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☆ Nubank to hike Colombia investments by $160 million by 2025
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BOGOTA, May 31 (Reuters) - Brazilian digital bank Nubank , Latin America's biggest fintech company, will invest up to a further 700 billion pesos ($159 million) in its Colombian operations by 2025, its financial director for Colombia said on Wednesday. The additional sum, from the bank's own resources, will raise its investments in its third largest market behind Brazil and Mexico to 2 trillion pesos. Nubank has 635,000 credit card customers in Colombia, equivalent to a 3.6% market share. It has some 80 million clients in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. Nubank reported a net profit of $142 million in the first quarter, swinging from a year-earlier loss of $45.1 million as its customer base grew.

Persons: Felipe Castellanos, Nubank, Nelson Bocanegra, Oliver Griffin, John Stonestreet Organizations: Thomson Locations: BOGOTA, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Bogota, Nubank

☆ Oil ticks up as markets weigh U.S. debt deal, rate hike possibility
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Arathy Somasekhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"The euphoria of the debt deal is wearing off as concern mounts for another rate hike by the Fed in June," brokerage Liquidity Energy LLC wrote in a note. U.S. President Joe Biden and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the weekend forged an agreement to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and cap government spending for the next two years. Still, analysts saw any boost in oil prices from it as short-lived. "Higher U.S. rates are a headwind for crude oil demand," IG Sydney-based analyst Tony Sycamore said. The dollar also nudged down on Monday as the debt ceiling deal lifted risk appetite in world markets and dented the greenback's safe-haven appeal.

[1/4] Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appears after he casts his vote at a polling station during Regional elections, in Madrid, Spain, May 28, 2023. he said in a televised speech that took even some of his political allies by surprise. "...I believe it is necessary to respond and submit our democratic mandate to the will of the people." But it is highly unusual for a Spanish government to call a snap ballot after a poor performance in a regional vote. The PP potentially took as many as eight regional governments from the Socialists, depending on how successful the opposition party is in negotiating alliances with Vox.

☆ Colombia suspends ceasefire with Estado Mayor Central rebels in some areas
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BOGOTA, May 22 (Reuters) - Colombia's government on Monday suspended a national ceasefire with the Estado Mayor Central (EMC) armed group in some provinces, following the murder of four Indigenous teenagers. The EMC was founded by dissident former members of the now-demobilized FARC rebels, who reject a 2016 peace deal signed by that group. "The current bilateral ceasefire with this armed group in the provinces of Meta, Caqueta, Guaviare and Putumayo is suspended and all offensive operations are reactivated," the government said in a statement. The EMC has an estimated 3,500 members, including nearly 2,200 combatants, and operates in 23 of Colombia's 32 provinces, according to security force documents. Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Man City celebrate Premier League title with 1-0 win over Chelsea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Lori Ewing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/8] Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Chelsea - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - May 21, 2023 Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates... Read moreMANCHESTER, England, May 21 (Reuters) - Manchester City celebrated their Premier League title success on Sunday, beating Chelsea 1-0 with an early goal by Julian Alvarez in the team's home finale at a sun-drenched Etihad Stadium. Treble-chasing City, who wrapped up the title when second-placed Arsenal were beaten at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, have won 12 successive games in the top flight. City have 88 points from 36 matches, seven more than Arsenal who have just one match remaining. Haaland had been a late substitute and did not extend his record of 36 goals in a single Premier League season. "I feel a special connection with the fans... 36 goals, Premier League trophy, debut season, two finals left, not a bad start."

☆ After fleeing conflict, displaced women face rape in east Congo
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Djaffar Sabiti | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"He raped me," she recalled two weeks later in Bulengo, one of several camps near Goma sheltering about 600,000 people that have fled conflict zones. Over half were assaulted by armed men, it said last week, noting that its figures were likely to be underestimates. Hungry mouths to feed push women outside the camp in search of food and firewood to sell, making them vulnerable to sex crimes, said MSF worker Delice Sezage Tulinabo. Most survivors reported being attacked by armed and displaced men in and around the camps. In Bulengo, women said they had to pay soldiers to enter the forest.

