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The United States has lifted sanctions on Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodríguez. The move comes less than three months after US forces seized the country's previous leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife in a military raid in Caracas and took them to New York to face drug trafficking charges .  Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro who served as his vice-president, had been placed on the sanctions list in 2018, with the US accusing her of undermining democracy. She was sworn in as interim president by Venezuela's National Assembly, which is dominated by Maduro loyalists, days after the US raid and has been described by US President Donald Trump as "a terrific person". Rodríguez welcomed her removal from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. Those named on the list have their assets in the US blocked and US nationals are barred from doing business with them. Rodríguez called it "a significant step in the right direction to normalise and ...

A US judge has temporarily halted President Donald Trump's White House ballroom construction project, ruling that proper procedures were not followed before the project began. The decision comes after the White House was sued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "(U)nless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!" said Judge Richard Leon in a ruling with a number of exclamation points. Trump vowed to appeal, and disputed the judge's finding that Congress must approve the ballroom. He added that the current setup is inadequate to host world dignitaries such as King Charles III, who will visit Washington next month. The Trump administration previously said its plan was more economical than renovating the East Wing. It also noted that many presidents made changes to the White House. Published on Tuesday, Leon's 35-page ruling said: "I have concluded that the National Trust is likely...

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) is allocating seven May cargoes for Dangote oil refinery, up from five in previous months, after the ​spike in fuel prices caused by the Iran war, two trade sources ​and a refinery official told Reuters. Fuel prices in Nigeria have reached record ⁠highs and the country's Dangote refinery has previously said the company could source ​only about five crude cargoes a month locally, far short of the 13–15 it ​requires, forcing it to import the rest at prices dictated by the impact of war in the Middle East. An increase in crude allocations to the 650,000 barrel per day refinery, Africa's largest, ​could also curb volumes of Nigerian crude available for export at a time when ​the Iran war has drastically cut supply from the Middle East, forcing buyers to hunt far ‌and ⁠wide for available cargoes. "NNPC has allocated more cargoes to Dangote for May," a senior Dangote official said. "Whi...

Nicolas Maduro , the former president of Venezuela, will to try to convince a federal judge on Thursday that the US government is interfering with his ability to defend against narco-terrorism related charges and the case should be dismissed. Judge Alvin Hellerstein initially set the hearing to give lawyers for Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores de Maduro time to review evidence and sketch out a schedule for legal motions and potentially set a trial date. In a twist in the already unusual case, Maduro’s attorney, Barry Pollack, said last month he will need to withdraw, if the US doesn’t allow the government of Venezuela to pay his legal fees. Maduro and his wife were captured from their presidential compound in Caracas  in early January in a stunning overnight US military and law enforcement operation and brought to New York to face charges. Pollack said the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control granted and then revoked a license permitting the Venez...

HOUSTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Gaining the ​approval of local communities has become ‌paramount to building data centers in the U.S., Microsoft President Brad Smith said ​on Tuesday, as towns across ​the country increasingly protest the developments. The ⁠rapid proliferation of Big Tech data ​centers is driving up the country's ​electricity demand and power bills, and drawing scrutiny from states and local communities. "You have to ​win over the local community and ​sustain their trust if you are going to ‌build ⁠a (data center)," Smith said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston. "Obviously what you are seeing in the United States is now a ​concern about ​data ⁠centers." Opposition from towns and counties in the Midwest and Northeast ​in recent months has led ​to ⁠the cancellation of data center developments over concerns of rising power prices, ⁠water ​impact and pollution from ​accompanying power infrastructure.

MOSCOW, March 25 (Reuters) - At least 40% of Russia's oil export capacity is at a halt following Ukrainian drone attacks, a disputed ​attack on a major pipeline and the seizure of tankers, according to Reuters calculations based ‌on market data. The shutdown is the most severe oil supply disruption in the modern history of Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, and has hit Moscow just as oil prices exceeded $100 a barrel due to the Iran war .  Russia's oil output ​is one of the main sources of revenue for the national budget and is central to the $2.6 ​trillion economy. UKRAINE HAS INCREASED ATTACKS Ukraine intensified  drone attacks on Russia's oil and fuel export infrastructure ⁠this month, hitting all three of Russia's major western oil export ports, including Novorossiysk on the Black ​Sea and Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea. According to Reuters calculations, about 40% of Russia's crude oil ​export capabilities - or around 2 mi...

