Monday 02.10 GMT Overview Asian markets were mostly lower despite bank-led gains for Wall Street on Friday but the spotlight was on the British pound as it tumbled to a four-month low amid heightened expectations of a “hard Brexit”. Hot topic Sterling was down 1.3 per cent at $1.2027 after falling as low as $1.1986 in early Asian trading, ahead of a speech on Tuesday in which […]
By Richard Balmforth | PARIS PARIS Former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, long tipped to win the left-wing ticket for France’s presidential election this spring, trailed his rivals after a debate on Sunday where his immigration policies came under fire. In the televised debate, Valls faced six other contenders ahead of a Socialist primary starting on Jan. 22 to pick a candidate who can keep next May’s presidential […]
DAVOS, Switzerland – The global economy is in better shape than it’s been in years. Stock markets are booming, oil prices are on the rise again and the risks of a rapid economic slowdown in China, a major source of concern a year ago, have eased. And yet, as political leaders, CEOs and top bankers make their annual trek up the Swiss Alps to the World Economic […]
Investors in Fiat, the carmaker under investigation for violating emissions laws, have been accused of ignoring clear signs of corporate governance failings at the Italian-US business. Fiat Chrysler’s share price fell 16 per cent on Thursday immediately after the US environmental watchdog warned the company could face a fine of up to $4.6bn. It is accused of breaking emissions laws in 104,000 diesel vehicles. The US regulator […]
In a “mass layoff” event reported late last week by the Department of Labor, the Clinton Foundation announced it would lay off some 22 employees at the Clinton Global Initiative, which attained notoriety during the John Podesta leaks, when the various details of the fallout between between CGI head Doug Band and Chelsea Clinton were revealed; it also emerged that long-time Bill Clinton friend Band was soliciting […]
By Lacey Johnson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. civil rights activists vowed on Saturday to defend hard-fought gains in voting rights and criminal justice during the presidency of Donald Trump, kicking off a week of protests ahead of the Republican’s inauguration. About 2,000 mostly black protesters ignored steady rain to march and rally near Washington’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, as speakers urged them to fight for minority […]
Before Donald Trump accused them of “getting away with murder”, the mood among pharmaceutical executives was buoyant as they gathered in San Francisco for the industry’s biggest annual gathering last week. Not even the torrential rain could damp their spirits as they darted between meetings with investors and presentations in the historic Westin St Francis hotel, the venue for the JPMorgan healthcare conference. The bull case was […]
Photo President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on Saturday. Legislation under debate could possibly allow him to remain in power until 2029. Credit Yasin Bulbul/Presidential Palace, via Reuters The Turkish Parliament began debating legislation on Monday that would effectively rewrite the Constitution, vastly expanding the powers of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and possibly allowing him to remain in power until 2029. Mr. Erdogan, the dominant figure […]
PARIS/MILAN European carmakers were drawn into a widening probe of diesel emissions testing on Friday, with French prosecutors examining Renault and British authorities seeking answers from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. Volkswagen’s VOW_p.DE admission that some of its diesel vehicles were fitted with software designed to hide their true level of emissions has highlighted that most cars spew out far higher levels of health-threatening nitrogen oxide (NOx) in […]
SHANGHAI China’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that its “One China” principle was the non-negotiable political basis for China-U.S. relations, and urged “relevant parties” in the United States to recognise the sensitivity of the Taiwan issue. The comments, posted on the foreign ministry’s website, were a direct response to remarks by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in which he said […]
By Timothy Gardner | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump began a long holiday weekend that honors slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by blasting another African-American activist and politician who said he doesn’t see Trump as a “legitimate president”. Democratic Representative John Lewis, of Georgia, had said on a segment of “Meet the Press” released by NBC on Friday he thought hacking by Russians […]
PARIS Over the past two decades, planemakers Airbus (AIR.PA) and Boeing (BA.N) have traded the crown in the annual orders race, and it was usually clear who had bragging rights in the fiercely competitive $120 billion annual jet market. On Wednesday, Airbus retained the top spot when it said it had recorded a total of 731 net orders for 2016, beating Boeing’s tally of 668 for the […]
