United States

• Wednesday, January 9th 2019 - 08:48 UTC

  Brazilian middleman involved in Petrobras corruption arrested in the US

  

  A Brazilian man facing allegations of bribing officials at state-run oil company Petrobras on behalf of Vitol Group, Glencore and other major oil trading firms has been arrested in the United States, authorities said Tuesday.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2019 - 08:39 UTC

  ExxonMobil resumes exploratory drilling off Guyana; first FPSO expected at the end of the year

  

  US energy company ExxonMobil has started drilling one of two new exploration wells offshore Guyana. It’s the first of two wells to be drilled this month. The world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company said in a statement that the Stena Carron drillship is drilling the Haimara-1 well, located 19 miles east of the Pluma-1 discovery in the southeast Stabroek Block.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2019 - 08:30 UTC

  Government shutdown persists as Trump and Democrats clash over US/Mexican border wall funding

  

  United States president Donald Trump has demanded funding for his long-promised US-Mexico border wall to halt “a growing humanitarian and security crisis”. But in his first TV address to the nation from the Oval Office, Mr Trump did not declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and build the barrier.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2019 - 08:26 UTC

  EU claims Trump administration has downgraded the block's diplomatic status

  

  EU says the US government has changed the bloc's diplomatic status in Washington, in practice downgrading it. The Trump administration did not notify the EU about the change. The EU has asked the US to explain the move, EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic says.

• Tuesday, January 8th 2019 - 10:11 UTC

  Financial sector leading firms plan to launch an equities exchange: “Members Exchange”

  

  A group of nine leading retail broker-dealers, banks, financial services firms, and global market makers, have agreed to launch an equities exchange, MEMX, or Members Exchange. The new exchange will be owned entirely by its founding members and will seek to deliver benefits to retail and institutional investors by introducing greater competition to the marketplace. MEMX will file an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission in early 2019 for approval to operate as a national securities exchange.

• Tuesday, January 8th 2019 - 09:25 UTC

  US taxpayers will receive refunds, pledges Trump despite government shutdown

  

  Millions of US taxpayers will still receive refunds despite an ongoing partial government shutdown, the White House has said. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has previously delayed tax refunds during a government shutdown.

• Tuesday, January 8th 2019 - 08:37 UTC

  World Bank President steps down; possible differences with Trump's policies

  

  World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim has made the surprise announcement that he is stepping down after six years in the post. His resignation will take effect from 1 February. Mr Kim, 59, was not due to leave until 2022, after he was re-elected for a second five-year term in 2017.

• Monday, January 7th 2019 - 09:13 UTC

  Venezuelan Justice and close advisor of Maduro flees with family to Miami

  

  Venezuela Supreme Court judge Christian Zerpa has fled to the United States to protest over President Nicolás Maduro's second term in office. Last year's election “was not free and competitive”, the former Maduro loyalist told a Florida radio station, and he accused President Maduro of systematically manipulating the affairs of the Supreme Court.

• Saturday, January 5th 2019 - 09:37 UTC

  Brazil seeks supremacy in South America, said Bolsonaro, who did not discard a US military base in Brazil

  

  Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy.

• Saturday, January 5th 2019 - 09:25 UTC

  A shooting in Los Angeles takes several victims

  

  A shooting with several victims has been recorded this Saturday morning in a bowling alley in the town of Torrance, in the county of Los Angeles (USA), police said.