The optimistic but eerie calm that had settled over the US stock market since the US election ended abruptly this week, as the longest streak of trading days without a 1 per cent decline in more than two decades finally snapped. Equities clawed back some of their losses on Wednesday but investors remain on edge. The post-election stock market rally has been largely powered by hopes the […]
Imagine that The New York Times, The Washington Post and PBS launched a joint fact-checking project. That is, roughly speaking, what happened in Norway earlier this week. VG and Dagbladet, Norway’s two largest online news sources by readership, joined forces with NRK, the public broadcaster, to launch Faktisk. The initiative, a team of at least five journalists led by investigative reporter Kristoffer Egeberg, will start publishing by June […]
Newfound volatility and jitters ahead of a key healthcare vote in Washington have sapped enthusiasm for corporate bonds, forcing several companies to pay up to borrow through debt capital markets and sending others to the sidelines to await market calm. Goldman Sachs and Santander were forced to offer more attractive new issue premiums to draw investors amid the subdued market conditions, as several recent bond offerings sold […]
Hawaii lawmaker Beth Fukumoto, ousted last month as Republican leader of the state’s House of Representatives after publicly criticizing President Donald Trump, resigned on Wednesday from her party to seek membership as a Democrat. Fukumoto, 33, the youngest Hawaii legislator to serve as House minority leader, said divisive campaign rhetoric during the 2016 elections convinced her the Republican Party no longer reflected her political values or the […]
By Keith Coffman | DENVER DENVER A Colorado talk radio host who once chaired the state Republican Party and has accused Democrats of widespread voter fraud has been charged with forging his ex-wife’s signature on a mail-in ballot in the 2016 election, court records showed on Wednesday. Steven Curtis, 57, who served as state GOP boss from 1997 until 1999, is charged with one felony count of […]
Two-and-a-half years ago, Nathan Law took to the streets of Hong Kong with tens of thousands of fellow students, demanding Beijing give them the right to vote for the leader of their own city government. This Sunday Mr Law will have that opportunity — but not in the way he envisaged during the “Umbrella Revolution” protests. When he was voted on to the city’s Legislative Council in […]
Twitter reflects the good, the bad and just plain ugly reality of social media these days. For academics, journalists and voters, there’s never been a more crucial time to talk about the impact these social media platforms have on factual journalism and being watchdogs of the powerful. It’s in vogue to attack the messenger for the message. We are called liars. We are called “nasty people.” We […]
March 23, 2017 by: Peter Wells in Hong Kong Thursday 02.15 GMT Overview Asian markets were in a more subdued mood and making a tentative recovery from a midweek sell-off in which many global stock markets suffered their worst session since the US presidential election. A terror attack in London on Wednesday also kept investors in a cautious mood. Hot topic A jolt to global financial markets […]
By Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The State Department, which was criticized for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, said on Wednesday it failed to meet an end-of-2016 deadline to manage all its email records electronically. The department, and other U.S. government agencies, had more than four years to meet the deadline under an Aug. 24, 2012, directive that aimed to […]
By Patricia Zengerle and Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee set off a political firestorm on Wednesday when he said the communications of members of Donald Trump’s transition team were caught up in incidental surveillance targeting foreigners. Representative Devin Nunes said at a news conference that it was possible President Trump’s own communications were also intercepted and […]
By Andrea Hopkins | OTTAWA OTTAWA Canada’s Liberal government unveiled a stay-the-course budget on Wednesday that targeted export growth and some measure of tax reform but did little to whittle away at deficits even as it backed off from an explicit pledge to improve the debt outlook. Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s second budget contained few surprises, in line with expectations that Ottawa wants to wait to see […]
The euro came close to its highest level against the dollar in almost four months on Wednesday, as investors waited nervously ahead of Donald Trump’s first key legislative test over the repeal of Obamacare. This week the euro has gained 0.8 per cent against the US currency, taking its rise this month to 2.6 per cent and leaving it worth $1.0825 late on Wednesday. Euro strength is, […]
