DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

HOUSTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The new head Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA has suspended most oil export contracts while his team reviews them, according to an internal document seen by Reuters and two people familiar with the matter. The freeze is leading to port delays, as vessels that were loading have been sent away and are waiting for new directions, the people said. Cargoes chartered by U.S. oil firm Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and Cuba's Cubametales have not been affected by the contract revision, according to separate documents and the sources. As of Jan. 17, most berths at Venezuela's main oil terminal, Jose port, were empty after vessels were moved away while awaiting further directions. Venezuela's oil exports last year declined 2.5% to 616,540 barrels per day due to infrastructure outages, U.S. sanctions and rising competition in its key Asia market despite assistance from ally Iran, according to shipping data and documents.

☆ Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida dies at age 95
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

ROME (AP) — Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. Lollobrigida also was an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer, and eventually essentially dropped film for the other arts. Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, a picturesque hill town near Rome, where her father was a furniture maker. Lollobrigida began her career in beauty contests, posing for the covers of magazines and making brief appearances in minor films. On her website, Lollobrigida recalled how her family lost its house during the bombings of World War II and went to live in Rome.

☆ Passengers applauded and got 'really emotional' after a Royal Caribbean cruise liner rescued 17 people from a tiny boat in the Bahamas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Royal Caribbean cruise ships rescued 17 people from a tiny boat in the Bahamas. Due to heavy winds, the cruise ship had skipped a planned day trip to CocoCay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by Royal Caribbean. This turned out to be a "lucky" coincidence, said Bradford, as it ended up crossing paths with the tiny boat that the Royal Caribbean captain said had been adrift for weeks. The people on the tiny boat were waving pieces of red fabric, said Bradford. This was the latest in a series of similar incidents of cruise ships crossing paths with migrants' boats.

☆ Cuba says vulture fund seeking 72 mln euros never a creditor as UK court begins proceedings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Such firms, described as "vulture funds" by the Cuban Central Bank, typically purchase distressed or defaulted debt then sue in international courts to get paid in full. Cuba's Central Bank (BNC) said in a statement on Friday it does not recognize CRF as a creditor. "CRF is not a creditor of the BNC or of Cuba and never has been," the Central Bank superintendent said. The firm claims Cuba owes it 72 million euros in debt in proceedings currently under way in the London court, according to the Central Bank statement. The case will be closely watched by Cuba's creditors, some of whom have struggled to recoup loans as the country wrestles with a dire economic crisis made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions put in place by former U.S. president President Donald Trump.

U.S. concerns about counterterrorism will be among the subjects addressed, a State Department spokesperson said. "This type of dialogue enhances the national security of the United States through improved international law enforcement coordination, which enables the United States to better protect U.S. citizens and bring transnational criminals to justice," the State Department spokesperson said in a statement. A person in Washington familiar with the matter said the talks were expected to take place next week. The Biden administration last May kept Cuba on a short list of countries the United States says are "not cooperating fully" in its fight against terrorism. The State Department spokesperson said the coming talks "provides a forum to raise difficult matters and convey our concerns directly to the Cuban government."

☆ U.S. seeks Canadian help to ease crowding at U.S.-Mexico border
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Lizbeth Diaz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The United States is looking to Canada to help cope with the growing number of migrants at the United States' border with Mexico, a State Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The agreement would help thousands immigrate through legal channels, without having to put their lives at risk at the hands of human traffickers, Rosales said. U.S. authorities detained 2.2 million migrants at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022, a record not seen since World War II. The United States has in recent months seen a significant increase in migrants reaching the country by sea from Caribbean countries such as Cuba and Haiti. Rosales said those who arrived in the United States by sea "unfortunately will not be able to qualify" for humanitarian parole.

The Justice Department's lawsuit, filed by the Trump administration, alleged that Google violated antitrust law in how it maintained dominance in search and search advertising. For example, it pointed to billions of dollars that Google paid annually to Apple (AAPL.O), LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS) and others to ensure that Google search was the default on their devices. The company also argued that there was no evidence that agreements that Google made related to Google Assistant or Internet-of-Things devices hurt competition. Google faces additional allegations of antitrust violations from dozens of states. It also argues that Google broke antitrust law to hamper rivals, such as travel-oriented websites.