USC, the NCAA and the Pac-12 Conference, which is also named in the complaint, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. The board in December had said it found merit to charges filed by a group of USC players seeking to be treated as employees, and said it would issue a complaint absent a settlement. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 struck down the NCAA's limits on non-cash compensation for athletes, such as scholarships and paid internships. Several states including California have passed laws letting college athletes profit from their name, image and likeness rights. The USC case is the first filed by the board since its top lawyer, in a 2021 memo, asserted that college athletes should be classified as employees because they provide services that generate profits controlled by their schools.

☆ Tens of thousands gather in Belgrade protest over mass shootings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/6] Serbia's main opposition parties protest against violence and in reaction to the two mass shootings in the same week, that have shaken the country, in Belgrade, Serbia, May 19, 2023. REUTERS/Marko... Read moreBELGRADE, May 19 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands marched through Belgrade on Friday in an anti-government protest following two mass shootings that killed 18 people, blaming the deaths on a culture of violence that critics say authorities have allowed to fester unchecked. Reuters estimated the protest, the third of its kind this month, drew a crowd in the tens of thousands. The government denies the opposition parties' allegations and accuses them of organising the protests for political gain. In a counter-rally in Pancevo, a town outside Belgrade, Vucic accused the opposition of trying to use the mass shootings for self promotion.

☆ Manchester City: Is 'unstoppable' team the best in the world?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

For years, this City team has dominated English football – winning four Premier League titles in the last five seasons – but it has failed to really stamp its authority in Europe. “I think that first half performance is one of the best I’ve ever seen,” former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha told Sky Sports. The timing of it, in the Champions League semifinal, that felt like one of the biggest games ever at that stadium. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola hailed a special night. Only one English team, Manchester United, has ever achieved the historic feat, but you’d be brave to bet against Manchester City in its current form.

☆ Czechs cancel Soviet-era decrees giving Russian embassy free land
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PRAGUE, May 17 (Reuters) - The Czech government on Wednesday cancelled Soviet-era decrees that granted the Russian embassy free use of land in Prague and other cities, a further step in a more than two-year diplomatic spat with Moscow worsened by the war in Ukraine. The Russian embassy in Prague did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Russia will now have to pay leases to use of the land, the foreign ministry said. Prague has been a strong supporter of Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 2022 and has supplied it with military aid. The Czech parliament designated "the current Russian regime as terrorist" in November.

☆ Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital predicts 35% customer payout
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) - Crypto lender Voyager Digital said Wednesday that customers will recover about 35% of their cryptocurrency deposits as the company winds down its operations after a failed buyout attempt by crypto exchange Binance.US. It initially sought to sell its assets for $1.42 billion to FTX, a deal that failed when FTX imploded in November. If Voyager fully prevails in the FTX litigation, customers' expected recovery would be 63.74%, according to Voyager's court filings. Voyager intends to repay customers with the same type of cryptocurrency that they had in their accounts. Voyager was one of several crypto lenders to file for bankruptcy in 2022 after a boom in the COVID-19 pandemic.

☆ Investigator boasted about 'getting queen's medical records', Prince Harry case told
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Sam Tobin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - A private investigator who worked for the publisher of the Daily Mirror boasted he could "get the queen's medical records", a retired police officer on Wednesday told a court hearing Prince Harry's lawsuit against the British newspaper. Former police officer Derek Haslam told London's High Court that MGN journalists regularly paid a private investigation company, Southern Investigations, to unlawfully gather information. 'QUEEN'S MEDICAL RECORDS'Rees, also a former police officer, "would openly brag" about conducting hacking and blagging – getting private information by deception – on behalf of MGN journalists, Haslam told the court. Haslam also said Rees had told him that he had "sold some information to the Mirror for a story about Prince Michael of Kent being in debt to the bank". Reporting by Sam Tobin; additional reporting by Michael Holden; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Here are some key facts about Pakistan's military courts, according to lawyers Reuters spoke to:- Pakistan's Army Act of 1952 established military courts primarily to try members of the military or enemies of the state. - Civilians accused of offences such as waging war against the armed forces or law enforcement agencies, or attacking military installations or inciting mutiny, can be tried at military courts. - Military courts operate under a separate system from the civilian legal system and are run by military officers. The judges are also military personnel and cases are tried at military installations. - Military courts were most recently used to try Islamist militants waging an insurgency in Pakistan.

