Politics

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 08:40 UTC

  Britain's Johnson to announce review of defense and foreign policy: more nukes and military presence worldwide

  

  Britain is to announce an increase to its nuclear weapons stockpile as part of a wide-ranging review of security, defense, and foreign policy, two newspapers anticipated on Monday. The Guardian and The Sun said in their online editions that the UK would look to raise the number of warheads from 180 to 260 by the middle of the decade.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 08:37 UTC

  German doctors call for an “immediate return” to lockdown to avoid third wave of Covid-19

  

  Intensive care doctors in Germany warned on Monday that the country would need to make an “immediate return” to partial lockdown if it is to avoid stumbling into a dangerous third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 08:25 UTC

  Saudi US$ 100 million “gift” to Spain's Juan Carlos I investigated by Swiss prosecutor

  

  Swiss prosecutor is probing whether the late Saudi king broke any laws when he transferred US$100 million to a fund controlled by fellow royal Juan Carlos I of Spain in 2008.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 08:20 UTC

  United States accounted for 37% of global arms sales in 2016/20, SIPRI

  

  The United States accounted for 37% of global arms sales during the 2016-2020 period and sold arms to 96 countries. Almost half of its sales went to the Middle East, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report on Monday. US exports increased 15% compared to the 2011-2015 period.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2021 - 08:19 UTC

  Roman Catholic Church blunt reply: no blessing for same sex unions

  

  The Vatican's orthodoxy office announced on Monday that the Roman Catholic Church could not bless same-sex relationships, in a statement approved by Pope Francis. The statement came from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in response to a question about the church's power to bless same-sex unions.

• Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:55 UTC

  Arrest of former Bolivian interim president, escalates hostilities in the country

  

  Bolivia's former interim President Jeanine Añez landed behind bars in La Paz after the new government arrested her on claims she participated in a 2019 coup to seize power. Supporters warned her arrest could lead to civil unrest in certain areas of Bolivia and argued there was no legality in the arrest and charges, but rather a political vendetta.

• Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:50 UTC

  Mercosur 26th March summit to be held on line, because of sanitary situation in the region

  

  The Mercosur face-to-face presidential summit scheduled for 26th March originally planned to take place in Argentina that currently holds the rotating chair of the block, will be held online because of the sanitary situation in the region.

• Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:29 UTC

  Argentine president attacked and stoned while visiting areas devastated by Patagonia forest fires

  

  Argentina is not an easy country to manage, particularly when institutions are weak and governments lack credibility. Such was the experience of president Alberto Fernandez during a visit to Patagonia to announce support for residents that suffered the devastation caused by forest fires in the region.

• Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:24 UTC

  A no deal of Argentina with IMF this year, not so bad after all according to Morgan Stanley

  

  International Investment Bank Morgan Stanley has shifted its long-held view on Argentina sovereign credit to “like,” as risks were flexed upside after a lot of bad news had been priced into bonds, including, increasingly, a delay to an IMF program and a further complication with the Club of Paris payment.

• Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:06 UTC

  Brazil becomes second worst Covid-19 country; a time bomb for neighboring countries, WHO reports

  

  Brazil has surpassed India to become the second worst-hit country from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. With 11,483,370 cases and 278,327 deaths, Brazil is now one spot behind the United States, which is the worst-affected globally with more than 30 million cases and 546,605 deaths, according to figures by WorldMeters.