Colombian presidential candidate in critical condition again, say doctors
Conservative Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was speaking to supporters in the capital, Bogota, when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee.
He has been in intensive care since then, and undergone multiple surgeries. In recent weeks his relatives had welcomed progress in his care.
But now Uribe has been put back under deep sedation, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said in a statement.
Uribe needs "new neurosurgical procedures" after presenting with a hemorrhage in his central nervous system, the statement said. "His condition is critical."
Authorities have arrested six suspects in the attack. They believe the 15-year-old shooter was a hired gun and that dissident members of the defunct FARC guerrilla group are behind the attack.
The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro initiated peace talks with the dissident group in mid 2024 in Venezuela, but the talks made little progress and have since been suspended.
Uribe was the favored candidate of the right for the 2026 presidential elections. The attack in June stunned Colombia and raised fears of a return to the country's bloody past of political, cartel and paramilitary violence.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
6 hours ago
- Gulf Today
UK to deport foreign criminals to free up jail space
Tara Cobham, The Independent The UK is set to deport foreign criminals to free up prison space in the government's latest immigration crackdown. Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood vowed the offenders will be sent 'packing' immediately when they receive a custodial sentence. The proposed law change — which could save taxpayers an average of £54,000 per year, per prison place — would apply to prisoners serving fixed-term 'determinate' sentences. Authorities would also retain their power not to deport a criminal but instead keep them in custody, for example, if the offender was planning further crimes against the UK's interests or national security. 'Our message is clear,' Ms Mahmood said. 'If you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing.' She added: 'Deportations are up under this government, and with this new law they will happen earlier than ever before.' Almost 5,200 foreign national offenders have been deported since July 2024, a 14 per cent increase on the 12 months prior, according to the government. The justice secretary's announcement follows a tweak in the law in June — expected to come into force in September — which will see prisoners face deportation 30 per cent into their prison sentence rather than the current 50 per cent. The government will need parliament to greenlight its proposal to bring this down to 0 per cent. According to a Labour source, the previous Conservative government relied on prison transfer agreements with other countries to deport foreign national offenders, in deals which allow inmates to serve their custodial sentence in their 'home' country. This saw 945 prisoners sent to jails abroad between 2010 and 2023. Foreign national offenders make up around 12 per cent of the prison population. Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: 'In Starmer's topsy-turvy world investors are fleeing the country in their droves while record numbers of violent and sexual offenders from abroad are put up in our prisons. It's a farce. 'Yet again Starmer has refused to confront our broken human rights laws. He needs to grow a backbone and change them so we can actually deport these individuals. The safety of the British public is infinitely more important than the 'rights' of sick foreign criminals. 'If countries won't take back their nationals, Starmer should suspend visas and foreign aid. His soft-touch approach isn't working.' The prison population currently stands at 88,007, just 514 below the record high of 88,521, which was reached on 6 September last year. The government has vowed to create 14,000 new prison places by 2031. Ms Mahmood has also accepted a string of recommendations following a major report by David Gauke, which will see some offenders serve less of their sentence in custody in sweeping reforms expected to ease pressure on prisons. The proposed law change comes amid the government's wider crackdown on immigration. Labour has put a pledge to tackle the number of people coming to the UK on small boats at the centre of its plan for government. Last week, figures showed that the number of migrants arriving in the UK this year after crossing the English Channel topped 25,000 — the earliest point in a calendar year at which the 25,000 mark has been passed since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018. With boat crossings at a record high, and the asylum backlog still above 75,000, there is mounting pressure on ministers to take more drastic action — pressure which is exacerbated by the success of Reform UK in the polls. Meanwhile, escalating protests are breaking out across the UK opposing the use of hotels to house asylum seekers. In recent days, the government announced further measures to support its crackdown on illegal migration, including pouring an extra £100m into the efforts. The money will support the pilot of the UK's new 'one in, one out' deal with France, paying for up to 300 more National Crime Agency officers and new technology and equipment to step up intelligence-gathering on smuggling gangs. The first small boat migrants were detained this week under the UK's new returns agreement with Emmanuel Macron and could be sent back to France within weeks. The agreement, announced by the prime minister in a joint press conference with the French president last month, means that for each small boat migrant sent back across the English Channel, an asylum seeker will be allowed to enter the UK from France under a legal route.
