Venezuela appoints alleged drug trafficker El Aissami as oil minister

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday appointed his economy vice president, Tareck El Aissami, who has been indicted in the United States on drug trafficking charges, as oil minister, amid acute fuel shortages across the country. Maduro named Asdrubal Chavez, cousin of the late President Hugo Chavez, as interim president of state oil firm PDVSA, according to the appointments published in the government's official gazette.

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Farmers are destroying their own crops after the coronavirus ravaged the food market — and say USDA failed to help them get it to hungry Americans in time

USDA has been accused of acting too late to buy up and redistribute the surplus farm food left after lockdown decimated food service industry demand.

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Sliding crude prices, struggling global energy cos deter govt’s BPCL stake sale plan

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Going beyond 3.5% fiscal deficit target ‘unavoidable’: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

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Ind-Ra: FY21 growth to hit 29-yr low of 1.9%, slip into negative territory if lockdown extended

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Asset quality could come under stress, says IndusInd Bank MD-CEO

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FPIs continue to be sellers as markets rise on liquidity boost to MFs

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'It's not about you': Democrats bet Trump coronavirus response a 2020 winner for Biden

Just weeks ago, Democrats were treading carefully as Trump commanded the spotlight with his daily briefings on the virus, hesitant to avoid looking too partisan as the pandemic took its toll on jobs and health. Now Democrats believe weeks of Trump's unfiltered media performances have done more harm than good for the Republican president seeking re-election on Nov. 3, and their aggressive response aims to expose what they see as his faulty handling of the crisis. Biden's campaign team talking points accuse Trump of "one of the worst policy mistakes any president has made in our history."

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China envoy threatens Australia boycott over virus inquest demand

China's ambassador in Australia has warned that demands for a probe into the spread of the coronavirus could lead to a consumer boycott of Aussie wine or trips Down Under. Australia has joined the United States in calling for a thorough investigation of how the virus transformed from a localised epidemic in central China into a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people, forced billions into isolation and torpedoed the global economy. In a thinly veiled threat, ambassador Cheng Jingye warned the push for an independent inquest into the origins of the outbreak was "dangerous".

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Hong Kong Police Disperse Protesters Gathered at City Mall

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong police dispersed hundreds of protesters in a shopping mall over the weekend, the second demonstration in just three days as the pro-democracy movement attempts to regain momentum despite Covid-19 social distancing restrictions.The protesters congregated on several floors of the Cityplaza mall in the Taikoo Shing neighborhood of eastern Hong Kong Island on Sunday in defiance of a regulation banning groups of more than four people that was put in place amid the global pandemic.Hong Kong police had warned protesters not to show up in a statement that said such gatherings were prohibited even if protesters clustered in separate groups of four and kept at least 1.5 meters apart from each other.“Police emphasize that during this period, any group gathering may increase the risk of spreading the virus,” the police said. “Members of the public are advised not to participate in any prohibited group gathering. Police have zero tolerance against any violation and will take strict enforcement action.”Sunday’s gathering followed a smaller lunchtime protest Friday that saw some 100 people rally at a luxury downtown mall. It came roughly one week after the arrest of 15 prominent pro-democracy activists in connection with unauthorized assemblies last year -- a move that was condemned by the U.S. and several international organizations.It also comes as Beijing agencies grow increasingly assertive and argue for a greater role in supervising Hong Kong politics ahead of elections for the city’s Legislative Council in September. On Sunday, protesters carried posters supporting the arrested senior pro-democracy figures, opposing new security laws and calling for the “liberation” of Hong Kong.The coronavirus hit Hong Kong earlier than many global cities in January and effectively halted the pro-democracy protests that had rocked Hong Kong since erupting last June over since-scrapped legislation allowing extraditions to the mainland.Gathering SteamDespite a strike by medical workers to close the border with China, the pandemic effectively halted the large-scale gatherings that characterized last year’s political unrest.However, Hong Kong’s relatively successful containment of the virus -- with daily new cases remaining in the low single-digits or even at zero -- has opened up political space for the protesters to argue they should be allowed to resume their demonstrations.Several protesters Friday said they were worried the government would use virus-era restrictions to prevent political gatherings and suppress their civil liberties. Their concerns came as the government rejected an application by a pro-democracy labor group for a May 1 march, citing concerns about public health and security risks.On Monday, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily newspaper reported the government was considering easing some social distancing restrictions if the number of new coronavirus cases in the city remained low. It followed Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s extenstion last week of social distancing requirements, even as the city saw low daily virus tallies.“This is not the time to let down our guard, or our efforts would go to waste,” Lam said.(Updates throughout.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Supreme Court rules insurance companies can collect billions to cover Affordable Care Act losses

The federal government owes health insurance companies $12 billion, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. In an 8-1 decision, the court sided with health insurers claiming an Affordable Care Act provision that encouraged them to offer coverage to previously uninsured Americans had cost them billions of dollars. The ACA's "risk corridors" program, which ran from 2015 to 2017, had promised health insurers a cushion for any potential losses if they offered coverage in the insurance marketplace the act created. But Congress passed provisions to the Department of Health and Human Services' spending bills each year to block those payments, and both the Obama and Trump administrations argued those provisions meant the federal government didn't have to pay up.The Supreme Court ruled against the federal government in its opinion authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor. A lower court had sided with the federal government, but health insurers argued that ruling allowed the government to perform an illegal "bait and switch."More stories from theweek.com Everybody Loves Raymond creator highlights the people who stand behind Trump, literally and awkwardly American optimism is becoming a problem Texas governor says some nonessential businesses can reopen on Friday

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Mexico all but empties official migrant centers in bid to contain coronavirus

Mexico has almost entirely cleared out government migrant centers over the past five weeks to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, returning most of the occupants to their countries of origin, official data showed on Sunday. In a statement, the National Migration Institute (INM) said that since March 21, in order to comply with health and safety guidelines, it had been removing migrants from its 65 migrant facilities, which held 3,759 people last month. In the intervening weeks, Mexico has returned 3,653 migrants to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador by road and air, with the result that only 106 people remain in the centers, it said.

