BOGOTA (Reuters) – Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through Colombia’s major cities on Tuesday to protest the economic and social reforms pushed by the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro.

Petro, who took office last August as Colombia’s first left-wing president, won election on promises to cut poverty and inequality and also roll out a policy of “total peace” to end the country’s almost six decades of armed conflict which has killed at least 450,000 people.

Petro is facing an uphill battle in Congress to push labor, health, and pension reforms after his majority coalition disintegrated due to the government’s refusal to make changes to the proposals.

The protests were the opposition’s response to marches that Petro called earlier this month, where he asked Congress to approve his proposed reforms.

Opponents to Petro’s pension reforms argue they could negatively impact Colombia’s finances and hurt job creation.

A crowd of some 5,000 people marched through capital Bogota on Tuesday according to local authorities, where some protesters carried banners emblazoned with slogans such as “No more Petro” and “Petro out.”

“This is a manifestation of popular discontent because you cannot destroy what has been done in more than 50 years and worse still, with resentment,” economist Yesid Garzon said in Bogota while protesting.

Peaceful protests also took place in cities including Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla and Bucaramanga, according to police.

“Our greatest duty is to protect them, so that nothing happens to any protester. That’s the expression of the spirit of democracy, that people can express what they want … against the same government without anything untoward happening,” Petro said during a police ceremony earlier on Tuesday.

Petro has recently been caught up in a scandal over accusations of alleged illegal financing during his election campaign, which he denies.

The president’s approval fell to 33.8% in May, from 50% in November, while his disapproval rating rose to 59.4% from 43%, according to a recent survey by polling company Inmaver.

(Reporting by Herbert Villarraga and Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin, Editing by Alistair Bell)

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Kanishka Singh

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -The risks of artificial intelligence to national security and the economy need to be addressed, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding he would seek expert advice.

“My administration is committed to safeguarding Americans’ rights and safety while protecting privacy, to addressing bias and misinformation, to making sure AI systems are safe before they are released,” Biden said at an event in San Francisco.

Biden met a group of civil society leaders and advocates, who have previously criticized the influence of major tech companies, to discuss artificial intelligence.

“I wanted to hear directly from the experts,” he said.

Several governments are considering how to mitigate the dangers of the emerging technology, which has experienced a boom in investment and consumer popularity in recent months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Biden’s meeting on Tuesday included Tristan Harris, executive director of the Center for Humane Technology, Algorithmic Justice League founder Joy Buolamwini and Stanford University Professor Rob Reich.

Regulators globally have been scrambling to draw up rules governing the use of generative AI, which can create text and images, and whose impact has been compared to that of the internet.

Biden has also recently discussed the issue of AI with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak whose government will later this year hold a first global summit on artificial intelligence safety. Biden is expected to discuss the topic with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his ongoing U.S. visit.

European Union lawmakers agreed last week to changes in draft rules on artificial intelligence proposed by the European Commission in a bid to set a global standard for a technology used on everything from automated factories to self-driving cars to chatbots.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in San FranciscoWriting by Kanishka SinghEditing by Chris Reese, Alistair Bell and Matthew Lewis)

HAVANA (Reuters) – A delegation of high-level Cuban officials wrapped up an extended visit to Russia, according to state-run media reports on Tuesday, following up on the nearly 30 trade agreements signed between the allies in Havana in May.

Longtime political allies Cuba and Russia – both subject to U.S. sanctions – have sharply increased economic ties by facilitating trade and investment to circumvent those restrictions.

The 11-day trip by Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero and Foreign Vice Minister Gerardo Penalver came on the heels of a trade forum in May in which the allies agreed to work together to boost Cuba´s sugar and rum exports, assure coveted wheat and crude oil supply to the Communist-run island and overhaul crumbling tourist facilities.

“We must look for new avenues to carry out our economic relations outside the scope of … the (U.S.) dollar, which is giving way more and more to a multipolar world, and where other actors such as China, India and Russia acquire greater relevance,” Penalver told state-run media outlet CubaDebate upon returning to Havana.

Marrero met with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin as well as with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Communist-run Cuba has been under a wide-reaching U.S. trade embargo since shortly after Fidel Castro´s 1959 revolution. Those restrictions, reinforced by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, have contributed to a nearly unprecedented economic crisis that has led to shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

Russia is ready to supply Cuba with 1.64 million tonnes of oil and oil products annually, Russian news agencies reported last week, citing Marrero.

Fuel, especially, has been in short supply in Cuba since March, forcing the government to ration and prompting day´s long queues for gasoline, further crippling the economy.

Penalver said the second half of 2023 would see Russian airline Aeroflot renew flights to the island and bring 1,200 employees of Russian state-run oil firm Rosneft to relax and receive medical check-ups.

(Reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

By Stephanie Kelly and Jarrett Renshaw

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Biden administration plans to increase the amount of biofuels that oil refiners must blend into the nation’s fuel mix over the next three years, but the plan includes lower mandates for corn-based ethanol than it had initially proposed, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to finalize biofuel blending volumes at 20.94 billion gallons in 2023, 21.54 billion gallons in 2024 and 22.33 billion gallons in 2025, the sources said. That compares with the initial proposal announced in December of 20.82 billion in 2023, 21.87 billion in 2024, and 22.68 billion in 2025.

