
Leading financial analysis firms have tempered the White House's forecasts on the Venezuelan oil agreement announced by Donald Trump on Friday, which grants a company part-owned by the US government control of seventeen fields holding some 65 billion barrels of reserves for a hundred years.

A court of Ecuador's National Court of Justice on Friday sentenced former president Lenín Moreno to five years in prison for bribery, in the case over kickbacks linked to the construction and financing of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant. The same sentence was handed to China's former ambassador in Quito, Cai Runguo, and to former representatives of the Chinese state builder Sinohydro, Yang Huiju and Song Dongsheng.

By Sarah Kula for the Smithsonian Magazine
Called The Whale, the new venue is under construction in Andenes, a village on the northern tip of the island of Andøya, roughly 190 miles above the Arctic Circle. It’s scheduled to begin welcoming visitors on June 4, 2027, inviting guests to explore the majestic marine mammals through science, art, storytelling, sound and architecture.

When Colombian former President Gustavo Petro convened an emergency CELAC session in the first week of January, the assumption in most South American foreign ministries was that the region would answer the United States with one voice. Eight months later, the answer is still fragmented — and Venezuela's oil is flowing north at a rate not seen in two decades.

China's embassy in Buenos Aires has accused an official in Javier Milei's government of spreading “malicious rumours” and seeking to “stain the international image” of the Asian country, after he attributed to a Chinese state company responsibility for the flood that devastated the border corridor between Nepal and Tibet on August 26.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Venezuela does not yet meet the conditions to call elections, five days after announcing the agreement granting Washington majority control over a fifth of the country's oil reserves for a century.

Brazilian Supreme Court justice André Mendonça, rapporteur in the Banco Master case, on Tuesday lifted the secrecy order on a Federal Police report of more than two hundred pages containing messages sent by businessman Daniel Vorcaro, the bank's owner and currently in pre-trial detention, to his fellow justice Alexandre de Moraes.

The British government on Tuesday dismissed US President Donald Trump's remarks about a possible review of Washington's position on the Falklands, and reiterated its commitment to the archipelago's status.

Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey in an interview with The Times, tried to cool the strong exchange caused by British leaders’ reaction to White House statements on a possible review to US neutrality policy towards the Falkland Islands sovereignty, which could imply serious consequences.

Simón Bolívar international airport, located in Maiquetía and Venezuela's principal air gateway, resumed domestic and international operations on Tuesday, two months after the double earthquake of June 24 destroyed its facilities.