HONG KONG Former senior Hong Kong government official Carrie Lam was on Sunday elected the city’s next leader by a 1,200-election committee stacked with Beijing loyalists, according to broadcaster Cable TV. Most of Hong Kong’s 7.3 million voters have no say in the choice of leader in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, at a time when tensions with Beijing have been […]
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com, Ultimately, no one can stop what is coming. The haves and have nots of the next, gritty era of aftermath will be those who have the means to survive when the system has failed, and those who do not. For the wealthy, and prepper minded elite, hidden fortified layers purchased for insurance will preserve most of the luxuries of life above […]
By Alastair Macdonald and Jan Strupczewski | ROME ROME Europeans must contain their squabbling and carping about the EU if the Union is to survive, leaders warned on Saturday as they marked the 60th anniversary of its founding in Rome by signing a formal declaration of unity. Four days before Prime Minister Theresa May, absent from the ceremony in the Italian capital, delivers an unprecedented blow to […]
25 March 2017 Abu Dhabi, UAE – Etihad Airways is reassuring passengers of its highest level of service to minimise disruption following the introduction of a new US travel directive on electronic devices. Effective March 25, passengers on all US-bound flights from, or transiting through, Abu Dhabi International Airport will not be permitted to carry electronic devices bigger than a smart phone or mobile into the aircraft […]
SINDELFINGEN, Germany German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a key figure in Berlin’s handling of the euro zone crisis and Greece’s bailout programmes, won a ringing endorsement from his conservative party on Saturday to stand in September’s federal election. With 95 percent support, 74-year-old Schaeuble secured first place on the conservative Christian Democrats’ (CDU) list of candidates in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg for the federal election to […]
By Regis Duvignau and Bernard Grollier | CAMBO-LES-BAINS/SAINT-DENIS-DE-LA-REUNION, France CAMBO-LES-BAINS/SAINT-DENIS-DE-LA-REUNION, France Francois Fillon’s aides used an umbrella to shield him from eggs thrown by protesters in south-west France on Saturday as the beleaguered conservative fell further behind centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-rightist Marine Le Pen in opinion polls. The contrast between former frontrunner Fillon, embroiled in a financial scandal, and new poll favourite Macron was striking as […]
EVEN if it threatens to affect the legislative agenda of the 17th Congress, House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez has vowed to pursue an impeachment case filed against Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo, justifying that, in doing so, the lower chamber is only doing its mandate under the 1987 Constitution. “Whether it will affect or not [our legislative agenda], we are mandated by the Constitution to process all […]
CAIRO An Egyptian appeals court suspended a jail sentence on Saturday against the former head of the journalists’ union for harbouring colleagues wanted by authorities and for spreading false news, judicial sources and a lawyer said. Yehia Qalash and two colleagues were sentenced to two years in jail in November in a case which Amnesty International condemned as a further crackdown on freedom of expression in Egypt. […]
One of the earliest reactions of equity investors, on the election of Donald Trump as president of the US, was to buy health insurers and to sell companies that operate hospitals. In broad terms, repealing Obamacare looks good for the former and bad for the latter. Reform would remove some of the coverage obligations on the insurance companies, who say they have struggled to offer plans profitably […]
Donald Trump suffered a massive political defeat on Friday after opposition inside his own party forced Republican leaders to pull a White House-backed healthcare reform bill, casting serious doubt on the president’s ability to deliver on other priorities. The withdrawal signalled the failure of Mr Trump’s exhaustive last-minute efforts to cajole lawmakers, raising questions about whether he could unify Republicans behind his pro-growth legislative goals of tax […]
A rush by emerging market governments to sell debt before the US Federal Reserve further raises interest rates this year has propelled issuance in Asia to record levels since the start of January, new data shows. Swelled by a $3bn Indonesian bond launched on Thursday, the total value of sovereign bonds sold in Asia, excluding Japan, reached $8.2bn in the year so far, up from $6.5bn in […]
By Rodrigo Campos and Chuck Mikolajczak | NEW YORK NEW YORK The death of the Republican healthcare reform may not prove to be the knife to the heart of the bull market some had feared, but to keep the Trump Trade alive investors should temper expectations for the breadth of expected tax cuts. Anxiety over prospects for the healthcare bill gave stocks their largest weekly drop since […]
