International News Briefs for Wednesday, May 7, 2025
HAVANA TIMES – Here are some of the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
India and Pakistan Trade Fire After India Launches Airstrikes on Kashmir and Pakistan
May 07, 2025
India and Pakistan are exchanging heavy artillery fire across the line of control that divides Kashmir into Indian- and Pakistani-administered areas. The cross-border fighting began after India launched a major military operation with a series of airstrikes on nine sites, including targets inside Pakistan. A Pakistani military spokesperson said the strikes killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens, including civilians. Among sites hit was a mosque in Pakistan’s Punjab province. This is an eyewitness.
Zeeshan Akram: “They hit the mosque directly, destroyed its courtyard, the minister’s office in front of the mosque and the roof. Everything was crushed. There was one person sitting on the roof on duty. He was martyred.”
Meanwhile, Indian officials say at least 10 people have been killed, and several wounded, by Pakistani attacks on Indian-administered Kashmir. India’s Foreign Minister Vikram Misri called India’s attacks a “measured” response to the massacre last month of 26 people in the Kashmiri resort town of Pahalgam — an attack India blamed on militants backed by Pakistan’s government.
Vikram Misri: “India exercised its right to respond and preempt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks. These actions were measured, nonescalatory, proportionate and responsible.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the Indian attacks “an act of war.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has canceled an upcoming trip to Europe and is holding high-level Cabinet meetings. Both India and Pakistan are armed with thermonuclear weapons. In a statement, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons warned, “A nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would cause millions of immediate deaths in the region and have global consequences.” We’ll have more on this story after headlines.
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Israel Bombs School, Tents Housing Displaced Palestinians in Gaza; U.N. Condemns Weaponization of Aid
May 07, 2025
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed another 31 people, including 13 Palestinians who died when Israel bombed a school east of Gaza City. A separate attack on a tent encampment for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah killed three people, including a child. Amid the unrelenting attacks, Hamas said it would no longer engage in ceasefire talks due to the catastrophic famine set off by Israel’s total siege of Gaza, now in its ninth week. A spokesperson for the United Nations’ aid coordination office said Israel has unlawfully weaponized food, water, fuel and medicine.
Jens Lærke: “Aid should be provided based on humanitarian need to whomever needs it, targeting those who need it most first, and not be used as — in any way, as a tactic to move people to any particular place or to convince people to do this, that or the other. It is to cover their basic lifesaving needs pronto.”
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Israel Bombs Airport in Yemen’s Capital as Trump Announces Deal to Stop U.S. Attacks on Houthis
May 07, 2025
Israel’s military bombed the main airport in Yemen’s capital Sana’a on Tuesday, an attack that set passenger jets on fire and disabled the airfield. Yemen’s Houthi movement says the bombing left three people dead. Elsewhere, witnesses reported at least four other Israeli strikes across the capital region. The Israeli attacks came as President Trump said the U.S. would no longer launch attacks on Yemen, after the Houthis reportedly reached out and expressed that they “don’t want to fight anymore.” A top Houthi negotiator later said the U.S. ceasefire did not apply to Houthi operations against Israel.
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Amid Russian Attacks, Ukraine Targets Moscow with Drones on Eve of Victory Day Parade
May 07, 2025
In Ukraine, a Russian missile attack on the city of Sumy Tuesday killed three people, including a child. At least 10 others were wounded in the attack, most of them children. The strike came as Ukraine launched a third consecutive night of drone attacks on Moscow, a barrage that came as foreign leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, are heading to Moscow for a “Victory Day” parade commemorating the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany.
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WaPo: Trump Administration Urged Ukraine to Accept U.S. Deportees from Other Nations
May 07, 2025
The Washington Post reports the Trump administration has urged the Ukrainian government to accept an unspecified number of U.S. deportees who are citizens of other countries — even though Ukraine lacks functioning airports to receive deportation flights, due to constant Russian attacks. This follows reports the Trump administration is offering cash payments or political concessions to several African nations to accept deportees from the U.S.
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“I Am a DOGE Person”: Senate Republicans Confirm Frank Bisignano as Social Security Commissioner
May 07, 2025
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Frank Bisignano as Social Security commissioner, an appointment labor leaders warn could lead to the destruction of Social Security. Bisignano is a banking executive with a net worth estimated at nearly a billion dollars. In March, he declared, “I am fundamentally a DOGE person” — referring to Elon Musk’s efforts to gut federal agencies. He was confirmed Tuesday on a party-line vote of 53 to 47. Among those voting “no” was Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “Frank Bisignano will rubber stamp Trump and Musk’s attack on Social Security. He’ll let them keep slashing services. He’ll let them keep threatening benefits. And that’s going to hurt people everywhere, from seniors who count on their monthly checks right now, to the parents of kids with a disability supported by Social Security, to every American who is paying into the program now for results later on down the line.”
