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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio embraces Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo at the end of their joint news conference at the National Palace in Guatemala City, on Feb. 5, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Guatemala to take more deportees, Trump vs. transgender athletes, Google axes AI-weapon ban, Taliban shuts women’s radio, Israelis like Trump’s Gaza plan, Scientists unwrap ancient scroll
40: During a press conference with visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo announced Wednesday that his country will accept 40% more deportation flights from the United States. Guatemala also agreed to the creation of a task force for border control aimed at fighting “all forms of transnational crime.” Under the previous administration, Guatemala received roughly 14 deportation flights per week.
20: President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that aims to bar federal funding for schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports, claiming it violates Title IX. The order conflicts with laws in 20 states protecting transgender people from discrimination and allowing them to play on sports teams. It remains to be seen whether any of those states will file lawsuits to try to override the order.
2: Alphabet — Google’s parent company — has updated its AI principles, removing a previous pledge not to use AI for defense or surveillance purposes that “cause or are likely to cause overall harm.” Google’s head of AI on Tuesday said the move reflected a changing world and that it “supports national security.” The news comes just two months after AI leader OpenAI made a similar policy change.
12: In another blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan, officers from the Taliban’s Ministry of Information and Culture on Tuesday raided andshut down the country’s only women’s radio station and arrested two employees. The Taliban, who closed at least 12 media outlets last year, blamed the suspension on violations of broadcasting policy. Kabul-based Radio Begum was not only run by women but also released content aimed at women’s education.
80: Results from a Jewish People Policy Institute Israel Index poll this weekshow that approximately 80% of Israeli Jews support President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Gaza’s entire population. The same poll found that less than 15% believe the plan is immoral.
2,000: Scientists used X-ray imaging and AI to virtually “unwrap” ascroll uncovered in Herculaneum, Pompeii’s less famous neighbor that was also buried in the infamous 79 CE eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. It was announced Wednesday that researchers from Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and the Vesuvius Challenge were the first to peek inside the scroll in nearly 2,000 years — and while more time is needed to fully decipher the full text, they believe it contains a work of philosophy.
A contingent of security forces from Guatemala holds a Guatemala flag as they arrive in Haiti for a security mission, at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-Au-Prince Haiti January 4, 2025.
Guatemalan troops arrive in Haiti to combat gang violence
A total of150 Guatemalan soldiers landed in Haiti on Friday and Saturday to join a United Nations-backed mission led by Kenya aimed at curbing rampant gang violence.
The troops, drawn from Guatemala’s military police, were welcomed ata ceremony Friday at Port-au-Prince’s international airport by Haitian leaders, including Transitional Presidential Council head Leslie Voltaire and Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé. US Ambassador Dennis Hankins also attended.
The 400 Kenyan police officers leading the mission have struggled to restore order in Haiti, where armed gangs control much of the capital. Despite international efforts, violence has escalated, with gangs storming prisons, targeting diplomatic vehicles, and conducting murderous rampages such as thevoodoo-fueled massacre of nearly 200 people in the capital last month.
In a statement, Normil Rameau, the acting director general of the National Police, said a “marriage” of the police with the people of Haiti remains “the most effective way to facilitate the total restoration of security and the establishment of lasting peace.” We’re watching whether this latest military contingent can help cement that union in the war-torn country.
Trap Women's Final - Chateauroux Shooting Centre, Deols, France - July 31, 2024. Adriana Ruano Oliva of Guatemala in action.
Hard Numbers: Guatemala wins first-ever gold medal, F-16s fly in Ukraine, CAR meets on mpox outbreak, China’s housing market declines
1: Adriana Ruano wonGuatemala its first-ever gold medal at the Olympics in shooting on Wednesday. Going into the 2024 Games, there were69 countries that had never won a Summer Olympics medal and another 37 that had never won gold. We’ll be watching to see how much shorter that list gets as the Games progress.
60: American-made F-16 fighter jets have begun to arrive in Ukraine and are expected to give Kyiv’s air defenses a much-needed boost in its fight against Russia. Although the US approved the delivery last August, it won’t be providing any of its own planes. Instead, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over the coming months in what is likely to be a slow trickle of deliveries.
20,000: Central African Republic officials say they are meeting with the governments of neighboring countries to stop the spread of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, which has been rapidly spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Nigeria. The DRC alone has seen20,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths from mpox, mainly among children, since the start of 2023.
20: In a rocky start to the third quarter, data shows a continued decline for China’s property sector. Transactions among the country’s top 100 real estate developers fell20% last month from a year ago, equivalent to about $38.7 billion. On a month-over-month basis, sales dropped 36%.
Guatemala President-elect Bernardo Arevalo meets with judges of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal in Guatemala City.
