Latin America in Short: Musk Owns Twitter | Nairo Quintana is Left Without a Team

In global news: Elon Musk owns Twitter and the IMF warns of a possible global recession. In environmental news, an investigation announces that intense droughts could be repeated in the northern hemisphere every 20 years. In health, two Nobel Prize winners are at the service of health, here we tell you how. Finally, in sports, the Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana is left without a team. All this summarized here, in our weekly summary.

Elon Musk buys Twitter and announces a super app

The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has finally decided to carry out the proposal to purchase the Twitter platform. Previously, the South African-born had refrained from making the payment of the proposal until confirming with the current owners the number of fake accounts, among other data. Faced with his refusal to carry out the purchase that he himself announced, Twitter shareholders sued the owner of Tesla for canceling the purchase agreement. However, Musk anticipated the trial that was scheduled for October 17th and decided to go ahead with his plan to acquire one of the 15 most used social networks in the world.

The owner of SpaceX also gave details of his plan to create "X", a super application that will have "everything in one". His idea is that "X" be an umbrella application, from which other micro-applications are derived to "make life easier for people", something like the Chinese WeChat. Musk hopes that, in this way, Twitter (or "X") will go from 400 million users to more than 1,200 million. In “X”, you could send instant messages, make free calls, request transportation services, pay bills, send and receive money, play games, among many other possibilities.

International Monetary Fund warns of global recession

The general director of the organization, Kristalina Georgieva, asked the member countries of the IMF to take a series of decisions that avoid a scenario of global recession.

Georgieva stated that it is urgent necessity "to stabilize the world economy by addressing the most immediate challenges", especially the reduction of inflation. However, the director warned that if the central banks of the different countries act too aggressively they could "plunge many economies into a prolonged recession." Additionally, the Bulgarian revealed that the IMF will lower the global growth forecast of 2.9% for next year. Likewise, a reduction in global production of 4 billion dollars is expected in 2026.

Also read: The reasons of the inflation in Latin America. This is why the market is more expensive

Two Nobel Prizes in the service of health

This week different winners of the renowned Nobel Prizes have been announced. Two of these categories, Chemistry and Medicine, have a direct relationship with medical developments for humanity. Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work analyzing DNA, key to understanding human evolution and the development of diseases. On the other hand, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was received by scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, K. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal for the development of a technology for the construction of molecules known as "click chemistry". His advances have been fundamental for the development of drugs for cancer and other diseases.

An investigation found that droughts in the northern hemisphere could be repeated every 20 years with intensity

This Wednesday, researchers from the World Weather Attribution presented a study in which they point out that the high temperatures experienced in the summer in the northern hemisphere were caused by climate change and triggered severe droughts in the soil. The researchers found that in the absence of climate change, a drought of this magnitude could occur every 400 years. However, due to current conditions, they estimate that it could occur every 20 years. They also warn that these ecological and water droughts will continue to increase and are a risk to food security.

Nairo Quintana was left without a team

Nairo Quintana ended his contract with Arkea – Samsic, a team with which he has been riding since 2020. The Colombian champion of the Vuelta a España and the Giro d'Italia, has limited options to get a new team, since his reputation has been affected by the sanction he received in the last Tour de France for his use of the illegal substance tramadol. At the moment, the team that will “adopt” Nairo is unknown, but two teams have already said they want nothing to do with the “beetle”, Ag2r Citröen and Astana.