Stories for October 30th 2020

Friday, October 30th 2020 - 18:12 UTC
Argentina extends social welfare coverage to one million more children

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Thursday signed a decree that extends social welfare coverage to one million more children and teenagers.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 18:09 UTC
US economy grew 33,1% in Q3 on trillions of relief, but 23 million Americans still on unemployment benefit

The U.S. economy grew at a historic pace in the third quarter as the government injected more than US$ 3 trillion worth of pandemic relief which fueled consumer spending, but the deep scars from the COVID-19 recession could take a year or more to heal.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 18:06 UTC
Drought impacts on Argentine corn planting and overall production and exports

Corn production in Argentina is likely to drop to 48 million tons in 2020-21 from 50 million tons in 2019-20, the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service in Buenos Aires said in a report released on Thursday.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 14:33 UTC
More than 80 million Americans have already cast votes, 58% of total 2016 turnout

More than 80 million Americans have cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, according to a tally on Thursday from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, setting the stage for the highest participation rate in over a century.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 13:16 UTC
Dollar strapped Argentine government moves to recover “grabbed” land and evict squatters

Argentine anti-riot police clashed with a group of protesters on Thursday while evicting them from makeshift homes on a contested property south of the capital, Buenos Aires. Six police officers were injured and some forty people were arrested, according to authorities.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 13:00 UTC
Argentina and Mexico “vote” for Biden and delay nominations at IDB until after the US election

Mexico and Argentina have delayed a key meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank until after the Nov. 3 U.S. election, delivering an early setback to plans by the bank’s new U.S. chief to install vice presidents from smaller countries.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 09:43 UTC
Climate change: the Arctic Ocean sea ice has yet to start refreezing

By Gwynne Dyer – Historically, the Arctic Ocean would freeze right out to its edges (the northern coasts of Canada, Greenland, Russia, and Alaska) each winter — 14-million square kilometers of ice — and then melt back to about half that area over the following summer. Not this year.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 09:37 UTC
Brazil keeps interest rate at record low, despite a spike in food and fuel inflation

Brazil’s central bank kept its key interest rate at a record-low 2.00% on Wednesday, maintaining its “forward guidance” pledge to keep rates lower for longer and even the possibility of further easing, despite the recent rise in inflation and fiscal risks.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:58 UTC
World Medical Association blasts leaders who discredit science and sponsor fake news on coronavirus

The spreading of fake news and discredited science by world leaders has led to many people dying and others being exposed to Covid-19, according to the departing President of the World Medical Association. In his valedictory address to this week’s WMA’s annual Assembly, Dr. Miguel Jorge, a psychiatrist from Brazil, mentioned both the Presidents of Brazil and the United States as contributing to more people being exposed to the virus and more deaths.
Friday, October 30th 2020 - 08:56 UTC
Catalonia closes borders and extends shutdown of bars and restaurants: hospitals overwhelmed

Catalonia announced on Thursday a 15-day ban on entering and exiting its territory, the latest in a series of restrictions taken by Spanish regions to try and contain rampant COVID-19 contagion.