Politics

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:50 UTC

  Bolsonaro calls on Mercosur for a quick implementation of the trade agreement with the EU

  

  Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that Mercosur trade block needs to hurry up and implement agreements the group has negotiated.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:50 UTC

  Macri addresses the Mercosur summit for the last time

  

  In what was his last international activity, outgoing president Mauricio Macri attended the 55th Mercosur leaders summit in Bento Goncalves, southern Brazil, which he described as a special diplomatic occasion for his administration's strive to put Argentina back in the wide world map.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:49 UTC

  Paraguay takes the chair of a quarrelsome strained Mercosur

  

  Brazil on Thursday handed over the six-month rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade bloc (Southern Common Market) to Paraguay. During a ceremony at the bloc's 55th summit in Bento Goncalves, Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro expressed confidence in his Paraguayan counterpart Mario Abdo Benitez and his leadership skills.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:47 UTC

  Fernandez sends friendly message to Bolsonaro; confirms Solá as foreign minister

  

  Argentine president elect Alberto Fernandez confirmed Felipe Solá as his foreign minister and Daniel Scioli as ambassador in Brazil, following a meeting with a delegation of Brazilian lawmakers at his Buenos Aires headquarters. The Brazilian delegation was headed by the Lower House president, Rodrigo Maia.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:40 UTC

  Falklands' fishing companies question government's decision to increase toothfish and calamari fishery fees

  

  Falkland Islands fishing company representatives led by Stuart Wallace of Fortuna Ltd condemned the 50% rise in toothfish and calamari fishery fees at the Fisheries Committee meeting.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:10 UTC

  Argentina: Surveys indicate 40.8% of the population lives below the poverty line

  

  A third of Argentine homes and 40.8% of people were below the poverty line at the end of the third quarter according to the Social Debt Observatory from the Argentine Catholic University, UCA, which regularly releases the data.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 09:05 UTC

  Argentine congress plans to have 2020 Budget Bill approved before end of the year

  

  The recently sworn-in Argentine Lower House of Congress expects to sanction the Budget 2020 Bill during a special session next 18 December, giving the government of president-elect Alberto Fernandez sufficient margin to address the current situation and put Argentina back on track with an idea of revenue and commitments.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 08:55 UTC

  French general strike against planned reform of pensions enters second day

  

  A strike that crippled public transport and closed schools across France entered a second day on Friday, with trade unions saying they planned to keep going until President Emmanuel Macron backs down from a planned reform of pensions.

• Friday, December 6th 2019 - 08:44 UTC

  OAS confirms the Bolivian presidential election was rigged: “overwhelming evidence of malicious operations”

  

  The Americas regional forum, Organization of American States, OAS, published details of ”deliberate“ and ”malicious” steps to rig Bolivia's October election in favor of then-President Evo Morales, who has resigned and left the country in the midst of a political uprising.

• Thursday, December 5th 2019 - 10:58 UTC

  Discovery of WW1 German Battlecruiser SMS Scharnhorst in Falklands waters

  

  The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust is pleased to announce that the wreck of SMS Scharnhorst has been located off the Falkland Islands. The Scharnhorst, an armoured battle-cruiser and the flagship of Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee’s East Asia Squadron, was sunk on 8 December 1914 during the Battle of the Falkland Islands, a crucial naval battle in the early days of the First World War.