Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro goaded opposition leader Juan Guaido during a rally in Caracas on Thursday, taunting his rival for failing to unseat him. A year ago, parliament speaker Guaido launched a challenge to Maduro's authority by declaring himself acting president, a move backed by more than 50 countries.
US financier and philanthropist George Soros on Thursday pledged one billion dollars for a new university network project to battle the erosion of civil society in a world increasingly ruled by would-be and actual dictators and beset by climate change.
The world's richest 2,153 people controlled more money than the poorest 4.6 billion combined in 2019, the charity Oxfam said on Monday. It said poor women and girls were at the bottom of the scale, putting in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day, estimated to be worth at least US$10.8 trillion a year.
Ecuador may use financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to balance its budget, as the South American country seeks to reduce a swollen fiscal deficit and its international debt, the finance minister admitted on Friday.
Brazil's new far-right government on Thursday gave hundreds more public servants the power to keep official records from the public for decades by labeling them secret and ultra-secret. Vice President Hamilton Mourao, standing in while President Jair Bolsonaro was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, signed the decree expanding exceptions within the 2011 transparency law.
The new chief executive of Goldman Sachs says that a difficult Brexit will negatively affect its investment plans in the UK. David Solomon told the BBC that while there has been a hiring freeze in the UK, the bank has been adding staff in the EU over the last two years.
China and Europe take centre stage at Davos on Wednesday, a day after Brazil's hard-right President Jair Bolsonaro promised reform and respect for the environment to the world's business elite.
China plans to reduce the average tariff rate on imports from most of its trading partners as soon as October, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. In July, China cut import tariffs on almost 1,500 consumer products ranging from cosmetics to home appliances as part of efforts to open up its economy, the world’s second biggest.
Daniel Funes de Rioja, Chair of B20, promoted the B20 agenda among British business, chambers, institutions and members of the press at the “B20 Priorities and Challenges” seminar at the Argentine Official Residence in London.
President Trump declared America “open for business” in a speech on Friday to global to political and business elites in Davos, Switzerland, while taking a hard line on trade and vowing to make commerce with other countries “fair and reciprocal.”