Blue Dollar When Jair Bolsonaro became Brazil’s president in January 2019 he nurtured relationships with other like-minded, far-right governments, but as the political tide turns he now finds himself and his country increasingly isolated. Boasting close ties with US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro was emboldened and unapologetic for a worldview often criticised as sexist, racist and homophobic, … Read more
When the arrival of coronavirus and the application of lockdown forced President Alberto Fernández into a total rewrite of the 2020 road map, which he had laid down only three weeks previously in his state-of-the-nation address to Congress last March, he faced the same cruel choice as all his colleagues worldwide between sacrificing the lives … Read more
Spain’s Telefónica said Wednesday it will sell its telephone masts in Europe and Latin America to US-based telecom infrastructure firm American Towers Corp for 7.7 billion euros (US$ 9.4 billion) in cash. The sale of the nearly 31,000 mobile phone masts which its Telxius unit owns in Spain, Germany, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina will generate … Read more
THE WEEK IN CORONAVIRUS The lives lost to Covid-19 crossed the 40,000 threshold on Tuesday, climbing from 39,512 to 40,431 between the end of last week and yesterday while the confirmed cases of contagion rose from 1,454,631 to 1,482,216 in the same period. Coronavirus debate tended to focus on the upcoming summer holidays ahead of … Read more
Punta Carrasco and Costa Salguero are 32 hectares of coastal grounds that run along the northeastern part of Buenos Aires City. During most of the 20th century the area was open to the public and the sight of thousands of citizens basking in the sun and bathing in the waters of the River Plate was … Read more
Nine months after recording its first coronavirus case, Uruguay is seeing an outbreak in what President Luis Lacalle Pou has called the “first wave,” threatening to undo the hard-fought gains throughout the pandemic. The government is taking a heavier-handed approach to beat back infections including tighter border restrictions and a bill sent to Congress seeking … Read more
Britain and the European Union signed a post-Brexit trade deal on Wednesday, setting their seal on a drawn-out divorce just hours before the United Kingdom brings its half-century European experiment to an end. EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the heads of the European Commission and European Council, smiled at a brief televised … Read more
Maize climbed to US$ 5 a bushel and soybeans rallied for a sixth day, driving both crops to fresh six-year highs, as farmer protests and dry weather in South America threaten to further tighten supplies. Grain markets surged in the past month on adverse weather and as some nations moved to restrict exports to ensure … Read more
A ban on maize exports in Argentina is fanning fear among farmers and traders that one of the world’s top food suppliers is returning to an era of brutal meddling in crop markets. The measure creates yet another driver for surging global grain futures, given Argentina is the third-largest shipper of maize, and stokes concern … Read more
Agricultural producers in Argentina began a three-day strike on Monday in rejection of the government’s move to suspend maize exports for the next two months. The so-called ‘paro agrario’ went ahead despite a last-minute intervention from the government, which lifted the block and replaced it with a daily sales cap on corn exports as the … Read more