
France and the United Nations called on Thursday for the protection of the fire-plagued Amazon rainforest as Brazil's right-wing president blamed NGOs for promoting an “environmental psychosis” to damage the country's interests.

Argentine presidential candidate Alberto Fernández said on Thursday that no one wants a default for the country and he's ruling it out if elected. The center-left candidate appeared to be trying to calm investors who reacted to his strong finish against conservative President Mauricio Macri in an initial round of voting by battering Argentina's stocks and currency.

Bolivian authorities warned this week that 70% of the department of Santa Cruz — where more than a quarter of the country's population lives — is under “extreme risk” from forest fires. According to the government, nearly 500,000 hectares of forest have now been turned into ashes.

“Macron is an idiot” is the title of a video posted in social networks by a Brazilian member of congress who happens to be the son of president Bolsonaro, Eduardo Bolsonaro

A Brazilian former minister and presidential candidate in the last election, called president Jair Bolsonaro, corrupt, despicable, dishonest and irresponsible during a conference on Thursday at the Minas Gerais Federal University.

Brazilian central bank president Roberto Campos Neto said on Wednesday that the balance of economic risks and increasingly benign inflation means there is scope to cut interest rates further.

Argentina will not allow a chaotic fall in the peso and will use its dollar reserves to bolster the currency against political uncertainty that has swept the country since the Aug. 11 primary election, Treasury Minister Hernan Lacunza said on Wednesday.

Argentina's leading tertiary institution and one of Latin America's highest-rated for academic excellence, the University of Buenos Aires, UBA, has again, rejected the announced cultural project, Why I would like to meet my neighbours from the Falkland Islands, organized by the disputed Islands' government and the British embassy.

Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes. Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world's largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter.

Argentina could be downgraded again by Fitch Ratings if further weakness in the Peso boosts the risk of default, the agency’s head of sovereign ratings said in an interview. Argentina has issued billions of dollars worth of bonds denominated in U.S. currency.