Stories for 2026

Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:44 UTC
Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office maps Marset drug route from Bolivia to European ports

The Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against Gianina García Troche, the former partner of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, that reconstructs in detail the criminal structure operating from Paraguay that for years moved cocaine from Bolivia to major European ports. The document, cited by the Uruguayan newspaper El País, lays out a three-pronged organization, nearly a thousand clandestine flights inside the Paraguayan Chaco, and a verified export volume amounting to 17,340 kilos of cocaine seized in Belgium and the Netherlands, valued at up to USD 434 million on the European market.
Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:38 UTC
Evo Morales demands elections in Bolivia in 90 days “to avoid deaths” and warns against militarization

El expresidente boliviano Evo Morales (2006-2019) elevó este domingo la presión sobre el Gobierno de Rodrigo Paz al exigir la convocatoria de elecciones generales en un plazo de 90 días “para que no haya muertos, para que no haya heridos”, en una nueva escalada del pulso político que mantiene paralizadas a las ciudades de La Paz y El Alto desde hace tres semanas. El líder cocalero, prófugo de la justicia boliviana por un caso de presunta trata agravada de menores, advirtió que cualquier decisión del Ejecutivo de “militarizar” el país para desbloquear las rutas constituiría una alternativa “suicida”.
Saturday, May 23rd 2026 - 02:34 UTC
Uruguay captures 63% of Mercosur's annual rice quota to the European Union

Uruguay this week filled 63% of the annual zero-tariff rice quota granted by the European Union to Mercosur, in the first significant trade milestone since the provisional entry into force, on 1 May, of the association agreement between the two blocs. The total quota of 6,667 tons for the current year was covered within a few weeks of activity, according to Acting Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi, in what amounts to one of the first operational tests of the treaty signed on 17 January in Asunción.
Saturday, May 23rd 2026 - 01:44 UTC
Messi joins billionaire athletes club after crossing USD 1 billion net worth threshold

Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, 38, has crossed the USD 1 billion net worth threshold and joined the exclusive group of billionaire athletes, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The captain of the Argentine national team, world champion in Qatar 2022 and winner of eight Ballons d'Or, now shares the category with his historic sporting rival, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who reached the milestone in 2023 after signing with Al-Nassr of the Saudi Pro League.
Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 23:12 UTC
Humpback whales observation show they moved between Australia and Brazil, the longest travel distance ever

Two humpback whales have been sighted in separate breeding grounds off Australia and Brazil, the first time scientists have seen the species travel such vast distances across the Southern Ocean during their lifetimes.
Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 23:04 UTC
Record art sales at Christie’s, US$ 1,1bn in three hours; US expressionist Pollard painting sold for US$ 181 million

A painting by US Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock sold for a record US$181.2 million (€156.2 million) with fees, at Christie’s auction house in New York this week, alongside other staggering sales on what was a blockbuster event for the institution.
Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 22:40 UTC
Four French frigates for Swedish navy, in a plus US$ 3.5 billion deal

The Swedish government this week announced a deal to purchase four new frigates for its navy from France’s Naval Group. Sweden neutral throughout the Cold War, applied for NATO membership in May 2022 alongside Finland, following on Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine.
Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 11:48 UTC
Air France and Airbus found guilty of manslaughter over 2009 Rio-Paris crash

The Paris Court of Appeals on Thursday found Air France and Airbus guilty of manslaughter in connection with the crash of flight AF447, which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009 on the Rio de Janeiro–Paris route with a death toll of 228 people. The ruling overturns the April 2023 decision in which both companies had been acquitted, and finds the airline and the manufacturer “solely and entirely responsible” for the disaster, according to the BBC news agency. Both Air France and Airbus rejected the charges and announced they would appeal.
Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 03:20 UTC
Caracas authorizes overflight of two US aircraft for embassy evacuation drill

The Venezuelan government on Thursday authorized the holding, on Saturday 23 May, of an evacuation drill requested by the US Embassy in Caracas, which will include the controlled overflight of two aircraft over the Venezuelan capital and landing operations at the premises of the diplomatic compound. The activity, announced in an official statement by the Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs, was framed by the administration of acting President Delcy Rodríguez as part of “the regular protocols of diplomatic security and protection.”
Friday, May 22nd 2026 - 00:03 UTC
UN C 24 previous seminar in Nicaragua; main meeting in New York 15/26 June

The United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization will hold the Caribbean Regional Seminar in Managua from 25 to 27 May within the framework of the fourth International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2021-2030).