Havana gets its first major luxury hotel The Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana, Havana’s first international luxury hotel, is open for bookings from June 1. The 246-room property was originally built between 1894 and 1917 as the city’s first European-style shopping arcade, Manzana de Gómez. Rooms have high ceilings and French doors, and there’s a rooftop pool, three restaurants, a cigar lounge, fitness centre and spa. […]
ISTANBUL President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to Washington this week that Turkey would act “without asking anyone” if it faced any sort of attack from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, Turkish media reported on Thursday. Trump’s approval, before the visit, of plans to arm the YPG as it advances towards Islamic State’s Raqqa stronghold had overshadowed talks between the NATO allies, […]
By Arshad Mohammed and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday extended wide sanctions relief for Iran called for under a 2015 international nuclear deal even as he imposed narrow penalties on Iranian and Chinese figures for supporting Iran’s ballistic missile programme. The dual actions, announced by the Departments of State and Treasury, appeared intended to signal a tough stance on Iran even […]
The president’s packed schedule is filled with opportunities for Mr. Trump to slip up, publicly or privately: back-to-back discussions with the leaders of other nations, many of whom are veteran negotiators well versed in issues they care deeply about. Continue reading the main story By contrast, it could also serve as a much-needed change of subject for a president besieged at home with an agenda frozen by […]
The welcome Traffic is terrible when I leave the airport, but half an hour into the drive, the pretty side of Prague starts to emerge, a show that’s continued until I’m in the vibrant lobby of the hotel, on a quiet side street. There’s enough time to drink a tall glass of juice as forms are filled in, passports scanned and keys handed over. These keys, by […]
Dubai Police have arrested an Asian gang who stole precious gems worth $2.9 million (AED10.8m). The gang of three stole the precious stones from a company located close to Al Barsha Police Station. Maj. Gen. Khalil Ibrahim al-Mansouri, assistant commander in charge of criminal investigation, said the European owner of the company returned from a trip abroad to discover that the stones had been stolen. Following an […]
By Foo Yun Chee | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS U.S. social network Facebook (FB.O) is set to be penalized by EU antitrust regulators for allegedly providing misleading data related to its WhatsApp acquisition three years ago, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The move by the European Commission will come after a six-month investigation and is expected to be a stiff warning to other companies facing […]
TEHRAN: Iran’s top two presidential candidates launched a final day of election campaigning Wednesday as the supreme leader called for a massive turnout to bolster the regime against its “enemies.”Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested Iran’s foes would be deterred from pursuing regime change if they saw voters flock to the ballot boxes in Friday’s poll.“American, European officials and those of the Zionist regime are watching our elections to […]
US stocks were on track for their worst session for eight months on fears that US President Donald Trump’s ability to push through his pro-growth policies will be sidelined by deepening political controversy. The Wall Street benchmark fell 1.3 per cent to 2,369 on Wednesday, shedding all its gains for May, with financial stocks the worst hit as the S&P banks index retreated 3.8 per cent. Shares […]
Oil prices gained further Tuesday, boosting energy companies’ shares, after Russia and Saudi Arabia indicated they could extend an output cut into next year, while the euro struck a six-month dollar high. The world’s top two crude-producing nations raised the idea at the weekend, with a deal agreed between OPEC — of which Saudi Arabia is the key player — and Russia coming to an end in […]
By James Davey | BIRMINGHAM, England BIRMINGHAM, England Andy Street’s mayoral victory in Britain’s second largest metropolitan area may give the best indication yet of just how far Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives are poaching traditional Labour supporters ahead of the June 8 national vote. Street quit his $1-million-a-year job as managing director of department store chain John Lewis to stand for the top political job in […]
Over the years, although the government has remained broadly authoritarian, it has oscillated among degrees of democracy. Those fluctuations, while subtle, have often coincided with elections like Friday’s. Photo Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution, returning to Tehran in 1979 after his exile in France. Credit Gabriel Duval/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Islamic Republic: Yes or No? After throwing off their government in 1979, Iranians […]