BEIJING, March 23 (Reuters) - China on Monday urged all parties involved in the Middle East conflict, particularly the ‌U.S. and Israel, to cease military operations, warning of a "vicious cycle" in a war that analysts say if prolonged, could undermine global growth and weaken demand for Chinese exports. "The one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it," said Chinese special envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun at a briefing after his ​shuttle-diplomacy trip that included stops in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. In a separate briefing, foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian ​cautioned that the use of force would only lead to a "vicious cycle" and that the war should not have ⁠been started. "Should the hostilities continue to spread and intensify, the entire region will be plunged into chaos," he said. LESSONS FROM HISTORY "The lessons of the ​past are not far behind us," the Chinese foreign ministry sai...

China plans to increase the amount of money that approved investors can channel into overseas assets as Beijing loosens its control over capital outflows. Authorities are preparing a new round of quotas under the qualified domestic institutional investor program, which allows select institutions in the mainland to invest abroad. The quota caps investors’ ability to purchase assets like US Treasuries and overseas equities and was last increased in the summer. The move is intended to “better meet the cross-border investment needs of domestic institutions,” Zhu Hexin, head of China’s top currency regulator, told the China Development Forum in Beijing on Monday. Zhu said China has been pushing toward progress on capital account convertibility — or the free flow of capital across borders — saying that more than 90% of capital-account items are now at least partially open. “In the next five years, China will continue to promote opening up of capital accounts and c...

BEIJING — As corporate giants navigate U.S.-China tensions, more than 80 global executives, from Apple   to Eli Lilly , traveled to Beijing this weekend for the annual state-organized China Development Forum. The executives’ remarks reflected renewed interest in capturing the Chinese consumer, after years of uncertainty from the Covid-19 pandemic, slower growth and U.S trade tensions.   Fresh off a recovery in Apple iPhone sales in China, the company’s CEO Tim Cook took the stage after Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday, praising the “extraordinary” pace of technological progress in the country, such as factory automation. He said: “We are proud to be part of that progress, and we’re committed to working alongside our supplier partners to push it even further.” He added that more than 90% of Apple’s production in China is powered by clean energy. Apple still manufactures most of its iPhones in China , which accounted for nearly 18% of Apple's revenue...

Sir Keir Starmer has said he has warned his team that they "mustn't fall into the false comfort that there will be a quick and early end" to the Iran conflict. The prime minister told the parliamentary Liaison Committee, made up of senior MPs, that he wants to see a "swift de-escalation" to the war but that the government had to "plan on the basis it could go on for some time". He also said the Iran conflict was "not our war" and that there had to be a "lawful basis" for any UK involvement. The prime minister was speaking shortly after Donald Trump told reporters that talks between the US and Iran had been "very strong" and there was "a very serious chance of a deal" to end hostilities. Oil prices, which had been hit by the conflict, dropped following the US president's remarks but Iran's foreign ministry has denied negotiations are taking place. In recent days, Trump has repeatedly criticised...

BEIJING, March 22 (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged on Sunday to further open ​the country's economy to foreign firms and pursue more balanced trade with its global partners, after a year marked ‌by trade friction and tariff wars with the United States and European Union in particular. China will import more high-quality foreign goods and work with all parties to promote optimised and balanced trade development and expand the global trade pie, Li told the China Development Forum in Beijing, according to state media. The annual two-day forum, ​which concludes on Monday, allows Beijing to lay out its economic vision and investment opportunities to foreign business leaders, Chinese ​officials, economists and academics. It comes after the world's second-biggest economy reported a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus  for 2025. Challenges for ⁠Beijing are aplenty, including deflecting concerns from an increasing number of global capitals about China's trade ...