By David Morgan and Yasmeen Abutaleb | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders worked on Wednesday to try to secure enough support in the House of Representatives to win passage of their Obamacare rollback bill, watched by wary investors in financial markets. Repealing and replacing Democrat Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act is the first major test of Trump’s legislative ability and whether […]
Markets now and again behave in ways least expected, none more so than the resilience of emerging market currencies against the US dollar. Two of the main factors underpinning EM foreign exchange flows — globalisation and oil — are going the wrong way. Globalisation looks more vulnerable than ever following the G20 finance ministers’ meeting that pointedly failed to include the need to fight protectionism in its […]
More than one in three U.S. Muslims fear they could be targeted by white supremacist groups following President Donald Trump’s election and 42 percent say their children have been bullied in school because of their faith, a survey found. That fear contributes to a lower-than-average rate of voting by adult Muslim citizens, according to a study released on Monday by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. […]
Akzo Nobel has rejected a second takeover bid in less than three weeks from US rival PPG, claiming that the revised offer of €22.4bn failed to recognise the value of the Dutch paints and chemicals group. The latest takeover attempt by the US company represented a €1.5bn improvement on the previous offer, but was not enough for Akzo Nobel’s board, who rejected it unanimously. The maker of […]
LISBON Portugal’s Prime Minister demanded the resignation of eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Wednesday over remarks he called “racist, xenophobic and sexist” and said Europe would only be credible once he left. Dijsselbloem suggested in an interview at the weekend with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that southern European countries that received EU financial aid were spending their money “on booze and women”. “Europe will only be […]
Stock markets suffered their worst falls since the election of Donald Trump as Wall Street worries about the prospects for the US president’s pro-business agenda triggered a rush for financial havens. US markets led the declines, with the benchmark S&P 500 index tumbling 1.2 per cent and breaking a run of 109 trading days without a drop of 1 per cent or more. The Dow Jones Industrial […]
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives widened their lead over their Social Democrat (SPD) rivals in a poll on Wednesday, six months before what should be a tight election in Europe’s biggest economy. However, the Forsa poll showed 59 percent of those asked also wanted change in the top leadership, possibly pointing to an appetite for a different coalition. Merkel, in power for 11 years, has governed […]
By Maria Tsvetkova | GELENDZHIK, Russia GELENDZHIK, Russia Russia’s force in Syria has suffered losses since late January more than three times higher than the official toll, according to evidence gathered by Reuters, a tally that shows the fight in Syria is tougher and more costly than the Kremlin has disclosed. Eighteen Russian citizens fighting alongside Moscow’s allies, the Syrian government forces, have been killed since Jan. […]
Authored by Robert Parry via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The Kagan family, America’s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency. Former Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, who pushed for the Ukraine coup and helped pick […]
SEOUL Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye left prosecutors’ offices early on Wednesday after being questioned in an investigation into a corruption scandal that brought an early end to her political career. Park did not respond to reporters’ questions as she emerged from the building after nearly 22 hours and got into a waiting car to be driven to her private home in the capital, Seoul. Prosecutors […]
By Rosalba O’Brien | SANTIAGO SANTIAGO Sebastian Pinera, who was Chile’s president from 2010 to 2014, officially declared on Tuesday his intention to seek the office again this year, betting that widespread disillusion with the governing coalition will help him win over voters. The center-right Pinera, who ranks 745th on the Forbes list of the world’s richest billionaires, is bidding for the nomination of the ‘Chile Vamos’ […]
WASHINGTON Republicans considering whether or not to back U.S. President Donald Trump’s healthcare reforms in a crucial House of Representatives vote this week face a painful choice. If they vote against, they could face the wrath of a vengeful and combative president. If they vote for it, they risk retribution from the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch and other powerful right-wing players whose money can be […]
