
The Peruvian government enacted a law that allows citizens a second withdrawal of funds from the private pension system in order to ease the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the official newspaper El Peruano.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's outside advisers will meet on Dec. 10 to discuss whether to authorize the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech for emergency use, the agency said on Friday.

The United States' top infectious disease official said that two coronavirus vaccines being tested were solid, and that the speed at which they were developed has not compromised safety or integrity.

More than 1,000 demonstrators attacked a Carrefour Brasil supermarket in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre on Friday after security guards beat to death a Black man at the store.

G-20 nations must help plug a US$4.5 billion funding gap for a WHO-led program to distribute coronavirus vaccines and pave the way for an end to the pandemic, according to a letter sent by several world leaders, ahead of this weekend's virtual G20 summit.

The Group of 20 (G-20) nations are determined to continue doing everything possible to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, warning in a draft communiqué that the global economic recovery remains “uneven, highly uncertain, and subject to elevated downside risks”.

Brazil’s average daily flights fell from the original 2,500 to about 200 during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown period. In the months with the highest surge of the pandemic, Brazilian airlines reduced their operations by 99%.

U.S. soybean futures rose for a sixth consecutive session on Friday and hit a four-year high on dry conditions in key South American crop areas and concerns about dwindling U.S. supplies. Corn also gained on strong exports and worries about South American dryness, while wheat ended mixed.

The Argentine president Alberto Fernández made a surprise visit to Uruguay on Thursday to meet his peer Luis Lacalle Pou, with whom they shared a barbecue and according to both leaders addressed bilateral and regional affairs with special emphasis on trade prospects such as the Mercosur/EU trade agreement.

Thousands of workers and students protested in Colombia on Thursday against the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque, despite restrictions to control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.