By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL A South Korean special prosecutor’s office will question Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a widening influence-peddling scandal that may force President Park Geun-hye from office. Prosecutors have been looking into whether Samsung payments of about 30 billion won ($25 million) for a business and foundations backed by Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, […]
By Christine Kim and Se Young Lee | SEOUL SEOUL A U.S. bribery case against two relatives has cast a pall over former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon’s planned return this week to South Korea, where he is expected to launch a bid to run for president. Ban, 72, has not declared his candidacy but has had a team of people laying groundwork in Seoul ahead of […]
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, The true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the nation all the time, loyalty to the government when it deserves it. – Mark Twain, The Czar’s Soliloquy” At this point, pretty much everyone in America has seen the results of Hillary Clinton media pet, John Harwood’s recent Twitter poll. Who do you believe America? — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) January 6, […]
By Jonathan Landay and John Walcott | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Classified documents that the heads of four U.S. intelligence agencies presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him, two U.S. officials said Tuesday evening. They told Reuters the claims, which one called “still unsubstantiated,” were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in […]
By Jeff Mason | CHICAGO CHICAGO President Barack Obama will give a farewell speech to the nation on Tuesday night, looking back at his legacy as he encourages supporters demoralized by the election of Republican Donald Trump to feel optimism about the future of the country. The Democratic president is feeling some nostalgia as he prepares to leave the White House on Jan. 20 after eight years […]
In a dramatic example of blowback against the establishment in the post-Trumpian world, Hungary announced it plans to crack down on non-governmental organizations linked to billionaire George Soros now that Donald Trump will occupy the White House, according to the deputy head of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party, cited by Bloomberg. The European Union member, and native country of Soros, will use “all the tools at its […]
Since the start of the 21st century the South American nation of Suriname, population 540,000, has been riding a commodity boom that yielded major benefits for a country rich in bauxite, gold, oil and bananas. From 2000 to 2014, annual per capita income more than quintupled to almost $10,000. Child mortality fell by a third. A child born there today can expect to live to 70, up […]
By Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s candidate for attorney general on Tuesday said he opposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and, taking a tougher stance than the president-elect, said waterboarding is torture and illegal. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, the nominee, responded to questions at a Senate confirmation hearing, the first in a series this week for nominees to serve in the Cabinet […]
By Amanda Ferguson | BELFAST BELFAST After a decade of bitter compromises over paramilitaries and policing, Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government finally fell apart this week over the abuse by farmers of a green-energy grant to burn fuels such as wood pellets instead of coal. The confrontation has exposed a growing rupture in trust between Catholic Irish nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists whose cooperation underpins the 1998 Good […]
Human rights organizations Tuesday urged Pakistani authorities to investigate the disappearance last week of four liberal activists known for their vocal criticism of the country’s security policies and opposition to religious extremists. “All four men were vocal critics of militant religious groups and Pakistan’s military establishment, and used the internet to disseminate their views,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement Tuesday. “Their near simultaneous disappearance and […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Senior U.S. Republican and Democratic senators will introduce legislation on Tuesday seeking to impose a wide range of sanctions on Russia over its cyber activities and actions in Syria and Ukraine. The legislation is sponsored by 10 senators – Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Ben Sasse and Rob Portman and Democrats Ben Cardin, Robert Menendez, Jeanne Shaheen, Amy Klobuchar […]
Good morning. Elites caught in a bubble? John Oliver and Meryl Streep bashed Donald Trump and praised journalism. Donations soared for two nonprofits praised by them: ProPublica and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Hip, hip, hoorah. Truth and justice win out over the forces of darkness. Or did they? You couldn’t try harder, or be more articulate, than Streep. “It was simply stunning: eloquent and urgent, the […]
By Syed Raza Hassan and Saad Sayeed | KARACHI/ISLAMABAD KARACHI/ISLAMABAD Pakistan’s major opposition parties expressed scepticism on Tuesday about the government’s proposal to revive special military courts to try civilians charged with terrorism, potentially jeopardising a proposed constitutional amendment. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s office said on Monday that it would seek to keep military courts in place, days after the secret tribunals’ original legal mandate had expired. […]
Yep, it’s still falling. Turkey’s battered currency is taking no break from its recent woes at the start of European trading this morning and is down another 1.2 per cent against the dollar on the day. That takes its 2017 losses to an already whopping 7 per cent against the greenback at TRY3.7589 – another record low having suffered its worst daily blow since July just yesterday. […]
By Ellen Wulfhorst UNITED NATIONS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Sweden’s top diplomat has a question: “Where are the women?” Taking a seat on the United Nations’ influential Security Council, Sweden will use its clout to press its feminist foreign policy, Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said on Monday. That policy, coined when Wallstrom took office two years ago, seeks equal rights, decision-making roles and fair allocation of resources […]
SEOUL South Korea’s special prosecution office said on Tuesday it had not yet decided whether to seek arrest warrants for two Samsung Group executives as part of a widening investigation into the political scandal threatening President Park Geun-hye. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported earlier on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, that the prosecution would seek to arrest two Samsung executives. However, the prosecutors’ office later told Reuters […]
She didn’t just talk about Trump.Image: grant pollard/ invision via AP By Marissa Wenzke2017-01-10 01:31:59 UTC “You and all of us in this room, really, belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now,” Meryl Streep told the audience during her acceptance speech at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. “Think about it — Hollywood, foreigners, and the press.” Well, that last group has […]
By Phil Stewart | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump is finding himself caught between his desire to improve relations with Russia and fellow Republicans who are pushing for a harsher response to what American spy agencies say was the Kremlin’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election. The tacit acknowledgement on Sunday by his incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will become a senior White House adviser and work on trade deals and the Middle East, transition officials said on Monday, in a rare case of a close presidential family member taking on a major job. Kushner, 35, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, is taking the job after receiving legal counsel he would […]
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The meeting between Mr. Netanyahu and the publisher of Yediot Aharonot, Arnon Mozes, took place in 2014, according to Channel 2, but the discussion does not appear to have materialized into action. Continue reading the main story Still, the disclosure caused an uproar. Critics accused Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Mozes of plotting to upend the democratic principle of an independent, free and professional press. “We expect in […]
SKOPJE Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said on Monday he will ask Nikola Gruevski, the veteran leader of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, to form a new government following elections last month. Gruevski, 46, who led the ex-Yugoslav republic for almost a decade, will now have 20 days to win approval for his cabinet in the parliament. VMRO-DPMNE won 51 out of 120 parliamentary seats in the Dec. 11 […]
By Joseph Ax | NEW YORK NEW YORK In the weeks since Hillary Clinton’s shock election defeat to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, a rumor has taken hold among New York City’s political chattering class: could she challenge Mayor Bill de Blasio’s reelection bid this year? Discussion of a possible Clinton campaign intensified last week when conservative news website Newsmax reported that Democrats unhappy with de Blasio were […]
This is the first piece I have published since my official retirement from Poynter on New Year’s Eve. I have lots of work ahead of me, but it has been fun and instructive to look back. If you reach your destination in decent shape, it’s easy to forget the bumps in the road behind you. Better to look at the odometer and celebrate the distance you’ve traveled. […]
