
The vast clouds of smoke from Australia's historic bush fires are expected to circle the Earth and return to the country, Nasa says. The US agency said satellites have been monitoring the movement of the smoke high in the atmosphere as it swirled east towards South America and beyond.

The United States will maintain tariffs on Chinese goods until the completion of a second phase of a United States-China trade agreement, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday, a day before the two sides are to sign an interim deal.

The Yen plumbed an eight-month low while the Yuan climbed to its highest level since July on Tuesday after the U.S. Treasury Department reversed its decision in August to designate China as a currency manipulator.

Protesters took to the streets of Iran to denounce the country’s clerical rulers and riot police deployed to face them in a third day of demonstrations on Monday after authorities acknowledged shooting down a passenger plane by mistake.

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said Qassem Soleimani was killed as part of a broader strategy of deterring challenges by US foes that also applies to China and Russia, further diluting the assertion that the top Iranian general was struck because he was plotting imminent attacks on US targets.

Kirchnerite old hands are back at the Argentine ministry of foreign affairs and worship. The most outstanding is Jorge Argüello who was appointed ambassador in Washington but at the same time coordinator of other appointments in the different multilateral and regional organizations in the US capital, such as IMF, World Bank, Inter American Development Bank and the OAS.

United States President Donald Trump warned Iran on Sunday against killing protesters who have risen up over the regime's downing of a civilian airliner as his defense secretary left the door open to talks with Tehran without preconditions.

China's commitments in the Phase 1 trade deal with the United States were not changed during a lengthy translation process and will be released this week as the document is signed in Washington, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.

The United States on Friday sharply reduced flights allowed to go to Cuba in a bid to reduce revenue to the communist island. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that charter flights would only be allowed to fly to Havana, not other airports - a step already taken with commercial flights.

The United States imposed more sanctions on Iran on Friday in retaliation for its missile attack on US forces in Iraq this week and vowed to tighten the economic screws if Tehran continued terrorist acts or pursued a nuclear bomb.