Bush described the area as “Seattle’s quirky, lefty Capitol Hill,” noting that organizers “envisioned education initiatives, programs to address homelessness and building a community movement where unarmed police are designed to de-escalate.”
The Seattle Times even reported on the delightful odor the “calm and peaceful crowd” were providing residents.
“The streets smelled like the Fourth of July, as people seared hot dogs on curbside grills,” Bush wrote.
The following day, the Seattle Times focused on poets and artists performing inside the area, noting that despite the “festival-like atmosphere” gatherers are often reminded they’re protesting, not partying.
By June 13, Seattle Times business reporter Paul Roberts praised the “community garden” and ways the demonstrators could “advance the goals” of the city’s “newest tourist attraction.”
“Dozens of people with rakes and wheelbarrows spread topsoil and chicken manure in newly planted gardens,” Roberts wrote. “Others gathered in small groups to discuss plans for no-till farming and fundraising for medical supplies.”
“It’s obvious to media consumers that journalists put protesters above property. It remains to be seen how they would greet an occupation of the Seattle Times. It probably depends on which political agenda you’re pushing,” NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News.
“It’s also obvious that to cover something when you can glorify it as a ‘street festival’ and then stop covering it when people die, underlines why people dislike the fakery of liberal ‘news’ reporting,” Graham added, pointing to three recent NewsBusters studies as evidence.
While the Seattle Times celebrated CHOP on a local level, other mainstream news outlets raised eyebrows on a larger stage.
NewsBusters reported on June 22 that CBS’ “Evening News” and “NBC Nightly News” both skipped coverage of a deadly shooting inside CHOP. Another study, conducted on June 23, indicated that evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC all ignored another shooting in the area.
“The networks had been actively trying to protect the encampment’s radicals from criticism. First, they turned a blind eye altogether, and when they had no choice but to cover the ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,’ as it was called at the time, they downplayed the craziness and provided cover,” Media Research Center news analyst Nicholas Fondacaro wrote after studying coverage of CHOP on ABC, NBC and CBS’ newscasts.
“When the shooting and killing started, they tried to cover it up. They refused to report on the black teen who was shot and killed in the zone last Saturday. And there was no mention of the Sunday or Tuesday shooting at any point during the week,” Fondacaro wrote. ”It was those shootings that were the impetus for the businesses and residents to band together and sue the city for not protecting their rights and property.”
University of North Carolina professor Lois A. Boynton is a fellow in the University’s Parr Center for Ethics. She feels coverage of CHOP “points to some of the basic challenges journalists, all media outlets, face when reporting on contentious and polarizing issues.”
Boynton explained that biases can come from many things, including story angle, what gets emphasized and what doesn’t, who reporters select as sources and a reporter’s choice of words.
“Reporters, editors and producers need to be cognizant of how readers and viewers are interpreting their stories and what impact that may have on the community’s well-being and news outlet’s professional reputation,” Boynton told Fox News.
When Durkan announced last week that officials would end the police-free zone – CNN and MSNBC didn’t feel it was particularly newsworthy.
News broke during the 7 p.m. ET hour on Monday that Seattle’s mayor said the violence was distracting from changes sought by thousands of protesters seeking to address racial inequity and police brutality – but CNN’s 7 p.m. program, “Erin Burnett Outfront” did not mention the news as it unfolded.
CNN continued to ignore the news during its primetime programming, as there was no coverage on back-to-back editions of “Anderson Cooper 360” from 8-10 p.m. ET or during Don Lemon’s “CNN Tonight,” which aired from 10-midnight ET.
MSNBC completely ignored CHOP altogether from 7-midnight ET on the day of Durkan’s announcement as “MSNBC Live,” “All in with Chris Hayes,” The Rachel Maddow Show,” “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell and “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” all declined to report the news of Seattle’s CHOP possibly drawing to a close.
“Most mainstream media outlets have bent over backward to portray the civil unrest as peaceful actions supporting the general aims of justice. That narrative gets largely disrupted if those news organizations now focus on the chaos in places like Seattle,” DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall told Fox News at the time.
The mainstream media narrative has extended to other stories, like St. Louis. CNN’s Chris Cuomo was accused of siding with the “mob” on Tuesday night during a contentious interview with Mark McCloskey, the man who went viral for brandishing a gun alongside his wife as the couple protected their home from protesters.
