Latest news with #LatinAmerica
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
GeoPark Updates Reporting Date for Second Quarter Results and Conference Call Details
BOGOTA, Colombia, July 29, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GeoPark Limited ("GeoPark" or the "Company") (NYSE: GPRK), a leading independent energy company with over 20 years of successful operations across Latin America, announces an update to the time and date of its previously announced reporting date and conference call and webcast details for the three-month period ended June 30, 2025 ("2Q2025"). Reporting Date for 2Q2025 Results Release, Conference Call and Webcast GeoPark will report its 2Q2025 financial results on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, after market close. GeoPark management will host a conference call on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, at 10:00 am (Eastern Daylight Time) to discuss the 2Q2025 financial results. To listen to the call, participants can access the webcast located in the Invest with Us section of the Company's website at or by clicking below: Interested parties can join the conference call by using the following dial-in information: United States Participants: +1 404-975-4839Global Dial-In Numbers: Passcode: 553033 Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the website and download any streaming media software that might be required to listen to the webcast. An archive of the webcast replay will be made available in the Invest with Us section of the Company's website at after the conclusion of the live call. NOTICE Additional information about GeoPark can be found in the "Invest with Us" section on the website at View source version on Contacts For further information, please contact: INVESTORS: Maria Catalina Escobar Shareholder Value and Capital Markets Directormescobar@ Miguel Bello Investor Relations Officermbello@ Maria Alejandra Velez Investor Relations Leadermvelez@ MEDIA: Communications Departmentcommunications@
Globe and Mail
13 hours ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
GeoPark Updates Reporting Date for Second Quarter Results and Conference Call Details
GeoPark Limited ('GeoPark' or the 'Company') (NYSE: GPRK), a leading independent energy company with over 20 years of successful operations across Latin America, announces an update to the time and date of its previously announced reporting date and conference call and webcast details for the three-month period ended June 30, 2025 ('2Q2025'). Reporting Date for 2Q2025 Results Release, Conference Call and Webcast GeoPark will report its 2Q2025 financial results on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, after market close. GeoPark management will host a conference call on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, at 10:00 am (Eastern Daylight Time) to discuss the 2Q2025 financial results. To listen to the call, participants can access the webcast located in the Invest with Us section of the Company's website at or by clicking below: Interested parties can join the conference call by using the following dial-in information: United States Participants: +1 404-975-4839 Global Dial-In Numbers: Passcode: 553033 Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the website and download any streaming media software that might be required to listen to the webcast. An archive of the webcast replay will be made available in the Invest with Us section of the Company's website at after the conclusion of the live call.
Wall Street Journal
15 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Spotify Gains Subscribers but Posts Loss
Spotify Technology SPOT 1.14%increase; green up pointing triangle added more subscribers in the second quarter, when the company expanded access around the world to its audiobooks and personalized music offerings. But the company swung to a loss. For the quarter, Spotify's monthly active users grew 11% to 696 million, topping the company's prior guidance by 7 million users. The gains were led by growth in Latin America, Europe and other global markets.
