Headlines

Lawyers representing Venezuela told a U.S. court this week that the value ​of Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum has increased since the sale of its parent ‌company was ordered late last year, which should prevent the execution of the process, Reuters reported. A Delaware judge in November approved a $5.9 billion bid for Citgo's parent company PDV Holding from Amber Energy, an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, ​following a court-organized auction of shares to pay creditors. The sale is still awaiting approval from the ​U.S. Treasury Department, and a U.S.

The U.S. Justice Department is close to dropping criminal fraud charges against Gautam Adani, an Indian billionaire who has promised to invest $10 billion in the U.S. economy, Reuters reported. Adani on Thursday also resolved a related civil fraud lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over an alleged scheme to bribe Indian government officials, subject to court approval. The possible dismissal of the criminal charges comes after Adani's lawyer, Robert Giuffra, who is also a personal attorney of U.S.

Pimco and Legal & General Group Plc have been accused of placing “undue pressure” on property valuers in a bitter scrap over the future of a famous Brussels skyscraper whose owner has collapsed into insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of The Finance Tower, the 142 meter (466 feet) high building located in downtown Brussels, filed a lawsuit in the English High Court in a bid to to stall an attempt by its lenders to freeze rental income, according to documents lodged in London and New York courts.

Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) has queried beauty and wellness firm Mary Chia Holdings on whether it can continue operating as a going concern after legal proceedings were launched against the company and its related parties by a creditor in April, The Straits Times reported. Its shares sank after the news, with the stock down 4.4 per cent to 2.2 cents on May 15.

The U.S. has offered $100 million in aid to Cuba as authorities said the island nation's national energy grid suffered a major failure Thursday that severed power to the island's eastern provinces, CBSNews.com reported. Cuba's leaders have said that they would accept the aid as long as it comes "in full conformity with the universally recognized practices for humanitarian assistance." The failure came as a U.S. delegation led by the director of the CIA visited Cuba on Thursday and met with Cuban government officials.

India raised fuel prices by 3 rupees ($0.03) per liter Friday as the government moved to offset losses due to higher global oil prices, Reuters reported. In New Delhi, gasoline prices rose to 97.77 rupees ($1.17) a liter, while diesel climbed to 90.67 rupees ($1.09) a liter. India imports about 90% of its oil and has been hit hard by rising energy prices and supply disruptions linked to the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

U.K. Farmers face a £70,000 hit from the war in Iran as they grapple with soaring fertiliser and diesel costs, The Telegraph reported. The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) said it expected an average 500-acre cereals farm to spend £25,000 more on fertiliser next year after prices were pushed higher by conflict in the Gulf. Its estimates show these farms are set to make a £70,000 loss in 2027 when accounting for other higher costs, including recent surges in red diesel costs.

British companies should take steps to plan ‌for and mitigate risks ‌from new artificial intelligence models, the country's finance ​ministry, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority regulator said on Friday, Reuters reported. "The cyber capabilities of ‌current frontier ⁠AI models are already exceeding what a skilled practitioner ⁠could achieve, and at a significantly higher speed, greater scale, and ​lower cost," ​they said ​in a joint ‌statement.

Polish lawmakers adopted a bill on Friday regulating cryptocurrencies, as a scandal involving the collapse of the country's biggest exchange deepened and ‌amid a row over how much to supervise the growing sector, Reuters reported. The bill implements the ‌European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), which Poland must approve by July. Polish prosecutors have launched a multi-million dollar fraud ​probe into the Zondacrypto exchange, amid allegations - including from Prime Minister Donald Tusk - of malign Russian influence, intensifying calls for action on regulation.

Still sitting at an idled production facility in Trollhättan, seven pre-production Saabs have emerged as part of an auction that will be held in Sweden next week, Car and Driver reported. Three of the cars are gasoline-powered 9-3s, while the other four are EV prototypes from when the NEVS consortium bought up Saab's assets after bankruptcy proceedings. The auction is basically the curtain call for the Trollhättan factory, which dates all the way back to 1947, two years before Saab's first production model was released.