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Dutch students complete Atlantic crossing forced by virus

Greeted by relieved parents, pet dogs, flares and a cloud of orange smoke, a group of 25 Dutch high school students with very little sailing experience ended a trans-Atlantic voyage Sunday that was forced on them by coronavirus restrictions. The children, ages 14 to 17, watched over by 12 experienced crew members and three teachers, were on an educational cruise of the Caribbean when the pandemic forced them to radically change their plans for returning home in March. Instead of flying back from Cuba as originally planned, the crew and students stocked up on supplies and warm clothes and set sail for the northern Dutch port of Harlingen, a five-week voyage of nearly 7,000 kilometers (4,350 miles), on board the 60-meter (200-foot) top sail schooner Wylde Swan.

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E.R. doc on COVID-19 'front lines' died by suicide

Dr. Lorna Breen was a "hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency department," the hospital said in a statement.

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France Reports the Most New Coronavirus Cases Since April 18

(Bloomberg) -- France reported the most new coronavirus cases in more than a week on Monday, while deaths linked to the virus rose for the first time in five days.The number of new infections rose by 4,326 to 196,069, the biggest daily increase since April 18, according to data published by the health ministry. Fatalities linked to the outbreak rose by 437 to 23,293, after the country on Sunday had reported the fewest deaths in more than a month.France is preparing to ease its confinement after May 11, and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is set to present the government’s plan to begin the return to normal life on Tuesday. Lockdown measures across Europe have started to decelerate the spread of the coronavirus, slowing the number of new deaths in Spain and Italy.Patients in intensive care because of the virus, which French health authorities consider a key indicator of the outbreak’s impact on the country’s hospital system, fell by 74 to 4,608, the lowest since March 29. Hospitalizations fell by 216 to 28,055.France’s daily coronavirus figures have fluctuated amid inconsistent reporting from nursing homes -- first included in the tally this month -- including a downward revision of the data last week.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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McConnell to Move Quickly on Confirming His 38-Year-Old Protégé to the Bench

When the U.S. Senate returns from a lengthy absence next week, one of its first orders of business will be advancing the nomination of a 38-year-old ally of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to the second highest court in the land. According to two Democratic aides, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is expected to schedule a committee hearing for May 6 for Justin Walker, a federal judge in Kentucky whom President Trump has nominated to the influential D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. McConnell announced on Monday that the Senate would return to session on May 4 for its first full week of legislative business after the CARES Act passed in late March. And he has not been shy about his desire to start confirming judges as soon as his chamber is back in session. “I haven’t seen anything that would discourage me from doing that. And as soon as we get back in session, we’ll start confirming judges again,” he told Hugh Hewitt in a recent interview. McConnell’s office had no comment. Graham’s office did not return a request for comment. Mitch McConnell Turned the Courts Conservative—and Democrats Helped HimWalker is a McConnell protégé who has close ties to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and played a high-profile role defending him during his contentious confirmation hearings. Walker moved up the ranks of conservative legal circles before landing a judgeship on the United States District Court of the Western District of Kentucky. There, his record has been distinguished by conservative jurisprudence and a flair for unorthodox rulings. “On Holy Thursday, an American mayor criminalized the communal celebration of Easter,” Walker wrote in ruling against ordinances restricting attendance at religious services do to the coronavirus pandemic, “that sentence is one that this Court never expected to see outside the pages of a dystopian novel, or perhaps the pages of The Onion.”Walker’s lack of experience and partisan background has earned him “not qualified” ratings from the American Bar Association and the opposition of Democrats, who see his nomination as a thinly veiled attempt to place young ideological allies in key judicial positions. “If Graham/McConnell go forward with this, it would show that Senate Rs are rushing the Senate back to confirm an unqualified, anti-health care judge instead of responding to the pandemic and conducting oversight,” said a Senate Democratic aide.McConnell and Kavanaugh attended Walker’s swearing-in on March 13 in Louisville. There, the majority leader and Walker, his former intern, praised each other effusively in public remarks.In his Monday announcement on the May 4 return, McConnell said the Senate “must focus on concrete steps to strengthen our response to this complex crisis,” adding that lawmakers “cannot get distracted by pre-existing partisan wish-lists.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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White House adviser Navarro lashes out at China over 'fake' test kits

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday accused China of sending low-quality and even counterfeit coronavirus antibody testing kits to the United States and of "profiteering" from the pandemic. Navarro, an outspoken critic of Beijing who President Donald Trump has appointed to work on supply-line issues relating to the health crisis, said more testing both for the virus and antibodies was vital to getting Americans currently in lockdown back to work. "There's a lot of these antibody tests coming in from China now that are low quality, false readings and things like that."

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The Pentagon releases footage of ‘aerial phenomena’ from the Navy that it says is ‘unidentified’

The Department of Defense released three Navy videos from 2004 and 2015 that it says contain “aerial phenomena” that remains “unidentified.”

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El Paso Walmart shooting victim dies, raising death toll to 23

A hospital official said Guillermo "Memo" Garcia died after a nine-month fight.

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North Korea's Kim 'alive and well': Seoul

Conjecture over Kim has grown since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the North's founder -- the most important day in the country's political calendar. "Our government position is firm," said Moon's special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. "Kim Jong Un is alive and well."

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