Khaleej Times
12 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Colombian presidential candidate in critical condition again, say doctors
A Colombian presidential candidate shot at a campaign event in June has deteriorated to critical condition due to a new cerebral hemorrhage, doctors treating him said Saturday. Conservative Senator Miguel Uribe, 39, was speaking to supporters in the capital, Bogota, when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee. He has been in intensive care since then, and undergone multiple surgeries. In recent weeks his relatives had welcomed progress in his care. But now Uribe has been put back under deep sedation, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said in a statement. Uribe needs "new neurosurgical procedures" after presenting with a hemorrhage in his central nervous system, the statement said. "His condition is critical." Authorities have arrested six suspects in the attack. They believe the 15-year-old shooter was a hired gun and that dissident members of the defunct FARC guerrilla group are behind the attack. The government of leftist President Gustavo Petro initiated peace talks with the dissident group in mid 2024 in Venezuela, but the talks made little progress and have since been suspended. Uribe was the favored candidate of the right for the 2026 presidential elections. The attack in June stunned Colombia and raised fears of a return to the country's bloody past of political, cartel and paramilitary violence.
The National
14 hours ago
- The National
Broke Britain must move on from Robin Hood governments
Per Wikipedia, there are two versions of Robin Hood: one a libertarian who lashes out against those who impose exorbitant tax, the other a socialist who believes in the redistribution of wealth. The latter is the man more familiar to modern audiences – and palatable to the UK's Labour party voters - but I wonder if it's the guy who refuses to be railroaded by the government that Britain actually needs. That's because Britain is broke. There's a £51 billion (almost $69 billion) hole in the budget that the Labour government must fix and yes, for avoidance of doubt, it was previous Conservative governments that left it there. But it is in consistently placing the burden of funding the many on the few that Britain has ceased to be an island of economic opportunity, and instead devolved into an enclave of the over-taxed and under-invested. That's because the majority of those who enjoy Britain's welfare system are not the people paying to support it. Britain's mid-income workers pay less income tax than any other western nation in the G7. In fact, those making around £37,480, the medium full-time salary in the UK in 2024, are paying the lowest percentage of income and payroll taxes since 1990. Meantime, 60 per cent of Britain's tax income is paid by the top 10 per cent of workers, those people making above the £70,000 threshold; and 29 per cent of all income tax revenue comes from the top 1 per cent of that number. It is in consistently placing the burden of funding the many on the few that Britain has ceased to be an island of economic opportunity Labour's disastrous 2024 budget, with its punitive tax regime, forced a now well-documented exodus of the super-rich; for many, the prospect of continuing to prop up and perpetuate a failing nanny state while losing tax exemption on worldwide income spurred them to the exit. But it's the government's refusal to come up with proposals to bring them back or keep the ones sticking around that should have everyone worried. To be clear, the impact of their departure has yet to be properly factored into government forecasts, but the outlook is grim. Non-doms paid £8.9 billion in taxes in 2022-23 and it's difficult to imagine the government won't be losing money once the official body count is in. For more than 30 years, successive governments have been playing Robin Hood to the British public, taxing the rich to pay for the poor. Labour, for good reason, has continued to prop up those with less: wages have not increased in line with inflation, and there is a lack of productivity across the economy that has kept politicians wary of raising the 'sacred cow' of tax hikes. But with less coming in and more going out, the government is now practising false economics in continuing to force out its top 10 per cent. And the idea that these people would return without at least some commitment to helping them carry the weight from the broader public is a fantasy.
