International

• Friday, December 29th 2023 - 10:45 UTC

  Essequibo crisis: Venezuela launches defensive military operation

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered preventive measures be taken as the Royal Navy's HMS Trent was reaching the area to side with Guyana amid tensions over the disputed oil-rich Essequibo area.

• Thursday, December 28th 2023 - 08:37 UTC

  Antisemitism case against Roger Waters admitted in Buenos Aires

  

  An Argentine court has agreed to review an antisemitism complaint filed by Shoah survivor Carlos Zigelbaum and his son Sergio Zigelbaum against British pop musician Roger Waters, it was reported this week in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2023 - 10:29 UTC

  Lowest rainfall in over 40 years affects Amazon basin rivers

  

  A recent study from the European Union Science Center showed that rivers in the Amazon basin have been severely affected by historic poor rainfalls, Agencia Brasil reported. The region's biodiversity has also been hit by the meteorological conditions, particularly in the headwaters of the Solimões, Purus, Juruá, and Madeira rivers (Brazil's Amazonas state) and also in parts of Peruvian and Bolivian forests.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2023 - 08:51 UTC

  English charity claims homelessness in rural areas has climbed 40% in past five years

  

  British Countryside Charity, formerly Council for the Protection of Rural England, CPRE, claims that homelessness in rural England has increased 40% over the past five years, and illustrates with figures, 17,212 in 2018 o 24,143 this year.

• Wednesday, December 27th 2023 - 07:53 UTC

  UK will keep the EU kilos and liters measuring systems, but pints are to prevail when it comes to wines

  

  Despite Brexit, the United Kingdom is not planning to change metric laws inherited from the European Union, meaning traders can use Britain's traditional imperial weighing system only alongside the metric one. This follows a public consultation with nearly 99% of respondents saying they were happy with kilos and liters.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2023 - 10:20 UTC

  Tariffs on electric vehicles avoided as UK and EU extend trade rules

  

  The UK and EU have agreed to extend trade rules on electric vehicles until the end of 2026 to keep costs down for manufacturers and consumers, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2023 - 10:12 UTC

  Brazil not giving up rescuing people from war-torn Gaza

  

  President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Brazil was still willing to welcome anyone who wanted to return from the Gaza Strip, Agencia Brasil reported. The head of state made those remarks on Christmas Day over lunch with a group of people who had arrived from the war-torn area on Dec. 23.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2023 - 08:47 UTC

  US expands its EEZ by 385,000sq km off Alaska despite not been party of UNCLOS

  

  With the stroke of a pen the US administration of president Joe Biden added nearly 250 million acres to its maritime claims, the largest administrative expansion since the establishment of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone in 1983.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2023 - 08:20 UTC

  Angola quitting OPEC over dispute about oil production quotas

  

  Angolan official media have reported from Luanda that Angola is leaving OPEC, following a meeting of the Council of Ministers, let by the president of the country, Joao Lourenco.

• Tuesday, December 26th 2023 - 07:40 UTC

  Charles III message: ”We must protect the Earth and our natural world as the one home which we all share”

  

  King Charles III's Christmas broadcast, recorded in Buckingham Palace, brought together some of his most personal causes, building bridges between faiths, protecting the environment, and compassion for the most vulnerable.