US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday discussed the crisis in oil-rich Venezuela, where Washington has thrown its weight behind a campaign to oust the Moscow-backed socialist president.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Arctic Council meeting, which begins Monday in the city of Rovaniemi. The tension in Venezuela will mark the meeting where
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared on Thursday flanked by soldiers at an army base in Caracas, in a show of defiance towards his opponents. Maduro called on the armed forces to defeat “any coup plotter”, following two days of clashes between opposition and pro-government forces.
The US Defense Department expects China to add military bases around the world to protect its investments in its ambitious One Belt One Road global infrastructure program, according to an official report released on Thursday.
Chevron Corp completed a US$ 350 million purchase of a refinery in the Houston suburb of Pasadena, Texas, from Brazil’s Petrobras, Chevron said in a statement. The sale was agreed to in January, but Chevron put the transfer of the 112,229-barrel-per-day plant’s ownership on hold on April 2, telling Petrobras it had to prove the refinery would operate as promised.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday accused the top US law-enforcement officer of committing a crime by lying to Congress, escalating the showdown between Donald Trump's administration and the Democrats investigating him.
The US Federal Reserve has kept interest rates on hold despite pressure from President Donald Trump to announce a cut. The central bank said borrowing costs will remain at between 2.25%-2.5%.
Demonstrators clashed violently with police on the streets of the Venezuelan capital on Tuesday, spurred by opposition leader Juan Guaido's call on the military to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, whose government said it was putting down an attempted coup.
The United States claimed on Tuesday that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was on his way out, saying he had a plane ready and that senior officials were plotting to oust him, even as the leftist firebrand appeared to survive a military uprising.
President Donald Trump slammed the Federal Reserve on Tuesday for incessantly raising interest rates and said cutting rates by a full point would make the economy surge.