What happened this week in politics and economics around the world?

United States: Electoral College confirms Biden victory

On Monday, December 14, the US electoral college made official the results of the November 3 elections. 302 votes for the vice president and 232 for Donald Trump confirmed the news that the Republicans tried to avoid: the election of Biden.

In this way, the only thing missing is the approval of Congress on January 6 and that the Democrat assumes as president number 46 on January 20. Similarly, Kamala Harris, Biden's vice-presidential candidate, will become the first woman to hold that position in the country's history.

Read also: Iván Marulanda: Colombia must restore relations with Maduro

Spanish Congress approves first euthanasia law

With 198 votes in favor, 138 against and 2 abstentions, the organic law proposal for the regulation of Euthanasia in Spain was approved. A coalition of left and center-right parties managed to defeat the Popular Party and Vox in parliament.

It only remains for the law to pass the procedure in the Senate next January and Spain will officially become the sixth country to approve Euthanasia or assisted death. Before Spain, Colombia, Canada, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands had already approved active euthanasia.

Europe returns to quarantine

Despite the approval of the COVID-19 vaccine, the second wave of infections in Europe continues to increase. Germany and the Netherlands again announce strict isolation measures in the days before Christmas due to an increase in cases of coronavirus infection. Both countries will close schools and businesses. Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, among others, confirmed a series of isolation measures and do not rule out reinforcing them according to how the cases progress.

Many European countries expect to start their vaccination process at the end of December and the beginning of January, at which time the lifting of several isolation measures is planned.

Latin America begins approval of vaccines

Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina have already approved the vaccine from Pharmaceutical Pfizer and BioNTech and they hope to start their massive vaccination programs as soon as possible. Mexico was the first in the region, and the 5th worldwide. In this way, countries await the arrival of doses and start the massive vaccination program no later than the first quarter of 2021.

Europe gives UK ultimatum in a post-Brexit deal

The Euro Chamber warned that no later than Sunday, the trade agreement that will define relations between the island and Europe must be defined. The European legislative body warns that if the final document is not received by this date, it will not be able to vote on it. If an agreement between both parties is not made official, on January 1, 2021 there will be a hard Brexit.