Stories for October 2026

Friday, October 9th 2026 - 07:35 UTC
US charges Maduro and Cilia Flores with torture and repression in Venezuela

US federal prosecutors on Thursday brought new torture and repression charges against former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, adding to the drug trafficking and narco-terrorism case both face in a New York court. The same day, the judge denied a request by Flores for house arrest on health grounds.
Friday, October 9th 2026 - 00:41 UTC
How the UK's Online Casino Regulation Has Become a Global Reference Point

The United Kingdom's approach to regulating online gambling has attracted significant attention from policymakers, industry observers and player advocacy groups outside its borders. As South American countries and other emerging markets consider how to structure their own online gambling frameworks, the UK model frequently appears as a reference case, for both its strengths and its limitations.
Friday, October 9th 2026 - 00:34 UTC
Latin America's online betting rulebook is being rewritten, and compliance is now the price of entry

Brazil's regulated betting and gaming sector paid R$8.75 billion in federal taxes between January and July 2026, almost 77% more than in the same period of 2025. Across the Andes, Chile's courts are ordering telecoms to switch off unlicensed sites, while Peru is two years into a licensing regime of its own. For companies working in the region, the question is no longer whether online gambling will be regulated. It is how many different rulebooks they can afford to follow at once.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 08:29 UTC
Why Argentina's Falklands sanctions do not automatically reach Sea Lion's operator

The sanctions Argentina has imposed on companies involved in the Sea Lion oil project north of the Falklands target specific entities rather than entire corporate groups, so the subsidiary currently operating the field is not automatically covered, according to a legal analysis by specialist site Diplomacy & Law.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 08:18 UTC
What could happen when Argentina's Sea Lion ultimatum to the UK expires

The two-week deadline Argentina gave the United Kingdom to halt the Sea Lion oil project in the North Falklands basin expires around October 12. Its expiry will not in itself suspend the project or establish a British breach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to a legal analysis published by specialist site Diplomacy & Law.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 08:10 UTC
Flávio Bolsonaro proposes constitutional reform to overhaul the courts and lower the criminal age

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who will face Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil's presidential runoff on October 25, has said that if he wins he will use his Liberal Party's congressional bloc to push a constitutional reform that would change the judiciary, lower the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 and abolish presidential re-election.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 08:07 UTC
Stuart Lawrence, for three decades a captain of Britain's Antarctic ships, has died

Captain Stuart Lawrence MBE, who for more than three decades commanded the British Antarctic Survey vessels RRS Bransfield and RRS Ernest Shackleton, has died suddenly, according to the National Coastwatch Institution in Gosport, southern England, where he served as a volunteer watchkeeper.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 07:54 UTC
What was the world's largest penguin colony has lost nearly two thirds of its nests

The chinstrap penguin population on Zavodovski Island, in the South Sandwich Islands, has fallen by almost two thirds since 2011, according to a study by the British Antarctic Survey. The island, described that year as the world's largest penguin colony, has lost that title.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 07:53 UTC
On the war's third anniversary, 5,600 children are waiting to be evacuated from Gaza

Some 5,600 children are waiting to be evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment, according to the territory's Hamas-run Health Ministry, as three years pass since the group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, saw 251 taken hostage and triggered the war.
Thursday, October 8th 2026 - 07:37 UTC
FAO Food Price Index rises in September amid weather concerns and transport disruptions

FAO’s benchmark measure of world food commodity prices increased in September, due mostly to transportation disruptions and weather concerns that constrained availability as well as to higher quotations for crop-based commodity groups, according to new data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).