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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 12th 2026 - 02:36 UTC

Stories for 2026

  • Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 18:08 UTC

    Burnham sworn in as MP and enters Labour leadership race with a clear path to No 10

    Burnham could be left without serious challengers, which would speed up the process: each contender needs the backing of 20% of Labour lawmakers to run.

    The former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, was sworn in on Monday as MP for Makerfield and formally launched his candidacy to lead the Labour Party and, by extension, the British government, hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation. The backing of his most likely rival, former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, cleared his path and consolidated him as the favorite to succeed Starmer.

  • Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 13:24 UTC

    De la Espriella gives a victory speech vowing unity as Cepeda awaits the final tally

    ”The electoral campaign is over, the divisions are over (...) and the supreme hour of service to the homeland begins,” De la Espriella said

    Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella delivered a victory speech on Sunday in Barranquilla, in which he proclaimed himself the winner of Colombia's presidential runoff according to the preliminary count and called for national unity, while the official tally remained under way and his rival, left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, conditioned recognition of the result on the definitive count.

  • Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 09:26 UTC

    UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigns, clearing the way for Andy Burnham

    The pressure on Starmer intensified after Burnham returned to Parliament by winning the Makerfield by-election, in northern England

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday his resignation as leader of the Labour Party, a decision that clears the way for the former mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, to succeed him at the head of the party and the government. Starmer, who announced the move after losing the support of his parliamentary group, will remain as caretaker prime minister until a new leader is chosen.

  • Monday, June 22nd 2026 - 04:30 UTC

    De la Espriella wins Colombia's presidency in the preliminary count as Cepeda awaits the tally

    De la Espriella addressed Colombians with a “message of unity” and promised “absolute respect” for the vote

    Right-wing criminal lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia's presidency, according to the preliminary count by the Registraduría, defeating left-wing senator Iván Cepeda by less than a point in the closest runoff in the country's history. With about 99.9% of the tables processed, De la Espriella took 49.66% of the vote against Cepeda's 48.70%, a difference of some 250,000 ballots. The governing-coalition candidate acknowledged the preliminary count but warned that he would not accept the result until the definitive tally, and challenged 33,000 of the 120,000 polling tables; President Gustavo Petro said that “neither can proclaim himself president.”

  • Sunday, June 21st 2026 - 21:25 UTC

    Report says Chinese firms control nearly two-thirds of the squid fleet in Argentina's waters

    The vessels operate under the Argentine flag and Argentine rules, but their controlling capital is Chinese.

    Companies of Chinese origin own 63.1% of the jigger fleet that, under the Argentine flag, fishes squid inside Argentina's Exclusive Economic Zone, according to a report by illegal-fishing and marine-conservation researcher Milko Schvartzman, published by the outlet Infobae. The study states that 53 of the 84 jigger vessels that catch the species under the national flag have Chinese companies as owners or “beneficial owners,” based on satellite observations from Global Fishing Watch and the translation of official Chinese documents.

  • Sunday, June 21st 2026 - 15:39 UTC

    Starmer weighs political future as pressure to resign mounts

    Starmer would be the sixth head of government to leave office in a decade

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is weighing his political future as pressure grows within the Labour Party for him to announce his resignation, following Andy Burnham's victory in last week's Makerfield by-election.

  • Saturday, June 20th 2026 - 20:56 UTC

    Tenth anniversary of Brexit, UK GDP per head cost of 8% in 2025, LSE professor estimates

    Falklands were hit hard with tariffs and quotas in its exports to EU because of Brexit

    Ten years ago, June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU and since then, an extensive body of research has studied the impact of Brexit on the UK economy.

  • Saturday, June 20th 2026 - 20:35 UTC

    Australia reports bird flu has killed 13.000 elephant seal pups in Heard and McDonald islands

    Australian Antarctic Program says mortality in some elephant seal “harems” as high as 97%.

    The pathogenic strain of bird flu, H5N1 has killed more than 13,000 elephant seal pups after infecting a breeding colony on a sub-Antarctic volcanic island, Australian scientists from the Antarctic Program discovered.

  • Saturday, June 20th 2026 - 06:57 UTC

    Cuba approves its deepest market reforms in over a decade amid public skepticism

    President Miguel Díaz-Canel justified the package before the Communist Party's Central Committee with the premise of “changing whatever needs to be changed”

    Cuba's National Assembly approved on Friday a package of 176 measures that introduces market dynamics into the island's economy, in the deepest shift since the reforms promoted by Raúl Castro in 2011. The government presented the plan as a response to the worst economic crisis in decades, though much of the population receives it with skepticism.

  • Saturday, June 20th 2026 - 06:30 UTC

    Hot political summer ahead for Britain, Burnham MP intends to challenge PM Starmer

    Labor’s former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham won with a clear majority in a special election to the British parliament

    Andy Burnham, Labor’s former Greater Manchester mayor has won with a clear majority in a special election to the British parliament, and is ready to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the party leadership saying he wants “to lay out a new path for Britain“ and Labour needs to ”make life affordable” again.