In El Salvador, thousands of people have been imprisoned over the past 15 months, including dozens of international visitors, as the government tries to stop gang violence through a law known as the “state of exception.”
China and France have condemned the new Aukus security pact between Australia, the UK and the US to build nuclear-powered submarines in the Indo-Pacific region. Also, French forces say they've killed the leader of ISIS in the Greater Sahara in Mali. And thousands of people protested the introduction of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador on the nation's bicentennial.
El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender Tuesday, but the rollout stumbled in its first hours after the digital wallet used for transactions was not functioning.
Top of The World: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are in Qatar for talks aimed at reassuring Gulf allies that the Biden administration is not abandoning its partners in the Middle East by withdrawing from Afghanistan. And, the pre-trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is set to resume at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Also, El Salvador has become the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.
El Salvador becomes first country to approve bitcoin as a legal currency. And, US President Joe Biden begins the first overseas trip of his term in the UK, hoping to repair relations with Europe. Also, Nicaragua's National Police continues arrests of potential challengers for the upcoming November presidential elections.
About $13 billion are squandered as a result of corruption in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, says Adriana Beltran, an analyst with The Washington Office on Latin America.
A new book describes how environmental activists in El Salvador brought conservatives and progressives together to institute a nationwide ban on metal mining in 2017. The World’s Marco Werman spoke with attorney Luis Parada, who led El Salvador’s defense team in a mining lawsuit at the World Bank, and Robin Broad, a co-author of the book, "The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved A Country from Corporate Greed."
Faced with a rising number of migrants at the southwest border and criticism from all sides, the Biden administration's head of Homeland Security insisted Tuesday that the situation is under control as he defended a policy of allowing children crossing by themselves to remain in the country.
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced steps to address harm to thousands of families that were separated at the US-Mexico border, expanding efforts to quickly undo relentless changes to immigration policy over the last four years.
The incoming Biden administration has said it will overturn policies such as the bilateral agreements the Trump administration made with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to keep asylum-seekers away from the US-Mexico border.
Hurricane Iota made landfall Monday in Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. President Donald Trump reportedly asked his advisers last week for options to attack Iran’s main nuclear site but then decided not to take any action. And, the SpaceX Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after a 27-hour completely automated journey.