Journalist Kaitlan Collins has been named the anchor of CNN’s 9pm prime-time slot. Collins earned a reputation as an unflinching chronicler of former US president Donald Trump’s administration while serving as the network's chief White House correspondent during the 2020 election. She recently hosted a controversial town hall event with Trump, attracting criticism that CNN offered a platform for misinformation. CNN's ratings have fallen in the past year and the network was heavily criticised for the town hall event with Trump. Collins, 31, joined CNN from the conservative website The Daily Caller in 2017.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has dissolved the National Assembly and called early legislative and presidential elections. The move comes a day after Lasso presented his defense in an impeachment process against him. Lasso will now rule by decree for an undisclosed period, while national electoral authorities set the date for the new elections. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expressed hope that fresh elections would provide a resolution, while former Bolivian President Evo Morales accused Lasso of "double standards of the right." The Peruvian foreign ministry and Chilean government both called for the crisis to be resolved democratically and through dialogue.
Cuba has announced new incentives to attract Russian investment into its economy, including offering land to Russian businesses for 30-year terms and permitting the repatriation of profits. In recent months, Cuba has sought investment from politically aligned nations to help recover its economy, which has been battered by sanctions from the US and the inefficiencies of its state-run sector, as well as Covid-19. Russia has similarly sought to boost economic ties with Latin American nations opposed to what it sees as US hegemony.
Brazil's StoneCo beats profit expectations, sees further revenue growth
Reuters
23-05-17 20:14
Brazilian fintech firm StoneCo has reported Q1 adjusted net profit of BRL236.6m ($44m), compared with BRL44.5m for the same period last year. The figure exceeded Refinitiv estimates of BRL215.8m. Q1 revenue gained 31% year on year to BRL2.71bn, above the expected BRL2.67bn. The fintech's financial services platform delivered strong growth, driven by take-up among SMEs. The company also predicted detailed revenue of BRL2.875bn for Q2, a year-on-year rise of 24.8%.
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has supported a proposal for a national vote on whether Supreme Court justices should be chosen by citizens. Currently, the justices are approved by the senate, and the president selects a shortlist from which they are chosen. Approval in a referendum would lend support for changing the constitution to create a system of citizen-elected justices. The president has regularly sought to put contentious issues, such as whether to suspend the construction of an airport in Mexico City, to referendums.
Brazil has taken extra precautions to protect the country's poultry export industry from highly pathogenic avian influenza, which was detected in wild birds early this week. The virus risks $10bn of chicken exports if it infects commercial flocks in the country. The entire industry is monitoring the latest developments. Brazil has become a major sources of poultry and eggs as importing nations have banned chicken and turkey meat from countries with bird flu. Although cases have been identified in wild birds in Espirito Santo state, Brazilian officials say they do not expect the cases to have any trade impact.
Earthquake shakes Guatemala and southern Mexico, no damage reported
Reuters
23-05-17 23:53
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Guatemala on 17 March, shaking parts of Southern Mexico also. Although the quake had a deep depth of 156.6 miles, there were no immediate reports of damage according to Guatemala's natural disaster agency and no injuries or property damage according to Mexico's civil protection authorities. El Salvador confirmed there was no risk of a tsunami from the quake.
Mexican start-up platform Kavak has opened a 16,900-sq-m vehicle reconditioning plant in Colombia, investing $2.1m, with the aim of claiming at least 5% of the country's used-car market. The plant has capacity to process 2,500 cars per month. Kavak started operations in Colombia with an investment of $40m in March 2022. The platform currently has a catalogue of about 500 vehicles in the country but aims to capture 5% of the 1.2 million used cars sold annually in Colombia, meaning selling more than 5,000 vehicles a month in the future.
Human-induced climate change and the natural arrival of weather system El Niño almost guarantees the next five years will be sweltering — and temperatures are expected to shatter global records, according to the United Nations. The World Meteorological Organization’s report found that there is a 98 per cent chance at least one year in the next five years will be the warmest ever recorded. In this time span, there’s a 66 per cent chance temperatures will be 1.5 C warmer than pre-industrial levels for at least one year.
Four children have been found alive in Colombia more than two weeks after the plane they were travelling in crashed in the jungle. The Cessna 206 was transporting seven people from Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of 1 May. Most passengers died. Preliminary information suggests the children escaped the plane and set off into the rainforest to find help. Discarded fruit and improvised shelters made from vegetation have been discovered, and military and civilian search teams were employed alongside planes and helicopters from both Colombia's army and air force to locate the missing passengers.
