The White House on Thursday during a background call with reporters announced framework deals with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador that it hopes will bring down the costs of certain groceries.

These deals come after President Donald Trump and some of his top allies promised an announcement on a deal to help alleviate the price increases of bananas, coffee and other agricultural goods, but a senior administration official on the call could not provide any specifics about how much relief this would bring to Americans’ wallets.

According to data from the September 2025 Consumer Price Index, coffee prices have spiked 18.9%, bananas are up 6.9% and beef prices are up 14.7% in the past year.

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Sean Parnell, who is Hegseth’s assistant defense secretary for public affairs, announced that the USS Gerald R. Ford, its on-board warplanes, and the other ships in its strike group are deploying to “dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations … and counter narco-terrorism” in the region.

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/24/us-aircraft-carrier-deploying-south-america-venezuela-tensions/86878837007/

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The quake struck around 02:16:19 (UTC) with a depth of 6.7 miles, roughly in the middle of the Drake Passage, about 350 miles south of the southern tip of South America and about 300 miles from the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

An aftershock of 5.1 magnitude struck in the same area an hour later, the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties or damage.

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Source: https://www.newsweek.com/earthquake-chile-drake-passage-2117452

The post Earthquake of 7.5 Magnitude Hits Drake Passage: What We Know first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

According to the Health Ministry, 75% of the mosquito breeding sites were found in homes, so awareness campaigns were increased and people were asked to take all precautionary measures possible.

In Sao Paulo, the incidence of dengue reached 414 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while other regions affected by the virus include Brasilia, Paraná, Goiás, Rio de Janeiro. and Minas Gerais. Experts have argued that a strong El Niño weather phenomenon coupled with temperatures higher than usual led to the present outcome, which is projected to reach 4.2 million positive cases by Dec. 31.

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Source: https://en.mercopress.com/2024/03/20/brazil-dengue-cases-so-far-in-2024-surpass-previous-yearly-figures

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Judging by the coverage in Chinese state media, that world looks like a China-dominated rejection of Western security and humanitarian concerns.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping wrote an op-ed for South African media on Monday as he departed for Johannesburg to attend the summit. Xi’s letter reminded South Africa of China’s support — including, most recently, supplies to fight the global pandemic China unleashed — and praised South Africa for being the first nation on the continent to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

“Many Chinese companies are expanding their operation and at the same time taking more social responsibilities in South Africa. Automobiles and home appliances with Chinese brands yet made in South Africa are very popular among local consumers, and are now owned by numerous South African households,” Xi wrote.

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Source: https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2023/08/21/china-maneuvers-leadership-anti-western-global-south-brics-summit/

The post China Maneuvers for Leadership of Anti-Western ‘Global South’ at BRICS Summit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Scholz has sought to project unity on Ukraine during his whistlestop three-day tour, thanking all three countries he has visited – Argentina, Chile and Brazil – for condemning Russia’s invasion at the United Nations General Assembly last year.

But the fallout of the war and harsh sanctions on Russia, such as soaring food and energy prices, have hit the region particularly hard, raising questions over the West’s approach. Skepticism also abounds about interventionism and sanctions given its own past.

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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/scholz-downplays-differences-ukraine-south-america-tour-2023-01-30/

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[Disclaimer]

The post Scholz bid to rally Ukraine support in South America falls flat first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

According to the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), the quake hit on Thursday, June 9th, 2022, at 4:32 am local time at an intermediate depth of 79 km. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.

Our monitoring service identified a second report from the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) which listed the quake at magnitude 5.6. A third agency, the citizen-seismograph network of RaspberryShake, reported the same quake at magnitude 5.6.

Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter.

Weak shaking might have been felt in Antofagasta (pop. 309,800) located 81 km from the epicenter, and Sierra Gorda (pop. 480) 130 km away.

VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.

