
The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to freeze its approval track for the EU-Mercosur trade agreement and request a legal opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on whether the deal is compatible with EU treaties. The motion passed by a razor-thin margin —334 in favour, 324 against, with 11 abstentions— injecting new uncertainty into a pact that the two blocs had only just signed in Asunción after a quarter-century of negotiations.

The Falkland Islands’ Legislative Assembly said it has begun its “early work” for the new term and will focus in coming weeks on finalising the 2026/27 budget, reviewing the capital programme and addressing stalled projects, according to an official statement issued on January 21.

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez is expected to travel to Washington “soon,” a White House official told EFE on Wednesday, without providing dates or an agenda. The planned trip comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump seeks to entrench a transition framework in Caracas following the US operation that captured and removed Nicolás Maduro in early January.

A major new British Antarctic Survey (BAS) facility at Rothera Research Station is being presented as evidence of the UK’s standing in polar research. The £100 million Discovery Building—together with a new services network at Rothera—has been formally opened by BAS Director Professor Dame Jane Francis, completing what BAS describes as the largest UK construction project ever carried out in Antarctica.

The Chagos Archipelago is of major military significance as it hosts the strategically located Diego Garcia base.

The UK Ministry of Defense has said, “it will never compromise on our national security,” after US president Donald Trump condemned London’s “great stupidity” for handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Under the agreement UK is allowed to keep control of the Diego Garcia military base while agreeing to hand the islands to Mauritius.

HMS Forth has been replaced by HMS Medway as the Royal Navy's permanent patrol vessel in the Falkland Islands and the wider South Atlantic. The handover sees one Batch 2 River-class sister ship replacing the other after HMS Forth's more than five years based at East Cove Military Port. HMS Forth is now heading back to the UK for the first time in more than five years.

Wildfires burning across south-central Chile have pushed the confirmed death toll to 20, with authorities keeping red alerts, a state of catastrophe, and a night-time curfew in parts of the Biobío and Ñuble regions as crews continue to battle multiple active blazes.

Uruguay will deploy a contingent of around 40 firefighters to Chile to help battle the wildfires ravaging the country’s south-central regions—particularly Biobío and Ñuble—where Chilean authorities have reported at least 20 deaths and thousands of people affected.

United States President Donald Trump said Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado could “maybe” be brought into the transition process “in some way,” marking a notable shift in tone as Washington balances political messaging with day-to-day coordination in Caracas following Nicolás Maduro’s capture on January 3, according to a Reuters report.