Chile's lower house of Congress has given final approval for a mining tax reform bill that will require large copper and lithium producers operating in the country to pay more taxes and royalties to the government. The reform has been endorsed by the Senate and now only requires the signature of President Gabriel Boric, who has publicly supported the bill, to become law. The reform establishes a top tax rate of nearly 47% for companies that produce over 80,000 tonnes of fine copper a year, as well as an additional 1% ad valorem tax on copper sales from companies that sell more than 50,000 tonnes of fine copper, and an extra 8% to 26% tax based on the miner's operating margin.
Mexico is to introduce travel documents that recognise different gender identities with a new system that allows people to avoid checking either male or female on passport applications. Mexicans will be able to select "X" to counter the need to specify gender, with the foreign ministry touting the decision as "historic progress". However, some non-binary activists criticised the policy as confusing gender and sex. Alex Orue of the LGBTQ+ rights non-profit It Gets Better said, "it's stigmatizing for non-binary people and it becomes a matter of inspection of genitalia, since gender identities do not always match bodily attributes of biological sex".
NATO’s upcoming summit in Vilnius in July will outline large-scale defence plans for the first time since the Cold War. The plans reveal the alliance's strategy on how exactly it would respond to a Russian attack. Marking a dramatic shift from recent years, alliance officials now warn that they must have all defence strategies in place well before conflict may arise or escalate with Moscow. The planning will also assist nations in how to upgrade their military forces and logistics.
Chile's economy up for 2nd straight quarter as recovery tries to gain steam
Reuters
23-05-18 13:22
Chile's GDP increased by 0.8% in Q1 2023 from the previous three-month period, marking the Andean country's second consecutive quarter of positive growth after the economic decline resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the new figure is lower than market expectations and the country is still facing challenges arising from high inflation. Internal demand fell by 8% in the period because of lower investments and consumption, while falling commerce and agriculture and forestry also had a downward influence on activities, according to the central bank.
The Monaco Grand Prix will host the F1 race happening next, taking place from Friday, 26 May to Sunday, 28 May. Sky Sports UK and ESPN in the US will broadcast the event. Sergio Perez won last year's race in wet conditions, beating Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. The six-race weekend already passed, Max Verstappen was leading the Driver Standings, with 119 points, followed by Sergio Perez with 105 points. Red Bull dominated the Constructors' championship with 224 points, followed by Aston Martin and Mercedes.
US importers are increasing volumes run through West Coast ports after 12 months of slow trade, as retailers and suppliers rework supply chains and return to previous trading patterns, despite labour contract talks dragging on. However, some supply chain executives believe that West Coast ports will struggle to regain their 2019 market share because of the shift towards the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports, and an increasing number of companies moving production to Mexico to avoid US tariffs. An observed 10% market share gap will never be regained, said one supply chain director at Million Dollar Baby.
Mexico police rescue most of 50 migrants kidnapped from bus
Reuters
23-05-18 12:11
Mexican authorities have rescued 34 migrants who were part of a group of about 50 people kidnapped from a bus in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon. Organised crime rings in Mexico are increasingly engaging in the trafficking of migrants hoping to reach the United States, encouraged by the recent withdrawal of a border policy empowering US authorities to expel migrants more swiftly.
Long-necked dinosaur fossil found by Argentine scientists is one of biggest ever
Reuters
23-05-18 11:13
Argentine paleontologists have discovered a new species of long-necked herbivorous dinosaur in the country's southern Patagonia region. The dinosaur, called "Chucarosaurus Diripienda", weighed 50 tonnes, spanned 30 meters in length, and is one of the largest ever discovered. The Patagonia region was home to the world's largest plant-eating dinosaurs, including the colossal Patagotitan mayorum, the biggest dinosaur ever discovered. At present, scientists still do not know why species there grew so fast, and in some cases, they never stopped growing throughout their lives. Over 140 dinosaur species have been discovered in Argentina, putting it among the world's top three countries for research and discoveries alongside China and the United States.
Canada's Competition Bureau is taking legal action against Cineplex for what it claims is misleading pricing. The regulator alleges the cinema chain advertised movie tickets at a lower price than was being charged on its website, where an additional fee was levied. The Competition Bureau is seeking refunds for affected consumers and penalties against Cineplex. The company, which has 165 cinemas with 1,695 screens in Canada, denies the allegations.
The world's most advanced democracies have gathered for the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, to discuss heavy sanctions against Russia, to prevent conflict with China and to pay homage to the costs of war. The summit is set to feature heavily on strategies to end Russia's aggression in Ukraine and cut Ukraine's overreliance on Russian energy exports. The G7 countries will discuss how to better trace diamonds to cut trade in the precious gems from Russia, and how best to discourage global investment in China, without alienating the country completely.