☆ Guns, drugs and migrants: Biden heads to Mexico to face diplomatic challenges with North American allies
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Peter Nicholas | Peter Nicholas Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

MEXICO CITY — When North American leaders gathered in 2021 — at the first summit for the group in five years — the mood was upbeat. Before he arrived in Mexico City on Sunday night, Biden stopped in El Paso, Texas, amid criticism from congressional Republicans that the southwest border has gotten more porous on his watch. Citing health concerns, López Obrador has called for banning imports of genetically modified corn. Ahead of the summit, the leaders sought to ease some of the strains and perhaps create a more convivial atmosphere. Rather than fly into the more conveniently located Mexico City hub airport, Air Force One landed Sunday at a new airport that was a pet project of López Obrador’s.

Led by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Mexican officials set out the U.S.-Mexico bilateral agenda after Biden's arrival in Mexico City on Sunday evening for a North American leaders' summit. "Integration needs to be strengthened," Lopez Obrador told a news conference, saying he expected to reach "good agreements" with Biden. Lopez Obrador is hosting Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau between Monday and Wednesday for the first summit between the three since late 2021. DOMESTIC POLITICSLopez Obrador has also alarmed the United States with a plan to prohibit imports of genetically-modified corn. "To create a North American corridor to outcompete China, the United States, Canada and Mexico need to be on the same economic page," he added.

☆ Repression, economic turmoil, and gang violence is driving the crisis at the US border, an expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It came amid a surge in the number of undocumented migrants seeking to enter the US. An analyst told Insider that a perfect storm of factors is driving people north to the border. Ariel Ruiz, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said that the factors driving migration are "intersecting and compounding," and driving the surge from Central America, South America and the Caribbean. In Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, increased political repression and inflation related to the COVID-19 pandemic are key factors driving the surge, while in Haiti, he said, a surge in gang violence was the main driver. The wealth available in the US, the relative poverty of other nearby nations, and limited options for legal migration, mean that high undocumented migration is likely to continue, Ruiz concluded.

☆ 'Deadly' double agent Ana Montes who was a US spy for communist Cuba freed from prison after 20 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ana Montes, seen as "one of the most damaging spies" in US history, has been released from prison. When she was working a clerical job at the Department of Justice, Cuban authorities identified her as someone who would be sympathetic to their cause. She was able to pass highly sensitive information over to Cuban authorities through memory alone. "She compromised everything — virtually everything — that we knew about Cuba and how we operated in Cuba and against Cuba," Van Cleave said. Chris Simmons, a former investigator with the DIA, described Montes as "a very deadly woman, a very dangerous woman," NBC reported.

☆ Explainer: Why migrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Mica Rosenberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

What is happening at the U.S.-Mexico border now and why are there record numbers of crossings? U.S. Border Patrol made more than 2.2 million arrests at the U.S.-Mexico in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last September, the most ever recorded. The number of Venezuelans crossing the border plummeted after Mexico agreed to accept expulsions of Venezuelan migrants last October. The Biden administration has said it wants to surge resources to process more claims quicker but faces budgetary and other constraints. The Biden administration also set a goal of resettling 125,000 refugees in 2022 who apply from abroad after Trump dramatically slashed admissions during his term.

☆ Biden inspects busy port of entry along US-Mexico border
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about U.S.-Mexico border security and enforcement, in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 5, 2023. President Joe Biden inspected a busy port of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, his first trip to the region after two years in office as Republicans hammer him for being soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing spirals. Biden watched as border officers in El Paso demonstrated how they search vehicles for drugs, money and other contraband. The numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically during Biden's first two years in office. For all of his international travel over his 50 years in public service, Biden has not spent much time at the U.S.-Mexico border.

