International

• Wednesday, June 15th 2016 - 16:57 UTC

  Russia on the threshold of being booted from Euro 2016 because of fan violence

  

  Russia will be booted out of Euro 2016 if there is any repeat of the fan violence which marred their opening match with England, UEFA said. UEFA gave Russia a suspended disqualification and $168,300 fine on Tuesday for the crowd trouble in Marseille. Russian fans were seen punching and kicking England fans after their 1-1 draw in the Stade Velodrome.

• Wednesday, June 15th 2016 - 16:49 UTC

  Adidas will open its first factory in Germany in 30 years, with robots

  

  Adidas will be opening its first factory in Germany in more than 30 years is one of the most visible examples of global brands bringing manufacturing home because of rising labor costs in Asia. Adidas’s 50,000 square-foot factory, in the Bavarian town of Ansbach, will rely on robots and customized automation to produce 500,000 pairs of athletic shoes a year—well below 1% of Adidas’s total annual production of 300 million pairs—when full production starts in 2017.

• Wednesday, June 15th 2016 - 12:40 UTC

  Brexit: What if?

  

  By Gwynne Dyer - After months in which opinion polls showed a six to ten percentage points lead for the 'Remain' side in the referendum campaign on continued British membership of the European Union (EU), the numbers have suddenly shifted in favor of 'Leave'.

• Wednesday, June 15th 2016 - 07:54 UTC

  Brexit debate escalates: Remains warn of a fiscal “black hole”; Vote Leave slams “hysterical prophecies”

  

  UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says he will have to slash public spending and increase taxes in an emergency Budget to tackle a £30bn “black hole” if the UK votes to leave the European Union. The chancellor will say this could include raising income and inheritance taxes and cutting the NHS budget.

• Wednesday, June 15th 2016 - 07:15 UTC

  Kerry announces at OAS assembly high-level talks to ease tensions with Venezuela

  

  United States Secretary of State John Kerry announced high-level talks to ease tensions with Venezuela's populist government on Tuesday, just hours after he backed calls for a referendum that could force President Nicolas Maduro from office. Kerry said the talks would start immediately in Caracas and be led by Thomas Shannon, a veteran of U.S. diplomacy in the region. Attempts last year at dialogue between the ideological foes were stalled by Venezuela's deepening crisis.

• Tuesday, June 14th 2016 - 12:15 UTC

  “No animosity at all towards the president”, said Macorra following a meeting with Pope Francis

  

  “There is no animosity”, said Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra after meeting with Pope Francis in Rome on the sidelines of an event sponsored by the United Nations, just days after the pontiff publicly rejected a multi-million-peso “donation” from the administration of President Mauricio Macri destined for the pope’s Scholas Occurrentes program.

• Tuesday, June 14th 2016 - 12:04 UTC

  ECB purchases 348bn Euros of corporate bonds in the first three days

  

  The European Central Bank bought 348 million Euros of corporate bonds in the first three days of such purchases last week, it said on Monday, as part of its 1.74 trillion Euro scheme to revive growth and inflation. The figures are at the upper end of analyst predictions, indicating a strong start for the program and suggesting that the ECB was keen to show it can buy significant volumes.

• Tuesday, June 14th 2016 - 07:57 UTC

  Gibraltar’s Spanish neighboring towns fear Brexit: ‘it would be a disaster’

  

  UK exit from the European Union would be “a disaster” that would risk creating “an economic and social rift” between Gibraltar and the neighbouring region in Spain, the Cross-Frontier Group said in a report published by the Gibraltar Chronicle. The group’s president, Ángel Serrano, warned that Brexit posed a serious risk to employment and investment on both sides of the border.

• Monday, June 13th 2016 - 17:20 UTC

  Chilean salmon industry controversy over the use of antibiotics

  

  The use of antibiotics in the Chilean salmon industry reached 557 tons in 2015, according to the latest report of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (SERNAPESCA), a figure consolidating the tendency to their intensive use over the past five years.

• Monday, June 13th 2016 - 07:50 UTC

  Falklands/Malvinas dispute: Malcorra calls for an “open dialogue” with UK

  

  Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra called on the United Kingdom to engage in “open dialogue” on the Falklands/Malvinas islands sovereignty dispute in an open letter sent to the UK government, which President Mauricio Macri’s administration hopes can further improve relations between the former foes.