Despite the elites’ desperate hope that recent ‘losses’ in Holland France ‘prove’ the anti-establishment movement is fading (although they all saw soaring popularity), with Europeans ready to protest, there are still numerous regions urging secession… There have been 486 military conlicts in Europe in the last 2000 years and while the last decade or two has been ‘peaceful’, we suspect that will not last. As BofAML’s Transforming […]
TOKYO U.S. share futures and the dollar slipped in early Asian trade on Wednesday after reports that President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end a probe into his former security adviser. The reports raised questions about whether charges of obstruction of justice could be laid against Trump, weakening confidence in the U.S. president’s ability to push through an aggressive stimulus program that investors had […]
The first time China attempted to build a large passenger jet, it tried — and failed — to reverse-engineer a Boeing 707 that crash-landed in Xinjiang in 1971. The latest vehicle for China’s aviation dream, the Comac C919, has just completed its first test flight after Beijing decided to take a different path: buying parts from European and US aviation companies rather than stealing their technology. After […]
“It’s a huge burden on the American psyche to have a president go abroad when a sword of Damocles is hanging over them at home,” said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and an expert on the presidency. “It turns our president, instead of representing the best of America on the road, into a traveling can of worms.” Continue reading the main story Mr. […]
Investors have accelerated their buying of European financial assets in the wake of Emmanuel Macron winning the French presidency, but a top executive at one of the world’s biggest asset managers cautions that the region’s stock markets aren’t as cheap as they appear. European equity funds enjoyed their strongest week of inflows on record last week — pushing the EuroFirst 300 index up 3.7 per cent this […]
By Andrea Shalal | BERLIN BERLIN The German defence ministry announced a possible delay in another big arms programme on Tuesday, marking a further setback for a military already faced with a probe into right-wing radicalism in its ranks. State Secretary Ralf Brauksiepe told lawmakers it was unclear if a 1.5 billion-euro purchase of five new military corvettes – spending added to the 2017 budget after delays […]
By Kirsti Knolle and Francois Murphy | VIENNA VIENNA Austria’s main parties agreed to hold an early parliamentary election on October 15, Chancellor Christian Kern said on Tuesday, in a vote that might bring the far-right Freedom Party into government. In the autumn of a year that will have seen Dutch, French, British and German general elections, the Alpine republic will decide its future course on immigration, […]
Europe’s top court has ruled that a key EU-Singapore agreement requires backing by all EU member states — but only for a narrow set of issues — in a decision that could chart the way for a post-Brexit trade accord with the UK. The European Court of Justice ruled that EU member states must sign off on specific areas related to investment in the Singapore trade deal. […]
British IT expert Marcus Hutchins who has been branded a hero for slowing down the WannaCry global cyber attack, during an interview in Ilfracombe, England, Monday, May 15, 2017. Hutchins thwarted the virus that took computer files hostage around the world, including the British National Health computer network, telling The Associated Press he doesn’t consider himself a hero but fights malware because “it’s the right thing to […]
Vodafone redials its Indian impairment numbers. FT Opening Quote, with commentary by Matthew Vincent, is your early Square Mile briefing. You can sign up for the full newsletter here. Hailing from the country that gave India cricket, Victorian railway architecture and a penchant for bureaucracy, Vodafone might have expected a little goodwill on the subcontinent. Instead, India has given the British mobile phone operator a price war, […]
French startup Talent.io is turning headhunting into a marketplace by connecting promising engineers with tech companies. The company just raised $8.8 million (€8 million) from existing investors Alven Capital and Ventech. While Talent.io started with Paris, the company is now operating in other major European cities, such as Berlin and London. The startup acquired Webcrowd and Go Digital in order to do this. Engineers sign up when […]
SHANGHAI Air pollution in a key Chinese region surrounding Beijing worsened in the first four months of this year, despite tough new campaigns to enforce green regulations and punish offenders, official data published on Tuesday showed. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, average concentrations of small breathable particles known as PM2.5 rose nearly 20 percent year-on-year to 85 micrograms per cubic meter from January to April, said the Ministry […]
