Politics

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 18:49 UTC

  Chile's Parliament okays same-sex marriage

  

  Chile's Congress Tuesday passed the bill making it the eighth Latin American country where same-sex marriage is legal, after Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and in several states of Mexico.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:58 UTC

  Argentina ready to launch nationwide health pass

  

  Health ministers of all Argentine jurisdictions gathered under the Federal Council known as COFESA, Monday announced the guidelines for a nationwide Health Pass had been agreed upon and that its final details were to be specified shortly.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:51 UTC

  Uruguayan minister wants borders open to welcome visitors from everywhere

  

  Uruguay's Tourism Minister Tabaré Viera said over the weekend that his country's “land, air and sea borders must be open” for visitors.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:30 UTC

  WTO urges members to end fisheries subsidies discussions by next February/March

  

  World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged delegation heads to redouble their efforts to bridge differences on the ongoing discussions on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies by the end of February 2022. Discussions were suspended because of the Covid-19 Omicron variant

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:20 UTC

  Omicron variant dilemma, “nobody is safe until everybody is safe”.

  

  By Gwynne Dyer – The new Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus was discovered last week by scientists in South Africa and Botswana, the only countries in southern Africa that have the skills and resources to detect a new variant.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:19 UTC

  Bolsonaro allegedly wants to make mandatory vaccination up to federal gov't

  

  Press reports which went viral Monday said Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was entertaining the idea of signing an administrative decision whereby only the Federal Government would have the authority to decide on a mandatory vaccination against COVID-19.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:13 UTC

  Foreign travellers will need Health Pass to enter Colombia

  

  Colombia is to require foreign travellers to submit proof of vaccination against COVID-19 attesting to a full treatment, President Iván Duque announced Monday.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:06 UTC

  Argentina to head UN Human Rights Council throughout 2022

  

  Argentina has been voted unanimously to preside over the United Nations Human Rights Council, in what has been perceived as a diplomatic achievement of President Alberto Fernández's administration.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 09:00 UTC

  World Bank-UNESCO-UNICEF report lays out the magnitude of the education crisis and costs for future generations

  

  This generation of students now risks losing US$ 17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14% of today’s global GDP, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-related school closures, according to a new report published today by the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNICEF. The new projection reveals that the impact is more severe than previously thought, and far exceeds the US$ 10 trillion estimates released in 2020.

• Tuesday, December 7th 2021 - 08:26 UTC

  The US to boycott Winter Olympic Games scheduled for Beijing next year

  

  The US Government of President Joseph Biden has announced Monday it would boycott the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games to be staged in Beijing, China, starting Feb. 4, as a response to human rights abuses in the host nation.