Source: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquake/news/183060/Significant-magnitude-54-quake-hits-81-km-southeast-of-Antofagasta-Chile-early-morning-.html

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In the 21st century, Brazil had surprised the world with a robust political agenda to confront one of the worst expressions of inequality: Hunger. However, during this year’s COVID-19 pandemic, the topic of hunger and food security once again dominated the Brazilian public debate as research data was released that attested to what many social movements had already been denouncing: That hunger was once again haunting millions of households in the country.

Food insecurity designates a reduction, concern, or uncertainty about regular and permanent access to food in adequate quantity and quality. According to a survey conducted by the Research Group Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy of the Freie Universität Berlin in collaboration with scholars from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and the Universidade de Brasília (UnB), 59.4 percent of the households in Brazil were food insecure from August to December 2020. Of this total, 15 percent of Brazilian households suffered from hunger. The Food for Justice data showed a significant deterioration in food security that had already worsened a few years prior to the onset of the pandemic. According to the data from the 2017-2018 Family Budget Survey (Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiar; POF), conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE), food insecurity in the country had increased from 22.6 percent in 2013 to 36.4 percent in 2017–2018.

However, food insecurity does not affect all social groups equally. Urban households with a white male head, a monthly per capita income above 1,000 reais, located in an urban area or in the Center-West, South, or Southeast regions are less likely to be food insecure. On the other hand, households where the head of the household is a brown (pardo) or black (preto) woman, with a per capita monthly income less than 1,000 reais, located in a rural area or in the North or Northeast regions are most likely to be food insecure. This is a portrait of Brazilian inequalities expressed in food.

15 percent of Brazilian households suffered from hunger. The Food for Justice data showed a significant deterioration in food security that had already worsened a few years prior to the onset of the pandemic.

Regarding data on food consumption, even before the pandemic, households in situations of food insecurity already consumed healthy foods—such as meat (72.6 percent), vegetables (67.2 percent), and fruits (66.5 percent)—on an irregular basis (less than five times a week). This situation worsened after the pandemic, when there was a significant reduction in the consumption of important foods, such as the meat group, which decreased amongst 44.4 percent of the interviewed households. This percentage is much higher amongst households in situations of food insecurity. Such households suffered a reduction of more than 85 percent in their consumption of healthy foods.

How did a country that left the UN Hunger Map in 2014 return to a situation of critical food insecurity in 2020? There are multiple reasons for this. Firstly, the difficulty and restriction of access to food is related to decreased incomes; the main determinant of food insecurity. In the last five years, Brazil has experienced an economic crisis, with increased unemployment, devaluation of the minimum wage, and rising inflation, all of which impact food prices. The COVID-19 pandemic has only aggravated the situation.

Secondly, as of 2016, the political agenda, which had prioritized the fight against hunger in the previous decade, has since focused on extreme austerity. It is essential to highlight that while Brazil has received international acclaim for the success of the Brazilian cash transfer programme (Bolsa Família) in combating extreme poverty, a process of structural change had been benefiting a much more significant portion of the population due to the increase in formal employment and income. This cycle was interrupted with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. However, her administration had already showed signs of austerity as a reaction to the economic crisis beginning at that time. From a continued policy of real appreciation of the minimum wage—that is, a consistent increase in workers’ income above inflation—and expansion of the national social security system—whose benefits are tied to the value of the minimum wage—public policy now consists in relaxing labour rights, reducing public spending for social policies, and decreasing the purchasing power of the minimum wage. In December 2016, a new constitutional amendment instituted a new fiscal regime for the following 20 years. It created a limitation on public spending and investment until 2036, especially on those of a social nature.

In the last five years, Brazil has experienced an economic crisis, with increased unemployment, devaluation of the minimum wage, and rising inflation, all of which impact food prices. The COVID-19 pandemic has only aggravated the situation.