The Independent
16 hours ago
- The Independent
How pigs could help find missing Mexican drug cartel victims
Researchers in Mexico are employing an unusual method to locate the thousands of individuals who have vanished amidst decades of drug cartel violence: pigs. These animals serve as proxies for human remains, undergoing various simulated disposal methods. Scientists dress the dead swine in clothes, wrap them in packing tape, or even dismember them. Some are stuffed into plastic bags, others wrapped in blankets, covered in lime, or incinerated. They are then buried, either individually or in groups, as researchers meticulously observe the decomposition process. This research aims to address the staggering number of disappearances, a crisis often leaving families to search for loved ones with minimal official assistance. Now, government scientists are integrating these pig studies with cutting-edge satellite, geophysical, and biological mapping techniques. The hope is that these combined efforts will yield crucial clues, ultimately leading to the discovery of at least some of the missing bodies. 130,000 missing and counting The ranks of Mexico's missing exploded in the years following the launch of then-President Felipe Calderón's war against drug cartels in 2006. A strategy that targeted the leaders of a handful of powerful cartels led to a splintering of organized crime and the multiplication of violence to control territory. With near complete impunity, owing to the complicity or inaction of the authorities, cartels found that making anyone they think is in their way disappear was better than leaving bodies in the street. Mexican administrations have sometimes been unwilling to recognize the problem and at other times are staggered by the scale of violence their justice system is unprepared to address. Mexico's disappeared could populate a small city. Official data in 2013 tallied 26,000 missing, but the count now surpasses 130,000 — more than any other Latin American nation. The United Nations has said there are indications that the disappearances are 'generalized or systematic.' If the missing people are found — dead or alive — it is usually by their loved ones. Guided by information from witnesses, parents and siblings search for graves by walking through cartel territory, plunging a metal rod into the earth and sniffing for the scent of death. Around 6,000 clandestine graves have been found since 2007, and new discoveries are made all the time. Tens of thousands of remains have yet to be identified. Testing creative solutions Jalisco, which is home to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, has the largest number of people reported missing in Mexico: 15,500. In March, human bone fragments and hundreds of items of clothing were discovered at a cartel ranch in the state. Authorities denied it was the site of a mass grave. José Luis Silván, a coordinator of the mapping project and scientist at CentroGeo, a federal research institute focused on geospacial information, said Jalisco 's disappeared are 'why we're here.' The mapping project, launched in 2023, is a collaboration by Guadalajara University, Mexico's National Autonomous University and the University of Oxford in England, alongside the Jalisco Search Commission, a state agency that organizes local searches with relatives. 'No other country is pushing so strongly, so creatively" to test and combine new techniques, said Derek Congram, a Canadian forensic anthropologist, whose expertise in geographic information systems inspired the Mexican project. Still, Congram warns, technology 'is not a panacea.' 'Ninety percent of searches are resolved with a good witness and digging,' he said. Plants, insects and decomposing pigs Silván walks by a site where scientists buried 14 pigs about two years ago. He says they may not know how well the technology works, where and when it can be used, or under what conditions, for at least three years. 'Flowers came up because of the phosphorous at the surface, we didn't see that last year,' he said as he took measurements at one of the gravesites. 'The mothers who search say that that little yellow flower always blooms over the tombs and they use them as a guide.' Pigs and humans are closely related, famously sharing about 98 per cent of DNA. But for the mapping project, the physical similarities also matter. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, pigs resemble humans in size, fat distribution and the structure and thickness of skin. A big Colombian drone mounted with a hyperspectral camera flies over the pig burial site. Generally used by mining companies, the camera measures light reflected by substances in the soil, including nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and shows how they vary as the pigs decompose. The colorful image it produces offers clues of what to look for in the hunt for graves. 'This isn't pure science,' Silván said. 'It is science and action. Everything learned has to be applied immediately, rather than wait for it to mature, because there's urgency.' Researchers also employ thermal drones, laser scanners and other gadgets to register anomalies, underground movements and electrical currents. One set of graves is encased behind a pane of transparent acrylic, providing a window for scientists to observe the pigs' decomposition in real time. The Jalisco commission compares and analyzes flies, beetles, plants and soil recovered from the human and pig graves. Each grave is a living 'micro ecosystem,' said Tunuari Chávez, the commission's director of context analysis. Science to serve society Triggered by the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, Silván and his colleagues started gathering information about ground-penetrating radar, electric resistivity and satellite imagery from around the world. They studied University of Tennessee research on human corpses buried at a 'body farm.' They looked at grave-mapping techniques used in the Balkans, Colombia and Ukraine. 