Politics

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 22:11 UTC

  United Kingdom confirms humanitarian aid for Venezuelans

  

  The government of the United Kingdom announced on Tuesday that it will grant 6.5 million pounds, approximately 8.4 million dollars, to finance the different humanitarian agencies that are in the region assisting Venezuelan citizens inside and outside their country.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 10:30 UTC

  IMF mission in Argentina to collect data on compliance of the standby loan accord

  

  An IMF team is back in Buenos Aires to review the Argentine economy performance and how it is complying with the fiscal and monetary conditions established in the stand-by US$ 57 billion loan agreed last year. The head of the mission Roberto Cardarelli is scheduled to meet ministers, central bank officials, members of Congress from the ruling coalition and opposition, academia and different lobbies.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 09:55 UTC

  Unexpected meeting of Uruguay and Argentina to address the Venezuelan situation

  

  Presidents from Uruguay and Argentina, Tabare Vazquez and Mauricio Macri, will be meeting on Wednesday to discuss an open agenda, but which according to Buenos Aires sources will be centered on the Venezuelan situation, where the two countries hold different positions. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Colonia, at the Anchorena Park, which is an official resting place of the Uruguayan Executive, and a twenty minutes helicopter flight distance from Buenos Aires.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 09:51 UTC

  Brazil ready to provide humanitarian aid to Venezuela through Roraima

  

  Venezuelan opposition envoy Maria Teresa Belandria was received as her country’s official ambassador in Brazil on Monday and said Brazil’s government would provide all possible support to get humanitarian aid to the border.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 09:47 UTC

  Guaido delivers a “symbolic” first cargo of humanitarian aid

  

  Venezuela’s opposition leader, Juan Guaido, said on Monday his team had delivered a first cargo of the humanitarian aid that has become a flashpoint in his tussle with President Nicolas Maduro, without specifying how it had received it.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 09:41 UTC

  UK and Switzerland sign a post-Brexit “continuity agreement” on trade

  

  The UK and Switzerland have signed a deal to continue trading after Brexit as they did before it. The “continuity agreement” - based on the EU's existing free trade deal with Switzerland - was agreed in December but ratified on Monday.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 09:36 UTC

  UK food industry blasts the “catastrophic impact” of a no-deal Brexit

  

  The UK food industry has threatened to stop co-operating with government policy consultations, saying it is busy trying to stave off the “catastrophic impact” of a no-deal Brexit. The warning came in a letter to Environment Secretary Michael Gove from more than 30 business leaders.

• Tuesday, February 12th 2019 - 09:30 UTC

  Mrs. May to tell Parliament Brexit talks at crucial stage: “we need to hold our nerve”

  

  Prime Minister Theresa May will tell British lawmakers this Tuesday they must hold their nerve over Brexit to force the European Union to accept changes to the divorce deal that would pave the way for an orderly exit.

• Monday, February 11th 2019 - 09:31 UTC

  Conflict leads nowhere, “we must look at real challenges: protecting fisheries in the South Atlantic”

  

  In a long interview published this weekend in Clarin, UK ambassador Mark Kent emphasized on the coincidences of UK and Argentina, admitted his appeal in Twitter, a form of soft power, which has made him one of the most popular foreign diplomats in Buenos Aires.

• Monday, February 11th 2019 - 08:51 UTC

  Institute for Fiscal Studies says more billions needed to end Hammond's austerity

  

  Philip Hammond must spend billions extra to end austerity, says think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). To maintain per capita spending across government departments which don't have ring-fenced budgets, he must find an extra £5bn a year by 2023, it adds. And maintaining spending on unprotected services as a share of national income would require £11bn on top of spending plans set out in the 2018 Budget.