Finally, in terms of food production and distribution, a series of changes were begun in 2016, which saw public policies for the promotion family farming dismantled, the Ministry of Agrarian Development (2016) disbanded, and essential policies such as the Food Purchase Programme scrapped (Programa Nacional de Aquisição de Alimentos; PAA). Moreover, in the context of the pandemic, essential programmes guaranteeing the Human Right to Adequate Food, such as the National School Feeding Programme (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar; PNAE), have been partially defunded. This has significantly affected the principle of universality in serving the population. In 2019, the national government closed many channels for dialogue with organized civil society and chose to ignore the accumulation of decades of learning in the promotion of the right to food. It disbanded the National Food and Nutrition Security Council (Conselho Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional; CONSEA), a space for social participation that brought together representatives of civil society and the state to dialogue on food and nutrition security policies.

Steps to be adopted
To recover the country’s food security indicators, income redistribution policies will need to be resumed, alongside social protection policies, specific support for family and peasant agriculture, and food and nutritional security policies. Food insecurity has been successfully tackled in the past and such previous action must serve as a guide to confront this problem once again. However, updates and innovations that respond to the challenges of the new context are required. For this, it is essential to engage in the same dialogue with organized civil society that was fundamental in the past for the creation of public policies on food security and nutrition. In the context of the pandemic, such dialogue has been essential in carrying out actions of solidarity and making denunciations with a view to confronting hunger.

The views expressed above belong to the author(s).

Source: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/hunger-returns-to-brazil/

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A year ago Iran sent multiple fuel tankers to Venezuela to aid its Western Hemisphere ally during the latter nation’s fuel crisis. Now a pair of Iranian Navy ships, including a frigate, has rounded the Cape of Good Hope and is believed to be making a high-seas voyage to Venezuela. The second vessel was reported to be the Makran, an oil tanker that was converted into a floating forward staging base.

While the passage of the ships into the Atlantic Ocean isn’t a concern—and warships from many nations regularly made distant port-of-call visits around the world—it is unclear exactly what the motivation is for Tehran beyond showing its capabilities to deploy vessels so far from its shores.

Washington is carefully monitoring the situation and trying to determine what exactly the Iran vessels might be carrying. Last month, USNI News reported that seven fast-attack boats could be seen in satellite imagery taken of the converted tanker. Some Biden administration officials have already expressed concerns that the Iranian vessels could be carrying weapons—and Tehran has been put on notice that the United States will respond if that turns out to be the case.

One concern is that the fast attack boats, which can be armed with a variety of weapons including small arms, anti-ship missiles, and even torpedoes, could be transferred to the Venezuelan Navy—providing the South American nation with the ability to conduct swarming operations against military or commercial shipping in the Caribbean Sea.

“While DoD will not comment on intelligence matters, we would note that the delivery of such weapons would be a provocative act and a threat to our partners in this hemisphere. As such we would reserve the right to take appropriate measures— in concert with our partners—to deter the delivery or transit of such weapons,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to CNN.

Last year there were concerns that Beijing was helping arm and bolster the Venezuelan Navy.

Is a Stronger Iranian-Venezuelan Alliance Brewing?

Both Iran and Venezuela are already subject to harsh U.S. sanctions, while they remain allies and trading partners.

The two nations have been drawn together by mutual anti-U.S. sentiment—and each is a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Moreover, when the Shah of Iran was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Venezuela was one of the first nations to recognize the government of the Islamic Republic.

For more than two decades the two countries’ collaboration was largely limited to the oil industry, but under the rule of the late President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela reached more than three hundred agreements with the government in Iran.

Iran’s Navy Ambitions

Tehran could be using the mission to simply highlight its growing naval capabilities. Currently, the Iranian Navy lacks the ability to conduct true “blue water operations”—those in the open oceans at great distances from its home ports for an extended period—but this could be a sign that Tehran has intensified its efforts to expand beyond the Persian Gulf or even the Arabian Sea.

Past efforts to sail around the Cape of Good Hope have ended in failure for Iran, but the Middle Eastern country is clearly redoubling its efforts. Yet, even if successful that won’t mean Iran will have a blue water naval force or even the capability to operate globally, but it would be an important first step. Moreover, closer ties between Iran and Venezuela could allow the Islamic Republic to establish a true foothold near to the United States. That would certainly be a serious concern for the U.S. Navy—but first Tehran needs to prove its vessels can actually make the trip and return home safely.

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