Politics

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 08:12 UTC

  Ex members of Catalonian government jailed by Spanish prosecution; Puigdemont remains in Belgium

  

  A Spanish judge has ordered nine ex-members of the government in Catalonia jailed while they are investigated on possible charges of sedition, rebellion and embezzlement.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 08:08 UTC

  Foreign Secretary commits support for freedom of expression projects

  

  Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has committed (Thursday 2 November) UK support for freedom of expression projects in countries where press freedom is curtailed.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 07:58 UTC

  Maduro announces “restructuring of all future debt payments”; default round the corner?

  

  Venezuela on Thursday announced plans to restructure its burgeoning foreign debt, a move that may lead to a default by the cash-strapped OPEC nation whose collapsing socialist economy has left its population struggling to find food and medicine.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 07:52 UTC

  EU support: Argentina sells 30-year Euro bond, first time in history

  

  Argentina finalized its foreign bond sale plan for 2017 on Thursday, selling 2.75 billion Euros in three bonds in an offering that was more than four times oversubscribed, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 07:45 UTC

  Macri's ambitious infrastructure investment plan begins with 7.700kms of roads

  

  Argentina hopes to attract US$26.5 billion in infrastructure investments through 2022 in the form of public-public private partnerships (PPPs), government officials told a gathering of construction and finance executives this week.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 07:37 UTC

  Bank of England's first interest rate increase in a decade; Brexit impact hovers over future decisions

  

  The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the first time in a decade to contain an increase in inflation stoked by the Brexit vote, in what is otherwise a moment of high uncertainty for the economy. In a statement Thursday, the bank said it had lifted its benchmark rate, which affects the cost of loans and savings rates in the wider economy, to 0.50% from the record low of 0.25%.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 07:08 UTC

  Brazilian electorate divided on Lula: half want him as president and the other half in jail

  

  Half of Brazilians want former President Lula da Silva to win next year's election and return to the office he occupied between 2003 and 2010. The other half wants him in prison for a corruption conviction.

• Friday, November 3rd 2017 - 07:02 UTC

  'Cronus' Williamson new Defense Secretary: strength or weakness of PM May's cabinet?

  

  British Prime Minister Theresa May named Gavin Williamson defence secretary on Thursday after his predecessor, Michael Fallon, became the first casualty of a deepening scandal in British politics. Williamson, 41, is a trusted ally of the prime minister whose former job as chief whip involved enforcing discipline for May's Conservative Party in parliament.

• Thursday, November 2nd 2017 - 11:34 UTC

  PM May and Netanyahu mark centenary of the contentious Balfour Declaration

  

  PM Theresa May is to host her Israeli counterpart as part of events marking the centenary of a British pledge which paved the way for Israel's creation. Benjamin Netanyahu's visit comes on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.

• Thursday, November 2nd 2017 - 09:01 UTC

  The silent majority of Catalonia and the December 21st election-referendum

  

  By Gwynne Dyer - It's been going on for a while. “Recently in Catalonia we have been living through a kind of 'soft' totalitarianism...the illusion of unanimity created by the fear of expressing dissent,” wrote best-selling Catalan author Javier Cercas in the Spanish newspaper El País in 2014. Those who didn't want independence kept their heads down and their mouths shut, in other words.