☆ Italy unlikely to renew China deal, but needs time, official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Crispian Balmer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ROME, May 4 (Reuters) - Italy is highly unlikely to renew its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) deal with China, which expires early next year, but needs time to discuss the issue with Beijing, a senior government official said. By contrast, Chinese exports to Italy rose to 57.5 billion from 31.7 billion over the same period, according to Italian data. The government official said Rome would use this lack of economic development as an argument for not renewing the deal. "There is no political will on my part to favour Chinese expansion into Italy or Europe," she said. (This story has been corrected to show that data refers to Chinese exports to Italy, not Chinese imports from Italy, in paragraph 6)($1 = 0.9037 euros)Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Veselin Milic, head of Belgrade police, said the attacker had two guns and two petrol bombs and had planned everything carefully. Wednesday's shooting happened at Vladislav Ribnikar, an elementary school in Vracar, a central Belgrade district. But then I saw the security guard falling to the ground," she said, adding that she then ran away. [1/5] People react after a 14-year-old boy opened fire on other students and security guards at a school in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, May 3, 2023. (The boy) ... first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly," Milosevic, who had rushed to the school, told broadcaster N1.

BELGRADE, May 3 (Reuters) - A 14-year-old boy shot his teacher in a Belgrade classroom on Wednesday morning before opening fire on other students and security guards, killing at least one person and wounding five, police and witnesses said. Milan Milosevic, the father of one of the pupils at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school, said his daughter was in the classroom when the shooting began. (The boy) ...first shot the teacher and then he started shooting randomly," Milosevic told broadcaster N1. Police said a security guard was killed and five students were wounded, and that a seventh-grade student had been arrested. Later I heard three shots," a girl who attends a high school adjacent to Vladislav Ribnikar told state TV RTS.

[1/6] French runner Barbara Humbert, 83, long-distance world record winner in her category who dreams to run the Olympic Marathon For All at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, poses during a daily practice session in Villiers-Adam near Paris, France April 26, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo FuentesEAUBONNE, France, May 2 (Reuters) - At 83, Barbara Humbert dreams of taking part in next year's Paris Olympic Games 'Marathon For All', a race opening the Olympic route to non-elite competitors for the first time - and she's got the pedigree to beat some runners half her age. Not your typical great-grandmother, the German-born Frenchwoman runs 50 km (30 miles) a week, has competed in dozens of marathons, and has the medals to show for it. "It's extraordinary to have the Olympics in Paris," said Humbert at her home in Eaubonne, an hour's drive north of the capital. They remind Barbara of all the races she's been part of, from Athens to Boston and beyond, amounting to some 8,000 km run, according to her own calculations.

☆ Spain, Portugal swelter as April temperature records broken
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Mariano Valladolid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A field of grass is seen cracked by the drought during scorching summer temperatures in spring in Ronda, Spain April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jon NazcaCORDOBA, Spain, April 28 (Reuters) - Mainland Spain and Portugal have broken temperature records for April, as the Iberian neighbours swelter in an early-season heatwave that has exacerbated a long drought in some regions. Spain's absolute April record remains the 40.2 C reached in 2013 on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. In neighbouring Portugal, the temperature in the central town of Mora reached 36.9 C, breaking the record of 36.0 C set in April 1945, its weather agency said. Temperatures started dropping on Friday in Portugal but the heatwave persisted in parts of Spain.

☆ Head of regional force tackling east Congo violence resigns, Kenya denies
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GOMA, April 28 (Reuters) - The Kenyan commander of a regional force set up to tackle militia violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo said he had resigned due to obstruction and threats to his safety, adding to doubts over whether the mission can be effective. The seven countries of the East African Community (EAC) set up the EACRF military force last April to try to end bloodshed linked to decades of militant activity in Congo's east. In the letter, Nyagah alleged foreign military contractors were sent to survey his residence in January, placing monitoring devices that forced him to relocate. "My security as the Force Commander is not guaranteed," Nyagah said. Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya previously acknowledged the presence of foreign military contractors in Congo as "instructors".

