Politics

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 09:55 UTC

  Thousands waving national flags demonstrate across Argentina to protest against government plans

  

  Thousands of demonstrators across Argentina's main cities defied social distancing rules to answer calls to protest against a government announcement last Friday to extend containment measures in the Buenos Aires region until Aug 30 and to condemn a controversial reform of the judicial branch.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 09:09 UTC

  The US pledges US$ 5bn to Colombia for rural development; Duque supports US candidate for IDB

  

  The United States and Colombia will work together to bring new investment to rural areas of the country, officials said on Monday, as Colombia's president reiterated support for the U.S. candidate to lead the Inter-American Development Bank.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 09:06 UTC

  Mexican corruption in Congress exposed with piles of cash changing hands

  

  An unverified video showing piles of cash being handed to Mexican congressional staffers went viral on Monday, fuelling a corruption scandal that is already convulsing the country even as the clip's source and context remain unclear.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:57 UTC

  “Stampede” at Brazil's Economy ministry, another top official resigns

  

  Brazil's Undersecretary for Macroeconomic Policy Vladimir Kuhl Teles has resigned, according to an announcement in the Official Gazette on Monday, the latest in a string of resignations from the economy ministry.

• Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 08:52 UTC

  Peruvian economy contracts 18,06% in June year to year

  

  Peru’s economy contracted 18.06% in June versus the same period a year earlier, the government of president Martin Vizcarra said on Sunday, the fourth straight month of contraction due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

• 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 - 08:15 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 - 09:56 UTC

  Half of Brazilians think Bolsonaro has “no responsibility at all” for the 100,000 pandemic's dead

  

  Almost half of Brazilians think President Jair Bolsonaro bears “no responsibility at all” for the country’s more than 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s second-highest death toll, according to a new Datafolha poll.

• Monday, August 17th 2020 - 09:53 UTC

  Latin America coronavirus cases exceed six million and continue to accelerate

  

  Coronavirus cases in Latin America, the region of the world worst-affected by the pandemic, exceed six million and continued to accelerate, according to the WHO figures, as most of its nations begin to relax lockdown measures.