World
Chile’s former president Sebastian Pinera dies in helicopter crash
Chilean ex-President Sebastian Pinera died in a helicopter crash on Tuesday, sending the country he led for two terms into mourning and prompting an outpouring of condolences from leaders across Latin America, Reuters reported.
The helicopter carrying Pinera, 74, and three others plunged into a lake in southern Chile. The former president was pronounced dead shortly after rescue personnel arrived at the scene. The other three passengers survived.
Two sources told Reuters Pinera was the pilot, although officials have not confirmed that, nor the helicopter’s intended destination.
Pinera often spent the Southern Hemisphere summers near the picturesque lakes that dot Chile’s south, and frequently piloted his own helicopter.
President Gabriel Boric declared three days of national mourning, while preparations have begun for a state funeral on Friday for the former leader, who served two non-consecutive terms between 2010 and 2022.
Interior Minister Carolina Toha said the ex-president’s body had been recovered from the lake, near the town of Lago Ranco, read the report.
“We remember him for the way he dedicated his life to public service,” said Toha, who has been helping to lead efforts to battle deadly wildfires in recent days.
Pinera was perhaps best known abroad for his role overseeing the spectacular rescue in 2010 of 33 miners who were trapped underneath the Atacama desert. The event became a global media sensation and was the subject of a 2014 movie, “The 33.”
In Chile, he was known as a successful businessman whose first term was boosted by rapid economic growth but who was often seen as out-of-touch with the country’s fast-changing society.
Both his presidencies were marred by frequent protests – of students demanding education reform in the first term, and of wider and often violent protests against inequality in his second term that ended with the government promising to draft a new constitution.
After leaving the presidency, Pinera remained active in politics, speaking out on issues like the attempt to draft a new constitution – which ultimately failed – and backing conservative politicians in the region, including Argentine President Javier Milei.
Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri expressed his sadness at the news of Pinera’s death. “He was a good person, committed like no one else to Chile and to the values of freedom and democracy in Latin America,” he said.
The son of a prominent centrist politician, Pinera was a Harvard-trained economist who made his fortune introducing credit cards to Chile in the 1980s.
He was also a major shareholder in the flagship airline formerly known as LAN, local soccer team Colo-Colo, and a television station, although he sold most of those holdings when he took over the presidency in March 2010. As of 2024, he was ranked 1,176 on Forbes’ global rich list, with a net worth of $2.7 billion, Reuters reported.
Known for a driven and competitive personality, one friend described Pinera as someone who could be a bully, reluctant to delegate responsibility.
He was also a risk-taker who enjoyed deep-sea diving.
Running for election to the presidency after a spell as a center-right senator, he wooed moderate voters by portraying himself as the leader of a new right and an entrepreneur who made his fortune with hard work.
At the same time, he distanced himself from the 1973-1990 rule of General Augusto Pinochet, when more than 3,000 suspected leftists were killed or “disappeared.”
He lost his first attempt at the top job in 2005 to popular center-left leader Michelle Bachelet, but she was barred constitutionally from running for a second consecutive term and in 2009 he beat ex-president Eduardo Frei by a small margin.
That ended the 20-year rule of the center-left and fended off the bitter memories of Pinochet’s bloody dictatorship that had hurt the right in past elections.
His honeymoon with the electorate was short-lived, though, and his stiff manner contrasted with the more amiable Bachelet, who both preceded and succeeded him as president.
Despite plaudits for his government’s economic record, many Chileans felt he did not do enough to tackle deep inequality or address inadequacies in the country’s education system.
Pinera and his wife Cecilia Morel had four children.
World
Ex-U.S. President Biden’s cancer has spread, is very painful, son says
World
US Senate passes Russia sanctions championed by Graham; US House next
In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”
The U.S. Senate easily passed sweeping Russia sanctions legislation on Friday, advancing a long-delayed measure backed by late Senator Lindsey Graham and setting the stage for consideration by the House of Representatives within weeks, Reuters reported.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died last month, was among Kyiv’s most outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-long war with Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
It also includes expanded sanctions on Iran sought by President Donald Trump as lawmakers pushed for a vote on the measure well over a year since it was introduced in 2025.
The Senate’s Republican leaders had not brought the bill up because of resistance from Trump, who had kept decisions on sanctions at the White House, not Congress, since starting his second term in January 2025.
The Senate voted 86-11 to pass the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026,” to sanction Russian officials and authorize stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
In a statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Washington welcomed passage, calling it “a timely and significant step that strengthens pressure on Russia.”
However, broad support may not be enough to secure House passage, with some lawmakers and industries wary that new tariff powers for Trump could raise costs for U.S. importers and consumers while exposing Republicans to political blowback.
Representatives Gregory Meeks of New York and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a statement they still had “fundamental concerns” about the tariff powers for Trump, who has made them a central piece of his “America First” approach to foreign policy, read the report.
“What the bill does grant … are sweeping new tariff authorities that the president could weaponize with abandon, as he has repeatedly done in the past,” said Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Beyer, the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee.
Trump’s fellow Republicans control only slim majorities in both the House and Senate.
Only one Senate Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the bill, likening tariffs to taxes on American consumers.
The chamber erupted into applause after Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who was appointed to fill his seat, read out the final tally.
The Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Paul and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon that would have removed the tariff powers.
Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who also sought to change the tariff language, said he had received a written commitment from Trump’s U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, to put guardrails on the tariff authorities, Reuters reported.
If it is approved by the House and signed into law by Trump, the measure would allow the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.
The legislation’s backers insist that the tariffs are narrow enough that they would do their intended job of reducing Russian energy revenue that funds its war on Ukraine without negative consequences.
Supporters called the legislation the best opportunity to support Ukraine, and the strong bipartisan Senate vote provided momentum for it to pass the House after it returns from its summer recess on August 31.
Graham had announced shortly before his sudden death on July 11 that he and Trump agreed finally to move forward with the legislation.
The legislation lets the president impose targeted tariffs on imported goods from countries that buy the vast majority of Russian oil or gas and enable Russia’s evasion of sanctions.
The bill limits these tariffs to the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas and the top five countries that aid Russia’s energy sanctions evasion. The measure includes a provision to prevent a lapse in sanctions authority that restricts funding for Iranian energy and weapons.
World
Two dead, including gunman, at school shooting in Thailand, officials sayd
The incident took place in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province. Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
At least one teacher was killed and four other people injured by a student who opened fire at a school in Thailand north of Bangkok on Friday before killing himself, authorities said, Reuters reported.
Lt. Col. Dechrapee Kongdee Nonthaburi Provincial Police Commander confirmed the casualties to Reuters and said the suspected gunman had committed suicide. Among those injured were one teacher and three students, he said.
The incident took place in the Bang Kruai district of Nonthaburi province. Police identified the perpetrator as a student.
In photos circulated by emergency workers, students streamed out of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the northwestern outskirts of Bangkok, as ambulances operated. In one photo, one person is seen lying down on a stretcher outside an ambulance, while another is attended to by a medic, read the report.
In the 2025 academic year, the school had an enrollment of around 3,100 students and 147 teachers, according to district authorities.
In February a teacher died and a student was injured in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai district after a gunman opened fire at a school.
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