Guatemala’s rocky presidential transition
In recent days, supporters of Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arévalo have been blocking roads across the country to protest ongoing efforts by federal prosecutors to block him from taking office.
The background: In August, Arévalo, a former diplomat who ran on an anti-corruption platform, pulled off an upset, defeating former first lady Sandra Torres. Her supporters, including the current ruling party, alleged fraud, but those claims were disputed by international observers and dismissed by Guatemalan courts. Government prosecutors have since sought to outlaw Arévalo’s political party on a registration technicality.
The protests, led by indigenous groups and Arévalo’s supporters, began after federal agents last weekend attempted to seize voting records from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Arévalo’s supporters say these claims are an attempt by the establishment to prevent their upstart candidate from taking office.
The US and the Organization of American States — the region’s foremost multilateral body — have supported Arévalo, who on Tuesday met with senior officials in Washington. The protesters say they won’t back down until the attorney general resigns. Arévalo, who has called the attacks on the electoral authorities a “coup,” is due to be inaugurated in January.
A woman walks next to a campaign sign of Guatemala's President-elect Bernardo Arevalo.
Can Guatemala’s president-elect have a party?
The formerly little-known Arévalo has already faced various legal challenges to his victory, which completely blindsided the country’s political establishment. Experts say Arévalo should still be able to take office in January as planned, but the fate of his party is unclear. Arévalo’s camp has said they will appeal the ruling all the way to the Supreme Electoral Court.
Bernardo Arevalo of the Semilla party addresses supporters
Anti-corruption candidate, Bernando Arévalo, wins Guatemalan election
The votes are in, and Guatemalans have overwhelmingly chosen Bernando Arévalo to be their next president, with a majority forcefully rejecting the establishment and voting for a candidate who promises to clean up government corruption. If only it was that simple.
Arévalo won the election by running an aggressive anti-corruption campaign, which helped galvanize young people — who make up a huge portion of the voting population (the average age in Guatemala is 26, compared to 38 in the US) — behind him. Being a self-declared Taylor Swift fan may have helped, but when it comes to the deep-rooted corruption in the government will he be able to just “Shake it off?”
Arévalo won 58% of the vote, but he faces a long road to the Jan. 14 inauguration. The attorney general’s office – which needs to certify the election – is already attempting to suspend the legal status of Arévalo’s Movimiento Semilla Party.
Arévalo will face massive barriers to fulfill his promises to voters of unraveling deep-rooted corruption in Guatemalan politics – and that presumes he makes it. Last week, the attorney general said it was investigating how the party got its signatures to register, its founders, and potentially Arévalo himself, and with the party losing its legal protections on Oct. 31, the outgoing Congress could strip Arévalo of his immunity.
How is this possible? The last two presidential administrations have purged Guatemala’s judicial system and attorney general’s office of anti-corruption judges, forcing dozens of prosecutors and judges into exile. The current president, Alejandro Giammattei, is seeking to overhaul the supreme court before leaving office to stack it with judges friendly to his coalition who will be ready to strike down Arévalo’s anti-corruption agenda.
Comparative maps showing which countries had official diplomatic ties with Taiwan just before the UN recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1971 to today.
The Graphic Truth: Taiwan's shrinking recognition
Honduras announced this week that it’ll sever official diplomatic ties with Taiwan and instead recognize China. This would bring the number of countries with formal ties to the self-ruled island down to 13, with only two Central American allies (Belize and Guatemala) remaining. China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province, has been playing tug-of-war with Taipei for influence in Latin America for years. We look at which countries had official diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1971, just before the UN switched recognition of China’s government to the People’s Republic, compared to today.
A family fleeing Russian invasion of Ukraine arrives at a train station in Lviv, Ukraine.
Hard Numbers: Ukraine’s refugee crisis, Germany may keep nuclear plants, Guatemala rejects Sputnik V, Australia hit by “rain bomb”
660,000: More than 660,000 refugees fled Ukraine in the five days after Russia invaded Ukraine, and half of them have gone to neighboring Poland. The UN estimates that the worsening conflict could force up to 5 million people to flee.
3: Germany says it is looking into extending the lifespan of its three remaining nuclear plants because of uncertainty about the future of energy supplies in Europe. Still, Germany’s energy minister said that reviving the plants, which were set to shut down later this year, won’t help with the 2022-23 winter season because the shutdown is so far advanced.
1 million: Authorities in Guatemala say that 1 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID vaccine are set to expire because large swaths of the population are rejecting the shot. An additional 1.7 million doses of the second Sputnik jab will expire there next month.
10: At least 10 people have been killed by severe flooding in southeastern Australia in an event described as a massive “rain bomb.” Australia has been hit by a range of extreme weather events at least partly linked to climate change in recent years, most notably severe bushfires in 2019-2020 that decimated 74,000 square kilometers of forestry.