South America

CARACAS/WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Some of the Americans who were freed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in a U.S. prisoner swap have landed at a U.S. military base in San Antonio, Texas, a Reuters witness said.

The individuals were freed on Wednesday in exchange for the U.S. release of an ally of Maduro, Colombian businessman Alex Saab, who was granted clemency by U.S. President Joe Biden and returned to Venezuela on Wednesday. Maduro also agreed to release at least 20 opposition-linked prisoners from prison.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — President Javier Milei announced sweeping initiatives Wednesday to transform Argentina’s struggling economy, including easing government regulation and allowing privatization of state-run industries as a way to boost exports and investment.

The right-wing libertarian announced the moves for South America’s second biggest economy just hours after thousands of Argentines took to the streets of the capital to protest against austerity and deregulation actions taken last week by Milei.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s lower house has approved a major reform of the nation’s notoriously complicated tax system in a major victory for leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who threw his weight behind the proposal.

The long-awaited tax reform aims to simplify the system, widely considered overly burdensome for both individuals and businesses, and boost economic growth that has drifted between downturns and doldrums for the last decade.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States experienced a dramatic 12% increase in homelessness to its highest reported level as soaring rents and a decline in coronavirus pandemic assistance combined to put housing out of reach for more Americans, federal officials said Friday.

About 653,000 people were homeless, the most since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007. The total in the January count represents an increase of about 70,650 from a year earlier.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.

The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — President Javier Milei on Friday raffled off the last salary he received as an Argentine lawmaker before being sworn in earlier this month as leader of the economically troubled nation.

During a live video broadcast on Instagram, Milei showed off his office and boasted his attributes as president. The broadcast also featured the last raffle of Milei’s monthly salary as a national deputy — 2.1 million Argentine pesos, or about $2,500.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — The leaders of Guyana and Venezuela headed for a tense meeting Thursday as regional nations sought to defuse a long-standing territorial dispute that has escalated with Venezuelans voting in a referendum to claim two-thirds of their smaller neighbor.

Pushed by regional partners, Guyanan President Irfaan Ali and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro agreed to meet at the Argyle International airport on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent. The prime ministers of Barbados, Dominica and Trinidad and Tobago said they also would attend.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — It wasn’t the most uplifting of inaugural addresses. Rather, Argentina’s newly empowered President Javier Milei presented figures to lay bare the scope of the nation’s economic “emergency,” and sought to prepare the public for a shock adjustment with drastic public spending cuts.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — The government of Guyana, under pressure from neighboring Brazil and a Caribbean trading bloc, agreed Sunday to join bilateral talks with Venezuela over an escalating territorial dispute.

The century-old dispute between the two South American nations recently reignited with the discovery of masses of oil in Guyana. The government of Nicolas Maduro, through a referendum last week, has claimed sovereignty over the Essequibo territory, which accounts for two-thirds of Guyana and lies near big offshore oil deposits.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 9 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil is expected to yield 306.2 million tonnes of grains, cereals and legumes in the 2024 harvest, 3.2 percent less than the expected output in 2023, the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), reported.

According to IBGE forecasts, Brazil’s 2023 harvest will reach a record 316.3 million tonnes, 20.2 percent more than last year.

This year’s cultivated area will reach 77.8 million hectares, or 6.3 percent more than that in 2022.