'What good is science or technology if it doesn't solve problems?' he said. They learned new applications of satellite analysis, then began their first experiments burying pigs and studying the substances criminals use to dispose of bodies. They found lime is easily detected, but hydrocarbons, hydrochloric acid and burned flesh are not. Chávez's team worked to combine the science with what they knew about how the cartels operate. For example, they determined that disappearances in Jalisco commonly happened along cartel routes between Pacific ports, drug manufacturing facilities and the U.S. border, and that most of the missing are found in the same municipality where they disappeared. Expert relatives The experience of the families of the missing also informs the research. Some observed that graves are often found under trees whose roots grow vertically, so those digging the graves can remain in the shade. Mothers of missing loved ones invited by researchers to visit one of the pig burial sites were able to identify most of the unmarked graves by sight alone, because of the plants and soil placement, Silván said. 'The knowledge flows in both directions,' he said. Maribel Cedeño, who has been looking for her missing brother for four years, said she believes the drones and other technology will be helpful. 'I never imagined being in this situation, finding bodies, becoming such an expert,' she said of her quest. Héctor Flores has been searching for his son since 2021. He questions why so much time and effort has been invested in methods that have not led to concrete discoveries, when the families have proven track records with little official support. Although the research has not yet concluded, the Jalisco Search Commission is already using a thermal drone, a laser scanner and a multispectral camera to help families look for their missing relatives in some cases. But it is unclear whether authorities across Mexico will ever be willing to use, or able to afford, the high-tech aides. Congram, the forensic scientist, said researchers are aware of the limitations of technology, but that 'you always have to try, fail, fail again and keep trying.'
Zawya
18 hours ago
- Health
- Zawya
Global hunger declines, but rises in Africa and western Asia: United Nation (UN) report
An estimated 8.2 percent of the global population, or about 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023 and 8.7 percent in 2022. However, progress was not consistent across the globe, as hunger continued to rise in most subregions of Africa and western Asia, according to this year's The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2025) report published today by five specialized agencies of the United Nations. Launched during the Second UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) in Addis Ababa, SOFI 2025 indicates that between 638 and 720 million people faced hunger in 2024. Based on the point estimate* of 673 million, this represents a decrease of 15 million people from 2023 and of 22 million from 2022. While the decline is welcome, the latest estimates remain above pre-pandemic levels, with the high food inflation of recent years contributing to the slow recovery in food security. Notable improvements are seen in southern Asia and Latin America. The prevalence of undernourishment (PoU) in Asia fell from 7.9 percent in 2022 to 6.7 percent, or 323 million people, in 2024. Additionally, Latin America and the Caribbean as a region saw the PoU fall to 5.1 percent, or 34 million people, in 2024, down from a peak of 6.1 percent in 2020. Unfortunately, this positive trend contrasts sharply with the steady rise in hunger across Africa and western Asia, including in many countries affected by prolonged food crises. The proportion of the population facing hunger in Africa surpassed 20 percent in 2024, affecting 307 million people, while in western Asia an estimated 12.7 percent of the population, or more than 39 million people, may have faced hunger in 2024. It is projected that 512 million people could be chronically undernourished by 2030. Almost 60 percent of those will be in Africa. This highlights the immense challenge of achieving SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), warned the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations agency for children (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO). Tracking nutrition targets From 2023 to 2024, the global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity – an assessment registering the experience of constraints on access to adequate food during part of the year – decreased slightly, from 28.4 to 28.0 percent, accounting for 2.3 billion people. This is 335 million more than in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and 683 million more than in 2015, when the Sustainable Development Agenda was adopted. Among the indicators of child nutrition, the prevalence of stunting in children under five declined from 26.4 percent in 2012 to 23.2 percent in 2024, reflecting global progress. The prevalence of child overweight (5.3 percent in 2012 and 5.5 percent in 2024), and in child wasting (7.4 percent in 2012 and 6.6 percent in 2024) remains largely unchanged. The percentage of