South America

BOGOTA, July 31 (NNN-ANADOLU) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday that his government is ready to begin a new round of Norway-mediated talks with the opposition.

Maduro said Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez held a meeting with a Norwegian delegation.

“Jorge Rodríguez is having a conversation; he received them here and now he is coordinating what was left unresolved with the Norwegians,” he said. “The talks were reactivated.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — In shutting each other’s consulates, the United States and China have done more than strike symbolic blows in their escalating feud. They’ve also dimmed each other’s ability to observe — and to spy on — critical regions of their countries.

For the United States, the loss of the Chengdu mission in southwestern China will, among other things, cloud its view of Tibet, a region where Buddhist residents say Beijing is eroding its culture and its traditional independent streak. China says Tibet has been its territory for centuries.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday took his first trip since recovering from COVID-19, ignoring social distancing recommendations as he worked to chip away support in his political rivals’ stronghold.

Bolsonaro said he intended to travel Brazil after beating the disease, which kept him confined to the presidential residence for more than two weeks.

CARACAS, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela’s government blasted a US$5 million US reward offer for information leading to the arrest of the country’s Supreme Court president, likening it to something out of the Wild West.

Washington “disrespects the Supreme Court of Justice, in the person of its president, Maikel Moreno, through false accusations and the offer of rewards in the style of the cowboys and the wild and far west,” the foreign ministry said.

BOGOTA, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Colombian army said they recovered two bodies from a helicopter crash in a jungle region where guerrillas are active, bringing the toll to 11 dead and six wounded.

The Black Hawk helicopter went down on Monday with 17 people aboard on a stretch of the Inirida River, in the country’s southeastern jungle region.

The wounded soldiers, along with the bodies of nine of their comrades, were rescued on Tuesday, but two soldiers were missing, officials said.

CARACAS, July 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela’s government blasted a US$5 million US reward offer for information leading to the arrest of the country’s Supreme Court president, likening it to something out of the Wild West.

Washington “disrespects the Supreme Court of Justice, in the person of its president, Maikel Moreno, through false accusations and the offer of rewards in the style of the cowboys and the wild and far west,” the foreign ministry said.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Police in Bolivia’s major cities have recovered the bodies of hundreds of suspected victims of the coronavirus from homes, vehicles and, in some instances, the streets. Hospitals are full of COVID-19 patients and short of staff, keeping their gates closed and hanging out signs that say: “There is no space.”

And the Bolivian government says the peak of the outbreak is not expected until August.

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 21 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) – The New Development Bank (NDB) will lend Brazil one billion U.S. dollars, to neutralise the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing total loans to Brazil to four billion dollars, the institution said on Monday.

The funds will be given to the Brazilian government’s emergency aid payment programme, designed to help millions of low-income people.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said he hopes Republican U.S. President Donald Trump will be reelected in November, although he said the commercial relationship between the two countries is promising even if a Democrat wins.

Bolsonaro has often lauded Trump, calling him a political role model and drawing parallels between their conservative agendas.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A thousand deaths a day.

Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.

On Thursday evening, the federal health ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.

Even as cases wane somewhat in the biggest and hardest-hit Brazilian cities, the virus is peaking in new locations across the largest country in Latin America.