President Joe Biden’s reversal of his predecessor Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies has been slammed by critics as triggering a record-pace influx of migrants at the US southern border, creating a crisis situation that has overwhelmed US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities and shows no sign of abating.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) – Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said that he had a mild form of COVID-19 thanks to the vaccination with Russia's Sputnik V drug.

Earlier this week, Governors Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Henry McMaster of South Carolina, both Republican, said they would not be accomodating unaccompanied migrant children from the southern US border. McMaster's refusal came via Executive Order, which claimed South Carolina should instead focus on vulnerable children already in the state.

Donald Rodney was convicted in 1982 of having given his brother Walter the explosives-laden walkie-talkie that killed him on July 13, 1980, outside a prison in the capital city of Georgetown. The charge carried an 18-month prison sentence, and while he immediately appealed, the court only heard his case last month.

The UK Foreign Office last week informed Argentina it intended to carry out military tests, including the upcoming launch of Rapier missiles, in the Falkland Islands, which Buenos Aires and London have long maintained a sovereignty dispute over.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Ecuador’s President-Elect Guillermo Lasso on Tuesday called on the international community to increase pressure on the Venezuelan government to guarantee "real democracy" in the country.

The surgeon may be stripped of her operating license if found guilty of medical misconduct.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) - Jorge Rodriguez, a member of the Venezuelan parliament, published an audio recording of what he claimed was a conversation between supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido about the costs of maintaining foreign missions and accused them of intending to embezzle more than $53 million from frozen Venezuelan funds in the US.

Former president Lula will overhaul the present Brazilian politics if he runs and wins, starting with reinvigorating the country's healthcare system and fighting inequality, reinforcing BRICS, switching to national currencies in trade, and spearheading South America's re-integration, says former Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim.

LIMA (Sputnik) - Peru is set to hold a presidential election runoff in June as none of the candidates managed to get a minimum of half plus one of the votes required for victory in the first round, president of the National Jury of Elections, Jorge Salas, said.

BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - Ecuadorian leftist candidate Andres Arauz, from the Union of Hope coalition, has conceded, acknowledging that he has been surpassed by rival candidate Guillermo Lasso in the presidential election runoff.

At least ten villages and communities in St Vincent have been designated 'red zones' since volcano La Soufriere's eruption this week, with the West Indies nation's emergency agency warning of deadly pyroclastic flows from the column of ash.

Christ the Redeemer, 30 metres (98 ft) high, is considered to be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. A symbol of Christianity, it is a cultural icon for Brazil and for the city of Rio de Janeiro, specifically, and one of the nation's most popular tourist attractions.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez issued a decree instructing the country's special legal body to act as a plaintiff on behalf of the state in a case against his predecessor Mauricio Macri, stemmed from his decision to take a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the amount of $50 billion.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The seismic activity of the volcano La Soufriere in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has culminated in a powerful and explosive eruption, the West Indies Seismic Research Centre said.

Vincentian authorities have ordered an evacuation ahead of an imminent eruption by St. Vincent's active volcano, La Soufriere, which has been effusively erupting but also formed a large lava dome.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – An oil refinery in the city of Minatitlan in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz has been hit by an explosion and large fire, the nation's Agency for Safety, Energy and Environment (ASEA) said.

Home to the US’ largest airbase in Central America, Honduras has long served as a hub for US foreign policy, including funneling arms to right-wing governments and insurgent forces to use against the left. In turn, pliant pro-US governments in Tegucigalpa have allowed US apparel firms to base their sweatshops in special export zones.

Brazil has fully vaccinated just slightly over 2% of its 200-million population, with first-line COVID jabs being distributed among prioritised groups of health workers, the elderly, and indigenous people.

Janet Yellen’s speech comes in the wake of US President Joe Biden rolling out his major infrastructure plan, with the first massive federal tax increase in decades.