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Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Ban on Trans Troops While Lawsuits Proceed
May 07, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily allowed the Trump administration’s ban on transgender military members to take effect. The measure will be enforced while legal challenges are resolved. In response to a slew of anti-trans executive orders signed by Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in February ordered an immediate ban on transgender military recruits and halted all gender-affirming medical procedures for active-duty military. Hegseth also issued a policy giving the military 30 days to identify trans service members and remove them from their positions. In response to the Supreme Court’s decision, Hegseth said on social media, “No More Trans @ DoD…No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that shit.”
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Court Rejects Trump’s Repeal of Protected Status for Haitian, Cuban and Venezuelan Immigrants
May 07, 2025
In immigration news, a federal appeals court in Boston has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke temporary deportation relief for an estimated 400,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela living in the U.S. under a two-year parole protection granted to them by President Biden.
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Federal Courts Reject Trump’s Use of 1798 Alien Enemies Act to Transfer Venezuelans
May 07, 2025
Two federal judges on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to expel Venezuelan immigrants without due process. U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s ruling halts the removal of immigrants under his court’s jurisdiction in New York, while a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney bars Trump officials from removing Venezuelans detained in Colorado. These are the latest legal defeats against Trump’s mass deportation plans, coming after a Trump-appointed judge in Texas issued a permanent ruling against Trump’s use of the 1798 wartime law, rejecting Trump’s claim of an “invasion” by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to justify the expulsions.
Meanwhile, a newly declassified memo shows U.S. intelligence agencies privately rejected Trump’s claim that the Venezuelan government directs Tren de Aragua, a claim that was key to Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
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Venezuelan Man Unlawfully Sent by U.S. to El Salvador Prison ID’d as Daniel Lozano-Camargo
May 07, 2025
More details have emerged in the case of another Venezuelan man who was illegally sent to El Salvador’s maximum-security mega-prison in March. Trump officials removed 20-year-old Daniel Lozano-Camargo from the U.S. in violation of a 2024 legal settlement that prohibited immigration authorities from deporting him while his asylum application is pending. Lozano-Camargo came to the United States from Venezuela as an unaccompanied child. Last month, a federal judge in Maryland ordered his return.
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El Salvador’s Bukele Prepares to Arrest Journalists Who Revealed His Agreement with Gangs
May 07, 2025
In El Salvador, the government of President Nayib Bukele is reportedly preparing to issue arrest warrants for several journalists working at the acclaimed Central American independent outlet El Faro. In its announcement, El Faro said a reliable source with close government knowledge contacted the outlet’s staff issuing the warning, which came after El Faro published an interview with two former gang leaders who revealed new details on a power-sharing agreement with Bukele and his yearslong complicity with gangs. In a statement Monday, El Faro said, “If carried out, the warrants are the first time in decades that prosecutors seek to press charges against individual journalists for their journalistic labors.”
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“It’s Not for Sale”: Canada’s Mark Carney Rejects Trump’s Annexation Threat
May 07, 2025
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with President Trump at the Oval Office Tuesday, where he rejected Trump’s call to annex Canada as the “51st state.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney: “And having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it’s not for sale, won’t be for sale, ever.”
In response to Carney’s remarks, Trump said, “Never say never,” while Carney mouthed the words “never, never, never.” Trump also said during Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting that nothing Carney could say would persuade him to lift U.S. tariffs on Canada.
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Family Sues Florida Deputy over Killing of U.S. Airman Roger Fortson in His Own Home
May 07, 2025
In Florida, the family of 23-year-old Roger Fortson, an Air Force member killed by a sheriff’s deputy inside his own home in 2024, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. The suit alleges deputy Eddie Duran used excessive and unconstitutional deadly force when he shot Fortson just seconds after he answered the door of his own apartment. Fortson’s family said police arrived at the wrong home and that Fortson grabbed his legal firearm as a precaution. Police body-camera footage showed Fortson answered the door with his gun at his side, not posing an imminent threat to the officer, who immediately shot Fortson six times. Fortson’s family is being represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
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Jury Begins Deliberations in Trial of 3 Former Officers Charged with Murdering Tyre Nichols
May 07, 2025
In Tennessee, jurors on Tuesday began deliberating in the trial of three former Memphis police officers charged with murdering Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father who died after the officers brutally beat him during a traffic stop in January 2023. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were convicted on federal charges last year. State Prosecutor Tanisha Johnson was the last attorney to speak to the jury on Tuesday before deliberations.
Tanisha Johnson: “If you follow the facts in the law, your mind can rest easy that there sits three men who are criminally responsible for the murder, the aggravated kidnapping and the aggravated assault of Tyre Nichols, as well as official misconduct and official oppression. Find them all guilty as charged of every charge.”