Politics

• Tuesday, August 29th 2017 - 11:30 UTC

  Brazil limits discretionary subsidies through government banks lending

  

  Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved the main text of a bill creating a market-based benchmark interest rate for state lender BNDES, in a victory for President Michel Temer. The lower house will now have to analyze three potential amendments to the bill early on Tuesday before sending the measure to a final Senate vote, speaker Rodrigo Maia told reporters.

• Tuesday, August 29th 2017 - 11:03 UTC

  Go ahead to build two dams in Patagonia's Santa Cruz, financed by China

  

  Argentina’s government approved the construction of two hydroelectric dams in the southern Patagonia region province of Santa Cruz, after holding public hearings as required by the Supreme Court, according to a notice in the Official Gazette on Monday.

• Tuesday, August 29th 2017 - 10:45 UTC

  YPF shake up: CEO replaced with a six-member executive committee

  

  The chief executive officer of Argentina’s state-owned oil company YPF has resigned and a six-member executive committee will run the company. The company did not name a replacement for CEO Ricardo Darre, who had held the job since July of last year. Darre, an engineer, had previously worked for French oil company Total in the United States.

• Tuesday, August 29th 2017 - 08:15 UTC

  Urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address North Korean missile launch

  

  The United Nations Security Council will meet late Tuesday to discuss the latest North Korea missile launch. North Korea fired a ballistic missile that passed over Japan early Tuesday local time, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

• Tuesday, August 29th 2017 - 07:56 UTC

  South Korean forces military exercises with live ammunition next to the DMZ

  

  South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered his country's military on Tuesday to display its capabilities that can overwhelm North Korea should the communist state decide to attack, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.

• Tuesday, August 29th 2017 - 07:43 UTC

  EU tells UK it must take withdrawal talks “seriously” and end “ambiguity”

  

  The UK has been told by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator that it needs to take withdrawal talks “seriously”. Michel Barnier used the opening of a third round of talks in Brussels on Monday to insist that London must end “ambiguity” regarding key positions like the Brexit divorce bill.

• Monday, August 28th 2017 - 09:11 UTC

  Labour proposes a post-Brexit short “transitional period” and fee movement for working people

  

  Labour would keep the UK in the EU single market and customs union for a transitional period after leaving the EU, the party has said. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer clarified Labor's position on leaving the EU in The Observer.

• Monday, August 28th 2017 - 08:56 UTC

  Third round of Brexit talks in Brussels with not much flexibility from either side

  

  Brexit Secretary David Davis is heading for a Brussels showdown, with a demand for the European Commission to be more “flexible” in negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. With the third round of formal talks beginning on Bank Holiday Monday in the Belgian capital, Davis is pushing for EU negotiator Michel Barnier to be less rigid in his refusal to discuss the post-Brexit relationship between the UK and Europe.

• Monday, August 28th 2017 - 08:39 UTC

  Scottish cautious reply to Labour's “transitional period” proposal for Brexit

  

  Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has given a cautious welcome to a change of emphasis from Labour on Brexit, which has said it would advocate the UK remaining within the EU's single market and the customs union “for a transitional period”.

• Sunday, August 27th 2017 - 09:28 UTC

  Guilford will export 90 iconic red double-decker buses for Mexico

  

  UK-based vehicle manufacturing outfit Alexander Dennis will be exporting 90 iconic red double-decker buses to Mexico, the company confirmed on Wednesday. The contract was backed by an equivalent £44m finance deal via UK Export Finance – part of the Department for International Trade - which has provided £1.7bn of backing to businesses since the department's creation in 2016 to “help businesses export post-Brexit”.