An attorney for McCloskey insisted the couple only retrieved their weapons after they observed multiple people in the crowd who were armed.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
Donald J. Trump y campaña política de Donald Trump
Trump Tower
725 Fifth Avenue Manhattan
Nueva York, NY
Sr. Trump, nosotros, periodistas de Univision Noticias, estamos profundamente preocupados por su decisión de revocar las credenciales de prensa del Washington Post.
Su acción no tiene precedente y es peligrosa. En Estados Unidos de América, los principales medios de prensa siempre han tenido acceso a los eventos de campaña de los candidatos presidenciales. Nunca antes se les ha restringido o negado el acceso.
En Estados Unidos los candidatos a puestos públicos siempre han aceptado que parte de la cobertura que recibirán será crítica. Los candidatos usualmente responden a la cobertura desfavorable argumentando que la misma es errónea o injusta. Lo que no hacen – no en Estados Unidos de América – es intentar obstruir la cobertura negándole acceso a la prensa a sus eventos. Hay demasiados lugares en el mundo en los cuales las figuras políticas usan cualquier medio a su disposición para castigar y silenciar la cobertura desfavorable. Estados Unidos no es uno de esos lugares.
El Washington Post es una de las instituciones periodísticas más respetadas e icónicas en Estados Unidos y el mundo. Nosotros en Univision Noticias apoyamos al Washington Post y sus esfuerzos para cubrir estas elecciones de una forma consistente con su política editorial.
Lo exhortamos a que les dé al Washington Post y a sus lectores el respeto que merecen, sin importar lo que usted considere acerca de la cobertura noticiosa del Post. Sobre todas las cosas, lo incitamos a que actúe de acuerdo a los principios democráticos de Estados Unidos de América y a la robusta tradición de libertad de prensa que ellos merecen.
Respetuosamente lo urgimos a usted, señor Trump, a que restituya las credenciales de prensa del Washington Post.
Donald J. Trump and Donald Trump Campaign
Trump Tower
725 Fifth Avenue Manhattan
New York, NY
Mr. Trump, we, as journalists of Univision News, are deeply troubled by your decision to revoke The Washington Post’s press credentials.
Your action is unprecedented and dangerous. In the United States, mainstream press organizations are always granted access to presidential candidates events. Never before have so many of them been denied this access.
In the United States candidates for public office have always accepted that some of the news coverage they receive will be critical. Candidates often answer unfavorable coverage, arguing that it was inaccurate or unfair. What they don’t do – not in the United States – is attempt to choke off coverage by denying press organizations access to campaign events. There are all too many places on earth where political figures use whatever is at their disposal to punish and silence unfavorable news coverage. The U.S. is not one of those places.
The Washington Post is one of the United States’ (and the world’s) most respected and iconic journalistic institutions. We at Univision News stand foursquare with The Washington Post as it endeavors to cover this election in a manner consistent with its own editorial judgment.
We urge you to accord the Washington Post and its readers the respect they deserve, no matter how you regard the Post’s news coverage. Above all, we urge you to accord American democracy and the robust free press tradition that is its hallmark the respect that they deserve.
We respectfully urge you, Mr. Trump, to reinstate The Washington Post’s press credentials.
Image caption
Rodeado de una multitud que lo aclamaba, Erdogan dijo: “El gobierno está en control”.
El presidente de Turquía, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, regresó en la mañana de este sábado a Estambul horas después de que iniciara un intento de golpe de Estado en su contra por parte de un grupo de militares.
Y frente a una multitud que lo aclamaba en el aeropuerto de Estambul, dijo: “El gobierno está en control”.
Por su parte, el nuevo jefe interino del estado mayor del ejército, Ümit Dündar— quien fue nombrado en sustitución a Hulusi Akar, capturado por los golpistas y cuyo paradero se desconoce— , también informó que el intento de golpe ya fue “frustrado”.
Y el primer ministro Binali Yildim describió el levantamiento como “una mancha negra en el historial democrático de Turquía”.
Según las autoridades, el levantamiento y la respuesta para controlarlo dejaron como consecuencia 265 muertos, “la mayoría de ellos civiles”, más de 1.000 heridos y más de 2.800 militares vinculados al golpe arrestados.
