International

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:45 UTC

  Brazilian congressional leader confident the tax reform will be approved this year

  

  Brazil's lower house speaker Rodrigo Maia said on Monday he is convinced Congress will approve tax reform and that it should be done this year to avoid the debate from being influenced by the 2022 presidential election.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:20 UTC

  Diageo adds Aviation American Gin to its gin portfolio, co-owned with actor Ryan Reynolds

  

  Diageo (DGE.L) is paying up to US$ 610 million for Aviation American Gin, co-owned by Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds, and a clutch of other spirits brands, adding to a gin portfolio which already includes Tanqueray and Gordon’s.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:15 UTC

  Belarus dictator facing widespread protests offers to hold new elections and hand over power

  

  Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, said on Monday he would be ready to hold new elections and hand over power after a constitutional referendum, an attempt to pacify mass protests and strikes that pose the biggest challenge yet to his rule.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:00 UTC

  Paraguay had agreed in 1967 to receive 60,000 Palestinians from the West Bank

  

  Israeli intelligence officials planned to transfer tens of thousands of Palestinians to Paraguay as part of a secret plan to tighten Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, according to newly discovered documents. A journalist from Israel’s state broadcaster, KAN, made the discovery in minutes of an Israeli cabinet meeting in 1969.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:57 UTC

  Climate change could trigger epidemics: malaria, dengue, zika, smallpox and pathogens from Siberian permafrost

  

  The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the globe and claimed more than 760,000 lives so far almost certainly came from a wild bat, highlighting the danger of humanity's constant encroachment on the planet's dwindling wild spaces.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:54 UTC

  Falklands' Conservation Zone management could be undermined by unregulated longlining

  

  A recent study has found that unregulated longline fishing for Patagonian Toothfish immediately outside the 200-mile Falkland Islands Outer Conservation Zone (FOCZ) is likely to be having significant impacts on deepwater seabed vulnerable marine ecosystems compared to the low impacts observed in licensed longline fisheries within Falklands' waters.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:12 UTC

  Mexico besides AstraZeneca is also working with French, US and Chinese labs for a Covid-19 vaccine

  

  Mexico will need up to 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses, according to a senior government official, and inoculation of its 120 million inhabitants could start as early as April if clinical trials and regulatory approvals for pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca go as planned.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:02 UTC

  Spaniards march in Madrid chanting “freedom” to protest mandatory facemasks

  

  Chanting “freedom”, hundreds of people rallied on Sunday in Madrid to protest against the mandatory use of facemasks and other restrictions imposed by the Spanish government to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 08:14 UTC

  UK Trade Secretary pledges to fight US tariffs on Scotch whisky

  

  British Trade Secretary Liz Truss pledged to fight U.S tariffs on Scotch whiskey, calling them “unacceptable and unfair” in an op-ed in the Telegraph on Sunday. “I will fight to consign these unfair tariffs to the bin of history”, she wrote while accusing the European Union of failing to protect British and Scottish interests.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 08:10 UTC

  Australian marathon swimmer breaks the men's record for number of English Channel crossings, 35

  

  An Australian marathon swimmer on Sunday (Aug 16) became the second woman to break the men's record for number of Channel crossings - and avoided new UK quarantine rules on French arrivals on her return.