
Argentine president Mauricio Macri is convinced that in the second half of the year Mercosur will sign the long awaited trade agreement with the European Union and will establish closer links with the Pacific Alliance, according to a report in one of Buenos Aires leading radios.

The Treasury of the Falkland Islands government have launched a new series of coins that celebrate the wedding anniversary of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The couple were married after a brief engagement, but, as the couple had been long acquainted, the marriage was—for at least the princess—a foregone conclusion.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to call a snap general election on 8 June. She said Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership following the EU referendum, and supporting her decision, said: “The country is coming together but Westminster is not.”

The Falkland Islands government has made further announcements regarding the South Atlantic Airbridge, which has been rerouted because of the temporary closure of Ascension Island runway, but now seems to be back in track to normalizing via alternative airports in West Africa. Ascenson island, in mid Atlantic, is a crucial call point for the long airbridge to the Falklands.

A United States judge on Monday sentenced Brazilian engineering company Odebrecht SA to pay US$2.6 billion in fines in a massive criminal corruption case, signing off on a plea deal between the company and U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities.

The Brazilian engineering group Odebrecht kept a secret communications system to discuss and arrange the payments of bribes. A detailed spreadsheet mapped out who got what, all veiled under a system of codenames, and overseeing it all, there was an entire department at Odebrecht whose only purpose was to ensure the graft ran smoothly.

Lloyds Banking Group has decided to set up a European base in Germany after the UK leaves the EU, according to the BBC. Lloyds has decided to convert its Berlin branch into a European hub, in order to maintain a presence inside the EU, sources told the BBC.

President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum on Sunday to grant him sweeping powers in the biggest overhaul of modern Turkish politics, but opponents said the vote was marred by irregularities and they would challenge its result.

United States Vice President Mike Pence has stared across the demilitarized border between North and South Korea, a day after North Korea's failed missile launch, reiterating that the US era of strategic patience with Pyongyang is over. Pence is on the first stop of a four-nation Asia tour intended to show America's allies, and remind its adversaries, that the Trump administration is not turning its back on the increasingly volatile region.

Odebrecht SA , the Brazilian engineering company at the center of a historic corruption scandal, paid about US$3.3 billion in bribes over a nine-year period that ran through 2014, according to testimony cited by local media in Sao Paulo.