La televisión turca mostró a decenas de soldados presuntamente involucrados en el intento de golpe rindiéndose, abandonando los tanques con las manos en alto.
El gobierno turco también informó que 29 coroneles y 5 generales fueron apartados de sus cargos, así como unos 3.000 jueces.
Image copyright Reuters
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Decenas de personas se manifestaron en Ankara contra el levantamiento.
Ya lo advirtió Erdogan en el aeropuerto, a donde llegó tras disfrutar de unas vacaciones en el sur del país: “Este levantamiento, este movimiento es un gran regalo de Dios para nosotros. Porque el ejército será limpiado“.
Y en su desafiante discurso agregó que los golpistas “pagarán caro este acto de traición”.
Así se ha vivido el intento de golpe en Turquía.
Asimismo, el presidente turco señaló como culpables del intento de derrocamiento a los seguidores del clérigo musulmán turco Fethullah Gulen.
Aunque el clérigo, quien vive autoexiliado en Estados Unidos, negó categóricamente cualquier vínculo con los acontecimientos de Turquía.
Este sábado el presidente Erdogan pidió a EE.UU. que extradite al clérigo Gulen durante un discurso ante una multitud de seguidores en Estambul.
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Un grupo de partidarios de Erdogan festeja sobre uno de los tanques militares que bloquearon los puentes en el Bósforo.
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Las autoridades turcas informaron de que decenas de militares fueron apartados de sus cargos y la televisión turca mostró estas imágenes de soldados golpistas rindiéndose.
Grecia informó del arresto de ocho hombres que llegaron al país en un helicóptero militar turco.
El aparato aterrizó en la ciudad norteña de Alexandroupolis y los hombres solicitaron asilo político, según las autoridades griegas.
Pero Turquía ya adelantó que pedirá su extradición.
Cómo ocurrió
En la noche de este viernes, un grupo de militares de los cuales no se sabe aún quién los dirigía, aseguró tener el control de Turquía tras posicionar escuadrones de soldados en puntos estratégicos de Estambul y Ankara, las dos principales ciudades del país.
Decretaron el toque de queda y la ley marcial, y en un comunicado leído en la televisión estatal aseguraron haber instalado en el gobierno a un “consejo para la paz de la patria”.
Image copyright Reuters
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Un hombre se enfrentó solo a un tanque de guerra que intentaba entrar en el aeropuerto de Ataturk en Estambul.
Miles de personas ignoraron el toque de queda y salieron a protestar en apoyo a Erdogan, algunos incluso saltando sobre los tanques en actitud desafiante.
Durante toda la noche, las imágenes y reportes de medios locales mostraron enfrentamientos entre militares y civiles, y explosiones en edificios gubernamentales.
Image copyright EPA
Image caption
Erdogan dijo que “el ejército será limpiado” y que los golpistas pagarán por su “traición”.
En la plaza Taksim, en Estambul, por ejemplo, se escucharon dos explosiones grandes. Las mismas fueron acompañadas por el sonido de aviones de combate.
Los medios estatales informaron que una bomba impactó el edificio del Parlamento en Ankara.
Por otra parte, un avión de combate del gobierno derribó un helicóptero militar que era tripulado por fuerzas golpistas.
Image copyright Getty Images
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Hay reportes de 17 policías muertos en el cuartel de las fuerzas especiales de la capital.
El primer ministro de Turquía, Binali Yildirim, había dado la orden de derribar cualquier aeronave secuestrada por los golpistas. Según informó, jets militares habían despegado de la base militar ubicada en Eskisehir, al este de Ankara.
También se reportaron tiroteos y una explosión cerca del complejo presidencial en Ankara, y que sólo en el cuartel de las fuerzas especiales de la capital 17 policías habían muerto, aunque no se tiene claro si estas víctimas están incluidas en la cifra de fallecidos general.
“Orden democrático”
Horas antes, los uniformados emitieron en la televisión estatal un comunicado en el que aseguran haber tomado el poder para “preservar el orden democrático”.
Image copyright Getty Images
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Tras el levantamiento militar, el presidente Erdogan habló con CNN Turk y aseguró que seguía en ejercicio de su cargo.