‘Contemporary art is not a decoration, it is a statement. It is a wonderful seismograph of our societies and realities.” These words were part of the opening speech given last week by founder Lorenzo Rudolf at the seventh edition of Art Stage Singapore in the South-east Asian island city. Rudolf, from Switzerland, has made it his mission to champion those sentiments since 1991, when he took over […]
Donald Trump has attacked civil rights icon John Lewis on the weekend that the US celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr, sparking another controversy for the president-elect just days before he is due to take office. Mr Trump took to Twitter to criticise Mr Lewis after the long-serving Democratic congressman spoke out against Jeff Sessions, Mr Trump’s nominee for attorney-general and alleged that he did […]
Submitted by Gavin McInnes via TakiMag.com, Fake news site Buzzfeed just published a fake news story that is so fake, it’s not even fake news. “It’s just fake,” as Kellyanne Conway put it. The editor of Buzzfeed himself says he has “serious reason to doubt the allegations in it,” but he published it anyway because this is “how we see the job of reporters in 2017.” So, […]
Minister Without Portfolio Konrad Mizzi. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier During the year just ended the Labour government continued to dig itself deeper into a culture of institutionalised corruption with persons occupying high government positions and those close to them partaking of the fruits of a corrupt system. A perfect example was the scandal revealed last year by leaked secret files where then health and energy minister Konrad Mizzi […]
I remember an epiphany of sorts I had one morning in Miami in 1991. I was in town as the national college football writer for the Chicago Tribune. A few years earlier, I was asked to participate in the Associated Press’ college football poll. Back then, there wasn’t a committee selecting four teams for a playoff. The national champion was determined by the AP media poll and […]
Thailand’s army opened up some of its military barracks to children on Saturday to let them handle and pose with weapons and other hardware on the country’s annual Children’s Day. The army plays a big role in Thailand’s public and political life. It seized power during political turmoil in 2014 in the 19th coup since absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932. The armed forces traditionally opens up […]
Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com, Is there a coup underway, while America is in the transition period, and before Trump swears in as the 45th president of the United States? How real is the clash between the rogue Manhattan billionaire and the intelligence gang behind the throne? Who will win the struggle for power over foreign policy? These are serious times and require serious considerations. The […]
By Sinead Carew and Lewis Krauskopf | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. bank stocks will stay in favor with investors as long as earnings reports in the coming week show an improving profit outlook while investors wait to see if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump lives up to his campaign promises. Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC.N), JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) kicked off […]
Wells Fargo has laid down plans to close at least 400 branches over the next two years as part of a push to cut costs as the US bank tries to recover from the scandal over sham accounts. The San Francisco-based lender, which operates more than 6,000 branches across the country, is accelerating closures as it aims to reduce about $2bn in expenses by the end of […]
Fact-checkers had a big year in 2016; will 2017 prove as eventful? Below are seven predictions of what the year ahead holds in store for fact-checking. As with the 2016 predictions, I promise to return to these when the year is over and evaluate how they fared. (You can check out last year’s annotated predictions here). 1. Fact-checkers will seek lessons from cognitive science Late last year, […]
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal he would keep intact sanctions against Russia “at least for a period of time,” and also said he wouldn’t commit to the “one China” policy until he sees progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices. In excerpts from an hourlong interview published by the Journal on Friday, Trump said: “If you get […]
Investors have returned to the world of debt in a cooling of the Trumpflation trade that pummelled bond markets and propelled equities to record highs after the US election. The shift, which has included fresh inflows to municipal, Treasury and emerging market bond funds over the past week, dovetails with a near month-long rally in haven US Treasuries and fatigue in benchmark stock indices. Municipal funds, which […]