Add Samantha Bee to the list of media thinkers with a scheme to make money in local journalism. On this week’s episode of “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” the “Daily Show” alumna became the latest late-night comedian to give journalism a boost. But, rather than put out a call for donations like her colleague John Oliver, Bee opted for a different strategy: lottery tickets. During the segment, […]
PARIS Emmanuel Macron is set to win the first round of the French general election in four weeks time, BVA pollsters said, becoming the latest survey team to put the independent centrist ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen for the first time. The BVA poll did not give a second round prediction, but most that have done so in recent months show Macron easily beating the […]
Authored by Finian Cunningha, via The Strategic Culture Foundation, There was a time when Russophobia served as an effective form of population control – used by the American ruling class in particular to command the general US population into patriotic loyalty. Not any longer. Now, Russophobia is a sign of weakness, of desperate implosion among the US ruling class from their own rotten, internal decay. This propaganda […]
By Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was disappointed that a conservative faction in the House of Representatives blocked his healthcare legislation and said “we learned a lot about loyalty” from the effort. Speaking in the Oval Office after a stunning political setback, Trump said the healthcare effort was a victim of stalwart Democratic opposition and any […]
US stocks suffered their worst weekly performance since the November election after Donald Trump failed to rally support for his healthcare plan, raising the pressure on the US president as he pursues the rest of his agenda. After trading up for most of the session on Friday, the S&P 500 sold off as it became clear the alternative to Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act lacked the votes […]
A U.S. judge on Friday refused to overturn the conviction of two nephews of Venezuela’s first lady on charges that they tried to carry out a multimillion-dollar drug deal to help their family stay in power. Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores had argued in a motion challenging their conviction that they were entrapped in a sting operation and that their trial was […]
March 24, 2017 by: Eric Platt in New York and Stephen Smith in London The US stock market closed lower on Friday as the Trump administration’s struggle in Congress to repeal Obamacare heightened concerns about its ability to drive through an economic agenda that had spurred equity valuations to fresh records. The S&P 500 ended down 0.1 per cent to 2,344 reversing a 0.4 per cent advance […]
Last year, Donald Trump won the election for president by bemoaning the disappearance of the American factory and pledging to bring back manufacturing from other countries. Now in power, he might have to start worrying about the decline of another traditional pillar of the US economy — the American shopping mall. Fears that the rise of online shopping will lead to substantial dislocation in the retail sector […]
By Stoyan Nenov | KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria Bulgarian nationalists blocked border checkpoints with Turkey on Friday to stop buses bringing Bulgarian ethnic Turks to vote in Sunday’s election amid growing tension between the two neighbours. Sofia has accused Ankara of interference in its election on behalf of the DOST party that represents Bulgarian Turks, the country’s largest ethnic minority. Polls suggest DOST will fall […]
Done betting, Alibaba is getting down to work in Southeast Asia as it bids to lead the region’s promising e-commerce space and maximize its early mover advantage over Amazon. Alibaba became the first major international player to enter Southeast Asia, a region with more than 600 million cumulative consumers, when it bought a majority stake in Lazada, the Rocket Internet-backed venture, nearly one year ago. Amazon, Alibaba’s key foe in India, is […]
Ford said that slowing new car demand in the US and rising costs could halve its first-quarter earnings per share compared with last year’s record first quarter. The Detroit carmaker’s shares slipped in New York on Thursday after the company said in a statement that it now expects pre-tax profits of $9bn in 2017, down from $10.4bn last year. It expects profits to rise again in 2018. […]
Not everything is Donald Trump’s fault. And by the same token, not everything that goes right in the world can be attributed to him. It can be difficult to remember this, particularly in the US where domestic politics is crowding out almost everything else from the news, and where most people are inclined to view the news through stridently pro- or anti-Trump lenses. Mr Trump seems so […]
