Politics

• Thursday, January 19th 2017 - 07:13 UTC

  Renegotiating NAFTA trade deal with Mexico and Canada, confirmed as Trump administration priority

  

  The incoming Trump administration's top trade priority is to renegotiate the Nafta trade deal with Canada and Mexico, according to commerce secretary nominee Wilbur Ross during a confirmation hearing on his nomination before US senators.

• Thursday, January 19th 2017 - 06:42 UTC

  HSBC and UBS preparing to move abroad when UK leaves the EU

  

  Two of the largest investment banks in the City of London have confirmed that some staff will definitely have to move abroad when the UK leaves the EU. HSBC's chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, told Bloomberg he was preparing to move 1,000 staff from London to Paris. And Axel Weber, boss of Swiss bank UBS, told BBC “about 1,000” of its 5,000 London jobs could be hit by Brexit.

• Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 11:46 UTC

  OAS praises strength of US electoral process but observes campaign financing

  

  The strength of U.S. democracy goes beyond the particularities of an electoral process, said the Organization of American States, OAS, Electoral Observation Mission to the recent general elections in the United States in the presentation of its final report to the Permanent Council. However it also underlined that the campaign financing is “the most deregulated in forty years”.

• Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 11:32 UTC

  South Georgia: Colossal squid features on latest titanium “marine life” coin

  

  The government and treasury of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands have issued two new coins in its ongoing Marine Life series, which features some the most amazing wildlife found in and around the South Atlantic Ocean. The design, which features the colossal squid, is issued in two versions, including titanium, which is tinted to enhance the design.

• Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 10:27 UTC

  Obama commutes sentence of Chelsea Manning, provider of secrets to Wikileaks

  

  President Barack Obama on Tuesday shortened the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who was responsible for a 2010 leak of classified materials to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the biggest such breach in U.S. history.

• Wednesday, January 18th 2017 - 10:20 UTC

  Scotland “undoubtedly” closer to an independence referendum

  

  First minister Nicola Sturgeon said that plans to take the UK out of the EU's single market brought a second Scottish independence referendum “undoubtedly” closer. She was speaking after Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her government's thinking on Brexit.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2017 - 17:32 UTC

  Xi emphatic tells Davos “we say no to protectionism”; migration crisis caused by war and conflict

  

  China's president Xi told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday that the “migrant crisis had been caused by war, conflict and regional turbulence,” not globalization. Similarly, the 2007/8 financial crisis was caused by “the excessive pursuit of profits and a lack of economic regulations,” he said.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2017 - 17:08 UTC

  Hard Brexit: UK to leave the single market and Parliament will vote on the final deal, pledges PM May

  

  Prime Minister Theresa May has said the UK “cannot possibly” remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean “not leaving the EU at all”, but at the same time promised to push for the “greatest possible” access to the single market following Brexit.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2017 - 10:19 UTC

  Eight of the richest people on earth own as much combined wealth as half the human race

  

  Just eight of the richest people on earth own as much combined wealth as half the human race. The charity Oxfam does the math each year and publishes its results just in time for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where many of the spectacularly wealthy are often among the attendees, along with diplomats, political figures, and business and cultural leaders.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2017 - 10:06 UTC

  IMF downgrades Latin America prospects because of lesser growth in Brazil and Mexico

  

  The International Monetary Fund has become more pessimistic about Latin America in the January economic outlook update. IMF is now forecasting regional GDP growth of just 1.2% in 2017, down from the 1.6% projection it made in October. It also lowered its 2018 estimate for Latin America by 0.1% to a revised projection of 2.1% expansion.