But the finalized volumes include just 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels like corn-based ethanol in all three years, plus a 250 million-gallon supplemental amount for 2023, the sources said. That represents a decline from the initial proposal, which included 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels in 2023 and 15.25 billion in both 2024 and 2025.

The cut to ethanol drew consternation from the biofuels industry.

“If the reports are accurate, EPA’s decision to lower its ambitions for conventional biofuels runs counter to the direction set by Congress and will needlessly slow progress toward this administration’s climate goals,” said Emily Skor, CEO of biofuels trade association Growth Energy.

The EPA is expected to announce the final rule on Wednesday

The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The final rule marks a new phase in the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard program, which is more than a decade old and frequently pits the powerful oil and biofuel industries against each other. Under the RFS, oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation’s fuel mix, or buy tradable credits from those that do.

Ethanol producers and corn farmers like the mandates because they provide a market for their products, while the oil industry finds the requirements too pricey.

While Congress set out specific goals for the program through 2022, the law expands the EPA’s authority for 2023 and beyond to change the way the RFS is administered.

Renewable fuel (D6) credits fell after the news on Tuesday, trading at $1.425 each versus $1.46 earlier in the session.

EPA ABANDONS EV SCHEME

The final rule will not include a much-anticipated pathway for electric vehicle manufacturers to generate lucrative credits under the RFS, though it was included in the original proposal in December. Reuters previously reported that the administration was planning to abandon the scheme over worries about lawsuits.

The plan would have given EV automakers, such as Tesla, credits for charging vehicles using power generated from renewable natural gas, or methane collected from sources such as cattle or land fills.

Because the EPA removed the EV plan, the agency had to exclude in the final rule volumes previously apportioned to the scheme, including an expected 600 million credits generated by EV manufacturers in 2024 and 1.2 billion by 2025.

Category 2023 2023 Final 2024 2024 Final 2025 2025 Final

Proposed Proposed Proposed

(bln

gallons)

Cellulosic 0.72 0.84 1.42 1.09 2.13 1.38

biofuel

Biomass-ba 2.82 2.82 2.89 3.04 2.95 3.35

sed diesel

Advanced 5.82 5.94 6.62 6.54 7.43 7.33

biofuel

Non-cellul 5.10 5.10 5.20 5.45 5.30 5.95

osic

advanced

Convention 15.0 15.0 15.25 15.0 15.25 15.0

al

Total 20.82 20.94 21.87 21.54 22.68 22.33

renewable

fuel

Supplement 0.25 0.25 N/A N/A N/A N/A

al

Standard

*units are

bln

gallons

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York and Jarrett Renshaw in PhiladelphiaEditing by Matthew Lewis)

LONDON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States would have deep concerns about Chinese military activities in Cuba, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing was planning a new training facility there.

Speaking at a press conference in London after wrapping up a trip this week to Beijing, Blinken said he made clear to his Chinese counterparts “that we would have deep concerns about PRC intelligence or military activities in Cuba”.

Blinken added: “This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely and we’ve been very clear about that. And we will protect our homeland, we will protect our interests.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. officials, reported on Tuesday that China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a joint military training facility on the island that could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops just 100 miles off Florida’s coast.

Discussions for the facility are at an advanced stage but have not concluded, and President Joe Biden’s administration has contacted Cuban officials to try to stop the deal, the newspaper reported.

The White House National Security Council and the Cuban government did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Washington said last week it has made its concerns known to Cuba about hosting Chinese spy operations. The U.S. government has long suspected that China runs an intelligence gathering operation in a village near Havana, on Cuba’s northern coast.

China denies it uses Cuba as a spy base. Cuba says the only military incursion in its territory is the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which belongs to the United States.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar with additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Dave Sherwood; writing by Muvija M; Editing by Sarah Young and Alistair Bell)

By Humeyra Pamuk

BEIJING (Reuters) -The United States on Tuesday pressed its call for military communication channels with China and signalled concern over reports that China plans a military training facility in Cuba following Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing over the weekend.

Establishing military-to-military communications is essential to reduce frictions between the two global powers, Sarah Beran, White House National Security Council senior director for China and Taiwan Affairs, told reporters in a briefing about the trip.

“This is an absolutely critical way for us to manage competition, crisis communication, ensure that there is not miscommunication or misperception about each other’s intentions,” Beran said.

“We remain willing and able at all levels to meet and call on China to respond appropriately to that.”

Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States would have “deep concerns” about Chinese military activities in Cuba, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing was planning a new training facility there.

Blinken told a press conference in London that he had made those concerns clear to his Chinese counterparts.

“This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely and we’ve been very clear about that. And we will protect our homeland, we will protect our interests,” Blinken added.

During Blinken’s Beijing visit, the first to China by a U.S. secretary of state since 2018, the nations agreed to temper rivalries to avoid conflict but there were no breakthroughs.

China cited U.S. sanctions as an obstacle to military dialogue which Blinken said he had repeatedly raised with his hosts and would continue to push for.

Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu has been sanctioned since 2018 over the purchase of combat aircraft and equipment from Russia’s main arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.

GLOBAL WORRIES

Lack of open channels between both nations has prompted international jitters, with Beijing’s reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military talks with Washington alarming China’s neighbours.

Speaking at the same briefing call on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department’s top diplomat for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink said a successful and responsible management of the U.S.-China relationship will only be possible if it is a “two-way street”.

Kritenbrink said asserting that all bilateral problems were caused by one party “simply doesn’t reflect reality.”

At one of the most significant U.S.-China exchanges since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, the two sides appeared entrenched over a multitude of issues from Taiwan to trade – including U.S. actions toward China’s chip industry – plus human rights and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The most concrete result of the trip was a commitment to more diplomatic engagements with further high-level U.S. visits in coming months, including possible trips by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

China’s defence minister Li earlier this month declined an invitation to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at an international security summit.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alistair Bell)

By Sarah N. Lynch, Jeff Mason and Tom Hals

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes and to enter into an agreement that could avert a conviction on a gun-related charge, according to a court filing on Tuesday.

The news sparked accusations of favorable treatment for the Democratic president’s son from former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, who for years have attacked both Bidens.

Their accusations of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden relating to Ukraine and China prompted the investigation by David Weiss – the U.S. attorney in Delaware appointed by Trump – that led to the charges. The two misdemeanor tax charges were Hunter Biden’s first.

The younger Biden has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, consultant to foreign companies, investment banker and artist, and has publicly detailed his struggles with substance abuse.

The announcement by the Justice Department comes as President Biden is in the middle of a re-election campaign that may pit him again against Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024. As president, Trump asked Chinese and Ukrainian authorities to investigate Hunter Biden’s activities in their countries.

According to court filings, Hunter Biden received taxable income of more than $1.5 million in 2017 and in 2018 but did not pay income tax those years despite owing in excess of $100,000.

He is also charged with unlawfully owning a firearm from roughly Oct. 12 to Oct 23, 2018 when he was using and addicted to a controlled substance, the Justice Department said. For that charge, he entered a pretrial diversion agreement, an alternative to prosecution that is sometimes used to allow defendants to avoid prison time or a criminal conviction.

“It is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved,” his attorney, Christopher Clark, said in a statement. “I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”

Weiss said the investigation is ongoing, a standard statement in such announcements.

The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on the charges or the deal.

“The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement.

Hunter Biden is likely to face a sentencing range of 12-18 months for the tax charges, about half of which could be spent inside a prison cell, according to sentencing expert Tess Lopez.

But the odds he will get sentenced to prison are low, based on the tax loss amount, his status as a first-time offender and his willingness to accept responsibility for his actions.

“He’s not going to prison,” said Michael Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who now chairs the white-collar practice at the law firm Cole Schotz. “He is facing prison time, but whether or not practically and realistically he goes is very different.”

REPUBLICANS SEE ‘SLAP ON THE WRIST’

Hunter Biden disclosed in December 2020 that Weiss’s office was investigating his tax affairs. He denied wrongdoing.

He described in a 2021 memoir dealing with substance abuse issues in his life, including crack cocaine use and alcoholism. He was discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine, sources said at the time.

The Weiss inquiry initially examined potential violations of tax and money laundering laws in foreign business dealings, principally in China, sources told Reuters.

The investigation headed by Weiss began as early as 2018, according to U.S. media reports. Weiss was asked to stay on in the role, after Trump left the White House and President Biden began, to continue the probe.

The probe followed accusations of influence peddling against Hunter Biden by Trump and others, as well as Trump’s efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of the man he saw as his likely 2020 presidential challenger. Those efforts, including a suspension of congressionally approved military aid for Ukraine, led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Republicans on Tuesday roundly criticized the deal as being favorable to the president’s son.

Representative James Comer, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, which has been leading House Republicans’ investigations into Biden’s family, called the plea deal “a slap on the wrist” and said it would not deter his panel’s work.

Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight panel, accused Republicans in a statement of “wailing about the work” of a Trump-appointed attorney.

“This development reflects the Justice Department’s continued institutional independence in following the evidence of actual crimes and enforcing the rule of law even in the face of constant criticism and heckling by my GOP colleagues who think that the system of justice should only follow their partisan wishes,” Raskin said about the charges.

Trump, who was recently indicted on federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office, also criticized the deal.

“Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!” he said on his Truth Social platform.

President Biden has two surviving children, Hunter Biden and daughter Ashley Biden. His son Beau Biden died in 2015 of cancer and his daughter Naomi Biden died as an infant after a car accident that also killed Joe Biden’s first wife.

Hunter Biden appears to be the first child of a sitting president to be indicted, according to Aaron Crawford, who specializes in presidential history at the University of Tennessee.

Crawford said the family of several presidents were ensnared in scandals, including George H.W. Bush’s son Neil, who directed a failed savings and loan, and Richard Nixon’s brother Don, who was rescued from business failures by wealthy businessman Howard Hughes.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Jeff Mason in Washington and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Susan Heavey, Moira Warburton and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)