
Mercosur and the European Union begin a fresh round of trade talks this week with renewed optimism that negotiators may be nearing an accord after almost 20 years of talks. Since trade negotiations with the United States were frozen after Donald Trump's 2016 presidential election victory, the European Union has turned its focus to other large economies and has already struck agreements with Japan and Mexico.

The United Kingdom Minister for the Armed Forces was in Chile and Uruguay as part of a visit to South America in the framework of increasing closer bilateral relations. The Rt Hon Mark Lancaster TD MP, made an official visit to Chile in order to further strengthen the strong defense relation between the two countries.

British underground operator Transport for London (TfL) is keen on securing a multi-million dollar contract with Buenos Aires City to operate the city’s underground network, one of the first to be inaugurated in the world. According to a February report in The Times, TfL is one of a number of international underground transport operators to have expressed interest in the contract.

The global economy is experiencing stronger growth, driven by a rebound in trade, higher investment and buoyant job creation, and supported by very accommodative monetary policy and fiscal easing, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

Chelsea's Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich has put the club's stadium plans on hold after delays to the renewal of his UK visa. The estimated cost for a new 60,000 seat Stamford Bridge has increased to £1bn after delays, which included a dispute with a local family.

A coalition government has been agreed in Italy, ending months of uncertainty in the EU's fourth-biggest economy. Prime Minister-designate Giuseppe Conte presented his list of ministers to President Sergio Mattarella for the second time in a week and the new government will be sworn in this Friday, June first.

Spain’s Partido Popular government appeared doomed last night to lose a no-confidence vote in parliament, with the centre-left PSOE poised to take power. A Basque nationalist party’s decisive announcement that it would vote in favor of the motion spelled the almost certain end of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s mandate and foretold the stunning collapse of his minority government in a parliamentary vote today Friday, when it will be short of support to survive.

People applying for British Overseas Territory citizenship still face “unacceptable” discrimination, a committee of MPs and peers has said. Citizenship rights still depend on whether a person's parents were married or whether it was their mother or father who had citizenship.

Tobacco use has declined markedly since 2000, according to a new WHO report, but the reduction is insufficient to meet globally agreed targets aimed at protecting people from death and suffering from cardiovascular and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

About 1.2 billion children face severe risks from conflict, poverty or sexual discrimination, said Save the Children rights organization in a report published on Wednesday. The main threats to childhood are child labor, exclusion from education, early pregnancy and child marriage, with conflict often inflating the risks.