President Joe Biden’s administration rejected Nicolas Maduro’s call for relief from U.S. sanctions, saying the Venezuelan leader needs to do more toward restoring democracy before penalties would be lifted, Bloomberg News reported. Maduro, a target of crippling U.S. sanctions under former President Donald Trump, reached out to Biden in an exclusive Bloomberg interview last week, calling on him to lift sanctions, normalize relations and end the “demonization of Venezuela.” Responding to Maduro’s comments, a State Department spokesman said a U.S.

With fiscal spending booming and households flush with cash, investors are betting that the Bank of Canada's next tightening cycle, expected to begin in 2022, will result in interest rates climbing above the previous peak for the first time in decades, Reuters reported. In four major tightening cycles since the early 1990s, the Bank of Canada's key interest rate has peaked at a level that was lower than the preceding endpoint.

EAGLE Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (EH-Reit), which is part of Singapore-based Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT), has received net proceeds of about U.S. $153.9 million following the sale of five chapter 11 properties, the Singapore Business Times reported. The net proceeds have been partially used to repay the debtor-in-possession facility and the stalking horse "break up" fee, EH-Reit trustee DBS Trustee said in a bourse filing on Thursday. The balance remaining is around $109.7 million, which will go to repaying ongoing post-petition expenses and pre-petition creditors.

Canada’s banking regulator raised a key capital requirement for large domestic banks, a signal that it considers the economic risks of the Covid-19 pandemic to have largely subsided, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s bank superintendent said Thursday it will raise the domestic stability buffer to 2.5% from 1%, beginning in October. The regulator lowered the buffer in March 2020, giving banks more room to absorb losses while still lending through the crisis.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday proposed further restrictions on purchases of telecommunications equipment that pose national security risks, strengthening its opposition to Chinese providers of 5G wireless and other technologies, the New York Times reported. The F.C.C. voted unanimously to explore the proposal to ban U.S. companies from all future purchases of telecommunications equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE of China.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday it is seeking to fine Air Canada about $25.5 million for what it termed extreme delays in giving refunds to thousands of passengers whose flights across the U.S.-Canada border were canceled or rescheduled, the Associated Press reported. The department said that since March 2020 it has received complaints from more than 6,000 consumers who claimed Air Canada canceled or changed their flights and then took five to 13 months to provide a refund. Air Canada vowed to challenge the proposed fine.

Tourism businesses pushed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to relax stringent Canadian border rules in time to salvage the summer travel season, calling for a nationwide plan to reopen the country as the Covid-19 pandemic eases, Bloomberg News reported. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada, the National Airlines Council of Canada and other business groups lambasted the government’s lack of clarity over future travel rules, even as vaccination rates climb rapidly.

Centerra Gold Inc. could part ways with Kyrgyzstan’s government over its seized flagship mine in the Central Asian nation, but the company’s top executive would like to discuss it first, Bloomberg News reported. Relations between Centerra and the Kyrgyz Republic have soured so much since the government took control of Kumtor gold mine that it would be difficult to go back to the way things were, said Chief Executive Officer Scott Perry.

The U.S. and Europe are expected to announce a five-year suspension of tariffs in their 17-year-old dispute over aircraft subsidies on Tuesday, allowing them to focus on the threat posed by China’s nascent commercial aircraft industry, Reuters reported. A deal to pause the world's largest corporate trade dispute would help U.S. planemaker Boeing (BA.N) and Europe's Airbus (AIR.PA), while granting relief to dozens of other industries affected by tit-for-tat tariffs that were suspended in March. They face a renewed trade war within weeks if there is no progress. U.S.

Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) has competed the acquisition of the recycled polyethylene terephthalic (R-PET) assets of CarbonLite Holdings and its subsidiaries in Dallas, Texas, the Thailand-listed producer said today, ICIS.com reported. IVL has completed all formalities with regards to the acquisition "and has taken charge of the plant effective from 11 June 2021", it said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. IVL won a $63.8m bid for CarbonLite's Dallas rPET facility during a May 24 auction. CarbonLite in March this year filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S.