
Brazil hopes to inject US$ 11.2 billion into its slowing economy after announcing a plan Wednesday to put some extra cash in the pockets of workers. Workers will be allowed to withdraw up to 500 reais (US$ 133) this year and a certain percentage in 2020 from a severance fund that employers are required to pay into.

Brazilian oil giant Petrobras says it’s already sold off its majority share in its fuel distribution branch, and hopes the total sale will raise about US$ 2.5 billion. Petrobras said on Wednesday it now has a 41.25% stake in the Petrobras Distribuidora unit, down from the 70% before the sale started Tuesday.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's cell phones were allegedly targeted by a group of hackers who are also accused of breaching the devices of the investigators in a massive corruption probe, the justice ministry said on Thursday.

Spain's caretaker socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez lost a crunch post-election vote of confidence on Thursday after coalition talks with the far-left failed, pushing the country closer to repeat polls.

British police on Thursday charged four teenage boys over an alleged homophobic attack on a lesbian couple who refused to kiss in front of them on a London night bus.

The US Justice Department on Thursday reinstated a two-decades long-dormant policy allowing the federal government's use of capital punishment and immediately scheduled the executions for five death row federal inmates.

The Argentine media is pointing out that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Argentine president Mauricio Macri first met when they were mayors of London and Buenos Aires, --and full of ambitions--, and have since had a cordial standing personal relation. The first meeting took place at the Davos summit, Switzerland, in January 2009, and according to witnesses the chemistry was immediate.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday blamed the “desperate” United States for a major power cut that affected large parts of the crisis-wracked country on Monday.

Iran has threatened to cut its imports from Brazil unless it allows the refuelling of at least two Iranian ships stranded off the Brazilian coast, a sign of the global repercussions of U.S. sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Brazil's federal police arrested four people for allegedly hacking the phone of Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, a key member of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's Cabinet who had previously been a renowned anti-corruption judge.