☆ Economy, energy row and drugs loom at North American summit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Dave Graham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"A meeting like this is so that we keep moving forward on economic integration," Lopez Obrador said this week. A combative leftist, Lopez Obrador says his policy is a matter of national sovereignty, on the grounds that past governments skewed the energy market to favor private interests. Trudeau told Reuters on Friday he would make the case that resolving the energy dispute would help bring more foreign investment to Mexico, and was confident of making progress. "As long as Lopez Obrador keeps migrants out of the border area, Biden will be happy." Although Lopez Obrador's government agreed to delay the ban until 2025, the issue would be discussed, he said.

☆ Judge Orders Cruise Companies to Pay More Than $436 Million for Docking at Seized Terminal in Cuba
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Four major cruise lines say they will appeal a recent ruling that would force them to pay roughly $436 million in total damages to a company that owned a port terminal in Havana prior to the Cuban Revolution. The ruling in favor of Havana Docks Corp., owner of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal before the Cuban revolution, marked an important milestone for Cuban-Americans seeking compensation for property confiscated by the Castro regime. Mickael Behn, a descendant of the original owners of Havana Docks. The verdict in favor of Havana Docks is the first from a district court, the data shows. The ruling comes after the judge in the case, Beth Bloom, signaled last March that she agreed that the use of the Cuban port constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by Havana Docks.

☆ MLB players to join Cuba's team for World Baseball Classic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HAVANA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A handful of Major League Baseball players will join Cuba's team for the first time in the upcoming World Baseball Classic tournament, an unprecedented event, the sport's Cuban Federation said on Friday. Now, Cuba has signed off on a team including a dozen Cuban players who emigrated and joined U.S. or other international teams. The Caribbean island is now working "to achieve a competitive team," Juan Reinaldo Perez, president of the Baseball Federation of Cuba, told a news conference. More than 650 Cuban baseball players have defected to the United States and elsewhere in recent years, according to state-run media. Countries must present their final roster of 30 players for the World Baseball Classic tournament by Feb. 7.

☆ Cuba spy Ana Belen Montes released after 20 years behind bars
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 6 (Reuters) - Ana Belen Montes, one of the highest-ranking U.S. officials ever proven to have spied for Cuba, has been released from prison early, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed Friday, after she spent more than two decades behind bars. A U.S. citizen of Puerto Rican descent, Montes began working for the DIA in 1985 and rapidly climbed its ranks to become the agency's top Cuba analyst. She was accused of supplying the identity of four U.S. spies to Cuba, as well as other classified information. Montes was arrested on Sept. 21, 2001, shortly before the United States invaded Afghanistan. At her sentencing a year later, Montes argued that she had obeyed her conscience and that U.S. policy to Cuba was cruel and unfair.

☆ Biden Administration Leans on Trump-Era Policies to Combat Migrant Wave
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Tarini Parti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—President Biden announced his administration’s broadest effort yet to deter migrants seeking asylum at the southern border, expanding its use of several Trump-era border control measures the president had previously decried. Beginning on Thursday, the administration will use a pandemic-era border measure known as Title 42 to rapidly expel migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the countries that have posed the greatest challenge to the administration in the past year. The administration is taking the step even as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in the case and the administration has argued that the measure is no longer justified on public-health grounds and must end.

[1/4] Migrants queue near the border fence, after crossing the Rio Bravo river, to request asylum in El Paso, Texas, U.S., as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 5, 2023. Initial backlash to Biden's policy shift also signals it could be challenged in court, from both those who favor restricting immigration and advocates for asylum seekers. The restrictions, known as Title 42, allow U.S. authorities to rapidly expel migrants caught at the border back to Mexico without the chance to claim asylum in the United States. The Biden administration tried last year to end the Title 42 border restrictions, but U.S. courts have left them in place and legal challenges are ongoing. The court rulings that left the Title 42 order in place give the Biden administration time to experiment with different strategies.

