
Two members of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, Dorothy “Dot” Gould and Michael Goss, addressed the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation, known as the Committee of 24 (C24), on June 25, where they defended the right to self-determination of the archipelago's inhabitants and renewed their invitation for the body to send a visiting mission to the Islands, something that has never happened since the UN began considering the question in 1965.

The internal distribution of export quotas under the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union will dominate much of the debate at the bloc's summit of heads of state, to be held on June 30 in Asunción, where Paraguay will hand over the six-month presidency to Uruguay. The meeting coincides with the 35th anniversary of the Treaty of Asunción, the bloc's founding charter.

The question of the Falkland Islands must be considered in light of the wishes of the people who live there. The Islanders have the right to determine their own political future, and they have expressed that choice clearly and democratically, pointed out Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Collins speaking during the 56th regular session of the OAS General Assembly in Panama City, Panama.

Two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, about 39 seconds apart, struck north-central Venezuela on Wednesday afternoon, collapsing buildings in the capital, Caracas, and leaving rescue teams working through the rubble, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Acting President Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency, though she did not provide figures for the injured or dead.

The number of victims from the twin earthquake that struck north-central Venezuela rose to at least 164 dead and 971 injured, acting President Delcy Rodríguez reported on Thursday, warning that the figure would keep rising as rescue work progressed. The quakes, of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, hit on Wednesday afternoon and left dozens of buildings collapsed across several regions of the country.

Governments from across the Americas and other regions of the world expressed solidarity with Venezuela and offered assistance after the twin earthquake of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck the north-central part of the country on Wednesday and that, according to the first official toll, left at least 32 dead and more than 700 injured. Several countries announced the dispatch of rescue teams, while acting President Delcy Rodríguez thanked them for the shows of support.

The twin earthquake that struck north-central Venezuela has become the first major test of US assistance to the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez, installed after the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro in a US military operation in January. Washington mobilized rescue teams and supplies for a country with which, until half a year ago, it maintained no cooperative relations.

The plenary of Peru's National Jury of Elections (JNE) declared unfounded 23 appeals filed by Juntos por el Perú, the party of left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez, against tally sheets from the presidential runoff, in which right-wing Keiko Fujimori is set to emerge as the winner. The decision shores up a result that, with the count almost complete, can no longer be reversed.

Uruguay's government announced that twelve Mamba MK-7 armored vehicles from the National Army will begin to patrol, under police command, the Montevideo neighborhoods with the highest crime rates, a measure to reinforce the fight against organized crime that has opened debate in the political system. Interior Minister Carlos Negro confirmed that his ministry is working on a “very advanced” agreement with the Defense Ministry to carry out the deployment in the coming days.

By Gwynne Dyer - Tulsi Gabbard, the recently resigned, retired or fired U.S. Director of National Intelligence told Congress just two months ago that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded Iran was not building nuclear weapons. Indeed, she said, experts also determined Iran had not resumed its suspended 2003 nuclear weapons program.