Leftist

Colombian President Gustavo Petro speaks at a UN Security Council session on the progress of the Colombian peace process at UN headquarters in New York on July 11, 2024.

Colombia's president has called for international help to slash the cost of servicing the country's debt in order to support its fledgling peace process, which he claimed would help "put an end to cocaine" globally.

Chile's former president Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire tycoon who twice held the South American nation's top job, died Tuesday in a helicopter crash, his office said in a statement.

The 74-year-old Pinera often flew himself around in his own helicopter, and was a former shareholder in the country's national airline, with stakes in television and football, among other businesses.

Leftist SYRIZA's radical Group of 53 faction has condemned the use of "unjustifiable violence" by riot police officers, referring to clashes with demonstrators protesting property foreclosures in Athens on Wednesday.

In a statement, the group questioned "whether there is the political will to curb and ultimately wipe out phenomena of suppression."

According to the World Economic Forum, the global economy is more than five times larger than it was half a century ago.

Global per capita GDP has more than doubled over the same period. The World Bank estimates that the share of the global population living in extreme poverty has fallen below 10 percent for the first time ever.