Get our news on your inbox! x

Remember me Forgot password

MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 18th 2025 - 13:35 UTC

Politics

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 11:43 UTC

    Facebook asking UK users to allow facial recognition technology

    Users will have the opportunity to select an “accept and continue” option to automatically agree to Facebook’s settings

    Facebook has begun asking users in the UK to allow the platform to use facial recognition technology to identify them in photos and videos. The technology has been used in most parts of the world for six years, but was initially removed in the EU in 2012 following protests from regulators and privacy advocates.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 10:32 UTC

    G7 foreign ministers' statement on the Salisbury attack

    “We fully support all efforts made by the US, UK and France to degrade the Assad regime’s ability to use chemical weapons and to deter any future use”

    We, the G7 foreign ministers, of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in condemning, in the strongest possible terms, the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal, using a nerve agent in Salisbury, United Kingdom, on March 4, 2018. A British police officer and numerous civilians were exposed in the attack and required hospital treatment, and the lives of many more innocent British civilians have been threatened. We express our deepest sympathies to them all and our admiration and support for the UK emergency services for their courageous response.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 10:12 UTC

    G7 leaders: statement on chemical weapons use in Syria and Salisbury attack

    Use of chemical weapons is a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention and constitutes a threat to international peace and security

    The G7 leaders have united in condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria and support recent actions by the US, UK and France to degrade and deter further use. Likewise G7 foreign ministers condemned the nerve agent attack and share the UK's assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation was responsible.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 10:06 UTC

    Starbucks “embarrassed” by accusations of racial profiling in US cafes

    Howard Schultz's comments came after Starbucks announced it will close US stores on 29 May for company-wide “racial bias training”.

    Starbucks' executive chairman has said he is “embarrassed” by the recent accusations of racial profiling in the company's US cafes. Howard Schultz's comments came after Starbucks announced it will close US stores on 29 May for company-wide “racial bias training”.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 08:52 UTC

    Lula's party preparing Plan B: a united left front for October elections

    Lula has privately discussed the need for Haddad to start preparing to run, even while the party plans to stick to their founder’s candidacy.

    The most likely political heir to jailed former President Lula da Silva insists the leftist leader is still the Workers Party’s candidate for the October elections, but he is preparing to step into the role. Fernando Haddad told the Brazilian media that he was talking with other left-wing parties about forging a united leftist front for the elections if Lula is barred from running by a corruption conviction.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 08:45 UTC

    Brazilian court turns down Lula da Silva's latest appeal

    Lula was imprisoned on April 7 to begin his sentence for accepting a seaside apartment as a bribe from the OAS construction company

    A Brazilian court on Wednesday turned down ex-president Lula da Silva's latest appeal against his 12-year sentence for corruption, seemingly putting his bid for a political comeback even farther out of reach. The court in Porto Alegre tweeted that it had unanimously turned down the appeal, which was of a technical nature and, even if successful, would not have changed Lula's guilty verdict.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 08:12 UTC

    Drilling near the mouth of the Amazon banned by Brazil's environmental regulator

    Scientists aboard a Greenpeace ship documented the existence of coral in an area off the northern coast of Brazil and Total’s plans to drill for oil should be banned

    The public prosecutor’s office in the northern state of Amapá recommended on Wednesday that Brazil’s environmental regulator Ibama deny French major Total a license to drill for oil near the mouth of the Amazon.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 07:58 UTC

    All is ready for Paraguay Sunday's presidential election

    Ex Costa Rica president said that on Election Day, “observers will be deployed throughout the country and throughout the day to different polling stations.”

    Former Costa Rican president Laura Chinchilla began this week her activities as head of the Organization of American States (OAS) mission that will observe Paraguay’s April 22 elections. During an event at Paraguay’s TSJE electoral court, Chinchilla and the president of the TSJE, Jaime Bestard, signed an agreement establishing the terms of the mission, which will include 39 observers from 14 countries.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 07:49 UTC

    The Castro dynasty begins its 'controlled' exit under president Diaz-Canel

    Lawmakers will gather on Thursday morning at a convention centre to announce the results of their vote on the unopposed candidacy of Diaz-Canel

    An era will end in Communist-dynastic Cuba on Thursday when President Raul Castro retires, handing over the reins to his right hand man Miguel Diaz-Canel, born the year after brothers Fidel and Raul led their 1959 leftist revolution. However after nearly 60 years of Castro rule, the change is not expected to herald sweeping reforms to the island’s state-run economy and one-party system, one of the last in the world.

  • Thursday, April 19th 2018 - 07:31 UTC

    Theresa May suffered major defeats on Brexit in the House of Lords

    EU Withdrawal Bill amendment, passed by 348 votes to 225, forces government to report to Parliament by Oct. 31 on steps regarding the customs union.

    Prime Minister Theresa May suffered two major defeats on Wednesday after a majority of the upper House of Parliament adopted an amendment supporting continued membership in the EU customs union after Brexit. The amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which passed by 348 votes to 225, forces the government to report to Parliament by Oct. 31 on what steps it has taken to remain in the customs union.