infants under six months exclusively breastfed increased significantly, from 37.0 percent in 2012 to 47.8 percent in 2023, reflecting growing recognition of its health benefits. The prevalence of adult obesity rose from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 15.8 percent in 2022. New data show an increase in the global prevalence of anaemia among women aged 15 to 49, from 27.6 percent in 2012 to 30.7 percent in 2023. Estimates for a new SDG indicator introduced in the report reveal that about one-third of children aged 6 to 23 months and two-thirds of women aged 15 to 49 years met minimum dietary diversity. Food inflation SOFI 2025 also examines the causes and consequences of the 2021–2023 food price surge and its impact on food security and nutrition. The report highlights that the global policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic – characterized by extensive fiscal and monetary interventions – combined with the impacts of the war in Ukraine and extreme weather events, contributed to recent inflationary pressures. This food price inflation has hindered the post-pandemic recovery in food security and nutrition. Since 2020, global food price inflation has consistently outpaced headline inflation. The gap peaked in January 2023, with food inflation reaching 13.6 percent, 5.1 percentage points above the headline rate of 8.5 percent. Low-income countries have been particularly hit hard by rising food prices. While median global food price inflation increased from 2.3 percent in December 2020 to 13.6 percent in early 2023, it climbed even higher in low-income countries, peaking at 30 percent in May 2023. Despite rising global food prices, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.60 billion in 2024. However, the improvement was uneven. In low-income countries, where the cost of a healthy diet rose more sharply than in higher-income countries, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet increased from 464 million in 2019 to 545 million in 2024. In lower-middle-income countries (excluding India), the number rose from 79 million in 2019 to 869 million over the same period. The report recommends a combination of policy responses to food price inflation. They include targeted and time-bound fiscal measures, such as social protection programs, to safeguard vulnerable households; credible and transparent monetary policies to contain inflationary pressures; and strategic investments in agrifood R&D, transport and production infrastructure, and market information systems to improve productivity and resilience. What they said FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu: 'While it is encouraging to see a decrease in the global hunger rate, we must recognize that progress is uneven. SOFI 2025 serves as a critical reminder that we need to intensify efforts to ensure that everyone has access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. To achieve this, we must work collaboratively and innovatively with governments, organizations, and communities to address the specific challenges faced by vulnerable populations, especially in regions where hunger remains persistent.' IFAD President, Alvaro Lario: 'In times of rising food prices and disrupted global value chains, we must step up our investments in rural and agricultural transformation. These investments are not only essential for ensuring food and nutrition security – they are also critical for global stability.' UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell: 'Every child deserves the chance to grow and thrive. Yet over 190 million children under the age of 5 are affected by undernutrition, which can have negative consequences for their physical and mental development. This robs them of the chance to live to their fullest potential. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report for 2025 underscores the need to act urgently for the world's youngest and most vulnerable children, as rising food prices could deepen nutrition insecurity for millions of families. We must work in collaboration with governments, the private sector and communities themselves to ensure that vulnerable families have access to food that is affordable and with adequate nutrition for children to develop. That includes strengthening social protection programs and teaching parents about locally produced nutritious food for children, including the importance of breastfeeding, which provides the best start to a baby's life. WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain: 'Hunger remains at alarming levels, yet the funding needed to tackle it is falling. Last year, WFP reached 124 million people with lifesaving food assistance. This year, funding cuts of up to 40 percent mean that tens of millions of people will lose the vital lifeline we provide. While the small reduction in overall rates of food insecurity is welcome, the continued failure to provide critical aid to people in desperate need will soon wipe out these hard-won gains, sparking further instability in volatile regions of the world.' WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus:"In recent years, the world has made good progress in reducing stunting and supporting exclusive breastfeeding, but there is still much to be done to relieve millions of people from the burdens of food insecurity and malnutrition. This report provides encouraging news, but also shows where the gaps are and who is being left behind, and where we must direct our efforts to ensure that everyone has access to a healthy and nutritious diet." Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO).
