Europe
Barclays chairman quits after libor scandal
Marcus Agius, the chairman of Barclays plc, has quit the bank today after five and a half years following revelations that some of the bank’s traders tried to manipulate the London interbank offered rate (Libor), which is used globally as a benchmark for setting prices on around $350 trillion of derivatives and other financial products. Mr Agius’s resignation – and his comment that “the buck stops with me” – may be seen as an effort to take pressure off Chief Executive Bob Diamond, who has also faced calls to resign over the scandal, which last week saw the bank fined $453 million by British and US regulators.
Liam Fox to put pressure on David Cameron over Europe
A speech later today by former British Defence Secretary Liam Fox is expected to put Prime Minister David Cameron under further pressure to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the European Union. Mr Fox will call for a looser relationship, and state that the United Kingdom should be willing to leave the EU if no such arrangement can be made. Mr Cameron said yesterday that he would consider holding a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, but only when the time was right and if the EU demanded further powers. He is likely to face further questions in the House of Commons later today. Mr Fox resigned from his position in Mr Cameron’s Cabinet in October last year, over allegations that he had allowed a personal friend improper access to his official business.
North America
Global arms trade treaty to be discussed
Delegates from around the world are gathering in New York today to begin negotiations on the first-ever binding treaty to regulate the global arms trade, worth more than $60 billion a year. The United Nations will host the talks, which are expected to last a month. Arms control campaigners point to ongoing conflicts, particularly in Syria, as reminders to delegates of the urgency of the situation – a global treaty would prevent illicitly traded weapons entering conflict zones and fuelling violence. “Why should millions more people be killed and lives devastated before leaders wake up and take decisive action to properly control international arms transfers?” said Brian Wood, international arms control and human rights manager at Amnesty International.
Florida rejects two features of healthcare law
Florida will not implement two provisions of President Obama’s healthcare reforms relating to expanded Medicaid for the poor and the creation of a private insurance exchange, said Governor Rick Scott yesterday. Two other Republican-governed states,Wisconsin and Louisiana, also opted out of the same provisions last week following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the reforms. The healthcare law will take full effect in January 2014, but Republican efforts to repeal it before then are ongoing: “this has to be ripped out by its roots”, said House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. Meanwhile White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew appeared on Fox News yesterday to call for “the divisive debate on healthcare to stop” and for states to get on with the implementation of the reforms.
Latin America
PRI claims victory in Mexico presidential election
Exit polls in Mexico’s presidential election showed a clear lead for Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) yesterday, prompting him to claim victory in the race. This ends 12 years in opposition for the PRI following a campaign dominated by clashes over the country’s rocky economy and rampant drug-related violence. The PRI had run Mexico as essentially a one-party state for most of the 20th century before being removed from power in 2000 and finishing in third place in 2006, a result many thought fatal to its future. Much of the PRI’s reversal in fortune is attributed to Mr Pena Nieto’s leadership.
Asia and Russia
$60m settlement in China iPad trademark dispute
Apple has agreed to a $60 million settlement with Chinese firm Proview over rights to the “iPad” name, according to a statement today from Guangdong High People’s Court. Proview claimed to own the rights to the name in the Chinese market after registering it in 2000, while Apple insisted it had acquired the worldwide rights in 2009.
Africa and Middle East
Iran announces missile tests and makes new threats to Israel
As Europe commenced harsh new sanctions and began enforcing an oil embargo against Iran yesterday, the Middle Eastern state defiantly announced missile tests and threatened to wipe Israel “off the face of the Earth” if it attacked. Israel has said it may do so if diplomacy fails to force Iran to abandon its nuclear programme. The European sanctions, which include a ban on EU states importing Iranian oil and measures to make it more difficult for other countries to trade with Iran, are designed to damage the country’s economy and its nuclear work.
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