☆ Celebrity Cruise captain explains how her crew maneuvered their massive ship in rough conditions to rescue a boat of migrants in distress
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Two cruise ships rescued over 20 migrants in distress off the coast of Florida earlier this week. "Because of the rough sea conditions, I needed to maneuver the ship in order to provide a lead so that we could bring the boat safely alongside the ship." A post shared by Captain Kate McCue (@captainkatemccue)Maritime law requires all vessel — including cruise ships — to provide assistance to passengers in distress regardless of circumstance. On Monday, a Carnival cruise ship similarly rescued a boat of five migrants 25 nautical miles northwest of Cuba. Steve Glassman, a Fort Lauderdale city commissioner, was one of the thousands of passengers onboard the Celebrity Cruise ship during Tuesday's rescue mission, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

☆ Biden Administration Expands Title 42 Migrant Expulsions to More Countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Tarini Parti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Biden administration is expanding its use of a pandemic-era border measure known as Title 42 to begin rapidly expelling migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, while opening a new legal path for up to 30,000 migrants from those countries to enter the U.S. a month. The new policy represents the broadest effort yet that the Biden administration has undertaken to deter migrants seeking asylum from crossing the border illegally. It also relies on an expanded use of Title 42 as a border-control measure, even while the administration is arguing in court that the measure is no longer justified on public-health grounds and must end. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Title 42 in February.

☆ Biden admin will use Title 42 to block more Nicaraguans, Cubans, Haitians at border, but also open more legal pathways
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julia Ainsley | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The announcement comes as the Biden administration faces record numbers of illegal border crossings, particularly by migrants from those three countries. Previously Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans have been able to skirt the Covid-19 border restrictions known as Title 42 that have prevented more than 1.4 million border crossings by forcing migrants back into Mexico before they can claim asylum. Citizens of Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua were not subject to Title 42 in part because their home countries, and therefore Mexico, refuse to take them back. Those accepted through the application process must show they have a U.S.-based sponsor to support them, much like Venezuelans and Ukrainians have done through programs the Biden administration established for those countries. NBC News was first to report that the Biden administration was considering opening up an application program for migrants to apply to come to the U.S. from their home countries.

☆ Thousands seeking asylum crowd Mexico refugee offices amid fears of a U.S. policy change
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

TAPACHULA/MEXICO CITY — Thousands of migrants have flocked to government offices in southern Mexico seeking asylum since the United States said it would keep restrictions used to quickly expel hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Cuban migrant German Ortiz, who is waiting to apply for asylum in the Mexican city of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border, wants to make his way quickly to the United States. Title 42 was originally put in place to curb the spread of COVID, but U.S. health authorities have since said it is no longer needed for public health reasons. Ramirez said many migrants seek asylum to obtain documents they believe are necessary to traverse Mexico so they can then go to the U.S.-Mexico border later. Ramirez believed the mass of recent arrivals could be migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti seeking to reach the United States before rules change.

WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The United States plans to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela under a program paired with expulsions of people from those countries caught at the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. and Mexican officials said. He said earlier in the day that he intended to visit the southwest border but that details were still being finalized. "I'm going to be making a speech tomorrow on border security, and you'll hear more about it tomorrow." Biden, who took office in January 2021, has struggled operationally and politically with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, and migration is expected to be on the agenda at the meeting. Republicans have criticized what they say are lenient border security policies, while Biden officials say they are trying to create a more orderly and humane system.

☆ Biden border speech may extend 'Title 42' to Cuba, Haiti migrants
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The announcement could come in a border security speech from President Joe Biden on Thursday, but the Democratic president could also announce new, higher quotas for migrants from these countries, sources said. Biden plans to give a border security-themed speech on Thursday morning, and intends to visit the U.S.-Mexico border next week for the first time since he became president two years ago. In the speech, he may announce the United States will apply "Title 42", implemented under Republican former President Donald Trump in March 2020, to Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua. Title 42 currently gives border officials the ability to rapidly expel migrants from Mexico, Venezuela and some Central American countries to Mexico without a chance of seeking U.S. asylum. However, the United States plans to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela, U.S. and Mexican officials told Reuters Wednesday.

Search resuls for: "Cuba"

25 mentions found