El comunicado del grupo militar, leído por un presentador del canal nacional de televisión TRT— según él, obligado a punta de pistola—, aseguraba que el imperio de la ley democrática y secular se había visto erosionado por el actual gobierno, y que entraría en vigencia una nueva Constitución.
Sin embargo, Erdogan habló por medio de una videollamada desde un celular al canal de televisión CNN Turk para asegurar que seguía en ejercicio de su cargo e instó a sus partidarios a salir a las plazas y calles del país en favor de la democracia.
El mandatario se refirió al intento de golpe como “el levantamiento de una minoría”.
El inicio
Image copyright AP
Image caption
La plaza Taksim en Estambul fue uno de los lugares donde los partidarios de Erdogan se reunieron de a cientos para oponerse al golpe de Estado.
Los primeros reportes de una situación irregular en Turquía habían llegado cuando medios locales empezaron a hablar de sobrevuelo de aviones caza-bombarderos y helicópteros militares, así como disparos en Ankara.
Además, tanques bloqueaban dos puentes sobre el río Bósforo, en la ciudad de Estambul, la más grande del país. También impedían el acceso a los aeropuertos de esta ciudad y de la capital, Ankara.
Grupos de monitoreo de internet dijeron que el acceso a redes sociales como Facebook y Twitter estaba siendo restringido en Turquía, aunque no estaba claro quién bloqueaba el acceso.
Image copyright Getty Images
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Militares bloquearon este viernes el puente sobre el río Bósforo en Estambul.
La televisión turca anunció que altos mandos militares fueron tomados rehenes en Ankara. Según informes, uno de ellos era el jefe del estado mayor de las fuerzas militares, general Hulusi Akar, cuyo paradero sigue siendo desconocido.
Entre tanto el secretario de Estado de EE.UU., John Kerry, dio una declaración desde Moscú diciendo que esperaba que hubiera paz y continuidad en Turquía.
Junto a Kerry, el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Rusia, Sergei Lavrov, dijo que “es necesario evitar cualquier enfrentamiento cruento y resolver los problemas por conductos constitucionales”.
Y un portavoz del Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, pidió que se volviera al “camino de la estabilidad y el orden” en Turquía.
Image copyright Reuters
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El primer ministro Binali Yildirim, dijo que las fuerzas de seguridad habían sido llamadas para manejar la situación.
El secretario general de Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon, llamó a la calma.
“El secretario general está siguiendo de cerca los acontecimientos de Turquía”, informó un portavoz de la ONU, Farhan Haq.
“Naciones Unidas busca aclarar la situación en el terreno y llama a la calma”, añadió.
Además de hacer unas declaraciones similares y pedir “un respeto total para las instituciones democráticas de Turquía”, el secretario general de la Organización del Tratado del Atlántico Norte (OTAN), Jens Stoltenberg, recordó que Ankara es “un valioso aliado”.
Lo es sobre todo contra el gobierno del presidente Bashar al Asad en Siria y en el combate al grupo autodenominado Estado Islámico, ya que permite a la coalición internacional liderada por Estados Unidos su base de Incirlik para sus incursiones contra los yihadistas en Irak y Siria.
Image copyright Reuters
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Decenas de personas salieron a la calle en Estambul para rechazar lo que el presidente Erdogan denunció como un “intento de golpe” de Estado.
Por su parte, el presidente del Consejo Europeo, Donald Tusk, dijo que las tensiones en Turquía no se pueden resolver con armas.
Y agregó que la Unión Europea apoya totalmente al gobierno democráticamente electo del país, algo en lo que también insistió la canciller alemana Angela Merkel.
En unas palabras similares a las utilizadas por Erdogan, Qatar, la monarquía absoluta bañada por las aguas del Golfo Pérsico y aliado de Turquía, también denunció el “intento de golpe de Estado”.
“Pagarán el precio más alto”
El primer ministro turco dijo que las fuerzas de seguridad habían sido llamadas para manejar la situación y que “nada podrá perjudicar la democracia turca”.
“Estamos analizando la posibilidad de una intentona. No permitiremos esto”, dijo Yildirim, sin ofrecer más detalles.
“Aquellos que participen de este acto ilegal pagarán el precio más alto“, añadió.
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