June, 2016

• 7 June

  Clinton clinches presidential nomination

  

    Los Angeles / AFP Hillary Clinton captured the Democratic White House nomination hours before Tuesday’s last major primaries of 2016, according to US delegate counts, taking a monumental step toward becoming America’s first female commander-in-chief. Passing the milestone of 2,383 delegates secures Clinton’s status as the presumptive nominee, and marks a dramatic political resurgence for a highly experienced but ...

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• 7 June

  Myanmar court sentences BBC reporter to jail for cop assault

    YANGON / AFP A BBC reporter in Myanmar has been jailed for three months with hard labour after being convicted of assaulting a police officer while covering a student protest, his lawyer said on Tuesday. The ruling marks the first time a journalist has been convicted under Myanmar’s new government, run by former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi. ...

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• 7 June

  Leaders agree to Australia’s first online election debate

    CANBERRA / AP Australia’s prime minister and opposition leader have agreed to hold the country’s first-ever online election campaign leaders’ debate. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with Facebook and News Corp. Australia to stream the debate early next week in a bid to reach more voters. Opposition leader Bill Shorten later agreed ...

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• 7 June

  Venezuela oppn protests for recall vote

  

    Caracas / AFP Venezuela’s opposition held new protests, seeking to convert widespread anger over food shortages and economic havoc into pressure for a referendum on removing embattled President Nicolas Maduro. Clad in the red, yellow and blue of the Venezuelan flag, hundreds of opposition supporters rallied on a square in eastern Caracas, brandishing messages aimed at the allegedly pro-Maduro ...

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• 7 June

  Argentine public-private bill to boost financing by $90bn

  

    Bloomberg Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri will send a public private partnership bill to Congress in the coming weeks that will increase the country’s financing capacity by as much as $90 billion, according to his top adviser on foreign investment. The bill will allow the government to speed up its investment in infrastructure while providing legal guarantees for private sector ...

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• 7 June

  US crude oil deficit hits 17-year low as prices dip and shale flows

  

    Bloomberg Last week’s tepid jobs report may have dominated financial headlines in the U.S., but the oil market quietly had some better news for the American economy. The U.S. petroleum trade deficit, the gap between the value of imports and exports, shrank to a seasonally adjusted $3.13 billion in April, the Census Bureau said on June 3. That left ...

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• 7 June

  YPF SA taps Total’s Ricardo Darré as new chief executive officer

  

    Bloomberg YPF SA, Argentina’s state-controlled energy firm, named Total SA managing director Ricardo Darre as chief executive officer to lead the country’s biggest company. Darre, the head of the U.S. exploration and production unit since August 2014 at France’s largest oil company, will start July 1, according to an e-mailed statement from Buenos Aires-based YPF. “With the incorporation of ...

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• 7 June

  Brazil hints at market- driven electricity prices

  

    Bloomberg Brazil’s interim government is seeking a market-driven approach for the electricity industry amid waning power demand, growing debt and consecutive losses at the country’s largest power company. The administration of Acting President Michel Temer will scale back heavy-handed policies in the power industry and reduce dependence on state development bank BNDES for financing, said Paulo Pedrosa, executive secretary ...

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• 7 June

  Food handouts prompt criticism in shortage-hit Venezuela

  

    Venezuela / AFP Venezuelans facing severe food shortages might have been expected to welcome heavily subsidized bags of rice, milk and other staples — but the controversy didn’t take long to set in. The bags, distributed to poor families every three weeks, represent President Nicolas Maduro’s latest plan to combat the increasingly desperate economic crisis that has taken hold ...

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• 7 June

  China will try to cut excess steel glut: USA

  

    Beijing / AP China agreed to try to slash excess output of steel, avoid competitive devaluations of its currency and to wind down unprofitable “zombie enterprises,” US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said on Tuesday as the two countries wrapped up annual high-level meetings in Beijing. The commitment to persist with reforms to make China’s economy more balanced included specific steps ...

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