Family of victim of Trump boat airstrikes files complaint against ‘extrajudicial killing’ | First Thing

Alejandro Carranza Medina’s relatives say he was a fisher, not a drug trafficker. Plus, Putin says Russia ‘ready’ for war with Europe as Ukraine talks stall

Good morning.

A family in Colombia has filed a petition with the Washington DC-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), alleging that the Colombian citizen Alejandro Carranza Medina was subject to an “extrajudicial killing” in a US airstrike.

What is the IACHR? A monitoring body designed to “promote and protect human rights in the western hemisphere”. The US is a member, and the state department said in March it was a “strong supporter of the IACHR”.

How has the Trump administration responded? A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, did not respond directly to questions about the complaint or about Carranza’s death, but wrote in an email that the media were “now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans”.

What’s the latest on the frontlines? Buoyed up by recent gains, Putin has indicated in recent weeks that the Russian military was prepared to keep fighting if diplomacy faltered, repeatedly emphasising that his forces remained on the offensive on the battlefield.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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