☆ World Bank's Malpass: debt assessments should reflect growing share of domestic debt
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Debt sustainability analyses carried out by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund should reflect the growing share of domestic debt in many developing countries' overall debt levels, World Bank President David Malpass said on Wednesday. Malpass called for urgent measures to jump-start sovereign debt restructuring efforts for the many countries that are in or near debt distress, after years of glacial progress under the Group of 20 Common Framework. Speaking at a World Bank event entitled "Breaking the Impasse in Global Debt Restructuring," Malpass said it was critical to get a better understanding of countries' total debt levels, including both domestic and external debt. Carmen Reinhart, the World Bank's previous chief economist, told the event that there were ongoing concerns about "hidden debt" and the transparency of external debt levels, including "severely underreported debt levels" owed to China, now the world's largest bilateral creditor. She said there were no publicly available data on net reserves, and questions about contingent liabilities also compounded the problem of accurately analyzing debt levels.

☆ WHO fears more deaths in Sudan due to outbreaks, collapse of services
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, April 26 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) expects "many more" deaths in Sudan due to outbreaks of disease and a lack of essential services amid fighting, its director general said on Wednesday. A logo is pictured on the headquarters of the World Health Orgnaization (WHO) ahead of a meeting of the Emergency Committee on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Geneva, Switzerland, January 30, 2020. But paramedics, nurses and doctors are unable to access injured civilians, and civilians are unable to access services." However, the absence of clean water and vaccines, as well as other sanitation issues, represented the main risk to Sudanese, he added. Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Geneva and Jennifer Rigby in London; editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Rampant Man City crush Arsenal with De Bruyne double
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Pep Guardiola's relentless side ran riot as they made it 12 successive league wins against Arsenal with a masterful Kevin De Bruyne scoring twice and Erling Haaland also on target as City seized control of their destiny. De Bruyne fired City ahead in the seventh minute and City bombarded Arsenal's goal before John Stones deservedly doubled their lead with a header in first half stoppage time. Guardiola's City, who have trailed Arsenal for almost the entire season, will go top if they beat Fulham at the weekend. City sensed Arsenal's fragility and went for the jugular, tearing through the visitors lines at will. Haaland then forced another sharp save from Ramsdale before Arsenal finally threatened with Thomas Partey shooting narrowly wide.

☆ We suffered tonight, says Arsenal's Arteta, after Man City mauling
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Reigning champions City will go top with a game in hand if they beat Fulham at the weekend having trailed Arsenal for more or less the whole season. "For sure we have to lift the players up first because they suffered tonight. "The first 30 minutes all the basic things you have to do against a top team we didn't do it and we got punished," Arteta told reporters. "The stats at the start of the season said we'd finish sixth or seventh and we are where we are," Arteta said. The fact we are competing toe to toe with this City team is incredible."

☆ De Bruyne rises to the occasion again for superb City
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Arsenal came into the match stuttering from three draws while City, like all the great teams, were girding their loins for the last big push when the trophies are decided. And it was the Belgian midfielder who set the tone and then maintained it as City really should have reached halftime four or five up instead of 2-0. As is becoming the norm, De Bruyne was withdrawn by manager Pep Guardiola, as ever, looking disgruntled at the decision, as Holden pulled one back for the visitors before Haaland ensured City finished on a high. De Bruyne revelled in that freedom and City looked much more of a goal threat than so often when they patiently probe up and down the flanks trying to manoeuvre themselves into dangerous positions. “We know what people will say, but it is still seven games,” he said.

☆ Manchester City vs. Arsenal: Kevin De Bruyne inspires Premier League champion to key title race victory over Arsenal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Thomas Schlachter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

CNN —Manchester City landed a key blow in the English Premier League title race after the defending champion secured a 4-1 win against current leader Arsenal. The game encapsulated the differences between the two sides and showed where they are in their respective evolution. The home side took control of the game from the start and went ahead after just seven minutes through a brilliant Kevin De Bruyne goal from outside the box. Manchester City then missed big opportunities to double its advantage before John Stones headed home a De Bruyne freekick just before the interval. De Bruyne added a third in the second half, and although Rob Holding reduced the deficit, Erling Haaland completed City’s comprehensive win as he scored his 33rd Premier League goal of the season in stoppage time.

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