The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea announced that it will consider on November 10 and 11 the complaint filed by Argentina against Britain to prevent oil exploration near the disputed Malvinas (Falkland) Islands.
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The UN tribunal said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday that its president, Maurice Kamga, "has set November 10 and 11, 2026, as the dates for hearings in the case concerning hydrocarbon extraction in the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean (Argentina v. United Kingdom)."
On October 13, the office of Argentine President Javier Mele announced that his country had asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to take provisional measures to prevent Britain from extracting hydrocarbons in the continental shelf of the North Malvinas Basin.
The dispute over the continental shelf escalated against the backdrop of preparations for the "Sea Lion" project to develop a large oil field about 220 kilometers north of the archipelago. British authorities in the islands had granted extraction licenses.
The project is being carried out by Israel's Navitas Petroleum and Britain's Rockoper Exploration, who plan to start drilling in early 2027 and commercial production by 2028.
Argentine authorities have repeatedly spoken about the illegality of oil companies' activities in the disputed waters, and last September announced a decision to impose sanctions on 60 individuals and legal entities involved in extracting hydrocarbons near the islands.
The Falkland Islands consist of two main islands and approximately 800 smaller ones, with a total area of just over 12,000 square kilometers and a population of about 3,200. They have been the subject of a territorial dispute between Argentina and Britain for 200 years. In April 1982, an armed conflict broke out between the two countries, resulting in Argentina's defeat after losing 649 soldiers during two and a half months of fighting, while British losses amounted to 255.
Argentina continues to challenge British sovereignty over the islands through UN mechanisms, but the two sides have yet to reach a compromise.
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Elon Musk offers a solution to the US national debt problem
American billionaire Elon Musk believes that austerity will not succeed in reducing the US budget deficit, and that artificial intelligence and robots are the real tools to solve the public debt problem.
In an interview with his biographer Walter Isaacson, Musk expressed confidence that advanced technologies could help deal with the financial burdens posed by the enormous U.S. government debt.
Musk said: "The only way to solve the public debt problem is through artificial intelligence and robots. We will not be able to solve it through austerity measures."
It should be noted that the US national debt has exceeded the $40 trillion mark. By law, the current limit is set at $41.103 trillion, after which Congress must intervene to raise the borrowing ceiling.
Based on the current growth rate, analysts expect public debt to exceed $50 trillion by 2030.
In a related context, the US Congressional Budget Office estimates that the size of government debt will exceed the gross domestic product by 20% in 2036.