MercoPress

Pope Leo XIV will arrive in Buenos Aires on Sunday on a visit that Javier Milei’s government presents as strictly pastoral, but which takes place amid tension with Argentina’s Catholic hierarchy, one of the most critical voices against the president’s austerity policies. The pontiff will begin a tour in Uruguay on Friday that will continue in Argentina from November 8 to 11 and end in Peru.

The president of the Madrid regional government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, on Monday awarded the region’s International Medal to Chilean President José Antonio Kast, who is in the Spanish capital for the 30th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government. “On both sides of the Atlantic we defend the same things,” Ayuso said at the ceremony.

The United States votes on Tuesday in midterm elections in which corruption has emerged in the final stretch as one of voters’ main concerns, second only to the cost of living, according to several polls. At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 Senate seats and numerous governorships and state legislatures.

The Falkland Islands Government Representative to the UK and Europe, Richard Hyslop, has placed a commemorative cross at the House of Commons Garden of Remembrance in London in memory of Falkland Islanders killed in both world wars and those who lost their lives in 1982.

British jurist Vaughan Lowe, emeritus professor of public international law at the University of Oxford, will be the judge ad hoc chosen by the United Kingdom in the case between Argentina and London before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea over hydrocarbon exploitation north of the Falklands. Lowe will make his solemn declaration on Monday, November 9, the day before the hearing.

Argentina’s case against the United Kingdom over the Sea Lion oil project north of the Falklands “could fall at the first hurdle”: the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which cannot settle territorial sovereignty disputes, according to Australian law of the sea expert Donald R. Rothwell. The tribunal will hold hearings on Argentina’s request on November 10 and 11 in Hamburg.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of France and Germany on Saturday to protest against the cost of living and deteriorating public services, in mostly peaceful demonstrations that ended in clashes between police and masked groups in several cities. In France, where the third day of protests in a month took place, 565 people were arrested.

Nearly a hundred Argentine intellectuals, jurists, historians and politicians have signed a declaration rejecting the transformation of the Falklands dispute into a “national cause” that “admits no dissent”, and criticising Javier Milei’s government for acting with “flagrant opportunism” amid escalating tensions with the United Kingdom over the Sea Lion oil project.

The United States holds midterm elections on Tuesday in which the Democratic Party hopes to regain control of Congress, with the polls in its favour. At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats, in a vote shaping up as a test of Donald Trump’s second presidency.

Pope Leo XIV will begin a tour of South America in Montevideo on November 6 that will take him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, with open-air Masses, meetings with Presidents Yamandú Orsi and Javier Milei, and events with young people, workers and prisoners. His stop in Argentina, from November 8 to 11, will be the first papal visit to the country since John Paul II’s in April 1987.

Argentina’s Office of Administrative Investigations, a specialised prosecution service for crimes committed by public officials, has appealed the dismissal of charges against President Javier Milei, his sister and presidential chief of staff Karina Milei, and nine other defendants in the case over the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, and asked for the investigation to be reopened, arguing that key evidence is still missing.

Hackers stole about US$6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange, in the biggest theft in the sector’s history, which the US Secret Service is investigating with other agencies. Blockchain analytics firms point to a hacking group linked to North Korea, though there has been no official attribution.

Pope Leo XIV has voted by mail in the US midterm elections to be held on November 3, making him the first pontiff to take part in an election in that country, the Vatican said on Friday.

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has appointed Oliver Blanco, a 35-year-old diplomat who began his political career alongside a veteran opposition leader, as foreign minister in a reshuffle of her government’s international team. Blanco replaces Félix Plasencia, whom Rodríguez has tasked with moving to the United Kingdom to recover Venezuelan gold held at the Bank of England.

Brazil plans to allocate 147.68 billion reais to defence in 2027, about US$27 billion at current exchange rates, but 73% of that will go on salaries, retirement benefits and pensions, according to the budget bill sent to Congress. With only 8.6% set aside for investment, the country will have to decide the pace of programmes that include fighter jets, frigates, armoured vehicles and a nuclear-powered submarine.

European oil majors Shell and TotalEnergies doubled their profits in the third quarter of 2026 and posted their best quarterly results since 2022, driven by refining margins almost four times higher than a year earlier amid tensions in the Middle East, according to results published on Thursday. Both expanded their share buyback programmes.

Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday presented herself as the guarantor of democratic change in the country and promised elections organised by a “renewed” electoral authority, though she set no date. “This process can only be led by someone who knows the inner workings of the Venezuelan state deeply. I know this state and I am the right person to carry this process forward,” she said.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday urged Argentina’s government to stick with its economic programme as the best way to reduce country risk, and set out four measures to turn the gains of stabilisation into growth and jobs, at a time when the press is warning of a possible technical recession.

The Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly on Thursday published the Islands Plan 2026-2030, the programme of government for the current Assembly, which provides for a sovereign wealth fund so that energy sector revenues benefit future generations and acknowledges that the government faces some of the largest projects in its history, with a capital programme of more than £300 million. Executive Council formally adopted the Plan on October 27.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde will leave her post on February 7, 2027, almost nine months before her term is due to end in late October that year, the Frankfurt-based institution announced on Thursday.