Politics

• Saturday, May 19th 2018 - 09:38 UTC

  Trump imposes sanctions against the powerful Venezuela clan of Diosdado Cabello

  

  Two days before presidential elections in Venezuela, the Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions against a powerful governing party politician, accusing him of drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering and embezzling government money.

• Saturday, May 19th 2018 - 09:27 UTC

  China/US trade talks on a more positive track; Beijing dumps sorghum levy

  

  Beijing has dropped an anti-dumping investigation into imported U.S. sorghum, which it had accused the United States of unfairly subsiding. It has also given approval for a U.S. private equity firm to buy Toshiba's memory chip business. Those gestures could suggest a thaw with the U.S. as trade talks went on in Washington in an atmosphere of hopefulness but hardly assurance of a breakthrough in the impasse.

• Saturday, May 19th 2018 - 09:18 UTC

  Italy readies for a populist euro skeptic coalition; challenge for Brussels and the Euro

  

  Italy’s two anti-establishment parties promised on Friday to ramp up spending in a program for a new coalition government, putting them on a collision course with the European Union despite having dropped some of their most radical proposals.

• Saturday, May 19th 2018 - 09:09 UTC

  Theresa May nominates new Tory peers; government has suffered a series of defeats in House of Lords

  

  Downing Street has nominated nine new Conservative peers, including a number of former ministers, to sit in the House of Lords. Among those put forward for a peerage are former communities secretary Sir Eric Pickles and former trade and industry secretary Peter Lilley.

• Saturday, May 19th 2018 - 07:12 UTC

  Harry and Meghan marriage: keeping the pomp but a new chapter for the monarchy

  

  Britain’s Prince Harry weds US former actress Meghan Markle on Saturday in a pomp-filled ceremony at Windsor Castle, a globally-watched event overshadowed in the build-up by her fractious family’s feuding.

• Saturday, May 19th 2018 - 06:26 UTC

  Boris Johnson will be the first Foreign Secretary to visit Argentina in 15 years

  

  Boris Johnson is to make the first visit by a British foreign secretary to Argentina for 25 years. Mr. Johnson will seek to take advantage of the improvement in relations with Buenos Aires since President Mauricio Macri came to power in 2015.President Macri has talked of lifting curbs on oil, fishing and shipping around the Falkland Islands as tensions eased.

• Friday, May 18th 2018 - 09:06 UTC

  Maduro wraps up electoral campaign next to Erdogan and Maradona

  

  Venezuela's diplomatically isolated president got a show of support from his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan and Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona on Thursday ahead of a weekend election widely decried as unfair. The United States, the European Union and major Latin American countries have criticized Sunday's vote in which populist President Nicolas Maduro is likely to win re-election to a six-year term.

• Friday, May 18th 2018 - 08:34 UTC

  Lula lashes out at his “farce” imprisonment; Judge strips him of presidential privileges

  

  Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday lashed out against his imprisonment for corruption but the government rejected his claim to have been victim of a “farce” and a judge stripped him of presidential privileges. In a column in French newspaper Le Monde, Lula called his conviction and 12 year sentence for graft “a judicial farce” and said that presidential elections would be unfair without his participation.

• Friday, May 18th 2018 - 07:49 UTC

  IMF confirms support for Macri, but also with greater focus on social protection

  

  The International Monetary Fund will move quickly to agree on a loan program to support Argentina but there are no details yet on what it will entail, a fund spokesman said on Thursday. However spokesperson Gerry Rice also underlined that the IMF nowadays has a greater focus on social protection, in particular towards the most vulnerable, ensuring the economy and living standards.

• Friday, May 18th 2018 - 07:37 UTC

  Cross-party group of UK parliamentarians on two-day visit to Gibraltar

  

  A cross-party group of UK parliamentarians is in Gibraltar on a two-day working visit. The visit takes place against the backdrop of the negotiations for the United Kingdom and Gibraltar to leave the European Union, which means that it will centre on Brexit issues.