| Top News:  Within the span of a week, the two opposing positions in the Falklands dispute were laid out clearly in two separate arenas: South American governments' backing for Argentina's sovereignty claim, and the defense of self-determination that two representatives of the Islanders took to the United Nations. Neither pronouncement was a reply to the other, but together they illustrate the distance between two hard-to-reconcile logics.
 Chile's President José Antonio Kast argued on Wednesday in Montevideo that the region's countries must toughen their laws to combat organized crime, with life sentences for those who lead gangs and a regime of total isolation in prisons to stop them from continuing to operate from behind bars. The president laid out his position after meeting with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, as part of an official visit to Uruguay.
 Argentina's government abolished the Interior Ministry and transferred its functions to the cabinet chief's office, headed by Diego Santilli, through an emergency decree published on Thursday in the Official Gazette. The measure places the political relationship with governors, provinces, municipalities, the City of Buenos Aires and Congress under the coordinating minister's remit, along with powers over the electoral system and political parties. With the change, the national cabinet is reduced to eight ministries.
 The seaside city of Mar del Plata, one of the main tourist destinations on Argentina's Atlantic coast, woke up covered in snow on Thursday, an unusual sight for a temperate-climate city that became the most widely shared image of the intense polar cold wave sweeping the country. Thermometers read around 1 degree below zero, with a wind-chill close to -3 °C, and snow and sleet were recorded from the early hours in various parts of the General Pueyrredón district, with heavier accumulation in the Sierra de los Padres area.
 The former cabinet chief of Buenos Aires province and ex-mayor of Lomas de Zamora, Martín Insaurralde, asked the courts not to use as evidence the video in which his ex-wife, television host Jesica Cirio, appears alongside stacks of dollars in the closet of the house they shared, as part of a case for alleged illicit enrichment and money laundering. The motion, filed before federal judge Luis Armella, mirrors the one Cirio herself had made days earlier; she also faces a pending order to give testimony.
 A 43-year-old Venezuelan security guard, Hernán Gil, was rescued alive on Thursday after eight days trapped under the rubble of a building that collapsed in Catia La Mar, in La Guaira state, during the twin earthquake that struck the country on June 24. The Costa Rican Red Cross, which took part in the operation, confirmed the rescue, considered one of the most complex and prolonged of the disaster, which has left at least 2,295 dead and more than 11,000 injured, according to the official toll.
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Colombia's outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, has ordered that no military facility be used for the inauguration of his successor, Abelardo de la Espriella, scheduled for August 7. The president-elect responded that he will maintain his intention to be sworn in at a garrison in the south of the country, deepening the standoff between the two men less than a month before the handover.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his government is investigating whether Iran is storing drones in Cuba and warned that Washington would act if their presence on the island is confirmed, though he framed the matter as a hypothesis that has not been verified.
Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has appointed diplomat Félix Plasencia to head a new Ministry of Foreign Relations and Trade, merging the diplomatic and foreign trade portfolios. Plasencia had until now served as Venezuela's chief of mission in the United States, and replaces Yvan Gil, foreign minister since 2023, who moves to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Uruguay has postponed the second shipment of humanitarian aid to Venezuela, scheduled for Tuesday, after a change in the conditions set by Venezuelan authorities for the entry of cargo, Defense Minister Sandra Lazo said. The Air Force's KC-130H Hercules remains loaded with some 15 tons of supplies intended for victims of the June 24 twin earthquakes.
Argentina's head coach, Lionel Scaloni, rejected attributing any meaning beyond sport to the World Cup semifinal against England, to be played on Wednesday, and urged that the match be treated as just another game of football.
The Royal Air Force will upgrade all of its 107 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets at a cost of £5.4 billion, according to the latest UK Defense Investment Plan, as reported by Aerospace Global News, AGN, a British media company specializing in military information.This represents a significant increase from the 40 previously planned and announced in January 2026.
The South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) has secured funding for a series of new scientific projects aimed at strengthening environmental monitoring, conservation science and evidence-based management across the Falklands and the wider South Atlantic.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Thursday that the health emergency stemming from the earthquakes that struck north-central Venezuela on June 24 has entered a critical stage and is "far from over," with the focus on preventing disease outbreaks among the displaced population. According to the official toll cited by the organization, as of July 8 the quakes had left 3,811 people dead and 16,740 injured.
Argentina's state oil company YPF plans to begin exploratory drilling of an offshore block off the coast of Uruguay between late 2027 and early 2028, its chairman and chief executive, Horacio Marín, confirmed, saying the area holds potential that, if confirmed, could surpass the Vaca Muerta unconventional field.
Talks are continuing over a potential Falkland Islands business delegation to Uruguay later this year. Organized by Falkland Islands Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce, the visit would connect Falklands businesses with Uruguayan suppliers. The issue was discussed with Sam Cockwell, Strategic Projects Manager at the Falklands Development Corporation, FIDC
Argentine President Javier Milei said on Thursday that the country is "diametrically opposite" to the one he inherited when he took office in December 2023, during the vigil marking the 210th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, held at the Historic House in San Miguel de Tucumán.
A member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly, Cheryl Roberts, met on Tuesday in Westminster with the leader of the UK opposition and of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, as part of a round of political engagements in the United Kingdom.
An unusual incident interrupted a hearing on Tuesday in the Cuadernos trial, one of the largest corruption cases in Argentine history: the court mistakenly summoned to testify a man who shared his name with one of the expected witnesses, a 73-year-old public accountant with no connection to the case.
Argentine President Javier Milei announced on Tuesday that he will send Congress a bill to introduce a government "shutdown" mechanism, modeled on the US system, that would bar the executive from continuing to spend once budget allocations run out. The measure is part of a package of economic reforms with which the president aims to relaunch his administration.
The death toll from the twin earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24 rose to at least 3,685, after another 150 fatalities were added to Monday's count, according to official figures. The number of injured held at 16,740 and that of people rescued at 6,462, while those who lost their homes rose to 17,907. Authorities present the data as provisional.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reaffirmed on Wednesday that Greenland is "not for sale" and that her country is ready to defend "every inch" of its territory, after US President Donald Trump insisted that the Arctic territory should be under the control of the United States rather than Denmark.
Colombia's president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella, froze the transition process with the outgoing government of Gustavo Petro on Tuesday and accused the president of attempting a coup, in a sharp escalation exactly one month before the handover of power, set for August 7.
Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the leading right-wing presidential hopeful, asked Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday to postpone until after the October elections a 25% tariff that the United States is considering imposing on Brazilian goods. He made the request during a public hearing before the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) in Washington.