
United States President Donald Trump, engaged in an escalating confrontation with Beijing over trade, will urge Latin American leaders next week to work with the United States – not China – on trade, a senior US official said on Thursday. Trump’s trip to Lima, Peru, for the Summit of the Americas has been prefaced by aggressive moves on trade and immigration.

American Airlines will launch its first-ever nonstop flights between Los Angeles International Airport and Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, as part of a broader expansion in service to Mexico and South American destinations.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said Israelis are entitled to live peacefully on their own land in an interview published on Monday in U.S. magazine The Atlantic, another public sign of ties between Riyadh and Tel Aviv appearing to grow closer. Asked if he believes the Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland, Mohammed bin Salman was quoted as saying:

Barclays has agreed to pay US$2bn to settle a lawsuit brought by the US government over the sale of mortgage-backed securities. The US alleged that the bank had misled investors about the quality of loans backing the securities in the run-up to the financial crisis.

China has slapped extra tariffs of up to 25% on 128 U.S. products including frozen pork, as well as on wine and certain fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel, China’s finance ministry said. The tariffs, to take effect on Monday, were released late on Sunday and matches a list of potential tariffs on up to US$3 billion in U.S. goods published by China on March 23.

Former Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, better or simply known as Lula, said Donald Trump doesn't care about Latin America in the least and added that Bush and Condoleezza Rice pursued a much more democratic policy towards Brazil than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.” In his view, Obama could give magnificent speeches, but never actually delivered.

The United States will shift the processing of immigration visas for Cuban nationals from Colombia to Guyana starting April 1, the State Department announced. Immigrant visa applications and interviews with Cuban citizens will be conducted and processed at the United States Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana.

After being the first continent in the world declared free of measles in 2016, nine countries in the region have registered cases last year. With almost 900 cases, Venezuela was the most affected. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warns that the countries of the region should intensify their efforts to immunize the population and stop the spread of the disease.

China announced a US$ 3 billion list of U.S. goods including pork, apples and steel pipe on Friday that it said may be hit with higher tariffs in a spiraling trade dispute with President Donald Trump that companies and investors worry could depress global commerce. The Commerce Ministry urged Washington to negotiate a prompt settlement to the conflict over Trump's tariff hike on steel and aluminum but set no deadline.

John Bolton, chosen by President Donald Trump late Thursday to replace H.R. McMaster as national security adviser, is a career lawyer and diplomat who has long been on the president's short list to join the administration. The lifelong conservative has taken hawkish public stances on such issues as North Korea's nuclear program.