
A court in the United States has sentenced the former head of Venezuela's treasury, Alejandro Andrade, to 10 years in prison for money laundering. Andrade, 54, had pleaded guilty to taking US$ 1bn in bribes in exchange for offering access to preferential foreign currency exchange rates.

United States president Donald Trump on Tuesday sanctioned the wife of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega and one of his aides under a new executive order allowing Washington to target Nicaraguan officials for a crackdown on anti-government protests.

U.S. President Donald Trump is open to reaching a deal on U.S.-China trade irritants over dinner on Saturday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping but is ready to hike tariffs on Chinese imports if there is no breakthrough, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Tuesday.

Argentina is on the verge of signing a deal with the United States that would allow two-way trade of fresh beef for the first time in nearly two decades, the country's international trade secretary, Marisa Bircher, said. The agreement, expected to be signed within days, would simultaneously open beef imports to both countries, Bircher told Reuters in an interview.

United States president Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet on Saturday in Argentina on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, a U.S. media outlet reported on Monday. The two leaders will meet a day after the United States, Mexico and Canada sign a new trilateral trade agreement, the online edition of Inside U.S. Trade said.

President Donald Trump does not like the news that General Motors would close several plants and cut more some 14,000 jobs. Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn on Monday afternoon, Trump said he spoke with CEO Mary Barra and told her he wasn't happy with the decision. I told her I'm not happy about it, Trump told reporters.

The United States and China have in the coming week what may be their last chance to broker a ceasefire in an increasingly dangerous trade war when their presidents meet in Buenos Aires.

Oil prices slumped up to nearly 8% to the lowest in more than a year on Friday, posting the seventh consecutive weekly loss, amid intensifying fears of a supply glut even as major producers consider cutting output. Oil supply, led by U.S. producers, is growing faster than demand and to prevent a build-up of unused fuel such as the one that emerged in 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is expected to start trimming output after a meeting on Dec. 6.

United States Defense Secretary James Mattis has said military police at the border with Mexico will be unarmed and will not have the power to carry out arrests. They don't have guns in their hands, there is no armed element going in, Mr. Mattis told reporters on Wednesday.

United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has taken the extraordinary step of rebuking President Donald Trump's criticism of a federal judge. Mr. Trump on Tuesday called a jurist who ruled against his asylum policy an Obama judge.