Politics

• Saturday, January 20th 2018 - 08:16 UTC

  Francis strongly sides with indigenous peoples and calls the Amazon, God's “holy ground”

  

  From deep in the Amazon rainforest, Pope Francis demanded on Friday that corporations stop their relentless extraction of timber, gas and gold from God's “holy ground,” and called on governments to recognize the indigenous peoples living there as the primary forces in determining its future.

• Saturday, January 20th 2018 - 07:19 UTC

  Falklands expecting arrival of the all-woman Indian Navy team in INSV Tarini

  

  The all-woman Indian Navy team sailing in the INSV Tarini in one of the toughest feats, a global circumnavigation trip has successfully crossed the notoriously rough Drake Passage, rounding Cape Horn off the southern tip of South America and are en route to Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where they will be arriving any moment.

• Friday, January 19th 2018 - 10:01 UTC

  Catalonia parliament speaker in round of talks to decide on Puigdemont's future

  

  The new pro-independence speaker of Catalonia's parliament on Thursday started meeting party representatives to pick a regional president, with exiled former leader Carles Puigdemont in the lead for the post.

• Friday, January 19th 2018 - 09:56 UTC

  Juncker pledges funding for Ireland's cross-border projects will continue after Brexit

  

  The president of the European Commission has indicated that funding for Ireland's cross-border projects will continue after Brexit. Jean-Claude Juncker said he could see “no more important use” of the European budget than maintaining the peace process in Ireland. He was speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

• Friday, January 19th 2018 - 09:32 UTC

  UK appoints a “minister of loneliness” to tackle the “hidden epidemic” that affects nine million Britons

  

  Britain appointed a “minister for loneliness” on Wednesday to tackle what Prime Minister Theresa May described as “the sad reality of modern life” affecting millions of people. Tracey Crouch, a junior minister for sport and civil society, will take on the role as part of a broader strategy to combat loneliness in Britain.

• Friday, January 19th 2018 - 09:01 UTC

  Lula is no radical or a threat to stability: everyone won when he was president

  

  The leader of Brazil's Workers' Party, PT, argued in an interview that former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is anything but radical and does not pose a threat to Brazilian financial stability. Brazilian senator Gleisi Hoffman told Bloomberg News that Lula is working on a second “letter to Brazilian people” (as he did in 2002) to reassure the markets about his commitment to fiscal responsibility.

• Friday, January 19th 2018 - 05:21 UTC

  Foreign Office director in Chile to discuss UK's exit and transition process

  

  The Foreign Office Director of the Economic Diplomacy Directorate Hugh Elliot is currently in Chile on a two day visit to discuss the UK’s transition process from the European Union with the Chilean Government. Mr. Elliot is the UK's government main interlocutor for the transition program of agreements and third countries.

• Friday, January 19th 2018 - 05:04 UTC

  Pope marries two flight attendants from Chile's flagship en route to Iquique

  

  Pope Francis celebrated the first-ever airborne papal wedding on Thursday, marrying two flight attendants from Chile’s flagship airline at 36,000 feet during a flight from Santiago.

• Thursday, January 18th 2018 - 20:23 UTC

  EU sanctions against Venezuelan officials

  

  Among the sanctioned are the number two of the government, Diosdado Cabello; Néstor Reverol, minister of Justice and Maikel Moreno, president of the Supreme Court of Justice. These are new individual sanctions, which include the freezing of assets and the prohibition to travel to the countries of the European bloc to at least seven senior Venezuelan officials.

• Thursday, January 18th 2018 - 10:23 UTC

  Francis calls on Mapuches to shun violence, which “turns a most just cause into a lie”

  

  Pope Francis urged Chile’s indigenous Mapuche people on Wednesday to shun violence, saying unity was the best weapon against “the deforestation of hope,” as they struggle to defend their culture and reclaim ancestral lands.