Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute, “This light of history is pitiless; it has a strange and divine quality that, luminous as it is, and precisely because it is luminous, often casts a shadow just where we saw a radiance; out of the same man it makes two different phantoms, and the one attacks and punishes the other, the darkness of the despot struggles with […]
Reykjavik (AFP) – The Panama Papers came back to haunt Iceland’s right-wing parties Monday as they prepare to form a new government, after the candidate for prime minister admitted hiding a report on offshore accounts. Iceland was rocked in April when the Panama Papers revealed a global tax evasion scandal that ensnared several senior politicians and triggered the resignation of former prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, with […]
DAKAR Gambia’s communication minister, Sheriff Bojang, said on Monday he had left his post in the first high-profile Cabinet defection since President Yahya Jammeh refused to accept losing a December election. Opposition leader Adama Barrow won the polls by a thin margin, sparking nationwide celebrations in the riverine nation wedged within its larger and freer neighbour, Senegal. But after initially conceding defeat, Jammeh changed his mind a […]
Jared Kushner has been named senior adviser to Donald Trump, formalising the role of the president-elect’s son-in-law as one of the most powerful people in the incoming White House. The 35-year-old property developer, who is married to Mr Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka, will be taking the role without salary. Ms Trump will not be taking an immediate role in the administration. Transition officials said Mr Kushner would […]
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 […]
Abu Dhabi // Rulers and officials of the GCC on Monday sent messages of condolence to the Iranian president and the family of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the senior revolutionary figure and pragmatist who had developed good relations with member states and presided over a thaw in Tehran’s relations with Riyadh during his tenure as president. Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82 after suffering a […]
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss | HARTFORD, Conn. HARTFORD, Conn. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren on Monday called for the U.S. central bank to step up its pace of interest rate increases from the once-a-year pattern it has pursued since 2015, warning of inflation risks if it does not. “I expect that appropriate monetary policy will need to normalize more quickly than over the past year,” Rosengren told the […]
Once again, the dawn of a new year is upon us. People will wonder what to do, what will happen and what can they expect. We, as humans, will rely on pundits to tell us what they think and yes most of what will be said will have a 50/50 chance of being as much right as wrong. This year is going to usher in many seismic […]
Watergate. Spying by the National Security Agency. Bungled protection by the Secret Service. These stories have two things in common: Each were major, consequential pieces of journalism about the federal government that got big results. And none of them were broken by the White House press corps. With less than two weeks before Donald Trump is inaugurated as the nation’s 45th president, news organizations have begun plotting […]
No one can ever confidently predict what will happen in the following 12 months, but forecasting 2017 is particularly difficult. The surprises of 2016 (Brexit and the election of Donald Trump are at the top of the list but there were others, including the sacking of the entire Kuwaiti parliament, Saudi Arabia’s backflip on its oil production policy and the sudden demonetisation in India) demonstrate that we […]
South Korea is creating a hit squad with a mission to eliminate Kim Jong Un and his top command in the event of war, as it vows to ramp up its response to the growing threat from the North. The formation of the military unit, originally set for 2019, has been brought forward to this year amid increasing bellicosity from the North, the defence ministry in Seoul […]
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 […]
By Maria Tsvetkova and Christian Lowe | MOSCOW MOSCOW Allegations that Russia tried to influence the U.S. election in favour of Donald Trump amount to a witch-hunt, the Kremlin said on Monday, in its first reaction to the release of a U.S. intelligence report on the alleged Russian operation. The report, a redacted version of which was released publicly last week, alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
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 […]
‘This is a product of a wild and active imagination. It’s adding a plus-plus when there’s nothing there,’ says policy expert Tony La Viña Rappler.com Published 7:00 PM, January 09, 2017 Updated 7:00 PM, January 09, 2017 INCRIMINATING EMAILS? The internet explodes into a frenzy over supposed leaked emails from the Office of the Vice President containing negative messages about President Rodrigo Duterte. The buzz started among […]
Meryl Streep brought politics back to Hollywood at the Golden Globes on Sunday evening with a powerful acceptance speech that excoriated Donald Trump and his mocking of a disabled reporter during the election campaign. Ms Streep, Hollywood’s most decorated and revered actress with three Oscar wins, was accepting the Cecile B DeMille award for lifetime achievement when she tore into Mr Trump. In front of a primetime audience […]
Who would now warn publicly against “Islamic fascism,” when the hard-liners sought to influence elections? Who would state openly that there should be a nuclear compromise? Continue reading the main story Mr. Rafsanjani said things others would not dare to say, all agreed, and his voice had at least created some tolerance for debates. “Hard-liners will be happy, but this is the start of a period of […]
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 […]
By Bernie Woodall and David Shepardson | DETROIT DETROIT Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) on Sunday said it will invest $1 billion to modernize two plants in the U.S. Midwest and create 2,000 jobs, upping the ante as automakers respond to threats from President-elect Donald Trump to slap new taxes on imported vehicles. FCA’s announcement that it would retool factories in Ohio and Michigan to build new […]
After one of the most tumultuous years in its modern history, Turkey is struggling to convince global investors to look beyond economic weakness and political risk. Fund houses willing to bet on countries such as South Africa, where a corruption scandal is consuming the ruling ANC party, and Brazil, where President Michel Temer is battling to save his administration from corruption investigations, say the headwinds facing Turkey […]
Banks have flooded the market with debt in the first days of the new year, propelling a record pace of bond sales as companies seek to lock in borrowing costs before interest rates rise further. The sales have been met with ample investor appetite ahead of the fourth-quarter earnings season, when the majority of US banks are expected to report improved profitability. Banks have sold $42bn of the […]
Two senior Republican senators urged President-elect Donald Trump to punish Russia in response to U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that President Vladimir Putin personally directed efforts aimed at influencing the outcome of the November election. In a joint appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said evidence was conclusive that Putin sought to influence the election – a point that […]
Submitted by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, In a major setback for organized labor, Kentucky passed right-to-work legislation and repealed the state’s prevailing wage law. Organized labor suffered its first major legislative setback due to the 2016 elections on Saturday, when Kentucky Republicans gave final approval to right-to-work legislation and repealed the state’s prevailing wage law. Both bills are expected to be signed into law by the governor, […]
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK NEW YORK Investors puzzled over whether U.S. interest rates are rising due to a stronger economy or because of fears about inflation might want to look at the recent gains in REITs for some useful guidance. Real estate investment trusts typically perform poorly in an environment of rising interest rates, as they are used by some investors as a proxy for […]
