Felipe Sola discusses his country’s long-standing foreign debt and financial crisis.
Government
![The legislative package proposed by United States House members has been praised by antitrust experts, who say tech giants like Amazon and Apple have used their power to insulate themselves from competitive threats and that existing law falls short of challenging these companies [File: Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/amazon-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Amazon, Apple and other technology giants could be banned from selling their own branded products if a new law passes.
![Child labour is on the rise for the first time in nearly two decades, and the coronavirus crisis threatens to upend progress made to get kids into school, the United Nations warned this week [File: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/child.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
Bitcoin Beach, child labour, Oman’s youth and an $18.9M coin
We gather the numbers to know from the week’s biggest economic news stories so you can impress your friends.
![The United States federal government employs more than four million people and nearly 60 percent of them worked remotely during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Thursday's memo [File: Andrew Kelly/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/usa.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Employees need not be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to offices, a Biden memo seen by Reuters said.
Venezuela’s former attorney general discusses the state of democracy in her country.
The population of Michoacan state in Mexico is trapped in a cartel war between the government and criminal groups.
![United States President Joe Biden on Friday will release his first full budget plan since taking office in January and is expected to lay out funding for social programmes, foreign aid, immigration, policing and national defence [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/biden.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Biden’s budget proposal will bring the federal fiscal footprint to levels unseen since WWII, The New York Times reports.
![Of the total $14.6 trillion in fiscal spending governments allocated for coronavirus pandemic recovery, only 2.5 percent was allocated for green initiatives, a new report has found [File: Kacper Pempel/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/coal.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Now is the time to galvanise political and business momentum to invest in nature, environmental experts say.
![India's farmers have recently stirred fresh alarm by saying they will hold mass protests across the country on Wednesday to mark six months of their campaign against the deregulation of agriculture markets [File: Jayanta Dey/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
India’s daily tally of new coronavirus infections rose by 222,315, government data showed on Monday.
![United States President Joe Biden’s plan includes spending on traditional physical infrastructure projects as well as on social programmes [File: Al Drago/Bloomberg]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/workers-1.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The US President offered to cut his initial $2.25 trillion proposal to $1.7 trillion in a counteroffer to Republicans.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi discusses the geopolitical and domestic challenges facing Iraq.
![The $1.93 trillion deficit for the first seven months of this budget year was $459.4bn higher than the $1.48 trillion deficit run up in the same period a year ago, according to the United States Department of the Treasury, headed by Secretary Janet Yellen [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/treasury.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The US shortfall this year is 30.3 percent higher than the $1.48 trillion deficit run up over the same period a year.
![NASA last month chose Elon Musk’s SpaceX for the initial $2.9bn contract, leaving out Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Alabama-based firm Dynetics [File: Isaiah J Downing/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/blueorigin.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
US Senator Maria Cantwell is seeking to nudge NASA to rethink its decision to reject Amazon’s Blue Origin space venture.
Fault Lines asks what the US Capitol riots and their aftermath signal for the Republican party’s future.